Epilogue #4
Ren nods, the flames of the bonfire reflecting from his mirrored sunglasses. “You didn’t have to trust Meg and Linda, or follow the path they showed you.”
“You could have turned like Nine, regardless of what they were teaching you,” Ezra agrees, reminding us how he didn’t become like her even though he was kept imprisoned just as long.
“She made her bed and she…bled in it,” Ollie says.
“And got stabbed, shot, and cut open like a turkey.” Lori gives me a vividly gory idea of what they did to her. I was there, but Ezra kept my face against his collar, sparing me from the haunting image.
“We should think about the future. Not the past,” Rague suddenly declares, passing his beer bottle to Ollie.
“Mmm. I always wanted to turn Serena into an anthropomorphized vessel of knowledge. Up for the challenge?” Ramiel looks at Dare, the other computer genius in the family.
“A super robot? Terminator 1-2-3-4-5-6 didn’t teach you anything?” Ash widens his eyes at him.
“Only that after the second movie, the production company should have laid the franchise to rest,” Ren deadpans.
“The pet shelter. Will you rebuild it?” I ask him. I really enjoyed volunteering there.
“Yep. With some little changes. Rague and Ollie will start as soon as they finish Linda and Meg’s house.
” He turns toward the work site near the training facility.
Linda wants to move Meg here. She thinks that the hospital environment is not good for her.
Or maybe she just doesn’t want her to die there.
The thought makes my heart break. Sari has successfully developed an antidote.
Uri tested it on a couple of donors first–after injecting them with the poison–since it worked, Sari gave it to Meg. But to this day there’s no change.
Linda isn’t here because the atmosphere is still a little tense.
She apologized to me many times in the last two weeks, and I forgave her.
People make mistakes sometimes, led by anger or even love.
And I know she would have never intentionally put me in danger.
Ezra, Lori, Ollie, and some of the other bros, though, need a little more time.
“We should go visit Meg next week,” I whisper into Ezra’s ear.
He nods and curls his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer against his side—a little bit more and I’ll fall from the chair. His Adam’s apple bobs as he takes a sip of beer, and I stare, hypnotized by the movement. He can be sexy even doing the most mundane stuff. I really have it bad for him.
“That reminds me. You went to my competition to build your house.” Rague’s accusing voice is directed at Ezra.
“Oliver wouldn’t have accepted the job,” he simply says. My brother nods, glaring at him. I glare back, moving onto Ezra’s lap. He still doesn’t accept Ezra fully.
“That’s not what’s important here, Rague,” Rami interjects. “He called Dare for the house security system. Betrayal!”
“Nine knew less about Dare than you. It was a strategic choice.” Another very reasonable reply.
“You’re always bragging about your pupil’s skills, shouldn’t you be happy Dare got a job?” I huff. Do I need to bare my teeth to make them back off?
“Since when did Ezra get a guard dog?” Ash laughs.
“Fuck off.” I flip him off, earning a half-surprised, half-teasing uhhhh.
Ezra slides his hand between my legs and tightens his fingers around my flesh, right where he left a bite mark this morning.
“I bought an apartment near Sully’s vet school in Chicago,” he suddenly says.
That’s news to my ears.
“I need to renovate it, and then to put in a new security system. You interested?” he asks them.
“No!” Ollie answers at the same time Rague and Rami say, “Yes.”
I cup his face and search his eyes. “Did you really buy an apartment for me?”
“For us, and do I ever lie, Little Chick?”
Fuck, this man. I feel a bundle of different emotions climbing into my throat, reaching my eyes. He’s just…so much and more.
“Great!” Rami’s loud voice makes me turn toward him. “How about putting a tracker under your skin today?”
“No,” Ezra growls menacingly. “But Sully needs one.”
I do? Yeah, maybe I do.
“I guess the one in his mask will do for now.” I hear Rami’s low muttering, and my lips part in surprise. He winks at me. Does Ezra know? Did he hear him just now?
Hunter and Ren start passing plates with food while Sari and Michael open the containers of salad, bread, and fruit.
I make a small plate of raw meat for Noodle—almost cutting my finger with the scissors.
We talk and chat. Ash reluctantly tells us about the bird cage he is building with his brothers in the backyard of his house—I want to see it.
Dare is raising bees, thinking about selling honey, to which we all let him know our interest in buying a jar.
I actually would like to study their behavior.
It could be part of my next year’s thesis.
Hunter’s PI agency is expanding; he created a partnership with a group of bounty hunters.
It sounds pretty cool. Uriel’s bakery—the latest one he opened—is doing great, the baker was featured in a couple of magazines.
