Fourteen
Fraze kept his attention on Marlana’s face throughout the entire pride meeting, but if anyone quizzed him on what she was saying, he wouldn’t be able to answer.
Gracie was the only thing on his mind. When he’d see her again, what they would do together. How he could show her, with words or actions, just how much he cared, how hard he was falling for her.
Eventually, Marlana dismissed everyone. Fraze avoided his brother and slouched his way to the other end of the room. Ben and Doug Channing were off in the corner. Seeing the two of them talking quietly got Fraze’s fur up—nothing good could come of their scheming.
He glanced down at Gracie’s response to his texts. The valley being lit up by the morning sun. His little vampire…she was a romantic. She seemed so stoic, otherwise. Well, aside from this, and the time she’d cried on Burglar’s Bluff.
Fraze felt someone’s gaze on him and quickly closed the text app. Glancing up, he saw Dristan glaring. Fraze shrugged and flipped him off, then turned away. If he hadn’t looked away, he wouldn’t have seen Viviana slip quietly upstairs.
And then he saw Ben’s gaze on Viviana’s ass as she went. Something about the way Ben was nudging Doug and whispering bothered Fraze. Those two were up to something, and if they were planning to hurt Viviana, Fraze would make them bleed.
Edging closer to the sofa where Ben and Doug sprawled, Fraze pretended not to listen as they talked.
“We could find the place on our own,” Ben said.
“Fire in the hole,” Doug answered, snickering. “This time no survivors.”
They leaned their heads together and said something unintelligible, but Fraze didn’t need to know the details—he could tell what they were talking about…and it wasn’t Viviana.
“What about the treaty?” Fraze asked.
“Fuck the treaty,” Ben said. “They obviously have. And stop listening in on private conversations, asshole.”
“Stop trying to have private conversations in a room full of shifters, asshole,” Fraze retorted. But he said it lazily. Arguing with the Channing boys was an art—and he’d been doing it since he was twelve years old and newly orphaned. They’d tried to give him shit for years after Fraze’s parents had tried to take over the pride, but Fraze had just spooned it right back to them.
He walked away, acting bored, but inside, his mind was churning. They wanted to take down the court? But Gracie was in there. This was some kind of fucked up Romeo and Juliet situation. The Montagues and the fucking Capulets. Those scenarios never ended well.
Fraze searched out Marlana. She was in the kitchen with Mateo and Rafe’s parents, and it seemed they’d go on talking for an eternity, but finally Julian and Gloria walked away, and Marlana stood alone at the edge of the counter. “What do you want, Frasier?” she asked.
She called him Frasier, too, just like Dristan. Just like their pretentious mother had done.
“I heard Ben and Doug Channing talking,” he said.
Marlana turned her icy blue eyes to him. “They do that sometimes.”
“Yeah,” Fraze said. “I mean, yes. Thing is, they’re talking about taking down the vampire court.”
Marlana shrugged. “We don’t have a treaty anymore. They can search for that lair all they want. They might even find it. In the meantime, I’m formulating strategies.”
“You’re okay with them going behind your back?”
She turned to face him with her whole body. “There’s nothing happening here that’s behind my back. You think I don’t have a pulse on what’s going on in this pride? I know more than you think.”
The way she stared at him gave Fraze the chills. Did she know…about Gracie? She couldn’t. He forced himself to meet her gaze for a second longer, but then he looked down to show respect. Had his gaze looked dishonest? He needed to get away from her sooner rather than later.
“You want to tell me why you’re so interested in the goings on of the vampire court and our relationship with them, all of a sudden?” Marlana asked.
“No, ma’am,” Fraze said.
“I expected as much,” she said. “You come to me when you’re ready to talk. In the meantime, you’re dismissed.”
Fraze held his breath as he turned and walked away. Instead of going out the front door, though, he stepped up the wide staircase leading to the family portion of the mansion. Viviana’s door was closed, so he knocked.
“Come in,” she said.
He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Viviana was stretched out on the floor, doing some bizarre pose that looked like it should break her neck and back in three different places. “What the hell is that?” he asked.
“Wheel pose. Two more breaths, so hang on a second.”
She inhaled and exhaled, and then eased down so her back was flat on the floor.
“I didn’t know you did…whatever this is.”
“Yoga. Yeah. It’s good for when I can’t get out and run as much as I want to.”
“Like lately?” Fraze asked.
“Exactly. Marlana wants me to stay close, stay safe. She’s even got some of our Guardians watching me at night. Fraze, I’m feeling kind of crazy. Like I want out. I feel like, I don’t know, some kind of prisoner here sometimes.”
He sat on the floor next to her. He couldn’t exactly identify—he’d always been given maybe more leeway than others. Always watched with suspicion, but nobody was around to care if he stayed out too late or got drunk or didn’t even come home until late in the morning.
Viviana had the opposite problem—she was watched too closely.
She said, “You wanna watch a movie?”
Fraze wanted to say no. He wanted to go to Hart’s, maybe see if Gracie happened to be there…even though they’d planned not to meet so often. But Viviana’s expression looked so lonely, almost like she was expecting him to turn down the invitation.
He made himself comfortable on the floor in front of her bed, but he pulled his phone out of his pocket and rested it on his knee in case Gracie called or texted. “Sure.”
She raised her eyebrows, but nodded. “Great. Any preferences?”
“I haven’t seen the latest Bond, have you?” He pushed a button on his phone to check the time. Gracie would probably be out hunting right now. The thought of her taking blood from some random human guy made Fraze want to punch something.
“Haven’t seen it yet. Let’s watch it.” Viviana grabbed her laptop and leaned up against her bed next to Fraze. She pulled the movie up on her computer. As the opening song came on, she said, “I have a confession, Fraze.”
He stopped fiddling with his phone and looked at her. “Yeah?”
“Ben broke up with me, not the other way around.”
Fraze put his phone on the floor. “I thought you dumped him.”
“I let you believe that,” she said, wincing. “I’m sorry.
She looked like she might cry. Fraze scooted closer to her. “It’s okay, V.”
“No, it’s not. I just feel like a total failure. I couldn’t even keep a relationship going with Ben Fucking Channing. It’s worse that he was the one to dump me.”
“It was your first relationship, right?” Fraze said.
She nodded and wiped a stray tear off her cheek. “Yeah.”
“Don’t worry about a thing—I certainly don’t care who dumped who. The most important thing is that you’re hurting, and I’m here so we can hang out together and you can feel better, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.” She returned her focus to her computer screen, so Fraze did, too.
A few minutes later, Fraze’s phone buzzed. He nearly dropped it in his rush to check the message—it was from Gracie.
Fraze, be on your guard.
He stared at the words. What did it mean? Was he in some kind of special danger?
“Everything okay?” Viviana asked.
If she were any of his other friends, she would have tried to read over his shoulder, but instead she kept her eyes on the movie. Respectful, cautious.
“I don’t know,” he said, turning off the lock screen. He’d ask Gracie about it later, and in the meantime, he’d be on his guard. He was too smart to ignore a warning from a vampire.