Chapter 4

4

Lust grows less restrained after dark.

~ Sandsteader proverb

Thanks to the catacombs map Vlerion had given them, Kaylina and Frayvar were able to travel underground and come up near ranger headquarters. They pushed open a hidden door that led them through an oddly warm and steamy basement lined with benches around fountains. Only when they climbed stairs to an alley exit and saw a sign for the Gentlemen's Steam and Strigil did Kaylina realize they'd been in a bathhouse.

She looked wistfully back at it, wishing they could have lingered, whether it was for gentlemen or not. During their trek into the city, their clothes had dried, but Kaylina still felt travel-begrimed.

"Good thing it's the middle of the night," Frayvar said, "or you might have been traumatized by a lot of sweaty male nudity."

"After being chased by Kar'ruk with bows and axes, that would be a tame trauma."

"I suppose that's true." Frayvar looked at the map. "I wonder if any catacomb exits come out in a Gentle Ladies' Steam and Strigil."

"Probably not. Women aren't keen on strangers wandering in from burial grounds while they're bathing."

Frayvar's grunt suggested he found that statement likely.

With their cloaks wrapped around them and their hoods up, they crept to the headquarters entrance. As they approached and Kaylina noted a ranger on duty in the gatehouse, she realized it might not be as easy to reach Vlerion as she'd anticipated. Just because Jankarr had left her a letter instead of helping the guards catch her didn't mean all the rangers were in on that plan. She didn't recognize the young face that peered toward them, eyebrows raised.

"Uhm, hi." Kaylina lifted a hand but didn't get to say more.

Heavy footsteps pounded across the courtyard toward the gate—a lot of them. Enough lanterns burned inside for her to make out the large blue-furred bodies of no fewer than ten taybarri thundering toward them.

"Shit." Frayvar took several steps back, as if the iron bars of the gate wouldn't stop the stampede.

He might have been right, but Kaylina recognized the taybarri in the lead and knew from the bright eyes and lolling tongues that the furred creatures didn't have attacks in mind.

The ranger on guard stared at the herd, his jaw hanging open as they halted in front of the gate. Their tails thumped against each other as they jostled to see between the bars.

"We'd like to speak with Lord Vlerion," Kaylina said.

"Is he… expecting you?" The ranger didn't take his gaze from the taybarri, as if his question might be for them.

"No, but I haven't gotten a chance to call him a pirate in days, and I suspect he's bereft."

One of the taybarri—she was fairly certain that was Crenoch—butted the gate with his broad head, then looked expectantly at the ranger.

"Well, Vlerion's mount wants to see you," the ranger muttered.

Crenoch whuffed , which prompted the others to do the same. Several snouts prodded the bars.

"This is highly unorthodox."

"My name is Kaylina Korbian, and I'm training to be a ranger." Admittedly, she'd only had the one day of training. "It'll be okay," she assured the man.

"Oh, you're Captain Targon's new anrokk ?" The ranger gave her a second look. "The one the men were talking about who started training and was dumped in the pool and, uhm." He glanced at her chest before looking away. "Never mind. They mentioned a new woman started training."

"It's good to be remembered," Kaylina muttered, wishing her boobs weren't what prompted people to do so.

"I guess you can come in. I'll take you to see Vlerion." The ranger had to push aside a number of taybarri to unlock the gate. "Though maybe you should see Captain Targon first."

Kaylina would much rather see Vlerion, but she didn't object since the ranger was opening the gate. Targon needed to hear about the Kar'ruk too.

"Whatever you think is best," she said.

As soon as Kaylina and Frayvar entered the courtyard, several taybarri sniffed her—checking her pockets, especially. She regretted that she hadn't visited her honey stash before coming. Since they hadn't stopped by Stillguard Castle, she didn't even know if her honey stash still existed.

Crenoch licked the side of her head, then pranced off across the courtyard.

"The taybarri don't get that excited about the other anrokk —Sergeant Jastadar," their guide mused as he led Kaylina and Frayvar in the same direction. "What's so special about you?"

