I looked down at the silver circle, closing my eyes around that strong, connected feeling I’d had since I first put it on.

  “Your soul is bound to this charm, Ara. I’ve guarded it—protected it all these years so it would never fall into the wrong hands. But I know, from what I’ve seen, that you are now strong enough to protect it yourself. And you must do so with your last breath, because no threat Drake makes against me can force me to transfer your soul back into the body of Lilith without that charm.”

  “Why?”

  “Your soul is trained, you might say, that when it untethers from your body, it goes to the point of origin—to the thing it feels most connected to.”

  “And it’s connected to this?” I asked.

  Dad nodded.

  “Then how come…?” I started but stopped, biting my tongue.

  “How come what?” Dad asked, one brow moving slightly down in interest.

  What I was about to say would surely hurt David, I knew that. And it was something I’d never told him before. To find out this way might force that gap between us even wider. But it was time to let it out. “How come, when I leave my body while I’m sleeping, I’ve never ended up with the necklace?”

  Dad frowned. “Where do you go?”

  “I end up … with Jason.” I looked timidly toward David.

  Dad looked for a split second, too. “You do?”

  I nodded.

  He scratched his head then rubbed his chin, and as he pinched his lips, making a circle of them, his eyes smiled, lips following a second later. “So that’s what she meant.”

  “What who meant?”

  He sat back, his ‘thinking vein’ popping up on the side of his head, disappearing as his distant gaze flicked to my belly. “Perhaps you needn't worry for her as much as you do.”

  I touched my belly, quietly letting everything over the last ten minutes sink in. “I tell myself not to worry, but Anandene sounds evil. I mean, everyone makes such a big deal out of this—like she’ll reign terror on the world or—”

  Dad laughed. “I have a feeling that, perhaps, she may not turn out quite so bad.”

  “I know she won’t. But even if I raise her right, she’ll want to be with Drake. Her own uncle, and…”

  “She won’t,” he said, and he was so sure of himself I had to stop the protest I had lined up and ask what he meant.

  “I can’t go into detail right now, honey, for your safety and for the baby’s, but I can tell you that you can trust me when I say you needn’t worry at all. She will have no desire for that son of mine.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded once. “And I will deal with Drake—and his intention to take your life in eighteen years. Don’t you worry about him, either.”

  I quietly wondered how he knew about that, but also knew he knew more than I knew he knew, so didn't worry too much about it after that initial moment of confusion. “What are you going to do about it?”

  “He’s my firstborn son. And because of that, I never thought to rid the world of him. But he went too far this time. I cannot allow him to exist any longer. Having you arrested,” he said, rubbing a very firm hand over his mouth after, his eyes glassing over, taking position on a distant object across the room while he composed himself. My heart broke a little bit then, not for the pain I suffered during those dark days, but for the pain Dad clearly suffered too in knowing who had me and how he’d hurt me. “Doing what he did to you was the final straw,” he added, “and if I thought you could have handled it at the time, I’d have seen to my own human death back then to be in your life and help you through that. But I knew the initial shock of my passing would kill you, and I couldn't risk that.”

  “You couldn’t have just told me what you were?”

  He shook his head. “No. I had to have regained my full vampire strength and youth before anyone could know. Without that, I am vulnerable and would have been in no position to protect you. It would have taken weeks before the ageing was reversed. And, in that time…” He shook his head, letting us all imagine what might have happened had I been tortured, lost David and lost my dad all in one week. And I understood why he wasn’t there—even though he clearly knew exactly what his son had done to me—but it still hurt.

  “I was there, Ara,” he said, and I drew back in shock.

  “Did you just read my mind?” I asked.

  His grin gleamed.

  “Oh God!” I covered my face with both hands. “That is going to take some getting used to.”

  “Didn’t take you long with me,” David said, a cheeky glint sparkling in his eye.

  I ignored that and looked at Dad. “So, I guess I know now how you always knew when I was lying.”

  He laughed. “No, your face gives you away. And I very rarely used my ability to figure you out, Ara. I wouldn't do that.”

  “Rarely? But you did use it?”

  “After your mom died, yes. I needed to be sure you weren't planning to kill yourself.”

  David tensed a little and a small flash of the way he saw me back then—a young girl sitting on a swing outside, hiding her tears from the world—came to his mind.

  “I see you have also mastered the ability to read minds,” Dad said to me, smiling between David and I.

  I half shrugged, half nodded. “So far I can only read David’s mind—and not always. And once or twice I’ve read Falcon’s.”

  “And Jason’s mind,” David added.

  I frowned. “No, I—”

  “You can.”

  “No, he sends me those thoughts. I don’t take them,” I said defensively.

  David smiled smugly, sitting back a bit. “No. You take them.”

  “I do?” My whole face crinkled, eyes blinking to help that sink in.

  “Yes,” David confirmed, but he seemed more amused than annoyed. “Do you know about her telekinesis—particularly in relation to breaking vampire bones?” he asked my dad.

  “I do.” Dad nodded. “I’ve been watching her progression closely.”

