Chapter Fourteen #6
When we reach the bar, I see that the patrons are gone, and instead, the inside of the bar is being used for people who aren’t as severely injured and might just need some at-home care.
“Dr. Hernz is prepared to receive those who are more severely wounded,” Willow informs us. “We’ve already sent Keats with them. And they’re sending someone over to handle the less severe injuries.”
“That’s great,” I say as she hands me my clothes while my father and the others come in behind me. I pull my pants on but just as I’m reaching for my shirt, Casimir grabs my arm and turns me. He pushes my arm up and looks down at where Weston had bitten me.
“What the fuck is this?” Casimir asks, a cold look in his eyes.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s fine,” I say.
He is clearly not pleased. “This wasn’t made by a vampire. A wolf bit you. Who the fuck bit you?”
“Casimir, just drop it, we obviously have other matters to deal with,” I say as I pull my shirt on. Casimir seems to place the burned-mouthed Weston with my injury, and a growl escapes him.
He moves so quickly that no one in the room can even react before he has Weston’s throat in his hand.
“Did you bite him?” he asks, voice eerily even. I feel like it’s worse than if he’d yelled.
“L-Let me go,” Weston growls.
“I asked if you bit him,” Casimir says.
The aura in the room is crushing, to the point where multiple wolves drop to their knees in submission to the vampire, even though their alpha stands nearby.
Casimir leans forward and whispers something into Weston’s ear that I can’t hear, but when he lets go of Weston, the buff asshole drops to his knees in front of Casimir, submitting to him, just like that.
Casimir turns to my father. “You permitted this?”
“I told them to stop,” my father says.
“Yet you have such lax control over your wolves that one would even dream of biting him? If someone from my ‘pack’ bit someone I cared for, they would be dead for even dreaming of going against me to do such a thing.”
Father’s jaw is clenched, but what can he say to that? That he let it happen out of some petty disagreement that ended up resulting in the loss of wolves’ lives?
Casimir walks to the middle of the room as I realize the only people still standing are my father and me, but the only one looking directly at Casimir is me.
The power he exudes is impressive. It’s a wonder he even played around with my father so long and didn’t just walk into the pack and make them all submit to him.
“There will be a meeting tomorrow. If you do not show up, I will personally chuck your ass outside of my territory. Are there any complaints?” he growls.
My father forces himself to look at Casimir, who cocks his head. Clearly, he’s prepared to use this as an excuse to send him flying. “T-Thank you for saving the lives of my wolves.”
Casimir grins and I’m sure it pisses my father off, but he doesn’t say anything about it.
“I would have stepped back and watched after the treatment I’ve gotten from this pack, so don’t thank me. Thank your son,” he says as he gives me a wave to follow him.
I hesitate because I feel bad leaving when there is so much chaos going on, but isn’t that because I’m too fucking nice? Because I’ve dealt with them making my life a fucking pain, and I’ve always just… put up with it.
So after making sure no one left at the bar was severely wounded, I turn and walk over to him. Casimir holds the door open for me and I find it almost easy to confidently walk out into the night with him by my side.
I notice Ezio’s car is already gone, so I get into Casimir’s.
After I slide into the passenger seat, he gets in and starts the car before pulling out of the parking lot.
“You… didn’t need to do all of that,” I say. “You know… with Weston in the bar.”
“Fake or not, we are maintaining the image that we are dating, and there’s absolutely no way I would let anyone treat someone I’m with like that. And even if we weren’t, you entertain me enough that I will protect you,” he says. “Why the fuck didn’t you tear that goddamn wolf apart?”
“I… don’t think I’m as good of a fighter as you might believe I am. He’d probably have kicked my ass.”
Casimir stops the car at a stop sign before reaching out and grabbing my chin.
His brown eyes lock on to me as he pulls me into him.
“You have more power than you realize, wolf. You just need to learn how to use it,” he says, and I find my eyes drifting down to his lips.
When the hell did I become so entranced by his power? By his protectiveness? By his care?
