Chapter 23 #3
Lawrence had always appreciated gaudy items, so there had been plenty of gold trinkets and decor throughout the manor.
An image flashed in his mind of Lawrence adorning him with jewellery; thin linked necklaces draping down his chest and delicate bracelets jangling from his wrists—the most expensive of shackles.
The Polaroid evidence of that had gone up in flames, though Lawrence had made up for the loss with many more photographs.
“How did you get out?” Quin asked, his arms tightening around Kit.
Kit turned his head, raising his eyes to meet Quin’s. His gaze was soft, and Kit had to fight his natural urge to bristle at the sympathy in his expression. “The flames woke him up even though it was daytime. He took me down to the cellar and kept us there until nightfall.”
“What—” Shaun started, and then broke off, but Kit thought he knew what he was going to ask.
“What did he do to me afterwards? That was when he recreated me as a vampire. He’d held off, needing to keep me human so he had someone handy to feed on.”
Shaun looked as though he might be sick. “How long did he wait?”
Kit should have been furious at such an intrusive question, but if anyone could ask it, it was Shaun.
“Four months, two weeks, and six days,” Kit said, giving Shaun a humourless smile.
“Not like I was counting.” That was technically the truth, as he hadn’t always been cognisant enough to notice the passage of time.
When he became a vampire, he’d been able to check the date and actually keep track.
It had been galling to realise he’d missed his eighteenth birthday.
Kit let Quin turn him around and pull him into a tight hug, Kit happy to bury his face in Quin’s chest. It meant he didn’t have to see anyone else’s reactions.
“So,” Rake said after a beat of silence, “we go to the manor and find an item of Lawrence’s, and once we do, we’ll bring it back here for the spell.” His words only half-registered with Kit, reaching his ears as if muffled.
“Works for us,” Roxy said.
“I can’t believe you’re going to do a favour for them after they tried to kill me,” Conroy said. “Twice!”
“We have no beef with them,” Xavier said. Kit didn’t even realise he’d snorted loudly into Quin’s shirt until Xavier asked, “What?”
Kit turned his head just enough so that his voice would be clear. “There’s just something funny about hearing you use the word ‘beef’ considering you’re about two hundred and fifty years old.”
“I like to keep up with the lingo,” Xavier said. Kit could hear a subtle note of self-consciousness under his outward nonchalance.
“Ahh,” DJ said. “Did you learn that one on the streets, bruv?” His inability to get through the sentence without laughing undermined his sarcasm.
“When did I ever say we were going to do it for free, anyway?” Roxy said.
“What’s the cost?” Quin asked. “I’ll give you whatever you want.”
Kit prodded him hard in the side. “Don’t just offer anything,” he hissed. “What if they want your firstborn child?”
“Kit, you know I’m not planning on having any children.” Quin paused, then added, “Unless you have something to inform me about vampire anatomy that I didn’t already know?”
Kit gawped at him.
“Lucky for you, I have little interest in raising other people’s children,” Roxy said drolly.
“Then what’s it going to take?” Kit asked.
“I consider money an appropriate way to compensate me for the service,” she said, before flicking her gaze pointedly to Xavier.
He held his hand up in front of him, inspecting his own fingers.
“I can also give you something that’ll hold your ghostly visitor off,” he said.
“It won’t stop him completely. The more he tries to take you over, the more it’ll burn through the magic, but it should buy you enough time to get what you need. ”
Tension visibly slid from Quin’s shoulders. “Thank you,” he said, his voice soft, but sincere.
Xavier nodded curtly, sliding a chunky ring that had been sitting on his thumb off as he strode over to them. “Here. Wear this.”
Quin took the ring. It was shiny silver, made up of three bands that interlinked. Quin’s fingers were thicker than Xavier’s, so it ended up on his pinky.
“Hmm,” Quin said. “Doesn’t feel any different.”
“It won’t activate until the ghost tries to possess you,” Xavier said, one corner of his lips turning up in a wry smile. “You’ll notice it then. Now”—he addressed Kit—“give me your details. I’ll invoice you.”
“I should be the one to pay,” Quin grumbled, but Kit didn’t pay him any mind. It was, after all, Lawrence’s own money that would pay for the service.
Xavier held his phone far closer to his face than required when typing in Kit’s number, one jab at a time. “Would you like the tethering added to the invoice?” he asked.
“What?” Kit said, not understanding.
