Sweet Ruin

by Kresley Cole

Blace said, "We'll leave you to it, then."

  Once they'd gone, Rune rolled up his sleeve to ink a concealment spell on his arm. He flinched when confronted with the contraceptive he'd painted.

  Never again. Free.

  He used his other arm. Hidden from sight, Rune stalked closer to the mansion, tracking her to a room downstairs.

  He uncovered wards on the main house. He swiftly added his own runes to appropriate the protections, allowing him entry. He would step in if anything went sideways. The slightest hint of danger. Task complete, he peered in the window.

  She stood alone in front of the fireplace, gazing at pictures on the mantel. Her eyes were stark, her outline flickering. The tear tracks were gone, but she remained shaken.

  In the span of his life, he'd been with her for the blink of an eye.

  He never wanted to open his eyes and not see her face.

  Josephine had flung him to some place he'd never been before, and now he knew where.

  Home.

  He raised his hand to the glass, needing to touch her so badly he ached.

  SIXTY-EIGHT

  Jo turned toward the doorway of the sitting room when MizB and Thad walked in. Woman had some years on her--but she was still the same MizB, down to the boxy glasses and the lame type of pantsuit she always wore to the library.

  Jo felt a hit of . . . something.

  MizB adjusted her glasses. "Is it really you, Josephine?" She stepped forward as if they were going to hug.

  Jo took a step back. "It's me." She'd checked out all the photos of Thad, resentful of the years she'd missed. She was fresh from her limited memories of her childhood in Apparitia, fresh from reliving the death of their real mother. Guilt weighed on Jo for not staying with Thaddie.

  Keep him close. Protect him.

  Jo hadn't. She hadn't been there with him.

  "You're all grown up." MizB's tears welled. "And so beautiful."

  "I brought her home directly," Thad said. "Haven't had much of a chance to talk to her."

  "Please have a seat." MizB moved to a fancy chair with a stiff back. Thad crossed to the nearby couch, sitting as close to her as possible.

  Awkward. Jo traced to the other end of the couch and sank down. She rubbed her nape and glanced at the window. She had the sense of being watched.

  Would Thad's ward keep out Nix? The Valkyrie might come with a bill for all the sports cars and trees Jo had trashed. Recalling that lightened her mood a touch.

  "Oh!" MizB's eyes had widened. "You disappeared and reappeared. That's not something you see every day."

  Jo frowned. "You had to have seen him do it."

  "The only thing I saw was him drinking from his arm."

  "Mom!"

  Vampire masturbation. And MizB had just laid it out there. What an icebreaker.

  Thad's face grew so crimson he'd probably get thirsty from it. He was such a teenage boy. Despite everything, Jo had to conceal a laugh behind a cough.

  His mortified expression faded when he saw her face. He started to grin. "You think that's funny?"

  She coughed again. "It's not unfunny."

  "I wasn't supposed to say that?" MizB blinked behind her glasses. "I'm just learning my way around all this."

  Thad said, "It's fine, Mom."

  MizB turned to her. "Well, tell me everything. Where did you two meet up?"

  Thad looked at Jo to field this one. The Eagle Scout would have trouble lying. "Mutual acquaintances."

  "That's so fortunate! How did you recognize each other?"

  "You think I haven't kept up with my own brother? I can tell you his freaking baseball stats." Thanks to text-to-speech.

  "Of course," MizB quickly said. "I should've expected that."

  Thad leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "You really can?"

  Jo shrugged. "You can't steal bases for shit."

  He gave a laughing groan. "Tell me about it. Hey, I bet I don't suck so bad since I started coming into my powers. But what about you--what do you do?"

  Do? Besides slowly dying, desperate to see you every day? And getting my heart broken by Rune? "This and that."

  "Are you married?" MizB asked.

  "All by my lonesome." Jo propped her boots on the coffee table.

  The woman wisely said nothing. "You never stayed with Mr. Chase?"

  "Who?"

  Thad shot Jo a wide-eyed look. So the Eagle Scout had told a lie after all?

  Acting all casual, Jo said, "Nah, I do my own thing."

  "We've never even met him--he just sent us the deed to his house, writing that he was Thad's long-lost uncle. It's all very mysterious." Her gazed flitted to Thad and back. "Have you unearthed any clues about where you two came from? About your parents?"

