Chapter Nineteen
“Good God it’s Sofia!” Viktor nearly shouted.
I spun around, certain he was mistaken. Sure enough, there stood the woman we reluctantly referred to as our mother. Sofia was a woman who people noticed. Her vibrant red hair flowed down her back, nearly to her knees. She always left her hair loose. Her eyes were a deep blue, almost purple. She was a tiny woman who was barely eye level with my chest when she stood on tip toes. She looked delicate and innocent. Looks are often deceiving.
She flashed a malicious smile. “Where is the whore you stole from your father?”
“Do not talk that way about my wife,” I growled.
She laughed. It was a childlike giggle. “Oh, he is going to hate hearing that.”
Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog
Aiden was getting tired of waiting for Tempest to return from her shopping trip with Caitlin. They’d been gone more than six hours. He wondered long a woman could possibly shop. In his opinion, the internet had been the greatest invention ever. Thanks to online shopping, he’d avoided setting foot in a clothing store for nearly a decade. Granted, he had pretty simple needs. He was happiest in jeans and a t-shirt.
Justin had helped him clean up the mess in the foyer, mostly to complain about women with him. It had actually been kind of nice. Aiden hadn’t had a close guy friend in many years. The ones he’d had were all human, so they’d been short lived friendships. He’d never spent much time talking to Justin, because Justin had never seemed interested in getting to know him. Justin also came off like a straight-laced jerk most of the time. Aiden was finding there was a lot more to his cousin than met the eye.
They were both seated on a leather sofa, feet on the coffee table, watching Aiden’s favorite soap opera. He was glad no one had changed the DVR settings after he’d left.
Justin was shaking his head. “I still don’t get what you see in this show. Sure, she’s got nice breasts, but she’s human” Justin made it sound like the actress had some hideous deformity.
“You’re kind of an asshole, aren’t you?” Aiden asked casually.
“Caitlin tells me I’m a prick all the time,” Justin replied. His lips lifted ever so slightly.
“I noticed that,” Aiden agreed with a nod. “She needs to come up with new insults for you.”
Isaiah wandered across the room. He didn’t even acknowledge they were there. Aiden suspected Isaiah was the biggest reason he and Justin had never really talked before. The brothers had always been close. They had a very strong bond—one Aiden had envied more than a little. He was sure seeing Isaiah like this was hard on Justin.
“What happened to your brother?” Aiden asked as gently as he could.
“He’s getting better,” Justin argued, obviously not wanting to share too much.
Aiden wondered how bad he’d been before.
Isaiah shuffled out of the room.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it,” Aiden told him with an indifferent shrug.
Justin muted the television and blew out a frustrated breath. “I’ve gotten too used to keeping secrets lately. I couldn’t tell Nathaniel what happened or he would have freaked out, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to tell you. Isaiah and Drew brought a woman back here. After you left, no one was allowed to bring humans into the house to feed on. By bringing her back here. they were breaking a rule, but Nathaniel probably wouldn’t have been too mad about it. Well, she had a heart condition, and she died. That would have sent him over the edge, so they buried her body to cover it up and Isaiah lost it.”
Aiden nodded his understanding. “That really sucks, but he has to know there’s a small risk of something like that happening. It’s not like it was intentional.”
Justin sighed. “He felt like he should have been more careful, especially with Drew. You know Drew’s self control sucks.”
Aiden nodded. “Isaiah told you all this?”
Justin shook his head. “I had to piece it together. I found the woman’s medical alert necklace the night Isaiah had his breakdown. I found Isaiah’s clothes and shoes full of mud. Drew started tormenting Isaiah about it. It was subtle, so I don’t think most people caught onto it because they didn’t know what had happened. I’ve been tempted to kill Drew ever since I found out about his involvement.”
“As much as it pains me to defend Drew,” Aiden began, “he’s young, and from what I hear, his mother is a psychopath.”
Justin let out a humorless laugh. “Now, that is the understatement of the century. I had to treat that woman when she was pregnant with Drew. After her first prenatal checkup, the one where she stabbed me with a knitting needle, I had her strapped down before I’d even go in the room. Drew was delivered by c-section because there was no way I was getting near her when she was in labor.”
