NINETEEN

Silence reigned for a few minutes, everyone lost in their own thoughts – including Ivy. Presently though, Axel spoke;

“Looks like we’re all sorted – except for one small detail …”

“And what’s that?” Max asked.

“What are we going to do with all of these new chadey-wardens while they’re healing and becoming reaccustomed to the land of the living?” Axel asked. “I mean, we’re going to need paladins for a start. And don’t volunteer us, Max. We’re already in an Order – your Order. We will obey your wishes if you command us to serve others but our priority and our duty is to you. We can’t be spread thin by sharing vitality with a bunch of recovering chades.”

Max shook her head, “I’m not going to ask you to share your vitality with them, let alone command it. I’ve already considered the dilemma and have a solution.”

“Oh, really? Who?” Beyden asked.

“Well …” Max began slowly, “there are three of them and their names all start with K.”

Ryker’s reaction was loud and very negative, “No. Hell no!”

As was Darius’s; “I do not believe that will be necessary.”

The reactions from the other two females in the room were quite different, however; “Hells to the yes,” Cali crowed. “They would be perfect.”

Diana’s grin was huge as she chimed in, “I agree. Kane, Kai, and Kellan are more than … fit for the job.”

Darius crossed his arms over his chest in what Ivy had come to recognise as ‘serious Darius’, “I know that look, Diana. You aren’t going anywhere near those three playboys.”

Diana raised her eyebrows and widened her eyes – the very epitome of innocence. Ivy had to suppress her smirk of approval, she knew as well as the rest of the men that the females in their group were many things, but innocent wasn’t one of them. The curly-haired beauty was gearing up to fuck with her man.

“What look?” Diana asked, voice dripping with virtue.

“Don’t give me that. Those three revel in tormenting me about you – and vice versa! I think it’s time you told me just how well you know those idiots.”

Darius’s tone was all ‘master of the manor’ and Ivy winced, no way would any self-respecting, independent woman put up with that tone. Even as she watched, Axel, Beyden, Dex, and Lark were edging their way backwards. The only male stupid enough to stay in the line of fire was Ryker. And that was clearly because he thought Darius was in the right. No doubt he was threatened by the undeniably delicious identical specimens of manhood as well.

“Oh, you do, do you? Don’t narrow those hazel eyes at me, mister,” Diana quickly reprimanded, seeing her man’s changing expression. “I didn’t enter a convent any more than you entered a monastery in the years it took you to pull your finger out of your arse and finally touch me. I had me some sex – sometimes good sex, sometimes bad sex – so sue me. Besides,” she huffed, “you’re in no position to talk. I know you slept with Eboni.”

“What?” Darius sputtered, eyes positively bugging out of his head.

Diana waggled her finger at her lover, “That’s right. Eboni with the boobs made from the finest of silicon and the Venus flytrap masquerading as a vagina! I’m surprised your dick didn’t get frostbite after sticking it into that ice queen.”

“I – I – I …”

Darius’s stuttering was pathetic and Ivy somehow found herself standing in solidarity with the women. How she had migrated across the room to be standing in line with Cali, Max, and Diana, she wasn’t sure. But by the nervous looks on the men’s faces, she was pretty sure they made a formidable-looking team.

“You, you, you … what?” Diana asked, archly.

Darius frantically looked for help but received none. No-one was stupid enough – even Ryker. But Zombie chose that moment to enter the room. He stilled, cocking his head to the side and then padded his way over to Darius, sitting loyally at his feet. Ivy knew Darius had been the one to rescue the abandoned dog and no doubt Zombie remembered too. It seemed feminine pride was no match for two sets of puppy-dog eyes – Zombie’s and Darius’s included – because Diana huffed out a breath;

“Fine, fine. You two look pathetic. I’m sorry for teasing you but you dug your own hole with your assumptions,” Diana wagged a finger at her man.

Darius was looking relieved and he patted Zombie enthusiastically in thanks, sending the dog’s back leg kicking in ecstasy. “Wait? Assumptions?” Darius abruptly asked, finally computing Diana’s words.

The woman smiled, twirling a strand of curly hair around her fingertip, “I said I had me some sex over the years. I did not, however, say I had sex with any of the triplets.”

“What? But you – they –”

“Were fucking with you, sweetie,” Diana pinched his cheek, grinning at the look of incomprehension on his face.

“What did all of us girls agree on the first week you met me?” Max asked, “We don’t fuck our friends,” she reminded them.

Darius’s eyes rounded, “You knew? And you let me think she’d had some kind of triplet orgy?!” Darius yelled at Max.

