“Erica, apologize to your mother,” her father demanded. How could he not defend her? It was her mother who was wrong. Not her. She’d never given much to the term ‘seeing red’ until that moment. Enough was enough.
“No. She’s the one who should apologize.”
“Erica! Stop this right now,” Her father’s voice dropped low, the warning in it unmistakable.
“Or what? You’re going to send me to my room? I’m so freaking tired of this. Why do you hate me so much? My entire life, I did everything right, and still you peck and peck. Is it too much to ask that you believe in the one dream I’ve ever had?”
“It’s not acceptable to have a daughter who revels in being a starving artist,” her father said. “To be in the right circles, we have to have the right presentation.” No matter which words he used, they all sounded the same to her.
You’re not good enough.
She’d been hearing different variations of it ever since her father’s business took off. Blood rushed to her head, making it harder for her to think.
“What you’re doing is unacceptable,” her mother said. “What would the Scotts say? Or the Novaks? Don’t you understand, we are in a room of influen—”
“For goodness sakes!” The dam burst. The entire room fell silent. Erica’s voice echoed off of the walls. “For once in your life, could you stop trying to impress these people?”
“Erica, that’s enough,” her mother spat through clenched teeth, eyes darting around, cheeks enflamed with embarrassment.
“Why? Because you’re afraid of what your fake friends might say about me? Oh wait, you don’t care as long as you don’t look bad. News flash. They. Don’t. Even. Like. You.”
“Erica, you’re embarrassing us.” Her mother chuckled nervously and looked around pointedly, encouraging her to stop. There were many ears listening to their conversation.
“Rachel, don’t entertain her,” her father said the turned to her. “You are acting like a spoiled brat. If you’re going to be disruptive, you can leave.” He pointed to the door.
“Fine. I don’t want to be here with all of these fake people, anyway.”
Erica clutched her purse and made her way toward the exit. This was the reason she hated visiting her parents. No matter what, she ended up the bad guy. The outcast. Tears brimmed through the anger. As if feeling her distress, Julius appeared at her side. His warm, reassuring hand was at the small of her back.
“It’s alright,” He said softly. His presence brought her some relief. Julius leaned in to speak quietly. “Don’t let them get to you.”
“Get your filthy hands off of her,” Max snatched Julius’s wrist and pulled his hand away.
Julius’s entire body stilled as he looked at Max’s hand with disgust. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” Max pushed between them. Barely able to hold himself upright, he made a show of sizing him up. “Get your hands off of my girl.”
“Max, please,” Erica said. She just wanted to get out of there as fast as she could.
“I brought her here, I will take her home.”
“I’ll take her home,” Max slurred.
“Max, you’re drunk. You can’t take anyone home.” Erica tried to inch her way to the exit. The heated gazes from the room, the disapproval from her parents, and her own humiliation was starting to set in.
He ignored her, eyes on Julius. “She’s mine.”
“If she were yours,” Julius said calmly, “then she wouldn’t be here with me.”
With a gentle hand, Julius reached for her shoulder. Again, Max ripped it away. This time, the force of the momentum turned them both around. The tension between the two men broke.
“Touch her again, and I’ll kill you.”
Ignoring him, Julius stepped toward Erica, but was quickly shoved backward. Just as Julius nudged her out of the way, Max swung, his large fist hurtling at Julius’s face. In one graceful move, Julius stepped back, avoiding the blow. Max staggered forward with a grunt. A deep scowl etched lines in his brow, and he growled in frustration.
“Max, don’t,” Erica pleaded, watching him wind up like an angry bull.
Max charged Julius, knocking them both into the table and onto the ground. Max, on top, swung again. This time, his fist connected with Julius’s face. As painful as it looked, it didn’t seem to faze him. Max hit him again.
“Do something, Rich!” Erica’s mother cried.
By now, the crowd had created a loose circle, everyone too entranced to look anywhere else besides at the brawl in her parents’ dining room.
Julius kicked Max off of him. Grunting, and disoriented, Max didn’t see Julius get to his feet and kick him in the face.
When Max came up for air, someone shrieked. “What happened to his eyes?”
