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The wall of warmth behind him meant the activities of earlier had not been a marvellous dream, and Chris was corporeal and still in his bed. Chris’s change seemed to be permanent, or at least he hadn’t reverted to his old form yet. Jack wriggled and Chris tightened his arm around his middle. Chris had been a considerate and careful lover, and Jack suspected he might not remember his past, but his body did. He had known what he was doing and had made sure Jack had enjoyed himself. They would need to talk about Chris’s buried past experiences, along with Jack’s own past, because there’d been a definite hint of jealousy when Chris had retrieved the lube and found it open. Given the way Chris had made love to him, his previous memories were in there somewhere, and it would be a matter of finding a way to unearth them.

Karl materialised at the side of the bed. Jack sat up, pulling sheets around him. “Karl, a little privacy if you don’t mind.”

“I’m afraid that is not possible. His Lordship has requested you attend him.”

“Since when has Ben been so formal?” Jack asked.

“Since you have a fully formed elf in your bed, and his secretary thinks him a danger to the hall.”

He groaned. “I told Alex that Chris was happy to have a dragon look at his jar.”

Chris made a series of snuffling noises, cracked open an eye, saw Karl and scowled. “What do you want? We’re busy.”

“As I said, Lord Crofton wishes to speak with you both,” Karl answered, his expression would have done him well at a poker table. “Immediately.”

Chris sat up, seeming not to care that he was naked. “Okay. We’ll come see Ben. Oh, can I have something to eat?”

Karl blinked. “Eat?”

“Yes, I’m hungry. For food.”

“You don’t want your normal energy source?” Karl asked.

Jack had wondered how Chris’s new physiology would need to be nourished. If nothing else, he would need more energy to sustain him, and he didn’t like the idea of a fully corporeal Chris hiding under people’s beds, especially looking as hot as he did, as he imagined Chris would get a lot of offers to join in.

“I don’t think that method will work any longer. I didn’t get a boost from Jack, and I would have thought given what we did, I’d be glowing if it were the case.”

Karl didn’t manage to contain his smirk, but it disappeared quickly. “Then I suggest you get dressed and meet us in Lord Crofton’s office and I will provide sustenance.”

“Oh, can I have a bacon sandwich? They’ve always smelled so good.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“We’ll be right there,” Jack said. “Let’s get dressed. You can come back and get us if you think we’re taking too long.”

Karl disappeared and Jack grabbed some clothes. Chris snapped his fingers and they were both dressed. It appeared that Chris getting a body came with additional add-ons. “So, you’ve proper magic now as well?”

He should have noticed it, but he hadn’t, which was a different problem.

“Seems so.” Chris wriggled his fingers. “Not sure the extent of it at the moment, but you can help me figure things out.”

“Are you masking?”

Chris tipped his head to one side. “Yes, but I don’t know how I’m doing it.”

That would explain why Jack hadn’t felt Chris’s magic, but usually masking was a deliberate act. “How long have you been masking for? Were you able to do it before, say when you knocked Ashley off his arse at my apartment?”

Chris shook his head. “Honestly, I’m only realising it now. I might have had a tingling yesterday when I woke up, but mainly I was enjoying having joints that worked and then I was more concerned about getting to you once my cock got hard.”

Jack laughed, Chris didn’t seem capable of filtering his words and it would be in Chris’s best interest not to lie to him. Chris wasn’t stupid and he wasn’t trying to hide anything.

“Will you tell Ashley?” He must have known they would need to report his magical abilities to the WRC.

“We’re going to have to tell him at some point, probably once we know the extent of your magic. It’ll be good to have him on our side—our best course of action is to be as transparent as possible.”

“If you say so.”

Chris didn’t have a reason to trust Ashley and Jack could see Chris was more worried about him than speaking to Ben. “As someone who would never be accepted if the truth about them were known, I know when to talk and when to stay quiet.”

“I know you want to protect me, but I will make this very clear, Jack. I will not let anyone hurt you again.” Chris sounded so earnest, and Jack didn’t doubt he meant what he said, and given neither of them knew how powerful Chris was, Jack thought it best not to let Chris get carried away.

“We’ll look after each other,” he promised. “Now, let’s go face the Lord of the Manor.”

