Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
G wil poked the sleeping hamster. It didn’t look particularly vicious.
He turned to his client, a whisp of a woman, but then she’d been a ghost for at least twenty years, so he shouldn’t expect her to be solid.
“Are you sure it’s possessed? I’m not getting the usual vibes and demons don’t tend to go for members of the rodent family. Bit too small to be worth the bother.”
“I’m telling you, less than an hour ago, Mr Cuddle was levitating, his head rotated, and he projectile vomited his hamster chow.”
Mr Cuddle’s nose twitched as he slept. “I’ll take some samples and get them sent to a lab I use, but as far as I can tell, he’s just a hamster.”
He’d be having words with Hyax when he got home.
The git had forgotten he was supposed to come with him and had sodded off with Prince Simon to some poncy place in Kensington.
He wasn’t mad that he’d gone out without him, more that he’d been left to deal with a ghost who had Rosemary’s Hamster as a pet.
“Maybe whatever possessed Mr Cuddle has moved on.” She clasped her hands to her chest. “He’s so precious.”
In his experience, his clients who called about their pets had a blind spot larger than an Ikea lorry and tended to think more of their animals than most people.
He had Midnight, loved the furry little sod, but knew that she was a grumpy, shit-producing arsehole at times, but the likes of Miss Wainley and her devotion to Mr Cuddle meant she only ever saw him as a tiny creature who could do no harm.
He gathered up a few bits of bedding and a tuft of hair, but refused the bag of hamster vomit she’d kept in case it was needed.
Having been warned of potential demonic possession, he had a couple of sachets of salt with him that had been blessed by a priest. “I’m gonna put a salt circle around the cage, it’s a precaution, don’t let Mr Cuddle eat it.
I’ll call you if anything comes from the tests, and you let me know if anything strange happens. ”
Miss Wainley escorted him out. He headed to the nearest tube station. Someone appeared at his side. He almost tripped over his feet when he recognised them. “Solivatus?”
He’d gone decades between seeing his sire, so having been in touch a few months back, he reckoned he wouldn’t hear from him for years. He was wearing one of his signature three-piece suits and his grey hair pulled into a low ponytail.
“You have a minute or two for me?”
He didn’t have anywhere else he needed to be, and vampires didn’t tend to say no to their sires. “Sure. Why not?”
“Excellent, there’s a pub around the corner that caters to those who like to dabble with the more exotic blood types. But I’m not touching that shite, and we should be able to get something that won’t dissolve our livers.”
He fell into step. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I know you didn’t expect to hear from me in a while, or at least your sparkly boyfriend wished that, but I’m afraid now you’re on the edge of being important, I wanted to keep in touch.”
He doubted it was that simple. Solivatus had sired plenty of more important people than him. “Right.”
They entered the Sir Culatory, a pub Gwil had been in a couple of times but he tended to avoid the place as he found his IQ dropped watching some of the clientele work their way through the menu.
“Grab a table,” Solivatus said. “I’ll get us a whisky, there’s no way I’m drinking even the normal blood in this place.”
He snagged a table in the corner. Three vampires opposite were in the middle of a drinking game with a carafe of blood that had a purple tinge to it.
He didn’t want to know what shit they’d added because just watching them made him want to retract his fangs even further and maybe swear off blood for the rest of his death.
Gwil could understand that being a vampire came with certain expectations a large proportion of his kinfolk would never achieve.
They were sold a dream of living forever and gaining wealth and riches beyond their imaginations.
True, he’d never met a poor vampire, not in the same way there were poor humans, but when promised unimaginable riches, living a mediocre life sucked.
He’d known only too well what that was like, and he’d worked hard to build his business, and now he had Hyax, he would never want for anything again—if he were to ask for it.
Drinking exotic blood or a coke habit were ways of dealing with the disappointment, and thankfully, he’d not got the taste for weird shit and had left his drug habit in the past.
Solivatus set a double whisky in front of him. “I’d consider that more for antiseptic purposes than quality. I’ll owe you a proper drink another time. This place has gone downhill since the last time I was here.”
Gwil sniffed the glass. The blend wasn’t anything special, but at least he shouldn’t get a nasty infection from his drink. “What can I help you with?”
Solivatus chuckled. “You don’t believe I’m here to play nice?”
“Didn’t think playing nice was in your nature.” Solivatus was his sire; he had an ingrained deference for him, but he also knew that he had Solivatus’s respect and wasn’t a useless bloodsucker. Gwil had skills, and he knew how to use them and be useful.
“You do me a disservice; it’s not unknown for me to spend time with individuals who have shown potential.”
He wanted to bite back that for the last hundred and eighty years, he’d not exactly been beating his door down, but there was no point burning bridges. “I suppose I am a member of the Jyndarin Society now.”
“And well deserved. I also hear you’ll probably have yourself a shiny-winged husband soon too.”
