Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
ATTICUS
“I feel like you’re saying something super important right now, but I’m kind of in this sex haze, and then you like…
bent over with your naked ass on display, and I feel like I possibly missed some part of what you were talking about when I was over here thinking about how nice your ass looked,” Yorick says from where he’s lying flat on the bed.
He claims he’s overheated from sex in the shower, but vampires can’t overheat, so I really don’t know what he’s going on about.
And while he does that, I’m trying to get dressed so that we can get out of here, but he makes it really hard to do when he’s lounging naked like that.
“I said that Wick isn’t dead… which means that I lied to Morpheus. But if it means keeping you safe, I can just go kill him right now.”
“You don’t have to murder Wick right now,” Yorick says. “I feel like it’s especially evil to go ‘I’ll let you live!’ and then turn around and murder him not even twenty-four hours later.”
“So you’re saying I should wait at least twenty-four hours?”
“Not quite sure that’s what I was saying.”
I stop short of pulling my underwear on and turn to face him.
His expression is rather serious, and I realize that he still doesn’t know the truth about his parents.
We went right from me examining him for any wounds to us having sex.
And I didn’t know who could be listening when we entered the hotel, so I didn’t want to say too much at that point.
They could be listening in on us still, but I specifically asked for a block of rooms that kept us isolated from others with our group on my right, left, and across the hall.
My mind drifts back to what Wick said about Yorick’s parents.
Frankly, I want to lie to him. Why should he have to deal with the truth about his parents?
Why can’t he continue believing that they were good people?
He was already dealt a shit hand by falling in love with me all those years ago; why does he have to deal with this too?
“You need to get dressed,” I say as I pull my underwear on before grabbing his.
When he makes no move to get up, I loop them over his feet and slide them up his thighs. When I look up, his eyes are following my hands.
“I assumed you’d call Johnny in here to dress me,” he teases.
“Johnny is never to be trusted.”
“So you’ve told me, but you’ve sure put a lot of trust in him.”
“No, Johnny and I have an arrangement. I don’t kill him, and he does as I say, no matter what I say. You know his name isn’t even Johnny, right?”
“What?” Yorick asks in shock.
“I renamed him to piss him off, and now he just tosses the name around like he’s the one laughing about it. He’s such a dick.”
“What’s his real name, then?”
“Fuck if I know. I don’t remember. I heard it once when he was trying to drive a stake into my heart. It was something like, ‘I’m blah blah and I’m here to take your head.’ Very dramatic and laughable.”
“But now you guys are like… super-close friends… right?”
I stare at Yorick while I wonder which part of my relationship with Johnny screams “friendship.” Then again, all I have to do is think about who Yorick is friends with to realize that it’s quite clear why he doesn’t understand what a healthy friendship should look like.
“No. How did we get so off topic? We’re not here to talk about Johnny, we’re talking about Wick,” I say as I push him farther up onto the bed before sitting in front of him.
Yorick sits up and watches me intently. “Why am I afraid to hear what you’re about to say?”
“I’m afraid of saying anything at all,” I admit. “So I’ve decided I’ll say nothing and hope it goes away.”
“How has that worked out for you in the past?”
“A lot of miscommunication, but I also pretend I don’t notice, so it’s been perfectly fine.”
“I see… and you think that’s worked well?” he asks.
“Yes.”
His lip quirks. “I’ll just go ask Johnny Not Johnny. He seems to know everything. Do you think he’s a mind reader? How does he know everything? Do you two just sit together in front of the hearth while you tell him stories about your past?”
The amount of ignoring I’m planning on doing is quite significant, but I should have known better when dealing with Yorick, who can never let anything drop.
“Would you want to know something, even if it’ll make you unhappy and changes nothing?” I ask.
“That was so very vague, but yeah, I guess? I like to know things.”
“Even if it happened a very long time ago and knowing changes nothing?”
“So it’s about my parents?” Yorick guesses.
I hesitate, wondering why I even brought any of this up.
“I was afraid of this. I mean… of course I wondered if there was more to the story than what I knew. I was young, so I didn’t fully understand everything my parents were involved in, but there were parts they kept me away from. They… weren’t good people, were they?”
“There are definitely better out there,” I say.
He snorts before sighing and setting his head against my shoulder. “Yeah. Sadly, no real surprise there.”
“Should I not have told you? I planned on letting you decide. I didn’t… obviously, I didn’t hide it well enough.”
“No, I wanted to know. Why do you think you need to hide things from me?” he asks, eyebrow raised.
