The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans (7 page)

“You have a metal bird that picks
favourites,” said Lapointe dryly, “I think I can handle the idea of
plants knowing things.”

Julian giggled and sat forward to eat a bit more of
his roll. “Anyway, I’ve always gotten the impression plants don’t really
get upset when we pick them for things, not the way people think they do, so
there was something about this that upset the natural balance of things. They
were all really happy when Alex helped me save them, too. Surprised, I think,
they’d expected to be left to die.”

“How are they doing now?” asked Thomas.

“Mary Margaret says really well, and we’re
almost ready to re-open. She made me take vacation until everything’s put back
together. They had to dig up all the lucky clover and Sunday Alex and Father
Stephen are going over to do a magical blessing, and then next week we’ll
re-plant with seedlings from other nurseries. It’s too late in the year for
reseeding.” Julian relaxed a little, now that he could push away the
unpleasant memories and go back to more normal things. “Mary Margaret and
I are going to plant a luck-garden at the Temple in exchange.”

“What does Alex get out of it?” asked
Murielle. “Aside from your gratitude, of course.”

Julian giggled. “Mary Margaret lets him use my
employee discount, so he said it’s in exchange for her continued
goodwill.”

“Smart lad,” said Lapointe, amused.
“He’s generous, but he also knows how to make it work for him.”

“Yeah, but he’s getting better about kindness
for its own sake lately,” said Julian, staring fondly into his tea and
thinking of all the little things Alex did for him and their friends.

“He’s still a grumpy bastard when he wants to
be, though,” teased Murielle.

Julian gave her a dry, amused look. “Well,
yeah, my arse isn’t magic.”

Thomas snorted his coffee.

That necessitated a lot of napkins, apologies, and
laughter, and by the time they were all cleaned up, Murielle decided she had
enough for now and paid their tab on the grounds that asking him yet more
questions deserved free food. Julian promised to bring something special on
Saturday to make it up to Thomas, and they all went their separate ways, Julian
catching a cab home while the agents headed back to work.

Horace came and landed on his shoulder just as he
paid, giving the cabbie a start until he figured out that the little bird
wasn’t going to hurt him. Julian chattered at Horace as they headed inside,
feeling for the magic that Alex said would show his moods if Julian could find
it. He wasn’t sure he could sense anything but plants, though sometimes he did
feel like Horace was sending him affection or happiness or smug satisfaction at
doing his job well.

“Emmy sent us a back a letter,” said
Julian, coming into the flat.

Alex was sprawled moodily out on the couch.
“Good news?” he asked, peeking up over the back. “You look
handsome.” Alex was in his customary house-attire of pyjamas and dressing
gown, and looking like something had frustrated him while Julian was gone.

“Thank you, you look cranky,” teased
Julian, coming to claim a kiss once he’d exchanged shoes for slippers.
“Work not going well?”

Alex sighed. “They’re not telling me all the
things I need.”

“Well, I gave you a very good alibi,”
said Julian, coming around to straddle his hips and kiss him properly. “We
were up quite late that night, if you’ll remember,” he purred, nuzzling at
Alex’s ear.

Alex mmmed, relaxing and kissing him again quite a
bit more thoroughly. “I do seem to remember something like that,” he
said, hands going up under Julian’s shirt. “But you could always remind
me.”

Julian chuckled and let himself be disarrayed,
shedding his jacket over the back of the couch and starting on Alex’s pyjama
shirt buttons. “Was it so unmemorable as all that?”

“Every moment you let me touch you is
memorable, love,” said Alex, in that way he had of going all sincere when
he didn’t know what else to say. It never failed to melt Julian’s heart, and
he’d long accepted that this was probably the one thing that made him fall in
love, more than anything else about Alex.

“Cheating,” said Julian anyway, voice low
and rough. He kissed Alex thoroughly, then sat up. “Your penalty is to
take me to bed.”

“That,” said Alex, sitting up and kissing
him, “is not a penalty.”

Julian made a face when Alex’s phone rang, and
sighed. “You’d better get it, you know how tetchy Murielle gets when we
ignore her for sex.”

Alex laughed. “Only because she hasn’t let
MacLean follow her home yet,” he said, grabbing his phone off the table
and checking the number. “This is Alex,” he said, but he sounded more
guarded than usual. There was a pause, and then, “Agent Fischer, what an unpleasant
surprise.”

