CHAPTER EIGHT
Declan went to get the door as I paused the movie and prepared myself. There was a checklist. Make sure I was breathing like a human, moving around correctly. Most of this was natural, but it was a switch from how I was behaving in front of Declan, because in front of him, I could be a vampire.
“Hey, babe, come in!” Declan said. I could hear his smile but also his nerves. “What’s going on?”
“I brought cookies to welcome your sister!” she replied brightly. “I know it’s a surprise, but I want to make a good impression. She’s your sister.”
I started breathing, knowing that I had to breathe in front of her.
But the first whiff I got of her scent, I froze once again.
Lexi had a secret.
A very big one.
I watched her walk into the main living space, and her eyes immediately landed on me. I saw the panic flash across her face as she recognized something she shouldn’t have.
“Honey, can I talk to you alone?” she said, her eyes not leaving mine. I took another breath.
Her wild scent was enough to piss me off.
“I hope there’s nothing wrong,” I said, smiling. “I’m Everly. You must be Lexi. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” she said, the word corrosive, acid through whatever pleasant mood had once been in the room. There was an edge of fear that shouldn’t hide. She hadn’t expected to walk into a small space with a vampire in it and certainly never in her boyfriend’s condo.
“Perfect. My two favorite women are meeting.” Declan, oblivious, grinned as he came back from locking up the front door and looked between us. His eyes settled on me, realizing I wasn’t acting human the way I was supposed to.
“Sis…”
“It’s fine, Declan,” I said, smiling brightly at him, then moving all too fast around them both to sit on the kitchen counter. “Lexi just took me by surprise.”
She made a noise that could have been a growl, but she bit it off.
“Um…” Declan was stunned by my movement and looked at Lexi, then back at me. “Everly, what are you doing?”
“Tell her,” I said softly.
“We’re not ready for that,” Declan snapped.
“Tell her,” I repeated.
“I’m not…” Something in my expression changed Declan’s mind as we stared at each other. He looked at Lexi, who was glaring daggers at me. “This is my sister, Everly. We grew up around vampires. She became one a year and a half ago.”
With each word, his eyes grew wider as he realized the magic wasn’t stopping him.
Lexi already knew about vampires.
“How?” he asked softly.
“How dare you?” Lexi growled at me. “You aren’t supposed to out other supernaturals.”
“Werewolves are public knowledge and are required to disclose in romantic relationships with humans, or any other dealings like business,” I retorted, curling a lip and revealing a fang. “He should have always known.”
“Werewolf?” Declan said softly, stepping away from Lexi. The panic that flashed across her face, the pain, the hurt, almost made me feel guilty.
Almost.
“I was planning on telling you this summer when you met my family,” she said, turning toward him. She didn’t follow him or reach to stop his retreat. “We’ve been serious, and I wanted you to fall in love with me, just normal me, before you ever knew about the rest.”
“How old are you?” I asked, still sitting on the counter.
I had picked the kitchen for a reason. There was a small, ineffective, but visual barrier now with the island and bar between me and the werewolf.
I needed to know if she was a threat to me.
I needed to know if she was a threat to my brother, but I was fast enough to get between them if I had to.
Really, I just needed to make sure I was out of her reach as I continued to expose her.
“Only twenty-nine,” she whispered. “True age. I was born a werewolf. I’m only now settling into my immortality. I stopped aging only a few years ago.”
Oh, I could easily take her.
“What I wasn’t expecting was that you have a vampire for a sister and you let her in your house!” Lexi said, her volume rising as she spoke. She pointed at me. “She could kill you!”
“So could you,” I pointed out.
“Who even are you?” Lexi snapped, turning on me, not appreciating my comments.
“His sister,” I answered, but I knew that wasn’t the point of her question. “Who are you?”
“His girlfriend,” she replied snidely, turnabout being fair play in the moment. “But the actual answer is that I am a member of the Los Angeles werewolf pack. My father ranks in the top fifteen of the pack and has direct access to the Alpha.”
“What?” Declan, poor Declan, looked like he’d been hit with a two-by-four.
“Now you,” Lexi growled at me.
“Everly Abbott, employee of Alexius the Hunter, out of Savannah. We report directly to Isaiah and Maria, the Vampire Master and Mistress of the Tribunal,” I answered, watching her confusion until I got to Isaiah and Maria’s names.
Then her eyes went wide, and she took a step back.
“If Declan is safe here with anyone, it’s me. ”
“And what if he hurts himself? A simple cut and then what? Can you control yourself?” Lexi snarled. “I don’t eat people.”
“Stop,” a quiet voice said, but it seemed distant.
