Chapter 13
Dorian could only make himself so small; he wasn’t used to cowering.
He curled tightly into a ball, his head buried under his wings.
The room had emptied, and he’d been left with the elf who’d been given the instruction to deal with the dragon.
He’d been in enough gangster movies to know what that meant.
At least his shame at being played by Trevir would be short-lived, but Alex would put him out of his misery; a quick death would be preferable to a tortured end.
Alex’s footsteps approached. He’d brought this on himself and been stupid enough to believe Trevir, a man he didn’t really know, because he was saying all the right words.
His attraction for Robin had been the starting point, but he had been led to think that Robin was in danger, and he’d wanted to believe it because it suited his narrative.
“Would you like me to bring you some blankets? Maybe some cushions?”
Dorian must have misheard. He buried his snout even further into his body. Waiting for the blows to start.
“Or are you hungry? Thirsty? I’m not sure what dragons eat, but there are some sizable cuts of meat in the kitchen that might do the trick.”
Alex didn’t sound as if he wanted to kill him. Maybe it was a ruse to get him to expose himself so Alex could get a better aim.
“Come now, there must be something I can do to make this situation more bearable? I can’t for a moment imagine you’re happy on the floor pressed up against the bookcases.”
Dorian risked raising his wing a fraction and saw Alex crouched down in front of him. “There you are. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“They told you to deal with me…”
“And I will. We can’t have you traipsing through the house in the middle of a party, so for tonight you’ll need to stay in here. In the morning, we’ll see if there’s a better place for you until we get you back to being a human.”
Dorian wasn’t expecting any help; he hadn’t thought he’d be surviving the night, let alone fixing the shit he’d got himself into. “Why would you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Help me.”
Alex smiled. He was very pretty, but then most elves were.
That was why they were so dangerous, like the fae, a sexy smile followed by a dagger to the ribs.
“You’ve pissed off a couple of vampires, but the one who owns the house is about to marry a Warlock Ruling Council member, and they don’t tend to off people without a reason.
Especially as I could see Ashley was intrigued as Chris was at how you’d got into this state. ”
“Intrigued?” He didn’t want to be intriguing in that way.
“Chris is a very powerful light elf who couldn’t figure out how to fix you straightaway, so you’re going to end up a project. I’m sure Ashley will want to be involved, and I’m going to be dragged in whether I want to or not.”
Dorian sat up a little. “Being a project doesn’t sound good.”
“Does staying permanently as a dragon sound better?”
“No.”
Alex straightened. “Then you’re going to be a project. I’ve no clue how to unravel what’s happened to you, and I’ve got to have a rummage around. I’ll ask Karl to collect your things from the hotel you’ve been staying at, and maybe we’ll be able to figure something out from this cologne of yours.”
“I didn’t notice the potion doing me any harm,” he said, sitting up properly. “It did seem to have a bit of an effect on Robin, so I thought it was working.”
“It might well have been working, just not in the way you thought it was. But until I get the chance to look at the magic involved, anything I suggest would be conjecture.”
Dorian had no clue why Trevir had done this to him, and maybe he hadn’t meant to. “Perhaps it was an unexpected by-product. Trevir didn’t seem to be driven by anything other than being paid.”
“Could be shoddy magic. Taking shortcuts to reduce their costs wouldn’t be surprising, or it could have been a deliberate act. I’m not one to believe in coincidence.”
Dorian wasn’t either, but he didn’t like the alternative. “I don’t understand why he’d want to do that to me, though. I don’t even know him beyond using his magical services.”
“Don’t worry, Dorian, I can’t imagine he’ll be allowed to get away with what he’s done, and so we’ll figure out what his motive was. I’m not ruling out that he’ll contact you and demand payment to reverse his handiwork.”
“Like blackmail?” Dorian asked. He wouldn’t be the first actor to have been extorted for money.
“It’s as reasonable an explanation as anything else we have at the moment. Although if you didn’t know him, why did you trust him so easily?”
“My PA recommended him, and I do trust her.” He thought about Debi and how he would need to contact her sooner rather than later. “I should let her know what’s happened.”
“If I were you, Dorian, I’d hold up letting anyone know what’s going on for now. I doubt you’d like news getting out you’re stuck as a dragon.”
He huffed, his wings drooped as he did. “I guess you’re right.”
“Things might look better in the morning.”
Alex moved several pieces of furniture to one side of the room to make more space for him, and Dorian appreciated the effort.
He conjured a pile of blankets, which Dorian thought would make a decent nest. He didn’t sleep in his dragon form, and he only ate coal occasionally, leaving his usual feeding habits to human Dorian.
“Thank you. I don’t suppose you’ve any coal and a bucket of water I could have?” he asked, hoping the coal might help with his lack of fire. “I can’t really pick up anything small with my talons.”
Alex conjured up a tray covered with a heap of coal and what looked like a soup tureen of water. “No need for you to drink out of a bucket. Is this sufficient, or do you need more? Can I get you something else to eat?”
“I’m not hungry.” There was something he would have to deal with, and again, he tended to take care of this business as a human. “There is something, and it’s a bit embarrassing. I’ll need to go at some point… if you get what I mean.”
Alex’s brow furrowed. “Go? Dorian, I’ve explained to you need to remain in here for tonight.”
“Kinda my point. Dragon dung ain’t pleasant.” He cringed. Everyone needed to shit, but most people didn’t like talking about it.
