It's the four-month anniversary of Scarlet's death and subsequent entrance to vampire-hood. With Nikolaos away most of the time to work with Amphitrite, he is finally back in Britchelstone and Scarlet is struggling to know what to do to distract herself. Luckily, Kai has just the idea... Monopoly. Scarlet, Nikolaos, Kai, and Rune all sit down for a pleasant playthrough of the game. What could go wrong?
This short story is set halfway between The Fire Within My Heart and Scalding Waters.
“All’s fair in love and war, and Monopoly is the battlefield on which I will die.”
Kai sat crossed-legged across from me on one of the sofas, his green t-shirt bringing out the deep orange of eyes forever stuck in panther form. Leopard, to be precise. It was one of the few nights that Nikolaos wasn’t stuck at Amphitrite’s—the European Empress of vampire kind—side. Tonight was the four-month anniversary of my death, a painful reminder of the fateful night that Nikolaos had found me dead and discarded on the side of the road. He’d made me a vampire, given me the gift of immortality, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t mourn my human life. Neither Nikolaos nor Rune seemed particularly bothered by the occasion, with Rune trying to help by reminding me that time is a construct in which I am no longer caged.
Luckily I had Kai, who suggested that the four of us got together to try and distract me. Nikolaos hadn’t been thrilled, but it hadn’t taken much effort on my part to convince him. In fact, he gave in suspiciously easily, which made me think he was trying his best to be empathetic of my needs. I guess when you’ve spent over two millennia as a vampire, three months really doesn’t seem like anything more than a fleeting breath in time. Still, I gave him props for trying.
When Kai had suggested we do something as a group, I hadn’t really known what to expect. We’d started having weekly meals together—well, Kai ate, I generally had to feast on a human before coming to their house. Nikolaos was away so often at the moment that they’d become my only consistent company, and it was company I very much appreciated. So, thinking that Kai would just come over with Gwydion to cook and maybe hunt the woods later, it was fair to say I had been surprised to see him rock up on our doorstep with a Monopoly box in hand.
Nikolaos was still out getting something to eat, and Rune wouldn’t be here until later, so I had let Kai in wordlessly, eyeing up the box sitting unopened on the table.
‘I went out ‘n’ got this earlier,’ Kai said, his Southern drawl thick and sweet and a sound I’d begun to associate with home.
‘I, uh…’ The words faltered as I thought of what to say, still surprised. ‘I haven’t played Monopoly in years.’
Kai raised a dark eyebrow, and at risk of hurting his feelings after the effort he was making to cheer me up, I added, ‘My dad watched this show that basically said how Monopoly is like a way of instilling capitalism into us or something. I don’t know. He got rid of the game after that.’
Kai chuckled, deep and syrupy. ‘I ain’t played in years either. Seemed like it could be fun to mix it up a bit.’
‘Do you think Niko and Rune will like it?’
It looked as though Kai were about to reply when the front doorknob turned and our two respective lovers walked in, lips pursed into equally severe lines. I guess they must have bumped into each other on the way here. Nikolaos wore a red silk shirt tucked into leather trousers so tight they might as well have been his skin. Black boots rode up to his knees, the leather soft and worn. His black hair hung dark and thick and full around his shoulders, the waves glinting in the light of the stars above the porch.
Behind him, Rune emerged a shadow of a white, long, sickly body almost having to bend to fit through the doorframe. Fabric draped over his limbs, dark, obscuring his figure. In all the time I’d known him, Rune had never worn jeans or a t-shirt. Opting only for coarse cloth to hide the bones of his body.
Both men were so disparate in looks, though each looked as though they’d both just stepped out of some historical fantasy. Their tiringly forced begrudging of one another meant neither man dare relax in the other’s company, making their eyes shine with apathetic arrogance and lips unsmiling.
Nikolaos went to open his mouth when I burst into laughter. I just couldn’t help it. I’d been tepid towards the thought of playing a board game until the thought of playing it with these two took over. Now, I was positively excited.
Nikolaos cocked an arched eyebrow at me, looking confused.
‘I did not know it had become courtesy to greet people through mockery,’ Rune jeered. ‘Is it a recent human custom of which I am not aware?’
I forced myself to stop laughing, choking on the humour that was adamant to rear its head.
‘Hello, Rune.’
The two men furthered into the room. He nodded his head at me. ‘Lettie.’
