Chapter 10
Before getting too involved in his research, Quentin, as promised, called the Bounty Hunter agency. A perky receptionist answered.
“Hello, this is Quentin Heart. I’d like to talk to Stacy or leave a message for her to call me later.” He didn’t expect the owner of the agency to be available at his whim. To his surprise, he was sent straight through.
“Quentin dear, how can I help you?”
He quickly summarized his current problems.
“Do you have a bounty for the vampire?” she asked.
“I can’t officially offer a bounty because of Jaks. However, if you were to investigate the vampire that attacked and turned Glenn and a demon escaping from Grevin’s house, that wouldn’t step on anyone’s toes.”
“And if that investigation led to us authorizing a hunt on a rogue vampire?”
Quentin nodded even though she couldn’t see him. “Yes, that would only be a natural conclusion.” He bit his lip. “I can’t outright pay for a bounty, but I have a few newly designed spell orbs I’d be happy to give you for testing.”
A pause on the line.
“We’d be happy to be a test site for your orbs.
If we like them, I will personally endorse you to my law enforcement contacts, provided you promise not to share them with any other bounty-hunting organizations in this city.
I don’t care about other states, but I don’t want to give the competition an edge. ”
“Fair enough. We have an agreement.”
Neither had to say out loud that this agreement would remain verbal.
Quentin couldn’t be held responsible for what the bounty hunters did with his orbs or how they organized their workload, even if they corresponded with Quentin’s wishes.
As long as he didn’t share the information with Jaks, his vampire lover couldn’t be implicated for invading a fellow vampire’s territory.
“Be careful, Quentin, we’d hate to lose such a brilliant mind.”
“I’ll be careful,” he assured her.
By the time he hung up, both sides were happy with their agreement.
Quentin would give them twenty of any invention he wanted tested, and they would have exclusive first rights to use them, with the option to buy more.
In exchange, they would investigate whatever Quentin wanted within reason.
Stacy had said she trusted Quentin’s judgment, which was a balm to his ego after the day he’d had.
Two hours later, a knock on the door to his workshop pulled Quentin out of his arithmetic nightmare.
Braed had briefly shown up and then left after Quentin secured the location with runes, stating he didn’t need a babysitter to watch him work.
After double-checking with Jaks, Braed left and took his storm-cloud attitude with him, relieving Quentin of the urge to thin Jaks’s clan and make his mother single again in one fell swoop.
Over the last three hours, he’d been trying to combine a freezing spell with a containment orb, hoping it would trap fire creatures without sending them into shock or death.
Several kinds of fire beasts were too valuable to kill, but too dangerous to let run around in the general populace.
A magical creature reserve had sent Quentin an email asking if he had a way to capture and transport fire-breathing animals safely.
Apparently, they lost several workers each year to accidents involving the transportation of creatures.
According to their email, Stacy had recommended him, which was nice of her, considering it was before Quentin had contacted her himself.
It should’ve been an easy combination. The numbers made sense, but something about the rune structure wasn’t meshing with the ice magic.
He didn’t want to freeze the creatures so hard that it caused permanent damage, only enough to suppress their fire.
It was a careful balance, and Quentin didn’t want to be responsible for the death of an endangered species because he rushed the magic.
If this group were satisfied with his work, they could provide him with a good reference, and he might be able to secure jobs with other animal reserves.
This was the kind of work he could really enjoy.
Creating magical solutions to other people’s problems. A magical fix-it man.
Even Jaks couldn’t find fault with that.
Probably.
This could be his big break.
If he didn’t fuck it up.
The knock came again, pulling him from his thoughts. He let out a frustrated scream.
“Come in!” he shouted, then he remembered. They couldn’t enter if they weren’t added to the security matrix. “Wait, I’m coming.”
A quick look through the security camera had him yanking open the door. “What are you doing here?”
“Hello, son. Aren’t you happy to see me?” His words were teasing, but there was an uncertain glint in his eyes.
“No. I mean, of course, I’m happy to see you, Lars.
It’s just… what are you doing here? I talked to you yesterday, and you didn’t say anything about visiting.
” There that sounded non-confrontational, right?
