She nodded. “And you can’t pay me the pittance you pay me?”
I chuckled and sat back down beside her. “Let me ask you something. Who has the money in your family? Your mom or your dad?”
Her head jerked back as she turned to face me, curling her leg up under herself. “Mom, I think. Dad works, but I’ve seen grandma’s house, and I’ve seen our house. No way Dad could afford that as a social worker.”
“And where do you think she got the money?”
Sydney shrugged her shoulders. “Grandma?”
“You never met your Great Grandmother Rose. She was an incredible lady, much like all of the women in your family.”
“She hit you with her car, didn’t she?”
I smiled at the memory. “Yup. She helped me, then we discovered her parents had been killed by a recently turned vampire. I fought him, saving her life. From that moment on she worked by my side, helping me try to track down those who had killed my wife. And in exchange, I gave her a legacy. I gave her money, so she could be free to do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, and promised her that I would always take care of her and her children.”
“She only had one.”
“That’s true.” I frowned. “And I’m afraid that was my fault. I think your great grandmother loved me, and had held out hope for quite some time that I would eventually come around and see things her way, but I never did. I don’t think she ever grasped the fact that my perfect memory meant all my feelings for my wife were as fresh as the day she died. But I won’t deny that I loved Rose too. I just could never betray my wife, and could never let Rose marry a vampire. She deserved a life, and she found it in your great grandfather. They had one beautiful daughter, your grandmother, before your great grandfather was killed in a factory accident. She raised your grandmother on her own, but she never wanted for money. I kept my promise. And she kept her promise to me, staying by my side until she was well into her sixties. And all the while she raised your grandmother to be her replacement. It was something I never asked of her, but she didn’t want me to be alone when she died. She knew that she was all I had in my life.”
My voice cracked. The memory of Rose’s death was still as fresh as the day it happened. I closed my eyes, picturing the casket being lowered into the ground. I had been forced to watch from a distance, since no one could see the twenty something man I appeared to be.
I felt Sydney’s hand squeeze mine and I opened my eyes. Her eyes were filled with tears as well.
“I’m sorry to get so emotional.”
She smiled. “No need to apologize.”
I squeezed her hand back. “When Rose was too old, your grandmother Emily took over. She had been helping us for years, and knew my secret. They were both terrific researchers, but back then, everything was manual. We would track every newspaper we could, looking for unexplained disappearances, animal attacks, murders. Anything that might be vampire related, and then would investigate. Usually they turned out to be nothing, but sometimes we were able to prove there was a vampire involved, and on a few rare occasions, had tracked the culprit down. My goal wasn’t justice, it was information, but more often than not, justice ended up being meted out, with little to no information ever gained.
“It was frustrating, tiring work, with little reward other than companionship. Which was one of the reasons I created my first detective agency. It just made sense. Why not take these skills we had developed over the decades, and help real people, while still pursuing our goals. And over the years we’ve helped hundreds of people. We’ve solved disappearances, found missing wills, stolen heirlooms, lost relatives. We’ve done a lot of good over the past eighty years. And now with technology, we’re closer than ever before in tracking down those who killed my wife.”
Sydney’s gaze returned to her iPad. “When you kill them, do you think you’ll be able to let go, and move on?”
She asked it quietly. And I recognized that slight hint of hope in her voice, the same hint I had heard from three previous generations that had asked the same question. And I gave her the same answer.
“I don’t know.”
Sydney looked at the iPad display and jumped up. “Oh my God, look at the time. I’ve got to get home, shower and change, then get to class.”
She darted from the room before I could say anything else.
I looked at my desk clock.
It was Saturday.
TWELVE
It isn’t every day you find out you’re rich. I wasn’t sure how to feel. Happy? Giddy? Nothing? It basically meant I’d never have to work again. What I mean is that I could work for Zander as long as I wanted, without having to worry about having to provide for myself or a family.
A family I apparently wouldn’t be having with Zander.
I turned up the radio as I stopped at a light. I had always known Zander was out of reach. Untouchable. But God how I would love to touch him. I could see why Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma, all loved him. I hadn’t really had any real feelings either way until Mom’s accident, and then, working with him side-by-side every day, he just grew on me. It didn’t help that he was the only man in my life besides my dad.
Sure there were boys at college. Lots of boys. But they were boys! I wanted a man. Every girl wants a man. Someone who knows how to treat a woman, someone who is confident. Not some little boy who doesn’t even know how to kiss yet, or that even though there was a sexual revolution, doesn’t know that women still like it when their man holds the door open for them.
A horn honked behind me and I looked up.
Green light.
I waved at him and hit the gas, jumping ahead, trying to make up for the lost few seconds. I had realized going down the stairs it was Saturday, but didn’t bother going back. I needed some time. Some space, so I headed home. It was Saturday morning, so Dad would be at the hospital visiting Mom. I’d go this afternoon. I just couldn’t face them now. Not after learning the truth about how we were so well off.
