Vampire in Geek's Clothing (Psy-Vamp Book 6) (18 page)

“Such a pity,” Talia added with a dramatic sigh. “We can
have your back officially as soon as the elders claim you. They may want you to
stay with one of the elders until the danger passes.”

“They may also want your missing breeder cousin, and
something tells me there is more to this story than you want to tell me,” Mason
pointed out.

“We don’t need the rest of the story,” Brandon added
quickly. “It’s best if we don’t know at this point.”

“So, you’ll tell us what the elders decide regarding
claiming Phoenix?” Isaiah asked.

Mason nodded. “Is the number you texted me from still going
to be working when I try to get in touch with you?”

“That’s my number,” Justin assured him. “I have no interest
in changing it.”

Mason nodded. “I gave you my real number, too.”

“I’ll send you Isaiah’s number, as well, since he’s usually
with Phoenix,” Justin told him.

Mason grinned. “How about sending me your hot wife’s
number?”

Talia laughed. “Give it up, Mason. The vampire is not going
to let you have his wife’s number, and she’s not interested in you.”

Mason shrugged, still grinning. “Can’t blame a guy for
trying.”

“I have another question,” Isaiah said, staring at Mason.
“Why did you call me the hacker? Is it because of the glasses?”

“It’s the calluses on your fingertips,” Mason told him,
holding up his own callused fingertips.

Isaiah’s eyebrows rose, and Phoenix almost laughed at his
intrigued expression.

Mason clapped Isaiah on the back on the way to the front
door. “You and I will talk computers later. For now, we’ll try to help you keep
Phoenix safe.”

Isaiah was lying on his side, wrapped around Phoenix. In the
early morning, his mind was still fuzzy from sleep, and he felt content and
safe. Looking over at the clock, he saw that it was just past eight, and he’d
probably still be asleep if Roman wasn’t coming by for breakfast. He’d have to
wake Phoenix soon. His phone vibrated with an incoming message. Reluctantly
releasing Phoenix, he rolled over to grab his phone, and found a text from
Mason.

The elders got your girl’s back. Seattle agrees she’s
ours, but they lost track of the hunters with Hayden a couple days ago. Not
sure if they went rogue or Hayden killed them. Last they heard, the hunters and
Hayden were in this area.

He sent a quick response.

Thanks for the update and for helping. Any chance you can
help us track down Hayden?

Mason’s reply came back right away.

Elders say no. They also want Phoenix in one of our safe
houses.

Isaiah didn’t even have to think about his reply.

No.

His phone buzzed with Mason’s reply.

I told them you would say that. They are not happy about
her staying with vampires, but they aren’t willing to order her to come to
them. Call me if you need help. Talia and Brandon will also have your back if you
need them.

“Who are you texting?” Phoenix asked.

“Mason,” he told her. “The elders here are claiming you, and
the Seattle hunters agreed. I guess Hayden and the hunters with him went off
the grid, so they can’t call them off.”

“Do you think we should ask the local hunters to help Shayla
and my parents?” she asked.

“Let’s worry about that later,” he told her. “With Hayden in
this area, I think your parents are safer if they don’t come here.”

Phoenix nodded. “I suppose you’re right. It’s also best if
no one else finds out about Hunter.”

“I wish we could stay in bed all day,” Isaiah said with a
sigh.

“Why can’t we?” she asked.

“Roman is coming by to discuss what happened last night,”
Isaiah told her. “I’d rather just tell him over the phone, but he’s pretty
old-fashioned and hates his phone.”

“I suppose the older you are, the harder it is to adapt to
technology,” she said thoughtfully.

“Sofia is older than Roman, and she’s not at all resistant
to technology,” Isaiah argued. “Roman just spent too much time as a recluse.”
The alarm on his phone went off, reminding him that they needed to get dressed.
“Roman will be here in thirty minutes for breakfast, so we should get ready.”

Phoenix gave him a sexy pout. “I was hoping we could spend a
little more time in bed.”

“I know you’re tired, but we need to get up,” Isaiah told
her before kissing her nose.

Reaching under the covers, Phoenix gripped his cock and
squeezed. “I wasn’t thinking about sleeping, but what I have in mind does
involve you being up.”