He didn’t ask why Lars suddenly became interested in him after years of absence, ex-wife or not.
“You could call me father.”
“I could.”
Silence.
“Come in.” He had to say something to break the awkwardness between them.
Lars slipped past him without another word.
His gaze swept the workshop, the mangled remains of Quentin’s latest failure, and the large whiteboard with arcane symbols scrawled across the surface.
“Your mother told me Jaks set you up with an amazing lab. I can see that she wasn’t exaggerating. What are you working on?”
He hesitated for a moment but realized it didn’t matter if Lars knew what he was working on. A fae king wasn’t exactly going to sell him out to competitors for fast cash. “Ice capture orbs. I’m trying to integrate freezing runes with containment magic. I’m not having much luck.”
“Interesting.” Lars walked up to the whiteboard and studied the equations while Quentin fidgeted behind him. “Your mother often bragged about your intelligence, but she never mentioned your creativity. Did you make all these?” He waved a hand to encompass the items on the long table beside him.
“Yes. What are you really doing here?” He didn’t need his deadbeat fae father to approve of him. Or at least that’s what he told himself while trying not to preen beneath his father’s proud gaze.
“Can’t a father visit his son?”
“He can, or maybe he should’ve when his son really needed a father.” Quentin winced internally. He hadn’t meant for that to slip out. Instead of backing down, he folded his arms and waited for the fae king’s response.
“You know I’m sorry about that. I would’ve visited if I hadn’t been confined to my realm.”
Damn, he had really good puppy eyes even when he wasn’t a bone wolf.
“That doesn’t make everything all right between us. We aren’t going to run off and go to father-son baseball games because you finally remembered about me.”
Lars picked up a spell ball and tossed it from one hand to another. “Your mother called me.”
Quentin blinked, not expecting that turn of the conversation. “Why?”
“She was worried about the demon and Grevin’s attack. She’s also worried about the rogue vampire who changed your friend.”
“My friend’s name is Glenn. We think his sire lives in the forest by the hospital, but Jaks can’t rush in there due to vampire politics. I think he’s also the one who is interested in buying my house, and I might or might not have convinced some bounty hunters to look into things.”
“Good.” The air grew heavy. “If they can’t do anything, I will take care of him.”
“Control your magic inside my lab. It will damage my more sensitive experiments,” Quentin snapped.
Lars closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. The same silver ring around Quentin’s eyes glowed in his father’s. He hadn’t noticed the bright contrast with Lars’s purple pupils before. “Sorry, I promise I didn’t come here to cause problems. I just want to help.”
“I can handle things myself.” He didn’t state it was a little too late to show fatherly concern. “I’m not brashly rushing into anything or endangering myself needlessly, and Jaks is following proper channels to pursue Glenn’s unknown sire.”
“Are you going to add more protection around your house?”
Quentin nodded. Even though the wards indicated the vampire hadn’t meant him any harm, he didn’t want that strange vampire on his property again.
“Yes, magical wards to keep everyone not keyed in from setting foot on the property, and cameras to see who tries. Hopefully, one won’t short out the other. ”
“I can add a few fae runes to stabilize things. We’ve been combining magic and electric components for years.”
“I’d love to see your notes.” There was nothing he liked more than picking things apart to see how they worked.
“I wasn’t the one who made them compatible, but I’ll see if someone has books about the process. I’ll check the bookstore.”
“You have bookstores.” He didn’t know why this struck him as odd. They had an entire population in the fae realm. Statistically, more than one was a reader.
“Of course.” Lars didn’t say anything more, but Quentin could see the amusement in his eyes.
“All right, I get it. That was a stupid question.”
Lars smiled. “Not stupid. A bit naive though.”
“Thanks,” Quentin’s dry tone sent Lars laughing.
After his laughter finally faded, his face took on a serious mien. “What do you want to do about Glenn’s sire? Even if your bounty hunter captures him, the best you can hope for is a fine through the vampire court for turning and then abandoning a childe.”
“I know, but there might be others that he’s carelessly turned, and some he killed outright.
There was no sign that he meant to transform Glenn.
