“Let’s get to work,” Damien chirps as he claps his hands together.
CHAPTER 11
ARION
“I’ll keep this short and sweet. Here’s a list of my rules. Violet needs to learn what she can and cannot push for, but you know not to push me, Idun. Be gentle. She’s mine.”
That was my warning.
“For you, dear, I’ll make such a concession. Only because I owe you that much.”
She agreed to heed my warning, no matter what.
I certainly never expected the docile little monster to taunt the sadistic monster we warned her has no heart.
Images of Violet’s bloodstained face and broken sobs repeatedly assault my mind. My sanity has never been more in question than it is in this moment.
Someone is going to pay for this, and it certainly won’t be Violet.
Idun struts in, hips swinging very deliberately in the scrap of a leather dress she’s wearing, as she walks toward me in her elaborate high heels.
“I’m sure you’re here to deny me my seat at the table after your girl toy pushed me, but I did try to take it easy on her, Arion,” she says like she’s going on the immediate defense.
I nod, smiling tightly at her. “Oh, I heard her goading you, Idun. No worries. I likely couldn’t have withstood a beta’s goading, let alone some silly omega’s.”
She pauses, her eyes narrowing in clear suspicion.
“Why do I feel like you’re attempting something foolish right now, Arion?” she asks, arching an eyebrow and giving me a devilish little grin.
My own smile grows, while my hands steeple in front of my face, and I rest my right ankle on my left knee, getting more comfortable in my chair, even as she remains unfazed.
“I told Violet I was her monster, and today she very brutally revealed to me just how poorly I’ve delivered on that vow,” I say very calmly.
Idun’s lips work to resist another smile. “What’s that sweet little girl going to do with a monster like you, Arion? She willingly took a beating for an irrelevant shifter she hardly knows.”
My fingers come down, and I smile again. “We spent so long worrying you’d take Violet’s form, focused on the fact you can mimic Portocale blood.”
Her smile starts to slip. “You told them that?” she grinds out. “You’re to remain neutral, Arion. Remember what you said to me.”
“I’ve told them quite a great deal since my one request was that you leave Violet alone, in exchange for all your secrets stowed. You couldn’t make it even a year before you pushed me, and I didn’t even realize you were pushing. Neutrality is no longer an option, I’m afraid. You had your chance. Everyone knows it.”
Her smile falters just a little more, but she tries to recover.
“What have you told them?” she asks, as she works to hide her irritation.
“You see, I made one promise, and that promise was that you wouldn’t be a problem. Then you go and beat Violet into the ground right in front of me,” I carry on through clenched teeth, feeling the monster rise to the surface.
I scratch my eyebrow, laughing bitterly, as I move over, working her toward the center of the room. She takes a step back, cold eyes assessing me.
“All these centuries of such strong loyalty, and you couldn’t grant me one request. For that, I was punished today. By Violet. The cruel girl made me watch how fucking stupid I truly am.”
“Arion, this was not personal. You’d have done the same damn thing with any other beta. I’m not even sure what sort of fucked-up omega she is, but I’m letting the abomination live, simply because you’ve taken a temporary liking to her. However, the girl is simply getting underfoot,” Idun calmly argues.
“All the while, Violet was telling us not to let you become her problem. She warned us quietly, and none of us heard her. Our listening skills are subpar.” My hands come together again, as I give her a cold smile. “Everyone always said I could have changed the war by uniting the front against you.”
That heat in her glare warms the air around me when I set off her temper a little with that jab.
“You were just the cushion between forces, Arion. Don’t get cocky. You should be smarter than them by now,” she cautions. “Your little girlfriend has resilience as an effective gift, but I’m unstoppable when I’m actually trying, and you know it.”
“You’d have cut her in half today with that little punch at the end if you’d really been able to,” Damien says, causing Idun’s head to jerk to the right.
