Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
CLAYTON
Mal was smarter than he looked and had only left a small scratch on Clayton’s chest after healing him. He’d even healed the bite on Clayton’s thigh. Well, mostly. It was now more of a livid bruise than a series of puncture wounds.
It was kind of sweet, actually.
Clayton tripped over his own feet and fell to his knees.
Sweet?
Sweet???
What idiot in their right mind would think that bloody menace of a man was sweet?
Mal had stormed into Clayton’s life, molested him in his own kitchen, brought along another kid for Clayton to take care of, and then terrorized Clayton into having the best orgasm of his life.
How was any of that sweet?
Clayton’s mind reeled as he stayed on his hands and knees in the hallway, wondering how this could possibly be his life.
It took quite a while before he realized Mal had crouched down in front of him, head cocked to the side quizzically in a decidedly inhuman fashion. His black eyes were fathomless, and if Clayton stared too long, he was certain he’d fall inside them and vanish forever.
If Mal was a dreamwalker, he was the oddest one in the history of the Guard. He did have a lot of similar powers, though. If Clayton didn’t know any better, he’d think Mal was far more likely to be a… a…
…
…
What had he been thinking about? His mind had gone slow and shimmery around the edges, like he’d been invaded by rainbow sparkles.
He blinked rapidly, and the rainbows slipped away.
Since a little dizziness wasn’t beyond normal, every day Clayton-esque weirdness, he straightened until he was on his knees. No point in not continuing about his day—especially if the dizziness didn’t return.
“You do this a lot, don’t you?” Mal asked, taking Clayton’s hands in his and inspecting them.
Clayton wasn’t surprised to see angry-looking red scrapes on his palms. He hadn’t noticed them because he’d long gotten used to such things. He shrugged and made to get up, but Mal held his wrists firmly, keeping him still.
He bowed low over Clayton’s hands and blew on them like he was warming them up. Clayton felt the tingle of healing magic ghost across his palms, and the sting of the scraps faded away.
“Here,” Mal said, and he moved his grip from Clayton’s wrists to his hands, then slowly pulled him to his feet. “Let’s get breakfast.”
Clayton’s face was tilted up toward Mal’s as he stared at him like an idiot.
There was something about Mal’s alien features that drew him in.
Mal met his gaze evenly, and for a split-second, Clayton thought Mal was going to kiss him.
However, Mal merely quirked his mouth in a half-grin and booped Clayton on the nose like a puppy.
“Do you think Grampy made breakfast?” Mal asked, shifting to holding only one of Clayton’s hands and starting to pull him up the narrow stairs to the main deck.
“Vis, I hope not,” Clayton muttered. “Honestly, how you survived his cooking last night is beyond all rational explanation. Thank the gods that the children are clever enough to avoid his food; otherwise, they would have been poisoned weeks ago.”
Mal only released Clayton’s hand when they reached the main floor and Clayton had reached ‘safety’. If Mal even thought about such things, that is. He could have simply forgotten to let go once he’d hauled Clayton off the floor.
If he had done it for Clayton, he needn’t have bothered. There was no safe zone for Clayton. When his affliction acted up, it could wreak havoc whether he was perched precariously on top of a skyscraper or bundled safely in a padded cell.
Besides, Clayton was a proper man, not some princess to be pampered and coddled.
A mildly disgruntled, “There they are!” from Eira was all the warning Clayton got before being tackle-hugged by two smiling, chattering, cuddle bugs.
For some reason, both Tommy and Merry had become attached to Clayton during their stay, and it was beyond his understanding why.
As far as he was concerned, he’d done nothing special.
Giving two abandoned children a home was something anyone would have done in his shoes.
Honestly, who could say no to those two faces?
“Merry, love, what have you done to yourself? Your face is absolutely covered in… what is this?” Clayton poked a suspiciously blood-colored splotch on the little girl’s nose.
“It’s berry syrup! You should try it!” Merry all but levitated in her excitement.
Clayton bent down and gave her a good morning kiss on the cheek. Right in a huge patch of syrup. “Mmm, delicious. I don’t remember us having berry syrup, though?” He looked quizzically at Eira, who shrugged.
“You’re the one who does all the shopping, so don’t look at me.”
“Holly made it!” Tommy chirped. “She also made lemon custard, see!” He pointed at a yellow smudge on his hand.
