Tempting The Gorgon: A Gorgon / Vampire Romance

Chapter 16

“Please be safe,” Cliona said the following morning as we met in the clearing. She and Patrick, along with Anya and Bert, showed up to see us off. Gioia was also there to help show how a saddle on Dom would work.

“You know we will.” Arch stepped forward and hugged Cliona. I wasn’t a fan of seeing him affectionate with another female, but I also knew they had a years-long friendship I hadn’t been a part of.

Patrick had a harder time acknowledging that fact as he drug his mate back from Arch with a snarl.

“Keep your hands to your own female, bloodsucker,” he muttered before bringing Arch in for his own hug, then turned to pat me on the shoulder. We were friends, and he tried to include me with the other alphas more than most, but I had noticed most folks still didn’t know how to interact with me.

Dom had given us instructions before shifting, so after he turned into a dark blue dragon the size of a house, we moved quickly. He was putting a lot of strain on himself to fly such a long distance when he wasn’t used to it.

Gioia had told us that last bit when he was out of earshot, but I saw the genuine concern in her eyes when she let us know to be careful and patient with him. The three of us climbed up, and I sat snugly in the middle of an oversized saddle that managed to fit Arch, myself, and Rory.

“Bout to get a little more friendly on this trip, I see,” Rory said after we were strapped in. We had no choice but to touch one another, but I found it wasn’t such a hardship.

“Keep your hands to yourself unless you plan on extending me the favor as well.” Arch wiggled his eyebrows, causing Rory to cackle. I had known Arch was bi since most vampires were sexually fluid and gave no fucks.

The thought of Rory and Arch together made me squeeze my thighs together, forgetting we were currently riding one of our friends.

“Don’t worry, I only touch those who beg me,” Rory said loud enough for both of us to hear, and I felt Arch stiffen beside me at the implication.

“Save it for the club, boys,” I said before settling in for the flight.

The flightto Charlotte was quicker than I thought a trip across the entire length of the country and then some would take. We arrived at eight in the morning, just as the beginning of a beautiful mid-winter sun rose over the Queen City. It wasn’t the most beautiful skyline in the world, but after almost a year on the island and even longer kept in various Beckett estates, it was a sight to behold.

We weren’t too far out from the city proper, and the club we were meant to be at was in the posher area of Ballantyne, so the residential, rich-as-fuck vibe was what greeted us after landing. Apparently Charlotte was considered one of the banking capitals, which was essentially code for a lot of rich fucks lived here with an obscene amount of money.

And where there was money, there was often corruption.

Or, at the very least, depraved humans who had fewer moral stipulations than others.

As one of his dragon abilities, Dominic was able to keep himself cloaked in addition to anyone on him. Anya had booked us a vacation rental within twenty minutes of the club that allowed us to settle in for the day and plan while waiting to connect with her contact.

“I need some fuckin’ food, mate,” Rory grumbled before fake passing out on the couch like he was faint.

“You just ate a box of donuts before we left.” Dominic shook his head. “It’s a wonder you can think of food. It wasn’t that long a flight.” The dragon looked a little worse for wear but not nearly as tired as I would think someone flying across the country and shifting into their massive form might.

“Hell of a lot shorter than an airplane, that’s for sure,” Arch agreed. “I can go grab us some breakfast. There’s a diner down the street I searched for before we left. Tell me what you want.”

“Let’s start with some waffles and berries with extra whipped cream; get a whole slab of bacon, none of that two- or three-piece bullshit,” Rory started, wasting no time naming almost everything on the menu. It was something I had gotten used to being surrounded by males from the alpha group. They all had ferocious appetites, and while I had an appetite like the best of them, they put me to shame in every way.

“Okay, I’ll be back.”

“What about my order?” I asked.

Arch turned to look at me before a certain heat filled his gaze. The ride had been torture between Rory’s default flirtatious setting and the fire that hadn’t simmered between Arch and me in weeks.

“I know what you want, temptress.”

“Here we fuckin’ go.” Rory sat on the edge of the sofa, darting his head back and forth between Arch and me. “This is what I really came for. I want to witness some more of this sexual tension so I can live vicariously.”

“As if you aren’t lusting after Lennox every day at The Brew?” Dominic asked.

I ignored them both completely, not taking my eyes off the darker red-haired brute who was trying to tell me what I wanted without me having to say it.

“And what, exactly, do I want, Archibald?”

“You’ll find out.” He winked, rushing away before I could ask more questions.

“I’m going to follow him to make sure he doesn’t fuck up my order,” Dom said, walking after him.