“To make you happier.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m well aware that the world can be a shitty place.”
“Which is why I need to hide everything else from you.”
“Oddly enough, I don’t think so. I’ve dealt with a lot of shit on my own for many years.”
“I saw pictures of how well you pull weeds; I’m not sure who you think you’re fooling,” I say.
He scowls. “Just because I didn’t notice it was a rosebush doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do other things!”
“You can’t drive, based on how you drove my car into the side of your garage.”
“I was half dead! Before that I’d never even gotten a speeding ticket!”
“How many police officers have you allured?”
“We don’t need to get into specifics, now do we?”
“I might like specifics,” I say.
His eyes narrow. “Well, I don’t. Just pamper me. Tell me how good I am at getting out of tickets.”
“You’re just… amazing at it.”
Yorick beams, so easily pleased. “Thank you.”
I grab his shirt and pop it over his head before leaving him to put his arms in. “Finish dressing. I’m going to go check on Johnny.”
“That’s sweet of you,” he says.
“Not my intention,” I reply as I head for the door. I pass through it and then smack the spare key card that I’d pilfered from Johnny’s envelope against his door, letting myself in.
Johnny immediately presses a blade against my throat. “Did I say you could enter?”
“You forgot to say ‘sir,’” I comment.
He smirks at me. “Did I say you could enter, sir?”
“You’re alive,” I say as he lowers the knife and slides it into the sheath at his side.
His cold eyes search mine. “Were you afraid I was going to die?”
“That thought never crossed my mind.”
“What are your plans?” he asks.
“I don’t know.”
“I want Morpheus dead; it’s the only reason I agreed to this bullshit with you,” he growls.
“You witnessed how well it went the last time we stood against him, did you not? How well did you fare?” I ask, knowing very well how he fared.
He’s quiet for a bit before he sighs and leans against the wall. “You weren’t supposed to be this useless.”
I smirk as I step into his space. “Says the man who is even more useless.”
The door swings open, telling me it must not have closed all the way when I came in. Yorick beams at us.
“Ooh la la, scandalous stance you have going on there,” he says. “Enough to make me jealous.”
“I was only threatening him,” I explain… and why am I trying to explain anything? It’s not like he really thinks I’m over here pinning Johnny to the wall for fun.
“I know you both are infuriated about Morpheus, but wouldn’t you rather be alive to hate Morpheus than risk your lives merely pestering him? We’re like flies buzzing around to that man,” Yorick says. “It’s not fair, but when has life been fair for people like us?”
Johnny is staring at Yorick. He’s always had a fondness for him that he and I can’t quite find. I think we’re both too angry at the world all the time to truly get along. But Yorick… Yorick is happy no matter what life throws at him.
“I should be more like Master Yorick,” Johnny says. And for some reason, being called that makes Yorick’s smile bloom across his face.
“It’s not Master Yorick, it’s Yorick, Earl of Everything That Belongs to Atticus,” he announces, looking rather proud of himself.
Johnny pushes me out of the way and wraps an arm around Yorick’s shoulders. It’s a move that is only done to annoy me. “Allow me to do your hair, sir,” he says as he slides his fingers through Yorick’s hair to pull it up out of his face.
“I was thinking about cutting it off,” Yorick says.
“Don’t you dare,” I growl.
Yorick looks at me in surprise. “I can’t cut my hair? You like it that much?” he teases.
“I will shave it all off, if that’s what you want,” I say.
“Existing with you gives me so much whiplash,” Yorick decides, which I can’t refute.
“Your flirting skills are abysmal,” Johnny says before adding, “Sir.”
“Thanks,” I sarcastically retort. “If you’re done, let’s get going.”
“Johnny, what’s your real name? Atticus told me that Johnny isn’t your real name, and I want to call you by your real name,” Yorick says.
Johnny hesitates and looks over at me for a split second before a grin forms on his face. “You, sir, can call me anything you’d like.”
Yorick seems uncertain what to do with that. “Yeah… I want to call you by your name. I’m not going to rename you like this guy did. Honestly, I’m surprised he named you Johnny and not something horrible.”
“I’d just finished watching The Shining and he creeped me out. It felt fitting,” I tell him.
“Of course there’s a ridiculous reason behind it,” Yorick says before really looking like he agrees with my naming choice.
If Johnny grabbed a hatchet and started through any door to cut my head off, I wouldn’t be shocked in the least. I’m actually more shocked he hasn’t done it yet. “So what’s your name?”