Realization dawned on Aric as he stared at me. He slowly let his eyes drift to Rafael. In a way, he’d done the same thing. He understood.
“Well, it’s okay,” Aric said after a moment. “She’ll be a lot of help. I’m sure we can find somewhere for her to sleep.”
“I invited Kelsey, too,” I gritted out, referring to another former roommate and good friend.
Aric’s eyebrows winged up his forehead. “Oh, good grief!”
“For some reason I can’t be here without them.”
“That’s fine, Zoe, but we don’t have room for them here,” Aric muttered, rolling his neck until it cracked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I thought you’d be angry.”
Aric crossed his arms over his chest and waited. “Why really?”
“Because I thought you might laugh at me.”
“That’s better.” Aric made a whistling sound through his teeth before turning to Rafael. “I’ll have to get them rooms at the hotel. There’s no way we can all survive under this roof together. I’m not even sure how Zoe, Sami and I will survive. We’re used to a bigger house for our huge personalities.”
Rafael snickered, his gaze traveling to Sami. She rested her chin on her forearm as she dozed at the table. She was exhausted, but didn’t want to be removed from the conversation.
“I don’t know how you do it,” Rafael said, his voice low.
“They’re not so bad once you get used to their mouths.” Aric flashed a charming grin as he captured my hand.
“Not that,” Rafael whispered. “How do you love so freely knowing how vulnerable they are?”
“It’s worse not to love,” Aric said. “They fill me up.”
“And if you lose them there will be nothing left inside of you.”
“Then I won’t lose them,” Aric argued. “I won’t pretend this will be easy. We have no idea what we’re up against. It could be sphinxes … wolves … or something else entirely. I need to know if you’ll stand with us.”
Rafael stared at Sami for another few seconds before turning to Aric. “I have always stood with you. I always will.”
“That could mean some difficulties along the way,” Aric said, keeping his voice low. “If something happens to us, for example, we’ll need you to … .”
Rafael held up his hand. “I can’t deal with the questions, but I will die before I let anyone hurt that child.”
“That’s easy to say when you haven’t spent any time with her,” I offered, going for levity.
It didn’t fall completely flat because Rafael offered me a weak smile. “I will do what it takes to keep her safe. I know you will, too. We’ll work together to make sure Sami loses no one. That must be the plan going forward.”
“That is the plan,” Aric said. “We’ll need to put our heads together to come up with answers.”
“Then that’s what we shall do.”
Ten
Aric carried Sami to the couch, tucking her in and shoving her stuffed wolf under her arm as he pulled a blanket up to cover her. He pressed a kiss to her forehead before joining Rafael and me on the balcony.
The apartment complex was alive with noise, end-of-summer parties causing rowdy drunks to litter the parking lot. Aric scowled at the mess and noise, making sure to close the glass door so Sami wouldn’t be disturbed. We could see her through the glass, and I would be able to sense her if something happened. She was safe … for now.
“You’re a good father,” Rafael noted, sipping a glass of wine as he stared at the partying youths. “You seem happy with your lot in life.”
The balcony had only two chairs, so Aric scooped me up and settled me on his lap before grabbing the beer I held and taking a long pull.
“I am happy with my wife and child,” Aric said, offering me a wink. “They’re a trial at times, but I have no complaints.”
“That’s not what you said when you found out Sami was developing an interest in boys,” I reminded him.
“Yes, well, that’s one of those trials.” Aric grinned. “She’s a fairly good kid, other than her mouth, of course.”
“Of course.” Rafael leaned back in his chair. “I will stay tonight and watch the apartment from the balcony. I will make sure the child is safe. You can get some rest with Zoe.”
“Paris and Kelsey will be here in the morning,” I said. “We might need to make some decisions about sleeping arrangements when they do.”
Aric rolled his neck until it cracked. “I’ll message Dad before we go to bed. He’ll secure rooms for Kelsey and Paris. I think we might be better off moving to the hotel, too.”
“I wouldn’t be too hasty about that,” Rafael countered, taking me by surprise. “This situation is unnerving, but no one will look for you here. No one realizes you still have this apartment. I’ve known you for decades and even I was unaware you kept this particular tie.”
“It’s so loud, though,” Aric argued. “It’s distracting, too. Sami can’t stop staring at these shirtless idiots.”
I tried to hide my smirk … and failed. “You were one of these shirtless idiots at one time,” I reminded him. “You used to drop your shirt whenever the chance arose. Heck, you still do. That’s why I enjoy watching you chop wood.”
“Funny.” Aric poked my side before sobering. “It doesn’t quite feel safe here. There are so many people around. I didn’t expect it to be like this. I guess I forgot what it was like to be this young.”
“You’re hardly old,” Rafael said. “The way you look at Zoe makes me wonder if any time has passed at all. She’s still the beginning and end to your world.”
“Not the end.” Aric shook his head, firm. “The end is sleeping on the couch, and we have to keep her safe. I won’t fail that kid. We made her a promise when she was born. I intend to keep it.”
