Chapter 10 #2
Trace nodded. “More than you could know.” He tugged at his hair some more. “Can I do anything to make it up to you?”
“Just remember this conversation if you meet someone else who isn’t physically perfect.
Most of us want to be liked and accepted for who we are without having to excuse our supposed faults.
Would it be easier if I could hear better?
Possibly. Probably. But this is who I am.
I’ve actually found being hard of hearing is helpful a lot of the time. ”
“Explain that to me, love?” I couldn’t see how it could be useful. But then again, I had all my senses dialled up to eleven, so maybe I wasn’t the ideal person to understand, or even comment.
James’ grip on my arm tightened. “If people take time to include me, turn to me when they speak, don’t get exasperated when I ask them to repeat what they said, it usually means they’re worth spending my energy on them.
It can save a lot of wasted time.” His voice shook at the end of his speech and I knew he was thinking about the exception to this rule of his, when fucking Cormack had fooled him.
“That makes sense.” Trace rubbed a hand over his chin, his expression a little less bleak now. “I’ve gone through some stuff in my past. You’d have thought it would have made me more aware, but it appears I’m still very much a work in progress. I will do better, James. You can believe that.”
I didn’t know about James but I believed him.
There was something about Trace that told me he was sincere.
I also believed he’d had something challenging in his past. His demeanour was so chill, it felt like a deliberate response to life having placed him at a crossroads — one where he’d made the decision not to spend the rest of it railing against the fates.
It made him an easy person to be around.
Well, when he wasn’t being an ignorant knob over disabilities.
James shifted on the chair and I hauled him onto my lap. He protested for a split second, then exhaled as his back made contact with my chest. It was a reaction I craved.
“What are you thinking?” I asked him.
“That I could have done with meeting more guys like Trace a lot sooner.” He gave a soft huff. “Change the subject. Edwin, this organic slide you were talking about. I have no idea what you mean.”
I grinned at him then, too excited about pulling this off to play it cool.
“Charley is part Fae. He’s got a particular gift for manipulating the elements, especially snow and ice.
So, he’s going to create a stonking big lake of thick ice on the lawn.
Then, we can slide the carriage across and into position. Clever, eh?”
“It’s not manipulation so much as conjuring them out of magic, bringing whatever it is you want from a dimension it’s not currently inhabiting.”
We both gave Trace our full attention. “So what is the difference?” James asked.
“Manipulating water would be moving it from, say, a local river or lake to somewhere else. Like a mage does. Their magic uses what’s there but channels it to do their bidding.”
“And Fae use magic they bring from another realm?” I loved watching James’ enthusiasm for this new-to-him topic. He leaned nearer to Trace, his body language expectant. “It’s, like, literally magic. Like storybook magic?”
“You sound like you’re ten,” I groused, mostly faking my ennui because he was charming when he managed to get out of his own head and focus on something unrelated to the dark time before we eliminated the Cormack problem.
“You’re salty because he’s interested and you should already know the difference,” Trace quipped, the light in his eyes a teasing one.
He smiled at James. “Doesn’t any magic you’re not familiar with feel like it’s been made up?
I’m a witch. My magic is different again, but it’s no less real, even though you might be inclined to think it’s boring when compared to that of a mage or a Fae.
But yes, to answer your question, I suppose the Fae do conjure their magic from another realm, if that’s a concept you can wrap your head around.
It’s not exactly that, because it’s also part of—” He stumbled over his words, cleared his throat and started again.
“It’s part of who a Fae is, their magic.
It works wherever they are, unless hindered by iron, or a very strong spell cast by another.
“Wow.” James frowned. “None of it’s boring at all. It’s just…a lot. For some reason I have more problems accepting magic is real than knowing grown men turn into wolves.”
“Or vampires,” I said. “Although, you could argue shifters and vampires are just magic contained in bodies.”
He scoffed, peering back at me. “True, about the magic I guess. But you’re still a man, Edwin. You just have a fucked-up sleeping pattern and a restricted diet these days. You’re not conjuring snowstorms out of your arse or turning into a monster.”
I swallowed. How could he be so benevolent towards me, towards vampires in general, after what he’d been through? I dropped my head onto his shoulder again. “You’re too good for me, love.”
“Maybe he is, but perhaps not. Did you ever think that if we stop to listen, to listen to the universe and not our immediate, basest desires, that we are drawn to what we need rather than what we want?” Trace looked pensive.
“Just because you’ve spent the years since your turning enjoying a hedonistic lifestyle, it doesn’t automatically follow that it’s been what’s best for you.
Maybe James is exactly right for you, and you for him.
” He sounded wistful, but when I caught his eye, his expression was deceptively bland.
I wondered just how much his quip during the Council meeting last month about people being put off by his ‘ugly mug’ covered up a wandering soul looking for its partner.
James, however, wasn’t interested in nuances of mood. “How many vampires will you need to move a railway carriage?” he demanded, his tone hungry.
“Dalziel said he’ll bring Hector and Stephen, as well as Charley and Luc, both of whom are pretty strong.
Then there’ll be me, and Baxter of course.
That should be enough. He said he won’t ask Sorley and Gethin as they’re still too busy making everyone within a fifty-mile radius uncomfortable with their honeymoon fucking.
” I pulled a face. “Which is a relief. The pheromones coming from those two is a lot.”
“I could help,” Trace said. “As could Isher.” His expression twisted for a second, then he laughed softly. “Mind you, we’d be like children in terms of what we could offer compared to vampires.”
“Can I help?” James was practically vibrating. As I said, “I don’t think you should,” Trace said, “I don’t see why not.”
I glared at Trace. “I don’t want James involved. He’s human. Humans can break.” I almost lost him before I knew he was destined to be mine.
Where did that come from?