Page 73 of Blood

Surprisingly, Jack is in the kitchen when I step out of my bedroom. Over the last two weeks, all the guys have taken to staying with me in Lucifer’s apartment, though they alternate who sleeps in my bed with me and who takes the couch, floor, and chairs. None of us feel comfortable entering Lucifer’s room.

At all times, two of my mates are on guard, watching for threats. I try to tell them that we’re safe down here, that Zeus would have to be an absolute idiot to attack us in Hell...but then Vin reminds me that Zeus once spent a solid hour trying to figure out how to work a television remote.

He’s evil, but he ain’t smart.

“Where is everyone?” I question, running a towel through my wet hair and taking a seat at the counter.

“They’re meeting with Athena to try to get more information about her warriors. She’s been rather cagey about how many Fomorians will be willing to fight,” Jack explains, not looking up from his task as he stirs what appears to be a red sauce with a wooden spoon while simultaneously pouring pasta into another pan of boiling water. “So, it’s just us for a few hours.”

I smile softly and drop my towel onto the stool beside me. “And does that make you flustered, Jack?” I ask softly, trying to decipher the expression tainting his handsome features.

At my words, his cheeks pinken, and he lowers his head even farther, his shiny black hair sliding forward to obscure more of his face from view. “I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve had alone time with you,” he confesses. “I’m not as...boisterous as some of your other mates. And I’m certainly not as needy as Hux.” He pauses, no doubt hearing his brother in his head, and winces. “Not that Hux is needy...”

“I get what you mean.” I bite down on my lower lip and peer at him through my fringe of lashes. “And I missed you too. Both of you. When Balor had you trapped away, I thought my heart would obliterate with how much I missed you.”

Jack peeks up at me through his long hair, and the vulnerability in his eyes breaks my heart. “You mean it?” he asks softly.

“Jack, I must be doing something wrong as your mate if you don’t know how ridiculously in love with you I am.” I smile timidly and immediately lower my eyes. How can I be so confident with some of my mates but feel like a blushing, insecure schoolgirl when I’m with Jack? There’s just something about my shy, sweet mate that makes me feel young and inexperienced.

A wide smile spreads across Jack’s face then, somehow changing him from merely handsome to breathtakingly gorgeous. His eyes sparkle behind his thin glasses.

“And I love you, Violet. More than I thought possible.” Red paints his cheeks as he ducks his head once again and turns back to his pan of sauce. “Which is why I’m taking you on a proper date.”

“A...date?” My heart batters my rib cage as a strange, fluttery sensation unfurls in my chest. I honestly can’t remember the last time I went on an actual date. Monsters don’t really do that. We simply look at the person we want, declare “MINE,” and then lick them.

“Hux and I decided we’ll split your time evenly tonight. I have you the first hour and a half, and Hux has you the last hour and a half.” His smile wavers at the edges before fading abruptly, replaced by panic. “If that’s okay with you, of course. If you’d prefer to only have a date with Hux, I completely understand. I just want—”

“Jack!” I laugh as I jump off the barstool and move toward him. I wrap my arms around him from behind, and he sags into me, wilting like a drooping dandelion. “Of course, I want to go on a date with you, silly.”

“I know it’s not the best time, what with everything going on—” he continues to ramble, but I grab his head and twist it to the side to capture his lips with mine.

“This is a perfect time,” I whisper, his stubble rubbing deliciously against my cheeks, having grown out over the past few days. “But I don’t really have anything to wear...” I glance down in dismay at my sweatpants and sweatshirt combo. That seems to be my usual style since I entered Hell. With all the training I’ve been doing—and all the meetings that have turned into screaming matches—I haven’t bothered with my usual attire of skirts and blouses.

“You look beautiful.” Jack immediately turns crimson. “You always look beautiful.” He clears his throat and quickly moves toward his boiling-over spaghetti, untangling himself from my arms in the process. “Shall we have dinner?”

Giddiness bubbles inside of me like a soda can that’s been shaken and then opened.

A date.

With Jack and then Hux.

Love for both of them threatens to consume me, and tears prick my eyes. I’ve needed this—needed them—after the few days I’ve had. Somehow, they seemed to know that.

With a wide smile, I say, “Let’s get this date started.”

CHAPTER 25

DIMITRI

I hate it when they scream.

I don’t know what they expect to happen—for me to suddenly grow a conscience and set them free? For someone to hear their desperate cries and release them? The probability of either of those things happening is a solid zero.

Honestly, if this man doesn’t shut the fuck up, I might need to consider removing his tongue, which will be a damn shame, since I need him to talk. I just can’t stand the sound of his terrified screams as they reverberate off the walls of my torture chamber—a meticulously clean room with pure white walls and a drain in the center of the floor. The only entrance into my box of horrors is a mirror on the far wall.

And considering I’m one of the only monsters in existence who can use mirrors for portal travel...

“No one’s coming for you,” I singsong as I twirl my favorite dagger around and around in my hand. This hasn’t always been a beloved weapon of mine, but everything changed that night a week ago, when I made love to Violet Dracula.

---