6. Good Baby Boy?

O ctavius picked up his suit trunk by the handle and started down the right side of Scarlett’s doubled, curving staircase.

Cormac followed closely behind him, the werewolf still complaining. “My own brOTHER, and dear COWORKERS and FRIENDS, are abandoning me, to go on vacation?! Why am I stuck here, going off to work a case alone?!”

The brother in question, who was standing beside their shiny new black Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, holding Princess Sprinkle, smirked at the accusation. “Sucks to suck?”

Cormac let out a growl that just had Theo laughing, before the younger werewolf rushed ahead of Octavius, blocking his way as he reached the bottom of the steps. “What’s your excuse?!”

The taller man glared down at him through his delicate gold-rimmed glasses, his sculpted jaw clenched. Octavius…had to say, he wasn’t finding the werewolf too impressive in his sleep pants and hoodie… Not to mention the crusties in the corner of his amber eyes.

In fact, his deep brown skin looked to have some sort of goop on it, from a sleeping mask of some kind, and the wolf’s black curls were a mess, his faded sides looking as if they needed a trim. And if the werewolf wasn’t impressing him, he definitely wouldn’t be impressive to Henry.

“You need a haircut. Also, did you just decide to…not shower this morning?”

Cormac sputtered. “I-it’s 6am! I-I JUST WOKE UP!”

“You have crusties in your eyes,” Octavius snorted. “Either way, you’re not going off on a case alone.”

The man wiped at his eyes, before blinking with a start, as if what he’d said finally registered. “I’m not?”

“No, you are going with me,” Henry drawled, as he jumped out of the back of the van behind Cormac.

Back to wearing his old pirate-like clothing, his youngest fledgling’s beard and mustache were as trimmed as always, but his white-streaked black hair, which was pulled back in a low, loose ponytail, happened to be well past his shoulders now. Going by the looks the young werewolf had given the older-looking vampire since the changes, Octavius could only assume he appreciated both the style change and longer hair.

Cormac spun towards his fledgling, before looking back at Octavius with a brow raised in question.

He smirked, and even though he knew the answer, he asked, “Complaints?”

“Not a one! I’ll do it!” the wolf said cheerfully now.

“That’s what I thought.”

Henry snorted as he walked past Cormac and took Octavius’ trunk. “I’ll pack this while you say goodbye to Bubby. Lilah will be here soon.”

“Right!” he cried. He had to say goodbye to his baby! He spun around, rushing back inside.

He came to a screeching stop in the foyer, as he found Turney there, holding a small fish tank with Bubby in it.

“Stop it, Bubby!” Turney complained, as the naughty fish spat a bubble out of the tank, right in his face.

“Bubby, be nice to Turney!” he chastised.

The blowfish stopped shooting off gobs of water, and spun in his tank on noticing him. As Octavius trailed his fingers in the water, he giggled as Bubby kissed his hand. “Awww, who’s my good baby boy!”

Bubby swam around in circles a few times.

When Turney snorted, Octavius looked at him with a brow raised, and that was when he noticed that the zombie’s face and hair, and the neckline of his light-pink and white striped sweater, was…very, very damp… Soaked, he’d even say… “Oh…bad…baby boy.”

“Yeah…” Turney sighed, as he wiped at his face with his free hand.

He pursed his lips. “We will…just have to work on you two bonding when we get back.”

His gaze flicked down to Bubby, and he let the fish kiss his fingers a few more times, before taking his hand out of the water. Pulling his handkerchief from his waistcoat pocket, he wiped his hands off before tucking it away and pressing his face to the tank.

“Oh…my baby, Daddy is going to miss you so much!” Bubby blew bubbles. “I know! I know, it’s unfair that you can’t come!” He looked up at Turney. “It really is unfair that my precious second baby can’t come! It’s fish discrimination, I tell you!”

“Octavius… Fish don’t normally travel. Mainly, as…fish usually need time to adjust to new water.”

“But Bubby isn’t a normal fish!” Octavius huffed, before straightening away from the glass. “Anyway, say goodbye!”

Turney cleared his throat, lightly tapping on the tank. “Goodbye, Bubby.”

He winced when Bubby spun and started to…angrily blow bubbles. Okay… Turney may have been right when he said that Bubby wasn’t too fond of him. But like, he was sure it hadn’t ventured into dislike territory!

It was fine, Octavius could fix it! They’d just have some major bonding intervention therapy when they returned! Bubby would learn to like his other daddy! It would happen, it had to!

“Time to leave,” Scarlett yelled from outside.