Isaiah groaned when she stroked the length of his growing
erection. “I supposed we could be a little late for breakfast.”

They were more than a little late for breakfast, if the
annoyed look Roman shot their way was any indication. Honestly, Phoenix hadn’t
even looked at the time when they’d left Isaiah’s room. Isaiah had done a good
job of making her forget they even needed to go downstairs for breakfast.

“How nice of you to join us,” Roman greeted them in a cool
voice.

“You didn’t tell me it was nice that I joined you,” Josef
complained.

Lydia snorted. “That’s because it isn’t nice to have you at
breakfast.”

“Lydia,” Roman warned, but his wife didn’t seem the least
bit intimidated by him.

“Don’t get all snippy with me,” Lydia told Roman. “We don’t
like him. I’ve already told you, we’re taking Helena’s side.”

“Since when do you allow a woman to speak for you?” Josef
foolishly asked Roman.

“Oh, hell no!” Lydia shouted. “Don’t you dare talk around
me! I don’t like you. Caitlin doesn’t like you. I’m pretty sure Justin doesn’t
like you. Your own wife can’t stand you.”

Hurt flashed in Josef’s eyes, and Phoenix actually felt bad
for him. “Helena told you that?” he asked in a small voice.

“She doesn’t have to,” Lydia continued.

“Lyd,” Caitlin tried to interrupt her, but Lydia either
didn’t hear or chose to ignore her.

“Helena has been avoiding you for months,” Lydia continued.
“Why would she do that if she wanted to be around you? Not that any of us blame
her after the way you’ve treated her.”

“I see,” Josef said softly. “If you’ll excuse me, I have
some calls to make.” With that, he stood and walked out of the room.

“That was really harsh,” Caitlin told Lydia.

“Coming from Caitlin, that really says something,” Justin
added. “Not that I don’t agree with everything you said.” His statement was met
with a glare from Caitlin.

“I feel bad for him,” Phoenix murmured, looking at the door
Josef had exited through.

“Don’t feel too bad for him,” Isaiah told her. “To be
honest, I think he needs to hear this kind of stuff if he’s got any hope of
fixing things with my mom.”

“Fixing things?” Justin demanded. “Are you out of your
mind?”

“He loves her,” Caitlin argued.

“And he treats her like crap, which essentially cancels out
the love part of this equation,” Justin argued.

“At one point, they were desperately in love,” Roman
remarked with very little emotion. “Helena left Alek to be with Josef, and they
were happy. I believe Josef can change.” He reached out and took Lydia’s hand,
a smile playing on his lips when he looked at his wife. “If I can change, Josef
certainly can.”

Justin snorted.

“Where is Drew?” Phoenix asked to change the subject.

“He said he’d talk to you later,” Caitlin responded. “He
figured Roman didn’t want him at breakfast, and he was getting pissed at
Josef.”

Phoenix nodded, making a mental note to hunt Drew down after
breakfast so they could talk about Shayla. The more she thought about it, the
more she suspected it would be a very bad idea for Drew to get anywhere near
her cousin. He was right about Shayla having some serious issues, and Phoenix
didn’t think Drew was in the best mental state to help her.

“We’ve already filled Roman in on the details of the meeting
with the hunters last night,” Justin began.

“Mason texted me this morning,” Isaiah began. “The local
hunters agreed to claim Phoenix.”

“This is good news,” Roman said.

“The problem we have now is that the Seattle hunters have
lost contact with Hayden and the hunters who were with him,” Isaiah continued.
“They did confirm that they’re in this area.”

“I still don’t get why they let Hayden go with them to look
for me,” Phoenix wondered out loud.

“Maybe they realize he’s a hot mess of crazy and are hoping
he’ll get killed,” Lydia suggested.

That was a possibility Phoenix hadn’t considered, but it
made sense. It was always possible they’d decided Hayden’s mental state made
him too flawed to breed. If that was the case, the hunters with him might even
be under orders to make sure he didn’t survive the trip. The hunters were
seriously mistaken if they thought Hayden was going to be an easy kill.

“The hunters with him might be dead,” Phoenix stated.

“Why do you say that?” Roman asked.

“I can’t see the hunters stopping communication if they’re
still alive,” she explained.

