Page 42 of Across the Sapphire Sea
“Shockingly, no.”
“Did you part on good terms? Where is he now?”
“One question at a time. We parted on…good enough terms. He still manages the estate and has done well growing the wealth. I never lack for coin, and that is mostly Fedor’s doing.”
“Were you lovers?”
“Myself and Fedor? No. Like my brother, he preferred women.” Valeri reached down to palm Elias’s soft cock where it rested on his thigh. “I’ll never understand it.”
Elias did the same, finding Valeri’s cock already beginning to swell. “You don’t like women?”
“I don’t like many people.”
“But in bed, you’ve never…?”
“With a woman? No. No interest.” Valeri’s expression changed; a hint of vulnerability danced in his eyes. “You have though.”
Elias nodded. “I have.”
“And your preference?”
“My preference”—Elias pushed Valeri onto his back and climbed astride him—“is you.”
11
Elias, Present, 1432 Common Era
Elias had thought there would be no argument, but he’d been wrong. Turns out, Valeri could argue over anything.
“I’m gone no more than twenty minutes, and you smell like Laurence’s whelp. Why?”
Elias tramped along behind him, their pace frantic in Valeri’s rush to distance themselves from the others. Dawn approached, and all six would go to ground. Apparently Elias and Valeri would be doing that as far as possible from the rest of the group. He supposed Valeri wished to scold him in private.
“His name is Remy,” said Elias, not for the first time. The thought that Valeri would scent Remy’s embrace had not occurred to him, though it should have. He stalled by arguing back. It was a familiar enough pattern. “Why do you continue to speak of him as if he’s not a person, same as you?”
“Answer the question, Elias.”
“Or what?”
Valeri whirled on him, curls bouncing. “What’s gotten into you?”
Elias didn’t know. Part of him wondered if Valeri really was as dangerous as the others made him out to be. Could he provoke Valeri to hurt him? That was a stupid thing to do, but nonetheless, the urge to try was there. Something had to give.
He took a breath. Exhaled. “I’m sorry.”
Valeri studied his face. “For what?”
“Provoking you. Remy hugged me because he is worried. We both enjoyed the reading lessons you put a stop to, and he wanted to know if I needed help.”
“Needed help?” Valeri scoffed.
“Is that so difficult for you to believe? That the fledgling of a vampire who left you would worry for my safety? What does Remy know that I don’t? I’m sure Laurence has told him the entire story, where you’ve only given me bits and excuses.”
“I don’t want to talk about Laurence.”
“You always say that. You know, if you’d just tell me what happened, I wouldn’t have to keep asking.”
“What did you tell Remy?”
