Chapter Nine
Greginald
The moment the car pulled up, I opened the door for Esmeray and followed him in as he slid into place and watched me with wide flame eyes. When I shut the door, he threw himself against me, mouth seeking mine.
I held onto him with chaste hands at his back, rubbing with an almost-soothing gesture. “It must have bothered you so much.”
“Shut up and kiss me. Hold me.” Esmeray nuzzled into my neck and breathed me in, nose nudging at a scent gland as if trying to take me in at my most base core.
I remained silent as he wanted, but I didn’t kiss. He didn’t really want that. He was triggered by a threat to our new bond and needed reassurance. What I could do was easy, searching out his hand to bring to my face. I rubbed my cheek against his new marking, the claim of Bastet and Diana.
I shushed him ever so gently and took in his omega scent, showing him that I, too, desired him. The gesture reassured his omega nature that I did not reject him, and his frantic clutching eased.
“My apologies to the driver,” I spoke to the male in the front seat. “Our bond is new, and he got spooked by an alpha.”
The driver, who had the air of a demon about him, alpha if I had a guess, gave a short nod and put the car into gear. I put Esmeray in the center seat and buckled him in with a gentle stroke to his cheek. “It’s okay, Esmeray.”
“Sorry. This isn’t something I’m used to. I think we kept it under wraps, but I—this is highly upsetting. I didn’t want some random alpha. A human alpha in my space,” he sneered, and I couldn’t resist smiling.
“And a mongrim is better?” I flicked a brow, and he gazed up with those fiery hell-borne eyes. “I’m half human.”
“Better you than him. There’s something in you that is different, you know? You’re more than half human. You’re—mine.” He settled at the admission, and it eased our bond, his heart beating slower.
“When we get home, I’ll right the beds and hold you as much as I need to settle you. Business first.”
Esmeray agreed, and we sat in silence, hands held, until we arrived at his father’s home, where police were still on scene, roping things off and staring at the remains of my car and a hovering portal to my home, laying midair.
As I exited the car and held Esmeray’s hand as he followed, I turned my attention to it.
“Mage Hawthorne!” Draevus came running up, resting one hand on my shoulder and the other on Esmeray’s. “Please take care of the portal. The mundane officers are baffled and keep throwing trash into it.”
He gently guided me that direction and took over Esmeray’s space, giving him a rather smothering hug, exchanging words about what happened. “Erection, Your Honor!” A bark of laughter eased my soul.
I waved my hand and traced my fingers in midair, sigils of light flowing from my fingers as the portal shattered like glass and fell to the ground like a spill of diamonds that melted into nothing over the cobbled drive. “Apologies, Officers.”
A few police approached me with paperwork in hand, and I set about filling out the needed forms for insurance purposes.
My car was pristine, but the age of it, mileage, and model meant I likely had a five-hundred-dollar deductible and a generous payout of a scratch-off lottery ticket and a middle finger. Maybe it was time to get the new car I’d been putting off for a few years?
I answered a few questions, honestly, with the officers. My current beef with Malarthe Lymmings and a recent attempt on Esmeray’s life from The Church meant they had a host of things to look into that amounted to being relegated to the round file AKA trash can.
Then again… Draevus did have his hand in half the city’s goings-on. They might have taken it seriously.
I approached the door to the house and rang the doorbell, quickly ushered inside by an attendant who took me to a small dining room and settled me next to Esmeray. I hadn’t realized it, but I had grown uneasy being apart from him.
“Come, mage. Esmeray did good work today, and I assume that they’re going to try for another judge after this fiasco. They honestly don’t have enough evidence and are using this as SLAPP.” He waved his hand.
“Slap?” I frowned and folded my sleeves up.
“SLAPP. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. Basically, he’s going to sue you and everyone else until you’re broke from legal fees because he’s a little bitch.” Draevus sighed heavily. “But no need to worry, the coven is covering your fees and there’s a family discount.”
“That’s a pain.” I rested a hand on Esmeray’s knee, subconsciously seeking him out.
“Speaking of pains. Things are—” Draevus gestured about.
“The contract is fulfilled. I think things are tolerable for the time being. The future remains to be decided.” Esmeray stared at his plate, finger tracing the edge of his fork almost wistfully.
“Well, now that you’re mated… Will you please please stop trying to do everything on your own?
