Chapter 9

Nine

"Never underestimate the resilience of the human mind and spirit. They'll surprise you every time." ~Lilly

"T his is Jen's parents' home," Lilly told the group as they materialized on the sidewalk in Jeffery and Michelle Adams's neighborhood. She paused and pulled a pair of sunglasses from the pocket of her dress, slipping them on her face. Thankfully, Lilly realized just in time that she was not the same person she was the last time she'd seen Jen's parents. Mainly, Lilly hadn't been a warlock with vertical-slitted yellow eyes. Showing up unannounced would be bad enough. Showing up with creepy Halloween eyes was something else entirely. It felt weird to be back in her hometown. Lilly thought briefly about all the things she'd been through since she'd left Coldspring, and it seemed surreal. She used to own a bookstore and now she ruled a supernatural kingdom of warlocks. "Who knew?" she muttered under her breath as she started for the front door.

"Oh, are we just gonna—" Gwen, the female high fae, made a knocking motion with her hand.

"I thought tossing pebbles at the windows was a little too juvenile." Lilly paused and smiled at the female.

Gwen chuckled. "Agreed."

Knock. Knock.

Lilly turned to see Cyn standing inches from the door. Her hands behind her back as she stood like a soldier. For such a small person, the female fae was intimidating as hell.

Lilly hurried over, not sure what Cyn would say when Jen's parents opened the door. The fae didn't even glance at her. She just continued to stare at the door. Thalion, the Elf King and Cyn's mate, stood directly behind her, alert and ready to defend her if need be.

Just as Lilly was about to knock again, she heard the deadbolt being turned. Then the door swung open, and they came face to face with Jeffery and Michelle Adams.

"Hi." Lilly tried to keep her voice light and friendly. "It's been a while." Her hands fidgeted, and she fought the urge to take off the sunglasses, as normal etiquette would have required.

Michelle's eyes widened as they quickly moved over the people in front of her. "Where's Jen? And Thia? Are they okay? What's happened? Where are Jacque and Sally? They're never apart, and what about Decebel?"

"Slow down," Lilly said softly. "Nothing's happened." Okay, so that was a total lie, but she wasn't about to get into the nitty-gritty while standing on their doorstep. "Do you mind if we come in?"

"Of course." Mr. Adams opened the door further.

Cyn stepped to the side, letting Gwen pass. She looked at her mate, and Thalion gave a slight inclination of his head. "My mate and I will stand guard out here," she informed Lilly.

"Good plan," Lilly nodded. "We'll just go in"—she pointed toward the interior of the house—"and try to explain some things."

Cyn smirked. "Even if we get attacked by a bunch of vamps or hybrids, I'd still rather fight than try to explain to humans about our world. Have fun with that… and the eyes." She pointed to Lilly's face chuckled.

Lilly blew out a breath as she followed Gwen inside. She tried to think about how much Jen's parents knew about her life in the supernatural world, if anything. The last time Jen had been around them, she'd been pregnant, and explaining just the non-paranormal aspects of Jen's life had been a hot mess.

"Dammit." Lilly about jumped out of her skin when a voice whispered from behind her.

"Hi, Queenie. Love the glasses."

Lilly turned around, her hand over her heart. "Dammit, Perizada."

Peri grinned and waved at her as if she hadn't just scared the crap out of Lilly. "I contacted Fane. He informed me of each situation, and let me say, we are stretched thin. He asked me to check on Dalton, but Elle is handling him for now. I decided this was where I needed to be, also I wanted to be able to tell Jen about her mom's face when we told her their granddaughter is a supernatural creature. So." Peri rubbed her hands together. "We having a reveal party? Are they gonna find out if you're a warlock or not when you remove your shades?"

Lucian stood beside his mate, looking as bored as ever.

Lilly's brow rose. "Yes, dammit. That's exactly what we're doing, in the middle of a supernatural crisis, we came to Jen's parents' house, without Jen, and we are going to party like it's 1999. And then I'm going to jump out of a cake and yell ‘surprise, I'm a warlock'!"

