Sammy had found several areas difficult to get into. To his relief, he didn't have to approach Jasper, because the concierge approached *him*.
Jasper was wiping down his massage table, of something that was definitely Hunter's cum, but Sammy wasn't going to comment on the loopy wrestler leaving a minute ago.
"So if Lazaro is right," Jasper said, "and I'll trust he is, then we'd only have to push Orion into the painting and Alec will be ejected. Or we pull Alec out and Orion gets sucked in. Either way, we'd have a dying Alec on our hands and unless Orion majorly slips up... I doubt he's used something I can fix. He knows my talents to some extent."
"Finding the thing is still step one. I think we can narrow it down to all the places I *can't* go. Or maybe Orion has locked me out of some places specifically as red herrings."
Jasper glanced out the window where dark birds gathered in the garden, then put a hand on Sammy's shoulder. He'd seen the masseur wash it off body oil but flinched anyway.
"Anything wrong?" Jasper asked and pulled his hand back, clearly on edge. Nobody trusted anyone right now.
"No, just..." Sammy grinned. "Wasn't going to mention it but I can't help imagine you reaching around and jerking off Hunter with that hand just a minute ago."
"Oh, don't worry," Jasper said and grinned with mischief. "Kept my hands all to myself."
Sammy gave him a disbelieving look. "What does that mean?"
The employee's smile broadened. "I bottomed, mostly."
Sammy chuckled, imaging the brown skinned hunk riding the thickly muscled boy while jerking himself off, and held still as Jasper placed a hand on his shoulder again.
"I was the heir till yesterday," Jasper said. "I wasn't declared 'disgraced' and I'm still a family member so I think I can do this. By the Raven name, I grant you permission to walk these halls unobstructed, see its sights unblended, fear no harm at the will of the house. Okay, good luck, Sammy. I appreciate you doing this."
Sammy lightly shook his head at the absurdity of it all, making his fringe jiggle. "Expect my report soon, commander."
==========+++++==========
The flashlight dashed over the same crates again, revealing the same old fabrics that looked gray in the shimmer from outside, as the sun underneath the horizon reflected on the clouds for a few more minutes.
Sometimes it took convincing to make the mirror double follow orders. He was after all a twisted, darker version of the real Sammy, with his own motives. Not rebellious for the sake of it but overall more sinister and less interested in helping the needy.
But Orion had claimed the grand suite and such an insult would not stand unanswered.
Of course the original Sammy had cravenly accepted the downgrade to the Blue Room at the end of the left stairs. Not that the room sucked, it was a work of art in itself, but the offence was a matter of principle.
'Shadow' would contribute to the arrogant former-ghost's downfall.
Yes, his name was no longer 'Sammy-two', or 'mirror-double' but Shadow. Having been a secret, Shadow had never needed a name. Not that it had bothered him -- all of Sammy's memories about socializing, partying, fine dining and fucking were also his own. He didn't miss anything. He never felt trapped in the mirror.
Now, however, he did feel a little stuck.
The attic was expansive but quite tight and empty. He had even knocked on every single floorboard to check for secret spaces. Okay, that was an exaggeration, but he had knocked on a decent sample.
Shadow fluttered his open button shirt to make the stuffy air bearable but the dust was just as much of an issue. He was dressed stylishly to pass as the real Sammy if he came across anyone at this late hour.
The air in the attic cooled rapidly and there was nothing more to do for him. Maybe there was something he had overlooked in the basement?
No, Shadow refused to be a tracking dog without so much as a scent to pick up. And the tapping of tiny bird feet from above was beginning to drive him crazy. Either he called it off for the night or... Maybe he was going about this the wrong way -- the human way.
Shadow was closer to his namesake than to a person. There were costs and benefits coming with the territory.
He closed his eyes and *felt*.
When Shadow stepped into a new environment it helped a great deal to have seen it before. That was why Sammy tended to visit locations Shadow later robbed. But it wasn't necessary.
Where there was darkness, there was a way. Orion, having been a ghost, would think similarly.
Shadow felt his way around the building. Eyes half closed, flashlight off, he walked along the attic, ducking under beams where necessary, and sensed for lightless spaces he could enter, that had no obvious entrance for people.
Crawlspace, vents, hidden compartments.
A minute later, Shadow appeared inside the library's wall paneling. An alcove that had been paneled-over flush with the surrounding. There was room to stand but nothing more. A person with Lazaro's pec-circumference wouldn't have been able to squeeze in.
Shadow let the flashlight wander, making sure he wasn't about to swallow spiders or stepping on somebody's skeleton.
A painting leaned on the wall. The proportions were as expected but it wasn't a portrait. A mushy blob of paint stood before a background of more defined but indistinct shapes.
The longer Shadow looked, the more it felt like he was looking at a severely blurred photograph. He snapped a picture with the phone borrowed from Sammy and crouched as much as the narrow space allowed.
There was a stack of notes. Should he take them? Read them?
It was documents about the Orion painting, of course. Official reports about selling and reselling, interspersed with notes from Alec.
A dawning realization crept up Shadow's back with a shiver. He smiled despite his sense of dread.
He had more in common with Orion than he had thought. Now he wasn't even sure he *wanted* to rid the world of the ancient bastard.
Shadow patted the picture frame, as if to calm it. Maybe he was better of making the old-timer his ally.
==========+++++==========
A featureless void. Like a room painted pitch black under diffuse light. Except there was no light source.
Sammy couldn't even tell if he was floating or standing on firm ground.
He was in black boxers, his tan skin slightly grayish under the ubiquitous non-light. He had gone to bed in this underwear. Right, he had just been in bed. Then how...
Shadow stood -- or hovered? -- beside him, wearing an open shirt and slacks like when he had left to search the manor.
"What's up?" Sammy said.
Shadow smirked and shrugged, neither of which were usually good signs. Normally Sammy would sigh and ask 'what did you steal this time?' but this was a rather abnormal situation.
"Fuck yeah," came a voice from behind. "Please tell me it worked. Can you seen me?"
Both handsome young men turned, not used to navigating this non-space where physical movement was a mere suggestion.
"Alec!" Sammy shouted.
