Free Bodyguards by Kallysten Page A

eyebrows pulled
together. Was she trying to remember more of her dream—more of her life before
the Otherworld?
    “Vivien...” Bradan touched her
hand lightly, drawing her attention back to him. “It’s late. Shouldn’t you get
back to bed? We can talk more tomorrow.”
    She still looked absentminded, but
when Bradan stood and offered her his hand, she took it and allowed him to pull
her to her feet. He accompanied her back upstairs, Aedan following on their
heels. Bradan didn’t look forward to answering Vivien’s next questions, nor did
he look forward to talking to Aedan in private. Maybe in the morning after a
good night’s sleep, things wouldn’t look so complicated; and maybe he’d have forgotten
what Vivien looked like in her nightclothes.

 
     
    CHAPTER EIGHT
    Fights
     
     
     
    Bradan’s heartbeat filled their
childhood bedroom and ticked the hours away. To Aedan, it was one of the most
soothing sounds he knew.
    As years passed, he’d taken human
lovers, but their heartbeats had been no more than noise, irritating when he
tried to sleep. His brother’s heartbeat was different, almost as though it were
Aedan’s own. He’d missed that heartbeat and presence over the years; Bradan had
visited, but never often enough. To him, it had been days, maybe a couple of
weeks between each visit. To Aedan, it had often been months hiding the core of
who he was from the guards around him, the king, and even his Maker.
    Now that he was back in this house
with his brother at his side—now that he had betrayed the king and shown his
true colors—he wouldn’t have to lie anymore about who he was or what he wanted.
So why was he having such a hard time finding sleep?
    “Do you want to talk about it?”
    Bradan’s voice, rising from the
bed on the other side of the room, was barely any louder than his heartbeat.
    “It’s still early,” Aedan
muttered. “You should sleep some more. You were exhausted.”
    “So were you.” The sheets rustled
softly as Bradan sat up. “Did you get any sleep at all?”
    “Yes.”
    “Liar.”
    Sliding both hands behind his
head, Aedan kept his eyes on the ceiling and smiled. From anyone else, he’d
have taken the accusation as an insult, even if it were true. From Bradan, it
felt almost comforting: it was proof that someone knew him, inside and out.
He’d missed being near someone who could see through his masks.
    Muted light suddenly bathed the
room; Bradan had channeled to light the candle on his night table.
    “I don’t need as much sleep as you
do,” he reminded Bradan.
    “Aedan.”
    One word and it was like they’d
shared an entire conversation. Sighing softly, Aedan sat up and shifted
sideways to lean back against the wall, mirroring Bradan’s position across the
room.
    “They were my friends,” he
murmured.
    A beat passed before Bradan said,
“The guards you killed in the Otherworld.”
    Aedan didn’t try to hide his
wince. He’d become a vampire to be the best fighter he could be—the best
killer. He’d spent decades in the king’s guard, and killed whenever he needed
to in order to protect Rhuinn. But he’d never known his adversaries before, not
like he had known Dack and Sensh. The look on Sensh’s face, just before he had
crumbled to ashes, when Aedan had slid his knife home...
    “I thought...” He sighed again. “I
don’t know. I always imagined there’d be a day when I’d quit the guard. Tell
everyone why. I didn’t expect the king to wake up one morning and decide he
wanted her brought to him. We didn’t even know he knew where she was. He never
told anyone, not even Ciara. Within ten minutes of him making up his mind,
she’d assembled a team and...” His throat tightened but he pushed the words out
anyway. “I wish I could have told them why I betrayed them.”
    The only bright point in all of
this was that Ciara had remained behind. If she had come along, Aedan didn’t
know what he would have done. On the one hand, he couldn’t