Page 24 of Blood Claims
“Good, just remember to call me and be prepared to give me all the juicy deets.”
I laughed and whispered,“I’ll try.”
Then I winked, making her look happy, and despite knowing I was saving my friend, I still couldn’t help but feel as if I was betraying her further.
I walked away with another layer of guilt added to the already back breaking load I carried. And after hugging my friend goodbye, I walked out the door, still questioning if I was doing the right thing, asking myself if I should have tried to tell her what was really happening. If I could have tried to communicate this in some way and ask for help? But then if I had, that would have only gotten her more involved than she already was. Because, at the very least, by going with them I had managed to get them away from her.
Andras, more than anyone else, as that big bastard still terrified me. Although when we walked back down to the limo, I didn’t take it as a good sign when I saw him leaning back against the car. His big arms were folded, and he was staring straight up at what he must have known was our window. Nor did I take it as a good sign when Tal gripped his shoulder and gave it a squeeze after telling him,
“Patience, my friend.” To which Andras simply nodded the once before folding himself into the driver’s seat without a word.
As for me, I was once again corralled into the car, this time accepting my fate by sitting in between them. My duffel tossed to the floor ahead of me gave me something to stare at. It felt like that bag always symbolized the next big shift in my life.
First, when I left the guise of a family home, and then again when asshole, Dex, had taken practically everything from me. And anything he had left I’d had to sell most of it just to try and chip away at the tip of that fucking big iceberg. Fuck, it was like being on the Titanic watching yourself getting closer to it, and the irony of it all was that I wasn’t even the one who bought the damn ticket to board it.
Well, the precarious waters I had been travelling through had turned even more dangerous, because now there were sharks in its depths, and they could smell blood in the water. And speaking of sharks, they allowed me this quiet time of contemplation with only a few words spoken. That dagger now lay across Victor’s lap, with one hand held firmly around it’s hilt and his other around my wrist. As if he was trying to make his ownership of us both perfectly clear.
And as for his brother, Tal had one of his hands heavy on my leg, keeping my thigh in his grasp and staying there for the entirety of the journey…his own claim on me loud and clear.
Yet no one said a word, as if this would help my troubled mind to process things. Yet in reality, I needed far longer than the time it took for us to reach their steel and glass castle. A fortress in the sky mocking me with the fact I had no wings in this dark fairytale. And as for its King, once inside I watched Victor’s reflection emerge behind me in the glass window, and the sight of New York at night no longer held my interest. Not with the living God at my back who placed his hands at my shoulders.
“You hungry, Firefly?” he asked softly, which was when my stomach chose to answer for me with a rumble.
“I will take that as a yes,” he replied with a chuckle. Then he let both hands stroke down my arms, with only one of them taking hold of mine. This was so as he could pull me from the wall of glass in his living room. As for Tal, I found him in thekitchen pulling a couple of beers from the fridge at the same time his eyes were on his phone.
“Okay, so our options are pretty much limitless. There is one place here that does sushi pizzas.”
I screwed my face up, making Victor laugh, and it was such an easy going and carefree sound that it made me do a double take. It was like the second I had stepped back into their domain, both of them had instantly relaxed. In fact, it reminded me of that night they had fed me ice cream after kidnapping me, making me blush when looking back to the sofa.
“The apartment above the Chinese restaurant, I take it you used to live there before moving in with Stacey on Allen St?” Victor asked as he pulled out the barstool for me to sit on at the kitchen island. One that was made of a large slab of marble shiny enough I could see my reflection in it.
“Yeah,” I replied, giving Tal cause to ask,
“Their food any good?”
I couldn’t help moaning before forgetting myself by getting animated.
“Oh my god, yes! In fact, they do some of the best pork noodles and, oh my god, their steamed dumplings are to die for.”
Tal grinned before twisting the cap off both beers and tossing them to the sink, not the trash. Then he slid one to his brother, who palmed it instantly.
“Then that’s what we will order, now what do you want to drink, babe?” he confirmed, making my mouth start to water as I hadn’t eaten all day and I was suddenly starving. But seeing as Tal was waiting, I nodded to his beer and replied,
“I could take a beer.”
His smile once more transformed his face into some beautiful. So much so that I had to concentrate on breathing again. A regular occurrence around these two, for sure. After which Victor slid his beer in front of me and added to thethoughtful gesture by kissing the side of my head. This was before walking toward where he had left the dagger at the end of the counter.
“I am going to put this in our safe until we can get it back to Millbrook.”
“And the Bugatti, is that back at the Estate?” Tal asked, making my eyes widen at the sound of what I knew was an expensive car.
In fact, I only knew this because Dex had been a gearhead and used to tell me the list of dream cars he wanted to get ‘when he made it big’. Which I now knew translated into scoring big in whatever dodgy shit he was into at the time. But then, that was before the Erebus brothers had caught up to him because he was no doubt still recovering in the hospital.
The thought made me shiver. I didn’t think I would ever get the sight of that nightmare out of my mind. Because despite how much I hated my ex, no matter how much damage he had done to my life, I still wouldn’t have wished that type of torture on anyone. Which was why I couldn’t ever forget what they were truly capable of, knowing it would be dangerously foolish to do so.
“I had Andras handle it,” Victor replied, before taking hold of his most prized possession, the dagger…or was that now me?Either way, it was clearly going in another secure place, and one they no doubt didn’t worry about me breaking into anymore. As well, not only was I without my power of luck but also, I knew it wouldn’t help me in escaping, nor would it help me in breaking the curse. And speaking of the curse, I was suddenly brought out of my silent musing when a pair of thick, muscular arms wrapped around me from behind.
“Right, beautiful, what are we picking?” Tal asked, holding his phone right in front of me and letting me see the menu.
