Griffin nodded, pushing his hair out of his face. Griffin had bangs. Genuine bangs that were always falling forward into his face. It made him even more adorable.
“I’ll have to make sure they Skype soon,” Griffin said.
“That would be good,” Nimo said.
“So what are you going to do about your parents?” Griffin asked, nodding towards his laptop as he leaned forward to set it on the coffee table.
Nimo sighed and shook his head before he walked over to the other side of the couch opposite from Griffin and collapsed. He leaned his head back against the cushion of the overstuffed beige piece of furniture and let out a deep breath.
“I have no idea. I’m going to let Dakota know. Surely he and his family have dealt with people like this before. If it were up to me I just wouldn’t go, but I know my folks. They’ll just keep coming by and pestering me until they accidentally run into us on purpose,” Nimo said with frustration. “I don’t want to put Dakota or even Zay through that. If they meet I want to make sure that we all go in armed to the teeth and on our own terms, you know?”
Griffin nodded. “Sure. So, what you need to do is have a kinda recon meeting. Invite Dakota and his parents over. Give them the lowdown on your parents and then go over to have dinner. They’ll be prepared, eyes opened and ready for every trick your parents are sure to pull out of the bag and you’ll know every trick because you’ve seen them all.”
Nimo’s eyes opened and he looked at Griffin with a smile. “You, my friend, are a genius.”
Griffin shrugged and closed his laptop before standing to his feet. He collected his keys and slid his feet back into his slippers before tossing a smile Nimo’s way. “You’re not the first person to tell me that and you won’t be the last. Let me know how the dinner goes.”
“Will do. Thanks, Griff. Kiss the babies for me.”
“Will do.”
And with that Griffin was gone. Nimo locked up after his friend and walked through his home, turning off lights and cleaning up after the other man. He finally crawled into bed two hours before he was scheduled to get up for work, but a plan was forming in his mind. His parents might have a scheme for inviting them to dinner, but Nimo had a method to finally put them in their place.
§ § §
Dakota, Tennessee, Carolina and Jersey were running around the streets of the neighborhood really early the morning after Dakota’s meltdown at the hospital talking about mates when Dakota’s brothers started asking him what it was like to be mated.
“What do you mean?” he asked, not out of breath at all as they rounded one corner and waved at their neighbor, another vampire, Mrs. Stivson.
“You know,” Carolina said as they sped up on their fifth pass around the neighborhood. “Being mated to Nishon, what’s it like?”
Dakota looked over at his brothers and grinned. “It’s nice.”
Jersey groaned. “It’s nice? That’s it? Fuck man. I get better information from the book description off a romance novel.”
Dakota laughed. “Got a lot of experience with that do you?”
Jersey blushed slightly. “No, idiot. I’m just saying.”
Dakota nodded. “I know, I’m just yanking your chain. If anyone reads romance novels it would not be you, Jersey.” He shrugged. “It’s… I don’t know how to describe it. We haven’t really been at it for too long. I mean it’s only been a couple of days, but yesterday? When I had my meltdown?”
“Your tantrum,” Tennessee interjected.
“My meltdown,” Dakota reiterated, narrowing his eyes at Tennessee as they sped up again on their sixth turn around the neighborhood, the houses passing in a blur now. “To have Nimo know that I needed him and for him to just show up without me even asking him? That was pretty amazing. And we just talked and laughed for an hour. I mean, I thought I would be weirded out by the thought of having someone know everything that I was thinking all the time, but it’s great. He knows when I need him.”
“And you know when he needs you, too,” Carolina said.
“Ye—” Dakota stopped suddenly. His brothers came to a stumbling stop seconds later, jogging back to him.
“What?” Jersey asked.
Dakota shook his head. “I’m always projecting my thoughts to Nimo, but I don’t think he’s ever projected his thoughts to me.”
His brothers shared a look then glanced back at him. “Maybe he just doesn’t know how to.”
Dakota stared at them. “But the thing is, I do it without even meaning to. I mean it’s unconscious on my part. Shouldn’t it be the same way for him? He has to actually want to talk to me for his thoughts to come to me. Why is that?”
“Do you think it has something to do with the whole forziq thing?” Carolina asked.
Dakota glanced around to make sure they were alone and shrugged. “I don’t know, but I think I need to talk to Tată about it and find out.”
“Well do that after we finish our run. We’ve still got ten more laps to go. Come on! Let’s go!” Tennessee said.
Dakota rolled his eyes and they took off running again, an uneasy feeling crawling its way down his spine that someone had been listening to their conversation. Someone who wasn’t a Sevion, and someone who wouldn’t care that Isaiah was an innocent child, but only care that he was a forziq.
§ § §
Hours later, Dakota was showered, dressed and sitting in the back of Nimo’s classroom as his mate taught his class about Greek mythology. He was fascinated by not only the sound of his mate’s voice and the way his body moved around the room, but by how accurate much of his lesson was. At least from a religious standpoint. Not many people knew the real story behind most religious stories, but the way Nimo taught the class he blended enough of the religious belief and probability of what really occurred that most of his students were talking amongst themselves about how it must have actually happened.
