Chapter Twenty-Three
JULIAN
I thought I’d be at the bar by eight, but class is running over, which means that Casimir and the wolves might have all offed each other by the point I get there.
But what’s even worse is that Casimir tasked Ezio with watching me, which… I think we all thought meant he was going to wait out in the car for me.
Nope, there he is, walking right into class as I’m trying to finish up.
“Hello, humans,” he says, which isn’t suspicious at all. “I heard you were in need of a nude model.”
Fucking hell.
“Please ignore him. He thinks he’s far funnier than he is,” I say as I try to shoo him out of the classroom.
“I think he’s being serious,” Malcolm comments.
Ezio beams at him as I question where I went wrong. Is this Casimir’s payback for me shipping him off to deal with my father?
“Ezio, it’s actually illegal for you to be on school grounds without permission,” I lie, feeling like he should really go wait in the car.
“That’s okay, I got out of jail this morning, and you know the rules… once you go to jail, you can’t go back.”
“I… don’t think that’s true.”
“And maybe I want to be arrested by the sexy detective,” he says. “I begged him to put me in handcuffs and to tell me I was a bad boy… but he refused.”
The class giggles, like they could possibly find this menace funny in any way . Or they think he’s joking.
“If you refuse to leave, will you please sit silently in the back of the classroom?” I beg.
Ezio doesn’t even waste energy thinking about that. “Can I be the teacher? Anyone wants me as a teacher, say aye!”
And the entire classroom turns against me.
“Perfect!” Ezio says as he pushes me out of the way. Like, hand against my face, pushes me off because he’s clearly forgotten he’s here to keep me safe. “What are you guys learning about today?”
“Romanticism,” Brandy helpfully supplies.
“Romance, you say? Let me tell you about this detective?—”
“This is an art class,” I interrupt.
“Oh, fine. What if we draw him? I will start,” he says before grabbing a marker and showing off his phenomenal stick figure skills. All I care about is that it doesn’t have a penis—oh wait… he’s definitely adding a penis.
I yank the marker from him before it can look like anything but an odd C where he was beginning with the balls.
“Allow me to introduce you to… art,” Ezio announces.
“It’s beautiful,” Malcolm says.
“Thank you. See, your teacher here doesn’t understand true art. Instead, he spends hours every day painting the same dog in the mere hopes that the hot guy will ask for his hand in marriage,” Ezio responds.
“And that is all we have time for today. I would love it if everyone forgot about this and moved on. Don’t forget, I have office hours on Monday if you have any issues with your final.”
“Will he be there?” Brandy asks as she points to Ezio.
“Thankfully, he will not be,” I say, which seems to disappoint a few of them.
Once I’ve closed up, I turn to Ezio.
“So do I get paid for my work?” he asks.
“What work did you do?” I feel rather unsure if I missed something useful that he did.
My phone beeps as Ezio tries to figure out the answer to that.
Casimir: Now hear me out… how upset would you be if Terrance just… disappeared?
Me: I don’t know, my birthday is coming up and he promised he’d buy me something “Fun and normal and no, it’s definitely not a rabbit.”
Casimir: I am rich. Anything he could buy for you, I could buy ten of. So do I have your permission?
Me: Where did you get all of your money?
Casimir: That’s not the question.
Me: Yeah, but now I’m curious. I mean, I get that you own half the city, but I feel like you had to start somewhere with it.
Casimir: Definitely through legal means.
Me: And I weirdly feel that if you have to mention that, it was definitely illegal, but to answer your question, no, don’t eat my father.
Casimir: I could buy you a new father.
Me: Tempting, but no.
Casimir: What if I hurt him… just a little.
Me: You already do every time he sees you.
Casimir: This pleases me.
“God, you just look so sappy every time you interact with Casimir,” Ezio says. “You’ve got it baaaad .”
He’s ridiculous. I don’t have anything, seeing as none of this is real.
We’re just… having fun… right? Yeah, maybe if he was like, “Do you want to date for real?” I’d have absolutely no reason to say no.
But now I’m just afraid of making things weird if this is how Casimir wants things to stay because I do enjoy spending time with him, and I’m not sure I want to go back to how things were before we were “dating.”
“Casimir’s never dated anyone . I didn’t even know he could get along with someone long enough to even pretend to like them,” Ezio says.
