Five to Love Him (Phoenix Immortal: Hive #1)

39. LEOPOLD

thirty-nine

T he hive had calmed down, but that was probably due to the blond hive injecting them with something he assured me wasn’t going to hurt them. The hiveling who’d been dehydrated was looking much better in particular, a huge relief in and of itself.

“You did very well,” the blond hive told me. He’d come back with a red medical bag and was checking over all my hivelings, taking their pulse and even their temperature with one of those ear thermometers. “Yes, he’s improving.”

“What was that what happened to them?”

Two of the blond hivelings looked at me. “In human terms, PTSD.”

“Oh.” I swallowed, my throat dry and my eyes stinging. “Should’ve been obvious, right? Did he tell you I never finished college and never really worked other than the part-timing at St. Auguste? I kept telling myself it was because I almost drowned, but maybe I wasn’t really all that smart to begin with. Guess if I were I would’ve known.”

All of the hivelings sighed. “He didn’t do anything wrong, you didn’t do anything wrong, and neither one of you is stupid. How did you almost drown?”

I shrugged. “It was a frozen lake, and I thought it would be fine going on there. Well, guess what, it wasn’t. An ambulance picked me up at the shore, lying in the snow with hypothermia. They said I got myself out, but there’s just no way. I don’t remember much, but I remember my clothing and the shock of the cold water dragging me under, and I definitely didn’t call an ambulance.”

“Hmm. That would be traumatic.”

I shrugged. “I asked the hive, but he said if he’d saved me, he’d have known I was his gleaming one, and then he’d never have left.”

“Yes, that sounds right. We—wait. There are people walking up to the house. Do you have friends who are into cosplay?”

“Cosplay? What?”

The doorbell rang.

“Should we open? We’re here with six, so we can protect the two of you if that’s a concern.”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know who those people are. Let me look. Is it okay to leave them?”

“Yes. I’ll stay here and monitor him.”

I nodded and headed downstairs. Maybe not surprising, but on my way past the kitchen, I spotted two hivelings making food. Before I opened the door, I checked the peephole.

“What the hell?”

“You know them?” A blond hiveling stood next to me.

I snorted. “Yes, I do. Well, almost all of them.”

I opened the door because there was no way I’d be able to pretend I hadn’t heard them without making my white lie about the hive being sick worse.

Headprincipal Farrow smiled at me.

“Ah, Leopold! There you are. Why, it is so good to see your face. You know Xander and Mr. Coral—”

“Just Coral.”

I’d met the hive’s other boss only briefly, and at the Dazzle. He’d worn black slacks, a dress shirt, a tie, and bright yellow eyeshadow that contrasted well with his skin. Now he was dressed in a complex, layered outfit in all black that mostly covered him up, but the bright eye makeup was unchanged.

“Yes, my apologies. You know Xander and Coral. This mangy one here is Conrad, my manservant.”

Conrad was the scariest one among them, and not just because I didn’t know him. He was tall—taller than Farrow—and he had a scar on his lip. He wore those wide shorts and a sleeveless tee in all black with some fancy silver spray pattern, and I got the sense that messing with him was probably not a good idea.

“H-hi. Do you need anything?”

Farrow opened his mouth, but the big one, Conrad, had seen the other hive. He locked eyes with the hiveling, and in a dark voice, he said, “Hive. ‘S there a problem here?”

“You know him?” I asked the hive.

He shrugged. “We work together. Well, we sometimes run into Mr. Conrad. And no, we are not here for that kind of job.”

“What kind of job?” I asked. Any calm I’d regained over the past half hour melted away.

“Well, this is turning into such a lovely conversation, but I would much suggest we move it inside,” Farrow said, putting a hand on Xander’s shoulder and pushing the werewolf forward.

Xander gave me a sheepish smile. “Hey, Leo. Sorry, we were actually all really worried.”

“Obviously! Did I not say upon our arrival?”

Conrad growled at Farrow while I took a step back to let them all in. Gran’s house hadn’t been this full in…I wasn’t even sure.

“No, you fucking didn’t, because you never give half as many fucks about doing things properly as you make it seem.”

Farrow sighed. “Leopold, I am ever so sorry for this one, but it is hard to find good help, and then when you share your blood with them it becomes even harder to keep them good. We are here because you worried us, and we have come prepared to help.”

Coral closed the door quietly behind him while Conrad showed Farrow his teeth. “Is there any fucking situation you won’t turn into an ego-trip, Farr? Don’t bother answering that. So what, is the situation taken care of already?”