“So do you think Leto was justified in having her children fight to protect her from Hera’s wrath? And what about Hera? Here she is, the rightful wife of Zeus and he cannot remain faithful to her. Every time she turns around he’s out having sex with another woman and getting them pregnant, so obviously she has the right in trying to have them all killed right?” Nimo asked his class.
Dakota grinned as the class engaged in a hearty debate about revenge before one student raised his hand. He was a smaller student. Large glasses dwarfed his eyes, long black hair covered his face and had he not raised his hand, Dakota would not have even noticed him sitting in his chair.
“Professor Moore, I think that Hera was justified in her anger,” he said quietly.
The entire classroom went deathly quiet and every eye turned to regard him in shock, even Nimo.
“Why is that, Ansell?” Nimo asked. “And remember, we stand up when we have the floor.”
As Ansell stood Dakota’s nose twitched, the boy smelled slightly familiar, but he couldn’t quite place the scent.
“We are all bombarded from a very early age with the image and the concept of loyalty. Of unconditional love. Of a bond that can never be broken. A bond between two people or three or more, depending upon the relationship that can weather any storm. That can stand up against all temptation. Even though Hera didn’t love Zeus, a part of her had to believe that he would be faithful to her since he went to such great lengths to get her. With their positions as rulers, leaders, she had to have expected that even if he were going to cheat on her, he wouldn’t be so brazen about it.
“Why would he go to such lengths to get her only to then turn from her? Didn’t he love her? She was humiliated, hurt, and wounded.” Ansell shook his head. “Hurt people, hurt people, Professor Moore, and I think that’s why she tried to kill all of those women. Zeus hurt her. He raped her, he took away her right to choose and then threw all of those women in her face, so in her hurt and anger she lashed out at those women. It wasn’t about them. Those women that she was trying to kill were surrogates. She was really trying to kill the pain that she was
feeling. She was trying to get rid of the shame and the rape that she’d experienced at Zeus’s hands.”
Ansell sat down then and the room was still silent, even Nimo looked at his student in astonishment. The chime on Nimo’s watch sounded loudly then, signaling the end of class and yet no one moved. Dakota looked at Ansell in stupefaction and then a breeze blew through the open window and Ansell’s scent hit him again and he knew what, or rather who, it reminded him of. His eyes widened and he looked over at Nimo in amazement, coughing as he did so.
The sound seemed to break the spell everyone was held in and soon everyone was moving. Nimo shouted out the assignment, asking for Ansell to stay back for a moment. Dakota sat in his seat until all of the students had left and then he walked down towards the front of the room where Nimo stood talking to Ansell.
“…profiling with the FBI is actually a very honorable profession. You should really consider it. You have amazing insight into the human condition, especially when it comes to motivation behind violence,” Nimo was saying to Ansell.
“I don’t know, Professor Moore. I kind of already have a career. It’s something that I do on the side of being a student you know? But this, being a profiler, would be an actual career, and I have my nephew and my two kids and I just don’t think I can have a job, a career that would take me away from them.”
Nimo’s eyebrows rose. “You have three kids? But you’re like twenty-one!”
Ansell laughed. “Twenty-two.”
Dakota stopped directly behind the two of them in shock. How was it possible this young man was raising three kids, attending college, and working?
“You’re kind of my hero, Ansell,” Nimo said.
Ansell chuckled. “Mine as well,” Dakota said. Ansell turned and gasped standing in front of Nimo in a gesture of protection, reaching into his bag and pulling out a wooden cross, covered in silver. Dakota stepped back instantly, raising his arm to cover his eyes. Pain seared through him. His eyes burned and the skin of his arm sizzled. Not many people knew that it was the combination of silver and wood that was the only thing that could harm or kill a vampire.
“Ansell! What are you doing to Dakota? Put that away! He’s my mate!” Nimo yelled out.
“He’s your what?” Ansell asked. After a long moment the searing pain eased and Dakota lowered his arm away from his face. He wiped his eyes which had watered from the pain and blinked at the young man who looked back and forth between him and Nimo.
“Professor, do you know what he is?” Ansell asked softly.
Nimo nodded. “Yes. Do you?”
Ansell nodded as well. Dakota stepped towards Ansell but stopped when the young man backed up into Nimo’s chest. Ansell was shorter than Nimo, extremely thin as well, to the point where he looked slightly emaciated and his long black hair that surrounded his face and his big black glasses that covered his eyes, made him the epitome of not only a nerd but someone who wanted to disappear. Dakota studied him while Ansell repaid the favor.
“How do you know what he is?” Nimo asked.
“He is a forziq,” Dakota said softly.
Nimo gasped. “Dakota, no. You can’t,” he whispered, pushing Ansell behind him. “He has children.”
Suddenly, Ansell’s scent hit Dakota again and he grinned. He shook his head at Nimo and held up his hands in surrender. “I won’t have to,” he told his mate.
Nimo stopped, his eyebrows lowering in confusion. “Why not?” he asked.
Dakota pointed at Ansell. “Isaiah’s sense of smell with mates seems to have rubbed off on me a little bit. I can smell who Ansell is a sufletul pereche to.”
