Rue turned as Jaxon and Theo landed in the room. Rue moved. Jaxon answered the fight. It wouldn't last long. Jaxon's weapons were silver lined. They'd maybe work against Walter, but Rue was a master vampire. He'd trained them to fight. Panic pumped through Roman as he watched his father attack his brother with no hesitation.
"Roman? Can you hear me?" Dale wriggled to get his attention.
"Yes, Dale?" Roman croaked, hugging Dale closer and further away from the ground. He'd got Dale hurt badly enough. Dale was light, but his arms ached from holding him up in his position.
"Can you turn over? I can rest on you if not the ground."
Good thing one of them was thinking straight. Roman obeyed the request, ignoring his own injuries as he twisted and flipped them over. The arrow had hit Dale in the shoulder. That wasn't safe to pull out without medical supplies nearby. Dale snapped it instead to stop it from catching on to something. Roman let him get comfortable, Dale's breathing uneasily as he continued to grip onto Roman.
"I missed you," Dale said into his shoulder. "This was stupid."
Jaxon ended up on the ground, his weapons rolling to the side with a clang. Theo knelt before Rue could turn on him. Rue walked over, and Theo didn't flinch. Roman could hear his heartbeat. A clawed hand landed on Theo's head. The building froze as they waited for Rue's response, but he let go of Theo. Theo remained in place.
Rue stalked back to the cage but kept looking back to check they hadn't moved, making his pace slow and painful. Dale tried to reach through the bars, but Roman stopped him.
"The bars are silver to stop Dad from breaking out."
"You went all out for this," Dale relaxed against Roman again, elbow digging into his ribs. "What exactly were you planning?"
"Catch Dad?"
"Well, you certainly pissed him," A hint of Dale's usual countenance leaked through, but his voice trembled. Dale didn't trust Dad like this, either. Feral vampires were unpredictable. Dale squeezed his hand. "This wouldn't have stopped him."
"Roman," Rue rumbled again, eyes locking on to his as he gripped the cage.
"Dad?"
"He's not going to talk back. I'm not sure if him knowing your name like this is a good or bad thing. "You're his son, but he never claimed you. I don't know." Dale's voiced turned distressed as he didn't have the answers. Rue reacted to it, snarling.
The metal shirked.
Rue yanked the side off.
Dale disappeared from his arms. Air left his lungs as he found himself hanging from his father's hand by his collar. Ice cold fingers crasped around his neck and black dots in his vision. He shook. No, Rue shook him hard.
"Father, no!" Someone yelled
He couldn't fight like this. He'd been trapped like this before. Walter played with him but Rue wasn't in the mood for games. A lot of shouting, but none of it made any sense over the burning need to breathe. He wriggled, but there was nothing to find to purchase one. Rue held him in the air. He could be holding him over an abyss or a few inches from the ground, and it wouldn't have mattered.
When the darkness receeded, his throat ached but he could breath easy. He was no longer handing in the air, instead he was laying on a soft surface, blankets covering him and arms bracketing him in. Two bodies pressed against him, one familiar in his arms but colder than normal while a wall of ice lay behind him. The smell of the expensive aftershave lingered around them. Rue had him. Dale cuddled closer, murmuring something but asleep.
Roman breathed, his chest tight but stayed calm.
His dad had strangled him into passing out but had brought him back to his den. Dale was here. Both of them were cold enough that there was no way that either had fed. Rue and Dale often often cold to the touch but not so cold that they were obviously undead. Again, Jaxon's question about how Rue fed wriggled in his mind. Well-fed vampires kept their heat - it was a hungry or starving vampires eminated cold. Roman curled his toes.
Rue needed blood and he was encased in the man's arms. His throat hurt but not from a bite. Rue hadn't fed of him while he slept. His Dad wouldn't do that, would he. He didn't know where the line between his Dad and the vampire was, or if there even was one. He knew vampires had family clans but little beyond that.
Plus, feeding from a sleeping victim increased the chances of killing them considerably. Walter refused unless he had no inclination to keep the person alive. He threatened it often when Roman did stupid things to annoy him but even when Roman promised his blood, Walter waited until Roman was awake. Rue might be waiting to be safe. Roman blinked water out of his eye and buried his face in Dale's hair.
All the implications of Rue's true heritage were appearing. Ignoring the lies and peraonl betralss, simple facts about not knowing their Dad's feeding patterns. He didn't know if he should be reassured or if he was about to be drained. As Dale pointed out: He succeed at angrying his Dad. He'd hurt Dale and helped his siblings help in hurting Dale and their excuse: it was designed to capture an adult, wasn't going to work on the man that they'd hoped to catch.
"Roman?" Low, sleepy and gruff enough to be a growl in its own right, but far more familiar in tone, Rue's voice stabbed Roman's heart. Roman bit his lip and turned over to bury his face in Rue's chest - careful not to hurt Dale in the process. Cracked lips kissed his forehead and a hand played with his hair, as arms held him as they had a thousand times before.
