7. Shemaiah
SHEMAIAH
Ishould start taking breakfast in my rooms. Anna strokes my arm like I’m a pet while she prattles on about how I undressed her in her dream last night. No regard for the fact that we’re at breakfast with my brother and two other women who clearly don’t want to hear about her sex dream!
It’s like she’s made it her mission to get a rise out of me, and it’s working. Just not in the way she wants.
Usually, people fascinate me. Even the most obnoxious personalities have something curious about them. I love unearthing that hidden gem, finding what makes them unique, and giving them a little push in the right direction—as I did with my brother and Ruby.
I never let anyone catch on that I’m interested. That way they can never get a foothold to hurt me the way Vivienne did, but I like knowing what makes people tick.
Anna, however... I’m sure there’s something there that’s interesting. Perhaps if she stopped trying to throw herself at me, I might find her likable, but her pursuit has ruined what little I might have found intriguing.
I pull a chair out for her at the table in the parlor, where Mrs. Darning has laid out breakfast. To my relief, Anna lets go of me and sits. Now, I just need to grab a scone, make some excuse, and hightail it to the library where I can eat in peace.
I’m about to do just that when Pippa enters.
A woman I find more fascinating with every day.
Since our first time playing Elements in the library at the last new moon party, we’ve met there nearly every night, either to play a new game or to simply read in close proximity.
We’ve only missed our nightly soirees when she was too tired to leave her room.
There’s something comfortable and calming about being in her presence that I don’t feel around Anna or Kay, or even Vivienne so long ago.
My eyes linger on her pretty, pert face, moving to her blue eyes, filled with bursts of green and gold, her full mouth, the soft tresses of her blonde hair.
Today, it’s styled to hang down her back, the sides secured with a clip.
Does she look frailer than yesterday? Perhaps this isn’t the time to tell her about the letter that came this morning.
The moment she spots me, she asks what she asks every morning, the question I’ve come to dread. “Any news about my Toby?”
I don’t particularly want to tell Pippa what I learned about her son after receiving a letter from our man, Mr. Gray, in New Essik, but she deserves to know. With a hand on her back, I guide her to the buffet table, away from prying ears.
But before I can say anything, Noah and Ruby stroll into the breakfast parlor. “Where’s Zarah?” Noah’s voice booms.
I exhale, grateful for the interruption. There will be time to talk to Pippa about Tobias later.
“She hasn’t come down yet,” Kay says with red cheeks.
Hopefully she’s not coming down with a fever.
It could be dangerous if any of these women got so much as a common cold.
I study Pippa more closely. She doesn’t seem flushed or shaky.
In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d say she’s the picture of health.
Vastatio is a silent, secret killer. Especially with a woman like Pippa, who works so hard not to show the pain she may feel.
“Our dear sister probably overindulged and is sleeping it off.” Jafeth leans back in his chair so far that the front legs lift. His gaze bounces to Kay whose blush deepens.
Jafeth’s assessment has me swinging my attention back to Kay, worrying that Zarah may have drunk from her.
The young girl doesn’t look weakened, though.
If anything, she looks healthier than normal.
Zarah’s never been an early riser, and besides, Zarah’s been avoiding us most days, not just today.
She’s different from how she was before my father locked her up.
Harsher. Quieter. More in her head. I’m not sure how to reach her. Not sure if I should even try.
“Fine, I’ll speak with Zarah later. Sit,” my older brother says in that clear, commanding voice he got from our father, the memory of which has me grinding my molars. Noah doesn’t mean the command to sound so much like Hammish, of course, but it does. And it’s clear he wants something.
“Your frustration is showing,” Pippa quietly teases while she places some strawberries and an orange slice on her plate. “It’s clear we all grate on your nerves, but I know you can play nice.”
I hate how much she sees through my shield. She’s the only one who can, it would seem. Instead of responding, I add two sausages to her plate. “You need to eat more than just fruit.”
“I do eat more than fruit.”
