Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
H yax’s capacity to drink was far greater than Simon’s, and after their second bottle of ambrosia, Simon had admitted he’d been a virgin on his wedding night and then run off to dance.
Hyax thought it would be for the best if they called it a night before Robin reappeared to check on his husband.
After coaxing Simon off the dancefloor, he’d made sure Simon had arrived back at the home he shared with Robin and opened a portal to see if Gwil was still up and willing to help him out of his clothes.
Although he had a couple of things to discuss first.
Gwil was sipping on a blood pack when he entered the living room. “I thought you were switching over to bottled blood?” he asked as he stepped into their living room.
“I’ve been researching suppliers, but it’s a pretty steep jump, so I’m still thinking it over before I make the switch.”
“No, do it. We have the money, Gwil, and I want you to have the best.” He might not drink blood, but the red stuff was Gwil’s main sustenance and he knew that there were better versions than the ones Gwil currently bought.
“It’s not like you drink it.”
“You buy me pink wafer biscuits, and you don’t like them.”
Gwil grimaced. “They’re proper rank. And don’t cost very much.”
“If we couldn’t afford it, I wouldn’t suggest you switch, but we can. No more arguments.” He pushed Gwil’s legs out of the way so he could sit. “And while we’re on the subject of vampires, Simon said something that gave me a brain itch. What do you know about dragons?”
“Funny you should ask that, Solivatus told me Howard Squire was a wyvern.”
Hyax scowled and managed to stomp down on his initial reaction to demand what the fucker was doing and what he wanted from Gwil. “I hadn’t realised you’d seen him recently.”
Gwil raised an eyebrow. “Oh, that must’ve hurt. But I do appreciate you not jumping to the worst conclusion.”
“I am trying not to be an arsehole over Solivatus.”
“Well done.” Gwil smirked. “He turned up after I’d finished with the possessed hamster—you owe me for that one. We had a drink in a nearby pub.”
The hamster had been a genuine oversight, but he was more interested in what Solivatus was up to. “But what did he want? He wouldn’t turn up to play nice, that’s not his way.”
“That was my initial thought too, but he said that since I’m more important these days, he thought it wise to check in on me more often.
He didn’t ask for anything, he bought me a whisky, we had a chat, and then he said he’d owe me a proper drink.
He’s also a big fan of your plan of making me less of an oik. ”
Hyax didn’t think Gwil would have shared the intent for him to take etiquette lessons, but the relationship between vampire and sire was weird. “I wouldn’t have thought he’d have been overly keen.”
“On the contrary, he thinks my vampire game is also a bit shit and has decided I need a vampire guide too.”
Hyax hated to hear the tinge of hurt in Gwil’s voice.
“You’re not shit, Gwil. Don’t look at this as you changing, but instead as learning how to play the system.
You’ve always known that society comes with rules, but you never knew them.
All this is about is you being armed to play the game without the disadvantage. ”
“I would’ve liked not to have needed to.” He pointed to an envelope. “Opali’s been in touch. Wants to start as soon as you’re happy.”
“Me? What about you being ready?”
Gwil rolled his eyes. “If you think I’ve any say in this, you’re being na?ve or deliberately obtuse. Of course, he’s going to defer to the prince of his tribe.”
“I didn’t mean for you not to have a voice in how all this will work.” He read the letter. The list of potential topics wasn’t unexpected, and the suggested cadence would be a couple of hours every few days, but everything was to be finished within a month. “Are you fine with his proposals?”
Gwil shrugged. “As far as I can tell. I like that we’ll get them out of the way quickly, and it doesn’t look to be trying to make me too fae, which was something Solivatus mentioned.”
Hyax knew he wasn’t rational when it came to Solivatus, and he would have to hold back his initial response to demand what the old fucker meant.
“I don’t think you’re in any danger of being too fae, but you’ll learn how to address an ambassador correctly, and remember not to forget to mention someone’s favourite child. ”
“He was more about making sure I got the same treatment from the vampire side. I’m getting a mentor, sort of.”
Hyax didn’t necessarily think this was a bad development. Gwil’s role in society was changing, and if the vampires had recognised his potential, then Hyax wouldn’t overreact. “Who did he have in mind?”
“Daniel Moreton. He’s already well-connected and has potential within his House.”