Peri's face scrunched up. "1999 was a terrible year. If we're going to party then we're going to do it prohibition style. Now those people knew how to throw a party. And jumping out of cakes is no longer in style."

Lilly rolled her eyes. "Dammit. We're not here to party. And I'm going to break the yellow eyes to them gently."

"Is that the word of the day? And obviously you're not here to party. That would be rude. Not even inviting their daughter and grandchild."

"A grandchild they've never met," Lilly added, thinking of all the milestones they'd never get to experience.

Peri's lips pursed as she tapped her chin. She shrugged and said, "It's probably a good thing that they don't know she likes to dismember dolls and yell curse words. So let's try and leave that out of whatever it is you plan on telling them." Peri walked straight past Lilly to the living area where Gwen sat on a couch, across from Jeffery and Michelle, who were on a love seat.

Lilly looked at Lucian, who simply shrugged as well.

She turned to follow Peri. "This is going to be a shit show."

"It usually is." Lucian headed to stand beside the chair where Peri sat.

Lilly took the only remaining chair and ran her hands down her thighs as she tried to figure out what to say. The glasses were cumbersome on her face, and the room suddenly felt hot .

"So," Peri spoke before Lilly could. "Your daughter is a werewolf and married to a man almost two hundred years older than her, and that's because he's a werewolf. They have a daughter who is also a werewolf. They live in Romania at the pack mansion, with Jacque and her mate Fane, as well as Sally and her mate Costin, and a whole bunch of other werewolves because they're wolves and that's what they do—live in packs. Any questions so far?"

Lilly's mouth dropped open as she looked at Peri and then at Michelle and Jeffery. "Peri," Lilly hissed.

"It's better to just rip the bandage off, oh and she's a warlock queen," Peri said flippantly, pointing at Lilly. Then looked back at Jen's parents. "Well?"

"Questions?"

Peri looked unimpressed. "Yes, Michelle. You know those things that require an answer? Those are questions. Do you have any before I continue this most fantastic tale?"

Lilly watched as Michelle frowned. "Of course, we have questions."

"The first being, who the hell are you?" Jeffery's eyes narrowed on Peri, then he glanced at Gwen. "And you? And those people outside that look like characters from Lord of the Rings ?"

"Has everyone in the human world watched that movie?" Peri sighed. "I mean, did they get it very close to reality, yes. But I'm convinced they know a supernatural being who helped them along. Humans aren't that imaginative."

"Seriously?" Lilly asked her. "A human wrote the book about that world and made it all up including a whole freaking language. How is that not pretty damn imaginative?"

"Are you two seriously arguing about a movie?"

Peri nodded at Michelle and dusted off her non-dirty hands. "Crash course on the actual not-made-up supernatural world."

Lilly pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "Good grief, this is going worse than I thought."

Peri turned to look at her. "What would you have me do, Queenie? Let them live in ignorant bliss only to then be gutted by a hybrid or vampire."

Jeffery shook his head in disbelief. "Vampires? Actual vampires? And what do you mean, she's a warlock queen?"

"One sec." Peri held up a finger to him. "We'll get there."

"I mean, do you think they can handle it all at once? It's sort of a lot." Lilly glanced back at Jen's parents, who were sitting on the very edge of the couch, torsos leaned forward watching the interaction between her and Peri.

"I guess we'll see." Peri smiled and then looked back at Jeffery and Michelle. "Okay." Peri clapped her hands once and then rubbed them together. "You've heard of speed dating? Well, this is supernatural speed school. Pay attention. We don't have a ton of time. And please wait to freak out until the end of the lecture. As you know, Fane was a foreign exchange student from Romania, correct?" Peri asked.

The couple nodded.

"But that's not all he is. He is also a Canis lupus —or as you humans call them, werewolf. He came to Coldspring specifically because there was a beast inside of him pushing him to go in order to find his mate. Non-spoiler alert, because you know that it has to be Jacque, because I imagine they were disgustingly obvious in their desire for one another. I mean even years later they can't keep their ha?—"

"Peri," Lilly said sharply. "Stick to the highlights, please."

"Right," Peri pointed at Lilly. "Good plan, or this will take forever."

