Verando curses, distracting me from my packing with the outburst of frustration as he tosses the blackened phone onto the bed. "Well, bugger all to that plan.." he mutters. Tracking the phone, I note the aged look of it, as if it had been somehow thrown forward in time which had fried it. His hand almost emanates a haze, vapors drifting through the space and yet almost invisible to the naked eye. Something in him had triggered to kill the phone.
I watch him quietly as I finish my second slice of toast, Id been threatened with retaliation if I don't at least try and finish my breakfast. With his current mood, it didn't seem to be the best idea to tempt him. If I could send Fenrir to hell myself, I would. I cursed the man for ruining our morning after such an incredible night, though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely exhausted.
"It's quite interesting that you drove here fine but you fried a phone.. your powers are definitely strange."
"Can we not call them powers..? I'd rather not think of myself as something other than.. a lycan."
The hesitation, the deep-seated resentment towards magical beings, what a difficult transition this was for him. My switch to a lycan had been a simple one in that I felt it was a worthy sacrifice, I had no reason to resent the beasts even though this very man killed my parents. I understood the laws of equal exchange; but for him, there was a part of him that might have preferred hell's fury over this.
Patiently, I nod, remembering my own youth when I'd resented everything about what had been forced onto me. "What would you like to call them?" I would do this differently than I had been taught. I would do whatever I could to ease this transition for him, I owed him that, I wanted him to have a different experience than mine.
Grimacing, he says nothing, fiddling with the sleeves of his dress shirt as he rolls them up to his elbows. It seemed to be an admittance that he hadn't thought much about the terminology of this new lifestyle. He was uncomfortable with all of it so how could he fathom naming it? This was not something he could hide from me, it was a realm he knew nothing about and he would have to come to me for help.
Even so, with his stubbled jaw and silver tangles, it seemed as though he was on some sort of mission to reclaim his sense of self. How did he manage to look like an executive even when we were living out of a hotel with no luggage? Standing, I make my way over to him to adjust two of the buttons on his shirt. Catching my lower lip with my teeth, I feel the weight of his gaze on me, yet his chest is hauntingly silent, his body cold and hard.
"You look very handsome this morning," I comment.
My back protests the flirting, warning me that I was not fit enough for another round of indulgence. Everything below my waist was sore, while my back throbbed in a steady reminder that I'd bared the brunt of all that I'd asked for. I wanted him to take me, and so he had.
Glancing up, I catch him watching me with a heavy look of concern. "Are you sore?"
I shrug my shoulders, pursing my lips as I work my way up to help him with his tie.
"Don't tempt me, I've not eaten breakfast yet and you're mouth watering with my scent all over you." Wrapping his arms around me, he buries his nose in my hair though I note that he's careful not to touch me with his hands. After a moment, he releases me to finish dressing. I casually eye his book, wanting to search through it, but my training taught me better than that. I knew better than to touch something so powerful.
Tucking in his shirt, he fastens his belt with a heavy exhale.
Wetting my lips, I take in the creases the shirt makes across every plane of his body. I admire the long lines of his waist and hips, how was it that a man could be beautiful? Was this what he meant when he described my beauty to me? Trending upward, focusing on that full upper lip that was no longer marred with the scar from Mother, I grasp his tie as he passes me to encourage his attention once more.
"Kiss me?" I manage, rewarded with a smirk as he brushes his nose against mine.
"I'm a bit on edge, love. I don't want to hurt you."
Maybe I wasn't as sore as I thought I was? Maybe I could be convinced to partake in one more round?
"You don't scare me." I tease him, snagging a strawberry off my plate to offer him. Reluctant, he allows me to feed it to him, kissing my palm as I caress his cheek, dragging the edges of his teeth over the skin of my thumb.
"Are you sure?" he growls, flashing me a sultry gaze as I swallow back my own desire.
"Well you do have much more prominent fangs now... but I'll take you any way I can have you. Hold out your palms," I suggest, he responds obediently, palms up for me to examine.
I hover my fingers over the broad hands and carefully skirt my fingertips over the electric-feeling skin. While I could feel the charge, and that the magic was brewing under the surface, nothing about it felt deadly to me. There were no alarm bells, nothing sending me away from his touch.
So what had happened to the phone? To Eve? This would require some more in-depth probing but at the cost of lives, I was reluctant to explore how to test my theory.
