Chapter 30

T he next evening, Grant dropped silverware into the caddy in the dishwasher as the doorbell rang.

"Are we expecting anyone?" Grant asked as Roman walked toward him.

Roman kissed Grant and shook his head. "Nope, I didn't invite anyone. Want me to get rid of whoever it is?"

"Your social skills are nearly as bad as our romantic planning," Grant muttered as he smacked Roman's denim-clad ass and headed for the door.

"Fine, but I had planned on sucking you off on the couch."

"Which you're definitely still going to do," Grant called out as he turned into the foyer. He opened the door and was surprised to find four men in the hallway. "What's up, guys? Are we being arrested?"

"I don't want to know about your kinks," Arvandus said.

"We have news regarding our project," Albrecht stated firmly.

"Our project?" Grant asked. "You mean human me? Wow, we just agreed to do that last night."

"Yep," Samson replied. "You enlisted two sentinels to help you. Better let us in so they can fill you in on what they've learned."

Stunned that their little team had already started investigating, Grant stepped aside to allow their guests to enter the condo. His plan had been to start researching after he and Roman finished eating, but apparently, that wasn't quick enough for the sentinels.

Everyone headed for the living room. Roman's gaze was surprised, but he didn't hesitate to hug Arvandus and Samson in greeting.

"Hey, guys, can I get you anything to drink?" Roman asked.

"Beers would be great," Samson said. "B brought snacks."

"Oooo, what kind?" Grant asked as Brynnius set a large plastic container on the coffee table.

"I chose a mixture of cookies, brownies, and blondies," Brynnius replied.

Grant dearly wanted to sample everything, but he forced himself to aid Roman in the kitchen with the drinks.

"Get napkins," Roman commented. "I don't want crumbs everywhere."

"Consider it done, Calixtus," Grant replied, grabbing napkins from their pantry.

With a spring in his step for the deliciousness awaiting him, despite having just finished dinner, Grant returned to the living room and passed out napkins along with beers. He squeezed into an oversized chair with Roman as he bit deeply into a chocolate chip cookie.

"Brynn, any chance I can entice you to move in with me and Roman?" Grant asked after he swallowed. "It'd be nice to have a little dog to love on, and we'll even let you bring Samson. Also, why didn't you bring Princess with you tonight?"

"Sorry, but we're keeping them," Arvandus stated emphatically. "Get Roman to learn to bake, or here's an idea…get a fucking cookbook and do it yourself."

"He says that like it's his ass baking all these yummies," Grant muttered to Roman.

With a chuckle, Roman kissed him. "Yeah, he's always been an asshole."

"To answer your question, Princess is with the reapers," Brynnius explained. "She wanted to hang out with the huskies, plus I did not know if I was welcome to bring her to your home."

"Brynn, she is always welcome," Roman replied.

"Did you speak with Rafe and Aleksander to plan your matebond ceremony?" Albrecht asked.

Grant nodded. "Yeah, Roman and I did that this morning. They assured us they'd take care of everything. Hopefully, we aren't imposing on them and the entire family because we suck at this shit."

"Don't worry about it, they love planning ceremonies," Arvandus assured them. "It'll be beautiful."

"All Grant and I have to do is decide who we want involved in the ceremony," Roman said.

"Dump it on someone else if it's too overwhelming, then no one can blame you for making the wrong choices," Arvandus suggested.

"Is that what you did?" Samson asked.

"No, Apple and I are grown-ups and made those decisions ourselves," Arvandus replied. "Well, Apple made most of them."

"Of course he did, Albie is the only grown-up in your relationship," Roman remarked.

"Roman and I will figure it out," Grant vowed despite the nerves in his belly. The last thing he wanted was to create an issue between the people they cared about.

"Don't worry, baby," Roman said, brushing their lips together. "Our family is huge. Not everyone can take part, but no one will be hurt. We've been through enough of these to know that."

"Exactly," Arvandus replied. "Now, if you were a sentinel, you might have an issue because the Darays are nuts."

"Yeah, you must find a job for everyone or hand the entire thing to Alaric and Chand to decide," Albrecht muttered.

"Thankfully, we were mated before the Darays got as big as they are now," Arvandus added.

"Are you trying to scare Grant or help the guy out?" Samson asked.

"What? I'm just saying he should be glad he's not a Daray. He's a Valerius. He'll be fine," Arvandus retorted.

"I would like to discuss what has brought us here tonight," Brynnius stated primly.

"Sorry, B, we've gone off on a tangent," Samson told his mate. "You and Albie should fill us in on what you learned."

