【Part Two】Two-Faced

“Alright,” Adrian said. “We’ve got to make up our mind about how we’re earning cash.”

Rhys fidgeted uncomfortably in Adrian’s recliner. “I’m still not sure why we have to go through with this. There are a lot of ways to make money. It doesn't have to be something weird.”

“It’s not just about income,” Adrian told him. “It’s about having a place to work out of. And also, projecting an image. I get the impression that it’s important for whatever internal politics Araqiel is dealing with that we finance ourselves in a way that looks good for her House.”

“That’s how I understood it, too,” Christine said, sounding resigned. “But be that as it may, I’m not going to help open up a brothel. No matter how ‘appropriate’ it would be.”

“Agreed,” Adrian said. To his relief, not even the spirits had been too keen on the idea. “Fortunately, Araqiel gave us a good deal of leeway, so we won’t have to.”

“I thought your resort idea sounded cool,” Rhys offered.

“It’s too expensive,” Christine said shortly. Adrian gave her a look; they’d talked about this. Christine cleared her throat and rephrased in a less blunt tone. “I meant, Araqiel said funds were tight, right?”

“We have some money to work with, but yeah,” Adrian confirmed. “There’s a budget.”

“How much would the resort set us back?” Rhys asked.

Christine pulled out a number of folders from her canvas bag and set them on the table. “I’ve done some specs, and it's a lot. We’re talking several zeros more than the nightclub idea.”

Adrian grunted. “I’m not much of a club guy, though.”

“I’ve never been to one,” Rhys admitted.

“Would they even let you in?” Christine replied.

“I’m twenty-two,” Rhys said defensively. Then he shot back, “How often do you go out to the clubs?”

That shut her up. Adrian thought the exchange was almost playful. Almost. Which was progress as far as he was concerned, so he let it lie. Returning to the point, he said, “Starting a nightclub isn’t going to be cheap either.”

“No,” Christine agreed, flipping open one of her folders and leafing through the pages. “Construction costs alone are going to be substantial.”

“What if we just buy one?” Rhys asked. “Then we wouldn’t have to build it.”

Christine looked up, surprised. “I hadn’t thought of that. Good idea.”

Adrian gave a small snort under his breath. Christine had a way of missing the forest for the trees. “So what are the options there?” he asked.

“There are a small number of clubs in the city already. Most of them are doing pretty well, so I doubt they’d take any offer that saved us much on the cost of just opening our own. But there is one…hold on, I know it’s here somewhere…”

Christine rifled through her folders, finally finding what she was looking for. She set it down and tapped on the picture of a grimy-looking building, situated next to an empty lot. The sign out front read ‘Gilt’.

“That place should be condemned,” Rhys said.

“Reviews online are pretty negative,” Christine explained. “They don’t seem to have as many bookings as other clubs, and the ones they do have don't tend to be big names. Coupled with its state of disrepair, I’d guess it isn’t doing very well.”

“So they’d have a reason to accept an offer,” Adrian thought aloud.

“It will need some renovations if we want to turn a profit,” Christine added.

“Yeah,” Adrian laughed, “it sure will. I feel like I’d get roofied just walking in there. But we can fix it up, right?”

“I don’t see why not,” Christine answered.

“Well then," Adrian said, "that’s the plan. We’ll buy the place, fix it up, and…I guess we’ll own a nightclub.” He’d certainly never pictured himself as a club owner. It seemed like a sleazy kind of business to him, but then, being a knight had already dragged him further out of his comfort zone than he’d ever thought possible. He’d adjust.

“We’ll want to take a look at some comps to find a fair offer,” Christine said, opening up another of her folders.

Adrian and Rhys moved to join her at the table, and together they spent the afternoon firming up the plan. When they were winding down, Rhys found an opening to ask a question that he'd been itching to ask the whole day. “How’s it going with the other squires?”

Adrian groaned. “I’m working on it.”

