by L. L. Ash
“No, Papa. I’m ok. Calix kept the worst off me.”
Calix looked a little crestfallen at my words.
“But Papa, I don’t want to leave. I know Calix is worried about me… It was scary, I get it, but I won’t let them scare me out of my home.”
My brain choked a little on the words that exited my mouth so easily. So truthfully.
“Kóri, daughter, you would be safer here.”
“I don’t give a shit where I’m safer,” I said forcefully. “I’m staying here. But if you want to send Nyx back, she can stay with me, be with me in case something like this happens again. But we have one of them. We’re one step ahead now.”
There was silence on the line for a minute.
“Naí daughter. Alright. I will send Nyx immediately. She has been complaining how she has missed LA anyway.”
“Thank you, Papa,” I told him and Calix gently took the phone back.
“Send Ariston too,” he said into the phone. “He will help protect her and they are friends. Yes Papa, I know. Ask him, and if he agrees, send him with Nyx.”
I tried to get Calix to look at me but he refused to meet my eyes.
“Naí Bampás, I’ll tell you what I know when I know it. Ok.”
With that he hung up and handed the phone back.
Thomas took it and let himself out of the room quickly, closing the door behind him.
Smart man.
“Why the hell are you inviting your brother here?” I demanded, water splashing as I tried to fold my arms in indignance.
“Because you are friends. The more around you who I can trust and who will always do best by you the safer you are. If you hadn’t been with me this evening you’d be dead. I cannot lose another mate, Lily. I cannot lose you. If that means you taking a lover, then fine. I’ve begun to understand that I never earned your loyalty, anyway.”
“So you want me to—”
“No, I don’t want you to sleep with my brother,” he ground out in frustration. “But if that is what is necessary to keep you safe, it is something I will have to sacrifice.”
“You’re being ridiculous, Calix,” I told him, rinsing out my hair one more time. “I don’t want your brother. I was confused and I was angry. I’m not either of those things anymore. I know where I’m supposed to be.”
“Only because I have demanded you accept me.”
“And? Now that I have you change your mind?”
He sighed in frustration.
“Because I don’t deserve you!” he growled.
Seeing him all insecure was almost funny enough to make me laugh after the day we had.
“And? Since when do men deserve the women who love them?”
His shoulders sagged.
“I thought you said it was Stockholm Syndrome?”
“Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. Does it matter?”
“It should.”
“If I’ll be here anyway, does it matter how I fell in love with you, or just that I have?”
He swallowed hard, his adam's apple bobbing.
“Do you love me, Lily? After everything I’ve done to you? After everything I’ve put you through?”
“I know. I’m an idiot, because the answer is yes.”
Calix took my hand and pressed the clasped digits to his lips.
“I didn’t want to love you, Lily… I fought so hard to keep you out of my heart.” He paused and sighed. “You’re impossible to not love. It’s infuriating.”
I giggled, my chest growing warm.
He smiled and gave a breathy laugh.
“I can’t lose another love, Lily. You need to know that. You have to stay alive, at all costs, because I need you. I need you. My—” His voice cracked. “My humanity will not survive another loss like that. I want to love you but you have to stay alive for me.”
“Fine. I guess I’ll stay alive then.”
He gave a weak laugh before touching my cheek.
“That’d be preferable.”
I grinned and met him as he leaned forward for a soft kiss.
“I love you, Lily.”
“It’s about time.” I laughed again and tweaked his nose.
“Way to kill the romance of the moment, Agápi Mou.”
“What the hell are all the names you have for me? Seriously, I don’t know what any of them mean.”
“I only call you three things. My flower, when you’re being cute or weird, my love when I’m feeling the emotion strongly, and my goddess-when things are...intimate.”
“When we’re having sex?”
“Yes.” His head dipped. “I can’t help it. You move like a goddess and all I want to do is worship you when you’re on your back.”
“Now who’s killing the romance?” I winked at him and his smile grew. “Now, strong man. Help me out of this bath. I don’t know if I can get out with these jelly knees of mine.”
He rolled his eyes upward in exasperation before standing, helping me up and out of the tub.
“You should probably be next. You’re just as covered as I was.”
“I will. Once you’re comfortable.”
Grabbing some clothes from the closet, I threw them on and went to lay on the bed before Calix went back into the bathroom. The shower turned on and my brain started working to the pitter patter of the droplets on the tile. The more I thought, the more my happy mood melted. For those minutes it was easy to forget I was in the tub to wash off the blood of the man I killed from my body. It was easy to forget that Petrick wasn’t alive anymore. It was easy to forget that Calix had pulled a man’s heart out with his bare hand. By the time Calix came out of the bathroom in low slung jeans and nothing else, my stomach was sick with the thoughts and flashbacks.
“What’s the matter, Lily?” he asked immediately, dropping his hand from his damp hair and kneeling beside the bed.
The black tendrils marked his forehead in an adorable, boyish way. He was so cute. How could he be so cute and so bloodthirsty at the same time? It was almost as if the violence hadn’t bothered him in the least.