"When Fane's family came to visit, it was because there was another wolf who wanted Jacque for himself."

Lilly listened in rapt attention as the high fae told the story of her daughter's life and all that she'd experienced and been through. Peri didn't leave anything out that had to do with Jen. Lilly hadn't missed the tears that had begun to fall down Michelle's face when Peri spoke of Jen dying, or how she cried even harder when she'd heard that Jen gave birth to her first child in a cave. The more Peri revealed, the harder Michelle cried. Jeffery wrapped his arm around his wife as his own tears ran down his cheeks. Lilly found herself envious of the comfort they were able to find in one another. She missed that. She missed Cypher so damn much, and most days she was able to breathe okay, but then certain things would trigger her loss, and the pain would take her breath away. She forced herself to tuck away those memories for when she was alone at night and could weep freely for the man she loved.

"Oh, and Sally's mom is a sprite, and so is Lilly," Peri added as she finished, clapping her hands for emphasis.

Michelle turned to Lilly. "You're a Warlock Queen and a sprite?"

Lilly nodded. "I know it sounds crazy, but it's all true." Then, she slid the glasses from her face. Her eyes remained closed for a few heartbeats as she said, "please try not to freak out." Then Lilly opened her eyes and looked at Jen's parents.

Both of their mouths dropped open and they blinked, looking like shocked cartoon characters.

Lilly heard Peri sigh. "Warlocks have yellow, creepy eyes. Just pretend she has contacts in if it wigs you out too much."

"Thanks, Peri," Lilly said dryly. "Remind me not to bring you along as my wingwoman when sharing delicate information in the future."

"How?" Jen's mother asked. "A whole world inside our own and nobody knows? How do you walk around with eyes like that and no one says anything?"

"I don't really go places that are predominantly human," Lilly said. "So, it hasn't been an issue until, well, now."

"Oh, and people do know," Peri said. "Unfortunately, many of the people who know are the bad guys. Your human government sort of sucks."

Jeffery shook his head, as if trying to deny reality. Then he took a deep breath and slowly released it. "Is this why Jennifer barely contacts us?"

Lilly smiled. "I'm sure she was scared about how you'd react. But she was also trying to protect you. There are some very bad things out there that go bump in the night. She wanted to keep you as far from their radars as possible."

Michelle chuckled without amusement. "We wouldn't have believed her." Her voice was laced with sadness.

"Few people would without proof." Then Peri disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the room. "That's called flashing. It's something my species can do."

"And you're a fairy?"

"Fae," Peri corrected Jeffery. "High fae, to be precise. And so is Gwen." She motioned to the quiet female.

Gwen smiled and gave a little wave.

"Why are you telling us this now?" Jeffery asked, his brow drawn down into a deep ‘v'. "After all this time, why now?"

"Because the supernatural war is no longer in the shadows," Peri answered. "The hybrids that have been created have no discretion and don't care if they're found out. They have a bloodlust that is insatiable."

"What she's trying to say is that the war has come to Coldspring, among other places. The Coldspring Alpha, Jeff, contacted Fane and let him know there are vampires in the vicinity. The pack has been killing them, but we don't know how many are here. And we don't know if they're here because of you and the Henrys, because of Fane's connection to them, or if they're here for the pack. But Jen is ours, and by extension, so are you two." Lilly reached across the coffee table and wrapped her hand around Michelle's. "We should have shared all of this with you years ago. And as your friend, I'm sorry that I didn't. I let you worry about your daughter when I could have prevented that."

"It's not your fault, Lilly," Peri interjected sharply.

"It's our fault," Michelle mumbled. "Jen and I have always had a rocky relationship. She's so much like I was, and I made some very poor decisions when I was her age. I just didn't want her to follow in my footsteps, and that constantly put us at odds. How could she feel safe coming to us with such unbelievable information?"

Lilly wanted to sigh in relief. The couple wasn't going to fight them on this, throw them out, scream that they're crazy, or blame Jen and take it out on her. Lilly had expected any of those outcomes as the most likely.

"Is Jen okay?" Jeffery asked earnestly.

