Virgil [Marius Brothers 8] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour ManLove) (8 page)

“Thank you, your highness,” I chuckled as I raised her hand to my lips. “But I don’t want to fight. He probably was trying to help and thought he was doing the right thing and knew what was really going on. He just didn’t. He doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does. Maybe I’ll thank him one day because apparently it was the straw that broke the camel’s back and I’m done giving a shit who I’m embarrassing, who doesn’t like what I have to say, or who might get pissed off.”

“I think you’re long overdue for that attitude and it’s understandable how angry you are. Might I make a suggestion though?”

“Of course.” She was a good person, wise and kind, and I knew she wouldn’t steer me the wrong way.

“You still might want to speak with Ayden. What we see as a child can be quite different than what happened and we only realize that sometimes after age and perspective. I think yours might have been taken away with the amount of people it happened with.”

“You saw that too?” I whispered, my cheeks heating up.

“Some.” She shrugged. “It was on your mind so it was hard not to. Time to be honest and move past what’s happened and focus on what’s best for you. Even if that means not conforming with what the rest of your family does.”

“We don’t care that he’s mated to two men,” Mother said, hurt in her voice.

“Not what I was talking about,” the Queen clarified. My parents shot me a look and I sighed as the Queen gave me a nod.

“I bought one of the houses in the development under a different name. Tyler doesn’t even know. I had Ferris help me, saying it was for one of the margays. I don’t want to live at the estate or with all of you.”

My mother turned away as if I’d just slapped her as my father’s eyes filled with sadness. Yeah, that’s about how I saw that going.

“Whatever, it’s fine. Forget it,” I quickly said. “I’m going to go grab my stuff so we can get home and get this over with.” I hurried away before anyone could say anything. Maybe I should just leave the coven? After we dealt with the threat of Councilman Dubois and his traitor in our coven maybe I should just start over somewhere else.

Just as I got to my room I realized my mates were running after me. I had just enough time to flick them off before slamming the door in their face. Yeah, moving somewhere and starting all over where no one knew me or could find me sounded pretty damn good actually.

Several hours later we were all at the Marius estate, gathered in the media room, and I had just finished giving them the same presentation I had last night. And by
them
I mean my entire family and their mates, my mates, who wouldn’t stay in Greece even though I told them they weren’t welcome. My mother was to thank for that. Along with the Queen, several of her people, Elder Dawson, Barnabas and his mates, King Rylan and his mates, Isaac, Dillon, Darcy, and their mates… Basically
everyone
.

“So what do we do now?” Caven asked me after several minutes of silence, everyone digesting what I said.

“You believe me?” I was shocked, not even able to school my reaction in time and letting everyone see that.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” he chuckled. “That was awesome, Virgil. I mean, I couldn’t have put that all together ever if you gave me half those answers. When people ask me how it all went down and how this all came to light I’m going to totally be like ‘It was my badass, big-brained brother-in-law who figured it all out thank you very much.’ I mean, that was just, wow.”

“Thanks, Caven.” I gave him the first real smile I’d felt in a long time. “I think we should do some recon. I have some potential sites that Councilman Dubois owns off the books and through dummy corporations. They’re remote and would be good places for an evil headquarters or nefarious dealings. But we couldn’t let all the warriors in on it because we have a traitor.”

“I also think I should get closer to this Councilman,” Queen Magdalena hedged. “I could read his mind if he doesn’t already know that I could. And if he does, that might be a good way to out him as well.”

“But would that be wise?” Father asked, glancing at Mother. “Could he do more damage, be more dangerous if he knows we’re onto him? He won’t have to hide what’s really going on then.”

“That’s a valid point,” King Rylan agreed. I put up the map of the locations I’d found in case they wanted it as a reference, excited that I was being taken seriously for once and they actually believed me.

“How did you really figure all this out, Virgil?” Riley asked me quietly. I blinked at him in shock and then growled, pissed he just peed on my parade.

“Oh fuck off, Riley. You’re not the only intelligent one in the room.”

“That’s not what I—” he argued, looking taken aback. I didn’t care though. I was still hurt from yesterday.

“You know, for someone so smart it’s surprising how dense you can be,” I said, smirking when I saw how he bristled. “I know you have interns now, but did you think you had little minions or elves before to help you?”

“What are you talking about?”

I raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to fill in the gaps. When I saw he wouldn’t I couldn’t hold it in anymore now that I knew he’d been judging me. “Funny how you’d find different handwriting on your notes or equations changed when you woke up and went back to it, isn’t it?”

“You sabotaged my work!” he gasped and I blew. Whatever piece of me that was still calm was gone at the accusation.

“I didn’t sabotage shit!” I bellowed. “I fixed your formulas more times than I can remember. You’re a doctor but not the best chemist sometimes. I came up with the perfect ultraviolet compound. Hell, I came up with the equation for the collapsible bullets! Your numbers were off and I didn’t want anyone to get hurt when they exploded instead of melted so I
helped you
! Go check your notes and see the different handwriting if you don’t believe me.”

“Why would you do that? Why would you stick your nose in my work?” he growled, still annoyed. “Who were you to—”

“You singed my father’s retinas with a chemical in
our
home, Riley,” I practically snarled. “Fine, I get everyone else trusting you since they don’t know what it would all mean, especially Micah because he loves you. But I did know what it was. So of
course
I would go see what it really was and make sure Father was okay! I found your notes and realized what you were trying to do. I looked it over and saw how to speed up the process so I changed your formulas.”

“And the bullets?” he asked, calm now but still shocked if his rapid blinking was any indication.

