Sebastian (Bowen Boys, #5)(45)

Wanera handed his friend the little box of assorted flavors and the container of sugar. He’d even been gifted two mugs with the name “Bowen Computers” with a little computer on the side.

Bill was so happy that he told him they would have to try to make it. Wanera pulled the little notepad out and told him how to go about it. Sebastian had been surprised that he’d written it down, but he had wanted it to be right. Wanera hadn’t said anything but he had a feeling that soon he’d have to either sell his little friend or hide him in the human world. He had a feeling he, himself, would be dead within the month.

The first cup of tea hadn’t turned out so well. The water had been hot, but they had poured it over the tea bag a little too close to the fire, and the little handle thing that hung outside the cup had caught fire and nearly singed both their brows off before they got it out. With the second cup, they’d been a great deal more careful.

They each had three cups. It had taken them to the third cup to figure out the sugar. The first cup after the fire they’d put in five tablespoons, and nearly had their bodies go into sugar fits. The second they’d only put just enough to fit between their thumb and finger, and had added little pinches until they liked it. The third cup they had put in one tablespoon and had loved it. They made a list for the next time one of them was in the human world.

“I like the chamomile. But I don’t care for the orange tangy. It’s much too…I’m not sure. But I like the Earl Gray, too.” Bill nodded as he wrote it down. “Oh, and I don’t know about you, but the raspberry smells really good. Let’s try that the next time.”

“Do you think there are more flavors? I bet we could look it up.” They ended up in the epicenter and were laughing at some of the blends that people came up with. They both decided that they wouldn’t care for milk in their tea, and maybe they would try a lemon slice. After debating about it for several hours, they ended up ordering several boxes of tea from a website, as well as several mugs that they both liked. And, of course, they had to get mugs for all the others, too.

He was headed back to his room when he turned to Bill. “Thank you for this. I didn’t realize that I needed a friend so badly until you walked in the door.”

“You are very welcome, my lord. It was most enjoyable for me as well.” He stood there for a minute. “Sire, do you think she will wait the entire month that she gave you?”

“No. I think she’ll be back here in the next couple of weeks. And in the morning, I’m going to make plans for all of you to go to the human world. Especially you. I don’t want her hurting you, and we both know that she will.” Bill nodded. “The man from today that I visited and the woman who gave you tea? They are the king and queen of faeries. I know that they will keep you safe. I know it. He gave me his name, and I gave him my blood.”

“You did?” Wanera nodded. “That means he can come and go…you think he will harm us, my lord? Do you think he might be like Lady Darkness?”

“No. No, I don’t. I think he is so far different from her that they would be mortal enemies if they were to go to battle. And I would bet that the king would win. He would have goodness on his side, something we don’t see a great deal of down here.”

“From you we do.” That humbled Wanera. “You are a good man in a bad place. If you asked the Mistress of Darkness, do you believe that she would let you go?”

“No. Do you?” Bill shook his head. “She’ll kill me. She doesn’t want to come here and run this place, and if she has to, she’ll kill me as payback. I really hate my life.”

“Not your life, my lord. Never that. You simply hate where you are in it. But things will change. You’ll see. Things have a way of working around to themselves.” Bill nodded and walked away.

Wanera went into his room and thought that it might work around, but he doubted it would work in his favor. Rarely did things work that way. He went into his bedroom and looked around. There were things there that he’d been given over the decades. Things from his...what he now considered his friends, like posters they’d ordered, movies he’d never watched, as well as books. He had hundreds of books. He pulled one down now and decided to reread it just for the fun of it.

As he was settling down in his bed, he thought about what Bill had said. And he was right. He did hate where his life was right now, but wasn’t really sure what, if anything, he could do to change it. Life wasn’t about choices when you were a demon lord.

~~~

“Has he taken a bride yet? Or even tried to find him one?” Darkness paced along the floor and turned when the thing on the floor said something. “Sit up and speak so I can hear you. I swear to shit, you things are as useless to me as Wanera is right now.”

“No, my lady, he has not. Neither found a bride or looked for one. There doesn’t seem to be any activity of him going or coming from the human world at all.” The thing dropped back down to the floor.

She couldn’t understand what the f*ck Wanera was doing giving his things names. It was the stupidest thing she’d ever heard of. Not to mention they were too stupid to remember them anyway. That’s probably why they had on those ridiculous name tags, so that they’d remember who they were when he called them. Still, why call any of them to you when you could have one or two of them follow you around all the time?