by Juniper Hart
“Charlie, I need you to do a trace on a phone number I’m going to text you,” he instructed when a male answered the call. Henry knew how risky it was to distribute the Council phone numbers, but Charlie was a mortal, and one who had been trusted time and again with his personal matters.
“You got it, boss.”
“Are you putting a trace on the Council phone?” Marjorie gasped, and Henry spun back, his pulse racing slightly as the vampire gaped at him. “Is that legal?”
Henry hissed at her, baring his teeth in fury. “Marjorie, you are coming dangerously close to crossing a line with me,” he spat. “Get out of my face and take Carmen to breakfast.”
She stared at him in disbelief, but she didn’t argue. Henry watched as she walked away before sending Charlie the text with Lane’s phone number.
Is she going to be a problem? he wondered, gnawing on the insides of his cheeks so hard, he tasted blood.
He hoped not, but at that moment, Marjorie was the least of his worries. His biggest concern was what was going on with Lane Aldwin.
6
Lane threw the phone on the bed like it had caught fire and struggled to steady her breathing.
Why did I do that? That was so stupid!
It was almost as if she’d been possessed, waking up and reaching for the cell. She’d dialed out before she even knew what was happening. Lane felt like she’d been dreaming about Henry after she’d finally fallen asleep.
She had vaguely heard the Civic start and pull out of the front when Julia left for her work, shortly after they had returned back home, and then there had been fitful dreams about the Council and the ceremony.
It wasn’t until Henry said her name that the hazy, trance-like sensation which had overcome her seemed to disappear, and she was brought back to the reality that she had already broken the rules to call him.
Lane stared at the cell, half expecting it to ring again, but she realized that wouldn’t happen. Henry wouldn’t disrespect the laws of the Council as she had.
Will he tell what I’ve done? she asked herself. For all she knew, he didn’t need to. The Council might have other ways of knowing what she had done.
Not for the first time, Lane was reminded how little she knew about technology. Julia had kept her out of touch with anything in the world. Lane had been permitted to read, but only classics, and they had a small T.V., but no cable. She had no idea how cell phones worked.
Mom is going to kill me if she finds out about any of this.
Lane saw that she still had goosebumps on her arms from when she’d heard Henry’s voice, and she wondered if that was normal or if her nerves had just gotten the best of her.
What was Henry going to do? She hoped nothing. In her mind’s eye, she envisioned a very awkward encounter the next time she and Henry saw one another at the full moon Council meeting, but nothing more.
Why am I so disappointed? It’s not like we could date or anything.
Lane was humiliated for thinking anything so silly. Why would a guy like Henry Brandis want to have anything to do with her? He was obviously worldly and exciting. She was a twenty-five-year-old spinster hermit who knew nothing about anything. She needed to stop thinking about Henry and find something else to occupy her time.
She padded out of her bedroom, leaving the phone on the bed. She couldn’t help but cast it one last look before heading into the bathroom for a shower. What if Henry called in the meantime?
Lane loathed the way her mind was betraying her, though she also knew it had nothing to do with her mind at all and everything to do with her heart, wanting him in the worst way.
She vaguely remembered being in school, although Julia had insisted she attend kindergarten for a few months before everything. She wondered if she would have had crushes on boys if she’d remained in school. If she had, would they have felt like this?
It was a dumb game to play—she had nothing to compare her sentiments to.
Mom saw to that. She continues to see that I have no normal social interaction.
The combination of bitterness and sadness enveloped Lane again, but she forced her mind away from the melancholy which threatened to consume her. There was nothing she could do to change her situation. Her mother knew best, didn’t she? Julia wouldn’t just lock away her only child if there wasn’t a good reason.
If that’s true, then why do I have so much anger toward her?
She stepped into the near-steaming shower and soaped herself with a lavender and vanilla concoction she had made herself. It was supposed to diminish anxiety, but Julia didn’t know that was the reason Lane had made the soap in that particular scent.
Not that it works, anyway, she thought. I’m going to need something stronger than fragrance to overcome my anxiety.
As she washed her shoulder-length red waves, the water cascading down her slender but shapely body, Lane wondered what it would take for her mother to let her go, if only to get a part-time job. Julia had promised, long ago, that once the Council was destroyed, Lane would be permitted to wander free.
“Then you can get a job if you want, although gods only know why you want to,” Julia sighed. She worked as an emergency room nurse and seemed to hate her job.
“Mom, what will I do… you know… after?”
“After I’m dead, you mean?” Julia snorted. “Why do you think I work so much? I’m ensuring there’s enough to see you through long after I’m gone, but I’m hoping to marry you off to a wealthy Alpha.”
“What?” Lane choked. “You can’t be serious! Mom, this isn’t the nineteenth century!”
Julia shrugged. “It’s either that, or you’ll have to use your powers to get money some other way. You can do that, you know.”
Lane’s mouth nearly hit the floor at her mother’s suggestion. “I can’t do that! There are laws! I’ll be locked up!”
