Chapter seven #2
Something like panic tried to take over his mind, but he squashed it.
“Hello!” Amaya snapped her fingers in his face. “When can I go to work?”
Shaking away the tumultuous thoughts, Levi gave her his attention. “What part of danger aren’t you understanding, shawty?”
“There is only one danger I see here and it’s a selfish vampire going mad from playing with power he can’t handle.”
Incandescent rage filled him and the tray he held flew from his hand, slamming into the wall down the hallway.
Amaya flinched but she stood her ground.
Dipping his head, Levi breathed through his nose and tried to control himself.
She raised her hand, but lowered it before she touched him.
Instead, small probes of her magic cautiously moved through his mind and the fog of anger dissipated.
The weight on his chest preventing easy breaths was lifted.
Still…
She’d pissed him off.
“Fine. Then if you can’t eat with me, you’ll starve.” He turned and left her door.
She sucked her teeth and leaned out of the doorway. “We weren’t even talking about that. Keep up, King!”
“Kiss my ass, Amaya,” he said.
She slammed the door and he blew out an impatient breath.
Instead of heading back downstairs to eat, he turned to Ms. Anita’s room.
He usually had someone escort her down to dinner when she was up to it.
Unlike her sickening ass daughter, the older woman had a valid reason for missing dinner with the rest of the house.
He knocked gently and waited. Anita’s soft voice told him to enter.
There was a maid in there, braiding the woman’s long hair.
A simple maxi dress covered Anita’s thin frame, the jade color beautiful against her skin.
His instructions for the older woman had been carried out as well.
Lucas had cleared out Anita’s closet, bringing her clothes that were familiar.
Levi hoped it would keep her calm and less agitated.
Scanning the older woman’s features, it was obvious that Amaya looked just like her mother.
It told Levi how beautifully she would age.
Anita turned at his entrance and gave him a chiding look that told him tonight was a lucid one.
The high cheekbones that were softer on her daughter’s more rounded face gave Anita a regal look that made her expression more piercing as her dark eyes assessed him.
There was more of a…knowing in her gaze than the last time he’d visited her.
When had that been?
As though she knew the direction of his thoughts, empathy filled Anita’s gaze, and if anyone understood what he was going through, it was her. It was the reason he found himself in the older woman’s room some evenings before he went to work.
Their shared battle had forged a bond that hadn’t taken blood. The urge to apologize for her and her daughter’s current circumstance hit him and he bit his bottom lip to quell it. Levi dismissed the maid and the female ducked out quickly.
“How are you doing?”
Anita cocked her head before answering. “Ah,” she said after a moment.
He frowned because he didn’t know what that meant.
“My daughter is something of a rebel,” she said finally.
“She is stubborn,” he conceded.
“I guess it depends on what you’re trying to get her to do.
She’s been caring for me for a while, though I’m ashamed to say I don’t know exactly how long.
” Anita turned her eyes, a far off, distracted expression covering her face before it cleared and she shifted her gaze back to Levi.
“That kind of pressure can make one hard.”
He nodded in understanding.
“Are you here to escort me to dinner?”
He held out his arm and the woman grabbed it and got out of her seat, the smile she gave him so reminiscent of her daughter that it made him mad at Amaya all over again.
Before the feeling could overtake him, her mother pressed a cool hand against his forehead and the cloud of anger dissipated. He gave her a startled look.
“If no one understands the way the Akachi leaves you, I do.”
He nodded, a lump in his throat.
The woman sighed. “I wish I could help you, but there are days that I am not myself. I’m useless to my daughter. I can’t even get her out of this.”
He wiped the tear from her face. “I would never hurt Amaya.”
She hummed. “There are many ways to hurt a person. Amaya has had to fend for herself for years. Pushing her will get you nowhere. Taking her away from her work will hurt her as surely as you raising your hand to her.”
“You heard our argument?” He sighed.
“It’s not as though the two of you censor your volume or tone,” she scolded him.
He nodded, properly chastised by this tiny woman that was so important to his mate. It had been at least sixty years since he’d allowed anyone to take him to task. His mother had been the last and surprisingly, he was allowing Ms. Anita to fill a spot so long abandoned.
She looked up at him and smiled. “Are you here to escort me to dinner?”
His heart clutched. Was this his future?
“I am if you’re up to it,” he forced out around the lump in his throat.
“Of course. Dinner with vampires. Not something I get to do every day,” she said excitedly.
He walked her downstairs and groaned when he saw Raven in her spot at the dinner table.
The fire Mujaji worked nights now that she and Sebastian were mated, so most times, she missed dinner.
She only came to “the big house” as she called it when she didn’t feel like cooking.
If he thought Sebastian gave him shit, his firefly would cuss him up and down.
She stood when she spotted him and Amaya’s mother.
“Ms. Anita.” She rushed forward. “What are you doing here?”
“Raven? My goodness, do you live here too? What are you doing in a house full of Bayi vampires?”
Raven helped the woman into a chair before turning her gaze to him. “Your Highness?”
The questions swirled in her eyes and Sebastian stood, unsure how Levi would react. It hurt him that his best friend could no longer trust him, though he understood. Shame filled him and Bas’s face morphed into empathy.
“Red,” Bas said softly, calling his mate back to his side.
“What’s going on?” Raven asked again, ignoring her mate’s call.
“Amaya is staying here,” Levi answered, his nails digging into his hands as he clenched his fists.
“Here? Why?” Raven straightened and narrowed her eyes, her gaze sweeping the table.
“Her uncle stole the Akachi piece from Levi,” Sebastian told her.
She gasped.
“He was going to sell it to the Buru,” Anita provided, and Levi gave her a surprised look. She had known what her brother was up to?
“They’ve been circling their house for the past week and a half,” Lucas added.
Despite the conversation around him, his shoulders slumped in relief.
It hadn’t been two weeks as Amaya had claimed.
The days were still foggy, but he took comfort in the fact that he hadn’t lost that much time.
He could add gaslighting on top of the shit his little witch was doing to him.
He sighed. It was well what he deserved, but he would rather go completely mad than release her.
He tuned back into the present conversation, his feet a little firmer beneath him.
Raven frowned. “Then why haven’t I seen her around here? Or at work?”
“The Archive needs janitors that bad?” Lucas scoffed.
Raven flinched. “Did she tell you she was a janitor?”
“She told me she cleaned,” Lucas said with a shrug.
“Magic. She cleans the magic around the Akachi meteor pieces. Sophia will lose her shit if she doesn’t show up for work.”
‘You want to fight both the Collective and the Archive?’ Sebastian asked him telepathically.
Levi growled. ‘Fine. Allow her to go to work tomorrow, but send a team with her.’
Bas and Lucas both nodded.
“I’m done talking about it,” Levi said louder, and he watched Raven swallow her words.
Likely her mate requested it. Whatever the reason, Levi was satisfied. Arguing with his friends would trigger him and one episode tonight was enough to scare him.