Page 26 of Blood Claims (Garnet Dagger Mafia #2)

FIXING FIREFLY

VICTOR

P ain and suffering.

This was a currency my brother and I often dealt in.

It was an inevitable part of our dark and dangerous world.

And like most empires, ours had been built on blood-soaked ground.

Blood we had been all too happy to spill.

It was a necessary evil, and one that continued, to this day, as one of the Fondatori.

The Kings of this world who held the sacred dagger as proof of their position. One my father held before I did.

A crown to keep and an empire to rule.

Yet in all my sinful years, never had the pain of another affected me like this. A pain that with every word spoken, had carved deeper and deeper into my soul. And I was not alone in this, as I knew how my brother also struggled.

Because we had prepared for some kind of tale of woe.

Knew that it had been bad, we just didn’t realize how bad.

How much of a tortured soul our Fated was.

A fractured soul we were determined to fix, to mend, to heal.

And like I said, we had our suspicions that her childhood hadn’t been a happy one, but we never could have imagined the things she told us.

And now… we had someone else to kill.

Because if we thought her asshole ex had deserved to die for stealing from her, then nothing on this Earth could save her fucked up father from the wrath we would soon bring upon him.

There was a special place in Hell for abusive parents, and my brother and I would certainly make sure he got there… and fucking soon.

But first, we had a more imminent threat to eliminate.

This Shadow Man, as Vanessa had called him.

A chill had rippled down my body at the very mention of him.

As for Tal, he believed it to be the work of the witch and, at this rate, I hoped for that to be the case.

As it was better than the alternative we didn’t ever want to face.

An alternative I was not willing to grant weight to in the form of thought and worry.

Not yet.

As for Vanessa, hearing all she had to tell us made us understand her better.

To understand her reluctance and fear. Her self-doubt and disbelief in our love for her was understandable after everything she had lived through.

All she had endured. In fact, the only kindness she had found was from her friend Stacey.

A girl I had a newfound respect for. This, despite the complications our second in command may now bring, as it was clear he may have found his own Fated.

In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised to have found him there now, watching over her from the shadows.

But then my brother and I knew, more than most, how hard it was to stay away from your fated once you were lucky enough to find them.

And if she was his fated, then it wasn’t like we could have ordered him to stay away.

Even a King was forbidden to get in between a Vampire and his Moirai Theía.

Although, how Vanessa would feel about this, I had no clue.

But I doubt she would be happy at the idea of her friend being kidnapped as she had been.

But this was a problem for another day, as right now our only concern was ensuring Nessa’s safety.

Along with proving to her that we would never hurt her.

Not like all the others in her life had.

We would show her what it was like to be cared for, to be loved and adored.

She deserved it more than anyone else I had ever met, whether she was our Fated or not.

She deserved it all.

Hell, but even getting the girl to accept some new clothes had been a battle, one we had happily won.

However, the second I saw her fearful eyes take in the sight of the renowned jewelry store, I knew she had hit her limit.

And we weren’t fools, for we knew not to push too hard too soon.

Hence why we had wanted to gift her with that slice of normality she craved.

But then this had not been a hardship on our side, as our walk in the park had been just that.

It had been surprisingly enjoyable.

Proving that anything we did with her, we would be captivated enough to enjoy it.

Even so far as to spend the whole day risking being seen, risking our secret of being able to withstand daylight being discovered.

The easy conversation had flowed like we had known her all our lives.

The gentle teasing, playful banter, and easy laughter had come as natural as breathing.

It honestly made me question my own personality, for she seemed to have drawn it out of me.

A side of myself that I never believed existed, but one I had happily embraced around her.

And the same could be said for my brother, as he too seemed to have changed his ways.

Times in the park, eating hotdogs, and drinking in the beauty…

not in nature, but in all that was her. A beauty to be found in a pair of green-blue eyes dancing with mirth was not something I ever expected my brother to have embraced.

But yet, here we were. Evenings spent playing house, instead of nights at the club feeding our darkness with blood and power.

Nights spent holding our fated, offering comfort like it was second nature.

Which, I guess it was, for we did so without restraint or question.

But now we had a new threat to be wary of, as I swear waking up and finding her gone had our fucking hearts in our throats!

The twin panic had gripped us both, making us question how the fuck it had happened!

? How had she managed to slip past us again?

We feared the witch hadn’t take the ability from her like we assumed.

The only reason we had put on clothes was so as we were at the ready to chase her in the streets, had it come to that.

But one quick look at the security footage told us that she hadn’t even left the building! Which was when we had heard the screams, making us both look to each other and shout,

“The roof!” After that, we had all but tore the fucking doors from their hinges to reach her in time.

My panic multiplying tenfold in fear of what we may find.

Questioning had we been too late? Had she hit her limit in trying to be free of us and we had read it all wrong.

Had we unknowingly been too rough with her, after all, and made her do something stupid?

Something irreversible.

Something we had missed.

Oh, we had missed it alright, but just not in the way we had thought.

As it was clear someone was pulling on her strings, somehow able to connect to her mind in its most vulnerable state.

Because when she had confessed to her heart-breaking past, she had gone on to tell us her dream in its entirety.

Something that had been almost as difficult to hear as her tragic past had been.

The urge to go ballistic and give into rage was a battle we both fought and thankfully won for her sake.

However, the challenge was how we could ever hope to protect her from her dreams. For it was a piece of her that we couldn’t ever hope to reach.

Not when another had that hold on her. And as for the witch, she was in the fucking wind, so that didn’t help matters.

No, it just left us with an unknown threat and an enemy we couldn’t physically fight.

But when we could, then fucking heads would roll!

Because no one fucked with our girl and lived to tell the tale.

In fact, all the ways I would kill them was the only thing that calmed my mind enough to not let rage take center stage.

As the last thing Nessa needed was dealing with our murderous outbursts.

She had already seen enough of it, firsthand, when turning up at the warehouse.

She didn’t need us adding to it with detailed commentary as to what would happen should we find the shadowed fucker!

So, we had kept our rage on a short leash…

for now. Instead, calming our darkness in other delicious ways as we indulged in the pleasure of our Fated and her hot little body.

And holy fuck but what an erotic picture she made.

Her body was just as addictive as her blood.

Her whimpering cries, breathy moans, and unrestrained screams of sexual gratification were like fucking magic weaving itself into our every thought.

The feel of her body writhing against us, soaked skin, slick with her release, her blood, and anything else we chose to bathe her body in, it was fucking addictive.

But the one thing we hadn’t yet done is take her as one.

For fucking her that way was not an experience she’d ever had, and we didn’t want to go too fast too quickly.

Even if that was precisely what we fucking craved to do.

We craved to have her feed from us both as we each claimed a piece of her in return, doing so as one.

Both cocks filling her tight little holes so she was stuffed so full of us, she wouldn’t even know her own body.

Fuck, but I couldn’t wait!

It was the last piece to complete the claiming, and not one we wanted to rush her into. Not when she was still in such a vulnerable place, her mind held like a weapon against us. One that could fire at any given moment as her self-doubts ignited.

So, despite how hard it was, we agreed to take it slow. To ease her into this life we had essentially forced her to live. Yes, it made us bastards, but I didn’t give a shit. For there was no other way. Which meant trust needed to be built between us and we knew that would take time.

Time that we thought we had until this latest dream had nearly taken her from us. As one wrong step and she could have been lost forever. Which had us both questioning, had the intension been to kill her or was there something else going on here?