"As I feared, not everything we learned is good," Albrecht intoned. "Be prepared for that, Grant."

Grant's brow furrowed. "That's slightly terrifying."

"Keep in mind that human Grant is not you," Brynnius suggested. "That will help."

Arvandus's mouth twitched. "Yeah, think of it like this. Human Grant was a plain muffin that sat out on a shelf so long that he grew stale and maybe even moldy. You, on the other hand, are a cupcake rich in flavor."

"And covered with sprinkles," Albrecht added with humor in his rich voice.

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Grant asked. "Muffins and cupcakes? What?"

"Never mind," Brynnius grumbled. "Albie still has yet to accept that he is a sprinkled cupcake, despite the many, many years that have passed since he woke up with his body intact."

"I don't know if that's true," Arvandus responded, his blue eyes glinting with humor and appreciation as his gaze landed on Albrecht's cloaked form. "I spend a great deal of time kissing his sprinkles, and he's grown fonder of them. Haven't you, Apple?"

"I want to discuss human Grant, not my sex life," Albrecht told his mate. His tone was abrupt, but he lifted a hand to caress Arvandus's cheek. To Grant's surprise, Albrecht pushed the hood of his cloak back enough to expose part of his adorably freckled face. Albrecht leaned closer to Arvandus and kissed him softly.

"Wait. It just hit me. Are his freckles the sprinkles?" Grant asked. "Why don't you like your freckles?"

"Because he is the only sentinel with them," Arvandus replied without glancing away from Albrecht. "They pride themselves on their conformity, and he stands out."

"But every other sentinel likes your freckles, Albie," Brynnius protested.

Albrecht tugged his hood forward to cover himself. "I have no issue with my freckles now. And my mate is fond of them."

"I'm fond of all of you, Apple," Arvandus assured him as he put an arm around Albrecht.

"And I love you too, Van, but we are here to discuss human Grant," Albrecht stated firmly. "Brynn and I have learned a great deal. But as I mentioned, not everything is positive."

"Okay, let's talk about it. What did you learn?" Grant asked.

Brynnius scowled. "We thought to explain our process first."

"Yeah, sure, go for it," Grant replied, suddenly afraid he'd piss off his new team. "Tell me everything."

"Albie and I discussed it this morning and decided our best option was to start with the lawyer," Brynnius said. "We lacked human Grant's last name, so any search for him would be nearly impossible."

"That makes sense," Grant replied. "Tell me about Reginald Bradley."

Albrecht pulled out his phone and tapped on the screen. "Grymmie taught me to use an app on my phone where I can take notes." He growled low in his throat at the device. "Arvandus, my notes are not here."

Plucking the device from his mate's hand, Arvandus fiddled with it and returned it to Albrecht. "It opened with a blank note for you to use. But yours are there."

"Thank you," Albrecht replied. "Reginald Bradley. What we learned is that he works for his father's law firm in Washington, DC. The humans consider the company prestigious, and they have worked on many large cases. They are often in the news."

"On the website, they have some biographical information about their lawyers," Brynnius added. "Reginald Bradley is married with children."

Grant's brows flew up, and his shock was mirrored in Roman's blue gaze. "Married with kids? Then why was the asshole telling me we were in love?"

"I do not know, Grant," Brynnius said. "As Albie mentioned, the law firm is often in the news. But most links for Reginald Bradley were related to a former cop named Grant Calisto."

"That has to be me," Grant responded, giddy that they had already found him on the Internet. "Former cop. Okay, that makes sense. I'm a fallen knight now. So, I was a cop that became a private investigator. I wonder why I chose that route."

Sentinels kept their emotions private, but Brynnius's brown gaze was full of compassion, which immediately set Grant on edge. "You…well, you…"

Samson took Brynnius's hand. "I got this, B. Grant Calisto was fired from the Arlington County Police. Allegedly, Calisto falsified reports. He was never charged with anything, but there was speculation in the news for several weeks."

"What the fuck?" Grant whispered.

"The cases that Calisto was speculated to have interfered in all involved clients of Reginald Bradley," Albrecht stated. "It connected Calisto and Reginald in the press. That is how we discovered anything of human Grant's life."

"Here's where it gets really fucked up," Samson remarked. "The press, of course, goes to Reginald and is like…what the fuck? How can this cop allegedly falsify evidence on just your cases? Reginald claims he met Calisto as a teenager. That they were friends at some point. Well, he befriended Calisto because he basically felt sorry for a kid with a troubled past. According to Reginald, Calisto grew obsessed with him, and the evidence tampering had to be a way to show his dedication. Calisto wanted to move in Reginald's circles and was doing whatever it took to impress Bradley."