I took another look around the rental. It wasn’t a particularly fancy house, but it was different from anything we had in Haven Pass. Our little town had character in every piece of every building. There was magick entwined in the wood, in the glue, in the nails. It was part of what took building the club longer than it would. It took patience and intention to build dwellings and places where any number of magickal beings could find themselves.

This house was not that.

There wasn’t any feeling to it whatsoever.

“What are you thinkin’ about so hard, female?” Rory asked. He was the only male I didn’t mind calling me female because that was how he said it, not in a gross or patronizing way.

I paused to look at his face. Rory was nothing short of handsome in a rugged mountain man sort of way. His bright red beard had grown out in the last few months and was several inches to his chest. His green eyes sparkled with mischief and a constant hunger for food or sex or anything his heart desired. Rory was all fae muscle, Scottish courage, and a cockiness that rivaled the best of the alphas.

“I was thinking that I spent most of my life going from place to place, from house to house, from shit situation to shit situation.” I didn’t bother clarifying. Everyone in my group was somewhat aware of my background, but the particulars, like who I had belonged to and the extent of my trauma, were kept secret to not only protect me but the town as a whole.

“Anyway,” I continued. “I spent the last several months adjusting to a small town that I hadn’t realized felt different to the real world until the feelings of this house settled around me. It feels so…” I trailed off, not sure how to describe it.

“Empty? Cold?”

My eyes widened. “Yes, exactly. It’s so human. So mundane. There isn’t anything special about this house. It feels like it has no inherent protection or magickal properties a true home would offer.”

Rory nodded in agreement.

We sat in silence, soaking in the moment.

“You know I bounced around a lot too.” He spoke without looking at me. “While I was looking for Kady, I mean. Take merc jobs that kept me afloat while hunting that Orla cunt. She had Kady bouncing from place to place to keep me on my toes. Getting her back in Haven Pass allowed me to rest for the first time in… decades.”

I nodded, even though he wasn’t looking my way. Rory didn’t talk much about his sister in group, only giving us the highlights after October rescued her from the fae known as Lady Orla. He felt we deserved to know why he had risked the entire island despite him saying he had it all under control. I felt I actually heard more about Rory from Kady than from himself. He was always talking, never shutting up really, but never said much about himself. He kept the conversation about whoever he was speaking with.

I had spent decades trying to avoid attention on myself, so I got it in a way I was sure others wouldn’t fully understand.

“Lennox would hate this house.” His words took me by surprise.

I looked around the blank room with mundane décor of twenty different versions of Live, Laugh, Love and snorted because he was absolutely right.

“She would want to burn this place to the ground when we left to save anyone else having to look at it.”

“Have you been to her place?”

I was taken aback by his question. “Have you?”

The big Scottish fae blushed. “Not to fuck her, of course. But if she oversleeps, which is rare but does happen, I’ve had to go check in on her.”

I grew concerned at his words. I hadn’t known she overslept, she always seemed fine at the shop.

“I know.” Rory sighed, sensing my surprise. “She keeps her shit close, probably closer than you and I, which is saying something.” I nodded in agreement. “But since I’ve been helping her at The Brew, I’ve noticed she isn’t…” He trailed off. “Something is going on with her. I know you talk to her every day, like a lot of other folks in town. I didn’t want to say anything to Cliona since she has bigger stuff to worry about.”

I shook my head. “I dare you to say that to her face. She is more protective of Lennox than she is of Patrick.”

“Which is why I haven’t because she would freak out, and Lennox assures me nothing’s actually wrong.” He rubbed his chest absentmindedly then. “But Lavinia… I feel it right in here. Something’s going on with her. I don’t know if it’s medically or maybe depression or what, but something has been worrying her.”

I took Rory in for another moment.

He is genuine in his concern, Luxor offered.

We will pay closer attention next time we are with her,Faddei said, concern lacing his tone.

A murmur of agreement from the rest echoed in my mind.

“I hear you, my friend.” I gave him a nod for what limited reassurance I could offer. I may have started to open myself up to Arch and even the girls in our own separate group, but Rory wasn’t on that list yet. “I’ll speak to her myself when I get back.”

Rory’s eyes widened in fear.

I held up a hand to him. “I won’t mention you. She has a unique relationship with my snakes, and we have managed to become…friendly. Friends. We are friends. So I can ask her to see what she says.”

His shoulders sagged in relief, and I realized then that this had probably been bothering him for a while.

“Is that why you have been working more at the café?” I asked.

