Page 60 of Twisted
Yet here he is, getting all chummy with my very dead husband.
“This must be your pretty new bride we’ve heard about,” Governor Richards coos, reaching out to greet me.The guy gave me the ick before, when I only saw him on a screen.It’s ten times worse seeing him in person.“And what a pretty bride she is.”He gives Xavier a playful nudge.“I bet she’s still recovering from the wedding night.”
“Never,” Xavier starts, words cutting through the air like a knife.Governor Richards jerks his head up and in an instant, he’s held spellbound.I’ve never seen it in real time before like this, “disrespect my wife again unless you want me to rip out your tongue and shove it so far up your ass you will cough it out.”
Richards’s eyes are wide and his face mostly void of emotion, but I can see the terror behind his glossy stare, taking in every word that Xavier says.
“I…I’m sorry, Mr.Malus.”
“We just walked in.You have no memory of the last sixty seconds.”He breaks his gaze and extends his hand—the same one he was just pleasuring me with.“Ah, Governor Richards.Let me introduce you to my wife, Florence.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs.Malus,” Governor Richards says, giving me a curt nod.“Congrats to the both of you.I have to admit the news took us all quite by surprise.”
“We kept our relationship private,” I say without missing a beat.“Our focus was on each other.”
“As it should be!”He claps Xavier on the back and then motions to a table.“Shall we?”
Xavier’s hand lands on the small of my back, gently ushering me to a large round table.There’s no specific or obvious “head spot” at this table, since it’s round, but it becomes clear to me the moment we sit down that Xavier is very much in charge.
“Good evening,” he begins, getting everyone’s attention.I look around, taking it all in as he speaks.Right away, I can spot the humans.Along with the Governor, there’s a police chief—in uniform—two other men in suits, a few vampires who can only be a decade or so old by the energy coming off of them, and three werewolves.
What the fuck?
I feel like this is the butt of a joke somehow, or at least the start to a very bad one.Humans, vampires, and werewolves walk into a bar…
“Let me introduce my wife,” Xavier says, hand landing on mine.A smile automatically comes to my face and I quickly put on the hat of Mrs.Malus, wife to Xavier who is clearly the leader of some sort of powerful—whatever this is.“Florence.She is to have the same respect you give me.”
“Please, call me Wren,” I say and make eye contact with the female werewolf.She narrows her eyes slightly and tips her head up, inhaling.
“You married a witch,” she says, trying to keep the surprise from her voice.Whispers break out amongst the table.
“Now what do you mean by witch?”Governor Richards asks.I can tell already he thinks he’s something special and is going to annoy me more than he already does.
“Go on,” Xavier says, fingers curling around mine.“Show them how magnificent you are.”He’s staring at me like he wants to devour me right here, like he wouldn’t think twice about jumping up, pushing everything off the table and fucking me.
And, holy fuck, I want him to.
Instead, I meet his gaze, hold it for a second and then nod.Lifting my left hand, I pull in energy from the air, creating a little blue energy ball.The humans gasp.Right…witches aren’t “out of the broom closet” yet.Two of the younger vampires look curious while the other is wary.
“I take it there won’t be any problems,” Xavier continues.“If there are, you can talk to me privately after our meeting, though I’m quite certain my wife is more than capable of handling anything that comes her way.”
The table goes silent again and I close my fingers, extinguishing the energy ball.There’s something diplomatic about the way Xavier is conducting business, with just the right amount of unhinged threats.Because he wasn’t just insinuating that I can sit and talk and listen, but that I’d do whatever I need to do to keep the peace…by any means necessary.
I’m introduced to everyone next and it’s becoming more and more clear what this meeting is.Everyone at this table is a representative.The female werewolf is the alpha from the Charlotte pack, and the two others next to her are brothers from a pack in Raleigh.One of the vampires is in the VC and the other two are here to “be a voice for the newly turned”.One of the humans is from the 704 Reapers, which is a gang I’m not familiar with, and the other is here “on behalf of the Morris family”.The uniformed cop is the chief of the local police, and he’s pretty friendly with the gang members.
The waitstaff begins serving us our first course, and fancy crystal glasses filled with blood are given to the vampires.I keep a pleasant smile on my face, body angled in toward Xavier’s to make it look like I’m a little uncomfortable and am subconsciously leaning on my husband for social and physical support.While I think almost everyone here is smart enough not to physically try and cross a witch, I want to use it to my advantage to come off as politically aloof, like I can’t quite follow along or am too simple minded to really get involved in the business.
There are human security guards at the entry points, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find out that everyone in this room has their own people waiting nearby.The air is friendly enough, and right now I’m listening to the 704 Reaper guy ask the police chief how his tomato garden is coming along this year and telling him about how his wife keeps pestering him to put up wallpaper inside their chicken coop so she can post about it on social media.
These meetings must have been going on for a while, and though no one fully trusts each other, there is clearly some sort of unwritten rule of being respectful.I just need to keep quiet and listen.If anyone is smuggling drugs into the city, my money would be on someone in this room.My knowledge of mafias and gangs is limited to what I’ve seen in movies or read about in sexy, dark romance novels, which probably isn’t the most realistic.
Business is discussed, but nothing feels overly formal.There’s no threats laid out, and everything seems to be running pretty smoothly.Clearly, everyone at this table has a big influence over the way not just the city, but the entire area is run.Having the vampires come out has changed things—not for the better for the humans.I don’t quite grasp everything they’re talking about since I’m being thrust into the conversation with no knowledge of any backstory, but the vampires have taken over territory that was previously human-run.
But the weirdest thing that I’m not even allowing myself to make sense of right now is the pride I feel when I look at Xavier and know he’s in charge.He’s keeping the peace between these groups somehow, even if it’s for his own benefit.
The Order would shit themselves if they knew what was going on here.Humans, vampires, werewolves, and now a witch all sitting together, peacefully discussing business—even if that business is keeping the vampire-caused deaths out of the public eye.It’s something they wouldn’t think would be possible…and something they’d try and shut down immediately if they found out about it.
Because the only thing more dangerous than monsters are monsters joining forces.
