CHAPTER ELEVEN
Iwoke up less enthusiastic on the second day of my vacation. I was at least going to see my brother, but who knew how that would turn out. When I reached the kitchen, Alexius, having once again beaten me there, looked annoyed.
“I’m going to go with you to see your brother tonight.
Just for a moment,” he said immediately, not even a good evening to start the day.
“Before you ask why…” He put a glass in front of me.
“I received word that Lucas and Lexi went to talk to him when the sun was still up, and they might still be there. He’s fine.
Callahan wouldn’t let them go if he thought they would do anything stupid, and for their continued existence, they know not to do anything stupid.
” Alexius sighed. “But Lucas is an older wolf.”
“So, you want to stop in and remind the older werewolf that there are bigger problems if he pushes the wrong way,” I said, finally cutting in after drinking nearly half of the blood. “Fair enough. We’ll just drive there at the same time since I’m certain both of us will need our own rides.”
“Exactly. It’s not just the werewolves, though…” Alexius swirled his glass. “I want to meet your brother. It’s time I met your brother and got an idea of him.”
“Okay!” That was somewhat surprising but a welcome surprise. “He’s heard a bit about you, my brooding, ancient boss, but nothing embarrassing. I wouldn’t do that to you. Plus, there are things my brother and I will never talk about.”
Like how I have a giant crush on you and can’t keep myself from fantasizing sometimes.
It was at that moment, I realized I left my tools at home.
The important ones, for when I got too hot and bothered by the man in the kitchen.
The ones I kept in a locked drawer in my bedside table, under a false drawer bottom.
Or the others in a different locked drawer in the closet. I forgot all of them.
I tried to banish the thoughts as I drank, and Alexius had nothing else to say, but when I handed the glass over, he made a face.
“There’s one more thing. Maria wants to see you one night. We’ve been invited to the local club to see her. She wants to expose you to more modern, age-appropriate vampire culture. Since Savannah doesn’t have a real scene because there are only two vampires in Savannah… it’s only fair you see it.”
“A blood club, yeah? I’m not really interested…” I started to shake my head, but he lifted a hand.
“You were invited. I was ordered to bring you,” he said simply.
“Take that as you will. We will go. You should see it. She’s not wrong about that.
The socialization you’ve had with other vampires has been…
unorthodox, to say the least, and in those situations, you haven’t had much time to meet vampires your age or close to it.
I’m not saying you need a healthy social circle.
If you don’t like it, you never have to go to those types of places again. But you need to see it once.”
“What if I didn’t bring clothing for that sort of thing?”
“We’re in Los Angeles,” he replied dryly, as if that was enough for an answer.
And it was. I had no retort.
“When are we going?”
“Two nights from now. The day after tomorrow,” he answered.
“Check later tonight if you have anything for it. I believe you’ll be fine even in what you’re wearing right now.
” He gestured towards me, and I looked down.
Since becoming a vampire, I had fallen into a particular outfit.
Black skinny pants, sometimes bootcut, and a long-sleeve black tee or sweater, depending on the temperature.
It wasn’t always exactly the same, but I was really losing all the color from my wardrobe.
“Though, if you want to try something else, this would be the time,” he continued.
“I think I have a black dress in my things, just in case my brother wanted to go somewhere nice to have dinner or something. I prepared for that. I’ll check later.”
“There you go.” He finished his glass and looked at me. “Lead the way to your brother.”
“All right…” I was suddenly less sure of the two of them meeting, and the potential of there being werewolves wasn’t exciting, either.
Alexius followed me closely and parked right next to me at my brother’s building. We went inside in step, but Alexius let me ring the doorbell.
Declan wasn’t the one who reached the door. It was Lexi, who didn’t seem happy to see me, but her eyes went wide when she saw Alexius.
“Oh,” she said softly.
“Excuse us,” Alexius said, going in before me, right around the surprised werewolf.
“Oh, indeed,” I said, chuckling as I passed her. She closed the door and followed us into the living area, which seemed smaller with two formidable men in the middle of it.
Alexius was shorter and less broad than the werewolf. That wasn’t to say Alexius was small; he wasn’t by any means.
The werewolf was a giant.
“You must be Alexius,” Lucas said, his deep voice shaking my chest. He held out a hand. “It’s nice to meet you. I came over to do some damage control and answer any questions Declan had.”