  “How?” I asked, sitting slightly forward. “And how were you with me after the Elysium thing? I—”

  “You would have known me, would always have known me, as the white dog you call Petey.”

  My initial reaction was a throaty grumble of amusement, until the absolute seriousness on Dad’s face turned that scepticism into a very real dose of stupefaction.

  Every moment I spent talking with that dog, playing with that dog, telling that dog off, suddenly came to mind, reloading the face of the man in front of me with a new image of a stinky, slobbering white fluffball.

  David sat back, laughing into his hand. “Oh boy.”

  Even Dad had to laugh. “Yes, I’ve seen a few things.”

  “Nobody ever suspects the dog,” David said, issuing a hand toward my canine father.

  “The contract,” I said quietly to David as though Petey wasn’t even in the room. “He was protecting the asset. You. That’s why Petey always watched over you.”

  He shook his head. “More over Jason than me.”

  Dad nodded to confirm. “You were strong, David—made friends easily. You didn’t need a companion as much as the younger boy did.”

  David’s head bobbed in agreement, his eyes still smiling. “We’ve had some adventures, though, haven't we?”

  Dad leaned forward suddenly and slapped his own knee, a burst of rather obnoxious laughter filling the room. “Yes, I forgot about that year.”

  “What year?” I asked, looking between the two of them.

  “When Jason and I were boys, maybe ten—”

  “Eight,” Dad said.

  “Right, it was just after that birthday party at the tavern,” David said. “Jason and I got curious about girls, so we snuck into a … bordello.”

  “You didn’t?” I gasped. “When you were eight?”

  He nodded, eyes sparkling as he looked over at my dad.

  “Boys will be boys,” Dad said.

  “We crawled under a bed, waiting for one of the girls to enter in the hopes we might see a pair of undergarments,” David explained. “We had no idea what a brothel was, aside from a house with lots of girls, so we had no idea they’d be bringing clients up.”

  “And the client that day just happened to be a well-known man in our town, someone who would go to great lengths to keep his…” Dad laughed. “…fetish a secret.”

  “What fetish?”

  “Well, let’s just say that this client didn’t enter the room with a woman,” Dad said. “Rather, a man.”

  I started laughing.

  “Anyway,” David added. “Just as we were about to make a run for it, Petey comes bursting suddenly through the door.”

  “Imagine my surprise, after sniffing their trail all afternoon, when I found them at a whorehouse. My first thought was that they'd been taken there, as young boys often were, to feed the desires of sick old men.”

  I covered my mouth.

  “So this white dog comes bursting in,” David said, “a mess of spit and bared teeth, and drags us out from under the bed, Jason first, then me. You should have seen the look on the Mayor’s face.”

  Dad and David laughed.

  “When I realised they weren’t in any danger, I was so mad at them that the Mayor’s hand caught me off guard as he tried to haul me out, and I turned and bit him square in the package.”

  “And he starts screaming, right,” David said loudly, like an amused drunk yelling over a crowd in a pub. “And the police came a few moments later, took one look at the dog on this guy’s balls, then at us, and instantly assumed the worst.”

  “Their father was called, and Mayor Turney was arrested but never charged.”

  David wiped the back of his wrist across his mouth, shaking his head, his eyes so bright with amusement. “My father never looked at us the same again. He refused to have us examined but I know he believed we’d been assaulted.”

  “That’s horrible.”

  “Yeah, I guess it is pretty bad,” David said.

  While they continued laughing and reminiscing, I only half-listened, taking the moment to digest everything else I’d heard tonight, then thinking about all the times I’d talked with Petey and how he’d somehow made me feel like everything would be okay. I’d wanted my dad here, so many times it hurt to think about now but, in truth, he’d really been here all along.

  I thought back to that first day after I met Arthur on the park bench across from my house, when I turned and saw the white fluffball behind me—thought about how good it felt to see him. “The conferences,” I said out of the blue.

  Dad stopped laughing and smiled at me. “Yes.”

  “That’s how you got away with being Petey?”

  “Yes,” he said again.

  “But…” I frowned at his human form, trying to imagine a smaller dog in place. “How can you change size and shape?”

  He slid forward on the seat, cupping his hands and resting his elbows on his knees. “You have that ability, too.”

  “How?”

  He turned his hand and showed me a shining red stone set into a ring on his pinkie—one I’d never ever seen before. “Blood Garnet.”

  “Where do you get that?”

  “It must be created through a kind of magic Nature offers. This was forged on the Stone by my blood and the blood of my mother, the first Auress of the realm.”

  “And how does it work?”

  “It allows the body to use the energy of Nature to reveal its spirit form.”

  “So, we can just change into a dog?”

  “For those whose spirit guide is a dog, yes.”

  “Where does your body go? Your human body?”

  He looked at the ring, tilting it into the light. “How does a bone grow from infancy to adulthood? What makes a caterpillar change to a butterfly?”

  I was about to answer his rhetorical question when he cut in.

  “We don’t see the action nature takes. We don't see the caterpillar transform before the naked eye, we only see it once it’s changed.”

  “So, you don’t know where the body goes?”