Grant was queasy. How could that human have been him? "Troubled past? How was Calisto's past troubled?"

"We will keep searching, but it does not appear the press was interested in reporting that," Albrecht stated. "None of the articles Brynn and I read together delved into Calisto's past. They were far too interested in the way he had destroyed his career and ruined his reputation."

"I'm digging around for private investigator Calisto," Arvandus said, waving his phone in his hand. "But there is nothing really here. I'm assuming he'd have a website or something."

"The man is dead. Maybe the website was removed," Roman suggested.

"Okay, but here's another weird thing," Samson said. "If you search Grant Calisto and death, nothing comes up. Nothing about him missing or anything. Wouldn't there at least be an obituary?"

"A family usually publishes those," Roman commented. "Calisto mentioned one aunt, and even she wasn't biologically related to him. He told me she basically raised him."

"How do we find her?" Grant asked. "Maybe she knows what happened."

"If she was his legal guardian, we can search public records," Arvandus said. "Same for death notices. The problem is most of these human websites want us to pay for that information. I'm happy to toss in a few bucks to help solve our mystery, but they don't accept our identification cards."

"That's a dead end then," Roman remarked. "As much as we want the information, we are fallen knights and sentinels. How the fuck do we legally get human money to pay for it?"

"What if we asked James or one of the vampires in our family?" Samson asked. "They deal with humans regularly. James used to be one. Maybe he has a way we could pay for it."

"Is it legal to ask him to break a human law by purchasing something we should not have access to?" Albrecht asked.

"Technically, our laws don't prevent shit," Samson said. "It's the human treaty that makes it illegal. That's on their side. What the fuck are they gonna do…arrest us?"

Brynnius turned slowly to his mate and blinked heavily. "You cannot break laws, Sammy."

"Okay, okay, if anyone breaks a law, it'll be me," Grant said. "And I'm not sure if that's the route we need to take. I think I need to talk to this Reginald asshole again."

"Can you trust a word he tells you?" Roman asked.

"No, but the good news is I can recognize lies," Grant responded. "So, I at least will know not to chase after untruths. But maybe I'll get lucky, and he'll say something close enough to reality that I can figure out what the fuck Calisto was thinking and why he's now sitting in this living room wondering how he led such a fucked-up life."

Roman caressed Grant's cheek. "Baby, he's not you. His life was messy, and we don't know what drove him to make the decisions he did. Maybe he had good reasons for what we learned. We may never know. But you can't chastise yourself for what you perceive as mistakes you made. He's not you. He's dead. What we need to know is how he died and why. That was the mission of this entire thing. Let's not judge him. Treat it like a case file on your desk. You need to explore the why as much as the what, okay?"

Grant frowned. "It's surprisingly difficult to be unbiased when you know it was your soul in that body."

"That doesn't matter. Your soul is a beautiful, living thing. But it doesn't have to endure daily as the heart and mind do. Everything in our life changes us. You know that. Your spell taught you that, and it was drummed into your head during training. Be impartial. Calisto isn't VK Valerius."

Sucking in a deep breath, Grant forced himself to take a step far away from what he'd learned about Calisto. "I think maybe I need to take stock of this and focus on other things before we move forward."

"That is wise," Albrecht said. "You have a matebond ceremony to celebrate."

"And a parade to plan," Samson added. "We'll put a pause on this. No problem. Call us in again when you're ready to take the next steps."

"Thanks, I feel bad for roping you in and immediately freaking out," Grant responded apologetically.

"I would be concerned if you were not shocked by what we learned," Albrecht replied. "It is unsettling."

"Doesn't sound like Calisto had an easy time of it," Arvandus said. "And getting near this Reginald character probably didn't help."

Grant pressed his lips to Roman's, and his heart bloomed in his chest. "In this life, I got exactly the man I needed."

Roman kissed him again. "So did I. Let's eat some more cookies and argue with these guys about who should do what in our matebond ceremony."

Rubbing his hands together, Arvandus grinned. "I may have already thought about this and have some suggestions."

"And by that, he means he'll suggest himself for everything," Samson teased.

Confused and astonished, Grant forced himself to set aside Reginald and Grant Calisto until later. He'd work through his feelings about it with the aid of Roman, but there was already a growing fire in him to learn whatever he could. It'd have to wait until Grant could handle the news with ease. But Grant needed to know how Calisto's tale had ended.