AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What’s an oracle?” Penny asked.
“Never mind that right now. Let’s go put on some water for tea.” Mama Alvarez took Penny’s hand and pulled her towards the living room. Her smile was tight and more polite than warm. It pained me to be here putting such strain on her family. I had to wonder how much she kn
ew about my situation with Desmond, and how that factored into her feelings towards me.
What a mess.
I guessed by saving Penny’s life I had a get-out-of-jail-free card as far as lectures went, but that would only get me so far. If I broke her son’s heart, I didn’t think she’d stay very nice to me.
“You thought you could just show up here and make Desmond come with you?” Dominick looked exhausted, and I doubted I was going to have to put up much of a fight. I would have rather not fought at all because I considered these people among the closest thing I had to a family, and I didn’t want to alienate them.
But I needed Desmond, and we needed to get the hell out of Dodge like…now.
Against any other foe I might have feared for the lives of the Alvarez family along with my other friends. But Aubrey wasn’t Peyton, and he wasn’t Mercy. He wanted something from me, and he had enough appreciation for how I operated to know coming at me through my loved ones wasn’t the way to make me cooperate. He might try something with Holden or Desmond, but I would have them with me.
Everyone else was still considered mine under vampire law. Sig would keep an eye on them, because if anything happened to them, it would be considered a direct affront to me. I still had some power in this town, and I was grateful to use it while it lasted.
“Shit is going to hit the fan soon, Dom. I need to take Desmond, and we need to go now.”
“Shit is always hitting the fan with you.”
“I’ll be sure to give a warning and some raincoats to the first three rows in the future. But I don’t have time to argue about it now.”
“You’re going to put him in danger again, aren’t you?”
“Desmond is a big boy, and you know he’ll want to come.”
“That’s not the point.”
“I can appreciate you wanting to protect him, I really can. And I don’t want to put him in danger. Danger just sort of occurs a lot in my general proximity. But I won’t let anything happen to him.”
“Like you didn’t let anything happen to him in Paris?” Dominick crossed his arms and gave me a hard stare that I think was meant to make me feel guilty. It was working.
“I brought him home alive.”
“And what about the time he took a bullet for you?”
Dominick meant well, and he was just trying to protect Desmond, but the reminder of Des’s near death at my wedding brought up a violent and particularly visceral memory of blood. Blood all over my hands, my dress, blood everywhere.
And with it came a flash of other blood and spilled innards, with Holden’s vampire brother Maxime stretched out, gutted like a fish. I got lightheaded and braced myself against the foyer wall. Taking several deep breaths through my nose, I closed my eyes to count, but in the darkness of my mind the visuals were much worse. The halo from the hallway lights was a ghost of the overhead surgery lights where I could still smell the antiseptic.
I could still feel the incision.
Dominick caught me as my knees buckled, and helped me back to my feet. He kept both his hands on my waist, clearly not trusting me to stand on my own. I was grateful, because if he’d let me go, I would have probably collapsed onto the floor.
“Are you okay?” All his former hardness was gone, and he was looking at me like a friend again. His worry was so apparent it almost made me feel worse than his guilt glare had.
“I’m so far from okay I would need a travel visa to get back to okay.”
Dom snorted and pulled me in close, wrapping me up in a tight hug. I hadn’t realized how badly I needed to be held with no expectations. I didn’t need to feel bad for not sleeping with Dominick like I did with Holden and Desmond, and that made the hug easy. I buried my face against his warm chest and breathed in deep. He had an earthy, wild smell to him that was something I recognized on most werewolves, but he also smelled like family.
“What are you running from?” he asked.
“I need to finish something I started a long, long time ago. And then I need to put an end to all the rest of the garbage that keeps making my life insane.” As soon as I’d spoken the words I knew I meant it. I wanted to be done with everything, all the madness and danger and all the crazy nonsense that had followed me over the years.
I was ready to try my hand at a normal life.
Or as close to normal as I could get.