“It’s just that…well, it’s not right to leave them out there…”

Rhys had made a point of trying to stick up for the other squires. Adrian respected him for it, even if it was a thorn in his side. He knew that it made Rhys uncomfortable to pressure Adrian like he was, so the fact that he was doing it anyway spoke to a certain strength of character. Still, Adrian wished he'd chosen another hill to die on.

“I’m not going to leave them hanging,” Adrian told him. A part of Adrian wanted to do exactly that, of course. He was dreading the conversations where he told these people what their lives were going to be like, and why. But he’d decided to embrace his position as knight, and that meant taking responsibility for his squires. “I’m seeing one of them tonight, actually.”

“Who?” Rhys asked, suddenly curious.

“A girl named Ivy. She goes to your college, I think. We knew each other a little before all this started, and she invited me out to see a movie.”

“Are you going to tell her?” Christine asked.

Adrian shook his head. “Not tonight. No.”

“Why not?" Rhys pressed. "You have to tell her eventually.”

“I know,” Adrian replied. “But I was thinking it’d be easier if I got all the squires in one place first. Then I’d only have to do it once. Besides, it might go down easier if they see that there are other people in the same boat.”

Christine shrugged. “Makes sense to me.”

“When is that happening then?” Rhys asked.

He could be tenacious, in a weirdly meek sort of way. Adrian tried not to hold it against him. He was right after all. “I hadn’t exactly picked out a date,” Adrian answered. “I was thinking later next week.”

“We shouldn’t wait.” It wasn’t a reprimand coming from Rhys; he was genuinely concerned about waiting too long.

“It’ll take some time to reach out,” Adrian told him. “I don’t even know some of these people. While we're on the topic though, Christine, do you think we could use your place for the meeting?”

“Why?” she asked.

“Well, seven people might get a little cramped here,” Adrian said, gesturing around his beat-up studio apartment. “And Rhys still lives with his parents, so that’s out.”

Rhys gave a sheepish smile. Adrian knew he felt a little embarrassed about his living arrangement, but he was still in college. Nobody expected him to have his own place.

“I have a roommate,” Christine said. “I don’t want her knowing about any of this.”

“Is she ever out?” Adrian asked.

“Well, yeah, but-“

“Please, Christine?” Rhys pleaded. “This is important.”

Christine frowned. She looked to Adrian, but he held firm. Finally, she sighed. “Fine. We can host it at my place. But this isn’t going to become a regular thing.”

“Once we have the club, we can do our meetups there,” Adrian told her. “We won't need to use your apartment again.”

“Let’s do it Friday then,” Christine said, defeated. “Mary will be on campus all day.”

“Friday works for me,” Rhys confirmed.

"Me too," Adrian agreed. Despite his cheery tone, a knot of worry had made a pretzel out of Adrian's guts. He was on a deadline now. He wouldn’t be able to push off contacting the other squires any longer.

Christine finished packing up her papers and slung her bag over her shoulder. “I’m going to get going then. Let me know what the owner thinks about our offer.”

“Will do,” Adrian promised, seeing her off at the door. When they were alone, he turned back to Rhys. “Need a ride home?”

“No,” Rhys said. “It’s fine. I’ll order a ride.”

While Rhys handled that, Adrian crashed down into his love seat and pulled out his phone to scroll through some news articles. The spirits had suggested it would be a good idea for Adrian to stay up to date on current affairs. He’d never had the time before to care much about what was going on in the wider world, but he could see the reasoning behind the suggestion. He never knew when Araqiel might have an interest in something that was going on. He was halfway through a piece about a bridge collapsing when Rhys made a quiet, strangled noise.

“Adrian…” Rhys said, voice soft and fearful.

Adrian looked up. Rhys was sitting at the table, phone clutched tightly in his hands, with an expression like he’d swallowed a bomb.

“It’s happening again,” Rhys breathed.

At first, Adrian didn’t know what Rhys meant, but a whisper in his mind clued Adrian in.

“He’s not quite fuckable enough yet.”

Adrian shot up and ran over to Rhys's side. Kneeling beside the chair, Adrian grabbed Rhys's hand. “It’s going to be ok,” Adrian told him.

“I don’t want to change,” Rhys mewled with his eyes closed. “Please. Make it stop.”