"Many things." Kaylina waved airily, as if she hadn't wondered the same thing.

For some reason, her ex-boyfriend's words floated through her mind: What is wrong with you? You look so normal.

The ranger grunted dubiously as he led them into the barracks, a single long hallway with evenly spaced wooden doors to either side. Kaylina had stayed there before but hadn't seen Vlerion's room, nor had she visited Targon in his. Though maybe he lived elsewhere. Would a captain lodge in the same single-room barracks as his men?

Since the door was too narrow for the taybarri, they remained in the courtyard. That didn't keep them from crowding in front of it, as if they would wait for Kaylina's return.

Their guide led them up stairs to a second level. The doors on the long hallway were spaced farther apart than below. Maybe the senior-ranking rangers had rooms up there with more space than the newer recruits. Did Vlerion count as senior-ranking? Kaylina didn't know. He wasn't that much older than she, but when he gave orders, the other rangers all deferred to him. Even Captain Targon seemed more like Vlerion's equal than his superior.

As they approached a door near the end of the hall, grunts and groans and thumps grew audible. Kaylina slowed in confusion, and it took her a moment to realize people were having sex inside. Heat crept into her cheeks. Was this Vlerion's room? Was he…

The memory of Lady Ghara leaning against Vlerion while flirting with him flashed into Kaylina's mind. Or maybe he'd found some other woman, someone he could sate himself on without worrying about growing too emotional—too lustful—and rousing the beast.

The thought of him with someone else filled Kaylina with such distress that she almost turned and ran, notions of sharing warnings dumping from her thoughts. Vlerion hadn't promised anything to her, so it wasn't like this was a betrayal, but it felt like?—

"Uhm," the ranger said. "Maybe I'll take you to see Vlerion first."

A masculine roar of satisfaction came from behind the door, and the ranger skittered back.

Of course. Targon. Kaylina felt foolish for her assumption—and how distressed she'd been. By all the moon gods, was she falling for Vlerion? For a man she couldn't ever be with, not unless she found a way to lift his curse?

"That sounds like a good idea." Frayvar eyed the door like a viper might come out.

Kaylina pushed her meandering thoughts away and nodded to the ranger.

He continued down the hallway, surprisingly only to the next closed door, and knocked on it. A long moment passed, and Kaylina wondered if her relief had been premature, if Vlerion might also be inside with a lover.

She snorted. It was the middle of the night. He might be sleeping.

Before the ranger could knock again, the door opened. Vlerion stood inside, tall, broad, powerful, and… naked except for a sheet wrapped loosely around his waist.

Gaping, Kaylina couldn't keep from glancing down and noticing he was aroused. The sheet did little to hide that.

She jerked her gaze up, embarrassed heat searing her cheeks, and looked at the room behind him, anywhere other than at his lower half. His perfectly proportioned upper half wasn't safe to look at either.

Vlerion grunted a surprised greeting. He couldn't have expected her to come to his door in the middle of the night. He tightened the sheet around his waist, tying a knot to keep it up, and tried to cover his groin area more effectively.

Meanwhile, Kaylina noticed a violin case leaning against the foot of his bed. There was also a bookcase filled with leather-bound tomes and a small table with a deck of cards and two chairs. A side door led to an office with a desk and two more chairs, as well as more bookcases and cabinets. Maps of the city, the North Dakmoor Sea, the surrounding lands, and the Evardor Mountains hung from the walls.

The rooms weren't that fascinating, and Kaylina caught her gaze swinging back to Vlerion. She managed to look into his blue eyes instead of… elsewhere. But they were as compelling as the rest of him.

His initial surprise shifted to something else, something more intense. He didn't seem to notice Frayvar or hear the ranger saying, "This girl, uhm, Trainee Korbian, said she needed to see you, my lord."

Vlerion's charged gaze remained on Kaylina, bringing more heat to her body, heat that had nothing to do with embarrassment.

