6 Chapter 6: The Driver

The sky blushed a dusky pink as Heldon made his way to the carriage that would carry them all out of Opalgate to Kalent. Lord Pan offered the carriage in exchange for him to not mention to the King he had been attacked. Heldon agreed, the King of Kalent probably wouldn’t care anyway.

Heldon fought a yawn, he couldn’t wait to get some rest in the dark green and pearlescent white carriage.

Heldon legs moved like they were anchors and he just wanted this whole ordeal to be over. He wanted to stop seeing a sun-bronzed face and small pointed fangs just visible from his mischievous smile.

He physically shook the image from his head. Tival wanted nothing to do with him anymore and he had to force himself to feel the same.

He stepped up into the carriage and a familiar head of blonde waves turned his way. Tival didn’t surprise Heldon, he knew he would be in the carriage with him. However, his heart betrayed him and sped up double time.

“Negotiator, nice to see you again.” Tival wouldn’t look him in the eye.

Heldon rolled his.

Really, nice to see you again? Who did he think he was fooling, the driver? Tival sat in the farthest corner of one of the benches like he wished to be anywhere but there.

“Hmmm.” Heldon for once decided to have bad manners and not even say his name.

While a small, tiny voice inside Heldon told him that in order to stop the werewolves, they had to get along, Heldon ignored it. He had nothing to say to his former envoy.

Even if the leaf green and white uniform brought out the green in his eyes and made a trickle of warmth dart down to his groin.

He sat across him on the opposite bench and leaned back, resting his head. He could sleep right now before the carriage even moved.

“I’d like to explain why I chose you personally.” Tival’s deep voice sounded stretched, and Heldon pursed his lips, irritation tight in his jaw.

“Well, again, I don’t care, and I’d like to sleep.” It didn't matter why Tival chose him, why he saved him, or why he left him like a stray dog on at his doorstep.

Heldon closed his eyes to punctuate his point.

“How’s your neck?”

Heldon ignored the stupid question. He looked like he’d been hung at a gallows – it should be obvious how he felt.

“Yeah, I guess I’d ignore me too.” Tival sighed, voice small in defeat. Heldon almost caved and opened his eyes, but he held strong. He wouldn’t give more of himself to this handsome half-vampire, half-dryad, all master manipulator.

The carriage lurched forward, and Heldon didn’t even open his eyes then.

Sleep weighed him down and soon the rolling carriage lulled him into darkness.

***

DREAM

Heldon tried to draw his saber, but it was gone.

Something terrible behind him was chasing him. He had to run.

Dark forest branches tried to grab him. He ran past them.

There, in front of him was his Erik. His normally styled hair was sticky with blood. He had his sword out.

In front of Erik stood Ryce. His long hair streamed in front of the moon and his eyes shone red like a war beacon. His enormous fangs glinted in the light.

Heldon ran in, ready to help his brother.

His brother put out his hand to stop him.

Laying on the grass in front of them both was Tival.

He glistened red. He wasn’t moving.

He yelled but he couldn’t move his mouth.

Ryce cackled, but it sounded like Lady Sloane.

***

Heldon opened his eyes with a start, bangs sticking to his forehead in sweat. His chest heaved with each quick pulse.

Tival sat with his knees wide, arms crossed, and head against the headrest. His tailored uniform hugged every muscle and his groin perfectly. Heldon swallowed.

It was just a nightmare. He let out a long exhale. He wished he felt better for how long he slept.

Tival woke up and their eyes locked. A bolt of warmth hit Heldon right in the sternum.

“I shouldn’t have walked away,” Tival admitted, voice rumbling deep and thick with sleep.

“Then why did you?” Heldon asked in a voice like feathers. His resolve to ignore Tival crumbled like an old stone from the nightmare. He didn’t like how needy he sounded. He hated how Tival made him want things he’d never thought he’d get.

“I…found these,” Tival revealed his charm earrings that were missing from his room. “I know you took the holy water from your earrings and put it on your saber. I remember your saber didn’t smell like holy water before. I also remember you made the mistake of thinking that guard had holy water on his sword when he attacked me in the hallway.” Tival paced his explanation slowly, looking away and bouncing his knee, fidgeting.

“Yes, I did that. I know I broke the rules by having a special weapon, but was my small wrongdoing really that good of a reason to abandon me?” Heldon squinted a little in confusion. Tival didn’t look like a stickler for the rules, but he had misjudged him before.

“It’s not that you broke the rules, it’s that I know you intended to kill me with it, but that guard found you first.” Tival’s voice dripped in betrayal.

The air in the carriage heated up several degrees.

Tival…thought….what?

Heldon laughed so hard tears pricked the corners of his eyes despite the goosebumps on his arms. His body racked with each sharp inhale.

