Page 106 of Vicious Minds: Part 2 (Children of Vice 5)

“Don’t die.” Sedric shrugged.

“You all are going to feel really stupid when I get back here on Friday, completely fine, after this goodbye,” I laughed, walking toward the door.

“Never,” Helen said, stepping in my way and hugging me just like our mother had. “We should always say hello, goodbye, and I love you to people we cherish because life is short. The world can change in the blink of an eye….so, bye, little bro, I love you.”

“Love you, too,” I said.

It was all I could say because she was right. Tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed to anyone, especially people like us who risked it all for the power and wealth we currently have. But one thing was certain…

I wasn’t fucking dying.

And I wouldn’t fucking fail.

21

“I put a spell on you because

you’re mine.”

~Jay Hawkins

HELEN

I wasn’t sure if Friday had come too quickly or not soon enough. I hadn’t heard anything about Darcy since the night he had left the house. It wasn’t just radio silence; it was as if he had disappeared off the face off the earth. He hadn’t used any of his cards; the car he had taken to leave was parked in a garage in the city and left there. There were no calls, not even a text. No one had heard from him.

And when I asked Ethan, he simply looked at me with those dead of eyes of his and asked back, “Am I his keeper?” He was completely and utterly uninterested as if he did not send him out there to do his bidding.

For the first time ever, I wanted to smack him, I wanted to scream. But instead, I bit my tongue and found myself helping his wife with her stupid party.

“Where are my luminaries? Why are they not in and around the pool?” Calliope’s voice broke my attention.

I turned to see her in the center of the back garden dressed in an elegant, white, off-the-shoulder, fitted dress, with a slit up the thigh. Her dark brown hair was pulled over to one side with a diamond clip. On top of that, hanging off her shoulders, was a dark brown fur stole...because it was fucking November. Why she was dead set on having this party outside was beyond me. However, we’d spent only God knows how much making sure to have open heaters and fires set all around the garden to provide warmth. To her credit, the place looked like a winter wonderland. With strings of lights that covered the trees outside like a million lightning bugs. Little campfires were set all through the grounds with heated pillows and seats for the guests. She had thousands of roses, creating a backdrop for people to take photos in front of. On top of that, she had peacocks wandering the ground farther down and white swans in the pool. Why? Because she could. And nothing said rich like random exotic animals in places where they shouldn’t be.

“The swan keeper was worried that the flames would harm the swans, so we moved them farther back,” the decorator tried to explain to her.

Calliope looked at her as if she didn’t understand the language being spoken. It was actually awkward how long she just looked at her.

“Should…should we move them back?” the poor woman asked nervously.

Calliope gave one of her signature smiles, nodding. “That would be wise.”

“…and…the swan keeper?”

Again, she just looked at her.

“I will handle it myself,” she said quickly.

“Thank you,” Calliope replied and walked away from her toward me. She glanced around the guards, nodding to herself. “It’s nice, right?”

“Yes,” I muttered, not really in the mood.

“Really, I can’t tell from your face,” I shot back.

“I’ll work on it.”

“Good, today is my day. It needs to be perfect. So, I really don’t want you sulking and ruining it for me.”

That was it. Everyone had a limit, and I was fucking at it. I turned to her, breathing through my nose. “Maybe you didn’t realize—”

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