“Oh, Ben’s a pussy cat. He’ll be fine.”

“He’s a vampire, Chris, he drinks people to death. That’s not a pussy cat.”

“There are much worse creatures out there than Ben Redbourn.”

Of that, he had no doubt, and he got the sense Alex thought Chris was one of them. He led Chris through the hall, and Chris held his hand. He liked to be touched and considered himself a tactile person, which was why being alone for so long sucked.

They reached Ben’s office and Chris kissed the tip of his nose. “No need to look so worried. It’ll be fine.”

“Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?”

The door opened and Karl and Alex stood waiting for them. He felt the crackle of a magical dampening charm that had been adapted not to include them. “Gentleman, you seem to want to put me in a position where I can’t defend myself.”

“Come in, Jack,” called Ben. “Chris as well. The precautions are in place at Alex’s insistence, and I do trust his judgement, even if it may be a little over the top.”

His magic didn’t like the effect, but it was a testament to how improved he was feeling as a few weeks ago they wouldn’t have needed to contain him.

“Hi, Ben,” Chris said grinning. He didn’t appear concerned by the magic field, and Jack wasn’t sure if he wasn’t affected or hadn’t noticed. “Look, I’m fleshy!”

“Yes, Chris. I can see.” Ben was amused. He turned to Alex. “He doesn’t strike me to be a warmongering warrior elf.”

“Can I have my food now?” Chris asked, sitting on the chair in front of Ben’s desk.

Karl placed a bacon sandwich in front of him. “With brown sauce—I was informed that was the best way to eat them.”

Chris launched into his sandwich, making noises not too dissimilar to the ones from the previous night.

Ben stared at him. “You do realise I’ve asked you here because there’s a potential problem?”

Chris shrugged. “Alex thinks I’m an ancient elf warlord. I think he’s a pillock.”

“My lord, he is quite clearly an elf. And for the past several centuries, he’s been confined to a jar, mainly as a spectre that derived its food from ingesting sexual energy.”

Chris licked his fingers clean. “I don’t need to do that now. I can have bacon…. Oh, I can’t wait to try chocolate.”

Ben cleared his throat. “Chris, you must see that your transformation is not something we can ignore. So, I’m hoping you’re going to cooperate.”

Jack could hear an edge to Ben’s voice; he wasn’t some foppish idiot, but the Dark Earl of Crofton, who wasn’t about to take any shit.

“I don’t see how I’m not cooperating. I’m in here with you. With my boyfriend, who I am sure is also happy to help.”

They’d not labelled what they were, but he liked the idea of being the four-hundred-year-old boyfriend to a who-knew-how-old unidentified magical creature.

“Then are you willing to come with us on the first step in this little escapade of determining who and what you are by admitting you’re at least an elf,” Ben said.

Chris shrugged. “I could be, but the fae have pointy ears, so maybe I’m a fairy.”

“As if!” Alex said.

“Just because he looks like an elf, doesn’t mean he is an elf,” Jack said, technically correct, still it was a weak argument but Jack couldn’t help slipping into his legal mantra.

Alex’s eyes glowed. He’d never seen that before. “There is no mistaking his species—we can tell our own.”

Chris chewed thoughtfully. “Then why didn’t you know before?”

If looks could kill Chris would be toast and Jack wondered if Chris was trying to agitate Alex. “Because you’ve only just become fully elf. Whatever was keeping you in a spectral form in a jar was so powerful that it held you there for centuries, more likely millennia.”

“Now that is something to address,” Ben said. “The whole reason why you were in your jar, but also why you aren’t now.”

“I believe I have given a reasonable explanation of why he was in there,” Alex said. “And if I’m right, and he doesn’t turn into a psychopath, the minute the fae find out they will descend and slaughter us instead.”

Jack hadn’t been able to find out much about this Christopholous—elvish history wasn’t high on the list of importance to the WRC and Ashley had also been unsuccessful. “Until a few days ago we’d never heard of Christopholous and now you’re claiming he’s some holy terror who would incite a new war.”

“He was thought to be a myth, and an allegory for the time before the formation of the current elf tribes,” Alex said. “He is meant to have united the elves against the fae and left a bloody path behind him, doing so after a murderous rampage through the fae world. After which only seven fae tribes remained.”