He didn’t ask me but looked at the hive instead.

“I don’t think I know what you mean.”

I stepped closer to the big guy. Or the big vampire. “Excuse me. What do you do exactly? You’re a manservant?”

He rolled his eyes. “Nope. You work for him. You know what a little shit he can be. I’m an information broker. A private investigator, you could say, but I don’t actually have any of the qualifications they get these days. I freelance but work for Hawthorne most of the time.”

“Oh.”

“He’s very good. Very diligent,” the blond hive said. “What situation were you expecting we were here to take care of, Mr. Conrad?”

“Should we maybe sit down at the kitchen table?” I asked.

Gran had taught me to do that when neighbors visited, and this was the hive’s and my bosses all in one place. Leaving them standing around like this wasn’t a good move. Besides, Coral was starting to wander off into the living room, looking around and touching things.

“Sure, let’s sit and talk this out, see where we’re really at.” Conrad turned and took three long strides to the kitchen.

I caught the hive’s eye as Coral retraced his steps and followed the others to the table. The blond hive had already turned on the coffee machine from the sounds.

“Should I check upstairs?” I asked the hiveling next to me.

“What’s upstairs, Leopold? I have a suspicion, seeing as how this hive, while very accommodating, isn’t yours.”

I shrugged. “He’s resting.”

“Resting,” Farrow echoed, his eyes narrowing.

“Farr, let the man sit and tell us everything from the top.”

A hiveling nodded. “You can. He’s fine. We’ll tell you if anything changes.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

It took several minutes of rustling until everyone was sitting down and had a cup of coffee in front of them. I was glad that the hive had brought up those chairs from the basement, but unlike when he sat in them, our guests weren’t into what the hive called cozy.

Xander looked somewhat uncomfortable, Coral was just quietly observant, and Farrow made himself busy with giving Conrad as much side-eye as possible while at the same time staring at the other’s biceps.

“So what’s up precisely?” Conrad asked, looking at me. He had brown eyes, didn’t look unkind, but I couldn’t help that he had this air of intimidation, almost like a bear trap that wasn’t set but still had the bone-crushing teeth on display.

“It’s really nothing. You didn’t have to come.”

Conrad flexed his arms. I got the sense he was doing that for my benefit. Or the headprincipal’s, which was…not the kind of thing I’d have thought Farrow would enjoy.

“Look. I see these guys show up in a place, I start looking over my shoulder.”

He pointed at the blond hive.

“You make us sound dangerous when we aren’t,” the hive said.

Conrad cocked his head. “Not what I said. You know what I mean. We know a hive doesn’t get sick, we know you called everyone and told them they were, we know there was a phone call to the yoga studio from outside the state, which is interesting because I know your hive isn’t from Newstaten originally. Fill in the blanks. Sooner would be better.”

Farrow huffed as he reached for the sugar bowl the guest hive had put on the table. The headprincipal spooned three heaping teaspoons into his cup before he began to noisily stir all that sweetness into the coffee.

“My dear Leopold, you must be patient with Conrad. I think of him as very much younger than his years when I explain things to him or give him direction. I can assure you, he sounds like a ruffian but isn’t one. And most of all, he has no direct connection to you, is not directly concerned for your and your hive’s continued well-being. But I am. I would hear what ails the hive and you as a result.”

Coral nodded. “The vampire’s right. The hive’s never missed a single day of work since he started working for me.”

“And he left his computer on,” Xander added, tucking a strand of hair back behind his ear. “Is he okay? Can I dash up real quick and check? If he’s not, wolf noses are really good at picking out the cause.”

“Everyone here has a set of highly acute senses to determine that,” Farrow said. “Leopold. Please tell us whether they are required.”

I rubbed my eyes. This was too much. I’d not been good at handling this kind of thing before, and I’d had to do too much of it, Gran’s treatment at the end, the funeral, inheriting everything she’d owned.

I took a deep breath as if I were getting ready to jump into a pool. “No one’s going up there right now, but I’ll tell you. If you make him feel the least bit self-conscious about this, you’ll have to answer to me. He didn’t give me the details, but he was held captive. The man who did it made him work but he also abused the hive.” I used the coffee cup as an anchor point and wrapped my hands around it. It was still just as hot out today as it had been yesterday, but I didn’t mind the steaming coffee, not right now.

“And he split the hive apart as well. That especially would have been terrible,” one of the blond ones said.

