Tears Of The Neko - 23. Chapter 23--Epilogue

"Where the hell is he?" Damien snapped to John as they searched the room. "I swear he was just here!"

"Sir, the balcony door is open," Drystan noted.

"Oh, shit, not again," Damien darted out the door to the balcony. He instantly looked up over the balcony doors to the little decorative ledge.

Kayden was standing on the small ledge, looking ridiculously at ease balanced on the tiny space. Damien cursed under his breath as he stared up at the breathtaking beauty of his young neko looking poised and serene, gazing over the garden.

Kayden had discovered he could climb to the little niche shortly after recovering from the stab wound by the assassin sent by Damien's brother. Damien, and everyone else it seemed, had fussed over the young boy until he was cranky and tired of being trapped in the room.

But Damien had been a mess for the first week after the stabbing. He hovered over Kayden constantly, only leaving when he absolutely had to to attend to business. For the first two days, the boy fought a fever and chills, and Damien wiped the boy with cool cloths. Damien fretted constantly, finding himself staring at the boy's chest, watching for the quiet rise and fall that assured him that he was breathing.

When Kayden was finally awake and out of the woods, Damien sat by him in his chair and read to him, and he spent days cuddled in their bed with him as soon as he was stable enough to be moved from the cot. Damien was sure that Kayden must feel like he was smothering him with how close he held him, but the boy didn't balk and instead snuggled into his side every time.

When the trials of his brother and the assassins came up, Damien and Harrison had attended without Kayden. King Eudon had been adamant in calling for a swift trial, wanting to be done with the matter as soon as possible. His uncle knew how hard this was for him to accept that his own brother had been so power-hungry that he was willing to kill for it. Both of them knew that with Damien gone, as soon as Roman was of age next year, he would have gone after the king next.

Damien insisted that, unless it was absolutely necessary, he wanted to spare Kayden the trauma of having to see Roman again, and his uncle had agreed. In the end, with all of the testimony from Damien, Harrison, and the household staff who had seen and heard bits of Roman's treachery but not realizing what it meant until now, as well as his own co-conspirators turning on him, Kayden's testimony had not been necessary.

It was hard to sit and listen to Roman's two co-conspirators describe how he had planned out Damien's death. He had stared Roman down as the man glared back during his own testimony. But Roman was still his blood, family, and Damien had hoped the court would be merciful, his heart aching at the thought of being the cause of his brother's death. But King Eudon and the rest of the noble council were feeling much less forgiving.

"Do you have anything more you wish to say before hearing the court's decision?" King Eudon asked Roman, after returning to the chambers with the other nobles of the court.

Roman's jaw clenched. "What difference would it make?"

The king cocked his head. "Have you no remorse? No repentance?"

But Roman just glared back, his stubbled jaw tight with anger.

Damien had already seen the other prisoners convicted and sentenced to death, so both he and Harrison knew from the look on their uncle's face what was coming for their brother.

But Roman just glared back at his uncle hatefully. All protests of his innocence gone with the testimony of his accomplices. He didn't try to beg for his life, Damien knew his pride wouldn't let him.

"Sir," Damien spoke up suddenly, surprising everyone.

"You have something more to add, Duke Whitmore?" King Eudon acknowledged.

"I wish only to beg to court's mercy for my brother's life, your majesty," Damien said, receiving a shocked look from his uncle as well as the rest of the room.

King Eudon's grey brow rose. "You wish to plead for the life of a man who would have taken yours from you? Who almost took the life of your love?"

Damien's breath hitched at being reminded of that. "I--He is still my brother..."

"And my nephew," the king said sadly, "But his actions are inexcusable."

Damien could only nod, biting back his grief as Harrison gripped his arm, both brothers' hearts ripping at the treachery caused by Roman.

"It grieves me terribly, Roman Whitmore, to issue upon you the sentence of death for treason against the crown as well as the attempted assassination of the Duke of Marsten, your own brother," King Eudon had sadly looked down upon his nephew as he handed down the sentence. "I always suspected that your anger and ego would rule you, but I had hoped that you would find a way to temper it with reason and humility. Obviously, that never happened, since you refuse to even show any remorse."

The king nodded and the guards pulled the prisoner to his feet.

As they rose to leave, Damien felt the need to offer his brother a chance to be forgiven for his crimes, his heart heavy with the thought that his brother's death would be on his head.

"Roman," Damien started sadly as the guards stopped in leading his brother away.

His brother looked back at him dispassionately. Damien had hoped to see some remorse, anything, that he could believe that Roman regretted his actions at all.

"I want you to know that I forgive you and will pray for mercy--"

Roman suddenly laughed, and it sounded hateful and depraved. "Forgive me? Mercy? Brother, you've condemned me to death."

Damien scowled at his brother's lack of self- culpability. "You've condemned yourself, Roman. With your own actions."

The ugly laugh continued. "Yes, I suppose I have. And if it hadn't been for your stupid little pet that night, you'd be dead of poisoning now instead of me. And no one would have known any better."

Harrison gasped at the vehemence of his brother's words, quickly taking in the shocked look on Damien's face at the outright admittance of guilt. Now that he'd been sentenced, Roman didn't seem to have any compunction about his crimes.

Damien felt Harrison pull on his arm. He sensed Geoff Brenner stepping closer to his other side.

"Let's go, Damien," Harrison said, trying to hold himself together. "Good bye, Roman."

"Yeah, head on home to your little tiger, Damien," Roman sneered.

