Chapter 11 Soup of Champions #2
“Zane,” Ko warned while Cas loomed like a silent judge, jury, and executioner all in one.
She hesitated, her fingers trembling. I waited. The wall clock tick-tick-ticked through three full seconds.
“Serafina?” I finally prompted.
“Amabel and Eluned Harrow. My stepsisters. They’re twins a year younger than me.”
I stared at her. She stared at the blanket.
“Why?” Ko asked softly. “Why would they hurt you like this?”
“To make sure I knew how worthless I am.”
A tiny sniffle, and three pairs of predator eyes locked onto their battered princess, three sets of fangs punched through gums, and three well-armored hearts fractured.
Seri kept her gaze on her lap, her shoulders hunching like she was bracing for a hit, and I realized with stabbing clarity that this was just the tip of the iceberg.
“Yeah,” I said finally, breaking the quiet. “They’re dead.”
Koa shot me a look, his brows dipping in a silent, Really?
“Maybe don’t say that out loud,” he suggested.
“She’s too tired to care.” I jerked my chin at her drooping eyelids, the way her head was slowly drifting to the side.
Truth? I wanted her to hear it. Wanted her to know we would take care of it for her. But I wasn’t talking to Seri, not really. I was talking to my brothers, and they knew it. I met Casimir’s gaze, then Koa’s, and there it was, that unspoken agreement, sharp as a blade.
Still happening.
I didn’t say it out loud. I didn’t need to.
“You are not worthless, Seri,” Cas spoke at last.
“Far from it.” Ko hovered, helpless as the rest of us poor bastards. “You are our beloved. Our everything.”
He elbowed me in the ribs. My head swung to look at him, and he pointed at her with his eyes.
Oh. My input was required. Sincere input, to judge by the homicidal glint in his dark peepers. Huh. Guess declaring my intent to disembowel her steps wasn’t enough.
“They obviously lied to you, beautiful. Jealous of you, no doubt.”
With a tiny nod that said she clearly didn’t believe us, Seri laid her head back against the pillows, her breath a soft, tired sigh.
Cas was at her side before I could blink, adjusting the blankets with the kind of precision that’d put a five-star hotel to shame. Ko picked up Brumous, telling her he would take the pup out for his post-dinner walkies, and got a small, “Thank you,” in return.
And me? I just watched her chest rising and falling in shallow, steady breaths like some kind of creep. But hey, I had the right. She was ours now, and I wasn’t letting that go.
And, after seeing all those wounds earlier, I needed the physical evidence that she was alive.
Finally, Cas shooed us all outside, Brumous doing a little doggy whine that clearly said, ‘Walkies before I wee everywhere,’ and we hustled down the stairs and out through the kitchen, Ko holding Brumous in front of him like he was afraid of getting pissed on any second.
“So. Evil twins,” I scoffed as he set the pup in the grass and we watched him sniff around for a good spot. “Bet they’ve got monogrammed boots that perfectly match Seri’s shoe-print bruises.”
I glanced at my brothers. Moonlight sharpened the edges of their profiles: Cas’ blade-straight jaw, Koa’s warrior-poet cheekbones.
“We handle it,” Cas replied after a moment. “Quietly.”
“Quiet’s boring,” I protested.
“Not if you do it right.” Ko’s smile held more teeth than the wolf pup’s.
I gave him an answering grin, then shook my head.
“A homeschooled farm girl. Explains why she has zero survival instincts.”
“Not her fault,” Cas told me, his voice flat, like he was commenting on the weather.
“Have to admit it’s a genius strategy. Kept her safe from bad boys like us.”
“But she does have us now,” Koa chuckled lightly.
“Hell, yeah, she does! Three dhampirs raised on violence and artillery.”
“Again, not her fault,” Cas smirked with rare humor.
“And now we bad boys will keep her safe forever,” I said with great satisfaction as they both nodded.
Having finished his business, Brumous slunk back over to us, his eyes as haunted and cautious as Seri’s, and I palmed him a gingersnap I’d snatched from a jar in the kitchen.
“Good job with nanny duty, buddy.”
He licked the crumbs off of my fingers, then sat and stared up at me, making his eyes impossibly wide.
Smart bastard.
“You’re supposed to be terrifying,” I reminded him. “Dire wolves don’t beg. They menace. They— Cruor! Stop wagging your tail!”
“Wait. Where did you get cookies?” Ko demanded.
Smirking, I held up the other two I’d grabbed.
“How bad do you want ’em?” I teased, then backpedaled literally and figuratively as the mountain surged toward me. “Here, here! Take them!”
Tossing them to him, I dodged behind Cas. Ko got scary when cookies were on the line.
“Zane, stop being a fang-rotted menace!” Cas barked. “We need to start figuring out this shitshow!”
“No worries.” I whipped out my phone and spun it like a six-shooter. “Already started drafting a group chat with Angelo della Morte. He owes us a favor after what happened with that cursed karaoke machine at that supernatural bar.”
“I think we should call Father first.” If Cas’ knuckle rubbed any harder, he was going to drill himself a third eye socket.
“How about we try a little diplomacy and call Seb first?” Ko suggested around his mouthful of cookie goodness.
Cas and I cut our eyes at each other, then shrugged in sync. With a tiny smile of victory, Ko pulled out his own phone.
“Ditched your bride on day one?” Prince Sebastian Ro?u’s deep voice thumped through the phone speaker. “Or did you kill her already?”
“Of course we didn’t,” Cas snapped. “She’s sleeping in her room—”
“Quick question, eldest bro,” I butted in, grabbing Ko’s phone. “Where’s the staff and security we were promised?”
“What are you talking about? Everything should be set.”
“I’m talking about no one being here but us. Not to mention there’s not so much as a dummy security cam to be seen.”
“The staff should be there,” Sebastian insisted. “I vetted them all two weeks ago. Except for your estate manager, Gregory Storms. He came with the property. I’m already looking for his replacement.”
“Why does he need to be replaced?” I asked with suspicion. “Except for the fact that he’s MIA when we need him?”
“Because you’re going to kill him before the week’s out. Look, I don’t know where the staff is. They’re paid to be there.”
“Do you have an address we can use to find at least one of them and ask why no one was here to help our beloved while she was being beaten half to death?” Ko’s voice was the darkness at the bottom of a deep well.
Silence for three heartbeats.
“Your bride is your beloved?” Sebastian murmured.
“I would have led with asking about her being beaten,” I scoffed, “but yes. Miracle of miracles, right?”
“I think you better start at the beginning and tell me everything,” he said with an edge in his tone.
“First, tell us about the security situation,” Cas demanded.
“We left the modern stuff for you to handle since you’re the experts in surveillance gear,” he admitted, “but the whole manor is layered in wards. Top to bottom and five feet out. Dad and I did them ourselves shortly after buying the place. A mouse can’t scamper across your pantry without you knowing it. ”
“Are you thinking of the right place?” I asked with a frown. “We’re at Evermere—”
“I know where you’re at! We bought it just for you three! Wait.” He let out an exasperated sigh. “You dumbasses! Did you activate the wards?”
I nearly dropped Ko’s phone. Cas stood frozen, his green eyes begging me to shoot him. Ko’s mouth dropped open, like he wanted me to stick my gun in there after shooting Cas.
And me? I didn’t let my mortification show. Not yet. For now, I just kept smiling, kept joking, kept pretending like everything was fine. Because that’s what I did.
“You wouldn’t understand, dumbass, since you don’t have a beloved yet,” I sneered. “The moment you do? Yeah, you’ll learn real quick what matters when she’s dying at your feet.”