by L. C. Davis
“Is there such a thing as an anticipated hunter attack?” Sebastian asked, snatching the paper. He glanced over it, frowning. “It says my only duties are manning the door on club nights and perimeter sweeps.”
“That's right.”
“The club isn't even open.”
“We're still discussing that,” said Victor, now empty handed.
“Don't I get one of those?” I asked, squirming to be put down. Sebastian obliged grudgingly and I found myself leaning on him more than I wanted to.
Victor laughed and my skin crawled. Whatever Stepford Victor had done with Normal Victor, I wanted him back. “You've got your hands full as it is, obviously.”
I frowned. “I'm not crazy about the implication there, Victor.”
“No implication,” he said, still being uncharacteristically pleasant. “You are in the midst of making a decision that will affect the future of the entire pack. There's no time for you to be doing laundry and stocking cupboards.”
“But I like doing those things,” I protested, looking to Ulric for help. He shrugged.
“Traitor,” I said telepathically. He scowled. Out of respect, I refrained from abusing my ability to enter someone's mind without permission, but if the situation called for it...
“Yeah, Vic, mind if I talk to you for a moment?” asked Sebastian, grabbing his brother by the shoulder and hauling him off without waiting for him to argue.
“I don't have time to --”
“Make time,” Sebastian said, shoving Victor into one of the rooms down the hall.
And just like that, I was once again the sole focus of attention. Great.
“So,” said Brendan. I cringed in anticipation of what was to come. “I guess your date went well.”
He never disappointed. I swallowed my pride and made it into a chair with minimal limping. Sitting was far less pleasant than standing in my injured state, but I was used to hiding pain well. “We didn't know everyone would be, you know,” I mumbled, twirling a strand of hair nervously around my finger, “out here.”
“And the sunglasses?” asked Clarence.
“Still half vampire,” I said in a clipped tone.
“That's funny,” he said, glancing at Sarah. “She went earlier without any problems.”
Sarah pursed her lips and still seemed to be holding back a giggle. “Can I get you some tomato juice, sweetie? Looks like a nasty hangover.”
I like to think the force of my glare got to her even through the sunglasses. “What?” she asked innocently. “You told me to be honest.”
“I meant not to screw with people, I wasn't giving you permission to torture me,” I snapped.
“Aww,” she purred, stroking my hair affectionately. “This is what you get for being a good boy all those years. Sin is like poison, you've gotta build up a tolerance for it gradually.”
“Well, this has become a family situation,” said Clara, standing. “Go on, all of you. I'm sure Victor will call another meeting if he wants to.”
“I think that would be for the best,” Ulric agreed.
“Are you saying we're not family?” Brendan asked, clutching his chest and feigning deep pain.
“On your feet knuckleheads,” Clarence ordered, yanking Brendan and Jason up by the backs of their shirts. “I don't wanna get any more involved in this mess than we already are.” He paused and looked back at Hunter. “In case you were wondering, that includes you, Knucklehead, Jr.”
“I've gotta learn an eavesdropping spell,” Hunter grumbled, leaping over the back of the couch. He looked back at me. “I want the details later,” he said, scrambling when Clarence easily hoisted him over his shoulder with one arm. “Remember, you owe me!”
I sighed, rubbing my head. Living in a wolf pack was not the ideal post-hangover environment.
“Um, I should go too,” Maverick said, his gentle voice stiff with awkwardness. He glanced in my direction while avoiding eye contact. “Bye, Remus.”
“Bye, Mav,” I said with a small wave.
Once they were all gone, muffled yelling could be heard from inside the room Sebastian had taken Victor into. “Should someone stop them?” asked Clara.
“Let them fight it out,” Ulric and I muttered in unison. We exchanged an uncomfortable look and said nothing.
Sarah giggled. “If he had to get one thing from you, I guess it's lucky he got my looks and your grumpiness.”
“I'm not grumpy,” we snapped. I let my head flop against the wall and he groaned. Apparently, when hungover, I became my father. Great.
