AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He had more selfish reasons too. He wanted to continue to see her.
“We’ll trade off driving when you need relief, Ruric,” Levka said. “It’s about a six-hour drive where we’re going. What do you want to do, Jasmine? We can drop you off anywhere along the way and you can make your way out of here on your own. Or you can stay with us. We’ll offer all our protection to you, just as we protect each other. Which means no killing Stasio for getting you into this bind.”
7
Jasmine didn’t know what to do. She knew Pierre would return to the New York League and be sure to tell everyone in charge now that she was a rogue so he could have all her missions and probably be assigned to takeherdown too. She could no longer work as an assassin for them, unless she could clear her name. Pierre would undoubtedly tell them he had hunter witnesses who would state unequivocally that she’d said she was the girlfriend of a rogue and that would be the end of her trying to prove otherwise. Not to mention she had run away with them—not her choice, but Stasio proved he could take charge in an instant—where she was concerned.
If she stayed with this bunch of rogues, she was sure to be roped into doing stuff like they did and get herself into more trouble than she was in now.
She glanced at Stasio. He was watching her, concern etched on his face. “If I have you drop me off somewhere along the way—”
“I’ll stay with you.” Stasio appeared serious.
She shook her head. “If I stay behind and you stay with me, I could see you getting me into even more trouble.”
“I would protect you. We’ve been at this for a very long time.” Stasio seemed sincere.
She appreciated that he wanted to be there for her. She noticed that none of the others said that he couldn’t stay with her on his own. She had thought they were really good friends. Inseparable. “What do you say to that, Levka?” She believed he was the one who made more of the decisions.
“I would say that Stasio is willing to risk his life to protect you,” Levka said.
“He is in love,” Ruric said. “Undoubtedly.”
Arman shook his head. “Only more trouble will come of us harboring yet another female vampire.”
“I am not newly turned,” Jasmine said, annoyed with Arman. There was a big difference between a vampire who had lived for a very long time as one, and one who was just taking baby steps into the world of vampirism. Plus, she wasn’t really like Arman and his vampire friends because they’d all been turned by the plague while they were human. She had been born to a hunter-turned vampire and a vampire, which made her unique. She had never been strictly human.
Caitlin smiled at her. “But I am a witch with special abilities. I believe you should stay with us so we can protect both you and Stasio.”
“I didn’t say I was staying with Stasio, only that you could drop me off somewhere along the way and—”
“Do what?” Stasio asked, as if he had to know her plans to make sure they were sound.
“I have money saved in…special accounts. At least the League can’t confiscate that,” Jasmine said. “I could live off it indefinitely. Though I would have to live more frugally. Surely, the Welsh assassins would not try to follow me here. Or would they?”
“Not likely,” Stasio said, “Which is why we aren’t flying out to some other location.”
“Because airline travel makes him sick,” Caitlin said.
Jasmine looked at Stasio and smiled. “A vampire who can fly gets sick on a plane?”
“Laugh all you want about it. If I’m in control, I have no problem. When I let someone else do the flying, I get sick.” Stasio gave Caitlin an irritated look.
“It’s no big deal, Stasio. I have an aversion to cruise ships,” Caitlin said, then told Jasmine more of the story of how she had joined the merry little band of vampire mischief-makers.
“Okay, so I feel your pain on that one.” Jasmine couldn’t believe Caitlin had lost her parents and sister in the ocean, then nearly died some years later there herself. That had to give her nightmares. “Are you really princes? That wasn’t just a story also? The castle was yours, Stasio?” Jasmine wanted to hear the whole story, since he hadn’t been truthful about being an assassin, or a rogue.
“We are all princes, and yes, the castle was mine,” Stasio said.
“And Gareth? You had no intention of taking him down. Was he a friend of yours?” The more Jasmine learned, the more she couldn’t believe any of this.
“My first cousin. And the hunters you met? They are his brothers. Also my first cousins.”
She sat back in her seat, shocked. “Gareth is your cousin? You were protecting your cousin. And the hunters? They were trying to save him from Pierre and me then?”
“Yes. Though we had no idea they would go against hunter league rules to protect their vampire brother,” Stasio said. “We haven’t been here in eons. Not even Gareth knows how his brothers feel about him. Unfortunately, he escaped before they arrived and before they could visit with each other and clear the air.”
For a minute, Jasmine considered if she could use the knowledge that the hunters were Gareth’s brothers as leverage if she wanted to refute their claim that she was Stasio’s girlfriend, but she realized she couldn’t do it. Truth be told, she’d done her fair share of saving humans when she wasn’t supposed to interfere. She was just lucky no one had caught her at it. She thought she might have a hero complex—save the vampires, humans, and hunters by terminating the vampire rogues. Save the hunters and humans by eliminating human and hunter rogues. Though without the league’s approval, the latter would earn her rogue status. She’d done it alone without witnesses. No one but she had ever known she’d been involved in taking down murderous hunters or humans.
