Gypsy Freak (Page 25)

They all narrow their eyes on me, and I smirk.

“Oh, you can all stalk her, but I can’t?” I ask in a droll tone that has Damien cracking his neck to the side.

“Her ghost friend Anna was dying, and she used Violet’s body for one last day of feeling human,” Vance tells me like he’s talking down to me.

“Anna died?” I ask, heaving out a groan.

Damien studies me for a second before nodding.

“Wasn’t that her only friend?” I ask on a tired sigh.

It’s not as though they’ll guess my impossible secret.

“She’s taken up with Emit’s omegas while she pauses the pain. It’s something she does—pauses her emotions. Apparently she was raised not to mourn, fear, be angry, or have any powerful emotion for too long or it could get her killed,” Vance says, clucking his tongue as he looks down and picks a piece of lint off his sleeve.

“Yes, but what robot can actually do that?” Emit asks.

Vance shrugs, never looking up as he tweaks each button on his sleeve, and then he begins taking off his jacket, always finding ways to twitch when he suppresses the urge to hunt.

Some things never change.

“She does it subconsciously. She reacts to each situation by listening and questioning when she can. She fights as a last resort, to the best of what I can tell. She’s not very good at killing things, and she never really talks about things once they’re over.”

“The girl has emotions. I’ve seen them,” I point out.

“We’re supposed to be discussing you not crossing any lines that put me in difficult situations,” Emit says, seeming to bat away our distracting tangent.

“Do your job as alpha, or get the Van Helsing to step up for you, so that I never feel the need to have to.”

Vance and Emit both glare at me, as Damien leans up, putting his elbows on his knees.

“Mine were under control and weren’t turning anyone,” Damien tells me coldly. “The law stood in place if they stepped out of line, and you knew it. You made this personal because Emit and I had no choice but to kill Theon—”

“You did have a choice. That lad had stood by me when all of you turned your backs, and you still chose to stab a stake through his heart,” I say as a chill flits into the room, seriousness taking over.

My monster lingers near the surface, but I don’t show it. It’s like wrestling for control after decades of such unrest.

“You gave him too much slack, and he knew far too much,” Vance says in a steady tone, moving through the room when his restlessness begins to stir. “I spared him over and over, and you failed to do your part, because you refused to see the betrayal he posed.”

“No worse than any betrayals you lot have committed towards me over the long centuries,” I state coldly. “Yet here I am, not killing you either. Betrayals are judged based on loyalties. At the end of the day, he broke the law, and you killed him. Just as I killed your rabid beasts for living outside the parameters of the law,” I say, looking pointedly at Emit before swinging my gaze to Damien, “Same for your leeches. Then I was punished for the same crime you two had already committed. Does the law only apply to vampires?”

“One beta was all we killed for a very sacred law, after multiple warnings,” Damien says, holding up his index finger. “Hundreds of our people were brutally slain without warning.”

This devolves into several tangent arguments, and all of us pointing out the other’s hypocrisies. I lift my phone and call Violet, listening to her answer and demand, once again, to know who’s calling, as a male’s snore drones on in the background. I hang up immediately.

My gaze cuts to Damien, while there’s a short pause in the argument that will never end, and I glare at him.

“Violet is at her house with another man because you left her unattended,” I inform him, pretending not to know about her father.

Mostly because I’m tired of this argument and I want to talk about Violet now.

He bats a dismissive hand. “Her father is in town.”

“Are you positive it was only her father snoring in the background?” I ask, stirring the pot. “I called earlier and she mentioned someone else was there. I don’t feel lucky enough to assume it was another female.”

He tenses, and Emit starts talking.

“I need assurances you’ll stick to your own territory and keep your nose out of wolf—”

“She doesn’t know any other men outside of us. At least not in town,” Damien says like he’s arguing with my suspicions.

“She told the bloke he’d best not be a monster, or something to that effect,” I carry on, talking over the Van Helsing and the wolf.

That has Damien and Vance bristling in their seats.

