The Vampire's Claim (boyxboy)

Chapter 22: In Kyle We Trust (not)

"I'm dying," I moaned rolling onto my side as I clutched my turning stomach. Between everything that happened—from dhampirs to vampires to witches—it was the eel that would kill me. Who'd have thunk. 

"I apologize." Eskil held out a glass of water to me, his lips turned down in a light frown. When I didn't reach for it he set it on the night stand next to me.
"I do not like seeing you in pain."

I didn't like being in pain either.

"It's fine, this won't really kill me." I hope not at least. I'd be like that skeleton guy I saw in that kids movie with Hailey, mocked in the afterlife for the stupid way he died.

Eskil hummed, sitting down on the bed next to me and running his hands through my hair soothingly. The coolness of his touch felt so nice in contrast to my sweaty forehead that I didn't bother stopping him.

"A small price to pay for securing an alliance," Rhys pipped in. He leaned against the wall, his hawk eyes shifting from us to the window every few seconds.

"Small price for you , you mean jackass. You didn't have to eat anything." My comeback jolted my stomach and another wave of nausea washed through me. I winced.

"Rhys. Leave us."

Rhys stood straight and gave a bow. "Yes Master. Chosen."

I didn't have the energy to reprehend him over the nickname again as he left.

Which reminded me, "Why does he call me that?"

Eskil paused his stroking. "That is unimportant."

"It sounded pretty important when he called me it," I argued wiggling onto my back so I could glare at him. No one—literally no one—went around calling people 'chosen'.

"I do not want you to be afraid."

"Be afraid? Of what?" Unless I was 'chosen' as some blood sacrifice, I wouldn't be afraid. Probably. Well, at least not to the point he seemed to think that I would be. Also, what could possibly be so scary for me to know compared to everything else that I experienced?

"I will explain—after."

Another excuse. I huffed. "After what?"

"After you trust me."

"Dude, I'm already trusting you with my life. How much more trust do you need? I think the problem isn't me trusting you, it's you trusting me."

A shocked look crossed his face, as if that thought hadn't crossed his mind before.  I wonder, was there anyone he'd really trusted before? He didn't seem close with anyone. Even Rhyes he left in the dark when he decided leave. Maybe he wasn't capable of trusting someone.

I continued. "You never share anything, while always saying it's for my best interest and see how that turned out for ya. I can't help you if you won't let me help."

"You're right," he agreed slowly.

Ha, I usually was. Suck it.

"However, I'd prefer not to share that yet, if possible. Please."

Please. I felt like I was kicking a wounded puppy. "Fine." But I did expect some level of trust, sometime soon. I earned that much.

"Thank you," he sighed. He went back to stroking my hair.

"What was that song you played?" I asked randomly, as soon as the memory popped into my mind. The soothingness of his strokes vaguely reminded me of that song, for some weird reason.

"Waltz No 9. In A Flat. Chopin is a favorite composer of mine."

"Any special reason why?" The song name or the composer didn't ring a bell. Not surprising, as the only composers I knew were Mozart and Beethoven and the last was because of the dog movie. 

"It moves me."

"Any other instruments you play besides piano?" He mentioned 'many instruments' before,  but I had a hunch mine and his ideas of many were vastly different.

"Too many to name."

Yeah, I figured. "So which is your favorite?"

"I enjoy many for various reasons."

"But if you had to pick one."

He thought for a moment. "I enjoy the sound of the viola. It is pleasant."

"Viola?" He had to pick one I didn't know and make me feel like and ignorant twat.

"It is similar in appearance to a violin, yet is larger, deeper, and richer in sound."

"So, like a cello?"

"No."

This was the most we talked since the restaurant. Hell, this was probably the most I'd heard Eskil speak ever. It was kind of nice to talk about normal stuff—even if it was stuff I didn't know about concretely. If video games ever came up in conversation, I'd sound like an expert.

"Do I get to hear you play it?"

"Would you like to hear?"

"Yeah." Then I'd know what the fuck a viola was.

"Then I will play for you." His cheeks grew slightly red.

Vampires could blush?. I mean, I guess that made sense. They did have blood in them.

We went back to our casual conversing, and I got to admit, it was weird to see Eskil so relaxed and so unlike his normally poised self. It felt...nice. The more we talked, the more he seemed to put his guard down. He became more talkative, more expressive, more engaged. At one point I got Eskil amused and grinning at the story of when l was six and released the classroom hamsters into the school ventilation system (I had been under the impression that the hamsters were 'astronauts' who wanted to explore the 'universe' aka the ventilation system and I was doing them a favor by releasing them).  No hamsters were harmed during their excursion, but it did take the school half a year to get all the hamsters because they started reproducing and having a lot of hamster babies. Afterwards the school banned all classroom pets and I received my first, but certainly not last, grounding.

And by the end of our talk, my stomach was feeling a thousand times better.

Okay so I'm late on the update and I'm incredibly sorry about that. I found this chapter incredibly hard to write due to the exchange I knew I wanted to write between Eskil and Kyle and how I wanted to show them bonding organically—something that is not my forte in writing. At some point I probably will come back and flush it out more (as I hope to with all the chapters after I finish the entire novel). However, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I do plan to get back on my schedule and have an update available next Monday.