“Very cute.” I didn’t bother hiding my annoyance as he kissed my cheek, my eyes never leaving Sami’s face. “That seems like a new ability, huh?”
They were coming fast now. When Sami was a child we always feared that she would inadvertently kill someone or accidentally set the house on fire. She never did. Her magic remained dormant for most of her childhood. Then, in quick succession after her twelfth birthday, she developed the ability to burn people alive, explode arrows, set random fires and shift into a wolf. It had been a busy few months, and apparently we weren’t done.
“I don’t know how I did it.” Sami almost sounded apologetic. “It just popped into my head.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” I said, running my hand over her hair. “It might come in handy when you can control it.”
“Yeah, it sounds interesting,” Aric interjected, moving closer to Sami. “Just don’t use it on your mother and me, because if you thought we were perverted before you’ll have an absolute meltdown when you read our minds.”
Sami shifted from worried to outraged, exactly the emotion I think Aric was going for. “Gross!”
“Blame your mother,” Aric said. “She’s an animal.”
I slapped his arm as I straightened, turning my attention to the house across the street and smiling when I recognized it. There it was, the house on Franklin Street. The color was different, but I’d recognize that front porch anywhere.
“Home sweet home.”
Aric turned his head to the house. He didn’t look nearly as happy to see it. “This is my least favorite house you lived in while here.”
“Why?” Sami asked. “I thought you said wherever Mom lived was your home, too.”
“I did say that … and you have very big ears.” Aric tugged on one for emphasis, causing Sami to squirm. “Your mother and I weren’t together in this house,” he volunteered. “We didn’t spend time together here until the very end, right before she was ready to leave.”
“Why?” Sami stared at the house with a mixture of fascination and disdain. “Was that when you guys were broken up and you wanted to cry every night because you missed Mom so much?”
Aric furrowed his brow. “I wouldn’t exactly put it like that.”
“Mom put it like that.”
Aric crossed his arms over his chest as he regarded me. “Oh, really?”
I refused to feel guilty. “You know you wanted to cry the entire time we were apart. Don’t bother denying it.”
“I didn’t cry,” Aric clarified. “I was sad and upset, but I didn’t cry.”
“Crying doesn’t make you less manly,” I said, patting his cheek as the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I turned, as if feeling a set of eyes shoot painful lasers through me. There, at the end of the sidewalk, stood a dark figure that would’ve plagued the nightmares of others.
“Stand back,” Aric warned, sweeping out his arm to put Sami’s body behind his.
“What’s wrong?” Sami sounded fearful. “What is that?”
“Vampire,” Aric whispered, keeping his voice low.
“Not just any vampire,” I said, smiling as a familiar mind brushed past my own. “This one is tan and sarcastic.”
Aric relaxed when he realized who I was referring to. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I shook my head, a sensation of ease I hadn’t felt since landing at Covenant College washing over me. “Rafael.”
Sami widened her eyes. “Seriously? That’s the vampire that wished he was tough like Dad?”
Now it was my turn to widen my eyes as Rafael closed the distance between us. His hearing was better than that of most, so I knew by the way he chuckled that he’d heard Sami’s question. He stopped in front of us, his eyes passing briefly over Aric and me before settling on Sami.
“Well, you may look like your father, but you sound just like your mother,” Rafael offered.
Sami, ever defiant, clutched her hands at her sides and squared her shoulders. “Thank you.”
Rafael grinned. “That wasn’t a compliment.”
Nine
Aric strode forward and shook Rafael’s hand before I could offer him a hug.
“I never thought I’d say this, but I’m happy to see you.”
Rafael’s smirk remained the same, a permanent fixture in my memory. “Don’t worry. I know she’s yours.”
Aric snorted. “For better or worse.”
“Hey, I’m standing right here.” I used my hip to slip past Aric and threw my arms around Rafael’s neck, taking a moment to register his coldness of his body. “I missed you.”