As far as Hyax was concerned, there could’ve been much worse options, including Solivatus. “Daniel seems like a good man, for a vampire.”
Gwil snorted. “My god, you are trying, aren’t you. Is it painful?”
“Fuck off. I’m being supportive, you’re not going to be able to get out of either the fae etiquette or the vampire coaching, so I need to be understanding.”
“Right.” Gwil didn’t seem convinced, and Hyax couldn’t blame him. “Then we’re good. You should also know, Solivatus was also insistent I visit the Jyndarin Society pretty sharpish, even if it’s just to show my face.”
Despite not liking the idea he was agreeing with Solivatus, Gwil’s sire wasn’t wrong. “You’ve been bestowed an honour. Those who made that happen might consider you rude if you don’t act on it.”
“I know, and I was planning to, but it’s a bit daunting. I’ve spent years accepting that there were places I wouldn’t get access to, and I’m adjusting to a new reality. I’d come to accept that banging a fae prince would change things up a little, but not to this extent.”
“It’s not because you’re banging me, Gwil.
You’re worthy in your own right.” Gwil’s afterlife was changing on every level; his standing in the vampire society was improving exponentially thanks to the contacts he’d made, and their relationship elevated his status in the fae realm too.
“We can go together. I can hold your hand. Besides, Robin and Simon invited us to join them for dinner there. I think that would make you feel a lot more like you belong.”
“They’ve invited us for dinner?” Gwil looked somewhere between awed and horrified. “Or did Simon invite you and you’ve extrapolated?”
“You really are a self-deprecating idiot at times. Robin turned up and took issue with Simon for being out with me without letting him know. He said a few things he shouldn’t have, and Simon gave him the dressing-down he deserved. So, they wanted to make amends, and dinner was offered.”
“Right, Robin thought something was going on between you two?” Gwil asked carefully.
Hyax didn’t want Gwil getting the wrong idea; one jealous vampire was enough for this evening.
“Not really. We were out because I’d contacted Simon about our neutral ground hypothesis.
I realised Simon was annoyed, and I offered him a friendly ear.
Turns out, Simon is unhappy about Robin for not telling one of his clients to kick rocks. ”
“Sounds messy. Simon seems too level-headed for that nonsense. Who’s he worried about?”
“A client called Dorian Marsten, who is also an ex-lover of Robin and sounds like he’s overstepping, wanting more of Robin’s attention than he should. If he’s not careful, Dorian will end up as a pair of dragon-hide boots, as Simon isn’t one to let his husband play with others.”
“From my dealings with Robin, he’s besotted with Simon. I don’t think he’d let anyone come between them, Hollywood heartthrob or not. But I guess they’re still getting to know each other.”
“Theirs is a bit of an odd situation. They were introduced and married quickly, I mean, we were friends for years before we got our heads out of our arses and got together.” He leant in and stole a kiss. “But the Dorian thing got me thinking.”
“Oh no, that sounds like trouble.”
He smacked Gwil’s thigh. “Fucker. Listen, Simon said he’d been trying to track Dorian’s movements, but he seemed to be untraceable, and he suspected it was to do with his dragon nature.”
“I didn’t know dragons were untraceable.”
“There’s not much I do know about dragons… and add in that Howard Squire could be a wyvern, and I think we should do some digging.”
Gwil cocked his head to one side. “I imagine rummaging around the library of the Jyndarin Society would be an added benefit of dinner.”
Gwil knew him so well. “You know me and books.”
“Yeah, I’m beginning to think we should have gotten a bigger place to house your research habit.” He waved at the stack of leather-bound volumes in the corner. “They’re starting to multiply.”
“You know that’s not how it works. Books don’t have baby books. Do we need to have a conversation about the birds and the bees?”
“Here I was, thinking we were talking about dragons.”
He could swing for Gwil some days. “You’re such an arsehole. I was trying to be serious and solve the case we’re working on.”
“You think there be dragons?”
A rumble from the fireplace cut off his comment. Gwil jumped to his feet. “The last time that happened, Copperpipe appeared.”
Hyax’s mother had mentioned the incident and Copperpipe’s unique way of dealing with people. He’d not met Copperpipe, only seen him at a distance, and that was more than enough.
