Metamorphose

Excerpt:
“Can you come?” a shaky feminine voice asked, breaking on the last word. “Wynn needs you.”

Rand hadn’t needed any more encouragement than that. Even now, striding down the long hall toward museum director Paul Stoddard’s office, he had to appreciate the irony of the situation.

From enemies to best friends. More than that even.

Two years ago, Rand had done something to upset the head office in London. It wasn’t all that hard to do. In retaliation, they’d sent him a young, wet-behind-the-ears assistant to remind him about International Worlds Museum rules, regulations, and standards. They always sent some young, officious know-it-all to straighten things out.

It was no surprise that Rand Cooper and Elwyn Ravensdale had not hit it off. Rand was a prime example of London’s rough East End while Elwyn was clearly a product of the city’s upper crust West End. The sixteen year age difference had only made things worse.

God, he was such a poof. A regular nancy-boy.

After close to a year of sniping and butting heads, Elwyn relinquished his position—something nearly unheard of among International Worlds Museum appointees. There was much more to working for the International Worlds Museum than any other place where collections of things of artistic, scientific, or historic interest are set out for display.

Artifacts gathered at this museum were valuable, mystical, and important on many levels and in several dimensions. Of course, there were the usual fossils and old books, Middle Eastern antiquities, collections of ancient jewelry and other significant relics. Those articles were available for display, as were some of the low level magical implements they’d amassed.

The boy knew what this place was like, though…he knew what he was getting into.

Porta, California was a college town just a few miles from Monterey, but it was more than that. The area was considered a hotspot for magic—mystical happenings, a supercharged gateway to and from other worlds. The people who worked at the museum therefore had to be special.

No question about it, each man and woman working there was special. They saw through the mystical glamour employed by otherworld natives for one thing. Many of them had magical abilities or greater brainpower than most. It was speculated that these special traits could only be found in the natural ancestors of Homo neanderthalensis or Neanderthal man.

With that history in mind, Rand had been stunned when Elwyn walked out of their last argument, never to return. More surprising had been the day months later that Rand returned from lunch to find a bottle of thirty year old Brora on his desk with a simple note.

‘I was a prat. I apologize. Wynn Ravensdale.’

There had been a phone number on the note so Rand called it, leaving a message. Hours later, his home phone rang with Elwyn, who said to call him Wynn, on the other end. Though the conversation was a bit awkward, Rand had appreciated how difficult it must have been for the other man to extend the olive branch.

I can’t lie. He’d been cute. That’s all there was to it.

Another call weeks later revealed that Wynn had been assigned by Stoddard to investigate charms, artifacts, and mystical objects in other parts of California and chiefly, Los Angeles. While Wynn might have been willing to part company with the International Worlds Museum, they had not been willing to part with him.

Since then, the two had talked on the phone at least once most weeks. Twice Rand had met Wynn in Santa Maria to receive an object and take it on to be analyzed and absorbed into the museum’s vast stores. The younger man was a friend now and an important part of Rand’s life.

He’d be more’n a friend if I had my way about it. Sweet arse, no part of him’s hard to look at and he’s good company, too.

“Is he in there, Melissa?” Rand asked of his boss’s secretary.

“Who? Mr. Stoddard or Mr. White?” Rand opened his mouth to answer when she waved a hand airily at him. “Doesn’t matter, they’re both in there,” she smiled. “Mr. White said to watch for you.”

“Thanks,” he nodded, wishing he could smile back. Maybe next time.

“Rand, what’s going on?” Madoc White greeted him before he was even through the door.

Rand wanted nothing more than to be on the road, on his way south to see what he could do to help his young friend. This was necessary though. He had to talk to his boss, Paul Stoddard, and his mentor, Madoc.

“It’s Wynn—Elwyn Ravensdale,” he explained roughly. He could barely stand still. This was a waste of time. Necessary, but wearing.

