Chapter 9
Arch, as usual, ruined my plans. I had wanted to spend the morning contemplating whether to actually meet him at my apartment or flee like the coward I felt like at the prospect of spending an entire day with him.
In the end, the snakes had convinced me.
I think you should give him a shot.
Yess, we all think so.
Shut it, all of you, I had tried to tell them.
We will not.
Nope, not a chance.
We like the vampire. He’s different.
And how would you know that?
I asked. They were normally right, and despite the last several decades as proof otherwise, they were generally able to protect me from those who sought harm. Arch might not have known, but he never would have gotten near me again if they hadn’t silently deemed him worthy of my presence.
Their general ease in his presence was one of the only reasons I’d agreed to fuck him that day. That, and he was really fucking hot.
Not just in looks. His hair was permanently messy, and knowing him at this point, I guaranteed he styled it to look as though he didn’t actually style it. Like the pretentiousness to styled messiness can only be pulled off by folks with a body built like… well, like Arch. He was ripped. And those pierced nipples. And the smooth flesh that looked like carved marble.
Snap out of it!
This. This right here was why I had avoided him since I had had to use my safe word that day in his cabin. He had… influence over me. Even if he hadn’t used it against me yet, I wouldn’t get fooled again. And even if the pull my babies had when it came to him had my chest ache and feel empty when he wasn’t around, I refused to be at the whims of a vampire again.
Especially a Beckett vampire.
So why was I even going today? I could decline, surely.
“Hey Lavinia!” Patrick called from where he sat with the rest of what looked like a book club. Arch was waiting by the door while I stood there having a full-on moment of contemplation in the middle of The Witch’s Brew’s lobby. “Can I talk to you before you head out?”
I started to nod before the very vampire that caused all these overwhelming thoughts interjected.
“What do you need to talk to her for?” Arch demanded, stepping toward our pointy-eared friend like he was going to do something about it. Like Patrick was a threat?
Absolutely not.
“Gamó.” I sighed. “Save me from overbearing males. He didn’t ask you, bloodsucker.” I moved in front of where Patrick approached to glare at Arch for having the audacity to speak for me. “Wait for me outside unless you want to accompany yourself on whatever you have planned.” I put every ounce of sincerity behind my words. This was, again, a test. I didn’t even knowingly commit these little tests for those around me to see if they would respect my boundaries.
Hopefully Arch was ready to be put through the wringer with my need to make sure he couldn’t have too much power over me at any given time. I hadn’t been treated with respect of common dignity in almost a century, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to start over and fall into old subservient habits.
The mild annoyance Arch usually had on his face transformed into shame and desperation at my tone. Despite the warring emotions on his face, the cocky bastard smirked like the flirt he was, clicked his heels, and bowed in an overly dramatic manner, causing the rest of the book club to laugh before he ran out the door to, presumably, wait for me.
“He’s a bit of a mess, bloody gobshite,” Patrick observed, the Irish slang reminding me of his heritage the way my Greek did for me. I spoke many languages fluently, but I tended to keep Greek to my chosen curse words, a habit from my bio father before he gave me away like a prize he could gift to the highest bidder.
“Is this about the club?” I had asked Patrick to do a few wood carving props for some of our more advanced kink rooms. I’d been nervous to ask since he always seemed so busy between his new pretty High Priestess mate and helping Grom out at the school with the kids. But fortunately for me, he’d seemed eager and capable when he accepted.
“Oh no, this isn’t about your club,” he said before rubbing the back of his neck. Patrick was one of the most insufferable alphas because of how sure of himself he was on any given day, so I wasn’t looking forward to what he had to say. “I mostly wanted to tell you that we have your back.”
My face must have given away my confusion because he quickly continued.
“Arch has been a bit of a mess for months. And we know you don’t owe him anything, obviously. But as you know, he’s one of the council leaders and more established residents in town.” He stopped to look at me as if he were done speaking.
“And?”
“Well, all we’re trying to say is that there might be some pressure for you to accept his advances. But you don’t need to.”
I stared back at the bearded face I’d grown accustomed to since I joined this island of wayward souls. His sunken eyes with a darker purple around them were staring intently at me before I responded.
“We?”
“Of course, we.” Lennox’s voice carried. I looked past Patrick to see her, Rory, and Bert standing a few feet back to try to give him the lead. “We’ve all known Arch longer than you. We’ve also seen how you clearly aren’t impressed with him, which you already know I’m all for. Team Vinni all the way! Fuck men, those dirty bastards.”
“Lennox.” Patrick shook his head.
“Sorry, off topic.” She shrugged but looked pleased with herself.
Patrick took over. “We just wanted you to know that even we know he’s pompous.”
“Arrogant,” Bert added.
“Cocky as hell bastard,” Rory muttered.
“We’re supposed to be helping the situation, boys,” Lennox interrupted. “All we mean to say is that just because he’s a leader in town doesn’t mean you have to go with him, girl. We got your back. You’re our friend, Lavinia. Arch is too, of course, but we can help you say no if you feel pressured to go on a date with him in any way, shape, or form.”