  "Still sorting them out." Jo would tell Thad about her new, raw memory in private. And find about this Chase dude. "Our folks are gone though."

  Sadness clouded Thad's eyes. Had he been holding out hope of meeting the parents? She didn't like to see him sad. She'd already gotten used to his easy grin, the one that said, All is right in the world.

  "Thad's told me he could live to be very old." MizB took a tissue from her pocket. "I'm so glad you're back in his life. It's such a relief that he won't be alone after his grandmother and I are gone."

  Jo narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, being alone for years and years is not something I'd wish on anyone."

  "I didn't know." Tears welled again. "I had n-no idea."

  Thad rose and dragged a stool over beside her, patting her hand. "Mom, it's okay."

  Clearly, Jo needed to make a not-so-graceful exit. "Look, I need to split--"

  "I-I thought you'd died!" MizB cried. "I didn't know if you'd returned to take Thad to hell or to the grave. I didn't know this world existed!"

  "I didn't either!" Jo rose to float/pace. The room's lights flickered eerily. "I woke up in a body bag! I thought I'd been resurrected. That I was some kind of ghost." Which, she supposed, was not far from the truth. "Then when I came for Thaddie, you were all get-thee-gone. I'm surprised you didn't douse me with holy water."

  MizB dabbed at her eyes behind her glasses. "You were just a little girl--I told you that the day you were shot--but I didn't listen to my own words. I thought you weren't Jo anymore. I thought you would've wanted me to protect him from any threat."

  Damn it, I would've.

  "I'm the one who found your body behind the library. When I heard the gunshots, I left Thad with a colleague and ran out, but . . . there wasn't anything left of your . . ." She cleared her throat. "I wasn't prepared to see your face later that night. And you looked so different."

  MizB had found her? Out of habit, Jo reached for her bullet necklace. Great, she'd left it at Rune's.

  "I never would've let Thad go regardless," the woman continued. "I was terrified he was in danger from whoever shot you. I feared you two had witnessed something, and the gunman might come for Thad despite his young age."

  So MizB would've been even more freaked out than Jo had allowed for? She slowed her pacing. All this new information screwed with her years of burning hatred. Plus, Thad had grown up so . . . good. Jo couldn't possibly have done better with him.

  Because he couldn't possibly be better. "This isn't the best time to talk. I can come back another night."

  As if she hadn't spoken, the woman murmured, "At Mr. B's wake, I saw you. You were at the window, sobbing in the rain as you watched Thad. I knew you were going to let him go, because I'd told you that's what a mother would do." Her tears started up again. "I thought you'd made the decision to pass on."

  "I did."

  "I mean, to the beyond."

  Jo's patience neared its limit. "Oh, for fuck's sake, woman. If Thad didn't love you, I'd pop you in the face."

  Thad's shocked gaze darted from Jo to MizB and back. "Uh, maybe we shouldn't, um, talk to our elders like that?"

  "Elders?" Jo was about to go hysterical. The two of them were millennia old!

  But MizB sm
iled. "You used to say that to me all the time. Do you remember?"

  Jo did.

  "So I'm hopeful. I can't make up for all these years overnight. But having hope is enough for now."

  Uncomfortable silence followed.

  Then MizB rose. "I'll be right back." She paused at the doorway. "You won't go anywhere?"

  Too tired to fight, Jo sank down on the couch again.

  The woman hurried from the room.

  "Thanks for covering about the uncle," Thad murmured. "It's a long story. I'll give you the lowdown later."

  "I'm tanking this, kid. I'd say I'm not usually such a bitch, but it'd be a lie."

  "You're doing awesome." Thad didn't seem discouraged at all, just the opposite. "Mom told me you were tough-talking and never sugar-coated things."

  "I didn't know MizB saw my face looking like modern art." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't want to say anything that's gonna hurt or embarrass you, so I think I should blaze. I was having a shit day before you and I ever mixed it up."

  "What happened?" He leaned forward. "What made you cry? Tell me about it."

  Confusion. "Like tell you . . . about my day?" Had anyone ever asked her to do this? "I broke up with my boyfriend. He's probably my mate--I'm definitely his."

