Holly yawned and then frowned against Dimitri’s shoulder. He wiggled a little and Leo groaned and readjusted his hips against him.

 

Holly grinned and settled back down between them. Finding Leo after his blow up had been surprisingly perfect. The phookah had been pissed off at Ezra too and they had ranted. It had been surprisingly nice ranting though. More ‘why would Ezra do that to himself’ than ‘what a fucker’.

 

He kissed the phookah on the head and then crawled out of bed. Malachi had his meeting today. He needed to say hi, give him a kiss, and make sure he got a good breakfast. And, if he was being honest with himself, he wanted to know how the date went last night, if Ezra had explained his suicide attempt.

 

So he edged out of the bed, kissing Dimitri’s cheek when the dark man woke for a moment, and headed to the kitchen. Sure enough, Malachi was there, lounging next to Rylan, both of them with coffee cups in hand.

 

Rylan shot a grin his way. “Morning.”

 

Malachi smirked at him as well. “I see you’re having a very good morning.”

 

Holly grinned and draped himself over Malachi’s lap, the soft material of Malachi’s suit pants nice against his bare ass. “I’m definitely feeling… up.”

 

Rylan snorted as he stood and crossed the kitchen. “You are fucking insatiable.”

 

“You enjoy it,” Holly purred. “But actually, it’s just morning wood. I don’t actually want you to do anything about it.”

 

Rylan handed him a cup of coffee and settled back in beside them. “So how was your night?”

 

“Me and Leo and Dimitri had another threesome and it was crazy hot.”

 

Malachi snorted with laughter. “Can I be part of that next time?”

 

“Only if I get to join you two and Dimitri next time. Fuck, what was that like?”

 

“Hot,” both chorused.

 

Holly grinned at both of them. “Nice.”

 

He climbed off of Malachi and wiggled his way to the stove. “How was the date last night?” He aimed for casual, but he was pretty sure he completely missed the mark.

 

“Awkward,” Rylan muttered.

 

Holly glanced behind him to find Malachi nodding. “Yeah. But, uh… lay off of him, yeah, Holly? It sounded like it…”

 

“Wasn’t exactly a suicide attempt. More of a...” Rylan trailed off, lost for words.

 

“He was sick and thought he was going to die anyway,” Malachi finished finally. “He’s not exactly very… healthy, is he?”

 

Holly frowned. “I don’t get that impression, no. So is he still, uh, at risk?”

 

“He said, ‘not really, but maybe’ pretty much.”

 

Holly winced. “Shit,” he mumbled.

 

“Yeah so… no more giving him shit about that.”

 

“Did he cry?”

 

“Jeeze. Holly, no, he didn’t cry.”

 

“He was actually pretty annoyed that we kept talking about it and insisted we change the subject,” Malachi added. “Which I can totally see, so you probably shouldn’t bring this up with him.”

 

“But-“

 

“At least not for a while? He said there’s nothing we can really do anyway. It’ll probably be a good idea to leave it alone for a bit. He’s super annoyed.”

 

Holly sighed. “Fine,” he grumbled. “At least he talked to you about it.”

 

“Yeah,” Malachi muttered. “Maybe we can fix some of what happened yesterday.”

 

Holly flushed darkly. “If it makes anyone feel better, I didn’t freak about the suicide thing in the meeting. And nothing slipped except I was pissed when I first met him and kept calling him a slut up to and past when we were married. But not anymore.”

 

Rylan sighed. “Fuck. But that’s our fault, not his.”

 

“He doesn’t know about you, Ry. You did good. His questions were just so fucking specific.”

 

Rylan sighed. “Maybe you should go talk to him. Not about the suicide thing,” he was quick to add over Malachi’s protests, “Just about the meeting.”

 

Holly hesitated. “Uh, we should let him sleep for a while, I think.” He craned his head around and checked the doorway as he started fixing omelets. “Do you know what he did to piss off Leo? He was pretty angry at him last night, even before I mentioned this thing to him.”

 

Rylan straightened up. “He didn’t mention anything about Leo yesterday, did he?” He glanced at Malachi who shook his head.

 

“Not a word.”

 

“He seemed…” Holly paused and then sighed. Rylan and Malachi should know even if it probably wouldn’t be great for relations between them and Ezra. “He seemed depressed more than anything. I think Ezra may have said or done something to hurt his feelings. He hasn’t let go of the leaving after the investigation is over thing.”

