My family really is fucked up.
“You’re still reading the Neopry family history books?” Shera asks with some mild annoyance.
“Since starting this inquiry, I’ve learned my father’s family stemmed from a distant cousin. It—”
“It doesn’t explain why you’re immortal, since all your other relatives died and you can’t die,” Shera cuts in. “It is definitely a conundrum; however, we have more pressing matters to concern ourselves with. Don’t you think?”
She wiggles her phone, as though to tempt me with Idun’s bullshit.
Giving her a dry look, I rise up, standing on the newly finished floors that are slightly dusty because of the rapid construction. My new store will be a lot bigger in here, and Mom can have her house back…when she buys it from me.
“I still have questions, and everyone seems finished with looking for answers. Except me. I’ll find them on my own, and at least this way I don’t have to deal with any confusing circle-talk, just so everyone can dodge answering uncomfortable questions about the past,” I point out.
After a beat, she rolls her eyes.
“Anyway, your mother sent more care packages, and she’s close to setting up a Portocale Council meeting that will present you with an official apology for that pesky little assassination attempt,” Shera quips.
Anna pops up right in front of me, smirking.
“Please let me go to that. Please. Please. Please. I’ve been waiting for so long for someone to actually have to hear about how un-Buffy you are aloud,” Anna chirps. “Also, I’m nosy and want to know how someone apologizes for an assassination attempt, because that’s possibly the only thing more interesting than Idun TV right now.”
She beams like this is the greatest day of her undead life.
“You don’t get to be this annoying today,” I deadpan.
Shera looks between me and Anna, not actually seeing Anna.
“It’s frustrating when you talk to the dead. The dead aren’t supposed to be acknowledged,” she reminds me.
“Do you think she can actually see me?” Anna asks, turning a studious gaze toward Shera.
Shera just darts her eyes around like she’s trying to peer through the complicated fabrics of the universe.
“I don’t have time for this,” I tell them both, as I idly wonder when the last time I even slept was.
Two arms are suddenly around me, and a sense of warmth fills me, as an accidental groan slips through my lips. I really do miss touch.
“I’ve scoured this place looking for you,” Damien murmurs against my ear. “Why is your scent so weak?”
“Maybe because I’m tired?” I suggest, leaning against him, as I allow myself a second to rest.
It doesn’t last long, because he turns me, and his lips hungrily fuse to mine like he can’t wait another second to have me alone. Another moan slips through my lips when he backs me into the cider shop.
My fingers tangle in his hair, as I desperately pull him closer, not having the amount of time I wish I did before I have to start directing beds to rooms.
He makes another impatient, hungry sound against my lips, as he lifts me to a counter, shoving my legs apart.
I’m so happy I wore a dress today.
“I have five minutes, sweet little monster. Demetria is bringing in new betas today to start cleaning up the human cult problem that has ‘gotten out of hand.’ It should be an absolute mockery of bad, scripted acting,” he says, apparently forgetting how to be good at dirty talk.
He starts to pull my underwear down, as his lips drag to my neck, but I roll my eyes and shove hard at his chest.
He leans back, frowning down at me.
“Well, I only have two minutes, and to make that work, I needed the mood you just ruined when you started talking,” I tell him as I shove my flowery dress back down and hop off the counter.
“I’m…sorry?” he says, making the apology sound more like a confused question.
I walk out of the cider shop without a backward glance, and just in time, since the beds are being backed up by the truckload.
Shera suddenly goes still beside me, eyes widening like she senses something I don’t. Which is the norm. I rarely ever sense anything at all, and I’m supposed to be empathic.
I’ve been told I was. My emotions affect others. However, I’ve lived with the Simpletons for five months, and their version of empathic strongly differs from mine. The only time I feel another’s emotions is when they channel their emotions to me—either by accident or on purpose.
She grabs her phone with shaky hands, but I stop her when I see what’s going on.
