Apollo's ears burned hot as lava. "I couldn't just leave him to sleep on the couch after he had rushed in to save me the way he did."
"How big and giving your heart is," Valentine said dryly. "A modern Mother Theresa, you are."
"Fuck you," Apollo said with a laugh. "Don't judge me. We didn't even fuck."
"I know you didn't because I'm sure I would have heard it," Valentine replied. "You don't owe him anything for saving you."
"Fuck, Val. It wasn't like that."
Valentine glared at him. "Then tell me what it's like. I know he's your mate, bro. The whole family does. In fact, I thinkeveryoneknows except for Lachie himself."
Apollo put his face in his hands. "I know. I don't know what to do or how to tell him. This morning was just like some heavy petting? That's all. I have problems controlling my dragon when we are in close proximity like this. It wants him."
"And what do you want?"
Apollo didn't remove his hands. "I want him too. It's just... I don't think he's the mating-for-life type. I know I need totell him, but we have bigger things to worry about with these alchemists. I will talk to him about it after they are dealt with."
Valentine snorted, "Well, you've managed to put your feelings off for years. What's another week?"
"I love you, big brother, but sometimes you really are a bitch."
Valentine smirked. "Just telling you how it is. You are both in love with each other. I don't know what the problem is."
"That's because you've never been in love with anyone but yourself."
"True, and I am happiest that way. From where I'm sitting, love looks like too much drama for me," Valentine replied. "Don't forget to call Dad. He needs to speak with you and hear your voice and shit. You know, parent stuff. Maybe he can give you advice about Lachie. As you pointed out, matters of the heart are not my area of expertise."
Understatement of the fucking year. Apollo bit his tongue and headed upstairs to call Cosimo from the landline.
No matter how many years had passed, the upstairs room would always smell like the lily of the valley perfume that his mother had worn. It used to be her and Cosimo's room, but after the boys had grown up, it was turned into a generic guestroom.
At least, that had been the plan. It didn't matter what furniture it had or what pictures hung on the wall. Apollo would still see his mother's dressing table with creams and cosmetics lined along it. He had sat with her more than once when he was little and had learned to put on makeup and do facials and manicures. Lisa had never been a mother to worry about gender roles or any of the nonsense of 'girls' things and 'boys' things.
Apollo suddenly wished he could sit down with her and do manicures while he talked out all his mixed feelings for Lachlan. She always knew he needed something in his hands to fidget with when he was talking.
Apollo went and sat on the bed. Valentine was the neat one of the family, and the bed had been made with perfect precision, which was just unnatural. He was the one who always perfected the house cleaning spells because he couldn't handle the mess. At least he had left everyone's bedroom alone, but it had been a big argument at the time. They all dealt with their mother's death in different ways, and Val had gone straight to OCD neat freak.
Apollo picked up the cordless phone and pressed the speed dial button for Cosimo's phone.
"This better be Apollo, or I am going to lose my temper," Cosimo answered.
"Hey, Dad, sorry. I've been sleeping."
"And kidnapped!"
Apollo winced. "That too. I'm okay. I swear."
"Valentine said Lachlan got you out. I know he meant well, but he really should have waited for your brother to back him up."
"If he had, I might have been dead or worse," Apollo said. He spent fifteen minutes giving his father a full update, including their plans to crash the masquerade ball that night.
Cosimo muttered some choice curses in Italian under his breath. When he wasn't in Italy, if Cosimo was speaking Italian, it usually meant he was struggling to control his temper.
"I don't understand how they have managed to remain a secret all this time. From normal humans, I can understand, but from the magical community? That truly is a feat," he said, switching back to English. "It doesn't matter now. What matters is that they thought it was okay to kidnap my son and experiment on him. Should I come and handle this?"
Few people outside the direct family knew that Valentine had gotten a lot of his darker traits from Cosimo. Their father was a multidisciplinary magician like Valentine and had also been theone that people thought would eventually go crazy or dark. Their Auntie Maria had beaten him to it, and no one had heard from her since before Cosimo had married Lisa.
Magicians tended to go wandering when they were mad, so the Greatdrakes figured she would turn up at some point if she wasn't dead.
