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CHAPTER TWENTY 
MARCUS
Finn is on edge all the way to Watson’s house. I don’t think he’s been here since he found Charlie in the basement before Watson took him.
“We should go to a strip club instead,” Finn declares.
“Ooh, you think the strippers will have the answers?” Claude asks.
“Definitely. Tucked between their titties, they’ll have all the answers,” Finn decides, which I think is not likely to happen.
“I don’t think it works that way,” I say.
Finn glances over at me as I pull into the driveway of Watson’s house, right behind Charlie’s car.
Finn just smiles as he presses the lock button. “Oh no. We can’t escape. What will we ever do? I guess there’s nothing to do. Oh no. How scary. Save me, Marcus. We must go home.”
“Do you want to wait in the car?” I ask. “Claude and I can handle this.”
Finn snaps his attention over to me. “Does it look like I want to wait in the car alone? Does it look like we’re in a horror movie, and I’m the idiot? No, sir, it does not.”
Claude leans forward from his place in the back seat and scrutinizes Finn for a long moment. “Why does he suddenly think he’s in a horror movie?”
“No one knows,” I say as I reach over and squeeze Finn’s hand. “Finn, I’m being serious. Why don’t you take Claude’s car back to the department and pester Alexei?”
Claude nods like he also thinks this is a brilliant idea. “Alexei loves being pestered. I think he’s actually going to ride his horse this evening. It’s super boring and he refuses to put the light-up shimmer boots on her. Like why?”
“I can think of a lot of reasons,” I say.
“Yes, because your heart is frozen and even Finn’s lovely face can’t melt it,” Claude says as he manually unlocks the door, but Finn has his finger primed and relocks it before the door can swing open.
“Claude… if we leave right now, I will wear absolutely anything you put me in,” Finn says.
Claude damn near orgasms right there. “Oh, my thundering heart! Finn, you know just how to speak to me!”
“Do not let him encourage this bullshit,” I say to Finn. “He’s wearing a skirt right now and, it’s hands down, not the oddest thing I’ve seen him wear. Actually, it looks quite tame.”
“Are you sassing my clothes?” Claude asks, sounding offended.
“Finn, you can leave, but we can’t all leave. I mean, look at Charlie, she’s staring at us like she has absolutely no idea why she’s here and we’re refusing to exit the vehicle.”
Charlie is giving us a rather confused look. Charlie was Watson’s apprentice and, luckily, has taken over caring for Finn’s arm and leg. She had been as shocked as we were to find out about Watson’s past life. She’d actually stumbled upon it before us, but Watson had kept her locked up, knowing it’d expose everything if she managed to make it to us.
Charlie makes her way over to Finn’s car door, but Finn is more than positive that he doesn’t need to open it. She looks confused and raps on the window. “Hello?”
“Save me,” Finn cries as I try to unlock the door, but he relocks it just as quickly. So I roll down the window and look over at Charlie.
“Finn wants no part of this but refuses to leave,” I explain.
Claude rolls his window all the way down and decides that if he can’t exit through the door, out the window will be the way to go. His front half smoothly slides out and as he goes to hoist his lower half through, I start rolling the window up.
“Marcus, dammit, Marcus, stop!” Claude shouts as he tries to slither out faster.
“Stop what?” I ask as I inch it up some more.
Claude practically tosses his body out to avoid being rolled up or breaking the window, but I’m too fast and manage to get it rolled up right at his ankles so he’s stuck in this weird handstand outside the vehicle with his feet inside.
“Dammit, Marcus! Stop!” he whines, but my lovely Finn is cackling like a fiend and anything that gives Finn joy gives me joy… okay, it’d have given me joy anyway.
“Well, glad that’s over,” I say as I exit the vehicle now that Finn is too distracted by the dangling Claude to immediately relock the door.
Once outside the car, I walk around to the far side and look over at Claude whose skirt has flipped up.
“My clothes!” he cries.
“Maybe if you weren’t wearing a skirt.”
“It’s not a skirt!” he protests as his underwear is out for all to see. They’re flamingo pink and match his pink socks.
“Then what is it?” I ask, honestly curious at this point.
“You just don’t understand fashion!” he accuses.
I decide that I really must not because that’s a skirt by every definition of one. He can wear a skirt, I don’t care, but the idea of him coming up with some other name will not fly.
“Finn! Help me, Finn!” he cries.
Finn gets out of the car and scrutinizes Claude. “No… if I let you free, you’ll drag me inside.” Then he just sits down next to Claude like they’re outside for a nice picnic in the frigid weather that my brother decided to wear a skirt in. I mean… wouldn’t one choose at least the summer to do it?
“Um… so do I unlock the house door or not? I’m honestly quite confused,” Charlie says as Claude twists this way and that until his shoes pop off and his feet come out.
“No, my beauties!”
“It’s okay, Claude, I’ll toss them in the trash for you,” I assure him as Finn lays his head on Claude who is still wallowing in the driveway. I’m pretty sure Finn thinks he can just use his body to keep Claude down and if Claude is down, the whole mission is over or something.
Instead, Claude grabs Finn into some weird little hug/hold like a dad smothering his child with love and even kisses his forehead. “You’re delightfully adorable, Finnigan Hayes. I just love you. Now why don’t you go snuggle with Alexei while Marcus and I work?”