Maybe I jinxed myself by boasting too soon about the skin walkers not being on my radar.
Nadine—who I’ve only seen in portraits and in very dry skin—is standing across the street in the same place Idun stood almost five months ago.
“I have to call Arion,” Shera says on a hushed whisper. “He’s just upstairs.”
“No,” I say distractedly when I see the very familiar and extremely thick book in her hands. “She’s here to talk to me. Not them.”
“Violet, don’t—”
“If you’re really going to split time between this House and Arion’s, you need to learn how to manage that. Here, Arion isn’t in charge,” I remind her as I head outside and toward Nadine.
Shera blows out a breath of frustration, but I know she’s simply watching and not calling in the troops. Yet. Her finger’s hovering on the trigger, no doubt.
Avery immediately joins me at my side, his stance relaxed, as he leisurely picks up stride with me.
“Evening, madam,” he says conversationally to me, eyes on Nadine.
“She’s here to talk to me and not Vance,” is all I say to him.
He just gives a nod and stops behind me a few feet, while I move the rest of the way to Nadine.
She doesn’t even glance at him, because she knows he’s a nonissue for her.
“I can’t decide if you’re a saint, a fool, or just too daft to know the forces in which you toy,” she says as she holds up my blue-leather-bound proposal. “Maybe a bit of all three,” she concludes.
“I only need the support of five of the six Houses, and I have those five. That was just a courtesy—sending you the full proposal for full disclosure.”
She snorts. “Marta Portocale, your supposed mother, signed off on this? Did she read it?”
“I was under the impression she’s the only alpha who did read it until you showed up holding it.”
“Do you have any idea what Idun will do to you once she realizes the things you’ve put in here?” she asks in a very condescending tone.
“Doesn’t really matter what she does. Idun’s not my problem.”
Anna pops up, and Nadine predictably doesn’t acknowledge her.
“You tell her, Violet,” Anna champions as she mimes dramatic clapping, which makes me sound like I’m about to hit the tee-ball in front of all the adults for the first time.
I glare at her, and she grins at me until I roll my eyes and look away.
“It’s good to have me back and you know it,” Anna states as she feigns interest in her nails.
Nadine barely flicks a glance toward Anna, seeming very unimpressed with the ghostly company I keep.
Something crosses her eyes, and she cracks her neck to the side as she tucks my book under her arm.
“You raised us when everyone else left us to rot,” Nadine tells me like I’m somehow unaware of that. “So I’ll pay this debt with a warning, January Violet Carmine. You are of our blood, and for that, Idun will punish you twice as hard as she’s likely plotting to punish you right now. And she’ll punish you through my favorites first. Because she knows they’ll hurt you the worst,” she adds very seriously.
“Hmm. She almost sounds like she cares about the Simpletons who are going to own their very own beds for the first time ever,” Anna states, words dripping with sarcasm. “I wonder if she poops f
ood since she talks shit.”
I palm my face, as Nadine works to not acknowledge Anna, her jaw ticking.
“Really, Anna, I’ve got this all by myself.”
Anna pulls her fists up like she’s a thirties boxer and dances around us the way she probably thinks boxers dance.
“But my zingers are on point today,” she argues, taking a few phantom jabs. “And I’m your intimidation factor, since you don’t really have one otherwise.”
“Are you serious with this?” Nadine asks me very pointedly, as though she’s warning me that I’m looking worse by the second.
“Believe it or not, I really miss her when she’s gone.”
“The dead should not influence the living,” Nadine bites out like I’m crossing a very personal line, her tone going cold and angry.
My brow furrows, as my lips purse, and Anna’s eyebrows go up as she lowers her fists. “Everyone says that to us, Violet, but you never listen to me unless I tell you what you want to hear,” Anna dutifully points out.
“That’s because, even when you’re not in a delusional state of mind, you’re still delusional,” I say, really too tired to be carrying on a conversation with Nadine and Anna at the same time.