Julia’s face twisted into a look of anger. “Well, you have no marketable skills, Lane. You have no college education. I mean, what do the Enchanted expect you to do when they make us hide our kids away? Of course you’ll have to use your abilities to survive any way you can. It’s not like you have the benefit of immortality. You will die if you don’t eat.”
And that’s Mom’s plan for my future, Lane recalled. Marry me off like some Regency virgin or turn me into a criminal. It’s like she doesn’t know me at all!
The heat of the water was becoming unbearable, and Lane leaned forward to turn off the water. She stepped out and wrapped her lithe body in a worn towel, wiping her hand over the foggy mirror to stare at her face. She wondered how Henry Brandis felt about marriage.
Instantly, her pale face stained nearly purple with embarrassment, and she hurried out of the bathroom to dress, water dripping on the floor from her soaked tresses.
No sooner had she slipped on her bra and panties than she heard a knock at the door. Lane froze in shock. No one ever came to the cottage—ever.
She moved toward the window and peered into the yard, where she saw a sleek, black car parked. There was only the back of a man facing her, but she knew who it was. She’d been dreaming about that tall, dark profile all day, after all.
“Oh, no,” Lane mumbled, her eyes tearing around the room for something to wear. She considered ignoring him, but she knew he knew she was there. She’d told him as much.
“Lane? I know you’re there.”
And he can read my thoughts, she remembered.
“And I can read your thoughts.”
Lane willed herself not to think while she wriggled into a simple sundress and bolted out toward the front door.
“How did you find me?” she asked when she opened the door. A now-familiar sense of warmth flooded her when Henry’s crystalline eyes met hers.
“You really don’t know a lot about technology, do you?”
She shook her head sheepishly. “Not really.”
“Can I come in?”
Lane chomped on her lower lip, biting back the impulse to refuse, bu
t Henry had probably gone through a great deal of trouble to find her.
“Sure,” she managed to say and stepped back to let him inside. “Do you want something to drink or eat?”
It was so strange saying those words to him, so foreign to have a stranger in the cottage. Under any other circumstances, it would have filled her with a sense of panic. Henry, though, wasn’t a stranger, not really.
“No,” Henry replied slowly. “I’m taking you out for breakfast, remember?”
“Oh, no,” Lane laughed nervously. Her heart was pounding violently in her chest. “No, that’s not a good idea. I shouldn’t leave.”
Henry closed the door, which she still held fast to, and cocked his head to the side. “Do you have to go to work?”
“I don’t work.”
“Oh. School?”
She shook her head again and lowered her eyes. “No. I was homeschooled by my mom, but that stopped a few years ago, after I got my high school diploma.”
Henry seemed at a loss for words.
“Lane,” he said after a while, “do you stay here all the time? With your mother?”
Defensiveness shot through her. “So what if I do?”
He leaned forward and tipped her chin upward to look into his eyes. “So nothing. I’m just trying to understand you a bit better.”
Confusion swept through Lane. There was no judgement in his eyes, no look of admonishment.
“Why?” she asked. “Why do you want to know me?”
His characteristic half-smile formed on his lips. “You don’t think you’re interesting?”
Lane scoffed.
“No,” she answered truthfully. “Not in the least.”
Henry shrugged.
“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we? Are you ready to go for breakfast?” The doubts hit Lane again, and she started to refuse, but Henry shook his head before she could. “You already told me that you don’t have plans. What else are you going to do today?”
I can’t go with him, Lane thought. Mom will kill me if she finds out about this!
“I’ll have you back before Julia knows you’re gone, all right?”
He can read your mind! She raised her eyes to him again, and his smile widened.
“Is it a deal?”
Lane nodded slowly. “Yes…”
“Great!” Henry turned toward the door, but before his hand touched the knob, Lane threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his.
The action caught him completely off guard, and Henry fell back, his pupils dilating in shock.
“Oh, my goodness!” Lane gasped, pulling herself back, her head swimming. “I don’t know what— Oh, my goodness!”
Henry laughed boomingly and seized her shoulders, leaning down to kiss her again, softer this time. When their mouths parted, he brushed a still-wet strand of hair out of her face.
“I have so much to teach you,” he murmured, leaning his mouth against her forehead. “I can’t wait.”
Lane steeled her mind not to think, lest Henry read her thoughts again. If she’d given herself permission, she would have told herself to run away quickly, to leave Henry before it was too late and her mother ruined everything.
Instead, she followed him from the house without so much as a backward glance, as if disobeying her mother and leaving on breakfast dates was commonplace for her.
Who knows? she mused. It just might become commonplace still.
7
Henry’s phone rang nonstop through breakfast, but he ignored it, his attention fully on the creature before him. He’d never met someone so untouched by the world. Everything was brand-new to Lane, and he was both intrigued by her and disgusted with Julia for making her that way.
“I don’t understand,” Henry said as he watched her devour a stack of blueberry pancakes. “Your mom just didn’t let you go anywhere?”
Lane paused, her mouth slowing as she chewed. He knew it was intrusive to read her thoughts but there was so much going on in her head, it was almost impossible to stay out of her mind.
