Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
G wil had always been a bit of a clothes horse.
His budget hadn’t been able to keep up with his desires, so he’d avoided the sort of large department stores with designer outlets on every floor and personal shoppers on hand to help customers spend their money.
He’d heard of Dante’s but hadn’t been, not wanting to rub shoulders with the snooty members of the public who would think him more qualified to be working there than a customer.
Hyax stepped out of the car that had been arranged once Hyax had confirmed his attendance, and Gwil suspected that if it had been just him, he’d have been expected to get there under his own steam.
An orc doorman wearing a top hat greeted them as they approached and they entered an enormous beauty department, with counter after counter of cosmetics and treatments for every species.
They were welcomed by a glamorous naiad whose leaves glittered like emeralds, and the patterns of bark were trimmed with gold.
“Your Highness, Mr Hilt, welcome to Dante’s,” she said.
“Please follow me. We’ve a special reception area for our most important guests.
Mr Moreton will join us there to give you an overview of the store, and if there are any of the collections or services you’d like to prioritise, please just ask. ”
The name Moreton struck a chord, but Gwil couldn’t remember where from.
Judging by Hyax’s expression, he must have had a similar reaction, but it wasn’t an uncommon name and he’d had hundreds of clients over the years.
They followed their hostess to a private seating area and were served chilled champagne, which Gwil was more than happy to accept, but Hyax declined.
“Not like you to turn down bubbles,” he said as they were left alone.
“They’ll be cheap bubbles, and one of us should keep a clear head.”
“It takes a lot more than a glass of champagne to have me on my back—my alcohol tolerance went through the roof when I was turned.”
Hyax smirked. “I know a fool-proof way to get you on your back, and it doesn’t involve shit wine.”
“I’m not that easy.”
“You are for me.”
Hyax wasn’t wrong, but Gwil didn’t have the chance to reply as they were joined by a man with shoulder-length straight black hair, a long pale face and a demeanour that oozed confidence.
Gwil thought he might be a member of one of the Houses, but he couldn’t recall which one.
Hyax, however, recognised him straight away.
“Daniel? I thought I knew the name Moreton.”
Gwil wondered if this was someone Hyax had shagged before he’d met him. Hyax wasn’t usually so friendly with mere acquaintances but he didn’t want to come across as a possessive arsehole leaping to the wrong conclusion, because things were bad enough already with Hyax’s husband.
“Prince Hyax, I am honoured you remembered me.”
Daniel and Hyax shook hands. “I rarely forget someone with your pain threshold.”
Gwil spluttered, and Hyax laughed. “You didn’t get the chance to meet Daniel, Gwil. He was the vampire kind enough to volunteer to help with a little experiment I was working on with Alex and Ashley.”
Daniel must be the vampire who’d been used as a guinea pig for the transfiguration spell and potion they’d used during a recent case.
Hyax had put his foot down and refused to let Gwil be the test subject for the magic that had later been used to change his appearance to go undercover.
He wondered how much Daniel had been told, probably not a lot by the way Hyax had chosen his words.
He shook hands with Daniel. He had no reason but to be anything but grateful to the guy who’d taken his place as lab rat. “Nice to meet you.”
“You come highly recommended, Mr Hilt. My sire said you’ve conducted work for the Vampire Council.”
There was an element of one-upmanship in vampire society that Gwil could never grasp well enough, having always been the one underneath, and the way Daniel had mentioned his sire made Gwil think they weren’t dealing with a low-level neck sucker. “Call me Gwil. Who’s your sire?”
“Maurice Osbourne.”
Nice bit of name-dropping and crowbarred into the conversation at the right cadence not to come across as a prick but to let Gwil know he was part of the House of Langley.
Osbourne was one of the Dark Duke of Pembroke’s named successors, so while Daniel himself might not be a big fang, his sire was—bit like himself, only more so.
It also explained the pain threshold comment because the House of Langley were the ones who could turn into bats, and so were the fuckers who were the reason he had to endure Hyax’s jokes about him turning into a flying mouse.
“I’m honoured that a man of such importance knows of me. ”
“Not unexpected from one of Solivatus’s own.” Daniel bounced on the balls of his feet, and Gwil realised he was being treated as an equal rather than something that had crawled out from under a rock. It was a nice change, if not a bit of a shock.