He attacked Glenn and left him with no aftercare, no ‘welcome to vampirehood’ badge, nothing.
The doctor told me it was pure luck that Glenn survived the bite.
He needs to be brought to heel over his actions, whether Glenn survived or not. ”
Quentin firmly believed Glenn’s sire was dangerous, and if no one did anything about him, it would only get worse.
“How can I help?”
He opened his mouth to say there was nothing he needed when his phone rang. One of these days, he was going to get rid of the device, as soon as Grevin’s bloody body didn’t flash into his head anytime he thought to put it on silent mode.
“Hello?”
“Grevin is missing.”
It took him more time than it should’ve to recognize the panicky voice. “Mother?”
“I went to Grevin’s room, and he’s missing.”
“Did you try calling him?”
“I don’t have his number.”
“I’m going to hang up and call. Talk to you soon.”
He disconnected and pressed Grevin’s contact number. It rang… and rang again. Right before voicemail would kick in, Grevin answered.
“What’s up?”
“You left your room.”
“It doesn’t have a bathroom. I didn’t know I needed permission to empty my bladder.”
A slightly hysterical laugh burst from him. “Sorry, my mother went to see you, and you were missing. You probably shouldn’t be up with your injuries.”
“Trust me when I tell you I’d rather re-open the wound than piss in a bedpan.”
“Gotcha. I’m sure Mother will be happy to have that conversation in person.”
“Ah, there she is. No need to panic, Ms. Heart.”
Quentin didn’t even try to stifle his laughter before he hung up.
“Problem?”
“Mother has been mothering Grevin and panicked when he left the room she expected him in.”
“Ah, she probably has a bit of an empty nest syndrome.”
“Grevin isn’t the one to fill it.” Quentin scribbled a few more notations on his whiteboard. “He would strangle her in a week and refuse to bring her back out of spite.”
Lars laughed. “Luckily, she is hardier as a vampire.”
“Luckily.”
His phone dinged, and a message from his mother popped up. “Found him!” A little smiley face beamed up at him.
“Poor sucker.” He set his phone on his desk.
He barely took a step away before it rang again.
“You have an active social life,” Lars commented.
“Not usually this active.” Right now, he’d prefer inane conversations if it meant the people he cared about were living boring lives.
He really wanted a telemarketer he could gleefully hang up on without remorse.
Less crises and more mundanity was his goal for now.
Not one he appeared to be able to keep if his Caller ID was correct.
He groaned before answering with fake cheer.
“Hello, Dean Mearson. What can I do for you?” Please say that his suspension is permanent. If they were going to kick him out, he’d rather know now than have the situation drawn out. He was ready to move on.
“Hello, Dr. Heart. I’ve had an interesting conversation with Professor Rendell, and after a thorough investigation, we’ve decided to reinstate you.
Your students were quite vocal about your dismissal, and if you promise to use regulation chalk from now on, I don’t see a problem with you continuing to teach. ”
He opened his mouth to tell her where to shove her class and her regulation chalk. She cut him off before he could object, as if she were reading his mind.
“Don’t forget your contract states that you are obligated to teach one class each semester for the next year.” Her tone had more steel than sweetness.
Fuck.
“Is that still in effect with the suspension and everything?” he asked, mostly to mess with her. He was pretty sure that since they hadn’t fired him outright, it was still an active contract. Not to mention, he was barely suspended for a day.
“Yes. We’ll see you next week.” She hung up.
“Well, that lacked her usual cheer,” he said to his silent phone.
“Whose cheer?” Lars asked.
“The dean of the department I’m teaching in.”
“You’re a teacher?”
“Of spell creation. Mother didn’t tell you?”
“She only shares the dangerous parts.”
“I just started this year.” He didn’t go into the details of the suspension or the explosion.
“Do you enjoy it?”
“Somewhat, but I’m not going to make it my career. I have other things I’m interested in doing.” He nodded toward the board where he was scrawling his ideas.
“Good. You don’t strike me as the type who would do well working for other people. Too independent.”
“Yep, that’s me, independent.” He offered a cheery smile and didn’t mention there was more than one reason he was that way, partly because a single mother raised him.