Page 12 of Laverna

"How does he know where we are?" Laverna grumbled.

Better than fine. We are about to teach two hot priests about my favorite deadly sin, she shot back.

I'm pretty sure they already know about greed, little thief.

Oh, it's not greed.

Better not be lust.

None of your business if it is.

Rome doesn't need you corrupting the clergy right now.

Why are you so determined to ruin all my fun? Laverna really didn't have the energy to be seducing priests, but she was curious as to why he would care.

Somehow, I don't think virgins would be up to the challenge of you.

Laverna snorted back her laughter even as her insides heated. He wasn't wrong after all. I go by quantity to make up for it.

Romulus just sent her back an eye-rolling emoji that made Laverna cackle more. Maybe she would get him to move the stick out of his ass just a bit by the time they were through with the witches. Maybe.

Laverna's good mood lasted until she got back to her reception area in the catacombs and saw the pile of paperwork that had been assembled by Roberto. She grimaced, but she wasn't about to complain. It turned out that a lot of people had seen weird shit happening around Rome.

Laverna sent a minion to get her coffee and sat down at the table. Only weeks ago, she had drunk wine there with a very pissed-off Bellona. She wished she could call on her to come and help deal with the witches, but she wouldn't. Bellona had been through enough, almost losing Rafael, and it was better for her to stay with him and not get involved in another fight.

Laverna opened the folder and started going through the scraps of paper with hand-scrawled notes of sightings, a few typed letters, three posters for missing children, and photos taken on phones and printed off by Roberto.

She scanned through the information, her stomach churning the more she read about pets found mutilated and family graves desecrated. It had been happening for months under their noses, and neither she nor Romulus had noticed.

Laverna shuffled through the photos until one caught her eye, and she let out a feral hiss. She had cut her long, copper hair to her shoulders and was dressed in a fashionable navy-blue jumpsuit, but there was no mistaking her—Canidia. Romulus and the wolves hadn't been wrong about the origin of the magic they smelled. Laverna's secret hope that the witch was dead, and they were dealing with followers of her, shriveled up under the evidence.

Laverna grabbed her phone, took a copy of the photo, and sent it to Romulus.

Your girlfriend is back.

Romulus's response was almost instantaneous: For the last time, she was never my girlfriend. I refused to fuck her and join forces to rule the city, and that's why she caused so many problems last time. I'll send this image out to the wolves and my contacts in the police.

You do that. I'll find out where the picture was taken.

Laverna texted the picture out to all her people who carried a phone and told them to keep a lookout for her. She was starting to believe that Romulus might never have fucked the witch. She didn't know why she even cared. Stupid witches. Stupid Romulus messing with her head. The sooner the both of them were out of her life, the better.

Laverna frowned at the uneasiness that filled her. The feeling turned to horror, and she leaned back in her chair and covered her face with her hands.

"Oh, no. You actually like him. No, no, no. No being friends with assholes," she muttered under her breath.

This was the worst thing that could happen to her because Romulus would only throw her friendship back in her face. He had always made it clear that she was beneath him. Whatever madness he was suffering from wouldn't last, and he would go back to despising her.

"You are just lonely. It will pass. It always does," she reassured herself and buried herself back in the reports.

9

Rom was prowling the villa, agitated by Laverna's texts and the photo of Canidia. He should have ripped her throat out centuries ago. He would have except the night they closed in on them, the witches had vanished from Rome and hadn't returned in the centuries that followed. He sent the photo to Claudius for the wolves searching the nearby towns.

He needed to see Laverna and what other information her people had put together. It had taken less than a day for them to get a photo, which meant they knew where to look.

His churning thoughts were interrupted by his phone buzzing angrily on the kitchen counter. He ignored the disappointment he felt when it was Claudius and not Laverna. Fates, he needed to get laid or something to stop him from obsessing so much.

''Claudius? What's wrong?" Rom answered.

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