“No, I should help. I’m just being dramatic,” Finn decides.
“It’s not being dramatic,” I say as I reach down to him. He gives me his hand and lets me pull him up. With a deep breath, he heads toward the door, leaving the rest of us behind.
I hurry after him so he doesn’t enter alone and set a hand on his back as we walk inside together. He’s stiff and I can feel his reluctance, but Finn is also one of the bravest people I know.
“So, I’ve mostly left things the same,” Charlie says. “I… I don’t quite know what to do with the place. People are probably a bit reluctant to buy a house where people were held captive and murdered, you know? And I’ll need someone to demolish the whole… you know… torture rooms downstairs. I also knew it’d mean I’d have to go through everything.”
Finn quickly walks past the rooms Watson had treated as his clinic area and follows Charlie over to where the PC sits.
Claude sits in front of it and starts it up, but it’s clearly suffering from having not been run in quite a while and starts a long list of updates.
“He had some other computers down in the basement that I haven’t touched either,” she says. “As well as a big safe I haven’t been able to get into.”
“I’ll check out the safe. Finn, you want to come down or stay here?”
“I’ll grudgingly follow you,” he says as he walks down. “When he was discovered to be behind everything, the VRC combed through a lot of his stuff, right?”
“Yeah, there’s a lot of data that the teams examined from the computers before returning them with the claim that there was no evidence on them. I don’t remember a safe, though,” I say.
“I actually stumbled upon it by accident not that long ago,” she says as we follow her down the stairs. She goes toward the end of the hall as I trail after her with Finn right behind me while questioning if we’re even going to find something that we hadn’t found before. Then again, we’re looking for something that we never imagined looking for in the past.

FINN
Even though I thoroughly hated the idea of coming in here, I’m handling it okay so far. A bit… off and reluctant to even be here, but I can do this. I’m positive that I can do this, and while I might not enjoy it, it’ll be worth it if we can figure out what’s going on and maybe bring some light and answers to all of this.
My phone beeps and I look down at it, seeing that Alexei messaged the group of us.
Alexei: I’m going to see what was pulled and documented off Watson’s computers when they were examined previously. I know that they were returned because there was nothing incriminating on them, but something could have been missed. 
Claude: I think we’ll be a while here. These computers aren’t handling inactivity too well and are struggling to boot up. When you finish, stop by here and pick Finn up. You shouldn’t go to the stable alone. 
Alexei: Got it. 
I don’t bother saying anything and put my phone away before glancing into the open cells that once held people Watson was using. They’re empty now, but I even see Charlie eyeing the one she’d been held in. I can’t imagine the terror of knowing something that could save the lives of those around you but being unable to get to them.
“The safe’s right here,” she says as she goes through the door of the last room and motions to a spot on the floor that’d been covered up. “Looks like he poured cement around it, so I’m not quite sure how you’re going to get it up.”
Marcus grips the front and, of course, decides he’s going to strongarm it, but if Watson was going to go to this much work to keep a safe hidden, he wouldn’t have bought one a vampire could bust into just like that.
“Maybe you should take your shirt off for this? I heard that removing your shirt actually makes you stronger,” I inform him.
“I think your source might be a pervert.” Marcus stops after a moment and stares down at it. “We could blow it up.”
“Weirdly enough, I’m afraid that if you can’t tear it open, whatever bomb we’d need would likely level the house.”
Marcus shrugs, like he hears nothing wrong with this. Of course he doesn’t because the idea of bombing something sounds fun to him.
I decide that instead of doing such a thing that we could possibly find a locksmith or someone who is skilled at this kind of job. “I’m going to see if I can contact someone who can figure out how to open it. Unless you’re willing to remove the shirt…” When the shirt boringly stays on, I head back upstairs and over to the desk Claude is at.
“Marcus wouldn’t take his shirt off,” I mutter.
“How dare he refuse you such a thing!”
“Right? Maybe he’ll take his shirt off if he sees your shirt off and gets jealous.”
“Claude’s bare flesh has never seen the light of day,” Marcus announces. He must be near the steps leading up to have heard us.
“It has too!” Claude protests.
“I mean, have you looked at his legs?”
I glance down at his pale legs. “Hmm…”
Claude reaches down and hikes his skirt up a little. “Like what you see?”
That makes me laugh. “How titillating,” I tease as I sit down in a chair near him and start flipping through my phone before I find the information on a lady that I’d heard does great work.
She answers, and once I tell her who I am, she seems more than eager to meet us over here. By the time she arrives, Claude has actually made some progress with getting the computer running as he begins to dig into it.
The locksmith gives me a smile. “I’m curious to see this safe. I think I have an idea of what it is by your description,” she says as she follows me down into the basement. I lead her over to it and she kneels down where she starts examining it with clear interest. Leaving her and Marcus to it—who still seems to think he can punch his hand through it if he tries hard enough—I walk back upstairs and past Claude.
“There are signs that there was more in this computer than there is now, but hell if I know what. Tech isn’t my strong suit,” he says before my phone beeps.
Claude: ALEXEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII. Come, my love. I need you. 
Alexei: For real need me or did a dog walk by wearing a sweater? Because if you make me rush outside to look at another dog wearing a sweater, then we’re going to have words. 
Claude: Sweet words. 
Me: I think it’s real this time, but I’ve been wrong in the past. 
