Cloudtree half turned.“M-may I present my stepbrother, Miel.”
Peter considered himself something of an expert in categorizing people, and so he easily clocked Miel as a grade A douchebag.He could see the Fae’s face now that Cloudtree had moved his shoulders, and he looked both mean and calculating.He clapped his hands, eyes widening and face brightening with greedy glee.
“You brought us more servants!Not entirely a waste of space, then, are you, Ash Mouth?Come in, come in.”
Cloudtree hung his head.Next to Peter, Theodore tensed.Annoyingly, Carl-Conrad padded to Theodore’s other side, canine ears raised and looking as alert as a good hunting dog might.
Laurette was at best amused.He leaned toward Cloudtree as they crossed the threshold.“Ash Mouth?”
Peter caught Cloudtree’s blush.“It…it is…a name.For me.A name of familial…endearment.”
Bell-bright laughter followed, shattering Peter’s relief at being indoors, instead of outside where the brightness and the glare was.The inside was a reception hall.The floor was tiled, and rough wooden benches sat against white walls with blue leaf patterns on them.The floor tiles repeated the leaf patterns, and together with the arched ceiling, Peter could tell that this had once been a beautiful, even rich room, but now it was dirty and looked disused.A small colony of spiders had woven their cobwebs in all the corners, and a burlap sack leaned against a wall, half-open, bug-eaten onions spilling out onto the floor.They made the entire room smell like rotten onions.
“Endearment?I suppose.If you’d give your favorite washrag an endearing name.Whence did you saunter off to, Ash Mouth?We tracked you to the human plane, but there were just humans, and, oh!I won’t tell, but Chambord is quite pleased with what we caught.We’re waiting until Father comes home to show him.”The blond Fae, who Peter was sure would look a lot better with his ribs cracked open, put an arm around Cloudtree’s shoulders.“We’ll even give you some credit for leading us there.You were good like a dog is good when he leads his master to a kill.Maybe we’ll feed you nice table scraps for a week, hmm?”
“Fucker,” Theodore said.
Miel looked at them.“What was that?”He looked right at Peter, and his lips curled.“Did you ask to be fucked?You’re a bloodsucker, aren’t you?I hear you’re quite fun.Friend of mine kept one of you in chains, said he lasted for a while and had the best mouth to take a cock after he’d taken out those sharp teeth.All muscle, he said.”
The baiting of an enemy either on the field of battle or when negotiating a ransom had been part of Peter’s earliest education, and he’d easily taken to it.It was why he recognized Miel as all shit and little substance, but Theodore, of course, had never had to ransom anyone.
“I’ll…I’ll…kill you.If you touch him.”
Theodore’s voice came out as little more than a tremor at the end.Peter wasn’t going to speculate as to why.He knew why.He’d decapitated the why not too long ago and gifted Theodore the head.
Laurette stepped into Miel’s line of sight even as Carl-Conrad circled to get into the Fae’s blind spot.
Laurette put a hand on the Fae’s chest.“Silly me.I suffer from ventriloquism when I’m excited.And I’m excited.”
Miel’s eyes settled on Laurette.Peter, as he put an arm around Theodore and drew him close, noticed that Gertrude had pulled a hammer out and was holding it loosely in one hand.
Miel looked at Laurette with the same excitement as a Victorian looked at his coke-laced cough medicine.He reached out and lifted Laurette’s hair so he could examine his ears.
“Thrilling.You’re an Elf!There’s barely a point to your ears.I’ve been wanting to bed one for the novelty of it.I wouldn’t normally, of course, but since Ash Mouth brought you…”
He shrugged in a way that said,Well,what else would we do if not fuck?
Seconds later, he started screaming.Gertrude had brought her hammer down on his knee, and it looked like she’d done some good damage with it.
Peter was ready to fight, but he couldn’t.Theodore had curled up against him, his head bowed.Peter felt his shivers, even under the cloak.
“Theodore, I have you.I have you.”
Chapter 21
Theodidn’tknowifhe should be more embarrassed or ashamed.He was feeling useless, and he wasn’t even sure what was happening to him.Just something about that blond Fae… It stirred an icy pool of things he couldn’t quite remember, things he didn’t want to remember.If he did, he’d drown in the freezing water of it all, and he couldn’t.He didn’t want to.
Bernard…
Theo heard the Fae screaming, saw him jerk out of the corner of his eye, but he was pressed tightly against Peter.This is not why you are here.This is not why you came.
“M-my blood.”He lifted his head to look up at Peter.
Peter, thank fuck, was calm, but Theo had known he would be.Peter was generally calm.His eyes, so much like freezing water themselves, looked on without a shred of judgment in them, at least as far as Theo could see.
“I’m not hungry just now, Theodore.”
“Swords!”Laurette said.