Julian snuggled up and listened, feeling his
general dislike of Fischer growing by the second.

“It is unfortunate that Julian was asleep
during the time of death, but so was I,” said Alex, “so I’m not sure
how that’s relevant.”

Not midnight after all, then. Fischer must have
cheered when the coroner’s report came back.

“Well, my wards keep a record of who goes in
and out of my flat, you’re welcome to… Yes, I know you can’t use me to
consult on my own wards, I was going to suggest…” There was a long
pause, and Julian tensed up. “No, absolutely not.” Alex’s voice was
tight with anger, and the tone was final.

Julian pressed a kiss to his chin, and nuzzled
comfortingly, pleased when Alex relaxed a little and began to stroke his hair.

“Have you considered a career in Internal
Affairs? Your mistrust of your fellow agents would fit right in,” said
Alex, using the full force of his most unpleasant tone. Julian winced, though
Fischer deserved every bit of the icy sarcasm he was getting. Alex continued
talking, even though Julian could hear Fischer attempting to get a word in
edgewise, his voice a faint noise with the phone pressed to Alex’s ear.
“Of course I’m acquainted with all of the mages on staff at the Agency,
you only have two besides Dr. Tamlinson, it’s not exactly hard.”

Alex paused, presumably to let Fischer talk, though
it only made him look more thunderous. “No. I absolutely refuse to let
some stranger poke around in my wards. You can call the Temple and ask for my
former Guardians to help, which I was going to suggest previously, or you can
get a warrant.” Alex hung up, then bonked his forehead against Julian’s
hair. “God, he’s an asshole.”

Julian giggled, then leaned up to kiss him.
“Call Murielle and tell her, because if he won’t trust the sanctity of the
Temple Guardians to reinforce the alibi of their own consultant, then Fischer
doesn’t belong on the case because of his bias against you.”

“Good idea,” said Alex, rewarding him
with a kiss. “And after, I promise we’ll ignore our phones for sex and
then go to dinner somewhere fancy.”

“We do deserve a reward for dealing with
Fischer,” said Julian, pleased. He claimed another kiss, then cuddled back
up. “Go on, call Murielle so she’s forewarned.”

Alex did, and the conversation was much shorter and
more cheering. “She said she’s going to point out to their boss that if I
stop consulting over Fischer’s behaviour, they’re stuck with the new kids that
have applied since you made me infamous,” said Alex, after he hung up.
“Apparently there’s no shortage of wannabes, but no one’s got anything
like my experience.”

“Good,” said Julian, taking Alex’s phone
and putting it on silent, and then doing the same for his own. “Now, I
believe I was promised sex?”

Alex grinned. “I believe you were,” he
said. He manhandled them around until he could stand with Julian still clinging
to him, though it required the assistance of both Julian and Alex’s wand-cane.
“I knew this thing would come in handy one day,” said Alex, though he
left it by the couch as he carried Julian into the bedroom.

Julian held on tight, rewarding him with kisses,
and he managed to get both their shirts off before Alex laid him out onto the
bed. “Whatever shall I do with you?” Alex teased, mouth moving down
Julian’s body while his fingers worked at Julian’s trousers.

Julian tangled his hands in Alex’s soft curls.
“Whatever you want,” he said, his voice embarrassingly breathy.
“I’m all yours today.”

“I’m all yours every day, my love,” said
Alex, and then that was all he said for a while once words became unnecessary
or lost to moans.

They ended up sated and snuggled up on top of the
covers despite the air-conditioned coolness of the apartment. Julian suspected
the thermostat had been given a subtle nudge upward when he’d started staying
there in deference to Alex’s desire to get his clothes off as often as
possible, and Julian wasn’t going to complain about either.

“So, where do you think we can weasel a
reservation tonight, now that we’ve been off the society pages for so long?”
said Alex, dropping a kiss on Julian’s sweaty hair.

Julian giggled. “We could go to the
Atrium,” he said. “I like it there at night, and they’ve always got
room.”

“Your wish is my command,” said Alex,
kissing his nose. “I like it there, too, and they’ve got that shrimp thing
that Alys says is too hard to make here in my plebeian kitchen.”

“Ooh, I like the shrimp thing,” said
Julian. “You call for reservations, I’ll warm up the shower?”

