Chapter 21
Theo didn’t know if he should be more embarrassed or ashamed.
He was feeling useless, and he wasn’t even sure what was happening to him.
Just something about that blond Fae… It stirred an icy pool of things he couldn’t quite remember, things he didn’t want to remember.
If he did, he’d drown in the freezing water of it all, and he couldn’t. He didn’t want to.
Bernard…
Theo heard the Fae screaming, saw him jerk out of the corner of his eye, but he was pressed tightly against Peter. This is not why you are here. This is not why you came.
“M-my blood.” He lifted his head to look up at Peter.
Peter, thank fuck, was calm, but Theo had known he would be. Peter was generally calm. His eyes, so much like freezing water themselves, looked on without a shred of judgment in them, at least as far as Theo could see.
“I’m not hungry just now, Theodore.”
“Swords!” Laurette said.
Peter smiled. “Hold on to my left arm. I need the right.”
There was a whispering of metal as Peter drew his sword. It sounded a lot like it did in movies, but this was different. Theo had seen the swords at Laurette’s, but he hadn’t paid all that much attention. Right now, it looked too sharp, too dangerous. He clung to Peter’s arm.
He was about to ask—beg him to stay, but luckily, reason caught up with him. What am I even doing? We’re here for Corvin and Mike, and I can have my fucking moment some other time. I don’t want this. I never wanted this. I never want to feel like this ever again.
“Can you compel me?” Theo’s fingers dug into Peter’s arm. He was pretty sure he knew the answer. He knew Peter. But he had to ask.
Peter leaned in and kissed him on the forehead. It was barely a proper kiss, just cool lips against his skin, but Peter was so careful about it. Seemed as if he couldn’t be fazed by anything and was in control of the situation. Maybe he was.
“No, dearest. There’s no reason. You’re fine. Just hold on to me and watch your step. You have to look nowhere but where you put your feet if that helps.”
There came another yelp from the Fae, and when Theo looked up, he saw Gertrude hogtying him. Tears were streaming from the Fae’s eyes, and someone had gagged him with a paisley scarf. Nothing about seeing him like that stirred Theo’s cold pool of memories now.
Cloudtree just stood by, sucking his bottom lip into his mouth. Laurette, his curved sword drawn, headed toward a doorway in front of which Carl stood, hackles raised and teeth bared.
Cloudtree looked from where Gertrude was tying a few final knots to Theo. He shot Theo a smile that didn’t at all resemble the confidence with which he’d first spoken.
“Mayhap…I can…” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Wait here. While your bloodsucker…lover does what needs doing. I would… If you wish to wait with me?”
“No need.” Peter took Theo’s hand.
Theo, though, let go. Peter’s grip was sure and comforting, but there was something in Cloudtree’s ridiculously purple eyes that he recognized as a reflection of something he’d seen in himself, just before he’d come to New Elvenswood.
When he’d decided to leave and never come back, when he’d decided to start fresh and use all his camboy skills to turn them into a new career at Celeste’s.
He hadn’t had Peter then. He’d only had himself, and he’d been lucky that Celeste had opened her doors to him.
“You know, I’m good waiting here.”
Peter looked at him, his brows raised. “Theodore—”
“You don’t have to ‘Theodore’ me. I’m good. I guess that one swings better with two hands.” He pointed at the sword. “Just don’t get hurt and get Corvin and Mike out, okay?”
Theo turned when Gertrude poked the handle of a hammer into his stomach.
“Take this. We won’t be too long, but if this one moves—” She kicked Cloudtree’s stepbrother in the side.
“You use the hammer on him. Just a light tap will do. If that’s not good enough, poke him a little with the screwdriver I gave you. ”
The bound Fae’s eyes went wide and venomous. Theo took the hammer. The screwdriver was in his bag, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to poke anyone with that, wasn’t sure he had the stomach for that.
“Light tap. Can do. Okay.”
The hammer wasn’t that heavy, and he definitely could use it on the Fae who was looking up at him as if he were imagining all the things he wanted to do to him instead.
Then those eyes went to Cloudtree, who actually flinched.
Theo tested the weighty head of the hammer against his palm, and the Fae took the hint and looked away.
Peter cupped his cheek. He tried looking into Theo’s eyes, almost as if he were going to compel him after all, but, of course, he didn’t.
“I’ll only be a moment, beloved.”
Those words were almost worse than compulsion. There was a warm comfort to Peter’s voice, and Theo wanted to hold on to that, wanted to close his eyes and have Peter tell him over and over that everything was fine. He pushed that desire aside.
“I know. You’re going to tear off someone’s head.”
Peter smiled and raised the blade of his sword. “I can cut it off this time around.”
“Th-this time?” Cloudtree said.
Peter pulled Theo close, but instead of kissing him, he pressed his forehead against Theo’s.
Theo huffed. “Weird Viking thing, huh?”
Peter chuckled. It was a dark noise, something altogether grounding. “Not a Viking, Theodore.”
And off he went, following Laurette, who was stepping through the doorway after Carl with a weapon raised but somehow managing to look as if he’d been rolling his eyes for a while now. Gertrude brought up the rear, a hammer in either hand.
What came after all the commotion once they’d gone deeper into the house was an awkward silence.