 

“Hm,” Malachi muttered noncommittally.

 

“You two are a big part of that. You two and his pride. He still thinks neither of you like him.”

 

He turned when neither spoke up, crossing his arms and leaning against the counter. “You two still don’t like him?”

 

Malachi shrugged, clearly embarrassed. “I don’t not like the guy, but he’s not exactly one for great first impressions, is he?”

 

Holly growled. “It’s been-“ he paused, trying to figure out how long they’d known Ezra. “Three weeks,” he finally said, softly. “Shit.”

 

“’Exactly,” Malachi muttered. “It’s only been three weeks. And you and Leo and Dimitri are already getting so close to him and Giovanni has less problems with him than anyone and Rylan is acting all big and mean but if he sticks around, Rylan’s going to get along with him.”

 

“Hey!”

 

“Oh shut it, you’re already warming up to him.”

 

Holly blinked at Malachi. “I don’t understand that. Not you-“ he said, waving aside Rylan. “Rylan is sweet on the inside and Ezra’s good looking and has a pulse and Rylan managed to live peacefully with Dimitri for years and he had more issues with him.” Rylan made a noise of complaint that the other two ignored. “What I don’t understand is why you don’t like him, ‘Lachi. You’re usually more easygoing than this.”

 

Malachi frowned. “Not when it comes to you guys.”

 

“He is one of us though.”

 

“No, he’s not!”

 

Rylan frowned and pressed a kiss to Malachi’s head. “Holly,” he muttered. “Malachi… Malachi’s human. And this is the first time…”

“Oh,” Holly said, suddenly getting it. “Shit. Sorry, ‘Lachi. I didn’t even think of it like that.”

 

“Think of what?” Malachi snapped.

 

“We’re your first experience with polyamory and this is the first time we’ve, um, brought someone new in.”

 

“But he’s not even really part of the family! He’s here for the investigation!”

 

Holly sighed. “Yet me, Leo, and Dimitri are all sleeping with him. You know he isn’t going to disappear afterwards. Not completely. No matter what he says. There’s… There’s a good fucking chance he’s going to be around for a while. I want him to be around for a while, at least. And I think… I think Leo and Dimitri want him to too.”

 

Malachi looked stricken and Holly’s heart ached for him. “God, ‘Lachi, don’t look like that!” he snapped, going over to hug the man. “I love you! We all love you and that’s never going to change!”

 

Rylan curled around Malachi as well, sliding into his lap and wrapping arms and legs around him. “Malachi…”

 

“Jeez guys, get off me. I’m fine. It’s not a big deal, it’s just too soon. He’s only been around three weeks or so.”

 

“But still, it’s gotta be weird for you. Humans don’t do polyamory like the fae do.”

 

Malachi shrugged, clearly uncomfortable. “It’s not- I’m with all of you.”

 

“Yeah, but you started with all of us. Does it feel like we’re cheating with Ezra?”

 

“Holly, this isn’t fucking therapy. It’s fine.”

 

“’Lachi, what’s his face is going to ask about all this. If he senses even one weakness, if you give one hint, he’s going to find everything out. So figure out what you feel, and at least admit it to yourself.”

 

Malachi scowled at him. “It’s fine.”

 

“Just know that no matter who else we sleep with or love, we still love you just as much as we always did.”

 

“I know,” Malachi muttered.

 

Holly sighed and kissed his forehead, vowing to spend more time with the big man and to get Leo to do the same. He shimmied back to the stove and started cooking. Malachi would get used to the idea soon enough. Realize he was already with four men who loved him and a fifth who was moving towards liking him a lot and that he loved them all back and making it six instead of five wasn’t much of a stretch.

 

“Rylan, will you go wake up Ezra? I think maybe we should spend the morning prepping him. He’s going to have the most trouble keeping the façade up considering he met us three weeks ago under less than pleasant circumstances.”

 

Rylan snorted. “I’m not moving.”

 

Malachi slapped his ass. “Go and wake him up. I’m fine. I’ll get over it,” he amended.

 

Rylan sighed and slid off of him. He yanked Malachi up by his dreads for a sloppy kiss and then dropped him before disappearing down the hall. Malachi flopped down the few inches that Rylan had pulled him up with a small ‘thump’ as he hit the chair. “I really like it when he does that.”

