Page 17 of Haunted Nightmares
My gaze swings toward Declan as I turn to face him. “Why in the bloody hell would I name an animal?”
“Because people name their pets. Humans and vampires.”
“But this is not my pet. I don’t want a pet.”
He nods toward me, barely hiding his smile as the bird starts preening my head for the umpteenth time. “Might want to tell her that.”
“I have,” I say as I shoo it over to the chair in the corner before pushing my freshly cut hair back into place. “The damned thing won’t leave me alone. Just like someone else I know.”
Ignoring my obvious dig, Declan straightens up and gives me a once over. “So why are you always so concerned with how you look or act in front of it?”
I don’t bloody know.
That’s what I want to tell him.
I’ve no fucking cluewhythere’s a shift in my behavior when the silly bird is around but it happens every damn time, and it’s led to completely absurd thoughts.
Thoughts surrounding this omen of death and my recently departed gentle breeze.
“Well?” I ask, avoiding his question altogether. “Am I presentable enough to meet with the human equivalent of hot garbage?”
Declan’s stare moves from the top of my relatively styled hair over my face, his green eyes holding a little too much sadness as they take in the darkness etched on my skin. He continues inspecting my all black attire, the dress shirt and suit I had tohave tailored to fit my slimmer build, then he nods when he gets to the Italian loafers on my feet.
“It’ll do.”
I grunt in irritation as I fix my cuffs then twist my signet ring on my finger. “I’m sitting down with a male I have every intention of killing, Declan. I don’t need to impress him to death when I’m perfectly capable of using my hands.”
He rolls his eyes as he pushes off the doorframe. “I understand that but until we’re ready for you to off the president, you have to play the part. Which also means looking it.”
Arsehole.“I’m in mourning. If he questions anything, that’s the response we give him. He has no idea what that looks like for us and if he’s smart, Deveroux won’t ask any questions because of it.”
Declan nods as he steps into the hall and waits for me to follow. “Let’s get going then. Can’t say you werefashionably latesince you look every bit the unhinged living corpse you are. He wouldn’t believe it, and would probably assume you did it on purpose.”
I almost laugh at that because it’s true, but I don’t.
My head is already a battlefield, my thoughts racing between following through with what I need to do so that I can bring down an entire government that aided in the death of my mate, and allowing the darkness within me out to play. The voices are thankfully quiet but Zenlothanai is right under the surface, waiting for the slightest thing to set me off and give them an opening. And if I’m to serve justice in the many ways I mean to, that cannot happen.
Which is exactly why I turn toward the chair in the corner of the bedroom and arch a brow at the feathered creature patiently waiting for my invitation.
Deveroux is nearly as bad as Atticus was, so I’ll need the extra level of calm it brings.
Regardless of how insane that idea alone may be.
“He hasa full security team at all times. Secret Service and higher ranking members of the VSUST,” Lydia says through the speakers of Declan’s car. “Wears a bulletproof vest, keeps silver in his pockets. Deveroux is always protected on some level, which is usually a pretty high one.”
I stare aimlessly out the window as we head toward the human President’s house, no longer located in DC or referred to asThe White House.I’ve never cared to learn what it’s called now, and I’m barely hearing my friend’s sister as she tries to prepare us for this dreaded meeting so I imagine the title of the stupid building shall remain a mystery.
Never, not once before or after the Species War did I give one single shite about the human government.
Whether a monarchy or democracy, dictatorship or anything else, how they handled their business was of no concern to me. The only reason I bothered to educate myself on the subject was so I could be better prepared for handling them when I took up the throne—thetruethrone—and restored my kind back to the way we were before.
Playing nice with the human authorities is a necessity no matter what and if I’d have done what I set out to do centuries ago, I would have formed some sort of civil agreement between species and made sure both were somehow represented during one kind or the other’s affairs.
After weeding out all the thorns so things run smoother, of course.
But my intentions were to work alongside the humans, coexist peacefully the way we did before by staying out of each other’s bullshite and only getting involved when we absolutely had to.
I refuse to believe it has to be any other way, and the fact that my father felt the need to sign that blasted treaty after losing a war we should have won proves there is plenty going on that has been hidden from all of us for far too long.
