Free Bloodchild by Kallysten

to notice
Bradan’s gaze darting toward the woods a few times. Those looks matched the
quiet but growing hunger that filtered through the bond.
    “Go, brother,” he told Bradan.
“I’ll see our dame back to the castle.”
    Dame Vivien startled at the sound
of his voice and whirled back toward him, as though she had forgotten he was
there. The realization was bittersweet. Bodyguards were supposed to remain
unobtrusive as they kept watch over their charges, but it wasn’t his stealth
that had kept him out of his dame’s mind, he was well aware of it.
    Bradan, on the other hand, froze
and did not look back. The bond vibrated with irritation.
    “I’m fine,” he said, still not
looking at Aedan.
    “Of course you’re fine,” Aedan
said dryly. “If you weren’t—”
    He stopped himself before pointing
out what, he hoped, was obvious: if Bradan hadn’t been in control of his
hunger, Aedan would have long since taken their dame away from him.
    “The point is for you to remain
fine. Go. Hunt. Feed. And that’s not a suggestion.”
    Now Bradan looked at him. His eyes
flashed silver in the near darkness. Aedan held his gaze, pushing his
determination—and his increasing annoyance—through the bond like a warning. At
Bradan’s side, Dame Vivien looked back and forth between them a few times
before saying in a quiet voice, “You can go if you need to. I don’t mind. I’ll
wait.”
    Bradan’s gaze turned to her, and a
visible shudder shook her body when their eyes met. How long would it take her
to grow used to the new color of Bradan’s eyes? To Aedan, those flashes of
silver were like knives flying to his heart every single time.
    “I won’t be long,” Bradan said in
a low, deep voice.
    When he leaned toward her, it was
all Aedan could do not to leap forward and push Bradan away. Controlling
himself, he did nothing more than watch as his brother pressed a chaste kiss to
their dame’s cheek before pulling away and running toward the woods, looking
back at them twice. For a few seconds after he’d disappeared she continued to
watch the woods, only tearing her eyes away when Aedan spoke.
    “Dame Vivien? Do you wish to
return to the castle?”
    She shivered as though a jolt had
passed through her and glanced at him before striding resolutely toward the
lake.
    “No. I’ll wait for him, like I
said.”
    She advanced to the very edge of
the lake, sitting down on a flat rock from which, as children, they used to
jump into the water. The sight of her proud, stiff back sent a pang of longing
through Aedan. Things had been easier back then. And she’d smiled a lot more.
    Keeping an eye on her, he
approached the edge of the woods. Bushes inside the woods yielded bigger,
sweeter roseberries, but he didn’t dare step out of sight so he contented
himself with picking a handful of the smaller berries, gathering them inside a
large tree leaf. When, moments later, he went to sit near Dame Vivien and
offered her the berries, he received what he’d hoped for: a smile.
     
    * * * *
     
    As Vivien sat on the edge of the
lake, with the cool rock under her and the familiar burbling noises of the
water in the background, she wished this could have been just another outing to
the lake with Brad, another chance to practice channeling in the place where
she’d first learned.
    While they’d been running, she’d
all but forgotten that Aedan had accompanied them. Now, she couldn’t ignore his
presence at her side, a silent, unmoving form guarding her from less than a
yard away. Every time she turned her head to guide the flowing ribbons of
Quickening over the water and caught sight of him from the corner of her eye, she
had to remind herself that it wasn’t Brad. And every time, her focus wavered,
and she had to push herself to concentrate again on her channeling.
    The taste of the berries lingering
on her tongue, at least, sweetened Brad’s absence.
    Aedan was the one who had
suggested this unplanned practice while she waited