Page 13 of Dream Lost (The Fae Universe #12)

13

B as showed Bridget to the guest rooms and left her to settle in. The sky was starting to darken, and he was already thinking about what he had available to make everyone for dinner. He needed to talk to Taranis, but he didn’t want to bother his uncle with his troubles just yet.

He had a brother who was having issues with his own dragon impulses that he could talk to first.

Bas loaded up a plate of cookies and made some of Apollo’s favorite tea. He would also need to make Bridget a fresh batch of cookies.

Bas didn’t like Apollo being upset, and he should be made aware that a woman was in the house and that he probably shouldn’t walk around not dressed properly.

Bas didn’t want Bridget to feel uncomfortable staying in a house full of men. She was showing a lot of trust, and the last he wanted was for her to have an encounter with Apollo in a satin robe he hadn’t belted properly.

Apollo’s tower wards sizzled against Bas’s skin as soon as he tried to step through the door. Bas put the tea and cookies on a side table, spent ten minutes disabling the wards, and continued up the stairs.

“Put your sex toys away, I’m coming for a visit,” Bas called at the top of his lungs.

There was no one in the lab on the first level. Pots and beakers bubbled away, the walls covered in Apollo’s bad handwriting. They had painted the walls with blackboard paint when they were younger, and Reeve still went out of his way to draw dicks amongst Apollo’s formulas. Valentine occasionally came in and added his own corrections to the formulas. What were brothers for?

Bas knocked on the bedroom door. “Open up, big brother. I have treats for you.”

“I’m not hungry,” came the sullen reply from within.

“You don’t want tea and fresh cookies? They are chocolate chip?” Bas wheedled. “Come on, Apollo, I need to talk to you.”

When there was no reply, Bas went with the one thing Apollo wouldn’t be able to resist. “I got a photo of Lachie coming back from training with your sword today.”

The door opened, and Apollo squinted at him. “That better be my French Earl Grey blend,” he said and took the cup and cookies from him.

“Of course it is,” Bas said and followed him into the bedroom.

Apollo’s room always reminded Bas of Howl’s bedroom in ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ except it had even more color. There was stained glass and crystal mobiles, a red and gold brocade bedspread, and velvet throw pillows for days. Apollo put the tea and cookies on the bedside table and flopped down face-first onto his bed. Bas kicked off his shoes and climbed in beside him.

“What do you want?” Apollo grumbled into his pillows.

“Advice. About my dragon.”

Apollo’s eye cracked open. “What about it?”

“How do you know if it’s the dragon or just you?”

Apollo lifted his head and grabbed a cookie. “Kind of the same thing, isn’t it?”

“So yours doesn’t randomly try and say and do things? I feel like I’ve got an extra personality living inside of me,” Bas admitted. He had sometimes worried about multiple personalities when he was younger, but this was the first time he had something separate in his brain.

“Mine...wants to bite Lachlan. A lot,” Apollo admitted, rolling over to stare up at the painted frescoes on the ceiling.

“Mine wants to pin Bridget down and smell her,” Bas said.

“Bridget, the Hawk Girl? That’s no surprise. I’ve never seen you goofy over a girl before.”

“She’s staying here with us.”

Apollo sat bolt upright. “What?! Since when?”

“Since you’ve been sulking in bed all day.” Bas caught him up on everything since he had seen him that morning, including that a dream monster was hunting Bridget.

“I swear, I have one bed day, and everything explodes without me,” Apollo complained and drank his tea. He was looking less sad and washed-out now that he’d had some gossip to fuel him. “And your dragon? How’s he taking things?”

Bas rubbed at his face. “It’s happy that she’s under our protection. That she’s close. She smells really good. No impulse to bite her, but it really wants to feed and fuss over her.”

“And you think that your dragon is separate from you?” Apollo cast his eyes to the angel painted above him. “Don’t be an idiot, Basset Bear. Your dragon knows you better than you do.”