Kai shifted on the sofa so he could face his husband, and just like that, all of the sardonic temperament was lost to unbreakable love. Rune was ice, as cold and deadly as a breeze to freeze your heart, but Kai was the warmth of a hundred smiling faces to chase the chill away.
I left the men to their greeting, preoccupied with my own lover. It was hard not to be distracted by Nikolaos. Standing at around six foot, he was a vision of Ancient perfection carved into flesh. At times, he stood so still it was as if he became a statue made to be a prized possession in any museum’s collection. And then the deep, swirling green of his eyes would move, and life was restored to a man too beautiful to be real. Teetering on the edge of entirely masculine and softly feminine, Nikolaos might have looked more like a woman if it weren’t for the curve of his strong nose where it had been broken as a human or the wide set of his shoulders in his slender frame. He’d have made a handsome woman, but he also made a beautiful man.
‘Bonsoir, ma chérie,’ he whispered in my ear in that voice that made silk feel bristly. I stood on my knees to meet the bend of his body, lips falling onto his like they were made to be there. I could taste the blood on his tongue, sanguine sugar garnishing the flavour of his mouth. I forced my mouth harder onto his, tongue trailing over the swell of his lips, the point of his fangs.
‘We have company,’ he breathed, reluctantly pulling free from me.
I let the satin of his hair slip through my fingers, luxuriating in the sensation of it in my hands.
‘I missed you,’ I said just as the last threads fell free of my grasp.
Nikolaos nodded his head, eyes gone soft in a way I know he hated about himself. Rune obnoxiously clearing his throat brought my attention back to the other two. Kai’s eyes smiled, but I knew it was nothing to do with us. He was just happier when in the company of Rune. Nikolaos could not relate to that. He cast a scornful glare in the direction of the necromancer, but, as he did, something on the table caught his eye.
‘Monopoly?’ Nikolaos cocked his head to one side.
‘Your powers of observation are unmatched, Nikolaos.’
Reaching over to lift off the lid, Kai said, ‘I bought it for us to play.’
‘It is a board game,’ Nikolaos said, though to me it sounded more like a question.
Looking at the board being unpacked by his husband, Rune snapped, ‘Of course it’s a board game.’ And then looked at his husband as if for confirmation.
Kai started pulling apart the bag that contained the red and green plastic houses. ‘Yes, it’s a board game.’
‘Wait, you guys have played before, right?’
Nikolaos and Rune exchanged a look, both of them taking a seat beside Kai and me respectively. Gwydion automatically threw his long arm behind his husband, who nestled his body closer into the curve of Rune.
‘Of course, we have,’ Nikolaos said.
Kai pulled out the rules, eyes flicking over them to remind himself.
I gave suspicious eyes to both men in turn.
‘So, you’ll know the rules then?’ I asked, knowing full well they were lying.
Kai looked at me from over the pamphlet, catching on to where I was going.
‘Scarlet, we have been alive since before Monopoly was a mere seedling in the dirt of Hasbro’s mind,’ this from Rune.
I sucked my lips into my mouth, hiding the smile. ‘Great, well, Kai and I already know how to play. I guess we can just discard those instructions then.’
Kai’s eyes lit up, burning orange like the embers of an amused fire.
‘Already on it, darlin’,’ he said, folding up the instructions, sliding them into his pocket.
We smiled at each other across the table.
Kai had set up the chance and community chest cards in their respective positions. I was already eyeing up the dark blue tile of Mayfair, feeling the beast of competitiveness within me rearing its head. My hands rubbed together, fingers interlocking, stretching outwards.
‘Which piece do you want to be?’ I asked Nikolaos, hoping he wouldn’t claim the thimble. I am always the thimble.
Nikolaos looked uncertain, eyes flickering across the board, then he did a little bow of the head and, with a flurry of hand, said, ‘Ladies first.’
Well played, Nikolaos, well played.
I squinted my eyes at him but picked up my little silver thimble, plonking it down on Go. Kai flittered through the colourful banknotes, sorting them into the appropriate piles, handling all that sweet Monopoly cash. More importantly, though, I wanted to see which piece Nikolaos picked to play with. I feel like you can tell a lot about someone by what Monopoly piece they choose—I’m not sure exactly what you can tell, but something.
He chose the car.
‘Interesting choice,’ I said, throwing him off his game.
He flashed me a dry look as he put the metal car on the starting spot, though he did withdraw momentarily. Nikolaos settled back onto the sofa, one leg crossed over the other, lounging with the grace of someone who should be on a throne.
