“Give us a second,” Emit says, causing my attention to snap back to him, as Vance and Damien walk just outside the door.

I’m sure they’re listening to every word, and Vance is preparing to step in, so I’m not sure what the point in them leaving is.

“I mean it, Arion. My wolves. Stay. Away,” Emit tells me very seriously.

“I mean it when I say you need to worry about your betas. It’s funny how you paid so much more attention to mine.”

He cracks his knuckles like a true barbarian.

“Still won’t cut your hair?” I ask him on tired breath.

“Still won’t shut your mouth?” he fires back.

“I guess some things never change. Too bad so many others do.”

“I’m not walking down whatever road of manipulative mind-fuckery you have planned, Arion. I just want this clear before I walk away and meet with my betas tomorrow.”

I lean forward, giving him the seriousness he craves. “If your wolves attack me on my land ever again, this promise will be null-and-void. I’ve more than paid for a crime that makes all of you hypocrites.”

He exhales harshly.

“I leave here with the knowledge my wolves are safe so long as they don’t attack you first,” he says as though he’s clarifying.

“You leave with my word,” I agree.

“Don’t break it, or it’ll mean nothing to me in the future,” he warns. “I see one vampire paying too much attention to one wolf gathering, and I will stop you this time. No matter the cost.”

“No matter the cost,” I echo, steepling my hands before me. “I remember that being the reason we’re having this discussion today.”

He stands, glaring at me.

“We’re done,” he calls to the door.

Neither Vance nor Damien come in.

Emit gives me a confused look that I share, and I stand as he opens the door.

“They’re…not here,” he says as he steps out, sniffing the air. “Or even in the house. I’d be forced to endure Vance’s cologne over the worse vampire scents if they were.”

I hesitate for a second before a grin curves the edges of my lips. “They’ve gone to see if Violet has a beau in her bed.”

He groans, running a hand through that unkempt hair of his.

“You’ve got to let that go. She’s a Portocale gypsy Vance already crossed a line with—”

“Vancetto Van Helsing just left you and I alone in a room a few short days after my rising, even though the full moon is so close, because that Portocale gypsy might have a boy in her bed. Damien Morpheous is walking around with a heartbeat that steadily grows daily, and knowingly came to a party his brother had already crashed because of that Portocale gypsy,” I tell him, seeing him roll his eyes, even as he hates me for being right, I’m sure.

“You’re about to be both metaphorically and figuratively left behind, werewolf,” I tell him before slipping out of the house so quickly not a soul notices me pass by.

If they ever want to put me underground again, good luck catching me.

Just as I make it to Violet’s house, I see Damien and Vance stepping out of their vehicles. I grin when they glare over at me.

“I’ve never much liked being left out,” I say with a shrug, before I quickly scale the side of the house.

My grin is gone when I look in and see Violet yawning as some ghost passes his hand through her middle, leaning over her entirely too close.

“Just a ghost,” Damien says quietly from the window across from me like he’s relieved.

Vance turns and starts to leave, but I drop to the ground. “This girl can’t be trusted around ghosts. She’s proven that with the whole Anna situation,” I tack on, just because I really don’t want them on the trail of my juicy secret.

However, there is real panic going on inside me right now. She has a thing for the dead. It’s the living she struggles with.

“She can’t have sex with a ghost,” Damien says dismissively, walking by me.

“No, but she can easily fall for one. She’s young, gullible, and you two dally more than any men,” I tell them.

“I can’t believe you’re trying to have this discussion right now, and I can’t believe I’m looking through her window after I told her I’d stop,” Vance says, stalking off.

“He’s not really dallying, since he cheated his way into bed with her,” Damien retorts, a snort of derision punctuating the remark.

Vance turns and stabs a finger in the air. “And like you pointed out, I crossed a big fucking line. Being around her is much too tempting.”

He looks as surprised as we do that he just confessed that to the two of us.

“Being around her is the only way to actually get her to care enough about breaking the Portocale curse we have,” I say, stating the obvious.

“Her tree isn’t even in the right family of Portocale gypsies, but she can thread, so maybe her tree is wrong,” Damien says, tapping his chin.

“It is wrong,” comes Emit’s winded response as he walks toward us, completely naked. “Marta wasn’t even in the right line of Portocale gypsies, but you could smell the Portocale blood in her veins. It can’t be faked. Not to us. So the tree is wrong.”

The light flicks on, and I dart away. Vance rolls into the shadows. Damien vanishes into an illusion.

Emit turns to run, but a soft, feminine voice calls down, “Emit?”

He tenses, and I swear I hear Damien muffle some sort of choked sound when Emit nervously clears his throat, shuffling from foot to foot for a moment.

