TITLE: Icarus Manor, chapter 13

AUTHOR: lillywhite1, but you can call me Casey.

SUMMARY: In a mysterious mansion in a secluded part of North America, a man 
discovers that he is far from alone in the world. Here at Icarus Manor several species of 
non-human description live together to survive in a world that does not know they exist. 
LAST CHAPTER: Elijah seeks out Sean in the dungeons and finds Cronus. THIS 
CHAPTER: William has business dealings in the night with vampires.

PAIRING: DM/BB, hints of EW/SA

RATING: R; still setting up the base for the affair.

FEEDBACK: is my neutella on a spoon that makes me go all gooey and melty and 
mmmmm...

A/N: Text in asterisks (*) represents italics or general emphasis. This is a book and a 
work in progress. Be gentle. Comments to cswann1@gmail.com.


Chapter 13

The heavy oak doors of William’s office swished open with surprising ease to admit one 
who could only be Dominic. William was absorbed in a note that had just arrived 
expressly fast from the other side of the country. Some clients were coming by tonight to 
discuss business. William’s mind was aware of Dominic before his eyes had left the letter 
in his hands. Before William looked up he sent a silent prayer to any god that would 
listen that nothing had changed for Dominic in the past few hours. He pleaded mentally 
that he still had a hold on this tenuous blossoming relationship and it had not slipped 
away. He looked up finally to see Dominic walking purposefully toward him with 
something that could only be described as a swagger and a smile. William was relieved.

“Hey there, Angel.”

“Good morning, dear. Sleep well?”

“Very well, thank you.”

“I should dock your pay. It’s nearly twelve o’clock.” William feigned annoyance.

“I’ll pay you back some other way,” Dominic smiled bigger than before, if that was 
possible, “Perhaps I can see you again tonight?”

William’s smile faded, “I’d love to, Dom, but I’ve got something to take care of tonight. 
Tomorrow?”

“Sure.” Orlando’s words of rejection echoed in the back of Dominic’s mind and he made 
a mental note to prove them wrong, “I’d better get started. The foggles didn’t get any 
lunch.” He dangled a large brown bag.

“Don’t worry about that. I brought them some apples. I didn’t want them to attempt to 
find the kitchen on their own. They might have scared the rest of the staff.”

~

Dominic smiled at William and entered the library. Forn, Lorn, and Korn were nowhere 
to be found. He crinkled the brown paper bag of goodies he had brought them and not ten 
seconds had passed before he felt three separate fingers tapping at his shoulders. Dominic 
turned to see the foggles hanging above him looking intently at the bag he was carrying. 
He handed them the bag and let them divide the powdered donuts, cinnamon buns, 
bananas and juice boxes. It wasn’t a very nutritious lunch, but he was aiming to apologize 
for his negligence. These were his coworkers, after all. It’s much harder to work with 
people if they have a grudge against you. Dominic didn’t want any trouble. Besides, they 
were halfway done with the library. It turned out that he had underestimated the foggles. 
While he’d been pulling out the books that were still intact, the foggles had stacked them 
according to language, then date. They knew their books. They had even evolved 
retractable magnifying lenses to cover their eyes for the finest of print.

Dominic was beginning to like the foggles quite a bit. They still didn’t talk much, but 
they were moving a lot more. Their personalities were beginning to shine through, too. 
Dominic noticed that Lorn was the quickest. He was always stealing bits and bites of 
food from his brothers which would explain why he was the biggest. Korn was the baby 
of the three, Dominic had decided. He showed a certain curiosity that the other two did 
not. He would take a book from Dominic and look at it severely before putting it in its 
proper place. Forn was the strangest of the foggles. Dominic didn’t know how to 
categorize him but by his odd behavior. Form mimicked Dominic in little ways and 
seemed to be fascinated by him. Forn would listen intently when Dominic would talk and 
move his lips experimentally. He watched Dominic eat and rather than tear the juice 
boxes open like his brothers, would carefully insert the straw just like he witnessed 
Dominic doing. 

Dominic wondered who would take care of the foggles when the library was done. They 
didn’t have a habitat or community like the pixies did. They remained in this room and 
could have been there for centuries. Dominic tried not to think about that for the time 
being. 