Bas grunted. “Probably. I can’t follow his lead and tackle her in the flowers though. Bridget has trauma. She’s been treated badly, Apollo. I can’t just be like Kian and kidnap her until she realizes she’s in love with me.”

Apollo laughed. “No one can get away with that but Kian. You have convinced her to trust you enough to come and stay at the mansion, so that will give you some time to get to the bottom of her trauma.”

“I can’t charm it out of her like you could. I’m not good at that kind of thing.”

Apollo flicked him in the side of the head. “Don’t be an idiot. Charm has nothing to do with it. You are the most patient and kindest out of all of us. Give her some time, hunt your monsters, and she will open up when she’s ready.”

“You promise to behave around her?”

“I’m not promising anyone that.”

“At least try and be gentle. I really like her, Apollo. She’s prickly as a cat, and I just want to pat her no matter how much she bites,” Bas replied and then turned red when his brain caught up with his mouth.

Apollo cackled because he could be a right bitch when he wanted to be. “You guys have got a classic black cat and golden retriever energy, and I think it’s adorable.”

“Shut up. I’m not a golden retriever.”

“Hmm, kind of are.”

“You are worse than me with Lachie.”

“Am not. I’m impervious to his charms. I am the black cat here.”

Bas took his phone out of his pocket and held up the photo of sweaty Lachlan Ironwood. Apollo choked on his cookie and coughed crumbs on himself.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Do you want to tell me why you aren’t having a hard run at this? Because look at him, Apollo. Loookkk .” Bas passed him the phone, and an expression of utter misery passed over Apollo’s face.

“He was training with my sword,” he said, zooming in. “I didn’t think he would actually use it.”

“Well, he is. You should also know that the other night wasn’t a date. His dumb ass thought if he made you jealous enough, you would get mad enough to talk to him,” Bas said. He tried to take the phone back, but Apollo held it out of his reach and, with a few quick taps, sent it to his own phone.

“Doesn’t matter. He’s not the kind to settle down, and that’s all my dragon wants to do. It wants to have Lachlan Ironwood’s babies and…” A look of horror passed over Apollo’s face. “Oh my god, can I get pregnant now my dragon is awake? Is Mpreg really a thing with dragons? Or is that just fiction? Because I am not ready to be a mother, Bas!”

“I think if it were a thing, you would have laid eggs by now, whore bag,” Bas teased.

Apollo hit him with a decorative pillow.

“I am not a whore bag. And I use protection every time, magical and otherwise, thank you very much. You haven’t been laid in so long, you are probably blowing dust,” Apollo snapped back, and they both cracked up laughing. “God, I hate you. How dare you cheer me up when I was determined to be miserable all day.”

“I’m not sorry. Besides, I wanted to talk to you about the dragon thing before I talk to Uncle Taranis.” Bas grinned. “I’ll give you twenty bucks if you ask him about the Mpreg thing. I want to be there to witness the response.”

“He will probably need Quinn to explain it to him,” Apollo replied, and they both collapsed into fits of giggles again. Knowing Quinn, she had probably written a dragon Mpreg serial.

Bas finally sat up. “Okay. I’m going to put some lasagna on for dinner. You coming?”

“Not yet. I need a shower and some alone time with this picture. For science.”

Bas screwed up his face. “Gross, bro. You know you could just ask him out.”

“No, I can’t. The dragon doesn’t understand dating, and Lachie won’t understand why we can’t just date. He doesn’t have the same impulse, and I won’t do that to him,” Apollo said, looking at the picture again. It was possibly one of the most selfless things his impulsive brother had ever done. His heart was in the right place, even if he was acting like a total dumbass.

“You won’t know how he feels unless you talk to him, Apollo.”

“Hush. Away with you. I must get ready to meet your lovely Bridget and you have food you must cook for me. I haven’t eaten all day, and I’m wasting away to nothing,” Apollo said, finally getting out of bed. “I want gelato for dessert too.”

“Yes, princess,” Bas replied and headed for the door. He had food to cook, a dragon to wrangle, a monster to kill, and a woman to seduce, and not necessarily in that order.