Adrian swallowed. There was no way around this. “It’ll be over soon,” was all that he could think to say. Rhys squeezed his hand tightly, and then the transformation began.

This was Adrian’s first time seeing it happen to another person. It was disturbing to watch. The skin of Rhys’ face began to vibrate and squirm, the bones underneath shifting in ways they were never supposed to. A primal part of Adrian’s mind screamed at the alien scene. The human body was not meant to be so plastic.

The contours of Rhys’ face took motion, crawling like slugs into their new configuration. His chin narrowed and pulled up, becoming less prominent. His jawline contracted, the bones curving gently from his mouth up to his ears. His nose shrank, becoming daintier. His eyes, on the other hand, grew. His lashes lengthened alongside them. The effect was striking given Rhys's piercing gray irises.

Individually, the changes were subtle. Each was a small adjustment, barely perceptible once it was done. But small changes add up, and people are very good at recognizing faces. In the end, the difference was more than the sum of its parts.

Rhys still looked like Rhys, but with his slight build, feminine curves, perky breasts, and now his soft facial features, if Rhys had shown up one day looking as he did now, Adrian would have assumed it was his twin sister.

“More to your taste?” asked a spirit.

“We wanted the kind of face you could see moaning underneath you,” added another, luridly. Accompanying the comment, the spirits projected an image to Adrian of Rhys, lying naked on his back, cock hard and tits jiggling, moaning in rapturous pleasure.

Adrian swallowed a lump of bile. He hated the spirits for what they had done to his friend. Rhys was a kind, gentle man. He hadn’t deserved this. And that the spirits expected Adrian to be grateful was a bitter cherry on top. But Adrian didn’t waste his breath explaining that to them. It would be like telling the wind not to blow or a wave not to crash. This was just how they were.

“What happened?” Rhys asked, voice quiet.

Adrian stood up. “It’s…easier if you see,” he said gently.

The two walked over to the bathroom so that Rhys could look into the mirror. Adrian stopped in the doorway to give him some privacy. A choked sob echoed off the tile walls.

“They changed my face,” Rhys said in horrified shock. “They changed my face!”

Adrian stepped into the room to find Rhys distraught. He stared at his unfamiliar reflection in horror, tears welling in his eyes.

“What am I going to do?” Rhys asked.

“We’ll figure it out,” Adrian told him. “We can get through this.”

Rhys turned away from the mirror and embraced Adrian in a hug, his face nestled onto Adrian’s shoulder. Adrian rested his arm on Rhys’s back. There was nothing to say, so Adrian just let him cry.

“I can’t go home like this,” Rhys eventually said, when he had managed to regain some sense of composure. “There’s no way I could hide this from my parents, and I don’t know what I’d tell them when they noticed.”

“You can stay here tonight,” Adrian offered.

“Really?” Rhys asked, stepping away. His eyes were red.

“Yeah,” Adrian told him. “Cancel the ride. You can have the bed. I’ll sleep in the recliner.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to-“

“You’re staying,” Adrian said firmly. A protective instinct surged forward in him, a foreign feeling. Adrian was surprised at the finality of his own tone and the strength of his own conviction. He had grown up without a family, and he’d bounced between foster homes too much to ever have any good friends. He’d always had to look out for number one, because no one else was going to do it for him. This new desire to take accountability for Rhys was strange to Adrian, and a part of him was scared. Being a knight was changing him.

Adrian checked the time on his phone. “I have that movie with Ivy, but I can cancel if you need me to stay.”

“No,” Rhys said, sniffling. “You need to go. She’s going to have her own problems to deal with. She’ll need help, too.”

The guilt eating at Adrian’s soul was ravenous. He should have found someone other than Rhys to get an offering from. He could have used anyone. It hadn't had to be like this.

Adrian squeezed Rhys’ shoulder. “I’ll be back tonight. There’s food in the fridge. Help yourself.”

“Thanks, Adrian. I couldn’t do this without you.”

If it weren't for me, you wouldn’t have to, Adrian thought darkly.