by Ari McKay
“Not a problem!” Whimsy pushed back his chair and stood up. “I’ll pack the pasta and spaghetti sauce. Arden, you check the fridge. There’s some leftover pork chops, mashed potatoes, and green beans from yesterday. Just save one pork chop so I can make Harlan a sandwich for lunch tomorrow. You might want to get together some eggs, milk, and cheese too. Harlan, you go get some vegetables from the garden. Thomas, you go with him so you can point out what you like. Julian, go get the big cooler from the basement.”
“What about me?” Eli drawled as he tipped his chair on its back two legs.
Whimsy studied Eli with pursed lips. “Hmm. I suppose you can check the pantry and get some canned goods. Oh, and grab that unopened loaf of wheat bread from the bread box too. Julian, you have a can opener, right?”
Julian had reached a door that presumably led to the basement, and he stopped there, looking at Whimsy with chagrin. “I have no idea. If there was one there the last time you or Arden stayed over, then it’s still there. Otherwise, probably not.”
“Okay, well, I’ve got a spare manual one somewhere,” Whimsy said, waving Julian away. “I’ll find it after I pack up the spaghetti.”
Everyone else was jumping to follow Whimsy’s instructions, and so Thomas got up and approached Harlan.
“I really do appreciate this,” he said, feeling a little awkward that the flurry of activity was all for him.
Harlan grinned. “Oh, this is nothing. You should see Whimsy when he’s throwing a party. And our wedding reception…. Even though it was hosted at one of Arden’s resorts, Whimsy was in the thick of everything. I think Arden had to haul him out of the kitchen, throw him in the shower, and then threaten him to get him to the ceremony on time.”
“So you’re really married?” Thomas asked.
“Yes, we’re really married.” Harlan didn’t seem offended by the question, and he beckoned Thomas to follow him outside into the light of evening. “It was strange to me too, at first. Because I was brought up when men desiring other men, or women desiring women, wasn’t just sinful, it was a crime. It took me some time to even accept it was what I actually wanted. But fortunately times changed, and only extremely narrow-minded people believe it’s a sin anymore. I’m glad too. Whimsy isn’t just my husband, he’s my mate. I love him with my whole being, and in all my life I’ll never love anyone else.”
Thomas mulled over what Harlan had said while he picked some ripe red tomatoes and stowed them in his basket. “My grandmother wanted to invite girls over to meet me, but my grandfather wouldn’t let her. I never told her I preferred men.”
Harlan was bending down over some heads of romaine lettuce, but he cast a look back over his shoulder at Thomas. “She wouldn’t have approved?”
“I don’t think so.” Thomas stared down into the basket.
“Well, that’s not surprising,” Harlan replied. He put a nicely full head of lettuce in his basket, then straightened up. “Lots of supernaturals are interested in the same sex. Arden laughs about it and says it’s a good thing because otherwise, as much as elves and werewolves like sex, we would take over the planet.”
That startled a laugh out of Thomas. “I don’t suppose it matters much who I prefer right now,” he said. “It sounds like I’m going to have enough to do with trying to play catch-up. A social life will have to wait.”
Harlan chuckled. “If you find the right person, don’t wait,” he advised. Then his expression grew somber. “I’m serious about that. Supernaturals are harder to kill than normal humans, and we have much longer lives, but we can still die. If you find a chance for happiness, Thomas, grab it with both hands.”
Thomas thought about how small his life had been until today—and how much bigger it had gotten in a matter of hours. All he’d known was the farm, traveling only through books. He had been content at times, but something inside him still yearned to be freed from his grandfather’s constraints. The last time he’d experienced true happiness was when he still possessed the naive innocence of a child whose idea of happiness was being allowed to ride a horse around the farm by himself for the first time. But he couldn’t remember feeling happy in a long time, certainly not since Grandma died.
“I will,” he said.
“Good.” Harlan smiled again. “And don’t let Julian get to you. I think he spends too much time alone, so he likes to poke at people to see how they’ll react. We get along fine now, but at first there were times when I wanted to do him injury—and I’m a nonviolent Quaker!”
“He’s been very kind to me,” Thomas said, surprised by Harlan’s description, which didn’t match his experiences so far. “I don’t think we’ll have any problems.”
Harlan began to pluck green beans off a trellis. “Kindness isn’t usually Julian’s forte. You must have touched him somehow. Of course, Julian has a great appreciation for beauty too—and you’re an extremely good-looking young man.”
“You think so?” Thomas was pleased by the observation. He’d never thought about whether he was attractive, since it had been a moot point until today. “I think all of you are very good-looking men too.”
Especially Julian, but he didn’t dare say that aloud.
“I don’t think any of us were beat with the ugly stick,” Harlan said, his eyes gleaming with amusement. “Though to me, of course, Whimsy is the most beautiful man in the world. But Arden and Julian think he’s special too. Arden and Julian were apparently lovers for over a century, then when Arden met Whimsy, the three of them were together for a few years.”
Thomas apparently had a lot more to learn about sex and love than he’d even realized. He felt a little twinge of jealousy at the thought of Arden and Whimsy with Julian, but he ignored it. Both of them had bonded mates now, and besides, Julian might be involved with someone else.
