Fay dies while I’m having sex, and no one even bothered to tell me when I was worrying over the aloof Damien.
“I spent the night partying, and—”
“No one is supposed to know this yet,” Emit interrupts, not allowing me to attach my own guilt. “You’re only finding out because I’ll have to tell my omegas. As far as the rest of the packs know, that minor pack is taking retreat right now. It’s a common wolf thing.”
“They’ll rush to assume vampires are to blame, and it’ll get bloody in Shadow Hills real quick. We don’t want camera phones out and recording battles that aren’t supposed to really exist,” Damien tells me as he picks a piece of lint off his shoulder in a way that gives him the opportunity to turn his face away from me.
I wipe away a stray tear, as Emit stares at the ground, his fingers locked together in a tight grip, like he’s working hard to remain this calm.
“The rest of my omegas will be returning from Vegas—”
“You sent them there because you worried there’d be issues with your betas. Lemon told me,” I interrupt this time. “Did they do this?”
The lethal glare Emit shoots me doesn’t bode well for my open invitation to his House, but I don’t give a damn. I’m sick of people dying around me.
“No,” Damien answers in his bored, barely-here tone, as though last night broke the spell, and the tension in the air doubles each time he speaks to me. “Other omegas from other packs were also killed.”
“Is Fay’s father a beta?” I ask.
Emit frowns as he looks over at me. “Fay’s father? I think he died as a mortal hundreds of years ago.”
I say nothing, since I don’t know any of the omegas’ back stories. But Fay didn’t talk like she was bringing up an old wound that first night I vomited up my own daddy issues. Out of everyone, she was the most empathetic.
Emit’s head jerks up, and his lips tense as he sniffs the air.
“Stay put,” he tells me as he walks out of the room.
Damien tenses, groans, and glances down at his watch. “Stay here,” he says on a sigh, echoing Emit’s command as he goes too.
I glance out the window, seeing Shera’s car, and I quietly stand, deciding Fay was certainly important enough to spy for.
When I hear Arion’s voice instead of Shera’s, I tense and very quietly peer around the corner, seeing Emit’s back.
“Violet’s here. I can smell her,” Arion chirps. “Finally quit dallying after you saw the dopey fucking look on Damien’s face?”
“I had to inform her about Fay, and she’s waiting for us in the common area. You shouldn’t be here,” Emit grinds out.
“Ah, so Violet is vulnerable, due to yet another tragic loss. I don’t hear any sobbing, so that means she’s just vulnerable enough. Figures you’d wait for the easiest moment. Heaven forbid you put forth any real effort. I’m proud of Damien. At least he’s killing himself to take just a little pleasure,” Arion goes on, causing my fists to form.
Is he really this cruel?
This cold?
“The snow is falling again in heavy clumps. Just how bad is the spirit infestation of this diabolical little town gotten?” Arion asks. “And how long until you two dalliers get yours so I can charm Violet to me, and we can start the new good times?”
I swallow the words I want to scream, as tears waver on my lids.
“Now is not the time for this,” Damien tells him in a tired tone, like this isn’t even an emotional time for him in the least, and he’s been around Fay as much as I have lately.
“It won’t ever be the time for it. There’ll always be a problem on the horizon, but the fact you’re sensibly discussing a setup is improvement already. Now, go charm her. I’ve told you time and time again how easily charmed she is. Just let the girl know she’s pretty, give her some attention, keep her from being lonely, and you’ll be in there as tightly as Damien is,” Arion says to Emit. “Then I can finally have my turn.”
I turn and walk away, moving as silently and quickly as possible, throat burning and tears leaking as I go.
When will I stop being so gullible?
Chapter 22
VIOLET
Walking into my house, I’m not sure what I expect, but it’s certainly not a lot of bags. Bags that have Diva or Juicy or something similar scrawled across them in rhinestones, glitter, and other bedazzling things.
The chatter I hear coming from upstairs has me quickly drying my eyes, just as the patter of feet start down the stairs.
“It’ll be big enough if we put all our clothes in that other room—like a huge closet,” Lemon is animatedly telling Leiza.
All of them have reddened eyes, so I know they know about Fay.
“But that will be all her guest rooms. Where will her father stay when he drops in unannounced?” Mary asks as she pushes her blonde hair out of her face.
I have no idea what they’re talking about, or how they’re so cold about Fay. I don’t really get to ponder it long, because they all swing their gazes to me at once.
Lemon’s eyes soften when she sees me.
“You poor dear,” she says before hurrying over to hug me.
I’m not used to people hugging me, so I just sort of stand still and soak it in, weirdly comforted by a simple embrace.
“How are all of you?” I ask as I finally hug her back, certain she could use some comfort too, since they were pack—family.
“Our hearts are broken, but we’ve unfortunately felt this so many times. We’re not as young and soft as you,” Leiza says as she comes over and cups my cheek.
“We’re moving in,” Tiara grunts as she starts hauling bags up the stairs.
I blink a few times.
“Say what now?” I ask Leiza.