Nimo’s eyebrows rose. “Who?”
Dakota shook his head. “Let’s introduce him to Isaiah, just to make sure.”
Ansell waved his arms. “Hello! Can someone please explain to me what the fuck is going on?”
Nimo turned to look at Ansell and smiled. “Ansell, Dakota is my mate. Yes, I know he’s a vampire, but he’s not a bad one. I’m sure that as a forziq you can smell a bad one, my son is one and he can tell. Dakota is a doctor. He’s actually the Chief of Surgery and he’s saved a lot of lives so he wouldn’t and he won’t hurt you, so don’t pull out that cross thing that you had before. My son is what you are, so maybe you can help him out. Help train him in his gift and everything and then you can see that Dakota and his brothers aren’t so bad.”
Dakota bobbed his head with a reassuring smile in Ansell’s direction and watched as the young man looked back and forth between him and Nimo before he finally nodded. “Okay, that sounds like a good plan to me.”
Dakota agreed in return and gestured towards the door. “Ansell, will you allow me to escort you to your car before I come back and have lunch with my mate?”
Ansell’s eyebrow quirked. “Why would you do that?”
Dakota shrugged in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner. “I just have the need to make sure you get to your car safely.”
Ansell stared at Nimo for a moment before turning his attention back to Dakota. “Thank you.”
Dakota nodded and leaned forward to place a gentle kiss on Nimo’s lips. “I’ll be right back,” he told his mate.
You are so going to explain when you get back, Nimo told him through their mate bond.
If you sniff him really good, you’ll figure it out for yourself, Dakota told his mate. He watched as Nimo tried to discreetly sniff Ansell as the younger man went to walk past him to collect his items from his chair. Dakota knew the exact moment Nimo figured it out. His eyes widened and he gasped.
“No. Shit,” he breathed.
Dakota merely chuckled as he escorted Ansell to his car. He’d always believed his parents when they’d told him that Fate knew what it was doing when it paired a vampire or a werewolf with their sufletul pereche, but he’d never considered the idea that Fate had a sense of humor. Now he knew better.
Fate was fucking hilarious.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Nimo fussed with the edges of Zay’s bowtie for the eighth time and sighed before he rose to his full height. With a noise of disgust at himself, he turned and looked in the full length mirror. He and Zay were impeccably dressed in tuxedos that were over a year old, thanks to a fancy party Nimo had been invited to for the university, with white jackets, black slacks, polished loafers, white dress shirts, and Zay wore a black bowtie while he wore a slim black tie. He even wore a pair of diamond cufflinks and had been sure to brush, comb and pomade both his and Zay’s hair into submission.
He felt like a fraud.
Why was he putting his son through this? And for people that hadn’t wanted anything to do with him because his mother had no connections and had been born on the wrong side of the blanket? They were only agreeing to see Zay now because they wanted to get close to the Sevions and they couldn’t do that without Nimo and they couldn’t get to Nimo without agreeing to see Zay. They were sick, manipulative, twisted, opportunistic bastards.
And he was still so desperate for their approval and their affection that he was dressing his son up like a fucking penguin just to please them. He should be locked up.
Before he could belittle himself any more, there was a knock on the door and Nimo moved towards it.
“Daddy! It’s my othuh Daddy!” Zay said excitedly, running off towards the front door.
“It sure is,” Nimo said with a forced smile. He heard Zay open the door and his excited greeting. Dakota’s returned greeting was followed by Decebal and Adelina’s voices and Nimo began trembling as hot guilt filled his body. He was essentially leading these sweet people to slaughter. Granted, they were vampires and if they wanted to, they could kill Nimo and his entire family without breaking a sweat, but the Sevions were a nice family and Nimo’s parents were vultures. Rabid, opportunistic, social class vultures with more money than brains, class or compassion. They didn’t deserve to be in the same room as the Sevions.
“How do you know that they haven’t changed?” Dakota’s voice startled Nimo a
nd he let out a squeak and jumped slightly, pressing his hand against his chest before turning to his mate. Dakota looked as if he’d just stepped off the cover of the GQ Magazine or the PEOPLE Magazine’s Hottest Man of the Year Edition. He was deliciously attired in a tuxedo with a black jacket and black slacks, with a white dress shirt and black tie.
Nimo had been a little worried that perhaps Dakota and his parents wouldn’t have fancy wear for the dinner but Dakota had informed him that because his family was “wealthy” and he and his brothers were all doctors they had all been forced to attend many “schmoozing” parties where they’d had to wear tuxedos and his mother had had to wear an elegant dress. Nimo had only been partially relieved. On the one hand, he’d been happy they’d had the right clothes to be able to attend the dinner, on the other hand, he’d been disappointed at not being able to have an excuse to not attend. Dakota turned his head for a moment to look over his shoulder at his parents and Nimo saw his hair. Dakota’s black hair was gelled and brushed back, held in a queue at the back of his head in a diamond clasp. He wore a diamond stud in his left ear and diamond cufflinks. His loafers were shined and buffed to within an inch of their life and instead of a white square in the pocket of his tuxedo, he had a diamond broach pinned there instead.
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