Ball & Chain

“This place just gets creepier and creepier,” Nick muttered. He shoved up, helping Kelly off the floor and dusting both of them off. They peered at the bend in the passageway, then met each other’s eyes.



“Want to see where it goes?” Kelly asked, his eyes sparkling.



“Hell, yeah.”



They got out their phones, turning on the flashlight apps. Kelly took the lead, Nick’s hand on the small of his back as they moved together with practiced ease in the small space. When they got to the bend in the passageway, it stretched off in both directions like Nick had suspected, but it also presented them with a narrow set of stone spiral stairs. They each aimed their lights in opposite directions. Several feet off, the wall came down so low they would have to crawl to get under it. Nick assumed that was the window casing.



“Up or down?” Kelly asked.



Nick put his lips against Kelly’s ear, smiling. “Down.”



Kelly shivered, leaning back into Nick’s hand briefly. They managed not to give in to temptation just then and instead headed down the steps to see where they’d end up. The steps were so narrow Nick’s foot didn’t fit on them even if he turned it sideways. His shoulders brushed both sides of the staircase. He was glad he wasn’t claustrophobic because it felt a little like getting stuck in a hole as they descended.



Kelly looked at him once the staircase was so tight that he had to turn to get down it. “Guess this rules out showing Ty this shit.”



Nick nodded. Ty would go into a full-fledged panic trying to get down these things.



At the base of the staircase it opened up again. There were more shafts of light that Nick guessed were peepholes into rooms. He also assumed there were more ways in and out, but he saw no indications along the walls. Kelly went to the first peephole and peered through, then made room for Nick to look.



The room beyond was the gentleman’s study, decorated with heavy, rich materials rather than light, modern ones like the other rooms they’d seen. Green medallion carpeting, heavy wood, leather seating. The walls were paneled in leather, and the scent of expensive cigars lingered even over the smell of ancient wood inside the passage.



Deuce and Zane were sitting in leather club chairs near the fireplace, and Ty was perched on the arm of Zane’s chair as they talked.



Deuce was in the middle of speaking to Ty. “The Stantons are very . . . please don’t wave any weaponry or kill anything in their presence.”



Ty held up his hand. “Promise.”



“That’s the Girl Scout pledge, Ty,” Deuce observed, deadpan.



Ty looked at the fingers he’d raised and then sneered at Deuce.



“You’re not really expecting us to need weaponry, are you, Deuce?” Zane asked.



“He never needs an excuse,” Deuce’s reply was as long-suffering as his gesture at Ty. They laughed, but then Deuce grew serious once more. “The truth is, I don’t know. When we sit down tonight with Theodore, I think we’ll all learn a little more about it.”



Ty and Zane both gave worried nods.



“Thanks for bringing your friends,” Deuce added. He sounded weary.



“Always.” Ty glanced up and around the study, like he was sensing something off. He visibly shivered. “This place gives me the creeps, man.”



Deuce laughed.



“No, seriously, I feel eyes on me in here.”



Kelly snorted. Nick quickly clapped a hand over his mouth and nose, biting his own lip so he wouldn’t laugh as well.



Ty’s head whipped around and his eyes darted back and forth over the section of wall they were behind. His sharp hearing had picked up on them, and the display of his predatory senses made the hairs on the back of Nick’s neck stand up. He gripped Kelly tighter, and they both held their breath.



“Did you hear that?” Ty asked.



Deuce laughed harder.



“Yeah, Ty, the walls are talking to you,” Zane teased.



“I heard something.”



“You two go get some rest before dinner,” Deuce urged, still snickering. “Before Ty opens up some sort of paranormal investigation.”



“That’s not funny,” Ty insisted as his piercing eyes raked over their hiding spot one last time. Nick wondered how in the hell the peepholes were concealed if Ty couldn’t spot it. Ty turned to follow Deuce and Zane out, but Nick could tell he was on the alert now just by the way he carried himself. His voice trailed off as they left the room. “This place is creepy, Deacon.”



Nick and Kelly barely held in their laughter.



