The way Demi beamed at him, trust shining through, made Dafydd feel better than he had in longer than he could remember. Perhaps he was fooling them both into thinking he had something left to give. Regardless, as he sat on the floor looking at that expression of hope on Demi’s face, he knew he had to try.
* * * *
“What’s with all this cloak and dagger stuff anyway?” Karl grumbled.
Trey drained the last of his takeout coffee and sighed. “Beats me. This is how Craig wants to play it and we’ve got jack shit after a day with our thumbs up our asses.”
No autopsy results had come in yet—or they hadn’t reached him. The higher-ups were, as predicted, having fits over this security breach. Paz hadn’t sent him any unofficial information, either. The tech guys so far had come up empty on the sabotage to the video feeds, no surprise there. Every lead on the Father Ted murder had dead-ended. If Craig had worked some magic to produce useful information, Trey was willing to play any game his former lover wanted.
Crushing his paper cup, he tossed it into the back of his car. Tidiness had gone out the window hours ago. He was sitting there in the same clothes he’d put on almost twenty-four hours ago, with his shirt half-buttoned and the scent of Demi somehow clinging to the material—or maybe that was only his imagination. God knew thoughts of the boy crept into his mind at every opportunity.
“We’ll give him another ten minutes before I text him to see what’s going on.”
“Fine by me. I’ve got nowhere else to be.” Karl gave him the side-eye. “I take it you don’t, either.”
Trey’s nostrils flared at the pointed question. He had to work at not snapping at his partner. “What’s that supposed to mean?” And failed.
“I’m just saying you’ve been acting like a baited bear all day. And you’ve given me shit-all to explain it. Great night, crappy morning. You rocked it between the sheets, leaving your lover wanting more, yet somehow that’s a problem? I need details, Trey, if I’m going to have to put up with you much longer.”
“Why? You have just succinctly summed it all up already. There’s nothing more I can add that’s going to make either of us happier at the moment.”
Karl snorted. “I beg to differ. Come on, unload on your old Uncle Karl. Who else can you talk to about this? What’s eating at you?”
“Nothing.” He really didn’t want to get into with anyone. It felt like a personal failure. He should have expected Demi to take a night of sex and turn it into forever. He’d known that kid was infatuated with him, and hybrid though he might be, Demi was very much like any other teenager. His emotions ran high and leaned toward the romantic. It should have been no surprise the kid was hearing wedding bells that morning.
“Look, Trey, if you don’t want to tell me for personal reasons, do it for the case. We need to be on our game here. This murder is almost certainly part of the alien war, albeit in wind-down phase, I hope. If we fuck up, people die. You’re not good to anyone if you’re distracted. Spill.”
“Once again, I hate it when you’re right.” He tapped on the steering wheel a few times before relenting. “It’s not about having sex, last night or again. The thing is while I was feeding my lust in the guise of doing a good deed, Demi was picking out china patterns.”
Karl whistled. “Who could have seen that one coming? Oh wait, everyone.”
Trey turned his head slowly to look at the man. “Fuck. You.”
“Come on, Trey. The kid’s had a mega crush on you since forever. You had to know that regardless of how this whole thing was being dressed up, he saw as the start of the rest of your lives together.”
Trey was stunned. “Is that what you thought?”
Karl shrugged. “Sure. I assumed you’d finally given in to what you obviously wanted, too, and being an honorable man, would also do the right thing.”
“Christ, this isn’t the fifties. I don’t have to marry him just because I slept with him.”
“No, but it’s a good excuse for you do so, given that you love him.”
“I—” He’d intended to deny it, but somehow the words got stuck in his throat.
Karl clucked his tongue. “Don’t bullshit me, Trey. Don’t bullshit yourself. You love that boy, and everyone knows he loves you. I’m on Team Demi with this one.”
“There are no teams,” he stressed. Dammit, where is Craig? He checked his phone and ground his molars when there was still no text.
