Chapter 7

Chapter 7

There was no reason to be worried. Harry was a grown man, a grown wizard, who was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Thomas had watched him take on monsters, faerie assassins, and an assortment of creepy crawlie beasties and come out with barely a scratch. Surely he could defend himself against one regular man.

Surely.

He glanced at the door again, feeling for all the world like a parent whose child was out past curfew. Butters had called him an hour ago and delivered Harry's message, along with his own resignation and a plea not to get him involved again. Though Thomas doubted Harry would go through with his threat—he was almost positive, really, that Harry was just blowing smoke—he had reluctantly called Molly and Murphy to tell them to back off. He had even called Rawlings to inform the cop that he could stop tailing them if they headed back to Nick's apartment after their date. All the members of Thomas's merry gang of spies had been frighteningly eager to go along with his plan.

Grinning, he recalled his conversation with the lovely and charming Sergeant Murphy.

"He's on a what with a who?" Murphy's voice said incredulously, sounding tinny over the phone line.

"A date with a man," Thomas repeated patiently.

"Harry? On a date?"

Thomas hopped onto the counter, wishing again that Harry wasn't the grim reaper of electronics, so he could have this conversation on a cell phone while flipping channels looking for the hockey game. "I know it sounds impossible, but it's true."

"Didn't he just dump you?"

"Hey!" Thomas unconsciously straightened. "Let's get one thing straight here, I was the one who dumped him, got it? He's still reeling from the shock, you know."

"Uh-huh."

"This guy? He's probably a rebound guy," Thomas said confidently.

"Uh-huh. You know, my life used to be normal."

Thomas nodded, his voice laden with sympathy and understanding. "Until you met Harry."

Murphy sighed deeply. "Until I met Harry. Do you have any idea where they're going?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Thomas said with a shark-like grin, giving her the name of the restaurant along with instructions to pass along a certain client's name if the maitre-de gave her any problems.

"You know, Thomas," Murphy said before she hung up the phone, "I'm really glad you're on our side."

Glancing up at the clock again, he felt the grin slip away from his face.

He's a grown man, Thomas reminded himself again. He is perfectly capable of taking care of himself and does not need your help. Even if he is your little brother.

The wards flashed briefly and Thomas found himself hovering by the door in a shot. He fought down the urge to drag Harry inside and interrogate him, patiently waiting for him to step all the way into his apartment. Then he could start the questioning. The door slammed open, revealing Harry, a very pissed off expression written on his face.

"That, that—" He let out a wordless shout of frustration, peeling off his sports jacket and throwing it over the back of the couch. "I can't believe the nerve—"

Thomas followed him as he kicked off his shoes and stormed into his bedroom. "What happened?"

"Things were going great," Harry paused to shoot him a scowl that promised retribution in the near future, "as I'm sure you already know. Then he invited me back to his place for a cup of coffee."

"Harry," Thomas started uneasily, "You do know—"

"Yes, I'm perfectly aware what a cup of coffee means," Harry said crossly. "I told him I wasn't interested and he kept pressuring me, saying it was just a cup of coffee if I wanted it to be. I was having a good time, so I said yes."

He sat silently fuming, tugging at his socks and throwing them across the room.

"Well?" Thomas demanded when he couldn't stand it anymore.

Harry paused, putting his head in his hands. "That jerk started pawing at me as soon as we got through the door. He managed to get my belt buckle undone before I threw him off of me and got the hell out of there."

"He what?" Thomas shouted, his brows drawing together with fury.

Harry glanced up in alarm. "I'm fine, Thomas. The guy was a bastard, I told him no, then I left. Nothing happened."

"But he tried—"

"He tried," Harry stressed. "Nothing happened."

Thomas took a deep breath. "You're right. I'm sorry if I'm overreacting. I just knew that guy was bad news."

"Well, he had me fooled." Harry's face fell and Thomas felt a sudden pang of sympathy. Harry had been having a good time on his first date since Susan and it had ended in disaster. The infamous Harry luck strikes again. Harry shook himself, going to work on unbuttoning his shirt. When he spoke, his voice sounded bone-weary and it hurt Thomas to hear it. Harry scrubbed his face with one hand and yawned. "Listen, I'm kind of tired."

"Sure, Harry. Get some sleep. I'll let myself out."

Harry was already asleep before Thomas could finish the sentence. Quietly pulling a blanket over his snoring brother, Thomas tiptoed out of the room and closed the door quietly behind him.

Nick frowned as the doorbell rang. Who could possibly want him at this time of night?

The peephole revealed a devastatingly handsome young man with a million dollar smile stretching his face. It might be his lucky night after all. Pasting a matching smile on his face, Nick opened the door.

The young man held out his hand. "Hi, you must be Nick."

"That's me," Nick said, shaking the hand. "Who are you?"

"Oh, we haven't met," the man said. From beside him, the blonde coworker Harry had been talking to at the restaurant and the cute little apprentice from the movie theatre stepped out. "See, I'm Thomas, and this is Sergeant Murphy of the Chicago PD. You've already met Molly."

He wedged his foot in the door before Nick could slam it shut.

"Uh-uh. See, we're all close friends of Harry and we hate to see him get hurt, abused, or generally trampled on, all of which you kind of did tonight."

Sergeant Murphy took a step forward. She barely reached his chest and her upturned nose made her look more cute than menacing, but her voice was low and threatening when she spoke. "If I ever hear you doing anything like that to Harry or anyone else again, I will personally make your life a living hell. A lot of cops like Harry and admire him and we'll gladly make sure that everywhere you go, someone will be watching you."

"That's harassment!" Nick squawked.

Murphy smiled grimly. "Tell it to the police."

The lights suddenly flickered and Molly's eyes flashed in time with them. Nick felt a trickle of unease run down his spine. There was nothing of the ditzy, annoying girl that had squeezed her way into their date earlier that night in this girl's eyes. "I'm Harry's apprentice, but I'm also his friend. Unless you never want to have hot water, electricity, or a working car again, I would suggest you be good to your future dates, capisce?"

The two women left him with one last scowl before heading down the hall, leaving only Thomas. Normally Nick would have laughed to think of a flamboyantly gay, French hairdresser staring him down, but Thomas's eyes were a hard gray and he stood unflinching in the hallway glaring at Nick. "So now you know. What you didn't know is that Harry is a wizard."

An ugly expression crossed Nick's face. "I did know that actually. He told me so himself."

"No, he told you he was a wizard. I'm telling you that he's a wizard," Thomas said, emphasizing the last word. "He could have torn you apart, roasted you and served you for dinner, but he didn't, because he's a good guy."

He leaned forward suddenly, his lips curling in something that was too cruel to be called a smile. "Me? I'm not a good guy. I'm also very, very protective of Harry."

The air seemed to drop several degrees in between them and Nick took an involuntary step back. Thomas's eyes refused to let his go, and he kept speaking in a low, soft voice. "You're going to call him up tomorrow, apologize for your behavior, and then you are never going to see him, speak to him, or even think about him again. Got it?"

Nick nodded slowly. "Yeah. I got it."

"Good." Thomas leaned back again and pasted that friendly, fake smile back on. "Have a great day."

He walked down the hall to where the women were waiting, disappearing down the stairs together. Nick shivered, locking his door behind him.