Chapter 54

54

R enzo

I hate parties. Too much noise. Too many people. Too many people trying their best to stay out of my way.

Not this party. This party people actually go out of their fucking way to talk to me. Okay, they’re still shaking in their boots when they do it, but they are trying.

Do I like it?

Hmm, not sure yet.

The only person I’m bothered with talking to is my little rabbit. Maybe one of the other dudes when I’m in the mood.

This is different. I guess things are going to be that way now.

The danger’s over. People are talking about new beginnings and change. I don’t know about any of that crap, but what I do know is she may no longer want me around. Little rabbit can be ruthless. Look what happened with the pig .

They’re talking about her like she’s some kind of actual angel, descended from the heavens to save them all. And an angel don’t need no devil hanging about. Kind of spoils the image.

I find a quiet spot on a wall and jump up with a bottle of beer in my hand, making it clear from the fuck-off expression on my face that I’m done with talking for now. I yank the bottle cap off with my teeth and spit it into the flowerbed.

“Hey!” little rabbit says, appearing out of thin air. She reaches out her hand and the bottle cap flies up into her palm. “Do you know how many hours of work I spent making this garden look as good as it does? No littering.”

I swing my gaze around. She may be losing that battle. There are discarded bottles and plastic cups strewn everywhere.

She beckons for me to scoot along and sits down on the wall next to me. I offer her up the bottle and she shakes her head.

“You know I’m not so good with my drink.”

I’m gathering this is the ‘serious’ talk then. Shit. I’ve had enough of those in my lifetime to know when they’re coming even if I can’t read people.

Sorry, you’re too much to handle.

Sorry, we’re kicking you out.

Sorry, but I’m placing a restraining order against you.

It gets old. It’s one of the reasons I stopped talking to people. Killing them was a hell of a lot easier.

Both my thighs jiggle and I’m sweating.

She’s going to ask me to leave and I can’t deny this woman anything. Nah, I can’t even deny that. If she asks, I’ll leave.

It sucks. Life sucks. Just when you think it’s going right – it slaps you hard around the face and kicks you in the balls. Sometimes it even digs a knife right between your ribs.

“You want me to go,” I say. I keep my eyes trained straight ahead. It makes that thing in my chest hurt too much – and not in the good way – to look at her. I’ll leave. I’ll go. Fuck knows where. Fuck knows what I’ll do next.

“Go where?” she says.

“Usually it’s more than 100 yards away.”

“Why would I want you to be 100 yards away from me?”

I sigh. “I know who I am, little rabbit. You know it too. I’m not like them.” I jerk my chin out towards all the fucking normal people. “I don’t fit in. You won’t want me around.”

“Do you usually care what I want?” she mutters.

“I didn’t use to care. I care now. I think you made my heart start working.”

Beside me she shakes her head. “You think you can say things like that to me and I’d actually be able to send you away?”

“People send me away all the time. They find me … difficult.”

“Because you try and kill them.”

“I’m trying my best not to do that. I know you don’t like it.” I turn my gaze back to her, unable to resist it anymore. She’s so … fascinating. “You didn’t kill your dad. You didn’t kill Christopher Kennedy. Even though you had the chance.”

“If we kill, they kill, then we kill, on and on it goes until there’s no one left. It’s time to end the cycle of violence. It’s too … exhausting.”

“Violence is all I’ve ever known, little rabbit,” I say softly. It’s my earliest memory. The belt. The buckle. Because I couldn’t sit still .

“But now you know something softer,” she whispers, stroking her hand down my cheek, “and you like it.”

“I like it,” I say, covering her hand and pressing it firmly against my face. “I like it a lot.”

“Better than the violence?”

“If you were touching me like this every day, I’d have no need to kill,” I admit.

“Then you’re staying right with me.”

“Even though I’m crazy?” I say, my eyes meeting hers.

“You’re not crazy, Renzo. You’re …”

“Different? Special? Yeah, they mean the same thing.”

“You’re perfect just the way you are. And I love you.”

A warmth spreads from the very center of my heart right through my body, along my limbs to the ends of my fingers and the tips of my toes and my bond hums with something I think might be happiness. It feels fucking amazing.

“Shit, you do?”

No one ever said that before. Not even my mom.

No one.

“Yes.”

“I love you too, little rabbit.”

“I know,” she says.

“How? I never told you before.”

“Actions speak louder than words.”

“Yeah, they do,” I say. “It’s why I’m going to show you every damn day how much I love you. Gonna start every day by burying my mouth between your legs, licking out your pussy and making you come all over my face.”

“Oh, jeez,” she says, and I think about dropping down to my knees and doing that right now. Sure there are people about, but I reckon I could hide under the skirt of her dress.

I don’t get the chance to enact that idea though. We’re interrupted by the others – her other fated mates, the smart girl with the braids and the enforcer’s sister.

“Everyone’s going down to the meadow to watch the sunrise,” the smart girl says. “Wanna come?”

“No,” I say, clinging on to the idea of the pussy eating. “I’m about to make her come.”

“Yes!” little rabbit says, giving me one of those looks she does when she wants me to be nice, and jumping down from the wall.

She hooks one arm through the smart girl’s and one through the sister’s and they walk, heads bent together as they talk so quickly it makes my head spin.

“Nice try, Barone,” the were says, slapping me on the back. “But don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of time for that.”

I walk with the others, slam bang in the middle of them, right behind little rabbit. I guess he’s right. I belong here now. She says she loves me. She says she wants to keep me. For the first time in my life, I’m part of a family. Which means I’ve got the rest of my life to be eating her pussy. Heck, I wonder if I’ll make it to 50.

There’s a crowd already gathered in the meadow, people exploding their magic over their heads creating colors of all sorts in the dark sky. In the distance, I can make out the glow that must be Los Magicos and behind the tall trees are the sleeping forms of dragons.

“Wanna show them how it’s done?” Tristan says.

“Yeah, let’s show them,” Rhi answers.

She holds out her hands. Azlan takes one. Tristan the other. Spencer takes Tristan’s hand and Phoenix Azlan’s. The circle needs closing. I step forward and take their free hands. There’s no flinching, no mumbles of annoyance from Phoenix. We link hands and let our magic flow freely between us, round and round the circle .

“You know your magic would be stronger if you formed a star and not a circle,” Winnie calls out.

But we’re all too engrossed in this moment, in this feeling of connection. It’s the fucking bomb.

I laugh, my cheeks tugging my mouth upwards and then together we shoot our magic upwards, letting it cartwheel and dance high up into the stars, exploding into a million colors.

Everyone around us stops to watch, and the meadow falls quiet as we paint the sky with magic. All of us bringing a piece of ourselves to the picture, knowing it wouldn’t be complete without us all.

“The sun,” someone calls out.

And we let our magic fall away and watch the sun as it rushes over the horizon, rays of light darting across the sky, the dark melting into light.

“Dawn,” I say quietly.

“A new day,” Phoenix says, laying his hand on my shoulder. “A new beginning, my friend.”