She might have been delighted and pleased by his steamy focus, at the hint of lust in his eyes, but something more dangerous glinted there before he straightened and affixed his mask, the one that made him appear cold and aloof—the one that meant he was carefully controlling his emotions.

"Come in." Vlerion clasped Kaylina's wrist to draw her into his room and close to him, his callused palm warm, his thumb brushing her skin. The gentle gesture wasn't erotic, but it raised her gooseflesh, nonetheless, and sent a tingle of pleasure through her. "I was thinking about you," he added in a low murmur. A sultry murmur.

He looked like he wanted to pull her into an embrace, but, after hesitating, he locked his elbow instead, keeping her at arm's length. That was safer, yes, and she couldn't object, even if she longed for the hug.

Why she was so drawn to him, she didn't know. Oh, she appreciated that he'd saved her life and that he'd been watching out for and helping her, even though his captain only wanted to use her. That meant a lot, especially since he had no reason to help her. But she'd never been around someone who occupied her thoughts so and made her crave to be close. Maybe it was as his mother had said, and she was drawn because of the curse instead of in spite of it. The allure of danger. The magnetism of the beast. Did it call to the anrokk in her, just as something in her called to Vlerion?

"Oh?" she asked, realizing she should respond.

Before she could stop herself, she glanced down again. She shouldn't have looked or wanted to look, especially since the sheet didn't conceal much.

Vlerion snorted, not appearing ashamed. "Yes. Often ." He quirked his eyebrows and brushed her wrist with his thumb again. Gods, maybe the gesture was erotic. It made her glance at his bed, the blankets rumpled, and imagine what he might have been doing before she knocked.

"I didn't know nobles thought often of commoners." Kaylina strove for a casual tone, aware of her brother and the ranger in the hallway.

"Certain commoners with unique attributes can be appealing." His eyes closed to slits. "Even those who come to ranger headquarters after they've been specifically ordered not to until they've gathered sufficient evidence to clear their name. Since that letter was just delivered, I trust you haven't done so yet."

"I haven't, but my aching need to see you meant I couldn't obey your order."

Vlerion blinked.

Kaylina smirked.

"Your irreverence remains intact," he noted. "And your inability to say my lord ."

"Four days doesn't change a woman much."

"No? I thought they might have been fraught." Vlerion looked down and plucked dried grass off her sleeve.

Could he tell that she'd been doused in the river? Kaylina was lucky she hadn't carried more of that beaver dam to town on her clothes.

"They were fraught," she said. "We've studied your maps, or at least Frayvar has, and we'll put them to use and do as my lord ranger has commanded."

"Good. It's appropriate to obey one's superiors."

"Yes, you've informed me often about your superiority."

His lips pressed together in disapproval. Maybe she'd taken her joking too far.

A groan wafted through the wall, the sounds from Targon's room as audible in here as they were in the hall.

Vlerion sighed. "That's another reason I prefer sleeping in the mountains while on patrol to being back in the city."

After spending a few nights on the cold ground outside, Kaylina couldn't imagine desiring that. But when Vlerion camped out alone, he wasn't in danger of anyone bestirring his emotions and arousing the beast.

"It sounds lonely," she said quietly.

"Peaceful. But one does sometimes wish for company." His fingers shifted from her wrist to trail up her forearm, nails lightly grazing her skin as he looked into her eyes.

Kaylina gazed back, captured—if not mesmerized —by his heated gaze.

"Uhm." Frayvar lifted the newspaper. "Should I… wait outside?"

"Yes," Vlerion said promptly, not looking at him.

"No." Kaylina didn't trust herself not to do something foolish if she was alone with Vlerion. Besides, they'd come for a reason. "My brother needs to read you a bedtime story."

"A lack of someone reading to me is not what's kept me up," Vlerion grumbled, but he released Kaylina and stepped back, finally looking at Frayvar. "Is that one of those new rebel-friendly papers?"

"It may be," Frayvar said. "The front-page story implicates rangers in a murder and beast-wrangling."