 

Holly grinned at Malachi’s dazed tone. “I’ll bet,” he said with a grin, sauntering back over to the table and sitting in Malachi’s lap again. The omelets needed to sit for a bit anyways. Just as he was leaning in to kiss Malachi, Rylan stomped back in, swearing. “Fucking hell, the slut booked it.”

 

Holly sighed and slid off Malachi’s lap. “I doubt it,” he said soothingly, reaching a hand up to pat Rylan’s shoulder. “He wasn’t in his room? And you checked the bathroom?”

 

“Of course, he’s not-“

 

“He doesn’t have to be trapped in there all the time, you know,” Holly pointed out. “I found him in the study yesterday and Leo has had him hanging out in his room too.”

 

“He was exploring yesterday. He found me in the basement,” Malachi added.

 

Rylan growled something. “Fine. I’ll look for him. You have a good day,” he muttered, hugging Malachi from behind. Malachi kissed his cheek. “You,” he said, grabbing Holly’s hand. “Come help me find him.”

 

Holly rolled his eyes. “Rylan, chances are he’ll show up soon either way. He’s eating somewhat regularly now.”

 

“You said we should start prepping him now.”

 

Holly sighed and decided to give in. The extra time could only be more helpful. “Fine, fine.”

 

He sighed and followed Rylan out of the room. He stopped back into Dimitri’s room before starting searching and woke the two up to keep Malachi company.

 

He went through the entire house, and Ezra didn’t turn up. Frowning, he checked the garden and even outside the gate.

 

“Rylan,” he called. “I can’t find him.”

 

Rylan reappeared from the basement, frowning as well. “Me either.”

 

Holly was actually starting to get worried. Ezra hadn’t exactly ever been hard to find before. He didn’t really go anywhere. They went back to the kitchen, just as Malachi was leaving. “Any idea where Streaks could be?”

 

Leo frowned and shook his head, not meeting his eyes.

 

“What happened with him last night?”

 

“Nothin’.”

 

“Leo, it could be important.”

 

Leo fidgeted a little. “ItoldhimthatIlubbedim.”

 

“What?”

“You heard me.”

 

“I really didn’t though.”

 

Leo sighed gustily. “I told him that I love him,” he muttered.

 

Malachi froze and turned wide eyes to Leo, mirroring every other man in the room. “Really?”

 

Leo sighed and slumped down.

 

Malachi hugged him first, pulling him onto his lap. “Oh, baby, it’s okay.”

 

“What’d he do?” Rylan asked tentatively.

 

Leo snorted. “Was an idiot,” he grumbled. “It’s too soon for him,” he added after a moment.

 

Malachi started stroking his ears gently, cuddling Leo close.

 

Holly patted Leo’s shoulder. That really actually sucked for Leo… and for him. He wasn’t getting any love confessions from the phookah. He scowled at himself and that may have been why, “That could have made him panic and run,” came out so callously.

 

Leo flinched.

 

Holly sighed and patted him on the shoulder. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t have done it and hell, it probably should have been done, but Ezra isn’t really mentally healthy.”

 

Dimitri pulled Leo into his lap and hugged him tightly. “I don’t think he would run off after that,” he said softly.

 

“Have you been confessing your undying love to the brat?” Rylan snapped.

 

Dimitri didn’t even flinch at the tone. Holly had to smile a tiny bit. A week ago he would have. Things really were getting better.

 

“Of course not. I actually told him specifically that I didn’t love him.”

 

Rylan snorted but his shoulders relaxed a little. “How’d he take that?”

 

“He said that’s what made it good.”

 

Rylan snorted again, although he looked a little disturbed. “I think we can all agree with Holly’s assessment. Not exactly mentally healthy, that guy.”

 

Dimitri ticked a strand behind his ear. “But he didn’t run off right afterwards and he has been pretty serious about helping us out,” he pointed out softly. “He knew he had the meeting and he had to realize that if he missed that it would be bad for us.”

 

“That’s an understatement,” Rylan snapped.

 

“Well, where…” Holly trailed off as Giovanni stumbled into the room. His eyes were wide and glazed and he obviously couldn’t see a thing and was maneuvering by touch alone.

 

Leo and Holly reached for him at the same time and wrapped the tiny seer between them.

 

Leo shushed Holly when he started to speak. “He can’t hear anything while in a vision any-“

 

“It’s Ezra,” Giovanni gasped, still in the grip of his sight. His voice was raspy and breathy, barely recognizable. “He- He’s with Rick.”

