Chapter 9 Reno #2
He got a glass of water from the kitchen then sat down and opened the tub, pulling out a heavy knitted blanket. The cream-colored yarn appeared soft and cozy. He reached in again and produced a pair of knitting needles.
“You knit?” I couldn’t keep the incredulity from my tone.
He looked up, his cheeks darkening a bit. Fuck, I’d embarrassed him.
I waved a hand as if to erase what I’d said. “Not that I think there’s anything wrong with knitting. It’s just... unexpected.”
He made a complicated series of expressions I had no hope of deciphering. “I live out of my van most of the time. I get bored.”
I’d put my foot in it again. “Understandable.” I cleared my throat. “Look, Simon, I wanted to apologize for earlier. I—”
He held a hand up. I was grateful he wasn’t pointing his knitting needle at me. “I don’t want to talk about any of that tonight. I’m too tired. We can talk if you like, but I’m not discussing our connection or our mating. Okay?”
I grimaced. I wanted to apologize, but this wasn’t about me, and I wasn’t a big enough asshole to push it when he’d asked me not to. “Okay.”
He gave an almost inaudible sigh. “I searched the two laptops we found in the house, and they didn't contain anything useful. Mostly games and movies."
“Got it. Thanks for going through them.”
I tabbed through more photos and made notes for my report based on the time stamps.
After a few minutes, I couldn’t stand the silence between us anymore.
I checked the living room to make sure Nicky was occupied with the TV.
Jackson had taken their panther form and had their head in Nicky’s lap.
I cleared my throat. “Can I ask how you tracked down the vampires, um, before? I know you found them here because of the tracking device, but how did you do it when you didn’t even have the internet? ”
He glanced over at the living room as well before answering. “I found Wonders and magic carriers wherever I could and asked if anyone had gone missing recently. It took years to find them, and then if I killed one of them, the rest would run, and I’d have to start the process all over again.”
I sat there with my mouth open, staring at him. “Since World War II? You’ve been traveling solo, chasing those vampires, this whole time?” And I’d been whining all day about how my two years as acting DM had been so awful. I was a fucking tool.
He nodded, looking down at his knitting. Then he made an odd little shrug. “I did stop for a few months in 1992. A friend helped me learn to use computers and do some hacking.” He lifted the blanket. “He’s also the one who taught me to knit.”
A few months? He’d only stayed in one place for a few months? Once? My throat tightened. “Um, he sounds like a good friend.” Was that jealousy in my voice? Fuck me. I glared down at my laptop screen.
“He was.” He put one of his knitting needles down in his lap and touched the silver pendant he wore around his neck. I’d noticed it earlier, but I hadn’t been able to make out what it was.
“He, uh, passed away?”
“Yes.” Simon picked up his knitting again.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” I went back to my report, feeling like the worst asshole who’d ever lived.
After a few more minutes, Simon put his knitting aside and stood up. He went into the garage and came out with a blood bag. Right, Cal had brought a cooler for him this morning. He held up the bag. “Will it bother you if I drink this in front of you?”
I scowled. “Of course not. You need to eat.” I sat up straight. “Wait a minute. Why did you put the blood in the garage fridge? I told you to use the one in the kitchen. There’s plenty of room.”
He paused in the middle of unplugging the toaster. “Most non-vampires don’t want to see bags of blood next to their orange juice.”
I stood up, feeling irrationally angry. “You’re a guest in this house.
In my house. Your needs are just as important as anyone else’s, and fuck them if it makes them uncomfortable.
” I threw down my reading glasses and stomped past the kitchen and into the garage.
Inside the new refrigerator were neat rows of bags filled with blood, each dated and signed with a name.
A couple of them had little messages, like “Enjoy!” or “Hi, Simon!” My chest felt warm, and my eyes prickled.
Blinking rapidly, I filled my arms with the bags and took them into the kitchen.
Simon did a double-take. “What are you doing?”
“Putting these where they belong. Open the fridge, will you?”
He raised his eyebrows but obediently opened the refrigerator door. I put his blood bags on the second shelf, right next to the cans of soda. “There.” I nodded in satisfaction and went back to the table.
