Chapter Text
Bull caught sight of the figure on the side of the road too late. The passenger side tire dove into the puddle, splashing the stranger in a wall of water to match the evening’s downpour. He had enough time to see the slumped shoulders and the hanging head before he made his decision. He pulled to the side of the road, threw his flashers on, and grabbed his umbrella before he headed back to the soaked figure.
“I’m so sorry,” he said over the roar of the rain. Up close the guy was even more miserable looking, didn’t even try to yell at Bull.
“What’s a little more water?” He was young, looked younger in his drowned clothes and matted hair.
Bull handed over the umbrella into chilled hands. “You waiting for a ride?” It was a mostly empty stretch of road. Not good for meeting people or hitching rides.
The guy looked up at the umbrella. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
The emptiness of his tone settled along Bull’s spine like a flash of ice. The guy didn’t look dangerous, but something was off. He leaned down to catch the stranger’s eye. “You okay? Do you need help?”
He shook his head, but it seemed more like he didn’t know how to answer than he didn’t want help.
“Okay. I’m Bull. What’s your name?”
“Dorian.”
Bull chucked his thumb over his shoulder. “Okay, Dorian. How about this? We get in my car and I drive you somewhere with a lot less water. Is there someone you can call?”
Again Dorian shook his head, but he let Bull lead him to the car and usher him into the passenger seat after he moved the pizza boxes to the back. It was going to be cold by the time he got them back to the boys, but he thought they’d understand. Or at least be used to it by now.
Bull pulled out a couple of blankets and some bottles of water he kept in the trunk and passed them over to Dorian when he got in on his side. Dorian took them with shaking hands and set them in his lap. Bull had to reach over and buckle him in and then spread the blankets over him. “Can you tell me where you live? I can drive you home.”
Dorian started laughing, strained and painful. He raised a shaking hand to his face to wipe away the water and Bull saw a trace of red on his wrist and the cuffs of his shirt were darker than water would account for.
“Are you hurt?” He flicked on the overhead light and took Dorian’s hand. There was a long, vertical slice running up Dorian’s arm, not deep, but still bleeding. His skin was cold and clammy to the touch. “Okay, new plan. I’m taking you to a hospital.”
Dorian’s hand shot out and he gripped Bull’s arm with surprising strength. “No. He’ll know. My father,” he stopped, choked off.
Bull knew, objectively that people were terrible everywhere, but it always seemed like he found a special level of awful whenever they were in Tevinter. “Your father did this to you?”
Dorian turned his face to the window, his lips pressed tight and bloodless.
“All right. Okay.” He turned on the car. “One of my boys is a paramedic, so he can take a look at you. But it’s just for the night until we can get you somewhere safe, all right?” He pulled back out onto the road, and tried not to think about what Krem’s would say when he walked in with another stray. At least this one would be temporary.
The rain had mostly stopped by the time he pulled into the hotel parking lot, so it was easy to maneuver Dorian and four boxes of pizza out of the car. The looks from the front desk attendant and the couple who rode the elevator with them were less fun, but nobody stopped them.
Which was, actually, kind of shitty.
Bull kept one hand on Dorian’s shoulder as they walked. The guy looked drained and kept listing to the side. The last thing Bull needed was his planting his face in the carpet. At the door, he couldn’t dig out his key card, so he banged until Dalish let him in, figuring it was too soon to ask Dorian to get the key from his pocket.
She took one look at Dorian, and then turned her gaze on Bull in a mixture of pity and scorn. “We asked you to pick up pizza, Boss. Not shems.” She took the pizza boxes and left to let Bull sort out his own mess.
“It’s just the one.” But she wasn’t listening. He closed the door and led Dorian into the common room of the suite, a large open space that separated the bedrooms on either side. Bull settled Dorian onto one of the couches and waved over Stitches. “Here we go, big guy. You sit here and Stitches is going to take a look at you. I’m going to get you a towel.”
