Gypsy's Blood (Page 24)

I have a loaded bra full of small but powerful potions, and he’s tempting me to use them all on him at this moment.

“You want to see a spot on my land, and I need to hold my own private audience with you, since it seems to be the new normal,” he bites out. “I’m sure Vance has told you why you’re safe with us,” he adds.

“Actually, no, he hasn’t. If I go based on what he’s said, this is a safe and dangerous place, and you’re all safe and dangerous. It doesn’t make sense. I’m seconds away from losing my shit, and I’d really rather no one be around to observe it. So either try to kill me, or be safe and go the hell away, because I need a fucking second!”

I’m breathing heavily by the end of my tirade when my voice breaks. My hands are shaking, and my lip trembles for the first time since this all dropped in my lap. And it’s really pissing me off that I’m trying to be patient and save my impending breakdown for a more appropriate time, yet slipping so soon.

Mom made it always sound so easy, and it seemed so rational and wise.

He shakes his head and exhales harshly. “Get in,” he says with a slightly gentler tone.

“Fuck. Off,” I state with a firmer tone.

He glares over at me, but I hear a door crashing in the distance, and decide I’d rather gamble than deal with either of those perverted lunatics right now.

So I get in the car.

He smirks as he continues the cliché with an old-fashioned burnout, and darts off at a nauseating speed. Why couldn’t they be speed limit monsters at least?

Chapter 15

VIOLET

I decidedly hate sports cars, but at least I don’t feel like I’m about to burst out in tears anymore. However, I do stare a little blankly at the familiar barbed wire fence before me.

“Did you bring me out here to kill me as some sort of sick joke?” I ask dryly.

“Vance said you think your mother was found out here. I can assure you she wasn’t, but you can get a glimpse right now. Until the snow melts, there’s a window,” he tells me as he gestures out to the thick blanket coating the ground. “I’m sure you can use me to tap into that window.”

I’m not really sure why I’d need to use him.

“Last time I stepped out there, wolves attacked. You weren’t happy about the outcome, and now I’ve been trying to avoid a downward spiral ever since. So why bring me back?”

He stares out in front of him. “Vance pointed out that you healed one of my wolves,” he says a little coldly. “After a quick inquiry, I found out which wolf. He said you genuinely thought he was a simple animal only doing what nature intended, and you left your throat exposed in the process of saving him. I got in the car after that,” he says like he’s annoyed with the entire thing.

My fingers quickly touch my throat in reflex, and I swear he almost smiles in reaction.

“Never do that again—expose your throat to a wolf. He was one who’s fortunately old enough to fight his instinct,” he says as he gets out.

“I can’t catch a break,” I say in frustration as I push my own door open. “There’s way too much happening all at once. This is insane!”

He comes to tower over me, and I look at his proffered hand like snakes are going to shoot from his fingers. At this particular moment, I wouldn’t rule anything out.

Emit Morrigan is a werewolf. I want to laugh and cry at the same time.

He pulls his jacket off when I shiver against the wind, and he doesn’t let me refuse it, before he just tosses it over my shoulders. He’s an idiot for having on a thin T-shirt and some sweatpants, but he’s a wolf or something. In short, I don’t feel bad about keeping the jacket.

I wrap up in it as I struggle to walk in the snow, trying to keep up with his slow strides, but losing more and more visibility as snow stirs and starts pouring all of the sudden.

Shiiit.

Not this again.

I pause, listening for the sound of snow crunching under a boot, but thicker dollops of snow start falling harder. I keep having to blink the white powder off my eyelashes as it starts falling in heavier sequences, and the chill spreads up my spine again.

I stand perfectly still, wondering if he’s just cruelly hanging around to watch me squirm, or if he’s really left me behind. We’re only a mile from where we left the car, so I decide to turn around and abandon this death trap of a mission.

“This is simply the cruelest time you’ve ever salted me,” Anna says as she reappears directly in front of me.

