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“Because your vagina can handle a derailed train, apparently. I’m not sure that’s bragging rights, bestie. I’m starting to think you’re a bit of a basic slut,”
Stop expecting that much trust so suddenly. Trust is earned. Over time,” he says, brushing the hair away from my cheek, as his gaze roams over my face. “Says the guy proposing to the girl he apparently doesn’t trust,” I point out. His lips turn up at one edge in a smile, and his eyes almost seem to be laughing at me. “When you live as long as we have, you accumulate severe trust issues, Violet. It’s going to take quite some time for me to push past all those barriers.”
“You had to compromise on a ring because you know I’d pick something gaudy, tacky, and not at all classy. And you’re the kind of man who would hate himself for having to claim you bought such a thing. A ring, Vance. What sort of eternity does that look like to you if we have to start compromising on just the ring?” I’m not sure why he smiles. “One full of my smart mouth, your smart mouth, and sex that will shake the floors every time we collide about our differences,” he says in a tone that definitely makes me forget this is marriage we’re discussing.
“I sometimes let the hair on the hairbrush gather until someone asks to borrow it and I feel like the world’s grossest person,” I feel the need to confess against his incredibly demanding mouth. “I also feel like a hairbrush is deeply personal and can’t understand why people want to borrow it.” He chokes on a sound that sounds dangerously akin to laughter,
They were born in a time when first came love, second came marriage, and then came someone with a baby carriage. They’re conveniently traditional about this sort of thing.
“In compromise to letting me oversee the wedding plans, you can wear a sheet on our wedding day, if you please. So long as that sheet is from my bed,” he says against my lips, surprising me so much that I almost laugh. That’s one hell of a rabbit hole I’m not ready to dive into right away.
“I’m giving you the ring to let you know I’m ready when you are. Take your time, Violet. You’ve been rushed into some big decisions, and it seems it’ll only happen more and more. You make life easier on me. I want to return the favor,” he says too seriously.
After he pulls out a small pouch that he starts shaking out. It shakes out a whole lot. All of that was in that small, vacuum-sealed baggy? Is that a sheet? Nooo. It’s a sanitary couch liner he’s carefully applying to my public-access sofa. He turns and gives me a smirk. “See? I can compromise sometimes without complaint.”
“Dat ass, though,” Anna says in a stage-whisper next to my ear. My eyes bounce up from his ass to turn and glare at her, because he so has super hearing. When I look back over, Vance is hiding a smug look as he finishes neatly stacking his shirt and shoes onto a plastic bag he’s laid out next to the sofa. How dirty does he think this place is? I bet it’s even cleaner than his place, because Lemon takes pride in keeping a clean house, and she’s found her new favorite clean freaks who enjoy doing it right alongside her.
“Only a Van Helsing can manipulate metal into silver,” he tells me as he props the fire-poker back on the stand. “Any other questions before I take my nap? Or any requests, Violet?”
“If you’re done being the creepy chick who watches their ex-boyfriend sleep, you may want to know Edmond Portocale is here,” Anna says as she pops up right at my side, waggling her eyebrows at me. “To perv or to raise hell? That is the question.”
“Then she goes and breaks curses for two alphas. Turns out, the girl is also immortal, and can’t even die when she fucks Damien Morpheous’s cursed dick.” “My enchanting and insanely perfect cock is actually not cursed anymore. I’m faithful because I choose to be. Not because I have no other option,”
Edmond sneers in his direction, because Edmond does love sneering. Often. A lot. He’s doing it again already.
Fucking vampires. Their head games have head games.
“Violet needs you. Now. In the library. It’s sort of an emergency,” she says with zero emotion in her tone.
The noblest, humblest, most likable, good-guy knight Vance has ever held as a beta, Avery, is mid-way through hammering Leiza from behind, while fisting a handful of her hair and really anchoring her to him. Just…not what I was expecting to see. At all.
My eyes dart across the toy-littered floor, full of many other skateboards, balls, and various other objects meant to trip a man up, as though this room is designed to kill you with fun things.
Emit is drowning in a foam pit, his head bursting over the top for a few seconds, long enough to curse me, before disappearing under the foam again. I scratch my head, deciding I’ll just fall in and look as ridiculous as he does, and then we’ll both look stupid. Instead, I leave him behind, wondering if he’ll ever be taken very seriously if he keeps making a fool of himself.
Shaking my head out of the distraction, I keep walking toward them, annoyed that I once again made eye contact. Violet’s a bad influence when it comes to ghosts.
“I take it personally that you just ignored me! I’m totally hot!” she oddly calls after me. Violet collects some of the most lively/delusional ghosts on the market.
What have I done? How have I fucked up? “Damien, I need your help,” she tells me, confusing me. I’ve been standing here in dread, worrying I’ve gone and fucked up once more, and she needs help?
Damien’s loud, hysterical, damned baffling laughter.
