Page 16 of The First Seal

damn well I got off work early there's no work so let’s go shopping and have a girls day it's been so long…..

Em

okay I'll meet you downtown in like twenty !!

I swiftly shifted directions towards my car, which would be better for a shopping spree anyway. I toss my stuff in the passenger seat, connecting my phone to Bluetooth. My favorite song immediately blasts through the speakers. I speed through the streets towards our favorite coffee shop, eager to start our girls' day off right.

Chapter nine

Ember

For once, there was no traffic, and I made it downtown in fifteen minutes. I park my car in the parking garage, then head down to my favorite mom-and-pop shop, Jitter Mug, and wait for Vee to get here. Sitting down with my iced caramel macchiato, I can't get the Vesper men out of my head.

I did remember them from when I was younger. They would always be around the house either as bodyguards or working with my father. Sometimes they were there to babysit me while Papa and Mama went out. I grew up around them. They were older brothers to me. Until one day, Papa stopped having them all meet at the house until I was eighteen years old. I remember on my sixteenth birthday, I had a bunch of my friends come over for my sweet sixteenth. I remember that they were all there for my birthday and not to have a meeting with my father. Now that I think about it. They don’t look like they have aged at all since then.

"Papa, did you really schedule a meeting on my birthday?" I ask him.

"Net, moya malen'kaya zhemchuzhina. Oni zdes', chtoby otprazdnovat' tvoye 16-letiye. YA skazala im, chto ne budu segodnya rabotat', i oni sprosili, mogut li oni priyti na tvoyu vecherinku." (No, my little gem. They are here to celebrate your 16th birthday. I told them I wouldn't be working today and they asked if they could come to your party.)

"Oh, okay. Thank you, Papa. I'm glad you aren't going to be working on my birthday." I say in shock. He never takes a day off. He works all the time, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, ect. But thinking about it, he has never worked on my birthday, Unlike Mama's and Iris's birthdays, he always works.

"YA lyublyu tebya, moya dragotsennost'." (I love you, my precious gem.) Papa says with a huge, loving smile on his face.

"YA tozhe tebya lyublyu, Papa." (I love you too, Papa.) I say back with a loving smile.

After that, I walk over to the Vesper men.

"Thank you guys for coming to my birthday party. It is just a bunch of teens though. I don't think I will need that much protection." I say to all of them. But I have always had a crush on Onyx. Those bright blue eyes, platinum blonde hair, tattoos, and piercings. He is the definition of a bad boy. I always knew my father would never let me date someone who worked for him. Onyx and his brothers all looked to be about in their early twenties.

"You're welcome Em. Happy sixteenth birthday." Onyx says with a grin caressing his mouth. He then hands me a huge present, with emerald green wrapping paper, a black bow on top, and a card on top. I don't remember seeing him holding a present when I walked over here. Maybe one of the others had it.

"Thank you." I say. Taking the gift with a smile.

"Open it." Blaze states.

I first opened the card and read it aloud.

Opening up the gift next, and inside is a black leather jacket, two roses on top of the jacket, one black and one green. There are also two smaller boxes on top of the leather jacket. Inside the green box is a rose-shaped, malachite crystal necklace on a silver chain. In the black box is an all-black dagger with an emerald on the hilt. Looking up at the four handsome, smiling men watching me. I place the box on the ground and hug each of them, saving Onyx for last.

"Thank you guys. I love all of it. Onyx, can you please help me put the necklace on." I ask him as I reach for the necklace and hand it to him.

"Yeah of course." He replies with a flirtatious smile.

I am pulled from my thoughts by Vee shaking my shoulders and saying my name. "Ember, Ember, Ember!" The look of concern is all over her face. What? Did something happen? How long was I daydreaming for?

"Ember, what the hell I have been calling your name since I walked in."

"Why are you out of breath?" I ask her as she tries to catch her breath.

"Because I had to run here after parking in the parking garage. All because you wouldn't answer your damn phone. I thought something happened to you." She replies with concern on her face.

"No, nothing happened to me. I was just daydreaming." I roll my eyes at her.

"Okay, let's go shopping and you can tell me all the juicy details of what happened after you left with the Vesper men last night." Wiggling her eyebrows at me.

So, I will start from the beginning, talking about Dmitri Orlov and what he did as we leave Jitter Mug.

Chapter ten