Downs, Jana - Ravyn's Heart [Ravyn Warriors 2] (Siren Publishing Allure ManLove) (3 page)

They stayed that way for countless minutes, comforting and getting comforted from the presence of the other. After another moment they gradually eased their grips. Both had tears in their eyes when they at last pulled apart. Damian lightly stroked Kal’s chocolate and auburn hair.

“I’ve missed you, father,” Kal whispered.

“Missed you, too, son,” Damian replied, tightly. He pulled back fully. “Now, let me look at the warrior you’ve become.”

“I’m still dancing,” Kal corrected. “I’m a dancer and a warrior.”

And he was. The first performance of Alex’s new play with Kal in the role of Amadeo had been a smash hit, and it was only the second month of performances. Damian had always known he had a raw talent for the art. Alex had honed that raw talent to a performance of movement that was almost an erotic religious experience. Speaking of Alex…

“Are you still planning on being with my cradle-robbing brother?” he asked before he could stop himself.

Kal’s eyes sparkled with fear. They weren’t on safe subjects anymore. “Yes, Father. We’re wed as vampires do. But I’d hoped… I’d hoped that we could have a wedding from my demon culture, too.”

Damian nodded curtly. “That would be appropriate.”

“I want your blessing, Father. I want you to stand beside me when I marry him.”

Damian’s eyes met his son’s. The look he found there was not one of a fresh-faced eighteen year old asking his permission. There would be no compromise. If Damian wanted a relationship with Kalel, this was nonnegotiable.

“You have my blessing, Kal. I will stand beside you wherever you wish.” He made the declaration easily. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, risk losing his son again. Even if that meant he had to put up with his brother claiming his ward as his own. Kalel favored him with a brilliant smile. It was then he knew he’d made the right decision.

* * * *

They laughed the night away. It wasn’t until dawn was kissing the sky outside that they realized how much time had actually passed. It was good getting to know one another again.

“My brothers are absolutely insane. I love them all so much. I can’t wait for you to meet the entire crew and… Oh! Prince Salvatore is going to be thrilled to meet you! He loves all your performances. He actually has them all on disc. How he got them into Demontia is anyone’s guess. I mean, they don’t exactly ship UPS to the other universe do they?” Kal gushed happily. He’d long since left his uncomfortable chair for the plush carpet of the floor. Damian contemplated moving them to the other living room, but he didn’t want to interrupt their camaraderie for even a second.

“Those are probably the last ones I did. I haven’t been performing much lately. The business end of things has taken priority for me.” Damian reached out and messed Kal’s hair playfully.

Kal frowned. “What do you mean you’re not performing? But Damian, you love it!”

“Alex stopped dancing for the longest time when you were taken,” Damian reminded gently. Kal shook his head.

“But he was heartbroken, and being on stage reminded him of me, but even he couldn’t deny his passion of the stage forever.” He paused. “Why did you stop?”

Damian gave a shrug that meant everything and nothing at once. “I lost my passion for my art, little one,” he offered, using Kal’s childhood nickname. “Santiago can’t even stand to hear me anymore. He says my voice has no feeling.”

By the time he’d finished, Kal’s eyes were a curious shade of spun gold with only a few flicks of green. He seemed distressed. Passion was everything to the Entertainer line of vampires, and to know that Damian had lost his… The older vampire would have to reassure the younger man somehow to get him to let the subject drop. Kal glanced in his direction before concentrating awfully hard on his feet. He seemed to reach some kind of decision as he returned his gaze to the vampire. “Father?” he questioned. Damian regarded him wearily, noting his innocent expression.

“What is it, son?”

“You need a boyfriend.”

Chapter Four

Dageus came slinking into the weight room half an hour late. He looked beat.

“’Bout damn time, Dageus,” Tony barked. The leader of the Ravyns was not known for his tolerance of tardiness. Dageus was just lucky that he hadn’t been late for guard duty instead of their morning workout. “You,”—Tony’s eyes turned on Allasandro—“keep up the reps.”

Allasandro obediently went back to his task. He pushed the bench press bar up, his biceps straining as he hefted the monstrous amount of weight Tony had instructed them to do reps with. Tony was a hell of a leader. He made sure that he kept the warriors in the peak of physical fitness. Salvatore needed all the advantage he could get against his evil cousin Desmond and his would-be assassins.

“Dageus, take over spotting Ally-cat from Germany. Ger, come over here and spot me while I do some squats,” Tony ordered. He shot a glance over at Salvatore, who was waiting in the corridor outside, reading his latest paperback novel he’d ordered off of Amazon. Two tall Jaguar shifter guards that Alex assigned to look after him while he was in the house and out of the Ravyns immediate care flanked either side of him. Tony still didn’t trust him to be out of their sight though.

“How’s it goin’, my man?” Allasandro grunted out as he hefted the weight back toward the ceiling. It was his third set of eight.

“Good. Spent the night with my father,” Dageus said, smiling.

“Doesn’t look like you got any sleep,” Ally noted, sweat dripping down his temples. He’d been here earlier than they’d been assigned, working out, and now he was a sweaty mess.

“Didn’t. We talked all night. I’m going to sleep so good tonight…” He sounded like he really wanted to sleep then, but both he and Ally knew it wasn’t going to happen. He was on guard duty from noon until he left for dance practice at six. He and Ally now shared the same rotation. Previously Tony hadn’t let them have the same schedule because they were best friends and tended to distract one another, but since Dageus had rejoined Alex’s dance troupe, he had to have the night shift off.