You’re half starved. That apartment was obnoxious.
You have a trust fund, and I really want you to have a better house.
I already spoke with Calamisis and he’s agreed to go back to hell and I won’t murder his family.
” Draevus smiled wide. “He’s needed back home, anyway. ”
I wasn’t sure how to take that last statement, but it didn’t faze Esmeray in the least, so I ignored that part.
“Sir, with all due respect, if it’s a larger home we require…
I’m not the wealthiest mage, but I do have a nice savings.
I could buy property.” It’d take most of everything I had to afford a home in Draevus’s neighborhood and leave me with extraordinary bills to tackle in the realm of property taxes and utilities, but I’d have to work harder to afford it for Esmeray.
I pulled up my phone and looked at houses for sale.
There was one on the other side of the gated community that was haunted by malevolent spirits that I could afford…
exorcising them would run the value back up and increase my property taxes, but I could live with a few ghosts. “Did you see 384 is for sale? I could—”
Draevus raised a brow. “Well, as a mage, you probably could rectify the ghost situation but we all know what they did, and I wouldn’t let my son live in the home of ritual sex perverts.”
“Wasn’t Dad a deacon in that cul—” Esmeray quieted when Draevus hissed in warning.
“Do you want to live with the choked-out ghosts of people that have plowed your fathers?” Draevus gave Esmeray a stern look that silenced him immediately.
“We are never going within a hundred feet of that place. And I’m happy to live in Gre’s home until he decides otherwise. We need to discuss bills and rent, by the by.” He nudged me with his shoulder.
“There won’t be bills or rent if you let me buy you a home and activate your trust. Besides, how many bedrooms are there? Where will your children play? There’s no backyard!” Draevus settled back in his chair as the butler brought food in, plating things before them.
“Children aren’t in my five or even ten-year plan.
I have three more years before I take a lead role as an attorney and an additional two before I allow you to make me partner.
” He picked his fork up, polished it with a napkin, and backed the fork in his left hand, knife in his right.
He’d not done so at my home, but it appeared dining was far more formal in his father-in-law’s home.
Father-in-law. Not a day ago, I was a single male thinking about maybe hiring an incubus for some relief.
Dominos couldn’t fall in a more precise path if they were stacked perfectly.
“Children were never a consideration for me. Hybrids rarely get that consideration. Our children are—I mean, with a demon mate, it could go much better.” I pushed my fork through some roasted baby carrots and plucked one up for a bite.
Esmeray took a bite of a rare steak, eating meat he desperately needed.
The healing process for what he’d gone through would take weeks.
Ausmius, for his part, slid along the baseboard, slithering about like a kicked puppy.
My shadow didn’t move much, only turning its head to watch Ausmius.
Esmeray lifted his fork, a morsel on the tip of it, and angled it in such a way to throw its shadow up the wall. Ausmius nibbled at the shadow and the morsel withered and molded into a dried nub on his fork that he politely folded into his napkin.
“When we’re outside, I can summon some moths for you. You did well today, daeva.” I kept my voice low as I spoke to our shadows. It perked up a bit, little horns popping up atop its head as that hollow smile stretched.
“You’ll spoil him,” Draevus huffed, half smiling. “I did similar things for Esha.”
“Ausmius is a part of Esmeray I need to learn to love, too.” I took another bite of my food and stared at the meat. Shifters weren’t by and large vegetarians, even if they were ruminants. I poked the meat and cut a bite before Draevus spoke idly.
“Did you know that giraffe meat is technically kosher?” He stared at a bite on his fork and nipped it with a half grin.
“But according to their halacha, an appropriate ritual procedure has not been established for slaughtering it according to law. They don’t know if it’d die fast enough to meet humane conditions and drain the blood in the requisite time… ”
I gave him my full attention. “It was my understanding that because of neck length, there’s no established protocol as to where on the neck is best to cut.”
He grinned, teeth too sharp. His dark hair, impeccably sculpted, gleamed in the soft light of the room as Ausmius shrank farther into crevices, trying to remain small. “You do realize I’m trying to threaten you?”
“Probably, but it’s nothing new. I’ve heard giraffe tastes gamey, especially alpha.” I took a bite of the steak and chewed. Always felt like cannibalism for a moment. Delicious, tasty cannibalism.