“We were going to cook you dinner and romance you a bit before that announcement,” she says in an annoyed tone, glaring at Tiara’s back as the she-wolf strains her biceps.
“We’re not safe with just Emit anymore. Someone is too ballsy. Omegas die first in the wars if they don’t find the strongest homes to stay in. Even in this era, obviously,” Mary says, sniffling as she wipes her eyes.
“Yeah, but I can assure you that my home is—”
“Free of all vampire invitation,” Tiara says from upstairs.
“Well, yeah, but I’m—”
“Protected by not one, but three alphas,” Lemon points out.
“It’s four. You’re forgetting Damien,” Mary says as she reads from a list.
“Damien?” Lemon asks, genuinely sounding confused.
“Dorian’s brother,” Leiza says by way of explanation. “You haven’t seen him in a while.”
“I can’t be responsible for your safety,” I cut in, a little panic rising in me. “I’m not—”
“You’re not responsible for our safety. We are. We dissect the most appropriate and welcoming homes, and then we move in and survive longer than any other betas in history. If Fay had listened to Alpha, the way she should have, she’d be alive right now. Every omega knows to trust your true immortal alpha above all others who walk this earth. Otherwise, like I said, omegas die first,” Leiza says like that explains everything.
“And you’re a gypsy with a lot of gusto in your magic, so that could be helpful,” Mary adds as she turns to go to the kitchen. “I even overheard that you killed four vampires all by yourself.”
“That was really a lot of luck,” I assure them, stumbling my way behind them as the smell of something incredibly good sweeps in. “And I’m not protected by four alphas. Right now, I think those four alphas just enjoy playing games with me. Damien may be the only alpha who actually sort of likes being around me, and no one remembers his authority unless he’s glowing at a party. It’s hard to threaten people with his name,” I go on.
“Van Helsing slept with you. He hasn’t had a woman in centuries,” Lemon chides.
“And they all watch you,” Leiza cuts in before I can rebut that statement with any form of
an argument. “They’re not even subtle about it. Emit sneaks off to watch you all the time and lies about it later.”
“This conversation is just too weird to have right now,” I say as I sit down at my table. I’m glad they never really think to mention Damien.
I really don’t want to talk about him right now. I’d like to punch him, but I don’t think violence against an immortal capable of pulling steel bars apart through a glass covered stone wall is smart.
I never even registered the small shards of glass raining down on us as those walls tried to crumble, because I only got a few scrapes…and there was a lot of other more distracting things going on at the time.
Like a sequence of mind-numbing orgasms that…quite frankly, I’m angry at him for ruining the after-glow of.
The point is, punching him would be stupid.
“The biggest thing you have is Arion,” Tiara adds as she joins us. “Having Arion makes us the safest we can be, since he and his people are the threat.”
There’s another immortal I’d like to punch in the face. She’s easily charmed. You can fuck her if you really try. Those aren’t the exact words, but it’s definitely the sort of chauvinist bullshit he had leaking from his mouth when he didn’t know I was listening.
I hate the fact that I still don’t hate him appropriately, and it makes that punch seem more inviting and stupid.
“Emit doesn’t think vampires did this,” I say quietly.
They all pause and look over at me.
“And I don’t have Arion. I’m a stupid little girl he wants to use as a temporary bandage to their group.”
Lemon lowers herself to the chair in front of me, a serious expression on her face.
“He wants the four of them to be an alpha unit again?”
“Again?” I ask. “What’s an alpha unit?”
“They were the only ones ever capable of truly being united. Those were…rough days,” Leiza answers. “I was the only one around for the early days of it. It wasn’t rough because they were a unit, though. It was because of Idun.”
“Idun?” I parrot, bristling a little for reasons unbeknownst to me.
“The skin walker they all loved,” Tiara answers in a hushed whisper.
“She could shapeshift into any form, was from the most lethal gypsy freak family to ever live, and she tricked them all into loving what they thought was four different women or something. Those parts are fuzzy on details, because that was the really early days and long before my time,” Leiza continues in the same conspiratorial whisper. “After immortality, they were all true monsters when she was at the helm of things. It wasn’t until things got truly out of hand that they started backing off, one by one, recognizing their power and capacity for damage. It was the first time they’d shown even a flicker of humanity in almost a century.”
“Vance went first,” Tiara says. “I was turned just after he’d detached himself from their unit and started waging war against them for the lines they crossed. He took over the Van Helsing family during that time, started training an elite group of mortals for his Van Helsing knights, and things began to change, somewhat, for the better.”
“Emit detached next,” Leiza adds. “She crossed a line on him when she touched his wolves—forcing him to carry out his law by consequence. But that’s another story I won’t go off on a tangent about. The thing is, he’d had to sacrifice his pack once, all because he loved her enough to kill something he loved just a little less…in the name of seeking vengeance on her behalf. He reminds himself of that very often, because that woman held so much power over all of them.”
“The Morpheous one…shit, I forget his name. Anyway, he was third. She’d constantly hurt him, cursed him, and continuously left him in ruins, and he clung to her because she’d made it to where she was all he could ever have again,” Tiara tells me, causing my stomach to twist in knots when she says that aloud.
