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Jack grinned as the portal formed. The last three weeks had seen his magic grow stronger day by day. While it was still unstable at times, there was no denying his recovery was advancing and he had gone from an uncertain future not knowing whether he would ever be the same again, to now believing it would only be a matter of time before he’d be back to his old self.

The reason for the miracle was lounging on his bed, flicking through a book and using an app on Jack’s phone to take notes. He’d become accustomed to Chris’s presence and there were moments when he was close to being corporeal again, unfortunately, he’d not remained so long enough for them to act on it.

Chris looked up from his reading. “Oh wow! Jack that’s amazing.”

Jack closed the portal. “If you’re willing, I reckon I can make one stable enough to try going through.”

Chris sat up. “I don’t think I’ve ever been through a portal. Where shall we go?”

Jack was certain that due to the nature of Chris’s magical core, he’d have no negative effects from using his portals, unlike the vampires. However, thanks to Prince Simon sharing the know-how, that was no longer an issue for Ben and Ashley. “I thought you’d like to see my real home. Don’t get too excited it’s nowhere near as grand as Crofton Hall.”

He knew Chris was still a little worried about what would happen once Jack was fully recovered and ready to leave, and he hoped that showing him his apartment would go a long way to put those fears to bed.

“I’d love that. Can we go now?

“I don’t see why not. Probably best you get in your jar though, we don’t know what would happen if you’re separated over a longer distance, and I don’t live anywhere near here.”

“Where do you live?”

“Warwick. But I’m not sure you’d know where that is.”

Chris scoffed. “I might not know where it is situated exactly, but I am aware of the place. It was where Shakespeare was from, I heard Anthony talk a great deal about him, it was through Shakespeare that Sebastian met Anthony.”

Jack had a fascination with the vampire Houses and their heads, and Sebastian Hewel was one of the most intriguing. “Is that so?”

“Yes, Sebastian was enjoying being an actor with the Chamberlain’s Men, when he decided he liked Anthony and wanted to keep him.”

“Given what I know of Sebastian Hewel, that seems a little on the sedate side for him.”

Chris shrugged. “I don’t know all about it, but Anthony told me Sebastian was looking for a patron and Anthony was in the position to be one. I get the sense Sebastian was a bit surprised at his own feelings.”

“Sebastian refers to Anthony as his Eternal. It’s like some super-special thing vampires have. Ben had said the same for Ashley.” He chuckled. “If Sebastian’s reaction was anything like Ben’s, it would have been a bit of a shock. Ashley was rather taken aback too.”

“It sounds so romantic though. I love the idea that this monstrous vampire could be stopped in his tracks by the love of a good man and that he loved him so much he found a way he could keep him forever.”

Jack wouldn’t say Sebastian had stopped being monstrous, he just did so while embracing monogamy. Although he didn’t think he’d voice that opinion to Chris right now.

“I guess that’s one way to look at it.”

“I’m also happy that Ben found Ashley, otherwise I might have got a bit jealous over how close you two are. But then he’s Ben’s Eternal, and if he hadn’t been, then you wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t have met you, so it would be silly to be worried.”

Chris’s monologues tended to resolve issues as he spoke, there was something endearing about how he worked through his thoughts without feeling he needed to hold back.

“Ashley’s my best friend. We did date for a while, but he didn’t feel what I felt for him, and we were better off being friends.”

Chris wrinkled his brow. “Are you still in love with him?”

“No, well, not like that. As a friend. It was a long time ago and if he could move on so quickly, then I realised we weren’t destined to be a good couple.”

“He moved on ? I don’t understand.”

He didn’t want to rehash this with Chris, but he’d opened up the can of worms and he couldn’t reseal it. “We split up and he was with someone else a few days later.”

“Was it Ben?”

“No, look, Chris. It’s a long time ago and you don’t have to worry about my and Ashley’s relationship. I promise.”

Chris pursed his lips. “He should have treated you with more care. You are wonderful, and I don’t believe there could be anyone better to move on to.”

Chris was saying all the right things, but he had no outside perception. “I think you’re one of the few to think so. My siren side means I tend not to get close to many people as I can’t risk the fallout. And those I do… let’s just say no one’s stayed around long enough for me to risk telling them the truth. Apart from Ashley.”

“You have me now. I think your scales are pretty.” Chris gave him a whisper of a kiss. “Right, let me get in my jar and you can take me to see your place.”

He was a bit surprised at the turnaround in the conversation, but if Chris didn’t need further reassurance over Ashley, then he was happy to get going.

Chris dived into his jar, with a muttered grumble about the space getting a bit tight and Jack opened a portal into his living room at his place in Warwick. His apartment, he refused to refer to his home as a flat as it was over two floors and a had dimensionless room, which in his opinion elevated it out of the terminology used by most British estate agents. The lounge was one of his favourite rooms, he had bookshelves across one wall, a sofa across another and a fireplace he spelled to have real flames when he was feeling fancy.

“This is lovely,” Chris said, emerging from his jar. “It’s very you.”

“Let me give you a tour. We can look for a spot for your jar if you like.”

Chris stared around the room. “The mantlepiece might be a nice location.”

“Do you know if the material of your jar is heat labile? I do use the fireplace from time to time to brew potions.”

“Not that I know of. I’ve been placed in all sorts of environments over the years without an issue.” He floated to the bookcase. “Or can I sit here? In front of your erotica collection.”

Jack laughed. “Most people don’t read the spines, just assume they’re research books.”

“Erotica can be a form of research.” Chris smirked. “Where’s your bedroom?”

“Up those stairs,” he said, pointing to the spiral staircase. “Along with a bathroom.”