Jack liked a fairy tale as much as the next warlock, but Alex was beginning to jibber. “This sounds no more real than some of the Norse myths, and we all know Odin wasn’t a real god but a jumped-up troll with a decent PR manager.”

“There was the odd scholar who claimed Christopholous was real, but they were shouted down because the evidence pointed to the great storytellers inventing some of the facts to exaggerate the rift between the elves and the fae,” Alex said. “But there is much truth in the old tales.”

Ben frowned. “Alex, you must realise that you sound as if this is superstition and not actual fact?”

“The myths call out that Christopholous was caught and wrapped in dragon blood and gold and forced to sleep until he had found repentance, and someone who could hold him fast and true if he were to wake with evil thoughts.” He pointed to Chris. “His jar and those cuffs.”

Chris finished his sandwich. “I concede I might be an elf, potentially a nasty one if someone thought to put me in a jar as punishment. But I have no recollection of being a warlord nor do I wish to be one. Surely there are other naughty elves I could be.”

Jack thought Chris might be on the right track here. It would be hard to deny he was an elf, and if his magic allowed it there were ways to identify species. “That sounds far more reasonable.”

“I know of no other who was treated in such a way. It was not the elves that captured Christopholous but the fae, as no dragon would do the work of the elves.”

Alex seemed to be operating on gut instinct, which could be a very dangerous thing.

“What will it take to assure you Chris is not a dangerous creature hellbent on killing us all in our sleep? Will the testing of his jar suffice?” Jack asked, because he wanted this put to bed, so he could go back to his own and have Chris fuck him again.

“If it’s not made of dragon’s blood.”

Ben sighed. “I’ve contacted Robin. He’ll be here tomorrow with Dorian. If Chris is someone the fae are going to be very upset exists, then we will need to address the fact Robin’s spouse is one of two very powerful vampire-fae, the other being his father-in-law.”

“I suppose it would be likely that Robin will be informing Simon of his visit in advance,” Jack said. He hadn’t factored in Prince Simon.

“Given who he’s bringing, I don’t think so. Simon is not a fan of Dorian Marsten, him being an ex-lover of Robin’s has him a little touchy.”

“But Prince Simon and his father are Calanti,” Karl said. “They are not on friendly terms with the other six tribes, and Jack took part in Prince Simon’s rescue. He might not be so quick to hand Chris over.”

“No one is handing Chris anywhere,” Jack said. “Even if he is this Christopholous, which you have yet to convince me, he has served his sentence. It stands to reason that if he is free, then he has completed his punishment, and it could be inferred that I would be in the position to be the one to hold him fast and true.”

Chris smiled at him and Jack had to remember they weren’t alone. “Oh, Jack, I would love for you to be that one, that is if I am Christopholous.”

“Right,” Ben said, and Jack thought he wanted to be doing anything other than keeping the peace between his secretary and his boyfriend’s best friend. “So, let’s do it this way. Dragon test tomorrow, and if it’s clear we leave Chris alone. If not, then we need to decide whether there could be another explanation before going down the Christopholous route.”

Ben had been fair, and he should have expected that of him as Ashley wouldn’t have put up with Ben for this long if he’d been a knob.

“Thank you, Ben,” Chris said.

“You’ve been here a long time, Chris. I won’t see you condemned without proof.” Ben turned to Alex. “I know you are worried, and we should plan for a visit from the fae, and perhaps also the elves, just in case.”

“I’ll boost the perimeter wards,” Alex said.

“I’ll help with a few additional tricks of my own,” Karl offered.

“Now, if you don’t mind. I need to think about how to explain this to Sebastian. I can’t decide if he’d be happier if Chris was a monster or not.”

From what Jack knew of Sebastian Hewel he wouldn’t give a flying fuck if Chris had killed half of Christendom, but if he’d harmed one of his own, they better go into hiding.

They left Ben’s office, Alex and Karl disappearing also. He needed to develop a way to protect Chris. They had the best part of a day to come up with a plan, and the first would be to ascertain more about Chris’s magic and whether he could defend himself in the event the fae and elves descended on Crofton Hall.