Dark Cotillion (First in the Brenna Strachan Series)

by Hadena James

  Chapter Sixteen

  Dinner consisted of twelve boxes of pizza, cheese sticks, and hot wings, some sort of dip and chips, and about three gallons of Mt. Dew. I opened a box. Three pieces of the pizza were already gone. It was super supreme. I took two slices and put them on my plate. Someone poured me a glass of soda and put it down next to me. I was too busy concentrating on food to notice who had done it. I was starved again.

  After dinner, I sat on the couch feeling bloated and miserable. I had eaten too much again. It seemed to be a trend. As a Demon, I seemed to have a hollow leg, always able to pack away food or I could go without for a day or two at a time. As a mortal, I found my jeans to be uncomfortable after I ate.

  Anubis handed me a pair of PJ shorts. I nodded and smiled a thank you. For several minutes, I held them, listening to the men chat, too full to bother with changing.

  “Brenna, go change or Gabriel will have to undress you again when you fall asleep,” Fenrir finally said.

  “I’m not all that sleepy,” I responded.

  “You will be. A side effect of mortality, you eat, and you sleep.” Anubis looked up as he got out a deck of cards and began shuffling. “I didn’t know what PJs you wanted, so I grabbed a set.”

  “Okie dokie,” I curled up on the couch.

  “Go change,” Ba’al said to me, as he took hold of my hand and pulled me from the couch.

  “Fine, fine,” I walked to the bathroom. It seemed miles away. I was getting sleepy. Imagine that, the immortals were right, again.

  I changed into the PJ set and wondered if Anubis had really picked it out or if it had been Fenrir. He had grabbed the skimpiest set I owned. Short shorts with a button top that didn’t cover my stomach completely because of the size of my breasts. I only wore it when I was alone and it was really hot. I sighed and came out of the bathroom. They turned to look at me.

  “Maybe I should have picked a different set.” Anubis frowned.

  “Doesn’t matter now, I’m not changing again,” I curled back up on the couch.

  “You’re getting tired,” Gabriel said.

  “Yep,” they were dealing out cards. I yawned and stretched.

  “Whoa, don’t do that again,” Gabriel grinned. “You know that doesn’t cover very well when you stretch.”

  “I am almost convinced I don’t care,” I told him tugging the shirt back into place.

  “Wow, she’s losing her prudishness.” Ba’al’s voice had seemed distant.

  “I’ve exposed my breast to you, almost had sex and everyone in the room felt it, and then there was the thing with Fenrir. Yeah, I might be starting to get over it. Besides, there is eternity ahead of us and frankly, somehow, each of you will eventually see me nude. Just like Gabriel did this afternoon. Do we have a plan?”

  “Yep, don’t die,” it was the last thing I heard before sleep sucked me down. It seemed like a good plan.

  I awoke to shouting. Someone, no, Anubis was yelling at someone. No one was yelling back though, his yelling was followed by long pauses. I opened my eyes. He was on the phone. The others were sitting, staring, and watching Anubis. Anubis was pacing back and forth. He was more than just angry, more than furious. I couldn’t exactly put my finger on the right word, but I was willing to bet it was close to homicidal.

  “Do you think I am wrong?” He shouted. The first intelligible thing I heard.

  “Oh boy,” I said to no one. He was shouting at my father. I was guessing their plane had landed.

  Gabriel shook his head at me and put a finger to his lips. He wasn’t the happiest person on the planet either. His eyes were completely white. Fenrir and Ba’al were mirrors, more anger and frustration. I got up and snatched the phone from Anubis.

  “Papa,” I said sternly, “I do not take this lightly. I am not wrong. If I am, I’ll apologize to my sister when she is released at the end of the Maturing. If I’m not, then we will have stopped one sister from killing another.”

  “Brenna, do you honestly be…” He started to say something.

