I stopped her before we got all the way out of the woods, pulling her against me. I loved the way the fading daylight made her hair look. There were at least ten different shades of red and orange in the last rays of sunlight. It made her hair look like it really was on fire. Fier eyes were normal, which was becoming a rarity, but I found myself loving it just as much as when they changed. Those were the eyes that I fell in love with. Those were the eyes that first looked at my soul and loved every piece of me.
I smiled at her, turning away from her. “Get on. We both know you don’t walk back to the house,” I said. I heard her giggle as she jumped on my back. She wrapped her arms around my neck and shoulders as bounced her higher and walked us back to the house. I could feel her happiness the entire way.
The guys were all in the back room when we got back. She ditched her coat and went to the kitchen to start dinner. We all happily followed her. Viktor still felt somewhat guilty about taking the weekend off, even though it was my idea, so he made sure there were plenty of gitceries at the house when we arrived.
She started pulling things out of the refrigerator as the guys all moved to the chairs around the kitchen island. I caught her glancing at all of them.
I/2
She had come up with a new signal for Andrei, since I caught their last one. wasn’t going to tell her I’d caught this one as well. She found the answer to her silent question, a small smile on her face. She stopped what she was doing, looking at all of them. “You’re all wondering hy Viktor irritates you now, aren’t you?”
There was an audible exhale from all of them. “YES,” they all groaned.
“We’ve been trying to figure it out. We also think Ivan knows something he’s not telling us,” Misha said. He was clearly frustrated with not being able to solve the puzzle.
Sephie giggled. “Ivan does know something. He found out last night, but he’s being nice to me and letting me tell you,” she said, winking at Ivan.
“Why didn’t we find out last night?” Misha asked. He was somewhat indignant about the matter, which made it even funnier.
“Because I didn’t want Viktor to be around when I told you. It’s easier to ask one of you to stay behind than it is for me to ask Viktor to go away so we can obviously talk about him,” she said. “That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?” Stephen asked.
I nodded. “Well, not the only reason. I needed a break. She needed a way to tell you guys what happened without Viktor around. She’s worried about singling him out. She doesn’t want him to feel left out of anything,” I said.
“What happened, spider monkey? What do you know?” Andrei asked..
“Kostya came to me. Same way my dad and his mom come to me. Just slightly creepier because I wasn’t expecting a kid,” she said as they all laughed at her still obvious discomfort. She explained why they al felt different around Viktor now.
“But we don’t control our demons the same way you three do,” Andrei said.
“Not yet, you don’t. But you made the choice to learn how to. By doing so, I think your connection is already stronger. Your connections to me are stronger, as well as Adrik now. If it’s not already, it will be to Ivan soon, too. The connections between the three of us are stronger because of our demons. It should be that way with you three soon. As such, we’ll never have the same kind of connection with Viktor,” she said. “But that’s okay, too. He has good reason to be afraid of our demons. It’s just going to take his soul little longer to get to the point that we’re at. He’s still very much all in with what’s going on. He’s not going anywhere.” She looked at Stephen, her wide smile stretching across her face, as she added, “and Yoden gets to help him deal with his trauma so that he’s more comfortable around us.”
Sephie
“What? How?” Stephen asked when I told him
I laughed. han said, “I asked the same get to help Viktor with hi
“Are we going to get the guy that tortured him?”
“No. Adrik told you that you were going to level up. He wasn’t lying.” I said. arm across his shoulders. “You spent so much of your life trying to figure out other people do it. You can break a person, but you can also help people miled at his olivious confusion. I walked to Stephen’s side, sliding my
Transmute your pain that now you’re going to be able to help things that are slowly killing them.”
Stephen was quiet for a few moments. He looked at Adrik and very seriouslyd, “this was not the level up I was expecting, but I’ll take it. Demon crushing is still on the table. Just putting that out there.” “That’s the reason you’ve been so happy after breaking Armando, Stephen. Well thought it was because you got high off Boss’s supply, if you will. But you’ve been happy because you know you helped Sephie feel better,” Ivanaid.
“Ivan’s right. He also said last night that this whole time we’ve all thought you were a serial killer, but it turns out you’re a saint. Honestly, I could not agree more,” Adrik said.
I had tears in my eyes. I wasn’t expecting them to tell him what they said, but was happy they did. I could see the emotions flash across his face as he took in everything they’d just said. He looked up at me, still somewhat beddered. “It’s true?” he asked quietly.
“It’s true. You took all the bad and turned it into something good. You should be able to do it on a smaller scale soon, too. You have arguably the most ba da ss gift out of all of us and somehow you keep making it better. I don’t know if the world can handle demon crushing,” I said.
I watched as his smile stretched across his face, making his entire demeanor bghter. We could all see how much stronger his light was. His entire childhood, he’d had to endure his sisters telling him he was anything but good and having to endure their horrific torture regularly. Now, we were telling him that not only was he ultimately saving souls, but also helping others deal with their trauma in ways that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise. He stood up, pulling me into his vampiric vice-grip of a hug.
As his grip on me loosened, he turned toward Misha. “Guess we’re going to have that conversation about what to do with your hatred toward Giana after all,” he said.
I laughed. Adrik looked at Misha, smiling. “I still can’t believe you got so angry with her. I didn’t know you had it in you,” he said.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.