“Why are you naked in my yard?” Violet hisses, almost as though she’s just realized that.

“I was running,” he says without missing a beat.

“Naked?”

He shrugs as he turns to face her. “Wolf.”

She nods as though she understands that context completely, even though she sleepily rubs her eyes. “I heard voices, so I guess that means Damien is here as well.”

Damien is smiling up at her from just under the window when he turns visible.

“We’re not alone,” the bugger blabs.

She darts a wary look around, hesitating on Emit and blinking, and then looks around again.

Vance doesn’t come out of hiding, and neither do I.

I do smile when she rolls her eyes and looks back down at Damien. “Come up. I need to talk to you, since I’m apparently not getting any sleep.”

“All of us?” Emit asks, and Violet holds up her hands, nervously shaking her head.

“Just Damien.”

With that, she shuts the window and closes the curtains.

I stand slowly, as Damien grins like he’s winning at life, shooting a look at Vance that has the Van Helsing scowling.

“Guess you should have called her while you had your chance,” Damien quips to Vance as he walks by.

Vance just releases a frustrated breath. “You’re nothing but a fucking hypocrite if you do anything,” Vance calls.

“We’re all a bunch of fucking hypocrites,” Damien carelessly replies.

“Get rid of the male ghost,” I call to his back. “She’s a vulnerable little thing who’s too easily swayed.”

He doesn’t take me seriously as he walks inside.

“All this over a fucking ghost?” Emit asks on an agitated breath.

“Damn girl sees Emit naked in her yard and barely even bats an eye, has us all losing our minds over a damn male ghost, and the pervert watching her sleep gets invited into her room, while I hide on the bloody ground,” Vance mutters, slamming his door when he gets inside his car.

I just sit back, watching it all unfold, as if I’d put the pieces into play myself.

Emit’s eyes catch mine a few seconds before he shifts, and fur bursts forth before he even hits the ground. I roll my eyes behind closed lids when he throws snow in my face during his launch like it isn’t intentional.

My eyes flick to the window, and I simply watch Damien’s shadow pass by. I genuinely thought he’d be the hardest to lure. Not Emit.

I also thought Damien would be the hardest to sell, since I expected him to constantly let her forget him.

I turn and start walking through the snow that has stopped dropping in heaps in the past few hours.

Personally, I wouldn’t care if I had to move through sludge, so long as I can move. Violet is going to ensure they never put me underground again, so long as eternity forces me to remain a part of this world.

Chapter 18

VIOLET

Dad finishes packing up all his tools, and I smile tightly, feeling the greedy urge to ask him to stick around another four hours until midnight.

Since midnight is my birthday and all.

Idly, I notice Ian, one of Emit’s betas—as Damien has informed me—when he glances my way dismissively and walks into the rivaling gypsy store that just set up last week.

Jerks.

They charge a lot less than I do too, and have their doors already open to the public one week sooner than I do. Worst of all…they’re posers making more money off their fake stuff than I’m currently making on the real deal.

“Just when you settle into a rhythm and get the store almost open, a chain store comes into town,” Dad says on a sympathetic sigh.

“Well, thanks for helping me get all the product on the shelves. I may not ever have to restock it,” I tell him, smiling as I shrug a shoulder.

I don’t mention the big clients I doubt I’ll lose, since their orders have gotten slightly larger with the return of Arion, whom I’ve not seen since the vampire party I think he sort of kicked me out of.

Or maybe I’ve spent too much time overthinking everything, including them randomly showing up at my house, and then all disappearing again, aside from Damien, who pops in and possibly watches me for hours before I even realize he’s here.

I’m hyper aware of my surroundings when I need privacy.

“Happy birthday, kid,” Dad says a little awkwardly, dipping his head toward me in a cordial sort of way.

I nod back, like it’s the sort of farewell one gives the father they might not see for another eight or so months.

“I’ll call you next Tuesday to check in,” I say as he gets in.

He tosses me a thumbs-up and drives off.

The omegas flew to Vegas yesterday because Lemon thinks she has a lucky streak in her. Vance is decidedly avoiding me. Damien is missing the one time I’d really like for absolutely anyone to be here.

Instead of feeling pathetic all alone in my house, I grab my keys, wrap up in the warmest jacket I can find, and pretend I know more people.

After just wandering around the town for a few hours, watching everything close up as my fingers turn numb, I finally go to the small diner at the edge of town and sit down.

A drunken crowd is toasting, swearing they saw a ghost in the cemetery, and I glance around, wondering if any ghosts are around to hear them. I’d make eye contact, but apparently I’m nuclear to ghosts and killed my one true friend who’d be here with me right now.