Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

T obias turned the watch over in his hand and smiled. "I knew you were the man for the job. I didn't think you'd manage it this soon though."

"I did have the right incentive."

Tobias removed a long rectangular envelope from a briefcase and handed it over. "This was it, I suspect. Check the details and once we've both signed it's yours."

He removed the document and read through the contents. Like most vampire contracts the language was obtuse and archaic, but Gwil had read enough of them in his time not to be put off and there it was, a townhouse in Spitalfields. Smack bang on the Heliman Ley Line.

"It will need a little work to bring it up to par, but in reality it's not the actual property you care about. And it'll only be a few hours' work for that pretty pixie you work with."

"He's a fae."

Tobias flapped his hand dismissively. "Same difference."

Gwil didn't wish to be staked through the heart so he wouldn't be passing on that comment. "Nice doing business with you."

"Actually, Gwil, while you're here and we're on the topic of the fae."

He did not like the sound of that. "Yes?"

"I wonder if you've heard any rumours about the Met either having the fae assist with their enquiries or them helping out our sparkly friends?"

He was not about to admit he knew anything. Firstly, Hyax would remove his head and douse him in holy water for betraying a confidence, and secondly, he didn't want Tobias dragging him into anything to do with Goya. "Not that I've come across. There's been a number of raids but I've not heard them linked to anything specific."

Tobias tapped his finger to his lips. "Don't you find that odd in itself? Raids tend to have a reason, and ones so close together would potentially have the same root cause."

"Maybe. But it could be anything. Probably drug-related in my opinion. New dirty lab they're trying to track down is my guess."

"I've said it before and I will say it again, you're very pedestrian in your outlook. I think you need to start thinking bigger."

"Possibly, but then I've had other vampires asking if I know about dirty Stardust, so it's a bit hard to put two and two together and not get four."

"How interesting," Tobias said, and Gwil couldn't tell if he wasn't already aware or if he'd gifted the old bastard new intel.

"Yeah, I suppose it could be."

"At the risk of sounding like a nosey old man, who else has been asking?"

Tobias had been turned in his late forties but Gwil didn't know his exact age, but he was nosey. Gwil stood a little taller and slid the deeds into the inside pocket of his coat. "I'm afraid I can't divulge that. Client confidentiality. You understand?"

Tobias smiled tightly. Gwil said his goodbyes and legged it. Senior vampires were not known for sharing information, knowledge was power, but that tended to be kept to more interesting information such as ancient relics and a good source of virgin blood vintages, not mundanities such as bad batches of drugs.

He'd need to follow up, but it could wait for now. He had a house to see.

Gwil stared up at the house in front of him wondering what the catch was. Situated opposite the market, the terraced house was in a prime position, and from here he could see what Tobias had meant by it needing some work, but nothing major. The ground floor was an empty shop unit at the moment, which would be easy enough to adapt and no doubt the inside would need a lick of paint. But it could have been a hole in the ground and he wouldn't have cared as he could employ a builder to fix the property, but would struggle to find the quality of ley line he could feel. His current place was like a dull echo in comparison, whereas this one sang and thrummed like a harp string.

"This is special," Hyax said, a breathy tone to his voice.

Gwil could only imagine how the ley line felt to someone like Hyax. "I can't quite believe it."

"Are you sure it's the right place?"

"This is the address in the deeds." He couldn't blame Hyax for being sceptical, vampires weren't always known for following through with a deal. "Tobias must've really wanted his watch back."

Hyax laughed. "Indeed. I'm surprised he didn't double-cross you and give you a doll's house."

Gwil fished a set of keys out of a pocket. "Let's go and see what's inside."

"You'll be inviting me in to look at your etchings next. I've heard all about you Victorian boys. Want to peek at my ankles later?"

"Twat." He wanted to look at a good deal more than Hyax's ankles, and he had to stop his imagination running away with him. He shoved Hyax out of the way and opened the front door. "Fucking hell!"

Hyax peered around him. "Well, that explains why you might need to do a bit of work to make it to your taste."

The hallway was painted a lurid pink and the walls seemed to have been lined with stripes of lime green and purple velvet. He pushed open the door to what would be the office area and, while it was a good size, the luminous orange and yellow décor would be migraine-inducing. "I hope upstairs is better, but somehow I doubt it."

Hyax was chuckling to himself as they climbed the stairs. "This place is… unique. Characterful."

"It's like a child vomited the contents of a paint factory."

The living area had red vinyl walls and black floors and paintwork that reminded him of a brothel he'd visited once, a long time ago. It led into what he thought was the kitchen, which was devoid of any electrical goods or cabinets and was an empty room, with white walls that had stains he couldn't identify but he hoped that meant the previous owner was just a messy cook.

He prayed the master bedroom would be better but soon discovered a mural of a dragon eating a giant flower which, if the artist had been blessed with more talent, might have been bearable, as it stood, however, it was an affront to his eyes. The fitted wardrobes weren't much better, painted in various shades of green.

"God, it's going to take ages and a fortune to get this into a state I can bear to be in for more than a minute or two."

Hyax squeezed his shoulder. "Don't be silly. I can fix most of this in a couple of hours, give or take. You'd be best off getting a human in to fit the kitchen appliances, the kickback from my magic and the ley line might not be good for electronics."

