Late morning the next day, Aedan stood at the sink in the upstairs bathroom, brushing his teeth. And smiling. Brushing his teeth and smiling. He’d stayed with Dallas until three in the morning, then kissed her forehead, tucked her sheet over her shoulders, and let himself out. He’d only slept a few hours, but he felt good. Clearheaded.
“I said I’d clean them up in a minute,” Brian shouted from downstairs.
Aedan halted mid-upper right molars, then started brushing again.
“I know what you said. The same thing you said the night before about your dirty dishes,” Peigi said. She wasn’t shouting, but she certainly wasn’t her calm self, either. “The same thing you said about your dirty clothes lying all over your room!” Her last words came close to shouting.
“It’s my room! I don’t see why you care where I throw my clothes!”
Aedan rinsed out his mouth and shut off the water, dropping his brush into the cup on the sink.
“Because it’s my house,” Peigi said.
Aedan walked out into the hallway, in jeans, but still barefoot and shirtless. He eyed the bedroom Brian and Victor shared. The door was ajar, and Aedan could see Victor still asleep, sprawled in one of the two single beds.
“I thought it was my house, too!” Brian shouted.
Aedan closed Victor’s bedroom door and went down the staircase. “Everything okay down here?” he asked.
“Does it sound like everything is okay?” Peigi, still in her robe, stood in the downstairs hallway outside the den, her hands perched on her hips.
Brian sat, surprise, surprise, on the couch in the den, game controller in hand. The TV was on, but he wasn’t actively playing a game. Screens flashed, giving the player options in weapons: AK-47, AA-12, G36, ACR. Aedan wouldn’t have known what half the weapons were, if pictures of them hadn’t rolled by.
“I just asked Brian to clean up the dishes he and his friends left in the sink last night, and on the kitchen table and counters. And I asked him to take the garbage out.” Peigi turned on Aedan. “Is that too much to ask?”
“How about if you put some clothes on?” Brian demanded, throwing his game controller onto the couch. “Could you maybe not walk around in your bathrobe in front of my friends? Is that too much to ask?”
Peigi grabbed the lapels of her robe and pulled them tight. “I’m not indecent.”
“No.” Brian barreled out of the den, headed for the kitchen. “But you sure are ugly, aren’t you, you old b—”
Vampires are fast. Faster than humans. Much faster. And among vampires, Aedan was fast. He clamped his hand over Brian’s mouth before the kid could finish another word.
“Hey man! Get off me!” Brian grunted from under Aedan’s hand.
Aedan half pushed, half dragged the teen to the wall and pushed him up against it. He put one massive arm under each armpit and lifted Brian a good three inches off the floor. “That’s enough. Do you hear me? I don’t care how angry you are with Peigi, you don’t speak to her that way.”
“Why? Because she’s supposed to be my stupid wife?” Brian said. He gave Aedan the slightest push.
Aedan pushed him hard enough to knock him against the wall. Then he did it again. He didn’t hurt him, just got his attention. “No,” he growled. “Because she’s one of us and because if you continue to speak that way to her, I’m going to beat the shit out of you, that’s why.”
“Aedan,” Peigi said, her voice filled with emotion.
“I’ve got this, Peigi.” Aedan glanced over his shoulder at her. He was pissed, but she had nothing to worry about. He was completely in control. He hadn’t really lost his temper; he just wanted Brian to know he had put him in his place. Sometimes a young vampire male needed to be pushed around a little. God knew there had been times when he’d needed it, and there had always been an elder to comply. “How about some tea, Peigi? I could use some tea.”
She hesitated.
“Peigi,” Aedan repeated. “Give us a minute.”
Brian just hung there, back against the wall, cheek to the wall, looking in the opposite direction.
Peigi walked away, retying her plaid bathrobe. Aedan waited until she stepped into the kitchen, gave the kid another gentle shove, and then he lowered him to the floor, took his hands off him, and backed off.
Brian just stood there.
“That was mean,” Aedan said.
Brian chewed on his lower lip.
“You hurt her feelings.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to,” he muttered.