Alexei: Alright, I’m coming. 
Claude: Bring me and Finnigan Snugglepants an ice cream, please. And possibly Marcus if he deserves it. 
Alexei: What? It’s like ten degrees out! 
Claude: I luv you. 
Me: I luv you too and my ice cream. 
Alexei: I’m only getting the ice cream because Finn wants it. 
Claude: FINE. I know he’s cuter than me. 

While Claude turns back to the computer, I head up the stairs, planning on searching Watson’s bedrooms, an area I hadn’t gone too much in the past. There’d been a few times I’d stayed here, having absolutely no idea I was trusting the man I feared the most.
When I reach the second floor, I wander over to Watson’s bedroom and pull open the door.
The room looks extremely normal, absolutely nothing to it that stands out to me. Heading into the closet, I start digging through it, but I know that the house was thoroughly combed through after Watson’s death to search for clues of what’d happened and what could be done to help identify any of Watson’s victims as well as the people he’d turned and controlled.
Knowing that Watson preferred everything to remain neat and tidy, I tear open the closet door and start dragging everything out. Most of it is just clothes that I toss in a heap on the floor, then shoes, and a couple of books that were lying on the upper shelf. They’re older, likely things he’d collected through the years.
Using a chair I’d stolen from the grand wooden desk, I climb up onto it and start checking vents like I’m in some detective movie, but everything is sealed tight and there’s nothing inside as far as my light can shine. The walls are finished off, so no wooden panel or some shit to hide behind.
Feeling along the seams of the carpet, I wander the whole room, tugging to reveal something… anything.
But what am I looking for? A reason why he did this? A reason why he was so obsessed with me beyond what I already know?
Fuck if I know, honestly, I just want something.
I shove the bed off the frame and tear out all of the stuff under the bed, but all of this has already been examined a while ago. There’s nothing that I’m going to find that someone else missed.
What the fuck do I even do now?
Sighing, I lie down on the floor, look down at my arm and flex my fingers. I stare at the way they respond and find it so strange how much I hate the man who I once owed so much to. The man who kept me from a life far away from the one I currently have. Without his intelligence, without his research, without him, I wouldn’t have the freedom I have today.
But then again, without him, I’d still have my arm and leg, right?
Fuck.
There’s a rap on the door and I jump when I realize that Marcus is standing in the doorway holding a smoothie.
“This is from me, not Alexei,” he lies.
“You’re so damn silent that I’m going to put a cat collar on you so you jingle when you walk.”
“I’d prefer not, if I got a choice,” he says.
“Hmm…” I sit up and greedily take the smoothie. “Thank you SO much, Marcus. You’re the best.”
“I CAN HEAR YOU,” Alexei yells from somewhere deeper in the house.
I grin as I suck down the strawberry smoothie. “It’s delicious, MARCUS.”
“See if I get you shit anymore!” Alexei shouts.
I’m not too worried because he’s a sucker and he loves me.
“You alright?” Marcus asks.
“I’m fine. Was just seeing if I could find something while also having the satisfaction of destroying his usually pristine room.”
“Find anything?”
“Not a damn thing of use. You?” I ask as I edge my way toward a brain freeze.
“Claude is convinced a bunch of records have been erased and is seeing what Alexei thinks. The lady is working on the safe and thinks she’ll get it here before long. I don’t want to leave her too long… I’m not the overly trusting type just in case she does get it,” he says.
“I never noticed,” I comment sarcastically.
“But I could hear the ruckus going on up here and wanted to make sure everything was alright.”
I cringe a little at the realization that all of the vampires in the house could hear me raging over Watson’s stupid shit. “Sorry.”
“Not sure what you’re apologizing about,” he says as he reaches down and brushes my hair off my forehead. “Trust me. I was trying to punch through the safe.”
Of course he was. “How did that go?”
“I broke my hand.”
“Good thing you’re a vampire.”
“Right?” he says as he flexes his fingers. “It’s fine. Kind of made me stop punching it though.”
“Yeah. Maybe leave it to the lady whose job it is.”
“I suppose I will. Not because I couldn’t eventually get it open with my pure strength, but because I want her to feel like she has a purpose, you know?”
“Right, I would feel awful if I made her come here just to watch you punch through it without a shirt on.”
“Exactly,” Marcus says with a grin. “Alright. Have fun. Just, if you light the place on fire, let us all know first, okay?”
“Will do.”
“And if you feel bad up here alone, come down with us. We can tear his shit apart later.”
I nod. “Yeah, I know. Thank you… Before you go, could you break something of his… with your shirt unbuttoned?”
“Of course,” he says as he unbuttons his shirt. I expect him to tear a shirt or one of the books, but no, he picks up the mattress and with a “Hiiiyah!” he tears it right in half.
It’s so ridiculous as he holds the mattress in two parts that I immediately start laughing.
“Why are you laughing?” he asks as he gives me a smolder. “That was peak sexiness.”
“The fucking mattress! You pick the fucking mattress of all things.” I’m not sure I can stop laughing as he looks at the two pieces like he’s not sure where to put the parts now that they’re no longer one. He kind of tries piecing them back together before tossing them on the bed frame.
“What did you want me to rip?” Marcus asks.
I hand him a piece of paper which he tears as he looks me in the eyes. It seems like it hurts him inside to be caught ripping anything less than a mattress.
