Sun's Shadow (Dusk Series - Book 3.5 Standalone - MxM)

Extra: Shan - Many Years Ago

"What do you mean, you're going on a pilgrimage?" Shan asked his father as he faced him. With his long obsidian hair tied back neatly, Rivin was decked out in clothes to shield him from the desert, and had a bag over his shoulder full of only god knew what.

"I've spent too much of my life in this giant sand box," Rivin said with a sigh, pulling on his bag's strap. "I want to explore, learn things, see society, meet some chicks. We have so few women in the vampire ranks, Shan. You can't blame me."

"Yes I can!" Shan growled, crossing his arms around his glaive. "You're the leader of the Sols. What are we supposed to do if you go out for a night on the town and don't return for a hundred years?"

"You are just as capable as I am, Shan. I trust you," Rivin said, holding Shan's hand with the fakest confident smile he'd ever seen. The man was trying to con him.

"What am I supposed to do with Talamayas?" Shan asked with despair. "You know, the pyro who has fifty pounds of muscle on me and a smile that makes children cry."

"You insisted I let him live after the change went sideways," Rivin countered, sliding a hand to his hip. "Besides, he's stable enough."

"Enough?" Shan asked incredulously. Talamayas liked lighting people on fire, granted only hostile mages who sought to do them harm. "He's like a fully grown child who you just handed a bag of candy to! I can barely handle his energy when he's normal, let alone when he gets excited. I have to defer the man to his mother, and she is a saint among saints for dealing with him."

That poor woman did her best to humor her son, and it was only her frailty that calmed him most days so that he wasn't too much. Without her, Talamayas would come up and down right strange him and demand they spar or wrestle. Rivin had decided that training him was the best outlet for his extra energy and unfortunately Shan was Tala's equivalent in the hierarchy below Rivin.

He was a glorified chew toy.

"You'll do all right, Shan. I have confide–"

"No." Shan cut off his father's pandering. There was no way he was walking off and leaving him with this one. "If you leave us, I will put Talamayas in charge of this family. You can have some muscled psycho pyro at the reigns if you want to go be irresponsible. I am not being your babysitter while you skirt your responsibilities."

Rivin frowned and his eyebrows crunched lower over his dark eyes. "Well, at least the Sols will get a fun reputation. Good luck on your endeavors, General Shan Sol!" Rivin smiled at him, lips wide and flashing his fangs before he fell back into his own laughter and the transportation spell that whisked him away.

Alone, Shan stood in their greeting room, giving the thrones behind him an uneasy glance. With a small sigh, he closed his eyes and focused his hearing, stretching it just enough to hear the flames as Talamayas trained with one of the guards. They popped, burned, and fizzled, just like his dreams of a future as his father walked out on them.