“We’ll all help you keep it.” Rafael ran his thumb over his lip as he studied us. “You’ve been very careful to refrain from speaking about her abilities. I heard you on the sidewalk, though. I heard Zoe tell Sami that whatever she’d just done might be helpful in the future.”
I felt Aric shift beneath me as he struggled to get comfortable.
“You don’t have to tell me,” Rafael prodded. “I understand your concern. The child could very well be one of the most powerful beings ever created. Her life will never be settled if that’s the case. Protecting her will always be your first inclination.”
“It’s not that,” I said, resting my head on Aric’s shoulder. “She struggles with trying to find herself in this world. She’s heard stories about her crazy mother and the things I can do since before she could walk. For a long time we thought she might’ve escaped my curse.”
“It’s not a curse, Zoe,” Aric said, pinching my hip to get me to look at him. “She’s strong. She’ll grow stronger. I want her to be what she’s supposed to be. That’s what’s happening now. I happen to think that her childhood was mostly trouble-free for a reason. It allowed her to grow up as normally as possible before she was forced to grapple with her reality.”
“So she has manifested powers.” Rafael bobbed his head, as if confirming his own suspicions. “How powerful is she? You don’t need to go into specifics. I understand why you might want to keep some of that to yourselves.”
“She’s powerful,” Aric replied, exchanging a quick look with me. Something silent passed between us, tacit agreement, and he took another sip of beer before continuing. “She can do a lot of what Zoe can do. Paris believes that when Zoe absorbed the book around the same time she was pregnant she somehow passed on extra powers to our daughter.”
“And what can you do?” Rafael asked, his gaze heavy on me. “Can you do more now than you could then?”
I shrugged, unsure how to answer. “I don’t know if I can do more or simply control it better.”
“Meaning?”
“She can do more,” Aric answered for me. “She’s much better at controlling it, which is a relief. The other wild car
d regarding Sami’s abilities is the wolf in her. We thought she might not shift because the mage magic was too strong, but that’s no longer the case.”
Rafael pursed his lips, his eyebrows rising almost imperceptibly. “So she shifted. How long ago?”
“Less than a month.”
“It was at the wolf retreat,” I explained. “She didn’t shift in a completely normal fashion, but she did shift. There will be a full moon soon, so she’ll need to shift again.”
“What do you mean? The part about her not shifting normally, I mean.” Rafael has an uncanny ability to seem disinterested when he’s really intrigued. That’s how he looked now.
“Her hands shifted in the middle of the day,” Aric explained. “She didn’t take it well and thought she would be stuck that way. It didn’t help that Zoe never had a chance to explain shifting to her, so Sami had a lot of questions.”
Rafael snorted. “Understandably.”
“I didn’t have the answers to those questions,” I admitted. “I’m a bad wolf mother.”
“Don’t say that,” Aric warned, extending a finger. “I don’t like it when you insinuate things like that. You’re a good mother. We were simply unprepared when Sami shifted. That’s really on me because I should’ve realized that she’d have so many questions.”
“Yes, the girl does love her questions,” Rafael teased. “I believe she comes by that naturally.”
“She’s strong,” Aric said, gripping my knee. “She’s growing stronger every day. We need to work with her to control her powers. If she masters them she’ll be able to protect herself no matter what.”
“We’ll work with her,” Rafael said, his voice calm. “You mustn’t work yourself into a lather about this. The child will thrive because she was raised well. You can see it when you look at her.”
His answer intrigued me. “And what do you see?”
“A child who comes from two strong parents,” Rafael answered, not missing a beat. “A child who has a lot to strive toward and a strong foundation to help her grow. She won’t fail. Her mother certainly didn’t. Her father didn’t either. That’s why Sami won’t fail.”
His words warmed me despite the cool detachment with which he delivered them. “Thank you.”
“Oh, don’t get mushy,” Rafael chided. “Go to bed. You need your rest. I’ll watch through the dawn to keep the child safe.”
“I’d be quiet if I were you,” Aric said, curling me toward his chest as he stood. “She’ll have tons of questions if she realizes she has you all to yourself.”
Rafael’s scowl caused me to grin.
“May God have mercy on your soul,” I intoned. “Hell hath no fury like a tween with a vampire to question.”
“Thank you so much for that,” Rafael snapped. “Now go to bed. I could use a few minutes of quiet. I forgot how loud you can be.”
“Just wait until Sami knows you better. If you thought she was terrifying today, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
“WHY ARE you tan?”
Sami was already at it when Aric and I strolled out of the bedroom the next morning. To my utter surprise, instead of an incredibly annoyed vampire I found a charming and patient man sitting at the breakfast table with Sami as she ate her Fruity Pebbles.
“I was born in the Mediterranean,” Rafael explained. “My people are tan, so I am tan.”
Sami thoughtfully chewed her cereal as Aric and I stopped in the hallway to watch the show. “My mother helped you walk in the light, right?”
Rafael nodded. “She gifted me with the ability on the day she married your father. You were already there, too, although we didn’t know it.”
“I heard Grandma and Grandpa talking once and they said Mom waited until after the wedding to tell Dad that she was pregnant,” Sami said. “I wonder if she did that because she thought he might leave if he knew.”