“Yeah, I told them the truth about how your sense of smell is no better than a Simpleton’s,” I say with a mocking grin, as Damien drops the illusion. “Now they know you can’t sense them. I always was your nose.”
“He’s lying. I know you’re all in here, so you can drop the charades, Damien. They’re no—”
Her words die when the more complicated, certainly well-executed illusion drops, which means the floor falls away as well, since it was never real. The chain she never felt being attached to her throat yanks tight against the heavy Van Helsing collar. Her words die on a choked sound, as she drops ten feet down the hole she had no idea even existed, and I crack my neck to the side.
Vance moves to the edge, along with Emit, as he smirks down with the rest of us. Damien merrily skips to the edge, smiling, as he looks down as well.
Idun’s eyes are turning bloodshot, as she struggles with the confining chain and collar attached to her neck, legs jerking as she flails for air.
“I also told them how you hate suffocating and how it frazzles you, though you had no idea I took note of such things like that, I’m sure,” I tell her idly, checking my phone to see if Shera’s returned my text.
She hasn’t. I think this is the first time she’s had the bollocks to be cross with me.
My lips twitch as Damien takes a seat, propping an arm on his knee, as he just grins down.
“You forgot how remarkably strong I am when I can feed, Idun. Even stronger when I feed regularly from another true immortal. Not that you ever let me do such very often. Now I remember why you were such a cold bitch—you worried what I could do to you if I ever reached my peak.”
Her cold eyes turn back to mine, even as she finds herself unable to do the one thing she loves to do most: Talk.
“Nadine will handle all cases dealing with the sanctuary in the future, and she will default to Violet’s decision,” Vance says coldly.
She jerks in the chains, and I roll my eyes.
“Yes, yes, I know. She’s an omega and has no right, but it doesn’t really matter. You see, the thing I promised Violet—what we all essentially promised her—was that we are her monsters,” I add so that she understands the seriousness of Vance’s demand.
“Now we know what that means,” Emit tells her, as he crouches near the edge, wolf eyes shining.
“If Violet wants to be a sanctuary, she’ll be a motherfucking sanctuary, and you can let a few shifters go whenever she asks it. In the grand scheme of things, she’s asking for so little,” Vance goes on as he absently shines his sword.
“You couldn’t be touched in that ring back there, Idun. We couldn’t start a war, cost Violet even more just so we could skip our punishment,” Emit states, as she continues to pointlessly writhe.
“She’s only got about another five minute window before she can break free, so let’s wrap this up so we can put her on ice,” I say, twirling my finger, as Damien drops the last illusion in the room.
All the hidden features reveal themselves, as Damien buffs his nails, proud of how well he’s executed his part of this plan.
I hit the lever on the side of the wall, since I reserved the honors for that. Idun’s eyes widen as the chain drops, and the lower floor lights up, coming into view.
“I planned to stay neutral, but I also planned a backup plan with all my knowledge, Idun. Violet’s just a little impatient, but since we’re her monsters, I’ll skip ahead.”
The chain drops the final length, and she
splashes into the pool below.
Vance punches the button next to him, and the water starts immediately freezing along the edges.
“It’s amazing what technology exists in this era, Idun. I warned you not to fuck with me,” I add, as Vance starts reading off the highlighted portions of the blue-leather-bound book full of laws we’ve passed that we simply allowed Idun to break, because we didn’t bother to learn them.
“No alpha is allowed within one thousand feet of sanctuary territory without a written invitation from the House representative, January Violet Carmine,” he says as he flinches.
Marta let her do this after Violet deviated from her plan of the alpha fight. We heard the words and didn’t even ask what they bloody meant.
The glass I’ve been drinking from shatters in my hand, the last few sips of whiskey spilling with their newfound freedom, as Idun’s eyes widen more.
“As punishment for your violations, you’re sentenced to however fucking long it takes you to break yourself free of that,” Vance concludes.
