Chapter 484) The Dirty Thirty

Del Sol Valley
Villa ViVa

Without even opening my eyes, laying there in my bed, I listened to my sweet big brother Nick’s voice in the hallway reminding my nephew Ryan to be quiet on the stairs. It made me smile. I wish he and Addy and Ryan could stay forever.
Just us, like it used to be.
I missed those good old days, now more than ever.

Nick, Addy, Ryan and Rohan had arrived yesterday, and we had a lot of fun at the pool together. Max was in town too with William, but he was staying at a hotel downtown, had just come by for a while and he would be there today. Naturally my entire family would show up. Including Gavin, technically my uncle, but he was just 1 year older than me, so we were more friends than anything, with his wife Bianca, who was my best friend, even though with her living in San Sequoia, which was about 1 – 2 hours from DSV, we still didn’t manage to meet up as much as we used to but were planning on fixing that. We had been besties for half our lives now, I met her when I was maybe 14 or 15 through my brother Nick’s wife Adrianna, she and Bianca are sisters, so because of Nick’s whining our family vacations were usually spent in Tartosa so he could see her. I used to hang out with Bianca while Nick did heck knows what with her older sister. So, she and I met long before there was a Gavin on her radar. Besties for life, no distance or time could ever change that.

I’ll spare you the details, my birthday parties have been the topic of chapters before. This one was no different. A delicious cake made by our cousin Sophie, who probably had inherited my share of maternal instincts and domestic godess-ness in her DNA as I had NONE of that, and she had five small kids and still cooked and baked the most amazing things, catered events for all the family while her husband Stryker, a musician like my mom, was often on the road and could only help so much. Sophie vehemently refused hiring a nanny. Insane, if you ask me, but to each their own.
Anyway, the decor was stylish and beautiful, the food was exquisite, complimented by the finest beverages, a real birthday bash, loud, long, crowded and crazy. Everyone was there, as usual Grandpa Blaine was the main source of entertainment in every way imaginable, and I will admit, it was a fun party. Really. Even Max laughed a lot, since the separation he had lost his smile just as I had. Tonight, we both had fun. As did everyone else.

Once all the out-of-town visitors who weren’t staying with us had already departed again, my mom’s uncle/best friend, not to mention the vampire who turned her and dad for the most selfish reasons, Caelan, stopped by for a visit, to congratulate me and just socialize with me for a while.

He had skipped the party, even though his parents, his wife and his son plus family had attended. Wasn’t unusual for him at all, and if you knew him you wouldn’t wonder why. He wasn’t exactly much for parties, and he made people uneasy, so he just stayed away usually, few exceptions.

I am gonna admit, while Nick and I had known him since we were born, as he was often around mom, I always found him a little creepy, even though he had never been anything but nice to me. Today he sounded worried.

“You’re too skinny. It’s not attractive, not to mention unhealthy. Like your mother, you are hopelessly romantic, not made to be alone. It drove Vivien crazy, made her sick and foolish and it will drive you crazy. Just like your mother you are the sensual kind, in need of male companionship. Some of us are born loners, I am, you are not, neither is your mother. If you ever hope to find a new man, a decent one, who can make you happy, being too skinny may prove to be a problem. Being too much of anything only ever attracts those with fetishes, they like extremes, but they also are extreme.”

Bewildered at his brutal honesty, I turned to him.

“Thanks. I needed misogyny and degradation. Any more health and beauty tips from Lady Caelan Vatore? And tell me more about dating, what else could I be thinking of while going through a DIVORCE?!”

“AG, you know I didn’t mean it like that. It wasn’t idle criticism, but the ugly truth, we men are simple creatures, like animals, at the core. For us vampires it’s just easier to see, we can’t afford the air of delusion of mortals. If you like opinions sugar-coated, I am not your man. Fact is that dwelling on a relationship gone sour is futile, as is trying to be alone when you are not made for it. Fact is also that you don’t look healthy, because this is not healthy and I am worried, as I am entitled to be. You are, after all, directly related to me. I am a protector, that’s what I do for a living. So, pardon me if I may not have the way with words as my sister Scarlett or my father, but I only mean well.”

