16. Toby

I'd barely stepped back into the kitchen when a barrage of questions hit me.

"How's Lucky?"

"Has his fever broken?"

"How many times did Dagon growl at you for touching him?"

That final question came from Harlow, making me grin. "Oh, many times. He kept his hands to himself though. Killing me would slow down Lucky's recovery, so I think I'm safe."

Demons, like all supes, were highly territorial and possessive of their mates. With Lucky's health hanging in the balance, it was understandable that both he and Dimitri would be extra wary. As a doctor though, I had to touch Lucky to treat him, whether his mates liked it or not.

"He's doing well," I said in answer to the other questions. Oscar visibly relaxed, Cal kissing his temple. Of all of us, he was the biggest worrier. "His vitals have improved and his fever has broken. I should be able to remove the IV in the next hour or so."

"Thank fuck," River said, slouching against the side. "Wish I could've helped him."

"It was just a theory," I said, patting his arm as I flicked the kettle on. Dagon had told me to make myself at home, and after the day I'd had, I was going to do just that. "I wasn't sure how your powers worked. It was worth a shot."

When I'd arrived at Dagon's that morning, it hadn't taken long for me to realise Lucky was suffering from Meningitis C. His condition had been deteriorating rapidly and to say I'd been alarmed would be an understatement. However, while I'd been off acquiring the relevant antibiotics, Dagon and Dimitri had taken my advice. They'd both marked Lucky as theirs, lending him their strength and healing abilities. It wasn't as good as a full mating bond, but it was better than leaving his immune system to battle it alone.

Once the IV was in place, I'd sent out a message to the group thread alerting them to what was happening. Needless to say, all of Dagon's brothers and their mates had shown up.

I'd asked River if he could use his powers as a water mage to strip the infection from Lucky's body. He'd once pulled venom out of Mori, so the theory had merit. Unfortunately, thanks to the composition of a virus, he couldn't do it.

From the way River was gnawing at his lip, it was still bothering him. It was funny, he and Blaise looked very little alike, but moments like this made it obvious that they were twins.

"Seriously, it doesn't matter," I said to him, in the same firm tone I'd use with his brother. "Lucky is going to make a full recovery. Better yet, the three of them have taken a step forwards in their relationship."

River smirked at that. "Assuming Lucky accepts the bond."

The kettle clicked off and I filled my mug with boiling water, watching the tea bag swirl as it rose. "He will. They're fated."

It wasn't like mating bonds for vampires or other supes. Angels and demons could try to fight it as much as they liked, but at the end of the day, fate would find a way.

"That's true," River said, staring at Mori with hearts in his eyes. "We didn't exactly have the smoothest journey."

I snorted, the furious rants Mori would give after finding yet another note from River in his flat still fresh in my memory. "That's true."

"You and Blaise could have that too, you know."

I almost dropped the milk. "What?"

River turned to face me, his hip leaning against the worktop. "Be mates. I know you aren't fated, but you can still have a mating bond. I think you'd be good for him."

Fuck. I had to tread carefully here. I couldn't deny Blaise, but equally I didn't know how much he'd be comfortable with me telling his twin. "That's not what's happening with us."

River gave me a knowing smirk and I winced internally. Just how much of our previous relationship had Mori told him about?

"Keep telling yourself that," he said. "I won't interfere, but hurt my brother and I'll gut you in your sleep."

I grunted, too used to death threats to bat an eyelid. "You don't need to worry. Blaise is safe with me. His happiness is the only thing I care about."

Apparently that was good enough for River. He gave me a nod before stalking off, no doubt to climb Mori like a tree.

I finished making my tea and turned to lean against the counter. All around me, people were getting things ready to go. Now we all knew Lucky would recover, there was no point in everyone hanging around.

There was a small pang in my chest as I waved goodbye to them all. Everyone in our group had been here…except Blaise. I'd messaged him, of course I had, but naturally there'd been no reply. It was the one area he was still being stubborn about.

Draining my cup, I decided I'd check on Lucky once more before heading home. If I messaged Blaise now, hopefully he'd get there at the same time as me. After seeing what Dagon and Dimitri had gone through today, I wanted to see my boy. No, I needed it. I couldn't control what was happening with Lucky, but I damn well could with Blaise.

Putting my cup in the dishwasher, I turned and almost jumped out of my skin at the sight of Harlow sat at the table. "For fuck's sake, Harlow! I thought you'd left. You scared the shit out of me!"

"That makes me two for two." He smirked. "I wanted to talk to you. Alone."