Gingerly, I trace my fingers over the lines of the smooth hands, trailing to his fingertips, admiring the chill and smooth texture. The charge seemed to travel up into his arms, a pathway of current almost like the pumping of blood through veins, I followed the track of his forearms, only to flick my gaze up at his sharp inhale as I rested my palms on his biceps.
I note that he's closing his eyes, hyper-focused on the task, perhaps willing himself not to hurt me.
"Care to share?" He prompts as my hands hesitate, cocking a brow as I sheepishly wrinkle my nose at him. Locking eyes with me now, I was always surprised by just how pretty they were. Light, like iced-over water, so clear around the pupil and then darkening towards the edges.
"I'm following the 'path' of magic. I'm trying to get used to what your neutral state feels like, if we can understand it, we can control it. Usually, magic does have a reason..." Seeing how that could be taken the wrong way, I can only squeeze his arms in reassurance before trailing up towards the strong shoulders.
To him, magic was something that had taken everything from him, but also given him me. If he was going to gain a grasp on this ability, he would have to come to terms with that one way or another.
I rest my hands on his chest, finally, the void where his heart should be, and wait patiently for any indication that there is an origin to this current. But, I feel nothing under the solid wall of chest muscle. "The trail goes dead around here."
"Haha..." Verando grumbles.
Stretching up on my toes, I gather his face between my palms, enjoying the casual lean of his cool cheek into my warm embrace. "You're particularly foul this morning, my dearest love," I tell him, doing my best impression of his accent only to get the heaviest, most dramatic eye roll he can toss at me. "Look at me... I'm ok. I'm so much better than ok, you don't have to punish yourself for something that I thoroughly enjoyed and if you're worried about the people you sent to the underworld, we are going to figure this out.
So, how are we going to see these bodies?"
"I know. I'm just.. struggling. It feels like I should sleep, mentally I'm absolutely spent, but my body feels as if I'm well rested. Besides that, I'm just uncomfortable with the entire lot of it."
Considering this, he stepped away to grab a shoulder-slung laptop-style bag and slid his book inside of it as well as a few of the limited belongings we had brought in from the car. I dawn the pair of softer, aged jeans and the heavy sweater as the weather was damp, cool, and misty.
We check out without much more than a dismissal of the hotel clerk before he leads me to the car, opening my door for me and then getting in himself. By the time we're seated, his expression had completed its transition into my warlord. It would be the last look I'd get at the vulnerable side of him, he was ready to face this just as I was.
"I had a lot of time to think about how today would go, so I picked up a few bits for you to take home with you. Nic, since our fates are no longer intertwined, I wanted to write you up a list of bank accounts, who to contact, and how to access them. I also went ahead and had some cards made up that should be arriving at the house in a few days."
Digging through the bag, he lifts out a book to hand over to me and reluctantly, I take it.
Much as I didn't want to admit it, having this information would be helpful in the event that something went horribly wrong. But, I didn't want to think about that. I didn't want to ever imagine a life where he wouldn't be in it, a life where I would need any of this information.
"I've got my investments in there, as well as the location of some stockpiled hard goods and the names and locations of the banks where I keep actual cash in safes rather than an account. This also holds any other properties that I own, where the deeds are, and who has possession of those deeds."
Originally, I had thought it would be one or two accounts. But now, seeing this, it became clear to me just how much of a wealth hoarder my husband was. "Gods above, did you become a dragon over the last dozen years? This is absolutely... why didn't you tell me this when you got married? I wouldn't have been nearly so frugal!" I snap, attempting to make light of the situation but in reality, I was appalled that he kept this from me.
Each page was packed full with information. Things he'd kept locked away in the steel trap of his mind no doubt, I wonder how much anxiety it must have given him to write it down. "You own.. Helen's home? Legardo's home? What are all these?" I gesture to the various other addresses.
"The two beach houses in New York from when I bought a house for Marisol. The home that Marcello is renting from us in France and in the process of buying, the condo in Washington state where Ron is currently residing-"
"Ron?! Randy, we aren't-" I hesitate as he turns the car on, seeing his somber expression.
