Page 16 of His Atonement

He is why Havok and I were sent into town to fetch fresh linens and cookware, groceries, and other necessities to stock that cabin with, but only after we replaced the disgusting appliances, added a new mattress and boarded up holes so that animals cannot get in.

ThisFrankieis also the reason my sister ordered me to buy things for what will become my cabin once she and her mate complete their new home—hopefully before the twins arrive— and convinced me to use the trip to get what I will need as well. Which is why I purchased the linens in secret while Havok was preoccupied. If thisFrankieis the cause for my most unwelcome shopping trip, then I shall make him feel the same, starting with his new bedding.

He is also why I've scarcely seen my sister these past four days since she has kept Andrej and Allie's adorable daughters while they traveled to California to retrieve him. My most precious gem is just shy of ten months pregnant and wanted to prove to herself she could handle two small babes, so she has embraced the opportunity to spend time with her nieces—ournieces, I suppose—and though she has done an outstanding job, my sweet Cora has also been exhausted.

I know very little of this Frankie, just that he is Allie's cousin and closest relation, only relation left apparently, and he will be living here from now on.

And for some reason, I also know that I do not like this Frankie one bit.

There is an electricity that accompanies his name, a charge to the air that causes my skin to prickle similarly to whenhe who shall not be namedvisits.

Not the same, no, but similar enough that when the chill bumps scatter across my flesh, the pit of my stomach floods with warmth, the hair on the back of my neck stands on end, it makes me slightly ill at ease; which is something I never am.

I fear thisFrankieis going to bring a great many complications to my life and I have no time for it.

Which is exactly why I've resolved to be an insufferable asshole to him while we share property.

Forty or fifty years of tormenting a human is nothing when I no doubt have thousands upon thousands of years left in me myself.

Perhaps I can even convince him to make a deal, allowing me to collect his soul when the time comes.

Gods, it's been ages since I've collected a soul, since I've felt the white hot pain that burns my skin briefly as it becomes a part of me for all time.

It's been just as long since I've drained anyone's vitality, toyed with any mortals just for shits and giggles.

My most precious gem has put a stop to my ministrations completely since I've been here, and since I cannot deal with the withdrawal from that as I usually do—also thanks to her—I fear it is only a matter of time before I come unglued.

And it is also why I've become rather resourceful, and had to get creative with a new way of coping.

I now smoke like a goddamn chimney. I chain smoke a rather lethal concoction of herbs that barely takes the edge off, thus creating the need to have that shit day and night.

"Let me hit that.” Milos pulls me from my thoughts as he leans around Kai, reaching toward my blunt.

My blunt I quickly pull away before inhaling it down to a roach. "Absolutely not," I snap as I hold the smoke in my lungs. "I do not share." Not this sort of thing, anyway.

Milos frowns. "Just a little one."

"No."

"Come on, Tarzan. Just one tiny hit."

My brows slam down over my eyes and practically touch my lips as I exhale with a scowl. "Do not call me that idiotic name."

The little shit grins. "Tarzan? You don't want me to call you Tarzan? But I thought that was your full name."

"You know it is not," I grit through clenched teeth.

"I know no such thing." Milos's smirk widens. "How could I possibly know what your true name is when the only time I have heard it was when the little one ripped it from you, and made you scream it like a little bitch?"

I lunge toward him, reaching for his throat, intending to squeeze until his eyes pop out, but Kai intercepts me. The king throws himself between Milos and I, pushes back against me with so much force he almost succeeds.

Almost.

Instead, I fade back and when he slips from the amount of momentum he used, I push forward harder and slam Kai down onto his brother.

"Enough!" Kai huffs as I bear down on his chest. "Enough, you obnoxious morons!"

But I have not had enough.