Chapter 7

Chapter

Seven

H awk wandered in Cosmo's part of the house.

They'd had breakfast. TV and snacks. He liked Funyuns. They tasted like onions, but dry and strange.

He also liked the sweet and salty nuts. Where he'd lived, there had been hazelnuts. So fresh.

When he'd told Cosmo that, Cosmo had made him a coffee with hazelnut-flavored syrup…

But now Cosmo was with his brothers, who had insisted on some sort of family meeting. So he started in the tower, just seeing what parts of his house had carried over.

The tower room was obviously, where Cosmo had spent most of his time, and in the restroom, which had been…modernized and made glorious.

Bathing with a lover was proving to be stunning.

The walls were draped with silken scarves woven with patterns of every color of pink and red and blue that he could imagine.

There were dozens and dozens of tiny strings with crystals in them to sparkle when the light hit. The bed was his, of course, and he remembered it fondly.

But the blankets and the pillows and the curtains? Those were all his Rose.

Someone liked his creature comforts.

He stared at the big wardrobe that was in the corner. He remembered that as well. The wardrobe held clothes.

He stared at it.

That wardrobe held clothes. His clothes. He needed comfortable clothes.

He stared, and he could feel lava bubbling up inside of his belly.

The magic waited, right there.

"I need clothes," he whispered, and the wardrobe seemed to tremble in the space where it was sitting.

"I need clothes," he said, just a little louder.

He could feel the magic in this place waking up. Or maybe it was him that was waking up. It didn't matter. He could feel it rumbling from deep within the mountain, and all he had to do was reach for it.

"I need clothes," he roared, the house shaking, and the wardrobe door popped open. Spilling dozens and dozens of sweaters and T-shirts and soft, comfortable pants and hats and scarves.

And boots and slippers—oh, he'd loved slippers—came pouring out.

That was better.

Cosmo came running in. "What the hell was that?"

Cosmo caught sight of the clothing and gasped. "Look what you did!"

There was something glorious about the utter joy his rose took in everything.

No amount of magic frightened him.

It was as if the universe had offered him someone who simply accepted the oddness that was him.

"I needed clothes," he explained. "This seemed easier than asking a warrior princess to deliver them."

Cosmo blinked at him, tilted his head. "Obviously. Yes. Shall we sort through them? You do like red and black, don't you? I think it suits you." Cosmo brought him a bright red sweater that was so warm and squishy that he wanted to touch it for hours. "It's probably too warm to wear this right now, but excellent choice."

"I can wear it. I'm warm all the time anyway." He pulled off the borrowed shirt he wore and slipped on the sweater. He might just pet it all day. "Now pants? And a pair of slippers, please. You choose."

Cosmo laughed so easily. "Of course. Hmm. There are these black pants. Look at them. So sweet. And here are socks and the perfect slippers for exploring."

Oh, yes. He took what he was offered, wallowing a little in Cosmo's care.

"Would you like me to brush your hair?" Cosmo asked, so casual.

Hawk thought he might die. Simply expire. Just slump to the bed like a fairy-tale princess in a deep sleep.

Or explode with utter joy. Poof and he would be gone.

"Would you mind?"

He wore his ebony hair in long braids because, while he did keep it clean, brushing it was just an enormous hassle.

The thought of Cosmo caring enough to tend to him in this way? Made Hawk a little dizzy.

"Of course I wouldn't mind. Let me go get the oil and the brush." Cosmo scampered off like he was eager to do this chore.

Hawk sat on the bed, legs crossed as he waited almost breathlessly for his lover to come back out.

When he did, Cosmo brought a huge round wooden hairbrush with fine bristles, along with a comb and a tiny crystalline bottle of oil. "We use this on our hair. It keeps it supple. Yours obviously needs some love, but it's a beautiful color. I always wanted black hair. I dyed mine once, you know. It was a disaster, trust me. Black and pink—not a natural combination. It was kind of great, but not natural."

He couldn't imagine. Cosmo's hair was perfect as it was. "Where do you want me?"

"You can just sit right there, wherever you're comfortable. I'll kneel behind you."

He stayed where he was, and Cosmo climbed up on the bed behind him, settling in to remove one of the dozens of braids that he had controlling his wild mane.

"This is going to be fun."

Hawk chuckled softly. "No, this is going to be arousing."

"Oh, naughty dragon." Cosmo petted him, hands on his back, his hair. He hummed. It was just the best feeling, having Cosmo care for him. He loved the feel of Cosmo's fingers sorting out all the strands of his hair.