“It’s also possible they’ve gone rogue for some reason,”
Lydia suggested. “You’ve got a bunch of people who’ve been trained to kill, but
they don’t kill anyone anymore, right?”

“True,” Phoenix agreed. “The hunters and vampires have an
agreement, and I haven’t heard of more than a handful of times when hunters
have had to go after vampires. Most of those were in Europe.” From what she’d
heard, there weren’t many vampire families in North America, and they tended to
stay out of trouble.

“I’m still surprised they didn’t find out about Drew’s crazy
mom and kill her,” Lydia mused.

“Phoebe was a serial killer with a specific ritual she
followed with most of her kills,” Roman explained. “Any that deviated from
that, she disposed of the bodies, not because she was trying to avoid detection
by hunters so much as she hated deviating from her planned ritual.”

“How long did you let her do this?” Phoenix asked, annoyed
that they’d allowed a serial killer to run free for any length of time.

“Way too long,” Lydia answered for Roman. “They kept
thinking they could control her and keep her from killing people, which was
stupid. Eventually, they decided she had to be taken out.”

“Taken out?” Caitlin asked with a snort. “Have you been
reading stories about the mob again?”

Lydia flipped Caitlin off.

“So, Drew’s mom never made it onto anyone’s radar as a
problem,” Phoenix surmised. “I think I see where you were going before we
started talking about Drew’s mom. You think that it’s likely some of the
hunters want to kill people, and they may actually look for excuses to kill,
which is ironic since that’s what the hunters say they’re afraid the vampires
will do.”

“It happens with some of us,” Roman admitted. “I’m sure the
same is true with hunters.”

“So, you think the hunters with Hayden may still be alive
but hoping to kill me,” Phoenix said.

“It may not be you they’re hoping to kill,” Isaiah
interjected. “I think you’re right about Hayden being the biggest threat. At
the very least, Hayden knows you have some connection to our family or he
wouldn’t have killed Andrei. Whether he knows about Hunter is another story.”

They were all quiet for a short time before Justin spoke.
“We may have an issue involving my mom.”

“Let me guess,” Roman began. “Your mother is being
stubborn.”

“She refuses to take any time off from work,” Isaiah
explained. “We have someone accompanying her to and from work. I also have
security in the parking garage the days she’s scheduled to work.”

“She thinks no one can tie her to us since she’s using a
different last name,” Justin added.

“That makes it more difficult to find her connection to our
family, but not impossible,” Roman grumbled. “This is especially true after her
recent visit here.”

“Are you regretting having me here now?” Phoenix asked with
a wry twist of her lips. While she hated the fact that she’d turned their lives
upside down, she couldn’t help being grateful that she wasn’t alone anymore.

Surprisingly, it was Roman who answered her. “Our family
would be a target even if you weren’t here. Your presence has been quite
helpful. You’ve been able to give us more information to help prepare for any
attack.”

“You also make my brother happy,” Justin told her.

“He’s right,” Isaiah assured her, taking her hand in his. “I
could never regret having you with me.”

Drew was prowling around the house, doing his best to avoid
interrupting the big breakfast meeting. It didn’t really come as any surprise
to him that his mind was fully focused on finding Shayla. He usually either
didn’t give a fuck, or he was obsessed. There was rarely any middle ground. At
the moment, he was fixated on helping the bat shit crazy breeder, meaning he’d
end up pissing Roman off by asking questions about Shayla if he was in the
room. Despite what most people believed, Drew was well aware of how much patience
it took for Roman to put up with him on a good day. Today wasn’t likely to be a
good day.

When Drew noticed his uncle, Josef, brooding in one of the
sitting rooms he passed, he was tempted to keep walking. Then he realized Josef
might be a good distraction, something he definitely needed.

“Why aren’t you at breakfast with the others?” Drew asked.
From what he could tell, his uncle was too clueless to realize others didn’t
want him around.

Josef observed him with a bland expression. “I could ask you
the same question, but I’d guess you’re not there for the same reason I’m not.”

“You’re obsessing over a crazy chick you’ve never met?” Drew
asked.

Josef chuckled. “Okay, we may have different reasons for not
being there. I’m not very popular with the family.”

