Страница 56 из 90
Brantley
I’m known to be unreasonable when it comes to Saint. I’m aware of that. But every single fucking night that she goes to sleep, I can’t rest. It has been three fucking weeks and we still have no lead on whoever the fuck it is that’s playing mind games with her, and on top of that, both leads we had on Veronica have run cold. The Coven is completely cleaned out, except for the furniture, and I’ve sent Be
I lean down and touch the unmarked headstone, swiping the green vines that wrap around the edges. “If only dead men speak. I could do with a hint of what the fuck Veronica Vitiosis ever wanted with Saint.” Lucan was a piece of shit. He more than hurt people; he destroyed them, and I was just another product of his carnage. But if there’s one thing I found odd about him is that he never, ever ratted out Saint. He never spoke of her to anyone. At first, I assumed he did that for Hector. Lucan Vitiosis was absolute with his undying loyalty to The Kings. I was happy with that. Fucking glad. He may have been a perverted pedophile who preyed on young people and got off on watching his son deflower virgins, but he had one redeeming factor: his loyalty to The Kings and his willingness to destroy anything to protect the Vitiosis name.
I realize how fucking stupid that sounds. If Lucan didn’t give a fuck about anyone and anything but himself, it would be easier for me to hate him—and I hate him—I hate him with every single fucking ounce of what makes me, me. I don’t need more reasons to hate the man, which is why I have no issue admitting that. Veronica is different. Did she and Lucan plan this all-a-fucking-long? Did Lucan always know she was alive? No. Can’t be. The mind of a Vitiosis is an endless pit of confusion. They’re the snake in the grass you don’t want to step on. Every single movement they make is calculated and thoroughly thought-out. I’m just like them. To my very core, a fucking Vitiosis, but I’m working hard to use it in a different way. Not how they always did.
My loyalty to The Kings is unmatched, but my loyalty to Saint is lethal. I’d walk through flames for her before I ever allow her to so much as feel the heat of pain.
When I met her, I was fascinated, but when I came to know her, she was my obsession. I treated her as my possession because if I looked at her as a girl, I knew I’d fuck her. I could never trust myself with her. Not even in my thoughts. So I blocked it all out. I blocked her out. I became void, which was easy. I was a Vitiosis, after all. I became the snake in the grass that curled around her feet, waiting for someone to come too close before I’d bite.
“Didn’t think I’d find you out here.” Just the sound of her voice is enough to disarm me. I don’t like her being so close to Lucan, even if he’s dead.
I turn to face her, leaning against his headstone. Her eyes float down, her head tilting. “Whose grave is that?”
I squeeze the stone, decaying rocks crumbling to the ground. “No one.”
Her brows pull in. When I gather she’s not going to stop staring at the headstone, I feel my muscles tense, and the longer time passes, the more my blood boils. I push off the stone and grab her by the hand, pulling her into my chest.
She peers up at me from below. “I’m sorry I can’t help. I want this over as much as anyone.”
I run my tongue over my lip and move her hair away from her shoulder. “And I’m sorry I can’t kill him. But I will.” My jaw clenches, my fingers tightening around her small chin. I force her eyes to mine. “I fucking promise you I will kill him.”
She smiles sweetly up at me. So fucking sweet. Too sweet. I can’t believe I ever deprived myself of her. I know why I’ve been void for so long—because I needed her to fill the parts that were stolen from me as a kid. “You don’t need to do that. But just so you know, Ophelia hasn’t left the bedroom in days, and I’m begi
“Leave her be, Dea. That will be how she—” I wave my hand, “witches, or whatever.” The afternoon dips behind a large black cloud in the sky as thunder rumbles deep through the forest.
Saint looks around the cemetery. “It’s weird when I think about it,” she says, shaking her head while stepping away from me. “How often I dream about this place. How many times you’ve found me here.”
She runs her hand over the headstone, her long white hair pulled to the side. Over the past few weeks, her body has filled into her clothes. I don’t know if that’s just her changing as she gets older, or if it’s from her obvious peak of appetite.
I’m fucking here for it.
The curve of her ass and the dip in her thighs when she bends over to pick a dead flower from the ground has my cock swelling in my jeans. She turns, looking up at me with the faded orange petals pushed to her cheek. “Maybe I like dead things?”
“You like me, so it makes sense.”
Her eyes are on mine. “I love you, Brantley. Not like.” She turns her back on me, dropping the dead flower to the front of Lucan’s stone. She doesn’t know it’s Lucan, because it’s unmarked, but it still fucking pisses me off that she’s petting it. Enough to ignore the fact she’s suddenly mad about something.
She turns back to face me, resting her hand on my chest as she goes to pass. She pauses. “I’m aware that you will never say those words back to me. I don’t care about that.” When I refuse to take my eyes off that fucking dead flower she placed on Lucan’s headstone, her hand comes to my cheek and she forces my eyes to hers. She’s getting bossy. “But I want you to know that loving you has been the easiest thing I have ever done. It’s natural to me, Brantley. I think I loved you before I even knew you existed, and that kind of love is strong enough for the both of us.” She’s about to continue back to the main house, but I catch her hand before she can leave.
She looks over her shoulder as I run my thumb over her bare knuckles. My mouth opens. What the fuck are you going to say to that? I run my tongue over my teeth. “Come here.”
She ambles back to me, back into my arms where she belongs. Her eyes fall to the necklace around my neck. The same chain she has, only hers is her coven’s crown. The very fucking emblem I thought would protect her has ended up being the very thing that has put her in danger. Her fingers glide over the new pendant on mine. “What’s this?”