“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Peter singsonged into the night, but the night remained silent.The crow cawed once.“Nevermore,” Peter told it.
Peter hoped he was wrong about his suspicion that Bernard had left.He circled the house twice.Other than claw marks and some cracked bricks right next to the kitchen window, there was no sign of anyone having been there.
It seemed as though Bernard had raged and attempted to punch the wall when the warding had kept him from breaking in through the kitchen.Peter rolled his eyes at the idea.Violence against things was silly and exceedingly undignified.It was also a waste of perfectly good violence.
Peter went to the back of the house and went inside through the patio door.The conservatory was a later addition to the building, and while Peter didn’t have a maid, he did employ a gardener—although the brownie was difficult to pay since she was adamant about owing Peter for some out-of-the-box lawyering he’d done for her a while back.He’d put on the balaclava back then, but had lost it during the…negotiations.I really need to replace it.
The brownie kept a lot of plant life in the conservatory, even if Peter hardly used the space.As he walked through the nightshades and the lilies, the ferns and the blooming begonias, Peter wondered if Theo might enjoy the room.Peter made a mental note to show him and ask.
I could put a desk in here, make sure the Wi-Fi is decent.It’s pretty bright, but he might like it.
Five stairs led up to the back door, which opened onto the foyer, and Peter braced himself for confused crows making a mess of things.But the foyer, apart from a few feathers, was not in too much disarray.
Peter tsked.“He’s even incompetent at soiling his enemy’s personal space.”
When Peter had used animals to attack, he’d always made sure to have them empty their bowels all over the place, because psychology was at least half a battle’s worth of pleasure.Bernard’s crows hadn’t crapped everywhere, and the sole crow still left in the house—presumably the one whose mate was still out in the crabapple tree—sat sadly cawing on the back of a kitchen chair.
Peter helped it outside and watched them reunite with their partner before flying off into the night, then he rushed upstairs to check Theo was still sleeping.
He was, his breathing steady and low.Peter watched him for almost a minute before examining his bedroom door.The birds had left marks all over it, along with more feathers, and it would need to be sanded down and repainted.
Peter returned to Theo and sat on the bed to watch him again.Theo’s black hair was spilled around him like an overturned inkwell, and Peter ran his hand over it.Seeing the young man in his bed made him feel painfully gooey on the inside.
He sighed.I’m not a gooey person.This shouldn’t be happening.
Not that Peter was going to do anything about it, but he really had to think about how that change in the consistency of his heart would affect his life.
Falling in love really was a gods-forsaken bother.
Peter showered in a downstairs bedroom so as not to wake Theo with the noise.He hated washing Theo’s lovely scent off him, but the blood and eyeball juice simply had to go.Before Peter set about cleaning the house, he found his phone and called Sage.It rang for a while before the witch picked up.
“The fuck you want, Peter?’S th’ middle of the fuckin’ night,” Sage said, his words slurred.
“So it is.I need you to come by and check the warding on my house, repair a few bricks, a broken window, a door maybe.Nothing major.”
There was some grumbling.“Can it fucking wait until the fucking a.m.?”
Peter walked to the staircase and looked up toward the room in which Theo was sleeping like a princess bedded on feathers, not a pea in sight.
“Possibly.So long as it’s the first thing you deign to do once you begin your workday.”
“Godsdamn, Peter.Call a witch at a reasonable hour and tell them that.I’ll drop by your place in a few hours.The pup’s doing well, by the way, and thank you for asking.”
The pup in question was a young werewolf Peter had extricated from a bad situation involving a pack of loups-garous on behalf of the werewolf’s older sister.Since the young wolf had the gift of magic—unusual for a shifter but not unheard of—and hadn’t wanted to connect with his family, Peter had dropped him at Sage’s door.
“Good to hear.I hope you managed to house train him.Heavens know he needed someone to do that.”
“Peter, you’re an ass, but I’ll still do your warding.”Sage huffed.“I’m going back to sleep now.Don’t ever call me in the middle of the fucking night again unless something’s on fire.”
Sage hung up.
With nothing more to do for the night, Peter went about cleaning up the feathers and broken glass before he finally went back to Theo.He looks good sleeping in my bed.It’s his rightful place.
If Peter had his way, Theo would never sleep anywhere else again.
16
Theo
