“I’m about to go after Idun while I’m this charged,” Damien abruptly confesses, causing Marta’s breath to stutter. “It’s the strongest a Morpheous will ever temporarily be, and I left two hellacious marks on her that prove I’m supercharged. I have the only alpha bloodline that gets a temporary power boost from such a claiming. It’s possible I can lock her away in her mind, since I easily penetrated your own.”

“He did the same to me,” Emit tells Marta.

Why are they telling her and not Vance and I?

Attacking Idun’s mind? He’s too arrogant. She’ll break him if he goes inside there.

“You’re a fool,” Marta tells him, echoing my thoughts. “Why would you even make me aware of something this stupid?”

“The need to protect Violet has intensified ten-fold. I’d forgotten about that part,” Emit says, eyes on Marta. “I believe he can do it. But first you’re going to answer his questions.”

Emit looks as ready to rip Marta apart as Damien.

I’d of course love to rip Marta apart, but the two of them seem especially adamant.

Marta’s eyes go cold and dead in the next instant.

“The four of you, along with Idun, wanted nothing more than a world where we were living, instead of just barely surviving,” Marta bites out. “Arion, humbly, only longed for a home. The rest of you salivated at a chance for riches and eternal life with a woman, who you believed set the standard, even though you sometimes hated her for how good she was at living life without regret.”

She shoves at Damien’s chest, and he allows it, eyes never leaving her and expression remaining unchanged, as he drops back a casual step to maintain his balance with ease.

“Immortality wasn’t enough. You had to create more monsters, and painted the picture that you were saving these strapping young people from their deathbeds before their time. Offering them a watered-down version of immortality, but still, it was better than death. All because you needed more.”

Her voice rises on that last word, her eyes wide as tears brim her eyelids. “Trapped for all eternity with all of you, watching as you continue to play with a universe that doesn’t appreciate being toyed with.”

She wildly gestures around her.

“Now here we are. All because of you.”

She runs a hand through her hair, shaking her head.

“What’s done is done. I found the true woman of my very unsatisfied dreams, and I’m never letting her go,” Damien assures her.

“It’s rumored Dorian is truly not as immortal as the rest of us. Is there any merit to that?” Marta pries. “Will you be able to kill him for all eternity the next time he goes after Violet? And he will go after her again. He’s promised to hate you for all eternity.”

Damien narrows his eyes. “Dorian won’t be a problem again. He’ll learn his lesson. Onto the more pressing matters of you giving me answers.”

I rather like lurking in the shadows like this. It’s a vampire sort of thing to do.

I take a seat, deciding to learn what I can.

Smiling to myself, I prop at a lean against the wall. This is just getting good.

Chapter 11

VIOLET

“This is so awful! So awful! Like I can’t even look at you the same, Violet Carmine. I had so much more respect for you until this very moment,” Anna gripes, as I angrily stir the potion.

“I told you the first creepy thing they did, they’re gone,” I argue, glaring at the creepy triplets, who are feigning contrition with daring menace in their eyes.

“You’re a monster,” Anna sniffles.

“They tried to take over my body, while I was getting some quality sleep. They’re trying to go after Arion,” I remind her.

“To be fair, he was their first…you know. Whatever it is they did,” Anna says in their defense, her tone almost laughably apologetic. “It’s only logical they’d want another taste, and you’re very stingy with your body. Even I have complaints with that, since we’re doing so much work for you.”

“Really? I’ve gotten a few random quiz questionnaire answers about the guys, and Dorian Gray surprised me with an attack provoked by Idun. What work have you been doing that earns anyone dibs on possessing my body?” I demand, glaring down at the bubbling brew of destruction.

Bye, bye, creepy triplets! I will be haunted by your creepy asses no more.

“I can’t keep letting this world push me around. Otherwise, I’m going to go insane. I just wanted to make shampoo and fall in love. I’ve been mated and flamed very recently, even though I still have no idea what exactly that means. I’m also running a sanctuary I have no idea how to run, and ghosts are trying to possess my body to fuck the vampire of their choice. Nope! Not today, satan. Not today.”

I’m admittedly damn near hysterical.

That pin is trying to unplug from the nearly spring-loaded amount of put-a-pin-in-it details I’ve yet to fully process.

They say I move fast?

My last relationship took a while to escalate to sleepovers. Sex was on the third date, but sleeping over? I’m wound too tight around boys, for Pete’s sake. It’s hard to relax. Now they’re always around, and suddenly they’re marking me as theirs, and it feels incredible. And scary. Incredible and scary.

I dump the last ingredient in and duck, listening to see if I’ve done it all perfectly.

There’s no loud explosion or warnings of worse, so I warily stand back up.

“They barely made you tickle your nose before you had them ejected. You woke up and they were banished from your body immediately,” Anna says, smiling over at me and blinking innocently.

I narrow my eyes on her, as I bottle up some of the liquid.

“That’s not an argument! They’re dark and evil!”

I turn, having only a brief moment of hesitation when I see their genuinely sad little eyes staring at me with such disappointment, as though I’ve somehow devastated them by being this ready to murder them.

The vial flies from my hand and shatters against the wall, and the room immediately plumes with the red fog.

Anna stares from her safe distance in dismay, as…oh no.

As the fog lifts, I see more ghosts coming through the walls, all of them smiling at me as my eyes continue to meet each set upon arrival.

The universe has no mercy on me.

“What have you gone and done now?” Anna asks in a mildly amused tone.

The triplets grin wickedly.

“You manipulative little bitches. I fell for that puppy-dog face and had a brief moment of hesitation. The emotion changed the entire contents of the vial that required that anger!”

“How very explanatory of you,” Anna quips, while I pant for air and stare in horror at all the new faces.

“Now we can gather you more answers. And you can loan us your body from time to time. Without letting it kill us, of course,” the triplets state in unison.

“Go. Away!” I say to all the ghosts, who are staring at me with far too much interest.

No one listens to me. Ever. I don’t know why I bother making demands.

All the ghosts move in closer, and I whimper to myself.

“We have an army now,” the creepy triplets say in their world-domination tone.