AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"You don't own these apartments," Laci snapped. "You have no right to stop us. Besides, you can't. What are you going to do, try to drain us?"
Thane's hand moved to his waist, and he pulled out one of those silver stakes. Calmly, and dramatically, he tossed it in a lazy flip, catching the thing in his palm with a loud thump. Immediately, all eyes jump to the weapon.
"Before I allow any of you to become a reason why my friends have one of these put through their body, I will put one through yours first." He lifted the clavum to make sure everyone could see it and looked over at Isabella pointedly. "You want to talk about having the freedom to do what you want? Fine. Let's talk. You care so little about possibly getting others killed, so explain to me why I should care about killing you?"
"See!" Karsen, the phantom, said, pointing at him. "I told you the inquisitor was just waiting for an excuse to kill us."
"Just like you're waiting for an excuse to call in the Inquisition and ruin our good thing," Nikki shot back. "Well, we have one of our own. Think of him like an eidolon cop. Means we need to agree to work together or get the fuck out of town before some of you screw it up for the rest of us."
"Fuck you," Vivian hissed. "Who gave you the right to make decisions anyway?"
Dahlia crossed her arms and lifted a brow. "I thought we already had this discussion. Now, everyone else didn't hear what I told you, so let me say it again. I found this place. I fought to survive the inquisitors in Texas. I made it out here, then spread the word. I didn't have to tell you, but I did. That does not give you the right to fuck up my safe haven."
"And it doesn't give you the right to tell us what to do," Isabella grumbled under her breath.
"It does when you touch my husband," Dahlia warned, anger taking over her voice.
Thane reached over to touch her arm, keeping her from acting on that anger. The gesture was subtle, but enough for Dahlia to shut her mouth. Cain immediately took over.
"And if you don't like our way, then go find your own safe place," he said. "If you aren't willing to be a contributing member of this community, then you can find somewhere else to live. I have no problem telling Shauntelle that you're no longer with the company. It seems Thane has no problem acting as our enforcement."
"You think that just because you're the oldest," Hudson said, "that puts you in charge?"
A slow, sly smile began to take over Cain's lips. "I think that because I know how to survive, I get to be in charge. That is how the world works, little vampire. The little fish get eaten by the big fish, and the sharks consume them all. In case you missed the analogy, Dahlia and me? We are the sharks."
Zion scoffed. "I guess that means Roarke and Nikki got elevated to being big fish because they're fucking the right people?"
"Or at least smart enough to know which side to pick," Roarke shot back. "Look, this is pretty easy. There's no reason we should even be fighting about it. All you have to do is stop and think about whether your actions will harm the rest of us. Is that really so much to ask? Are you so fucking selfish that you don't care if your version of 'fun' kills other eidolon? And if you say yes to that, then why the fuck do you want to be part of this community anyway? Why would we want you?"
Nikki just pointed at him. "That," she said. "All of that. None of us are saying you can't hunt. We're just saying that if you want to be here, then you can't hunt whenever the urge hits you. We have to be careful. If the Inquisition sees a whole bunch of people dying right around this apartment complex, then where the fuck do you think they're gonna look first?"
"Don't shit where you eat," Joshua, the wendigo, said softly. "I'm good with that. I also like the idea of a schedule. Hell, we can trade days if we want. Even sell off days." He looked over the succubus. "I mean, some of us are going to have more of a predatory urge than others, right?"
Isabella nodded her head. "I would rather fuck for my vitality."
"And I agree with Cain," Joshua continued. "If you don't want to play by the rules set by the community, then you can go play somewhere else."
"The community didn't set the rules," Laci countered. "The king and queen did. I left Europe to get away from dictatorships. Now I find that we're trying to do the same thing here?"
"Okay," Cain relented. "All in favor of making sure we don't call the Inquisition into the one place we discovered that doesn't have any inquisitors - except our own - please raise your hand."
Cain, Dahlia, Roarke, Nikki, Christos, Joshua, Surya, Grace, and Isabella all raised their hands. Vivian looked like she smelled something disgusting, and crossed her arms in a childish huff. Laci, Karsen, and Zion simply looked pissed. Hudson shook his head like he was very disappointed in all of them, but the vote was clear.
"You wanted to vote," Cain said. "We did. You lost. Now you get to figure out what you're going to do about it, but risking our lives for your whims isn't an option. Don't even try it."
ChapterThirty
DAHLIA
There was more fighting after that. Dahlia had started to think of the group of dissenters as the ghosts. No, they weren't all ghosts. She also didn't really care. Clearly, Vivian and Laci were the ringleaders, encouraging the rest to feel like they were owed something they weren't. That didn't mean they were willing to accept their defeat silently.
Then there was Isabella. The stupid little succubus kept glancing over at Thane. Then again, he didn't bother putting his clavum away. Every so often, while the rest of the room argued, he would just flip it in his hand, catching the thing like it was an extension of his arm. There was no doubt he was used to the weapon - or that he was willing to use it.
And when the arguing was finally over, Nikki hurried over to pluck the bag from Dahlia's side, and made an announcement about the crosses they'd bought. After explaining that this was so they could practice how to get over the wards used by inquisitors, she told everyone they could pick one cross, lock it in a closet if they needed to, and just practice being near it. Not surprisingly, those ghosts and their friends showed exactly no interest, but Cain made it clear this wasn't optional. Others, however, were very appreciative.
Leaving her to it, Dahlia and Thane headed back up to their apartment, but there wasn't much to say as they walked. Or maybe there was too much, because Dahlia now had a million things running through her mind. It started with the talk she'd had with Nikki at the diner, and ended with the five eidolon who didn't care if they got anyone else killed. So the moment the door was closed behind them, she turned around to face her husband.
"You know those five aren't going to just stop killing, right?" she asked. "Thane, this is going to get ugly, and there's a good chance we'll have to chase that group out. I'm just scared that the Inquisition will still come for us, and you're going to get caught in the middle."