Quitting time rolled around and he bid the foggles goodnight as he left the library. 
William still sat at his desk. 

“Sure you can’t be persuaded to come out tonight?” Dominic asked with a note of hope in 
his voice.

William smiled sadly, “Sorry Dom,” he glanced out of the window, “not tonight.”

“Well, can you tell me why at least?”

“I’m having business associates stop by to have a little chat.”

Dominic saw his opportunity, “I can help you entertain.”

“It’s bound to be very boring and it may take all night, Dom.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Dom, please,” William’s voice was stern, “They’re not nice beings and I’d prefer it if 
you weren’t here.”

An awkward silence fell upon the office. William came from around the desk to 
Dominic’s side, “Hey, cheer up,” his hands were warm on Dominic’s cheeks, “you’ll see 
me tomorrow. Bright and early,” William added jokingly, “I can’t abide your tardiness 
for two mornings in a row.”

Dominic smiled and kissed William quickly before departing.

~

William watched as Dominic skipped out the doors and down the hall. He glanced out the 
window again. The sun was setting and throwing tentacles of red and orange across the 
horizon as if scrabbling for purchase. His guests were due soon. William needed to move 
quickly. 

He opened the door to the hallway and spied Camilla dusting the hanging pictures fifty or 
so paces down the hall. He whispered as not to frighten her. She turned her beautiful, 
translucent face towards him and glided swiftly to his side.

*“Yes, sir?”* Came the barely audible whisper that could have easily been the scuffle of 
his own feet against the carpet.

“Camilla, my dear, could you please quit your duties in this wing for the night? I am 
having guests who require the utmost security. They want no one nearby.”

*“I understand, sir.”* She nodded. *“I will tell the others, sir.”*

“Thank you, Camilla.”

*“Would you like me to stand at the stairway at least to keep anyone else from entering 
the hall, sir?”*

“I don’t think that will be necessary, dear. You may retire for the night.”

*“Thank you, sir.”*	

William watched as she floated towards the stairways and gingerly picked up her skirts as 
she descended. He walked across the hall and opened the door into a room directly across 
from his office. The room was beautifully decorated with heavy red velvet drapes and 
upholstery. The walls were an exquisite mural of Greek nymphs and satyrs in a garden of 
plenty. Many gods were depicted along with their stories: Apollo weeping at the foot of 
the tree his lover had become, Persephone being captured by her would-be husband, 
Hades, even Atalanta and her golden apple race against the clever Hippomenes. There 
was a fireplace made of black granite with flecks of sparkling gold. A pair of French 
doors stood proudly atop a window seat.

William threw open the French doors first. He placed four large, wingback chairs about 
the fireplace and opened the flue. A fire was ready to be lit and there were plenty more 
logs stacked against the stone hearth. His guests would appreciate this; he was sure. 
Though it was still a warm night, they would adore the fire. They needed to be 
comfortable for their business was a delicate one.

William sat before the unlit fire with a few files of paperwork that he perused before his 
clients suddenly arrived.

“What a welcome sight. William Boyd, it has been a very long time.”

Out of the three visitors, the eldest with the noble Roman profile descended to embrace 
William first. He smiled warmly and pressed his lean body against his host’s. 

“Chilly night for travel, Ian?”

“Could have been worse, m’boy. Could have been much worse,” Ian’s voice carried a 
vague English accent in its rich tones. He was very tall and thin with a head of rich, dark 
hair. His eyes, once mischievous, had mellowed after hundreds of years and waned to 
rather wise dark blue. If his nose held distinction and his eyes held the intelligence, his 
beauty was displayed in his mouth. Ian’s lips were a bit more ample than one would 
expect. Had they been a tight, firm line one would have assumed he was a general of 
some unholy army. But beauty was almost a prerequisite for being a vampire. 

“Besides, flying is my favorite mode of transport. I only grieve that it’s a gift reserved for 
thropes of higher development. I trust you haven’t forgotten Karl and David.” Ian swept 
his long arm in the direction of the window where his associates stood firm as blocks of 
ice.

“Of course I haven’t. Welcome gentlemen. Please, draw by the fire.” William offered as 
he took his place by the still unlit hearth. 

