“I knew you were coming,” Jean Paul told her.
“Did you bake a cake?” she sang with a smirk.
“Ummm… no,” Jean Paul laughed. “You would want nothing I cooked seeing as I can’t taste it.”
“No worries, child. I’ll be fine with what’s here.”
Pam grabbed some fancy French cheese, crackers, potato chips, cheesecake, a cooked chicken, whipped cream, a jar of pickles and Ranch dressing and settled back in.
“So Vlad informed the Angels of my demise?” Raquel questioned as she gaped in horror at Pam’s buffet.
“Yes,” the King said tersely, oblivious to his mate’s line up of mismatched of edibles—or possibly used to it. “It was before we’d arrived and we decided not to set anyone straight. More of a chance to find out what’s going on if we played as if we were uninformed.”
“He means we acted like dumbasses,” Pam added with a wink as she dipped her chips in the salad dressing
The visual of the breathtakingly beautiful Angel slathering grease covered paper-thin fried potatoes in white goop was all kinds of wrong, but Pam was Pam…
“And you found out what?” I asked as I placed my fingers under Raquel’s chin and closed her mouth before she commented on Pam frightening array of food and questionable table manners.
“Strangely, not much,” the King said as he lovingly rubbed his mate’s back while she ate. “I want to know if Vlad cursed you, Raquel. I want proof so I can tear him apart with my bare hands.”
“Get in line,” I snapped. “However, I do believe we’re overlooking the obvious. At this point, there’s no way to determine if Vlad placed the curse on Raquel, or Gareth or the others if they’ve been cursed. Only he can tell us that.”
“Well, that certainly isn’t gonna fucking happen,” Pam said with a mouthful of cheese and crackers. “That bastard would rather shove a pole up someone’s ass than deal with his own shit.”
“He wouldn’t tell us… but he might tell someone else,” I said cryptically.
“Who? Raquel?” Jean Paul asked, clearly unhappy at the thought of his sister going one on one with the bastard.
“Nope,” I replied.
“All right, I’ll bite. Who in Jesus-in-a-thong’s-name are we overlooking?” Pam said as she offered a squirt of whipped cream to her mate, the King.
He politely declined and gave her a kiss on her nose.
“The missing puzzle piece,” I said enjoying the perplexed expression everyone’s face. “The only one who would reveal Raquel’s secret and the one who tried to kill her. The lovely gal I have in mind had to have informed Dracula as he shall be known henceforth, that Raquel was slated for death.”
“Holy shit… Juliet,” Raquel said as her fangs dropped and her eyes turned green with fury.
“Well Hell fire and damnation, why on earth do we always forget about that canker sore?” Pam bellowed and punctuated her disgust with a table slam that sent all the food flying.
“Wishful thinking?” Raquel suggested as she deftly ducked a flying cheesecake.
“It breaks my heart to agree with your summation, but I fear it’s correct,” the King said quietly.
Juliet had been missing for hundreds of years and the King had searched tirelessly for his renegade daughter. His hopes of a joyous reunion had been dashed tragically in the last year. Not only had Juliet tried to kill Raquel, she’d also tried to kill Astrid and help some unsavory Demons take over the world. Thankfully, her skills were lacking and her insanity made her stabs at power a joke.
But innocent people had died because of Juliet. Being locked up in the Cressida House was just the beginning of the Hell she was going to have to pay for all she’d done—especially if she was involved in this mess as well.
“I want to avoid a war with the Angels,” the King stated firmly. “We can’t afford to fight them. Untold numbers of our people and theirs would die needlessly if this is all the brainchild of Vlad.”
“Then we simply need to trick him into admitting his guilt in front of us and the Angels,” I stated logically.
All at the table stared at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“And I want to be a unicorn that poops rainbow glitter,” Pam said in her outdoor voice. “That shishkabobbing fool ain’t gonna come clean on anything. And I guarantee you that spear-happy motherfucker will never tell the Angels shit about anything.”
“Ahhhhh, but I think he will,” I disagreed. “He just needs the right person to ask. Possibly our own certifiable Juliet would do the trick in persuading him.”
The chorus of no’s and a loud you’re fucked in the head from Pam rang out in the kitchen. I just smiled and waited. I was far from crazy. I was fucking brilliant.
“You are not bringing Juliet to Europe,” Raquel said vehemently. “She won’t help us anyway—especially if she’s involved in all this with Vlad.”
“Raquel’s correct,” the King added. “Juliet’s a loose cannon and it would be a very unwise move to bring her here.”
“If he admits it to her, we avoid a war. We steer clear of senseless death. We stay on good terms with the Angels and they get to punish Vlad. It’s a win—win,” I said cockily knowing I was only revealing part of my plan.
I knew I was being an ass, but I was enjoying myself tremendously