39
SORLEY
Inside,Alec explained. “That was no ordinary vampire scent. At first I thought my senses were failing me. But no, I was right. However, there has been a mage around here too. That scent is lesser, but it was definitelynotMarlowe.”
Sorley sighed. “Which means we are looking for two people. I’m really not happy about this.”
Gethin wasn’t either.
Marlowe insisted on warding the flat, which according to him meant the entire building. First he requested some blood from each of them, which Gethin found more difficult than opening the vein of another, but he managed. Edwin went with Marlowe for moral support. Sorley stripped off his trousers with their soiled knees and pushed Gethin onto the couch, promptly sitting on his lap.
“I am such an idiot,” he apologised. “You’re already so good at being a vampire, I forgot you’d be vulnerable around so many humans, and that you’d need to feed. That could have been a sticky situation.”
Gethin disagreed. “I was in control.”
“By a whisker. You went from seemingly fine to almost out of it. Do you know what caused it?”
Gethin frowned. “There was a smell. Blood, it must have been, I suppose. The best thing I’d ever smelled in my life.”
Sorley pouted. “Better than me?”How come I didn’t smell it too?
Gethin chewed his lip as he considered. “I’m sorry, love,” he said at last, “but I’m going to have to say yes. It sent my head into a total tizzy. All I could think was, “I have to have it, right now.”
“And you didn’t see who it was, that smelled so amazing?” Alec sauntered in, a glass of Sorley’s best brandy in a crystal glass. He looked effervescent, but then so did Gethin, Sorley thought fondly. Feeding brought a glow to the skin that was hard to see with human vision, but a vampire could usually tell.
Gethin shook his head. “I have no idea. The only thought in my head was finding whoever it was and feeding from them.” He looked uncomfortable.
Sorley draped himself like a stole over Gethin and regarded Alec. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Alec’s mouth twisted like he’d tasted something sour. “Unfortunately, yes.” He perched on the end of the sofa to address Gethin. “We will speak with Marlowe when he is done doing whatever he deems appropriate outside, but to me, this reeks of magic. You are one of the most controlled new vampires I have ever met, Gethin. It is not a compliment so much as a fact. So how you were suddenly so violently distracted that you appeared borderline feral is a mystery. Sorley should have taken you to feed before shopping, and that is on him, but even so I somehow do not feel it would have made any difference. And I do not like it at all.”
“Magic? You mean some kind of enchantment?” Gethin’s expression was wary, but Sorley could tell he wasn’t dismissive of Alec, merely concerned.
“Yes, magic,” Sorley confirmed. “It makes sense that we smelled a mage, or something they unleashed. Wanting or craving the blood of someone who appeals more than the usual thirst doesn’t happen like it did to you. Bloodlust is a gradual process. I know you’re new, but you simply can’t have been that depleted. You’d have noticed, as would we.”
“Agreed. You would have been irritable, distracted, snappy, when you were trying on your new clothes.” Alec sighed. “And you were none of those.”
Gethin lifted Sorley and turned him so he was sitting sideways across his lap. “Don’t look like that,” he admonished when Sorley frowned. “I can’t carry on a conversation with you grinding against me, pleasant though it is.”
Sorley pursed his lips, but Alec chuckled. “Good lord, you two are insatiable.”
“And why not?” Sorley countered. He didn’t want to confront this new threat, but he knew better than to suggest they put off discussing it until the following night and went to bed instead. For starters, Marlowe was out doing whatever it was mages did. The least he could do was…
“Does anyone know if Marlowe has eaten today? Tonight, whenever he should eat?”
Gethin loosened his grip on Sorley’s waist. “Perhaps you should check the kitchen, so we can offer him a choice when he comes in. Or order him a takeaway.”
Before he could move, the front door banged. Marlowe came straight to the living room to report. “Being a vampire and therefore inclined to paranoia, means your external security, apart from your front door, is pretty good, which is a blessing right now.” He arched his eyebrows. “Some of your windows look like they don’t even open.”
Sorley sniffed. “They do, because like anyone of my age, I make sure I have multiple exits from everywhere. Force of habit.” He slid off Gethin’s lap and acknowledged Edwin with a nod as he ushered Marlowe towards the kitchen. “Thank you so much for setting some wards. I will call someone to get extra locks fitted to the front door. Can I make you something to eat?”
Gethin chuckled from behind him. “Lord, no, don’t let him cook. There are cobwebs on the utensils in his house up the coast.” He shoved Sorley aside with a grin and started putting together a meal. “So,” he said to the mage who was making himself a cuppa, “what sort of wards have you set?”
Sorley got lost as Marlowe plunged into a detailed description that began with blood and salt and ended by sounding as if he could command the grass in the patchy lawn surrounding the flat, as well as the trees and the earth itself. He poured a glass of wine for something to do, then passed the bottle to Edwin who had settled against a wall to listen. Sorley forced himself to concentrate on Marlowe.
“How does all this work? Is it like chemistry? How do the contents of a spice cupboard, and thank God you bring your own because you’d be out of luck here, activate soil and plants? I’m grateful, but I don’t get it.” He was making an effort to be nicer to Marlowe. The mage seemed highly intelligent and hadn’t moaned once since leaving Scotland about being sent somewhere that wasn’t home. If you could ignore the faint disconcerting smell of the ocean, he wasn’t bad company either. It had to be tough hanging about with four vampires, but Marlowe was proving the Council’s faith in him.
Marlowe shot him a slightly unnerved smile, as if shocked Sorley had spoken to him without being prompted.