They sat in silence for a minute. “He’s too young for that kind of commitment.” Apparently, he couldn’t let the topic go himself. “It’s exactly like what’s happening between Alex and Quinn. Both boys have so many years ahead of them to settle down. They need to have a chance to explore what life has to offer before doing something that they can’t change later on if they realize they’ve made a mistake.”
“Okay, first of all, Quinn changing his physical nature is way different than Demi marrying you. Divorce is always an option. I don’t think Quinn can ever go back to the way he was once that blood gives him lady parts. Although I don’t know… That Dafydd guy seems to be doing okay.”
Ah logic. Such a practical way of looking at things. He could marry Demi then watch him waltz back out again once he realized being tied to a decrepit human was no longer any fun. Sure, that could work so long as Trey didn’t care about having his heart ripped out and immolated right in front of his eyes.
“I don’t think I could stand that,” he confessed in a low voice. He shifted to look at Karl squarely. “I do love Demi. I don’t want to. It’s inappropriate, for one thing. It doesn’t matter how many years he’s been alive, I can only see him as the teenager he appears to be. And if I can get past that emotional block, there’s this deep well of fear that he truly is merely infatuated with me. Eventually, I figure he’s going to wake up the fact that he can do better. Maybe that happens in a few weeks or a few years. Regardless, if I let myself plan forever with him, it will kill me when I lose him.”
“Ah, shit, Trey. I got nothing for you on that, other than I don’t think that kid is ever going to change his mind where you’re concerned.”
Trey winced. “Referring to him as that doesn’t help.”
Before Karl could respond, a dark SUV pulled up to park in front of them. A split second later, a text came through. “That’s him,” he said before opening his door.
Trust Craig to drive some monster of a vehicle that was both conspicuous and private with its tinted windows. He could only hope that something useful was going to come out of this clandestine meeting. He held some optimism as he and Karl approached the SUV from opposite sides. While Craig was untrustworthy in his personal life, he was a top-shelf cop. And they needed a break in this case.
In unspoken agreement, he and Karl each opened a back-seat door and climbed in. Craig sat in the driver’s seat, naturally. A familiar-looking kid slouched down beside him hunched in a hoodie that obscured most of his face.
Craig turned to greet them. “Sorry I’m late. I had trouble convincing Mateo here that cooperating was in his best interest.”
“You didn’t have to show me those pics of Umi, dude. They nearly made me puke.” The boy hunched in his shoulders more.
Trey raised his eyebrows. “Is that the name our dead prisoner went by?”
Craig nodded. “That’s all we got, so he gets buried in an unmarked grave, his poor mother probably never knowing what became of him.”
Mateo snorted. “Dude, his mother was a fucking crack whore who rented him out to pervs since he was a baby. I don’t think she’ll care.”
“Is that how it was with your mother, Mateo?” Trey asked, trying to establish a report with the kid and silently grateful that Craig had tracked him down. Trey hadn’t liked exposing Damien, and for sure not Demi, to another effort at ferreting out info.
“What do you care?”
Trey strove for patience. “I was only thinking that you wouldn’t want to end up the same way because it would hurt your family.”<
br />
Mateo snorted again. “Fuck my family. I don’t want to end up dead for my own sake, bro. That’s why I don’t want to be sitting in this mother-fucking SUV spilling to cops, yo.”
“I told you that it’s safer here for you than down at the station. Your boss has no qualms about silencing people, whether it’s a priest or his latest boo.”
“Oh, dude, you are too old and too straight to talk like that.” He shook his head. “Besides, the boss doesn’t do relationships. He’s all about which hole makes his dick happiest. Guess Umi had a real tight one. Didn’t do him any good when the boss thought he’d squeal.”
Trey leaned forward. “Is he the one who beat and raped you that night Father Ted brought you to the emergency department?”
Even in the gloom for the vehicle, Mateo’s shudder was visible. “You can put that down to a job interview, one I was convinced to take.” He shook his head. “That is not a man you cross. I tried to warn Father Ted to let it go, but he only laughed and said God would protect him. Dumbass got his throat slit.”
Because there was emotion underlying the indifference the words conveyed, Trey took a soft approach. “You liked Father Ted, didn’t you?”