He was quiet for a few seconds. Aedan waited.
“It’s just that she acts like she’s my mother or something,” Brian finally said. “All she does is tell me what I’m doing wrong, what I ought to be doing.”
Aedan exhaled. “I know this is rough on you. But you have to remember it’s rough on her, too. Only a few months ago, she was taking care of you when you were ill.”
“I didn’t ask her to do that!”
“Actually, you did.” Aedan hesitated. “Maybe we need to think about moving you. To another house. For a few months. Maybe a year.”
“I don’t want to go somewhere else.” He eyed Aedan angrily. “This is my house. I like it here. I remember it,” he said in a smaller voice.
Aedan studied the gangly kid for a minute. “When was the last time you slept?”
Brian shrugged.
“If you stay up all night, that’s fine,” Aedan explained. “It will take you a while to acclimate to a human’s schedule, and even then, you’ll struggle your whole life cycle not to fall into sleeping all day and prowling all night. But for now, if you’re going to stay up all night, you have to sleep during the day. Like Victor. It’s important that you get enough sleep, Brian. Plenty of sleep. Particularly right now. You’re under a lot of stress. Your body and your brain are still going through the transformation.”
“I wish you’d tell her that,” he muttered.
Aedan just stood there.
“Okay,” Brian gestured. “So, I’m sorry. I am tired.” He rubbed his eyes. “I’ll try to get more sleep. It’s just hard. I’ve got so many things going on in my head.” He brushed his hair out of his eyes. He looked exhausted. “And I’ll try to do better about cleaning up. I told those guys not to leave that crap all over.”
He started for the kitchen, but Aedan put his hand on Brian’s back. “Why don’t you head upstairs? Get some sleep and then clean up your room, take out the garbage, and clean up out back. Before you play video games. I’ll take care of the kitchen.”
Brian turned and went the other way. “Thanks,” he said quietly, as he walked by.
“No problem.” Aedan waited until he heard the bedroom door close, then walked into the kitchen.
Peigi was rinsing dishes in the sink and loading them in the dishwasher. The teakettle was on a burner on the stove.
“I’ll do that.”
“You don’t have to,” she muttered, lining up two plates on the bottom rack. “He’s my problem.”
“He’s our problem.” Aedan came up behind her, turned off the water, and gently escorted her to her chair at the kitchen table. “Sit,” he ordered.
She sat.
“Irish breakfast or Earl Grey?” he asked.
“Earl Grey. And a shot of whiskey.”
He chuckled as he retrieved the teapot and two mugs and set them on the counter. “Little early for that, maybe?”
“Early?” She rested her face in her hands. “Hell, Aedan. I haven’t been to sleep yet.”
He flipped on the faucet and began to rinse off the dishes and place them in the dishwasher. “If the teens were keeping you awake, you should have told them to pipe down. I’m glad they’re taking an interest in Brian, and now Victor, but they don’t have the right to take advantage of you.”
“It wasn’t them.” She let her hands fall to her lap. “I feel as if I’ve lost my bearings. As if I don’t know which way to turn, what to pursue next. And don’t tell me it’s just the adjustme
nt period, because I’ll not be pandered to, not about this. We’ve been through this before, Brian and I, too many times to count. But it’s different this time. I’m different this time.”
The teakettle on the stove whistled, and Aedan put the last cereal bowl into the dishwasher, closed it up, and wiped his hands on a dishtowel with a robin on it. Sensing his aunt just needed him to listen for now, instead of offering the platitudes she didn’t want to hear, he made a pot of tea.
“Ever since Brian was reborn, I haven’t felt as if I was running the Council well. I’m impatient, disorganized . . .” She paused, thinking. “I feel like I don’t want the damned job anymore.”
He carried the porcelain teapot to the table and sat down. “So tell Gair you’re ready to pass the position to someone else. You’ve been doing it for years. Someone else can take his or her turn.”
“You?”
“Not me.” He laughed, but it was no laughing matter. He loved his job as an investigator on a kill team. He’d never give it up voluntarily and certainly not to be a sept administrator.
