Page 16 of Pining for the Prince
Tobias tapped his finger to his lips. “Don’t you find that odd in itself? Raids tend to have a reason, and ones so close together would potentially have the same root cause.”
“Maybe. But it could be anything. Probably drug-related in my opinion. New dirty lab they’re trying to track down is my guess.”
“I’ve said it before and I will say it again, you’re very pedestrian in your outlook. I think you need to start thinking bigger.”
“Possibly, but then I’ve had other vampires asking if I know about dirty Stardust, so it’s a bit hard to put two and two together and not get four.”
“How interesting,” Tobias said, and Gwil couldn’t tell if he wasn’t already aware or if he’d gifted the old bastard new intel.
“Yeah, I suppose it could be.”
“At the risk of sounding like a nosey old man, who else has been asking?”
Tobias had been turned in his late forties but Gwil didn’t know his exact age, but he was nosey. Gwil stood a little taller and slid the deeds into the inside pocket of his coat. “I’m afraid I can’t divulge that. Client confidentiality. You understand?”
Tobias smiled tightly. Gwil said his goodbyes and legged it. Senior vampires were not known for sharing information, knowledge was power, but that tended to be kept to more interesting information such as ancient relics and a good source of virgin blood vintages, not mundanities such as bad batches of drugs.
He’d need to follow up, but it could wait for now. He had a house to see.
Gwil stared up at the house in front of him wondering what the catch was. Situated opposite the market, the terraced house was in a prime position, and from here he could see what Tobias had meant by it needing some work, but nothing major. The ground floor was an empty shop unit at the moment, which would be easy enough to adapt and no doubt the inside would need a lick of paint. But it could have been a hole in the ground and he wouldn’t have cared as he could employ a builder to fix the property, but would struggle to find the quality of ley line he could feel. His current place was like a dull echo in comparison, whereas this one sang and thrummed like a harp string.
“This is special,” Hyax said, a breathy tone to his voice.
Gwil could only imagine how the ley line felt to someone like Hyax. “I can’t quite believe it.”
“Are you sure it’s the right place?”
“This is the address in the deeds.” He couldn’t blame Hyax for being sceptical, vampires weren’t always known for following through with a deal. “Tobias must’ve really wanted his watch back.”
Hyax laughed. “Indeed. I’m surprised he didn’t double-cross you and give you a doll’s house.”
Gwil fished a set of keys out of a pocket. “Let’s go and see what’s inside.”
“You’ll be inviting me in to look at your etchings next. I’ve heard all about you Victorian boys. Want to peek at my ankles later?”
“Twat.” He wanted to look at a good deal more than Hyax’s ankles, and he had to stop his imagination running away with him. He shoved Hyax out of the way and opened the front door. “Fucking hell!”
Hyax peered around him. “Well, that explains why you might need to do a bit of work to make it to your taste.”
The hallway was painted a lurid pink and the walls seemed to have been lined with stripes of lime green and purple velvet. He pushed open the door to what would be the office area and, while it was a good size, the luminous orange and yellow décor would be migraine-inducing. “I hope upstairs is better, but somehow I doubt it.”
Hyax was chuckling to himself as they climbed the stairs. “This place is… unique. Characterful.”
“It’s like a child vomited the contents of a paint factory.”
The living area had red vinyl walls and black floors and paintwork that reminded him of a brothel he’d visited once, a long time ago. It led into what he thought was the kitchen, which was devoid of any electrical goods or cabinets and was an empty room, with white walls that had stains he couldn’t identify but he hoped that meant the previous owner was just a messy cook.
He prayed the master bedroom would be better but soon discovered a mural of a dragon eating a giant flower which, if the artist had been blessed with more talent, might have been bearable, as it stood, however, it was an affront to his eyes. The fitted wardrobes weren’t much better, painted in various shades of green.
“God, it’s going to take ages and a fortune to get this into a state I can bear to be in for more than a minute or two.”
Hyax squeezed his shoulder. “Don’t be silly. I can fix most of this in a couple of hours, give or take. You’d be best off getting a human in to fit the kitchen appliances, the kickback from my magic and the ley line might not be good for electronics.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
Hyax grinned. “You’ll owe me though.”
“Isn’t putting up with you most days enough?” Gwil said with a smirk.
