Chapter Fourteen

The Gang's All Here

Everyone is gathered in the living room waiting for me when I return to my parents’ house.

Mom’s on the sofa staring into space. She’s definitely worse now than I remember. When I was a little kid, she acted more like a scatterbrained eccentric. Now, she’s almost in a vegetative state.

Damn you, Elizabeth. Of all the things you took from me, realizing my mother was one of them makes me hate you more than I ever thought possible. And yeah, some of that anger is directed inward at myself for blaming Mom. All those years I thought she didn’t like me or didn’t want kids and resented us. Now I’m wondering if she’s been stuck somewhere else trying like hell to get back to her family and just couldn’t do it.

Paxton goes wide eyed.

Damn. I’m getting so angry it’s scaring her. I need to set that aside. A few deep breaths help. That and thinking about how nothing I can do will change the past. Can’t even get revenge since the cause of Mom’s problem is already dead. The only thing I can do is maybe change the future.

“Mom?” Paxton hurries over to whisper, “What’s wrong? ”

“Fuming over what happened to my mother,” I whisper back. “Will explain later.”

She offers a hesitant nod. Confused, but she knows my being evasive means we need to talk about the supernatural stuff, and that means we can’t do it in front of people who aren’t aware that sort of thing is real. If it had just been Mary Lou here, no big deal. She’s fully in the know. Rick, her kids, my brother, not so much.

Though, I suspect Dusk would probably be able to handle it.

The sound of a car approaching outside brings various random conversations to a stop. Two doors open and whump closed a moment later. Everyone sits in silence. Dusk goes to the front door, opens it, and steps outside.

“Hey you losers,” calls Dusk in a jovial tone.

“Bite me,” says a familiar voice on the deeper end. It’s been years since I heard it. I assume it’s River, my oldest brother.

“Yo,” says Clayton.

All three of my siblings walk into the room. Clayton looks pretty much like I remember him from only a few months ago when he visited for Thanksgiving. He’s sadder though. Seems news of Dad’s imminent death is hitting him hard.

River is forty-nine or fifty now. Hints of grey speckle his otherwise black hair. Yeah, he went to jail for a bit, but as far as I know hasn’t been in trouble since. Sometimes a person only needs one bad experience to figure out certain things aren’t worth it. Unfortunately, I don’t really remember where he’s been or what he’s been doing. Some vague memory wants me to think he works in construction.

“Who’s that guy that looks like Hugh Jackman?” whispers Ruby Grace to her mom.

Mary Lou bursts out laughing .

Yeah, that’s funny. No one would ever mistake River for Hugh Jackman, though I could see him being a stunt double or something.

We do the greeting and introductions thing.

Clayton’s seen me recently enough to know who I am and makes no big deal of my visible age. River, on the other hand, gives me a pat on the shoulder when he finally greets his way around the room to me.

“Hey pipsqueak, you got big fast. Is your mom here?”

I blink. “Yeah, she is.”

He tilts his head at me as if to ask where.

I gesture at Mom.

River furrows his brows. “Wait, what? You’re not Tam Tam?”

Tammy laughs, holds up her hand. “No, I’m Tammy.”

River looks back and forth between us. “No way you’re Sam.”

I hold up my hand next. “Guilty as charged.”

“How the hell…” He looks me over for a moment, then lowers his voice. “Did you figure out the weird shit?”

I bite my lip. “What do you mean?”

He wiggles his fingers like he’s pantomiming someone doing magic. “The weird shit Mom used to do.”

Oh wow. Am I the last one to find out that Mom is a witch? I mean, it’s kinda stupid to assume she isn’t. Bloodline and all, right? “Yeah, maybe.”

River nods, taking it in stride like it’s no big deal his little sister is using magic to stay young-looking. Totally ordinary thing for someone to do.

My brothers, Mary Lou, and I get into a quick catch-up session that the kids aren’t the least bit interested in. Clayton left his new girlfriend home because she had zero interest in being around morbid family drama. This gets him asking River and Dusk if they have any families. Dusk’s a committed bachelor with a string of one night stands from Italy to Norway, or so he claims. River briefly mentions that he’s been married—and divorced—twice. He’s got three kids. Two boys from his first wife and a daughter with his second wife. He’d been working as a heavy equipment operator with a construction company up until a year ago when his employer abruptly filed chapter eleven and went under.

“Can’t be that hard to find work, right?” asks Clayton.

River smiles. “Not too hard, I suppose, but I needed a change of scenery. Been up in Alaska.”

“Holy shit. That’s a ways off.” Dusk laughs.

“Says Michaelangelo.” River snickers.

“The heck are you doing in Alaska?” asks Clayton.

River laughs. “Working on a fishing boat. Totally random, I know, and it’s kicking my ass. Once the contract’s over, I’m probably going back to construction.”

When Clayton admits to having a nice, cushy office job, Dusk and River start teasing the absolute hell out of him. The boy who hated wearing clothes and spent most of his teens high as a kite on marijuana ended up with the lamest, most ordinary job as an adult. Dusk is particularly amused by this. Then again, he always hated structure. I don’t think it’s biologically possible for his brain to tolerate an actual job. Nothing involving an alarm clock and set times is compatible with him.

Eventually, Mary Lou wrangles order out of chaos. It’s almost eleven in the morning now and visiting hours at the hospital are starting soon. Time to go visit Dad. Is it strange for me to be more anxious about that than confronting whatever vampire mess is going on out here? Yeah, that is weird. What kind of person would be less afraid of taking on vampires in a life or death fight than visiting their dying father?

I’m not afraid of Dad. It’s fear of guilt. Maybe I don’t want to see him old and frail. Now that I know whatever’s going on with Mom wasn’t just her being distant or crappy to us on purpose, it makes his attitude seem all the more logical. The kids weren’t the only people affected by Mom losing her soul. Dad didn’t know how to handle it, either. How could he? And who did he have to go to for help? No one. I mean, he could’ve confided in us, or at least Mary Lou, but never did. He just dove headfirst into the weeds... or into weed.

Dusk helps Mom up and guides her outside. Somehow, she manages to walk on her own.

A small silver car sits near the door, obviously the one River and Clayton arrived in. It, too, has Enterprise Rental license plate frames. No idea what it is, but it’s so damn small I think it would be more appropriate to say people ‘wear’ it rather than get into it.

Between Rick’s giant Ford Excursion and my Momvan, there’s enough room for everyone. We put Mom in the passenger seat of the Excursion. I get all the kids. Mine, plus Mary Lou’s, as well as Clayton. Everyone else squeezes into the big Ford.

Rick doesn’t know where he’s going around here, so I pull out first and lead the way.

Onward to Klamath.