Krem, who’d been twitchy since they crossed the border, grabbed his arm and dragged him into the bathroom. “What are you doing?”
“I found him on the side of the road. I couldn’t just leave him there.”
Krem ran his hand over his face. “Are you trying to get us arrested? He’s an altus, he’s covered in blood, and you thought you’d just pick him up?”
Bull grabbed a stack of clean towels. “He needed help.”
“Did you get a name?”
Bull heaved a sigh and turned to shout out into the main room. “Hey Dorian, what’s your last name?”
“Pavus,” he stuttered through chattering teeth.
“You want to hurry it up with those towels, Chief? Kid’s in shock.” Stitches was crouched in front of Dorian taking his pulse and looking at his eyes.
Krem’s grip on his arm tightened. “Pavus. You picked up Dorian fucking Pavus on the side of the road and brought him here?” He shook his head. “This is not good, Chief. Did anyone see you bring him in?”
“The guy at the front desk and the couple in C23.”
Krem moaned. “We’ve got to pack up and go. We’ll call Passeri from the road and tell her that the contract is off.” He tilted his head back to look at the ceiling as he ran the numbers. “We can return the fee plus fifteen percent for damages and we won’t take too much of a hit. Hotel’s paid through the week, your stray can stay here until it runs out.” He walked out into the main room and raised his voice. “Everybody pack your shit, we’re out in ten.”
“Last I checked, I was the one who made decisions around here.” Bull kept his voice even as he stared down at Krem.
“Yeah, well, when you make stupid ass decisions, someone else is in charge for a bit. Did you read any of the information for this job? You just picked up the only son of one of the most powerful families in Tevinter. His dad is nuts. He will roast us alive.”
Bull remembered the look on Dorian’s face when he said his father was responsible. “Shit.”
“Hey, Chief. We’ve got a bigger problem here.” Stitches called them over. He’s managed to help Dorian from his shirt and in addition to the twin slices on the inside of each arm, there was an elegant glyph burned into the center of Dorian’s chest. The size of a serving platter, it was raw and red.
Dorian was shivering, his eyes glassy. Bull snapped a finger in front of his face to get his attention. “You said your dad did this?” Behind him, Krem swore, but Bull kept his focus on Dorian, who nodded.
Dalish edged in and sniffed. “Blood magic?”
Again, Dorian nodded. “He tried,” but the rest of the story wouldn’t come.
“He didn’t finish whatever he started?” Bull waited for Dorian’s no then swept his gaze around the room. “Krem’s right. Let’s pack up. Stitches, patch him up as best as you can. We’re not leaving him here, though. He’s coming with us.”
Bull’s bag was already packed. It had been years since he had to pick up and leave at a moment’s notice at any given moment, but it was a hard habit to break, and it served him well at that moment. While Stitches finished with Dorian, Bull packed up his things and also sorted out a new shirt and jeans for Dorian. Even though Stitches had a couple inches on him, they couldn’t have him walking around in wet clothes.
On the couch, Dorian had a towel draped over his head. Stitches had bandaged his arms and chest, though tiny pinpricks of red were already seeping through. “Just for the record, I don’t like moving him so soon.” Stitches stood and took his suitcase.
“I know.” On his own, Bull would have holed up in the hotel with Dorian for another day or two, but Krem’s instincts were rarely wrong. “Skinner, Dalish, go start up the cars. We’re not going to be able to leave without a fuss, so Krem go check us out. Everyone else leave in pairs. I’ll handle Dorian.” Dorian, who was still sitting shirtless and dazed.
“Come on, big guy,” he said as the Chargers went into action. “You’ve got to put on the clothes, not just look at them.” When it didn’t look like Dorian was going to move on his own, Bull reached out to draw him to his feet. He eased the button down over Dorian’s bandages and did up the buttons when Dorian’s fingers were too clumsy for the task. His skin was still chilled.