I had no idea what he meant by the first part of that, but I was too exhausted to ask him about it. Pulling out a chair, I joined him at the table. "What's up?"

"I went to see Blaise this morning."

My exhaustion vanished in an instant as my whole body stiffened. Venom filled my mouth as my fangs lengthened. "If you laid one finger on him…"

"Calm down, vamp," Harlow said with an eye-roll. "And you call us demons dramatic."

"Sorry," I muttered, willing my fangs to retract. "It was an instinct."

"Because you have feelings for him," he said matter-of-factly. "Don't try to deny it. You'll just make yourself look stupid."

It was on the tip of my tongue to do just that, but then this would devolve into more bickering. "What happened?"

"We had a little chat. I told him it was time we all moved on from what happened. Even let him speak to Bailey so he could hear it from him too."

"Harlow…" I reached across the table to squeeze his hand once before withdrawing. "Thank you. You didn't need to do that, but I'm glad you did. He wouldn't have listened to that from anyone other than you."

Harlow seemed to be wrestling with something. "That's not why I'm telling you."

Alarm began to trickle down my spine. "What?"

Harlow blew out a breath, his eyes uncharacteristically serious as they met mine. "Have you been to Blaise's place?"

"No," I said slowly, "we always meet at my flat."

"Ever wondered why?"

I didn't like where this was going. "No. Blaise is always happy to come to mine, and given how heavily warded the building is, I insisted."

"That's good, considering there isn't a single ward on Blaise's property."

The chair screeched with the speed at which I shoved it back and stood. "What the fuck?"

Harlow continued like I hadn't spoken. "I just strolled on in while he was working out in his basement. Had time to explore his entire house before making myself at home in his kitchen. He didn't even realise I was there until I spoke."

Fear for Blaise was unfurling deep in my gut. Anyone could've walked in. To not ward your property as a supe was just asking for trouble.

How had I not known this? What kind of Dom was I?

"The dude is literally living out of bin bags," Harlow said grimly, adding to my guilt. "His bedroom window is broken and he's covered it up with some cardboard."

"Fuck," I hissed, pacing the kitchen. "How the fuck did I miss this?"

"Probably because Blaise didn't want you to know how bad it is. Maybe we should go out into the garden."

I stopped pacing to stare at Harlow in confusion. "The garden?"

Harlow gave me a tight smile. "Trust me, you're going to need some open space for the next part. If you start smashing up Dagon's kitchen and wake Lucky, we're going to have a problem."

On that ominous pronouncement, he swept out the back door and into the moonlit night. My heart was pounding in my ears as I followed him. I wasn't sure what was worse—that Blaise had been hiding this from me, that I hadn't asked more questions about his living situation, or that I was having to find out about it from Harlow.

I was itching to head straight over to his place right now. To go and teach my boy exactly what happened when he hid things from his master. But I needed to know the full scale of what I was dealing with first.

"Remember what you told us about Blaise not caring if he lived or died?"

I nodded once, not trusting myself to speak.

"Well, he genuinely believed I was there to kill him. Told me that's why he didn't bother with wards when he knew how easily I'd be able to break them. In fact, he said, ‘I won't fight you, Harlow. I know this is what I deserve.'"

The chaos in my mind ground to a halt as I waited for Harlow to finish. I'd known Blaise was having suicidal ideations. It was the main reason I'd insisted on therapy.

But hearing this, knowing how willing he was to hand his immortality over to Harlow, made it real in a way I wasn't prepared for. I'd thought maybe our contract and therapy had been helping him to get better. I'd naively assumed it would be enough.

But what if it wasn't?

Harlow cleared his throat, his eyes shining with sympathy. "When I asked him if he would let me kill him, he said yes."

There was no coherence to the sound that ripped from my throat. It was an inarticulate venting of fury and sorrow. Fury at myself for not realising just how little Blaise would try to defend his life. Fury at him for not being honest with me.

But mostly it was sorrow. Sorrow that I couldn't fix this for him. Sorrow that he hadn't felt he could be open with me about his living situation.

Sorrow that I couldn't tie his immortality to mine and make him stay that way.

That wasn't how it worked for people with suicidal ideations. Like with most mental health conditions, there was no easy fix. As a doctor, I knew that better than most. But I'd never been on this side of it before. Never had someone I cared about suffering so much. Even Sebastian, who had a million other unhealthy coping mechanisms, hadn't struggled with this.

What if he had? The thought slammed into me, piling on yet more guilt and shame. Was Sebastian suffering even more than I'd realised? What kind of cousin was I to not reach out more often?