“I was curious and couldn’t sleep. You and Stefan were talking about it and said you were going to make some the next day and start testing them. I was worried. He knows a lot about guns, but guns involve gun powder which is explosive. He’s my brother and Micah almost lost you once and I didn’t want him to crumble if you got hurt. So I nosed around and fixed what you had. The casing was too thin. It would have exploded trying to come out of the gun and blown in your faces.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell us this?” Father inquired quietly. I froze, my chest heaving as I glanced at my father. Realizing I’d been much louder than I thought I was, I slowly turned to face him and understood I’d had
everyone’s
attention. Shit.

“Because it didn’t matter who did what. It was done and we had a better weapon,” I answered honestly. “It was Riley’s idea and Stefan was a huge help. I didn’t want to make it like Riley couldn’t do it on his own after everything he’d been through and needed to do it for his own peace of mind. Plus, he didn’t know me. I couldn’t get any of you to listen to me most of the time so why would a stranger?”

“Then why tell us the truth now?” Micah asked.

“He pissed me off,” I growled, gesturing to his mate. “I come to him for help, finally opening up to someone about something, and he’s lecturing me about all my faults. Now he’s got the balls to ask me how I really came up with all of this like I’m too stupid to do the research and have figured it out.” I narrowed my eyes at Riley. “I’m sorry I bruised your ego and you weren’t the one to give us all the answers like always, but don’t you dare assume I’m lying or cheated somehow.”

“I wasn’t, Virgil, I swear. I just thought it was odd that you had all this done and figured it entirely out when everyone else didn’t seem to have the first part of this deciphered. I was just trying to figure out your process.”

“Must be all that time alone, my OCD tendencies trying to make everything fit into a box,” I shouted. “Yes! Okay? I see a problem and I want to make it fit. There were points not adding up in my mind so I sat down and solved the problem. How is that
any
different than what you do all the time? Why am I such an unlikable social reject?”

“Because you don’t handle things well,” he answered. “You don’t know how to be a person and understand that the human condition and life can’t fit in a box!” Riley blinked at me in shock like he couldn’t believe he just admitted that and I heard several gasps throughout the room. I felt rage swarm through me and I actually pulled back my arm to deck him but in a flash my mates were there holding me back.

“You don’t want to do that. His pride is hurt after you just let the cat out that he didn’t create all the weapons on his own. Now he’s wondering what else you did instead of him and he’s lashing out. You’re better than that, Virgil. Don’t sink to that level,” Mareo said gently.

“Come on. Let’s take a walk and you can yell at us some more,” Foma agreed as he kissed my neck. “You’re pissed at us so when he adds to that, what he says seems that much worse. Walk away and you can hash it out with him later after you kick our asses. Don’t break things with your brother because you beat on his mate.”

That hit home and I glanced at Micah who had moved Riley behind him but looked torn and tortured. I immediately let go and nodded. “Okay. Let’s take a walk.”

They both sighed and Mareo kissed the other side of my neck. “Thank you, my mate.”

“Don’t call me that or I really will kick both your asses,” I bitched as I pulled away from them. I stormed out of the media room. We got as far as the kitchen and suddenly Ayden was there.

“I’m sorry, Virgil, but I have to,” he whispered. He grabbed my hand as he reached for Mareo’s hand. Foma got the idea and touched him too. Suddenly we were thrown into a memory.

“Shifter blood to vampires is like strong alcohol to humans,” Caleb explained as he rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “Maybe tequila? I’ve heard tequila can make them a little horny too. So let’s go with that. It would loosen our tongue, making us honest, and rev up our sex drive. That’s my understanding but I’ve never tried it.”

I felt Mareo’s hope that maybe everything wasn’t lost. It wasn’t the best plan but given I’d shown them signs that I was their mate but completely closed off to their advances and not even willing to talk to them, he was desperate. He glanced at Foma and I saw our mate through his eyes… All the pain Foma had felt at the centuries of not being able to find their other mate.

Then it was like a montage of the memories after they’d been with someone, hoping the attraction they’d felt with that person would lead them to their mate. I saw all the tears they’d cried, all the hope smashed, and even the decision to leave their plane, saying good-bye to everything they’d known.

“I’m scared, Mareo,” Foma admitted as he glanced at the portal. “What if we don’t like this world? Maybe our mate isn’t born yet and we leave?”

“The Queen assured us that we can come back,” Mareo said gently. “We’ll visit every few decades and see if he’s been born. I just believe in my heart he’s not fae. Our mate will be worth searching for, yeah?”

“Okay, we can do this,” Foma whispered. “You’re right. Finding our mate will be worth traveling and living in this new world, no matter how scared we might be. He could be searching for us, all alone and not able to find us if we don’t cross over.”

“We’ll find him, my love. No matter how long it takes or what I have to do, I will find him for you. I swear it. I will find the other part of our soul and make us a family.”

“You’re enough for me, Mareo. You know that,” Foma said quietly.

“I know that. I love you so much,” Mareo replied. But I felt his need to find me, and his desire to give Foma the family he’d never really had. He wanted Foma to have everything and was determined nothing would stop him.

Next it was when they realized I might be their mate and when I had denied them, telling them to leave me alone. I felt their despair and grief that they’d searched hundreds of years for me and I rejected them. Even more than that, they were worried for me. They saw something was going on with me and wanted to help. They thought if I realized I wasn’t alone, that they were there for me, it would comfort me.

“I forgive you,” I whispered as we came back to the present. “You didn’t understand what the blood would really do to me and didn’t mean to trick or trap me. You just wanted to help break down the walls I put up.”

“Yes,” Mareo breathed. “We didn’t want to hurt you. We wanted to help, to show you we would do anything for you.”

“I believe you.” I swallowed loudly and looked down at Ayden. “Thank you. You saved me all that pain and anguish of having to try and deal with what I saw as their betrayal and process this alone.”