The room was mostly empty, just Rocky grabbing the pizza boxes, so it gave them a little privacy. People could be weird about that. “Pants, too.” Bull thought he might hesitate, but Dorian just shucked them off and let them fall to the floor in a wet heap, like they were nothing instead of ridiculously expensive. He pulled on the jeans, holding on to Bull’s arm for balance and then Bull knelt to cuff the too long hems.
With his bag over his shoulder, Bull grabbed a couple of bottles of water from the fridge and then ushered Dorian out of the room. “Think you can hold it together until we get to the car?”
Dorian gripped the bar behind him in the elevator and closed his eyes. The fine shivers stopped first. Then, Dorian opened his eyes, ran his hand through his hair turning it from wayward to artfully disheveled. He plastered a careless grin on his face and hooked his arm through Bull’s. “Of course, darling.” There was hardly a tremor to his voice. If Bull hadn’t seen it happen, hadn’t seen him listless and empty in the rain, he would have believed it entirely.
The elevator dinged and Dorian sauntered out into the lobby, loose limbed and cheerful. Krem was waiting by the door and in moments they were in the parking lot. Krem slid into the driver’s seat of the van while Dalish was behind the wheel of the other car. Bull got in next to Dorian and helped him secure his seatbelt. Stitches settled in on the other side.
They were on the road without any fuss and though he kept looking, there were no flashing lights of police cruisers behind them.
Quiet settled over the car. The show Dorian put on for the lobby fell away and he was left pale and silent. Stitches tucked a blanket around him and urged him to drink one of the bottles of water. Eventually, he handed the empty bottle back and then a moment later, he was asleep.
Krem kept meeting Bull’s gaze in the rearview. “What?”
“What’s the plan here, Chief?”
Bull took a minute to look at Dorian. The hunted air to him eased in his sleep as he leaned in toward Bull. He was older than Bull thought, since he wasn’t dripping and stunned. Damn pretty, too.
“Oh, no.”
“What?” He was defensive and as soon as he said it, he knew he played it wrong.
“We are not kidnapping one of the most photographed Alti in the country just for your booty call.”
“That hurts, that’s hurtful, Krem. Is it really kidnapping if he came with us willingly?”
Krem jerked on the turn signal with more force than necessary. “In his state? You don’t even need a half decent lawyer to claim we took advantage of him. And his family? They’ve got way better than half decent lawyers.”
“How do you know so much about him?”
Krem’s sigh was aggrieved and Stitches had his face turned firmly to the window, pretending not to listen. “Do you read the news or watched even ten minutes of the local broadcasts since we’ve been here. You have a phone, fucking google him.”
Bull pulled out his phone. “Clearly you need some time to calm down.”
“Calm down. Calm down he says. I did not get out of this Maker forsaken place to end up back here. In prison. We are not doing any more jobs in Tevinter. I mean it, Chief. Stop fucking taking me here.”
“All right,” he held up a hand and then turned his attention to his phone. Sometimes it was best to let Krem fume a bit on his own.
The search didn’t take long to pull up information; Dorian Pavus had his own Wikipedia page. He was listed on the board of the Minrathous Circle. His name was attached to dozens of articles on magic—high level shit that Bull had no hope of following. There were hundreds of photographs of him, some official, some candid shots from people’s phones. He looked good in all of them. He was the scion of House Pavus and set to inherit millions and was considered one of Tevinter’s most eligible bachelors.
He’d also been missing from the public eye for almost three months.
“Shit.”
“Yeah. So. What’s the plan?”
Dorian’s head was warm and heavy against his arm. “We get out of the city. Ditch the cars, then get out of the country.
Krem made an unimpressed sound. “With him.”
“Yeah. If he wants.”
“Great. You know what else is awesome?” He frowned at Bull in the rearview. “Rocky took all the pizzas with him in the other car.”
That explained more about Krem’s mood. He got so cranky when he wasn’t fed. “We should stop and get something.”
“Yeah, we should. And you’re buying me the biggest Maker-damned fries on the menu.”