Business first, I guess.
“No mouthing off,” Dean said over his shoulder.
He knew me too well. “Hey, I’ve been holding it in better lately.”
It wasn’t my fault I couldn’t let arseholes have the last word. To let that happen was an injustice to me. Had to keep the balance and all that.
“Good. You can be a bad boy later.”
“Promise?”
“You know it.”
Naughty goals! My favorite!
Two
Dean
“Strap it on.”
Jake giggled.
I made sure to keep my face straight. “Seriously?”
“I don’t need to strap anything on. You know that.”
I shook my head, looking away before I started laughing with him. “Focus.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Jake strapped his spear to his back. The least hostile we looked, the better.
“Doesn’t look like he’s been here,” Jake said as we paused at the top of the canal-side street over near Rijksmuseum.
“Those geezers look too calm,” he added about the two big men standing guard outside the house.
“It’s their job to look calm,” I replied. “They have to have an astute poker face.”
“Yeah, but I was expecting Sonny to be begging to get in when we got here. Seems a bit too easy.”
He was right. But then Sonny had the Luck Stone, so he had some leverage to talk to the vampire and ask for protection. The Luck Stone did what it said on the tin—brought luck when used in the right way. We had to get in there before Brem arranged a deal that not only screwed over Sonny but us too. The vampire gang lord didn’t need more luck.
Sonny did. That’s why he’d robbed the alchemist, Mila Roos. Worst thing to do, but her house was a magical treasure trove, with all sorts of things that could provide help to the most desperate of folk. This wasn’t the first time Sonny had robbed her. Jake and I managed to keep her from unleashing some horrible spell on him by promising to take care of it. Our reputation as investigators, of getting things done, was solid—a general five stars all round for our services. It’d become a great business, a worthwhile enterprise that helped people—human and supernatural.
Tangled up with vampire affairs, though? This wasn’t going to be fun, but we had to make this a smooth transaction. Then we could deal with Sonny.
Brem’s place wasn’t exactly discreet. You always knew where it was by the two bodyguards standing watch outside the house with the black door twenty-four hours a day. Golems, hired strength, all muscle and mean faces, giant hands ready to break bones at the behest of their blood-sucking employer.
Jake and I paused before them. Their eyes were hidden by shades, despite it being night, and their arms were folded across their chests.
“Evening, gents,” Jake greeted them.
It was a nice three-story Dutch house with steps leading up to the entrance, two hanging lanterns glowing on either side of the door pleasantly. There was even a Christmas wreath.
Good to see Brem was in the festive spirit. Our place was on a whole other scale.
“What the fuck do you want?” the man on the right barked.
“Did Sonny the Snake come this way?”
The two men were both pale, both sporting brown buzz cuts, but one had a mustache. He was the one to ask, “Why?”
“We need to talk to him,” I answered.
“Always sticking your noses into people’s business.”
“That’s our job, mate,” Jake retorted. “Kind of stupid thing to say, ain’t it?”
I closed my eyes. Oh, God. He hadn’t even gone five minutes without gobbing off. And he’d been doing so well lately.
“Want me to break your face, pretty boy?”
“Why? Jealous that I don’t look like a bulldog chewing a wasp?”
The mustache man grunted. “I’ll shove that spear of yours right up your hole.”
“Promise?”
“Jake!” I snapped.
“What? He started it.”
The non-mustache golem elbowed his partner. “Stop that crap.”
“He asked for it.”
“You know better.”
“You know better,” I mimicked the golem’s words at Jake.
My boyfriend folded his arms and rolled his eyes. It was cute, but I couldn’t show him any googly eyes. “Behave.”
The golem without the facial hair said the same to his colleague. Jake and the other brute stood silently, scowling at one another.
“Where were we?” the golem asked.
“Sonny the Snake.”
“Ah, yeah. He’s inside.”
“Any chance we can talk to him?”
“No. You need to make an appointment. Can’t let just anyone off the street wander about inside. Boss would have my balls on toast with a vintage cabernet.”
Nice. “Did Sonny have an appointment?”
“No.”
“Then that’s not really fair, is it?”
The golem regarded me with his big brown eyes. “He begged.”
“He what?”
The big guy came down a step. “You heard me, fae. He begged. Got on his hands and knees and begged me to let him in.”
Ah, so it was going to be like that. “Good for him. He’s done a lot of begging in his lifetime. Poor guy. You should’ve cut him a break.”
The golem snorted. “I quite enjoyed it.”
So much for him being the nicer one. Not that I’d truly believed it.
“He’s not begging,” Jake cut in. “No way.”
“Jake—”
“You get on your knees for anyone but me, and you’ll be using your hand for six months.”
Rather than flush red with embarrassment, I frowned. I was good at frowning. “Jake—”
“Bollocks to begging.”
Oh, God! He squared up to the golem, who stepped off the stoop and onto the street.
The mustache golem was grinning like a Cheshire cat who’d found a room full of mice.
“I’d listen to your man,” the golem said, looking down at Jake. My boyfriend was tall, but the golem was a tower of muscle.
“Jake, can you—”
“Look,” Jake continued, ignoring me. “We don’t want any trouble. Just want to speak to Sonny, to Brem. Sort this friggin’ mess out.”
“I should care why?”
Jake pulled out a fifty euro note. “Like the way this looks?”
There was greed in the golem’s eyes. He even licked his thin lips. “I’d have to talk to the boss.”
“Get us inside, and these become two.”
After a few seconds, the golem went back up the steps and entered the house,
