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Jack growled under his breath; his conscience wouldn’t allow him to let this lie. This Chris creature might have invaded his privacy but there didn’t appear to be anything particularly malevolent about him and he’d been open with his responses when Jack had questioned him. His legal training had kicked in but then the thought of Chris with the old reprobate Bika Fin had given him the heebie-jeebies and he’d spoken without thinking. Having spent a lifetime of people always judging him, Jack had always thought himself better, and he was wrong. He’d been a dick.

He was starting to tire. Ashley’s pick-me-up potion was beginning to wear off, but he still had some residual energy left and he wouldn’t feel right until he’d apologised. Chris had said he was next door, and if Alex had for some reason chosen a neutral room, no doubt sensing some sort of magical weirdness relating to Chris, then he’d be in the room to his left. He levered himself out of bed, as long as he didn’t try to go too fast, he should be fine.

If he was feeling his normal self, it would have taken him a lot less time to shuffle out of his room and let himself into the one next door. He was surprised to find the room was empty apart from a small red jar on a shelf by the window.

“Are you in there?” he asked.

“No, I’m not.”

Jack stifled a chuckle. Chris did look the part of a bimbo with his flowing locks, and he didn’t come across as the brightest of creatures, but he was pretty. If he’d been alive Jack might have said beautiful, but Chris was a bit see-through and that tended to knock beauty points off in Jack’s book.

“If you weren’t in there then why can I hear you?”

The jar shuddered. “Go away.”

“Look, I’m sorry. I was a prick. Why don’t you come out and I can apologise properly?”

He walked closer. The jar was made from a bright red resin-like material, not terracotta or anything similar, which he’d envisaged when Chris had mentioned his jar. Jack wasn’t sure what it was but there were also streaks of gold, reminding him of the Japanese art of kintsugi, although Chris had made no reference to having been so far from England. Then again, he didn’t appear to know his true origins.

“I’m trying to sleep.”

The jar rocked from side to side and Jack couldn’t decide if it was Chris moving around to get comfy or if it was how Chris’s annoyance manifested. He reached out and touched the side of the jar, it was smooth and to his surprise, warm.

Chris’s head stuck out the top. “Do you mind? I didn’t invite you to touch my jar.”

Jack had seen a lot of strange things in his time, and a pot with a translucent head sticking out of it wasn’t anywhere near the weirdest. “I didn’t invite you to wank off with me, so how about we call it even?”

Chris stuck out his bottom lip, he was kinda cute and Jack wondered if Ashley’s potion might have damaged his brain.

“I didn’t do anything with Bika. He was my friend, nothing more.”

“Yeah, and even if you had it wouldn’t have been any of my business and I shouldn’t have made such a dickish comment.”

Chris wrinkled his nose, and Jack wasn’t sure if he would come out fully or disappear but then he smiled and fuck, Chris was beautiful.

Jack watched in fascination as Chris poured out of his jar and shaped himself into his full size. He’d assumed Chris was a spirit but maybe he wasn’t technically dead and just a lifeform he didn’t recognise. Most ghosts were the image of themselves when they died but Chris was wearing spectral jeans and a shirt, which was a long way from his first memories of Edessa which was in modern-day Türkiye.

If Chris had been human, Jack could have imagined him being on a catwalk, tall and waif-like yet there was also a strength about him that made Jack think of the fae or even the elves. He was more intrigued by the minute.

“I accept your apology.” Chris glided closer. “Let us start over. My name is Chris.”

“Jack.” He smiled. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yes, anything.”

Chris had a naivety about him which was quite delightful. “If you don’t know who you are or where you came from, why did you pick Chris as a name?”

“Even when there was nothing but darkness I knew my name, I have always been Chris. Although, I have the feeling it might have been longer.”

“Like Christopher?”

Chris jiggled his head. “Maybe, but that doesn’t feel right.”

“Maybe we can figure it out together.”

A wave of tiredness hit him, and he swayed, almost losing his balance. He put out a hand, bracing himself against the wall.

Chris was at his side. “Are you all right?”

“I think I need to get back to bed.” Jack wasn’t convinced he would be able to make it on his own, but he thought that Karl or Alex’s tracking spells would mean they’d be here any minute.

Chris tried to grab his arm, but his hands went straight through him. “How can I help you?”

“Someone should be monitoring my vitals, I’m pretty sure I’ll have set off their tracker.”

Chris looked stricken. “I think my echo might have stripped them. When you asked me to remove mine, I didn’t think about the impact on any others. I don’t think anyone’s coming.”

Jack sank to the floor, it seemed to be the best solution, and floors were comfortable, he’d slept on several over the years. “I’ll just wait here.”

His eyelids felt heavy, he slid sideways and passed out.

* * *

Chris hovered over Jack. From what he could tell Jack was extremely tired, but he saw a crop of pretty teal scales emerge from under the collar of his pyjama top and Chris swore he could taste salt. Jack’s siren heritage was creeping out, Chris wondered if he was able to contain his scales somehow when he was well.

Jack whimpered and Chris didn’t know how to make things better. He needed to get help but wasn’t sure what to do. The demon and elf might accuse him of damaging Jack, which might make them try to seal him in his jar as punishment. The thought gave him pause as he’d never considered his jar to be a prison before. He was getting distracted and that wouldn’t help Jack.

He would find Ben; he was the big cheese and would know what to do and wouldn’t think Chris was the one at fault. He dived through the floor, not knowing where Ben would be, the party took up much of the house and Ben could be anywhere. He darted through the rooms, a few gasps accompanied his journey, most probably thought him a common-or-garden ghost and didn’t give him a second glance.