“Maybe the dead should influence the living, since the living should be old and dead too by now,” Anna says as she sulks and turns away.
I redirect my attention to a very impatient and cold-eyed Nadine.
“You’ll end up being your mother’s child for sure if you continue to listen to the dead,” Nadine states like she’s filling in a missing piece of the puzzle for me.
It actually does…
I file the information away, since I haven’t enough brain power to keep vertical for much longer.
“Yes, yes. My mother is absolutely horrible, and you’re secretly just another misunderstood Portocale victim. Glad we had this chat,” I tell her as I throw up a thumb and smile, and then turn to walk off.
“So you only judge the Neopry family, while you fuck my daughter’s monstrous castoffs. Why am I not surprised?” she drawls.
My steps slow, and I find myself idly wondering if she’s even worth the effort, since I’m really busy today.
“You showed up here to tell me how stupid and disgustingly Portocale I am, but I have a lot of people who are going to get to sleep in their new rooms with their own actual beds tonight. It’s sort of a big deal, and I have to make sure the place is clean so that it feels like home.”
I glance over my shoulder to find her glare still scathing.
“I’m not judging the Neopry family. I try not to judge people at all, because I’m never going to understand all the very complicated dynamics of this lengthy entanglement between all of you. But you? You, I admit…I judge the hell out of you.”
Her scowl wavers just a little, a hint of confusion crossing her features.
“Idun tortured them, and you wouldn’t even fight for them to have a bed for comfort while they licked their wounds, even after they finally had a home,” I say as I face her fully again.
Anna’s smirk grows devilish, as she takes a seat like she’s finally interested in this conversation enough to listen. That incorporeal bitch.
“You put bars up instead of doors, because they might panic if the thunder rumbled too hard and turned them into a stupid monster that smashes up all your pretty things.”
Nadine’s jaw trembles just barely, and I almost stop, because I’m worried that my own exhausted emotions are affecting hers right now, instead of this being a genuine reaction.
“You grow cold when you realize how powerless you are to stop the things that shred your heart, Ms. Carmine. You judge at too young an age to fully comprehend your inevitable future,” she bites out, even as her eyes glisten just a little.
“Oh, you have to wait until you’re really old to judge, Violet. It’s a rule around here. I heard that too,” Anna says very seriously.
I cast a dry look in her direction before shaking my head at Nadine.
“I didn’t come to argue. In fact, I hope you keep this naïve notion of yours alive while it lasts, and maybe you have enough self-righteous Portocale blood in your body to be stubborn enough to make it work for at least a little while,” Nadine goes on in a more tired tone as she looks away, unable to muster up more anger in the moment, it seems. “I came to warn you to change article-one, section-two, addendum fifteen,” she says.
I don’t even have to look to know exactly what part she’s referring to.
“She’ll eat you alive, little girl. The second she sees it, she’ll destroy you in ways you never imagined possible. Marta, for whatever reason that defies all logic, raised you far too soft for what’s on the horizon when Idun grows bored with her current game.”
After she finishes her warning, I turn and start walking away again, and Anna clears her throat.
“Idun’s not her problem,” she informs Nadine, before zapping to my side.
I feel Nadine’s eyes on me, but I don’t turn back around. Shera’s phone is still clutched tightly in her hand like she’s prepared to dial Arion if anything happens.
She’d be able to yell, if they hadn’t taken the padded room to enjoy Idun TV without hearing all the construction going on around them.
Shera visibly relaxes, and I turn back to see Nadine getting in the back seat of a car and riding off toward the horizon.
“Do you think you could not attract the attention of anything dangerous while I go deal with a thing?” Shera asks me.
“What thing?” I ask, considering this is the official move-in day.
“Just a thing I have to do because apparently today’s the due date for it,” she says with intentional vagueness, the thing she does when she wants me to know something Arion told her she couldn’t tell me.