 

“What?” growled Rylan. “That dumb little-“

 

Leo rolled his eyes and tugged Giovanni out of the room, hugging him tight and smoothing a hand over his shoulder. Dimitri’s eyes darted between him and Rylan, and finally, the tall dark man followed Leo. His and Rylan’s relationship hadn’t improved enough that he could deal with the blonde’s temper. Holly and Malachi both stayed with him, trying to calm him down.

 

Leo had Giovanni wrapped tightly in his arms and shot Dimitri a small smile.

 

Giovanni was still speaking but it was incoherent and broken.

 

“Can you get him a glass of water?”

 

Dimitri nodded quickly and hurried back to the kitchen. When he returned, Giovanni’s eyes had cleared and he was grasping Leo’s arms and speaking to him frantically, head tilted up.

 

Leo turned wide eyes up to Dimitri and Giovanni broke off, clutching at Leo’s arm and ducking behind him a little. Dimitri’s shoulders hunched and he shrunk into himself. He offered the glass silently, eyes falling to the ground.

 

After a moment where Giovanni just stared at him, Leo took the glass and pressed it into the seer’s hands.

 

“Giovanni says he isn’t sure Ezra is there by choice. He was bruised and scraped up. He just saw them sleeping together.”

 

Dimitri flushed, and tried to stifle a frown at the thought of Ezra sleeping with his ex. It wouldn’t do to make Giovanni more afraid. “That sounds consensual to me.”

 

“No, literally, sleeping together. Fully clothed. Ezra may have been unconscious.”

 

Dimitri sighed. “Leo, you know… You know Ezra is still attached to Rick.” Attached was an understatement. The halfbreed was still head over heels for his ex. “That sounds like wishful thinking.”

 

Leo snorted. “It’s Ezra. Fully clothed in bed with someone else doesn’t seem to be really a concept he grasps.”

 

“Slut,” Rylan groused. “So what’s going on?”

 

Giovanni actually relaxed a little when Rylan joined them. Well, that hurt. That hurt a lot. Dimitri was still a little wary of Rylan. He was a lot more volatile than Dimitri had ever been, even as a temperamental teenager.

 

“I don’t think Ezra is with Rick by choice. They were in the same bed, but clothed, and Ezra was either asleep or unconscious. It looks like Rick beat him up again so I’m going with unconscious.”

 

Rylan frowned. “Shit. Any clue where they are?”

 

Giovanni shook his head and spoke for the first time since Dimitri had come over. “No. It was a very generic room. Not a hotel room. It looked like maybe an apartment bedroom? White walls, beige carpet, not very big from what I could see.” His voice was nearly a whisper but it was the most words Dimitri had heard him string together since he had met him.

 

“So what do we do?”

 

“Malachi still has to go to his meeting,” Dimitri said softly. “Tell them that Ezra is missing. We alert the police and…” he trailed off, trying to think. “Perform a finding spell,” he finally said decisively. He paused, losing some of his confidence. “If Rylan can…”

 

Rylan eyes widened before he nodded hurriedly. He grabbed Dimitri’s hand and tugged him upstairs. “It’s been awhile and I was never really good at any of this so you’re going to have to guide me through this.”

 

“That’s fine,” Dimitri said softly. “I just don’t have a lot of…”

 

“Hey, that’s why we were married off,” Rylan said with a surprisingly gentle smile. “It evens out.”

 

Dimitri blinked at him and then nodded. He allowed himself to be led into the almost completely empty room- they had left it with its concrete floor and plain plaster drywall. There was a circle of protection that encompassed almost the entirety of the room.

 

They stepped into it and Rylan’s hand tightened around Dimitri’s as the power crept up their spines, prompting a full body shiver from Dimitri.

 

Dimitri took his place on one side of the many-pointed star in the centre and Rylan stood across from him and picked up his other hand so they made their own little circle to mimic the larger one.

 

“Do you…” Dimitri paused and cleared his throat. “Do you just want to work as a channel?”

 

Rylan grinned. “Sure. I’ll be your personal battery. Just remind me on what to do?”

 

Dimitri nodded, a little relieved. It was always pretty hard to guide someone through spell work. Opening them up to be a channel was considerably easier.

 

It turned out to be even simpler than he first imagined. As soon as Rylan dropped his shields, safe within the circle, their powers just kind of snapped together.

 

“Shit,” Rylan muttered with a gasp. “Is that normal?”

