Page 57 of Tethered Souls
Maddox almost called me a good girl... A dumb-as-fuck grin spreading across my lips, I grab Varius’ hand in mine. He starts to pull away, but I thread our fingers and hold him there. I don’t look at him, knowing he will fly away, back inside those walls, if I do. Instead, I turn to stare out the car window, that wide-as-fuck grin still on my lips.
As the Floridian landscape passes outside the window in a blur of lights, Varius’ hand slowly relaxes beneath mine.
And yet again, my world shifts...
Nineteen
HIM
When we park in front of our destination, a gated estate in the Markham Woods Corridor, I pull my hand away from Micha, then dig the jewelry box out of my jacket pocket.
“Here,” I say, tossing it to her as Maddox opens my car door. She catches it, and I step out, flexing my fingers down by my side, getting used to the feel of her absence.
“So romantic,” Maddox says. “Can’t wait to see what you do for Valentine’s Day.”
Ignoring him, I turn to the car that’s pulled up behind us. Rudy’s sitting in the driver’s seat, a small smile on his face. Given his innate ability to see the darkest fears of those he meets, driving is one of his favorite pastimes. The distances enforced by the road are enough to keep other’s nightmares at bay – the only peace he ever gets outside of our house.
He smiles at me, telling me he’ll be okay tonight, and I turn from him with a growing knot in my stomach. Because I wasn’t thinking about how he’d fare in a crowded room. I was wondering if he was the traitor and how I would deal with him if he was. Even Khalid, with all of his training and skill, would be hard pressed to kill our brother if he wanted to fight back.
But Rudy has a weakness only I know. He’s fucking Aleric’s second, the underboss of the Blood Fangs. So if I grabbed Vlad first, my little brother would offer up his own life to save him. Because when Rudy loves, he loves in its entirety. Regardless of their faults.Regardless if that love is returned. He’s just too damn pure like that.
Fuck. I don’t want it to be him.
The car door opens, and all my senses snap to Micha. I don’t turn my head to her, but I watch her in my peripheral. My fingers tingle with the phantom feel of her hand on mine, insisting I reach over and touch her somewhere, to find that comfort only she can give.
Pressing my hand to my thigh, I turn for the house.
“Did your mom pick it out?” Micha asks as she steps up beside me, holding out her hand to stare at the diamond ring.
My eyes narrow. “No.”
“Oh. Is it a family heirloom then?”
“No.”
When she doesn’t ask another question, clearly fucking baffled what the other choice could be, my lips tighten and my pace increases.
Before we make it to the line of pillars at the front of the house, both of the double doors open. A woman dressed in a dark-blue gown invites us in. Diamonds and sapphires hang from her neck and ears. Gold bands dangle from her wrists, and more jewels adorn half of her fingers. Stefaan Black clearly wishes to make an impression – dressing his staff in attire fit for a queen.
As soon as my shoes touch down on the black-and-white marble inside, Stefaan and Mother enter from the far side of the room, walking through the archway beneath the double stairs. Micha slips from my side to slightly behind me as my brothers fan out in the great hall. Maddox picks something up off one of the fancy side tables. The whole place screams of pompous fanfare, so if he breaks something, he’s paying for it. If he steals it, he better not get fucking caught.
“Varius,” Stefaan says in greeting as they stop in front of us.
I incline my head at him. “Stefaan.”
“I hope my daughter has been serving you well.”
“She’s learning.”
A muttered, “Says the fucking neanderthal,” is said so quietly at my back, I almost miss it even with my enhanced hearing.
My fingers twitch as a warmth spreads from them to my chest. Only to immediately go cold as Stefaan’s eyes finally start to shift to his daughter, a darted look of aggression. I move forward, forcing his attention back on me as anger flares deep in my veins. If he wasn’t her blood, I’d fucking cut him down for that. No one gets to discipline my fiancee but me.
When we get to the party room – a regal living room decorated with “Congratulations on the engagement” tat strung all about the godsdamn place, I glance at my mother, a silent demand she takes Micha away from us. If Stefaan tries to look at her like that again, I’m liable to kill him.
She steps in smoothly, having been the one to teach us all to talk this way. By using the slightest of expressions that you can’t even identify while looking in a mirror.
As Micha comes out from behind me, she steps in close, and her hand brushes against mine. Even though she does not look at me, does not acknowledge me at all, I feel my blood start to cool. I watch her in my peripheral as she follows Mother to a group of women.
