Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

G wil sat cross-legged on the bed watching Hyax get ready, changing into his formal evening wear, which had been made to fit him to perfection. He tried to will away his erection, the fact there was only one bed was not lost on him.

"This isn't exactly the great welcome you alluded to. You're off downstairs to play fairy prince and I'm being kept locked in a tower."

Hyax rummaged around in a drawer to find a gold chain, which he fastened around his head. "I know, and I'm sorry. I didn't think they'd be so difficult."

"Maybe they were upset you weren't as honest with them as they thought you should have been."

"Yes, I may have exaggerated your status a little, but that in itself shouldn't have caused the reaction. Everyone bigs up their new partner to their parents, and give you a few hundred years, you might be a hotshot in vampire society." Hyax's playful smirk made him laugh.

"It'll take a bit longer than that I'm afraid."

"Just think how shit this could've been if you really were my betrothed."

Gwil thought it was pretty rubbish anyway. He'd known Hyax for years, and had assumed their friendship alone would have been enough to have warranted, if not a warm, then at least not frosty, reception from the king and queen. "I thought you said our working together would've counted for something."

"You shouldn't take it personally. I think the real crux of the issue is I chose someone who wasn't on the list. Yes, you not being fae is an added complication, but it's not like you can knock me up and we have little vampiric fae babies." Hyax laughed, bared his teeth and flapped his wings. "I don't know though, that might be quite funny."

Gwil snorted but his good humour didn't hang around. "I'm not going to be much use to the investigation though if I've got to stay in this room."

"It's only for dinner. They're making a point, that's all. As I said, you'll be fine to move around the castle and the grounds, and it's not like you're here to do a forensic sweep, we're pretty sure the stone is somewhere in the human realm."

"Yes, I gathered that, but have they figured out how it was taken there?"

"Not yet."

Hyax was trying to get his wings through the slits in what looked to be a gold cape. He tutted and slid off the bed. "Can't even dress yourself. Let me help."

He manoeuvred the silky material into place, having to gently guide Hyax's wings in the right direction. They trembled, the iridescence beautiful and he heard Hyax whimper. He snatched his hands away. "Sorry. Did I hurt you?"

"No, quite the opposite." He huffed. "It feels a bit too good—our wings can be very sensitive."

Gwil loved the idea he'd made Hyax feel good, even if he hadn't known what he was doing. In this realm he could see and feel Hyax's wings, that wasn't the case at home and he'd make the most of seeing them on display while he was here.

"I'd better get downstairs before they send someone to fetch me."

He didn't want Hyax to go and, from his expression, Hyax didn't want to either. For a moment he wondered if he should reach out again and stroke his wing, give him a clear indication he was glad to elicit a response from him but things were difficult enough as it was.

"Yes, I suppose you'd better." He dug out his phone. "Any chance this'll work here?"

Hyax tapped it with a finger. "Here you go—the equivalent of me giving you the fae Wi-Fi passcode."

"That's it then, we're as good as married."

Hyax cleared his throat. "Adds verisimilitude. I need to go, I'll make sure something is sent up for dinner."

He had his blood stocks with him so didn't need anything, but he was intrigued by the concept of fae food and the long-standing stories around it. "If I eat the fae food sent up does that mean I belong to the fae?"

"Good lord, you don't actually believe that bullshit. Give me strength."

He sniggered. "That'll be a no then."

"Arse." Hyax punched him playfully on the arm and glided out of the room, only then did Gwil realise he was flying, well, hovering. His brain took far too long to process it, and Hyax was gone by the time he'd formulated a comment and sat on the bed.

He watched a few videos on his phone, mindless rubbish that stopped him from overthinking too much, but couldn't distract him from the fact he was in Hyax's room with the opportunity for a decent snoop around.

There was a desk in the corner and he was just about to have a rummage in the drawers when the door opened and a female fae entered carrying a tray. She wasn't dressed like the other servants, and the way she held herself didn't suggest a subservient manner.

"I've brought you something to eat. The kitchen staff are run off their wings so I thought I'd drop it in for you instead."

He didn't think this was a random person popping in. He'd seen too much over the years to trust a stranger bearing food. "You being?"

"My name's Lia." She placed the tray down and sat in one of the wingback chairs. "I'm the reason Hyax realised women weren't to his tastes."

He'd never heard of Hyax having a girlfriend, and given the countless conversations they'd had, some of them not sober meaning their inhibitions were lowered, and so he thought Hyax would have brought it up. He'd even asked once how Gwil had dated Matilda when women weren't to his tastes, and Hyax had been a bit surprised to learn Gwil wasn't overly concerned with the sex of his partner.

"I can't say he's mentioned anyone. Certainly not you."

"I'm hurt—then we weren't more than a summer's fascination for each other." She smirked. "But maybe it wouldn't be the topic of conversation to have with a current lover."

