“Dude, you so owe me,” Jarvis sang from the passenger seat.
Hopefully, Abby was able to get Jay Dee to Seattle before we head over to the mainland. Nothing would be more embarrassing then getting caught trying to buy her birthday present.
“Why do I owe you?” I finally asked to pacify the strange pup who was bouncing with excitement next to me.
“She said ‘dress’!” he beamed with a face consuming smile.
This pup is completely nutter!
“Is dress a profanity in your home?” I asked to pacify him.
“Might as well be,” he said with a shrug. “My sister hasn’t worn a dress in years.”
I snarled and my hands tightened on steering wheel.
“I am well aware of that,” I hissed. “Marsha Heder is on me shite list despite your sister telling me to let it go.”
However, the idea of Jay Dee in a sexy slinky designer dress was very agreeable to both heads.
Jarvis looked at me confused. “What does that train pulling cow have to do with anything?”
Bugger! He does not know. Shite.
I shrugged and turned the stereo up.
“No, no, no!” he shouted over the music. “You know something I don’t,” he accused and turned the music off. “Spill, Count Suckula. What do you know that I obviously don’t?”
“Regrettably, Mr. Jarvis, tis not my story to tell. You must understand and respect that.”
He pouted in his seat during the entire ferry trip, and then he laughed like a lunatic when we reached the mainland.
“If you don’t tell me,” he said, “I won’t tell you how to end each of my sister’s arguments regarding the present you’re about to get for her before they can even leave her lips.”
Bollocks. The mongrel had a good counteroffer, an unarguable one.
Damn it.
“Damn it,” I huffed.
I told Jarvis what Jay Dee had told me, and his response was much the same as mine: a dark, menacing growl rolled from his chest and his hands balled into fists on his lap.
“I could not agree more, Pup,” I said.
“We can make a detour to that bitch’s trailer on the way back,” he suggested, studying the thin, white lines on the inside of his arm. “It will only take a moment, unless of course you want to torture her, in which case we should go tomorrow morning so we aren’t pressed for time.”
I laughed. It was rather amusing, finding out that I had something in common with the puppy, even if it was merely revenge and homicidal tendencies.
“As much fun as that sounds, let us do as your sister wishes and let it go...for now.”
“For now,” he dryly agreed. “Accidents do happen,” he reminded me with an evil grin.
To my surprise, I was smiling in much the same way.
“What are those?” I asked, motioning towards his arm.
Jarvis shrugged and looked back to the thin, white lines. “Blood trophies,” he said, as if I should have known what they were.
“Consolation prizes?” I mused.
“The consolation prize is death,” he said quietly, stealing the mirth from me. “When we take a life of another wolf, the scar is a permanent reminder on us. I have six, but not once have I second guessed or felt guilty about...protecting my baby sister is all that matters to me,” he said in a tone that was so level that it was terrifying. “So what are we shopping for, and why did I need to come,” he cheerfully asked, seemingly going from one extreme to the other in mere seconds.
“You are here for two reasons,” I explained, slightly intrigued by the realization that there truly was two sides to Jarvis Lightfoot—the young college student who was just starting to make his mark in the world, even if it was only his world the mark was being made in, and the werewolf-Indian warrior who would stop at nothing to protect his sister—and I honestly respected him for both. “One, to pick out the camera and laptop you want, the gift your sister actually wanted. The second is to drive one of the vehicles back.”
“Huh?” Jarvis looked over at me confused.
He was a smart kid; it would register soon enough.
“Wait, what?” he choked. “You’re getting her a car?”
I nodded.
“Dude, I was kidding about that car thing...well, not really, but I was. You’re seriously insane.”
I rolled my eyes. “I am not nutter.”
“Could have fooled me, Nutter Butter Suckula,” he scoffed.
“Mister Jarvis, you have to remember the century in which I was born. In the seventeenth century, courting a woman would require jewelry and paying a fee to her family for simply marrying her. A car is considerably cheaper than traditional means when you take into consideration the rate of inflation over the past three hundred years.”
His mouth hung open and his eyes were wide.
Buggers, that did not come out how I had intended for it to come out.
“I am not trying to court your sister for marriage,” I quickly explained. “I do, however, want to express my gratitude for her companionship and what we might have if she is willing to work around some things.”
“Like the fact that you’re a vampire?” he pointed out appallingly.
“That specifically,” I dryly agreed, well aware that I was asking for the near impossible. “What kind of car would your sister fancy, and what do you want?”
I didn’t care to continue the conversation. There were horrible complications when it pertained to vampires having relationships with humans; blood, mortality, how delicate they were in comparison….the list was endless. In good conscience, I could never turn someone, regardless of how much I cared for them...loved them. It simply wasn’t an option.
“You don’t have to get me anything,” Jarvis mumbled. “And I’m not putting out regardless of how many pretty things you try to buy me.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
“Jay is just one of those ridiculous Mother Teresa types that always wants something for someone else, regardless of her needing it or not.”
I was already well aware of that, but what I wasn’t aware of was that Jarvis was just as ridiculous as his sister.
I pulled into an electronics store, ignoring his mumbled complaints.
“Get out of the bloody car and pick out what you want and will need,” I snapped at him. “Jay Dee is going to kick me arse for the car, so I might as well get her what she really wants in order to get some positive points on me side.”
Jarvis made a face.
“I will throw you over me shoulder and carry you in there like a bin lid,” I warned.
“Huh?”
“Like a kid,” I clarified and he stuck his tongue out at me and thankfully got out of the bloody car.
For the first thirty minutes, he complained while he looked at the cheapest ITEMS he could find.
“I will make a scene,” I warned.
“I can’t wait to see my sister beat your ass in front of everyone,” he mumbled and started shopping.
“What about this one?” he asked, motioning towards a camera.
I looked at it and shrugged. “Electronics are Steffen’s thing,” I said and pulled my mobile out and dialed. “Steffen, will you please help Mister Jarvis with his electronics questions?” I asked.
“Of course. Put him on,” Steffen said with a chuckle.
“Thank you, Cousin,”
I handed Jarvis the mobile and he was off and running after that. Both of them were rambling so quickly that I couldn’t understand either of them, so I wandered around. I liked shopping, what posh Brit didn’t? However, I already had everything here, or Steffen had it since he loved his electronics—he still uses a bloody eight-track to listen to the Bee Gees; according to Steffen you can’t listen to disco on anything but an eight-track.
However, the strange puppy with me, and his beautiful sister, didn’t have any of it so I shopped as well.