“He was okay. Thought he might be just another guy looking for something, but he seemed on the level.”
“Don’t you want your involuntary ‘boss’ to get what he deserves for what he’s done to both Father Ted and Umi?”
Mateo shifted enough to eye him. “What I want, dude, is to keep from having my throat slit or my neck broke.”
“I promise you that I can protect you, Mateo,” Craig interjected. “I have safe houses where you can be kept until we get the fucker. I’m not taking you into custody if you can help us here and now.”
Mateo shook his head. “I don’t know.” He swiped at his nose. “You don’t know this guy. He’s the biggest motherfucker I’ve ever seen and mean as a snake. It’s like he’s a total psycho.”
Trey shared a look with Karl before saying, “Tell us more about what he looks like.”
“Okay, yeah…he’s big, muscular, you know? Long, black hair, darker than mine. Shaved on the sides. But his skin’s pale like he never goes outside during the day, which I’ve never seen him do. And it’s kind of cold to the touch. He’s got an accent, too.”
“What kind?” Trey asked, although he already knew the answer.
“I dunno, English maybe. Anyway, he’s got pretty eyes—purple, except they turn black when he’s sticking it in you. They’re snack eyes, too. Dead, like nothing human going on behind them.” Mateo took a deep breath and let it out in a rush. “I know Umi, and some of the other boys, think he’s good looking, even with the scars down the side of his face.”
The penny dropped all the way down for Trey. A vision flashed of an underground room for the T where Val tore a chunk out of the face of Dracul’s son.
“You know who he’s talking about,” Craig remarked in an almost accusatory tone.
Trey tried to school his face to a more neutral expression. “I might.”
“You want to let me in on the secret?” His former boyfriend gave him a familiar look that was part cajoling and part demanding.
Trey ignored it. “Mateo, I heard that this guy operates from somewhere underground. Do you know where?” Could it be that having used the vacant part of the subway system before with his brother, Dracul’s whelp might be doing it again?
“Nah, I don’t know. I’ve only seen him outside a few times at night where we hang for clients. The one time I was, um, brought to him, I was blindfolded.” He grunted. “Seemed funny, like in a movie, until he, ah…did what he did. Nice crib, though. Uptown, you know.”
So not some unused storage room of the subway system. Where, though? They’d have to do some research and guesswork or find another boy willing and able to tell them more.
The boy shook his head. “I don’t want to die.”
Putting his hand on the boy’s shoulder, Craig said, “I’ll keep you safe. Now, is that all you’ve got?” When Mateo nodded, Craig turned to Trey. “That’s it, then. Hope it’s helpful.”
Trey nodded as he reached for the door handle. “It was. Really. Thanks, I owe you one.”
“I want to be kept in the loop, Trey, maybe be there when you move in.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” A necessary lie. No way in hell he would risk Craig learning more than he should now that it was confirmed they were dealing with Dracul’s son.
Craig’s eyes narrowed. All he said, though, was “Thanks.”
Trey and Karl returned to their car and Trey started it up. “Do me a favor and text Val. Let him know we’re coming over with info.”
“Sure thing. You know who we’re looking for?”
“Yup. One of Dracul’s evil twins. Not sure which, not that it matters.”
“Fuck!”
“My sentiments, exactly.”
* * * *
By the time they reached the club, more news had come through confirming what they already knew. Paz had managed to text Trey an unofficial autopsy report that said there were healing puncture wounds around the boy’s groin area. Trey couldn’t help tracing his own faintly scabbed points at the base of his throat. That moment when Demi had struck and sunk his fangs deep into Trey’s jugular had been intensely erotic and not the least bit frightening. Odd that. He’d been dreading it most of all, even though he’d experienced the feeding process back in Wales. There was something more fear-inducing about having your neck sucked.
In any event, he could well understand why the doomed Umi had seemingly been unbothered by it enough to want the alien vampire who’d ultimately killed him. Poor bastard.
