Chapter Thirty-Two
JULIAN
While the relationship between the wolves and vampires isn’t as solid as I’d love for it to be, it’s better than before all of this Ivo nonsense. It’s only been a week since Ivo’s death, but the vampires who’d been hanging around because of him have all disappeared.
The group came together and decided that Keats and Willow were in the wrong for not disclosing this information sooner, but the pack will always protect their own and pleaded for there not to be any further repercussions for their actions.
I couldn’t care less if Keats was thrown out, but I do have a soft spot for Willow.
Even so… I think it’s perfectly fine for me to be a bit mad at her right now.
Thinking about it some more, we had started to question if the attack on me hadn’t been as random as we thought.
Were they hoping to place the blame for Joanna’s death on me?
Bring my body to Ivo and hope that they’d be forgiven?
Or did Ivo blame them, even though Joanna managed to kill herself?
How still seems to be up for debate. Did she have a vampire drain her?
Or did she find a way to make it appear like she did?
All questions that we might never find the answer for.
And even more… what made Ivo so powerful? So different from the rest of us?
“Let’s go,” Casimir says as he parks the car outside his home.
I glance over at him, wondering why he looks suspicious.
“I kind of don’t want to go inside now,” I inform him.
Casimir gives me a look. “Why the hell not? Do you not like me anymore? Have you moved on to Ezio?”
“At least Ezio never said my hands were clammy! And you look suspicious. Why are you being so suspicious?”
“I’ve never looked suspicious a day in my life,” he says while giving me a look that is horribly suspicious .
I narrow my eyes at the lying man and question where he comes up with this shit… and does he expect I’ll believe him?
“What’s in that house?”
“My mortal enemy,” he says, like that makes sense in any way.
“You… invited your mortal enemy into your house?” I eye it and see Gustov staring through the window, longingly wondering why we continue to torture him by not going into the house. He has a giant pink bow in his hair that I highly doubt Casimir placed there.
“I did.”
I slowly get out of the car and walk toward the house as I see Gustov dancing inside. “Is it Ezio? Is Ezio your mortal enemy?”
“Worse than Ezio…” he says as he trails after me.
“Hmm…” I reach the house, now more curious than anything.
I push the door open and jump as a bunch of people leap out with a “Happy birthday!” My mom, dad, brother, niece, and even Ezio and Cyrus are here.
“Oh shit,” I mutter before I can catch myself in front of Nina.
Casimir seems confused how I didn’t notice. “How did you not smell them walking up? I could smell the stench of your father the moment we drove in.”
“I guess because I wasn’t sniffing around!” I say.
“I know your birthday isn’t until tomorrow, but I knew you had to work, so I thought we’d celebrate today,” Casimir tells me.
“You set this up?” I ask as Nina runs over and blows a party blower at me.
She waves it excitedly as Gustov jumps around, looking like he’d also enjoy having a party blower to demolish. “This thing is so fun! It’s so much more fun than that Rubik’s Cube you made me work for hours and hours and like a quarter of my life to get,” she says then blows it at me again.
“Would you like to go in the trash can?” I ask.
She’s aghast. “NO! DAD, Julian’s being mean!”
“Aww, you’re so cute. I can be your uncle instead!” Ezio exclaims as he grabs for her.
Nina’s eyes get wide. “Dad, I think the vampire wants to eat me!”
“That’s what happens when you’re bad,” Rhett says.
Mom looks around. “If being bad gets me a house like this, then count me interested.”
“Mom, that’s clearly not what I was implying,” Rhett grumbles as Dad glowers at everyone. I’m honestly just surprised he’s here.
“Are you a vampire too?” Nina asks as she locks on to Cyrus who has taken over petting Gustov. He also seems mystified by the poof on Gustov’s head that’s being held up by a large bow.
“I am not. I’m fairly boring,” Cyrus responds, which seems to be quite far from the truth.
“I got you the best present ever,” Nina says as her attention shifts back to me now that she knows Cyrus isn’t going to do anything fun. “You should open it now.”
She rushes over to a pile of presents that I’m pretty sure I don’t need.
“You guys didn’t need to get me this much stuff!” I say. “You really didn’t need to get me anything. I’m just happy being here with you guys.”
Mom smiles as she pats my back. “How could I say no when Casimir wanted to do all of this for you?”
I glance over at Casimir who is trying to look stoic, like he has no idea how he’d be getting praised for any of this.
“You even invited my father!” I say.
Casimir sighs the ultimate sigh. “Grudgingly.”
“He threatened me. Allow me to read the message,” Dad says.
“How about we don’t?” Casimir asks, like by avoiding the message he can continue some facade that he’s kind and caring to my father… which is a huge joke.
Dad clears his throat. “‘This is Casimir. Julian’s birthday party is Sunday at eight. I hope you don’t show up. But if you don’t, I will hunt you down and drag you out of my territory. Please don’t show.’”
“Aww, that sounds really sweet,” I say.
“Does it?” Dad wonders.
“Depends on what you got me. Did you get me a rabbit?”
He slowly shakes his head. “I… learned from my previous mistake.”
“Did you?” I ask.
“Did you?” Mom asks.
“ Did you ?” Rhett chimes in.
Clearly, none of us believe him.
“Open mine first. It’s the bestest,” Nina announces as she holds it in front of me.
I take it from her. “How exciting,” I say as I rip it open and unveil… the Rubik’s Cube.
“You are no longer my niece,” I decide. “Casimir, she can be your dessert.”
“No! I don’t want to be a dessert!” Nina yells as she runs off before I can make her pay for what she’s done.
“My present is best,” Casimir says, and the look on his face tells me that it’s not going to be any better than the Rubik’s Cube. I stare at it apprehensively as I take the present that’s very flat… suspiciously flat.