“It was for my own safety,” she mumbled, darting her gaze back to her breakfast. She dropped the fork quietly onto the plate and sat back.
“How?” Henry demanded. “How could that be for your own safety?”
Lane’s face puckered into a frown, and Henry tensed when he realized what Julia had told her.
“The Council would never have ordered the execution of a child!” he breathed in disbelief, leaning forward so that they wouldn’t be overheard. “Yes, we scare the parents into monitoring their kids, but we’ve never ordered a child to death.”
Lane’s eyes enlarged.
“Never?” she demanded. “Are you sure?”
“Are you kidding? The kids would never reach maturity if we punished them for such a thing,” Henry insisted, and he watched as relief and sadness flooded her face.
“She really thought I was in danger,” Lane muttered, her pale face growing waxen. “She wouldn’t have hid me otherwise.”
“I don’t know about that, Lane,” Henry replied, ire surging through him. “You haven’t been a child in many years. What excuse did she have after you were at an age where you could understand?”
Lane’s shoulders stiffened. “You don’t know my mother. She worries. All mothers worry.”
“All mothers worry, of course,” Henry conceded. “But not all mothers keep their adult children from making friends, from going to school, or from having a job. Even if I believe that she was worried for your safety and did her best to keep you alive, she still kept you from living.”
“No!” Lane retorted, her tone biting. “Mom loves me. Sure, her methods might be a little unorthodox, but she loves me.”
“I’m sure she does,” Henry agreed quickly, not wanting to rouse an argument. “I didn’t mean to imply she didn’t.”
Lane was silent for a long moment, her eyes glued on the table.
“Lane,” he continued. “I don’t want us to fight. I mean it when I said I want to know you better, and no matter what, I think it’s time that you got out in the world and learned about things, don’t you? You’re going to have a much easier time on the Council if you can relate to the other Enchanted beings.”
Her head jerked up, eyes shining with hope.
“I’d like that, too,” she breathed. “But my mom—”
“I hate to say this, Lane, but your mother has little say in what you do anymore. Your commitment is to the Council now. Julia knows the rules, everyone does. It is in the best interest of the entire Council that you get out into the world now. The other members will agree with me if we need to pull her before the Seven.”
“Oh, don’t do that, Henry! You can’t do that to her.”
“Then we’ll have to talk to her and convince her that it’s in her best interest to let you go.”
Fear infused Lane’s face, and she sat back with a gasp.
“Go where?” she choked. “I don’t have any money. What if she throws me out?”
“Let’s take this slowly, okay?” Henry said gently, reaching for her hand. “I’m not talking about moving you into your own place in Manhattan. I’m talking about baby steps.”
“Henry, I appreciate what you’re trying to do,” Lane said, “but I don’t even know where to start with all this. I need my mom’s help.”
“No,” he corrected her slowly. “You just need help. It doesn’t need to be from Julia.”
Lane’s terror was almost palpable.
“You don’t understand, Henry,” she breathed. “My mom won’t accept it.”
“Then she’ll be brought in front of the Council.” His tone was harsher than he’d intended, but he wasn’t about to let Julia Aldwin steal one more minute of Lane’s life from her, not when she had already lost a quarter of it.
She’s not immortal. She’s going to expire, just like all the other witches. The fact struck Henry in the gut, and he grew angrier at Julia for withholding her daughter from the world.
We might have had years together by now if it wasn’t for Julia’s insanity. I’m not letting her take another second.
“Please,” Lane choked. “You can’t bring her before the Council. Please.”
“I’ll speak with her, Lane. You’re worrying for no reason. I’m sure that your mom wants what’s best for you. She might not be able to see it right now, but she will. Go ahead, finish your pancakes.”
She shook her head. “I’m not hungry anymore,” she sighed. “I’d like to go home.”
Henry stifled a grunt. He knew he couldn’t fault Lane for being so wary, but he wished she’d be more open to accepting what he was telling her.
“All right,” he said, supressing his argument. “I’ll pay the bill.”
Lane looked aghast as though she’d just realized that money was involved.
“Oh…” She groaned. “I’ll pay you back. I swear,”
Henry chuckled. “It’s okay. I think I can afford the twenty bucks for breakfast.”
She eyed him speculatively, but he didn’t miss the glint of appreciation in her eyes. He waved for the server, who promptly presented the bill, and he left payment and a generous tip to cover.
“Come on, Lane,” he said, offering his hand toward her. “Let’s get you liberated.”
“I wish you’d stop pacing around,” Henry told her sternly. “You’re making me dizzy.”
“I wish you’d go,” Lane insisted. “Let me talk to Mom myself, and if that doesn’t work…”
“Has it worked the last thousand times you’ve asked to be emancipated?”
“No, but having you here will only make things worse, Henry. She’s… she’s not going to like being blindsided.”
“This is not blindsiding her, Lane. This is speaking to her rationally and showing her that it’s in everyone’s best interest for you to be on your own.”
Lane stopped her pacing and looked at him. “What do you have to gain from this? Why are you doing this?”
Henry slowly rose from his spot on a wing chair near the fake fireplace and drew toward her.