 

Dimitri was feeling pretty shaky himself. He shook his head and shifted into second sight poked at that bond mentally. Rylan’s powers were a strong bond from him to Dimitri, already coursing through to Dimitri, but it seemed to be… wrapped around something. “Close your shields down for a moment?”

 

Rylan did and his power stopped, flowing back into him in wisps but a bond stayed. “Oh,” Dimitri murmured. “The marriage.”

 

It looked like that bond that had flowed up that night had never gone away. It was just really easy to ignore.

 

“Huh,” Rylan murmured. “Cool. Well, that makes this easier for me.”

 

He dropped his shields again and soon the warm golden power was flowing into Dimitri again. It always felt nice working with a channel. He didn’t have much power of his own; although his family had made sure he could wield magic well. Rylan, however, had far too much and no patience to learn the delicate controls. When an alliance between their families was needed, it had seemed the logical choice. Neither family had banked on them leaving the faerie realm and being out of their reach.

 

Dimitri wove the delicate finding spell, concentrating on everything he knew of Ezra. But it was met with nothing. He tried it on Holly and he found the man easily enough and then Rave and even that was simple. But Ezra was nowhere to be found. Neither was Rick, but he even managed to locate the nurse that had been in Ezra’s room at the hospital.

 

Dimitri broke the spell. “He’s shielded,” he said softly. “I can’t find him or Rick.”

 

“Well, shit. What now?”

 

Dimitri shrugged. “I don’t know.”

 

Rylan sighed and let go of Dimitri’s hands. After a moment’s hesitation, he grabbed one again. “Come on, let’s go downstairs. Maybe someone else will have an idea.”

 

 

No one did. Holly called the police and they huddled around the kitchen table, trying to think of ideas of how to find Ezra, and to recall everything they knew about Rick. The police turned out to be no help- with Ezra missing only a few hours and Giovanni unable to say decisively if it was a kidnapping or not, he couldn’t be declared actually missing for several more hours.

 

“Could they have returned to the human realm?”

 

Giovanni shrugged helplessly at Holly’s question. “There’s no way to know for sure.”

 

Holly sighed gustily and wrapped his arms around the tiny seer, stumped on what to do. The other men shifted and tossed around a couple more ideas but nothing presented itself and slowly, they settled down to wait for something, anything, to happen.

 

--

 

Ezra woke all at once, shooting up in bed. Pain stabbed through him, beginning at his stomach, and lancing up to his chest and neck. He collapsed back down with a soft whimper.

 

A warm hand cupped his cheek and stroked.

 

Ezra whimpered again as the hand brushed over fresh bruises.

 

“Rest, baby.”

 

Ezra stiffened and his eyes shot open again. He turned to see Rick looking at him tenderly.

 

“You’re hurt baby. You need to go back to sleep.”

 

Ezra stayed still and tried to figure out what to do. He was half propped on Rick, the man’s arm around his waist, holding him solidly in place. A slight shift of sent out a fresh burst of pain so he stilled. “You hit me,” he murmured, shocked. “You- what are you on?”

 

Rick scowled at him. “I told you, nothing. You keep doing this and I might have a bit to drink.”

 

Ezra shrank back and even that hurt. Jesus, he didn’t want to get hit again. “Don’t. Please,” he whispered.

 

Rick smiled at him. “Be good and I won’t. No more talk of wanting to leave.”

 

Ezra turned his head away, unable to look at him right now. “All I want right now is for you to leave.”

 

Rick’s fingers snapped in his face and Ezra flinched before obediently turning back to face Rick.

 

“Ezra,” he growled.

 

Ezra felt tears welling up and there was nothing he could do to stop them. Rick had hit him while stone-cold sober. And then threatened to drink and hit him more. “Why?” Ezra mumbled.

 

“Why what?”

 

The tears welled over and dripped down his face. The thumb that wiped them away was too harsh for the bruises, it just made them sting.

 

“Stop it,” Ezra mumbled, “That hurts.”

 

“Stop talking about anyone leaving,” Rick rumbled. His thumb dug down into one of the tender bruises on his cheek.

 

Ezra broke down into silent sobs, shaking hard. Rick’s arms tightening around him, forcing his tender, bruised body to move and pressing on the dark marks that covered him.

 

“Calm down baby. Everything will be okay now. Just don’t say no to me again and everything will be okay.”