Drew shrugged and dropped down onto one of the plush chairs,
draping a leg over one arm of the chair. “I don’t know you very well, but you
kind of come off like you have a stick shoved up your ass most of the time.
Then again, so does Justin and they hang out with him, so that can’t be why
they all want to avoid you.”

Rather than looking offended, his uncle let out a
full-bellied laugh. When he finally got his laughter under control, he smiled
at Drew. “We’ve never spoken, have we?”

“Nope,” Drew replied. “Near as I can tell, you don’t leave
your house much.”

Josef sighed. “I’ve never been good at adapting to change.”

“You’re also a dick,” Drew reminded him, not in the mood to
beat around the bush. Josef was a dick who’d fucked up a good thing. Helena was
beautiful in an almost intimidating way. Drew had always avoided talking to
her, mostly because she wasn’t the type of woman he’d flirt with. Helena tried
to be nice to him, like Trish. She never looked at him like he was some rabid
dog who needed to be put down, even though he suspected she knew why her sons
didn’t like him. The other reason he wouldn’t come onto her had to do with
Isaiah. Much as it pained him to admit it, he liked his cousin, and fucking
with Isaiah’s mom seemed wrong. That was something he’d never admit to anyone.

The silence stretched between them until Josef finally
spoke. “Did you come in here to insult me?” Josef finally asked.

“Nah,” Drew told him. “That was fun, but that’s not why I’m
here. Actually, I was tempted to pretend I didn’t see you, but I figured even
if I can’t solve my own issues this morning, I might be able to help you with
yours.”

“I don’t see how,” Josef scoffed before looking almost
embarrassed by his own behavior. “Sorry. That was rude of me. The truth is, I
don’t believe anyone can help me.”

“I may have phrased that wrong,” Drew admitted, regarding
him through hooded eyes. “I can’t fix your problems, and I can’t make you stop
acting like a dick. I know better than most how hard it is to stop being a
dick, and I haven’t been one nearly as long as you.”

“You say whatever comes to your mind without consideration,
don’t you?” Josef asked.

“Yep,” Drew responded before sitting up in the chair to
regard his uncle in a more critical manner. “You should be grateful for that.
The last thing you need is more lies. That’s why I’m going to just lay this out
for you. You’ve moved from the point of loving your wife to her being a sick
obsession. That shit won’t work.”

“You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” Josef
spat out.

“Don’t I?” Drew asked with a raised eyebrow. “At first, I
thought your obsession with her was the same as love, but it’s not. I’ll bet,
when you first met her, you didn’t make her think she needed to change to make
you happy. If you had, she’d still be with Alek.”

Josef looked down, and Drew knew he’d hit a nerve. “When I
first met Helena, she took my breath away, and it had nothing to do with the
way she looks. She is, and always has been, stunning, but it was the sweet
woman inside that made my heart feel like it was going to beat out of my chest
whenever she looked at me.”

“She’s still that nice,” Drew pointed out. “Why’d you start
telling her she wasn’t good enough? Seriously, that’s crazy. You’re the one
who’s not good enough for her.”

“And I never could be,” Josef admitted with a defeated sigh.
“When she started to change and become more independent, I was terrified she’d
leave me.”

“So, you abused her,” Drew finished for him.

“No!” Josef nearly shouted. “I’ve never even considered
striking Helena.”

“You didn’t have to,” Drew told him. “You fucked with her
head and made her think she wasn’t good enough so she wouldn’t leave you.
That’s abuse.”

“I thought you said you were going to help me,” Josef
muttered.

“I am helping you,” Drew told him. “You love her still,
right?”

“Even more than I did the day I married her,” Josef said
without hesitation.

“Then let her go,” Drew stated simply.

“I can’t,” Josef insisted.

“Then you don’t love her. If you love her as much as you say
you do, you’ll let her go, and then fix the shit that’s broken in you—that shit
that makes you hurt her. Once you do that, then you can try to win her back.
Any other way, and you’re just an asshole who abuses his wife and blames it on
everyone else. Own up to being the asshole you are, and try to be a better
man.”

Drew didn’t wait for his uncle’s reply, just stood and left
the room, wondering when he’d become the type to give relationship advice.