Page 49 of High Stakes and Soulmates
“Ooh, Casimir, I want to hear his secret,” Julian says as he throws a piece of popcorn at Casimir. It bounces off his face and into Gustov’s mouth.
“I shall loosen my hold slightly. If your secret is not up to my standards, I will remove your soul from your body.”
“A bit harsh, but ah well. I know my secret is the best. I was at your hotel today and there were all of these cute puppers frolicking around and so I asked one of the handlers, and she said there’s a fun dog show being held in the conference center connected to the hotel tomorrow! She said everyone is welcome and if I have a dog I should definitely join! We should go! She said you can sign up the day of, so I thought Casimir could take his floof and I could take my puppers!”
“And turn into little crispy bats?” Julian asks in concern.
Casimir drops Yorick’s body, evidently overcome with excitement at this idea. “Gustov. Come, boy.”
The poodle gallops over to him, misjudges when to stop, and crashes into his legs. Casimir scoops him up. “Let us go prove to the world that Gustov is the best dog that has ever existed since mankind brought him into existence.”
“Casimir, the show will be during the day! You will fry up over the chance of showing off Gustov?” Julian asks in disbelief.
“If we get there tonight, we’ll be safe. There are no windows in the service hall between the hotel and the conference center. Let us go.”
“I mean…” Julian looks over at the two of us. “Only if everyone will go and be tortured with us.”
“Let me check my schedule. I have… ooh, man… I’m like… super busy doing… things,” Ezio says. “Butfor you, we will go.”He hurries over to Casimir’s closet of clothes for Gustov and pulls out the rhinestone collar and leash. “Come, boy. Come, come.”
Julian raises an eyebrow. “Ohhhhh, no. Hell no. I am not going as a fucking dog.”
“Julian said, ‘I can’t believe I’m going as a dog,’” Casimir tells us as he proudly walks his poodle into the hotel while Ezio beams at Julian who is on a leash in wolf form.
I’m fully confident this was only agreed to because Ezio looked so sad when Julian said no, Julian shifted right then and there even though I’m pretty sure he could have stayed human until the actual show or at least left the room to get naked. Julian is obviously far too kind.
We’re shown to a huge suite where Julian shifts back, but Ezio doesn’t seem interested in releasing the leash connected to him. So now we’re just four guys hovering around a fifth guy who is butt-ass naked and on a leash.
“Did you see all of those lesser dogs as we walked in?” Casimir asks. “Gustov is going to crush the competition.”
“You are far too excited about this,” Julian says. “Should we find something to cover the windows? Why’d we get a room with so many windows?”
“We have a few rooms that are vampire safe,” Casimir explains before tapping the edge of the glass that shows where the coating is.
“Hopefully your staff never mixes up rooms. Ha ha…” Yorick says.
Casimir gets a far-off look in his eyes before going, “Yes, Gustov. Did you see that measly competition?”
Julian, still on a leash, cocks his head. “Excuse me… can we go back to that part where a vampire must have fried up?”
Casimir waves it off like a possible death is no big deal at all. “He didn’t fry up. He was fine. He got a little bit crispy, but we refunded him for the room, so it was all good.”
“Arefund? You nearly murder a man and all he gets is a refund?” I ask.
Casimir, oddly, looks proud of this. “One look at my face and he said that the ‘refund was plenty.’ Now we make them sign a paper that states that it’s their job to double-check that they’re in the right room, and if they’re not, there will be no refunds. And if they fry up in the room, there will be cleaning costs tacked on.”
“You…” I look at Julian—from the shoulders up because I sure as fuck don’t want to look at what’s going on below. “You hear what’s he’s saying, and you still pick him, yeah?”
Julian just laughs uneasily. “He’s only kidding. He’s a kidder.”
We all give him an “Is he?” look just as someone knocks on the door.
“Come in! I left the door open!” Casimir announces.
“Come in?” Julian hisses, looking around in a panic for his clothes.
“It’s fine, it’s just the delivery lady. She’s seen you naked before,” he assures Julian as he takes off for his bag. The only issue with this is that Ezio is still holding on to the end of his leash, which results in Julian getting snapped back and slightly strangled as the delivery lady stands in the doorway holding a bag of stuff. Her eyes narrow and her head cocks while Julian flails and grabs for his neck.
“Is it always a circle? And always the same one…” she mutters to herself.
