He glanced upstairs. He was sprawled across the couch in the living room. Apollo and Cassius were upstairs in Cassius’s new room. Cassius had been fascinated to hear that Apollo was a god and could just wave his hand and change a room around.
Titus had cooked their evening meal and helped Cassius choose between bathing in a huge tub or being pelted by six different showerheads in what was now Cassius’s private bathroom. Then Apollo had picked up the now clean, fed, and tired Cassius and said, “We’re going to do a spot of decorating, so our son feels comfortable tonight. It might take a while, but come up and say goodnight when you’re ready. I’m sure you have something to do.”
Decorating wasn’t something Titus was an expert at, so he was happy to let the two go and do what they wanted. Although now he was thinking about it, there was a good chance Apollo knew what he was thinking and was deliberately keeping Cassius entertained and out of the way.
Oh, fuck it! Who am I kidding?Titus reached for Apollo’s phone that had been left on the coffee table. Casually discarded or left out intentionally, Titus didn’t know, although he was sure Apollo had left his phone there deliberately.He would know I want to do this.
Waking up the screen – Apollo clearly didn’t know about lock screen protections – the first thing Titus saw was the glowing Paulie app. Still, he hesitated.Do I really want to know? Can’t I just be happy with the way things are?
Yes.
No.
That wasn’t who Titus was. He tapped the app, and a moment later the screen shimmered.
“Welcome, Titus, mate of Apollo,” the app said. “How might I help you this evening?”
Fuck, is the app using the camera too? How did he know I wasn’t Apollo?Titus had no idea, but Paulie was waiting for him. “As you’re probably aware,” he said firmly, “I recently gained custody of the child that was born to Lorna Bloom - the one I believed was my son, until you said otherwise.”
“That is correct, Titus,” Paulie said. “Our records have been updated to show that the god Apollo has claimed his fated mate Titus Haverland, and they now have a son, Cassius Haverland, aged ten mortal years. Cassius’s mother is still listed as Lorna Bloom, deceased.”
“Okay, good, at least we’ve got that straight.” Titus tried to think about how to ask his next question. “What can you tell me about the deaths of Lorna Bloom and her bond-mate Brian?”
The app was silent for a moment and then Paulie said, “Lorna Bloom and her partner Brian had been arguing for many years. While Brian adored Lorna’s vampire nature and how that translated into their bedroom activities, he became increasingly annoyed with the constant references Lorna made to you being Cassius’s legal father.
“Brian knew that wasn’t the case, and Lorna’s insistence in front of Cassius that you were didn’t help in any way, although he never argued the point in front of the child. Over time, Brian felt emasculated, believing Lorna didn’t trust him to care for her financially. Incidentally, Lorna was correct in her lack of trust in his ability. Brian had never held down any full-time job in the years prior to and during their relationship.”
Titus wondered if Lorna ever realized how much destruction she had set in place when she made her decision to lie to him ten years before. “So this was simply a case of an ongoing argument that just got out of hand last night?”
“Brian clearly understood that Lorna was a vampire. Indeed, a lot of their closeness stemmed from the kink they had around that particular aspect of their relationship.”
Titus wondered how Paulie could say that without the slightest variation in his tone. Of course, Lorna would like to feed on Brian. There was a time when she used to feed on him, too, although that wasn’t something Titus enjoyed. Glancing upstairs again, Titus thought,I’m not thinking about things like that when my mate and son are upstairs. I’m not thinking about that ever.
“All right, so they enjoyed kinky sex, likely involving blood play, but vampires are always resistant to having any of their own blood spilled.”
“It would appear that Lorna had shared with Brian the one way vampires could be killed at some point earlier in their relationship, and he’d never forgotten it. The machete used to decapitate Lorna was a gift she bought for him for the five-year anniversary of their bonding.”
That was pretty harsh.“What was Brian?” Titus said. “Apollo claims that Cassius has some powers, but surely if Brian were another god, then it would’ve been impossible for him to have died of a knife wound.”
“A self-inflicted knife wound, yes, we are aware,” Paulie said. “Brian was human with no paranormal ties at all, beyond his relationship with Lorna. It has been determined that he did love Lorna deeply, however, in his mind, he was unable to compete with another paranormal he’d never met.”
For another paranormal he’d never met, why not just say “that was you, Titus.”
“The act that took Lorna’s life was recklessly impulsive. It’s possible Brian expected Lorna to get back up, reattach her head, and keep yelling at him. Although he’d been warned about the limits of paranormal abilities, he didn’t understand them, as it wasn’t his life experience.”
Shit.Titus tried to imagine how Brian might’ve felt. “That must’ve been a hell of a shock for him then, when she didn’t get up.”
“Exactly. So much so, he took his own life, apparently remorseful for what he’d done.”
“He never once thought of Cassius?”
“We are not privy to the thoughts of mortals and can only report on their actions. However, it would appear from what happened that Brian’s only focus in life was Lorna. While Lorna was an excellent mother by all accounts when Cassius was first born, in the last six months of her life, the arguing with Brian became more of a preoccupation, causing her to neglect Cassius’s needs for connection and the basic necessities of life.”
Titus huffed out a long breath. “All right, so we have dead parents, and a child Apollo and I have gladly taken on as our own. Where did Cassius’s powers come from, if it wasn’t from Brian?”
“Cassius is indeed special, but he gained his powers from Lorna. While he’s not a full vampire, and will never have the need to drink blood to sustain himself, Lorna had gained her extra powers allocated to a vampire over five hundred years of age when she fell pregnant with him. Cassius has a unique form of synesthesia, and he is also highly empathic. He can see and understand a lot more than someone with regular eyesight, and it is likely that his powers will continue to grow and develop as he gets older.”
Titus absorbed what he’d been told, which was really pretty much confirming what he’d already thought – at least in respect to Lorna and Brian. But his own alpha tendencies meant he had to ask one more thing.