"Okay, in the supernatural world, is relative." Peri returned to her seat. "Currently, she is accompanying a rogue male werewolf and his newly found mate to his rogue pack to fill them in on all that has happened and to let them know they are going to be an official pack under the rule of Fane and Jacque. So that means she's going to be around a bunch of unknown werewolves, some of which are male and unmated. And Decebel is with her, and he gets a tad territorial?—"

Gwen chuckled. "A tad?"

Peri rolled her eyes. "The males of the Canis lupus species are especially protective of their mates. Decebel will ensure nothing happens to her, to the extent he can."

Michelle's eyes widened. "To the extent he can?"

Peri shrugged. "Listen, Decebel's a badass. But in our world, there are even badder asses. You never know what can happen."

Lilly shook her head. "Encouraging as always."

"You know I don't sugarcoat things."

"Actually, you've done a pretty good job of toning down some of the gory details." Lilly was genuinely surprised at Peri's level of discretion. It wouldn't have shocked Lilly if Peri had led with Jen's newfound love of beheading her enemies and bringing the heads home as trophies.

"I'm growing," Peri said dryly. "It's a process."

Lilly snorted. "Right. A process that's taken 3,000 years."

"Hush, Queenie. Nobody asked for your opinion." Peri pursed her lips.

Lilly turned her attention back to the couple. "Now, do you have any more questions?"

"You said there's a werewolf pack in Coldspring?" Jeffery asked.

"That's correct." Lilly nodded. "Jeff, the current alpha, is a good guy. His pack keeps this town safe from other supernatural beings that might wish to harm humans."

They both seemed to be processing the information. Michelle's tears had dried up, as had Jeffery's. Lilly waited patiently, and to her surprise, so did Peri. She glanced at the others. Lucian stood as still as a statue. He'd not spoken a word, not even when Peri announced him as her mate and werewolf. Gwen scooted back on the couch and rested her hands in her lap, watching Jeffery and Michelle.

Finally, after several minutes of silence, Michelle nodded and looked straight at Lilly. "We believe you."

Jeffery nodded as well.

"I don't understand it," Michelle continued, "but there are lots of things I don't understand in this world, and yet they are still true."

"That's an excellent point. Like why mosquitoes exist. I mean, seriously, what benefit do they actually bring to this world?"

"Jewel would know." Lilly smiled at Peri.

Peri's brow furrowed. "She would. That's something we're going to need to talk about. Little Jewel has been keeping secrets. Elle reached out to me to let me know what she was doing, as I am her commander." Peri looked at Jen's parents. "Elle is one of our fae warriors. Jewel is a gypsy healer who is also a witch. One of those things is really good, and the other … less so."

"Right, of course." Jeffery tried to sound like he was completely okay. But Lilly imagined inside he was a frantic mess.

"Is Jewel okay?"

"I don't know, Lilly. But Elle, Sorin, Anna, Gustavo, and Dalton are trying to figure that out. Tanya is with Jewel at the Colorado pack mansion. For now, they have it under control. Our job is to secure the Adams and the Henrys and talk to Jeff."

"The good news is the Henrys already know about us," Lilly offered. "Fane and Jacque told them when Fane fought Lucas."

"Who's Lucas?" Michelle asked.

"He's the former alpha of the Coldspring pack, and he was not a good man." Peri rose to her feet.

"What happened to him?" The tension in Jeffery's voice made Lilly think he didn't really want to know the answer.

"What happens to any male who threatens the mate of another." Lucian spoke up for the first time, his deep voice filling the room. "His life was forfeit the moment he threatened to take Jacque."

Both their eyes widened. "Fane killed him? But he is just a kid, or was when he lived here." Michelle's voice rose an octave.

"Supernatural law is not as forgiving as human law," Lucian told her. "We are powerful beings, and there are those who choose to abuse that power to hurt others. They cannot be allowed to live. We protect the humans from those like Lucas."

Lilly nodded. "And there are much worse ones than him."

"Some of the things we deal with make Lucas look like a newborn kitten. But don't think about that stuff now. I'm quite impressed with you two. You haven't passed out from shock, you haven't peed on yourselves in fear, and you're not calling the cops to come take the crazy people from your house." Peri motioned for Lilly and Gwen to stand. "I think our job here is done."