Theo shoved his hand into his pocket while letting the hammer dangle from the other.
He tried not to look at Miel, who’d gotten a black eye at some point either during the struggle or while being hogtied.
The bruised color of it was really setting in now—still red, but darkening—and Theo was pretty sure that position hurt a lot, especially after a hammer to the knee.
Cloudtree crossed his arms over his broad chest, which looked a lot less sparkly here, seemed to blend in more.
“Is he very good at this kind of thing? Your bloodsu—your…what do you call him?”
Theo was glad the hood was covering his face. “I call him Peter.”
Cloudtree hummed. “Yes, of course, but I meant…is there a word? In the human realm. There must be, yes, for when someone takes you as their pillow servant—”
“I’m not his fucking pillow servant, okay? We have…we’re…uh…we’re roommates.”
Theo felt immediately guilty on behalf of the ghosts of every queer elder before him, but this was an unusual situation, and he was feeling very stressed.
Cloudtree nodded. “I see. I…was hoping for a roommate myself.”
Miel made a mean, dismissive noise, almost laughter. Theo brought the hammer down on the floor tiles barely a handsbreadth away from his face, which shut him up nicely.
“I’m sure you’ll find someone.”
Cloudtree looked at Theo with wide eyes before smiling ever so slightly.
“I hope that, yes. Although I am not sure who would want me. I am not good at a lot of things. The cloak you’re wearing, for example.
It carries strong magic that can hide the wearer, maybe do more things on top of that.
But I wouldn’t know. I didn’t even notice until Laurette bid you pull up the hood, and he had it out there on that dining table in his house.
I was looking directly at it. And then, while I could tell that you were…
roommating with a bloodsuck—with someone like that, I didn’t know you hadn’t been thralled.
” He hunched. “And on top of all that, I am not a fighter. In all the ways a Fae should be, I have failed.”
Theo lifted a hand to the hood of his cloak.
“So it is a magic cloak. That’s cool. I wasn’t sure whether he meant it would just make me blend in with the landscape, like camouflage.
Oh, and Peter’s a vampire, that’s the word we use.
In the human realm, you know.” Theo shoved his hand back into his pocket.
“Not all vampires are nice though, so watch which one you pick. If you’re going for a vampire, that is. ”
Cloudtree nodded. “I see. By going for a vampire, you mean ask him to be your roommate rather than come after him or attack him.”
Theo snorted. “Not unless that’s what you’re into, I guess.”
“How did you choose your vampire, then? Is there a trick to it? Did you give him tests to solve? Maybe a riddle?”
“Uh, nope. We ran into each other at work and…” Theo shrugged. “Now I’m here.”
“Ah. That is another reason to find something to labor your days away with. To find work.” Cloudtree looked excited. “What is your work? Perhaps I can do it too?”
Theo looked up at Cloudtree. He was tall and still handsome, even if Faerie had dimmed his shimmer, still had the purple eyes. “I mean, Celeste could probably find something for you to do. Especially after you already cleaned the floor there.”
“Ah! That was work?” Cloudtree frowned. “I thought it would be different.”
Theo couldn’t help himself. He laughed, tension easing from his shoulders. He glanced at the doorway through which Peter, Laurette, Carl, and Getrude had vanished.
“Is this house big? And your other brother, is he—”
“Stepbrother. He might be in the wine cellar. He always did find pleasure there. My mother kept bottles and whole barrels, sweet wines and dry wines, the finest drops from Faerie’s vineyards. He drank it all.”
That bothered Theo. Not because he cared all that much about Cloudtree.
He barely knew Cloudtree. But he was pretty sure that he wasn’t even half as bad as his stepbrothers, and everything he said reinforced that impression.
He knew Peter was willing to fight, but the idea of him going up against an evil, wine-loving Fae sat wrong with Theo.
He’s not alone though. And they can call me if he needs blood. It would be worse if I hadn’t come.
“About your mother, what happened to her? Is she no longer around?” Theo took a few steps toward that doorway, fully aware that Miel’s cold glare was following him.
Cloudtree uncrossed his arms and instead folded his hands in front of him.
“She left. It was when I was very young. She didn’t wish to take me because of my youth, but she and my aunt wanted to leave.
Hence, she sought to wed. And my stepfather, he played the kindly man, competent and mild.
My stepbrothers were good playmates then, sharing their toys with me and letting me partake in their games.
Mother thought I’d be raised well in the ways of Faerie here, but it was not so. When she left, things changed.”
Theo’s mouth fell open. “Are you telling me your mom married some dude and then left you with him? And he turned out to be an asshole?”
Cloudtree blinked. “I…am not certain what an ass hole is? A waterhole for asses to drink at? But yes, she left me. It was well-meant and in accordance with the ways of Faerie. I did not wish to be fostered out, but then I didn’t think my stepfather would ever be—”
A noise from the door interrupted Cloudtree, a key turning in the lock. On the floor, tied-up Miel strained against the ropes and tried shouting, despite his gag.
Theo and Cloudtree looked at each other.
“Shit.” Theo’s head snapped to the doorway. “Come on, run!”
He went the way Peter and the others had gone, half-aware that Cloudtree was behind him and without the faintest idea what lay ahead.