Max and the woman made eye contact before he swiveled away from her, rubbing his eyes. Blood seemed to gush from one of them, staining his fingers. Yet there was no mistaking the unnatural glow emanating from them. Erica gasped. The irises of Max’s brown eyes morphed from dark brown to gold to yellow. She’d never seen anything like it.
“Are you okay?” Erica found herself asking, but fear pushed her away from him instead of toward him.
Her father stepped in. “It’s time for you all to leave before I call the police.”
To her surprise, Max didn’t disagree. Clutching his face, he rushed into the foyer and staggered out of the front door without a backwards glance.
“Make sure he doesn’t drive,” her father called to the man at the front door who radioed the valet outside.
Erica looked around in horror. No one moved as they watched. The full realization of what had happened hit her, and shame flooded her.
“Let’s go.” Julius’s steady voice was beside her. Disheveled, Julius seemed okay for the most part, just as apologetic as she was. A slight trail of blood ran down from the corner of his mouth.
“You’re bleeding.”
“It’s fine. Let’s get out of here.”
Erica nodded and followed him back to the car waiting for them at curbside. Too much in shock to do anything besides get into the passenger seat, Erica stared back at her parents’ house for perhaps the final time. One thing was completely certain: her life had gone to hell.
9
JULIUS
JULIUS THREW OPEN THE DOOR to his brother’s room as soon as he arrived at their hotel suite.
“Tell me you didn’t know.”
Evan didn’t have the decency to looked shocked when he stormed in. Instead, his lanky brother sat unperturbed, calmly reading through a stack of papers under the glow of his desk lamp. His impassive face made Julius want to punch him.
“Hello? I’m talking to you.”
Evan finally looked up from the paper stack. “You have blood on your face.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Julius was past the point of sarcasm and heading straight into fury.
“You could be a bit more discreet if you’re going to feed in public.”
“I was attacked by a wolf tonight.”
Evan perked up, concern bleached his features. From the look of concentration on his face, Evan was trying to piece together the blips of memories that flooded his mind. “Max attacked you?”
Us. Thinking of Erica, shaken and quiet in his passenger seat the entire ride home… The vampire inside of him still wanted to rip Max’s arms from his body. The wolf should have known better. Putting a human between two giants was dangerous. She could have gotten hurt. He thought of Erica’s forlorn silence as he drove her back to her apartment. By the all gods, he wished he could take away memories like his brother could. He’d erase this entire night from her memory and start over.
“Did you know she was engaged to him?”
Evan didn’t say anything right away. “You assured me that she was a catch and release.”
“When were you planning to tell me?”
Evan shrugged. “I didn’t think it was relevant. It never s
eemed to bother you before.”
“Well, it does now. I don’t want to be with someone who’s already with someone else.”
“Isn’t that what you do? Find the already attached so they don’t leech onto you?”
“I don’t do that anymore.”
“Since when?”
“Since… Erica.” Her name wrenched from his throat. Was he really admitting that she was different? That this—whatever they had—was slowly changing him? He’d barely known her a week, and already it bothered him to think of her with someone else. Julius pictured her beside the wolf, and his fangs dropped. She was taken. No, engaged.
“I need blood,” Julius said, not bothering to put his fangs away.
“The synth blood is in the storage safe under the bar.”
“I need something stronger.” His vampire agreed. If he was going to war with a shifter, he’d need human blood to become stronger.
“Don’t you have another way to decompress that doesn’t include inciting a bloodbath? I rather like these clothes.”
“Not to be an inconvenience to your dry cleaner, but there are only two ways I relieve stress. And fucking Erica’s brains out is out of the question at the moment.”
That would only happen if she ever spoke to him again. Which she might not. His vampire didn’t like that idea one bit.
“I’m sure you have hobbies outside of sex,” Evan said. “What about drinking? You love to drink.”
“Do I look like I want to have a drink with you?”
“You look like shit, so it’s statistically likely.”
“If this is your attempt at calming me down, you’re failing.”
“I should call Dani. She’d know what to do.”
“Don’t. I don’t need our little sister in my business.”
“She knows we’re in town. There’s no escaping her. Eventually, she’ll find us.”
True enough. Julius wondered why she hadn’t made it her business to be in theirs since they arrived in town.
“Exams,” Evan replied to his thoughts.
“Well then, it looks like our dear sister needs to focus on school. And don’t distract me. I’m still upset with you.”