Ghosts are brazen around Violet. And far too alert. I walk through her, and Emit follows, muttering something about not making eye contact.
smirking when I spot our high-maintenance little monster glaring daggers at Damien. Damien is still cackling like I’ve never seen him cackle before. My gaze bounces between them, as my smirk fades, because I’m in the dark. Again. I can’t even hazard an educated guess about what’s lit her fuse, while leaving him in a fit of laughter.
His laughter erupts in a loud, obnoxious sort of way I haven’t heard him do in years.
My eyebrows lift in surprise, since the little monster clearly overestimates Damien. No one ever overestimates Damien. If anything, it’s quite the opposite, in most cases.
Clearly, I don’t overestimate Damien.
study the determined look on Violet’s face. We never fare well when she’s wearing that look. We really have spoiled her by giving in to all her many demands.
“Simple as that,” Damien echoes through his laughter.
I’m still in the dark about some of those details, because it makes me want to stab something with something worse than a volatile pencil when I think too much about it. I’m not ready for too many answers on that just yet.
“But Vance can’t even offer a beta immortality; only an extension of their lives. A shallow attachment, just like his sacrifice. He can’t do something impossible on a cosmic level, because he can’t claim me so permanently as you just did. Something I currently have a pin in, but really, in a crazy sort of way, am excited about,” she says, adding that last part in a tone much softer.
I’m going to make this girl my bride, and then I’m setting my sights on our lad. It’d be any omegas dream to have their child raised by alphas.
I’ve boxed him in now, giving him no choice but to royally piss her off, break her heart, and end up in trouble, or use all that extra power on Vance instead of his suicidal mission against Idun. Violet’s heart will be crushed if he dies. I’ll not allow it.
though he grinds his jaw and glares at me in a way that suggests betrayal. He’s going to punish me for this one. I grin in anticipation.
Slowly, I stand, my gaze flicking to the mirror in front of Damien. His expression is almost surprised, and then frustrated, and then really pissed off. Then he looks downright horrified. His pupils are nearly nothing, meaning he’s definitely gone full dive. Violet’s body is far too limp.
He’s clearly in so deep that he can’t hear us, which is understandable, since it’s Vance’s fucking mind. Seriously, why did I think this was a better option than him getting murdered by Idun.
“Emit, stop letting me make decisions so easily. Every once and a bit, fucking argue with me,” I grind out, glaring at the pointless mutt, who is clearly letting me away with too much. This is all his fault. If she’s not okay, I’m kicking his ass until he can’t breathe.
“I’ve never once been in charge of this shit show. Why is everyone suddenly letting me win arguments?” I ask, reminding them both who is really at fault for this mess.
“Go ahead and fucking hit me, wolf,” I tell him quietly, my eyes not leaving hers, as a single tear rolls down her cheek. “I just realized she’s going to see our entire history playing out in his mind.”
Scrubbing a hand over my face, I study our monster. I don’t confess it aloud, but I half hope she finds yet another way to prove we’ve all underestimated her once again. Even if it is impossible.
Otherwise, they’re all going to kill me when she wakes up, devastated and broken by the truth, for no reason at all. And I won’t even put up a fight.
Oh fuck my life. I have a camel toe problem. I have a leather jumpsuit camel toe problem.
“Damien Morpheous, I’m going to knee you in the balls when I get out of here!” I tell the memory of Damien, who doesn’t even glance my way.
my gaze lands on Vance, as he and Arion war with each other. The image wavers, and suddenly we’re on another battlefield, only this time, Vance is fighting at Arion’s side against Emit and Damien. Fangs are bared. Eyes are wild. Rage is fierce. This is different from the half-hearted bouts of combat I’ve witnessed. This is real. What I’ve witnessed is mild anger and a few tantrums by comparison.
Pressing my lips to his just ends up with me groaning in disappointment, because he talks, never noticing the kiss. So much for true love’s kiss having ultimate power and stuff. True love’s kiss is more of a fairy tale setting. I suppose it’s stupid to place it in a monster story.
It’s sort of like reading their diary, but they’ve all spied through my window, or crossed some other major personal boundary. My wrong will just cancel out their wrong or something. The point is, they sure as hell can’t get mad or judge.
I meowed at Vancetto Van Helsing. I’m really glad he didn’t see that. It wouldn’t be so embarrassing in front of Damien, but it’d be mortifying in front of Vance.
A whole lot of mass graves lie in their past. It seems to take up the majority of the song.
Jurassic Park floats through my mind. She reminds me of a demonic, humanoid attempt at a raptor, only with longer arms, standing more upright, and no tail. Oh, and a lot more claws. Possibly bigger teeth. So…she looks nothing like a raptor, but my head is in a frenzy, because she is definitely intimidating. And gives off the terrifying alien vibe. It’s not like the other monsters I’ve seen. She’s not a pretty monster at all.
“So you feed off the fear you create, and it’s strongest when they fear you. That’s how you got so powerful. You need the Simpletons to fear you. But how did you rise, Idun? I didn’t fear you. You creep me out and give me hesitance, and occasionally a small bit of apprehension, but only since you surfaced. The only thing I truly feared was loving them and losing them to you,”
