I called Stephanie to come and escort General Greyson out of the mansion and, once we were alone, turned to look at Viktor. No words passed between us, but the silence was not the uncomfortable one that I had originally thought it would be. He simply looked at me with the same gaze that he always had.
There was no recrimination, no judgment, no disgust. The weight of everything that I was worried about flowed off of my shoulders when I saw his look and I could feel the tears start to fall down my cheeks.
I couldn't stop them even if I tried.
I didn't know exactly how worried I had been about this moment, worried that I would lose the one thing that meant safety to me, worried that I would lose the only other person besides Mike that I considered a true friend.
But the look on his face told me that everything that had been swarming through my head was completely unnecessary. He would continue to be my rock, my safe space and to think otherwise meant that I was an idiot.
I let out a wet laugh as I wiped my face free of the tears. I was sure that I looked like a mess, but I really didn't care.
"So, am I as much of a monster as I thought I would be?" I asked, unable to hide the vulnerability from my voice.
"Am I as much of a monster as you thought I would be?" he asked in return, not moving from his seat but somehow increasing his presence in the room until it felt like I was completely surrounded by him. I shook my head.
"You are not a monster," I said adamantly. I will admit that when I first came in contact with him, I was terrified. He was the Monster Hunter and I was a Monster. It was drilled into my head that as soon as I met him, he would know about the darkness inside me and would kill me without a word. He played a prominent role in all of my nightmares since I first became the Ribbon Girl.
But then I met the man, and he was nothing like what Mother told me he would be. He was kind and patient, he had stood by me when I needed a friend, he stood behind me when I needed support and he stood in front of me when I needed a shield. This man was so much more to me than I even understood up to this moment.
And now that I did understand, I was not going to lose him.
"And neither are you," said Viktor as he stood up and poured himself a glass of plum brandy that I had kept in my office, especially for him. "You are who you are meant to be. And nothing and no one can take that away from you."
I nodded in agreement as he resumed his seat across from me, my giant oak desk the only thing separating us. I had a much better understanding of who and what I was after fully accepting my monster, and I felt whole as a result.
"Do you want to tell me what happened?" asked Viktor, not pushing, but letting me know that he was there if I needed to talk.
"I was being honest with what happened," I said, trying to reassure him that I would never lie to him outright. Not only because he would be able to tell that I lied, but because I didn't want that between us.
"After I left your office, I went to Jenny's House to let her know that I was resuming my role of the Head of House Gypsy. I expected her to protest, after all, she would be losing a lot of power that she had become accustomed to, I also expected a fight of some kind or other. But even with me planning out every possible outcome, I did not see this coming."
Needing to move, I got up and went over to the wet bar that was built into the bookshelves lining one wall of my study. Getting myself a small glass of the plum brandy, I returned to my seat. Closing my eyes, I took a sip of the alcohol and continued with my story.
"I was refused entrance at the door. In fact, that might have been a very polite way of saying the door was slammed shut in my face." Another breath and another sip.
"I was walking down the steps to go back to my car when something at the top of the house caught my eye. All of a sudden, I was no longer at the House Gypsy, or even outside. Instead, I was in a stretch of space with a giant tangled web in front of me."
I paused, not knowing how to explain what happened next. "You don't need to keep going if you don't want to," said Viktor in a reassuring tone. His willingness to stop this made me want to keep going.
"The web had some healthy pink lines, but the majority of them were pinkish brown and looked like they were almost contaminated with rot. Something inside me, probably my monster, screamed that we could not allow that rot to continue and affect the other pink threads in the web so I started cutting out the rot from the web."
I opened my eyes and looked at the Monster Hunter sitting in front of me. "When I came out of… wherever I was… I heard multiple screams in the house. I rushed in to try and help and… well… you know the rest."
Viktor nodded his head and got out of his seat. Coming around my desk, he spun me around so I was looking at him and then crouched down so we were at eye level, my hands in his.
"You did so well, Puiul Meu Mic," he said in a low, husky tone. "I am really proud of you."
His eyes flickered from green to red and back to green as his monster tried to get out. "We are proud of you," he purred, his red eyes completely taking over. I smiled at the monster crouched in front of me, not at all scared.
I could feel my monster preening under that gaze, but happy and content to stay inside me for now. "You're not mad at me?" I asked in a soft, vulnerable voice sounding almost like a child that needed acceptance and reassurance from the adult in her life.