Chapter 38: Don’t find me endearing
Draken was laughing at him. He could feel it from the way his shoulders were shaking from the way he was holding him. Cass didn’t even want to look at him, coughing into a handkerchief that Sam had procured for him.
He was coughing up less blood now, but his insides felt like they were still on fire. He’d never had a stomach issue this bad before. He wanted to be doubled over, and with the way Draken was carrying him, he essentially was. He would never admit it, but the way Draken carried him made him feel better.
Damn the man.
"Are you not even going to look at me?" Draken asked, his tone teasing and Cass glowered at the wall he was staring at. They were going up the grand staircase, and it felt eerily similar to how Lady Fiona had carried him before. Only Cass knew Draken was taking this route so that the most people could see him.
At least Lady Fiona hadn’t been trying to embarrass him. She had just been trying to help. Like she had been trying to help this whole time, and in the worst way possible.
The glittering from the chandelier caught his eye and Cass couldn’t help but glance over at it, unfortunately catching the way that Draken was smirking down at him as he carried him up the stairs.
Sam and Byron were nearby, carefully watching them. It was clear that the two of them were unhappy with the way that Draken was treating them, but were too weak to do anything against him. Like Cass was.. Both physically, and every other way, he couldn’t prevent Draken from picking him up like he was a bag of rice and walking away with him.
It was humiliating. He wished he was his old self. People rarely messed with him when he had been Caspian Spencer. Instead, he had to deal with the most twink-like man he’d ever seen in his life. Fuck.
"Lord Blackburn? Are you really going to give me the silent treatment the whole way to your den?" Cass felt his mouth turn even further into a frown and Draken chuckled. "You’re lucky that I find such outright acts of rebellion as endearing, Lord Blackburn." Cass didn’t find comfort in that in the slightest.
He wanted Draken to hate him as much as Cass hated him for biting him. No, for injuring him. Twice. Cass could feel his emotions causing turmoil inside of him and Draken laughed.
"Wow. You really don’t like me right now. Why is that? Do you dislike being carried like this? I thought it would be better for your stomach injury." Cass frowned. Stomach injury?
"I...am not injured in my stomach." Cass said tartly and Draken sighed.
"You are, Lord Blackburn. The amount of blood you’ve thrown up clearly shows that you have been injured. It is not visible, but whatever your strange food avoidances are, they are severe. It baffles me that such a race exists and is able to survive, but it is clear that at least a few people didn’t want you dead." Cass narrowed his gaze, turning away from him again as they reached the top of the stairs. His lips moved, the words feeling strange as they left his lips.
"This wasn’t an issue when I was younger." Cass was surprised. He had no memory of that. He had very few of Lord Blackburn’s memories from that time, so where was he gaining the knowledge, or the ability to speak on this topic?
And why didn’t it feel like he had said that himself?
"Oh? You had the ability to eat everything when you were younger? When did that change?" Draken asked, curious. Cass felt his mouth open again, and his heart began to race in his chest. This didn’t feel like he was speaking. Who was it?
"When I turned of age, that was when my...diet became obvious. It took quite a bit of testing to figure out what was the issue." The voice told Draken, and Cass clutched at his arm. It was strange. It was weird.
Had Cass been wrong? Was Lord Blackburn still around? Dear lord, that would be awful. If Cass felt this restrained while he took control of his body to speak, Cass could only imagine what Lord Blackburn was feeling if this was the case.
"Ah. Then you are used to this pain then." Draken commented and Cass gasped. He didn’t know how, he didn’t really know when, but it was clear that something else was sharing this body with him.
Holy shit. Holy shit .
"No." Cass muttered, his lips feeling strange after he had lost control of them for only a short amount of time. It felt like his whole perception of his reality was shifting. Was he crazy? Or was this actually happening? "I’m never used to it." Cass told him. A half truth. Cass had never experienced something like this before, but he didn’t feel like it was wrong for him to speak for Lord Blackburn on this topic.
