Page 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

G wil had managed to grab a few hours of sleep at the hotel, his nocturnal habits didn’t help and sharing a bed with Robin had been uneventful. No random cuddling and Robin had insisted Gwil would not have to sleep on the floor. They boarded a minibus to be transported to the facility, Robin making it clear he had no intention of participating in small talk, and Gwil thought he probably never travelled on mass transit. Some of the other patients tried to speak to them, but Robin was not engaging. Gwil picked up the strain of making small talk with strangers where no one really wanted to know each other’s business while Robin fell back into his persona of a submissive and somewhat meek partner as an excuse to ignore them.

Robin’s mobile buzzed, he showed Gwil he had a text from Dad, not expected as they were meant to be low contact apart from emergencies.

Dad: Hope the treatment goes well. Maybe when you get back, we can get you a new cat, I know you were upset when the other one disappeared.

“I guess we should be searching for a new moggie,” Robin said.

Gwil hummed, he hadn’t a clue what Sebastian meant, and Robin didn’t seem any more the wiser. “I guess so. Not sure we’re best suited for pets.”

“Let’s see what happens, eh? We might find that a few days at the facility gives a new perspective on things.”

He hated wasting time, and the minibus ride had taken a couple of hours, which was longer than he’d expected. Copperpipe’s intel suggested the facility should have been closer, so Gwil suspected Mettle had taken precautions to help hide its location by sending them on a circuitous route. Many of the roads were too narrow for two cars to pass, or little more than bridleways in some places, but somehow they didn’t meet any oncoming traffic, which only made him more suspicious.

A high, solid brick wall came into view, as if rising out of nowhere and he couldn’t see over it nor were there any gaps. They followed the perimeter wall until they reached two large black gates, and the minibus slowed but didn’t halt completely. The gates opened to reveal a manor house built in the late Georgian style, but it appeared new, no weathering, its marble frontage almost gleaming.

The minibus didn’t take the main approach but instead they were driven around the side to where there was a modern-looking extension that would’ve made a conservation officer weep in despair. They entered a garage where a team of people wearing white uniforms waited.

As the minibus came to a halt, Nurse Helm stood. “Please make your way off the bus, your luggage will be delivered to your rooms, and you will be reunited once the admission process is complete. If Rob and Will could disembark last, you’ll be with me.”

Gwil thought it would only be a matter of time before they were separated.

“I was worried we might be outside for a bit, we’re not good in daylight,” Robin said, another lie as Robin had told him he was not as susceptible to daylight as the average vampire.

“Your best interests are at the heart of everything we do here, Rob,” Nurse Helm said. Gwil somehow managed to contain his snort of disbelief.

Gwil took hold of Robin’s hand as they were led inside into the main house. He’d expected the white walls and grey floors, given this was supposed to be a hospital, and they entered a small reception room where another nurse waited. Her electric-blue eyes were off-putting along with her sharp features, and jet-black hair and eyes. “This is Nurse Teller, one of the senior staff, she’s going to look after Rob, and I’ll take care of Gwil.”

“You’re splitting us up?” Gwil asked, sounding surprised and a little aggrieved, play-acting for the benefit of the nurses.

“You are individuals, and medical care has to consider the individual not the couple. We don’t have couples’ quarters here, but you’ll not be permanently separated.”

Robin bit his bottom lip, looking coy and nothing like the real vampire who would happily rip out the throat of someone who crossed him. “I’d rather do this together.”

“After the initial consultation, you’ll be reunited.”

“Fine,” Gwil snapped. “Make sure you don’t forget to tell them all the important stuff.”

Gwil was escorted down the corridor leaving Robin with Nurse Teller. He was shown into a little room, with a chair and a desk but not much else, it didn’t even have a window. Nurse Helm handed him a clipboard with a stack of papers. “Please fill these out. Dr Mettle will be with you as soon as he can, but he will see the patients in order of priority.”

It was clear to Gwil that he wasn’t near the top of the list, and he might be waiting a while. “I thought I’d already filled in the forms.”

“I’m afraid they’re endless when it comes to healthcare. I’ll get you a coffee while you wait.”

Three coffees and many forms later and Gwil was ready to start a commotion—he was supposed to be an arsehole so he could be excused. He’d had blood taken and pissed into a paper cup, had his cheek swabbed, and now he wanted a kip. He was about to leave the room and shout down the corridor when Dr Mettle entered. “Apologies for the delay, Mr Carpenter.”

They shook hands and Mettle sat down, he looked a little rough around the edges. “No worries and call me Will. Is Rob all right?”

“Mr Black has been triaged and should be in his room.”

“Right.”

“I’ve got the results of some bloodwork.” Mettle consulted a clipboard. “And they confirm you have a mutated version of Nosferatu virus, where the virus particles have become spectrally enhanced.”

“We knew that already.”

Mettle nodded. “I have also spoken to Mr Black about how that happened, but I’d like to get your version of the events.”

There was nothing accusatory in his tone, but he would bet Robin had been treated more as a victim and less matter-of-factly.

“I picked up the virus from another partner. I know that puts me in a bad light, but I’m working through my issues, and Rob has chosen to forgive me.”

Mettle flicked through the pages. “You were taking cocaine at the time? Are you still using?”

“I used to dabble occasionally, but it turned me into a wanker, so I’ve stopped.”