“You don’t have your armies anymore, Idun, and I’ll not be cushioning you with mine,” I tell her as I lift the bottle of whiskey I’ve mostly drained, raising it as if to toast her. I guess I’ll drink straight from the bottle now that I’ve gone and ruined my glass. “Cheers, Idun. Welcome to a brave new world.”
As I sip the last of the whiskey, the pool quickly finishes freezing, and we all stare down, waiting for the monster to emerge. After a few minutes of nothing, I frown.
“I expected a fireball or one final rawr,” Damien says, miming a lazy cat claw, as he stares down in disappointment.
Turning up the bottle, I drink the rest of the whiskey, pushing through the door to where the camera man is tied to a tree. Shera walks off, tossing a hand in the air as the camera flies through the air and smashes into the wall.
Well, she didn’t answer my text, but she still showed up as I told her to do.
“Idun will let you know when she’s ready to film again,” I tell the wide-eyed male.
Vance drops a scroll in the man’s lap as he walks by. “By order of Van Helsing, production is shut down until she finds her own way out of that. Anyone who aides her will get her immediately punished again.”
“The next one will be a doozy. I’m very creative when I’m motivated,” I add with a dark smile, before turning and letting it fall.
“What?” I hear Zuela asking.
Abruptly, I turn to see Vance on his phone.
“I’m calling to ask a favor. I need you to put in—”
“Zuela, do you want to see the bedroom, or do you want to have tea and talk first?” I hear Violet asking over the phone, and I drop the bottle that shatters to the ground.
The shifter on the ground squeezes his eyes shut and makes a whimper, like he’s reminding us he’s here, before we say anything or have any reaction.
“I’ll be right there, Violet. Vance needs a favor,” Zuela says in a far too charming tone.
“Oh, that is wrong even by my standards,” Damien says in slight horror, as he recoils.
Vance cracks his neck to the side, his jaw ticking.
The shifter whimpers harder.
“Oh, sure. I’ll just wait in the bedroom then,” Violet says.
“We can’t kill the sniveling shifter for overhearing this, if we’re going to be Violet’s monsters, so let’s take this conversation elsewhere, shall we?” Vance asks very dryly.
“Are we killing the crying shifter or Zuela?” Emit asks very seriously.
“What conversation and what shifter, and why is the broken excuse for a hermit wolf trying to kill me off?” Zuela asks like he’s getting frustrated. “What favor?”
Vance starts talking again when we’re halfway down the street and at the car.
“Why the fucking hell are you with Violet right now?” he asks in a surprisingly calm tone.
“I’m here to see what sort of stained glass she was envisioning for the place, and she’s going to give me a bed to stay in here at the sanctuary until I’ve completed the project.”
“You can stay in my bloody house,” Vance counters very reasonably.
“Your father cannot have our girlfriend, or I’ll have to piss Violet off when I kill the bastard for fifty-three years,” I state very matter-of-factly.
Vance waves me off.
“Now the Vampyre is trying to kill me off. I’m not sleeping with your damn girlfriend. Kit would obliterate her,” Zuela states defensively.
“Kit would love her,” Damien argues very loudly and in a very concerned tone. “They all love her. Every-damn-body who spends five minutes with her loves her because she’s just that damn loveable. Zuela can’t stay with her when we’re trying to go with this stupid plan,” he adds, holding up the blue book from fucking hell.
“They feel better when an alpha is near, despite how untrue that should be. Marta’s on one end, and I’ll be staying on another,” Zuela adds like he’s annoyed with all of us.
“You’re going to share space with Marta Portocale?” Vance asks incredulously.
“Do you really want me to tell the girl you’re not allowing her to get her art piece because you think I want in her knickers?” he asks like he’s confused.
“Violet! Vance is having daddy issues and is trying to talk him out of giving you the stained glass!” Anna yells very loudly.
Vance’s eyes widen. “I’m going to fucking kill you for fifty-three years, you stupid son of a b—” He stops, calming himself, because his grandmomma was a damn fine woman who’d punch him in the nuts for calling her that word…if she knew what it meant.
