“What the…? I don’t even… Does that mean…?”
“Yes. Shit plus fan. When they meet, you call the cops.”
“Is that even something the Spanish say?”
“No.”
She stifled a laugh. It was impossible to have a serious conversation with him, even when it was a life and death situation.
“Got it, señor. What will that meeting between the mierda and the ventilador will look like, though?”
“The reason why I insisted that everyone should bring their shifters is because I know this time they will join forces and unite against their common enemy. Theresa will not be there to hold them back. Her part is to encourage them by simply being there as a much stronger and older shifter and, of course, fight beside them. Then, I’ll be there, too. Goldman doesn’t know I’m a ram-shifter, but the others will sense me the second I’ll walk into that room, and they will immediately read the new possibilities. I will fight for them, too. We’re stronger together.”
Penny nodded. Even though his plan seemed sound, hearing it made her shudder.
“What makes you be so sure they will turn against their owners? They’ve never done it before…”
“They will. You have to understand how manipulation and abuse work. I’ve been a Guardian since I turned eighteen, and that was an awful long time ago. Since then, I’ve seen so many cases of mistreated sheep-shifters that it’s easy to recognize the pattern. Did you know that the best method of controlling someone, shifter or human, has nothing to do with physical abuse? The best method is to manipulate the victims mentally and emotionally, hit them hard in their self-worth and self-love until they start believing they are worthless, invisible, and no one would want them anyway. At that point, the victims come to think their abuser is the only person in the world who will ever pay attention to them, and that’s better than nothing. That’s why Goldman and all his other friends kidnap their shifters when they’re young: they’re more vulnerable. A combination of undermining them while at the same time feeding them well and offering them all the material things a child would want will lead to the creation of the perfect submissive. Bonus points if the kids are taken from an unfriendly environment and tricked with the promise of a better life.”
Penny shook her head.
“This is horrible. I understand how it works now, but please don’t say another word. I just want all this to be over. Honestly, I don’t know how you’ve managed to get this far… Working on such cases for so many years and still keeping your sanity.”
Enzo smiled bitterly.
“Who says I’m still sane? After all, look at me. I’m a loner. A wanderer. Sure, I have a home, but I rarely spend more than a week or two in Spain every year. Sometimes I think my mission has turned into a drug. And a very dangerous one at that. I don’t have a life, Penny, and there’s no end of the road for me. I will never get to retire from immortality, so I will never get to retire from being an Aries Guardian. This is all there is for me.”
She sighed deeply and threaded her fingers through her long, blonde hair to keep herself from jumping into his arms and hugging him for dear life. She felt his pain. She could hear the despair in his voice, she could sense how lost he was. Even when his mission was clear, and his work made a real difference in the world, he was a lost man.
“Tell me more about the Aries curse. Have any of your brothers or sisters broken it so far?”
Enzo leaned over her stretched legs to grab the bottle from the coffee table and refill his glass. As he relaxed back against the sofa, he let his left hand linger on her exposed calf. His fingers traced small circles on her soft skin as he looked in the distance, outside the window facing the front yard.
“Yes. I don’t stay in touch with many of my siblings, mostly because I don’t know who they are, but I’m pretty close with Demetri and Jace. They have both found their mates recently. They’re older than me. It took them years to find these women who could break the curse. You see… as a Guardian, it’s hard to find your true mate when you have your mission to carry on day in and day out, and when not many women jump at the idea that once they are mated to you, they’ll become immortal as well.”
“Really? I thought everyone wanted to be a vampire.”
Enzo laughed. “Vampire? That’s ridiculous!”
“Because they’re immortal!”
“Gods are immortal. Demigods. Why would you want to be a vampire and drink human blood when you could be a demigod, like me?”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, for one, I had no idea demigods were a thing. I’ve always known about shifters, but it never crossed my mind that some of them might be immortal.”
“Fair enough.”
His hand traveled up her leg and stopped right under the hem of her skirt. Penny shivered. In an attempt to mask it, she shuffled on the sofa.
“My shoulder fell asleep,” she explained uneasily.
“Here, try this.”
He grabbed a small pillow from the other end of the sofa and positioned it behind her back.
“Better?”
“Mhm.”
