Page 129 of High Stakes and Soulmates
“Oh helllllllll no,” Yorick says. “The only time you’d ever catch me with my pants down around that guy is if I’m using them to strangle him.”
Atticus just laughs. “Johnny, bring me the tape.”
“Yes, sir,” he replies, and off he goes. Like how the hell does he even know where everything is in Casimir’s house? And then he returns, tape in hand.
“Tape his mouth shut, please.”
“As you wish, sir,” Johnny says as he goes after Yorick who looks shocked… for some reason.
My brother just stares at me, and I try to pretend none of this is strange, but surely, he’ll get used to it.
“What happened to the bodies of Cyrus and Joaquin?” I ask.
“I don’t know. I’m sorry. I’m sure we’ll never find them.”
I nod. “Where are you staying? Do you want to stay at my house?”
“Sure, I could do that. Only a couple of days, though, until I find a place to live. I’m going to head out shortly, but I’ll be back a little later and we can talk some more, alright?”
“Perfect, thank you.”
“I’ll be back. Julian is going to let me borrow his car so I can get a few necessities. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”
“Okay, see you then,” I say as I watch him go before turning to the others. “What about everything else? Louis was basically running a cult.”
“Anyone who came out that night ended up dead,” Casimir responds. “Our group took care of them.”
Julian nods. “I mostly bit people long enough that Casimir could kill them. Killing isn’t really… my specialty.”
“Good,” I say. “Obviously, they were awful people to think it was okay to just… murder people. Hell, to murder their own. I wonder if we’ll ever find out everything that happened.”
“I don’t know,” Ezio says. “How about we head out? Clear our heads.”
“Yes, please,” I agree as I stand up. “Thank you all for helping us. Thank you for doing so much for us.”
“Any time,” Julian says. “Literally. We would do anything for our friends. And you’ve proven again and again you’d do the same for us. I’m just disappointed you won’t be turning into a wolf with me. Oh! Speaking of, do you need some blood?”
“Johnny, get him some blood,” Atticus orders, and off Johnny runs. He rushes back with a wineglass of blood that I apprehensively stare at. “Just take the glass with you.”
“Uh… I don’t want to like… spill it in Ezio’s sports car.”
“Johnny,” Atticus says, and Johnny snatches the glass up and dashes off. He returns after a few minutes with a reusable bottle… like I’m just going to sip some blood from a straw as I go.
“I don’t know why this feels so weird,” I comment.
“Maybe it’s the sippy cup?” Julian asks.
“I have a nice woman I can invite over, and you can suckle on her,” Yorick offers. “She’s a delight to suck on.”
“Yes, invite her over,” Atticus says in a way that makes it sound like he’ll snatch her up so Yorick can’t have her. Why? No one knows.
“We’re, uhhh, leaving?” I say before I carry my odd drink out to the car. Right outside the car, I hold it out in front of me. “You know… slurping it down mid-sex was just like… I went for it, but now…”
“You realize you have to have been consuming blood sometimes, right? I mean, you clearly weren’t drinking it enough, you were always tired and looked pale, but he must have been mixing it into your food.”
“No wonder I thought he was a phenomenal cook,” I say.
“Take a sip.”
