Chapter Four
Neith
Heads will fucking roll.
In the literal sense.
Protocol and laws be fucking damned. I’m reasonably certain that, thanks to Ty’s link to Pete, he won’t mind if I murder someone who murdered him.
“You’ve got your ‘I’m going to kill something’ face on,” Coen announces. “Should we be worried?”
I shrug, “Just thinking of hypotheticals.” My phone buzzes, so I change the subject, “Kar said he’s working on it now, and he’ll let me know. He said the location he did have for him is no longer relevant, so he needs to find him again.”
“Alright, well, it’s late. We’ve had a long day, and we’re going to have an even longer one tomorrow from the looks of it, so I think we should all head up to bed,” Van suggests, closing the discussion before it can go on for any longer, and honestly, it probably would have lasted all night if he hadn’t stopped it.
“I’m with Neith,” River and Coen say at the same time, and then grin at each other and high-five.
I burst out laughing, “That works for me.”
“That will free up a bit of space in the other rooms, too. It’s going to be slightly strange sharing a room like we did back at the academy,” Raiden says.
Griff grins, “I know we shared when we came here last time, but we weren’t here for that long, this time we’re going to be here for who knows how long. It’s going to be . . .”
“Interesting is the word that you’re searching for,” Doc smirks.
“It will be fine. We’ll make it work, we’ve shared spaces a lot smaller than this before,” Van replies, as everyone starts to pick up their bags from where we dumped them.
“Erm, guys, I don’t think that we’re going to have to bunk together,” Reed calls from the top of the stairs.
“What do you mean? House doesn’t have enough bedrooms for all of us,” I reply as I jog up the stairs with the rest of the guys. “Oh, I stand corrected. House didn’t have enough rooms for all of us.”
“How?” River asks in shock.
“Wait a minute, there are more rooms than we need,” Doc says as he counts them again, but this time out loud so the rest of us can hear him count too. “Ten. There are ten rooms.”
“So there’s a room for each of us and two spare ones,” Griff says with a slight frown.
“House must be expecting us to have guests regularly,” Raiden suggests with a shrug.
River grins, “Probably. Hey, do you reckon that House has given us particular rooms, or do you think that it’s a pick any room kind of thing?”
All of the doors in the hallway start banging, and the guys look at me in question. I raise my eyebrow, “I’m not sure what that means if I’m honest.”
“House, open the doors if we each have individual rooms,” Doc asks, and the doors open. “Oh, that’s really cool. Thank you.”
“Hey, House, do I have one?” Coen asks, trying to sound nonchalant, but there's a thread of worry hiding in his tone, which makes my heart hurt.
All of the doors in the hallway shut apart from one.
Reed smiles and claps Coen on the shoulder, “I guess that one's yours.”
“Let’s go and check it out,” River says excitedly as he nudges Coen to get him moving.
“Thank you, House,” Coen grins as we all follow him down the hallway to his room.
“Wow,” Griff mutters as we all step inside. “You definitely couldn’t say that House isn’t way more magical than it appears. This is incredible.”
“I’ll say. This looks like a completely different house,” Raiden says as he looks around in awe.
It’s huge in here, mostly because the back of the room has windows that are big enough that Coen could fly through as his dragon, complete with a balcony outside.
There’s a big four-poster bed, which, quite frankly, we could all fit on with ease if we wanted to, a seating area near the huge fireplace, and a gigantic TV with game consoles.
There are three doors leading off the main room.
Two lead to the expected rooms, a giant bathroom with a sunken tub and a waterfall shower over the top, and a massive walk-in wardrobe.
The third door, however, leads to something that makes me want to simultaneously hug House and ask it thousands of questions because how?
“My hoard,” Coen mutters, his voice hitching. It’s been years since he’s seen his hoard. The last time he saw it was at the keep, and Kylen didn’t allow him to go back there.
“Wow, dude. There are some extremely rare weapons in here,” Ransom compliments as he looks around the weapons room, which is quite frankly bigger than the bathroom and walk-in wardrobe put together, and neither of those were exactly small.
“How is it here?” Van asks.
I shrug, “It’s House. It’s magic, and clearly a lot more powerful than I thought it was.”
I know it isn’t much of an explanation, but it’s the best that I’ve got right now.