Putting that to the back of my mind for now, I started to pace again. I needed to work off some of these emotions. I couldn't be the Dom Blaise needed if I was being eaten alive by guilt, anger, and sorrow. "Why wouldn't he tell me?"

Harlow shrugged as he slipped his jacket from his shoulders. "If I had to guess, he either doesn't realise how bad things are, or he's ashamed."

I slammed to a halt. "He never needs to feel ashamed around me."

"Maybe that's something you need to remind him of," Harlow said, now removing his shirt and laying it carefully over the back of a garden chair with his jacket.

His odd behaviour had my eyebrows raising. "Um, why are you stripping? Hate to tell you this, but you do nothing for me."

"Har-de-har," Harlow said drily. That was the only response he gave, instead pulling out his phone and tapping out a message.

"There," he said, putting his phone on the table and rolling his neck. "Now I'm ready."

I gaped at him, utterly befuddled. "For what?"

He gave me a mischievous grin I'd seen one too many times before. It was all I needed to confirm the insanity he had planned.

"Seriously? You wanna spar now? I have to see Blaise."

"You can't go over all hopped up like this," he said impatiently, dancing on his toes. "You need to work off some of those pesky feelings or you're going to say something stupid. I've text Bailey to let him know that whatever he feels through the bond is friendly, so do your worst."

I glared at him before accepting that he was right. With a sigh, I stripped off my own shirt and added it to Harlow's pile. We'd all learned the hard way to remove clothing before doing something like this. It was all well and good having an unlimited bank account, but having to constantly replace your wardrobe was tiresome. "Fine."

"Such gratitude," Harlow said mockingly as we began to circle each other. "Anyone would think you don't want to punch me in the face."

My lips tilted into a smirk. "Low, I always want to punch you in the face. You're an annoying shit on the best of days."

His smirk matched my own. "You'll have to catch me first."

We launched at each other, fists meeting flesh with resounding crunches. Bones broke and healed in seconds as neither of us held back. We moved in a blur, neither of us gaining an advantage as we met each other blow for blow.

My knee was in mid-air, about to connect with Harlow's abdomen, when a bright ball of light filled the garden.

I was sent flying backwards, landing hard on my arse. Harlow was sent in the other direction, colliding with the fence hard enough to send the panel toppling.

"What the fuck do you think you're playing at? Why are you fighting?"

We both turned to glare at Dimitri at the same time, but it was Harlow who spoke. "We were working out some issues. We certainly didn't need your saintly posterior intervening, thank you very much."

The thunderous look on Dimitri's face was more reminiscent of a demon than an archangel. "My mate is upstairs trying to recover. The last thing he needs is to hear this bullshit going on outside."

"I put up a compulsion net," Harlow protested.

Dimitri pinched the bridge of his nose. "They don't work on humans who have been marked, which as of a few hours ago, includes Lucky."

I considered telling Dimitri that with the amount of medication in Lucky's system, he wouldn't be disturbed even if a herd of elephants happened to take a stroll through the garden, but supes were irrational about their mates at the best of times, let alone when they were sick. Instead, I got to my feet and shot him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Dimitri. We're done now. "

He grunted before pointing at the fence panel Harlow was struggling to put back in place. "I want that fixed before tomorrow."

"Don't get your knickers in a twist." Harlow huffed, clearly not feeling the same as me about treading lightly with Dimitri. "I'll get it sorted."

Dimitri stepped forwards with a snarl and I swooped in front of him, distracting him before he decided he too wanted to use Harlow to work out some anger. Something told me Bailey wouldn't be best pleased if two of us beat on him in one night.

"Make sure you call me if anything changes with Lucky, or even if you just want some reassurance. I'm happy to come over as often as needed."

Just like that, all the anger faded away. "Thanks, Toby. Will do."

With a final death glare at Harlow, he vanished back inside. Spinning on my heel, I went to help Harlow try and put the panel back.

"It's no good," he said eventually. "It's too splintered. I'll hire a contractor to come around in the morning and replace it."

"Make sure it's a human and that you've warned your brother that he's coming. They'll both be extra protective and irrational until Lucky has accepted the bond."

"Trust me, I know all about being irrational with your mate."

I lifted a hand and rubbed at my chest absent-mindedly. Would I ever know what that was like? I mean, I was already irrational where Blaise was concerned, and he wasn't even my boyfriend, let alone my mate.

Harlow's eyes flitted to my hand before rising to my face. "Got any more emotions you need to work out?"

"Nope." I lowered my hand to my side, giving Harlow a smile. "Thank you though, that was just what I needed."

He gave a mock bow. "Here any time you fancy breaking some knuckles."