"Do you understand anything that he's doing?" Apollo asked, watching as Lachlan busied himself with his phone and cables behind tall towers of lights.
"No fucking clue. Layla's skills have grown beyond my basic computer knowledge in the past few years. Better her than me. Technology seems so boring compared to magic," Valentine replied.
"Everything is boring compared to magic with you."
"True."
Apollo fidgeted, already sick of waiting and eager to find his samples in the labs and get the fuck out of the building. He was feeling like a mouse in a maze.
"So you find anything good at the auction?" he asked.
"A few manuscripts I thought Dad might like. One of them is Catherine Medici's copy of the Complete Works of Zosimos of Panopolys."
Apollo hummed. "Ohhh, very nice… If it's legit."
"It's legit. It's even got the Medici-Valois coat of arms on it to mark that it was from her personal library," Valentine said with a grin. "I wasn't going to steal anything counterfeit."
Lachlan signaled to them. "Layla is in their closed system. Let's get out of here and find the labs."
"Let's hope nothing has made it into their creepy blood vault yet," Apollo said with a shiver.
They had all agreed that the vault's storage room was too dangerous to risk entering. Apollo had described the sigils to Valentine as best he could, and he had clued in enough to know that Bellerose's personal workroom would have magical security that was too advanced for them to sneak in and out of.
"Do you have enough elixir to corrupt the samples?" Valentine asked as they went back out into the twisting concrete halls.
"I hope so. I fucking hate this, Val. We need to do what we can and get the fuck out of here. Maybe we can work on a ward for me so that if we miss any samples, they can't do blood magic on me."
"We will do everything we need to. Right now, I need you to keep your shit together." Valentine pointed at Lachlan in front of them. "Focus on the view."
Apollo laughed. "Fuck you."
"Whatever works for you. How's your dragon?"
"Quiet for once. And so is my brain for the most part."
Valentine leaned over and whispered, "Must be that magical Ironwood dick you got."
Apollo elbowed him. "Shut up. I didn't get any dick. Not yet, anyway. But yes, from what I have seen, it is pretty magical."
Valentine laughed. "Lachlan naked sounds gross to me, but if it makes you happy, that's all that matters. Mating just looks confusing and complicated."
"Keep your voice down with the M word, asshole," Apollo growled. He knew Valentine was teasing him on purpose to take his mind off where they were, and he was thankful for it. It worked every dam time, and he had to admit, the view was pretty fucking great.
Apollo was suddenly tempted to send Claudette some flowers himself. He vowed to find a way to get Lachlan into a suit more often because, damn, did he make them look good.
I finally kissed Lachlan Ironwood. Apollo still felt a little dazed by that realization. He did the thing he'd feared for so long and the world didn't explode. Not yet anyway. It was like every cell in his body hummed with a resounding,Yes. Yes. Yes.
"Wake up, little brother," Valentine prompted, and Apollo shook himself to focus on where they were. It was too dangerous to get lost in his mind right then. Fantasizing over Lachlan would have to wait until later.
They went up another two flights of stairs before they found a gray steel door with warnings about authorized personnel and wearing protective gear to stop contamination.
"What can be behind door number one!" Apollo chimed.
Lachlan held out a hand. "Wait. Layla is turning off the cameras in there."
Valentine did a quick magical scan to ensure they wouldn't set off any wards, and once they got the okay from Layla, they pushed the door open.
Apollo looked at all the equipment. They had found a pathology lab. It was empty, thank the gods. Maybe everyone had been invited to the party downstairs?