My interest is piqued by this. I know Casimir’s offhandedly mentioned it, but maybe I can get more out of Ezio. “Oh yeah? Like… how long have you known him?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Two hundred years, probably. But he’s never been interested in more than a one-night stand kind of thing. He’ll make the ladies and men cry as he leaves them behind. I would love for them to know that all it took was a wolf to fetch his heart.”
“Ha ha…” Thanks for confirming my fears, Ezio. “Yeah… I’m the lucky one.”
But maybe if I just never remind him that this is all fake, Casimir will keep going along with it, and then one day we’ll be like “Welp, it’s been twenty years, I guess we can tell them it’s not real.” And I’ll be like “It’s been so long, we might as well get married.” And that’s that…
I do have it bad, don’t I? I mean, it’s hard not to when he’s funny, and sweet, and caring, and sexy… and a kind of badass, which kind of turns me on.
I step outside the building where my eyes land on the last person I was expecting to see. I freeze as Ezio slams into me before jerking me back.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Ezio growls.
“Oh, please. Look at all the people around,” Yorick says as he waves to the students milling around. “I’m not that reckless.”
“But what the fuck are you doing here?” I snap. “Do you want to have to reattach your arm again?”
He grimaces as he rubs his healed arm. “No, no. Here’s the thing, wolf. You were fun but I’m a simple man who simply likes my life more than I like you. So I was hoping you could whisper a few things into the big boss man’s ear, and in return he’ll forget I ever existed.”
“You’re switching sides just like that?” I ask in disbelief.
“No, no, my goal all along was to go with whoever’s strongest and can keep me alive the longest. And while Casimir is obviously stronger, Ivo has his fun little magic trick up his sleeve.
So I really don’t think Casimir’s going to win.
But let’s say that Ivo heard about my little…
surprise visit to your house and has decided that if Casimir comes for me again, he’s not going to care if I end up dead.
It’s hilarious, really, but he said something like, ‘I might even help.’ Rude, right? ”
At least now we can put a name to the vampire behind everything. I say, “So you’re basically telling us how to kill you. Got it.”
“No, no, no. I’m telling you that if you promise to keep your dog on a leash so he leaves me alone, I’ll tell you a fun little secret.”
“Alright, fine,” I say, positive that I have no issue with lying to this man to get him to fuck off.
“So I don’t exactly know what all happened, but Ivo has implied that something horrific happened to the woman he loved.
She ended up dead and Ivo is convinced the wolves and vampires were involved.
But you know something interesting? I happened to smell something rotting that time we were having a little fun in the woods. ”
I ask, “You mean when you and the others killed multiple wolves?”
“Maybe.”
“Where?”
“You know, I didn’t quite pay attention to that,” he says, voice toying.
“And how do we know this isn’t a setup?”
That makes him laugh, like he loves the idea that it might be a setup he wants us to waltz into. “You don’t! You’re so cute. You positive you don’t want to go home with me?”
This sociopath thinks I could possibly want to go home with him?
“Nope, no, that’s okay, I’m more than happy to not ever go anywhere with a man who threw me off the tenth floor and dragged me out on a full moon with plans of watching me kill innocents. Now I would love it if you’d leave,” I say.
“Fine, fine. But you better keep your promise.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Julian might be done with you, but I’m not. You had someone kill my love,” Ezio whispers. “You will die by my hands.”
The vampire is quite confused—as am I. “Your… love? Huh… I ate a cow the other day… you do look like someone who’d be drawn to cattle.”
Ezio gasps, like he can’t believe Yorick doesn’t remember, but I’m going to be real honest that I also have no idea what he’s going on about until he says, “My car .”
“Ahhhhhhh, you were so insignificant, I forgot about you,” Yorick says, his manic smile seeming designed to spur Ezio into fighting him.
“Ezio, let’s go,” I urge, knowing that I really don’t want him to be off chasing a vampire and leaving me behind all because of his car .
“You be careful. I’ve seen that pretty detective you’re always following,” Yorick says, which is the final tipping point.
Ezio rushes for him, but I pull him back. We’ve acquired an audience, and it would be horrible if Ezio revealed himself. My hand tightens around his wrist. “Don’t you dare touch him; he’s trying to make you lose control and strike first.”
Yorick just laughs. “From what I’ve seen of that sweet little detective, he doesn’t think fondly of you, so maybe he needs someone like me to show him what dreams are made of.”
Ezio is fuming, but somehow, I get him in the car and away from Yorick who was heading off to a vehicle of his own. As I drive, I send a call to Cyrus.
“Hello?” he asks over Bluetooth.