“Nice to meet you. So did I,” Alexius explained. “Why don’t we make some space for everyone else?” He gestured to the kitchen, and it was after they moved that I finally saw my brother, looking more than a little annoyed when our eyes met.
“How are things going?” I asked.
“Not bad, but I was hoping to have them out by the time you got here,” he said immediately.
“And…” I glanced toward Lexi, who was staring at the ground, refusing to look up.
“Later,” he answered. “So, that’s the boss?”
“That’s my boss,” I confirmed, nodding as Alexius looked over from the hushed conversation he’d quickly started with Lucas. For a werewolf so big, he could be quiet.
“Damn. You were right about the dark brooding type. Does he ever smile?”
“Uh…” I shook my head. He did, but it was funnier to say he didn’t. Declan chuckled, catching what I was doing, especially because Alexius’s expression changed into one of mild annoyance as he stared at us.
“So, you’re suddenly learning a lot more about supernaturals than you planned,” I said to my brother, brightly, as though it was comical and not the end of his normal life.
“Yeah, Lexi and Lucas have been explaining a lot to me.”
“We’ve just been trying to explain werewolves, the pack…” Lexi said softly. “Something I should have done months ago.”
“It’s fine, babe,” he said, reaching around me. “We’re going to work through it.”
I said nothing, but it annoyed me. If I didn’t act on it, the werewolves wouldn’t point it out… I hoped.
“So, the relationship will survive,” I said, smiling between them. “That’s nice.”
Lexi’s eyes narrowed on me, but she didn’t point out that it was a lie.
It was bold and stupid of me to lie in front of werewolves, but I’d rather that than cause my brother more harm with the drama of a disapproving sister.
The lie worked in her favor, so I hoped she allowed it to stay for as long as possible.
“Yeah.”
“We’ve made a promise to him that we’d make no attempts to Change him or convince him to attempt it,” Lucas said loudly, calling across the room.
“Why don’t we old fucks get out of the way, eh?
” He thumped Alexius on the back, who looked at the werewolf like he’d grown a second head.
No one really thumped Alexius like that.
Seeing his expression made me fight to hold back a snorting laugh.
“Of course,” Alexius mumbled once he recovered from the incredibly personal action. Vampires might be group creatures like werewolves, but it was not the same.
I watched Alexius leave. He turned to let his eyes linger on me longer than necessary, as if he was soaking me in before disappearing.
“You and I got off on the wrong foot, so I hope this doesn’t worsen things… but your boss is fucking hot,” Lexi said, making Declan choke on air.
“He really is,” I agreed, sighing. “We have gotten off on the wrong foot. You didn’t know about me. I didn’t know about you. It wasn’t Declan’s fault, either.”
“No, it was mine. The moment my dad came storming into my place last night, I knew I had messed up.” Lexi sat down on the couch, dragging Declan with her.
“I just wanted to have a relationship that wasn’t about me being a werewolf,” she said, looking sideways at Declan, who took her hand and squeezed.
“I know,” he murmured. “Why don’t you tell Everly about it? She’ll understand. Maybe you two can find some common ground.”
The sweet couple moment made me look away for a moment, trying to keep the contents of my stomach. It was sickeningly sweet.
“Other werewolves want to be close to my dad,” she explained, looking up at me when I finally turned back to them.
“So, any dates I had with them always ended with the ‘So, when do I get to meet your parents?’” She rolled her eyes.
“And humans who knew would eventually ask to be a werewolf, always super early in the relationship, because they wanted the chance at immortality, not the relationship. So, when I met Declan, I had a chance to really just have a relationship.”
“Fair. You wanted to remove the problem from the equation,” I said, shrugging. “But you never corrected it. And then you got aggressive with me.” My phone buzzed, and I saw it was Alexius, saying he got Lucas to leave and was off to his own work.
“And now we’re stuck with a lot of shit to discuss and a bad first impression,” I said, huffing. “So, I got to ask, Declan, what the hell?”
“What? Why am I going to be with Lexi? Sis…”
“She lied to you!”
“You lied earlier,” Lexi pointed out.
“To keep the peace, but with every passing minute, I’m losing the urge to be nice,” I hissed in her direction.
“Because you lied to my brother about something big and important, and you don’t deserve another chance.
It was a dangerous lie at that! What if he caught you on a full moon, half out of your mind? ”
“That’s not the call you get to make,” she retorted. “And if you want to talk about what’s dangerous right now—”