“Doesn’t Ursula usually deliver all the babies?” Aiden asked. Ursula was the family midwife. She’d been the one to deliver him and all his cousins, or so Aiden had thought.
“She does, but Phoebe is too dangerous. Uncle Roman refused to let Ursula anywhere near her,” Justin explained.
“I guess it’s a good thing she hasn’t gotten pregnant again,” Aiden remarked.
Justin lowered his voice. “I took out the crazy bitch’s fallopian tubes while I was in there.”
“She agreed to that?” Aiden asked.
“I didn’t ask,” Justin admitted with a smirk. “You and Isaiah are the only other people who know why she hasn’t conceived her second devil spawn.”
Aiden laughed until tears came to his eyes.
The doorbell rang, and Isaiah called out, “I’ll get it!”
Neither of them thought anything of it at first. Justin jumped up and ran toward the foyer. Isaiah was about to open the door when Justin caught his hand. “Maybe I should get that.”
Isaiah shrugged and stepped back.
Justin opened the door to Ivy. “You must be Tempest’s sister,” he deduced.
“Yes,” she replied in her soft voice. When she spotted Aiden, she went over to hug him and slap him lightly on the shoulder.
Aiden smiled at her and pointed to Justin and Isaiah. “Ivy, these are your cousins, Justin and Isaiah. This is Ivy.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Her attention was focused on Isaiah.
Aiden waved a hand in front of her face to get her attention. “Are you going to stay here?” he asked.
Ivy shook her head. “I just came to drop off some clothes for Tempest. I still can’t believe you kidnapped her.”
“It’s kind of his thing,” Justin explained. “He needs to work on his dating skills.”
“Oh, am I getting dating advice from the resident stalker?” Aiden asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Is Tempest around?” Ivy asked.
“She’s still out shopping,” Aiden replied irritably.
Drew sauntered down the stairs wearing faded low-rise jeans with the top button undone and no shirt. His hair was tousled in a way Aiden was sure was intentional. He looked disappointed when he saw Ivy. “Oh, I was hoping Tempest was back.”
Aiden still wasn’t at all happy with Drew’s crush on Tempest. “Weren’t you leaving?” he snapped.
Drew shrugged. “I decided to stick around and help make Tempest feel more welcome.” He continued to ignore Ivy. Drew liked to flirt. Normally, he would see this new woman in their midst as a challenge for him to overcome. Now, he was only interested in Tempest. “Do you know when Tempest is coming back? I was going to offer to show her around the grounds.”
“She’s not interested,” Aiden snapped. “Besides it’s already too dark for her to see anything.”
Isaiah moved closer to Drew and whispered something into his ear. Drew paled visibly and hurried out of the room.
“That was?” Ivy asked.
“The biggest pain in the ass in the family,” Justin replied. He looked at Aiden again with sincerity in his eyes. “The offer to kill him and bury him by the creek is still open.”
/> “Stop or you’ll scare Ivy,” Aiden told him.
Ivy actually laughed. “Not likely.”
“What did you say to him?” Aiden asked Isaiah.
Isaiah shrugged and gave them a sly smile. “We have an understanding.”
“Isaiah has a way with locks. He can get into any room he wants to,” Justin explained. “Drew was being a real dick to him and Hannah for a while. Isaiah went into his room one night and had a talk with him. He won’t tell me what he said, but now Drew’s a little afraid of my brother.” There was a look of pride on Justin’s face.
“A little afraid?” Aiden asked. “I thought he was going to piss himself.”
“He did that night,” Isaiah added seriously.
That shocked Aiden. Isaiah was probably the least violent person in the family, but he had obviously done more than talk that night.
“Okay,” Ivy muttered to herself. “Well, I’m going to leave Tempest’s stuff here and head home. I have a lot of work to do.”
Aiden caught her arm. “You really are welcome to stay. They’re your cousins, too.”