“Happy?” he grumbles.
“Immensely.”
“Good. If you need any more brutal tearing, you have my number,” he says as he heads through the doorway.
“I sure do.”
I watch him go before I turn back to the room, feeling much better about everything, especially with the mattress lying in two pieces. Only Marcus…
Getting up, I head over to the desk that looks out over the street and decide I’ll try my hand at tearing that apart as well. God, I should have had Marcus snap it in half or something before he left.
I rip open all of the drawers to check for hidden compartments, but they all seem to have solid bottoms. “Well, shit,” I say before kicking the desk, wishing I could chop it in half like Marcus. When one kick does absolutely nothing, I kick it a few more times before I’m satisfied. Then I sigh and wonder what my kicking helped with beyond reminding me that I really shouldn’t make my good leg sore when my other one is still not back to normal. I slump to the floor where I turn and notice that a panel under the drawer is hanging a little thanks to my kicking.
When I slide it the rest of the way out, I see that the wood doesn’t line up perfectly underneath and try to force it out. There’s no clear way to get it to release as I push, pull, and prod.
Me: Marcus, I need your sexy muscles. 
Alexei: Why am I part of this? 
Me: Because if Marcus can’t please me, you were next in line. 
Claude: *Gasp* not me? 
Me: I didn’t want you to dirty your skirt. 
Claude: For the hundredth time… it’s not a skirt. 
Alexei: It’s a long piece of cloth that simply wraps around the body in a snug fashion much like a skirt but without fully becoming a skirt. Obviously. 
Me: My bad. Can one of you come. I need the strongest one of you. 
I look up as all three of them stand in the doorway.
“Why would you two even bother to show up?” Marcus asks with a laugh. “Claude, you would try to out-strength me?”
Alexei slips in as Marcus tries to stand tall and stare down Claude, and while Marcus and Claude size each other up, I wave the drawer at Alexei. He snaps it, catches a notebook that was about to fall out and hands it to me.
“Wow, you’re so strong. Mind if I call you the strongest vampire alive?”
“Of course not,” Alexei says as he struts past the other two who are watching the scene with interest.
“Finn, you know it’s my job to break things for you,” Marcus says.
“Alexei was so fast, though.”
“It’s not the speed that matters,” Marcus says as he reaches over and picks up a tall lamp in the corner made of metal. He bends it in half like I’d prefer my light to be on the ground.
“Ooh, wow, I love how dark you made it in here,” I say.
Marcus nods. “You are welcome.”
Claude grabs it and bends it into a heart that he leans against the wall. “There, my dear,” he says.
“Oh yes, I love how the only light source can’t stand on its own, but at least it’s a lovely heart,” I say, though clearly Marcus and Claude don’t hear the sarcasm as they determine the job well done before leaving.
Alexei sighs and tries to straighten the lamp for me but the poor thing seems to have reached the end of its life as it snaps in half. “Uh…”
“Well… thanks for trying,” I say.
He shrugs and returns to me. “What’s the book?”
“I have no idea, but hopefully, it’ll tell me the secrets that Watson was hiding,” I say as I flip to the first page which has a picture of a naked man in what I’m guessing was supposed to be a suggestive pose.
“Oh lovely,” I say sarcastically. “Did I just stumble on Watson’s porn?”
Alexei laughs before heading toward the door. “If you need anything else, just text me privately.”
“Will do,” I say as I watch him leave before flipping to the next page. There’s another picture, but I realize that in this one, he doesn’t have an arm. Flipping back to the first picture, I realize I just missed that fact because of the way he was lying.
Confused, I turn back to the second page.
Log 1
Human by the name of Preston has volunteered to be the first human subject. Arm was amputated three inches below the elbow after it was pinned in a vehicular accident. The arm looks quite healthy and the amputation took place on January 5.

Log 2
Surgery was fast and the connection of the cap was a success. Patient is in excruciating pain even with a pain block.

Log 3
Body is already showing signs of rejection.

Log 4
Body has fully rejected the cap. I will keep him for further testing and try again if he lives.

Log 5
Female around the age of thirty. Leg missing six inches beneath pelvis bone. Amputation is only twenty-four hours old. Cap was a success. In the hopes of stabilizing her body and assisting her healing, I gave her some of my blood.

Log 6
Another transfusion. So far, it seems to be working.

Log 7
Body is rejecting. Human bodies are irritatingly weak to manipulation. There must be something that slows the rejection and gives the body time to heal and connect with the cap. Everything else is right. Everything is perfect. My creation is perfect. I will perfect this for my Doll.
I drop the book as that fucking word makes me recoil. It makes me feel sick. Were these people agreeing to this? Did they volunteer? Or did he coerce them, promise them things he knew he couldn’t do just so he could learn what to do to “fix” me?
I take a deep breath, telling myself that I need to focus. I need to keep going. There could be something in here that could be the answer to all of this. So I pick the book up and keep reading, no matter how much I don’t want to.
I need to make my Doll perfect, and in order to become perfect, he must be complete. I don’t dare try until I know how to fix him. For now, I must watch him. My beautiful, incomplete Doll will soon be whole again.

Log 8
Miller might finally be of some use. Things are going well. My Doll will finally be complete.

Log 9
Female. Age 18. Amputation of the right arm.