Kelly grinned widely. “This could be fun. Want to see where else it leads?”



Nick was grinning and nodding. “Want to go get naked first?”



“Yeah.” He took Nick’s hand and tugged him toward the stone steps.



Ty could hear Nick and Kelly arguing as he and Zane approached their room. Nick and Kelly were in the next room over from them, with a cute little wooden placard with their names carved on it. Ty laughed and pointed it out to Zane. Though the way Nick and Kelly were, it was likely neither of them cared. They’d probably be fighting over who’d get to take it home by the end of the week.



He stood at their door and cocked his head to listen, but he couldn’t make out the words of the argument. They were interspersed with laughter, though, so Ty wasn’t all too concerned about it being a real fight. He gave the door a knock, then tested the knob to see if it was unlocked and shoved it open.



He stopped short when he encountered Nick and Kelly on the queen-sized bed they were sharing. Nick was reclining against the headboard in nothing but his boxers and a worn-out Red Sox T-shirt, and Kelly was kneeling beside him holding a small tube of something.



“Was that really fucking necessary?” Nick demanded as he wiped a runny white substance off his calf.



Kelly was laughing hard. “I’m sorry, it just shot out!”



Both men glanced up when they noticed Ty and Zane in the doorway.



“Hey,” Nick said.



“What the fuck are you doing?” Ty asked in horror.



Kelly held up the tube. “First aid.”



“He’s making a goddamn mess is what he’s doing,” Nick corrected. He scratched at his calf.



“He’s scratching himself bloody, I was trying to put this hydrocortisone cream on him while I had him immobile,” Kelly explained. “But the plane ride must have made it separate or something, ’cause . . . I’ve never seen this shit do that.”



Nick laughed.



Kelly shoved at his knee to make him turn onto his side, and then he put the tip of the tube at his calf where the skin had been scratched red. When he squeezed it, though, another thin stream of opaque liquid shot out instead of the thick cream it was supposed to be.



“That’s obscene,” Zane muttered.



Kelly laughed harder and wiped at Nick’s leg before it could drip to the sheets.



“Oh my God!” Nick shouted. “What kind of janky fucking medic are you?”



“I’m sorry!”



“It’s a tube of cream, how hard is this exactly?”



“It’s separated!”



“You’re sleeping in the wet spot tonight!”



“No, it’s not my fault!”



Zane finally lost it at that. Laughing, he strolled into the room and sat on the end of the bed.



“Jesus Christ,” Ty said, moving closer. “You don’t want to know what I thought was going on in here.”



Nick glanced up, scowling as he scratched at his calf.



“I don’t understand why you’re still itching, there’s no bite or anything there,” Kelly grumbled.



“You’re not even allergic to anything,” Ty added. “Where have you been?”



“I don’t know, but I’m itchy,” Nick grumbled. “I think this place knows I’m Irish.”



Kelly barked a laugh. He placed the cap on the tube and shook it vigorously. The same persistent liquid shot out from under the tightened cap, hitting Nick in the face.



Nick howled and flopped to his side, covering his face and laughing raucously. Kelly pitched forward, cackling so hard he had to rest his head on Nick’s hip. Zane practically guffawed.



“You got it in my mouth!” Nick finally cried. He rolled to his back, pawing at his face.



Kelly was hooting and snorting and wheezing too hard to answer. He buried his face against Nick’s stomach and shook his head, holding the dripping tube of cream up.



“In my mouth! Is this shit poisonous? Am I going to die?” Nick fumbled on the bedside table for his water bottle, gulped it down and wiped at his face frantically with a pillow.



Kelly brought the tube of cortisone cream up again, and when Nick caught sight of it he rolled out of bed and thumped to the hardwood floor. “Don’t fucking come near me with that shit! I’d rather be itchy!”



Kelly tried to argue, but he still couldn’t catch his breath.



“I’m taking a shower,” Nick cried, distraught. He pulled his shirt off and wiped his face with it, then disappeared into the bathroom and slammed the door.