Next came Rune, and, to be honest, I was even more fascinated to see what one drew him in. Nikolaos might be aloof, but he was not the wild card Gwydion was. Gwydion picked up the tophat with the confidence of someone who’d done it a hundred times before, making direct eye contact with me as his hand moved towards Go. My stomach tensed. Maybe this wasn’t his first time. Had this all been a ruse to make me feel comfortable? Lastly, Kai went for the dog—which I found kind of ironic.
With the money divvied up between us, the game was on.
We might not have established the actual game rules, but Kai and I were trying to argue personal rules amongst the group. Mainly, against the use of magick.
‘But it’s not fair, as you have the upper hand!’ I protested. ‘You’re the only one of us who can use magick in a way that would compromise the integrity of the game!’
I fell back against the sofa, arms crossed over my chest. Looking at my lover, I expected him to have my back against Rune, after all, Nikolaos would never miss a chance to argue with the necromancer.
‘I advocate magick,’ he surprised me by saying.
I gaped at him. ‘You sly bastard, you’ve already thought of a way to cheat.’
Nikolaos shrugged, fingers twirling with one of the five-hundred-dollar bills.
‘It is not our fault you cannot be more creative with the use of your powers,’ quipped Rune.
I turned pleading eyes to my last remaining ally. ‘Kai.’
His shoulders slumped. ‘Just let them have it, darlin’. Ain’t no use fightin’.’
I sighed. ‘Fine. Magick is allowed, I guess.’
It’s meant to be played that the person who rolls the highest goes first, but my family always went with the eldest first, and we were playing Cherie family rules tonight. In hindsight, it was probably just a way for my dad to get a head start. Nikolaos, who had at least two millennia on all of us, had no complaints.
He picked up the dice, holding them between his shaking palm, and cast them onto the board. A three and a one. Straight onto the Income Tax square. Nikolaos stared at the board as if it had greatly wronged him.
Kai held out his expectant palm. ‘C’mon.’
‘Yes, pay up, Nikolaos. We must respect the humans’ tax laws.’
Nikolaos and I both glared at him. ‘I’m going to start fining you twenty quid every time either of you is sarcastic.’
Gwydion went to open his mouth in protest but I shook my head. ‘No, no, this is a lawless game, remember? Unless you want to agree to play normally?’
Gwydion smiled at me, a sinister twist of lips that was by no means friendly. ‘I concede.’
I turned to Nikolaos.
‘As do I.’
‘Then cough up, sweetheart. We have a game to play.’
Both men looked at me like they’d never seen me before. I wasn’t known for my competitiveness, in fact, quite the opposite, but Monopoly does something to me. Makes me ruthless and cold. All’s fair in love and war, and Monopoly is the battlefield on which I will die.
My go. I rolled a double one—community chest. Nice! It is your birthday. Collect £10 from each player. Yes!
Kai handed me the ten pounds without hesitating, but Nikolaos and Gwydion were reluctant.
‘I dislike this game,’ said Nikolaos, letting the note fall onto my clenching palm.
‘You lured me here under false pretences. I would not have come if I’d known,’ Gwydion said, handing over the tenner.
‘I see no appeal. Even for humans, this is mundane,’ Niko added.
‘You say that now, but this game has torn even the most stable families apart.’
Kai nodded in agreement.
‘I do not see how it can inspire such passion.’
‘Nor I, Nikolaos,’ Gwydion said, reaching his hand for the dice. ‘Nor I.’
Using vampire speed, I got there first, grabbing them.
‘Nu-uh. My go again. I rolled a double.’
‘You are making this up,’ Gwydion said suspiciously.
‘Oh, so admit you don’t know the rules!’
He withdrew back, hand curling under his chin. ‘I did not say that.’
‘She ain’t makin’ it up,’ Kai said, snuggling into Rune’s chest.
The dice ended up totalling a five, taking me to Chance. I picked up the card, anxious to know what fate awaited me. I knew what the words said, but my brain was taking a moment to process them. No way. No way could I really be this lucky.
‘Ma chérie, are you well?’
I peered at Nikolaos.
‘Well? Niko, I am more than well!’ I slapped the card face-up onto the board, moving my thimble all the way to that glowing tile, the one that enchanted me from the moment the board was out. I looked Kai dead in the eye as I said, ‘I’ll take it!’
Kai let out a low whistle, pulling out the Mayfair card and handing it to me. I passed him the four hundred pounds without hesitation.
