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.
"We are going to be fine, Dad. Don't worry about it. Lachlan is doing the hunting and logistics things, Valentine is taking care of the magical espionage, and I will mix up something in case of emergency. I'm brewing a spray and some droppers to corrupt my DNA as we speak. We can handle it," Apollo reassured him.
"And what are you going to corrupt it with?" Cosimo asked because he couldn't help being a teacher as well as a father.
Apollo grinned. "Madame Alarie's Persian cat. You know the one that lives in the building across from us?"
"The one that pisses on everyone's balconies?" Cosimo asked, laughing loudly.
"The very one. I bribed it with some cheese and stole some of its fur."
Still laughing, Cosimo asked, "And how is Lachlan? He was quite inconsolable last time I saw him."
Apollo twisted a lock of his hair nervously. "He was?"
"You were kidnapped in front of him, Apollo. Of course he was."
"I didn't think he cared."
Cosimo snorted. "Don't be dense. That boy is so in love with you, he flew to Paris and rescued you against everyone's orders."
Apollo swallowed hard. "You think he's in love with me? Because I'm pretty sure he's a hump-them-and-dump-them kind of guy."
"Come now, we all know something is going on."
"Dad? He's... He's my mate," Apollo admitted. He hadn't told Cosimo what had happened on Midsummer.
"I know," his father replied. "How long have you known?"
"A while? Maybe a part of me knew when we first met? But definitely since Midsummer." Apollo pulled a pillow over his face. "I don't know what to do. The dragon is driving me crazy and doesn't understand human courtship at all. I may have also hooked up with Lachlan just a tiny bit this morning. I know he's not the kind of guy to mate for life like dragons, but maybe I can keep him just for a little bit?"
"Are you asking for my advice, or do you just want to talk it out?"
"Advise me, old man. That's your job as my parent."
Cosimo laughed softly. "Talk to him, and tell him how you feel."
"Okay, I'm going to need better advice than that."