“It's uncanny,” Clara mused in awe.
“So,” said Sarah, squeezing into the chair beside me. “How was it? Where'd he take you?”
“I don't want to hear this,” grumbled Ulric.
“And I don't really want to share it,” I said, my head throbbing with each word.
“Oh, come on,” Sarah said, swatting my arm. “At least tell me if he was better than Victor.”
“I don't know, ask Clara,” I muttered. I regretted the words as soon as they came out of my mouth, but it was too late. Maybe I was still drunk.
A strange look flickered over Clara's face, close to fear. It was gone and replaced with her usual regal composure in an instant.
Sarah looked between us and her curiosity turned inquisitive. If I saw people's emotions and body language in eight-bit, Sarah saw in high definition. Nothing escaped her. If I had caught Clara's strange look, she certainly had. “Clara? Why?”
“Nothing,” I said quickly. My own voice felt like it was going to split my head in two, which was the last thing I needed after working so hard to put it back together. “I'm just babbling. Um, I think I'm going to grab a couple of aspirin and a cup of coffee,” I said, standing with some effort.
“Probably for the best,” Ulric said, giving me a stern look. “Come to my study when your headache is better. We need to talk.”
“I will,” I promised. So now I was hungover and probably grounded, too. I limped my way to the stairs, clinging to the railing as tightly as I was clinging to my last shred of dignity.
“I'll make you coffee!” offered Sarah. Every enthusiastic click of her stilettos on the tile drove a nail into my skull.
“Sarah,” Ulric barked authoritatively. “Not now.”
She made an exasperated sound but flopped back into her chair. Disagreeing and complaining was one thing, but no one in the Lodge was stupid enough to openly defy Ulric. No one but me.
Clarence was in the kitchen when I got there. Fortunately, it was just him. “Where are the stooges?” I asked, opening a bottle of water to wash the aspirin down.
He snorted. It was the first time he'd laughed at one of my lame jokes. At least I had accomplished something today. “Hunter's pissed at me for dragging him off so he's probably off planning a revenge spell. Brendan and Jason are out for a run.”
“Sounds nice,” I said wistfully.
“So go.”
I shook my head. “I'm still not supposed to leave the Lodge without supervision.”
“You've got two boyfriends and Ulric and you're telling me none of them have time to take you for a walk?”
“They're all busy,” I said, shrugging. “When we do get time together, it's for courtship and all that,” I said, dumping out the old coffee to make a fresh pot. “You want a cup?”
“Yeah, thanks,” he said. “I'll take you sometime.”
The offer surprised me so much that I nearly dropped the carafe. “That's really kind, but you're busy, too. I couldn't ask you to do that.”
“You didn't,” he said flatly. “I offered. Take it or leave it.”
I hesitated. “Okay. Yeah, that would be great.”
“I go every morning at six on the dot, so meet me by the door when you want to go.”
“Okay!” I said, feeling my mood lift. “I will, thanks.”
He said nothing and went back to reading some book. I leaned on the counter to wait for the coffee to brew and tried not
to do anything to distract him.
“So you wanna tell me what all that was about downstairs?” he asked, as if we'd already been talking.
“Honestly, I don't know. Victor's just being weird.”
“I've lived in this place for the last seven years,” he said, grimacing as he took a sip of his stale coffee. “If there's one thing I'm sure of it's that Victor just 'being weird' is never as far as it goes. There's always a reason when he comes unhinged.”
“He does that often?” I asked nervously.
“Often enough.”
I sighed. “Well, if there is a better explanation I don't know it any more than you do.”
He arched an eyebrow in disbelief. “You went out, got fucked by Sebastian and came home late. You don't have to have Victor's brain to connect the dots there. I mean, we could all smell his scent inside you as soon as you came through the door.”