“Yeah, I know. Look Caelan, I haven’t lost my appetite because I want to be extra-skinny as a fashion statement, nor because I am pining after Max. I have lost it because of a traumatic event. I know you are a tough guy, but still I would like to see you just walk off a rape like it’s nothing, especially one that happened when you least expected it, by someone you least expected it from. How would I have ever guessed Max’ brother would do that?! I thought he didn’t like me, and I wasn’t his type! So, how?! Would you go through the trouble of raping someone you are not even attracted to? I wouldn’t. Still, I blame myself for whatever reasons and I am disgusted with everything, including food. So, sorry I don’t fit your idea of the perfect woman! Not to mention the irony of a vampire telling me to eat.”

I could see the change in him before I realized what I had done by just bursting out like that. I was also under the impression mom had told him about what really happened to me, since she rarely kept any secrets from Caelan. Evidently, she had not. And it quickly dawned on me why she hadn’t.

“Rape? RAPE!?” he echoed.

“Oh shit. Caelan look, no no no … I just tried to explain .. let it go. Please. It’s being dealt with. I am working through it. Just please, let it go.”

He just stared at me and I swear to you, his eyes were aglow. It scared me, as did the different sound of his voice when he spoke now.

“Let. It. Go?!?! The rape of a Vatore descendant?! Blood of my blood, violated, and you say to LET IT GO?! I held you when you were a baby, I held your mother when she was a baby, you are close to my heart as if you were my own child, and now some spineless worm dared to violate you! In which nonsensical, absurd universe would something like that be ‘let go’?!?! Not in THIS one, not as long as I am around! Tooth for a tooth, eye for an eye – and ashes to ashes!” Caelan stared at me as if I had lost my mind for even suggesting such an outlandish notion.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! Mom. MOM! MOOOOOOOOM!” I screamed while running inside, where I told my mom briefly what happened, only to run back out with her to catch the tail end of Caelan vanishing into a dark cloud. Apparently, that nifty skill didn’t come factory-installed the minute you turn into a vampire and appeared to be a very complicated and complex thing to learn, as my parents still hadn’t mastered porting. Well, fuck a duck, as my Grandpa Blaine would probably say now.

So, the next minutes we spent on phones with various vampires, panicked, looking for someone to help. Grandma Scarlett immediately went after Caelan, but later told us she was too late. All she could do was help her brother make it look like an accident to the best of their abilities, then take him to Castello Vatore, aka. vampire leadership headquarters, to explain to their father Caleb what exactly had happened and why, so Caelan wouldn’t get in too much trouble and so Caleb and Riordan could figure out how to conduct damage control. Whatever that meant, I am sure I don’t even want to know.

Yeah, so I needed all that on my conscience like a hole in the head. Happy merry fuckin’ birthday to me!

This, THIS exact thing was why I hated being related to vampires. This!
Sure, they all just wanted to fit in with us mortals, most were genuinely nice and fun people, people like you and I, just with some special – let’s call it ‘genes’ – that made them different and dangerous, even though they were totally in control of their powers and urges, their sometimes odd customs, rules, laws and ideas. Until they weren’t. Yeah. I rest my case. And yes, I know Caelan meant well, in his own, very-vampiric way using vampire-logic.

Not surprisingly Max called me the following day, totally frantic and beside himself, which was very much unlike him, to inform me that his brother had fallen down the stairs and broken his neck, begging me to take our daughter and come back to HOB with him and William to attend the funeral. He begged. And I went. Some hours later I was standing in his study with Max, consoling him, me and my guilty conscience and all.

Max was a mess, I played my part of blissful ignorance, I let him cry into my shoulder more than once. He was once more clinging to me like a drowning man clings to a lifesaver when his phone rang.

He sucked it up and took the call, afterwards he looked at me strangely.

“Aria-Grace, have your relatives had anything to do with what happened to Leopold?”

“What? What do you mean? My relatives?” I swear I blushed. Oh boy!

“The fanged ones in particular, Caelan maybe?” Max asked, and I felt hot flashes. Uh oh.

“Why would he? What do you mean?” I struggled to keep a straight face.

“That was the constable on the phone to inform me of some details that were initially left out until the coroner could take a closer look. Seemed like bureaucracy to me then, it wasn’t a secret to me that Leopold had a weakness for alcohol, so it was obvious he had fallen down the stairs drunk.”