Max didn’t even bother containing her laughter, nor did the others – including Ryker – who now found the entire scene hilarious. “Oh, I knew. But you needed a little extra push …” she trailed off, chuckling.

“If you think this changes anything, you think wrong,” Darius informed Diana. “I’m still going to kill them – just for a different reason now.”

“You’ll do no such thing. They did you a favour. Who knows? If it weren’t for their teasing, I could have been waiting another thousand years for you to make a move,” Diana pointed out.

“So true, bro. That was just ridiculous,” Dex added his two cents, earning a glare from his brother.

“No-one is hurting the brothers. And they will be helping us with the chades. They are loyal, honourable, and good fighters. What’s more, they are unbound and have no liege. They are perfect for the job,” Max informed the room at large, her firm voice leaving no room for argument. Although, Ryker gave it one last try;

“They’re immature –” he began.

Max rolled her eyes at him, “They are not. You’ve told me how much you approve of them as paladins. You just don’t like how pretty they are. Besides, they’re harmless. They just have a high play-drive – like Zombie.”

Hearing his name, the playful pup looked up from his toy bunny and gave a happy yip. He stood up and began chasing his own tail until he ran into the centre island. Max winced;

“Okay, perhaps not a ringing endorsement … But it’s decided. Full stop. I’ll contact them later. Now, as to the other problem Axel raised – where to put them? I haven’t figured that out yet,” she admitted. “I know they can’t stay here. If Ivy, Lark, and Knox are as successful as I hope they’re going to be, there’s going to be too many.”

“They definitely can’t stay here,” Ryker confirmed, “But I know a place.”

Max looked surprised, “You know a place? Really?”

Ryker pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, “Must you look so surprised? I have good ideas sometimes.”

Max shook her head, “I didn’t mean it like. I –”

Ryker grinned, tweaking her on the nose, “Relax. I’m just exerting my play-drive.”

Max grinned in appreciation, grabbing his tee shirt to pull him in for a deep kiss that had the ambient temperature in the room rising by a couple of degrees. A few weeks ago, Ivy would have rolled her eyes at the display in front of her. Now she just felt … wistful. Unable to help herself, she sought out Lark. Eyes of sparkling green met hers and the zing she felt was almost physical in its intensity. Trouble, she told herself, big trouble. Perhaps he sensed her thoughts because a small crease formed between his eyes and he broke contact with her.

“Okay, you two, break it up. Ry, about this place …” Lark prompted.

Ryker gave Max’s arse one more decent squeeze before setting her free and facing the room, “Have you seen the old hotel behind the back of Dave’s?”

Max looked positively horrified, “You mean the one that looks like the Overlook Hotel from The Shining?”

“It does not look like … hmm, you know, it actually kinda does,” Axel acknowledged.

“Anyway,” Ryker cut in, loudly, “I think Dave would let us use it.”

“Use it? I know these guys are used to living rough, but that hotel is completely abandoned, Ryker. Does it even have running water?” Max asked, still looking less than keen with the idea.

Ryker was frowning, “It’s not abandoned. It still sometimes gets guests.”

“What?” Max looked dismayed, “Guests? But what about REDRUM painted on the walls? Doesn’t it turn the guests off?”

Lark laughed, the sound tickling something loose in Ivy’s stomach.

“Funny,” Ryker replied, looking amused despite himself.

“I’m not joking, Ry. Is it really still a functioning hotel?” Max asked.

Ryker nodded, “It is. The same way the bar is still a functioning bar despite its outward appearance.”

“Yeah, the place looks like a dive from the outside – and from the inside too, to be fair,” Beyden added. “But Dave runs a decent place. The drinks aren’t half bad, even if his usual clientele is a little … colourful. But it is super clean.”

It was at that, Ivy acknowledged. Dave had a kind on unnatural obsession with glass polishing. She had frequented the establishment a few times over the years. She much preferred it to the other local watering hole; Lonnie’s. There were too many paladins and wardens there for her liking.

“Question: if it’s a working hotel, how are we going to hide dozens of pale stick-men there? They are going to be a little conspicuous for a while,” Axel added.

Ryker shrugged, “It doesn’t exactly get a lot of traffic. I’m sure Dave would close it down to the general public and allow us the use of it for the indefinite future.”

Max was watching Ryker closely, “Why would he do that? And what is he going to think when his guests are a bunch of black haired, black eyed, phantoms?”

Ryker shifted, looking a little uncomfortable. “He knows all about chades. It won’t be a problem.”