 

No one really thought much of it when Giovanni’s eyes glazed and Leo hugged him to his chest. It had been happening with increasing frequency in the last few hours. When he started to cry softly, they took a little more notice.

 

“Giovanni, sweetie?” Leo whispered. But Giovanni was still caught and all he could do was pet his hair until Giovanni slumped against his chest, tears still slipping down his face.

 

“Sweetheart?” Leo asked, nuzzling Giovanni’s hair. Gio turned in his arms and hugged him, pressing his face against Leo’s neck. “It was Ezra. He’s… I’m still not sure if he’s there by choice or not but we need to get him out,” he whispered.

 

Leo smoothed a soothing hand down his back. “What did you see?”

 

“Rick, he’s… I don’t think… Um, he seems like he’s not quite all there. And he threatened to drink again which scared Ezra. And um, he said Ezra needed to stop saying no and everything would be okay. I think Ezra said no to something and he beat him up and took him with him.”

 

“Well shit,” Holly snapped irritably.

 

“No, that’s a good thing,” Rylan shot back. “It means we get the police involved now. Holly, call the cops. Tell them it was kidnapping, for sure. I don’t care if it was or not. If not, he’s fucking suffering from long term Stockholm syndrome.”

 

Holly obediently went over to the phone and made the call.

 

Malachi tentatively reached out for Giovanni, unsure of his welcome when the seer was already so off balance. But Giovanni grabbed for his hand without hesitation and tugged him up close so he was sandwiched between the two.

 

After hanging up, Holly pecked him on the forehead and went to sit between Dimitri and Rylan. “We don’t have any pictures of him, do we?” he asked glumly.

 

Half the men in the room opened their mouths to object and then snapped them shut.

 

“No,” Leo said softly. “We don’t.”

 

“Where can we find one?” Rylan asked, all business.

 

“Rick,” Holly answered with a snort. “And there’s a pixilated picture of him when he was fifteen and strung out at court ordered rehab.”

 

Dimitri winced. “His mother perhaps?”

 

Holly nodded quickly and stood again, unable to hold still for long. “I’ll try and track her down.”

 

He managed to find her number no problem. But the moment Holly claimed to be her son’s husband, she exclaimed, “Rick? Dear, it’s so good to hear from you! How are you?”

Holly’s blood had boiled over and he remembered Ezra saying his mom still liked his abusive, kidnapping ass of an ex, and burst out with, “No! This is his current husband. Rick fucking kidnapped Ezra, you bitch! And he beat-”

 

She slammed the phone down and no amount of calling back would get her to answer it. Holly finally slammed the cell phone shut and threw it against the wall. The air around him was wavering with heat. He stomped out of the room, unable to control it and down to the guest room. It didn’t fucking matter if this room was destroyed; they weren’t going to be able to find Ezra without a photo or something. Some kind of clue to where he could have gone, a hint, anything. Right now they didn’t know anything except he was with Rick in what may be an apartment building.

 

But he couldn’t make himself burn the room to ashes. He just couldn’t. This was Ezra’s room now. His bag was tossed against the wall, clothes that wouldn’t fit anyone else in the house were in the closet and dresser with a few pieces scattered across the floor, and the desk was strewn with papers.

 

He half-heartedly upturned the bedside table, but it just broke a lamp and made the drawer fall out, revealing lube and condoms. He sighed and dropped himself into the desk chair. That was pretty indicative of what they had been doing with Ezra, hadn’t it? One real date, in three weeks. Otherwise it was all clubbing. And he supposed they had a couple family dinners out but Ezra hadn’t exactly had a good time at any of those. And all the shopping ended up in a quick fuck in the dressing room.

 

They should have spent more time talking. Convincing him his ex really was a douche bag and that no one deserved that, sending him to therapy, something.

 

Tears welled up and he angrily pushed them away. This was not the time.

 

He dialed Ezra’s mom again and got no answer. This time, he left a message, speaking as calmly as he could, outlining that Ezra had been kidnapped by Rick and was being hurt by him and quite possibly needed medical attention. He could only hope she would listen to it and help.

 

He stood the overturned table and half-heartedly straightened it, leaving the shattered stained glass lampshade on the floor, before leaving the room and returning to the kitchen.

 

Giovanni stared at him with wide-eyes, but Holly couldn’t manage a comforting smile. He patted the seer’s shoulder gently and tossed himself into Dimitri’s lap. “His mom’s a cunt,” he sneered.

