Chapter 30 Quin
THIRTY
Quin
A low hum roused Quin from sleep. He cracked one eye open, taking in a blurry Rake sitting next to him. Quin blinked, clearing his vision. Chains were wrapped tightly around his body, keeping his arms pinned to his sides and weighing him down where he sat in back of a car.
“Good morning,” Quin grunted, not capable of proper speech through his grogginess.
“It’s night,” Rake pointed out, then narrowed his eyes. “Do I have to interrogate you to check if you’re Lawrence, or will you come clean?”
At the mention of Lawrence’s name, images flooded Quin’s mind: splashing liquid, flickering flames, the glint of metal.
“Kit?” he asked worriedly. “Baby, are you okay?”
A familiar face turned towards Quin from the driver’s seat. Kit was swamped in an old hoodie of Quin’s, but he didn’t seem hurt in any way. He even managed a half-hearted smile when he spoke. “I’m okay,” he told Quin, then faced the road again.
“We’ve spoken about you saying you’re okay when you’re not.” Quin tried for stern, but he landed more at exhausted. He distantly noted that Shaun was also in the front, the red curls peeking around the headrest a dead giveaway. The faint smell of petrol tickled the inside of Quin’s nose.
Kit sighed. “I’m already recovering from my brief reacquaintance with the sun, you don’t need to worry.”
“Fuck.” The words weren’t reassuring in the least.
“Can we accept that he’s not Lawrence now and unchain him…or?” Shaun asked, drawing out his final word.
“We should keep them on,” Rake said.
“Trust you to be the one wanting to keep him trussed up like that,” Shaun remarked.
“Sweetheart, are you trying to get a rise out of me?”
Quin cut in. “I’m fine staying like this until we get to the house. Has DJ taken the other car?” he asked, his tongue feeling thick and heavy in his mouth.
“Yeah,” Shaun replied. “More of us were needed here, considering our lack of a means to curb Lawrence’s habit of showing up uninvited.”
“I didn’t want to deal with any more of DJ’s music, anyway,” Rake commented mildly.
“Oh, you don’t enjoy listening to him perform the entirety of Hamilton?” Shaun asked. Quin could hear the smile he wore.
“No,” Rake said. “It got boring after the first fifty times.”
Quin looked out at the quiet motorway as they zoomed along. Stitching together his memories was faster than the times before, but it still gave him a headache when he thought too hard about everything. It was only when he recalled Lawrence rooting through the side table that his palms went sweaty.
“You found the necklace, right?” he asked, though he was more worried about a different piece of jewellery.
“Yeah,” Kit said, eyes flicking to meet Quin’s in the rearview mirror for a split-second. “It was in your pocket.”
“You didn’t happen to find anything else, did you?”
“Your phone was missing. I’m not sure where it ended up.”
The bottom of the pond, Quin assumed. Shaun coughed pointedly, but Quin was unsure who it had been aimed at.
“I found the box,” Kit said carefully.
Quin’s stomach swooped. “Did you open it?” he asked, barely breathing.
Kit turned around to face Quin for a second. “Yes,” he said with a nod before focusing on driving again.
Quin deflated. “Dammit.”
“Oh, no, I uh—”
“You didn’t?”
“I do, I mean, I did. Shit.”
Shaun threw his hands up in the air. “Just ask him the bloody question, Quin!”
Quin’s eyes widened. He’d wanted to do a speech, make it all meaningful, do it at the beach at one of their favourite private spots.
He should have been down on one knee, at the least. But no.
He was wrapped in chains in the backseat of a car and with a head so scrambled he couldn’t string two sentences together.
“Kit, willyoumarryme?” he blurted. It sounded like a sneeze, not a proposal.
“Yes,” Kit said decisively.
It felt too easy. “Really?” Quin asked.
Kit turned around in his seat again, to Rake’s dismay. “Yes,” Kit said, his eyes sparkling and his face lighting up in a smile that Quin would remember for the rest of his life. “I’ll marry you, Quin Rheon.”
Quin's heart swelled in his chest. So much, in fact, that he was worried he might pass out. “I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you too. And is it that surprising I said yes? You already agreed to spend eternity with me.”
“Yeah, but marriage is a commitment.”
Shaun snorted. “And eternity isn’t?”
“Well, when you put it like that,” Quin said, face heating. “Wait, where’s the ring?”
“Oh. Here,” Kit said. He flashed his left hand at Quin, showing off his adorned finger.
Quin wasn’t sure how he’d missed it before. “You’ve had it on this whole time?”
“Yep.”
Quin shook his head. “That’s kinda naughty of you not to tell me.”
“You should spank him for it,” Shaun said.
“Excuse me, Shaun,” Kit said. “I’m pretty sure I recall Rake saying that you weren’t allowed to tell others when they should be punished.”
“He’s right, sweetheart,” Rake said.