Alex pretended to think about it for a moment, then
tickled Julian until he giggled and they rolled over for more kisses. When they
stopped, breathless and grinning, he said, “I accept your proposed
division of labour,” and gave Julian’s bottom a playful swat.

“Hey!” said Julian, giving one right back
as Alex and his creamy mounds went hunting for his pyjama bottoms so as to not
flash the brownies. “Geoff is right, you do have a lovely bottom, I’ll
have to tell him how spankable it is,” he teased, giving the other cheek a
little swat before he scampered off to the shower.
 

Alex joined him quickly enough, and they took their
time getting clean, still new enough in their relationship to revel in these
little moments of intimacy. Privately, Julian hoped they’d never grow tired of
it, but he wasn’t naive enough to think it would always be quite this easy.

“What’s that little frown for?” asked
Alex, kissing the thought away with the wrinkle between Julian’s brows.

“Just hoping you always like this enough to
waste hot water,” said Julian. “I really like the parts where we just
enjoy each other.”

“Me, too,” said Alex. That seemed to be
all there was to say, so they spent a few more minutes indulgently kissing,
then Alex rinsed the conditioner out of his curls and they got out and got
ready for dinner.

There weren’t even any messages waiting when they
checked their phones.

CHAPTER 5

They couldn’t say the same the next morning. They
set no alarms and woke late, since Alex was officially off the case until his
name was cleared, and Julian was still on his unexpected vacation. Julian
nuzzled at Alex’s hip where he was sitting up, frowning at his phone.

“Stupid people being stupid?” asked
Julian.

Alex stroked his hair absently. “Pretty much,
yeah, but we can get dressed and have breakfast before dealing with any of
it,” he declared, locking his phone and setting it aside. He slid back
down under the covers for kisses, then rubbed noses with Julian and asked,
“Alys’ cooking or breakfast out?”

“Eat in,” said Julian. “I want to
eat in my pyjamas and drink too much tea and check on all the houseplants, and
then we can get dressed and face the world.”

“Lazy morning in it is,” said Alex,
looking very pleased.

“I wonder if Alys stole our pyjamas
again?” said Julian, poking his head up to look around for them. Rather
than crumpled on the floor they’d been neatly folded on a chair, but at least
she hadn’t taken them away entirely. “Nope, must not be laundry day.”

“I’ll get them, you wallow.” Alex kissed
him one last time then got up, putting his own pyjamas on and then bringing
Julian’s over to the bed. He vanished into the bathroom while Julian got
dressed and found his slippers, though it was too warm to need a dressing gown.
His own phone had a message light as well, and he checked that it wasn’t from
Emmy before deciding to ignore it until later. He took over the bathroom after
Alex, and they emerged into the sunlit living room together.

“Tea’s almost ready,” said Alys from the
kitchen, “What would you boys like for breakfast?”

Julian smiled and shuffled into the kitchen,
pausing to say hello to their butterfly fairy and its thriving fairy flower
plant. “Something substantial, please,” said Julian.

“A good fry-up, then, you like the fried bread
and things, and I’ve some fruit to make into compote for you as well. Peaches
and berries over flapjacks will give you good energy,” said Alys, humming
to herself as ingredients began to float around the room and settle on the
counter near her in neat groupings. Julian was always impressed that she never
knocked anything over or smacked anyone with the food, even though she rarely
bothered to watch what she was doing.

“That sounds perfect,” said Alex, going
over to check the window-wards for visitors. They’d been thinking of putting in
some sort of pass-through that the butterfly fairy could activate so she could
visit the window box safely, but he’d not yet figured out a way to make it
secure enough for everyone’s peace of mind. “Been a couple of fairies
around, your window box is popular,” said Alex.

“There aren’t a lot of healthy fairy flowers
in the city,” said Julian. He gave the one inside a bit of water and a
trickle of sleepy morning energy, feeling its gratitude like the gentle warmth
of the sun on his skin. “It’s about time for me to divide all of these up,
do you think we could put another window box in without giving anyone a heart
attack?”

Alex laughed; the sudden appearance of flowers
seemingly suspended in midair outside Alex’s 7th-story window had given their
landlord a bit of a fright. “Perhaps we’ll warn him this time,” he
teased. “If not, maybe we’ll take some to the cottage once the renovations
are done.”