“I was hoping it would be due any day but today; however, today marks the ninth or tenth month. Whatever it is,” Shera adds like this is her spoon-feeding me giant clues.
She rolls her eyes when I just wait patiently on the next giant clue that will hopefully sound more like a clue.
“Usually, I wouldn’t care, but in this particular case, there are extenuating circumstances that naturally cause concern for most monster women, who may find themselves in the same predicament. It’s not an area I’m comfortable—”
“Arion can’t touch you. He signed over his punishment rights months ago,” I say on a huff.
“I just worry this may be that straw-weighted tipping point that always does in the camel’s back, and if I cause turmoil, that immunity may just tumble off the mountainside…along with my dead body,” she tells me matter-of-factly. “And I don’t think they’ll allow this problem into our House, if you know what I mean…”
“Oh my damn,” Anna says as her eyes widen, and she snorts out a laugh. “You are so screwed, you poor vampire,” she tells Shera like Shera can hear her.
“What are you talking about?” I ask Anna.
“I have no idea. I just wanted to sound smart like I figured it out first,” Anna confesses on a sigh. “She makes no sense.”
“Shera, just tell me what—”
“Arion has a pregnant shifter about to give birth in a house full of vampires, who will have no choice but to smell her blood. And once that baby’s born, she’ll be torn to pieces because she’s unregistered and apparently has a secret she’s not allowed to share with even me,” she states in a quick, flat rush.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought she’d say,” Anna states with a firm nod.
“What?” I ask incredulously.
“She’s unregistered, so it’s a clean kill on the books, and even if she wanted to register—like pureblood shifters are required to do—she couldn’t, because Vance needs the legality of the kill. But she wouldn’t register, even if someone walked her out of there, because then she’d be on Idun’s radar, and her baby would also be on Idun’s radar. I haven’t figured out the part of saving the baby from Idun.”
I
just stare at her for a second, as it all gets a little heavier. There’s a reason omegas don’t try to contend with alphas. There’s a reason this has never been done before, even though it’s all perfectly legal. There’s a reason the Heads are all cold and vicious.
It’s really hard work. Especially when the first fight you’re going to have to fight is one against Idun. Apparently no one wins those battles.
“This could all be an elaborate scheme to pick this place apart from the inside,” Shera tells me, eyes seriously affixed to mine. “After all these months, she still seems genuine, but some people are older and cleverer than I am, Violet. It’s impossible to trust a shifter right now. Idun would risk the life of a pregnant woman just to get someone in here.”
This is what Idun does best—relies on her reputation to spread panic. Shera’s already frazzled, and we’re not even technically in business yet.
“I’ll get a form signed,” I say a little numbly, seriously too exhausted for this. “Take Avery with you. I’ll have it forwarded.”
She gives me a hesitant nod, and I hear Avery directing her from behind me, as I walk in, taking a fortifying breath as I lean against the wall.
“This is the part where I need to disappear for a bit, isn’t it?” Anna asks.
“Just stay down here,” I answer as I clear my throat and quickly get my emotions under control, not wanting to influence anyone else’s.
It’s never been harder to do than it is right now. This is the breaking point. The moment when it all feels too heavy is always the breaking point.
“You weren’t meant for this,” Anna says a little seriously. “Your part is over, Violet. You did what you were meant to. They need to pick up their own slack.”
Bobo comes running around the corner, smiling from ear to ear, and I find it easier to push back the emotions when he lifts me from the ground and squeezes me in a hug.
When he pulls back, tears are in his eyes, and his smile is just as bright. I mentally prepare to continue the really hard work, because they really are fucking amazing.
“You’re welcome,” I tell him, knowing this is about the new bed.
He holds his hand over his heart, nodding once at me, as the tears grow more prominent in his eyes, and his smile starts to waver. Then he gestures to Anna, and he nods again.
Gypsy Rising (All The Pretty Monsters Book 5) Page 11