Page 78 of Deviants
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Everything that happened after Cobra eavesdropped on our conversation was a blur.
He was there one second and gone the next, no doubt going straight to Romero.
I waited around with Arlen, but nothing happened. She wanted to confront her; I knew it was best to give the bitch her illusion of safety and let her gut herself.
She was lingering and interacting with people when I went back to the room.
I ended up in bed without Rome, figuring he was out pillaging villages in a rage, or drowning puppies.
What sounded like a foghorn woke me at three in the morning.
Before I could make it down the hall to investigate, Romero carried me—literally—back to our room and fucked me back to bed.
Fast forward a few hours later, a woman with silver hair and a pudgy face quickly lost her smile when neither of us seemed to have the reaction she was expecting.
“Heartbeat is one-fifty-four.” She wiped her fetal Doppler off and then the goop on my stomach. “That’s good,” she added when I stared blankly.
Romero squeezed my hand, and I squeezed his back. We were happy, of course, but neither of us were sentimental people. I was so in love with him that I’d lie, steal, and kill without hesitation. Yet, I’d only said it once.
I just found out the asshole who spent my whole life playing god wasn’t my real father, but that a man who literally ate prime rib was. I wasn’t going to break down over a heartbeat.
I never thought there was anything wrong with Baby S to begin with. He was alive and healthy. Excellent.
I was barely over two months, according to some weird wheel thing the doctor spun around. She asked me a shit load of questions about being sick, tired, cravings.
Aside from sleeping more, I felt the same as I always had. Blood samples were taken, she gave me pills that looked way too big to swallow, and then we left her to set up whatever she’d need to stay around until D-day.
“Sucks about your, um, person,” I said twenty minutes later as we entered the open living area.
Not responding right away, he walked to the fridge and retrieved two bottles of water, handing one over when he joined me on the couch.
“I’m not surprised she did it, but I wish I were.”
Shit. This was not my department of expertise. I awkwardly reached out and patted his back.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He stopped staring at the Sigil on the wall and glanced at me.
“I was trying to be comforting, asshole.” I snatched my hand away, placing it on my lap.
“You comfort me with your pussy or your mouth, occasionally your wisdom.”
What a dick. I bit my cheek so I wouldn’t smile.
“Arlen confronted Dhal last night, and now she’s missing,” he tossed out lazily, as if he were telling me the sky was blue.
“Missing as in, you need to find her within forty-eight hours, or missing as in, she got super pissed and left?”
“She couldn’t leave if she wanted to; that’s not how this works. Missing as in, we have no trace of her to begin a search. The alarm went off, and I knew it was triggered on purpose. Dhal used the distraction to get Arlen out with an acolyte. This wasn’t random, Cali.”
“So she was just waiting for Arlen to kick her ass?” I assumed that’s what he meant.
“Dhal was set to leave tomorrow, and she knew beforehand about the gathering,” he explained in a slow tone, like I should’ve known that already.
“Are you telling me this was going to happen regardless? Why would she take Arlen…oh.” I trailed off. “Goddamn it. Why do you have to fuck with crazy bitches?” I stood up and started to pace.
“Don’t blame this shit on me. I don’t give a flying fuck about Arlen. She could be getting her ass and pussy wrecked right now, I still don’t give a fuck.”