“Um, thanks?” Simon gently shut the fridge, then he went back to the counter where he’d plugged in an odd-looking white appliance.
“What’s that?”
“Oh, it’s a bottle warmer.”
I could not have heard him correctly. But yes, Simon poured the blood from the bag into a fucking baby bottle. It had a cap instead of a nipple, but the shape was the same. He put the bottle in the warmer and pressed a button to start the machine.
“Uh, you can’t just microwave it?”
“No. Microwaving doesn’t heat the blood evenly enough, so you can get clotting or the blood cells can burst.”
I made a face. “Got it. The bottle warmer is a great solution.”
“Thanks. It was easy to use when I had to live in my van.” He turned the warmer off and poured the blood from the bottle into a coffee mug.
I worked on my report, pretending not to be hyperaware of him as he rinsed out the bottle and then sat down at the table with his mug. Soon the clicking of his knitting needles started up again.
I cleared my throat. “Um, what hobbies did you have back in the Elven dimension?”
He blinked then smiled wryly. “Mostly training with the other Guards. Fighting, running, climbing, that sort of thing. None of us had much time for leisure activities like this.”
“Hah. I know what that’s like these days. Did you have to leave any family or, uh, loved ones behind?”
He stopped knitting and looked at me. “My parents, their siblings, and a few cousins. I sent letters back with the king.” He frowned down at his blanket.
“Two of my cousins are in the Royal Guard, and I worry for their safety. The luchd-òl fola who stayed on Earth could not have been the only ones.”
“The... what you said, those are the rogue vampires?”
“Yes. It's what I call them at least. It means blood drinkers. The king’s Royal Guards are entirely made up of vampires, as we have the best fighting skills of any of the species. I did not know until Nicky was kidnapped that some had developed a taste for blood from the source.” He lifted his head, and his eyes were dark and sad.
“I never expected any of the Royal Guard would betray us. I was complacent.”
I cocked my head. “Why do you sound like it was your responsibility?”
His lips twisted into an awful smile. “I was the captain of the Royal Guards.”
“Oh.” Oh, fuck. No wonder he’d felt he had to stay to rescue Nicky. “I’m sorry. That must’ve been very difficult to find out. That you’d been betrayed like that I mean.”
“Thank you. What of your family? You said your cousin passed away. Do you have anyone else besides your aunt?”
“No, not anymore. My parents are both gone, and Daniel was my only cousin. It’s just Tia and me.
” I snorted. “Well, and Tucker and Shirley. Tucker and I met in kindergarten. We were the only kids in the school who were part of the campaign, so we bonded pretty quickly. I spent almost as much time at Shirley and Tucker’s house growing up as I did at my own. ”
He smiled. “They seem like good people. I’m glad you have them in your life.” He looked down at his knitting. “Do you have any hobbies?”
“Mostly video games for indoor activities, but my favorite thing is to go kayaking.” I was about to complain about how long it had been since I’d been able to go, but I kept my mouth shut.
My problems were incredibly trivial compared to what Simon had gone through. Not to mention what Nicky had endured.
Simon’s eyes were bright with interest. “I’ve never been kayaking. What do you like about it?”
It took me a moment to respond. No one had ever asked me that before. “Uh, I like to go out on the bay where there aren’t many waves. It’s quiet. It’s a great way to be alone in nature without disturbing anything. I see birds and fish and dolphins all the time.”
He smiled. “It sounds peaceful.”
“Exactly.” And that’s when my mouth decided to keep talking.
“You know, we should take Nicky when he’s got his strength up a bit.
I bet he’d like it, and if his arms got too tired to paddle, we could just tie his kayak to mine.
” Fuck, fuck, fuck. Making plans with Simon was a stupendously bad idea. What the fuck was my brain doing?
Simon’s smile stretched across his entire face. “I think Nicky and I would both enjoy that very much.”
“Okay.” My face was burning with how red it was.
We went back to our respective tasks, but at least the tension between us had cleared.
I snuck glances at Simon every few minutes.
I had no reason to study him, but it was harder not to look.
His auburn hair, even though it was caught up in the bun, gleamed in the light from the overhead fixture, and I had a strong urge to touch it to see how soft it was.