“Has Julian settled down with someone like Whimsy and Arden have?”
“No, he’s at loose ends right now. And he doesn’t hesitate to grumble about Eli and me inconveniencing him by having the audacity to claim our mates.” Harlan looked slightly smug. “He could probably have his pick among the supernatural community, but there’s not many people he can tolerate for long. Frankly, I think there aren’t many people who could tolerate his moodiness and antisocial tendencies for long either.”
“I suppose we’ll find out how long he can tolerate me,” Thomas said, glancing toward the house. “Maybe I’ll break the record. Whether it’s for longest or shortest amount of time remains to be seen.”
Harlan pointed to Thomas’s basket. “Is there anything else you’d like?”
“I think this is enough for at least a week,” Thomas said. “Thanks again for all your help. If there’s anything I can do to return the favor for any of you, I will.”
“Thank you.” Harlan smiled, then turned back toward the house. “If you want to get to Julian, give him a look of wide-eyed innocence. Whimsy told me that because vampires are cold-natured, they like warmth. Standing close to him will remind him you’re around, if you ever feel he’s shutting you out.”
“Good to know,” Thomas murmured, slanting a grateful smile at Harlan.
He returned to the kitchen with the basket laden with produce weighing on his arm and basked in the warm, light energy that radiated from the people he now considered his first real friends. If Grandpa had had his way, Thomas would never have met them, but Thomas was taking charge of his own life, and for the first time, he didn’t take his grandfather’s edicts into consideration.
He’d left the farm at last, and he had no regrets. After everything he’d learned today, he wasn’t sure he would ever go back.
Chapter Three
“THERE it is. Home sweet monstrosity. What do you think?”
Julian didn’t have to point out what he was talking about. Castle Schaden stood out against the darkening sky like a vulture perched on a rock. Even though he’d imported the castle from Europe primarily as a way to poke a bit of fun at his good friend George Washington Vanderb
ilt, Julian had grown to love every stone of the Gothic nightmare.
Thomas peered out the window of the SUV, his eyes wide. “It’s great! It looks like something out of Dracula or Frankenstein.”
“You really like it?” Julian was surprised at both Thomas’s reaction and the pleasure he took in it. The castle had been described as an eyesore by many local humans, who didn’t care about its origin and the history between Julian and Vanderbilt. Arden had been speechless with horror the first time he’d gotten a good look at the place, and Whimsy’s reaction hadn’t been much better.
“I do,” Thomas said. “It has fascinating character. But I may be biased because I love Gothic novels and Victorian horror stories.”
“You are a young man after my own heart,” Julian said with a chuckle. “Since you have an appreciation for the macabre, I will let you have the bedroom at the top of the tower, if you’d like.” He pointed to the center of the castle, where the tower rose two stories above the three floors of the main castle. “It was supposed to be haunted, but I guess the ghosts didn’t care to follow the castle to America, because I’ve never seen one.”
“Too bad,” Thomas said with what sounded like genuine wistfulness. “I’m sure it has a beautiful view, though.”
“It does. You’ll be high enough to get a good view of the mountains and even Asheville proper.”
Julian triggered the remote that opened the iron gates protecting the driveway and steered the SUV onto the crushed gravel path. The gates closed automatically behind them, completing a perimeter of cold iron that encircled the entire house to help repel malevolent spirits and harmful magic. It also helped to keep out human intruders, aided by various repelling charms Julian had spent a fortune to have cast to protect his privacy.
Despite the age of the place, Julian hadn’t forsaken modern conveniences, and he used a second button to open the garage door, which was obscured by the illusion of a tangled hedge of thorns that was more in keeping with the rest of the castle. As he stopped the SUV, the automatic lights came up to illuminate the large space, which was empty except for the SUV and Julian’s sports car. He didn’t need the lights but had them installed after Arden and Whimsy had complained about stumbling around in the dark.
“Would you like the tour before we unload?” he asked Thomas as they got out of the vehicle.
“I’d love one,” Thomas said. “Who helps you take care of the place? It’s so big, I don’t imagine you can handle all the upkeep yourself.”
“The wee folk take care of the inside,” Julian said as he led Thomas toward the short flight of stairs from the garage floor to the house. “For the outside, I built a little house in one corner of the property and planted a garden. It attracted a few gnomes, and they take care of the grounds in exchange for being able to grow what they wish in their garden.”
“Do they handle crops?” Thomas asked with a smile to show he was joking. “I could turn the farm over to them.”
“I’m not sure, to be honest,” Julian replied, considering the question. “You’d probably be better off letting elves or werewolves handle it. Anyway….” He mounted the stairs and unlocked the door with an old-fashioned iron key, then opened it and stepped back. “Welcome to my home.”
“Thank you.” Thomas looked around with bright-eyed curiosity as he entered the castle, and he let out a low whistle. “It’s even better on the inside.”