Xavier gazed meaningfully at Kit and Quin. “The tether between you. You know, the one to tie your lives together for the rest of eternity so that the werewolf doesn’t die a mortal death in half a century?”
Kit and Quin both stayed silent, looking at Xavier like he’d grown an extra head. An outraged gasp sounded from behind them. “Did you just propose the supernatural equivalent of marriage for them?” Shaun asked.
“I assumed you were here for that in the first place,” Xavier said conversationally, and not as if he’d just solved one of Kit’s biggest worries with one simple sentence.
“I can live…forever with Kit?” Quin said carefully, as if testing how the words felt in his mouth.
“We’ll do it!” Kit blurted, in case Xavier rescinded the offer as fast as he’d made it.
Quin blinked, his brows halfway to his hairline. “You’d want that?”
“I mean, if you do?” Kit had a sudden sick feeling in the pit of his stomach at the notion of Quin refusing the tether, and the reality of facing the rest of his existence alone once more.
“Of course I do,” Quin said quickly, allaying his fears. “I can’t imagine anything that I’d want more.”
Kit threw himself at Quin, heedless of their audience. Quin’s arms went under his bum to hold him in place as Kit’s arms twined around Quin’s neck.
“Are you sure that it’s not too soon?” Kit asked, searching Quin’s face for the truth.
Quin smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “It’s only forever.”
Kit let out a delighted and only slightly embarrassing giggle, which was cut short when Quin pressed their lips together. The kiss wasn’t too deep or dirty—which Kit was glad of, given he was aware of the others in the room—but it conveyed everything he needed and more.
Surety, safety, security. He felt it all, but Quin’s love the most.
“Sweetheart?” Rake said, sounding alarmed. Kit and Quin broke their kiss, heads turning to see what Rake was reacting to.
DJ was fanning his face, his eyes bloody. “I’m not crying,” he choked out. “I’m just feeling a lot of secondhand emotion right now.”
“You big softie,” Shaun said fondly.
“I’m fine,” DJ insisted.
“So, I take it that’s a yes to the tethering?” Xavier said. He wore a guarded expression, and something else Kit couldn’t identify. Melancholy perhaps, or longing.
“Yes,” Quin said. He hadn’t put Kit down yet, and Kit would be happy to spend the rest of his days being carried around by Quin. The only downside was that he could see Conroy over Quin’s shoulder, rolling his eyes. Kit gave him the middle finger because he was a very mature adult.
“Best to deal with your ghost issue first,” Xavier said. “Wouldn’t want to include your creator in the tether by accident.”
“We’ll defer to your judgement,” Quin said.
“Wise,” Xavier said.
Conroy stood. Kit watched his movement closely as he went over to stand beside the witch siblings. “Now can you all please leave so that I can finish my food? Roxy, you know I respect you, but using my home as your place of business is oversteppin’.”
“We’re done,” Roxy said. “Contact us directly next time, boys.”
“I quite liked the attempted-murder-as-means-of-communication,” Xavier said, a smirk playing on the corners of his lips.
“I didn’t,” Conroy protested.
Xavier’s demeanour shifted back to its prior aloofness. “Nobody asked you.”
“God forbid a vampire doesn’t consent to his own assassination,” Conroy said. “Whatever is the world coming to?”
Roxy clicked her fingers. “Right. Intruders, out. Conroy, stop complaining—you know I’d never let you die.”
“I am forever grateful,” Conroy said, his flash of a smile showing off his sharp fangs.
“We’ll get an appropriate item for the spell and be back as soon as we can,” Quin assured Roxy as he walked Kit towards the door.
She nodded. “Good luck.”
Kit waved over Quin’s shoulder at her and Xavier.
He’d only been high a few times before he became a vampire, but he felt a similar sort of buzzed happiness, like he could walk on air.
Rake, Shaun, and DJ all followed them. Shaun caught Kit’s eye and gave him a sweet smile, mutual understanding passing between them.
“Are you ever going to put me down?” Kit asked Quin once they were past the graveyard and back on the street.
“Mmm. Nah.”
“Good,” Kit said. “Because I have no intention of walking.”
“Can you carry me, Rake?” DJ asked.
“If you carry him, you’ll have to carry me too,” Shaun said.
They bickered all the way to the car, and Kit didn’t care. He had Quin, and Quin had him.
And soon they’d have forever, too.