“Yes, yes, I know,” I said, cringing. My headache seemed to be getting worse instead of better. “No need to rehash it all. Seriously, I don't know what's going on. I mean, this whole courtship thing was his idea, Ulric just enforced it. Now he's pissed at me for doing what he told me to do.”
“He told you to fuck Sebastian.” His words were dripping with disbelief.
“Yeah,” I said, crossing my arms. “My memory is a little hazy on the exact conversation. It's hazy on a lot of things when it comes to Victor,” I admitted. “But he told me in no uncertain terms that the fate of the pack depended on my exploring the full spectrum of my feelings for both of them.”
“Huh,” he murmured, deep in thought. “That is the kind of psychobabble bullshit language Victor would use. Man, that's all kinds of fucked up.”
“Not really,” I said, carrying the carafe over to refill his cup. “I mean, I wasn't crazy about the idea at first, but I've decided to just embrace it. Victor is right, if I make a decision lightly and it turns out to be the wrong one, the pack will suffer for it.”
“Thanks,” he said, narrowing his eyes like he was reading me every bit as intently as he had been reading his book a moment ago. “And when exactly did you have this change of heart?”
I filled my own cup and leaned on the counter again, blowing on the hot black liquid. “I don't know,” I admitted. “Yesterday evening, I guess?”
“That's oddly specific.”
I laughed. “What, are you reading private eye novels?”
He held up his book. “'Medieval Folklore and Magic.' I just think it's weird, that's all. You've been kicking and screaming this whole time about going on a date with Sebastian and now you're sleeping with him?”
“So?” I gave an exasperated sigh. “What does any of it matter to you?”
His face reddened a bit and his eyes were downcast. Guilt hit me immediately. “It's just not like you,” he muttered, taking another sip of his coffee.
“I'm sorry,” I said quietly. “I'm just exhausted and now I've got a hangover on top of yesterday's headache so I'm kind of...Ulric-y.”
He frowned and his back straightened a little. “I thought your migraines stopped when Sarah went all Humpty Dumpty and put you back together again.”
“They did for awhile,” I admitted. “I guess they came back.”
“When?”
I paused, struggling to remember. “I don't know, I guess yes --”
“Yesterday evening,” he said with such intensity that I couldn't help feeling like I was missing something. He stood suddenly and closed his book, slipping it into his back pocket. “See ya later, Remus.”
“Wait, aren't you going to finish your coffee?” I asked, mystified by his sudden haste.
“I would, but I just remembered something,” he said, already halfway out the door. He paused to look back at me. “Thanks for the coffee, but do me one more favor, huh?”
“Sure,” I said, beyond curious.
“Stay away from both of them,” he said so earnestly that it chased away any doubts that he might be joking. “At least until your head clears.”
“That's kind of a weird favor to ask,” I said warily. There was something about Clarence that inspired trust, as bizarre as the request might have been. He was the kind of person who spoke so little that when he did, you listened. “Can I ask why?”
“I'd just hate for you to regret anything you did when you weren't fully yourself.”
I swallowed hard and nodded. With that cryptic message, he gave me a rare smile and disappeared, leaving me alone with an excess of coffee and confusion.
Once I finished my cup, the blinding light-sensitive headache faded, leaving behind only the dull one that had been brewing since yesterday. I slipped off Sebastian's sunglasses and started towards his room, only to to second guess myself. As strange as it was, Clarence's warning was fresh in my mind. I returned to my room instead and placed Sebastian's sunglasses on my nightstand for safe keeping, flopping down on the bed.
At the very least, Clarence was right about my needing to clear my head. I wasn't sure if the coffee would interfere with my ability to sleep, but before I could finish wondering I slipped into a dream.
I woke to a buzzing sound and groped for my phone in the dark. There were easily half a dozen messages from Brendan and Hunter, each begging me for the inside scoop. Being cooped up for so long had taken more of a toll on the pack than I'd thought if my love life was what passed for entertainment these days.
Turning off the ringer, I placed my phone in my nightstand and got changed into something a little more appropriate for hanging out around the Lodge—or at least for the portion of it that was a home.