Rafael returned the embrace, running his fingertips over my hair before releasing me. “I didn’t realize until this exact second that I missed you, too.”
We stared at each other a moment, ten years of distance melting. Sami was the first to break the silence, which was somehow fitting.
“So you’re the vampire, huh?” She looked Rafael up and down with a studied gaze. “You’re not what I expected.”
Rafael didn’t bother hiding his smile as he leaned over a bit, taking in the strong lines of Sami’s face. “I’ve heard about you through the years. I knew you looked like Aric. Still, I was hoping to see some of your mother in you.”
“Just spend a few minutes with her,” Aric suggested. “You’ll never think otherwise once she starts talking.”
“I’ve already figured that out.” Rafael winked as he straightened. “Not that I’m not happy to see you – I am – but what are you doing here?”
“Handling old business,” Aric replied, his eyes traveling to the busy house on the corner. “I could ask the same of you.”
“I’ve been back for a few weeks now,” Rafael explained. “I heard whispers.”
“What kind of whispers?” I asked, my mind instantly running to the sphinxes. I had heard whispers before Zach attacked.
“The kind we shouldn’t discuss out in the open,” Rafael replied, tucking a strand of his long dark hair behind his ear and glancing at the setting sun. It was almost gone. “We need to go someplace private.”
“I still have my old apartment,” Aric offered. “We’re parked about three blocks that way. You can ride with us.”
Rafael nodded as he fell into step with Aric. “Your appearance on the campus has not gone without notice,” he said. “I heard the mage was back and knew. I did not realize the junior mage was with you until I saw you standing on the sidewalk in your old stomping grounds.”
“We were taking a walk down memory lane,” I offered. “Aric complained that was his least favorite house I lived in, and Sami wanted to know why. As for her being here, well, we could hardly leave her behind given the circumstances.”
“I look forward to hearing about the circumstances,” Rafael said. “But not here. Definitely not here.”
I nodded as I slipped my hand into Aric’s, watching with unveiled amusement as Sami picked up her pace so she could walk next to Rafael. She didn’t appear to be afraid of him even though she’d never met a vampire. She seemed more intrigued than anything else.
“How is it you can be out before the sun sets?” Sami asked.
Rafael glanced at me, amused. “Your mother gave me a gift on her wedding day. I can walk in the sun, although it’s not without certain difficulties.”
“What difficulties?”
“My eyes never adjust properly, and I find that I prefer spending my time out during the evening hours,” Rafael answered. “Still, seeing the sun whenever I wish is a blessing. I owe your mother a lot, but that was her greatest gift to me.”
“Uh-huh.” Sami narrowed her eyes. “Did you used to date my mother?”
If Rafael was bothered by the question, he didn’t show it. “I guess that would depend on your definition of the word ‘date.’”
“Did you kiss her?”
“Yes.”
“Did you hold her hand?”
“On occasion.”
“Did you have sex with
her?”
Rafael almost choked at the blunt question. He shifted a worried look in Aric’s direction. “No.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Aric offered. “She’s at an age where she asks a lot of questions. We encourage her to do it without a filter.”
“Yes, well, her mother never had any sort of filter.” Rafael’s eyes twinkled. “There was a time, junior mage, where I thought I might have feelings for your mother. I realized pretty quickly that we were not well matched. I was happy to let her go with your father when the time came.”
“Because you were afraid of him?” Sami asked, guileless.
“Because … above all else, I wanted her to be happy,” Rafael said after a moment’s contemplation. “She would not have been happy with me. It seems your mother bonded to your father long before they became involved. Nothing and no one could’ve stood in their way. I opted not to try.”
“You talk funny,” Sami said. “You answer questions without really answering them.”
Rafael chuckled as he held out a hand to still Sami when a car zipped down the road, waiting until it was out of sight before letting her cross the street. “Have you ever considered that I answered the question to the best of my ability and you are merely unhappy because the answer isn’t what you expected?”