"Ron owes us nothing, it was the least I could do is give him a place to retire. A government pension is laughable. Helen and Legardo are renting and renovating those properties for me. They live close enough by that it was a benefit more than a disadvantage. I've made some investments early on that are doing quite well, Marisol helped a lot with that. I also own the warehouses and various bars/pubs that she ran through New York though I've left them to a small family to manage for us..."
Where was I in all these decisions? Was I ever going to be consulted? I worried about money,I worried often that he was doing horrible things to get us to a more comfortable path in life, but I suppose the main complaint I had with this information is that everyone seemed happy to side-step around me and allow him to give them things.
"What..?" I pinch the bridge of my nose with a heavy exhale. "Since when? When.. what? When were you going to say all of this?"
"You never asked?" He tilts his head, confused by my sudden discontentment. We came from two different slices of life, my family had amassed wealth over generations and you were granted land when you were proven worthy, or banished to a small lot as my aunt had been.
"Nic, the music business is feast or famine, when we spent our time separated I had fully intended on doing whatever I needed to do to assure that you would live comfortably even if you wanted nothing to do with me. Marisol needed to be compensated for the warehouse and the tavern I destroyed anyway. Do you feel as though you've gone without? I suppose I probably could have done more for you.. considering that Legardo and Helen-"
I throw up my hands, exasperated with him. Did he really think I was jealous of the money he spent on others? Was I upset? Yes, but not over something so trivial. "The cats destroyed... Randy, do you ever feel like our family takes advantage of you? You're murdering yourself with all of this. What do you get in return?"
I swat him with the book, cursing at myself in my mother tongue for I'm unsure of what I can even say to him. For now, my focus would be swallowing back my disappointment with our kin. It would be a hard day on my return when we all sat down and went over actual numbers, this wasn't something I'd ever even considered doing.
Was this why he kept it from me? Was this why nobody wanted to bring it up, because they wouldn't agree?
Flipping through the pages once more, I see that he'd also kept his investment in the various magic-friendly pubs throughout the US and even some shareholdings in the hotels we stayed at. Some under his own name, some under mine, some under Xavier Mercer, it was truly overwhelming the wealth he'd managed to amass.
I'd wondered why a musician was so influential, and where the connections had come from, and I suppose this is why. He was still playing the game, still working the system, trying to keep our family ahead of any potential disaster.
"No." He concludes finally, as we pull out onto the street. "I have a lot to atone for, it doesn't bother me to help our friends and family. I wish someone had helped me, I know what it's like to have nothing, not even myself... I lived as a slave for 10 years, giving away my wealth doesn't bother me in the least. But... I'm starting to think that it bothers you?" He glances toward me, turning onto the highway as we thunder down the road at an uncomfortable speed. "We grew up very differently, sometimes I struggle to remember that."
I turn each page with great care. So much detail, so much information crammed into each line, about the various places he'd had a part or say in.
I ran my fingers over the line for the school that he and Tucci were working on, a magical school that would be up and running hopefully by the end of next year. This was part of why I loved him, the selflessness he exuded when it truly mattered was a trait I'd always found endearing of him.
"I'd like to make some suggestions, you're hemorrhaging money by the look of some of these.. but I also understand you probably didn't tell me because you didn't want me to say no." I wager, closing the book once more. Verando pulls his lips into a thin line, not willing to admit that there was a role in which we were husband and wife. In the end, if I told him no, he would be inclined to listen.
"Forgiveness rather than permission." He muses.
"I'm not going to tell you what to do with your money, just as you never guided me with my own funds, even back in our time you never asked me to spend a cent on you. I'd just like to make sure that everyone is treating you fairly. For such a scary individual, you tend to let the people you love walk all over you." I muse, finding humor in that statement considering how hard on his own children he could be.
Tonic had betrayed us countless times and yet he still came back as he pleased. Caspian, Marisol, Legardo, the man seemed quick to forgive at times. Despite his nature, his cruel upbringing, and his dislike of the majority of people, he truly did love our family.
"I'd like to remind you it's our money. You're the other man of the house, love. If you'd like to play the role of first lady, then be my guest but you get to go knock on people's doors and raise their rent." Verando retorts, reaching across the short distance to lace our fingers together and bring my knuckles to his lips with a gentle kiss. "I'm not quite sure what I'd do with the properties if they were empty, seems a waste, does it not?"
