Ben's eyes narrowed slightly, them not leaving Asher as Xavier ushered them inside. There was a lot of distress emanating off him. Ben hadn't been able to fit any of these pieces together once Xavier had told him that Asher wasn't dead, but Toreador and that the young mortal in the hospital with unexplained blood loss had been Asher's lover. Now some of the pieces snapped together when Xavier told him the name of the young man nursed in Asher's arms. Brodie Bradford was the name of the patient in the hospital Ben had received information of from his sources working at the facility. They went over to the sprawling lounge suit and Xavier took the end seat and once Asher sat too, Ben sat directly in front of him on the glass coffee table. He didn't want to intimate the childer, but he needed to be as close to him as he could be to read him as accurately as he could.

"This young man, he is dying," he told Asher quietly with a nod at Brodie still held in his arms. "Is that why you have employed Xavier's council? To request Embrace of your soul mate?" The sickness from Brodie was overwhelming, but a childer may not realise exactly what that sensation was. Ben was a Prince, and he had no intentions of pussy-footing with any Kindred. It was why he was in the position he was to start with. But he could be firm as well as being kind. Asher had to know he could be trusted. "Or did you try and fail because you could not tolerate his blood?"