‘You look jovial,’ Nikolaos remarked.
I handed him the card. ‘Smell it, you’ll see why.’
Nikolaos frowned at me but took the card, sniffing it. ‘I do not understand.’
‘You can’t smell it?’
He sniffed again. ‘Cardboard.’
I grinned, snatching the card back from his hand. ‘The smell of victory.’
Distantly, under Kai’s breath, I heard him whisper, ‘I’ve created a monster.’
The comment got the look it deserved.
Gwydion landed on King’s Cross Station and bought it; Kai bought The Angel, Islington.
Rolling a five, Nikolaos took a trip to jail—but don’t worry, he was only visiting.
Rolling a double five, Gwydion landed on Marylebone Station. He bought it. Then a double one, which landed him on a community chest granting him a £100 inheritance. Gwydion was riding the Monopoly luck high when the dice crashed to the board, revealing a double three. He was just about to start moving his piece when Kai grabbed his husband’s hand.
‘Jail,’ he said.
Gwydion looked up at him, their faces so close they were almost touching.
‘Excuse me?’
Kai parted his lips, breath blowing against Gwydins mouth, his fingers tensing over Gwydion’s wrist. He pressed his lips against Rune’s; I thought they were about to kiss.
Instead, he said, ‘Three doubles. Go to jail.’ And pulled back suddenly.
‘This is inequitable,’ Rune said, sounding indigent, but still, he moved the tophat to jail where Nikolaos was waiting.
‘Oh, Nikolaos, it has been centuries since I saw you behind bars,’ he jeered, and it was a low blow, even by Rune’s standards.
Centuries ago, Nikolaos and Rune had met for the first time. They’d become great friends, but Nikolaos’s insidious companion, Camille, had tested not only their friendship but Nikolaos’s resolve. Rune had saved Nikolaos from the humans burning down the house in which the coterie of vampires all resided, letting each vamp burn, including his lover. Addicted to the cocktail of blood, drugs, and torture, Nikolaos had begged Rune to take his powers from him. Gwydion had kept him locked up in a silver prison until he was ‘clean’, abiding by Niko’s wish to steal him off his abilities. Centuries later, the love and loss shared between the two men still bled tension into any situation.
Nikolaos gave Rune a look so cold it could freeze fire. ‘How the tables have turned.’
Gwydion shrugged, his apathy more scathing than any response could have been. ‘I am a demon; no jail can hold me. I demand to be let free this instance.’
Kai and I exchanged a look, one filled with the tension of what had just been said, and also uncomfortable humour at Gwydion’s reaction.
‘We are playing human rules, remember? So you can’t just break free.’
Gwydion opened his mouth, baring teeth of daggers, closed it, and finally relented. I think he might have realised just how low that comment had sunk. I thought the potential arguments might have eased until along came Niko’s go. I handed him the dice only to be snubbed.
‘It’s your go, Niko,’ I said.
‘I relinquish my go; I would rather watch Rune rot in prison.’
I touched Nikolaos’s arm, drawing his attention back to me instead of glaring at the tophat on the board like it was some malicious entity.
‘C’mon, Niko, it’s just a game.’ I rubbed his arm, feeling the silk of his shirt under my fingers. ‘Use his time in jail to get far in the game and beat him.’
Niko took the dice from me, finally getting to buy his first bit of land. Such formidable competitiveness burned in his eyes, it was terrifying. Oh no, I’d created a monster.
Dawn pressed against the night, a threat of sunlight to chase the darkness away. Through the window, I could see the sky fading from black to blue, with it coming the fear of day instilled in all vampires. The Monopoly board was a clash of colour, red and green houses and hotels littering the board. Nikolaos and Gwydion had quickly caught onto the rules, their fierce need to beat each other a weapon like no other. At some point, Kai and I had faded into insignificance. In fact, the game itself had become superfluous to the quarrel between the two men. It was collateral damage to a feud left to decay any hope of friendship. Using countless years of guile and ploys, the men had ended up monopolising most of the board. I’d had to mortgage almost all of my properties, and even now was on the verge of bankruptcy. Oh, how the queen had fallen.
Abruptly, Nikolaos stood from his bent-over position on the sofa, pulling from behind his ear the cigarette he’d been playing with for the past few hours.
‘I am going for a cigarette,’ he declared.
I looked up from him from my slump on the sofa. I was bored with their verbal fighting, and now they had a new means to attack one another, it was still just as boring. The game had wearied me since just past midnight, now the birds were singing songs of sunrise and I was positively sick of it.