"That's it?" Michelle scrambled to her feet. "You're going to leave now? After you've just dropped this big-ass bomb on our laps? I mean, you said Jen is relatively safe. What the hell does that actually mean? Her mate is over 200 years old. Does that mean Jen is going to live that long? Will she watch us grow old while she never changes? How do we keep from telling our friends because, damn, this is a lot?" She ran her hands through her hair and then dropped her arms as if they weighed too much. "How can we stay in touch with her if she's off saving the world? And where is Thia while Decebel and Jen are gone? Is she safe? Would she be safer in our world with us?" She turned to look at her husband, and he nodded enthusiastically. "We believe you, but there's still so much we don't know."

Okay, maybe they're not as cool, calm, and collected as I first guessed.

"According to Fane, Jeff has had some of his wolves keeping watch over you two in case any vampires have targeted you. He can answer any more questions you have about the supernatural world," Lilly offered. "They should be coming by to introduce themselves to you soon."

Peri motioned to herself and the others. "We are going to check with Jeff and see if there's any threat left in Coldspring, and Gwen"—she pointed to the other high fae—"will stay to help the wolves. She also can help with questions you have. Gwen, are you good with that?"

"Of course." Gwen dipped her head at Jeffery and Michelle.

"Gwen will also make sure anyone else who comes calling gets the message that this city is protected by the alpha of all alphas."

"How are you going to do that?" Jeffery's brow furrowed as he crossed his arms in front of him.

"We like to display the head?—"

Lilly cut her off. "I don't think you really want to know the answer to that question. Also, Jen is unaware that we came to see you. She doesn't know that there have been vampires in Coldspring. She's going to flip her lid, so be expecting to hear from her." Lilly paused, meeting Michelle's eyes. "Don't be too hard on her for not staying in contact. She was just a teenager when she left and had only just learned about the supernatural world. I don't think she knew how to tell you."

Michelle nodded as her eyes filled with tears once again. "We love her, and we miss her. We want to know Thia and Decebel. I don't think we knew how to convey that because of our own anger. But life is too short to be angry over things we can't change. I'm done losing time with our daughter."

Lilly smiled. "Good. I think she will be relieved. Be expecting her phone call. And keep your eyes open for anyone that doesn't look right."

Peri held out her phone to Michelle.

Her eyes widened. "You have a cell phone?"

Peri's brow pinched. "I may have been born in The Dark Ages, but that doesn't mean I haven't evolved with the times."

Michelle's face turned red. "Right, of course." She took the phone and looked at Peri expectantly.

"Put your contact info in there, and then I'll send you a text so you'll have my number. If something is wrong, you can text me and I'll be here in the blink of an eye, literally. Unless I'm in the middle of killing something, trying to avoid being killed, or mating?—"

"Peri," Lilly snapped.

"What?" She shrugged. "Just want her to know if I don't appear in the blink of an eye, there's a good reason."

Lilly sighed and shook her head. The damn fae would be the death of her.

Michelle quickly did as Peri asked and then handed her back the phone. "Thank you," she told the high fae and then looked at Lilly. "Thank you for watching out for our girl. Not just these past few years, but all of them. You've been a good friend to us, and you've loved Jen like your own. That means more to us than you know."

Lilly's vision blurred as emotion swelled. She couldn't imagine going years without seeing Jacque. She knew Jen's parents had to be hurting. "It's my honor to claim her as one of mine. And you know I love you guys."

Michelle walked over and gave Lilly a tight hug, and then Jeffery did the same. "Thank you," he said in a gruff, emotion-filled voice.

Lilly nodded, stepping back. "You have my number already. Use it anytime you need to."

"And I will be around to check on you," Gwen told them. "You won't be left alone after finding all of this out."

Gwen held out an arm to Lilly, and she placed her hand on it. Lucian wrapped his hand around Peri's. "We're going to flash from here, so don't freak out," Peri warned them.

Jeffery and Michelle nodded with wide eyes and gave a final wave.