And Damien froze, realizing suddenly that Roman had been the only one to ever call Kayden that. Maybe it had been Roman that first called him tiger and not the hunters like Damien had assumed. Damien forced a deep breath, refusing to let his brother bait him in the middle of court. He turned with Harrison to leave.

As the guards started to lead him away, Roman turned to his brother with a sadistic leer. "How does it feel to know that I had him first?"

"What?!" Damien whipped around at the words.

And Roman smiled maliciously. "Oh, your little pet never said anything. Fancy that."

Damien was suddenly in Roman's face, and a hushed silence had fallen over the entire room. Even the guards were too stunned to move at the moment, even taking a step back from the enraged Duke.

"What did you do, Roman?" Damien demanded.

"Oh, don't worry it was before you even met him," Roman said flippantly.

Damien suddenly had a fistful of Roman's shirt and had hauled him up close, rage radiating off of him, practically snapping the air like lightning.

"He cried and I had him shaking in fear of me," Roman hissed in Damien's face. He had nothing left to lose now, and he could see the hurt that he was causing his brother, and he was reveling in it.

The rage was sparking in Damien's eyes, his face flushing with anger, his body shaking with rage.

"I made him bleed," Roman sneered, casting his last stone at his brother.

"Fuck! You son-of-a-bitch!" Damien shouted, shoving Roman away.

"Oh, shit," Harrison breathed, but Damien was unaware of anyone but the laughing face of the brother he hardly recognized now--so distorted in hate and malice.

The laughter sent Damien over the edge, and he lunged at Roman, swinging his fist at the man's coarse jaw. He didn't even feel the pain exploding in his hand as his fist snapped Roman's jaw, breaking it and sending blood splattering from his mouth. Roman hit the floor heavily, cracking his head on the gray stones.

No one even stopped him when he stepped over to Roman and stomped his booted foot on the gasping chest, cracking a couple ribs--he wasn't laughing now. Damien glared down at his brother as the man coughed out blood.

"Just remember this: the boy you raped is the reason you are going to die. You are not my brother. And you can go to hell."

--Neko--

Damien had been so upset by Roman's admission that he'd had to spend the rest of the day out riding and shooting skeet. He could barely control his shaking, as he had stormed out of the court. Geoff Brenner just followed him at a safe, discreet distance, allowing his master some privacy to come to terms with what had happened in court.

Damien had eventually collapsed in his study, Harrison cautiously joining him, and they both drank copious amounts of whiskey until he'd exhausted himself. Harrison had tried to allay his anger, but had admitted feeling guilt over noticing Kayden's hesitance around Roman but never suspecting that Roman had hurt the boy so badly.

Then he'd held Kayden tightly in his arms all night, petting his hair, crying silently.

Kayden had frowned at him, looking at him like he'd lost his mind, but Damien only shook his head and held him closer. He was sure Kayden figured it was the stress of the trial with his brother. His heart ached at knowing what his own brother had done to the boy, but he knew why Kayden had never told him--it was the same reason that the boy hadn't wanted to admit that Roman had attacked him in the dining room--would anyone have believed him then?

He hadn't believed his brother was capable of such heinous deeds. His blind faith in family and brotherly love had kept him from seeing the obvious signs of hatred in the man, and Kayden had known that. And it made Damien love Kayden even more that the boy would want to protect him from the knowledge that his brother was so evil.

--Neko--

Now that Kayden had fully recovered from his stab wound and the one fear that had kept him anxious and nervous had been removed from the manor, namely Roman, Damien had begun to see a whole new side to his playful lover. And found himself falling deeper and deeper in love with the boy every day.

He loved the feel of the boy curled up on his lap in his study. He relished the passionate kisses of the little neko. And he loved wrapping his arms around the boy every night and holding him tightly as they drifted off to sleep.

Kayden made him whole, loved.

He stared up at the graceful figure on the ledge again. The new clothes gracefully sculpted the lithe body, loose to allow ease of movement, but accentuating the boy's lean, developing muscles. Today, in the warm spring sun, he only wore his favorite forest green pants that hung on his narrow hip bones.

"Kayden, you know it takes ten years off my life when you climb up there. Now, get down from there," Damien demanded, trying to keep a stern face.

The boy's ears twitched and his tail flicked mischievously as he looked down at his master through his long midnight locks. A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.

Damien saw the slight flexing of the firm leg muscles an instant before it happened.

"No!" he cried but was too late.

Kayden was launching himself off the ledge at Damien's chest.

"Shit!" Damien cursed as he staggered slightly when the light little body pounced on him. He heard John chuckling from the doorway as he wrapped his arms around the clinging body. He dropped into the chair behind him as Kayden smiled down on him with a playful grin.

"That's not how I meant to come down," Damien growled.

"I know," Kayden winked mischievously.

Damien laughed, wrapping his hands in the silky black tresses of the boy's hair. "God, I love you."

Kayden leaned in and kissed him deeply, then grinned again. "I know."

Damien gaped at the brashness of his formerly shy neko. "You little..." he suddenly started tickling the boy's sides.

Kayden giggled uncontrollably, trying to squirm from his master's hands. Damien breathed in the scent of the boy as he wriggled against him. Slowly, Damien stopped and Kayden settled on his lap. Damien's eyes settled on the silver chain that marked Kayden as his before traveling down the boy's bare chest. His gaze rested on the scar, and he felt a slight frown furrow his brows at the memory of that night he'd almost lost his boy. His fingers ghosted over the puckered skin.

Damien felt Kayden's hand wrap around his fingers, pulling them away from the reminder of how Kayden had almost died protecting him.

Kayden's lips brushed across Damien's palm. "I love you too."