  He shook his head. “I do not seek to understand the mysteries of the world. Only to marvel at what I can see with my own two eyes.”

  “Can all vampires change like that—or is it just Originals?”

  “All vampires that posses a Garnet, yes.”

  I turned back and grinned at David. “Where can we get one?”

  Dad shook his head. “They must be made by an Auress under a full moon. And I would not recommend making them for just anyone.”

  “What about David?”

  “That would be fine. But a mask can only hide you from those who do not possess the knowledge of such.”

  “Right.” I nodded. “So, keep this Blood Garnet thing a secret?”

  “As well as your ability to age.”

  I held my hand out in front of me, taking in the youthful skin. “I never thought I’d see myself old.”

  “And you won’t,” Dad said with a laugh. “I wouldn't recommend hiding yourself the way I did.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it requires long periods of blood denial. Ara, anyone who’s been near you first thing in the morning knows that’s a bad idea. You can’t go without breakfast, let alone blood.”

  David laughed. “If you attempted to age, Ara, I’d leave the country.”

  I punched him softly in the arm.

  He laughed again, inching away as if that hurt.

  “The other issue we’ll need to address is Emily Pierce and Nathan Rossi,” Dad added.

  “Oh my God.” I covered my mouth. “Dad, Emily is going to freak.”

  Dad smiled softly. “I know.”

  “Then you know she has a—”

  “I know all about Emily’s feelings toward me,” he stated. “But they will no longer be an issue, Ara. She’s fallen for Blade now.”

  I wiped an imaginary smear of sweat from my brow.

  “She liked the old man anyway,” David added. “She has daddy issues coming out of her ears.”

  Dad and I laughed.

  “Poor Em.”

  “And Nathan,” Dad said, his smiling eyes then moving to David. “You took a great risk turning him, son.”

  “I know.”

  “Had you been caught—”

  “I know,” David said again. “But I had to take a chance.”

  “I’m glad you did. I didn’t know it at the time—that you’d turned him—but I remember thinking there was not a more tragic waste of youth than Mr Rossi’s. I look forward to seeing him.”

  “How will you keep what you are a secret from them, Dad? They’ll know as soon as they look at you.”

  “I won’t,” he said simply. “I’ll ask them to swear a vow of secrecy. As I did with Arthur just now.”

  I nodded, knowing both of them would more than happily do that. “And Mike?”

  “I’ve already seen Mike.”

  “When?”

  “I met with him yesterday, in town—asked his advice about how best to break the truth to you.”

  Which explained now what Mike meant about leaving me in good hands. Bastard! He knew all this time. “And … what did he say?”

  Dad laughed. “He was rather amused—after the initial shock and upset subsided. He basically just said good luck, but also confirmed what I already knew.”

  “Which is?”

  “That you're a strong girl. And you can handle much more than any of us give you credit for.” He looked especially at David then, who sat a little taller.

  “So what now?” I asked. “I mean, are you staying for good or—”

  “I’ll be here for good. Well—” He sat back comfortably. “Until you no longer need me.”

  “So, you’ll be here forever then?” I hinted cheekily.

  “I guess I will,” he said softly, as though that would be more than fine by him.

  “Then, I guess we need to organise a room for you,” I said. “We’re pretty full but—”

  “Arrangements are being made as we speak.”

  “Oh.” I slowed the game of Vampire Tetris going on in my head and frowned. “Who organised it?”

  “Arthur. At my request.”

  “Okay. Great. Did he say which room he’d put you in?”

  “The only room suitable enough for a member of the Original Family.” His lip formed a smile on one side as he looked at David. “The Master Suite at the east end of the manor.”

  “What?” I nearly fell out of my chair. “Where will David sleep?”

  “In the chamber he shares with his wife.”

  “But—”

  “No buts.” Dad put both hands up. “You two have slept apart long enough. No matter what your intentions toward each other at this time, they are inconsequential. The king and queen share a chamber, and that’s all there is to it.”

  Secretly, I was beaming. But David looked pale and breathless.

  “Son?” Dad said, waiting until David looked at him. “Thus far you two have escaped the suspicions of the House and the people. But you know what they will do to my daughter if they learn the truth about your separation.”

  David gave a slight nod.

  “Don’t downplay this, son,” Dad said sharply. “I know nothing of your reasons for refusing to acknowledge that you care about her, or the child, but I have known you since you were born, and I am sure you would not see her harmed. In fact, were anyone to try, I imagine you’d be the first at her defence.”

  I knew David couldn’t admit that out in the open—there’s no way he would. He just cleared his throat instead, avoiding an obvious movement of his head to indicate his feelings either way.

  “Now—” Dad stood. “I will formally announce my arrival and intentions tonight at dinner, and the rest of the kingdom will be notified with an official address at the festival tomorrow night.”

  David and I stood too.

  “You’re going to the festival?” I asked with a bit of secret dread, thinking about the rather revealing dress Magda made for me.

  “Of course.” Dad put his arm out for a hug. “Even packed my tuxedo.”

  I shuffled over and graciously tucked my head under his chin, squeezing him tight. “I’m so glad you're here, Dad.”

 

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