“Well, we’ll do that anyway,” said
Julian, “but that’ll be months from now. I need to use the extra clover
for Master Stephen, and I wanted to give some to Mary Margaret, so really it’s
just the fairy flowers and ward thistles anyway.” He sent a bit of magic
into these flowers, too, feeling them strong and happy, bolstered against the
vagaries of life in the city by Julian’s regular infusions of magic, not to mention
water and nutrients as needed. Alex had even set up a deflection spell to keep
them from being blown about too much.

“I can use the ward-thistles, maybe,”
said Alex, looking thoughtful. “Let’s give the fairy flowers to our
friends at the agency, they’ll be okay on their desks, won’t they?”

“Oh, that’s brilliant, I can get desk-pots
from Mary Margaret when I go back to work,” said Julian. “We might
want to wait until after Fischer untwists his knickers, though.”

Alex laughed, going to sit at the table and sip at
the cup of tea that had appeared there while they were talking. “I don’t
think that will ever happen.”

“Perhaps not,” said Julian, sending the plants
one last promise that he’d give them all more room to grow very soon. “But
this case will be over before long, I hope.”

“We all hope,” said Alex, cradling his
teacup like it held the water of life.

Julian sat and sipped his own tea, enjoying the
small rush of sugar and caffeine. “How are things in your work room, have
you killed your ingredients yet?” asked Julian teasingly.

Alex hmphed, but refused to dignify that with a
response, which probably meant something was starting to wilt and he hadn’t
wanted to admit it.

“I’m sorry I’ve been neglecting your
plants,” said Julian sweetly, which seemed to mollify him.

“I didn’t want to bother you,” said Alex.
“I’m going to need some more things pretty soon, too, for that medicinal
potions kit I was working on for Geoff. Not that the department will buy it
from me until this is all over, but these are all shelf-stable, so I thought I
might as well work on them, but I don’t have enough live plants.”

They talked about potions and plants and magic
while they ate, the brownies putting in their two cents, which both Julian and
Alex always found fascinating. Magical creatures viewed the world differently
enough that their insights were both surprising to the humans and obvious once
they thought about it. They sipped tea and discussed the various plants used
for insight while Alys did the dishes, Alex lamenting that most of them were
poisonous unless they were in a potion.

“You’ve got enough magical insight as it
is,” teased Nat, who was up on the counter fixing a squeaky cupboard door.
Slowly their apartment was not only being repaired, but acquiring added touches
of beauty like the new decorative finials on the hinges he was installing, and
the matching knobs for the cabinet doors.
 

“Hmph,” said Alex, but he looked pleased
as punch.

They finished their tea and gave the cups over to
Alys’ tender care, then shared a nice long shower with the attendant perks. By
the time they were properly dressed and Alex’s plants had been attended to,
Julian felt quite cheered and ready to face another day of whatever the
investigation had for them. Alex even put on proper clothes instead of pyjamas,
in anticipation of their messages requiring them to go out.

“Me first, or you?” asked Julian,
settling on the couch with both of their phones.

“Let’s do yours, just for variety,” said
Alex cheerfully.

Julian shrugged and hit the message playback,
putting it on speaker so Alex could hear, too. Lapointe’s tinny voice informed
Julian that he’d be needed at the agency with Alex after all, if he could
please come along.
 

Alex chuckled. “That’s what I get for
chickening out on mine,” he said.

Julian kissed him. “At least we’ll be together
in whatever we’re in?” he said, then fiddled with Alex’s phone until the
first message was playing.

Agent Fischer didn’t sound any better on speaker as
he said, “Mr. Benedict, I’ll need you to come in to discuss your business
with the nursery on August ninth. You needn’t bring your boyfriend, I’m
satisfied with his witness statement at this time.”

“He didn’t even say please,” said Julian,
sticking his tongue out at the phone. “Jerk.”

Alex laughed. “He is a jerk, let’s see if
Lapointe’s message has more information.”

Her voice was tired and apologetic. “I’m sorry
about Fischer, though we really do need you to come back in. They’ve finally
identified the victim as Angel Billings, a young apprentice with the Grower’s
Guild who’s been missing since last week. I think my boss is going to let you
get back to work, but I’m not positive. He wouldn’t let me call the Temple,
though, so your alibi is still considered unverified. Anyway, call me before
you come in, I need better coffee than this.”