Vlerion's face closed up, all hints of longing and lust disappearing. He studied Frayvar, his gaze long and assessing. Kaylina realized he was trying to tell if Frayvar knew the truth about the beast .

Of course, she hadn't told her brother anything, but Vlerion might worry that she had. She didn't think Frayvar's face showed anything but mild puzzlement as he lifted the newspaper, but who knew what Vlerion deduced?

"Let's see it." He held out his hand.

Even though Vlerion had saved Frayvar's life, and he'd spoken well of the lord, Frayvar approached warily. He held the paper out at arm's length, as if he feared Vlerion would strike him for being the bearer of bad news. Not likely since Vlerion was an expert on not losing his temper, and Kaylina doubted he would strike an unarmed person under any circumstances. He simply accepted the paper with a nod.

"Prepare a room for the boy, Lenark," Vlerion told the ranger in the hall and waved for Frayvar to go with him.

A zing of nervous anticipation ran through Kaylina. Vlerion wanted to be alone with her.

She knew he couldn't plan to emulate the acts his captain was engaged in next door, but… what did he want? Not to flog her, she trusted. And he didn't seem irked that she'd disobeyed his order and come to see him. Maybe he had an idea about what was in the paper and wanted to talk to her privately about his secret. She hoped nothing had happened and that he hadn't been responsible for that death.

"Yes, my lord," the ranger said, though he was likely an aristocrat as well—most of the rangers were. "And, uhm, for her? Or will she stay…" He glanced toward the rumpled bed. "Elsewhere?"

"Prepare a room for her as well." Vlerion's gaze shifted to Kaylina. "You'll have to leave before dawn."

"Because you're being observed?"

"Unfortunately, yes. The king and queen are pleased that the rangers helped thwart the assassins, but the queen is irked that you escaped and thinks I had something to do with it."

"I was afraid of that," Kaylina said.

"She was unconscious when you were helping save her life, and the king… was too busy being senile and confused to notice you. I can't fault the king for getting old, but the situation is frustrating. You fought with us."

"With my elite sling skills." Kaylina appreciated that he knew she'd been fully with him and had used her modest weapon to help where she could, but she couldn't help but be self-deprecating. The taybarri she'd ridden, Levitke, had been the true battle master.

His eyelids drooped as he regarded her. The word sultry came to mind again. Never had she applied it to a man, and certainly not one with so many scars, but his gaze heated her again, making her wish…

Vlerion set the newspaper down and closed the door. A frisson of anticipation coursed through her, but they couldn't do anything. They both knew that.

Yet he stepped close, slipping his arm around her waist and pulling her into a hug as he leaned his jaw against the side of her head. "Your sling skills are elite. One day, you can wield a more deadly weapon if you wish, but I saw you strike the man aiming to kill me." His lips brushed the top of her ear, and she shivered with hot desire, then reached up to grip his warm bare shoulders.

"You would have done the same for me," she whispered, as if it had been nothing, but it pleased her that he'd noticed. She wanted him to know she had his back and to trust her; maybe it shouldn't have, but his opinion of her mattered more than that of the king and queen. Much more. "You have done the same for me. In the catacombs. In the dungeon."

"I wish I could reward you for fighting with me and keeping my secret." Vlerion nuzzled her ear, sending such delicious tingles through her that she couldn't keep from shifting closer to him. What kind of reward did he have in mind?

Possible answers to that question made her heart pound as much with fear as eagerness and anticipation. If he let himself go too far with her, he would turn into the beast right here in the ranger barracks. He had to worry about that too, about hurting—or killing—his own allies.

"It's possible my family is right," Vlerion murmured, releasing her and stepping back.

"That my mead is wonderful?"

"My mother believes that. My cousin hasn't tried it, as far as I know."

Ah, yes, the cousin who'd tattled to his mother that Vlerion had been standing close to Kaylina the first and only day of her ranger training. Standing close and lusting, apparently, though Kaylina mostly remembered him being a gentleman and covering her with a towel.

"But, as my mother said, I am drawn to you and have a hard time being… wise."