How many restaurants does he own now? A hundred?
Raph’s secretary, Sandy, has unfortunately given his resignation, while Lori will become a partner of Gabe’s law firm next year.
We toast, cheer and comfort each other, depending on the news, like normal families do. When we are almost all done with lunch, Uri takes out a knife and a metal goblet from a bag on the ground, before leaving his chair and walking toward Ezra and me.
“It’s time for the blood pact,” he says. Looking straight at my boyfriend.
“The what?” I ask.
Uriel raises his hand, where a long, thin scar mars his palm. Raph, Rague, Rami, Sari, and Gabe show the same line on the same spot. I’ve never noticed them before.
“Many years ago, we made a blood pact to remind us that whatever happens, we always have each other’s backs,” Uri explains.
They must have done it when they were kids, but it’s sweet that they want to include Ezra.
“Now it’s your turn.” He is challenging Ezra with his gaze.
“Is it really necessary?” Ezra sounds mostly indifferent with a hint of annoyance.
“It’s the sausage fest’s way to welcome you to the family.” Lori cleans his mouth with a tissue. I guess cutting themselves isn’t a big deal in this family.
“Even evil must have a home,” Uri tells him.
Ezra stares at him at first then looks at me. His eyes study my face for a long moment before he huffs and slides a big-ass knife from the back of his jeans. He never leaves our home without a weapon.
“I’ll do it, too!” Michael sounds excited, making Raph smile.
“Me three,” Ollie surprises me with his desire to do it.
“Me four. I got the matching nail polish today.” Lori wiggles his fingers, showing the crimson red nails.
“Why not?” Hunter shrugs, pulling out his own blade.
I’m not going to be the only one left out. “You do it for me,” I tell Ezra, offering him my open hand.
“Sully…” my brother starts, but I stop him.
“Are you sure you want to keep talking?”
His jaw ticks as he remains silent. Little steps, I guess.
Uri is the first. A red line appears over the old scar as he moves the blade with a slash sound, then he makes a fist to let the drops of blood fall into the metal goblet.
Ezra is next. Then it’s me. I wince when the knife cuts through my palm, but Ezra’s gentle hold as he closes my hand to make it bleed in the goblet and the way he licks my cut afterward makes me forget all about it.
One by one, the others do the same, and even the triplets decide to be part of it.
“We are the grand-kiddos,” Dare states, reminding me what Meg used to call them.
“Remember the code,” Uriel says.
I’ve only heard it once, so I don’t recall it well.
“Kids and pets always have to be protected,” Raph recites the first point.
“Be one hundred percent sure the donor deserves it,” Rague continues.
Gabe goes next. “No revenge kills alone.”
“Ask your bros for help.” Uri looks straight at Ezra while saying it.
“Let your anchor keep you grounded.” Michael smiles up at Raph.
Ollie grabs his husband’s hand. “Sex is the best de-stress there is…and cake, and music.”
“Share every bloody part,” Hunter’s deep voice declares.
Rami winks at him. “Never keep evidence that can link you to a donor…unless it’s pricy lingerie.”
“Stalking. Soundtrack.” Lori adds a whoo-hoo at the end.
Sari brushes his fingers over the collar of his shirt, under which I saw that choker. “Pain is a wise teacher.”
Since Michael became part of the family, new points have been added. Should I do it, too?
“Fear,” I state, feeling everybody’s eyes on me. “Fear is just a part of you, embrace it.”
Some of them nod, Oliver looks proud. The triplets remain silent, seemingly in thought.
“This feels like one of those crazy Masonic gatherings. Are we going to drink our mixed bloods now? Or paint our bodies with it? An orgy perhaps?” Lori asks.
Ash lets out a disgusted ugh. Followed by grunts and groans around the semicircle of chairs. Ezra tightens his arm around me.
“Little Wasp, say that again, and I’m going to spank you in front of everybody,” Bezaliel states with a snarl.
“Which part?” Lori feigns innocence. Of course it was the orgy part. All the guys here are hyper possessive of their partners.
Uriel moves toward the bonfire, holding the goblet, and throws the blood mix into the flames.
The fire continues burning without any flash of light or spark or smoke, but I feel like something has changed, like a deeper bond has been formed.
Not that Ezra would ever follow the family code.
I know he has his own, and it’s fine by me.
Sari is passing an ointment to rub on the cuts when Uriel suddenly utters, “Where is my husband?”
“Your husband?” I ask.
“What? I swear to Krampus if you had a secret wedding before I did…” Lori finishes the sentence with an I’ll-kill-you hand gesture.