After I Fall (Immortal Billionaires #1) - Melissa Sercia Page 0,64
under my breath. “It’s probably for the best that you sleep anyway.” I scooped her up in my arms and carried her to the car, leaving behind my past once and for all, but more uncertain than ever about my future.
Through the darkness, I could make out Ozi’s shadow. I was in my room, in my apartment, and he was quietly sitting in a chair watching me. I ran my fingers across my neck in a panic. A sense of relief washed over me once I realized I hadn’t been bitten. I pulled the cord on the lamp next to my bed and muted light poured through the room.
Ozi sat stoic, wearing his usual three piece suit, but the top buttons were undone. His hair was ruffled, matted slightly with a light sheen of sweat. His shirt was stained with blood but his hands were washed clean. He gripped the arms of the chair and stared directly at me.
“How are you feeling?” he asked casually, as if I’d gotten food poisoning and had not just been kidnapped by a vampire. As if I hadn’t just learned that vampires existed.
My throat was raw. I reached for the glass of water by my bed and took a long sip. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, never taking my eyes off him. “How do you think I’m feeling? How would you feel if you saw two people murdered in front of you? One was drained of all her blood and the other had her heart ripped out. How should I feel?”
He sighed and leaned his head back against the chair. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. I was going to explain everything to you. I swear.”
I sat up straighter, crossing my arms. “Tell me everything. Right now.”
There was an entire world that existed that I had no idea about. And apparently my life was tied to it even before I met Ozi.
“Let me pour us a drink first. You are going to need it.” He went to the kitchen and returned with two bucket glasses full to the brim with whiskey.
As he handed me one, I couldn’t help but flinch. It was a reflex. I knew I had nothing to be scared of. If he had wanted to hurt me, he could have done it weeks ago. And he did save me from Camille. But he was still a predator. And that terrified me.
He smiled and set the glass down on the bedside table. “I’ve been a vampire for two hundred years. I have no idea who made me. The last thing I remember was being attacked. Then I woke up on a fishing dock with an insatiable thirst for blood. It took me years to understand what I was. It took even longer to find people like me.”
“And Cassius?” I asked.
Ozi stiffened. “No. He’s not a vampire.”
“But I saw how fast he moved…” I was confused more than ever now.
“He’s a werewolf.” Ozi stated it as calmly as one would talk about the weather.
This night was just getting crazier and stranger than I ever thought possible. “How many…things are out there?”
Ozi winced at my phrasing. “Many. There are witches, and incubi, fairies, and demons. Those are just the ones we know about.”
Demons? “How could all of you exist and we not know about it?”
Ozi smiled. “Because we have a lot of money and we are good at pretending. And truthfully, adult humans only see what they want to see. It’s much harder to hide who we are around children.”
“You didn’t make billions off of food and wine, did you? What else do you do? How are you all so rich?”
“We trade and sell things on the black market. We hunt magical artifacts. Well, Lux does most of the hunting, but the three of us—Lux, Cassius, and myself—own the business together.”
I took a long swig of my whiskey. My head felt light and dizzy. “How many humans know about you?”
Ozi shrugged. “Not many. Enzo, a couple people on Cassius’s payroll…your roommate Piper. She’s with Lux now looking for something very important.”
My stomach dropped. How in the hell did everyone around me know what was going on but me? “Piper? I must look like the biggest idiot. Here I am whining to everyone about my ex-boyfriend while you all are living in a real life urban fantasy novel.”
“Don’t ever think that about yourself, Raven. How could you possibly know? I didn’t keep you in the dark to hurt you,