Zane was holding his stomach, trying to sit up and laugh at the same time. Kelly chuckled. He quickly capped the tube then tossed it toward the trash can. He looked around for something to wipe his hands off on and Ty backed away from him.



“There were so many things wrong with that,” Ty told him, close to giggling.



Kelly snorted. “What did you guys need?”



Ty shook his head. “I don’t even fucking remember.”



Zane cackled. “I feel like I just watched free porn.”



“Oh, look at this shit we found earlier,” Kelly said, grinning like a little boy as he hopped past Ty toward the fireplace. He reached up to one of the carved angels on its knees with its hands clasped. A chain ran through its broken wing and attached to a ball higher up the corbel. He pulled the angel’s head.



Nothing happened.



Ty and Zane shared a glance, and Ty put two fingers to his lips to indicate Kelly may have been toking earlier rather than resting. Zane snorted.



“That’s weird,” Kelly said. He tried again, tugging at the angel’s head. Again, nothing happened. He glanced over his shoulder at them. “I swear to God this thing opened a door earlier.”



Ty snickered.



Kelly looked it over with a deep frown, pushing on the wall next to the fireplace. “No, seriously.”



“We believe you, Doc,” Zane said kindly.



“No! There was a door here! The walls are hollow, and there are stairs and everything,” Kelly insisted. He glanced at the bathroom door. “Nick!”



“No!” Nick called from the bathroom. The water shut off. “No, no, no.”



Zane began to laugh again.



Kelly put his shoulder into the wall, leaning against it. He reached up to tug the angel’s head again. “Damn it!”



Nick came out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist. He watched Kelly for a few seconds before saying, “Pull its wing.”



Kelly glanced at him, then up at the carving. He pulled the fragile-looking wing and something clicked within the fireplace. The wall gave way against Kelly’s shoulder, and he stumbled sideways before catching himself.



Zane stood, and Ty took a step forward, eyes widening.



“That’s so cool!” Zane cried.



Ty took another step, peering into the dark passageway. “How the hell did you find that?”



Kelly glanced at Nick, opening his mouth and closing it like a fish.



“He, uh,” Nick said quickly. “He tripped over the wood holder down there. Grabbed at it when he fell.”



“Did you follow it?” Zane asked, his brown eyes gleaming.



Ty was struck speechless for a moment, just staring at him. Good Lord, the man was beautiful. He didn’t know if it was because he’d just missed Zane so much, but he was pretty sure Zane had grown even more attractive while he’d been deployed. The sprinkling of silver in the hair at his temples had increased, and the light in his eyes was there more often than not. He’d slimmed down, losing a little of the bulk in his muscles, but he was still trim, and his suits seemed to fit just a little better than they had. There was a weightlessness to him now as well that hadn’t been there before, like the burden of his past had finally been shed.



Not lifted, no. No one had lifted Zane’s burden for him; he had shed it himself, like a caterpillar unfolding its wings to become a butterfly. Ty would never tell Zane he thought of him like a butterfly, of course.



“We followed it a little way,” Nick answered, reminding Ty that no one else in the room was smitten and they were still talking. “Down to the study. We saw you two in there with Deacon.”



Ty pointed a finger in his face. “I knew someone was watching me!”



Nick and Kelly laughed.



“You let me think I was being stalked by a ghost, you fuck nuts!”



Kelly laughed harder. He pushed at the angel’s wing, and the opening in the wall creaked closed.



“Are there more doorways?” Zane asked.



Kelly shrugged. Ty grumbled at Nick and shoved him lightly, and Nick swatted at him.



“We can go back in later and explore,” Kelly said, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.



“I think something in there made me itchy,” Nick said.



“But you’re not allergic to anything,” Kelly argued.



“I know, but I showered and I’m not itchy anymore.”



“You got groped by a ghost,” Ty teased.



“Shut up.”



“A ghost gave you crabs,” Ty added as he hopped toward the door.



“Shut up!” Nick was looking around for something to throw, and Ty darted for the door. He and Zane made their escape as Kelly peered at the wall and the angel who was chained to the fireplace and Nick hunted for a projectile.