And I guess that’s what was bothering me. It was cool to know I had all the money in the world, but it also was a bummer that it meant everything my family had ever accomplished had actually been given to them. We hadn’t earned any of it; Zander had just given us money.
Like slaves.
A burst of air erupted through my lips. “Riiight, like slaves. Get a grip, stop being so dramatic.” I shook my head then I knew exactly where I needed to go. I looked in my rearview mirror then changed lanes. I needed answers. I needed to know why this family, for three generations before me felt obligated to stay with this man, this creature.
I needed to talk to Grandma.
THIRTEEN
Well, that didn’t go very well. I knew she was too young. But it wasn’t that. It was who told her. She needed her mother to tell her this. She needed her mother to explain why they had all stayed with me. I debated following her out, but knew she needed her space. Instead, I made a phone call.
“Hi Emily, it’s me.”
“Zander, Darling, is that you?”
“Yes, Love, how are you?”
“Oh, pretty good. The bones are creaking today. I spent all day yesterday in the garden, those darned weeds.”
“You’ve kicked vampire ass, but are defeated by some plant?”
She laughed. “I didn’t say I lost.”
This time I laughed. “True, true. Listen, there’s a reason I’m calling.”
“You’re not cancelling dinner tomorrow night, are you?”
“No, no, you know I never miss that unless I’m out of town.” Emily was one hell of a cook, and I missed her company since she had ‘retired’. And as an homage to Kristyna, she had learned how to cook all my favorite Hungarian dishes. I had to admit, her goulash was as good as any I could remember, and every time I thought it, I silently asked for forgiveness from my wife. “No, it’s something else.”
“You told her, didn’t you?”
Emily knew me so well it was uncanny sometimes. “Woman, you
can read me like a book.”
“Sixty years together will do that. How did it go?”
“Not good. I think it would have really been better coming from her mother, but, well, you know…” I didn’t want to say it.
“But we don’t know if she’ll ever recover.”
“Right.”
“So you told her she was rich, and she ran out on you?”
“How’d you know?”
“Because she just pulled in the driveway.”
I smiled. Smart girl. If you can’t get the answers you need from Mom, go to Grandma. “Let me know how it goes.”
“Will do, Darling. Be safe.”
“You too, Love.”
I put the phone down, feeling a little better. Emily would set her straight. And if not, then it was Sydney’s life. I would miss her, terribly, but I had never forced anyone to stay with me. She’d still have the money, even if she never wanted to see me again.
I grabbed the sheaf of papers that Mrs. McKinly had left, and began to commit them to memory.
FOURTEEN
I sat in the car for a moment. Was this the right move? I couldn’t talk to Dad. He didn’t know the secret. I couldn’t talk to my friends. I couldn’t talk to a shrink, a priest, nobody. There were only three people on this planet I could talk to, and they were Zander, who I was mad at right now, Mom, who was in a coma, and Grandma.
I saw the curtain move.
Damn! She knows I’m here. There’s no avoiding this now. I turned off the car and climbed out, locking it with the fob as I walked up the steps to the spacious house my grandparents had lived in for years. Grandma opened the door before I could knock.
And I burst into tears, falling into her arms.
She just held me, saying nothing. That’s why I missed Mom. She always knew what to say to make me feel better when I needed it. And sometimes that was nothing. I guess now I know where she got if from. Grandma just gently rocked me, her hands gently stroking my back and my head as I calmed down.
I was angry, I was hurt, I was confused. I was pissed off at being rich? That made no effin’ sense. So why was I mad? I guess it was because I was nineteen, and already felt obligated to stay doing what I was doing for the rest of my life.
My sobs stopped as my emotions turned more to the anger side and I pushed gently away from Grandma. She looked at me.
“Ready to talk?”
I nodded. Did she know?
“Zander called.”
Bastard.
She wagged her finger at me as if she could read my thoughts. “Now, now, don’t take this out on him.” She took me by the hand. “Come, we’ll go sit down, I’ll put on some tea”—she raised her finger cutting off the objection about to pop out of my mouth—“for me and you’ll have a nice cold Diet Pepsi, and we’ll talk.”
I nodded.
I didn’t come here enough. I never enjoyed the thought of my grandparents coming over, not since I was a teenager, but whenever they were over visiting, or we were here, I usually enjoyed myself, unless there was some pressing issue in the world like boyfriend troubles or clique troubles. Ugh, I did not miss high school. I hated it. Always trying to fit in, always worried about what to wear, how much makeup to put on, how much cleavage to show, how high to hike the skirt without Dad snapping at me, or being thought of as a slut.
You wanted the boys to like you, to pay attention to you, but then when they did, they usually did for the wrong damned reason. I was rather tall compared to most of my friends, clearing five foot eight no problem, and with all my martial arts and weapons training, was quite athletic. But I had a pair of sweater puppies that I spent half my damned high school years either trying to hide or trying to show off, depending on what phase I was going through. What never changed was that half the boys never discovered I had a head until I lifted their chins to look at my face instead of my chest.
