(2) Two vampires, a ghoul and a shifter.

"Piers, clean up the mess you made."

Piers scowled at his Sire. "Isn't that what the servants are for?"

"They are here to serve, not to be janitors. Now find a broom and get to work."

"Fine," Piers huffed, stalking off to look for one.

"That boy is going to drive me insane. I had hopes that bringing him here might mellow him. Apparently it hasn't."

Linden agreed wholeheartedly. "What he really needs is to be sequestered at the estate. No night life, no clubs, no—nothing."

Roderick tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I don't want to quell his spirit, but he does need to channel his energies into something other than partying and fucking any man who'll bend over for him."

"Like playing janitor?" Piers grumbled, coming back in with a broom and dustpan.

"Eavesdropping again, Piers?" Linden asked with a grin.

"Moi? Always if I can. It's the only way I can find out what torture Rod has lined up next for me." He set to work sweeping up the shattered pieces of dinnerware, still talking as he did. "First he drags me away from my friends the minute I've survived the turning. Then he takes me from city to city with him while he does whatever it is he does for the King, and finally we end up in this backwater burg with only two decent clubs and one of them is for straights. Though the bands they have there almost make that one tolerable."

"You seem to deal with it just fine when you take me along," Linden pointed out.

Throwing an arm around Linden's shoulder, Piers told him with a smile, "You keep me grounded."

Linden shrugged. "That's a ghoul's job."

"You do it exceptionally well." Piers kissed his cheek before going back to work.

Smiling to himself, Linden touched his cheek, and then reddened when he realized Roderick had been watching. "I—umm—had better get back to what I was doing," he muttered, hastily leaving the room.

"When you have finished, Piers, please come to my quarters. We need to talk."

Piers nodded while watching Roderick stride through the doorway. "Talk," he muttered disconsolately. "That's all you ever do. Talk." Angrily he reached for another plate then changed his mind. He still hadn't gotten all the shards swept up from the last pieces he'd thrown. Smash another one and he might never get finished.