Chapter Two

Terrick Lost Fang, Prince of the Lost Fang Coven

About 8 Hours Before Frost and Juda’s Conversation

Jert was being an ass again. He was mother’s third mate and the most worthless man to ever roam the world. If anyone was going to bring down the empire my mother ruled over for centuries it was going to be him. I missed my little brother’s birthday party yesterday. The kid was two. He wasn’t going to remember it. Hell, with how many birthdays we had, he wouldn’t remember most of them if he were anything like the rest of them.

Still. Here was Jert pacing in front of me and lecturing me like I was a six-year-old boy, instead of a man. I was the eldest of the current group of kids. That’s to say, I was the oldest living at home.

“Jordan adores you,” Jert stopped pacing and looked at me.

“I know,” I nodded.

If this were ten years ago, I’d have told him that he wasn’t my father. Only that didn’t sound so great at twenty-six. My father died eleven years ago. He died in childbirth and that was that. No amount of blood brought him back. Jert wanted to be my daddy after that, but he failed spectacularly.

“Then do you want to tell me what the hell’s going on with you, Ter?”

“Don’t call me that,” I shook my head. “I wouldn’t even be here if Salta would hurry up and grow up.”

“She’s eleven,” Jert reminded me. “If that’s what you’re waiting on it’s going to be a while and she was at the party.”

“Of course she was!” I let out a hollow laugh. “Who do you think bought her dress? Took her to get her hair done? Let her pick out the fifty gifts for Jordan.”

“You know, you’re her brother and not her dad, right?”

“Jert,” I said, low and warning. “You don’t want to go there and talk about who is whose father. I promise you that.”

“I know you miss him but----”

“You don’t know anything,” I shook my head. “You really don’t.”

I glanced across the room at the doorway. My mother lingered near by and her lavender scented perfume saturated the world.

“Is Salta with you?” I called out.

“Salta is in the playroom with the other kids,” Mother said, rounding the corner and coming into sight.

Her long dark hair was tucked behind her pointed ears. Magic danced on her fingertips as it did upon mine. I imagined those fingers once entwined with my father’s and hated Jert. He swept in not soon after my father died, and he never fit in. Hell, no. I never fit in once he died. It was me against the world to protect Salta and make sure she wasn’t forgotten or merely the child everyone blamed for killing him.

“Jert, you are excused,” Mother said, putting on her high priestess voice.

I fought off the urge to roll my eyes as he bowed in her direction and scurried off into the hall. Neither of us said a word until his footfalls had long disappeared. Mother joined me on the sofa and I sat up straighter.

“Your father’s been around again, hasn’t he?” She asked.

I almost rolled my eyes again. The sight I had came from her. Of course, she knew he’d been around. He always came around. It’s as if he couldn’t rest even in his final death. I hated that. I tried over and over again to ensure Salta had everything she needed so that he would finally rest.

“Would you pass up the chance to spend the day with your dead father and instead be splattered with cake by toddlers?” I asked, deflating and leaning back into the sofa.

“Have you told the others?” She asked, looking at me only out of the corner of her eye.

“They know I have the sight,” I laughed and shook my head.

“I meant about your father,” she said, her lips pulled tight against her teeth.

“No,” I shook my head. “Don’t worry. I’ll let them all think your dead mate is resting. I’d never ruin your image like that, Mother.”

“It’s not about my reputation as leader or mate. It’s about their peace of mind, Terrick. Most of them will have long, damn near eternal lives, but I don’t want them afraid of death. I don’t want them to go through life thinking they’ll be stuck here or unable to rest if they die. No one should live with that hanging above their heads.”

“I’d never tell her,” I said.

“I wasn’t just talking about Salta. Though, you would do well to remember she is not your only sibling. You two are close. I understand that. She, like all of you, means the world to me. You’re not going to like what I say next, but I need you to hear me out. I need you to find a way to be okay with it.”

I glanced at her, but didn’t meet her gaze any more than she met mine. Years of her taking care of the coven while I took care of Salta had driven a wedge between us. A wedge that would probably out last this life and many to come. My mother was a great high priestess. She led the coven through many years where other covens failed. She was good at blending in with and when necessary, seducing non-shifters and non-sangs. Not that she had to do that much now that the human government finally got the death it deserved for so long, but we all heard the stories of how she brought down local sycophants – human, vampire, or shifter. It didn’t matter. She kept us safe. My mother was a great high priestess, but I wasn’t sure how great of a mom she was.

“I’m going to try again to lay him to rest,” she said, and I clenched my jaw. “I’ve tried to be patient. I’ve tried to give you time to grieve. I’ve tried to give him time to figure it out on his own. Only, Terrick, he seems not to want to and I can’t have him driving you to your grave by hanging around. I understand he’s the reason you can’t move on. Also, I think it’s best if you take your tour of Europe or perhaps visit the new coven out west.”

“Salta has her lessons. I know she’s ahead of most of her school mates but she can’t afford the time off. She enjoys them too. Maybe we’ll go when she’s older.”