I suppose so. He wasn't necessarily just handing them money, more so giving them places to live. "It's our money that I didn't know about until just now?" I question, crossing my legs, and returning his hand to rest over my stomach. I had liked that moment between us, I'd enjoyed him acknowledging the flicker of life inside of me. It made all the suffering seem more worth it.
"You didn't ask." He reminds me, sighing as we pull into the parking lot of the forensics lab that backs up to what looks like a large warehouse. "This should be where they brought the bodies. Since it's all natural deaths, they might have already begun the process of preparing them considering there wasn't much cause for suspicion. I'd like to look around anyways and see if there are any gods working here."
I tilt my head to look through the windshield at the large building, unimpressed. "What an ugly building."
"What a bitchy thing to say." He muses, earning a glare from me that makes him smirk, dimpling his cheek.
"Did you know that a dimple is a genetic defect?" I point out, poking his cheek before unfastening my seatbelt. "You're going to give our child a defect."
"Mmm, defective and short.. pity really. Pray for a girl, I suppose."
I scowl at him, cursing him for that boyish snicker as he hops out of the car. But, the possibility of a girl makes my heart swell once more, I hadn't even allowed myself to imagine a gender. Our family was so full of males, and Helen was such a pain in my ass, that I'd refused to entertain anything other than the possibility of a boy.
"Asshole," I grumble though I take his arm in mine as we approach the front of the building, only to hesitate when I spy the keypad. "Now what?"
"Well, we either break it and go in during the panic of it all or break it and just enter... or possibly the door is unlocked, I mean truly, who would lock it?"
"It's a government building. It has to be locked-" With a pull, the door opens and he raises an eyebrow at me before stepping aside to let me in first. "What a gentleman."
"Not really, I just broke it when I pulled on it. Perhaps keep that to ourselves though, yeah?" Verando leads us up to the front desk, where we are greeted by a woman who looks shocked to see us here.
"Umm... oh, how did you get in here? This is a closed sector, I didn't even hear you buzz in?" She looks at her computer, and a light flickers to indicate a problem with her front door. Verando places his hand lightly on the counter and the computer snaps off with a sharp pop. Quickly he closes his fingers but tries not to retract to not cause alarm. Blinking rapidly, she taps her mouse a few times before Verando clears his throat.
"We're not here to cause any trouble, we know one of the deceased from yesterday and we were coming to help properly identify," Verando mentions, voice smooth and low. "I've got a friend at the department who's supposed to meet me here, but it appears we've beat him."
"Oh, what's his name?" She questions, frowning back at her computer. "I can't let you go back without an escort. We usually don't have any more visitors at this point, they're all being prepped for burial and the cases were all closed, so surely it's not too important?"
"Our families don't get along," I interject, holding onto his arm with some sort of remorse. "You know how these celebrities are... we aren't going to be invited to the funeral, this is really his only chance to say goodbye, more so a favor to a friend... we told him and told him, but you know, Mr.Mercer just insists on getting his way." I lean over the desk as her gaze flicks back and forth between us. "Men, really..."
"Excuse me?" He demands, offended by my claims.
"See? It's starting all over again.. another tantrum."
"Oh my." She puts her hand over her mouth, "I didn't want to pry, so you really are Verando Mercer? You did look familiar... Though, I'm so sorry, I just don't know-"
"He'll never forget this, it'll be the topic of his next press conference I assure you, cruel receptionist refuses to allow Mercer to say goodbye to his estranged friend-" I paint the picture for her, making Verando roll his eyes heavily.
"Quite the mouthful.. " He grumbles, crossing his arms over his chest, unfortunately, the claims seemed to have gone the opposite direction for the woman manages a sniffle.
"Please Mr.Mercer, I'm so sorry.. I just really need this job."
"She really needs the job, Nic." He snaps at me, irritated by my orchestrated sob story.
"Then maybe a good word for her will be in order? Surely you can do something so small?" I insist, making his teeth grind with my audacity. I would pay for this later, for that I was certain.
"What kind of-"
She cuts him off by hitting a button, making the side door open. "Go back and the coroner will meet you." She sniffles, suddenly looking so young and so small. "I'm sorry for the trouble." Bowing her head as we walk by, I close the door behind us and am met with the sinister scowl of a lycan scorned.
"In what world?" he demands of me, hands on his hips. "Why did you do that?"
"You're welcome. Let's not waste our time bickering, take it out on me later. We need to go see these bodies."