“I can’t seem to stay away.” He doesn’t add any more detail, and we’re soon interrupted by a key code in the door before all the smells of breakfast waft in. Arch was being cocky and annoying, but he had gotten my order of strawberry waffles with extra strawberries and a side of crispy bacon down, so I didn’t give him too much trouble about it.

This was another thing to tell Guillermo about in our next session. I was trying to lean in more to the idea of someone wanting to take care of me in small ways. Even if it was something simple like a waffle, he wasn’t asserting some asshole level of control over me. He was trying to be sweet.

Ugh, sweet.

You’re smitten, Omari said.

You can pretend all you want, but we know your thoughts before you even think them, goddess, Khons added.

We like him, Asir said.

Tell him to get more bacon next time, Faddei demanded.

I snorted while the others finished their own meals and drew the attention of all three males at once.

“Are they talking about me again?” Arch asked, quirking a brow in what looked like hope. “Tell them I’m trying to be their friend.”

“They aren’t incapable, Arch. They can hear and see you just fine.” I shook my head at his need for my snakes’ approval. “And yes, they were talking about you. They wanted you to know to get them extra bacon next time.”

Arch’s eyes widened at the admission.

“Wait, are ye talking about yer…hair?” Rory asked.

My eyes flashed red at the insinuation my babies were my hair.

Dom slapped him in the chest. “Do you know nothing of gorgons, you big ginger idiot?”

They were not something as mundane as dead cells growing out of my scalp.

“What? I didn’t know! No need to be a dick about it.” Rory rubbed at the part of his chest Dom smacked. I nodded in the dragon’s direction, who slightly tipped his chin. He was ancient enough to remember a time when there were more of my kind.

“My snakes are sentient beings. They are part of me. Just because they are on my head does not make them my hair.” I snarled the last bit and let the bright red of rage shine in my eyes at Rory again. We’d had a bonding moment, but I couldn’t show weakness. Even if he was becoming my friend.

“Shit, sorry, Vin-Lavinia.” He corrected himself. “And sorry, little snakies.” He said the word as if I would punish him for the wrong word again.

“They have names,” Arch whispered to Rory.

“What are they?” Rory whispered back.

“Why are you both whispering like we can’t hear you?” I asked.

They both shot a mischievous look at me.

For all their faults, Arch and Rory were two of the most ridiculous and goofy males, even when my temper had just risen over Rory’s unintentional insult.

The conversation continued as the four of us sat around the table, talking like old friends and making light plans for how we were going to infiltrate the club. Most of the plans would have to wait for when we met Anya’s contact in the next couple hours, but it wouldn’t hurt to be overprepared.

The meeting placewas close enough for us to take a rideshare across town. Was it comical to see three huge male bodies cram in the back seat of the four-door sedan that showed up? Yes. Did I feel guilty about taking the front seat so I didn’t have to squeeze between them? No.

There was a shopping center not far from our rental that had every bougie shop known to man. Upscale restaurants, intentionally exclusionary boutiques, and high-end department stores filled the spaces. The parking lot was filled with the newest cars in shiny colors with all the bells and whistles.

“I still don’t see why I had to sit in the middle of the two of ye,” Rory grumbled as we filed out of the rideshare. We thanked the driver, who then wasted no time peeling out of the parking lot we’d directed him to in front of a big movie theater.

We walked around the back of the building after Dom cloaked us so we wouldn’t raise any suspicion. The directions from Anya weren’t super clear, just to meet her contact in the back alley of the movie theater near the dumpsters.

“There’s something truly magickal about the smell of popcorn mixed with soda.” Dominic breathed in the rather pungent odor dramatically and sighed as if he were in a state of pure bliss.

“Does magickal mean sickening for dragon folk?” Rory asked. I huffed a laugh despite the seriousness of the meet-up. We had no idea who Anya’s contact was or how they would react to the four of us being here. Anya hadn’t mentioned if we shouldn’t all come to the meet-up, and none of us were particularly keen on going solo.

It was one minute from the time we were supposed to meet this mystery contact.

“Do you think we could catch a matinee? I’m sure there’s some art house film playing that doesn’t completely suck.”

Dominic ignored Rory’s question. Dragons had this confidence about them that bordered on condescending arrogance most of the time. It definitely showed whenever Dominic talked about any type of movie or any type of entertainment on screen. He was a nerd at heart, but that came with a lot of gatekeeping that I wasn’t sure he was even aware of.

“No, you can’t ‘catch a matinee.’ We are here on a—” Arch cut himself off quickly and took a step back as if someone had hit him in the gut.

“Mom?” he muttered, eyes growing wide at whoever was behind me.