“Am I wrong? Why else would you give up your protective earrings in the middle of a vampire coven?” Tival’s voice flared like a fireplace in anger, and Heldon tried to contain himself to respond.

“Oh gods, not everything is about you, you know.” Heldon put a hand to his face in disbelief. “I wasn’t angry enough to kill you! I’d never try to hurt you.”

Heldon wiped the tiny tears from his eyes and Tival still simmered hot in the seat across from him.

“Then why would you do something so reckless?! If you had those earrings on, the guard wouldn’t have been able to almost drain, mark, or worse, claim you.” Tival’s small fangs flashed from his temper. Heldon could see why he was confused; Tival didn't know anything about Ryce killing his father.

But still, he was greatly exaggerating. No vampire had forcibly marked or much less claimed a human as a mate in decades. Also, that vampire said he tasted bad.

But was Tival so enraged because he didn’t like how he endangered himself?

“I had something I had to do, so I didn’t care. There are things worth risking my life for. My only regret is that the guard had interfered.” Heldon shrugged, honesty coming easy. If he had been able to stick his saber through Ryce’s heart, it would have been worth it if another vampire drained and killed him.

Tival leaned over Heldon like a lion about to pounce. Heldon had to slant his jaw upward to look into his eyes.

His eyes gleamed jade from his uniform.

“Don’t be stupid. There is nothing worth that sort of risk,” Tival murmured, reaching up to Heldon’s earlobe.

“Tival…” Heldon trailed off, lightheaded with cotton in his mouth. Heldon didn’t dare to move, if he did the spell would break and Tival would lean back.

“I filled these up again with holy water, one of the things I’m not weak to.” Tival’s eyes glimmered into his and the slightest caress of his earlobe fired his heart into overdrive.

“That’s…good to know.” Heldon cringed, what did he just say? Tival pulled his earlobe to put in the first earring and Heldon’s breath hitched. As he clasped the earring shut, the back of his hand grazed his cheek.

Heldon’s groin fired up and his pants got uncomfortably tight. He couldn’t believe he got aroused so fast.

Tival noticed.

“Negotiator…I am still at your service.” Tival’s lips hovered over Heldon’s, breath warm. He still smelled like the forest after a rain. The hand that caressed his ear brushed back to the back of his head, threading through his hair to his scalp.

“You better be, I got you instead of a lot silv–”

Tival crashed his lips down on top of Heldon’s and his sentence was lost for good. Tival grabbed the back of Heldon’s head with one hand as the other grabbed his lapel.

Heldon’s mind blanked white as a snowstorm as he scrambled for the back of Tival’s curls. They were as soft as they looked. Heldon moaned and he pulled Tival in closer. Tival seized the opportunity and slipped his tongue across his lips.

He attacked back; he couldn’t just let Tival melt him into a puddle on the bench. His pants constricted his swollen length, and he felt panicked and excited at the same time. He was crashing into Tival like a falling star.

“I want you too.” Tival pulled back, Heldon’s lips parted and wet. Heldon looked down at Tival’s pants and…

Oh.

Tival kissed him harder this time and pushed him up against the back of the carriage. He sucked his lip then swirled his tongue into Heldon’s mouth. Tival let out a muffled groan and owned Heldon's mouth.

Heldon keened, letting Tival's tongue and lips conquer his. A small sharp fang grazed Heldon’s bottom lip and it surprised Heldon that it only made him tingle more. Heldon couldn’t contain himself, so he grabbed Tival’s green jacket and pulled him down. He wanted Tival to press him through the bench, through the earth, to crater him.

Tival pushed him flat on the bench, clacking their teeth he pulled back, his muscular form taking up all of Heldon’s view. His rose gold eyes blown out in lust glimmered down on him.

"You're gonna ruin me, negotiatior."

Heldon had no idea how this could be happening, but his chest burst open at the chance to have him. Heldon’s fingers chased the buttons on his uniform.

The carriage lurched to a stop and Tival just barely caught himself.

“We’ve arrived Sir Flay, Sir Acera.” The driver called through the wall of the carriage. Ice water flooded the carriage and Heldon sat up, gathering himself. Heldon’s mind was awash in apprehension. That was a little fast, a little impulsive.

“Hey, uh, did I go too far?” Tival’s eyes blinked back to jade and Heldon just grinned.

“As endearing as it is for you to be concerned about my honor, you knew I wanted you.” Heldon grinned knowingly, but deep inside his chest, a kernel of doubt grew. He felt like a falcon diving toward the ground, losing control to pull up.

“Good, the last thing I want is—” Tival was cut off by a bellowing, bone bleaching howl.

Werewolves.