  “Yes, I honestly believe she is conspiring with Chiron to kill me. It would make sense. How else did the Zealots know I was on my way to your house? The only people that knew were the Overlords that are in the room with my family and me. We didn’t even tell the rest of the guard where we were moving too. We were going to tell them when we were settled in. Since none of my brothers have had sex with Chiron, I figure it had to be her.”

  “She hasn’t…”

  “Yes, she has, Papa,” I answered before he could make it a statement. “I saw it.”

  There was some serious yelling on the other end, but it wasn’t directed towards me. I waited, with my foot tapping on the marble floor. Finally, I heard his voice come back on the line.

  “Brenna, I shouldn’t have doubted Anubis or the others.”

  “No, no you shouldn’t have. Remember, if I die, they die. They have just as much at stake as me, but we aren’t conducting Witch Hunts, Lucifer. Anubis would not have sent Beezel and Pendragon to meet your plane if we hadn’t had some kind of proof.”

  “Vishnu confirms that she has been regularly meeting with Chiron and that they are lovers.” My father sounded broken. “How could she…”

  “No, Papa,” I stopped the thought. “No, Papa, she didn’t do anything wrong. The heart wants what it wants and it forgets the rest of the world. She is in love with Chiron, and for a Demon, she is still very young. Everyone gets led astray from time to time. You told me that.”

  “Brenna, I need to go.”

  “Papa, promise me you will let Pendragon and Uncle take her into custody.”

  “I promise.”

  “Is Vishnu with you now?”

  “Yes,” my father was on the verge of tears.

  “May I speak with him, please?”

  “Here,” I didn’t think the “here” was directed at me.

  “Brenna,” Vishnu’s voice came over the line.

  “Watch Daniel, keep his power in check as much as possible. My father is going to react badly, but Daniel is going to be unable to stop himself.”

  “I know, a storm has already started to brew above us and it is going to be a big one.”

  “Okay, let me speak to Elise.”

  “Brenna,” my mother’s voice came over the line.

  “Mom, don’t let dad do anything he is going to regret. I know you are both angry because I was enraged when I figured it out, but that is not an excuse. He will torment himself for eternity if he lets his temper get the best of him.”

  “I know,” my mother sighed. “You sound different.”

  “You are the second person to tell me that today.” I told her. “Are you okay?”

  “Considering?” She paused, “Yes, I’m fine. Are you?”

  “I’m still a little pissed, but it will work itself out.”

  “Your mark…”

  “I know, I still am not sure what it did, but it was interesting. Fenrir touched it and all the Pack shifted.”

  “Must be what all the voice mails are about.”

  “I’ve heard that today too,” I gave a small laugh. “Mom…” I wasn’t sure what else to say.

  “I know, Bren. I know. We love you.”

  “Love you, too,” I hung up. “Situation diffused.”

  I handed Anubis his cell phone and sat back down.

  “You do sound different and you are acting different,” Anubis finally said.

  “So I keep hearing.”

  “You sound like an adult,” Fenrir told me.

  “No, she sounds like her father,” Ba’al corrected. “She sounds like a person in charge of the situation with all the answers.”

  “I don’t feel like it.”

  “Yes, but you sound like it and when you sound like, it commands attention. You managed to make your father listen,” Ba’al told me.

  “My father is a great big teddy bear with
very sharp horns.” I smiled glumly. “I just know how to handle him.”

  “Perhaps,” Anubis smiled back. “However, I think that calls for a celebration of sorts. Vishnu can read her mind and find out all those involved and call it a day.”

  “Think Chiron shared that much information with my sister? I’ve never thought of you as naïve.”

  “No, but I thought I could put you at ease. You’ve really grown up, you are less naïve.”

  “Good to know,” I sat back down on the couch. “What now?”

  “We entertain ourselves while we survive.” Fenrir picked up the deck of cards. “Want in?”

  “Sure,” I moved to the little table and spent several hours playing poker. Occasionally cheating and using Witch magic to see what cards they were holding. If they knew, they didn’t let on that they knew. We talked and talked and talked about nothing as we played. For a while, I felt normal again.