I want to ask if that’s a euphemism of some kind, but I’m scared to draw too much attention to myself. My mother always pointed out not to be intrigued, because it told people what you were searching for.
I don’t want it to look like I’m searching for Idun, because none of this sounds good.
“Arion held onto her in spite of it all,” Lemon says as she looks down. “As I said, I’d just been turned during all that. It was a terrible time to be alive. After stewing on it for a while, Arion declared war on all of them for tearing her away from him, even though he’d stepped aside for them to proceed with her punishment. She had to carry out an underground sentence of no less than one thousand years for all the pain and suffering she’d caused. It took three Heads of Houses and the immortal Portocale council to bring the Neopry family down so they could weaken her enough to put her down as well.”
So many things I want to ask, but they keep talking like I should know all of these things and people, and I don’t want to lose the momentum, so I just nod, soaking in the pieces of information I plan to circle back to at the end.
“No one cared how hypocritical it was because it felt like a weight had been lifted and the dark sky finally had some sunlight,” Leiza adds stoically. “It’s the hardest I’ve ever rejoiced. We were free from the worst monster of them all. The one who lived her life hurting the ones she loved just to prove how much they loved her, while they continued to give all they had to give. Imagine what she did to the ones she cared nothing about.”
A small shudder passes up my spine.
“When does the thousand years end?” I ask, looking around with the sensations that typically accompany a dark cemetery instead of my kitchen.
“Five years ago, based on some weird calendar year system they used for the sentencing,” Lemon says with a smirk. “We worried Arion would force the issue of recovering her, since up until he went underground, he still loved her fiercely and hated them for burying her.”
“Then he comes out and wants you, and possibly their alpha unit back without her. This is good news,” Tiara points out.
We have strongly opposing definitions of the words “good news.”
“Go ahead and take whatever rooms you need,” I tell them, glancing around, deciding the circling will have to wait until later, because I’m overwhelmed and I need to do something. “Do whatever you need to do to be comfortable. I need to go talk to someone.”
“Well, that was easier than anticipated,” Tiara says as she dusts her hands off. “She’s going to talk to Arion, right?” she loudly whispers at Lemon as she makes a crude hand gesture that involves a circle on one hand and the index finger of her other.
Leiza is the only one who gives me a worried look as I turn and walk out the door.
My van barely cranks, since the temperature here keeps lowering. It’s almost in the negatives right now. I finally manage to get it moving at the appropriate speed, while I overthink everything.
My mind is going in a thousand different directions when I pull up to the House of Arion.
Shera’s car is out front, so obviously that means Arion is likely here too.
She’s the one to answer the door, blinking in surprise to see me.
“I want to see Arion. Now,” I tell her.
She laughs under her breath. “Intimidation isn’t for you. Leave that to the bad girls, Violet. You can’t see Arion. He’s busy.”
“My van is messed up. So either let him see me, or I’ll have to walk home in the cold and tell him all about it later when he eventually finds me on his own,” I tell her, feeling a prickle of something up my spine.
Something about her just rubs me all wrong. I feel like she’s constantly pushing me and laughing down at me. Honestly, everyone does that to me, so I’m not sure why I have a problem with her doing it.
Her smile falls, and she narrows her eyes at me. “Careful, Violet. Catty is a shade darker than you usually wear, and it doesn’t suit you.”
She steps into me, forcing me back as she shuts the door behind her. “I’ll just fix your van.”
She moves toward it, and since I’m not faster than a vampire, I go with plan b, as she pops the hood and glances over the battery.
“Just a dead battery? You really should get a garage for this thing in this cold. Just saying,” she muses.
I step out of my rubber boots, being quiet about it as she texts someone.
“I bet Roy has jumper cables and can get you nice and warmly on your way,” she goes on as I finish getting down to my socks in the really cold, wet snow.
Glancing around to ensure no one can see us, I ask, “Do vampires die with electrocution?”
“You are so random,” she mutters distractedly, smirking at her phone. “But no. It just hurts like a bitch and stops our heart for a few minutes.”
A few minutes should be enough of a head-start to find Arion.
This better not hurt me worse than it does her, or I will feel so stupid.
Reaching over while her back is still turned, I grab the battery with one hand, already feeling the pain shoot through me as every ounce of electrical power it has floods my body at once.
As if hearing my rapidly beating heart, Shera starts to turn, but I grab her arm before she can see what I’m doing…and hopefully will never figure out.
Her body goes rigid as I fight the pain and endure my chattering teeth, as my heart pounds heavily in my chest.
My fingertips that are touching her almost feel as though they’re about to explode with pulses of the energy that run through me like the conduit I’ve always been.
I feel a drop of blood slipping from my nose as her body tenses all the more, shivering a little under the currents that are coursing through her slower than I wish they would.
I should have used a stronger outlet before attempting this.
I can’t draw out as much energy as what can shoot out of a hotter source.
Fortunately, my inner ramble of worry stops when I feel her drop, and I let go of her arm as she collapses to the snow without ever being able to make a sound.
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