Cloak and Silence (The League #6)(16)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

There was no sign of him.

Even more frantic, he went through the rooms. He’d just cleared the bathroom when he heard someone out front. His heart racing, he ran down the hallway to find Ture locking the door.

Ture had barely turned around when someone seized him and shoved him back against the wall. Not painfully, but the unexpected act startled him. He started to panic until the wonderful scent of Maris’s skin and cologne hit him. When he opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, Maris claimed his lips with a kiss so hot that it made his head reel. Maris held him with a desperation that was as concerning as it was incredible.

When Maris finally pulled back, he laid his head on Ture’s shoulder and still kept him locked in his arms. He could feel the fierce, hard beating of Maris’s heart against his chest.

“Baby? What’s wrong?”

Maris drew a ragged breath. “I’m just tired. I didn’t mean to scare you. Sorry.”

“It’s all right. I don’t mind when you go all military on me. So long as you don’t hurt me, I’m good with it.”

He lifted his head to pierce him with a sincere stare. “I would never hurt you.”

Extremely worried now, Ture nodded. “I know.” He brushed his fingers against the beard he’d talked Maris into growing. He’d never cared for them in the past, but Maris made it look sexier than hell. “I really do love you, Mari. Insanity and all.”

Maris wanted to return those words with every part of himself. But he couldn’t. Especially not tonight. To say that back would dare fate to hurt Ture. To rip him out of Maris’s life.

Instead, he finally stepped away so that Ture could enter his apartment. Still he couldn’t shake the bad feeling in his gut. Something was wrong. Every instinct he had was on high alert.

Shrugging his jacket off, he laid it over the chair where he usually kept it.

“You know, Mari… I’ve been thinking.”

His gut knotted with dread. Here it comes . . . Get out. He knew it was too good to last. “Yeah?”

Ture hedged, which twisted Maris’s stomach into a painful knot. “I . . . um . . . would you . . . “ He let out a hard breath. “Okay, I’m just going to say it. I can do this. Really . . . Would you like to move in with me? I mean, you’re already here most of the time, anyway. Right?”

Maris went weak at the offer as joy ripped through him. “I’d love to.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely.”

Ture bit his lip as happiness filled him. He’d been wanting to ask Maris to move in, but had been too afraid to since Maris was so reluctant to say he loved him. Not that he had to. It showed in everything Maris did. Big and little. Such as taking over the paperwork so that Ture could focus on prepping the kitchen and leave a little earlier to come home. Stepping in with a willing pair of hands whenever Ture or his staff needed help. Going into the fridge for him so that he wouldn’t get chilled. Letting him go first in the shower every morning so that he never had to take a lukewarm or cold bath. A million thoughtful things that came together to make Maris the sweetest, hottest lover anyone could ask for. And while Mari wasn’t perfect, he tried. That more than anything meant the universe to him.

He pressed his cheek to Maris’s. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being you, sweetie.”

Maris frowned as Ture left him and headed for the bedroom. “I do love you,” he whispered. But every time he tried to say it out loud, he choked on the words.

Just once in his life, he wanted everything to work out. Nothing would make him happier than to relive the last few weeks over and over again, until he died from pure joy overload. He didn’t want any of it to change.

Ever.

But nothing ever lasted.

Not the bad.

And especially not the good.

CHAPTER 9

Maris paused as someone knocked on his bedroom door. “Come in.”

Darling opened it and entered the room with a frown. “I just heard that you’d returned and. . . .” His scowl deepened as he saw the bags Maris was packing. Because of his reluctance to tempt fate, Maris had spent the last two weeks moving his things over to Ture’s apartment. He was hoping if he went slow enough, bad luck wouldn’t take notice of him and slap him down for daring to be happy with someone else.

“You’re leaving?”

Maris duplicated his scowl as he caught the hurt note in Darling’s voice. “You’re not jealous, are you?”

“Honestly? A little, yeah. I miss having you around, bud. I haven’t seen you in weeks.”

Maris tucked his shirts into his bag then closed the distance between them. He pulled Darling into his arms and gave him a light hug. “You know you’re my first love.”

Darling tightened his grip before he released him. “I’m not used to sharing you like this. I don’t like it, Mari.”

“So you do love me?” he teased.

“You know I do.”

But not romantically. Darling’s heart and soul would always belong to Zarya first and Maris was good with that. And now that he had Ture, he understood it better than he ever had before.

Darling swallowed hard. “Through thick and thin, brothers to the bitter end, right?”

Maris gave him a sincere stare. “Always. You need me, night or day, you know I’m here for you. Ture says he accepts that and is good with it.” The gods knew, Ture had already proven it. He had yet to say anything nasty about how often Maris vanished whenever Darling beckoned.

“You really care about him, don’t you?”

Maris hesitated. What he felt was so complicated. He seriously enjoyed hanging out in the restaurant with Ture and his staff. Stealing kisses in the corners when no one was looking. It didn’t bother him at all that they spent sixteen to twenty hours a day there.

He even enjoyed helping Ana tend Terek in the middle of the night. Watching the baby during the day so that she could rest. It was the first time in his life that he really felt like he was home. That he was part of a family that accepted everything about him. Even his early morning crankiness.

When he’d first moved into the Caronese Winter Palace as an ambassador, Darling’s uncle had made him feel like a venereal disease in a whorehouse. Arturo had gone out of his way to verbally attack him and Darling.

Then after Arturo’s death, Darling had been…honestly, insane. For a time, he’d even feared that Darling might kill them both.

