Page 60 of Scorned
I didn’t know how they always knew what the other thought or wanted, but it fascinated me.
Peach, Marcus, April, and Zeke took off, and I turned my attention to Drag, hoping he understood the lie I was about to tell. “Do you still want me and Erik to help you at your sister’s place?”
Drag hopped up without hesitation. “Yeah, and we better get there before it gets too late. She’ll kill us if we wake their baby.”
I glared at Erik, and it took him a few extra seconds to catch on and stand. “I’m ready when you guys are.”
We followed Drag to his truck and when I went to get into the passenger seat, Ravage appeared next to the door like a magician.
“I don’t think so.” He opened the door and slid into the front seat.
With a sigh, I hopped in the back. “Where’s Lynx?”
“She’s back at the tattoo shop, keeping things running for me. She’ll be back in a few days.”
Ravage hadn’t tattooed me in months and I really needed some ink therapy, but we had too much going on for me to worry about myself.
Pulling my phone out, I sent Peach a text letting her know what we were doing.
Winnie: Going to Dani’s. Bring Sage and Marcus.
I hesitated a second before adding another name
Winnie: And Lyric.
Peach: Be there after we pack up the baby.
“What’s going on?” Erik finally asked when Drag pulled out of the lot. “Why didn’t we have the meeting about what we found last night?”
Ravage turned his head toward us. “Because we’re pretty sure we have a rat living here.”
Once at Dani’s cabin, I stood in the middle of the room and quickly filled everyone in on the VRC locations and about Sage’s uncle smelling weird so I could get some honest feedback before Sage got here.
“Do you think he’s some kind of hybrid?” Lane asked, sitting on the brown leather couch. Since he’d been working with us, and Dani knew about it, they had both listened in on our conversation.
Drag let out a hard breath from the matching recliner across from Lane. “I’ve never heard of a hybrid of all three species before. It seems unnatural.”
Erik was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed when he snickered. “And you guys are all natural?”
Dani cackled. “I like you. From what Kimber tells me, you seem like a good guy. You’re Lyric’s brother?”
Erik nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“She’s sweet as pie. I like her a lot.” Dani’s gaze wandered to me, and the way they narrowed, made my skin crawl. “Don’t fuck that up, Winnie.”
Little did she know, I already had, so I completely avoided her statement. “All I’m saying is at first I could smell each species individually, but then they blended together somehow, which made my nose confused as shit.”
“And if that’s true,” Dani said, her eyes wide, “then Sage is a witch and doesn’t know it.”
“I’ve known Sage and Ben my entire life and I’ve only known them as human. But I did notice how weird Ben acted last night. His actions were mechanical. Almost like he was purposely slowing them down.”
“I noticed that too, but it made sense to me because that’s what we’re trained to do in the beginning.”
Erik stared at me with a look of confusion. “What do you mean?”
“When you become a vampire, you’re filled with overwhelming energy that you aren’t used to, so our origins teach us to slow our movements. Mainly because it consumes too much energy and that would require us to feed more often. And feeding isn’t as easy as it seems without a mate, so we have to conserve. Most of us usually only move super fast if we have to, or in my case, if I’m pissed off. Ben looked like someone that was new to it. Like someone who recently became a vamp and that’s why he seemed mechanical. Or at least, that’s my theory.”
“It’s a good theory, son,” Ravage said from the kitchen adjacent to the living room. After taking a big swig of his beer, he set it on the counter. “Maybe we can visit Shayla tomorrow evening and see what she has to say about it.”
