by Erin R Flynn
“Yeah, and we didn’t expect Donny and his posse to make their way up to Albuquerque.” I waved to some of the shifters and they dragged out the humans. “Apparently, the plan was to abduct me and my husbands, tell me they were hostages so I was a weak woman and caved to his demands, but really he was going to kill them.”
“And force you to admit you were wrong and sinful, your marriages were a sham, and you realized your true place after Donny educated you in the truth, the real way of things,” Moon drawled.
I slowly turned to look at him, not even hiding my shock. “Well fuck, I missed that part.” I walked right over to Donny and kicked him in the nuts. “Fuck you, asshole. You were talking kidnapping, extortion, murder, and a whole list of sins.”
“We came to check on our people,” Donny lied, getting the gag out of his mouth. “And you and your goons attacked us. Did something to us. You drugged us or—”
“No we didn’t,” I grumbled, sticking the gag back in his mouth. I didn’t want to hear anymore of his drivel. “So, his bullshit story is he came to check on the people of the settlement we’re helping after we said he wasn’t allowed in our territory, and he brought a bunch of friends.”
“And weapons,” Cerdic added, bringing out the bag of them and tossing it down. “They didn’t come on the buses, so they took a vehicle from here?”
Chris nodded. “We realized they were gone not long ago and took a few of the trucks. They lied and said they were doing some hunting I approved of, but—”
“But, you’ve got someone disloyal on that watch as you guys aren’t stupid to have survived this long,” I interjected. “You would check orders and make sure, not just open the doors now. So, this place is seriously about to blow.” I shook my head. “I’m done with this shit.”
“Wait, please, don’t deny us help because of Donny,” a woman called out.
“I’m not, I’m simply done pretending I’m human,” I replied, letting my fangs come out. I ignored the gasps and exclamations and gestured to the others. “None of us are human. That’s how we’ve survived. That’s how we can kill corrupted like you can’t.” I smirked at Donny’s pale face. “And that’s why your plan was truly stupid.” I pulled the gun from my holster and pointed it at Vitor.
But I couldn’t pull the trigger. I knew we needed to do this and I knew he said it would be fine, but I couldn’t shoot my guard.
I must have muttered that because Cerdic chuckled, taking the gun from me. “I can. Did you eat the last of the gelato I had labeled in the freezer that I was planning to have as a midnight snack with Inez?”
Vitor shrugged. “I was peckish.”
More like jealous. Wow.
Cerdic shot him in the stomach from not even twenty feet away, the noise loud and echoing in the quiet of everyone’s shock. Vitor rolled his eyes at the small gut wound, and with his fingers, dug in and easily retrieved the bullet. He evilly smiled at Donny and tossed it where the man was kneeling.
“It tickled,” he declared before lifting his shirt and showing there wasn’t a wound anymore. “You were never going to kill any of us, we heard you coming from blocks and blocks away, and you’re such a damn fraud of a preacher and person of god, we laughed so hard, it hurt more than that bullet.”
Damn. Just dayumn that was a good burn.
“So we’re done with the games and gingerly walking you guys through to the truth,” I told the crowd. “We’re not human. There are thousands of us compared to your million, but we’re not human.” I smirked at Donny again. “And killing me was about the dumbest part of your plan. Want to know why?”
“Dump them,” Moon called over to the trucks. Their backs opened up and energy beads came spilling out all over the ground.
“This is why.” I focused on the energy beads and pulled what I needed out to make five more buses right in front of everyone, charging them up and adding the extended battery array on the roof even. Then I made a bunch of other stuff with what was left. “That’s why. When we said I was the one who go the power back on, we meant it. I’m the one who can fix and make the shit. Idiot.”
“Before you all start throwing out accusations or saying things you’ll regret because you’re scared, your people have come back and told you how nicely we’ve treated them,” Cedric said to the group. “We’re not monsters who are feeding off of them. We don’t need to.” He gestured to Donny and the others. “Clearly, being human doesn’t make you not a monster, and us being not human is the same.”
“So now you know the truth,” I said loudly. “We don’t care that you’re humans. We respect life and want to preserve as much of it as we can. I am the boss of my coven, our settlement, and that won’t be changing. Ever. Deal with it or stay here and implode, run out of food, or try to handle the other dozen issues you’re facing. It’s your call.”
I gave them several moments to let that settle in.
“These buses will leave in two hours. If you get on them, you understand the world is different than you thought and you accept that, you accept us. Will it be an adjustment? Yes, but it’s the fucking apocalypse and enough with the bullshit.” I squatted down in front of Donny and roughly grabbed his chin. “You come back into my territory and I’ll kill you.
“I’m not fucking around or risking you shooting a kid or doing something else despicable. There are other humans we’ll have in our coven that know about us and they don’t care. I protect them too. I gave my word I would, so you try for us again, and I will kill you and your whole posse without even hesitating.”
“Why are you leaving him alive now?” Vitor asked.
I shrugged as I stood. “He thought we were human. He thought he had a chance, and while horrible, he took the risk because he didn’t know the truth. Now he does, and the price of fucking with us.” I glanced at the group. “Now you all do. You want to have a life past surviving, then you’re welcome to join us. We demand you help out. That’s it. Pick a job and help get everyone what they need.