I jerked my eyes back to the laptop. I would’ve liked to have blamed that little fantasy on the mating connection, but that pull hadn’t come from my magical core.
It’d come from my dick. Or at least that’s what I was going with.
No emotions involved. At all. Nothing to do with my learning about Simon’s heroic decision to stay on Earth and his decades-long journey to find Nicky.
Or finding out what a fucking nice guy he was.
Shit, if we’d met under any other circumstances, I’d have been desperate to get him to notice me.
Determinedly, I got back to work. I still had bills to pay after all.
When I finished the written part of my report, I went through my stakeout photos again to decide which to send to my client.
I was tabbing through them, trying to find the one where my client’s wife entered her lover’s apartment building, when my eye caught on something.
“What the fuck?” I clicked on one of the photos.
I’d been across the street, taking pictures of all the windows on the second floor to figure out which one was the lover’s bedroom.
The duo had solved that mystery for me by turning on the bedside lamp, but this shot was taken a few seconds earlier.
It showed the next-door neighbor’s bedroom window, lights on and blinds open to the room inside.
The soothing sound of clicking needles stopped. “What’s the matter?”
“I....” I squinted at the photo. “I’m not sure anything’s the matter, but it’s weird.”
I spun my laptop around and pushed it toward him. Instead of leaning over the table, he set his knitting in the plastic tub and stood up, coming around to stand next to my chair. The faint odor of blood mixed oddly pleasantly with the honeysuckle scent of the body wash I kept in the guest bathroom.
I repositioned the laptop so he could see the screen. “I was on a stakeout the other night. Cheating spouse, nothing unusual. This is the next-door neighbor of her lover.” I tapped the window in question.
He leaned over. “What’s that? A costume?” The silver pendant swung away from his chest. It was a jaguar head with green gemstone eyes. I forced my gaze back to the screen.
The costume was either fabric or leather. A body and a detached head were hanging separately on the closet door.
I zoomed in as much as I could without losing the resolution. Simon leaned closer. “That’s a remarkably good likeness of a gargoyle.”
Grimly, I touched the screen, pointing at the green markings on the head and shoulders. “This coloring is only found in post-adolescent gargoyles, those who are around twenty to thirty years old.”
Simon sank into the chair next to mine. “Do you have any gargoyles in this District?”
“A family of three. The daughter is in her twenties.” We both stared at the screen. “I can’t think of a benign reason for someone to have a costume this detailed and accurate.”
“You’re thinking about the Wonder trafficking.”
“Yep. Have someone stand in a shadow wearing this, and she might go investigate? Or any Wonder would, really.” I ran my hands through my hair and blew out a breath.
“I don’t want to alarm anyone unnecessarily, especially with everything else going on.
I’ll find out who lives in that apartment and make a plan from there. ”
“A reminder not to go anywhere alone wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
I nodded and clicked on my web browser to bring up Discord.
I winced at all the unread posts in both the District server and my private messages.
“I’ll deal with these later.” I didn’t bother scrolling through them.
I posted asking everybody to remember to always have someone with them when in public, and I promised to read all their messages and get back to them as soon as I could.
It was a relief to close the browser.
“That was a lot of messages. They’ve been texting your phone as well?”
I groaned. “Yeah. I responded to most of the texts earlier, but I haven’t touched Discord for a day or so.
” I sighed. “It’s not their fault. Having a connection to a DM, who has DM abilities and can tell when they’re in trouble, is a lot more reassuring than having me as merely a kind of point of contact for relaying any important information. ”
Simon studied me. “You’re holding yourself to the same standards as someone who was born with the magic to do the job?”
I rubbed my forehead and peered at him from underneath my hand. “No. Well, not intellectually. But my gut doesn’t like letting them down. And now this.” I sat up and waved at the laptop. “How the hell can I figure this out when we have two vampires running around putting all the Wonders in danger?”
Simon looked at me like I was missing something obvious.
“What?”
“You don’t have to do everything yourself.
I’m here. I can hack into most systems. If we need to go somewhere in person, we can either leave Nicky and Jackson with the Hunters or we can take them with us.
” He put his hand on my arm and our magics danced together in happiness. “Reno, you’re not alone.”
Oh, shit. I could not get a crush on Simon.