Daemon put a hand on his shoulder much like he had with Grayson.The weight and warmth of that hand seeped into Ryder’s skin and he felt the urge to prostate himself in front of his king and offer his throat.He also felt like weeping.
“The guilt you carry is so heavy.But, in the end, it was all my decision to leave you to your own devices,” Daemon confessed.His red eyes glowed like witchfires in the dark.“So everything that occurred after that decision is my fault.”
“No, my king, you could not know how we would behave–”
“But I could have,” Daemon interrupted him.“I could have known everything–most everything–but I chose to knownothing.”
“You were in a great deal of pain,” Ryder said.
“You would find excuses for me, but not for yourself, Weryn.”Daemon squeezed his shoulder.“I wish you would allow yourself some grace, some understanding.All my beloved friends are suffering.”Daemon’s eyes went distant as if he were looking at some far off horizon.“But all of us shall find some solace in cleaning up our mistakes.”
“Is that what we’re doing now?Is that what your or Seeyr foresees?”Ryder pressed.
Daemon kissed his forehead and drifted over to Julian and Siban leaving Ryder looking after him.
Grayson’s voice brought him back to the present as he said, “Are we certain they’re gone from the Ever Dark?Or have they simply moved so deep into it that we can’t find them?The Ever Dark is so vast.It would be easy to get lost in.”
“I’m sure it would.But it’s also dangerous as all the hells and just as easy todiein,” Ryder pointed out.“Keeping themselves and enough Acolytes alive to satisfy them would be quite the task.A task I don’t believe could be accomplished for all that long.The creatures are coming back towards Nightvallen.Brought here by the allure of human and Vampire blood.The Sect’s position was overrun weeks ago from what I can tell.”
“Did you smell Legion there?”
“I did.But they mostly kept to their shifted form, which made it harder to track them,” Ryder answered.
Faint frown lines appeared between Grayson’s brows.Ryder smoothed them out again by caressing the lines away.
“What is Legion’s animal form?”Grayson asked.
“A monster.”
“Your voice when you say that… You think of Legion themselves as a monster,” Grayson intuited.
“A monster of my own making.”
Guilt corkscrewed within him again.It was all well and good for Daemon to claim the majority of the responsibility for what happened by choosing to go to sleep.But no one held a gun to the Immortals’ heads to do what they’d done.He had certainly done his acts in cold blood.Madness or no, he hadknownwhat he was doing when he brought Legion into existence.And the fact that their animal form was a dread creature from the Ever Dark epitomized what they were inside and out.
“Amaris and Kayne have organized patrols while Demos and Siban are interviewing more of my Bloodline,” Ryder continued.“No one will be able to get within a ten-square mile radius of Nightvallen without one of my people knowing it.”
“You people.Sounds so good.More and more of them arrive everyday,” Grayson opened his eyes as he said this and there was a genuine smile on his face.“They all want to be with their Immortal.”
“It is a surprise.A welcome one, to be sure.But a surprise,” Ryder grunted.
He remembered when it had just been him, Demos and Siban.A pack of three.They were still his most trusted advisors and took a lead role in determining who was pack and who wasn’t.He couldn’t have asked for two better judges of character.And they were utterly loyal to him.
“Your old pack, I know you disowned them, but I thought I caught sight of a few of them downstairs,” Grayson said just as carefully as he had spoken about not finding the Sect.
“A few,” he admitted and stroked Grayson’s hair.“I find myself less… angry than I was with them.When I look at how changed Caemorn and Balthazar are after ridding themselves of their terrible Masters and finding new meaning and a new way of being in each other… Well, I realized that I wished to see if that was possible for those turned by Lawson.”
Grayson’s eyes narrowed.“But they’re still on probation, aren’t they?”
“Yes, as are all of the members of my Bloodline,” Ryder agreed.“Unlike you, I cannot remember who I should trust and who I should worry about.And then there is all that time while I was gone that I have to worry about.Legion may have swayed some.The horrors of the War may have swayed others.”
“Well, no one has any structures who have come into the Weryn Palace,” Grayson said with a negligent wave.
Ryder shook his head.“I should have known that you were still using your gifts!Daemon is going to be very cross with you.”
Grayson gave an impish smile.“It was very little.Hardly anything at all.And I’ve been practically using all my free time to sleep with you.When we’re not making love that is.”
Grayson snuggled up against his chest.Ryder’s arms automatically wound around him.His cock pulsed as he felt Grayson’s lithe, naked body pressed up against his own.Obviously, when they slept, he was in his fuzzy forms only, but there was nothing better than being skin against skin with his beloved.