The door opened into the foyer, which was marble tiled and rose up three stories, forming the base of the tower above. It was dark, with stone walls and iron sconces set in the walls, and a massive iron chandelier suspended in the center. He’d upgraded the lighting from candles to electric, but opted for fixtures that resembled candles so as not to ruin the ambience.
“This is just like I imagined the haunted houses and castles look like in books,” Thomas said, his eyes alight with delight.
“I’m glad you like it,” Julian replied. It was hard not to rub his hands together gleefully, since no one else had taken the same delight in the house that Julian did. “Come on, you’re going to love the rest.”
Julian gave Thomas the grand tour of the first floor, which included the modern kitchen, the training room, solarium, weapons room, and finally the massive library where Julian spent the majority of his time. The library took up one entire wing of the house, and Julian had fireproofing magic on every bookcase to protect the many ancient tomes he owned.
Thomas’s look of delight turned to starry-eyed wonder in the library, and he drank in the sight of the wide shelves climbing to the very ceiling. “Would you let me read any of these?” he asked, a hopeful note in his voice.
“You can read whatever you like.” Julian gestured toward the shelves. “Whimsy worked protective magic on the oldest ones to help preserve them. As long as you’re careful, you can’t hurt any of them.”
Thomas’s face lit up with the first real smile Julian had seen, and he took a step closer to Julian. “Thanks! I can’t wait to see what you’ve got. Do you have any recommendations? Have you read all them yourself?”
“Almost all of them,” Julian said. The sight of Thomas’s wide smile warmed him in ways he didn’t want to consider too closely. “Tell you what—you’ve got plenty of reading to do to catch up on the things you need to know about our world, so you might be sick of books by the time I’m through with you. But I’ll also give you some stories that were written by supernaturals, which the humans think of as fiction but give a good picture of our world too.”
“That sounds perfect,” Thomas said, and he kept flicking his gaze around the room as if he was trying to decide where to dive in.
Julian snorted. “They’ll be here later. Don’t you want to see the rest of the house?” He could already tell that he was going to have his hands full trying to make Thomas not neglect other aspects of his training in favor of the books.
“Oh, uh… sure.” Thomas tore his attention away from the books and followed Julian out of the room.
Julian took Thomas up the ornate staircase to the second floor, showing him the bedrooms and ornate bathrooms, most of which hadn’t been used since the castle had been rebuilt in its current location. The third floor held a ballroom Julian had entertained in only twice during the past hundred years, and storage for things Julian no longer had use for, like old furniture and fixtures. Then he showed Thomas the door leading up into the tower.
“I don’t think I’ve been up there in eighty years,” he said as he flipped on the light for the narrow staircase. “I’ve no doubt the wee folk have kept it clean, though. There’s even a small bathroom.”
“It’ll be fine,” Thomas said. “I don’t need much.” He cocked his head as he regarded Julian curiously. “What about you? You haven’t said which floor or wing or whatever is yours.”
“I have a room on the second floor, near the back of the house. There’s another stairway there that goes down into the library. It’s not the grandest room in the castle, but it’s more convenient since I spend most of my time among the books. Now do you want to see your room, or shall we unload the car first?” Julian asked.
“Let’s unload the car,” Thomas said.
It didn’t take long to get everything inside, and all the food took up little room in Julian’s nearly empty refrigerator and pantry.
“We can order more food for you,” Julian said, feeling a trifle embarrassed at the barren state of his larder. “And anything else you want. Alcohol I have, though.”
“This should do for a few days,” Thomas said, seeming satisfied as he tucked the last of the vegetables into a crisper drawer in the fridge. “I’ll take inventory and make a list. My grandmother taught me to cook. I can’t make anything fancy, but I can keep myself fed.”
“Good, because according to Arden, I can’t boil water right.” Julian gave a small snort. “I haven’t worried about food in almost three centuries, so I don’t know why he expected me to be a gourmet chef.”
“Probably because
you have such a huge kitchen,” Thomas said, looking around with an appreciative eye. “I suppose it’s here for formality’s sake, though. Do you ever entertain? This place has so much character and history, and the ballroom would be perfect for an elaborate masquerade party on Halloween or a glittery New Year’s Eve celebration.”
Julian shrugged. “I’m not really a party person. I did host parties to mark the end of World War I and World War II, but everyone did back then. After that… well, Arden and Whimsy are the ones who like to entertain. Besides, Whimsy would murder me if I tried to co-opt his annual Halloween party.”
“There are other holidays,” Thomas said. “Or you could let him do all the work and just provide the space.” He smiled wryly. “Sorry, I can’t get past the idea of how perfect this place would be decorated for Halloween. Grandpa didn’t seem to like that time of the year, though, so he never let me decorate or dress up, much less trick-or-treat. I read about it and imagined what it might be like. The reality will probably be a letdown considering how much I’ve built it up in my head over the years.”
Julian felt a fresh surge of anger at Micah Carter. It was bad enough that the old man had shut himself away and turned his back on his responsibilities to the community, but to deny his own grandchild the simple pleasures of childhood was simply unconscionable. “No, it won’t be a letdown,” Julian vowed. “I promise. You deserve better. Your parents would have wanted that for you, and I’m going to make sure you get it.”