“Well, if it is obvious … why would you think it was Caelan?” I tried to sound convincing, but had to turn away from Max, as my cheeks were burning hot in deep crimson now.
Was NOBODY familiar with the concept of letting shit go anymore – at all?! And also: damn vampires! Dammit! How was I supposed to get out of this drama now?

“Because the coroner removed Leopolds phallus from way deep in his throat. It had been removed from his body while he was still alive, using a hot object to cauterize the cut, so he wouldn’t bleed out, maybe a heated metal surface on a – say – axe. Or as I am thinking, maybe a medieval longsword, like the one Caelan likes to drag around. What was done to my brother was barbaric and screams Caelan to me! Aria-Grace, did you know about this? Are you behind this?” Max’ tone was lurking, his mind was clearly already made up.

“WHAT?! How can you ask me that!? You think I placed a hit on your brother using a vampire?! WTF, Max?!” I didn’t have to act exasperated; I was. Did he really think I asked for this?! Really?

“You’re lying to me. I can tell. You knew about this. It’s your revenge. Well, I hope you feel better now, spilling Cromwell blood to get your vendetta. What have you done, Aria-Grace?”

Max’s tone reduced my whole being to something equivalent of a common cockroach and that was too much for me. I couldn’t handle it. I exploded.

“What have I done? ME? Vendetta?! Feel better? No, Max, I do not feel better! How could I? I haven’t felt anything resembling good ever since YOUR brother raped me, he VIOLATED me against my will, and you did NOTHING except blame ME for it! I trusted you, I came straight to you, vulnerable, hurt, bleeding, and you were so cold about it. You swept it under the rug. A rape! Of your WIFE! I do not know which hurt worse. You want me to just shake it all off and function, but I can’t, and I won’t. You like to paint me as the hysterical wife who just up and left you over something the severity of a broken fingernail when in reality you betrayed me in the worst way, stabbed me in the back once more with your insane Cromwell-pride, when I needed you to side with me the most! Ever since that happened, I have been broken, Max, I can’t eat, I can’t barely sleep, I can’t focus. And then people blame me for that too, just like you blamed me for what happened! The irony of me falling apart, suffering, and getting the blame while the offender, the perpetrator was living his best life can’t be lost on you!

So, no, I did NOT ask Caelan to do this, all I am guilty of is accidentally telling him about it when he was the umpteenth person to bitch about how skinny I am! I am sick and tired of being blamed for everything! And guess what, Max! Unlike YOU, Caelan was genuinely appalled by what Leopold did, disgusted and he couldn’t understand he had not already been held responsible. So he DID something about it. Maybe not what I would have wanted, and maybe it doesn’t undo anything, but Caelan didn’t blow me off, didn’t downplay what happened! That already makes him a better man than you! I should send him a Thank You card and so should you! And you know what? I don’t condone murder, I certainly didn’t ask for it, but in this case, I am glad of it! I hope Leopold pissed himself being confronted with an angry Caelan, and I hope he suffocated on his goddamn dick before Caelan broke his neck! There I said it! Your brother was the monster, not Caelan! And your brother has turned me into a monster, cos right now I am glad someone died! I am glad he is gone so I won’t have to worry about what he may do to Victoria as she grows older or even his own daughter, if he hasn’t already!” I shouted at Max, my voice tipping over occasionally.

“Get out of my house! You are no longer welcome here, nor do I wish to see you at my brother’s funeral!”

“Good! I was only going for your sake and for our children; I don’t give a damn about your miserable family! And I most certainly won’t shed a single tear for your monster of a brother! And if you had ANY decency left in you, if you EVER really cared about me, you won’t cry for him anymore either, as it is all a big fat LIE, painted in Cromwell blue and gold!” I screamed at him at the top of my lungs.

I never gave him a chance to respond, just turned, tore open the door I was already in front of and ran out to the car to take me back to the airport.

I could hardly see where I was running to through the veil of tears, and never had I been happier my mother was wealthy enough for a private plane. I left my daughter there, her father could try to explain why I left to her, mom, dad or I would send for her in a few days. After the monster’s funeral.