Nah, it’s just because he’s sexy. That’s all there is to this. None of that other stuff. Definitely none of that…
“You could become pack alpha if you wanted. You could knock that man down to his knees if you pushed aside your kindness,” he says, voice a soft rumble that makes me feel like I really could be all-powerful. “You could make that man kneel for you.”
I raise an eyebrow. “I think you might have a misconstrued idea of me.”
He grins at me, flashing me his fangs. “Or maybe I recognize true power. Pure brutality and strength aren’t all it takes to become powerful, Toto.”
“Seems like having a sexy and powerful vampire helps too,” I say, matching his smirk.
“Maybe,” he says before rubbing his thumb over my cheek. When he pulls back, I see there’s blood on it that he licks off. “Let’s get you home and cleaned up… or if we don’t want that blood to go to waste, I could lick you clean.”
“I… I’m a little disturbed that my dick liked that idea.”
Casimir winks at me. “I’m not.”
“Of course you’re not. And I would totally take you up on that if I didn’t feel like death.”
“You need to learn how to heal faster,” he says.
“Some of us just aren’t fancy healing machines.
” I sink back against the seat. “Thank you… like… really thank you. I don’t think we were going to win that fight…
hell, I know we weren’t. And thanks for…
” How embarrassing is it to have to thank him for patting my head? I guess I don’t have to. “Stuff.”
“You’re welcome for ‘stuff.’”
He pats me on the head again, like he knows exactly what I was referring to. “I couldn’t let you get eaten. I have use for you.”
“What? To paint your dog?”
“Yes, and because of you, when I went in to talk to the vampires, I stepped in with the intention of tearing heads off and staking hearts… but then I went, ‘What would Lassie do?’ And I told them that they were going to show up tomorrow or I’d tear their heads off.
And then I left to go tell you how annoying it was that you changed me. ”
“Is… is that what Lassie would do? I kind of feel like I didn’t get that impression, but eh, I guess if it worked for you,” I say.
“You want me to take you to your house?”
I hesitate because the idea of going to my house and staying there alone while that vampire is still out there makes me feel uneasy. “Uh… I mean… but if I go to your house, I could draw your dog.”
Casimir glances at me. “You know you could just ask to go to my house, right?”
“I… I’m a bit freaked out, if I’m going to be honest. I…” I rub at my neck that they’d torn into when they’d tried to kill me. “Just keep thinking about nonsense.”
“You can snuggle with Gustov. As soon as I realized he wasn’t edible, I also realized he was fun to hug.”
“That’s… stop mentioning how edible he was! That poor dog.”
“He loves it.”
I’m not sure what part he’s claiming that Gustov loves, but I’m happy that he takes me to his home.
I mean, I know that Casimir isn’t invincible, but he’s sure as hell a lot more hardy than say…
my mom. And while I know my mom would give her all to protect me…
there’s a bit of a difference between an ancient vampire and a human who loves me unconditionally.
Once we walk into the house, I glance over at him. “Can I take a shower?”
“Down the hall there. I’ll find you some clothes.”
“Thank you.”
“Oh… and I guess I should go buy like… a first aid kit or something, right? Hmm… I’ll be right back. No one’s going to dream of waltzing into my house. You’ll be fine here.”
“Alright. Gustov, you’re coming with me. You’ll protect me with your wicked ponytail,” I say as I pat the fluff on top of Gustov’s head. His tongue lolls out of his mouth, clearly pleased by this.
While Casimir leaves, I step into the shower and proceed to spend far too much time trying to figure out how to even turn it on because normal people like me only have a handle to turn.
When the water does come out, I’m assuming it’s going to come out of the showerhead and not drop down on me like a fucking arctic rainstorm from the ceiling.
I jerk back and glance up at it, displeased by the cold shower, but it thankfully warms quickly.
I’m exhausted from the fight and from my odd new sleep schedule of staying awake most of the night and sleeping during the day, waking only to make it to my classes. I regretfully have two afternoon classes and an evening class tomorrow to teach, so sleep sounds delightful.
While the cold-water blast was a shock, now that it’s warm, I stand in the middle of the shower as water beats down on me and realize that I could probably just live in here at this point.
