Page 256 of Dragon Slayer

46

I PROMISE YOU, BROTHER

Blackmere Manor

Present Day

First there was nothing, and then there was black. Stars wheeling. The cool touch of wind on his face.

He’d fallen out of the vision – out of the past – and this was the astral plane in its pure form. He’d tried to explain it to Vlad once, when they were boys, but then there had been no describing the endless, echoing dark, and its constellations, its orange pinpricks like torches, trying to guide him to others with supernatural abilities. Then, in 1439, he’d had no frame of reference for how vast it was. But now, after centuries spent stalking others, after sort-of watching the new Star Wars movie while he projected himself onto Mia’s couch while he really watched her, the television’s blue light playing across her beautiful face…now he knew that the other plane was like the vastness of space. This was what astronauts saw, he supposed.

And then he felt his body tugging, calling him back, and he returned to it with a sense of grimacing, because this was going to hurt.

And it did. Physical awareness returned, and he felt like he’d drank bottle after bottle of wine, shaking and weak as a new foal, short of breath, aching all over. He cracked sleep-crusted eyes and saw that night had fallen; it had taken hours, showing Vlad.SeeingVlad. Because he hadn’t known before what it had been like in his brother’s head back then, but he knew now, and he didn’t think his world would ever be the same.

A lamp had been left burning, before, because Vlad must have known it would take hours, this dream-walk. Val saw that his palm, too-white, shaking, was still pressed Vlad’s forehead and he pulled it off with difficulty.

Vlad’s eyes opened. That was all he did for a moment, while Val tucked his trembling hand into his own chest and took several unsteady breaths, fighting a swoon. He needed food, and sleep.

Vlad blinked at him.

“So,” Val said, voice a rough scrape. “Now you know. NowIknow.”

Silence lay between them a moment, heavy.

And then Vlad lunged.

Val tried to shrink away, or shield himself, but he was too weak.

And then it didn’t matter, because Vlad caught him by the neck with one strong hand and reeled him in, pressed their foreheads together.

“Valerian,” he said, voice choked, and oh, Val wasn’t ready for that. For the weight and acknowledgement in his name. The way Vlad was saying that heknewhim. Tears filled his eyes, and he closed them.

“I promise you, brother,” Vlad said, “that nothing like that will ever happen again. Believe me.”

Ohno. A strangled sound tried to claw its way up Val’s throat, and he gritted his teeth against it. He couldn’t stop the tears, though. “I – you don’t–”

Vlad gathered him close, into his heat, and strength, and his implacable resolution. “I will make it right,” he said. From anyone else, that would have been a stupid boast.

But from Vlad…

Val almost let himself believe it.

“It’s alright,” Vlad said, softer, and stroked his back.

Val gave up all pretense and slumped forward, allowing himself the comfort he craved. They were men now, instead of boys, but he still fit under Vlad’s chin, and it was still a safe place there.

~*~

About five minutes after Val fell into an exhausted sleep, Vlad sensed someone coming down the hall toward his quarters. Several someones, in fact, and as these modern humans said: just no.

He climbed out of bed as quickly and carefully as possible. Val clutched at the blankets, but didn’t wake, hiding his face in a pillow. He didn’t look grown to Vlad in that moment; he looked four, tear-stained and fresh from a nightmare.

He went to the door and had it open just as the man on the other side was lifting his hand to knock.

It was a black-clad military officer of some sort, one of the ones with a radio and a gun on his belt, his hair shaved close on the sides of his head. He was a large, mean-looking man, and he was flanked by two others of his kind, but he shrank back from Vlad, face paling.

“Sir,” he said, and his throat jumped as he swallowed. “Your grace.”

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