“Right! Time to go!” he beamed.

Turney followed Octavius out the door, ignoring that Bubby was definitely glaring at him. At least the little shit wasn’t spitting balls of water still…

His eyes widened as he spotted what was in the drive. “Octavius, what is that?!”

The vampire giggled. “Our new company van!”

“The other one isn’t even six months old!”

“Well, we needed more room! We were so squished with all the luggage last time!”

He shook his head as he eyed the Sprinter. Every single window looked pitch black, and the thing had to sit at least nine to ten people or more…

He only learned recently that Octavius had gotten him a medical exemption, to allow them to get away with their illegally tinted windows. Somehow…he didn’t think pitch black was excused. Not that he couldn’t still see through the windows perfectly, even with this tint.

Reaching the bottom of the steps, Turney happily handed the tank to Henry, who was standing beside a sleepy-looking Cormac.

“Now, I already gave all of the instructions to Lilah, but do remind her when she arrives that I will be calling daily, in the mornings, to say hi, so Bubby doesn’t feel abandoned,” Octavius stressed.

Daily calls to a fish…

No…Turney had to let go of this mindset. It wasn’t just a fish, it was Octavius’ fish. Their fish. Maybe that’s why Bubby didn’t like him? Perhaps…he noticed that he didn’t view him in the same way he viewed Sprinkle. Had Turney been prejudiced against Bubby because he was a fish? Did he…need to apologize?

Henry nodded. “I’ll remind her.”

The vampire let out a dejected whine. “Oh, I really wish we could take him with us! We just got back from a case, and now we are leaving him again!”

“Octavius, he is going to have to get used to being without us for random periods of time, with our job,” Turney pointed out gently.

“I know…”

“Come on, you will see…our fish again next week.” He lightly gripped the vampire’s shoulders and guided him to the front passenger seat.

Once the male was safely inside, he hurried around to the driver’s side and got in. The Sprinter was already on, but spotting the key fob in the cupholder, he snagged and pocketed it.

His gaze flicked to the rearview mirror as he was buckling in. Fancy black leather, with brown wooden accents, the walls had black panels with wooden tops. Beside each seat in the panels were multiple cup holders, a lamp, a phone stand, climate controls, a fold out wooden tray, and more.

In total, there were four tufted, plush bucket seats in the back that looked like they probably swiveled. Either way, based on the side paneling continuing back, combined with the air vents above, he was pretty sure there were at least two rows of bench seats collapsed down.

In the roof, there seemed to be more compartments and things, but unless he messed with them, he wouldn’t know what was in there. Their luggage was strapped in and packed nicely behind the bucket seats, with room for more on top.

Eyeing the space one last time, Turney had to say Octavius was lucky he was comfortable driving larger vehicles. Shaking his head, he glanced over the dash and the wheel, making sure he knew where everything was, and after flicking a few things to see how they worked, he asked, “Has everyone got everything?”

“Pretty sure,” Theo drawled. The man’s cloudy, sightless amber eyes were aimed in his direction as he replied to him.

With deep brown skin, a gently rounded chin, delicately pointed nose, and plush lips, the werewolf had filled out over the last couple of months, even if he was still on the thinner side. The male was also looking a bit like a rock star with his green sweater, black pants, and heeled boots. Especially since, about a month ago, he shaved the left side of his head short, leaving his mass of tight black curls on the other side to hang down to his chest.

The werewolf was seated behind Octavius, while Sprinkle was sitting pretty next to him, in a luxurious-looking, purple fur-lined, black leather cat bucket seat, with a mesh dome over top, which he supposed was for safety. The cat seat looked to be strapped in, and it was deep enough that when she was sitting up, only her head showed. Sprinkle had recently had a growth spurt, and was now at least twice the size she’d been when they’d first gotten her. Not full sized yet, but she was getting there.

Scarlett, who was sitting on the left in the back, grunted in response, while Min-ji softly murmured, “Yes.”

“Right, let’s head off.” He looked over to Octavius. “Where am I going?”

“Interstate 91!” Octavius said sweetly. The vampire had his phone in his hand, but the brat seemed to be making sure he couldn’t see the screen.

Shaking his head, Turney put the van in drive. While Octavius sadly waved goodbye, he drove around the circle and headed off on the road that would lead out of the property.

After a few moments, he asked the slightly down vampire, “You really can’t tell me where we are going?”

Octavius blinked, the sadness falling away as he beamed, “Nope! It’s a surprise!”

He sighed. Here’s hoping the surprise wasn’t a scam…