  "Is breaking up with a mate even possible?"

  All things were possible in the Lore! "Yep. He couldn't keep it in his pants. So anyway, I should--"

  "Were you with him long?"

  "Two weeks," she answered. "So this isn't the best time to dig into the past with your"--she bit out the word--"mom."

  "You can't go yet. Please stay a little longer." No, not with the eyes. "Please?"

  Damn it! "Fine. I'll give this another fiver."

  "Thanks, Jo!" His face lit up as if she'd promised the world(s).

  "You look like you did when I gave you that Spidey doll. Best theft I ever committed."

  "I still have it. It's on my bookshelf."

  "No way!" I'm with my little brother. Holy shit, we're talking.

  MizB returned, carrying a tray. "A little refreshment," she said, setting it on the coffee table. She'd brought three steaming drinks--a cup with a tea bag and two mugs of warmed blood. She even had a bowl of hot-chocolate marshmallows. "Fresh from the blood deliveryman."

  They got delivery?

  MizB looked like she was about to hurl; she must've heated it on the stove. So not only had the woman accepted Thad's changes, she was adapting to them.

  What wouldn't MizB do for Thad? We have that in common. Two women who fiercely wanted what was best for him.

  She offered Jo a mug with a weak smile. "Marshmallow, Josephine?"

  Like luring a feral cat.

  Jo exhaled, her anger deflating. As confident as she'd been at eleven, she hadn't been bulletproof, not enough at least. MizB had gotten Thaddie to safety after Jo had kicked her first ant mound.

  All the woman had ever wanted was to be a good mom. She had been.

  Jo took the blood, even accepting a marshmallow to be nice. "Smells good," she lied. Though dying of thirst, she'd been ruined for regular blood.

  Still, both MizB and Thad looked overjoyed by her willingness to play ball.

  For him, Jo supposed she could retract her claws every now and then.

  He raised his mug. "To Jo's homecoming."

  Better get used to the red stuff. She forced herself to choke it down. Like drinking sludge compared to Rune's high octane blood.

  MizB said, "I guess you two didn't need to use utensils after all."

  SIXTY-NINE

  I really appreciate the effort you made in there," Thad said when he and Jo settled into chairs beside the pool. "I know it had to be strange." Roger that. "I've done worse." The three of them had talked about the old library, and some of the wackier things Thad had done as a kid. He'd laughed so hard that Jo had even chuckled. Before she knew it, she'd finished her blood, and dawn had been approaching.

  MizB had excused herself to go check on Gram, topping off their mugs again. "Why don't you go show Jo the pool? Just don't be too late."

  Jo had stilled. "Late. You kidding me?"

  MizB had blinked at her. "No."

  Now Jo asked Thad, "What's this too late shit? Aren't you nocturnal?"

  "I've been going to bed around four in the morning, and Mom and Gram have been getting up later. That way we can sit down for breakfast together."

  "Your grandmother knows too?"

  "I don't think so. She had a stroke, and they say she's got dementia. I don't know how much has registered, but I don't trace around the house or anything. She still cooks for me. Mom does too. Just in case."

  "God, she could cook. Her chicken was like deep-fried crack."

  He nodded emphatically. "Toughest thing for me to give up."

  "So tell me about our mansion-buying uncle."

  "He's a berserker named Declan Chase. He used to work for the Order, this human operation that studies immortals. He felt guilty 'cause he had me kidnapped and imprisoned on a detention island in the Pacific and all."

  Jo's mug shattered in her fist, blood sloshing over the outdoor table. "The FUCK did you just say? Tell me how to find him, and I will put him in the goddamn ground."

  "We're cool now, Jo. He paid for anything he did wrong. Trust me, he paid."

  "Someone did that to you, and you're good with him?!" She couldn't believe Thad had been in all this danger, and she hadn't known, hadn't been there to watch over him.

  "DC ended up helping me escape before the island got bombed."

  So much for his idyllic life. "What the hell happened?" She swiped her bloody hand down her jeans.

  "I'd never encountered an immortal before I got imprisoned, definitely didn't know I was one. I never had any powers, but somehow the Order knew about me."

  The Order's on my light-them-up list.