“Oh no,” Shaun said, not contrite in the least. “I suppose you’ll have to punish me instead, Sir.”
“No sex in the car,” Quin said, concerned about the upholstery.
“We won’t,” Rake agreed, then glanced down as his phone buzzed.
“Oh, DJ’s just sent me a selfie with Roxy and Xavier.
” He showed Quin. Sure enough, DJ was between the witches, teeth on display in a wide smile.
Roxy was side-eyeing him hard, but Xavier looked—deliberately or not—like he was doing the blue steel.
“Lemme see,” Shaun said, reaching back for the phone. Rake handed it to him, and Shaun snorted. “What a goof.”
“What’s our ETA, Kit?” Quin asked.
“Twenty minutes.”
So, not long to go until Quin got rid of Lawrence for good.
There was no trace of him at that moment, but his skin crawled.
Memories echoed in the back of his mind that weren’t his own.
The sooner the witches exorcised Lawrence, the sooner Quin could escape the twisted images of Kit and Shaun and Matthew and Thomas and Jack and the dozens of other boys whose names he didn’t know.
Haunted by the thoughts, Quin fought to keep down the bile that rose in his throat.
A hand on his shoulder had him blinking hard.
The images dissolved, scattering like ash on the wind.
Rake was reaching over, the tense line of his jaw evident even beneath his stubble.
Rake squeezed once, then let go when Quin gave him a grateful nod.
Rake’s hands moved to his lap once more, his fingers tapping on his opposite knuckles.
Quin didn’t even mind the weight of the chains any longer. He’d wear them forever, if it meant keeping the others safe.
DJ, Roxy, and Xavier were waiting outside the front door for them when they arrived, DJ in a precarious crouch on the thin wall that bordered the courtyard. The witches stood close together, murmuring in a language Quin didn’t understand.
“Deej, try to look less like a vampire, would you?” Shaun called as he got out of the car.
DJ chuckled and jumped down from the wall, landing and speeding over to Shaun in a blink before scooping him up and noisily kissing him. It was as if they hadn’t seen each other in months.
Kit rolled his eyes as he pulled the chains off Quin, Rake’s gaze flitting between them and his boyfriends.
“They’re ridiculous,” Kit said, dumping the chains in the boot.
Quin clambered out of the car and stretched himself out, then took hold of Kit’s left hand. He raised it and kissed Kit’s finger, right at the knuckle where the ring sat. “Are they?”
“Mm-hmm.” Kit sounded dismissive, but Quin saw how his lips pursed to hide his smile.
“Oh my god, you got officially engaged?” DJ said, detaching from Shaun. “How heteronormative of you. Congrats.”
“You would all marry each other if you could get away with it,” Kit grumbled.
“Obviously,” Shaun said. “But there’s a minor issue in that I’m legally dead.”
“And that there’s three of you,” Kit replied.
“That too.”
Xavier eyed them as they approached, an unreadable look on his face.
Quin wiggled his pinky finger in the air. “Sorry, but your ring was destroyed.”
“And yet you chose to buy one for Kit and not a replacement for mine,” Xavier said with a sigh. “Whatever. Congratulations, I suppose.”
“Unlike most of you,” Roxy said, “I’m normally asleep at this hour. Shall we get this over and done with?”
“Please,” Quin said, opening his front door and ushering Kit inside. Even though Mabel was at Louie’s, he longed for the familiar sound of her nails on the flooring as she ran to greet him. He’d get her first thing in the morning.
It was a bit of a squeeze, but they congregated in the living room. Kit pulled the necklace out and handed it over to Roxy. “Here. It should work for trapping him.”
Roxy inspected the necklace and nodded to Xavier.
“Let’s do this,” Xavier said, undoing the cuffs on his shirt and folding his sleeves up. His tanned arms were dotted with small tattoos, some written in what Quin recognised as Cyrillic script.
DJ yanked his T-shirt off, flinging it onto the sofa behind him.
Roxy cocked her head. “What are you doing?”
DJ stilled, one hand at his fly. “Getting ready for the ritual?” he ventured.
“What my sister means, vampire, is why are you undressing yourself?” Xavier said.
“Because,” DJ said slowly, “this is a sex ritual.”
“When and where did you get that impression?” Roxy asked.
“I swear someone said this was a sex ritual.”
Quin pressed his mouth shut to stop his grin. Shaun’s eyes were bright, his body shaking with silent laughter.
“Sweetheart, put the goods away,” Rake said.
DJ covered his nipples. “All right.”
Rake threw DJ’s shirt at him. “Get. Dressed. And please be quiet and let them get on with it.”
“But—” DJ started before snapping his mouth shut when Rake held up a hand.
“One more word and I’ll be forced to get the emergency ball gag,” Rake said.
“‘Emergency ball gag’?” Kit repeated. “You kinksters are deeply weird.”