He stared at Solivatus over the rim of his glass. “Why would you say that?”
“Put it this way, Gwil. Hyax’s mother isn’t the only one keeping an eye out for the mining activities of the Elementa tribe, and Oliver Hoffman might have more money than God, but he knows if he oversteps again, I’ll remove his head with a machete myself.”
“You’ve spoken to Oliver? On my behalf?”
Solivatus raised an eyebrow. “Fucker deserved it. Look, I know I push your pretty fairy’s buttons, and he’s a bit on the jealous side, but I do approve wholeheartedly of your entanglement. I’d go as far as to say, I would be happy to see you even more entwined.”
He didn’t want to get drawn into a conversation about Hyax and him getting divorced, as there was no use getting his hopes up. “I hope so too, for now, I’m still trying to come up with something special for him to wear like I have his collar.”
“Is that why you’ve been spending so much time at Dante’s? You’re shopping?”
“Have you been watching me?” Solivatus had sired a lot of vampires; somehow, he didn’t think he’d give this much of a fuck about him.
“Not you specifically, but I heard about an incident in the food hall. The description was your little sewer friend went swimming in pink pudding, so I put two and two together and wondered what case you’re working on.”
“I can’t tell you; client confidentiality is important. If it were to get out I couldn’t keep a secret my business would be deader than I am.”
“But it is based around Dante’s?”
“Maybe.”
Solivatus swirled his whisky. “Howard Squire is a weird fucker, you should be careful.”
“Most of my clients are weird; they wouldn’t need a detective if they were normal.”
“You do realise he’s a wyvern? Or at least part wyvern, I’m not sure if he’s a hundred percent.”
He’d not given Howard’s species much thought. His main consideration for agreeing to take on a client was that they could pay their bill. “No, and I don’t see why I would care if he was.”
“It’s more that he’s spent a lot of energy trying to avoid people thinking he is a wyvern, which is a bit odd. There’s no general mass dislike of wyverns, not like sirens, so why hide it?”
“It’s his business.” Besides, wyverns weren’t universally liked; the animosity between them and dragons had been around forever. “Maybe he wants to appeal to everyone. He’s hardly a household name.”
“I don’t know what it is you’re doing for him, but tread carefully. I don’t want to be picking bits of you out of his teeth.”
“Hyax will look after me,” he said with a smirk. “He’s quite invested in keeping me out of danger.”
“I bet.” Solivatus sipped his whisky. “I do have another question for you. You’ve received your membership to the Jyndarin Society, but you’ve not gone yet; you need to show your face.”
Gwil had received the card, had been keen to acknowledge it when he’d been asked, and wanted to go, but he’d not yet worked up the nerve. “I’m getting there.”
“Go in, have a drink, read the paper, but for fuck’s sake, show your face before people will start saying you don’t belong there.”
“Will people say that? It’s only been a few days, and I didn’t think there was a time limit or that anyone would give a shit about me being there.”
“Gwil, you have been afforded an honour few get; you need to acknowledge and capitalise on the opportunity. Grab your pretty boyfriend and get over there. I recommend the martinis—the bar staff are brilliant.”
“I guess I’ll fit it in, I can use it to practise my etiquette lessons.” He hadn’t meant to mention them, but given Solivatus’s connections, he’d hear about them sooner than later.
“Your what now?”
“I hadn’t factored in the title of Prince’s Beloved being more than a side piece. It appears it’s a bit more important, and I’m going to have to learn how not to show up my royal boyfriend.”
“I sense there’s more to it, but they won’t hurt. Have they started?”
“Not yet.” He received a communication from Opali before he left, but he wanted to discuss the content with Hyax when he returned. “I’ve a tentative schedule and curriculum.”
Solivatus snorted. “You could do with a few rough edges removing, and not just from the fae side.”
He’d hoped Solivatus would be incensed that one of his own would be considered in need of training. “I know how to conduct myself.”
“Do you though? I’m thinking you’d benefit from being taken under the wing of the right vampire.”
He didn’t like this direction. “Not necessary.”
“You’ll be working with Daniel Moreton if you’re dealing with Squire. Daniel would be a perfect role model. He’s not a current named successor for Osbourne, but I’ve heard there are potential changes afoot.”
“It wouldn’t be right, Daniel’s almost like a client.”
Solivatus stood and winked at him. “Nonsense. You can’t end up too fae, you need to retain your vampire edge, and Daniel would be well-placed.”
Gwil wasn’t sure what had happened, as while the conversation had ended with him getting a new vampire mentor, he was sure that hadn’t been Solivatus’s initial intent.
He would speak to Hyax when he got back from his night out with Simon.
There was no hint of flirting or overstepping from Solivatus; it was almost as if Solivatus was just being a friend.
Somehow, that didn’t sit right. He must be missing something, but he wasn’t going to stay here, and the idiots now onto their second carafe gave him the impetus he needed to go home to his cat.