Ian unclasped his velvet cape and, faster than William could catch, had it cradled lightly 
in his ashen hands. “Karl, would you do the honors?”

The words were barely out of Ian’s stately mouth when the fire was ignited with roaring 
vitality. None of the immortals moved, but they all fixed Karl with a gaze of annoyance. 
Karl had not come near the fire, but he had lit it.

“Mr. Urban, would you please refrain from burning my manor down? I quite enjoy it 
when it’s not illuminated in such a fashion.” William didn’t bother warming his voice as 
he sneered at the offending vampire.

“I am sorry, William, dear. Karl has just manifested his fire-generating abilities within 
the last few days. There are still some misjudgments to be forgiven.”

But the same three immortals knew that this had been no accident. Karl was sullen but 
smiling. His heavy eyes sparkled minutely in the blaze he had lit with his mind. He stole 
the last remaining seat, finally settled now that he had unnerved the rest of the party. 

Next to the incendiary Karl was David. David was of a much kinder ilk than Karl, much 
closer to type of thrope William thought Ian would associate with. He had strawberry 
blonde hair and fair complexion with a boyish, soft expression not yet daunted by his age. 
William guessed him to be only a hundred years old. Ian had witnessed the passage of 
two millennia, but neither Ian nor David had lost their pleasure in the living world. They 
still appreciated all its beauty. 

Karl was very different from the other two vampires. William could only speculate as to 
his continued presence. From what he could glean by gently prodding Karl’s scantily 
guarded mind was he had not come by his immortality as willingly as David nor had 
accepted it as Ian had. He struggled with himself needlessly in William’s mind, but then 
again, William had been born immortal and had not had it thrust upon him.

“Shall we begin, dear William? The night is never long enough for us, it seems.”

“Of course, Ian.”

Ian paced once about the room and stretched out his mind, searching for eavesdroppers. 
This business was a delicate one, but William was confident that Camilla had done as she 
was told. Ian settled again in his wingback chair, looking very much Bram Stoker’s 
monster, and brought his hands up in a meditative gesture. His fingers were extremely 
long and delicate. “We need to move some very important…items. You know this 
already, I suspect.” 

William could count the number of times he had done business with Ian on one hand. He 
did not know what he had been transporting, but he knew it was the same items to 
different locations. He recalled one movement from Europe to America during the First 
World War. But on the whole, vampires kept to themselves. Whatever these items were 
must have been too heavy, too important, or too fragile for Ian to transport unaided; 
perhaps it was all three.

“Why else would you require my services?” William replied, “I do enjoy your company, 
Ian, but you made quite a journey to have no real business with me.”

Ian smiled, “Then let us discuss the particular—”

“Smells like werewolf.” Karl sneered.

A dangerous silence filled the room. William quickened to dispel it.

“Well, Karl, since you ask, I happen to have a new werewolf employee. We shook hands 
just before you arrived. I hope that you don’t take offense to my having hired him.”

Werewolves and vampires shared an ancient grudge that dated back to prehistory. The 
werewolves had established their kingdom and the vampires, a relatively new breed, were 
encroaching on that kingdom. A small war broke out. No one truly remembers who 
struck first, but when the smoke and dust had cleared, many lay dead. The vampires 
enslaved the werewolves and began a slow extermination of their breed, deeming them 
too dangerous to exist. There was an intervention, and the extermination stopped. Some 
still held the grudge, mostly the ancient vampires and hot-blooded youth on both sides. 
Though Ian had given the entire history amiss, Karl seemed to have not. He leaned over 
the arm of the chair very close to William’s face.

“No. I don’t smell him *on you*.” 

Now William understood the full danger that he was in. Karl was at the door and opening 
it before William could blink. Sure enough, there was Dominic, his dear, sweet, blue-
eyed Dominic, with a dumbfounded look upon his face. Whether he’d been about to 
knock or had in fact been listening in didn’t matter. Karl grabbed him and thrust him into 
the center of the room. Karl’s hands were about Dominic’s neck before the look of 
surprise on Dominic’s face had melted into horror. Naturally, Dominic began to 
transform. There was a quick, blindingly white light and Karl was backed up against a 
wall; William between him and Dominic.