“That’s good.” Ally didn’t know what else to say.
Is this the part where I say, “Hey, Dageus, you know your dad? Totally hot. No, I mean it. I want to lick him like an ice cream cone. I know I gave you a hard time for being into dudes and not telling anyone but this is different. I just want to fuck him. It’s not like I’m in love with the guy.”
He mentally rolled his eyes. Yeah, that’d go over really well. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about Damian coming to practice at the theater tonight. From what Alex said, the guy wasn’t there that often.

“I’m worried about Damian though. He’s lost his passion for entertainment, and that doesn’t bode well,” Dageus said as they switched positions so he could work the bench press. Ally watched his brother’s pecs and biceps flex as he hefted the bar up and down.

“Sometimes you just have to go through a dry spell. Doesn’t mean he’s lost it, just means he doesn’t have any inspiration,” Allasandro offered as he spotted the guy.

“You don’t understand,” Dageus said, bestowing a look of frustration on Allasandro. “When a vampire loses his passion for his specialization, that is, what his power manifests as, he’s close to the end. They become less and less human until they decide to leave this world. I’m afraid Damian is reaching that point, and he’s not even seven hundred years old yet!”

Ally frowned, considering. “How do vampires die anyway? I know you can cut off their head to kill them, but that’s not exactly self-inflicted.”

“When they’re ready, they open a portal sort of like the kind that Ravyns use when we travel between worlds, except when vampires travel, it’s a one-way trip. Once they step through to the other side, they cease to exist on this plane. Vampires call it going to the Outer Fade.”

Allasandro’s heart fluttered nervously at the suggestion. He didn’t want his recent fantasy to disappear before he figured out how he felt about it. “Well, what are you going to do about it?” he asked. Dageus shrugged.

“I’ll talk to Santiago tonight and see if I can’t get him to agree to host a special performance featuring Damian. He’s head of the line, so if anyone can make him perform, it’ll be him.”

“Speaking of performances, am I coming with you to the theater tonight? I know Ger goes with you sometimes, but I thought it was my turn.” Tony still insisted that the Ravyns traveled in pairs, and, because Dageus was the one most often from home, he was the one typically in need of an escort.

Dageus nodded. “Yeah. You can help me do something else at the theater.”

“What’s that?”

The Ravyn’s green-and-gold eyes sparkled with mischief. “I want you to help me scope out some eligible male side beef while I practice.”

“Tired of Alex already?” Allasandro asked in confusion.

“Nah,” Dageus said with a grin. “We’re looking for a playmate for my father.”

* * * *

Holy Shit
. He consciously ogled the prime male flesh as it came through the door. If beautiful was a stock option, this theater had bought every share available to create a surplus. The dancers were stretching on stage before they split off into their individual practice groups. The members of the symphony were queuing up their instruments in their section and the singers were humming warm-ups in the wings. All of them were drop-dead gorgeous. The worst part was that most of these people weren’t even in the Entertainer line itself but of other lines or human potentials who were auditioning for a spot in the exclusive group. Male and female alike looked bred for this place, which only made Ally feel
more
out of place, if that was possible.

He was a warrior, but the only grace he possessed was when he danced with a weapon. He couldn’t dance, despite being an attention whore. And he tended to swagger when he walked instead of gliding. Forget beautiful, he didn’t have that ethereal quality. Upon first glance, he was handsome enough, firm jaw, average lips, not too big of a nose, and subtle ears. He knew that the only reason he got all the tail he did was because he had an inexplicable charm about him. He just “got” people, and they responded to him on a visceral level that even he didn’t understand. These people were like beautiful, unapproachable statues.

He was supposed to be scoping out possible candidates for Damian per Kal’s instruction. His buddy may be Dageus with the Ravyns, but in this place he was Kal. His whole demeanor shifted when he hit the doors of
La Petite Morte
, which was a weird name for the place if anyone asked Allasandro.

Focus
. He was supposed to be getting a list together so Dageus could implement operation get-Damian-a-boyfriend. He thought some physical passion would manifest Damian some Entertainer passion, which also sounded hokey to Allasandro, but it wasn’t really his business. Yet…he couldn’t seem to get Damian out of his head. Over the past forty-eight hours, he’d been thinking about Dageus’s father almost constantly. Which was insane considering he didn’t even really like the guy…did he? He sighed heavily and pushed his back harder against the plush theater seat.

He’d had to stop himself from asking Kal to hook
him
up with Damian. The only thing that had stopped him was an odd insecurity that he’d never experienced before.
“I see you have quite the clumsy friend, Kalel.”
Those were the first words Damian had ever spoken about him. They’d made him feel self-conscious then, doubly so now. Gods knew the man probably wanted nothing to do with him. Hell, he didn’t even know Ally existed as anything other than him being Kal’s “clumsy friend.”

“Why the long face, Ravyn?” A clipped British accent interrupted his dismal thoughts.

Ally’s eyes widened.
Damn
.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear
. “Uh…nothing,” he said quickly, a light blush forming in his cheeks. Damian plopped down in the chair beside him, a large leather notebook in his lap.

“Didn’t look like nothing,” the vampire giant observed, opening up the monstrosity in his lap and flipping to the next clean page of—
good gods, is that a spreadsheet
?
Yuck.