I Am the Wild (The Night Firm #1)- Karpov Kinrade Page 0,37
lash out at the smallest things, then apologize and make it up to me with lavish gifts he couldn't afford. Then the money stress would create another cycle of abuse. He'd choke me, belittle me, twist my fingers until they almost broke. He never full on hit me though. So I didn't think it was abuse. At least, at first."
There's a low growl emanating from Sebastian, and Derek and Liam return, but I continue.
"But Adam walked in once when…when we were fighting, and he lost his shit over what was happening. Nearly beat Jerry to death. He ended up in the hospital with stitches—Jerry, not my brother—and I cut him from life from that point on. When Adam died, I almost caved and called him back. I was so lonely and Adam had been my only real friend. But I resisted, knowing Adam would have been so pissed if I'd done that. But now Jerry won't leave me alone. Though the solution is easy enough at this point."
I surprise them all by standing and tossing my phone to the floor, then stomping it with my feet. I expect a dramatic spraying of glass and metal as the phone explodes, but I'm disappointed. Nothing happens. Not even a crack.
"Seriously?" I ask, picking it up and examining it. "I dropped my last phone on my bed and it sustained more damage than this."
Liam holds out his hand. "May I?" he asks.
I hand it to him, and to my utter shock and astonishment, his hand lights on fire, flames peeling out from his palm and engulfing the phone in dancing golden flames. The phone melts in his hand, and he drops it onto the table and takes a napkin to wipe his palm.
I'm staring bug-eyed at Liam, but no one else seems phased. "This is something you can do? Shoot fire out of your hand?"
Liam glances up at me, but it's not him who answers. In fact, it's not any of the Night brothers. It's Dracula himself, but today he's dressed in jeans and a band t-shirt and I do a double take because it's so incongruous with his appearance yesterday that I can scarcely picture him as the same man.
Dracula steals the room with just his entrance. His voice commands attention. “Have they not told you? They always were too modest with their gifts.”
He walks closer to me, delicately sniffing the air as he does. I nervously wonder if I remembered deodorant. And then I wonder why I care what this prick thinks. And then I go back to being nervous. This is exhausting.
But I won’t be baited. Not by him. I don’t give him the satisfaction of asking what he means. He laid the trap, but I won’t walk into it. I long ago learned the value of silence.
I keep my mouth shut and I wait.
After several moments during which I have to frequently give a gentle shake of a head to warn one of the brothers away from breaking the silence first, Dracula raises an eyebrow and continues. “You’re quite a treasure,” he says, with a gleam in his eye that makes me uncomfortable.
“An often underestimated one,” I say, deliberately catching the gaze of each of the brothers.
“Quite so,” Dracula says. “Very well, then. The Night brothers are not just ordinary vampires. No. There is nothing about this clan that is ordinary.”
Liam growls under his throat, his muscles contracting and his stance shifting to attack mode. Elijah lays a hand on his brother’s shoulder and leans to whisper something in his ear. This seems to take Liam’s rage down a notch or two, which eases some of the tension for everyone. But it’s clear that the brothers do not want Dracula to tell me whatever he’s going to tell me.
It’s equally clear Dracula doesn’t give a shit and is going to tell me anyway.
So I wait.
“The Night brothers,” he continues, his long, elegant finger raised to rest contemplatively against his chin, “were once Sacred Druids of the Holy Order, a secret sect devoted to the higher calling of the gods of nature. But they were banished from the Order and cursed with the Unforgivable Curse. They were each branded with the darkest, most evil aspects of the elements they held in such reverence - earth, air, fire and water - dooming them to a life of pain and hurting all those they had sworn soul vows to help. The inner conflict of their new demons drove them mad!”