Bitten (Book 1 - Book 4) novel Chapter 79

“I’m thinking we should introduce her to Mole,” Mina said.

“Mole?” Natalia said.

“Not his real name,” Tia said.

“That might be interesting,” Char said with a smile.

“Why am I getting shivers up the middle of my back?” Natalia said. “I don’t exactly like how you’re all grinning.”

“Well,” Mina said. “Mole does have a unique way of saying hello.”

“What does he do?”

“He likes to sidle up to you and hold your hand.”

“Does he wash his hands?”

There were a few chuckles.

“He’s unusual looking,” Mina said.

“Is he Viperian?”

“Yes, but he doesn’t look like the typical Viperian.”

“How does he look?”

“Well, he doesn’t like people to be told. He wants a true reaction out of you. How you react will decide how well he’ll work for you.”

“This sounds creepy,” Natalia said.

“Mole can be very creepy,” Char said. “But he’s brilliant.”

“He has that ability to crash a party and end up everyone’s best friend,” Tia said.

“He can drop hints that people take as truths,” Char said. “He’s deadly.”

“Be glad he works for the Council,” Tia said.

There were nods all around.

“When do you want to do this?” Mina said.

“What’s Mole been up to?”

There were chuckles and giggles by everyone except Natalia.

“I don’t know about this,” she said.

“He’s living in A’ppollo,” Tia said, after controlling her giggles. “I’ll give him a call and see what his schedule is like.”

Tia rose and left the room.

Raphie fussed. Sophie exposed a breast for him.

“All this kid does is eat,” she said. “He’s going to be a big boy.”

Tia came back in the room in a hurry.

“They want us to scatter, head for home. There’s a big fire.”

Tia still had her phone to her ear.

“Nattie? Uri is heading this way to pick you up. I also have word that no one is to use the south gate to head home. You’ll run into the firefighters.”

“Is this a diversion?” Sophie said.

“No word yet on that,” Tia said.

“Where’s the fire?”

“Housing area just outside of Viperia near the south gate. Low income Undent housing that I’m aware of.”

“Why have us scatter?”

“They’re not telling me,” Tia said.

Her call must have ended, and she put her phone away.

Everyone’s phone buzzed.

“It’s the Council putting out a general notice on the fire and the south gate,” Mina said, having looked at her phone first.

Natalia’s phone rang. She saw it was Uri.

“Yes?”

“Don’t leave,” he said. “Stay put.”

The call ended.

Things weren’t feeling right to Natalia.

“Safety in numbers,” Char said. “Do we still have our lookouts?”

Everyone turned toward the door.

Sophie rose, leaving Raphie on the floor.

Natalia rose, wrapping Victoria to her. She stepped over to the door and put on her shoes. She grabbed Victoria’s bag and slipped it over her shoulder.

Mirren and a few other men were let in by Sophie.

Natalia stood in the middle of the living room. She could sense uneasiness from everyone.

“I’m the only one that needs to leave,” she said. “They only want me.”

No one paid her any attention.

She moved over to the front door which was wide open.

“We’ll escort you to your cars,” Mirren said, talking to the group as a whole.

Natalia spied the limo up the street, slowly making it’s way down. She almost went out the door, but something made her be cautious. Then, she could see why. There were no Viperian markings on the limo. All Viperian vehicles had a bioluminescent V place on all sides that only Viperians could see. Natalia could see those marks too. There were no such marks on this limo. She stepped away from the door.

“That’s not Uri or our limo,” Natalia said to Mirren.

He glanced out, then waved to a few men.

“Don’t stop it in the middle of the street, you’ll just clog traffic more,” she said.

Mirren waved a hand and shouted out orders in Viperian.

The limo was allowed to drive on by, but there were a handful of men following discreetly along with it.

Natalia wondered if there were Undents inside since the limo’s speed never changed despite Mirren’s shouted orders.

‘Undents,’ Mirren said to one last man, confirming that he thought the same.

“Your parking around here sucks,” Natalia said.

Mirren nodded.

“There’s a back alley that we’re working on to allow at least one parking spot per house. It needs a lot of work. However, we need everyone on the block to chip in and be onboard with this.”

Another car drove down the street. Natalia didn’t recognize it. It stopped in front of the house. Moralis stepped out of the front passenger side and Uri stepped out of the back. He waved to her.

“Thanks for coming, Nattie,” Sophie said from behind her. “Safe travels home.”

“Thanks, Sophie. Bye.”

Natalia kept an eye on the neighborhood while she trotted down the few steps.

Uri ushered her into the back seat.

She saw someone she didn’t know driving.

No one spoke. The car drove off.

Three blocks later they passed the limo that had driven down the street. All the doors were open, but there was no one in sight.

“There’s a new limo to add to our fleet,” the man driving said.

Moralis chuckled.

Natalia watched how they were going. She could tell they were heading toward the club. When the car pulled up to the building, she could see their limo waiting.

“Good. Bonnie’s here. Thanks, Paul,” Uri said.

“No problem. Livened up the evening.”

“See you later, Uri,” Moralis said, heading toward his own car.

“Later, Moralis,” Uri said.

Bonnie stepped out and opened the door for them.

Once the limo began to move, Natalia asked her questions.

“Was this some sort of diversion to get to me?”

Uri shrugged.

“It was a very poor attempt at being annoying,” he said. “The decoy limo wasn’t even marked Viperian.”

“I noticed.”

“You have a good head on your shoulders. I expected you would notice.”

“What about the fire.”

“It caused chaos at the south gate which is how the Undent limo got through. The fire station in that area has a number of Viperians on staff. Unfortunately, the firetrucks have the device installed on them to get through the Viperian gates. One must have passed, allowing the gate to be open with the command. In goes the Undent limo. Unfortunately, the fact that the fire trucks can open the gate is common knowledge within the Viperian community, especially those that live in the south section.”

“That was rather stupid to send an Undent limo. I would have noticed. And I did.”

“Viperian limos aren’t that common and hard to get a hold of,” Uri said. “I think you would need an army to get our limo away from Bonnie. She has so many security devices installed on this that I can’t even get in and drive it, let alone get a hold of the keys.”

‘And never will,’ Bonnie said from the front.

Natalia smiled at the comment.

“So did you lose that flask?” he said, changing the subject.

“I have the flask, but it’s empty now,” she said.

She told him the details of her arrival at Sophie’s.

“You climbed a building?”

“Yeah, and back down.”

“You are amazing,” he said, leaning in to kiss her cheek.

“I’m beginning to think I’m Viperian,” she said.

“I’m going to start checking for fangs.”

She chuckled.

It was well past rush hour traffic. Natalia kept finding herself watching out the windows, but not at the scenery. Uri seemed to be doing the same. She didn’t notice anyone following.

The limo pulled up the laneway and to the front door.

Natalia felt her stomach growl.

“Did you get any dinner?” Uri said, helping her out of the limo.

“Just a snack,” Natalia said.

She watched the limo pull out of the laneway.

“Is Bonnie parking next door?”

“Yeah. The garage is too short to fit the limo, but the laneway is large enough. She can position it to where she is able to watch it on a security camera.”

Mag opened the door for them.

“Cookies are already in the living room,” Mag said.

The evening progressed quietly. They went to bed having heard nothing more about the events of the evening. Their morning started quiet as well.

Natalia’s phone rang during breakfast.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Nattie. It’s Tia. You free in about an hour?”

“Yes. What’s up?”

“Mole has some time this morning. We need to work within his time frame.”

“Okay. I’ll be ready. Should I leave Victoria at home?”

“No, bring her.”

“Okay, see you in an hour.”

The call ended.