As everyone watches, I rip it open and look down at a framed painting… of Gustov… that I did.
“Oh my god. Wow!” I toss in all the mock shock I can muster.
“RIGHT?” Casimir asks. “Literally my favorite one, too! That’s how much I like you.”
“I mean… how will I ever be able to make it up to you for doing this for me? Thank you… my heart. I’ve never received such a wonderful gift.”
Casimir is all smiles, obviously pleased with himself as he pats my arm. “It is my pleasure to bestow upon you such a gift. I hope it truly demonstrates how much I care for you.”’
“I just asked to hold one and I thought my life was in danger,” Ezio mutters.
“Good,” Casimir says.
“You’re ridiculous,” I decide. “But thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I also got you a car after yours got destroyed.”
“After mine got… wait, what?” I ask. “It wasn’t destroyed; my tires got slashed.”
“Oh, it looked destroyed, so I got you a new one, but it’s not as nice and priceless as this painting.”
Ezio looks quite disgruntled about this. “You got him a new car?” He turns to me. “I’ve been his friend for two hundred years and do you know what he got me on my last birthday? A stick… he picked off the ground… while looking me in the eyes .”
Casimir nods, pleased with himself. “It was a good stick.”
Ezio grumbles. “Let me see this car! My car actually got destroyed and you didn’t say a peep! It got destroyed while trying to protect Julian.”
“You literally already bought a new one,” Casimir says.
“I did,” Ezio agrees. “I bet it’s cuter than Julian’s new car.”
“You did not actually get me a car, right?” I say, a little worried about how much he spent on me. “We’ve been dating like a week .”
“A… A week ?” Dad asks. “You’ve been rubbing it in my face for far more than a week .”
I guess now is better than never to make my father miserable. “Oh, that was all fake. Fun, huh?”
“Fake… hold on… this was… fake ?” Dad growls.
The smile on Casimir’s face tells me he is enjoying every second of this.
“Well, it was fake, but not anymore. We’re heart bros now,” I say as I blow Casimir a kiss. His raised eyebrow tells me he has absolutely no idea what I’ve just done. He kind of just motions back to my father, like he wants me to return to torturing him.
“I’m taking your present back,” Dad decides as he starts scavenging through the presents for it.
“Not my rabbit!”
“It wasn’t a rabbit!” Dad protests before grudgingly handing it to me. Probably because of the vampire looming from somewhere behind me.
“This is so exciting, but I’m scared to shake it. I don’t want to kill it before I even get to see it.”
I tear open the package and look at the books inside. They’re actually books I’m interested in, and it fills me with shock. “Wow! Thank you! I’m… at a loss for words.”
“Olive told me what to get,” he explains.
Makes total sense. “Thank you! I was afraid that if I opened one of the books, I’d find that you carved out the middle and put a rabbit inside.”
Dad sighs. “It was one rabbit and I’ll never live it down.”
“Nope. Thank you!”
“My present is best!” Ezio says as he trots over with a bag. I open it up and pull out some lacy black underwear with straps and all kinds of fun things that I quickly shove back in the bag. “You are most welcome.” He seems to have no issue with this.
Cyrus lets out a noise that very much sounds like a laugh as I realize with horror what I’ve just pulled out in front of my whole family, father included.
“Oh my god,” I whisper.
“Clearly, you love it,” Ezio says as he gives me a wink.
Dad just growls as Nina looks confused.
“I didn’t get to see what it was!” she whines.
“And you never will,” Rhett says as he shields her eyes.
I open the rest of the presents that are fairly normal and appreciated.
And as the partygoers steadily dissipate since they’re not quite used to the weird nightly schedule that I’ve slowly become accustomed to, it’s just me and Casimir.
“Do you want to see your new car?” he asks.
“Wait… you actually got me a new car?”
“Yeah, your other one was destroyed.”
“The tires were slashed!”
“Absolutely destroyed.”
“I’m… I’m going to say thank you, but I don’t think I can accept that,” I say. “I’m just… you know, not feeling right about taking an entire car.”
He takes my hand and I’m mighty proud of the way he holds it as he leads me out to the garage and presents me with an extremely nice car that there’s absolutely no way I can accept.
“Oh hell, no.”
Casimir pins me against the wall and kisses me gently. “You have done more for me in weeks than you can fathom. A thousand cars wouldn’t be enough. The Gustov painting is close, but even that is not quite enough. Just… let me do this.”
I shake my head. “It’s too much.”
“Not for you. Now how about we go try out this outfit Ezio got you?”
I drape my arms around his neck. “I mean… it does look a little fun.”
“Right?”
I cup his face. “But you don’t owe me anything. I’m just enjoying every minute with you… well, almost every minute.”
He grins at me. “What do you want to do for your birthday tomorrow?”
“I… I really only want to paint Gustov,” I tease as the dog comes rushing over, hearing his name.
“Right? But we should let your hand rest for at least one day.”
“Oh, thank you for granting me such kindness.”
Casimir smiles a moment before it falls, and I can tell he’s lost in thought.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
He sighs before saying, “Ivo said something to me… that makes me anxious that others know who I was…”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll stand by your side for every part of it.” I squeeze him to me.
“Thank you,” he replies, voice soft.
“You never have to thank me for doing something like this.”
“Hmm…” His hand slides around my back and I rest my head against his shoulder, soaking in his touch.
“Now about these drawings of boobs you did,” he says.
“Oh man, you’re going to love them!”
“I can’t wait.”
And I really can’t wait to show him every part of me. To tell him about all of the ridiculous stories of my past that are so mundane for a man who has seen five hundred years. Yet he acts like every one of my stories is thrilling.
I hope someday Casimir opens up enough to share who he was with me. But even if he doesn’t, I will keep loving the man he is now.