“Did Petrick have a family?”
He shook his head.
“Just me. He was old and his family died long ago. He never had a significant other that I knew about.”
Nodding, I wiped at the moisture in my eyes.
“I can’t stop thinking… I can’t stop seeing it over and over again. I can’t believe I just took a sword and...”
Calix pressed a hand to my arm while I laid on my side facing him.
“What you did was save our lives. He was the one who broke into our home, he was the one who threatened us. You owe him nothing. I’m proud of you for what you did. It isn’t easy but it was necessary.”
I nodded.
“What are you going to do to the other one, the one that I stabbed?”
His face turned severe.
“What is necessary.”
He stroked my hair once before getting off his knees beside me.
“I have to go attend things. Would you like someone to sit in here with you while you try to sleep?”
“No. Just...hurry back,” I told him in a weak voice.
I hated it. I hated anything of mine that was weak.
“Of course. I’ll do what I can. Call if you need anything. There are four men out there ready to help if you need it.”
I nodded.
Calix planted a kiss onto my head before padding toward the door.
“You plan on putting a shirt on?” I asked and he grinned at me.
“Flesh and bone, remember?” he said, hand on the doorknob.
“Right, right.” I nodded and smiled back at him.
When the door closed, I shut my eyes and tried to sleep.
The sound of the door opening had me practically jumping out of bed.
“It’s just me, Agápi,” came Calix’s voice through the dark room.
He strode through the room right to the bathroom. I followed.
“How did it go?�
� I asked before noticing the blood staining his hands and halfway up his forearm.
“I haven’t gotten anything out of him. The man is solid. I left him in...a friend’s care. My friend, not his. If anyone can get something out of him, Avery can.”
Torture. He was talking about torturing the man.
“But everything is handled. There’s guards everywhere in case they decide to do a second attack. I just want to know if this was organized or if this was a psychopath being a psychopath.”
I nodded, hypnotized by the swirl of pink water going down the drain.
“But I didn’t want to be away from you. Avery will let me know if the bastard says anything.”
Finishing his hands, he wiped them on a pristine white towel before taking my hand and leading me back to bed.
“How long has it been?” I asked, yawning.
“About four hours. Bampás called and told me Nyx was leaving to the airport a couple hours ago. She’ll be here in the evening.
“Good. I’ll feel better having someone with me when you can’t be. Someone I know and trust.”
“As will I. But until then I will not leave your side again. So sleep. I’ll be here when you wake.”
The thought was a nice one.
“Ok,” I agreed, settling back onto my pillow.
Calix stripped off his pants and crawled into bed in just his boxer briefs, nestling closer to me. He cradled me in the thick comforter to ward off the chill that always invaded the air before wrapping himself around me.
“Are you ok? Am I too warm?” I asked him.
“Stop worrying about me. I’m fine. I want to hold you.”
The amusement in his voice eased me and I closed my eyes. It felt good to be held. I could get used to this.
Chapter Thirteen
“Prince!” a voice shouted outside the door as pounding started.
“Come!” Calix called back, sitting up quickly.
Thomas burst through the door.
“He said it was planned. All of it. They’re doing it all over. Your father, brothers. Everyone.”
A chill ran through my body.
“Fuck...” Calix breathed, scrambling over the bed to the nightstand. He grabbed his phone, pushed a couple buttons before holding it up to his ear.
Silence as seconds passed by, the ringing of his phone the only sound permeating the room.
It went to voicemail and he started chanting ‘fuck’ over and over. Another couple minutes before he reached another voicemail.
“No one’s answering,” he murmured, clicking on another number on his phone.
Ringing again and a voice came through.
“Bion! Thank God… Are you ok? Are you guys ok?”
He paused, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose as his head dipped, chin touching his chest.
“No, no one is answering. They attacked a few hours ago. See who you can call. We caught one of them and he told us that this was a coordinated attack. They are planning on attacking every safehouse tonight. Double, triple your guards until we figure this out. Make sure Alexandra gets home safely.”
After another pause, he agreed to check back in an hour before he was dialing again,
“Bion and his wife are safe. They managed to fend the attack off. Alexandra is out so he’s looking for her—”
He paused as the phone started ringing next to his face.
He looked at the number calling and took it, hanging up his last call.
Speaking in what I assumed was Greek, he exchanged words quickly before his voice cracked. His eyes shut fiercely and his hand flew to his mouth. He shook his head over and over again as he listened.
Thomas, who could likely hear the conversation going on in the earpiece, shook his head too, his arms moving to cross against his chest as his chin dipped down.
“What is it?” I asked Thomas who met my eyes, his watery and sad.
“They are dead,” Calix said with gravel in his voice.
His emotions were so thick, an accent slipped through that I hadn’t ever heard before.
“What?” I squeaked, unable to believe my ears.
“Shortly after Nyx left and Bampás called, they attacked. They had a team of werewolves and daywalkers break in and they lit the place up. Burned everyone alive. They’ve only confirmed a couple of bodies so far.”
