“Through there.”Jaks pointed to a pair of double doors at the far end of the room that Quentin hadn’t noticed before.
Eager to see this unexpected bonus, he hurried past the long counters and the enormous antique desk with barely a glance at the shiny desktop computer and drawing tablet sitting on the surface.He’d be back to check those out later.
Jaks rushed ahead and opened the door on the right.With a sweeping bow, he ushered Quentin forward.
“Thank you, kind sir.”Quentin sashayed past his lover.
“Wow.”
He’d expected maybe a cafe table, a few chairs, and an umbrella if he were lucky.Not a magically protected spell range where he could test out new projects.The protective wards gave off a low-key hum.“This is amazing.Who did the wards?”If it wouldn’t hold, Quentin would have to be careful how much magic he used in the range.
“Dwarves.I had them plant rune stones around the entire courtyard.”
He didn’t know what to say.Dwarves were damn expensive, and they took their time.Jaks must’ve been planning this for a while.This wasn’t the last-minute change he tried to make it seem.This was months of work.“So, I was right, there were dwarves?”
Jaks’s delighted laughter had Quentin tucking himself in the vampire’s arms.“However am I going to thank you, kind sir?”He fluttered his eyelashes as he pressed against Jaks’s body.
“I’m sure I’ll think of something.”Jaks’s eyes glowed as he regarded Quentin with a far-too-knowing gaze.“I’m glad you like it.”
“I love it.You thought of everything.”
“Not everything.I wasn’t sure what materials you might need for your projects.I only got you the basics.”
“I saw the shelves.I’m sure you supplied me with most of what I need.And I have more at my house.I sent my lab stuff there.I’ll go get it tomorrow and set up shop since I don’t have any classes.”
“Good.Let me know if you need anything else.”
“I will.”Quentin yawned, his jaw cracking at the strength of it.“I’m going to head to the house.It’s been a long day, and I want to make sure my orbs made it safely.”
Jaks kissed him.It took him several minutes to gather his thoughts after his blood and concentration rushed south.Jaks’s smug expression didn’t help.No one should look that sexy while smirking.
Jaks grinned.“Mind if I sleep over?”
“You aren’t going to stay up all night?”Vampires didn’t need a lot of sleep, and he knew Jaks needed less than other vampires.The stronger the vampire, the less rest they required.Jaks’s power level didn’t require much sleep.
“I’ll be by late if you don’t mind.”
“No problem.”He loved waking up in Jaks’s arms.He really wanted to stick around and play in his workshop, but it would all go better if he had all his materials when he started and enough rest not to make stupid mistakes.
Time to go home.
CHAPTER3
Quentin teleported to his mother’s house, or rather, his now.The family home she tossed aside as she embraced her new life as a vampire.He pushed away the unfounded resentment over her trying to leave behind everything from her old life, including him.
Intellectually, he knew that wasn’t true.Emotionally, it was a different matter.
That Quentin now had a vampire lover and often spent the night at the manor wasn’t mentioned when she gave him the keys.Unspoken was that she was ready to move on.
New body, new life.
He didn’t blame her, he really didn’t.Only sometimes he missed when it was just them against the world before she got sick, before Quentin met Jaks, just before.
Quentin landed in the front garden, right in the middle of the circle his mother had paved in stone years ago.She surrounded it with flowers like a fairy circle.Now that he knew about his father, he was reasonably sure she had planted it for the irony.
Heading down the stone path toward the front steps, he froze three feet away.
Someone was standing on his porch, an uninvited someone.
