Hupotasso (Vampire Bachelor Games #2)

65

65

We’ve been here months now and my belly has grown so round I can hardly move, even though I still have three more months until I’m due.

Since Yin and I had put two and two together and figured out Viper must be working with Spider, we’d relayed that to The Free Men. They weren’t particularly interested in the machinations of vampires, especially two royal houses trying to knock each other off. They believe the fewer the vampires in the world, the better for mankind, and if they kill each other, even better. But Phil had agreed, perhaps because he was still trying to win back Yin, to figure out a way to take out Viper, and I had to hope he would stick to his word, although deep down I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could spit him. Still, I trust Yin, and she said my job is to ‘stop worrying and stay pregnant.’ For weeks now she’d deftly and consistently deflected any questions I had about how The Free Men or the hunt for Viper was progressing.

She’d also made me learn some self-defence. At first I figured it was to keep me occupied and help me feel less helpless, but I think now that it was mostly because I really need some upskilling. I can’t always rely on others to save me. I have to learn to save myself and my baby.

I smile now as I put my finger in the neat round hole I’d blown in the heart of the firing range dummy. It’s in the shape of a person, but with large, oversized fangs made from two pieces of wood.

“Dead vampire,” I smirk.

“Your marksmanship is excellent now,” Yin walks to where I stand and high-fives me.

I nod. If I hadn’t been pregnant she would have been teaching me martial arts, but it was too risky. Instead we’d been practicing daily with guns, in between my vomiting. Apparently I’m one of the lucky few who vomits every day. It had started the week after I escaped with Yin, and hadn’t stopped. We’d done plenty of research; it’s called hyperemesis gravidarum. None of the drugs or natural remedies seem to alleviate it, apart from sipping lemon juice day and night — but even that hasn’t really stopped the nausea.

“Come on,” she laughs now, “it’s lunchtime.”

“You know I’m going to eat then up-chuck,” I groan. “I hate being pregnant.”

“Shouldn’t have fucked a vampire,” she wags her finger at me.

“Never make fun of a crazy pregnant woman with a gun.”

She laughs as I waddle along behind her towards the house, my hand on the small of my back, my own words haunting me. Yes, I hate being pregnant, but the moment I’m not I’ll be under Viper’s control again. And time is ticking.

“Yin,” I puff when I reach the kitchen, “any word from The Free Men about Viper?”

She shakes her head.

“I’ll make you a lemon juice.”

“Yin,” I stand still and wait as she slowly turns around. “What aren’t you telling me.”

She sighs heavily.

“They’ve lost contact. They were speaking to him regularly, trying to organise a trade; his Mother for Isabel. The idea was that when he came to the exchange they’d take him out. But he kept wheeling and dealing, and now they can’t reach him at all.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? Viper was never the one they should have contacted about that,” I frown, “it would have just given him power. They should have called Falcon.”

“Falcon’s reputation precedes him — he doesn’t negotiate with The Free Men and wouldn’t be open to a deal. They just don’t trust him. At least that’s what my contact told me.”

I shake my head.

“They’re wrong. He’d do a deal with the devil for his mother.”

“Maybe you should relay a message to him,” she says quietly, “through The Free Men. You could let him know about the deal and about Viper.”

“No,” I murmur. “He wouldn’t believe me. He loves his brother. When The Free Men return his mother she’ll tell him about Viper, and he’ll listen. He won’t listen to anything I say, especially since I’ve run from him with the help of the organisation that kidnapped his Mother. Not to mention the fact that Isabel and her family gave me the poison to kill his cousin. If I try to broker a deal to free them it will only build on his suspicion that I’m a spy and make him crazy. At least this way, by staying separate from the whole Mother issue, his focus is divided, and he’s not concentrating on hunting for me.”

“Yeah,” she sighs. “There is that.”

“Yin Viper has to die. I want to disappear,” I add in a whisper. “I need to make sure he and Falcon never find me or our baby. Ever.”

“That’s the plan,” she nods.

But as she turns back to the microwave I catch a glimpse of her expression, and it’s anything but confident.