Chris was unlikely to have any interest in the kitchen, but Jack enjoyed cooking and if Chris were to become corporeal, he had theorised that his eating habits would also change and he could test his recipes on him. It was strange to be thinking on such a domestic level. He’d never had anyone who’d served that role in his life, even Ashley hadn’t been the type to stay at home and share candlelit dinners. Jack was hit with a pang of desire to have a date in his dining room with a beautiful blond.

Jack followed Chris who had floated upstairs. He’d owned this place for nearly a century, and in all those years he’d not invited a romantic interest here. Or even one he fancied for a quick fuck. He’d had plenty of friends and colleagues around who he’d entertained on a platonic level, even Ashley had only been in his bedroom to drag him into committee business.

“Now that is a fine bed,” Chris declared.

Jack laughed. There was nothing special about the bed, it wasn’t a four-poster or an oversized sleigh bed. There were far more pillows than necessary and it had an emerald green silk throw he’d picked up on his travels through the Henan province.

Chris darted into the ensuite. “I knew it!”

Jack leant against the door frame watching Chris lie in his bath. “What did you know?”

“That you would have a large bath. Big enough for two, I reckon.”

The roll-top creation dated to the Victorian period and he’d paid more for it than anything else in this home. “What can I say, I have an appreciation of a long soak.”

“I hope, not before too long, we’ll be able to share it.”

He leant over to steal another feather-light kiss but before he had the chance, they were disturbed by someone shouting.

“Jack! Are you up there?”

He knew that voice. Ashley. One day he would swing for the fucker.

“Stay here,” he said to Chris. “He’s no doubt worried that I left the hall. I should have told him I was going as I bet me opening a portal set off one of his monitoring charms.”

He headed downstairs to cut Ashley off from coming to investigate what was going on and he arrived in his living room to see Ashley scowling. Full-on pissy mode activated.

“Ashley, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Why are you here?” Ashley said, his tone pinched.

“This is my home. I live here.”

Ashley sneered. “You are currently living at Crofton Hall due to a long-term issue with your magic. Or did you forget that when you recklessly operated a portal without warning anyone of your intent to leave?”

“I’m not a child, Ashley. I knew what I was doing.”

Jack felt the prickle across his neck, and he saw Chris descending the stairs, he was glowing, and while not fully corporeal, he wasn’t far off, and he looked fucking annoyed.

“What right have you to tell Jack what to do?” Chris demanded.

“Fucking hell,” Ashley spat. “Since when did Chris manifest that way?”

“My form is no concern of yours. I won’t have you order Jack around as if he is a child. You lost that right years ago.”

“I beg your fucking pardon! I’m his friend. I’ve known him for centuries. You’ve no right to challenge me.”

Jack placed himself between them, not wanting any of his collectables to get damaged if magic were to be chucked about. “Let’s dial this back a notch. Ashley, I’m feeling brilliant, and I wanted to show Chris where I usually live so he wouldn’t need to worry about it when I was ready to leave the hall.”

“You should have told someone.”

He heard Chris growl before he spoke. “He was with me. I can keep him safe.”

Ashley snorted. “Yeah, right. What are you gonna do to someone? Wait for them to have a wank and then drain their energy?”

A flash of blue light erupted from Chris and Ashley found himself on his arse. Jack gawped at Chris, who was staring at his hands in amazement. “Did you just… I… what?”

“I don’t know how I did it,” Chris said, bemused. “I was angry that Ashley was telling you off.”

Ashley got to his feet. He didn’t appear hurt, but he wasn’t happy. “You fired magic at me. Since when were you capable of doing that?”

Chris shrugged; he was back to his more usual see-through self. “About two minutes ago. I think it was just an intensified version of my echo. It wouldn’t have hurt you.”

“You are not registered as being in possession of magic of such magnitude.”

He knew where Ashley was going with this, and he needed to stop him. “Please, Ashley, don’t report him. The magic I’ve seen from him is low-level, this was a spike, nothing more. It does not need to be made something of.”

“I can’t not report him, Jack. It’s against the law.”

“You know this is a borderline case, a one-off discharge under aggravated conditions with no injury is permitted. I know the laws better than most, I drafted half of them.”

Ashley still looked uncomfortable. “What if the level increases?”

“Then we will register him either at Crofton Hall or from this address, I’ll see to the paperwork personally.” He turned to Chris. “I appreciate you thinking you needed to protect me, but you don’t need to go after Ashley. Understood?”

Chris nodded. “I’m sorry, Ashley. Jack has been so good to me. I felt protective of him.”

“I don’t know what’s happening to you, or even what you are, but Jack seems happy and as long as that remains the case, I’ll support whatever it is you two have going on.” Ashley smiled tightly. “But please don’t disappear without telling someone. Even a fucking Post-It note would have been better than finding you missing.”

Jack had underestimated how worried Ashley had been, and this wasn’t about him coming here but everything over the last few months. “I’m sorry. I won’t disappear again.”

“I’ll help keep him honest,” Chris said, and Jack didn’t think that would give Ashley any comfort but he was trying. He hoped that he and Chris might have a future, and he wouldn’t want to lose Ashley’s friendship because of it.

“Okay. Why don’t we head back using one of my portals to conserve your energy? I’m delighted your magic is improving but let’s not overstretch it, eh?”

He had wanted to show Chris his home, and he had done so, although not to the extent he had originally intended. Ashley wanted to make peace, and with a potential need to register Chris if his magic did increase, they were better off keeping someone as influential as Ashley on their side.

“Okay. I quite fancy a bath.”

Chris smiled. “I can keep you company.”

Ashley smirked. He might never hear the end of this.