The Accords Triptych (Book 1): Wolves Without Teeth

by Thomas, Ian

  “Uh,” he said, looking around the group for the first time. Wow, there are a lot of pretty people here, he thought. A lot of pretty white people. “Does it have to be Brooklyn?”

  “Why?” she said urgently, moving closer to him. “Do you know of somewhere? Can we get it tonight? You’re Stephen, right?”

  “Mouth, actually,” he replied, a little startled by her sudden, intense interest in him. “It’s just I may know of a place.”

  “Is it legit?” she asked. “Because it has to be legit. There’re like forms and legal shit I have to cover off.”

  “Yeah it would be legit. He really should have bailed on the project when she’d offered the out earlier. “I just need to see if it’s available.”

  “Can you do that now?” Her intensity frightened him. Her eyes seemed to get wider with every word to the point where she had eclipsed everything around her.

  “Yeah, uh, sure, give me…” and he was gone. Bolting outside to get away from her and use his phone in peace, though mainly to get away from her, he rang Eddie.

  _ _ _

  Inside, Jason and Blake were going through the shift plan to see what needed to be completed. Saturdays, Jason was realizing, were very different to the weekday shifts. Barely a free seat in the coffee shop, there was no sense of urgency. Weekend customers were more relaxed and the staff were able to breathe, let alone get jobs done.

  “Usually,” Blake was saying, “we look at this later in the day.”

  “As in twenty minutes before you finish?” Jason asked.

  “More like thirty,” Mitch called, carrying the trash bags past them and into the back. “Not gonna find another dead guy out here am I? Pretty sure Blake’s just taken to killing men off.”

  “I’d start with you,” she sneered.

  “Pretty sure it was a va–” Jason said, then stopped himself. “Vicious attack. Not Blake.”

  “Vivacious?” Mitch teased, looking at Jason, a big smile on his face.

  “And you leave it for the next shift?” Jason avoided the smile and Mitch’s friendliness.

  “No,” Blake replied. “We do it.”

  “No,” Mitch corrected slowly, leaning on Jason’s shoulders. “Jeremy does it all.”

  “Yeah,” Blake said uncomfortably. “That’s true. Jeremy’s pretty good like that.”

  “Jase. C’mon.” Mitch stood upright, a hand still resting on Jason’s shoulder. “Let’s make cold brew. I’ll even let you stir.”

  “Uh, sure, whatever,” Jason muttered, following Mitch to the rear of the coffee shop.

  “Dude, you should totally take a Saturday shift.” Mitch heaved a large container out of the walk-in fridge, and heaved it onto the counter, muscles straining in his t-shirt. “It’d be fun. Plus you’d be saving me from Blake. I mean she can be cool and all, but she just hates me.”

  “She doesn’t hate you,” Jason replied, setting up the equipment to filter the steeped cold coffee. “You just represent everything she hates about men in general.”

  Mitch laughed, his hand on Jason’s shoulder again. “See, that’s why I need you around.”

  Hearing Rowan’s voice in his head from when she did his tarot, he remembered he had to stop being so anxious and self-critical. Somewhere in his cards was his soulmate, the one, Mr. Right, happily ever after, she had said. Was it Mitch? Were the Ten of Cups some cosmic metaphor for the coffee shop?

  “What?” Mitch asked. Jason closed the gap between them and kissed him. For a split second Mitch kissed him in return.

  But then he was pulling back, putting several feet between them.

  “Hey, uh, sorry dude, you got me all wrong.” Mitch folded his arms across his chest.

  “Bullshit,” Jason shot back, angrily. “Everyone knows you and Danny have been hooking up since last semester.”

  “Danny’s hot. He at least works out,” Mitch replied.

  Jason’s face drained of color.

  “Sure, I’m bi, but doesn’t mean I’m gonna play with just any guy,” Mitch said. “I like guys who…look after themselves.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Hey, look, Jase.” Mitch recoiled seeing Jason was hurt. “You’re awesome. Really nice guy, just, ya know, maybe hit the gym.”

