Chapter Eighteen

Terrick

I didn’t bother calling Mom even as the day dragged on. She had an uncanny way of knowing where we all were all the time anyway. If she wanted to retrieve Salta she’d show up. After breakfast, someone in the village managed to scrounge up a sundress for her to wear. It was pink with yellow flowers. She twirled around like the little princess she was, showing it off to all of us. Scott clapped and something inside me melted a little. Maybe Mom wouldn’t come. Maybe she’d just leave Salta with me and Scott. We’d keep her safe from all the pitiful looks everyone flashed at her any time our father was mentioned.

The good news was, she hadn’t cut up a single person on her trek through the Other World. The elves had all let her pass without question through the gateways. That was the biggest perk of our pointed ears. After she arrived in the village, everyone worried about what might’ve happened to bring her here. It was Liam who put two and two together and started to come for me, but her shouting had already drawn me there.

Dad’s energy was everywhere in the house after Salta arrived. He wasn’t showing himself, but he was watching us like he always did. Having him around chased the tension from my shoulders. He’d spot trouble coming before we ever did.

That night we tucked Salta into bed and planned to fall into our own after a very long day of being stuffed full of food to celebrate our meeting. She fell asleep like she always did. Her head hit the pillow and then she was gone. I envied her that ability. I lost it somewhere around fifteen and never got it back.

As soon as her eyes were closed, and I turned on her ‘just in case’ nightlight our mother knocked on the back door. I sprinted through the house, but Scott had already opened it and invited her inside. She looked grim and tired. Heavy bags hung under her eyes, and I started for the freezer. She was an old vampire who mostly fed live on wild game preferring the taste of the real thing to more modern answers.

“No, thank you,” she shook her head in lieu of hello.

Mom always had a way of picking up the slightest thoughts over any link she was on. She pushed up her long flowing sleeves to her elbows and rested her arms on the table. I frowned at her before I could stop myself. She had sent me away from everything I knew. Sure, it worked out to my benefit in the end, but she had no way of knowing that.

“I did know,” she nodded.

“I’m missing something,” Scott said and crossed his arms over his solar plexus like she might reach into him and steal his secrets next.

“You’ve only just met him. You’ve missed many things. Terrick, will you please join us at the table?” she said, turning her voice to the tone she always used when talking to members of the coven in an official meeting.

“I did know. You dreamt of him so many times. I knew he was out in the world somewhere and since none of us could touch upon that stone heart you built up, I deduced he’d be the only one. I didn’t expect you to wreck the car or to meet him so quickly, but you weren’t happy, and it seeped into everyone.”

“Not everyone,” I said, my jaw clenching.

“Salta was and is a very happy child. I’m glad to see she didn’t butcher anyone on her grand quest to rescue you. I can’t believe that woman posted a very public video of where you were. Times may be safer now, but they will never be that safe.”

“Trista has that way about her,” Scott said, letting his arms sink onto the table and away from his belly.

“I’ve noticed,” she sighed and shook her head.

“They’re not here anymore,” Scott said.

“Small mercies,” Mom nodded at him.

“Don’t whisk her away in the middle of the night,” I cut to the chase. “If she wakes up back home without knowing how it happened, she won’t take it well.”

“Of course she wouldn’t,” Mom sighed and shook her head again. “She’ll take it about as well as your father when I try to lay him to rest for the final time.”

“He’s on his own timeline,” I said, not looking at Scott.

Part of me didn’t want him to know I wasn’t quite there on the timeline anymore than he was. He was still one of my favorite people in the world.

“Oh, love,” Mom sighed.

She hadn’t called me that since I was a kid. Since before he died.

“Should I give you two a moment?” Scott offered, ready to nudge his chair away from the table.

“Please don’t. When I return home, you’ll be the one here to put all the puzzle pieces of my son back together. I think you should be informed of these matters. The claiming vows only show so much.”

“He was your true-mate,” I blurted out the words before I could stop myself.

Inside me the traitorous dog wagged his tail, slow and sad. Those had been his words bursting from my lips.

“They do that a lot if they’re not getting their way,” Scott said into my thoughts over the mating link.

“He was,” Mom nodded and looked down at the table. “That is why I want him to rest, Ter. Not because I want him gone or even that I want him to hurry up and cycle back. Those would both be selfish. I want him to rest because life is long and hard. I want him to rest because that is what we do in between lives. He’ll feel better.”

“He just needs to stay until Salta’s sight comes in and she can meet him,” I said before I knew what I was going to say.

“Your sister is many great things. She has many strengths she’ll grow into. Only, love, not the sight. The sight would already be there.”

My heart fell into the pit of my stomach. Mom was right. Of course she was right. By Salta’s age I’d already been frightened and chased by dead enemies. I already started to learn how to deal with them on my own. I already had tiny visions about those closest to me.

“I haven’t said anything about it to her,” I said, scrambling for some silver lining.