Sami shook her head. “I think you’re trying to distract me.”
“From what?”
“The fact that you and my dad fought over my mom.”
I slowed my pace a bit as I stared at the back of Sami’s head. We’d been very careful when relating my adventures with Rafael. “Can you see inside of Rafael’s head?” I asked, taking myself by surprise with the question.
Aric gripped my hand tighter but remained silent.
“There’s nothing there,” Sami replied. “I mean … there’s something there, but it’s not like with other people.”
Rafael shifted his eyes to me. “What does she mean?”
I shrugged. “This is kind of new.”
“It’s all kind of new,” Aric added, gesturing toward the Explorer. “We’ll talk about it back at the apartment.”
“That is wise.” Rafael opened the back door of the Explorer to help Sami inside once Aric fobbed the locks. He seemed entranced with her as he watched her fasten her seatbelt. “Questions are important, junior mage. Don’t let the asking of them cloud what you must do, though.”
“I have no idea what that means,” Sami said. “I’m definitely going to ask questions, so you should prepare yourself for that.”
“I am prepared.” Rafael grinned. “Ask away.”
“Okay.” Sami knit her eyebrows. “Do you sleep in a casket like in the movies or in the ground like on True Blood?”
“Oh, cripes,” Rafael muttered, his amusement fleeing. “Now I see it. You are exactly like your mother.”
I giggled as I moved to the back seat and directed Rafael to the front. I’d asked four years of questions about what it was like to be a vampire, and he never came up with a sufficient answer. “She’s going to be tougher on you than I was.”
Rafael sighed, resigned. “I can’t wait.”
“DO YOU EAT?”
Sami was on about her five hundredth question by the time we reached the apartment. Aric stopped at a pizza joint long enough to collect dinner, and I swear there was a moment while he was gone when Rafael looked as if he wanted to throw himself into oncoming traffic to escape Sami.
Now, with Sami sitting across from him and munching on a slice of pizza, she was back on the attack.
“I drink blood,” Rafael replied, turning. “That’s what vampires do.”
“How do you get the blood?”
Rafael opened his mouth and then snapped it shut, looking to me for help.
“Okay, Sami, I think you should give Rafael a break,” I instructed, handing her a chicken wing. “You need to eat your dinner and let us catch up with Rafael. We have a lot of ground to cover. You can ask him more questions later.”
“Don’t tell her that,” Rafael whined. “She’ll believe you.”
“For what it’s worth, you lasted longer than I expected,” Aric offered, wiping the corners of his mouth as he smiled. “I thought you would break long before this.”
“How do you put up with it?” Rafael was genuinely curious. “Don’t you want to kill her?”
“Oh, she’s not interested in asking us questions unless she’s desperate or grounded,” I answered. “We’re her parents. We’re embarrassing.”
“Totally embarrassing,” Sami agreed, bobbing her head.
Rafael narrowed his eyes. “How are they embarrassing?”
“They kiss all of the time,” Sami replied. “They once had sex in the car while they were supposed to be watching me at summer camp.”
Despite his earlier mood, Rafael’s lips twitched. “I see. That sounds … awful.”
“You have no idea,” Sami said. “I found Mom’s underwear in the back seat and was completely grossed out.”
“Okay, that will be enough of that,” I ordered, shoving a chicken wing in Sami’s mouth when she looked as if she might argue further. “Let us talk.”
“Oh, no, I must hear about the summer camp sex,” Rafael deadpanned. “That sounds delightful.”
“Don’t push it,” Aric warned, leaning back in his chair. “What are you doing here, man? The last time I talked to you was … what … months ago? You were in Europe.”
“I forgot you guys gossip over the phone like teenagers,” I mused. “You didn’t know he was here, Aric?”
Aric shook his head. “We don’t gossip. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“Until I believe it.”
