“I was thinking of showing you somewhere else entirely.”
“You mean, like, Idaho? Or Wyoming?”
“France. Or perhaps Spain.”
“Oh, real foreign countries!” Will lit up. “Really? I don’t think I’m allowed to leave the country.”
“I have a private plane. Passports are unnecessary.”
“Yes!” Will beamed. “Let’s do it!”
Maddox was in such a good mood he decided to pardon Henry. Kings could make decisions like that if they pleased. Fortunately, Henry was not too far away. Everybody seemed to perpetually cluster in the kitchen. This morning it was just Henry, but that’s all that mattered.
“I was in a bad mood last night. I may have been too hostile and hasty in my decisions. I’ve since decided that you’re free to leave,” Maddox said. “Go in peace. And ideally, stay clear of my city.”
He expected Henry to be grateful, or at least to dash promptly out the door. Neither one of those things happened.
“I can’t go,” Henry said.
“Why not?”
“Lorien is missing.”
“Why would Lorien be missing?”
“We, erm… there was a moment where…”
“I told you!” Will burst out, appearing behind Maddox like the nosy little whelp he was. “Henry and Lorien. Lorien and Henry.”
“Quiet, boy.”
“He and I had a disagreement last night,” Henry explained. “I’ve checked the house for him. Can’t find him. I’m worried I’ve sent him off into some lair.”
“I wouldn’t worry about Lorien,” Maddox said.
“Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe you should. I think I scared him,” Henry added.
Maddox laughed. “I can assure you, you didn’t scare him. Lorien doesn’t scare. He gets angry. He schemes and he plots and he pouts, but he wouldn’t run scared.”
At that moment, Lorien walked in the door with a cut of meat under his arm. He tossed it on the kitchen counter. “Breakfast,” he said.
Maddox gave Henry a pointed look. Henry gave a shrug back.
“You okay?” Henry asked Lorien.
Lorien gave his usual smile. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be? Now, eat up, fresh human, yum yum.”
“Someone you killed?” Henry asked.
“Oh god, who cares,” Will sighed.
Henry glowered at Will. “I’ve tried to end your father for less. You turned him in for less. I care. We can’t kill people. It’s wrong. So wrong, someone carved it into a rock once.”
“I carved Ed loves butts into a rock once. Didn’t make it true.”
“It’s cruelty free,” Lorien said. “And it’s going to go to waste if you don’t eat up.”
“I’ll cook,” Maddox declared, ending discussion on the matter.
“About last night…” Henry got Lorien alone after Maddox and Will had gone out. Lorien was doing the dishes, his sleeves rolled up so they wouldn’t get sudsy and wet. Henry had watched him for a few minutes, drinking in the man’s elegance. There was something very special about Lorien. Something he regretted hurting.
“Oh, that was silly, wasn’t it?” Lorien gave a light, carefree laugh.
“No. It wasn’t silly. I think I hurt you.”
“Hardly.”
“Lorien…” Henry lowered his tone.
“Henry…” Lorien remained cool and collected, too impassive to be truly affected by anything Henry was saying. It was like trying to have a conversation with the emotional equivalent of a store mannequin.
“I know I scared you last night. I saw it in your eyes.”
“I am not afraid of you, wolf,” Lorien laughed as if the idea was so ludicrous he couldn’t take it.
Henry grabbed Lorien away from the sink, dragged him out of the kitchen, and slammed him back against the concrete wall, one powerful hand fisted in the front of Lorien’s shirt. “Don’t lie to me.”
Lorien’s green eyes glinted with hidden emotion. “Get your hands off me, wolf.”
“You can have my hands, or you can have my teeth.”
For a moment, there was a look of such pure violence in Lorien’s eyes Henry almost let him go, but it faded as quickly as it had come. There was a true monster inside this prince, one that kept itself very well hidden.
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” Henry insisted. “Something I want to know.”
“There’s really not.”
Henry let his eyes drop from Lorien’s. His gaze slid all the way down the vampire prince’s face, searching it for clues. He found something like one at the opening of Lorien’s shirt. He usually wore high collars, but the rough handling had made it pop open, and there was rough, thickened, twisted skin beneath. Henry lifted his other hand to trace the lines of pain with a careful touch. Lorien’s involuntary flinch did not escape his notice.
“I thought vampires couldn’t scar.”
“They can when the wound is inflicted before they are turned. I have had my throat ripped out twice. Once more recently.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were sensitive about your neck?” Henry let Lorien go, the mystery being solved in his mind.
“You were very insistent that you were too tough for me,” Lorien said, readjusting his clothing.
“That’s…”
“Yes. You insisted you were so tough, so terrible, so completely alpha that I could never take what you had to give. It was not the environment for sharing weaknesses.”