I raise an eyebrow at her.
She huffs in a way that threatens to make me smile. “It’s not my fault I don’t have much of an appetite,” she whispers. “Too much makes me feel queasy.”
The little crack in her voice gives me pause. I take one sausage off her plate and add it to mine, leaving the other behind. A silent offering. She needs some protein, but she doesn’t need me to force-feed her if it makes her feel worse.
She offers a quick smile as she passes, and my hearts respond with an unwelcome twist inside my chest, my body surging with a hunger I work to suppress. When she sits on the cushioned window seat away from the table, I join her, grateful that the seat next to Anna is now occupied by Ruby.
Noah stands behind his mate, hands resting on her shoulders while his gaze travels over each of us. “I wanted to speak to you all before the new moon party tonight.” Noah’s jaw ticks, his shoulders riding a little higher than normal.
A heavy, weighted feeling sinks my stomach. Whatever he’s going to say, it’s troubling him.
He looks down at Ruby, and she smiles back at him, giving his hand on her shoulder a squeeze. The silent exchange makes the tether wrapped around my hearts twist tighter. It’s too familiar and too foreign all at once.
“I’ve heard from Hammish’s lawyer.” Noah says our father’s name with disgust. “Shemaiah was right. He took additional measures to thwart us even in death.”
Not surprising considering the man slept in a different room every night to avoid one of us killing him in his sleep.
That, combined with our deceased father’s patriarchal ability to control the other Mavarri in his family line—an ability that has since passed to Noah—ensured it was nearly impossible to stop him and the wake of deaths he created.
It took years, and help from the women in this room, to accomplish it.
“Father wrote a stipulation into his will that his death was to be investigated. We only get our inheritance if we can prove he died of natural causes.”
“That we didn’t off him,” Jafeth quips.
“But you did kill him,” sweet, innocent Kay says. “Or rather… Zarah did.” Her eyes dance around the faces as if looking for Zarah despite knowing she’s not here.
Kay’s right. Our sister landed the final blow, but we were all just as involved as she was. We planned it. Truthfully, I concocted the scheme and put everything into motion. We’re all complicit in the death of an abhorrent Mavarri who killed countless people before his own demise.
“And we’d do it again.” Noah moves away from Ruby and sits down at the table with a sigh.
“His ending was too kind.” Jafeth holds his teacup in the air as if he’s toasting with champagne to our father’s death.
His flippancy and irreverence doesn’t quite land, though Zarah would appreciate it, probably cheering him on if she were in the room.
“So how are you supposed to prove you didn’t kill him?” Anna asks.
“Witnesses.” Ruby looks at each of the three women brought here because of Hammish’s corrupt, and ill-attempted desire to create more Mavarri, brought here under false pretenses that they might be healed.
“We have to impose on your generosity once more,” Noah says.
“The three of you are our best hope of quickly having the case dismissed.” Ruby’s gaze lands on Pippa last.
I have the sudden urge to pull Pippa behind me protectively, even though I know Ruby would never hurt her and what she’s asking is reasonable.
“So you want us to lie for you?” Kay brings a finger to her lips like she’s about to bite her nail, but drops it like she caught herself in the act.
Kay, Anna, and Pippa did witness our father’s death, even participated in it, but clearly Noah doesn’t want them to share the way Hammish really died at the hand of his only daughter.
“I’ll do it,” Anna says, batting her eyelashes at me from across the room. “I’ll do anything to help.”
I find my gaze settling on Pippa beside me, wondering what she thinks of this.
Having gotten to know her over the last several weeks, I still can’t guess what she’ll say to the request. She’s honorable, but she’s also loyal, and the only thing in her life that means anything to her is her son.
Revealing the truth would certainly risk reuniting with him.
A person of few words, much like me, she simply nods her head, letting my brother know she’ll go along with his plan.
“Does it really matter, though?” Kay asks. “I mean, you’re… well, you know. It’s not like they can really hurt you or arrest you or anything. Couldn’t you just fight them off?”