 

Dimitri ran long, slender hands up and down his arms gently, but didn’t say anything.

 

Rylan growled something unintelligible and crossed his arms before standing up, apparently having the same trouble sitting that Holly had been having. But now, Holly was just feeling drained and hopeless.

 

“I’m going to go see Rave,” he snapped, storming out of the room.

 

Holly sighed and cuddled closer to Dimitri, just wanting to be held.

 

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Rylan strode out of the house, pausing only to grab a jacket on the way out. It had started raining sometimes during the night, and the world was damp and gray. Fucking dramatic as shit, if you asked him. He took the sports car, Malachi’s baby, rather than the other one. None of his husbands were coming with him this time and the little car went faster. He hurried to his shop and parked right in front of it, blocking one of the lanes of traffic. He flipped off the person who honked at him and hurried into the shop. Max was staring at Rave, looking a little like a lovesick puppy- well, maybe a lovesick Rottweiler.

 

Rave was ignoring him, Rylan was pleased to see. It was petty and none of his business and downright inappropriate, considering he was Rave’s boss and that Ezra was missing, but he couldn’t help it.

 

“Rave,” he barked. “My office.”

 

The adorable little fae jumped and then followed quickly, lavender curls bouncing. “Sir, yes sir,” he muttered as he did so.

 

Rylan smirked a little. Rave had never been particularly intimidated by him and seemed to find his moods more amusing than anything.

 

He dropped himself into his chair and faced Rave as the boy carefully shut the door and lowered himself into the chair across from him. His pale pink eyes met Rylan’s. “What’s up?”

 

“Ezra’s missing,” he said without preamble. Yes, he and Ezra seemed relatively close, but what was leading up to this going to help. “Do you have any photos?” he asked, cutting off whatever questions Rave had been about to ask.

 

To Rave’s credit, his eyes didn’t stay wide for long and his mouth shut with a click as he thought about it. “Not recently,” he said finally. “I have some pictures that my mom took of us back when he was with Rick but it was years ago. He had short black hair and about thirty extra pounds to him.

 

Rylan snorted. “Well, we don’t have any except for when he was fifteen and strung out.”

 

Rave’s eyes widened but he didn’t say anything except, “Want me to go get them now?”

 

Rylan nodded. “Yeah. I’ll drive you.”

 

Rave didn’t have a car, he relied on public transportation and walking. He lived well within downtown so it wasn’t difficult for him, but driving would be faster. “Okay,” he said softly. “Max has actually been doing really well so he can handle things.”

 

“Good,” Rylan snapped, irritably. Honestly, he’d rather fire the human and close the shop for the day, but whatever.

 

They got to Rave’s apartment quickly. Rylan already knew the way; he had driven Rave home before after closing.

 

This time though, he parked and followed the fae up to his apartment. It was nicer than he had been expecting. Small but well decorated, everything looking not new, but in very good condition. It was mostly cream and white, but with bright accents of pink and turquoise.

 

Rylan grinned and dropped into a cushy, hot pink chair. “This is incredibly ugly,” he proclaimed.

 

Rave snorted from the other room. “And so, so comfortable.”

 

“Well, yes, that too.”

 

Rave reappeared a few minutes later with a few photos in hand. “Here. I don’t know how much help they’ll be but it’s something.”

 

Rylan took them and promptly winced at the first one. Ezra was considerably more healthy looking- less thin, less tired- but recognizable despite that and the flatly colored, short black hair. The haircut looked surprisingly good on him, although the color was weird, used to Rylan was to his crazy natural streaks. What garnered the wince though, was the terrible black eye Ezra was sporting. The eye had nearly swollen shut and the skin had split above the eyebrow and at his cheekbone.

 

Nonetheless, the man was smiling and leaning into Rick, who had his arm slung over his shoulders possessively.

 

“Shit,” Rylan muttered.

 

“Yeah,” Rave said softly. “They’re all like that. The only time I ever remember Ezra not being bruised was right after he came back, if it had been longer than a week or two. Rick beat him.”

 

Rylan winced and quickly switched to the next picture, hoping it would be better. It wasn’t. Ezra’s bright black eyes were okay in this one, but his lip was split and his jaw was one giant bruise. The next, the bruises were in a ring around his neck, and the next had them covering half his face.

 

“My mom took pictures whenever she could, using whatever excuse. She was always trying to get Ezra to go to the cops.”

