Chapter 12 Gracie
Suggested Listening: Best Served Cold (feat. Andrea Storm Kaden) by JT Music
“Your knee is literally in my asshole, Vys.” I grip the driver’s seat headrest and do my best to arch my back while Ezra, Vyslan, and Luciu figure out how to sit three across in the back seat of the car.
I tried pointing out that very soon I’m going to be passed out.
I could ride in the trunk for all I care, but all five guys were extremely opposed to that idea.
About the only thing we could consider doing differently is putting Vyslan in the front seat and Darius in the back.
But Vyslan turned into a whiny little bitch about not being able to snuggle his vampire.
Which, okay. I understand. Same. But, really?
It’s a weird world where Luciu and Ezra are the guys with the narrowest shoulders out of a group.
Ezra’s arms come around me and he drags me onto his lap a little more, saving me from the worst anal experience in history.
My back is to the door, and my legs are across their laps.
It’s awkward even high and on the pain potion.
Sober me would never consent to this. All of these guys are big.
Me on top of them is a not-fun-sandwich in this car.
I’m wiggling a bit to get more comfortable when Ezra buries his face against my neck and squeezes.
“I’ve got you,” he says.
Sweet goddess above.
I melt.
The way he says it, how he’s holding me, the tremor I can feel still threatening to wreck him from the inside out… It gets to me.
Ezra has gotten to me.
How did I never see this? How was I so unaware of the attachments we’d formed? I haven’t given it much thought, but now that he’s back? I can feel the connection we’ve developed like a living thing.
I can’t see my life without Ezra in it. And I almost lost him. That alone makes me want to cling to him just as tight as he’s clinging to me.
Today could have gone much differently.
Darius isn’t good at hiding his feelings. He’s not accustomed to having to guard his expressions. It makes him easy to read. Which is both good and bad. My anxiety was through the roof when I realized every time he grimaced, it was him bracing himself for a worst-case outcome.
He spent most of our time in Treznor’s crypt grimacing.
A big part of our success today was him. If we’d gone in blind or made the wrong move at the wrong moment, we’d all be dead. I’m not unaware of those facts.
I think we all learned something today.
When someone needs rescuing, I stay at home.
I’m sure that sober-me will come up with more very good points to consider.
For now, I’m going to take the win where I can get it.
Besides, my thoughts are slippery. I’m pain-free.
And all of my guys are in one place for once.
The bonus is that no one is arguing. Yet.
The vise grip of stress, anxiety, and fear is gone.
“Aw, mate. Come here, you two.” Vyslan’s arms burrow around us and we’re squished even more tightly together.
“Don’t smother them,” Puck admonishes from the front seat. He sounds like a stern dad telling kids to stop touching each other. Too bad for him, I like it when Vyslan touches me.
I chuckle and press a kiss to Vyslan’s cheek.
While I’d love nothing more than to have a little fang-make-out session, Ezra is covered—and I mean covered—in blood. It’s one thing when it’s in the bedroom and the blood is ours, but this? It’s mostly Treznor’s, and that is a major yuck.
“Are the humans going to be okay?” Darius asks from the front passenger seat.
“I’ll check on them later,” Puck says.
“And maybe get my truck back?” Luciu asks.
“Will do.”
“Thanks.”
“Um…” Ezra picks his head up and frowns around the car.
We haven’t exactly paused for explanations.
After the vampire-things were mostly sorted, we took the four humans up to the surface by way of the elevator.
Since none of us wanted to go dig around in the pile of thrall corpses for a set of keys, Luciu was kind enough to lend Eugene his truck to take the humans to a hospital where they can get some medical attention.
The vague plan is for Eugene to bring the truck to us, but even if that doesn’t work out, Luciu said there are charms and spells on it that ensure he can find it.
I did leave a note with the humans, including my contact information.
I don’t know if we’ll see them. And I don’t know what I’ll tell them if they do come around looking for answers.
The whole situation is fucked up. Not to mention I’ve got to warn Briella that we kind of, sort of got one of her regulars killed for her part in kidnapping and torturing Ezra. Oopse.
“So,” Ezra drawls, still glancing from Luciu to Darius then to Puck and back again. “How did this happen?”
Vyslan taps my legs like a set of drums. He’s shrunk down as far as he can, but the three guys are still squished in like sardines. Poor Luciu is getting the crap end of this deal. But judging by that blush and the way he keeps darting looks at Vyslan and Ezra? He might not mind all that much.