Pigs.
College was so much different. The riff raff that didn’t give a crap about learning anything were gone to their McJobs, or repeating high school trying to get better grades, and most of those that remained wanted to actually learn, so you weren’t considered a geek if you wanted to study or do your homework. The boy pressure was still there but it was different. We were adults. And because it was a little more sophisticated crowd, it wasn’t a slut competition when dressing for class. Going out at night? That was a completely different story. But then, most evenings I spent with Zander.
Argh!
It always came back to him.
Grandma put an ice cold, tall glass of Diet Pepsi in front of me with a bent straw and a slice of lemon wedged on the top. I smiled and squeezed the lemon into the drink, dropping the remains in, and twirled my straw. Grandma sat across from me at the kitchen table, and took a sip of her tea.
“So, let me guess. You’re mad.”
I nodded.
“Because you feel obligated to stay with Zander.”
How the hell does she do it? I nodded.
“Because you feel since he’s made our family rich, and is going to make you rich, you feel like you owe him.”
I nodded. The bastard!
“Want to know something?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“I felt exactly the same way when I was told.”
My eyebrows shot up at that one.
She smiled and leaned back in her chair. “When my mother told me about the money, I was about twenty-five. I had already known Zander’s secret for about five years, and had been working for the detective agency—it was in Chicago then—since I was fifteen. Just helping out with the research, gathering newspapers, indexing stories. Whatever I could do to help. Once I was told the secret, it had all made sense, and I redoubled my efforts, as it now was more interesting. To think, I was working with a vampire, trying to hunt other vampires! I found it exhilarating, as I’m sure you do.”
I shrugged my shoulders. But she was right. While my friends cooed over Edward and stood in line for hours to see vampires sparkle in the sun, I worked side-by-side with the real thing. And he was a hell of a lot better looking than Edward. Zander was a man.
My anger cracked.
A man I owed.
Anger back.
“After working with Zander for almost ten years, and being old enough to understand money, and how there was no way in Hades your great grandfather’s job could pay for the way we lived, I asked my mother about it. And that’s when I was told of the promise that Zander made to her, a promise he had kept, and a promise he has kept to this day. He has taken care of this family, not so that we are obligated to him, but because he is obligated to us.”
A burst of air escaped my lips. “Whatever.”
“Think about it, dear. What do we get from him?”
“Money obviously.”
She shook her head. “No. Did he say he was going to give you money?”
I had to think back on the conversation. “I think so,” I said slowly. I couldn’t remember. I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“Well, if I know Zander, he didn’t, because he already gave the money, to my mother Rose, in nineteen-twenty-five.”
My eyes narrowed. “Huh?”
“He gave your great grandmother millions. It’s been in various banks, earning interest, since. We live off that legacy he gave us, enough to take care of our family forever, as long as it wasn’t squandered, or risked. It never goes in the stock market, it never goes in anything where the principal could be lost. It is safe, it is secure, and it will always be there. We live off the interest, which is substantial, and as each of us dies, it is left in our wills to our children, split equally. In our case, it was left to me, an only child, and to your mother, an only child, and will eventually be left to you, an only child.”
“So you mean…” My mind was reeling. This changed everything. He wasn’t giving me money. He hadn’t given Mom money. Hell, he hadn’t even given Grandma money. He had given Great Grandma, a woman I never eve
n met, money, over 85 years ago. Yet they had all stayed with him.
“I mean, you’re not obligated to him. Even my mother Rose never felt obligated. She had been working with him for over seven years before he even made the offer. And she had taken the money, not for her, but for me, in case something ever happened to her. She used the money to make her life and that of her family comfortable, but was never extravagant.
“When I was told of the money, the whole truth about the money, I realized that it changed nothing. I loved working with Zander. It was fun, exciting, interesting, always something different. And because of the money, there was no pressure to try and find a husband, or a career. I had a career, worked with a wonderful man who at the time I deeply loved, but, well, you’ll find out eventually—”
I blushed.
“Oh, my, already?”
I recoiled in feigned horror. “No! Eww!”—burst of air—“Yuck. I mean, he’s like dusty old.”
She nodded slowly, a smile on her face. She wasn’t buying it.
“You’re not fooling anybody.”
I closed my mouth before it said anything else stupid.
“He’s a wonderful man, and my God is he ever gorgeous. But you’ll find out in time that he is still devoted to Kristyna, and you will, as I did, learn to respect that, and move on with your life, finding your own husband to love. But you’ll always love Zander. There’s just something irresistible about him.”
I shuffled in my seat awkwardly. “Okay, Grandma, this is getting weird.”
She laughed. “What, you don’t think your old Grandma has any sex-drive left?”
“Ewww!”
She smiled and took a sip of her tea.
“Any questions?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“How do you feel about everything?”
Again I shrugged.
“That’s the problem with this generation.” She pointed at my iPhone sitting on the table. “Would you like to text me how you’re feeling?”
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