“If there’s a problem, we’ll listen, but this isn’t a democracy and I’m boss. That’s the way it is. I don’t allow any racism, bullying, sexism, or any other assholeness, like the ‘preacher’ Donny here. Follow the rules and laws and that’s it. We’ll see you in two hours and you can decide then.” I glanced over at Chris. “The choice is theirs but you’ve made your choice.”
“I have. I’m coming with you,” he promised.
“I don’t trust you staying here another two hours when you said you’re with us,” I told him honestly. “Petre, guard Chris while he gathers his stuff and let’s get him out of here.”
“Yes, Princess,” he replied, letting that one out of the bag as well. “Is he coming back to the castle?”
“Yes, the others are allowed to join up with the others in Albuquerque for now, but then they can pick areas they’d prefer once we know they’re really on board. As long as they don’t give the clans any problems, all of the outposts are fine with accepting and protecting humans, as long as they don’t have to go back to playing human.”
“Understood.” He’d already known all of that, but I said it for them.
“It should go without saying, but don’t shoot us when we come back or you’ll just piss us off,” I warned. “Hand Donny and the others over.” I stared out at the crowd. “If you’re with Donny, or believe in his bullshit, we’ll know, so don’t waste our time and try to take the place of someone we’ll really offer help to. I’m at the limit of my patience after we were nice and ended up with people from here coming to kill us.”
And with that, we left. Well, Petre stayed with Chris, but the rest of us did. We ended up going back before the two hours were up since they hadn’t come to the castle, and that made me worried.
Petra gave us a bored look when we showed up again, and I realized everyone was grilling him and Chris, and that had been the holdup. Well, that was better than what I had feared at least.
But even more shocking?
Ther
e was a line of people packed and ready to go.
“Chris vouched for the coven and has known about us for years,” Petre explained.
Cool.
I went to the first lady in line and studied her. “So you’re cool with us being vampires and shifters?”
“Yes, of course,” she lied through her teeth. I didn’t need the skills I knew others had, but Cerdic busted her, snorting.
“Ah, lass, no point in lying when we know you’re full of shite,” he filled her in.
She sighed. “Fine, of course I’m freaked out. Vampires and shifters are real. I’m going to need more than a few hours for that, and to see how you really treat people. But, you’re the only chance my kids might have at a future, and this place is about to implode. Donny has a lot of followers, and he’s not the only fucked up faction here. Chris did all he could, but his group can’t be everywhere always.”
Everyone watched with bated breath as to how I would handle it. I glanced and saw two teenage boys standing with her, giving me leery looks like they were worried I was going to hurt their mom.
Instead, I smiled. “It took me more than a few hours to accept it as well, and I turned out to be one.” I stepped back and gestured towards the buses. “Thanks for being honest. You can have guest privileges with my coven while we see if this will work out. Just know if you can’t accept it, we’ll ask you to leave.”
She blinked at me for a moment. “That’s more than fair, thank you.”
“If anyone’s ever not fair with you, I want to know about it. I don’t allow that shit in my coven and everyone knows it. One of my husbands will be checking in often, and I promise you that they take it seriously too.”
“We’re sort of programmed to be the police of the coven for our leader,” Cerdic admitted. “We can sense misdeeds and more from humans.”
“Why would you need to sense that?” one of her sons asked.
Oh shit.
Cerdic knew how to handle it though. “Because it helps us know who to punish too. The only time I don’t feed from a shifter who offers, I drink from bad humans. The last several were murders and rapists who were terrorizing a settlement. I felt the evil, got confirmation they were truly bad, and took care of them. The settlement might not have known it was me, but they were grateful those guys were gone.”
The kid looked over his shoulder and then back at Cerdic. “Too bad you weren’t here to handle some of the assholes who harassed Mom at times. Call it religion all you want, but it’s just harassment to me.”
“On that we agree, lad. Anyone harasses your mum, and you come see me. I’ll handle it, you have my word.”
“Cool.”
I smiled at Cerdic as they headed off to the bus.
He did a double take when he caught me. “What?”
“Nothing, just… It seems like forever ago we were at that place, and that’s how you met me. That guy was such an asshole.”
“Yeah, but you showed him, and that place was much better off for it,” he praised, leaning in and giving me a quick kiss. “And so will this place. It’s what you do, Inez.”
“Help settlements?”
He shook his head. “No, you make things better, my love. That’s all you do is make things better for everyone you can.”
Well dayumn, talk about a compliment to make a woman swoon. It was the bandage I needed right then too, to help push me down the path we were on as things had gotten so messed up lately.
We ended up having a dozen buses packed with people who were willing to try and accept us, and some were actually completely fine and didn’t care at all. It gave me hope tomorrow could be better.
For a lot of us.
The End
THANK YOU for reading this book!!
Thank you so much for coming on Inez’s journey with me. I woves all of you lots for your continued support and wanting more of my books. I’m sorry for the long delay between books this time and I’m hoping there will be a announcements of more releases soon. If you want more of Inez, please leave a review. It really helps me out to know which series people are looking for more from and it’s encouraging to get back to series when people are excited for more. I appreciate the time it takes and hopefully you guys love Inez as much as I loved writing about her!!
Erin
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