“Karl, I understand your alarm at finding him at the door, but you cannot and WILL NOT 
COMMIT THE NEEDLESS MURDER OF ONE OF MY EMPLOYEES!!!”

Karl lowered his hands from his eyes. His face was mildly sunburned from the flash of 
light William had produced.

“William, this werewolf was spying on us.” David stood above Dominic as if made of 
marble; unshakable, immovable. Ian was by his side; silent.

William looked on Dominic with assessment. Could it be true? All this time, Dominic 
had been some sort of underground werewolf spy waiting for this arrival of his vampire 
clients? Dominic pleaded with his deep blue eyes. He couldn’t believe that.

“Dominic, can you explain yourself?” William asked woefully, trying not to let his 
heartbreak be too obvious.

“Changing would not be wise.” David spoke. Dominic had only had time to change his 
ears which had become sharp and tall. They shifted back to human at David’s words.

They stood around him, the four immortals, waiting to judge.

“William, please. I just wanted to see if I could help—”

“I asked you not to, Dominic. This was extremely unwise of you.” William tried not to let 
his voice waver. He didn’t want to reveal to Dominic how much danger he was in.

“I know. I was about to turn around and leave when the door opened. I’m sorry.” 
Dominic looked up, but the company didn’t seem to be satisfied.

Ian stepped forward and knelt down before Dominic, grasping his chin and staring 
intently into his eyes. The mind-lock went on for many more seconds. William could see 
Dominic trying to hold still. A few beads of sweat broke out on Dominic’s brow with the 
effort as Ian thoroughly searched his mind for any sign of betrayal or espionage. Then Ian 
nodded and Dominic went limp, his eyes closing as his body collapsed. Ian cradled him 
as he set his head upon the rich carpet.

“He wasn’t spying. There was no malicious intent whatsoever; simply unfortunate 
happenstance. He will remember nothing he heard, if he in fact heard anything to begin 
with.” Ian glanced meaningfully at Karl, “He will wake in an hour or two at which time 
William, you will need to talk to him at length about this affair. He will have many 
questions, no doubt.” They stared down at the harmless individual on the floor, quite 
asleep. “Now, back to business.”

As Ian ticked off the details of the transport of these items, William absorbed everything 
but could not help occasionally stealing a glance or two at his lover collapsed on the 
floor; so unfortunate. The tender blossom of their relationship whipped about in the 
tempest. He had no idea what to expect upon his awakening. 

The discussion came to a close and William had successfully returned Ian to his previous 
cheery disposition before the three vampires took their leave out of the window. William 
shut the French doors, righted the chairs, and took his lover in his arms. With a quick 
flash of white light, they were both transported to Dominic’s bedroom where William 
laid him on the bed.

He began with his shoes; pulling off the brown leather with care and placing them on the 
floor. He undid the belt as well and heard it whisper against the jean loops as it left 
Dominic to be hung over the bedpost. 

As William pulled back the top quilt to drape over Dominic he came very close to his 
face. The boyishness of that face moved him. William used to look like that before his 
world collapsed around him. His actual face hadn’t changed; how could it? He never 
aged, but the expression had faded and left him with his loss of innocence. He was 
suddenly worried for Dominic. He didn’t want the same thing to happen with him: the 
lips curling less with every smile, the brightness of his eyes fading, the shadow creeping 
into every yet unseen line. There was nothing for it, though. William would watch as 
Dominic’s world betrayed him again and again. With his new surroundings, he had to 
adapt. It was part of joining their community and their world, sad though it was. Perhaps 
this was why Dominic had never known of all this before. It must have been easier to live 
in the circumscribed world his parents had built around their pack and their children. No 
monsters or myths or accidents.

William cringed; the same types of accidents that Dominic had experienced twice since 
his employment here. Twice. He was beginning to see why Dominic was never told of his 
origins and the many others just like him. Perhaps it would be better if Dominic returned 
to that life. This world seems bent on killing him. William had been there both times, but 
what would happen when he wasn’t?

Dominic stirred, inhaling the covers and bringing William out of his thoughts, but he did 
not wake. William settled again and waited for his lover to awaken.

~

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