A few soft murmured promised he was safe but otherwise a soft him of a familiar song comforted him.
Rue couldn't regulate his emotions well. Roman knew the man well enough to know his comforting skills needed work but it helped. The feeling of being protected helped the worse of the sobs fade. He clung to Rue as hard as he had all those years ago when they'd first met. Nothing would hurt him as long as Rue had him.
"Dad?"
"Yes, Ro?"
"Why won't you come home?" Roman needed an answer. Sure they'd been angry in the beginning, possibly furious but that had cooled. Jaxon cooled. Then they'd gone hunting and Rue refused to appear. They made it clear that they wanted him home but nothing happened.
Then Walter appeared.
A negative grunt. "Soon," followed by another kiss and the arms tightened around him. Dad didn't like talking before his morning coffee. Being hungry for blood likely inspired similar levels of monosyballic communication. Roman held tigherred.
Jaxon would call Dad's bullshit, as would Sadie. Theo would get that look on his face the promised he would get to the bottom of everything and Cara would sit on Rue until his bunckled and gave an answer. Roman never learned a trick to get Rue to talk. Instead they both need up in screaming matches with each other.
Luckily there was one more baby brother to count on in the room.
"Father! You should give Roman more explanation than that." Dale said, his voice at a reasonable level but cutting through the early morning haze they'd settled in.
"Sleep."
"Talk! You know Jaxon was telling the truth when he asked us to come home. Why can't we go?" The frustration in Dale's voice for a comforting rumbled from Rue. One of the arms extended and Dale tugged in to Roman's back. Dale missed his family as much as they missed him. Roman's chest warmed.
"Dad, please."
A sign ran through his hair. The grip on them loosened and Rue let himself relax back into the pillow. He sat up and made himself comfortable. Roman followed sensing the tone shifting. Rue had a serious look on his face. Now was the time for answers.
"I have avoided official roles until now under the guise of not wanting you all to know my heritage. It was accepted provided I continued to deal with troublemakers. Now it has been revealed there are parties who wish me to take up my parents former positions," Rue said, his voice remaining softer though it did litte to remove the displeasure from his gravely voice.
It didn't take much for Roman to put two and two together. "They want you to be King of the city?"
Rue grunted in agreement.
"You don't want that," Roman translated.
Another grunt. The next leap was that Rue used them to avoid this responsibly. Not that this negatived the fact that Rue loved them. Any doubt for that disappeared with the fact that he'd continuid to protect them while hiding from them. What these statements didn't answer was how that stopped Rue coming home where he belonged. Unless?
"You can't keep us as family if you accept the role."
Dale was the bloodson. Everyone else was adopted to varying degrees of legality. Supernaturals didn't tend to put a lot of stock in family that wasn't by blood. Wolved had a pack but unless they were new, it often comprised of several large families. Blood meant everything. If not blood than connection: i.e the supernatural and whoever they'd converted to being supernatural but more often than not it wasn't parental even if the terms were used.
Walter hated the man who turned him.
"Almost," Dale muttered, still laying down and clutching at Roman's leg. Roman combed through Dale's hair trying to read between the lines. What did Roman know about courts and clans? A King needed a court. A King often married his children off as political pawns. Dale would be the heir by blood - he declared it a few times.
"The communities want us as chest pieces?"
"Getting closer," Dale noddeded.
Rue growled more inhuman than his normal rumble. Roman knew the sound. Wherever someone in the family got hurt bad, Rue ware superprotective. How none of them clocked it as more than reasonable was a mystery. "Not happening."
"You're working on ensuring our safety before coming home because some are making moved towards us," Roman settled on. Thinking more, being adopted and human worked int he communities favour. Recieve one of Rue's human children to convert it to their kind and they'd have a direct link to the King.
It would explain some of the behaviour around them all recently. A few friends had been friendly than normal.
"That's the plan. Little hard when so many people want compensation for not being trusted with a pawn," Dale yaned. "I still think Harper is an idoit. Cartwright is a far better courting partner for Jaxon than Ward. He's stronger than her and a far better match."
"Queen wants children from the union," Rue grumbled.
"Jaxon will be pissed if you've been arranging a relationship for him with out his consent," Roman warned, "Even if it is with Cartwright."
"No!"
"Father knows better than that! He'd been making it clear than he'd not marrying any of us off and anyone who wants their child to marry into the court will have to court them the traditional way."
It took Roman a second to process the loose threads. "Is that why Walter has been helpful this month?" And super clingy, or clingy in the way Walter could be. Looming in the shadows, camping in his bedroom and trying to remain in physical contact when Roman allowed him closer.
Rue let out another angry sound that Dale mirriored. Roman rolled his eyes.
[part 3 coming soon]