Ivy tiptoed so she could kiss him on the cheek. “I think it would be better if you had some time alone with Tempest.”
Aiden grinned. “Are you saying you’re on my side?”
Ivy shook her head. “I’m not saying that at all. I just want to see my sister happy.”
She walked over to Isaiah and took his hands in hers. Her eyes closed, and she flinched. Isaiah’s eyes widened before closing. His body shuddered, and he let out a sigh of relief. It was several minutes before she released Isaiah’s hand. Aiden wasn’t exactly sure what she’d done, but it had something to do with the incident that had caused Isaiah’s breakdown. Isaiah’s eyes opened and in slow degrees became more focused.
Isaiah leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Thank you,” he whispered, suddenly sounding saner.
“Her death wasn’t your fault,” Ivy soothed, startling Justin.
Isaiah shook his head. “You’re wrong. I was responsible for her care. I failed her. Thank you for taking some of the pain and guilt away, Cousin.” He hugged her and left without another word. No longer shuffling, he strode out of the room. He still looked changed, but Aiden supposed one couldn’t go completely insane and return to sanity as the same person.
Ivy looked a little drained and somewhat frightened after her interaction with Isaiah.
“Are you okay?” Aiden asked Ivy.
She nodded. “It just takes me a few minutes to recover. I’ve seen much worse.”
“Is he better now?” Justin asked hopefully.
“Somewhat,” she replied hesitantly. “He was damaged by what happened, and he won’t ever go back to what he was before, but he should be less haunted by the memories. Just give him time to come to terms with it in his own way. I took enough of his pain away so he can think clearly now.” Ivy handed Justin a card. “If he has a relapse, call me, and I’ll meet with him again.
Justin looked like he wanted to ask more questions, but the noise from the kitchen distracted them. Tempest and Caitlin didn’t quietly enter the house. Their laughter was so loud, it was hard to make out what they were saying. Aiden caught the word idiots, so he assumed they were still talking about him and Justin.
Aiden headed toward the kitchen, anxious to see Tempest. It was actually kind of embarrassing how much he wanted to see her. He would have been more embarrassed if Justin hadn’t been racing in to see Caitlin.
“You cut your hair,” Aiden remarked.
Tempest shook her head back and forth with a smile. “Do you like it?”
“Yes,” he replied honestly, wondering if it would be rude to toss her over his shoulder and carry her upstairs while Ivy was there. His mind drifted to the things he wanted to do to her once he got her upstairs.
“Yes, it would be rude,” Ivy told him. “Please don’t ever project those images while I’m in the room again.” She pointed a finger at Justin. “Same goes for you.”
Justin looked shocked and intrigued. “You can read minds?”
“No,” Ivy replied. “You all project your thoughts, and I can read those. You might want to stop. I do not need to know I’m the only person in this room who isn’t having great sex.”
Justin and Aiden grinned at each other before looking at Ivy.
“Ew!” she shrieked. Her eyes darted from one to the other. “Why would you put those kinds of images into my mind? Seriously, Aiden, that’s my sister. And you,” she accused pointing a finger at Justin, “I’m not even sure that’s physically possible.”
Both of them started laughing and reached back when they felt hands smack the backs of their heads.
“What was that for?” Aiden asked.
“Don’t pick on my sister,” Tempest warned. “I can’t believe how juvenile you two act together.”
“On that note, I’m leaving,” Ivy told them. She looked at Caitlin. “Sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk, but I get the impression we’ll see each other more in the future. I’m Ivy by the way.”
“Caitlin,” she introduced herself with a curt nod.
“I thought you wanted to stay and meet everyone,” Tempest added.
Ivy hesitated. “We have a new resident. I can’t really be away too long.”
Tempest looked concerned, and Aiden began to worry she was going to feel obligated to return with Ivy.
Ivy must have sensed Tempest’s concern for the woman. “There’s nothing you can do for her. She doesn’t need medical care, just emotional support. We both know that’s my area.”
“Promise you’ll call me if you need me,” Tempest told her.
Ivy hugged her. “I promise. Now, have fun and don’t be mean to Aiden.”