Before I begin, she is given a blood transfusion of my blood as well as Miller’s mixture. I’ve tweaked it. I don’t want a vampire. My Doll is too sweet to be a vampire, but I want him to heal and survive. I want to see my complete Doll thrive. He is too beautiful and perfect to wither away.

Log 10
No rejection so far. While the test subject isn’t healing as quickly as I thought, it is showing progression. The arm is healthy and no sign of infection or death of the skin.

Log 11
She continues to heal.

Log 12
I think I’ve finally figured out the answer. It was at my fingertips all along, but I’d lost all faith in Miller’s abilities. But now, I have the answer I’ve been longing for. A way to make my Doll perfect. I will test it a few more times before disposing of the woman.
I close the book, deciding that I can make someone else suffer with this. I head downstairs but don’t get far before Marcus sees my expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“Did you guys find anything in the safe?” I ask.
“No. Waste of time, Watson must have cleared it out at some point.”
I nod slowly, then hold the book out to him. “Alexei, you were going to go see your horse, right? Can I go with you?”
Alexei looks over at me and nods. “Yeah, of course. You guys good?”
Marcus flips through the book then nods. “Yeah. You sure you’re alright, Finn?” Marcus asks, eyes scanning the words. “Want us all to go with you?”
“No, I want you to read that. I only made it to the twelfth entry. I couldn’t get any farther,” I say. “Alexei and I will be fine.”
“There are plenty of vampires at the barn. We’ll be fine,” Alexei assures Marcus.
“Okay… just… please be careful. If you feel uneasy about anything, please call me,” Marcus says.
“Same,” I say.
Marcus sets the book down before giving me a hug and a kiss. “You promise you’re alright?” There’s clear concern in his words—he understands what’s in the book.
“I promise I want to see a horse.”
“Okay.”
I give him a smile and squeeze him before following Alexei out to his car. He’s quiet as he pulls out of the driveway and heads down the road toward the barn he keeps his horse at.
“It’s going to be nice having the barn behind the house,” Alexei says, breaking the silence. “Claude mentioned Marcus might want a horse to keep her company.”
“I bet he would. He really enjoyed having his horses,” I say. “Maybe you can help him find one.”
“Clearly, if you want something, just tell Claude and he’ll search the world over for it,” Alexei says as he shakes his head.
“I think that was a special circumstance.”
Alexei looks a little embarrassed as he says, “Claude does go too far sometimes, but I love her, so I’ll let him go too far this time. She reminds me so much of Lastochka. It’s interesting how even after the bloodline has changed so much, she still has some mannerisms that remind me of things Lastochka would do.” He pulls up to the barn and parks before looking over at me. “You alright?”
“Fine.”
He nods but seems uncertain as he gets out. Trailing after him, I wander with him to a pasture where a few horses are and find the cold winter air refreshing. I’m glad to be outside of that suffocating house. When the dapple-gray mare sees him, she trots over to see what he’s up to.
“Hello, Raduga, I brought someone who wants to see just how pretty you are,” Alexei says, as if he hasn’t put pictures of her up all over his cubicle and makes anyone who might glance their way examine them closely. “Isn’t she pretty? Tell her she’s pretty.”
“She’s very pretty,” I say as Alexei just lights up while he stares at the horse. No matter how grumpy and terse he can be, he always seems to melt when there’s an animal involved. Following him and the horse into the barn, I take the brush Alexei hands me and join him in grooming her. When I get to her neck, she leans toward me, clearly enjoying the strokes as dust flies off her winter hair.
Once I finish, Alexei hands me the saddle pad and shows me exactly where it goes. It’s been a while since Marcus and I did this, so I don’t quite remember everything, but Alexei has me help him saddle and bridle the mare.
It does wonders to distract me, and I don’t know if he knew that’s what I needed to get out of my thoughts or what, but I appreciate it. While there are others in the barn, no one is in the indoor arena when we head in, Alexei leading the horse. He takes her over to a mounting block and waves at me.
“Go on.”
“Go on, what?” I ask, unsure how I became a part of this equation.
“Get on her.”
I eye the horse. “She’s going to murder me.”
“She’s not! You’ve ridden a horse before! Hop up.”
“I don’t think I’d be able to keep my leg in the stirrup with the way it’s been lately,” I say.
“You don’t need to if it’s okay letting it hang.”
Deciding that if brushing the horse distracted me, riding it will be the ultimate distraction, I head up on the mounting block and stick my foot in the stirrup as Alexei helps me swing my prosthetic leg over. He adjusts the stirrups so I can at least put my left foot in one. Then he puts my hands where he wants them on the reins.
“You remember how to ask her to go?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I say before asking her to walk on and squeezing my legs. She instantly starts walking as Alexei heads to the middle of the arena.
“Sit up,” he orders.
“Oh! I’m getting a lesson?”
“You sure as hell are. I’m not letting you look like a slouch on my beauty,” he says. “Put your heels down, you’ll have better balance in the saddle. There, that’s better. Your left rein is longer than your right, gather it up some.”
“Oh my god, this went from relaxing to too complex in seconds,” I say as my brain is going: heels, back, reins… what the fuck am I supposed to do now?
“It’s not even remotely complex. Do you want me to get the whip out?”
“For me or the horse!” I cry.
“Clearly not the horse. She’s being perfect. Look how perfect she’s being.”