"I'm sure he'd have said something if he'd considered it important. We're not the type of couple that keep secrets from each other."

She flicked her long red hair over her shoulder and cocked her head to one side. Another beautiful fae, and she knew it. "Of course, although I have to admit I was more than a little bit curious about you. We'd all heard about your association, but I was convinced it was business-related, maybe friendly, but not romantic."

He tried to think if he'd ever heard the name before because the way she spoke suggested Hyax to be a close friend, but he couldn't place her. So she was either a friend and Hyax had chosen to deliberately not mention her, or she was pretending to get some sort of reaction out of Gwil. His gut told him the latter, and for now he'd play along.

"I'm sure Hyax has a lot of friends, we don't spend our time together talking about them."

"Hyax has a lot of friends. He's very"— she coughed—"generous with his time."

He spotted something that looked like fruit on the tray and picked up a piece. "I know that, I'm the person he devotes a lot of that time to. And I'm a pretty popular chap myself."

"That depends on the demographic."

He chewed on the fruit, it was bright pink and tasted a bit like pineapple. "I get the feeling that the fae are a little annoyed I've bagged one of their princes."

"Their favourite prince. Although it helps that he's never going to be king, but you've certainly made a few enemies."

He doubted he was important enough to make enemies, he was an annoyance, nothing more. "I'm a vampire, we're not liked generally, and the thing is, we don't give a fuck."

"But you also keep to your own kind. Vamps fuck vamps."

"Not strictly true." Especially considering what he'd heard about the Dark Earl of MacLove. "Some of us dabble with all sorts, even humans, although I personally don't like to shag my food."

She laughed. "My point was you stay away from other paranormal beings, such as the fae, so it's not surprising there's a few eyebrows raised."

"Again not strictly true."

"I suppose there are exceptions for important individuals." Although it was clear that didn't include Gwil.

She was beginning to get annoying. "I still don't actually know who you are, but I would think the royal family have bigger problems at the moment. A bloodsucker as a future son-in-law is inconsequential."

Her wings fluttered. "So you know."

"Of course I do. Part of the reason I'm being so warmly accepted as Hyax's beloved is because I can help. My skills go beyond the pleasure I can give Hyax in the bedroom."

"Yes, there's the business connection. The vampire detective," she drawled, not trying to keep the contempt out of her voice. "There are elements in the court saying the vampires are behind it."

That didn't surprise him. No one trusted vampires, it was more believable that they might be behind the disappearance than helping to find the stone. "Was that before or after Hyax revealed our deeper involvement?"

She winked. "You're cleverer than you look."

"To be fair, that doesn't take much, especially in modern clothing. But I looked like a frigging genius in a top hat."

"Human fashions are odd."

Something they could agree on, and there were days when he wished the trends hadn't moved to more casual clothes. He didn't look bad in a decent pair of jeans, but he seriously rocked a three-piece suit. "I can at least scrub up well. And I'm good at my job in the human realm—I have a lot of contacts."

"Perhaps that explains why Hyax chose you. I thought it was to stop Metra from procrastinating and make his move since those two are a natural combination. But if you're of real use to the fae then it makes sense to bond you to us."

Fucking Metra again, but he wasn't the subject of the sentence that caught his attention. Getting bonded to anyone wasn't on the list, as far as he knew that was a magical ceremony in addition to a betrothal, and he wondered if she was trying to gauge the depth of his and Hyax's connection. Hyax hadn't mentioned it, and Gwil wasn't sure Hyax knew that he was aware of the practise. "Naturally I will want to have the special closeness to my husband—not necessarily every fae."

"A fae-vampire bonding would be unusual."

There were myths surrounding every combination of paranormal creature, a vampire-fae among them, and he wasn't going to share with her the rumour he'd heard from Penelope that the Calanti tribe had one as a leader, but there was no way of knowing what the implication was of him and Hyax connecting through a magical bond might result in. "We'll find out soon enough."

"On that note, I will leave you to your delicious repast." She didn't wait for his response and glided away.

Left alone again, he investigated the contents of the tray. There was a basket of bread and some soup that must have had a charm over it to keep it warm, a selection of colourful fruit and a flask of blood. He picked it up, strangely warmed by his host's consideration because, while Hyax had said he'd be looked after, he hadn't expected the fae to provide him with human blood and he doubted they would offer up fae. He popped the cork and sniffed it, it was fresh but didn't smell right, maybe it was fae but it was unlikely. There was a spoon on the tray and he poured a small quantity of the blood into it and took the smallest sip he dared. The shudder of disgust rolled through his body, it wasn't human, it was some sort of animal and not pig or sheep, or anything else he'd eat or could cope with as a poor second to the real thing. There was a tingle of dirt and squalor and an echo of where it came from hit him, rat. The fuckers had given him rat blood. If that wasn't a message he wasn't who they'd want as a son-in-law nothing was.