“Someone did…a human, Leo?” Coral asked.

Xander’s pupils had narrowed, and he was shivering, one of his hands balling into a fist on the table.

“Xander, dear. Mind where you are. This is not the place to shift and show us your wolf, magnificent though you look in fur,” Farrow said.

Both he and Conrad had gone very still, uncannily so. There was a tenseness in Conrad’s neck that I didn’t think I’d seen before.

“So that’s the phone number,” the big vampire said.

Coral turned to Xander. “He called your yoga studio? How did he know?”

Xander was still busy with controlling his werewolf side it looked like, but I watched his jaw work, watched him open his mouth to reveal sizeable and very much not human-looking canines.

“I’ve been posting videos. Yoga stuff. He was in one or two. Fuck.” He looked at me. “I did this.”

I was still catching up, trying to understand what they’d said.

“How do you know that guy called the hive? Do you know who he is?”

“There’s a call list in the phone system,” Conrad said. “And I have a name. I didn’t know he was… this . Doesn’t matter. Let’s say that when he called he threatened the hive or extorted him, seems likely enough.” Very slowly, he turned his gaze on one of the hivelings in the kitchen. “You’re going to help, right? You know, help out with what you do.”

Farrow scoffed. “Sweet virgin’s bosom, Conrad. I have a mound for that kind of thing.”

Two of the hivelings looked at the headmaster. “You know a mound?” They sounded excited.

Farrow waved his hand. “It runs my IT department. Excellent worker, never sleeps, but loathes coming out during the day.”

“What’s a mound?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer. “We didn’t cover that in Instructor Arick’s class.”

“Oh, that’s because they are relatively rare and ever so shy, Leopold.”

Conrad rolled his eyes. “It’s because they’re creepy as fuck but don’t bother you unless you bother them first. No idea how they get by at that school without coming out for a snack, especially with you and your special skillset when it comes to computers.”

Farrow clicked his tongue. “I have a secretary for that sort of thing now, and we order from Anatoly’s for the mound, of course.”

“W-what does Anatoly’s sell exactly?” I’d seen the name on supply lists, but I had no idea what they made. I’d thought maybe they retailed binders and pencils, that sort of thing.

“They sell meats. A huge variety,” Coral said. “I got some of my skulls from them.”

I recalled the interior design of the Dazzle. I didn’t think I’d seen any animal skulls in there, but maybe they were tucked away in some back corner.

“We’ll help if that becomes necessary,” the blond guest hive said. “But we have become a friend of the hive, and we know he’d want us to protect his gleaming one first, so that’s what we’ll do, at least until they can get back to doing it themself.”

“What exactly are we talking about?” I asked, though I was pretty sure I could guess the answer.

“Well,” Xander said before working his jaw that looked too small for the amount of sharp teeth he was featuring now. It was one thing to know a werewolf was wallpapering your room, another to really see it.

“We’ll make sure that human can’t come back to hurt the hive again, that’s all.” Coral smiled at me as if he were bringing me a cocktail, but that wasn’t what this was.

“And how exactly are we going to do that?”

Conrad laughed dryly. “Only two ways to go about it, and both involve cutting stuff off. Head or dick. I say both, just to be on the safe side.”

“Why, your verbiage is shocking, shocking I say,” Farrow purred. “And I second everything you just said.”

“Not a vote, Farr.”

“Do we need the pack? My pack would help,” Xander said.

Coral clicked a big ring against the coffee cup in front of him. “I know a few people too. There are swamps and wetlands that are home to many of my kind and those close to us.”

“A-are you all plotting to kill a person right now?”

I wasn’t sure that was the right thing to do. I knew I shouldn’t admit that this was right. Maybe it shouldn’t even feel right. Upstairs, my hive was still asleep, and I had no idea what shape he was going to be in when he woke up.

It felt fucking right.

“Sweet Leopold, take care not to ruin that resting bitch face of yours. You’re looking quite shocked right now, but this is not a plot at all, this is just, ah, what’s the word?”

“Consequences,” Conrad said. “We’re just gonna make sure that guy gets a fair dose of consequences.”

No one said anything for a while. I wasn’t sure if they were waiting for me to tell them not to. I didn’t say anything but picked up my coffee cup and drank. There wasn’t any cashew milk in it, because my hive, who always made sure I had some, wasn’t here.

The coffee’s bitterness strong on my tongue, I nodded.

“Consequences.”

I left them at the family kitchen table and went back upstairs to watch over my hive.