A scream is torn from my throat, and I feel myself flailing in the air, realizing too late that I’m falling…until the breath is slapped out of me.

“I’m Batman. You’re Robin. You don’t get to salt me during the guy time, you prudish hen,” she rants, pointing a finger down at me as I rock from side to side, trying to suck in a single drop of the air that just exploded from my lungs when I hit the ground.

She rants on, as I flop like a fish on dry land, unable to breathe and momentarily wanting to die.

“I get that I can be annoying, but we can come up with some signal for me to dial it back. No more salting. I need to see all the pretty monsters,” she angrily continues, just as I take a breath that sounds like a donkey braying, catching my first gust of air so hard it makes me cough.

“And they all said I’m far more interesting than you. I heard it in the early fifties when we were roller derby queens,” she prattles on, getting on a tangent.

“I don’t think they had roller derby queens in the fifties,” I tell her on a small, painful laugh, as a stray tear rolls out of my eye.

“How would you know? You weren’t there,” she argues.

“You just said I was,” I remind her, another tear randomly leaking from my other eye.

“You’re such a liar,” she says as though I’m exhausting.

“Hey, Anna,” I say on a steady exhale.

“What?” she asks sharply.

“I actually missed you.”

“Good. Tell the pretty monsters to get rid of their salt too,” she says on a sniff, and then frowns as she looks around. “Are we on our way to Grandma’s house again? I thought we decided Grandma was a bitch.”

“She’s definitely that, so let’s get out of here.”

“Aye! Land ho!” she shouts as she starts trekking in the wrong direction.

“Land ho in the opposite direction,” I call to her back.

She does an abrupt about-face and starts marching in the opposite direction, causing my smile to lift as I clear my throat.

Wiping my tears away, I push up to my feet, seeing a glimpse of the sun through the heavy snowfall. Just as I take a step, there’s suddenly a massive body in front of mine, and I scream. Again.

For fuck’s sake, can’t people understand this is a seriously critical moment in my life, and scaring the hell out of me is not cool at all?

Emit smirks down at me.

“You clearly need help, so climb me so we can get there before nightfall,” he says in an even tone.

I ignore all of that.

“Is the alpha wolf afraid of his own pack?” I ask him warily.

“No. It’s going to drop twenty degrees, at the very least, when the sun goes down. It’s already dropped ten since we’ve been out here. You have my jacket, and I’m starting to get cold,” he states like it should be obvious.

“What does he mean about climbing him? That’s the important part,” Anna butts in.

“I’m not climbing you,” I say with an indignant scoff, and take a slight step back from him.

He really is the tallest of the three, and one mountain of a man.

“Tell him about the time I took a ride on Aquaman. It’ll give my vagina celebrity accolades,” she drones on.

He wipes a hand over his mouth and mutters something I miss, before bending swiftly. It happens so fast that I don’t realize what’s going on, until a few seconds after my world is turned upside down.

“He really is a savage! He just threw you over his shoulder like a true barbarian, and now he’s off to have his wicked way with you! Why does it always happen to the boring ones?” Anna squeals and groans, alternating between the two as she bounces around behind me.

“Are you serious?” I snap as I stop my head from knocking against his ass for a third time.

“I really can’t be out here all fucking night,” he says on an exasperated breath.

When I feel how fast and smoothly he’s moving us, I stop complaining. I’m not lazy, but this is a hell of a lot quicker, and I don’t want to be out here at night either.

How the hell did the day get away from me so fast? It was certainly late when I got up, but—

“He is so turned on right now,” Anna says from somewhere in front of him. “I can see the outline. It’s still huge, in case you were wondering. The cold doesn’t cause this one shrinkage like it does the really pretty guy,” she adds. “Maybe I’ll borrow your vagina for him instead of those two.”

He stumbles, and my hands slip, which has my head bouncing really hard off his super firm ass.

He adjusts me to where my waist is more on his shoulder instead of my thighs, and my head doesn’t hang near his ass anymore.