Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
YORICK
“Why did they call a council meeting?” I ask Julian once I get out of my car…
okay, it’s one of Atticus’s cars, but I’ve claimed it since mine was totaled.
It’s been a week since I was poisoned and so far, things have been pretty quiet, which is good…
but it’s also why it’s surprising that Casimir called a meeting.
“Mostly mundane things; we were just going to go over some newcomers and regulations,” Julian answers from where he’s standing next to his car. He turns to talk to Cyrus when Ezio comes bounding up with a bouquet of roses that is three times larger than Cyrus’s head.
Cyrus looks horrified when he sees them and immediately tries to flee.
Ezio doesn’t seem to notice the horror, maybe because he can’t see around the copious flowers. “Cyrus! My love! I got you a bouquet of flowers!”
“That’s like five bouquets of flowers! Why did you get so many? Put them away.”
“Don’t be embarrassed! There’s nothing to be embarrassed about when it comes to my love for you,” Ezio declares.
I turn to Atticus who’s walking up. “Where’s my fucking bouquet?”
“I’ve got it in my pocket,” he says as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his middle finger.
“Yeah, well, I got you one too,” I retort, flipping him off in return.
“How old are you two again?” Julian asks.
“He is as old as dirt and I am in my prime. Can’t you tell?” I ask as I strike a pose.
Cyrus seems to think that means I want to hold his flowers because he’s evidently too embarrassed to hold them himself.
“Why must I hold your flowers?” I ask, but Atticus won’t let me hand them back.
“I like it. This makes me pleased. Johnny, please adjust the flowers for me,” Atticus requests.
“Right away, sir,” Johnny says before he pushes my hand up so the flowers are hiding my face.
“Perfect,” Atticus says.
“Can’t the flowers wait in the car?” Julian asks. “No? That’s just too much common sense, for sure.”
We all ignore Julian as I carry the flowers into the town hall. “I feel like I’m getting married! Puppers, come be my bride. Steve, sing my wedding song.”
“Fuck off,” Steve, Casimir’s archnemesis, snaps, which is for the best because his voice surely would ruin the whole thing.
“Fuck you, Steve,” Casimir growls, like he’d actually wanted to hear Steve sing.
“I feel so beautiful. Casimir, walk me down the aisle.”
“Who are you getting married to?” Casimir asks.
“Puppers is the only one for me.”
Casimir pushes me off toward Steve, like I’ve joined the “fuck Steve” crew.
“I will make you love me, Casimir,” I shout, which draws everyone’s attention, even the alpha of the werewolf pack (who is also Julian’s father).
Terrance’s eyes narrow at me, and I wonder if he’s finally accepting Casimir as his son-in-law if he’s willing to glower at me.
Then I realize he’s just glowering at everyone and decide maybe I’ve just never looked at him very closely before.
I sit next to Cyrus and try to pass him his flowers, but he just pats my leg.
“You look really good holding those for me.”
I beam at him. “Thank you.”
“What a sucker,” Julian mutters as he walks by to join Casimir.
Atticus sits at the front of the room and even has Johnny bring him a chair to kick his feet up on. I glare at the back of his head, which I really think he should feel.
“Just a short meeting today. Basically, I wanted to inform you that we’d be having some visitors from another district. I will give you a list of their names and ask that you keep a good eye on them. Meeting adjourned,” Casimir announces.
“You could have fucking texted that,” Steve shouts.
“Steve, I will kick your ass so fucking hard,” Casimir threatens. “Why do you still live in my district?”
“I lived here well before you!” Steve growls.
“Meeting is not adjourned,” Julian says. A second after he starts talking, I get a chill that runs up my back. Casimir freezes and I see that only the extremely old vampires take note until the door opens. Then everyone notices him.
“Oh, please continue. I was just dropping by to see how my fledgling is doing,” the newcomer says.
Atticus doesn’t even bother turning around or stop his casual scrolling on his phone. His posture gives nothing away, but I can tell he’s keeping an eye on Johnny, who hasn’t taken his eyes off the man.
“And you are?” Casimir asks.
“You may call me Morpheus,” he says as he slides right into the empty chair next to me.
He pushes the roses down and my chin up before smiling at me.
He appears to be middle-aged, probably early fifties, and is extremely attractive.
Maybe not as attractive as Atticus and me, but he’d still turn plenty of heads if he wasn’t busy terrifying everyone.
“You get even more beautiful every time I see you.”
“It’s because irritating Atticus just makes my skin glow,” I say as I give him a smile.
The vampire chuckles before reaching out and pulling my hair from its tie. “You know I like your hair down.” He trails a finger through my hair before tucking a strand behind my ear. As his fingers drop, they tap my dangling earring.
“How was I supposed to know you were going to be here today to wear my hair down?”
“You knew,” he says.
Casimir clears his throat, eyes fixated on the ancient vampire. “This is my territory and we have rules here.”
“Oh, rules! How cute, but not as cute as you,” Morpheus says as he smiles at me before lazily shifting his eyes to Casimir, like it’s a chore to even do so.
Casimir is not one to be easily cowed and stands his ground. “You are to request permission and be documented before being allowed to freely walk about in my district.”
The expression on Morpheus’s face tightens a moment before he’s off me and rushing toward Casimir. As fast as I can, I grasp his hand and I’m torn out of the chair, flowers spilling from my hand onto the floor. It causes pain to shoot through my wounded arm, but I can’t allow him to attack Casimir.