“I know. You wouldn’t do that to her. He loves her too. He’s just tired, Ter. We’re all tired. I didn’t know the extent of your visions or sight. You never told me.”

“I told him,” I leaned back in my chair.

“I only knew because I caught you talking to him so many times and because your dreams had a way of showing things as mine do.”

“What now?” I asked her since she always wanted things done her way.

“Nothing. My hands are tied as far as your father is concerned. He won’t listen to me. He believes you still need him and he’s not going anywhere until he thinks otherwise.”

I was the asshole. Not for how the coven reacted to me and the energy that followed me around. Still, I was the asshole. I glanced across the table at Scott. If something happened to him, I’d die on the spot, but that usually didn’t happen. If something happened to him, I wouldn’t want him to linger and fight to stay here with me or whoever kept him.

I bowed my head, and my mother touched my hand.

“We all grow up and see the world clearer once we meet our true-mates,” she said, her voice low and soft. “I can carry the burden, love. I can carry it right to my door of life and death if it ever comes, because that’s what we all do. It never goes away. You carry it as a stone or as something with the potential to bloom. Don’t be concerned for me. Don’t ache for me or even for your father. He made the choice to stay as he is. He needs to rest but it seems even in death the man is a workaholic. Ache for yourself, because of the task before you.”

Aching for myself sounded awfully narcissistic.

Scott touched my leg with his toes under the table and I let out a long breath.

“You don’t have to do anything tonight,” Scott said.

“You are right. Tonight isn’t the time. We’re all tired,” Mom said. “But soon and when you’re ready.”

“Was I really that bad to them?” I asked.

“They were weary of you. You were dealing with things most of them will never fully understand. Somehow you even kept the other spirits to yourself, hidden from me. I didn’t allow it to get as bad as I believe it could’ve. I wouldn’t do that to you, Ter.”

“What about Salta?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t let anything happen to her either, but that’s not the question you’re asking. She’s eleven. She’s my child. I understand that you love her. I know what you would do to keep her safe, but she is my child. That is a love and a pain you don’t know yet. I can’t move the whole coven here, Ter. What do you expect me to do? I can’t give you your sister. She’s not a baby doll to pass around.”

“I know that,” I said, keeping the snap out of my voice only for the sake of my sleeping sister.

“And yet you do not wish to return,” she said.

“It hurts too much being there. I don’t think I realized that until I was away.”

“I understand that. That’s why I sent you away,” she said, a smile pulling at the corners of her tired red lips. “Still, Salta is a child.”

“What happens if she just keeps running away?” Scott asked. “I’m not trying to steal your daughter, but if that happens again, we need to have a plan in place.”

“He is wise,” Mom smiled at me.

“You can stay here tonight, if you like,” Scott offered. “We have plenty of rooms.”

“I will be awake tonight.”

“Oh,” Scott said.

“Yes, we live by the night. It’s probably why the coven survived so long. We are of the sun and moon, but the moon has never guided us to our demise,” she said. “I think we shall have to compromise with Salta because I will not put my child under armed guards to keep her inside the territory. The Lost Fang Coven will never sink to that level. Perhaps, she can be home throughout the week for her tutors and such and someone can bring her back on weekends once you two have settled in. Even if you don’t settle in here in Heartville, with the gateways she could visit you anywhere and you could visit us once you feel up to it. She won’t like it, but it is what I’m willing to offer.”

“I think it sounds fair,” Scott said.

I nodded. How had I turned around to sleeping at night so quickly? I was ready for bed or maybe I was ready for the conversation to be over.

“I have others here to speak with tonight about things that may come to pass. Come morning, since she is somewhere asleep now, I will take her home. You need this time to bond and map your path forward together. This isn’t the time for me or anyone to make comments about what that path might look like. If you ever need me, come home, Ter. The coven will always be there.”

Scott and I had bloodshakes after Mom left. Scott had some little magical rune from his brother, Blithe, to keep the blender’s noise trapped inside its own atoms. It was a newer one, from what he told me, crafted just with his kittens in mind.

After our shakes, we crawled into bed and Scott kept looking at me like he wanted to say something or expected me to say something. I was out of words. Maybe needing him at fifteen was fine, but now? How selfish could I get?

“Hey,” Scott yawned. “It’s not selfish. Grief is what it is. It comes however it wants. If I only saw the slain enemies of my parents, I’d want my dad around too.”

Scott rolled onto his side and tugged at my hand until I scooted closer to him. He wiggled up and held my head to his chest. His heartbeat thrummed against my ear. Hot red tears squeezed from my eyes. Vampires didn’t always cry blood. We didn’t always have that sort of build up of pain or stress or whatever inside of us. I let my mate hold me while I accepted that come morning it was time to have a long talk with Dad about moving on. There were so many firsts in my life coming up. So many things I wanted him to see.

“He’ll just have to watch from the Other World,” Scott whispered. “We’ll just have to believe he can see it all.”