I reach down and scritch the horse’s neck because she is being perfect even though I have limited ideas of what I’m doing. “She is being good.”
“I want you to sit deep in your saddle, say whoa, and then gently pull back if she doesn’t stop.”
“Okay,” I say before asking her. She keeps walking without a care in the world.
“You’re being too gentle. She’s doing what she wants now. Have more conviction in your voice and a steadier hand on the reins. Horses know when they’re working with someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing,” he says.
This time when I ask her to stop, she does, then turns her neck to look at me, probably questioning why this person who has absolutely no idea what they’re doing is riding on her back.
“And ask her to walk on again,” Alexei says, which is the easiest part of this experience. He starts having me turn her in circles and go over poles on the ground, all the while threatening to get a whip if I don’t keep my back straight and heels down.
When I draw her to a stop in front of Alexei after about half an hour, he looks up at me. “You’re definitely getting the hang of it,” he says.
“Watson was experimenting on people before me so he could figure out how to get the body to accept the cap,” I blurt out. “He’d kill them when he was done with them. He was… he was literally torturing and abusing men and women because of me.”
Alexei’s eyes shift up to mine as he rubs Raduga’s neck. “That’s what the notebook you found was talking about?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, Finn… you can’t blame yourself for something someone else has done. Every part of what happened to you was inflicted by him. He started this from the beginning. From the car accident to losing your limbs to having new ones… it was all him. You should know this better than anyone, Finn. When you help a victim, do you ever blame them for the ones who died before them?”
“Of course not.”
“Then you can’t feel guilty. You can’t blame yourself for what he did to you or anyone else,” he says.
I close my eyes and rub at my face. “It’s hard.”
“Trust me, I know. Some nights I lie awake and think about all the vampires I killed. To me, they were monsters and I thought I was doing right because they fought back every time and I’d seen so much death caused by vampires. Of course they fought; they didn’t want to die either. But still, I killed them and while some were monsters, I can’t fathom they all were,” Alexei says, eyes avoiding mine. “Guilt eats at us as our past follows us. But sometimes, you just have to build a wall between you and the past.
“What sucks about the past is that no matter how much you hate it and wish you could change it, it never changes. Hating yourself fixes nothing. What changes things is what you do now. It… it took me a very long time to figure that out. And no matter what I do, I might not be able to make up for what I’ve done.”
Alexei pats Raduga’s neck as he continues. “But I feel like my work allows me to help others and allows me to keep others from living through what I and so many people went through. It’s not perfect, and I fear that no matter how many years have passed, it never will be.” Alexei glances up at me, giving me a determined look. “But, Finn, you did not hurt those people. You have devoted your life to helping, to saving, to keeping people from suffering like I did when my entire family was slaughtered by a vampire. Please, focus on those things. And let’s stop whatever is going on here. Let’s end this so all of us just enjoy our lives without regretting the past.”
I swallow the lump in my throat and nod. “Thank you.”
“Of course. Now do you want to lope?” he jokes.
“Dear god, no,” I say.
He smiles at me as I hurry the horse away from him at a walk—that’s plenty fast for me.
I don’t ride much longer before I get off. Alexei puts his horse away instead of riding any on his own and we head out to the car once she’s merrily eating.
He drives me home and stops the car in the driveway. “A word of advice. Don’t be stupid.”
“What does that mean?” I ask incredulously.
“You know what it means.” It sounds like a threat more than anything as I exit the car. “Get out of your head. You don’t need to be in there.”
“Thanks, Alexei,” I say.
“You’re welcome,” he responds before heading over to his house. I could have easily walked to mine from his, but he still decided to drive me because even if he once threatened to eat me, he actually loves me.
Walking up to the house, I head inside and am immediately hit with the most wonderful aroma. My stomach grumbles, reminding me that I never ate lunch.
“Oh my god, what is that smell?” I ask as I head right for the kitchen where Marcus has two steaks on the stove.
Clearly, I’m getting treated like royalty tonight.
“I did steaks with sautéed onions and mushrooms. I dropped one of the mushrooms and Hela snatched it and took off with it before immediately returning with a look of disgust on her face, so if you find a chewed-on mushroom somewhere odd, that’s why.”
“Sounds like a fun thing to step on,” I say as I walk over to just stare at the steaks while my mouth waters.
Marcus hooks me with an arm and kisses the top of my head. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Alexei had me ride his horse and it was a good distraction.”
“Good.”
“Did you read the rest of it?” I ask curiously.
“Let’s talk about it later. It changes nothing in the immediate future,” he says. “But if you want to talk about how you feel, I’m all ears.”
“I’m okay. I promise… better now. You guys are too kind,” I say.
“Kind? Whoa. Might be the first time Alexei or I were considered kind… feels…”
“Nice?” I ask.
“Disgusting.”
That makes me laugh as I skewer a mushroom out of the pan and blow on it until it’s cool enough to pop into my mouth. “You are ridiculous. Kindness doesn’t hurt.”
He seems to debate that. “It’s extremely painful.”
“You are absolutely ridiculous,” I say as I push into him and kiss his smiling lips. “So ridiculous.”
