21. Soren #2
“What’s Vexing you?” Vex asks, choosing to sit beside her on the bench.
“It’s weird. I swear the translation says, eternal blood bond.” The little wrinkle on her forehead freaks me out. “Bride bond. Blood bond.” She shakes her head. “The ancients did weird shit. All the time I swear.”
“Are you hungry?” I need to get out of this room. I just need to.
“Starved.” She groans rubbing her stomach. “Lunch was hours ago and I had to beg Laz to eat in here. Gods is it even daylight?”
“Barely.” I lean against the wall. Mostly because it’s propping me up. Kind of.
“Let’s get,” she slams her locker twisting her face in thought. “Thai. Wait, no. Ugh I really just want a greasy burger.”
“That sounds amazing.” Vex perks up.
“I didn’t invite you.” I point out.
“Why don’t we all just go?” She yawns then points at us. “Doesn’t mean I’m tired. My lungs just need air. That’s all I swear.”
“All of us?” I ask looking from her to Lazarus to Vex, then back.
A part of me desires all of us existing together in some way, hell any way and getting along. With her, with Calliope.
Because that’s the other thing about all of this.
The bride is the glue. Two vampires together?
We get along, mostly because we avoid everything.
Three is a coven. And somewhere along the way three vampires is when things always seem to go awry.
Like this. Working together it takes effort and it’s far from easy.
And she is the glue.
Which is fucked up, it’s too much pressure. It’s too much.
“What do you say, Soren?” She singles me out, walking toward me with the excitement of a translation and I’m a bastard before I stuff all my secrets into a deep fucked up hole and give her a smile. The one I know she’s looking for, one I know she needs.
I’m a terrible, awful man.
“Greasy burgers it is.” I can’t help it, my hands drift to her hips, settling there like they belong right at the curve of her ass. “One small caveat.”
“Always a caveat with you.” Her palms rest on my chest. Her brown eyes full of something I refuse to look too deeply into right now.
“We get takeout and you come back to the house with us this time.” I don’t dare look at Lazarus. Not at Vex.
Only Calliope.
“Oh.” She smiles. “Soren Marquis, are you inviting me over for dinner to your home with your besties?”
I lick my lips barely seeing Vex jumping up and down with excitement before pausing in thought. Probably realizing that Lazarus has a cell for him at that house he never converted to a bedroom.
“What if I am?”
“I’d ask who is driving me home?” There’s a nervousness in her voice I’ve never heard before, not until today not until this moment.
Lazarus and Vex pause listening intently.
What does this mean?
There’s no time to think about or even to dwell on it.
“Well.” I tug her closer feeling that same excitement hum through me. And like a live wire it pulses from Lazarus to me to Vex like a circuit. “If you want to go home you can. Or you can stay.”
“Let’s see how burgers go.” She stands on her tippy toes to kiss the corner of my mouth before turning to leave the room, her face red.
“Vex,” Lazarus whispers. “Follow her.” He turns to me. “Soren, a word.”
He waits until Vex and Calliope disappear down the hall before rounding on me. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“What do you mean?” I play dumb.
“Is this some kind of fucking rebellion? You are far too old for that.”
“Aren’t you?” I throw back. “Aren’t you too fucking old for mind games. Giving her a word, you should have known she’d figure it out quickly.”
“And you just invited her into our home,” he hisses.
“What’s the issue, Lazarus?” I challenge. “Mad you didn’t come up with it? Or are you pissed I invited her first? Because the way I see it, if you can give her that much information then I can invite her in.”
“You fucking idiot.” He steps close to me. “You think my home isn’t being watched?”
“They found Vex. They found him.” I fire back. “Your fear is riding you, Lazarus. Your fear is driving you.”
“Fear kept me alive. Fear kept you alive.”
“By running from it,” I scoff. “You once told Vex it’s the safest place for him. Until he phased through a wall.”
“And he hasn’t even had his first hunt, you fool.” He spits. “What if he, what if he—”
“Drinks from her?” I shake my head. “You are the one keeping him on a long leash, maybe fucking tighten it.”
“Don’t—” he pauses and closes his eyes. “This is going nowhere.”
“Because we never communicated this part. We never got past oh shiny new bride.”
“And that shiny new bride has three vampires circling her while another house killed Vex and we still have no idea why.” Lazarus’s eyes begin to glow. “I don’t know what Drax is after.”
“We need to see how she handles the three of us,” I tell him just as a phone begins to ring. “That yours?”
“No.” He looks around finding Callie’s phone still sitting on the bench. “Calypso.”
“Answer it.” He looks over at me. “She knows.”
“Fuck,” he answers anyway. “Calypso.”
“You sound male,” comes the reply through speakerphone. “Where’s my sister.”
“Not here.” He deadpans.
“Oh my gods, you think?” She’s a damn smartass. “Where is she? I’m coming to pick her up from work.”
I stare at Lazarus who’s staring right at me.
What do I say? I mouth.
He shrugs.
“She’s with Vex” are the wrong words to say because now she’s cursing in glitter.
“No. Absolutely not, do not let her go anywhere with him and don’t let her invite him in anywhere. I’m on my way.” More cursing in rainbow colors. “What am I supposed to do? How do I make this not happen.”
“Make what not happen?” I ask not sure she remembers she’s on the phone at all.
“Oh,” definitely forgot. “Ah. You know.”
“We don’t,” Lazarus states.
“He’s not normal, okay,” she hedges.
She does know. And she’s trying to keep Vex away from her. It also means she doesn’t know we are also vampires.
“We will take your concern into account,” Lazarus says slowly before hanging up on her and pocketing the phone. “Interesting.”
“She believes he needs an invite.”
“The invite has nothing to do with homes.” He opens the door to the hallway.
“It doesn’t,” I mutter.
The invite?
It’s consent to be let into her body. Her blood. Her life force.