“And I told Gair I’d had enough.”
“What did he say?”
“That I was going through my adjustment period with Brian and that it would all be fine in a few months.”
“But you don’t believe that?”
She was quiet for a moment, and when she looked at him, Aedan found himself concerned. Her eyes were so sad. . . .
“I can’t explain how I feel, Aedan. It’s as if everything is off-balance, but I don’t know how to find my feet again.”
He poured tea for her, then himself. “Would you consider talking with Dr. Kettleman?”
“Me? A shrink?”
He shrugged. “Okay, so she’s got the fancy psychiatric education now, but she’s always been our counselor.” He reached for the honey pot on the table. “She helped me after I lost Madeleine.”
“Madeleine, is it? Is that who’s gotten in your head?” Peigi dumped a spoon of raw sugar into her cup, sipped it, and added another spoonful. She started to get up, but Aedan rested his hand on her shoulder.
“I’ll get your cream.”
“I’m not an invalid,” she complained. “I just lost my temper and hollered at my husband is all.”
He went to the refrigerator. “You’ve done so much for me over the years, Aunt Peigi. I like being able to do something for you once in a while.” He returned to the table with a carton of half-and-half.
She thanked him and added the milk to her tea. “I want to ask you about something. Hypothetically speaking,” she said, and then looked up, eyeing him.
“Okay . . .” He drew the word out, having a pretty good idea what was coming next.
“What’s your gut feeling about readjustment?”
“It’s a sin against God,” he said without thinking. “And it’s wrong.”
“Easy for you to say. You don’t have this issue.”
He felt a tightness in his chest and was surprised by the surge of emotion he, again, felt for his long dead wife who he’d barely known. But maybe the feelings weren’t about her, but about Madeleine and the guilt he felt creeping up on him like some unknown beast of the night.
An undefined beast, like Jay.
“Just because I don’t have a wife, because I’m not in your same situation, doesn’t mean I don’t have empathy for you.”
“I don’t want empathy.” She slapped her spoon on the table. “I want a solution. I have a solution.”
His hand went to the crucifix around his neck. “Readjustment is not a solution.”
“Damn if it’s not.”
He stirred his tea, his jaw set stubbornly. “It’s dangerous.”
“Not if it’s done right.”
“It’s against sept law. There would be serious repercussions. You’d be punished, Peigi.”
“I was thinking I could ask for . . . a one-time dispensation. I could petition the General Council.”
He shook his head and sipped his tea. “They’ll never go for it.”
“It’s time we relaxed some of our rules. We never thought this would go on this long. All these centuries. We thought we would be redeemed by now.”
He stirred his tea again; it didn’t taste sweet enough, but he knew he’d added enough honey. Maybe it was the conversation.
“They regretted not giving Mary and Victor a dispensation and allowing them to marry, you know,” Peigi pointed out. “Several members came to me after Mary and Victor disappeared and said we’d made a mistake. That letting them marry would have been harmless.”
“This isn’t the same thing,” he argued. “It’s not even in the same realm.”
“Venial sins. Mortal sins.” She gave a wave as if what they were talking about was inconsequential. “Kind of hard to punish a person already suffering the ultimate punishment.”
“Peigi, please tell me you’re not serious about this. We could be talking about your ultimate salvation.”
“I’m serious. About asking permission from the Council to readjust the age difference between me and my husband.”
“What you mean is that you’re going to ask them if you can commit suicide.”
They were quiet for a minute, and then she got up. “Would you like some ham and eggs?”
“No, I don’t want ham and eggs. I want you to be sensible.”
“I am being sensible, and you know it. It’s a perfect solution to my problem. To our problem. Brian’s and mine. If I were sixteen or seventeen again, I would totally get him.” She walked to the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of eggs. “Now, what wouldn’t be sensible is for you to sit there hungry and not eat my ham and eggs.”
Chapter 16
“Come on. It’s only dinner,” Aedan cajoled a week later.