He felt a disturbing flutter in his stomach and pressure at his temples, like a nascent hangover trying to break out. Returning to the club he’d honestly fled from that morning wasn’t setting well with him. It was a cowardly fear of running into Demi or facing his fathers after crushing their precious boy’s heart, driving these physical reactions. He hated himself for being so weak.
He hated himself, period.
“I asked Val to meet us by the side door so that we can go directly into Alex’s office without running into anyone,” Karl remarked as they got out.
The sense of relief didn’t better Trey’s mood, but he was grateful to his partner’s thoughtfulness. “Thanks, man, I appreciate it.”
And there stood the bouncer in the doorway in his usual stance of legs braced and arms folded. He didn’t look pissed off as he watched them approach. Perhaps Demi hadn’t been vocal in his unhappiness. Either that or the family was fine with Trey getting the job done, then booking out in a cloud of dust. Who knew what these aliens were thinking? He didn’t, most of the time.
Val nodded to them before stepping aside to usher them in. “Gentlemen.”
Trey led the way to their destination, having made the journey many times and never for good reasons. Alex’s office contained not only the man himself, but Emil, Harry and Logan, the woman set apart as usual next to the doorway. Quinn was also there, curled up on one end of the couch instead of perching on Alex’s lap, as was normally both their wants. Interesting. Trey could only assume their fight over Quinn’s immediate future was ongoing. It couldn’t have been too heated, though, or the boy wouldn’t have been hanging out there at all.
Alex rocked forward in his chair. “I take it you have news that we’re not going to like.”
“Got it in one.” Trey’s weary tone was obvious to his own ears.
“I bet you’ve been running on nothing other than coffee for hours,” Emil observed. “I have sandwiches here.” He waved his hand at a side table laden with food.”
Karl headed straight for the minor feast, muttering something about ‘lifesaver’. Because he couldn’t imagine putting anything in his jittery stomach, Trey threw himself into a vacant chair. He relayed the information he had without preamble.
The room went quiet for the span of a few breaths before Val
broke the silence. “Fuck, that’s Cadoc.”
Trey eyed him. “Is that the twin you took a bite out of?” When Val nodded in confirmation, Trey mused out loud. “Why would he bother to come to Boston simply to start pimping? It’s so almost normal in a sick way. No world domination plans start this way that I can see. And it has the added risk of attracting your attention.”
“Because he’s as arrogant as his sire with an unfortunately large dose of stupidity,” Alex replied. “I’m sure Dracul was very disappointed in how his first efforts at fatherhood turned out.”
“Lucky for us, though,” Emil interjected. “Makes it easier to deal with him once and for all. At least we know where he is and what he’s doing. As harmful as he’s been to those boys under his thumb, he isn’t plotting something that could have wider consequences.”
Karl weighed in. “He killed Father Ted and that wretched boy we took into custody. That’s bad enough for me.” He looked up from his plate. “The fucker waltzed right into our house and killed a prisoner under our noses. It doesn’t get any more personal to a cop.”
Emil nodded. “I understand. Forgive me if I seemed to make light of the situation.”
Karl waved away the apology. “No, it’s fine. I get what you meant. After centuries of dealing with mass destruction wreaked by that fucker, a couple of humans don’t rate quite so high.” He chewed, shaking his head. “I can’t let go of that image of the kid lying on his stomach with his neck broken.” Tossing what was left of his sandwich on the plate, he added, “Puts me off my food, actually. And that’s saying something.”
Karl’s stark reminder of Umi made Trey’s stomach roil even more. Although it was only superficial, he couldn’t shake the eerie way the dead kid had reminded him of Demi. It would have been Demi’s fate if they hadn’t rescued him in time or at all. Trey had to fight down a shudder that threatened to send him flying out of his seat.
“There’s nothing to be done about either of them, except get some measure of justice,” he said. “Our biggest problem is finding this asshole, Cadoc. I would have thought he’d gone back to the T, given how we’ve been told from multiple sources that he lives underground. Except this latest information claims it’s somewhere nice. More than. And that’s not some used storage room, I’m thinking.”
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