  "I woke up in a cell, and I saw all these things that couldn't be right. I lost it, went comatose. I still would be, if not for Regin and Natalya."

  Comatose? "What are they?"

  "Regin is DC's wife now. She's the one who was kind of egging me on to attack you."

  Jo hated that mouthy bitch--

  "She saved my life on the island."

  She's forgiven. "And Natalya?"

  "She's one of my good friends. A dark fey assassin."

  No kidding. "She lives in the city?"

  "For now. I can't wait for you to meet her. She won't be pissed that you attacked Val Hall since she used to fight against the Valkyries on occasion." He sipped his blood. "She'd heard a dark fey male was in town, and she's been looking for one for a looong time. Your guy have a brother?"

  "Not my guy anymore. You can tell her he's been looking for her too, was amped to have a lead on her. Cheers to the happy couple."

  Rune flinched in his spot atop the property's brick wall. Why wouldn't she think he'd pursue that female?

  Earlier Josephine had told the mortal MizB she was all by her lonesome--the same answer she'd given Rune two weeks ago.

  Before they'd bonded. Before she'd become his, and he'd become hers.

  Before them.

  Then tonight had happened, when he'd ridiculed her feelings for him and assured her he'd always be with others.

  "Oh." Thad frowned. "I was kinda hoping Natalya and I might hook up. Maybe when I get fully transitioned."

  Thad wanted Natalya? Rune found it heartening both siblings were attracted to dark fey. He could give the boy pointers.

  Josephine shook her head. "Date a baneblood?" She had never called him that before, no matter how furious with him she'd been. "Do yourself a favor and forget it. Not worth the trouble."

  Strike heartening. Waiting to approach Josephine had been the exact right call.

  Thad seemed to consider that for a few moments, then said, "Nix told me there was another phanpire--"

  "Did you just say phanpire?"

  "Yep. That's what she calls us."

  Jo snorte
d. "Lame. Let's just call ourselves hybrids."

  "But there are other kinds of hybrids."

  "Yeah, but we're the best."

  Thad nodded easily. "I knew there was another . . . hybrid, but Nix told me the other one was mated to a dark fey, a Morior."

  "It's over. That's all in my rearview, kid." Josephine sounded disturbingly confident.

  "The Morior are bad, Jo."

  He doesn't even know we leveled Val Hall.

  "The Valkyries aren't? Your buddy Nix wiped the pavement with my face. She crushed my skull and broke every bone in my body. I feared she'd do the same to you--that's why I was bent on saving you."

  His jaw slackened. "She wouldn't do that. Are you sure it was Nix?"

  "She would, and she did. That Morior was there to pick up the broken pieces." She seemed to be grinding her molars, and her outline flickered.

  It is entirely too soon to approach her.

  "Why didn't Nix tell you I'm your sister?"

  Thad's lips thinned. "Good question."

  "Have you ever considered they're all bad? Maybe neither of us needs to be around any immortals. I mean, what does Nix want with you anyway?"

  "I think she and the others want me to fight the Morior. But I just . . . I'm not sure I could take somebody down. I can't believe how bad I hurt you. Jo, I could've killed you."

  Rune had had his doubts about the boy when he'd been hunched over Josephine with his fangs bared. No longer. Thaddeus Brayden was a good kid.

  "It's cool," she said. "You jogged loose some memories for me, so no harm, no foul."

  From her childhood?

  "I was only using a fraction of my strength, sis. I'm wicked strong."

  She grinned, and he matched her. They resembled each other much more when they smiled. Rune was noticing other similarities as well--the cadences of their speech, their humor, their mannerisms.

  Because this boy had learned from Josephine, who'd been just a girl herself, taking care of a baby while living on the streets.

  When Thad asked about the night she'd been shot and the months after, she admitted to meting out punishment, but he took it in stride.

  She recounted that grim night and her struggles with her powers. Then she told him, "Leaving you was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I'd gone to that wake intending to steal you and your new puppy, planning to ride off into the sunset together." She gave a humorless laugh, as if her idea had been idiotic.

  "You ever think about coming back for me?"

  "Every damn day. I wore those bullets strung around my neck to remind me I'd only hurt you. I kept up with your life as best as I could, and over the years it just seemed to get better and better."