  “I got it. The first time,” Jason said firmly. “You didn’t need to restate the fact.”

  His face burning, Jason walked out to the counter, pulled off his apron, and headed for the door leaving the Inverted King behind.

  “Hey,” Mitch called after him, “if you want to work out sometime – as friends of course – I’d be happy to help.”

  But Jason was gone.

  _ _ _

  The door started to swing shut behind when Mouth appeared through it, finishing his call as Jason strode past him. He looked to Blake and Mitch, but it was Mitch’s guilty face that told him everything. About to leave and chase after him, Naomi sprung up before him.

  “How’d it go?”

  “Uh, yeah, all good. Rooftop in SoHo,” he said flustered. “Hey, can I text you the address, just a friend of mine…”

  But she had turned to the group beaming, an arm on Mouth’s back pushing him into the production meeting. “Good news everybody, Stephen’s found us a rooftop.” A half-hearted cheer went up. Drew sat in the back smiling. “Christy, you’re gonna need to cancel your thing.”

  “But–”

  “Cancel it!”

  “Poor Christy,” Drew said as Mouth took his seat again. “One Direction’s loss.”

  “She gets she’d be the oldest, non-parent there right?” Mouth said, taking out his phone again.

  Mouth // 10:42

  Jason! What’s up?

  What’d that fuckwit do now?

  Text back!

  “Probably not.” Drew sat back in his chair, disdain for the group barely visible.

  “Hardly a surprise,” Mouth replied, sharing Drew’s feelings. “You know you and I’re the only talented ones here.”

  “Cold,” Drew smiled. “But true. Figured I was just here for diversity.”

  “Wait? You’re black?”

  Drew elbowed him in the ribs, hard enough for Mouth to grunt audibly.

  “Everything okay over there?” Naomi asked. “Stephen? Andrew?”

  “Yup,” Drew replied as Mouth muttered curses under his breath. “All good.”

  “Okay so as I was saying this is a test shoot,” Naomi said, holding court once more. But Mouth was only paying half attention, his eyes flicking between his phone, Naomi, his phone, Blake, Mitch, his phone, and back to Mitch. Naomi was explaining how her film advisor wanted her to shoot the most effects-heavy scene – even in a test format – so that they could add effects to it earlier rather than later. Mouth agreed it was a sound idea given how long rendering of effects took, but he hoped the film advisor would realize what a turkey the film was going to be from this shoot alone.

  “And we’re so lucky to have Stephen, here, on sound,” Naomi was saying. “He’s a techie at WNYU.”

  “Yeah, Stephen,” Drew said. “We’re so lucky to have you on sound.”

  “Wait, what?”

  But the group had already murmured their support of the decision. Clearly, Mouth thought, none of them had ever listened to the show.

  He offered a weak smile, resigning himself to the role. Walking away from the project would have only caused more drama as Naomi would have lost her rooftop and sound guy. As a sophomore bailing on a project – even this one – would reflect badly on him. He was damned if he did, and damned if he didn’t.

  And why wasn’t Jason texting back.

  XX

  Squinting against the daylight, McLachlan didn’t recognize the room.

  A second passed before he realized it was Rebecca’s, the morning after…

  “Hey,” she said as his eyes fell on her.

  “Hey,” he replied sleepily. Had she been awake a long time? Had he been drooling? As she rolled onto her side, coordination not in her favor
, McLachlan decided she hadn’t been awake that much longer. “So…”

  “Yup.”

  “So much for the third date.”

  “For the record–” he leaned over and kissed her. His hand finding her body under the sheets.

  “You were saying?”

  “Nothing important.”

  “I doubt that,” he said with a smile, kissing her again.

  “How long before Alquin sends out a search party for you?”

  “At least a couple of days. We have boundaries.”

  “Good to know.”

  “How long before Hayley starts banging and crashing out there?”

  Rebecca stretched to look at the clock. It was one in the afternoon. “About an hour ago. Odd that she hasn’t.”

  “She’s a good friend.”

  “Yes, but we may have kept her up.”