A small black box popped into existence on the coffee table. It was around the same size and appearance as something he’d seen human engagement rings come in. Gwil picked it up before Hyax could chastise him for handling unknown objects appearing out of thin air.
“Hello, Fang Face,” came a voice from the box and Hyax assumed from the familiarity and that Gwil hadn’t dropped the box that it was Copperpipe.
“I am still working on our little project, but I found these in a duct under the warehouse in Dante’s.
They are scales, there were more but I kept them ’cos gold is gold. ”
“I’ve never seen a message sent that way,” Hyax said, his opinion on the little potato shifted somewhat. “I thought he was a goblin; goblins can’t do that.”
“I don’t really know what he is, but we had to deactivate the goblin wards at Dante’s to get him in. He did say he wasn’t exactly a goblin, but he’s enough of one to trigger protection spells against them.”
Hyax had been grateful Gwil hadn’t called for him to meet him during his meal with Copperpipe, the description had been enough to turn his stomach. “I guess it doesn’t matter what he is as long as he’s useful.”
Gwil opened the box and, sitting on a little mound of velvet where usually a ring would be, were three vaguely circular pieces of gold, a bit like the one they found in Dante’s. Gwil held one up. “These are flimsy—I’d have thought dragon scales would have been thicker and tougher.”
Hyax shrugged. “Same here. It’s like the one you found in the cookware department. They look like sweet wrappers.”
“Maybe that’s what happens to them when they drop off? Oh, do you think we could ask Robin to ask Dorian?”
Hyax winced. “I don’t want to be asking favours of Dorian. Not with Simon’s current issues. But you did say Howard Squire was a wyvern, perhaps we could ask him?”
“Aren’t wyverns just a dragon with less legs?”
Hyax wouldn’t say that to a wyvern’s face. “Probably best not to put it in those terms. You’d think if he were a wyvern, he’d have made a dragon connection already.”
Gwil was staring at the scale. “Solivatus said he was at least part wyvern, that doesn’t mean he is.”
Hyax had never heard Gwil speak in such a way about his sire, while Gwil knew Solivatus would bend a narrative to fit his own needs, he’d never suggested he was outright lying. “Why would he say Howard was a wyvern if he isn’t?”
“That’s not what I meant. Howard said he had a lot of important backers, and wyverns and dragons are well-known for being good with money, maybe he’s not a wyvern, maybe Howard’s been spreading rumours he is one for business purposes.”
There were days when Gwil’s leaps of logic left him standing, and this was one of them. “That’s an interesting hypothesis.”
“You think I’m batshit crazy?”
He smirked. “I never mentioned bats.”
“Fucker.” He snapped the ring box shut. “Doesn’t mean I’m wrong about Howard, though. Is there a way to find out what he is? He’ll be registered, but that’s not public information.”
“I imagine the police could look it up.”
Gwil scowled. “That’d mean petitioning the Met and getting approval from DCI Dickhead.”
“There are spells, but I’m not going to cast them as if he is a wyvern; he might transform and try to eat me.” Hyax remembered the scanner at Dionysus. “I suppose it depends on how legally you want to go about it.”
“I’m not sure I want to hear what you’ve got in mind,” Gwil said. “I can’t risk my business license.”
There were ways and means. “I’m not on your license, just a happy bystander who happens to be in the right place to help out from time to time.”
“Okay, that doesn’t sound at all dodgy.”
“Coming from a vampire, that’s a pretty low blow.
” He laughed as Gwil rolled his eyes. “I saw a scanner used in the fae place I took Simon. It was able to identify me, so I’m guessing it was able to do some sort of recognition system, which wouldn’t be legal in the fae realm, and I’m not sure it’d be welcome here either. ”
“The other option is to ask Howard. He might tell us the truth… stranger things have happened.”
Hyax thought a man willing to pretend to be a wyvern to con very rich and important people out of their cash was unlikely to admit to it.
“Maybe we can use my idea as Plan B. In case he does want to speak. I’m going to see if I can put out some feelers to track down that scanner. You’re not the only one with contacts.”
Gwil stood and stretched. “I’m off for a shower, then bed. Coming?”
“Oh I will be.” He grinned. “Get your kit off. I’m gonna get you all dirty, then you can have your shower.”