"Sorry," she murmured, understanding the problem perfectly. Even after he'd stepped back, she longed to close the gap between them, to slide her hands over the powerful muscles of his shoulders, to lift her mouth to his for a passionate kiss. To resist the temptation, she looked at his violin again. "If it helps, I'm drawn to you too."

"That makes it worse, because I know the night would be extraordinary."

"Until…"

He became a threat instead of a lover.

"Until," he agreed, taking another step back. "I need to put on my trousers."

No , she thought silently. "Yes," she said aloud, turning her back to give him privacy—and to keep from ogling him.

"Give me a moment." Vlerion waved her into the office, handed her the newspaper, then closed the door behind her.

She poured herself a cup of water from a jug and lit a lantern so he could peruse the story she'd only halfway heard when Frayvar read it aloud. Long moments passed, and she skimmed some of the back pages of the newspaper.

When Vlerion stepped into the office with her, he was fully clothed, his mask in place. Distant and aloof, or so she'd initially believed. Now she knew better.

He reached for the newspaper but paused and glanced toward a cabinet. "I don't dare spend time at your castle, especially after it tried to strangle Targon, but I risked stepping in long enough to grab the belongings that you left there."

"My belongings? There wasn't much after the fire in the kitchen. I got the mead out."

"Yes." Vlerion opened the cabinet door. "Your bottles are in one of our cellars with a lock on it. A few young rangers—and Doc Penderbrock—thought they could help themselves to samples. I disabused them of that notion."

"I hope you didn't beat on the doctor who's bandaged both me and my brother."

"Not too much. One wants morale to remain high among one's caregivers." Vlerion withdrew four jars of honey, the handwritten labels in Grandpa's writing.

"Oh." Kaylina had forgotten to grab those from the pantry when she'd been rescuing the mead from the root cellar. Perhaps because a broken bottle had forced her to rescue some of that mead into her stomach, which had left her mind fuzzy that night. "Thank you."

"You are welcome." It might have been the first time he'd said that.

Kaylina resisted the urge to dance around the desk to kiss him, but he appeared pleased by her beaming smile. The four jars weren't enough to make mead, but she could whip up numerous batches of honey-drop candies for people—and taybarri.

When she cleared her name and could return her focus to opening a meadery, she would have to send for more honey from her grandparents. Since they hadn't approved of this venture—or even known about it, except belatedly, thanks to the letter Frayvar had left—they might not be willing to support it. Still, she hoped they would forgive her, maybe even want to see her succeed. Since Grandpa's bees feasted on the pollen of altered plants, their honey was far superior to anything she could buy locally.

"Are you hungry?" Vlerion asked.

"Starving," Kaylina admitted.

He delved into the cabinet again and pulled out a tin of crackers along with a salami and a knife. "I can get you a real meal after this."

"That would be nice. We haven't eaten since before the guard chased us into the preserve and the Kar'ruk chased us into the river."

Vlerion dropped the salami. "The what?"

Right, she should have brought up the Kar'ruk before the newspaper. She might be more concerned about his wellbeing, but he would worry about the city and the kingdom first and foremost.

As she explained the night's adventures, Vlerion's mask remained in place, but his eyes grew grimmer and grimmer.

"I can't remember a time the Kar'ruk have successfully sneaked past our border patrols and watchtowers. There aren't that many ways through the mountains. They must have slipped past on the day of the assassination attempt." Vlerion shook his head, as if he couldn't believe it, but he added, "The outposts and watchtowers were lightly manned since we needed more people in the city." He pushed his hands through his short hair. "We'll have to figure out how many Kar'ruk got through and deal with them. I need to tell Targon." He headed for the door.

"What about the newspaper?"

Vlerion waved dismissively. "I'll read it in a minute."

Kaylina watched his back as he left, hoping he returned and took the newspaper seriously. While she didn't doubt the Kar'ruk were a threat to the city, if the real link between the rangers and the beast—between him and the beast—became common knowledge, it could mean his death.