“Then I probably shouldn’t tell you the upside in all of this.”
Julius absolutely hated when Evan did this. Tell him just enough to keep him on the edge. It was clear from the way Evan slowly poured an ice-filled highball glass with dark liquor, his brother was waiting for the anticipation to build.
“Are you really going to make me ask?”
Evan shrugged and filled another glass with ice, one cube at a time. Painstakingly slow.
“Fine, what’s the upside? And it better be good.”
“They’re not doing well.”
“Explain.”
“Ooh, you channel the king very well.”
“Talk already,” Julius pressed.
“Alright, alright. Apparently, the night we met. You know, when she destroyed your prized possession? She thought it was Max’s car.”
“And…?”
“She thought he was cheating on her, but this wasn’t the first time she’d thought something like that. So, to teach him a lesson, she took a bat to his car. Only, it turned out to be yours.”
“And… what happened after?”
“You were there. They ran.”
“Seriously, Evan. Did he cheat on her or not?”
“My telepathic abilities only stretch so far.”
“But, they’re not together,” Julius clarified. His mood started to brighten again.
“I wouldn’t think so, considering she seemed pretty fed up. And she’s agreed to see you more than once. For only the gods know why.”
Julius snorted. “I’m not nearly that bad.”
“You’re worse. Feel better?”
“Marginally.”
“Excellent. Now, tomorrow we apologize to the wolf.”
“What?” Julius sputtered.
“We have to move on this deal. The building Max is sitting on is prime. We can double our money plus interest within six months.”
“That quickly?”
“Yes, the mayor approved a rehabilitation program. They’re flooding that area with cash. The funds are due to be released within the next few months. We can sit on it for that long, then refinance and take out our cash.”
“You got all of this from reading that?” Julius motioned to the stack of papers on his desk.
“I’m a mind reader,” Evan said. “I only needed to get close enough to the people involved. We’ll just have to check in on the investment periodically.”
The thought of staying for six months had its appeal. At least he’d be able to stay with Erica. Maybe even camp out on her couch and watch her paint from time to time. It was quickly becoming his favorite pastime. His vampire wouldn’t leave her so soon, anyway. Now that he was pretty sure her relationship with Max was over. It burned his ass to think he’d have to apologize to the shifter in order to make this deal happen though.
“Suck it up buttercup, we’re making this deal.”
____
Text between Dani, Julius and Evan
Dani: Morning nerds!
Dani: HELLO!
Julius: It’s four in the morning.
Dani: Not for me it isn’t. Did you two dickheads think you could avoid me forever?
Julius: Dickhead? What’s fuck is a dickhead?
Dani: Evan, can you please stop teaching Julius how to curse. He’s doing it wrong.
Evan: I’m not teaching him anything. He’s probably learning it from that girl.
Julius: Leave her out of this.
Dani: Uh oh. What girl?
Evan: The girl who wrecked his car.
Dani: Wrecked his… You mean, he’s met someone?
Julius: No.
Evan: Yes.
Dani: And he’s seen her more than once?
Julius: No.
Evan: Yes.
Dani: Before or after he’s slept with her.
Evan: Both.
Julius: I did not sleep with her. Well, I did, but not in the manner you’re implying.
Dani: I see.
Dani: Why do you always get serious about the crazy ones?
Julius: She’s not crazy.
Evan: She and her friend took a bat to the car you had custom made for this trip.
Dani: WTF? Custom made? WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE LAYING LOW, JULIUS!
Evan: Told you.
Dani: Julius?
Evan: He’s sulking.
Julius: I am not sulking.
Evan: He’s sulking more now than when she ruined his car.
Dani: And you’ve been seeing this girl… regularly?
Julius: SHE IS NOT CRAZY!
Dani: Whoa, calm down there. Looks like I need to meet her.
Julius: No.
Dani: Too late. I’m already boarding a flight, be there in six hours. And please for the love of the all gods, bring me a blood bag. Not that synth shit Damian has been making us drink.
Evan: Danica…
Dani: Don’t use my full name, jackass. Besides, I’m a vampire, I have a thing for blood. Sue me.
Julius: When you get here, please don’t embarrass me. I just met her.
Dani: As your sister, it’s pretty much my job.
Love Bitten (Vampire Blood Royals Book 1) Page 9