“Let me give you an example of why kindness is for fools. One time when Claude and I were about nineteen, he takes me to meet this woman. She doesn’t speak the same language as us, but Claude is confident he can still understand her because the ‘Poor woman has no place to stay, why don’t we let her stay with us?’ She makes us all of this food, treats us like we’re royalty. Pampers the hell out of us, and of course, I’m suspicious as hell, but Claude is confident she’s just absolutely wonderous.
“So I go out one night but a bad storm hits and I decide that it’s not worth it and head back to where we’re staying. And here she is with a fucking butcher cleaver trying to hack Claude to pieces. Claude’s still trying to reason with her with a lot of ‘But why?’ and ‘Not my hair!’ and other stupid things when I save him. The woman was this man butcher who thought she was doing humanity a kindness by ridding the world of men.”
“Okay… so the moral of this story is that if you’re kind to someone they are bound to murder you. Got it,” I say.
“Every human I meet, I have to stop and think… are they going to try to murder me? Then I met you,” he says.
“Yeah, and I was just like ‘I wantch yo dick.’”
“That’s exactly how it went. I remember it clearly,” Marcus says with a grin as he pulls the steaks off and sets them on the plates to rest.
“Such fond memories we’ve formed together,” I say, winking at him as I grab a glass for water.
Together, we head to the dining table and sit down to eat. The steak is delicious and cooked perfectly, which always surprises me since Marcus says he didn’t do much cooking before I came since he chose to mostly drink blood.
Once we’re finished and everything is cleaned up, we head to the living room where I pick a movie and we sit down on the couch together. Artie seems to think he’s the same size as Hela as he climbs onto our laps, squishing the shit out of us with a pleased sigh.
I lean against Marcus as Artie destroys the idea of any blood going to my legs. “You are so painful,” I say. He’s too happy to push him off, but the pressure ends up too much for my leg, so Marcus pulls him over to his side, leaving me with Hela who makes three circles and tries to fluff my legs up before lying down with a gigantic sigh, like it was tough work making my lap comfortable enough to snooze on.
About halfway through the movie, Marcus glances at me. “I also got cookies.”
“You know I’m full, but you also know that I absolutely must eat a cookie when one is offered to me,” I say.
“I can get it,” he says from beneath his gigantic dog.
“I think it’d be easier for me,” I admit. “Do you want one?”
“Sure,” he says as I head off with Hela in my arms. She tries to give me a lick, but thankfully, my face is far enough away that I avoid it. As I glance out the window, I hesitate, noticing something outside.
“Marcus?” I ask.
“What’s wrong?”
“Can you come here?”
He manages to get out from under Artie and rushes over to me as I nod at the window.
“Is it my imagination or…”
Marcus immediately sees what I noticed. “Those are the guys from the council, right? Harris and Eugene.”
They’re in a car on the far side of the road but not far enough away to be inconspicuous.
“What the hell are they doing?” I ask since the vehicle appears to be parked.
“Clearly, they’re hoping to catch you at something. What a bunch of assholes,” he says as he yanks the door open.
“Marcus, just ignore them.”
He makes a noise that tells me that ignoring them is the very last thing he’s going to do as he charges down the driveway.
“This is not going to be good,” I tell Hela as I set her down and rush after him. “Marcus, come on, they’re with the council. We can’t fuck up people from the council.”
Marcus has fully decided that murder is on the horizon as he reaches the car and immediately goes for the door. The poor idiots have the door unlocked as Marcus tears it open and looms over Harris.
Without waiting for an excuse, Marcus grabs Harris and tears him out of the car. The issue is that Harris is still seat-belted in so now he’s halfway out of the car while being choked by the now locked seat belt. Instead of desisting, Marcus continues to tug him.
A strangled noise escapes Harris’s mouth as he beats at the seat belt release until it finally lets him go. I thought he was stupid before, but that was the stupidest thing I think he’s ever done because he’s now out of the vehicle and completely in Marcus’s hands.
“Y-You can’t do this!” Harris yells.
“You are illegally on my property,” Marcus growls, even though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t own the road. The thing is, I’m positive that if anyone told him that, they’d immediately change their tune once he gives them the look that he’s currently giving Harris. “Why are you here?”
“We were simply driving by,” Harris says.
“You were parked across from my house snooping around,” Marcus accuses. “Now tell me, what the hell are you doing here?”
“It’s none of your goddamn business, you hear me?” Eugene asks as he jumps out. “You want to be removed from your position in the VRC?”
“I want to watch you try and then we’ll see where you’re at,” Marcus says, refusing to let go.
I set a hand on Marcus’s chest. “Marcus, leave them. They can come inside and stare at us if they damn well want. We’re not doing anything wrong, but if you act like this, they’re going to try to pin something on us.”
The look on Marcus’s face tells me he’s not done, and the way his aura is seeping off him makes me realize that it’s not looking good. Eugene immediately cowers back and Harris offers him his throat, telling me that Marcus is getting in over his head.
“Marcus, please,” I say, feeling anxious about what they’re going to do when they snap back to it. “Please, let’s go in the house. They can do whatever they want. We have nothing to hide. Nothing at all.”
Marcus growls something under his breath before giving Harris a light shove into the side of his car. “Leave Finn alone or I’ll make you both pay, you hear me?”
“We saw you going to Watson’s house, snooping around,” Harris yells, clearly not done.