His eye flicked to his sister before not-so-sneakily smearing some on his own cheek. Clayton covered a smile when Tommy pointed to his cheek to make sure Clayton got the point. He bent down and gave Tommy a peck on the cheek too.
To his surprise, it was even better than the berry syrup. “Holly is brilliant if she made this.” Clayton hadn’t had a decent lemon custard since he’d left Sussex. His nan’s was better than anything in the world, but this was a solid runner-up.
“I am brilliant, thank you,” Holly said with a grin that shouted finally! someone noticed my awesomeness. “I just woke up and had the urge to make something fun. We’d have crumpets too if you had butter.”
Clayton’s toes curled, and he swallowed hard, trying to conceal his excitement. “I can get you butter.”
“Ow,” Mal said in a conversational tone. Clayton looked over to see that he’d grabbed Mal’s shirt tightly and was digging into the flesh underneath.
He shot Mal an unrepentant I’m sure there’s something you did to deserve that look before turning back to Holly. “How much do you need? Is there anything else you want? I’ll get it for you.”
Clayton loved to bake, but using a stovetop was a painful and dangerous process.
When baking, he generally only had to interact with the oven twice, and while he often burned himself, he got away with needing only a spell patch or two.
Cooking on a stovetop involved constant interaction and led to Clayton getting horribly injured multiple times.
This meant that he stuck with baking to exercise his culinary skills, so having a chance at a homemade version of one of his favorite foods was beyond priceless.
The local grocer was only a brisk walk down the boardwalk and around the corner. Minus any mishaps, he could be there and back again in under fifteen minutes.
With an inevitable mishap, he’d be back in thirty. Gods, please let his mishap be small today. For the sake of crumpets and lemon custard, please.
He went to pry Tommy off his leg when he realized that Tommy was gone and clinging to someone else’s leg. During Clayton’s frantic pondering, Merry had transferred her affections as well.
Mal was now covered in children, and Clayton was seventy-eight percent certain his teeth were less prominent and pointy than they usually were.
At least, they were until Tommy shouted, “Show us your teeth!” and then they were out, proud, and as menacing as a hungry shark’s would be.
“Awesome!” Tommy jumped up and down as he tried to touch them, and Mal crouched low to oblige, but Eira collared Tommy and dragged him away, muttering something about being surrounded by idiots.
When Mal assured her that they were perfectly safe because he was no longer venomous for Clayton’s sake, the look Eira shot him was deadly.
Merry chased after them, and Clayton fought the blush spreading over his body at Mal’s announcement. Mal could be venomous if he wanted to? And he’d had his pointy teeth all over Clayton’s favorite body parts?
Clayton couldn’t tell if the shiver that ran through him was from fear or desire.
He dragged his attention away from his tiny crisis, desperate for a distraction, and his gaze fell on the floor. Various parts of the floorboards were the model of shining, polished perfection in a sea of scuffed and splintered chaos.
Holly stood dead center in the largest patch, looking far more mature than her years, and said, “The recipe doesn’t call for much butter, but you’ll want to get enough to use as a spread as well, so get at least one package.
” Holly tapped a finger to her chin and added, “Actually, get two. One salted and one unsalted.”
The mystery of Holly fell into his fixate on later file the second Holly reminded him of the possibility of crumpets. Before she got to the word unsalted, Clayton was already hopping on one foot while jamming a shoe on the other, barely noticing Mal with his hand on Clayton’s elbow, holding him up.
“Do you need crumpet rings? I don’t know if they have any at our local grocer, but we might have them at the chapter house.” Clayton held out an arm for Mal to slip it through the sleeve of his button-up jumper.
“I can manage without them,” Holly answered confidently.
Clayton’s estimation of her skills dropped dramatically. Everyone needed to use crumpet rings. Honestly, was the girl insane? Still, she was a child and needed to be humored so she could develop good self-esteem, so Clayton gritted his teeth and said, “Excellent!”
Besides, if he plundered the chapter house’s kitchen supplies, he might have to share crumpets with everyone there.
Clayton was out the door without another word, but he heard Mal ask, “You can cook?” and Holly’s answer, “Obviously,” on his way out.
Clayton had a foot on the gangplank when Mal’s hand fisted in the back of his jumper.
“I don’t need an escort,” Clayton informed his new stalker breezily.
“Maybe I do,” Mal responded easily, releasing his hold once they were both on solid land. “Having a seasoned guardian to protect me makes me feel safer than I have in ages. Why would I give that up?”