“It’s amazing,” Coen smiles. “Thank you, House.”
The fire blazes to life, and the huge shutters covering the windows open and close in what I’m assuming is House’s excitement that Coen likes his room.
“Come on, I want to see the other rooms,” Doc says excitedly.
“Alright, you’re next then,” I grin as we all step out into the hallway. “House, which one is Doc’s room?”
A door further down the hallway opens, and Doc heads toward it without any hesitation at all.
When he steps inside, his smile is huge, “It’s perfect.”
Doc’s room is the epitome of comfort. Thick, soft carpet, a huge bed, with a thick comforter. It’s all done in earthy tones that are calming as hell, at least in my opinion they are. Although I suppose that hell isn’t exactly calming, so perhaps I should have used a different word to describe it.
His room, while it doesn’t have anything as outwardly obvious that makes it his, like Coen’s does, is made perfectly for him. It's designed to get him to relax. Something that he doesn’t find easy to do.
“I have to admit, I’m really glad there’s not an autopsy table or something in here,” River jokes, making the rest of us laugh as well.
Doc grins, “No, I think that would be the opposite of what House is trying to get me to do.”
“Agreed. I think that somehow, House knows that you get stuck into your work and struggle to relax, so he’s created you the most relaxing space he can,” Van agrees.
“Dude, you’ve got a huge jacuzzi tub in here, I’m coming to steal that,” Reed says, as he looks through one of the two doors that are in here.
“Anytime,” Doc replies with a smile.
“Mine next!” River practically yells as he bounces out of the door.
I follow him with a huge smile on my face. River’s enthusiasm is always contagious.
River’s room is exactly what I expected it to be.
It’s as big as the others, but it’s got climbing walls and what looks like a tree and branches spreading across the ceiling, that he can run, jump, and hang off.
His bed is round and on the floor, with so many pillows and blankets that it looks awesomely comfy.
His room is basically full of things that help with his restlessness and need to move.
Within moments, he’s shifted and is running up the trunk, jumping from branch to branch before he shifts again and ends up hanging upside down from one of them.
“This is so fucking cool. Thank you, House!” He says, grinning from ear to ear.
The rooms here are so big. There is no way that they would fit inside a normal house.
Magic is making the space bigger without affecting the outside proportions of the house.
I’m assuming that it’s kind of like the pocket realm where the supernatural in the basement, I think he’s called Zephyr, lives.
I would be very surprised if House has made small pocket realms for each room though, that would require an insane amount of magic, and it’s obvious that he’s already expended a lot of magic to renovate the house as it is.
Like crazy amounts.
I get the feeling that what we’re seeing right now is only a small portion of what House has done since we were last here.
I can’t wait to see what else House has managed to do.
The next room that we go into is Van’s, and once again, House has nailed it.
It’s tranquil and calm, all different kinds of blues and browns, and he has a pool that looks like it's been carved out of rock, complete with a small waterfall, and by small I mean that the ceiling is at least twenty foot tall in here and the waterfall starts at the ceiling, so it’s not really that small after all.
There are plants and moss and all sorts of natural features covering the waterfall and the pool at the bottom.
It really does look like it has always been here and will be the perfect place for Van to charge his magic.
By far, Van’s room looks like the most magical room that we’ve seen.
“House is really managing to nail your personalities,” I grin.
It makes my heart happy that House so obviously approves of the guys, and that he clearly thinks that the guys and I are a permanent thing, enough to make them rooms.
It probably means more than it should.
We head back out into the hallway and to Ransom’s room.
His room looks fairly normal compared to the others. Its color scheme is dark red and black. He’s got dark wood floors with big, thick rugs, and shelves of curiosities that he immediately gravitates toward.
Just like with Coen’s room though, there are three doors leading off it.
“You’ve got three doors like me,” Coen points out as he notices the same thing that I do.
“Open it!” River exclaims and then winces, “Sorry, that was really loud. I’m excited. It’s like Christmas. Except it's so much better. We’ve all been given amazing rooms that are made just for us and are perfect for us.”
“It makes this place feel like ours,” Griff says. “More than the other place, and we’ve lived there for years.”
My smile is huge as they all nod and voice their agreements. I love that they love House and Ethel as much as I do.