“Good, and you infected Mr Black?”

“Yeah, a friend of mine told me about a spell that makes sex even better, so I asked Rob to try, and I reckon he picked it up then. We’re usually pretty careful.”

Robin’s story was he been had pressurised into trying dark sex magic by his manipulative boyfriend, but Gwil was to be more blasé, and Mettle didn’t seem to be bothered by his patient being a prize shit.

“I’m not one to judge what goes on between consenting adults. You didn’t deliberately infect your partner, and his variant of the virus is a little different to yours.”

“Do you think you can help me? I mean us.” Another deliberate slip.

“Yes, I think so. The differences mean treating you independently.”

“But we were infected by the same spell at the same time, doesn’t that alter how you would treat us?”

“Your clinical experience is different, so there is no one-stop-shop and it will have an iterative process.”

Gwil hated medical jargon. Mettle would think him too stupid to understand and that would work to their benefit. “I suppose that makes sense. I gathered from the paperwork, we wouldn’t be housed together. Rob might not like that much.” Robin would pretend he wanted them to be together, but it didn’t matter either way.

“We don’t have facilities for couples, there is nothing to stop you from visiting each other but you must sleep apart.”

“Fair enough. To be honest, Rob can get a bit clingy. We could probably do with the space.”

Mettle nodded. “I don’t think it would hurt. This is a safe facility, Will. Take the time you need to recover. We’ll start your treatment plan once the rest of your tests are complete, and I’ll call Nurse Helm to escort you to your room.”

Gwil thought it would be in Mettle’s interests to split them up, Robin’s persona was a rich, easy-to-manipulate individual, whose disease and money would be useful to a lich. If they were able to move around separately then they could cover more ground and the sooner they found Simon the better.

He was shown to a room that was nothing special. He’d bet every room was decked out the same, designed to maintain anonymity and prevent the patients from getting over-excited. After a little persuasion, he’d been able to get directions to Robin’s room, and he checked he had no restrictions in where he could go in the facility apart from staff-only areas.

Once the nurse had finished going through his check-in, he changed into the head-to-toe grey items of clothing that had been left for him and set off to find his pretend boyfriend. The corridors of the main house were as sterile as the wing he’d first experienced, not gelling with his idea of what the vibe of a Georgian manor should be. There were several other patients in the corridors, as well as staff members. He made his way to Robin’s room, the layout of the house uniform and easy to follow—another reason he doubted the house was really of the period.

He knocked on the door, waiting for Robin to answer, having assumed Robin would be there given how long it had taken for him to be triaged and admitted. The door cracked open, and recognising Gwil, Robin beckoned him in.

“Hello, sweetheart, how you feeling?” Gwil said with a smirk.

“Emotionally fragile, darling, but Dr Mettle has vowed to do his best to make everything better. It took every fibre of my self-control not to punch the bastard.”

“He was pretty much matter-of-fact and professional with me, but I’m not a walking bank vault.” He sat on a chair while Robin took the bed. “He also took ages to get to me, I’m way down his interest list, meaning I guess I can wander around and do what the fuck I want.”

“He’s a clever bastard, clearly out to divide and conquer and he’s managed to get away with not being discovered for a long time.”

If Mettle hadn’t taken Simon, Gwil thought he could have kept his operation going under the radar for years, but the chance of getting his hands on a vampire-fae must have been too great an opportunity to pass up. “Have you been able to confirm if Simon is here?”

“Yes.” Robin smiled, it was the first genuine one Gwil had seen. “He’s here and I managed to talk to him. Not for long, but we’re meeting tomorrow, ostensibly for him to show me the grounds.”

“Least you know he’s here, safe for now, and we haven’t infiltrated the place for no reason.”

“Simon is not the only one here, do you remember Sebastian mentioned a cat in his text message?”

He did, he’d thought it a reference to something Robin had knowledge of but hadn’t probed as he wasn’t going to be told everything. “Yeah.”

“Catlin Redbourn is the cat. She’s Ben’s sired sister, and has been missing for several months after an incident at Crofton Hall.”

He’d heard something along those lines. “I guess we’ll be bringing her home too. I doubt Sebastian would take too kindly to leaving one of his House behind.”

“Ben would never forgive me either,” Robin said. “We’ve no idea how she ended up here, but we can worry about that once she’s home.”

Gwil was all for helping Catlin—another positive mark for him in Sebastian’s book wouldn’t hurt in the slightest. “Looks like we’ve got a buy one, get one free. Makes having the wrong face even more worthwhile.”

Robin laughed. “I won’t miss these teeth, but I’ll sleep well tonight. I couldn’t bring myself to believe Simon was here until I saw him. Now we’ll need to ensure we know the grounds and house well enough to move as soon as we have the opportunity.”

Gwil already had a plan. “We’ve a couple of hours of daylight left, I intend to get a couple of hours sleep and then have nose around the ground once it gets dark. My tolerance for daylight isn’t great, and being nocturnal means there should be no reason for them to stop me.”

“Do the house as well. You’re meant to be a cocky fucker. I’m sure wandering out-of-bounds is the sort of thing Will Carpenter would do.”

“Absolutely.”

He left Robin. He needed some sleep then he’d crawl over this place as much as he could get away with—the faster he did so the sooner he could go home. At least they now knew Simon was here, next steps were to make sure they could get him home in one piece.