Morpheus grabs me, one hand around my neck and the other on my arm. His nails pierce my skin while his other hand tightens on my throat.
“We don’t want that pretty face of yours damaged, now do we?”
“I saw you running off for another man and you expected me not to get jealous?” I ask.
Morpheus smiles at me as his grip loosens, and he lifts my hand before he licks the blood from the wound he created. When it doesn’t immediately heal, he stares at it then cocks his head.
“What is wrong with you?”
“Some assholes poisoned me.”
“And they still live?”
“You’ll avenge me?”
“I have many things to do,” he says as he lets go of me and looks up at Casimir. “My schedule is quite busy.”
He glances around and smirks when he sees that nearly every vampire in the room is cowering to the ground beneath his aura.
The only ones still standing are Casimir, me, and Atticus—who is actually still sitting, feet kicked up.
The wolves are all fully submitting to him, even Terrance.
I believe the only reason Julian is still standing is because Casimir is keeping him behind his back.
Oh, and Johnny.
Of course Johnny is still standing.
He looks almost excited.
Morpheus seems pleased with himself as he offers my hand a kiss. Lazily, he plucks one of the flowers from the bouquet I dropped on the floor and tears off the stem before tucking what’s left behind my ear.
“It’s always good seeing you, my dear. Atticus, such a pleasure to see you again.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Atticus says as he continues playing what looks like Tetris on his phone.
Morpheus walks out of the town hall, leaving it in shambles. He came here today with one purpose, and that’s to make sure every single person here knew they were beneath him.
The second he’s gone, Atticus stands up, slides his phone into his pocket, and moves down the aisle where I stand.
He stops in front of me and grabs the flower Morpheus tucked behind my ear.
He crushes it in his hand and throws it to the side before looking at the cuts Morpheus’s nails made in my arm.
Then he leans in. “And now he knows about the poison.” Like it’s my fault!
Furiously, I snarl, “Oh? You thought I was just going to try my hand at killing him here? He’d have slaughtered us all before the poison had time to even begin working on him.
” I touch my side where the knife rests that Johnny prepared for me.
It’s coated in the poison he’d acquired from the twins.
The whole idea had been to stab Morpheus with it the next time he got close, but once he was beside me, I couldn’t bring myself to do anything of the sort.
“W-Who the fuck was that?” a werewolf who is friends with Julian asks.
“Why was he so powerful?” a vampire asks.
“What a fucking asshole,” Steve growls. “And you were going to do nothing about it?”
Casimir just stands there looking deep in thought before his eyes settle on us.
“Everyone else out,” he orders.
“You’re not going to tell us what you’re going to do about this?” a woman asks desperately.
“You’re just going to let him roam free?” Terrance demands.
“What were any of you going to do against him?” Casimir asks. “There were only four of us still standing, so let us discuss what we’re going to do.”
“Well… five if you count Johnny,” Julian says as he stares at Johnny like he’s trying to figure out what he is.
Johnny simply smiles, which seems to put Julian on edge.
“Pack, head out,” Terrance says, but I notice he remains.
Before long, it’s only our group and Terrance.
“He would have killed me, wouldn’t he?” Casimir asks Atticus.
“Killed you? Possibly,” Atticus says. “But I don’t know that for sure.
Your skills don’t only come from your age, but my maker is an extremely ancient vampire.
Some say he’s over two thousand years old.
I don’t think he’d want to kill you when he could use you, but he wanted you to know that he could. ”
“What does he want?” Julian asks.
“Yorick has a plan, so we don’t even have to worry,” Atticus states. I like how it’s suddenly become “my” plan when I’m pretty sure the two of us talked it over together.
“Yorick?” Casimir asks. “Yorick couldn’t win in a fight against me, so he’s not going to win in a fight against him.”
“Perhaps. But Yorick has one thing up his sleeve the rest of you don’t,” Atticus says before giving my cheek a pat. “This face. Morpheus was interested in him well before Yorick was even turned. He promised to use it to remove Morpheus from my life. It’s as simple as that.”
“That would be a death sentence,” Julian accuses.
“Ha, it’s fine, puppers. I would be dead long before now if I hadn’t made a deal with the devil,” I say. “It’s cute you care.” I reach out and give him a squeeze. “You are just adorable. I have this handled.”
I smile, happy that they are looking my way for once. They are relying on me to do something! “I will handle this with finesse.”
“You’ll get yourself killed!” Julian protests, but no one else tries to stop me as I go.
I step outside and don’t have to walk far before I notice the car sitting on the side of the road. I wander toward it and when the back door opens, I slide inside and beam at Morpheus.
“I knew you’d wait for me.”
“You’ve always desired something greater, haven’t you, Yorick?” he asks as he sets his hand on my thigh and rubs it.
“Are you the ‘greater’ thing in this case? Because if so, then you’ve caught me.
Atticus is boring me. He’s really only good for money.
When he cancels one card, I merely go fetch another.
And alluring the bankers into thinking I’m that stuffy man is so easy anytime I want something larger, like a house or a car. ”
“You don’t need to allure anyone; I will buy you whatever you want.”
I can feel the knife in my pocket, coated in the poison that’s left me weakened for a week now. But maybe before that, I’ll let him pamper me a bit. And really… maybe Atticus was the issue all along and not Morpheus.
I tuck myself against him as he runs his fingers through my hair. Smugly, I smile and think about how pissed Atticus will be that I’m dragging this out.