"Lead the way to the cells," Wren said bitterly, unsure what he would do once he saw what was left of his people, shackled, chained, and betrayed.
"I did not put them in the cells. They are currently sharing a room with Kopje Cinder. While I trust Cadence with the run of the castle, Harper did try to murder me, so he is shackled, but not imprisoned. I will gladly take you to them, but only if you promise not to go all Song general of death on anyone."
"I can manage," Wren grumbled, looking around the wreckage of this poor room and slowly understanding what Talamayas meant. To these vampires, Wren was just as scary as Talamayas was to the Songs, destroying everything around him with the sole focus on their demise.
"Thank you," Talamayas said with a nervous smile, like any show of appreciation might send him out the door. "Everything is in the same direction, since we've been fighting on the less used section of the castle. No one will harm you."
"Why is that?" Wren asked as he ushered for Talamayas to walk. The man did, but kept as eye on him. It seemed more curious that watchful, and Wren downright sulked as they headed down the halls, skipping over piles of rubble from their fight for some time before they found a place devoid of their destruction. "They didn't help you fight me either."
"Wren, you're their master. They can't fight you." The word Master from Talamayas had Wren cocking an eyebrow.
"Do you not have to be a vampire to be a master?" Wren knew little about the vampires' inner workings. All that had mattered was eradicating them or keeping their distance if they were too difficult to fell. They Songs never had such intricate relations with a larger house like this.
"I am their master, yes, but you are my soul bound, my mate. As such, you have equal standing with me. You lead and guide them as much as I do, more so in matters requiring heart and mind. I'm a little better with pruning warriors and leading fights then I am with people management."
"Your people consider me their leader?" Wren could not believe that. "Riff said I was your footstool, someone you used and abused at your discretion. Though fleeting, I remembered instances of you striking me before, kicking me on the floor. I find that hard to misconstrue."
"On the floor?" Talamayas lifted his chin and thought as they progressed. A few Sols took notice of them and bowed their heads as they passed, both to him and Talamayas. "That must have been the first time we had an honest conversation." Talamayas' dark chuckle had Wren crossing his arms and glaring. Conversation? "It was nothing bad. You'd been here for almost a year and yet you'd never trusted me even though I had conceded to giving you such. We were both exhausted, I was pissed, we fought. Ended with us both as useless lumps on the floor after you gutted me with your chains."
"I chained you? And you lived?" Wren did not see how that was possible. Once he touched a vampire, he had full control of them, their life and death.
"Well, you didn't want to kill me, so you let me go pretty quickly. After our fight to defend Levisca, you were as weak as I was, so it wasn't as damaging as it might have been." Talamayas spoke of the whole affair like it had been trivial or mundane, like a Song chaining and having complete control over his life hadn't bothered him. Talamayas had trusted him not to kill him, even with his chains dug into his very soul.
"Did your general drag me off to the dungeons after?" If Talamayas had been too weak to move, he'd have also had no real say in how his generals had responded. No vampires allowed one to escape after harming their master without retribution of the worst manner. Half his scars might very well be punishment for such an attack.
"No. We just lay together on the floor, finally seeing eye to eye for the first time. That was the day you accepted your life here, so it is no surprise the memory would be prominent in your mind. It was a day full of heavy emotions, but it was mostly fear. From both of us. I feared losing you and you feared me holding on too tightly. I did that a lot, so yours wasn't unfounded." Talamayas sounded like he was proud of it, smiling with all of his teeth, and Wren rolled his eyes.
"Are you always this obnoxious?" The words spilled from his mouth before he thought on them.
Wren flinched, but the expected backhand never came. Instead, a chuckle tickled Wren's ears, and he dared a glance at the vampire master he'd just insulted. All he got was another face full of Talamayas' affection, and he groaned in agony.
This was completely doomed.
Why had he ever thought he would be able to kill Talamayas after he'd kissed him? Wren was more concerned with what he'd do if Riff made it past the guards and found him playing house with the Sols. That would go well. For now, he needed to see that Harper was alive and that he and his son weren't prisoners. What if they were though? And the reason Talamayas was so giddy was because he was excited to crush him once more? After all, it wasn't every day that Songs popped out of the woodwork.