“You’ll be lucky to be his girlfriend after tonight, so you should really worry about that,” I hissed. I’d never attack my brother. “He wanted out of the supernatural, and here you are, lying to him about what you even are!”
“Stop.” It was louder, but I was too busy glaring at the werewolf in my brother’s condo.
“Watch it. You probably want to make it back to whatever hole you came out of before sunrise,” Lexi threatened.
“STOP!” Declan roared.
It made us both jump, and when I looked at him, I saw a face angrier than one I had ever witnessed. My brother didn’t really get angry. Tonight he was.
“You both need to leave,” he said decisively.
“What?” I was the one hit by that proverbial two-by-four this time.
“Declan…” Lexi went back to pleading.
“We’re not broken up,” he said, but he stepped away from her as she reached for him.
“And sis, you can come back tomorrow, and we’ll keep hanging out and…
talking about what the future is going to look like now.
But right now, both of you need to leave.
I can’t do all this in one night. I won’t do this tonight.
” He looked between us. “Please leave. And don’t blow up my phone.
I’ll reach out when I’m ready, Lexi. It won’t be long.
I won’t leave you hanging like that. I just need some space, and Everly is on a really limited timeline for her visit, and she’s my sister.
And we’ll talk about that soon. We'll talk about all of it soon.”
Lexi turned and left, and I could see she was already crying before she reached the door.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered and started leaving as well.
“Why did you force her out?” he asked as I reached the door.
“Because you would have told me if you knew… and I didn’t like that she was keeping something like that from you. You met her through work, right?” I looked back, searching his expression.
“Yeah, I did. A couple of weeks after I got the job.”
“Send me the details of where… please.”
“I’ll text them right away. See you tomorrow, sis.”
“See you.”
I left, unsure what to even feel in that moment.
A large part of me was just shell-shocked that my brother had thrown me out. Another part of me knew he was justified in doing so. I thought of Lexi and shook my head. I didn’t want an enemy, but she had been hiding what she was from my brother, then looked at me like I was the monster.
When I got to the parking lot, I could smell the wilds and heard her clear her throat.
I turned slowly, trying not to seem surprised or scared. She could have jumped me and didn’t.
“We should probably figure this out for him,” she said, a small sniffle at the end.
She wiped her eyes, and I finally took a longer look at her.
She had a long brunette ponytail, with thick, defined curls.
She had an athlete’s build, the muscle definition hard to miss.
What stood out were her werewolf eyes. I thought for a moment, remembering she originally had brown eyes but now they were a brilliant blue.
“I’m his sister and will always be in his life, and there’s no amount of prejudice or fear you can try to project onto him to change that,” I said. The truth. Fact.
“He doesn’t know how dangerous—”
“He does, though. We grew up…” I looked around. There was no one around, but I didn’t like it.
“The cameras don’t pick up audio,” she said quickly. “Just us standing here.”
“Oh, good. Well, he and I grew up around them. He said that. Our parents worked for them. Our dad’s entire side of the family had worked for them for generations.
We had an uncle who was… old. He left after our dad died, but the sentiment is there.
There are good ones. He and I both knew that growing up.
I am one now. He does understand. And if you really want to start that war with him, you can.
It will destroy your relationship. So, either you get used to my existence and presence, or you get out of his life.
Because I’m family. You’re the girlfriend.
” I was snappy at the end, drawing a thick line in the sand, something possessive and pissed off coming up in me.
I gave up everything to protect his humanity and his choice to leave the vampire shit behind. He graciously accepted me back, but I wouldn’t let anyone else ruin what he wanted out of his life.
“I’m taking this to the pack,” she growled softly. “He works for us and, therefore, falls under our protection.”
My phone at this point had already buzzed, and I quickly looked at it to see my brother had texted like he promised.
“War it is,” I said, smiling as I had all the information I needed. “It was really nice meeting you, Alexandra.”
I went to my car as she snarled. I heard a door slam and watched her car screech out of the parking lot. I must have really thrown her off, because I knew my brother wasn’t into immature, bratty women.
“She really thinks I’ll hurt him,” I said softly, sighing as I got into my car and drove toward the safe house, my night ruined. Ruined by a girlfriend trying to be nice by bringing cookies.
“Fuck,” I groaned after I parked, leaning my head on the wheel.
She had come over to be sweet, to show initiative to meet his last family member.
Being a supernatural sucked sometimes. Instantly ruining everyone’s evening because we happened to be two different supernaturals was one of those times.
“None of this would have happened if he already knew she was a werewolf,” I said, slamming my car door, deciding to throw the blame at her feet.
“He might not have dated her if he knew, but if he had gotten to this point with her, she would have already known I was a vampire and needed to be okay with it.”