“We may be difficult to kill, but it’s not impossible, as you saw with my father.
Humans have ganged up on Mavarri before.
” He pauses, his eyes shuddering for a moment with emotion I understand, having lost our mother this way, but then he regains his composure and focus.
“It’s why we’re the only ones of our kind left.
” Noah leans his elbows on the table and folds his hands.
“Other than the lie, we’ll handle this within the boundaries of the law and ensure our place remains the same within society.
Respected. Powerful. Feared. And secret.
” He leans back in his chair and picks at a bit of lint on his trousers.
“Hammish’s lawyer will be in attendance for the new moon tonight, and he’s bringing Detective Ricin to talk to all of us. ”
The thought of Pippa at the new moon party, even if it’s just so she can talk to the detective, sets something jittery fluttering low in my gut and traveling through to the base of my spine.
“Both men have been to a new moon party before. They don’t remember the specifics, of course. But it’s unlikely that the detective will imbibe tonight, since he’s here to question us. Which means no open feeding.” Noah’s gaze settles pointedly on Jafeth. “Understood?”
“Spoilsport,” Jafeth huffs. “What fun is a party without a little exhibitionism? We could just bite the detective, and then he’ll be so high on venom, he won’t remember a thing.”
“No biting the detective,” Ruby scolds. Even when she was still human, she had an odd skill for putting Jafeth in his place. “If you bite the detective, he’ll just be back asking more questions because he won’t remember your previous answers.”
“Look, I know you need to feed,” Noah says, rubbing in the fact that he doesn’t, because he now has a mate to satisfy all his cravings. “But do it in private, and only with people you’re certain won’t remember clearly.”
“Or with us.” Anna flutters her attention between me and Jafeth.
The sour scent of their illness makes me disinclined to feed from any of them. The disease wouldn’t hurt me as a Mavarri—no disease can—but if it tastes half as bad as it smells…
Jafeth scrunches his nose, clearly as repulsed by the idea as I am. If he weren’t, I’m sure he’d already have taken to feeding from one of these women beyond the new moon parties.
I adjust myself in my seat, inadvertently putting myself closer to Pippa on the bench.
Her fragrance is lovely, and one of the reasons I don’t mind her presence.
Under the notes of illness, Anna smells like too many wildflowers bunched together in a stifling space.
Kay’s scent reminds me of sweets, which as a boy I might have enjoyed.
But it doesn’t appeal to me at all now. Once in my youth, I visited New Essik with my mother.
It was one of the last days we spent together before her death.
We went to a candy shop where they made spun sugar.
I ate too much, giving me a stomachache. Kay evokes that memory.
But Pippa feels like standing in the afternoon sunshine while a gentle breeze laced with the essence of lemon-citrus wafts from an orchard. My fangs descend, surprising me. I press my lips together to hide the evidence of my desire. It’s only because of the new moon.
But perhaps feeding from Pippa would be…
enjoyable. What expression would she make when my venom hits her bloodstream?
Would she arch her back? Curl her toes? Sob out a curse?
My hearts pump faster, blood flowing to my groin, thickening my cock as my mind fills with a picture of Pippa, tears streaming down her pink cheeks, mouth open on a gasp, body tense with pleasure. Fuck.
As subtly as possible, I shift my plate on my lap.
“What do we say if the inspector wants to know why we’re at the Roan Estate?” Pippa asks, drawing me back to the conversation at hand.
“Charity and community service,” Ruby answers. “The Roans invited terminally-ill guests from The Sanatorium to join them for the Winter Solstice and to convalesce here at the estate.”
“What about Mrs. Darning?” I ask. “Will she stay quiet about what happened?”
“That’s your job. She likes you the best.” Noah gives me a rare smirk. “Figure it out however you deem necessary.”
I narrow my eyes, uncertain if he’s giving me the carte blanche he’s implying.
“Don’t kill her,” Ruby says sternly.
Well, that answers that.