“Oh.” Fair play to Alex, he didn’t wince or wrinkle his nose. “I hadn’t thought of that, and you can hardly be expected to use the fireplace.”
He went to the corner of the room and muttered something.
A large silver square glowed on the surface of the floor.
“I can’t say I know the workings of a dragon’s digestive system, but if you squat over this square, a privacy screen will activate.
You can do your business, and the waste will be taken away. ”
Dorian was grateful for Alex’s thoughtfulness. He could have told him to shit in a corner, and they would clear up when he was moved. This was such a clever answer, and he was a little in awe that Alex had thought of it. “Thank you.”
“Well, you can thank me by fully cooperating with what we will need to do to fix you. I’ll have Karl come and set up a television so that at least you’ll have something to watch, but try to get some rest.”
Alex left, and Dorian wished he hadn’t. He heard the door lock and a frizzle of magic suggesting there was more than a dead bolt keeping him in there. He didn’t mind; he was lucky not to be a handbag.
He liked to change into his dragon form at least once a day, but it was his usual practice when in LA for it to be part of his morning ritual with a long flight before he ate or hit the gym.
Living as a dragon was impractical, and there was a reason his kind had evolved to shift to live in this realm.
Alex had left him more blankets than he’d realised, and it took him ages to arrange them as his talons weren’t designed for dexterity.
He curled up in his newly made nest, grateful for the comfort.
A cloud of black smoke formed in front of him, and the guy Alex had called Karl materialised. He’d spotted the horns, but only now did he realise he was a demon. He was holding a small television.
“I see you’re settled in,” Karl said, more friendly than any demon Dorian had encountered below. They must put something in the water at Crofton Hall if both an elf and a demon were acting nice.
“Alex was kind enough to sort me out.”
Karl set up the TV on a low table. “I am assuming you would have trouble using a remote. I’ve enchanted this to be speech-activated. You can select channels or surf the internet to your heart’s content.”
Again, he was taken aback by the consideration he’d been shown. “Thank you. I know I’ve caused a lot of trouble.”
“Key to you being treated right and getting the help you need is not causing any more trouble.”
Dorian opened his mouth to respond and then thought better of it. “I appreciate all the help you are willing to give me.”
Karl raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t think Hollywood A-listers were capable of being so contrite.”
“Most of us don’t get stuck as a dragon for being an arsehole. My initial intentions weren’t pure. I did want to find a way to get Robin back as a lover, but I was genuinely concerned for his safety after what Trevir had told me.”
“Once the party is over, and the house cleared, you can tell me as much as you can about this Trevir chap. I will use some of my skills to find him and what his motivations were.”
“Alex thought it might be blackmail.”
“Could be. Considering the competency required and the depth of the magic involved to not only trap you in your dragon form but also interfere with the connection between Prince Simon and Mr Flint, this seems far too much bother for mere monetary gain in my opinion.”
“People do a lot of things for money.” Dorian had seen some very strange things in LA. “And if it weren’t for money, I’m not sure what it was about.”
“Someone capable of doing this level of magic will have also been able to track that it had worked. Have you received any messages since you were trapped in this form, asking for money?”
He hadn’t stopped to think where his phone was, and he certainly wouldn’t have been able to check it as his talons weren’t good for using with touch screens. “I don’t know where my phone went.”
Karl wriggled his fingers as he glanced around the room. He’d seen security officers do something similar as part of them sweeping an area. “Found it.”
Moments later, Karl was retrieving Dorian’s mobile phone from underneath a rug that had been moved to one side.
He went to hand it to Dorian, but then had second thoughts. “Since your fingerprint won’t work and it doesn’t seem to have a retinal scan, you’re going to need to give me your code so I can have a look.”
Dorian didn’t really have huge secrets, and it would seem a bit churlish to try to protect what little privacy he had in this situation. “Two-seven-three-two.”
Karl looked as if he’d been expecting a fight and took him a moment to key the numbers into Dorian’s phone.
Dorian waited patiently as Karl swiped and tapped on his phone’s screen.
Karl turned the phone to face him. “There are no messages or contact details from anyone called Trevir in this device.”
He had put Trevir in his phone under his name, not thinking he would need to cover his tracks in any way, and had even thought he could show them to Robin if he wanted proof of why he needed to be saved. “They must be in there.”
“Nothing. I did check to see if they were under a different name, but I couldn’t find anything.”
Dorian realised this put him in a difficult, if not dangerous, position. He had no evidence that he’d been helped by a warlock called Trevir. It would be his word that he had been manipulated into doing what he had done. “There should be loads of texts and records of the phone calls. He was real.”
“Wiping your phone of traces of his existence is small potatoes compared to an interception spell. All they had to do was place a tracking spell on your phone, which he could either manually trigger or do so at the point he considered his work complete.”
“You believe me?”
Karl laughed. “I believe you are neither competent nor clever enough to have masterminded this whole situation yourself. Your ego started the engine, and your stupidity put the foot on the gas.”
“I’m not stupid.”
“The evidence in front of me suggests otherwise.” Karl tutted. “Get some sleep. The next few days aren’t likely to be pleasant. We’re not going to hurt you deliberately, but we’re probably looking at some experimental magic, and we can’t guarantee any outcomes or how you’ll react.”
Karl disappeared in another plume of smoke.
He was nowhere near as comforting as Alex, and Dorian decided he liked the elf a lot more.
After trying to find something to watch on the television and failing, he managed to find a music streaming service.
He curled up in his nest and listened to Dvorak as he tried to go to sleep.