The sincerity in Lennox’s bright-blue eyes—hell, in all of their eyes as they stared back at me—was life changing. These four souls were comfortable enough with me to look into my eyes and know I wouldn’t turn them to stone. They were comfortable with me enough to try, and… what were they trying to do exactly?
Protect, Luxor said.
Shield, Faddei added.
Love,Titi agreed.
Yeah, yeah, I get it,I told them.
I stood frozen, truly not sure how to respond. I wasn’t sure the last time I’d even been given support like this. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever felt this sense of community before. With the Becketts, I had always been a piece of property, an extension of their show of wealth. I was the powerful gorgon on Thatcher’s arm he could wield as a weapon if anyone disrespected him. And since I was just that—a weapon, a thing, a possession—I’d never truly been given a choice or anything of the sort. And even though I considered Franny and the girls my own family, they’d never explicitly offered me a way out until that last day when they had freed me somehow. I knew they had protected me when they could, but these people. This human?—
Not human, Titi interrupted me.
I rolled my eyes internally. This whatever Lennox was, this zombie fae, this Scottish fae that looked like he walked off the cover of a romance novel, and a… well… I wasn’t sure what Bert was, and it seemed impolite to ask.
They were…
They were actually trying to help me?
No, they are helping you, sweet girl. Titi, always the voice of reason, rose and wrapped around Lennox’s wrist as she continued to stand in front of me.
“You’re offering me protection?” I asked, realizing I had been staring at them for far too long.
“We’re offering you our friendship and support,” Patrick said, gently correcting me as if my question were normal. As if anyone who hadn’t dealt with a fuck ton of trauma would even ask about protection. “If we thought you needed protection from Arch in any way, we’d be havin’ a very different conversation.” Patrick’s eyes darkened with promises of violence as he said the last part.
Bert cleared his throat. “For what it’s worth, Lavinia, I’ve known Arch for decades now, longer than these three, and if I thought for one second, he’d be an ass, or not more of an ass than normal, anyway.”
I chuckled, ignoring the stinging behind my eyes at the show of care in Bert’s wise eyes. As an elder in the community, despite looking like he was only in his early forties, his support meant more than anyone else’s. I hadn’t expected that since I’d barely spoken to the man outside of coven or council meetings.
“I would be honest and tell you to run the other way. Plus,” Bert continued. “Anya would have killed him a long time ago if he were truly a pig.”
“Aye,” Patrick agreed. “Cliona would too. She only accepts those she trusts and deems worthy into her coven.” The pride in his voice as he spoke about his mate picked at the jealousy I tried to cover with anger at the world. “She also wouldn’t let him be on the council before forming her coven if she had any doubts about his character.”
I soaked this moment in and realized what this was, despite them clearly telling me already.
This was friendship.
This was comfort.
This was family.
I met each of their eyes and saw the genuine concern for my welfare in all of them.
“This means—” I coughed to hide the hiccup in my voice and used the cover to blink away any emotion that might have been leaking out. “I do not take your words lightly.” I nodded and turned to look at the red-haired vampire these people were singing praises for, despite them all acknowledging his assholery in one way or another and almost cackled when I saw his pale face pushed up against the window, glaring at… I followed his gaze to see a smirk on Rory’s red-bearded face. I glanced back and caught Arch gliding his thumb across his throat in a promise of violence at the Scottish giant. “He’s a fool,” I admitted. “But I am eager to see what he has planned for today even if I am still trying to convince myself to go and not overthink this whole thing.”
“If you figure out how to not overthink things, do tell,” Lennox said before wrapping me up in a hug. I still wasn’t used to the physical affection shown randomly, as these weren’t really in the vampire code of conduct I’d been forced to abide by all this time. I gave her back a few pats before she called it quits and smiled at me.
“Now get out of here. And send up the snake signal if he tries to touch a tit without you asking him.”
“I can think of a tit I’d like to touch.” Rory winked at the pink-haired barista. And to my shock, Lennox blushed. Rory laughed loudly and boisterously before patting me on the shoulder. “I don’t know him all that well like these folks do,” he muttered just for me. “But I love going toe to toe with a bloodsucker, so let me know if he steps out of line. Hate to ruin his pretty face, but I’d do it in a second.”
I pulled back to see a hungry look in Rory’s eyes, one that was similar to Patrick’s but filled with more heat as he stared at Arch in the window.
I decided not to think about what that was about.
Oh, he wants to fuck the vampire, Faddei said.
He definitely does, Baal agreed.
What a pretty show that would be, Titi whispered as if imagining the two males tangled up.
Fucking cut it out. Traitorous snakes, thinking thoughts that are not conducive to keeping my wits about me on this non-date day with a vampire.
It was painfully obvious with every flirty word out of his mouth that Arch liked me, but he also hadn’t learned my secrets yet. He didn’t know everything about me, and when he found out about my past, I wasn’t sure he’d want to pursue me in the same way.
You won’t know until you try,Luxor muttered before curling back up with the others as I made to leave the warmth inside The Witch’s Brew.
I pushed the thoughts away and gave each of my new friends a nod in thanks, hoping the surely noticeable moisture gathering around my eyes spoke for itself, and walked toward my date.