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

42. LEOPOLD

forty-two

T he thing was, the hive was a really fast runner, even with me slung over his shoulder, and I was absolutely not in shape, plus it was August and really hot.

By the time I’d made it back with my two hivelings in tow, sweat was beading on my forehead and back, I was panting like anyone without a fitness addiction would after running three blocks, and I was the last person to walk back into the house through the front door, which stood open just a crack.

Inside, the bosses were standing around, their attention on the creature on the floor. Gran would have cursed like a late-night host loving to get beeped. She wouldn’t stand for dirt in the house.

“What—the—fuck,” I managed while trying to even out my breathing.

Head-princi-master Farrow turned. “Dear heavens, Leopold, are you having one of those funny things where you smell burning toast?”

“Hah?”

Conrad the vampire stepped into my field of vision and obscured the sight of what was lying on that old runner in the hallway. Or who. Just some guy wearing normal clothes and looking like a greasy piece of fried meat.

No matter what he looked like, he was my hive’s nightmare, and anger burned inside of me.

“Farr’s asking if you’re having a heart attack. Are you?”

“He just ran,” my hive said, closing the door behind us. “And he doesn’t usually run.”

That came from another. I pushed past Conrad and hugged that hiveling. Another was sitting in the rocking chair, and the guest hive was taking his pulse and blood pressure.

“Are all of you okay?”

“Yes. This is nothing,” they said. The one in the rocking chair turned and gave me a thumbs-up.

I wasn’t sure, but I thought I heard Yes, we are fine echoing throughout the house as if my hive was telling himself.

Farrow whistled. “Well, this is all rather lovely, and it’s a delight seeing the hive back with us, but we are going to have to clean this up.”

“We can clean,” the guest hive said. “We have a saw in our car. For emergencies.”

Conrad pointed at them. “This right there. I know you’re sweet and all, but sometimes when I run into you, I do wonder whether you’re scarier than Farr’s freaky IT mound. That one’s gonna avoid catching sunlight, and you just show up wherever. With a fucking emergency saw.”

“We’re not scary at all, but we’d like to meet that mound. We have a good relationship with Lorenzo, of course, but if there’s a mound, we’d like to meet them. And preparedness is not a crime. Many humans own saws.”

I was starting to get a sense of where Conrad was coming from, but I was still in the process of catching my breath, so I didn’t say anything.

“The mound goes by it,” Farrow said. “Uhm, Leopold, my darling secretary. There are things in life that are easily accomplished during the day—harvesting one’s crop, say, or building a house. Why, even cleaning and maintaining one’s resting bitch face goes easier when the sun is up.

“However, there are things we encounter which require the night. Lovemaking is a prime example, and—”

“Farr wants to know, can we store this piece of shit in your house until it gets dark out and we can take him out like the trash he is?”

Farrow hissed, baring his teeth at Conrad, who didn’t look like he was giving even half a fuck.

“You foul-mouthed, ill-dressed vagrant! You dare interrupt me?”

Xander whined and leaned over to me and the two hivelings around me.

“They have angry sex energy, and that scares me. No one should see their teacher this way.”

Conrad cocked his head at Xander. “What’d he teach you?”

“Latin. Didn’t need it, but there was this boy who was in that class.”

“Ah! Catullus wrote of love, Xander, did I not teach you his words? Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requires? Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior. The man had it right. Why fuck sweetly when you can impassion the act with ire?”

Conrad snapped his fingers in front of my face. “This guy, the human. Can we stash him here for the day or not?”

I opened my mouth but closed it again, taking the hands of two of my hivelings instead. “That’s not just my decision. Hive, what do you think?”

Both of their jaws worked, and it was a long time before they said, “The door to the bathroom behind the kitchen locks. The window is small. We can tape it shut with cardboard so he doesn’t get any light while he’s in there. He will be all alone in the darkness.”

“Just like I taught you, always add garnish,” Coral said. The heat didn’t seem to bother him at all despite the layered clothing that he wore.

“Duct tape,” one of the guest hivelings said to another, or to himself. “Duct tape is always good.” “But no saw?”

“No saw,” Farrow said. “The mound likes something that’s fresh every now and then, and it’s important to keep your IT creature happy.”

On the floor, the human groaned and opened his eyes. “What fucking—”

Xander kicked him so hard I was sure I heard something break. The guy howled.

“Duct tape,” some of the guest hivelings said and headed out the front door.

Farrow groaned. “Dear me, Conrad, if we’d had duct tape on the pilgrim paths, what fun we could have had. Oh, come to think of it, Leopold, did you enjoy those socks and warming soles?”

I chuckled dryly and picked the hiveling to my right to hug.

“I don’t need them anymore, headprincipal. I’m a hiveling’s glowworm.”

“Glowworm?” Xander asked.

I shrugged. “Mate, lover. Husband maybe, though I’m not sure Instructor Arick would approve of that human construct.”

“Arick is an idealist,” Farrow said. “But it would be a blessing if each of us, in the span of the darkness of their lives, might find a one who shines for them, the glowworm of their heart.”

“Farr, you are a shit poet, your laces are undone, and your stupid tie is all crooked.”

“Is that so?” the headprincipal asked, leaving me glad that I had my own office across the hall from his.