“I love my short katanas, but I’ll let you know when I’m as fast as you,” I teased her.
“That was rather fun,” Olivia admitted after she was done, Matilda and Hanna agreeing.
“Incoming,” Lara called over. “No more foreplay.”
I nodded, rolling off the table and catching a loaded machine gun from her. I didn’t hesitate, flipping off the safety and shooting into the large packs coming. They had boxes of loaded mags ready to go. I went through three before showing Nora how to use it. I went over to one of the bigger boys and got to work, completely tearing up the area they had set up.
Trisha whistled to hold off, and I went and got the gun from Nora when I realized I didn’t show her the safety and only how to change mags. She thanked me, her fangs out and eyes shining with fun and the hunt.
“Up in the chopper when you’re strapped in and just fucking everything up with the minigun is even better.”
“I believe you now,” she chuckled. “That was titillating.” She moved away to check out something else and one of the women of Safie’s coven came towards me and set down the weapon she’d been using.
“I never said this and I know many want to, but worry of upsetting you, but thank you.” She met my gaze and nodded. “Thank you for saving us that night. I know what you did scares you, but we didn’t want to die and certainly not because of Safie’s greed and insanity. Thank you for saving us that night from her and from the corrupted.”
“You don’t blame me people got hurt?”
She didn’t hide her shock well. “No, Princess, anyone with a brain blames her. She brought it all onto us, and while most forgave her lots as she saved us when most of the Middle East died in bombs, that didn’t give her the ticket to risk us whenever she wanted. She did enough wrong that saving us still won’t keep her out of whatever hell there is for people like her.”
“You’re welcome,” I said after a moment, weighing that in my mind and feeling it lift off of me. I assumed they were angry I risked them. It seemed not.
“All clear,” Trisha called out. “Alright ladies, that covers the food and misbehaving of the evening. Next we have the getting hammered part. Who’s leading?” She held up the navigator and gave it to Hanna when she offered.
“I thought we were going swimming at my vacation house?” I asked.
Trisha huffed. “As if I wouldn’t do better than that. You insult me, wound me deeply.”
“I’m taking back the present you didn’t register for,” Lara teased. “Your men have been going for all the big labels and ‘good stuff’ according to them, so we did some investigating of our own. Besides, you let us have first dibs on anything people find for you. You’ve got huge stores of everything under the castle and a fully stocked bar.”
“Yeah, and they’re hiding more somewhere. I don’t think it’s all for me given I don’t drink that much.”
“We are tonight,” Trisha chuckled.
Yeah, we were. It was funny how our minds were alike, but I’d thought of it for the guys, not us.
We started at a distillery in Arkansas that was completely untouched. The outside looked like a run-down school which they must have purchased for the space and probably for cheap. It was gutted on the inside though. Nothing open at the bar for tasting would still be good, but there was a large display area with a range of vodkas, rums, whiskeys, and bourbon.
“How you still have any of this left astounds me,” Nora murmured as she plucked a bottle of rum off a shelf. “And every time you turn around there’s another one.”
I shrugged. “I’m not picking on Ireland as I thought it was great when I was there, but it’s three hundred miles from longest tip to tip? We have states bigger than that. My four states I’m apparently claiming as mine are way over double that. New York City had almost double the population of your whole country.” I winced as I glanced at Trisha. “Sorry.”
She nodded. “It’s fine. It’s been years, but I still wince when I even hear someone say that.” She had a bottle of whiskey open and let out a shaky breath before tossing some back. “Maybe someday I won’t ache when I see it on a map. It just hurts to think I joined the Navy to help protect America and it all went so to shit. We blinked and New York was gone, my whole clan with it.”
“I met your grandmother once,” Matilda told her, nodding when Trisha gave her a surprised look. “A rather feisty woman I see when I look at you, but she was rougher around the edges and I don’t mean that as a slight. She had grit.” She took a drink of the bottle Nora offered her. “And a hate of princesses, most vampires as well. My word, that woman hated us.”
“She had reason to,” Trisha defended.
“I’m sure, but I did not deserve to be on the receiving end of her opinions like that,” she said, taking another drink and handing me the bottle. “But fear and past hurt clouds our vision. You’ve seen the other side of it now how many—even your own brother—treat Inez. None of it is easy, and the moment we don’t act complete bitches, someone pokes at us, thinking us weak.”
Trisha snorted. “I hate to burst your bubble, but that’s not being a princess, that’s being a woman.”
“You’re not wrong,” she agreed.
I took a swig and coughed as it burned