“I told you.” Dallas took packages out of the cardboard box he was holding for her and stacked them on the refrigerator shelves: buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil, two bags of lemons, two bags of limes, and so on. “Kenzie and I have a routine on weeknights. She hates it when we break her routine.”
“But she likes me.”
Dallas glanced at him, saw his grin, and couldn’t resist him. She smiled. “She has homework. Chores to do. We don’t usually go out for dinner on school nights.”
“So I’ll make dinner for us at your place while you guys get the homework and such done.”
She grabbed the empty box from him and tossed it on the floor next to several others. “She’s picky about what she eats.”
He opened his arms wide. “I’ll make whatever she wants.”
“Filet mignon and lobster tail.” She closed the refrigerator.
“Done and done.”
Dallas shook her head. “You’re so gullible. She likes frozen French fries, fresh cauliflower overcooked until it’s mushy, and chicken breast plain, a hint of lemon if you catch her in an adventurous mood.”
“You like French fries, plain chicken breast, and mushy cauliflower?” he asked. “I can make that for you, too.”
“What do you think?” She grabbed a clipboard with her order information on it off the work counter and began to check off items with a pen she plucked from behind her ear.
“How about this?” he said, still trying to win her over, but pretty certain he had her. “Lobster tails for us, and chicken breast for Kenzie.”
“Lobster’s expensive.” She frowned. “You don’t have to buy me lobster. I already let you in my pants.”
They were alone in the kitchen. Both cooks were out front shooting the breeze with Tat. They only had two customers, and those guys were both drinking their lunch. Aedan grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. She didn’t put up much of a fight.
“This isn’t about getting into your pants, Dallas.”
“Please don’t say it’s about our relationship,” she groaned, refusing to make eye contact with him. “You know that’s the kiss of death with mind-blowing casual sex.”
He caught her chin between his thumb
and forefinger and gently turned her head until she was looking up at him. “Why is it so hard for you to believe I like you?”
“Because I’m a bitch. And a witch.” She laughed, and he laughed with her.
He leaned over her and kissed her hard on the mouth. “I don’t believe you’re a bitch,” he murmured against her lips. “I don’t mind if you’re a witch.”
She groaned and kissed him again. “God, for a dollar I’d take you upstairs right now, Aedan Brigid.”
“I got a dollar here somewhere.” As he drew his lips along the corner of her mouth, he patted his pockets.
“You’re funny.”
He kissed his way to her ear and then, unsurprisingly, moved to her throat.
Dallas arched her neck, closing her eyes. “God, that feels good. Is that why so many women are willing to let you bite them and suck their blood?”
“Something like that,” he whispered, trying not to focus too long on the pulse at her neck. He had pretty good control, but a human like Dallas was always dangerous. He tried not to think about how sweet and rich her blood would be. “So, come on, let me make you two dinner.”
“This is against my better judgment.”
“So noted.” He gave her another light kiss on the lips and let go of her. “See you at what? Six?”
“Depends on how long it takes you to make mushy cauliflower. Kenzie goes to bed at eight, and we read together. She needs a lot of sleep to make out okay at school.”
On his way out, he grabbed three empty cardboard boxes off the floor to toss into the recycling bin in the alley. “See you at six.”
“When is six?” Kenzie asked from the couch where she was doing her homework.
Dallas was running around the house, trying to pick up a little. Even if she didn’t have time to vacuum the area rug in the living room—a sort of indoor /outdoor jute rectangle—she wanted to at least get the dirty panties off the bathroom floor. The Spiderman boys’ briefs that Kenzie was partial to and the lacy thong numbers.
“It’s in about fifteen minutes.” Dallas halted, laundry basket in her arms. Kenzie couldn’t tell time. Dallas, along with a whole host of teachers, had tried to teach her, but she was never interested enough to even attempt to learn. Kenzie was strong-willed and stubborn. She was improving academically, as well as socially, every week at the consortium, but it was very difficult to teach her anything she didn’t want to learn. “You want me to show you on the clock in the kitchen?” Dallas asked nonchalantly.
Voracious - (Claire Point Vampire 5) Page 17