"I can be naughty, I suppose." But this wasn't so much about that.

"There's a time and a place for naughty," Cosmo agreed. "But this is more basic, more necessary, I think." Cosmo hummed as he worked, fingers incredibly gentle. "You did a lovely job creating your clothes."

"Thank you." Hawk thought so too. It was satisfying to know that the magic had responded so easily. He was a touch rusty.

Possibly quite a bit rusty.

"It's been a long time since I had to use it—the magic—and when I woke up, it felt as if it was very far away."

"Well, your heart was all the way across the country. I mean, I'm assuming it's here, since your magic is working."

Hawk nodded, because he had no doubt. "It's here."

He wasn't sure exactly where, but then again, he really hadn't done more than stay up here in the tower room.

Naked.

In bed.

Perhaps it would be wise at some point to go down and speak to Cosmo's brothers again and explain himself.

Let them know that while he was not in any way stealing their brother, he also intended not to go anywhere without him. Even if that meant just staying in here.

He thought they might let him use other parts of the house, however. They were reasonable types, if worried about their brother. He smiled. How could he blame them? It wasn't every day that an old dragon such as himself showed?—

"Ow."

"Sorry, love." Cosmo kissed his head. "Bad tangle there, but I got it. What are you thinking about so hard?"

Hawk shrugged. "About going downstairs."

"Oh." Cosmo slowly worked out another tangle. "That seems reasonable. We could all have supper together, especially now that you have clothes. It's important to have your own things so that you feel comfortable."

Hawk didn't point out that most of the things in this house were his things. Not all of them, of course.

Some of them were Cosmo's, some of them were just totally unfamiliar to both of them.

He assumed that meant they belonged to the poor dragons who had been killed.

"I don't think so, love." Cosmo shook his head. "I'm not sure that this house was here when Myk lived here. I'm pretty sure that that's the part of the house that Corbin's in."

"So…how many houses are here?" And why? Hawk couldn't figure out why on earth, when there was actually space to be had, that his home would become amalgamated with another.

"We think three, but it could possibly be four." Cosmo started on another braid. "It could be as much as five, if you count the fact that Myk's family possibly had three that were one."

"What?" Hawk wasn't following.

"Okay, so there were three dragons—Myk and his brothers, and they had mates. Not Myk, but the brothers. Then there were babies—again, not Myk, but the brothers. And they each had a place in the house that was theirs, and I don't know if it was just one house or if it was three houses made one." Cosmo took a deep, deep breath. "Because I do know that Myk moved to Tyson's house, which was actually one house, but it kept growing, and now it's basically three separate houses plus this amazing place for children at the bottom."

"And this is on the other side of the veil?"

Cosmo kissed the top of his head again. "Yes."

"And did it start that way?" he asked, trying to get a handle on this.

"No. It started in Estes, in the mountain, and then it kind of mooched across the veil."

"The house."

"And the mountain, I think."

Hawk was developing a headache. "All right. Back to the original question. This house. It was just mine. It was in California."

"Right. Except that this is not California. This is Colorado, and this is in the mountains."

Hawk might have to kill him. "Yes, love, but…" Hawk took a deep breath. Let it out. "So, this house. Did it look like this when Myk and the brothers had it?"

"Oh excellent question! Good job! I know this one." Cosmo waved his hand, and the brush went flying. It had a little bit of his hair with it and that hurt. He was kind of stunned, but he didn't say anything because Cosmo was having a moment, and Hawk didn't want to interrupt him. "So if you look at this house from the other side, it looks just like Myk's house, but if you look at this house from this side… Like if you go outside here and look up, then there's the tower room. There's no tower room on the other side!"

"Hmm. Well, that's interesting."

"I thought so. I mean, it keeps changing. But not on the side that Myk can see. Maybe it would hurt him for it to be all different."

"The brush, love."

"Oh, whoops." Cosmo retrieved it. "Anyway, I think we each got a little of the house that we wanted, if you get me."

"So you wanted my house?" He was trying to wrap his mind around it. Perhaps something in him had called to Cosmo, and Cosmo had finally heard it.

Cosmo got quiet, and Hawk turned to look at him. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, I mean. It is something but…" Cosmo sighed. "I mean, you're going to figure it out eventually, I'm sure. But I wanted… I wanted a part of the house that…that wasn't sad all the time. It didn't have all the blood and the bad memories from before. The vampires did terrible things. I can't even go in the basement."

"But it's over now," he pointed out, and Cosmo shrugged, obviously embarrassed.

