My Little Ventrue - Book 3

Chapter 10

~~Natasha~~

Art got up and started to look around her apartment, fingers dragging along her counter tops, her couches, her tables, her laptop. They stopped on the laptop in particular when his eyes found the screen.

"Researching ancient Egypt mm?"

"I... I uh...." She reached over and closed it. Didn't want them gleaming any more than they needed. Or at least that was the plan, but the two wolves were telling her a lot. Maybe she should reciprocate a little? "Why... why are you t-telling me so much?"

Matt shrugged. "Like we said, we're not your enemies. Besides, you seem nice."

"Shit load nicer than the Kindred in Tijuana," Art said.

"You came from T-T-Tijuana?" Art did look like he could have come from Mexico.

"Half the pack," Matt said. "Clara, Art, Stephanie, Teresa, and Javier did. Avery drifted around the world after she lost her pack, so she tells it. Met some of us further North, met a bunch of us in Tijuana, and we've sort of wandered around."

"Which no one likes." Art ambled to her couch in front of the large TV, and he sat down with a bit of a bounce. Her poor couch; Art was a big guy. Not as big as Matt, but still, the man was big enough to make her couch creak with the impact. "We're Meninna. We don't want to drift around, we want a home."

"A home? You mean... D-D-Dolareido?"

Art shrugged, and started looking around the couch and the end table. "Maybe. Most of the pack is used to city living. You got a remote for this colossal thing?"

She blinked at the man, and pointed to the remote on the kitchen table. He fetched it, and immediately started one of the streaming apps on the television. Making his home already.

"What's Meninna?"

"First Tongue word for the Hunters in Darkness, our tribe," Matt said. "Sort of like your covenants. The Meninna don't like to drift; we want a home. We were in Tijuana, and weren't getting along with the Kindred there at all. Got to the point it was going to be war, so... Avery decided to leave."

"Leave? D-Doesn't... sound like something an Uratha would do. Thought y-you would fight for your t-t-t-territory."

"We would have," Art said, "if Avery was the person you all suspect she is, that Jacob suspects she is. Much as David guided us here, I'm sure Avery agreed partially cause she wants to fix the shit she stirred here."

"I... I know she got some Kindred killed, during the hunt. But how's J-Jacob fit into this?"

Art looked over the couch shoulder at her, and raised an eyebrow. "Avery killed Minerva, Jacob's sweetheart. More than sweetheart, from what she says."

Natasha winced. She'd started putting that picture together, but to hear it put so directly was chilling. Jacob had someone he loved, and Avery took her away. Brutally, if Tasha's own encounter with the wolves was any indication.

"Jacob is... a dangerous man, Arturo. If he wants Avery d-dead, he'll... he'll make it happen." No getting around that.

Art shrugged, scratched his neck a couple times, and returned to watching TV. "He can try. Wouldn't be the first elder we've had to put down."

Natasha shivered again. These wolves had so much confidence, but the man seemed quite serious, and Matt nodded with his friend's words. And worst of all, Natasha could feel the strength they radiated; the beast in her gut felt like a pup in comparison.

"Hey, how old are you?" Matt said. "Can never tell with vampires."

"Me? I... I was in my early twenties when I was embraced. That w-was... about fifty years ago."