Clarence's words came to the surface of my mind. It was a lot clearer, but somehow it felt like the admonition was still in effect. Resisting the temptation to seek out Victor and attempt to get a straight answer out of him, I headed for Ulric's study again and resolved to take my punishment with dignity.
I was about to knock when I heard the sounds of a hushed argument coming from the other side of the door. The other voice was definitely Victor's. I broke my own policy against eavesdropping and pressed my ear against the door to listen. Unfortunately, I couldn't make out anything of substance. I could only be sure that Ulric was furious at Victor about something.
And here I'd thought Sebastian would be the one in the dog house.
Then a third voice joined the mix. It was too muffled to recognize. My balance faltered as I was still favoring one leg over the other and my knee hit the door with a soft thump. I cringed as the voices fell silent. Thinking on me feet—or at least one of them—I knocked on the door before they could catch me in the act.
A moment later, Victor opened the door. “Hello, Remus,” he said in an oddly formal tone. He didn't seem as manic as he had earlier, but I suspected that would return as soon as whatever was troubling him had been resolved. “Have you been waiting out here long?”
“No,” I said, struggling to stay cool. Sometimes I missed being a vampire. “I just woke up, actually, and I remembered Ulric wanted to talk to me. If I'm interrupting anything --”
“Not at all,” he said, stepping back to let me into the room. “We were just finishing up.”
Ulric was at his desk, his hands folded and his brow furrowed in deep thought. He looked even more troubled than Victor. Clarence was on the other side of the room watching us both, Victor especially. His gaze was shrewd towards Victor and pitying when it fell on me. I wasn't sure I had the better end of the deal.
“Clarence,” I said, stepping into the room. “Are you staying? I was hoping we could continue our talk,” I said, keeping the details to a minimum. Whatever it was that had come over Victor, he was losing more of my trust by the minute.
“Clarence has to be going now,” Victor said, opening the door wider. Clarence seemed to be about to say something before he was cut off. He clenched his jaw and glared holes into Victor's forehead, but he stalked past me without a word. It was, however, impossible to miss when he leaned in and whispered something in Victo
r's ear. I couldn't make out what he said, but judging from the look that passed over Victor's features, his words were far from sweet nothings.
Victor all but slammed the door after Clarence left and walked over to me. I must have recoiled visibly because he stopped short and looked hurt. The hand that had reached for me lowered slowly to his side and he straightened his spine. “Are you feeling any better? I was about to come check on you.”
“What was that with Clarence?” I asked, cutting to the chase. Of all the days, today wasn't the one for small talk. “What did he say to you?”
“He's just upset that I'm allowing Hunter to continue research into a large-scale version of the spell he put on the Lodge,” he said. I didn't doubt there was some truth to what he said, but it certainly wasn't the reason Clarence had stormed out of the room. There would be no reason to keep that a secret. I looked at Ulric for any sign that he was going to call out the lie, but is attention lingered on a scarlet book that had been sitting on his shelf untouched since I had met him.
If Ulric wasn't going to ferret out the lie, I certainly didn't stand a chance. At least not in front of Victor. “Oh,” I said, feigning satisfaction with his answer. I was a poor actor in my current state. “Well, I should go talk to him.”
“Before that,” he said, touching my arm. “Why don't you let me take you out tonight?” He gave me a once-over and seemed to re-evaluate his offer. “Or we could stay in if you're still tired.”
My hesitation was only the result of trying to find an excuse. Clarence's warning wasn't nearly as hard to heed as I had imagined, at least not where Victor was concerned. Fear wasn't the right word, but I was wary of spending time with Victor when he was like this, at least until I understood what this new state meant.
“You know, I'm really tired and I've had a headache since yesterday,” I said with some guilt. Even if my words were technically accurate, they were meant to conceal the truth.
It was impossible to miss the look Ulric gave him. A purely visual, “I told you so.”