I opened my mouth to dissuade Sami of that theory, but Aric shook his head to quiet me.
“Your father will never leave your mother,” Rafael said. “He’s loved her for as long as I’ve known her. I might’ve met her first, but they fell in love with each other long before they admitted their feelings.
“Some people believe in soul mates, Sami,” he continued. “I never did until I realized your mother would suffer forever without your father. I thought she would eventually overcome her sadness and move on. I was wrong.
“There are times in life when one heart connects with another,” he said. “Your father and mother are an example of that. Their hearts connected, and you came from that love. No matter what, you father would never leave your mother. If you doubt that your parents love each other with everything they have, you’re not looking at them strongly enough.”
“Hmm.” Sami wiped her mouth with a napkin, her black hair tousled from sleep. “Did that hurt you? You can say what you want, but I think you loved my mother.”
Rafael didn’t exactly deny the accusation. “I loved the idea of her more than anything,” he said. “That mouth of hers – which you share in spades, so be careful – seems exotic when you first cross her path. It becomes tiresome after a bit, though. The reason your father is perfect for her is because he never tires of her mouth.”
“But they’re so gross,” Sami complained. “They kiss all of the time. They do nasty stuff all of the time. My friends’ parents don’t do that stuff.”
“That only means your parents burn bright for one another,” Rafael said. “They love each other, and they both love you more than anything. One day you’ll be happy that they love each other so completely.”
“That day can’t come soon enough,” Sami said, shaking her head.
Aric picked that moment to clear his throat and shove me into the room. Sami looked embarrassed at being caught talking about us. Rafael, on the other hand, appeared unbothered.
“You slept late enough,” Rafael complained. “The incessant question machine has been at it for hours.”
“You appeared to be holding your own,” Aric said, patting Rafael’s shoulders in a form of silent thanks as he moved around the vampire to sit at the end of the table. “Pass the cereal, Sami.”
Sami did as instructed, her eyes floating to me. “You look tired.”
“I forgot how hard it is to sleep in a college apartment when everyone parties until five in the morning,” I admitted, taking the open chair between Sami and Aric. “I’m okay. I need some coffee.”
“I’ll take you to get some as soon as Kelsey and Paris get here,” Aric offered. “Do you think they remember this place?”
“They should. I made them hide in the bushes with me and stalk you so many times that year we were broken up it must be ingrained in their memories.”
Aric snorted, amused. “I didn’t know you did that.”
“That’s because you weren’t paying attention.”
“I thought you said it was wrong to stalk boys,” Sami argued, her conflicted eyes moving to my face. “You said boys don’t like girls when they act crazy and I have to learn to hide my crazy.”
Aric made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. “Don’t tell her stuff like that.”
“You said that you liked crazy girls as long as they don’t boil bunnies or kick you in the nuts when they’re angry,” Sami said, shifting her attention to her father. “Which one of you is right?”
“I am,” Aric and I answered in unison.
“Neither of them,” Rafael corrected. “Your mother, no matter what she says, was not crazy. She was impulsive and tiresome. She had an ability to derange people after a few minutes of idle chatter if she put a little effort into it. But she was not crazy.”
“What was she?”
“Yeah, what was I?” I smirked when Rafael rolled his eyes.
“Your mother was strategic when it came to being crazy,” Rafael explained. “She used it as a defense mechanism, and she easily wore down a few people. I seem to remember a certain professor wanting to cry after almost every inte
raction.”
I remembered that, too.
“Professor Blake?” Sami asked. “I’ve heard about him. Dad said he was nuts and wanted to kill Mom.”
“It seems as if you have wolf ears, junior mage,” Rafael said. “Now, eat your cereal before it gets mushy. Once Kelsey and Paris are here things will get loud. Then we must split up and perform some reconnaissance.”
“What’s that?” Sami asked.
“Well, I actually have an idea about that,” I said. “I thought Kelsey, Paris and I could go to the athletic center to see if we can get into the basement. It only makes sense for them to utilize that space again if they can.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Aric said. “With three of you together, I’m not particularly worried about anything bad happening to you. I’ll keep Sami with me.”
“But I want to go with Mom,” Sami protested.
“You’re staying with me.” Aric was firm. “No matter what, you’re not going into that athletic center. Your mother knows what she’s doing. She’ll be fine to check it out.”
“Fine.” Sami made a face as she crossed her arms over her chest. “What are we going to do?”
Aric smiled. “We’re going to check out my old fraternity to see what kind of wolf leadership is heading the chapter these days.”
I lifted an eyebrow, surprised. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
“They won’t move on us,” Aric said. “Rafael will be hiding outside if there’s a problem, but they won’t move on us. I can promise you that.”
I didn’t believe for a second that he would purposely put Sami in danger so I let it go. “I guess we have a plan. We’ll split up for the morning and meet for lunch?”
Aric nodded. “Do you think you can stay out of trouble that long?”
I shrugged. I honestly had no idea. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”
Dying Covenant: The Complete Series Page 62