“Archer?” a familiar feminine voice gasped behind me. I swirled to see a female I’d thought about every day since she helped me escape.

My mouth fell open while my brain struggled to catch up, not allowing myself to accept the reality in front of me. Franny looked the same as I’d last seen her, except her amber eyes. They were the same shade as her son’s, and had more of a sparkle than they’d had in the years we were trapped with the Becketts.

She looked… healthy. Healthier than the time I’d been with her, at least. Her light auburn hair was swept away from her face that reminded me so much of Arch’s, it was unnerving. She had the same pale coloring, although a bit warmer with her lack of vampire traits and blood pumping under her skin. Her auburn eyes shone with unshed tears as she took in her son. She was dressed in all black, which was a bit of a deviation from the brighter colors Edwin had preferred her in. Her shape had even filled out with more curves than I remembered.

Archer sprinted forward and picked her up before I could finish taking her in. He swung her around in his arms, squeezing her so tight his forearm muscles bulged at the grip.

He’s a mama’s boy, Faddei crooned.

How adorable, Titi seemed to swoon.

You should probably be crying at this display too, Luxor added, judgment for my freezing in this scenario lacing his tone.

Fuck off,I said with no remorse.

I didn’t admit to them, even though they could probably sense that the sight of Arch holding his mom tight while Franny whispered what were sure to be nurturing words of love in his ear made emotions I hadn’t felt in years surface.

A mother’s love was something I had only learned through Franny, and it had been stilted whenever Edwin or Thatcher had made their presence known, which had always been more often than not.

“Vinni?!” someone spoke from behind Arch and his mom, hugging. It was as familiar as Franny’s.

Daphne.

“Oh my goddess! Mama, that is her!”

And Simone.

My heart stopped. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Daphne and Simone’s voices filtered in, and I felt the sting behind my eyes finally win over my ability to keep my emotions in.

I never thought the sound of Simone’s voice would be so sweet to my ears. Before I could really prepare myself, two bodies leaped from behind the corner of the alley we met in and barreled toward me. Arms wrapped around me. Tears soaked into my jacket. I breathed in their familiar scents: coconut and citrus for Simone and cinnamon and nutmeg for Daphne.

“I can’t believe you are really here.”

“It’s you. It’s really you.”

I couldn’t distinguish between the voices, and I realized another pair of arms wrapped around me, and the scent of home, of lilacs and honey, sank into my pores.

The other arms dropped until only lilacs and honey surrounded me, and one pair of thin arms belonging to Franny held me close.

“My sweet Vinni.”

I. Sobbed.

Not a cute cry like I imagine females in movies pretended to. I was ugly crying. Snot was coming out of my nose, and I had to catch my breath multiple times and remind myself to breathe. All the while, Franny’s small hands rubbing my back hadn’t waivered.

The comfort she offered me was invaluable, and I hadn’t realized how much I needed it since she helped me escape.

After what felt like several minutes, her hands, warm despite the chill of the air, grabbed my cheeks to pull me away from her shoulder. Her amber eyes surveyed me, like she was looking for anything wrong. She started at the top of my head, stared into my eyes for several moments as if she could see into my soul, and continued down my body.

“It’s really you,” she said, and I took her in. Her normally gaunt features had filled out in the previous months. She wasn’t nearly as underfed, and it looked like she was getting more sun than the entire time I’d known her.

“And it’s really you.” I muttered, still in shock at who Anya’s contacts were.

“And it’s me who’s really fucking confused right now.” Arch’s voice sounded curious, with a hint of anger.

I couldn’t even blame him. I withheld the truth that I knew his family and where he came from despite all he shared with me. I couldn’t even explain or rationalize my decision now. I hadn’t told him the past that haunted me and turned me into this jagged female that couldn’t even fuck him without a flashback was because of his brother.

I hadn’t told him that his mother and sisters were like my own.

That they saved me day after day for decades and decades.

I hadn’t told him that his mother was my favorite person in the entire world. That his sisters were more like my own blood than anyone I’d ever known. Arch had never gotten a chance to know them since they were so young when he abandoned his father and brother at his mother’s insistence.

“I did not raise you to speak with that kind of language around a female, Archer.”

“Yeah, Arch. Listen to your mumsie.” I smiled, truly smiled with glee and excitement.

“I’m just confused as to why my m—” He paused. “Mission partner knows who my mom and sisters are.”

I finally tore my eyes away from Franny to look at him. He stood only a few feet away, with one of his sisters wrapped under each arm. I hadn’t seen them in months, so I had forgotten how their coloring all matched. I had seen it every day, though, in Arch’s face and mannerisms and even the way he spoke and the words he chose, and I tried to ignore it for so long.