“Calm down, mate,” Madoc soothed. “If you don’t, you’ll be shooting sparks from the tips of your fingers any second now.”

Rand wanted to growl and object, but Madoc was right. “Berk,” he mumbled at the older man, a half smile flitting across his face.

“Now, now, manners young man,” Madoc corrected him smoothly, his cultured voice calming and upsetting at the same time, reminding him so much of Wynn. No one really knew how old Madoc White was. Most assumed he was ageless, possibly immortal.

“Do tell us what is wrong with Mr. Ravensdale, if you please,” Paul interrupted.

“The short of it is that his sister Ellen is dead or missing, Wynn is injured badly, and her baby has been kidnapped sometime yesterday evening,” Rand clipped out.

Paul Stoddard paled, falling back in his chair. “Bloody hell!” he gasped.

“To say the least,” Madoc agreed.

“I have to go there and see what I can do to help,” Rand insisted.

“Has this anything to do with artifacts or other worlds?” Paul demanded, his voice strained and his face gray. Rand knew that it had to be asked, even though it felt like a cold question at present. Of course, it was valid, too.

Rand took a deep, steadying breath. “I believe so. It seems that, during her sabbatical, Miss Ravensdale met a young man whom she fancied herself in love with. She became ill—anemic and was sent home.” He rubbed his face hard with both hands. “Once her health was restored, she learned she was pregnant.”

“While a compelling tale—and of course Miss Ravensdale and her brother are both very important to us,” Paul Stoddard interrupted himself, “I fail to see how this…”

“Wait, Paul,” Madoc interrupted smoothly.

“The baby was born four months ago. He might have grown up the gifted and unusual child of a single mother—but the father turned up again. It wasn’t obvious at first, but Wynn believes Cian, the father, to be an Expungnatoris Sanguineum. He was trying to bring them here to safety.”

“Oh god,” Paul groaned, collapsing backward into his chair. “A blood drinker, full of Ravensdale blood—he’d be powerful. But full of that child’s blood, doubly so.”

“At least we know that the monster will keep the child alive until he’s older. He wouldn’t have taken the baby otherwise. There’s not enough blood in a baby to do anything. As he grows though…who knows if he’d drain him or what he’ll do. It won’t be pretty. But time does pass oddly on other worlds, we can try to find him. There’s still time,” Madoc observed. “Ellen Ravensdale is not likely to be alive still at this point,” he added gravely.

“No, not likely.” Rand had never met Wynn’s twin sister, but he knew that his friend was suffering a great deal, his injuries aside. “He’s—that is Wynn has been injured and possibly poisoned by the thing,” he growled. He couldn’t call it a man for all that it looked and acted a great deal like one.

“Take some energy from me. You’ll need it to help him heal. You know there won’t be anything the hospital can do but keep him alive for a time,” Madoc urged, turning Rand toward him and resting his hands on the younger man’s shoulders.

“Yeah,” Rand sighed, trying not to consider the connotations. Healing someone, and especially someone whom he had such strong feelings for, could be intense. Over the last year, he had developed very strong feelings for Wynn Ravensdale. He was reasonably sure that Wynn was attracted to him, too. Maybe more than that. In addition, Rand knew that Wynn was in love with his sister’s best friend, which only complicated matters. Shaking his head to clear unwanted thoughts, he rested his hands on Madoc’s shoulders, leaning in to touch foreheads. “I’m ready,” he said.

“Impertio,” Madoc murmured, wrapping the two men in a low violet blue phosphorescence.

Rand felt charged, electric, the power zinging along his skin and through his veins. Madoc had shared power with him in the past, given him a little boost as it were. This was more than a boost—it was a turbo boost.

“You know healing is…different, Rand,” Madoc reminded him with an arched brow. “Can you be that kind of intimate with young Mr. Ravensdale?”

Rand felt his face heat and shrugged. He could be very intimate with Wynn Ravensdale and he suspected that Madoc knew it. Sex magic was the strongest magic of all.