  “I thought you said she wore ear plugs,” he said, sitting upright in bed. Rebecca liked the sight of his bare torso, leaning over to kiss his chest.

  “No, I think you’ll find I said ear plugs are amazing things. She knew what was going on.”

  “But–”

  “No buts. Mac it’s all good.”

  “But my up-all-night, energy thing?”

  “Now you’re just bragging.”

  “Not what I–”

  “Listen, if Hayley had a problem with us screwing all night, she would’ve said something. Trust me. She has no boundaries when she’s pissed.”

  “Really?”

  “Okay, hate to burst your bubble but great sex all night is not solely the dominion of the demonically stained.”

  “Was pretty good, huh?”

  “Fuck, if that was a roundabout way of getting a compliment then we have bigger issues than bathroom vampires, werewolf betrayal, and dead bodies.”

  “No, not – wow arguing with you is not easy.”

  “Oh, this isn’t arguing. I’ll let you know when we’re arguing.”

  “Change of pace?” he asked, pulling her body against his, a hand sliding between her legs.

  She said nothing, preferring to kiss him instead, her breath catching in her throat.

  XXI

  No new messages.

  Short of assuming Jason being upset was Mitch’s fault and beating him to a pulp, Mouth felt helpless.

  Which left Mouth to focus on the film shoot.

  On leaving the coffee shop the whole group traipsed over to the production center on campus. Drew had been made first assistant director for the project. An insult as far as Mouth was concerned. He should have been the director of photography with Mouth as his assistant. That fact became painfully obvious when Naomi deferred to her chosen DP Wes, a junior from UHall. The guy knew the terms, but when the equipment arrived he looked as though he had expected something else.

  “This is gonna suck.”

  “True dat,” Drew said, then offered to make sure the equipment made it to the shoot.

  When Mouth got back to their dorm room, Jason was elsewhere. And still not answering his phone – calls or texts. Figuring he’d be at the library, Mouth set up camp there getting some work done in the process. Academically, his afternoon proved worthwhile. Personally, however, no sign of Jason.

  “Radio silence isn’t usually his thing.” He’d been sitting watch at the door of Lafayette, hoping Jason would show before Hayley did. When she arrived first Mouth’s spirits dropped as it was time to leave.

  “So what do you think happened?” Hayley asked as they started walking to Canal Street.

  Mouth paused, “you know if you’d asked me that a couple of weeks back, I probably would have had a very simple answer for you. But well…”

  “We do live in a post-supernatural era, so yeah I get that. But still.”

  “Yeah, I have this horrible feeling that Jason made a pass at Mitch and well, don’t think it was particularly successful.”

  “Ouch. Not good.”

  “Last thing Jase needs right now.”

  When they reached the corner of Lafayette and Canal Mouth spotted a familiar face emerging out of the subway.

  “Mitch!” he shouted. Alarmed, the jock-type looked around until he saw Mouth on the corner. “What the fuck did you do to Jason?”

  “Me?!”

  “Oh, don’t play dumb, Mitch,” Hayley said. She knew enough about the Mitch-uation to feel she could weigh in on the matter.

  “He’s not playing,” Mouth said flatly.

  “Oh you know what Mouth, fuck you.” Mitch took a step back defensively. “I came down here to see if Jason was alright, okay? I’ve been trying him all day. And nothing. If he’s gonna be a little bitch about it and sulk–”

  “Hey!” Mouth roared, unaware people – yes even New Yorkers – were starting to stare. “Don’t you dare talk about him like that! He’s worth ten of you! A hundred. Okay fifty. But still, you’re an asshole.”

  “Will you li–”

  “I’m gonna stop you there.” Hayley stepped forward aware Mouth was about to assault the other sophomore. “As much as I would love to see him tear you a new one – and I really would – I think you’ve forgotten an important fact. His name is Mouth. Nothing – and I mean nothing – you can say will put you in the same league as him. Here’s you. All the way down here. And here’s Mouth, up, you see that plane? Yeah, keep going. So unless you want to channel your ‘roid rage through your fists and be done for assault, I’d leave and think really long and really hard about what happened. And make it right.”