There were lots of people, too many and Chris didn’t like being so exposed. He would be happy to hang out under their beds, but he didn’t want anything to do with most of them beyond that. Crofton Hall was full of all sorts of creatures in addition to vampires, some of them didn’t look too friendly. After what seemed like the hundredth room, he found Ben in a smaller reception area with four other vampires about to partake in dinner, or at least he assumed that was what the drugged-up humans were there for.

“Ben!” he called.

Ben, who was hovering over the neck of a busty blonde woman, sheathed his fangs and glowered at him. “Chris, you can’t barge into my feeding lounge.”

He’d never been told to avoid this room, but he wasn’t going to argue. “Jack’s collapsed on the floor of my room.”

“Jack?”

“Yes, we were talking, and he came over all tired and couldn’t get back to his room in time. I don’t think his medical trackers are working.”

Ben snapped his fingers and Karl appeared. “My lord?”

“Jack is on the floor of Chris’s room.”

Karl blinked rapidly. “I’m not sensing an issue. There’s no signal coming through the monitoring spell that would suggest a problem.”

“They aren’t working, I accidentally disabled them.”

“I’ll check.” Karl dematerialised.

Chris didn’t hang about and raced back through the house to get to his room and saw Karl levitating Jack off the floor.

“Is he okay?”

“From what I can ascertain, he’s just very tired. I think he may have overexerted himself.” Karl floated Jack out of the room. “Why was he in here?”

“I went to apologise for earlier,” Chris said. “We got talking and then he said something a bit rude, so I went back to my jar, and he came to apologise to me. Then he got tired.”

Karl settled Jack, who made a contented sigh in his sleep, into bed. Chris couldn’t stop himself and reached out and tried to stroke his hair, his fingers passing through it.

He noticed Jack’s scales disappearing as he did so, and Karl must’ve seen it too. “What did you just do?”

Chris snatched his hand away. “Nothing.”

“I wasn’t accusing you of anything, but Jack has been in recovery for a while and his scales come and go as outcrops based on how he’s feeling, the scales recede the more well-rested he is.”

“But if he’s exhausted his scales should still be there.”

Karl’s expression was somewhere between bemused and exasperated. “Yes, that was my point. Your interaction with him appears to have had a beneficial effect.”

“Should I stay with him? I can curl up and stay close.”

“I think we should investigate further under controlled conditions. His Lordship explained to me that you didn’t know what you were, so it would be difficult to predict the outcome.”

Chris didn’t like Karl’s tone. “I’m not going to hurt him.”

“I don’t think you would intend to do so, but as I said, we don’t know all the variables and we should be cautious.”

“I could reset the tracker; you’d be able to tell if there were any concerns.”

“You did say you’d disabled mine, and I didn’t realise, so that gives me pause.”

Karl was a demon and as far as Chris was aware, that made him a lot more untrustworthy than Chris was. But Karl was also Ben’s valet, which meant Ben must trust him a great deal, so he was torn by how he could handle this. “How about you reset your monitor charms, and I just hang out here for an hour or so? If there’s any issue I will come and get you and all your magic doodahs will let you know.”

Karl seemed to be fighting internally over what he was going to do. Chris gathered that Jack had been in recovery for a while and very little had been helping, but a quick swipe of his hand through Jack’s hair seemed to have been more restorative than whatever had been tried up until now.

“I would be a lot more comfortable if Jack could give his permission,” Karl said.

“I’m not going to do anything to him, well not intentionally and certainly not negatively.” Chris floated onto the bed and curled around Jack, placing an arm over his waist. It wasn’t Karl’s place to make this decision, and if he could help Jack he was going to, whether Horn Head liked it or not. “I’ll just lie here like this. I will see what happens. You can even stay if you like.”

“How magnanimous of you.” Karl conjured up a chair and sat by the side of the bed. “Let’s start with thirty minutes and see how we go.”

If Jack had been awake, Chris doubted he’d have been able to feel Chris holding him as he wasn’t corporeal enough, but Chris could experience Jack’s warmth and solidness, and he had to admit he liked the sensation. He’d not held someone this way before. His physical involvement with others was limited to sex, and even then it had only occasionally resulted in a sticky outburst, most of the time he didn’t even look at people fucking, let alone touch them.

Over the years, Chris had realised he had a low level of his own magic, the echo being his main thing, and he’d come across all sorts of magical creatures, none of them like Jack—maybe it was his siren heritage. He thought Jack was very special, even though he guessed most people wouldn’t appreciate the slight difference, and it made him unique. His magic wasn’t happy at the moment, like a grumpy cat who’d been chased out of its favourite suntrap, still, Chris could tell that when Jack was at full strength and it was working normally for him, he was an exceptional warlock.

Karl didn’t speak to him, and Chris was happy for them to sit in silence, the time flew by, and before he knew it, Karl was standing by the bed and had wrapped his hand around Jack’s wrist.

“Hmm.”

“Is that a good hmm?” Chris asked. He yawned, he was sleepy now too.

“Yes, the best way I can explain it is that he’s calmer.”

Chris yawned again. “I’m happy to try another time, but I think it might tire me a bit and I don’t want to be fully drained.”

“I want to talk to Ashley and Alex before we decide to repeat this. Perhaps we can set up a treatment schedule.”

He liked the sound of that. Jack was important to these people, and they wouldn’t want to risk him.

“Okay. I’m going to go back to my jar. When Jack’s awake we can talk.”

Chris floated away, a bit tired but happy he’d been able to help Jack and that he would be able to do so again. He’d never been able to help someone before, not properly, not in a big life-altering way, and that it could be Jack made it all the better. He curled into his jar and drifted off to sleep.