She always hated dogs. Especially female dogs.
We all have a moment, a small one, where the familiarity and insight makes this moment almost funny. It’s brief, because I really want to put a rusty heap of sword through Zuela’s face.
“No. Put in the glass. But touch her, and I really will make you regret it,” Vance bites out.
Zuela waits too long to respond, before finally exhaling. “I’m not here to have sex with your girlfriend, Vancetto. Don’t pretend as though I’m made of that much ice. Not you. Not after what you allowed today.”
“Are you telling me you read that book and didn’t speak up?” I ask, stepping closer, as Vance holds his hand up for me to stay.
“Of course not. Like all of you probably did, I read it as soon as I left. I thought you’d given her some little House for her to play pretend. That damn book is as thick as the ice on that vampire’s heart, and she knows every word in it. She still took a beating she didn’t have to. Idun forfeited her argument when she broke protocol. Anyway, I came here to tell her I’d give her the damn masterpiece she still wants. She’s acting like it never happened.”
“I’m still reading the book, and Violet is a master of withholding emotion until it’s just simply gone. Don’t be cruel to her,” Vance tells him distractedly, pulling the book away from Emit and flipping the page.
“What was the favor?” Zuela asks like he’s tired and wants to be done with this conversation.
“I was going to ask you to do the masterpiece she wants,” Vance states dryly.
“So all this grief just for you to ask me to do what I’m already doing, and you’ve been hassling me about the shite? This is why you’re intolerable.”
“Agreed,” Emit, Damien, and I all say in unison, drawing an annoyed glare from Vance.
I still want Zuela out of that house until I can be there, though.
“Tell Violet I’ll be expecting her call, since it’s law that the Head of a respective House has to sign off for an alpha offering any sort of service to the sanctuary.”
“That’s low. Even for you,” Zuela says before hanging up, even as Vance smirks and lowers his phone.
“We’re trying to make her life easier, you prat. Not more difficult,” I remind him. “That was the plan, correct? I remember threatening bodily harm to anyone who let us ever make that oversight ag
ain.”
He pockets his phone with a diabolical grin on his face. “I just secured my invitation to the sanctuary. You all have until Idun rises to do the same, or I’ll have to punish you so she can’t say we’re not being fair. She can’t go to war with all of us on her own. She needs allies. Let’s ensure we keep this smart.”
I point a finger at Damien. “Ensure Dorian isn’t going to be a problem.”
“You just worry about Emily. She’s been on Idun TV several times now,” he counters.
I leave them all behind when the building doesn’t explode and I feel confident Idun’s been sufficiently frozen for at least a little while.
I don’t stop until I’m exactly one thousand feet in front of Omega U. I prop against the perch of the roof I’m on, hands in my pockets. Then I watch through one of the massive windows, as Violet walks baby Jasper over to show Zuela.
The smile on her face is too free for a girl who was just beaten by Idun not too long ago. The marks are already mostly healed, and she looks freshly showered. Zuela, the man too cold for ice, smiles down at the child like the lad is not of shifter blood, while Violet kisses the babe’s head over and over, as though she just can’t stop.
Then she puts him in his bassinet next to her and leaves her hand lingering on his stomach, as she gives the rest of her attention to Zuela. I should have known she’d never give up the lad’s mother, simply because she’d never fail him.
Another oversight.
“Nothing we can do about it now,” Emit says as though he’s prying into my mind somehow.
Or maybe I’m that bloody transparent.
He joins me at my side and hands me a whiskey bottle.
“Is that why you’re drinking as much as I am?” I ask him.
“I’m drinking this because that girl is far more calculated than I anticipated, and I didn’t realize how very differently her mind works until she put us through that. It makes me rethink my entire approach, because she’ll gut me harder the more I care,” he says on a harsh breath.
Gypsy Rising (All The Pretty Monsters Book 5) Page 18