Chapter 24 Theo
Theo
Ten days later.
Theo did not feel sure about this at all.
“Isn’t it weird to take you to dinner?” he asked Peter.
Peter, dressed in slacks and a short-sleeved shirt that showed off those nice arm muscles, reached for Theo’s hand and walked ahead of him toward the door of the suburban-looking house. “Of course it’s weird, Theodore. That’s what makes it fun.”
Before he could so much as voice another complaint, Peter was ringing the doorbell.
About two second later, a blond guy with curly hair and a T-shirt that said “This librarian is taken” opened the door.
The shirt showed the cover and spine of a large book with a person barely visible behind it. Theo liked it.
“You must be Theo!” said the guy Theo guessed was Corvin, Mike’s soon-to-be husband. Corvin went in for a hug, the over-enthusiastic kind.
“Yeah, hi.”
Corvin pulled back and stood aside to let them in.
“Hi, Peter. Come on in.”
“Corvin, so good to see you,” Peter said as they all filed into the house. “I hear you are busy deciding on a cake.”
Corvin waved that off. “Dark cherries and chocolate. Mike said everyone would love that.”
“Did he?” Peter pulled Theo against his side.
“Peter, Theo,” said Mike, leaning out from an open door on the right, “don’t just stand there. Come inside.”
Mike appeared decidedly less like a lawyer during his time off. Where Peter seemed incapable of getting rid of his button-up shirts and nice pants, Mike had donned jeans and a T-shirt. Nothing as flashy as Corvin’s though.
Corvin pulled Theo aside while Peter followed Mike through to the living room.
“So how did you meet Peter the Terrible?” Corvin asked, his voice low and his head close to Theo’s ear. He pulled Theo into the kitchen. Food was laid out on the counter, but Corvin ignored that and went for a bottle of wine.
“Oh, well, you know,” Theo said.
Corvin waited for a heartbeat, then poured Theo a glass of wine and handed it over. “To lawyers,” he said, holding up his glass for a toast.
“Well, excuse me, honey, but you are not toasting to all of us in general,” Mike said as he came into the kitchen. “Not that I can see a reason why you’re drinking instead of carrying the food in.” He stacked serving plates onto his arms like a waiter.
“I’m making sure our guest likes the wine, Mike.” Corvin took a plate with a few sliced cucumbers. “And see? I’m helping.”
Mike groaned and shook his head, but the way he was smiling told Theo how in love he was.
“I can help,” Theo said, moving to put his glass down.
“Help by telling me whether you like the wine,” Corvin said as Mike headed off with the food. Corvin put the cucumbers back down.
Theo shrugged and took a sip. He wasn’t really much of a drinker and lacked the developed taste buds necessary to judge the wine, but it was nice enough. It tasted of hot summer evenings…and freedom.
“I like it.”
Corvin grinned. “Good. So how’d you two meet?
Did he compel you so he could drink your blood?
Then the compulsion didn’t really take because you fell in love?
And you couldn’t sleep and had to seek him out, wandering all over New Elvenswood every night until someone tried to mug you, and then Peter showed up and saved you?
Because he couldn’t get you out of his head either? ”
“That’s, uhm…not too far from the truth, I guess. He ran into me at the university library.”
“Oh! I work there! In the archives, mostly. Are you a student?”
“English Lit and Film Studies.”
Corvin’s eyes widened in surprised pleasure. “Awesome! We need to get lunch together sometime. Exchange all the goss.” Corvin leaned in. “There are stories I can tell you about Peter…”
“Uhm, sure,” Theo said as Corvin started dragging him to the living room while Mike made a second run to move all the food over.
“Couldn’t even remember those cucumbers, could you?” Mike stopped Corvin by pulling him forward and into a kiss by the shirt.
“I should make a lewd remark about how I only care about your cucumber, but since we have company, I won’t,” Corvin said.
Theo watched them bask in each other’s gaze. It was…different from how it had been before when he’d seen couples happy. I have this too now. I’m not longing for it anymore, I’m just happy.
In the living room, Peter sat on the couch, a drink of what looked like scotch in his hand and a smile playing around the corners of his lips. Theo sat down next to him.
Corvin sauntered in and sat on the two-seater opposite. “Mike said you had a bit of trouble with an ex as well. The two of you should join a club or something.”
“What?” Theo asked.
Mike brought in the last of the plates and set them on the table. Theo found himself salivating a bit over the salads and the flaky pastry stuffed with something that smelled delicious.
The siren cleared his throat. “Well, I didn’t tell you the whole story, Theo, but I was dating a necromancer for while—”
“And I told Michael that was a bad idea,” Peter said.
