Gypsy Moon (Page 38)

He gracefully follows my stumbling steps, and rights me before I can fall.

I jerk my coat shut, and he keeps his hands placed on decent areas on my body, as I follow the numbers that count down toward our room.

“The technology of this era is simply astounding,” Arion says as he stares at the keycard in his hand. “I remember the day we celebrated the invention of the wheel,” he adds as I take the card from him and then pause, my brow furrowing, as I open my mouth and close it. He adds, “We rolled each other around all day, and life drastically improved.”

When he grins, I feel like a complete, gullible dumbass.

“Not that old, love. Even scary vampires can jest,” he quips like the cheeky asshole he is.

Rolling my eyes, I push the door to the room open, hearing the slowest elevator ever as it dings shut. Arion moves in behind me, as I sort of gape around at the massive living room area.

I look around a few more times, catching sight of a very large bedroom off to the side.

Immediately, I’m a little uncomfortable, because this is way too fancy for a girl who lost her clothes in a dog fight, for Pete’s sake. I’m too much of a hot mess for fancy things.

“I feel unworthy,” I confess.

“It’s hardly that nice. You’re welcome to order food if you’re hungry, love,” Arion says from behind me, pushing my hair aside.

I actively force myself not to angle my head and expose my throat to him, since there’s apparently some merit to this omega crap. If that’s what I am.

“What am I?” I ask curiously as I stare at the ornate carvings on the round dining table off to the side.

“I thought we’d already determined that, love,” he murmurs against the top of my head, as his hands slide down my shoulders, then to my elbows, and back up again.

“I’m the impossible daughter of a woman with a dead womb—”

“According to Tom,” he cuts in. “I worry we’ve gotten your hopes up too much for something that feels less and less likely, the more I think about it.”

His doubt doesn’t give me doubt. I felt my mother’s death. However, it never made sense why it never really felt like she was truly gone, or why her spirit didn’t find me.

She was busy coming back to me.

I don’t say that aloud.

“You’re a Neopry monster—a little on the small side, considering most are over six feet tall, and you’re a gypsy freak in the non-offensive sort of way,” he adds like he’s summing it up and wrapping it with a pretty bow.

“So these are the kind of answers I’ll be getting. The ones answered by Arion, because Ace is truly gone,” I say quietly.

“I’m not really sure what else you want me to say on that matter, Violet,” he tells me as he releases me and goes to casually pull his jacket off, tossing it aside.

He grins as he glances over his shoulder. “Can I take your coat for you?”

I guess I should have expected this.

“I’ll wait until I have something else to—”

He pulls his shirt over his head, revealing the shorter sleeved one underneath, before tossing the top shirt to me.

It’s when he does sweet things that I go back to singing Weak in my head.

His phone goes off again, and he tosses it to the table, still staring over at me, as I fold his shirt in my lap.

“I think I’ll shower off the flight first.”

“The lightning doesn’t burn you,” he says almost randomly.

“Conduits don’t always burn,” I state as if on autopilot.

He nods, eyes sharp, like he’s the one assessing me.

“I should go scavenge the wreckage for any remaining clothes of yours. For the most part, the plane stayed intact, but it did lose its wings and part of its tail,” he goes on way too conversationally, given the topic, while he props against the table, still watching me. “For a girl scared of planes, trains, and automobiles, you don’t seem too rattled by the crash.”

“Thousands of volts of electricity coursing through my body and causing every muscle to contort in agony is a marvelous distraction,” I dryly inform him, giving him a pointed look. “Is this your way of trying to sample my blood again to see if I’m who I say I am?”

His smirk could mean a number of things, so I don’t read into it.

“I’ll have to do that when I return.” His eyes grow serious. “I’ll need you to stay on the phone with Vance until then, though. By now, they’ve likely found Emit and the regional alpha. We crash landed just beyond their territory,” he goes on.

I don’t even argue that, or ask the reason why.

“I saw a portrait of you,” I tell him just as he picks his phone up again, and he grimaces. “Right down to the threads, you looked the exact same as when we first met…the night you were haunting Vance.”

“The night he painted your toes like a common, new-age teen girl,” he says with a shudder. “That portrait was done just after we’d turned immortal. I could explain the complicated details of astral projection—”

“Is that something you can do at will now?” I cut in, not needing the complicated details. “You only sort of explained once before.”

He gives me a tight, humorless smile. “It’s something I could do on a weaker scale, up until I had my first taste of human blood. A wall slammed into place after that. It’s firmly back in place since I fed that first day I finally reached the surface again.” He glances down at his phone.

“Whenever we can’t definitively explain something that was a direct result of those actions, we chalk it up to gypsy magic and blood magic causing a lot of side effects. The universe had to write new laws for us. As Damien calls it—the freaky shit. While starved for blood for so long, I suppose I was able to touch that side briefly once again.”

I nod like I understand, even though it just barely answers my question.

“I thought we’d be touching while you asked a spitfire round of questions,” he states idly, glancing up again.

At my look, he grins once more.

“I’m not asking for sex. I’m just a man who is truly starved for affection, even the smallest amount,” he assures me.

“You’re trying to sound pathetic again.”

“Is it working?” he asks hopefully.

Considering I want to give him a hug when he sounds pathetic—fake or not—I’d say it’s working.

“Not even a little,” I lie.

The triplets appear in the room, and I startle, but Arion just grins. “You girls come to cheerlead for me some more?”

They don’t answer before vanishing all at once again.

“They want something that’s going to take a lot of time, and more help,” I say on a long groan, as I stand and head toward the bedroom.

“Advancing to the bed already, are we?” Arion drawls.

“Shower, remember? I need a shower so hard right now. I don’t even know what time it is, or why it feels like it’s been dark for eighteen days, but I do know I need a shower. The less I sleep, the longer the days are starting to feel.”

I don’t even know what day it is anymore.

CHAPTER 20

ARION

I pull out my phone as I slip into the bathroom, certain Violet has stepped into the shower by now. The glass doors do nothing to hide her body from me yet, although the steam is hinting at the edges of the glass, warning me my view won’t be undisturbed for long.

Violet tips her head back, eyes closing, as she lets the water run over her.

My eyes run down her bare breasts, but my gaze quickly snaps back up when she angles her head in the shower, my favorite spot on her neck far too temptingly turning toward me. I step closer as she angles her head the other way, moaning a little, which suggests she enjoys the feel of the water.

I finally take the damn video, and I send it to Vance to let him know she’s perfectly safe.

He quickly fires back a text to me.

VANCE: I’ll be visiting House of Jessup within the next hour. Things are anxious with the wolves.

He can handle Jessup on his own. After seeing her in the shower, I’ve changed my mind about leaving.

ME: Have one of the others scavenge the plane. I’m not leaving Violet alone. She hasn’t even figured out I’m in here yet, so I’ve changed my mind and I’m staying. Damn girl is too much of an easy target.

I pocket my phone, because that’s all I have to say on the matter, and I’ve been generous enough not to loop. Though, he’ll be pissed once he finds out this vampire still has more tricks up his sleeve.

I wonder how she’d react if I climbed in there with her and took over caring for her body.

“Thought you were going to get our things,” Violet says as she opens her eyes on me, not even a little surprised, as she gives me her back.

My eyes dip to her equally tempting derriere with that movement.

“I decided you need more protection,” I answer, moving closer to the shower doors as they continue to steam up. “When I went under, hot water wasn’t so easily accessible,” I say by way of changing the subject. “It’s fast becoming a favorite of mine. I’d be happy to help you out in there. I’m very helpful.”