Especially after what had just happened.
"Well, at least you won’t be alone anymore." Cass jerked, spinning his gaze towards Draken. Draken was giving him a toothy grin, his eyes crinkled up at the corners as he smiled down at him. "I’m here with you now. Now that we are bonded, until the bond fades, I’ll be experiencing it with you." Draken had worried Cass there for a moment.
He’d truly thought that Draken had been able to sense what was going on inside of him. What had just happened. Instead he was referring to the bond that was forced onto him against his will.
Thank goodness. It was just that.
"You can’t feel everything I feel." Cass said. He was feeling a little strange. His heart was still racing, and he felt like the body he was in wasn’t his own again. Not that it ever had been. Draken snorted.
"Have you always been this pessimistic, Lord Blackburn? How had I never noticed before? We are bound through an ancient tradition of my people." He hesitated. "No doubt...you’ve noticed that there are some...differences between us." Was he...? No. He really wasn’t trying to have a conversation about how they were different, was he?
Right now? In the middle of the hallway? Where others could hear him?
"Lord Draken, should we really be having this conversation in the open?" Cass asked cautiously. Not that he cared if Draken told him a truth or a lie. It didn’t matter to him because he had insider knowledge. He already knew what Draken was, and from the happy way his gait changed, he didn’t care in the slightest.
"Are you worried? You shouldn’t be. No one can hear us talking to each other. I made sure of that as soon as we left the dining hall." Cass stared at the other man, now refusing to look away from his dumb, goofy expression. What was he? A dog?
"Did you plan to have this conversation with me since then?" Cass asked and Draken nodded.
"Of course! I wanted to talk with you once your anger had quelled. Obviously anyone would be upset given the situation you were in." Cass blinked several times at him. "So I waited until you visited one of the others first. I assumed you wouldn’t come to me first. You never have. Did I want to wait this long? No, but clearly your anger runs deep." Draken huffed. "Honestly, a little short for someone who is currently bonded to me, but understandable. You are only human."
"My anger isn’t quelled." Cass spoke. He was experiencing several shocks right now. Draken had waited for him to leave his chambers? To inform him he wasn’t fucking human?
How could this man think that it was okay? That it was normal to be this way? Was he an idiot? Holy shit. And he wasn’t even apologising! He knew that what he had done was wrong, and he wasn’t going to apologise?
Cass felt like his head was going to explode.
"Oh. I take back my words then. The average length that my anger lingers over something like this, where someone has slighted me, lasts about 4 years." Cass didn’t care about that, but Draken kept talking. "If you manage to maintain this anger until then, I will be very impressed."
"Draken." Cass spoke carefully, more worried he was going to shout than anything else. "Did you think that maybe, if you knew I was going to be angry, the first thing you should do is apologise?" Draken had a blank look on his face.
"What? Why?" He asked and Cass felt his whole body tense.
"Because you did something wrong?" Cass replied carefully. He was good. He was in this man’s arms. You also weren’t well enough to fight him, nor did you have the powers to. But the dumb, blank look on Draken’s face made him want to commit acts of violence against him.
"Did I do something wrong?" He asked and Cass nearly lost it.
"Yes. You did." Cass told him and Draken furrowed his brows.
"But I did what my wife asked me to do? Granted, I didn’t ask if you wanted to be part of the family, but being part of the clan isn’t too far of a step away from being part of the family proper. Especially if it’s for a limited time." Cass groaned, closing his eyes and putting his face in his hands. His stomach pain was temporarily forgotten as pure rage and anger filled him. "Why are you angry at my words?" Draken asked and Cass wanted to curse.
Of fucking course he could feel how he was feeling right now. This fucking bastard. Cass was fighting for his life to find the ability to explain this properly, but the words were having a hard time coming to the tip of his tongue. The word fucking was getting in the way. Along with bastard.
Combined.