Mike rolled his eyes. “Well, yeah. It was. What I didn’t mention was that Corvin and I had been dating for about less than a year when my ex decided he wanted me back.”
“Dead or alive,” Corvin added. He was putting food on a plate, and he gestured to ask what all Theo wanted, then handed it to him.
“I suggest you never spend prolonged periods of time with or near necromancers, Theodore. They have trouble understanding that death has boundaries,” Peter said.
“What’s that mean?” Theo bit into the stuffed pastry. Spinach and tomatoes, it turned out, and decidedly delish.
Mike and Corvin started eating as well, but Corvin took the time to answer between bites. “Means they are apparently a homicidal bunch. Cannot recommend. Also, zombies. Fun in the movies, but so disgusting in real life.”
Theo stopped chewing and looked at Corvin. “You had…a zombie apocalypse?” he said around a mouthful of food.
“You didn’t tell him the whole story?” Mike asked Peter.
Peter shrugged. “What was there to tell? Your ex raised a few corpses, made a few zombies, and sent them after us when the actual objective was to get away from skyclad Wiccans.”
“You watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers with me, but you didn’t tell me the zombie apocalypse is a real fucking thing I should be worried about?” Theo said, staring at Peter.
Peter finished half his drink. “It’s not, because it would require a necromancer to constantly feed energy into them, but yes, zombie bites fester. They can be quite annoying. Nothing you need to worry about though, dearest.”
Mike snorted. “Yeah, they’re also lethal if you aren’t a vampire.”
Peter shrugged and put an arm around Theo. “It’s simply a matter of how to handle them, Theodore. Zombies are nothing to get worked up over.”
Corvin snorted. “Yeah, no. There’s plenty of reason to get worked up over them. Peter there even did some heroing no one saw when he pulled us out of the water.”
Peter sighed. “The resort couldn’t save my shirt after all, but I would do it again.”
“Sorry about your shirt,” Theo said.
“Thank you. It was a nice shirt.” Peter kissed his cheek.
Mike giggled. “Let me guess, you agree that your own boyfriend problem is—and I quote—satisfyingly solved?” Mike asked Peter.
“Michael, I said permanently, not satisfyingly. I hope you will remember your wedding vows better,” Peter said.
Corvin nodded. “Maybe I should get those in writing, hmm? Have Peter look them over and get you to sign over your soul to me.”
Mike looked at his fiancé. “If souls were real, honey, you’d have mine already.”
Peter leaned in and watched as the two men kissed, and Theo relaxed against his lover’s side.
“This was fun,” Theo said as they walked back to the car.
Peter reached for Theo’s hand. “It was, and I cannot tell you how glad I am that you and Corvin hit it off.”
“I guess we did. Never thought I’d befriend a librarian.”
Peter was still smiling his slightly creepy smile when they got into the car and pulled away from the house.
“Where are we going?” Theo asked when Peter had taken two wrong turns in a row.
“Since you’re no longer working nights, I’m taking you to have some fluffy, touristy fun.”
“You what? I’m almost drunk, Peter.”
“You finished a single glass of wine. I have every confidence you’ll be fine. And if you aren’t, I’ll be there to sling you over my shoulder and carry you home.” Peter cleared his throat. “Viking style.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“Peter…”
“Theodore, dearest, I said nothing. You’re almost drunk. It was a liquor-induced hallucination.”
Theo scowled. Peter ignored him.
Eventually, they pulled into the same, still very empty lot they’d parked in the night they’d come here to lure Bernard out. Theo wanted to not feel anything, but the memory of that night still made his heart beat faster and his skin slick with a sheen of sweat.
“I’m here, Theodore.” Peter reached over to take his hand.
He’s said the same thing every time I’ve woken up in the middle of the night ever since that day. Theo dreamed of shadows, but Peter had reliably made them vanish.
“I know.”
Peter nodded. His hair looked silver in the near darkness.
“Ready to go for a walk?”
Theo nodded and got out of the car. Much like that night, Peter appeared at his side and interlaced his fingers with Theo’s.
The park loomed darkly, but once Theo’s fear abated, the trees and bushes and winding paths appeared less threatening and more enchanted.
Magical. The light sculptures they passed helped.
Peter walked them down a different path than the one they’d taken when Bernard had been after them, so before long, they were passing sculptures they hadn’t seen before.
Cute round bunnies shimmered among the trees, accompanied by fluffy, imaginary creatures with wings and huge round eyes. On another lake, shimmering paper boats floated—small ones to carry dreams and wishes, and large ones big enough to carry a person.
When music drifted through the darkness, Theo stopped.
“What’s this?”