“Yeah? But our deputy chief knows exactly why,” Marcus snaps. “We’re looking into what Watson and Miller were doing. Happy? Thrilled? Literally, all you needed to do is ask. So far, we haven’t figured out exactly what it is, but there’s speculation that Watson played some role in what’s going on before he died. But you know what? When we do figure it out, all you needed to do was ask and we’d have been more than happy to tell you.”
“I… I expect a full report on M-Monday,” Harris says before getting in the vehicle.
Marcus refuses to leave the spot until the car is well down the road, disappearing into the evening. Soft snowflakes start to flutter toward the ground as I turn to look at Marcus who is staring after the vehicle, likely wishing he had superpowers to blow it up even from here.
“It’s okay,” I say.
“It’s not okay. They need to fucking mind their business. I swear, if I see them around here again, I will fucking make them regret living,” he says as he storms toward the house to kick the mailbox so hard he snaps the post in half.
“Was that worth it?” I ask.
Marcus glares down at the corpse of our mailbox. “Maybe.”
“Now that we have to fix it?”
He stares at it. “I was pretending it was Harris’s head.”
“I’m well aware, but unlike Harris, our mailbox can’t fix itself,” I say as I eye its remains.
Marcus picks it back up and tries to kind of balance it on top. The mailbox immediately flips onto its side. “I mean… they can still use it like this, can’t they?” he asks.
“I… don’t think they can.”
He turns and looks over at Claude’s mailbox. “They have a nicer mailbox.”
“They sure do.”
“We could switch them.”
“Then we’d both have broken mailboxes,” I say.
“Maybe, but then when he goes to fix his, I’ll tell him to fix ours.”
“He’ll definitely never know it was us, then,” I tease.
“Fine. I’ll go get the duct tape.”
“We’re duct taping it?”
“Of course.”
I follow him into the house but after a solid five minutes, I realize there’s no duct tape in the house. “I’ll go ask Claude for some.”
“Okay. Fine, fine,” he says as I head over to Claude’s with the dogs trotting through the snow after me. I knock on the door and Claude immediately looks out.
“Hey, I need a cup of sugar… if you know what I mean,” I say with a wink.
“Is this a sex thing? You sex thinging me?” he asks as he scrutinizes me.
I give him two more winks.
“Alexei! Finn wants to sex thing with us,” Claude says.
“Is Marcus joining? Because if Marcus joins, I’m afraid it’s going to be a bit weird,” Alexei calls back.
“Okay, this whole thing turned extremely uncomfortable really fast, so could I just borrow some duct tape?” I ask.
“Alexei, Finn now wants to bondage and sex thing us,” Claude shouts into the house.
“Ask where Marcus fits in. That’s my biggest concern about this.”
“Not next to me, that’s for sure,” Claude says. “The brother thing is a bit of an issue for me.”
“Right, so if Finn is sandwiched between us, where’s Marcus go?” Alexei asks.
“Dear god. How did you two get so tainted? Did I do this? This is not a sex thing. I just need duct tape. Marcus bitch slapped the mailbox so hard it snapped in half,” I say.
“Oh… well, that’s disappointing,” Claude says.
“Is it?” I ask.
“Alexei, false alarm. It’s not a sex thing. I repeat. Not a sex thing,” Claude shouts. I still can’t see Alexei, which might be for the best.
“Makes sense,” Alexei says before showing up with multiple rolls of duct tape, each one gaudier than the last. “In case you couldn’t tell, Claude picks out the duct tape we have in our household. We have ‘I have murdered and skinned a pink cheetah,’ and ‘This zebra fucked a unicorn,’ and my personal favorite, ‘The cat ate a rainbow before hacking it up.’”
“Ooh, man, tough choices. I’ll take the rainbow cat vomit, please.”
“Thank god. Get it out of our house,” Alexei says as he passes it off. “You want more? Please take more.”
“Nah, rainbow cat vomit is best.” I take it, thank them, and start walking over to Marcus who is waiting at the mailbox. Looks like he’s now trying to ram a rod in next to the mailbox.
“I’m glad it wasn’t a sex thing!” Claude shouts at Marcus.
“What the fuck were you doing over there, Finn?” Marcus asks.
“He said it was the only way he’d let me borrow the tape!” I say. “It was just a little bit.”
Marcus is quite confused. “A little bit of what? Sex thing?”
“Just a tiny bit!”
“What the fuck did you two do?”
I grimace. “Three.”
“What?”
“We were going to invite you, but we thought the brother thing was awkward,” I explain.
Marcus sighs. “Give me the tape you sacrificed your body for.”
With a laugh, I hold it out to Marcus who takes one look at it and cringes. “Please… no. This is what they have?”
“Believe it or not, it was the best of the three choices.”
Marcus sighs but starts winding the tape around the snapped mailbox post and the rod. “God, we should burn it.”
“Want me to ask them for a lighter? Who knows what I’ll have to do for that,” I say, making my eyes wide.
“I’ll fuck them up. Do I need to fuck them up?”
“Two against you? You think you’d win?” I ask.
“No,” he admits and heads toward the house. “But I’d sure as fuck try.”
“Sounds sexy.”
“Good.”
I grin at him as I head into the house where I realize that my cookies had gotten completely forgotten during all of this. “I believe it’s cookie time.”
“Ah yes.”
“Hey, at least it was distracting,” I say with a smile. “I needed a bit of stupid chaos in my life.”
“I’m always here to please,” he says as he leans over and kisses me.