Eleanor insistedon taking my keys, to have our bags brought up to the suite, so I reluctantly handed them over, unwilling to do anything more to bring us to Dalziel’s attention and potentially ignite his wrath. She promised she would return shortly with hot drinks for us both.
The bedroom was large and square, with lead-paned windows that overlooked the rear of the property. A coal fire burned in the grate, taking the chill off the air. Through a door in the far wall we discovered an old-fashioned looking bathroom with all the benefits of modern plumbing. I sent Charley to have a shower, and sat on the edge of the bed, feeling every heartbeat of my twenty-four years.
Charley had no concept of the layers involved in Council society, and how long it had taken to construct those layers, not to mention how fragile the bonds were between the various factions that comprised the Council. Mouthing off at a senior vampire, even if you could call him Daddy, wasn’t the way to ingratiate yourself into any supe’s family.
The water switched off in the bathroom, and I waited for Charley to emerge as was his wont, towel loosely wrapped around his hips, his inky hair clinging in tendrils to his nape and forehead. Clean, sweet-smelling, sexy.Mine.
And there was the problem. Charley wasn’t and probably never would be mine. Rocking up at a vampire’s lair reeking of recent sexual activity with a half-vampire when you were a wolf shifter had to be among the stupidest things I’d ever done. Discovering said half-vampire was the progeny of the senior vampire and not immediately putting several miles between you and the vampire papa was clinically insane. Dalziel had been polite-ish, but he was unlikely to stand for my putting a whisker out of place from now on. As much as I knew it had been the right thing to bring Charley here — especially now Dalziel had claimed him — I was staring down the business end of a barrel that almost certainly ended with my banishment from Charley’s side if I stepped even a millimetre out of line. Council or no Council, Dalziel wasn’t what I’d calltame. I could almost taste the animosity leeching out of him at the thought some mucky dog had dared to sexually defile something as gorgeous as his son.
Realistically, I had to accept there was a slim chance I might not even be leaving this house under my own steam. I had a fairly good grip on my temper, but if Dalziel’s behaviour towards Charley tipped over from parental zeal to what I considered a real threat, there was no saying what my wolf might do. And while I could definitely take most vampires in a fair fight, or even an unfair one, I didn’t want to put it to the test with someone of his seniority. Dalziel unfortunately held all the cards right now, so I had to remember to keep a tight rein on my emotions.
There was a knock at the door. I took two steaming mugs from Eleanor with a smile. She, at least, didn’t look down on me due to my genetics, or was very good at hiding it. Checking we could find our way back downstairs, she left again, after urging us to leave any dirty clothes outside the door to be laundered, and suggesting we didn’t spend too long hidden away up here.Don’t be stupid enough to fuckwas the very clear subtext.
I handed the hot chocolate to Charley, and sipped at my own drink. He peered into my mug and looked sad. “Why don’t you get something delicious? Is this Dalziel being a dickhead again? I hate how he looks at you.”
I shook my head with a wry smile. “Nah, he’s actually being thoughtful, or Eleanor is. I can’t tell.” I jerked my chin at the confection in his grasp. “Chocolate makes most wolves sick. Tea is the safest option by far.”
His eyebrows jumped. “Seriously? Man, that sucks.” He eyed me thoughtfully. “But you drink coffee, right? And that contains a lot of caffeine.”
I shrugged. “I don’t make the rules. My body knows what it can tolerate and what it can’t. Caffeine is fine. Chocolate, well, you don’t want to know.” I cracked another grin as his eyebrows rose higher still. “Of course I tried it. It’schocolate,for fuck’s sake.”
“Hmm.” He sounded unimpressed. “You want me to join you in the shower? I’m still wet, so—”
“Absolutely not.” I countered his suggestion as firmly as I could. He drooped with disappointment. “Babe, I’d love nothing more than to dirty you up again, but we already took a huge risk turning up here stinking of each other.” I recalled rubbing my cum into his pale skin, and the joy it gave me to know he was marked with my scent, but then how unwise I’d been not to insist we use the shower facilities at the services when we’d stopped for breakfast. My damned wolf had got the better of me, and the repercussions were already making me antsy. I explained to Charley, watching as he deflated more in the armchair with every word out of my mouth.
“But he’s my father,” he said with a plaintive whine when I’d finished. “Doesn’t he want me to be happy?”
“Not with a wolf, he doesn’t,” I snapped, softening my features when he jerked back. “Sorry, bit of a sore point.”
“I can imagine.” He couldn’t, not yet, but as he became more familiar with the supernatural world, he would. He’d see for himself the gulf between our species, and the tenuous bridges we struggled to maintain.
Right now, though, we had a senior vampire to appease. “I’ll have my shower,” I told Charley. “Stay out of mischief for ten minutes, okay?”
He blew a raspberry at my departing back.
* * *
I could seethe two halves of Charley fighting to make sense of his new world. On the one hand, he seemed patently terrified of Dalziel. But conversely he appeared desperate to connect with the guy as family, inappropriate teenage mouth and all. I could understand that part; he was adopted, and I knew adoptees often felt compelled to seek out their birth parents to find answers.
We were back in the same room, same seats, but this time Dalziel was grilling Charley about the night the murder allegedly took place. I say allegedly, as I didn’t know for sure if the bikers had established a time of death. Perhaps they had a tame doctor in their pockets; wouldn’t be the first time.
Charley looked even paler than usual. The stress of reliving it was evidently getting to him. He recounted how he’d turned up at The Dive, knowing it was closed, but cautious nevertheless.
“Why were you even there?” I realised I hadn’t asked him this.
Dalziel frowned at me, then nodded as if agreeing it was a decent question. “Charley?”
Charley hunched his shoulders. “Was searching for my MP3 player.” At my snort of amusement, the corners of his mouth curled up. “I know, I know, but my phone doesn’t always work properly and I like my tunes.” He huffed, and added, “It was a present, all right?”
Ahh, sentimental value.
Dalziel continued. “So, you let yourself in? You have the keys?”
Charley nodded. “Yeah. I clean for the biker club, and this is one of their venues. I’m a key holder.”
“But it was closed? You got there early?”
“Yes, and no. It doesn’t open on a Monday. I went there before my shift at the warehouse. Maybe about half six? Yeah, about then.”