"That doesn't matter. I have problems with that sort of thing. I see things, you know, and sometimes, if there's too much, I just… It gets ugly."

"A seer, of course. That makes a lot of sense," he told Cosmo. "I totally understand what you're saying. The echoes of all of that must be incredibly loud."

"So you're not freaked out?" Cosmo asked.

"Why should I be? Having a seer around is not the strangest thing I have seen in the last millennia."

He received an icy look. "Right. You must have seen lots of things that make me seem just…average. Normal."

And now he'd hurt Cosmo's feelings. He gathered his lover in close to try to rectify that. "Of course you're not normal or average. You're mine, and you're amazing. I'm not worried about you being a seer. We all have our talents."

"I just wish mine was cooler. The boys both have neat ones. Mine is relatively pointless. It shows me things that happened. It shows me things that might happen, but it's not particularly useful. Like, I don't know when something bad is going to happen, or even if it is bad because I've had a vision of you, and it was scary because I didn't know who you were. I just knew that it wasn't as if my brain said ‘oh look, your mate is coming, and it's going to be amazing'. No, it was all like ‘boo, big scary dragon. Everybody run! Fire, fire!' See it's useless."

"It's not useless. Such magic never is." He shook his head firmly. "You are amazing. And the gift of sight is often clouded with difficulty. I suppose it's a give and take…" He pondered that, then shrugged. "But here I am, and not a ‘boo' in sight."

Cosmo nodded. "No. No, you're not a boo. You're a…"

He got a long, lazy glance, and Cosmo licked his lips.

"Mmmhmm. We're supposed to dine with your brothers, which we will not manage if you continue to look at me that way." He did enjoy how Cosmo liked sex.

How could he not? Hawk loved sex with Cosmo too.

"Yeah. No fair. Still, I think you need to meet the brothers on a more equal level. They're going to like you." Cosmo didn't sound particularly worried, which was handy.

Not that it mattered. Cosmo was his, and he wasn't going anywhere, and so the other two had no choice but to learn to deal with him.

Just as he had no choice but to learn to deal with them. It was a give and take situation.

"Are the clothes that I have on suitable for dinner with your family?"

"Whatever clothes make you feel happy and comfortable are appropriate clothes. We're not fancy. Trust me." Cosmo ran the brush through his hair, and Hawk's eyes crossed. "Now my mother, she's fancy."

"Oh?" Hawk was fascinated to hear. He had met a few fae in his life, but he'd never gotten to know any personally.

"Yes, flowers are her talent, and so her home is a bower, and every meal is blossoms and tea cakes. Every so often you just want to dig into a huge steak and tear it apart with your teeth."

Why did that sound so sexual?

"Does she not partake of meat?"

"Only when she's grumpy." Cosmo began to braid his hair into a single, long tail. "Dad, however, he's kind of a carnivore. He tends to wander out when he needs something amazing. He gorges on brisket and steak and burgers and chicken until he's full. Then he'll wander back home, take a two-month-long nap, and then wake up renewed for quite a while."

Parents. How interesting to have a mate with parents. Especially ones that he could possibly see, interact with. He assumed that some of his former lovers had had parents. It just had never come up. He wasn't sure that he had parents, and if he did, they were probably sound asleep at this point.

So he would just meet Cosmo's family and assimilate into them. He hoped.

"There we go." Cosmo patted his braid. "All set."

"Thank you, love."

"You're welcome. We'll take a shower tonight and I'll wash it for you. I love the color."

"Oh, yes, please. Is there anywhere to swim nearby?"

"There are rivers, but they're cold. My brother says that there are natural heated springs down inside the mountain though. He says he can smell them, so this winter, we're going to go find them."

"Oh, so you're going spelunking then?" That actually sounded like fun. He could help with that.

"I guess we are. I just think the idea of having somewhere safe to float—safe enough for four dragons to float? It's important. We just have to hunt it. That's not my gift."

"You're not a dowser, are you?"

"I don't think so. Seems like it would very much be Corbin's job. Not mine."

"Hmm." He thought about that. If it was a natural spring, heated by geothermal energy, he ought to be able to find it. Hawk had a real feeling for that kind of thing buried deep in the earth. He was drawn to magma…

Could be because he could spit lava, but who knew? Hawk didn't question such things as the talent given to each dragon. Eventually it would end up being just what they needed it to be.

Cosmo sighed, pecking a kiss on the back of his neck before climbing off the bed. "We ought to go make nice."

"I'm ready. This is going to be fun." Hawk had made up his mind. He was not going to fight with Cosmo's brothers.

He was going to become family.

Dammit.