Why had I only seen Edward and Thatcher’s miserable features when Arch also had so much of his mom in him? He had her eyes, her sense of humor, the same zest for life and inability to put up with bullshit; hell, he even had the same insistence that she somehow belonged with him that Franny had.

“Franny is who saved me,” I admitted. I wasn’t in the business of beating around the bush. It felt weird withholding this from him since he told me about his family history that day at the cove. I hadn’t been ready, but he’d shown up for me the last few weeks, and I knew I felt a connection to him that was beyond me. I hadn’t realized how walled up I’d been until I just unleashed my fountain of tears on poor Franny’s shoulder. “Looks like I made a mess of your shoulder, Franny.”

“I’m always here for your tears, sweetie,” she said. Somehow, her terms of endearment never felt the same as when Thatcher or his father had used them. I thought it was because she was the only one who called me sweet, or beautiful, or any other good-natured name with complete conviction that I actually was. She believed it when she called me good.

“Are you saying…” Archer let go of his sisters and stalked toward me. Violence swirled in his eyes, and his face was contorted in a mask of calm rage. “That my father and brother are the ones who—” He cut himself off. “Are you telling me you were with my family? That they were your captors?”

His words were intentional and clipped.

“Now, son,” Franny tried to start, but Arch held a hand up to her, asking for her silence.

“I need to hear this from Lavinia.” He said my full name, and it felt so wrong on his tongue despite my begging for him to use it for almost a year.

“Yes,” I said. I stared back at him, refusing to yield a step. If he wanted to have a go at me for not telling him my entire sordid past, then he’d have to do it in front of his family.

In front of my family.

He was in my personal space in the next breath; only an inch separated his body from mine.

I saw the moment he realized what he was doing and how close he’d gotten. The rage in his gaze flipped from something angry and bitter to something softer, something like understanding or sorrow flickered, but I couldn’t tell before he had his arms wrapped around me.

“I’m so fucking sorry, Vinni.”

I would not move even if I could. His thick arms around me felt like the safest place in the world.

“I’m so fucking sorry I wasn’t there to help you leave the minute you showed up to that hellhole.”

“It’s not your fault. You don’t have to say anything.”

“No,” he growled. “I need to. I left my family and never looked back. I had my own bullshit to work through, but you…” He pulled away and looked at me with fresh eyes that, if I hadn’t known better, looked to be near tears. “You were there when I wasn’t.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I looked around for Franny and the girls, but they were huddled several feet away to clearly give us this moment.

“I was,” I said. “I was there. And since I’ve met you. Since I’ve come to know you as the male you are. As the insufferably cocky dick that somehow charmed my snakes before me. I just… I couldn’t. I had to… I’m not sure how to say?—”

“I get it, Vin.” He surprised me with how sure he was. I was expecting more of a shocked response of betrayal or even anger that I kept the fact his father and brother were my main abusers from my life before the island.

“Oh gods, not another nickname.”

He smirked, winking, before placing his hands on my cheeks, just as his mom had only moments before.

“Can’t be calling you the same thing as my mom and sisters. I need to be special, after all.”

I snorted.

“Not that this isn’t cute and all,” Daphne said. “But don’t you all have a room for us to debrief in?”

“Daph is right.” Franny nodded. “We need to get off the streets before folks might recognize us and warn the club ahead of time.”

Arch’s jaw twitched at the reminder we were here on business, not to unpack our feelings. He wrapped his fingers around my jaw and pulled my mouth close enough to his that, as he spoke, his lips brushed mine.

“We need to talk when we have more time. And privacy. But listen to me when I tell you we are not done with this conversation, Lavinia.” The look he gave felt like a promise, threat, and inevitability all in one.

“Oh god, are our brother and sister boning?” Simone whispered loud enough for all of us to hear.

“I’m going to beg you not to say that again.” Arch threw his sister a look that promised violence.

“Settle down,” Franny said, looking between her children with what looked like happy tears forming at the corners of her eyes. “You two need to show us the way. Now.”

She rushed forward, swiping her arms out to guide us down the alleyway.

Each girl took one of my arms, linking it with theirs as they snuggled closer for us to walk down the street. I didn’t have to look back to know Arch had his arm wrapped around Franny to keep warm and to simply hold his mom.

This is nice, Asir said.

We missed them, Xabat commented.

Do you think they will let us taste their blood too now that we know how good Arch’s tastes? Faddei asked.

No!Luxor and I shouted at them.

This is no fun. If it were possible to feel a frown, Faddei made it happen.