I’m kind of digging my witch husband. I could have done a lot worse. He really came through for us today and proved himself as part of the team. Or should I say, family? He’s really cute.
One thing is for certain, I’m not calling him a warlock. The coven can fuck right off with that purist bullshit. I saw Lucius’ work today, and it is quality. Besides, segregating our kind into pure witches and diluted warlocks is classist and complete bullshit.
“Which this do you mean?” Vyslan asks.
Ezra gestures to the interior of the car. “This! Who is that guy? Why are there two Pucks? Why is Puck even here?”
“Sh.” I press my finger to his lips and squint at him. The potion is great, but I still have eardrums with preferences. “Loud.”
“Sorry,” he mutters.
“I’d kiss you, but…”
He wrinkles his nose. “Yuck.”
“Yuck.” I nod. “Well… A lot has happened since end of business yesterday…”
I launch into a meandering explanation of my failure to track him, followed by asking Puck for help, discovering Darius is Puck’s twin, our agreement, and finally Luciu’s appearance this morning.
I don’t get into why Puck vanished or the stuff I need to work out with the twins in general.
It’s a lot to take in, and I haven’t even begun to process it.
Just because Darius sees a potential future doesn’t mean I’ll go along with it. I suspect that the road to a happy future is bumpy, with some unexpected turns. We can’t fast-forward through it all simply because it would be nice.
Ezra’s frown is something quite fierce. “The coven can do that? Marry you to someone without your say?”
“Technically? Yes. Once we’re twenty-five, we’re expected to have at least one partner that we’re trying to have a baby with. It’s not Luciu’s fault. He really helped us today. I mean it. Be nice to Luc, got it?”
Ezra’s face is uncharacteristically splotchy under the blood.
He’s worked up, gesturing with his hands around me before clutching me tight once more.
“Gracie, what the fuck is going on with the coven? I know. I know it’s witch business, and I’ve always made it a point to keep my nose out of it, but this? This is getting unreal.”
“They’re overstepping,” Luciu says.
Ezra leans forward and blinks at Luciu. Because he wasn’t expecting an ally?
I sigh and pick at my fingernails. “It’s… Fuck if I know…”
Groaning, I rub at my face. It’s weird. And numb. My thoughts are sluggish, and now that the adrenaline has burned off, I’m starting to get sleepy. I’d much prefer to have this talk at home after some rest, but I get the feeling this is Ezra putting his foot down. Plus, he’s right.
The unspoken first rule about the coven is that you don’t talk about the coven.
Where do I even begin to start? My story and issues are different from Briella’s and Poppy’s. I suppose that’s where I begin. At the start of it all…
“Look, when the coven approached Dad about me being a witch and everything else, I thought I had found a place to belong. It was over the summer. I was an awkward, pimply, pre-teen.”
“You were adorable,” Puck says.
I have this mental image of Puck creeper style following me around as a kid. It’s not cute. “Look, dude, I’m trying to not be weirded out knowing you’ve been my stalker my entire life.”
Ezra’s grip on me tightens. “What?”
“Easy,” Vyslan says and slings his arm around Ezra. “This is one of those things that’s going to be weird to humans, normal to immortals. Try to have an open mind, yeah?”
I rub Ezra’s shoulder, because in this he and I are the odd ones out.
“We’ll talk about that later. Anyway, the coven.
I thought I was going to belong. That it would be like a family.
And I guess it kind of was at the beginning.
I went to the witch school for a year in middle school…
It’s just weird, Ezra. They want to keep people insulated from anything outside the witch bubble. ”
“The way they do things here is weird,” Lucius interjects. “It’s totally different in the UK. It’s very American-witch.”
I nod and run my fingers through Ezra’s hair.
“They want to discourage us from talking about witch stuff to outsiders. It’s very Fight Club.
It’s so ingrained in me, I just… I just don’t talk about it.
Sorry. And lately, well, I feel like I’ve got to take care of Briella, Poppy, and myself.
And I’m failing. I know they don’t know anything but the coven, and things are weird.
And if I’m being honest, because the pain potion is apparently also truth serum, I’m failing.
I’m failing at holding us together and being what they need and getting everything done. I’m just a big fail.”
“You aren’t failing anyone,” Ezra says quickly.