Page 15 of Bleeding for the Prince
“Of course. Are you interested in cookware? Or perhaps Mr Hilt might wish to see the blood decanting stations?” Mr Smithe smiled, his incisors on the pointy side, hinting at his lycanthropy.
“Not with our current audience.”
Mr Smithe took that as a cue to shoo away the onlookers, and only a couple remained, picking up the fallen knives. Hyax tried to concentrate, hoping to lock on to the residual magic behind the acrobatic silverware. He could sense the presence of an elf, but they’d not cast in the vicinity and there was nothing else. It made no sense whatsoever. Gwil was pretending to examine the blood dispensing system, or at least Hyax hoped he was pretending, because while he had come to terms with Gwil’s vampiric nature years ago, he didn’t want the red stuff on prominent display in their home.
“What happened?” Hyax asked Mr Smithe once they were alone enough to talk.
“I arrived to see what you did. Knives revolving in mid-air, and when myself and the two ladies approached, we were pinned in the corner by cleavers.”
“Who cast the spell?”
Smithe shook his head. “There was no one here. Perhaps it was timed to go off.”
Hyax was sure that couldn’t be the case. His trackers would have picked them up. “From what I can tell, there’s nothing to suggest it was a timed spell.”
There had to be an explanation. His monitoring spells would have set off alarms if someone had left a spell primed or if someone had been here to cast, since knives didn’t float on their own. He sent a wave of magic across the area, but he had thesame sensation as before, an absence of anything, and it was fucking annoying.
“This is odd,” he said, sensing from Mr Smithe’s expression that he was waiting for Hyax’s initial conclusion.
Smithe snorted. “The understatement of the century. I’ve seen all sorts of strange things in my time, but I have always found an explanation. This has me lost.”
“You and me both.”
Gwil wandered up to them holding a scrap of gold paper. “The rest of the place is meticulously clean, but I found this in the corner.”
Hyax took hold of it. “It looks like a sweet wrapper of some kind.”
“Dropped by our mystery magician, maybe?” Gwil said. “You might be able to get something off it.”
He would need to study the paper and would prefer to do so without an audience so he muttered a neutral protection charm and then placed it in his pocket.
Apart from the knife display, there seemed to be nothing amiss, although he wasn’t interested in high-end cookware and table dressings, so lacked a reference to whether there was anything out of place, but it didn’t appear to be the case.
Gwil looked genuinely interested in a soup maker, which, given soup was his fallback human food, made some sense. “Want me to get that for you?” he asked, smirking.
“I doubt I’d get the use out of it to justify the purchase.” He sounded remorseful and it reminded Hyax that Gwil wasn’t used to Hyax’s lifestyle. Time to start remedying that.
“Let’s get one and have it delivered—my treat. And while we’re here, we could visit menswear.”
He could see Gwil was torn as he loved clothes but also had strong opinions about being thought of as Hyax’s pet fang in public. Although he had mentioned going shopping together,Gwil had never suggested he wouldn’t be paying his own way. He’d been receptive to the idea of using Hyax’s tailor, but that would be behind closed doors and before the etiquette lessons had come up.
“I suppose a quick look wouldn’t hurt—if we’ve got time.”
Hyax turned to Smithe. “I will take my Beloved to do a spot of shopping. I’ll be in touch about the other matter—I’m going to do some additional research before I commit.”
He’d hoped that arriving mid-incident, he’d have been able to get the information he needed but, if anything, he was more confused. He was going to call in a favour and pick Prince Simon’s brains.
“Of course, Your Highness, I’ll let the team on the fourth floor know to expect you.”
The store wasn’t officially open yet, but the staff should be in place and having the floor to themselves, even if it was just for a little while, was the only way Hyax could tolerate shopping in a department store.
He led Gwil towards the escalator. “There’s a couple of pieces from the new Pred-a-tor range I saw that will look amazing on you. They might have them in stock.”
The ones he had in mind were from the casual collection; he already had plans to elevate Gwil’s formal attire, and now he had the perfect opportunity to spoil him in another way. He turned down the help of a personal shopper. He didn’t need someone to advise on the best jacket for a certain occasion; he knew Gwil’s body better than anyone else, and what would suit him.
Pred-a-tor was a label a friend of his had started, and Hyax had been a fan from the start. He grabbed a pair of washed-out black jeans and handed them to Gwil. “Your arse will thank me.”
Several other pieces caught his eye and Gwil quickly disappeared under a pile of clothes. Hyax waved over a member of staff and arranged for a fitting room and to have the itemshung up, waiting for them once he was done. Most of Hyax’s favourite clothes were bespoke, but he had a vast number of designer items, and he worked through the Armani, Fendi, and Gucci ranges with a fine focus. Much of the new season left him cold, but there was the odd gem he would consider worthwhile for Gwil.