“Salta won’t be going with you, Terrick. She’s my daughter.”

“She’s my sister,” I said, standing up.

Magic prickled on the tips of my ears and my fingers. I waited for her to stand up and fight me. We frowned upon violence for the sake of it, but I’d fight her for Salta. I wouldn’t let that mostly happy little kid get pushed aside for kids whose carriers hadn’t died in childbirth. She’d have just as much if not more than them.

“Terrick,” Mother said, her voice low and soft. “You were never meant to parent her. At first, I thought it was your coping mechanism. I thought that’s how you were processing. If I had known you thought she was yours to raise, I would’ve stepped in sooner. You were so young. Too young for that.”

“Except I did it. I’ve gotten her to eleven. Why stop now?”

“Because you’re not her father. You’re her brother. You deserve time to date and ---”

She stopped when I squeezed my fingers into fists. It was a habit I picked up from her. I dug my nails into my palms chasing back the magic that danced and scratched just under my skin. I took deep breaths trying not to think of the last time I dated. He was now married, true-mate bonded, and had three kids of his own. No more of that. I didn’t need a boyfriend. I didn’t have time to waste on loves that would flee at the first chance they got.

“Or perhaps, you will go in search of him. That redhead you see so often when you dream,” she said, her voice softer now.

“Quit spying on me,” I said through gritted teeth.

We weren’t going to fight. Our magic flowed from the same place, and it wasn’t about to battle itself. We were of the Lost Fangs. We did not waste precious resources on fruitless endeavors and our magic agreed.

“You are still so young,” she tilted her head and frowned at me. “Your dreams whisper to me still. It will stop when you are older, but first you have to live to be older, Terrick. Living in between the times a dead man comes to visit you isn’t living. You’re as dead as he is in some ways. You’re going to go, my son. You’re going to go for a year and a day and hopefully someday, even if it’s many years in the future, you forgive me and understand what I am doing. It is time for you to go and find your true-mate. Maybe he can get through to you.”

“Get through about what?” I arched a brow, digging my heels into the plush green carpet beneath my shoes.

She wasn’t about to cast me out without a fight.

“You don’t see yourself or perhaps you do. Apathy is as bad as hatred for the soul, Terrick. You’ve become cruel to everyone except Salta. The staff cringe when you walk in. My mates except for Jert avoid you.”

“Jert is a dumbass,” I huffed.

“Jert is the bravest of them all. He will advocate for Jordan as your father advocated for you. As hard as it is for you to believe, your father knew Jert. He was fond of him. He was never to replace him. No one can do that, but you didn’t even give him a chance to be here. You were fifteen. Then, it was okay. Then, you needed time, but what about now, Terrick? What’s going on now?”

I opened my mouth to say I was doing my best. Only I wasn’t sure that was true. I was certainly doing my best with Salta. I’d die for that kid. I’d take a bullet to the brain or a stake to the heart. I’d cut off my limbs if that’s what it took to save her. I’d fight for mother’s safety too. That was my responsibility, but she could take care of herself just fine. The rest of them – I felt nothing or worse when I looked at them. They were all alive and walking around like they never knew him and they were jealous of Salta.

“I’m not cutting off your funds,” Mother continued. “That money never belonged to me. It was your father’s and now it belongs to you and Salta.”

“I’m not leaving.”

“But you are,” she frowned. “Whether you pack and drive away or the guards drag you out, you are leaving. I won’t have my vampires fearing my own child. I won’t have them live in fear of the ruling family. I’ve seen what that has done in other covens and groups and we’re not going down that path. Go out and find peace and bring it back with you or stay with your red headed mate. Perhaps, he can soften the heart I haven’t seen but a glimpse of in eleven years.”

“I’m not the monster you’re making me out to be,” I spat out the words, my heart pounding in my ears.

“That’s what worries me the most, Terrick. You don’t even see the man you’ve become,” she said and blinked hard.

“I’m not leaving without Salta,” I shook my head. “Casting me out will only punish her. Go ask her if she thinks I’m a monster! Ask her!”

“She thinks you hung the moon and all the stars. It is true,” Mother nodded slowly, tucking another lock of dark hair behind her pointed ear. “She will think that upon your return as well.”

“I’m the only one she has!” I growled.

“No, you two have never been alone in the world. You’re as alone as you’ve chosen to be since you came of age. Perhaps, your fate is elsewhere. Perhaps, that is why you loathe every person here you lay eyes upon. I do not know. This breaks my heart, but ---”

“You’ve always been a high priestess before you were a mother!” I spat out the words.

She didn’t open her mouth to deny the truth I spoke. Instead, she raised her fist to shoulder-level to summon her guards. Their hands wrapped around my arms and for a split second I thought I was the monster she called me. I could’ve ripped them all asunder. They were too removed from both our blood roots and our elven roots. It would’ve been easy. They could’ve laid slain – a pile of corpses around me. Only, I didn’t want Salta to hear about that. So I went limp in their arms and allowed them to drag me off the grounds to where we parked our cars. That was the last thing I’d remember for a long time to come.