Max’s blue-green eyes narrowed, “He knows all about chades? How? And does that mean he knows about paladins and wardens too? I thought we were a secret to humans.”

“We are – for the most part. Of course there are some slips here and there and a few humans have been trusted with the information,” Darius rushed to assure her.

“And Dave is one of them?” Max looked sceptical and Ivy couldn’t blame her.

“Kind of. I met him here, at his bar over thirty years ago. He had just opened and I was living at the Lodge. I had finally agreed to become a trainer at the behest of the council. They’d been bugging me for a long time after Flint and my Order was killed,” Ryker explained.

“But Dave isn’t that old,” Max protested.

Ryker shared a look with his Order, “He’s older than he looks.”

Max gasped, “He’s a paladin?”

It was Darius who shook his head, “No. But he is the son of one. His mother was a normal human. He’s not ageing as slowly as a full paladin but it is more gradual than a full human.”

“What? How come you never said anything before?” Max demanded.

“Don’t go getting all sensitive, Max. It’s his business, not our secret to tell,” Cali said.

Max clenched her jaw for a minute before exhaling and nodding her head, “You’re right. How do you know about him, then? Oh my god! Don’t tell me he’s your son!” Max gasped, pointing a finger at her lover.

“What?! No! Don’t be ridiculous, woman. Your imagination …” Ryker shook his head before continuing, “Some chades popped up outside the bar one day when I was leaving. I was a little, um, intoxicated …”

“You were completely wasted, drowning your sorrows and being a major bastard, as per usual in those days,” Diana jumped in.

“I’m telling the story,” Ryker glared at Diana.

She held up her hands, “Whatever you say, boss.”

His scowl remained in place, a direct contrast to the grin on most everyone else’s, “Anyway, I’d decapitated two of them but a third caught me by surprise and I was flat on my back in the dirt when its head goes sailing off and it disintegrates into dust. I found myself staring up into the eyes of the hairy bar owner. To say I was surprised was an understatement.”

“He could see the chades,” Max said.

“Yeah. Anyway, we got to talking. He knew a little about who and what his father had been. Seems his father told his mother all about us. After putting in his twenty years in the military he came here, looking for his father. The man was already dead, unfortunately, but Dave decided to stay.”

“That’s why you hang out there instead of Lonnie’s,” Max stated and Ryker nodded before she tilted her head at him, “Did you tell him who I am?”

Ryker hesitated before nodding, “Yes. He knows.”

Max slapped her hand hard on the tabletop, “That’s why he was so protective when I met Nikolai that night! You told him to watch out for me, didn’t you?”

But Ryker shook his head, “I didn’t have to. He may not be fully entrenched in our society but he is a soldier and he has his own code. He understands duty. It’s in his blood.”

Max crossed her arms over her chest and Ivy thought she may have been pouting a little, “You men and your duty.”

Everyone ignored the sulking custodian, Dex turning to Ryker, “You really think he’ll allow the chades to stay there? It sounds like the perfect solution.”

“I do.”

But Max hesitated, “I don’t know, Ry. It’s a risk.”

“I trust him. He wouldn’t betray our secret,” Ryker promised.

Max waved an impatient hand, “Obviously. You would never entrust my safety to someone you didn’t trust implicitly. That’s not what I meant. It’s a risk for him – dangerous. The chades won’t be fully healed. Plus, if the council finds out or even the rangers, he could be in real trouble.”

“We’ll discuss it with him. But like I said; it’s in his blood,” he said as if that was all that mattered. And in essence, it was.

Being a paladin, a ranger, or a warden was a birthright. Their duty and sense of responsibility were like a compulsion within all of them. Even though Dave was only half paladin, Ivy had no doubt his sense of honour was just as deeply ingrained.

“Okay, we have a location and we have sources of vitality,” Beyden stated, ignoring the twin grumbles from Ryker and Darius over the veiled mention of the triplets. “But what about monitoring them? We’re going to need someone – multiple someones – to make sure they stay in line.”

“Well, obviously we have Caspian, Leo and Lawson as well. With how strong Cas is, he’ll be able to spank them if they need it. Leo and Lawson will ensure their liege’s safety. We also have Dex,” she turned her eyes to the man in question, “It’s closer to home, you’ll be able to keep an eye on Cali easily enough and be back here every day. What do you say?”

Dex bowed his head in her direction, “I’m yours to command.”

Max grinned, “Mm-mm-mm, just how I like my men.”

“Behave devil-woman. If everyone’s in agreement …?” Ryker cast his eyes around the room, receiving unanimous nods. “Then we have a plan.”