  Mitch stood silent on the street. He could see Mouth struggling. Whether he saw his part in the situation, or realized he wasn’t going to win, it was unclear. He simply nodded to Mouth and Hayley and descended back into the subway.

  “And no you can’t go and push him in front of a train,” Hayley said, reading Mouth’s face clearly.

  “Talk to me about anything,” Mouth muttered, slouching off along Canal.

  “Well,” Hayley began, mentally running through topics and their appropriateness to Mouth right then. “Kinda glad you arranged this rooftop thing.”

  “Really?” Mouth asked, taken aback.

  “Yeah, gives Eddie and I a reason to make this an at-home date.”

  “So it is a date?”

  “I think so,” Hayley said, uncharacteristically vague. “I mean it’s just dinner. He wants to make up for being a dick the other night. And it’ll be more relaxed.”

  “Plus there’s a bed nearby.”

  “There is that,” she said, before adding. “Though that’s not gonna happen. Just so we’re clear.”

  “And at his place there’s less chance to run into his psycho ex.”

  “Nailed it,” Hayley replied. “So it’s really handy you walking me to his place in case she’s Single White Femaling it.”

  “Your pop cultural references are starting to date you.”

  “You still got it,” she replied as a cellphone chimed. Mouth snatched his out of his back pocket. “Sorry, it’s mine.” She fished the phone out of her bag and looked at the screen.

  _ _ _

  Dylan // 18:19

  Hey. Whatcha doing?

  Have you seen Rus?

  He hasn’t checked in.

  Hayley was becoming alarmed at Dylan messaging her. Why would he do that? As yet, she hadn’t replied, but then his messages had been pretty general. This one at least had an excuse for replying. Not that she needed one. He still grated on her nerves. Politely, she tapped out a reply.

  Hayley // 18:21

  Date #3 got moved up.

  I can vouch he is in very good health.

  Def. nothing to worry about.

  She read the message carefully. Was there anything inviting in the wording? Convinced there wasn’t she hit ‘send’ and pocketed the phone.

  Soon enough they reached Eddie’s place in the heart of SoHo. Drew and other members of the film crew were waiting with the equipment. Naomi was yet to show. While Mouth talked to Drew about the shoot
, Hayley went to the buzzer.

  “Hola!” Eddie’s voice crackled through the speaker.

  “Hey,” Hayley replied. “We’re here. Well some of us.”

  “Cool. Okay, my lift is off to the left when you come in, but they’ll need to take – I’ll just come down.”

  His lift, Hayley thought. She knew Matteo’s home was grand and understood he was loaded. But Eddie? He owned a coffee shop.

  A few minutes later Eddie appeared at the door. His smile made his dimples even more prominent and she felt her resolve fading.

  “Hey,” he said. “Probably gonna be easier if you just access the roof from my place. Everyone here?”

  “No,” Mouth said as Drew checked his phone again. “Waiting on a couple of people.”

  “Ah, no worries.” Eddie looked at Hayley, “you mind being on the buzzer?”

  “No, no, not at all,” she replied with a fake smile. Eddie picked up a large equipment bag and ushered them into the foyer of the building. As Mouth passed, her smile turned to a glare. “You owe me.”

  Cold and alone on the sidewalk, Hayley went for her phone.

  Dylan // 18:51

  Really? Guess that much foreplay helped.

  Everything good there?

  Last message I got said something about a body.

  Hayley // 18:52

  Yup. @ Matteo’s work.

  Rus had to talk to some VV’s about it.

  No update yet.

  Dylan // 18:53

  Haha

  Is VV you’re coding for The Lost Boys?

  Gotta remember that.

  How’ve you been?

  Was this really happening? Was Dylan interested in her? Admittedly she did like that he said ‘haha’ and not ‘lol’, but that was hardly enough to engage with him.

  “Typical,” a young woman said haughtily nearby. “We’re the first ones here.”

  Hayley looked the young woman over and took an instant dislike to her.

  “You here for the film shoot?” Hayley asked.