Kai stopped rubbing his fingers over his eyes enough to nod at Nikolaos.
‘Are you to accompany me?’ he asked me, but he was still glaring at Gwydion, who studied the board as if he could memorize it.
‘I guess so.’
The winter wind bit against my bare arms, sleepiness growing in me the way the sun grew in the sky. I snuggled into Nikolaos’s side, blowing the smoke away from our bodies. Though his arm held me to him, his body was rigid, and his eyes were distant. Thinking, plotting.
‘It’s almost dawn,’ I said, worried he might actually not have noticed.
‘I know,’ Nikolaos replied, but he didn’t sound like he’d really heard me.
I nodded my cheek against his chest, not having the energy to extend the conversation. It wasn’t just that I was tired, I was done in from the game.
When we came back in, the energy in the room had changed to one deeply uncomfortable. Kai turned to look back at me as we approached, a warning in his eyes. Taking our positions back on the sofa, Gwydion extended his hand out.
‘Give them to me.’
I frowned, confused.
‘I do not know to what you are referring.’
‘The hotels, Nikolaos, I know you stole them when you went to tar your lungs! Empty your pockets!’
Nikolaos let out an exasperated puff of air, rolling his eyes. Both men stood at the same time, tense and angry, all the air in the room stolen by their rage.
‘I do not even have pockets!’ Nikolaos protested, his voice gone to that infuriating mocking tone.
‘D’you have coffee?’ Kai asked, peeking from behind Rune’s legs.
I nodded. Gwydion didn’t notice Kai leave, nor did they notice me get up to follow him. We turned our backs on them just as Nikolaos started to unbutton his shirt, proving that he’d not stolen the little plastic hotels. Neither men were ones to raise their voices, so we left the room to the melody of equally scathing and dry tones.
By the time we’d come back inside, Nikolaos was shirtless, his silk shirt discarded on the floor. He was never usually so careless with clothing. Gwydion had his finger pressed into the other man’s chest; in his other hand, he held the rules that, at some point in the night, Kai had left on the sofa arm.
‘… cheating! You have always been a fabulist, untrustworthy!’
‘Fallacy!’ Nikolaos cried back.
Gwydion held the rules out in front of Nikolaos’s face, pressing the paper to his nose.
‘You bought a hotel before all four houses were erected! You duplicitous swindler!’
'You used magick—do not think I did not notice. We agreed it was cheating!'
Nikolaos followed up by saying something low and angry in French which I didn’t understand, nor did I want to. Kai and I sat back on the sofa, him taking a sip of the still boiling coffee. We began to stack up our property cards, removing the houses from their spots.
‘What are you doing?’ both Nikolaos and Gwydion demanded of us at the same time, the power of their rage directed at us like a blizzard breeze. I shivered.
‘Puttin’ the game away,’ said Kai, not looking at either of them.
‘It’s almost dawn,’ I added.
They looked out the window as if they were only just now realising the time.
‘You cannot put the game away. We have not finished playing,’ Niko said.
‘Are you serious?’ I asked, and Kai laughed and shook his head.
‘You can play another time. I wanna go home.’
‘Fine! A rematch then. I challenge you to a duel of wit and capital, Nikolaos,’ Gwydion challenged.
‘I accept your challenge. Name a night and I will attend.’
Gwydion had thrown down the gauntlet forged of shitty cheap plastic and colourful banknotes; Nikolaos had picked it up. Oh, great.
They stayed staring at each other for a second, and then the two men forced their hands into each other’s in a handshake which radiated with a play of dominance. Neither of them backed down, shaking furiously, but that was fine as it kept them quiet as we put the game away.
‘Maybe a different game next time,’ Kai said to me with a smile.
‘Snakes and ladders is a classic. I can’t imagine them finding a way to make that so competitive.’
We were silent for a moment, both thinking over every way which our partners could absolutely make a childhood classic something diabolical.
‘Or we just leave the board games,’ I said.
My bare body pressed into the line of Nikolaos, his fingers working their way along the curve of my hip, the soft flesh bunched at my belly.
‘Did you have an agreeable evening, ma chérie?’
I might have answered, but at that moment dawn broke, and I collapsed into sleep with the thoughts of a hundred scenarios where Nikolaos and Gwydion were left alone to their rematch. None of which ended well. But, at no point did I think of how it was the four-month mark of my murder. So, in that sense, I guess it was an agreeable evening.
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