Gypsy Freak (All The Pretty Monsters #2)(57)

With that, she turns and struts off.

Emit and I exchange a look, and his lips tense.

“Think she’s already learned of Fay?”

“Damien wouldn’t—”

“Oh,” Shera calls out, an evil smile on her lips as we turn our attention to her. “It’s apparently about Damien, and she sounded really scared, according to my source.”

A worried feeling creeps up inside me.

Emit turns, shifting before he even finishes dropping to the ground, and he sprints off. I glance over at the bodies, and yell for two of my men to come out of hiding.

“Get them to my place and keep this quiet.”

They give a nod and go to work, while I hurry to my car, hoping Damien hasn’t crossed a line to finally get me to kill him.

I’ll do far worse if this is him goading me with this dark path.

I quickly drive toward his house, speeding around every vehicle that gets in my way as the snow drops in heavy knots. Every nightmarish scenario enters my mind and has my steering wheel whining from the grip.

I barely even get the car stopped before I’m racing up the steps.

I catch sight of Emit sprinting in from the other side, leaping up to the same landing of stairs I’m on. Only at Damien’s party can a naked man Emit’s size not even draw a curious eye.

“If he’s done what I think he’s—”

“He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t drop to that level,” I say tightly as I hurry down the hallway.

Arion appears as if from thin air, as a belated chill runs down my spine with the wind he’s stirred. He is far too fucking fast.

He grins as he knocks on Damien’s door.

“Surely you didn’t think my beta would only tell you such things,” he says with a smirk.

Emit kicks down the door, and Arion’s brow furrows in confusion, as I swing out my blades and—

Violet is rocking on the bed with Damien’s head in her lap, running her fingers through his bleach blond hair, as she looks over at us.

“I don’t know what happened, but he’s been like this for over an hour now,” she says on a strained note.

Her hair is wet with a few dry spots, like she hurried through a shower and her hair getting wet was just a hazard and not an intention. She’s wrapped in one of Damien’s robes, and the scent of sex is strong in the air.

Arion sniffs, frowns, and sniffs again.

Emit’s nose wrinkles when he sniffs a few times.

“It’s been a while, but is that—”

“He finished with you?” I ask Violet, an edge to my tone as she strokes his cheek with affection he doesn’t deserve.

“I didn’t feel pain. He said I would,” she says as she swallows thickly, confusing me. “Then things got out of hand when there wasn’t any pain, and I think it somehow did something to him instead of me.”

“I don’t think that’s what it did to him,” Emit states flatly, even as his lips twitch.

“How are you alive?” I ask her, but she’s too distracted, brushing another piece of hair from his face.

“There’s usually always a way around the smaller curses, and it has been an inconceivable amount of time,” Arion states mildly, not even bothered by this as he moves to the bed, staring down at Damien. “The bastard is grinning like he got the bloody cake he always wanted,” he adds, sounding entirely too amused.

Emit snorts and turns, neither of them seeing the severity in this.

“He could have killed her,” I point out.

“If she’d felt that pain, she would have told him to stop. Hell, he’s had a flawless system for too many centuries to count,” Emit says, batting his hand dismissively. “But it has been a while since he gave it a shot. Maybe the curse finally waned, since it was a personal vendetta curse to begin with.”

Violet nods like she agrees with all this, as she gestures at him. “Is he okay?”

“He’s fine, love,” Arion says as he reaches over and gently strokes her cheek with more affection than I’ve seen him offer anyone in too long to remember.

I take a step back, feeling sucked in by the moment.

Emit pokes at Damien’s cheek, and Damien barely even makes a grunt.

“He just popped a cork that’s been compacting for a long, long time, love. He’s going to have to sleep it off for a while,” Arion tells her. “Emit’s already naked if you’re expecting an encore for your birthday breakfast,” he adds.

Emit darts a look at her, and Violet doesn’t even glance at him, as she makes a frustrated sound low in her throat.

“Can someone stay with him? He looked really mad before that grin just sort of appeared and stayed frozen to his face,” she says as she carefully maneuvers his head out of her lap. “I’m worried I hurt him somehow, and I don’t think I should be here when he wakes up.”

I shoulder by Arion, blocking him from touching her again, as I put my hand on the small of her back and start guiding her out.

Arion turns to hide a smirk, like this is what he planned all along, and it puts me on edge, feeling like I did what he wanted. I forgot how exhausting it is to try and figure out his angle in every given situation.

“I’ll stick around to ensure he’s not fighting mad,” Arion says, mocking her a little, even though she misses it and nods like he’s serious.