Julian sighed. “I’m almost sorry I called her,
it sounds like this is all being a huge pain for her.”

“You did the right thing, and she’d
agree,” said Alex, kissing Julian’s hair. “One more message.”

The third message was from MacLean, asking them to
bring dessert on Saturday and confirming the time, which made them both laugh
with relief. “At least we’ve got something to look forward to,” said
Julian cheerfully. “I like Thomas.”

“So do I, he’s very easy on the eyes,”
teased Alex. “But also just too nice to hate.” He paused, then said
in unison with Julian, “Like a puppy.”

“Jerk,” said Julian, smacking his chest
gently. “But not as big of a jerk as Agent Jerkface.”

“You sound like a five-year-old,” said
Alex fondly. He never seemed to mind when Julian’s sheltered upbringing showed
itself, which endeared him greatly to Julian and their friends. He snugged
Julian close, then called Murielle back, confirming they’d both be on their way
soon and happy to meet her at the coffee shop for pre-Fischer plotting.

It wasn’t until they were in the cab that Alex
expressed the thought that had been tugging unpleasantly at Julian’s mind since
he’d heard Lapointe’s message. “I’m worried that the victim was connected
to you and Margaret by the Guild,” said Alex quietly, cuddling Julian
close.

“Me, too,” Julian confided. “I don’t
want them to keep suspecting you.”

“At least Mary Margaret’s alibi isn’t under
question,” said Julian, annoyed. “It’s stupid that they don’t trust
me about you.”

“It’s stupid that they don’t trust us both,
it’s not as if they don’t know me,” said Alex, “but they’re just
doing their due diligence. Well, Murielle is, Fischer’s just a jerkface.”

Julian giggled. “A jerkface with the face of a
jerk,” he agreed, deliberately juvenile this time.

Alex rewarded him with a smile. “Just
so,” he said, nuzzling. “Have you thought about what sweets to take
to Thomas’?”

They talked about that for the rest of the ride,
and went straight to their favourite booth in the coffee shop when they
arrived. Murielle was already there with three cups of coffee and the usual
treats for everyone. “I couldn’t stay another minute,” she said as
they got settled in with her and started with fixing their drinks. “Fischer
and Armistead seem to have formed a two-person Anti-Alex League.”

“A match made in heaven,” said Julian,
screwing up his face into an approximation of Fischer’s disapproving scowl.
“They both make this face a lot, can you imagine the sex?”

The surprised laughter was wonderful to hear, and
Murielle’s whole demeanour changed as the tension drained away. Alex said
something else equally horrible once the laughter died down, and then Murielle,
the commentary bouncing around the three of them until they were breathless and
giddy.

“I’ll never be able to look at either of them
with a straight face again,” said Lapointe, but she didn’t seem to mind.

Alex smirked. “Good, it’ll make them
wonder.”

“They deserve it,” said Julian.
“Jerkfaces.”

Murielle didn’t snort her coffee, but it was close.

“All right, if we’re done acting like
children,” she said, trying to look stern, “we should talk about the
case.”

Alex sighed hugely, but he was just playing.
“Yes, Mom,” he said all singsong.

“So, Mary Margaret’s still not in trouble, right?”
asked Julian.

Murielle nodded. “She’s still not, nor are
you, we’ve already established that neither of you knew Angel Billings.”

“I haven’t met any of the other
apprentices,” said Julian. “It doesn’t really work like that, though
Mary Margaret said there’s a big midwinter banquet we could go to if we wanted.
It’s on the solstice, though, so we’ll probably be at Emmy’s or Victor’s.”

“Probably not Victor’s,” said Alex.
“So boring.”

“Well, that’s not for a few months,
anyway,” said Murielle. “And I turned in my luck charm to Ms. Eberly
as evidence in your alibi, Alex. They really are looking into the other 3
buyers, too, along with pretty much the whole client list.”

“Ugh,” said Julian.
 

“So, is Angel a girl or a boy?” asked
Alex curiously. “Er, was.”

“Angel was a young man,” said Murielle.
“Seventeen, so really a boy. Damn, that’s young.”

“Even younger than me,” said Julian, who
sometimes felt like the little kid at the grown-ups’ table around Alex and his
friends.

“I sometimes forget Alex is robbing the
cradle,” teased Murielle. “He acts so immature, it seems like he’s
the one barely out of his teens.”