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

Hyax grinned. "You'll owe me though."

"Isn't putting up with you most days enough?" Gwil said with a smirk.

"No. I'm a fucking delight, and you know it. Let's face it, the house was payment for the job for Tobias—and this place is yours. I figure you owe me for helping fix it up."

Gwil hadn't thought about it on those terms. As far as he knew, apart from the places he took his dates and him crashing at Gwil's place, Hyax didn't live somewhere in the human world, preferring to return to the fae realm—but maybe he'd been wrong.

"Did you want the house? I can sign over the residential bits, and I take the office. It'll be a trudge from my current place but it'd be fairer I suppose. Then you can link into the ley line easier."

Hyax rolled his eyes. "I don't need you to do that, but I wouldn't mind having somewhere I could use as an official base in the human realm rather than staying with random friends."

"You mean we'd share. Like flatmates?"

"Unless you have an objection?" Hyax wandered over to another door, and it opened into a sizeable second bedroom. "I could take this one, the house is plenty big enough for the two of us to have our own space when we need it."

Hyax sounded uncertain. He should say no, it could be a huge mistake. Hyax was already a constant visitor to his flat, and that had been enough to make his pining pathetic, living with him would only make it worse. But there was no way he could refuse, not without looking like a monumental arsehole, although to protect himself there'd need to be ground rules.

"You're always at my place. Might as well make it official. But we'll need to agree on a few things so we don't kill each other."

Hyax's answering smile was beautiful. "Don't worry. I won't mess with your blood stocks, and I'll even help with Midnight. The litter tray is all yours… cat shit is non-negotiable."

"I was thinking more about visitors." He'd take all the hairballs and kitty puke in the world rather than having to see a parade of Hyax's freshly banged boytoys around the place.

Hyax cocked his head to one side. "What do you mean by that? We both have friends. I wouldn't think having guests would bother you."

Surely Hyax wasn't that obtuse? "I was thinking more about the temporary liaison type. Probably best if we didn't bring people back here."

"Are you regularly entertaining ?" Hyax's question came out strangulated.

"Erm… no… well…"

Hyax smiled. It made Gwil want to do unspeakable things to him. "Then we've no issue."

"I… okay." He'd not expected Hyax to be thinking it'd be him bringing home partners, of the two of them Hyax was the one dating regularly.

Before he could press the issue Hyax asked, "What about feeding? I joked about your blood stocks, but you do have other options."

"I do live-feed occasionally." Few times a year at most, if he could be bothered. "But I don't tend to do that at home."

"Do you fuck them after you've fed?"

"What? No. There's a service I use, and I don't fuck my food." He wrinkled his nose. "That's disgusting."

Hyax laughed. "Sorry, I misunderstood. Maybe I should have said when you become a sire for someone."

Siring was completely different to general feeding and didn't have to have a sexual element, and in his experience it was best it didn't. "I don't do that anymore."

Hyax's brow crumpled. "Why not?"

"Those who want to be turned can be clingy and weird, and there are plenty of other vampires who are much better suited to dealing with them. Besides, the sexual element isn't mandatory and, even when it does happen, it can be short-lived like I had with Solivatus, or you can attach more permanently. It's a bit complicated." He really didn't want to discuss those aspects at the moment. To some of his kin, it was the best part of being a vampire. He'd turned a handful of humans when he was younger but the idea no longer appealed. Not after the last one…

"Sounds like a conversation for when we're both the wrong side of sober." Hyax opened another door and grimaced. "I assume you'd like to get rid of the floor-to-ceiling leopard print."

"Fucking hell! What were they thinking?"

"It feels like it had human occupiers prior to you, so I suspect the ley lines affected them and brought out the extremes of their creativity."

As far as he was aware ley lines didn't impact humans to a great extent unless they were very powerful and the human had a touch of supernatural in their genes. "Then the power of these must be significant."

Hyax smirked, and his grin was sexy. "Oh, yeah, it feels really good."

"But you'll be able to get the place liveable fairly soon?" He hoped so. "It's not long before the solstice and Christmas, and I tend to like to hunker down at home for the holidays."

"Yeah, I know. I'll see if I can be around this year."

There was something about Christmas that pulled him back to his mortal life. He loved the concept, but not having anyone to share it with left him feeling lonely and out of sorts. Last year he'd been drunk for most of it, and mopey, Hyax had been busy and his other friends didn't celebrate.

"It'll be nice to be in by then."

"Look, give me a couple of days. I've a state banquet to attend and some other boring family stuff but then I'll remove the worst of the offending decoration."

He wanted to pull Hyax in for a hug, but he didn't think he'd be able to ever let go. "Thanks, Hyax. I appreciate it."

Hyax hip-checked him. "I know you well enough, I reckon, to replace it with something you won't hate."

"You could aim for something I'd like."

"I'm a fae, not a miracle worker."

He laughed. "Brilliant. I'll order stuff for the rooms, it'll be easier than moving from my current place. I might see if I can rent that out rather than sell it."

"Sounds like a solid plan." Hyax headed towards the door. "I'd better go. I'll text you."

Left on his own, Gwil stared around the room. The décor could be fixed easily enough, and it was a great house. Living with Hyax would be a different challenge but he couldn't help but look forward to it. In the meantime, he had a few cases he needed to work on, nothing major but they would keep him from brooding.