Page 37 of Searching for the Prince
“I imagine if a beautiful blond fae walked up to one and offered a night they’d never forget, we’d have a willing helper,” Ashley said, waggling his eyebrows.
“Oh, yes,” Alex agreed. He checked his watch. “It’s a bit early. But you could portal to a club closer to sunset and pick someone who’s not managed to get paired up and knock ’em out. I’ll have a car ready to bring them here. Once they wake up your magic will have worn off and I’ll explain they’ve been specially selected to help the House of Hewel.”
“No. Send someone else.” He yawned. “I’m going to get some rest, then shag my partner. You can kidnap your own vampire.”
He stalked out, the nerve of some people. Hyax was a prince, not some common oik who could be ordered about. Alex was an elf and Ashley was a warlock, and neither were known for being submissive creatures, so they should have known the fae were the kings of being uppity bastards and he was going to play stuck-up prince for as long as he could. For now, he would hope Gwil was still in bed or could at least be persuaded to return.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Gwil stretched out. He’d slept like the dead, which was an analogy he wouldn’t use in front of some members of the paranormal communities due to their sensibility and general lack of a sense of humour. His groggy mind acknowledged the presence of someone sitting on the edge of the bed and it took several moments to realise it wasn’t Hyax, but Solivatus.
“Wake up, sleepy head. We’ve some things to discuss.”
He struggled to sit, the thought of the reaction Hyax might have if he were to find Solivatus in his current position, was not a pleasant one. Hyax might be trying to be reasonable, but this would set off the fireworks.
“Give me a minute and I’ll get dressed.”
Solivatus smirked. “You’re fine as you are. It’s not like I’ve not seen it all before.”
“Doesn’t mean you get to see it now.”
He chuckled and stood. “Fair enough. Get dressed and I’ll wait in your sitting room.”
Before dating Hyax, Gwil would never have had the balls to push back against Solivatus, so it was kind of liberating to do sonow. The expectations of his status were so engrained in him he would’ve never thought to have challenged them.
He dressed quickly and joined Solivatus. It was one thing to brush him off, another to keep him waiting. “So, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong per se. We’ve set up your background for the infiltration, and I wanted to check in on how you’re feeling about the whole situation.”
Gwil sat in a separate chair rather than next to him on the sofa. “It’s fine. A little apprehensive about the speed at which everything’s progressing, and that they’re going to make me look like someone else, but I’ve done undercover work before. To be honest, given no one knows who I am, I wonder why they’re bothering to change my appearance.”
“I wouldn’t say no one knows who you are. Dating a royal fae, against their parents’ wishes no less, is going to give you an element of notoriety.”
He hadn’t considered it from that angle. “I suppose any link back is dangerous.”
“Pretty much, with both Sebastian and Liam heavily invested in this, you can be pretty safe in saying it’s not allowed to go wrong.”
There were times when he had wished to be better situated in terms of being recognised in vampire society, now faced with what might go down if they failed, Gwil thought he might want to go back to them not knowing he existed. He could find a nice cave in Wales, live off sheep and not come back to civilisation for a few hundred years.
“Do I have a complete backstory? The sooner I can learn who I’m playing the less likely I am to fuck up.”
“You don’t do yourself justice, Gwil. You’re good at what you do.” Solivatus winked. “You’ll ace this and imagine the favours you’ll be able to call in.”
Gwil wasn’t about to risk reminding the likes of Sebastian and Liam that they owed him. “We’ll see.”
Solivatus spent a moment doing something on his phone. “I’ve sent you the details of your new identity and questionable life choices. Robin is the one who has a dick for a boyfriend. Sebastian rather liked the idea of having him behave as less like his real self as possible.”
“Surely that’s just asking for trouble.”
“Robin’s a brilliant actor, he should’ve been on the stage, not making stars. He’ll be able to pull off the lovestruck dweeb who’d be willing to look past his boyfriend cheating on him and infecting him with something nasty during a bit of dark hocus pocus shagging.”
Gwil groaned. “Couldn’t you have come up with something more believable?”
“I’ve heard far worse bullshit spouted and arsehole behaviour forgiven in the name of love. Honestly, you giving him a mutated version of the Nosferatu virus is one of the tamest things we came up with. Consider yourself lucky.”
He didn’t feel lucky. “Right, and if I’m a complete bastard, why am I putting up with a wimpy streak of piss?”
“Money, why else?”
