5
Darren
Darren slowly peeled theVR set off his head once they’d disconnected. They’d both sat on the floor in his bedroom with their backs propped against the bed, but Aiden was already on his feet, putting the device away. He didn’t say anything as their eyes met and Darren directed a questioning look his way, which only made the nerves rolling off him more palpable.
“Kesley.” Darren hopped up from the floor. His nerves flared as Aiden’s shoulders tensed even more, but he didn’t let that deter him. “We’ll figure this out. I… have some ideas. We could sta—”
“We could start at the Royal Palace’s ruins where the labs were. That’s…” Aiden trailed off, propping his ass on the edge of the desk and squeezing his elbow.
Darren’s eyes zeroed in on the spot.If they were on the same page already, then what was bothering him? Why did he look so anxious?
“Kesley,” Darren said, this time letting his tone grow stern. “What’s wrong then? It’s as good a start as any.”
“It’s nothing.”
Clearly, itwassomething if Aiden was acting so on edge. Darren had no idea what though. As far as he was aware, he hadn’t said or done anything to disturb the mutual tolerance they maintained, so he didn’t think it was that.
The Legacy then? Human evolutionwasa big deal and if the rings held the secret to it, then they needed to steal Sara’s back from Marcus before he found out he had something so valuable in his possession. And then there was Dr. Batbayar’s shocking announcement and the fact that Darren had no clue what kind of big discovery the woman had made.
But well, he could only solve one problem at a time and, currently, Aiden’s strange reaction was his priority.
Inching in closer, Darren demanded, “Kesley. Look at me.”
For a moment Aiden complied, though averted his gaze almost immediately. “Howe. I’m fine.” He sighed, and Darren caught a hint of frustration in it. Strangely, it didn’t seem like it was aimed at him.
“Are you sure? You don’t seem…” Darren trailed off, not sure if he should call Aiden out on it or not.
Aiden pushed himself off the desk, brushing past Darren. He paused halfway out the door and spoke without turning. “I’m just tired and need rest. As do you. I’ll see you later.”
Darren stopped himself from commenting on Aiden’s bullshit and just watched the door close. “I’ll see you… later,” he echoed back after Aiden was gone.
Now alone in his room, Darren paced over to the closet, fishing out the wooden box he’d tucked at the far back of the overhead shelf. Inside it were the only three possessions, aside from the picture of his and Sara’s dog, Sir Barnaby Albus, that he had from his past life: the Valrais signet ring his father had gifted him, and the two golden crowns. They were… simple in design, probably underwhelming too when compared to theimage history and media painted of royalty, but he thought them fitting to the way his parents had ruled.
Done reminiscing, Darren took just the ring out of the box, holding it up with two fingers as he scanned the carvings that decorated it with new eyes. He’d paid the swirling patterns no mind as a child, but now wondered if they had some hidden meaning even if he failed to see it.
While the intricate decorations still betrayed no secrets to him, he did notice the two small output/input points woven into the design. Retrieving his tablet he’d abandoned on the desk, he tried to access the files within the ring, but he failed as the device couldn’t detect anything to connect to. It was most likely a security feature that Peter, the head scientist, had put in place, and something Darren was sure Nyle would be thrilled to occupy himself with hacking.
Seeing no point postponing that, Darren left his room in search of the genius, whom he found in the hideout’s war room, lounging on one of the desk chairs with a tablet in hand. More of the security feeds on the two big holoboards were online now, though the ones that remained black told him that Kristen had yet to get around to fixing all the cameras.
Darren knocked on the section wall as he approached, not wanting to startle the other man. “Hey.”
Lifting his gaze at the interruption, Nyle let an impish smile slowly slide onto his face. “Hey, Darren.” He sat upright in his chair, throwing a glance at the space behind Darren. “Can I help you with something or… are you looking for company?” he said, his pink tongue darting out to glide across his plump lips.
Darren smiled and shook his head, remembering how Nyle’s mouth had felt stretched around his cock. The image quickly shifted to a different and very irritatingly sexy mouth he couldn’t stop thinking about, and it didn’t seem to matter that said mouth hadn’t ever been anywhere near his dick.
“Don’t make that face, Darren,” Nyle chirped, heated amusement lighting up his eyes. “If you have no intention of obliging, that is.”
Darren stopped dead in his tracks and crossed his arms as the comment caught him a little off-guard. “That’s no—” he cut himself off, frowning. Itwastrue, wasn’t it?
The fact that Nyle, Bea and Kristen were a thing aside, he’d not taken them up on any of their offers and didn’t intend to either. Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t even sure why, when he did like sex.
Clearing his throat and head, he took out the ring and presented it to Nyle. “I need you to look into something for me.”
Nyle arched a blond eyebrow, blue eyes bouncing between Darren’s face and the ring. “By any chance… does that”—he pointed at the small object in Darren’s palm—“have anything to do with the legacy?”
Darren mirrored the cute twink’s mischievous expression, wondering what had given it away. “Itisthe legacy. Or part of it anyway. There’s a second ring and Marcus has it…” And then there was thethird part, Dr. Batbayar’s discovery.
Carefully extracting the ring from Darren’s hand, Nyle squinted at the patterns and slowly rotated it until he’d located the two data points. He fumbled with his tablet for a few minutes, but the narrowed grin that settled on his face told Darren he’d failed to connect all the same.