“We exchange the occasional email so the other knows what’s going on,” Aric clarified. “He’s a part of our family. I like knowing where he is in case … .” Aric trailed off, his eyes traveling to Sami.
It took me a moment to realize what he was insinuating. He kept in touch with Rafael in case something happened to us. He expected Rafael to swoop in and protect our daughter should we die. That was a sobering thought. “I … .”
Aric shook himself out of his reverie and squeezed my hand. “It’s not important. I just wasn’t aware you were in the area.”
“I mentioned on the street that I had heard whispers,” Rafael said. “I was in a vampire community in London when I heard the first … tidbit. Someone mentioned that there was an upswell of monster hunters across the pond. I did not initially realize it was Covenant College they were talking about.
“Three weeks later I heard more rumblings, so I decided to conduct some research,” he continued. “I had to get in contact with people I had long ago severed ties with. They told me that someone – and they had no idea who – was attempting to resurrect the Academy here at the college.”
My stomach dropped. The news wasn’t altogether unexpected, but it was disheartening. “Again? Why here?”
“I have no idea,” Rafael answered. “For whatever reason, this college has become a magnet for the paranormal and those who want to fight them.”
I rubbed the back of my neck as I looked at Aric. He also seemed troubled. “We’ve been dealing with some weird stuff of our own.”
Rafael arched an eyebrow. “I can’t wait to hear it. You’re always so entertaining when you tell a story, mage.”
“I’m not sure you’ll find this one entertaining.”
“Try me.”
So I told him. I told him about Sami’s twelfth birthday and how a group of witches tried to hypnotize her so they could steal her powers. I told him about shredding shades and saving Sami. I told him about the trip to the wolf council, about being attacked by zombies, about the second wolf pack that wanted us dead. I told him everything while leaving out the bits and pieces regarding Sami’s powers. I trusted him with my life, but the idea of trusting him with my child’s life was somehow daunting.
“That’s quite the story,” Rafael intoned when I was finished
, rubbing his chin. “You’ve always been something of a cross-world hot potato. Now the paranormal world believes that your child is the key. They believed it was you for a very long time, but you refused to fit in the lock so they moved on. Now they have someone else to focus on.”
I pressed my lips together and nodded. The succinct summation hurt my heart.
“This symbol keeps showing up,” Aric said, retrieving a notebook from the coffee table. He’d been doodling in the thing for months. I never pried because I figured he deserved a few secrets.
Rafael studied the symbol. “This seems vaguely familiar. This is the symbol you found on the floor of the abandoned home?”
“And in a journal inside the house,” I replied. “It was also on an Ouija board when Sami was attacked in our house, at the summer camp and at the wolf retreat.”
“So it keeps showing up.” Rafael was intrigued. “I don’t recognize it. That doesn’t mean I haven’t seen it before. We can figure out what the symbol means. We might need a witch to assist us, though.”
I risked a glance at Aric. I kept a few secrets of my own while packing. “We have a witch arriving tomorrow.”
Aric’s eyebrows flew up his forehead. “We do?”
“Paris will be here.”
Sami, her eyelids drooping only moments before, perked up. “Aunt Paris is coming? Is she bringing the baby?”
“The baby is staying home with Heath,” I answered. “Aunt Paris is coming to help us.”
“You called her?” Aric emanated anger as he swiveled in his chair. I sensed a potential argument. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were busy dealing with Sami and the dog.”
“Oh, well, that seems like a believable argument … or not.”
That was a fair point. “I don’t know why I didn’t tell you,” I admitted. “I thought maybe you might tell me not to make the call, even though my heart told me it was the right decision.”
Aric’s expression softened. “When do I ever argue with one of your feelings? For that matter, when do I ever tell you no?”
“You don’t. I just … I need her here.” It was hard to admit. I was an adult, after all. I was a mother. I was supposed to protect my own child. It was difficult to admit I wanted Paris present in case something happened to Aric and me and Sami needed help to flee.
Dying Covenant: The Complete Series Page 61