Page 69 of Tethered Souls
A shiver shooting down my spine, I smile.
Twenty-Three
HIM
The urge to fuck her as she stares up at me is making me hard. She’s still down on the ground, her arms behind her, her knees up and spread. The sash of her dress lies on top of her pussy, hiding it from my view, but I can smell the cum lathered all around it. The intensity of it tells me my little monster came like I told her to. A low growl of approval rumbles from my chest, and I slip my hand into my pocket.
She tenses in anticipation, her legs closing together. But just as I go to unlock the screen on my phone, the hairs on my neck rise.
Aleric.
The fucker appears out of thin air, right beside Mother. He’s covered in blood from head to foot, his short black hair slicked back and matted, his skin and tux painted red. The only other color on him is the white of his eyes. Vlad, his Underboss, stands beside him, dripping in the same amount of blood.
“Why, hello there,” Aleric says as he flashes a megawatt smile.
In an instant, the waitresses all become armed, knives and guns pulled, hands alight with red magic. The trays they hold are poised on fingertips ready to drop them or throw them at the two vampires. We might be at peace, but no one likes to be caught off guard.
“You should have come through the front door,” I tell the Boss of the Blood Fangs as I pull my hand free of my pants pocket, leaving the phone locked. Micha rises slowly to her feet behind me, her heart rate calm, her pores pumping with adrenaline.
I shift in front of her as I move to greet our new guests. Khalid trails beside me while the rest of my brothers slip through the crowd to surround Talon, knowing he is liable to do something stupid. As is Mother. I glance at her as we approach, noting the tightness of her posture before looking back at Aleric.
He smiles at me, not a single flair of fear in his eyes at being in a room of forty-odd witches all ready and willing to kill him. “And track blood all over this lovely place?” he drawls. “Bit of an asshole move.”
Lifting a hand, I signal everyone to stand down. Despite the weapons being put away and the magic fading from raised hands, the atmosphere of the room still stays frigid and ready to crack.
“Aw, that was so thoughtful of you,” Micha says as she comes up beside me. And although she is merely stepping into the role of hostess that Mother is currently incapable of being, I bristle at the kindness she is showing him.
Her smiles are mine.
She hugs my arm. The thunderous irritation in my chest starts to calm as she pushes her body against me. “We shall move the party outside then,” she says. “It’s about time we turned on some music and danced.” Her fingers trail down my arm to my hand, raising a line of goosebumps in their wake.
Aleric’s smile widens, his fangs on full display. “I do love dancing.” His eyes dart to the floor behind us, to Jason’s butchered body. “Though I am a bit peckish,” he drawls. “I might fall over if I don’t eat.”
“You’re gorged,” the reaper says, and it isn’t a lie. No vampire would deliberately linger in the same room as a shapeshifter without being covered head to toe in blood and recently fed. Witches can cast a spell to protect their DNA from being studied by a shapeshifter, although it is a heavy drain on their body and they can’t keep it up indefinitely. But when vampires feed on blood, it doesn’t just sit in their stomach. It gets pumped around their body, which allows them to get high if they eat high prey and a damn good buzz if they feed on a witch. But it also hides their own DNA, making it a lot harder for a shapeshifter to get a reading on.
Eventually, Uncle Myers will be able to crack it, but it’ll take him a couple hours of close observation to do so. Being a lot younger, Maddox isn’t quite skilled enough.
Aleric laughs. “There’s always room for dessert.” His eyes twinkle as he turns to Mother. Bowing in half, he rolls his hand in front of him as he extends his arm and keeps his gaze on her. “I’ll take the first dance.”
Before she can answer, he vanishes, phasing away and leaving only a dark bloodstain on the floor. Vlad is gone a second later, having followed his Boss outside.
Smiling tightly, regaining a bit of her composure now that he isn’t in the room, Mother ushers the guests outside. As the crowd moves around us, two waitresses come over to deal with Jason’s body.
“Leave him,” I say. “Vinny.”
He steps forward, his face pale. His father moves behind him, his lips tight in the absence of his usual smile. Jason was Vinny’s second. He vouched for him to be here. His crimes are my cousin’s.
“I’m sorry, Varius,” he says. “I should’ve watched how much he had to drink. I didn’t –”
“He tried to steal from me, Vinny,” I cut in softly.
He swallows, the panic seeping from his pores in a sickly sweet smell. “I’ll pay for the damages. New dress. New tux. The cleaning of the house.”
“Compensation,” Uncle Myers adds.
“Of course. Yeah, yeah, of course. And compensation for the trouble he caused.” He swallows again as the last of the other capos and bosses leave so it’s just us five. Even the staff has disappeared. Soft music whispers from outside.
I turn my gaze to my uncle. “When Pauline was alive,” I say, referencing his wife and Vinny’s mother, “what would you have done if another man tried to steal her away?”