“If the fangy love-in is quite finished, I believe we’re here to do a job,” Hyax said, full princely prat mode activated.
Daniel didn’t seem at all perturbed by Hyax. “Apologies, Your Highness. How about I give you a quick run-down of the store’s layout, and we can then visit the areas where the incidents took place?”
“Are you the store’s general manager?” Hyax asked.
“No, I’m one of Howard Squire’s executive team. He didn’t want to take any chances, so he asked me to work with you. I’ll introduce you to Mr Smithe next time, it’s his time of the month so he won’t be in.”
“Time of the month? Does that mean you have a werewolf in charge of the store?” Hyax said. Gwil was as surprised as lycans didn’t tend to get jobs around people, given their tendency to get a bit bitey once every lunar cycle.
“Oh yes. We’re a very diverse group. Mr Smithe was once the manager of the human side of things years ago before he was bitten, and when he applied for the job running the paranormal venture, Howard jumped at the chance to bring him in.
With strict guidelines, of course. We’ve safety measures in place to prevent any little accidents. ”
Gwil didn’t think being gored to death or eaten could be described as a little accident, but a potential future misstep of Dante’s safeguarding policies for their manager seemed to be the least of their problems.
Gwil had heard worse reasons to hire someone. “What a stroke of luck.”
Daniel unfolded a leaflet Gwil thought might be the sort of thing shoppers picked up thinking it was something interesting and quickly discarded.
A diagram showed how the store was laid out over nine floors.
Gwil spotted several designer brands, some of which would be recognised by both human and paranormal shoppers, including Fendi’s after-dark range, which he might try to drag Hyax into because he’d promised to take him shopping and Hyax had a great eye for what suited him.
“Oh, you’ve got an apothecary and potion larder,” Hyax said. “And an enchanted jewellery collection.”
“Dante’s prides itself on catering for everything the modern paranormal Londoner would need.
” Daniel tapped a department labelled as Lighting .
“This is where we had our first incident. A set of pendulum lamps chased a cleaner around, spinning like nunchucks; she was found pinned to a fire door by her supervisor. Alive but shaken.”
“Did you test for poltergeist activity?” Hyax asked.
“Yes, nothing. First thing we checked. Then we conducted a full spectral sweep and there wasn’t a hint of anything. We did a complete scan of the CCTV footage and confirmed it happened, but there was no one else in the area.”
Gwil knew Hyax would want to do his own checks, and if they needed to there were certain spells they could do together that usual magic wielders couldn’t access.
“You said there were three incidents. What was the second?”
“Three main ones, but we had a few smaller ones, such as people disappearing and reappearing without warning. The second big incident was here.” Daniel pointed to the toy department.
“A new range of toy soldiers chased a customer around the display and tried to stab them with their bayonets. We managed to stop them and pass it off as one of the enhancements. The customer bloody loved it, bought a dozen to be delivered, and we had to have a witch enchant them before they were shipped so they wouldn’t be disappointed. ”
“I see, and the third?” Gwil asked.
“We had a lust potion released into a bridal dress fitting, had to stop the bride-to-be and maid of honour trying to figure out lesbian sex for the first time.”
“How did you explain that?”
Daniel smirked. “The wedding’s off… seems the potion just showed the lovely ladies that they were meant to be. We even supplied the wedding dresses as a gift.”
Gwil thought that might have been something that would have made the local paper, and was the perfect promo op. “That must have been a nice one for your PR folks to peddle.”
“No, that’s not our way. How would our customers believe our claims to be discreet if we’re slapping their faces all over the press? Then there are the feelings of the groom to consider, who was understandably very upset.”
Gwil thought he’d have been more than upset, but was surprised to hear Dante’s management consider the groom’s feelings over an obvious cash-in. “I suppose that’s one way to look at it.”
Daniel tapped the map in several places. “These are all areas of minor disturbances. Such as things changing colour, items being moved or disappearing and turning up again or unexpected odours.”
Hyax wrinkled his nose, a sign of his intrigue. “No residuals?”
“We had the area checked, and there wasn’t a trace of magic or even an energy pattern to be found.”
“It could be a malicious sprite,” Hyax said, but he didn’t sound convinced. “They can be a bit tricky to track, so that might explain why your consultant didn’t find them.”