Closing my eyes, I soak, letting the tension and achiness in my limbs drift away.
It stings at first, but once the blood is washed away, I’m left in luxury, even long after I’ve washed myself.
The door opens and I jump, startled.
“You still in the shower? Did you drown?” Casimir asks.
“I don’t think so,” I say as I reluctantly turn the water off.
He tosses me a towel that I grab and wrap myself up in. He pushes me back, so I sit down on the edge of his large jetted tub where he pulls the towel down so he can examine my side where I was bitten and my stomach where a bruise is already setting in.
“You sure you didn’t break anything? I forget how fragile your lot is,” he says.
“No, I can’t imagine it’s broken. I just feel like I was run over by a car.”
Casimir bites his wrist and my eyes immediately lock on to it, transfixed by the blood dripping over his skin. “Let’s see if this helps a bit,” he says as he presses it against my lips.
I don’t really crave blood when I don’t have it, but the moment he shows it to me, it’s like I’m obsessed by it.
Latching on to his arm, I draw it in and suck it down as the sweet taste fills my mouth and momentarily makes me forget about all my aches and pains.
It makes everything I’d been focusing on or thinking about rush right out the window because now all I can think about is the taste of this and how I could soak in the pleasure of it all night.
He tries pulling his arm back and I growl, displeased he’d choose to do so as I latch on tighter, prepared to fight him for his arm.
“Do you think I could have my arm back?”
“Noooo,” I grumble as I reluctantly start to lose my grip.
“You sure?”
“Hmmm…” How irritating… but I suppose it makes sense he’d like it back, so I grudgingly give it to him.
Casimir tips my chin up and licks the blood off my lips, making me want to lean into him. If I didn’t currently feel like I’d gotten run over by a truck, I would jump that man so fucking hard.
I sigh. “When I feel better… that dick is mine.” I eye it hidden beneath his snug pants.
He raises an eyebrow.
“Oh, don’t act like you have an issue with it.”
“I sure don’t. What I do have an issue with is why it takes so long for you to heal.”
“Right? We can’t all be fancy.”
Casimir opens the medical kit and stares at the contents. Then he grabs what looks like an Ace bandage that’d be used for a sprain and starts wrapping it around me.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t know. This just looked right.”
“Well, it’s not. Just something to clean it and a small bandage will suffice.”
“Ah… makes sense.” And that’s the moment he tosses alcohol onto the wound.
I nearly fall back into the tub and would have if he hadn’t caught me. “OH MY GOD. Are you trying to kill me?”
Casimir looks highly confused. “What? It’s what they do in the movies!”
“No! I meant like Neosporin or something.”
“Huh.” He eyes the bottle. “I mean, you guys drink this shit.”
“We don’t drink rubbing alcohol.”
“There’s far too much to keep track of. You think I actually pay attention to anything other than Gustov?”
Quickly realizing that if I want to survive this first aid session, I need to take over, I snatch the stuff from him.
“I will watch and learn,” he says. “So first step is poking the wound.”
I stop poking at it. “I wasn’t poking it! I just wanted to see how bad it was.”
“And you do that by jabbing your finger into it?”
“I don’t know!”
“And then you try to figure out how to put a tiny bandage over a large wound. Got it.”
“It looked bigger.”
“That’s what every man says.”
“No, that… that doesn’t even make sense!”
Casimir seems pleased. “Makes all the sense.”
Once I’m finally all bandaged up and scrutinized to the fullest, he eyes me. “Would you like to be fed?”
“No, I’m good, thank you.”
“Oh good because all I have in the house is food for Gustov, and that was going to be awkward if I had to share his food with you.”
“Well, I’m glad I’m not hungry, then. I might actually go to bed… I’m tired from being mauled and running around every night. I’m not used to this wonky night schedule yet.”
“That’s fine. I have some more people to threaten. I’ll show you a room you can stay in.”
“Great, thanks,” I say as I follow him to a grand guest bedroom with a large bed that I sink onto.
I could get used to this.