"What dark places is your mind going to?" Talamayas nudged him with an elbow, and Wren jumped to the side, finding himself pinned between the man and a wall. A gross amount of tanned muscle blocked him in, and a firm hand slid up the sanded brick as Talamayas leaned closer to his face.
"I wasn't—" Wren's poorly constructed lie died on his lips as Talamayas kissed him. Arms locked Wren in on either side, but the moment Talamayas' lips devoured his, he had no desire to run anyway. Not again. Wren couldn't find the objection he'd wanted a moment ago as Talamayas practically plastered him to the wall with his hard body. "Talamayas, please..." Wren gasped for air as Talamayas nibbled on his chin before licking the side of his neck.
"Please what?" Talamayas growled low. "Please fuck you? I can smell the lust every time I touch you, Wren. Say it." The command was so guttural that Wren's head fell back to expose his throat for Talamayas fangs as he allowed the man to open his legs.
The words lingered on the tip of his tongue, the command that Talamayas wanted, the answer to the heat building inside of Wren, and he hadn't the damn faintest what he'd been thinking prior. All he knew was that he wanted it, Talamayas burning his way inside of him, taking him, filling him, claiming him—
"Eh hem."
Someone cleared their throat so close that Wren shoved Talamayas away with a burst of light magic. It had been reflex more than aggression, but Wren still waited for Talamayas to snap him in half like a disrespectful twig. Talamayas merely dusted off his chest, his fingers lingering on two red marks from Wren's magic as he looked to the interloper.
Harper Song stood in a doorway next to where they'd stopped, dressed in a plain white tunic with his arms crossed and his red hair tied but hanging over the front of his shoulder. While Harper had always been a competent infiltrator, he had never shared Riff's lust for carnage nor had any interest in how Wren and Riff tallied their kills like a game to be won. It showed on his calm expression as he surveyed the two of them, his leg positioned to keep a smaller version of himself behind. That must be Cadence, a Song Wren had never met, but the last of his people.
"I know I'm not in a position to ask for anything considering, but if you might refrain from trying to eat Wren alive within sight of Cadence, I would be grateful." Harper spoke like he was whispering a request to a mouse, and Wren could see the fear in his eyes as he spoke directly to Talamayas.
"I'm not bothered. I've never seen two guys make out," Cadence said, a lopsided smile tilting his face as he slipped out from behind his father. His red hair just barely reached his shoulders, and his bright grey eyes showed the peaceful life he'd led. With his hands tucked into his mage robes, and his body relaxed, he was completely unprepared to defend himself. A stance no Song should ever take, child or not.
"Did you not train him?" Wren asked Harper. Even with softer sentiments, the man was prudent in his decisions, never doing anything without thinking ten steps in advance. To leave his son vulnerable in a time when they would be hunted if found did not seem like a wise choice.
"No," Harper said, his eyes narrowing. "I was under the impression that you already met Cadence. My son said you removed the seals on his magic and that you taught him how to make his first chain links."
"I—" Wren's words faltered. Talamayas had allowed him to teach a young Song to wield chains? Seeing Cadence so weak made him want to, even now, but that seemed like a stretch for what the torturer of the sands would allow. Not after wiping out the Songs to supposedly protect his people.
"Riff and pals did some magic on his head, so he doesn't remember anything that happened after running into me in the deserts for the first time," Talamayas said, his tone as stiff speaking to Harper as the man was terrified of him. They weren't friends clearly, and Harper was in shackles. "Any idea how to reverse it?"
"No, sorry. I was not privy to Riff's dealings with Blaze. I don't like him, so I steered clear of him."
"That makes two of us," Talamayas growled.
"Three actually," Wren muttered, drawing both Talamayas and Harper's attention.
Talamayas laugh drew a blush across Wren's face, the hand that followed only worsening it as his strong fingers pressed down on Wren's head. The gesture was like Talamayas was petting his favorite lap cat, but Wren couldn't find any hatred as his touch gave him an overwhelming sense of safety. That was the last feeling he expected, memories or not, and it drove his desire to reclaim what he'd lost, to learn who he had been, to remember everything.
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Word Count: 1791