Page 21 of Cryptic Dreams
Zephyr’s shoulders drop as she nods, and when she walks around me, the scent of honey and chamomile invading my senses, pure anger slams into me in the form of two very pissed off and protective males.
“You don’t have to be such a dick to her,” Orion bites out. “Z wasn’t going to stay, and I thought—”
“You thought wrong.” I wave my hand dismissively through the air as I slide into my booth. “I have no time for female issues or the unnecessary drama they bring.”
Orion blinks, parks his hands on his hips and glares at me as Aries jaw drops then clenches. “This wasn’t a conversation about some female issue. Z is having—”
“I don’t bloody care,” I snap. “The female is of no concern to me, and if you two would rather discuss her problems, then perhaps you should join her at her booth while I try to figure out a way to avoid the investigation the Great Counsel wants to open.”
At that, both males slide into the booth and stare at me, still angry, but I’ve piqued their interest.
“Investigation?” Orion leans in. “What kind of investigation?”
“The kind I do not wish to take place.” I motion to the bartender for my usual. “It seems my sire and his bitch returned to the nest before the authorities could find what I so beautifully gift wrapped for them, and they knew immediately of my involvement.”
“They weren’t supposed to be back for at least two nights after that.”
I nod. “I thought so as well but apparently their tour of the covens in the southern states was cut short when that berk, Hans, contacted them immediately following his less than pleasant morning after.”
Orion sighs. “What the hell happened? I thought they were going to be too fucked up to wake up until the elders returned?”
“Apparently Hans needs more than two heroin addicts to knock him out longer than a few hours.” I reach for the drink as soon as it’s delivered, toss it back in one go and begin sharing the events that have transpired this past week.
When Hans woke to quite the little massacre, he contacted my father right away and requested they return as soon as possible. And since my father’s head is securely placed up Hans’s arse the majority of the time, he did. When they walked into the nest to find around fifty members of the Counsel and the upper class naked, covered in blood and higher than goddamn kites, he went ballistic.
Atticus, my sire, broke down the locked door of my room, searched everywhere for anything he could use to implicate me and since I left my torture chamber a mess—intentionally of course—he tracked down the engaged couple to question them about my activities on the day in question. Thankfully, I made a rather good impression on them so they vouched for my every move from the time we left Plasma until we went our separate ways when I returned to my private home. Hans, to his great dismay, also corroborated my story by confirming I had not been seen during the disgusting orgy and that I have not returned to the nest since.
Atticus is still suspicious though and that’s why he cleaned up my mess without involving the VSUST or the human government. He disposed of the bodies, made sure the coven kept their story straight then showed up on my front stoop last night with my bitch mother in tow.
He knows I despise the way things are done, the way vampires are treated as if we are beasts in a zoo instead of living breathing creatures entitled to remain as such, and he knows that if I had it my way we would return to the system that proved to be a far more successful way of doing things regardless of whether or not we were known by humans. I am the one and only suspect in his eyes and that is exactly why he sought me out.
Of course, he didn’t say that. No, Atticus and Drusilla came to my private home under the guise ofdebriefing meon their travels and checking in on theironly son. Things they do purely out of obligation and in the name of keeping up appearances.
It reflects negatively on the would-be king and queen if their son is not included in vampire affairs, if I’m not present for their stupid meetings and as involved as possible in the legal matters that take place amongst our kind. Little do they know, his persistent inclusion has been a vital part of my plan, a critical way of gathering information for the Purists, and though Atticus knows I despise him and everything he stands for, he is ignorant to my involvement in bringing his precious Counsel to its knees.
And my mother? Drusilla is as daft as they come, her general state one of inebriation and ignorance. She chooses to ignore the bad blood between my sire and I, and chooses to view me as her disappointment of a son and nothing more. And while it works to my advantage at times by creating a buffer between us, that female has buried herself ten times over in my eyes since the moment I was born. Her opportunity to mother me has long passed and I shall bring her down, right along with Atticus and the rest of the Counsel.
“So how do you know they plan to investigate you specifically?” Orion asks over the top of his beer. “It sounds like their visit was pretty ordinary.”
I slam my second gin and tonic then move onto the Bloody Mary. “By all accounts it was, but Atticus made several comments about looking further into the matter. It was clear he suspects my involvement but since my alibi was corroborated twice over and there is no evidence tying me to anything other than possibly providing the now deceased, he will have to dig deeper in order to find a way to pin this on me.”
“Can he?” Aries asks, his blue eyes analytical. “Is there something he’ll be able to find to connect you to what happened?”
I shrug. “Not really. He already knows I helped gather the humans, that the party was my idea, but since no one needed encouragement from me to fuck until the need to feed from a fresh source was too strong to ignore, he doesn’t really have much to go on.”
Orion narrows his eyes. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“If Atticus were to look hard enough, and I do mean really scour the city, he could probably find a rather large purchase of illegal substances from various local dealers that I may or may not have made prior to coming here that night.”
“Dammit,” he grunts. “I’m assuming that was the incentive you used to entice the humans further? Promises of endless drugs in exchange for fucking vampires all day?”
Another shrug. “Perhaps.”
“And if Atticus discovers this, there won’t be any question as to your involvement since you are one of two Descendants living in the city, the other being your sire who was out of town at the time, which makes you easily identifiable?”
“There are other Descendants in the states.” Except there aren’t many, and they were in their respective home states waiting for my father and mother to visit. “But it’s neither here nor there.”
“Because we’re going to find those dealers and handle them,” Aries states rather than asks.