“Who was she talking to? Was that also her father?” I ask, feeling more and more anxious about this, and I then shoot a pointed look to Damien. “You should have stayed with her.”

The wolf shakes his head like he’s been derailed. “Assurances, Arion,” Emit states, trying to steer me back on topic. “I need you to assure me—”

“There is the ex, but why would he randomly show up at her house? But she was so secretive with him that she didn’t even mention her gypsy roots. I find it unlikely she’d be mentioning monsters around him,” Vance adds, pulling up his phone like he’s reading the information that he gathers about her and keeps on that device.

I won’t lie; I learned more about her when I was reading the notes they took than I did when she was spilling her whole life story to me on her bed.

“Couldn’t be the ex. He doesn’t even know where she’s living now,” Damien says dismissively. “I’ve checked him out.”

“I’m going to regret this, but what ex are we talking about?” Emit asks on a reluctant huff.

“Jerome,” Damien, Vance, and I all state in annoyed unison.

“I find it rather intriguing how she’s most drawn to the three who stalk her the hardest,” I add observationally. “I’m worried she has no interest in Emit at all.”

“Are you seriously back to your ludicrous, bullshit plan?” Emit snaps.

“Didn’t seem so ludicrous when you two were watching from the balcony, hoping she’d say yes.”

I smirk when Vance and Emit both narrow their eyes at me.

“Did you hear the guy?” Damien asks me, moving closer to the desk. “The one supposedly with her now.”

“No,” I say, annoyingly distracted now that I’ve gone and started overthinking this.

I thought I had all possible issues sorted.

Things are going too smoothly for something like this to happen about.

“Give us a second,” Emit says, causing my attention to snap back to him, as Vance and Damien walk just outside the door.

I’m sure they’re listening to every word, and Vance is preparing to step in, so I’m not sure what the point in them leaving is.

“I mean it, Arion. My wolves. Stay. Away,” Emit tells me very seriously.

“I mean it when I say you need to worry about your betas. It’s funny how you paid so much more attention to mine.”

He cracks his knuckles like a true barbarian.

“Still won’t cut your hair?” I ask him on tired breath.

“Still won’t shut your mouth?” he fires back.

“I guess some things never change. Too bad so many others do.”

“I’m not walking down whatever road of manipulative mind-fuckery you have planned, Arion. I just want this clear before I walk away and meet with my betas tomorrow.”

I lean forward, giving him the seriousness he craves. “If your wolves attack me on my land ever again, this promise will be null-and-void. I’ve more than paid for a crime that makes all of you hypocrites.”

He exhales harshly.

“I leave here with the knowledge my wolves are safe so long as they don’t attack you first,” he says as though he’s clarifying.

“You leave with my word,” I agree.

“Don’t break it, or it’ll mean nothing to me in the future,” he warns. “I see one vampire paying too much attention to one wolf gathering, and I will stop you this time. No matter the cost.”

“No matter the cost,” I echo, steepling my hands before me. “I remember that being the reason we’re having this discussion today.”

He stands, glaring at me.

“We’re done,” he calls to the door.

Neither Vance nor Damien come in.

Emit gives me a confused look that I share, and I stand as he opens the door.

“They’re…not here,” he says as he steps out, sniffing the air. “Or even in the house. I’d be forced to endure Vance’s cologne over the worse vampire scents if they were.”

I hesitate for a second before a grin curves the edges of my lips. “They’ve gone to see if Violet has a beau in her bed.”

He groans, running a hand through that unkempt hair of his.

“You’ve got to let that go. She’s a Portocale gypsy Vance already crossed a line with—”

“Vancetto Van Helsing just left you and I alone in a room a few short days after my rising, even though the full moon is so close, because that Portocale gypsy might have a boy in her bed. Damien Morpheous is walking around with a heartbeat that steadily grows daily, and knowingly came to a party his brother had already crashed because of that Portocale gypsy,” I tell him, seeing him roll his eyes, even as he hates me for being right, I’m sure.