“Oh Calix...” I choked, reaching for him.
He moved away from my touch, abruptly standing up.
“The fucking Dorians planned to wipe out my entire family!” he suddenly roared. “My entire fucking family! They will all die for this!”
His blue eyes burned cold, reflecting death there. It scared the hell out of me.
“Prince… perhaps—” Thomas started but Calix whirled on him. “Get out!”
Thomas bowed and left, closing the door. I did catch, however, the look of regret on his face when our eyes met. When Calix and I were alone, I looked up at him, wondering what I should do, or if I should do anything. Was I even safe with him? Had he finally cracked?
He stood still, facing away from me until he growled again, grabbing a crystal vase with flowers in it that a servant girl had brought into the room earlier in the morning. In one fluid motion the vase flew, landing with a loud crash against the stone wall.
He was still again, then he was out the door without a look back at me.
I just stood there, wondering what the hell was happening. First Petrick, now Papa? It was like everyone was dropping like flies. I couldn’t even imagine what Calix was feeling.
The way he had jerked away from my touch had hurt me. I wanted to be there, to comfort him. I wanted to help him however I could. I was his mate and I loved him. He loved me. But he didn’t want me yet.
Instead of worrying about what the hell was going on and where he went, I stayed put and turned the TV on. The droning of late night infomercials filled the empty void in my mind and eventually, I fell back asleep.
“I’m sorry Mistress,” A soft voice roused me from sleep. “But Master asked me to clean up the room and bathroom. Don’t mind me.”
An older woman slowly came into the room with cleaning supplies. She wasn’t the normal woman who cleaned and I wondered why.
“Don’t worry about it. Come on in,” I told her, sitting up.
She smiled at me and moved through the room, starting with picking up the shattered pieces of vase and wiping up the water mess Calix had made.
Getting up, I ran my hand over the wrinkles in my sweats and t-shirt before finger-combing my hair on the way out the door.
“Mistress,” several voices said at once and I looked around at the four men that had been hovering around my door.
“Well boys, you can either guard an empty room or you can follow me,” I told them as I continued walking.
They followed.
Most of the mess from the night before had been cleaned up, save for the broken doors.
Humans and vampires were everywhere, coexisting together.
I slipped past a few unnoticed, but when the first person noticed me, the way parted as I went down the hall.
A few murmured ‘Mistress’ as I passed but most just dipped their head, moved, and let me pass.
I passed Thomas near Calix’s office and stopped him.
“Is he in his office?” I asked him and he nodded.
“He’s… volatile right now, Mistress. You’re best to stay away for the time being.”
“He won’t hurt me. Besides, I can defend myself.”
He didn’t argue, just led the way.
When we got to the office I hesitated. The image of Calix throwing that vase in the still chaos that surrounded him ran through my head and I wondered if it was a bad idea to approach him uninvited.
Swallowing back my fear, I pushed open the door with no resistance since the handle and lock had been shattered.
He stood away from me, hands clasped behind his back as he stared at the wall.
“You should n
ot be here, Lily,” he said in a gravelly voice.
“And why not?” I asked, closing the door. “I’m your mate. My place is beside you.”
“Beside me is not safe. You are not safe,” he growled.
“Well too bad. Cause I’m not going anywhere.”
“You are stubborn, Lily. Why won’t you listen!” He whirled around, planting his fists on his desk with a bang and glaring at me out of the top of his eyes.
“Why don’t you, for once, listen?” I frowned, approaching him. “You need me right now, Calix. Get over it. 'Cause I’m here. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”
His fists tightened and his eyes squeezed shut.
“I’m here. I’m here and I’m not dying. I’m not leaving you, Calix...”
I pressed my palms against his cheeks, rough and unshaved.
“I’m here,” I repeated and he finally loosened, his hands unfisting and his eyes looking up at me.
The sadness there was like a million razor-sharp fragments of crystal. It broke my heart.
“I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere,” I whispered and his face contorted, sobs suddenly bursting out of him as he bent in half.
Pain radiated from him like tear gas.
I fell with him to the floor, my arms going around him as best I could and he let me hold him as he broke down.
He only gave himself a minute to cry. Soon he was sucking it all back into his chest and clearing his throat.
“Mourning is not weakness,” I told him, brushing my hand through his hair to get it out of his way.
“I don’t have time to mourn.” His voice cracked. “Vengeance is far more important.”
“You loved your father. Of course you need to mourn...”
“It is not just my father,” he whispered in his rough voice. “Three of my brothers are dead, along with their mates and children. One of my brothers lost his mates during the raid of his home. Six of my sisters are lost.”
“Oh my God...” I breathed. “Calix… I...”
I didn’t know what to say. Anything I could say was trite.
“Three brothers, Three sisters...We are alone. Only one mother survived because she was with her son who managed to fend them off.”
“You mean...Mama?”
“Dead. Like the rest.”
