Page 22 of Vampire Visions

Her family had taught her many things. Protecting herself had always been at the top of that list.

10

Sloane

Wednesday Late Morning

I cannot believe we fucking lost. I should have known York was going to finish that game off by the smug look on his handsome face. All Palmer had to do was wave his magic hand in the air, and BAM. My hair was neon yellow. Not a good look for me, I promise. Novak thought it was hilarious. Then again, the yellow made his golden eyes pop against the warm tone of his pasty, cream-colored skin.

All I could do was groan and scrub my hands over my face. I hated losing a bet. I didn’t really care about losing the actual game, but the bet? No. I would not be betting when playing pool against York anymore. I couldn’t believe I’d never learned that lesson when we used to play. I guess those bets were always worth losing, though.

I stood on the main floor of our home in front of a large mirror that hung on the wall by the door, staring at the monstrosity that used to be my beautiful silver locks. What was I thinking!? Six hours like this? Gods. I looked like I was sick. The green dress wasn’t helping, but it was better than the black dress I’d tried to change into.

Calling my home ours was very foreign to me. I was warming up to the idea of so many people in the house at once, but really… The silence and solitude of the quiet mansion had been my escape for too long to just be comfortable with all the changes. Sure York had lived mostly full time with me before he disappeared. In the time that he was gone, though, I’d rather enjoyed having this place to myself. Now it was brimming with life, but it was also loud, and someone was around every corner. Not to say that I regretted inviting them in, because I didn’t. It was just a harder adjustment than I was expecting.

Making an aggravated sound in the back of my throat, I pulled my hair into a messy bun and dragged my socked feet all the way to the kitchen. Briggs and Stone sat at the small table near the back door, drinking coffee and talking about something motorcycle related. It sounded like gibberish to me, so I tuned them out as I padded to the pantry to find a snack.

When I walked out, opening the wrapper of my chocolate bar, Stone looked up. He tilted his head, blinking his wide eyes hard. “What happened to your hair, Kitten?” he asked me and then bit on the index finger of his fisted hand to keep from laughing.

Briggs slowly turned and spat a mouthful of coffee right back into his mug when his gaze landed on my hair. Coughing, he managed to push his words out, “Holy shit.” Clearing his throat a few times, he tried to straighten his face and recover. “Uhm, Barbie,” he began carefully, “I, uhm, don’t know how to tell you this,” he fought a laugh, “but yellow isn’t your color, doll.”

I broke off a piece of my chocolate and threw it at him. The asshole just caught it and grinned as he popped it into his mouth. “At least it matches the aliens on your socks.” He shrugged his shoulders, barely containing a chuckle. I glanced down at my feet, rolling them onto their sides as I considered the green and yellow aliens climbing from my toes to my knees. He wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t going to verbalize my agreement. I would have rather walked around naked all day than have this gods-awful color attached to my head.

“Right. Uhm, we need to have a meeting.” I wasn’t smooth about changing the subject. “I need to tell everyone what Sarge told me yesterday, and we need to plan this trip to Baton Rouge. Can you guys grab the others and meet me downstairs?” I pointed my finger to the floor. “Oh and bring Levi, too?”

“Sure thing, Kitten,” Stone said while he and Briggs stood from their chairs. “Give us a few minutes and we’ll send everyone down.”

I headed back into the pantry, nibbling my chocolate, as the guys disappeared around the corner on their quest to find the others. I walked to the spice rack, opening the hidden door, and left it ajar behind me. Pushing my way through the soundproof bubble, I felt the static electricity feeling roll over me. I silently descended the staircase, and once I was at the bottom, I flipped up the light switch on the wall to illuminate the area.

From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a slight shimmer in the air. When I turned my head, there was nothing there. Spinning slowly in my place, I sought out the intrusion. I no longer had complete faith in the warding around my property after yesterday. It would have left me feeling completely on edge if I didn’t have a house full of sexy supernatural creatures here with me. Still, the anxiety and unease that had piled upon me was becoming crippling. I tried my hardest to stick to one problem at a time, but eventually that was going to become an issue. All these things were creating a slippery slope of chaos. One I could climb up and defeat, or fall down and fail.

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end a second before a hand landed on my shoulder from behind. Without slowing down to think, I twisted my body into the attack. Shoving the side of my hip against the culprit’s right hip, I grabbed the sleeve and lapel of his suit jacket. I tucked my leg behind his knee and jerked with all my strength, slinging my attacker to the ground.

Or… my Lucy. Fuck my life. Had I really become this paranoid? I dropped to my knees as my grandfather rolled over onto his back and looked up at me with a grin. “Oh, gods. Lucy, are you okay? I didn’t know it was you.”

“Of course you didn’t, little monster. I was trying to sneak up on you.” He rubbed at his shoulder before returning his bright blue eyes to me. “I see you’ve continued your training.”

“Yes, sir. I see you're getting clumsy in your old age.” I grinned back at him. “I saw the shimmer.”

“Ahh, yes, well… I have no excuse for that.” He chuckled. “You’ve gotten stronger, and I suspect I won’t be able to sneak up on you for much longer. I’ll have to change my tactics.”

I helped Lucy to his feet so we could sit in the chairs around the table in my basement office. “Little monster,” Lucy addressed me with concern, “what have you done to your beautiful hair?”

“Uhm,” I grimaced, “Novak and I lost a bet to York and Palmer. We had to change our hair color, but don’t fret, Lucy. It’ll return back to normal in a couple hours.”

“Who?” He looked confused. Right. Of course he did, because he didn’t know about my mates. This introduction would be interesting. Lucy had a wonderful way of being both protective and embarrassing at the same time. He and my dad, Charles, were the same on that front.

“My mates,” I told him with a shrug. “Half of them, anyway,” I whispered, mostly to myself.

No sooner had the statement left my lips when I heard several sets of footsteps on the stairs. I wondered briefly if I could die from embarrassment. If it was possible, I’d find out soon enough. Great. Here comes the blush.

Briggs was first to enter the room, stopping abruptly to take in the scene before him. It probably didn’t look good from his point of view. Lucy sat straight in his chair, looking to all the world like a pretty blonde man in his late twenties to early thirties with his unnaturally colored blue eyes. I sat beside him with elbows propped on the table, left hand spread wide over the bottom half of my face. My right hand gripped my left forearm hard enough to turn my knuckles white.

A streak of neon yellow told me Novak was behind Briggs’ gigantic form. His body was so broad he covered most of the doorway. When he stumbled forward a foot, I realized that there was a line behind him, and everyone was bound to have the same questions. “Just come in and sit down before you start asking questions, please,” I mumbled my request from behind my hand.

Everyone began filing in and taking seats, all eyes stayed on Lucy as their bodies moved around. Stone was last to enter the room. He looked around at the way the guys were acting, then his gaze found me before bouncing to Lucy. Stone dropped to his knees as soon as he recognized my grandfather. Que the first shade of color to my cheeks.

“Stone, get up.” I sighed and removed my hand from my face. “He’s not the First Devil here. He’s my grandfather.” Every head in the room snapped to me, except York. He’d met Lucy once before. He just didn’t know, at the time, that he was anyone other than a grandparent. I hadn’t exactly been forthcoming with the fact that I was the Devil’s heir.