“Cheeky bastard.” Clayton gave Mal a shove and informed him, “I could be an actual guardian if I wanted to be.”
“Then why aren’t you?”
Clayton sneaked a peek at Mal’s face to see if he was teasing him, but the man’s face showed nothing but interest. Why not tell him? It wasn’t like it was a secret. “My mum doesn’t want me to take the test.”
Mal cocked his head, once more reminding Clayton of something more animal than man, and said, “You don’t strike me as the kind of person who would let that stop him.”
Clayton snorted. Mal clearly hadn’t met his mum.
“She’s a powerful and influential witch, so yes, that’s more than enough to stop me.
It’s almost impossible to find someone willing to give me the test, and if they did, I can’t imagine anyone who would be brave enough to pass me even if I somehow managed to do well. ”
Clayton had needed to leave England to find a university that would allow him to do any training at all.
American Other society wasn’t fighting quite as hard to be in his mum’s good graces as everyone was back home, so they’d been willing to humor him.
He’d graduated with top marks (other than physical combat, but that wasn’t worth thinking about), but since no one was brave enough to sponsor him and guide him through the steps of being tested, he had yet to become a full-fledged guardian.
Even being besties with Samantha could only take him so far.
At Mal’s frown, Clayton squared his shoulders and gave a brittle smile. “No matter. Samantha was kind enough to offer me a job where I can learn and study all I want. I don’t need the title.”
He really didn’t. What Clayton wanted more than anything was to work with and learn about the different races and species of the Other. He didn’t need to be a guardian to do that. Not with the Boston chapter house’s resources at his disposal.
“You… enjoy studying?” Mal’s nose wrinkled like he smelled something bad.
“You don’t?” Clayton never understood how anyone could refrain from joyfully consuming every bit of knowledge they could get their hands on. “How did you learn how to do…” Clayton waved his hand around Mal because he couldn’t verbally admit that the man’s magical ability was in any way impressive.
Mal’s face split into a shark’s smile. “I have my own way of learning.”
His teeth were once again large and terrifying beyond all belief, but Clayton didn’t think twice; he went on his toes, stuck a finger into Mal’s mouth, and began to probe around. “How do you change your teeth like that? You can’t be a shapeshifter—you don’t have any of the tells.”
When Mal tried to pull away, Clayton cupped the back of his head to hold him in place.
When Mal stilled obediently, Clayton poked around inside his mouth freely, noting that Mal’s teeth were less like shark teeth and more like a land-based predator’s.
He only had one row, and his canines were more prominent than the others.
Though all of them were seriously pointy.
Clayton’s fingers itched for a notebook to write his discoveries into.
“Can you make this one longer for me? I want to see how it works.” Clayton tapped one of Mal’s canines. “I want to know if the way you change it is magic or an innate ability.”
Mal made a grumbly noise that Clayton ignored. “Now, please. I want crumpets, and you’re slowing down the process.” There were more grumbly noises, but the canine in question lengthened obediently.
Clayton oooed and ahhed for a bit, but he couldn’t figure out how Mal was changing his body.
There was no surge of magic in the affected area.
Now that Clayton was paying attention, he noticed that Mal himself seemed to be a stable field of immense magic.
There were no weak spots that most magic users naturally had in their essence field or strong spots indicating a core where his essence emanated from.
It was almost like Mal was made of pure magic.
Clayton’s hand left Mal’s mouth, and he ordered, “Do some magic for me.”
“You could just ask me what I am,” Mal said sulkily.
“Ridiculous. I should have already figured it out at this point. Now stop getting in my way and set that bin on fire.” Clayton pointed to an overflowing metal rubbish bin.
“I’m not a toy.”
“You’re whatever I say you are if you ever want to see me naked again,” Clayton announced. Was that him talking just now? Goodness, he sounded commanding. Marshall would be proud. Clayton was certain of it.
Mal glared at the bin, and it went up in flames.
“No, wait. You did it too fast, and I couldn’t tell how you did it.”
“I’m not doing it again.”
“Obviously not, you can’t make it be more on fire now, can you? ...Maybe a tree?” Clayton looked around to see if there was a tree he didn’t like that wasn’t close to his boat.
That was when he saw his boat blip out of existence.
His first thought was that this inevitable mishap was going to cost him far more than fifteen minutes. It was going to fully rob him of crumpets; he just knew it.