Until Zarya.

She had healed Darling and returned him to the best friend he’d been growing up. But from the moment she moved in, Darling had been preoccupied with her, leaving Maris to feel like a third wheel. They’d tried to include him, but they wanted and needed to be alone at times, and that was how it should be.

Still, he’d felt a bit abandoned and a lot lonely.

At least until Ture had come into his life. He didn’t know what it was about that man, but he calmed the rage inside Maris that had simmered in his gut since the day his parents had disowned him. Ture touched a part of him that he hadn’t even known he possessed. All he wanted was to be with him. And yet he lived in a state of constant fear that he would lose everything again.

It left him twisted in a knot and unsure. Terrified and anxious, and at the same time happy and serene.

None of it made sense to him.

“I’m not sure how to answer.”

Darling narrowed his gaze suspiciously. “What was the first thing that entered your mind, and I know it wasn’t what you just said.”

Sighing, Maris stepped away. Darling knew him better than anyone. Even himself. “Yes. I like him a lot.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“You know the problem.” Maris looked down at his clothes and luggage. “What am I doing, Darling? I know this isn’t going to last. It can’t. It never does. And I’m so tired of being hurt. How did you ever forgive Zarya for betraying you?”

Darling snorted. “It wasn’t easy. But this great friend of mine threw her at me and left me with no choice, except to deal with the pain of my past. And I wanted to hate her in ways you can’t imagine. I craved it. Yet as hard as it was to trust her, the agony of existing without her was so much worse. There are only a handful of people in this universe I need. The thought of losing one of you sends me into a panic that is indescribable. It’s why the sight of those bags on your bed pisses me off to an Andarion type of rage level. I can’t protect you if you’re not here.”

“As long as I’m sober, I do a pretty good job of protecting my own posterior…and yours.”

“I know. But as of last night, the League has increased the bounty on all our heads again. At this point, your ass is worth almost twice the price of mine. I think Kyr is using you to hurt me.”

“What about Zarya and Drake?”

“Zarya’s a political nightmare for him that he’s publicly avoiding. Who knows what he’s doing in private? Likewise, he’s staying away from naming my brothers and sister. He’s not sure they helped rescue Zarya and Ture and the others, so legally, he can’t touch them.”

That made Maris feel a bit better. “Is there a price on Ture’s head?”

“No. Just those of us Kyr could identify in the rescue party.”

“Me, you, Nykyrian and Caillen.”

He nodded. “It’s just a matter of time before they start sending in their top assassins.”

Maris zipped his last bag closed. “Saf will warn me before they come after me.”

“If he knows. Kyr might not tell him.”

Maris shook his head in denial. “Kyr doesn’t know we still talk.” If he did, he’d kill their little brother and then Maris would annihilate him over it. Ever since Saf had been mistaken for him and brutally attacked when his father had tried to assassinate him, Maris had been hyper protective of him.

No one touched Saf with immunity.

“It’s about to get bad, Mari. I had to dispatch troops to solidify my borders an hour ago. The League is headed for our colonies and is trying to blockade and embargo us. Most of the empires have withdrawn in fear of them. They hit two of the Sentella’s smaller bases yesterday, and killed almost two hundred people. They injured over a thousand more.”

“I’m not afraid.”

“Nor am I. Not for me. But for those I love…I don’t want to see you hurt because I rage-hit your brother when I should have held my temper in check.”

Maris smiled at him. “I told you when we headed out to rescue Zarya that if you were going to hell, I’d be driving the bus. Bring the rain.”

Darling sighed. “And it’s coming, my brother. With a torrential downpour. One I don’t want you caught in.”

CHAPTER 10

Over and over, Darling’s warning replayed in Maris’s head as he sat in the commercial transport that was locked in traffic. He’d never been patient with such things, but today…

He scowled as he swept the scenery around them and a bad feeling went through him. When hunted, gridlock was a dangerous thing. It was another of the reasons he normally drove an airbike. They were virtually impossible to trap like this.

But with luggage, he’d needed a trunk. And a transport made him an easy mark.

Every ounce of his military training kicked in.

“I’ll get out here,” he said to the driver before he swiped his card. “Deliver my bags to the destination and I’ll make sure you’re well tipped.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Two seconds after Maris swiped his card, he cringed at the rampant stupidity. Damn, he’d lived as a civ too long. If the League was monitoring for them, he’d just given up his location. Stupid moron.

Cursing himself, Maris slid out of the transport and secured his smallest bag across his body so that both of his arms would be free. He didn’t pause or hesitate as he maneuvered through the crowded street on foot. Making sure to keep one hand on his concealed blaster, he stayed vigilant and hated every second of it.

Even though it was ingrained in him by countless hours of training and drills, this degree of heightened alert threw him back to a time and place he didn’t want to revisit.

What are you, a pathetic faggot? Keep your guard up! Only queers rely on their girlfriends to protect them. You are a soldier, not some limp-wristed pu**y.

Back then, he’d lived in a state of perpetual pissed off. It’d been bad enough to be insulted, but to hear the open and hostile disdain on a preference he’d done his best to deny and “cure” had only made it worse. He’d tried everything to be like the other men in his family and the academy and armada. To tell himself that he wasn’t really g*y. That it was a faze or curiosity. Or anything other than what it really was.

Only his fiancé, Tams, had made it bearable. Because she wasn’t Phrixian, she’d assumed his strange behavior and reluctance to touch her was his own nervousness from being a different species.