 

Rylan flipped back to the one where it looked like Ezra had been strangled. Rick wasn’t in this one, and Ezra’s face was mostly okay although there were yellow and green splotches from almost healed bruises. But he was holding a tiny boy, whose face looked to be around ten or eleven, with a riot of blonde curls. “Is this you?”

 

Rave flushed and nodded. “Yeah. He wasn’t around much at this point, but all these pictures are from when he was… about thirty, I guess? Rick sold the house a few years later.”

 

“Jesus, you’re itsy. And blonde.”

 

“You’re blonde.”

 

“Are you naturally blonde?”

 

“No, but I was.”

 

Rylan glanced up at him, smiling a little. “Seriously? Your hair changed from blonde to lavender?”

 

Rave scowled at him. “It turned pink for a while too. And is this the time?”

 

“Right,” Rylan muttered, looking back and the photos. “Sorry.”

 

Rave shrugged. “I get it. You distract yourself when you have feelings.” He put feelings in air quotes. “And these photos are really disturbing.”

 

“Yeah,” Rylan muttered. “Can I take these?”  

Rave nodded hurriedly. “Of course. And um…” He trailed off for a moment. “Can I come with you?” he finally asked. “I just… I want to know what’s happening. Ezra’s been around for most of my life.”

 

“Of course,” Rylan said, a little surprised. But it made sense. He handed the photos back to Rave. “You should carry these then, on account of being more careful.”

 

Rave nodded and followed him out of his apartment, locking the door behind him.

 

--

 

They trooped into the house and found all of the men gathered in the living room. Malachi was back from his meeting, looking unhappy, but he shook his head when asked if anything went wrong.

 

“No, no, it all went fine. Not well, but not badly. But they don’t seem to one hundred percent believe Ezra is really missing, or at least that he was kidnapped. He… His meetings with Rick, even when he was married to us, are on record because of the hospital visit.”

 

Rylan swore and stomped over to the center couch, throwing himself down on it. The cushions were too soft to make a satisfying bang, but the pictures that he had reclaimed from Rave flew everywhere when he tossed them down on the table, which made up for it a little.

 

Rave rolled his eyes and crossed the room to gather them up. He set them on the table and perched on the couch, on the other side of Malachi who was calmly rubbing Rylan’s back.

 

“I brought the most recent pictures that I have, although his face is pretty messed up in all of them,” he said softly. “Is it okay that I’m here? I w-“

 

Malachi nudged him with his elbow, lying back and pulling Rylan to lean against him. “It’s no problem,” he said gently. “You’re always welcome here, right?”

 

Everyone in the room nodded, except Giovanni but that was to be expected. Nonetheless, Rave slid off the couch and kneeled in front of the chair Giovanni and Leo were on.

 

“Hey,” he said softly. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Rave; I work for Rylan.”

 

Giovanni turned his face to look at him. "Hi," he said softly. "I'm Giovanni."

 

Rave nodded, smiling softly. "I've heard lots of good things about you." Rylan resisted the urge to snort. He had not. Mostly, he just heard Rylan bitching about him being so quiet and meek. Rylan liked the seer and had even been managing to get along with him lately, but that didn't mean he was always real happy about him shutting himself away.

 

Giovanni twisted the hem of his shirt in his free hand and Rylan saw his fingers tighten around Leo's hand before he answered. "I'm sure you actually haven't," he said softly.

 

Rave started and then laughed. "Okay, maybe not good things, but nothing bad either. Just that you're shy." Rave seemed less cautious now that Giovanni had actually said something. "I just wanted to make sure if it was okay with you if I'm here-"

 

"Of-" Giovanni started, but Rave cut him off.

 

"For real. Because it's your home and if I made you feel uncomfortable or like you had to leave, I would feel absolutely terrible about it. I can wait at home."

 

Giovanni shook his head quickly. "No, no, it's fine."

 

Rave nodded happily and got to his feet. "Thank you," he said before going back to take his seat next to Rylan.

 

Malachi nudged his arm. "Nice," he said softly.

 

Rave smirked at him. "I am always nice, thank you very much." Malachi grinned at him and stood. “I should take these to the cops,” he said softly, picking up the pile of pictures. He promptly winced at the top one. “Ouch.”

 

“Yeah,” Rylan muttered.

 

Malachi lurched to his feet.

 

 Holly stood as well and followed him to the door. “I’ll come with you.”