Angel Reborn, page 17
“Maybe another time,” I said. “We need to get changed and head back.”
“I was hoping perhaps the lot of you could stay for dinner,” Gwen said as she joined us. “Chef could prepare something lovely within the hour.”
Sage bounced up and down in front of me. “Please, Mommy?” I’ve never seen a house with a bowling alley before.”
Suddenly, it was all too much, and I felt like I might get dragged under the waves of anxiety washing over me.
“I just want to go home,” I managed to say.
“But Mom…”
“Let’s not argue with your mom, Sage,” Gwen said with a smile in my direction. “We’ll do it another time. Soon, I hope.”
I nodded, not knowing how else to respond.
“Let’s get changed and hit the road,” Nick said, moving his hand to the small of my back with a nudge. “Sage, grab the bag your mom brought and come with us.”
Gwen stepped aside as Nick led me to the changing room, and though Sage protested that boys weren’t allowed in the girls’ room, I was relieved to have him stay by my side.
I longed to bombard him with the questions racing through my mind, but I held my tongue for Sage’s sake.
She had no such reservations.
“How did the water do that, Daddy?” she called out from her changing stall. “And why didn’t you tell me we were coming to your mommy’s house? I never met your mommy before.”
She talked nonstop from the time she entered the stall until the time she exited in her dry clothes.
I hadn’t even bothered taking off my wet suit. I just pulled my jeans and T-shirt on over it, eager to be dressed and be gone.
“Why are you wearing your swimsuit to go home?” Sage asked Nick.
“Because I wore my clothes to swim.” He gathered Sage’s wet suit from the stall and put in the tote bag with his wet clothes, and then he put the pile of wet towels in the white hamper in the corner before taking my hand. “You ready?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Sage, take this bag to Zeck.” He held the tote bag out to her. “I need to talk to Mommy for a second.”
I resisted the urge to reach out and stop her, to pull her to me and protect her. Instinctively, I knew Gwen was not going to hurt my daughter. And neither was Zeck. But I still felt rattled from the unknown…outside me and within me.
“Mam will have questions,” Nick said when Sage was gone.
“What are you going to tell her?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Obviously, she knows something is up. You turned her pool into a self-propelled water show.”
“You honestly think that was me?”
“Yes, I do. I don’t understand how, but I don’t have any other explanation.”
“I’m assuming there’s a bloodline that can make water do stuff?”
“Yes. The Galdorcræft.”
“And they’re the same ones who can bend the metal, right? Like I did with the faucet? So maybe I do have an ancestor who was Galdorcræft.”
“Yes, it’s the same bloodline, but to wield multiple earth elements, you’d have to be a direct descendant from both sides of your parentage. And the ease with which you’re doing it…I don’t know, Angel. I just don’t know.”
Eighteen
Nick
“We should get going.” Aria took a couple of steps toward the changing room door to exit before I reached to grasp her elbow.
“Wait. We haven’t decided what I’m going to tell Mam.”
“I don’t know what to tell her. Like you said, it’s not like we have an explanation.”
“No, but we do know more than we’ve let on to her. Are you comfortable with me bringing her into the circle?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, babe, but I just don’t feel right doing that. Did you get the testing kit?”
“No. The lab security scanner had been updated since I left, and it didn’t recognize me. I know Graeco said last night he thought it was due to the lockdown, but I’m thinking my security profile must have been erased from the system downtown and here at the estate after I left. I had gone to find Marcella to ask her to let me in, but when she mentioned that Mam was arriving here I came straight to you.”
“Which is a good thing, considering what happened, but it means we still don’t have answers.”
“Right, but if we tell my mother what’s going on, we could just go to the lab now, pull the sample, and analyze it without the need for secrecy.”
Aria chewed on her bottom lip as she looked away, and then she looked back to me. “And then I’ve opened myself up to who knows what kind of scrutiny. I’m not ready for that. I know you trust her, and I’m not saying I don’t trust her, but—”
“It’s not just that I trust her. She is probably the most knowledgeable source we could find on the bloodlines. She’s literally an expert on the topic. I think we’re making things harder than it has to be by not involving her.”
“You’re probably right. It might make things easier, and I suppose it makes sense to do that, but it also takes this out of my hands in a much bigger way. I don’t want to be anyone’s science experiment, and I can’t ignore this feeling in my gut that I need to protect…myself…and my identity, whatever that may be.”
“Then, we’ll find another way.” I sighed in exasperation, frustrated with the urgent need to get answers and the seeming lack of a path forward to finding them. I was certain my mother would be able to help, but I had to honor Aria’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health.
Even if it made me feel helpless. Even if I worried that every moment we delayed made it harder for me to protect both her and Sage from the unknown.
Perhaps sensing my despair, Aria moved closer, wrapping her arms around my neck as she stretched onto her toes to kiss me. “I’m sorry I’m putting you in this position, Nick. I know you’re trying to help, and I’m sorry I’m asking you to go against your convictions to appease me. Just give me—or us—a little more time to figure things out, okay? If we don’t have answers in the next couple of days, we’ll go to your mom and tell her everything.”
“And what do I tell her in the meantime about what happened here today?”
“Is there any chance she won’t ask?” The tilting lilt of Aria’s voice conveyed she already knew the answer to the question.
“No chance at all.”
“In all honesty, we have no explanation to give her. Can’t you just tell her that? That we don’t know how it happened? That’s the truth.”
“It is, but that’s certain to lead to more questions, is it not?”
She pulled back from our embrace with a frown. “I honestly don’t know what to tell her, Nick, and I hate asking you to lie for me or hide things from your mom for me. Can’t you just try to put her off or avoid the conversation? And yes, I realize as I say that how unrealistic it is, but I don’t know what else to do. And right now, I just want to get to Sage. I want to go home and take off these wet clothes and try not to lose my freaking mind over what’s happening to me.”
“Then, let’s go.”
We exited the changing room to find Mam and Sage in animated conversation, and despite the turmoil Mam’s arrival had caused, it filled my heart with warmth to see my mother and my daughter laughing together.
Was there any way the realms would allow me to have this in my life? Could the families of my birth and my choosing ever merge and coexist in peace?
Or would it be easier for everyone involved for me to keep them separate? Easier for everyone…except me?
“Why don’t you thank Mrs. Gwenhwyfar for letting us come and swim in her pool?” Aria said to Sage as we prepared to leave.
Sage stared up at my mother, her nose wrinkled in confusion. “If you’re my daddy’s mommy, then you’re my grandmother, right?”
Mam’s eyes widened as Aria attempted to rein Sage in. “Sage, let’s not—”
But before Aria could finish, Mam cut in.
“Why yes, you are correct.” Her smile beamed broad and warm as she lowered herself to a squat to be eye to eye with Sage. “I am Nick’s mother, so if you are his daughter, I suppose that does make me your grandmother, Sage.”
“So, can I call you Granny?”
“Sage!” Aria admonished with a gasp. “That’s not a polite thing to ask.”
“It’s all right,” my mother said to Aria with a gentle wave of her hand as Sage continued, undaunted by her mother’s displeasure and perhaps encouraged by my mother’s receptive reaction.
“My friend Marleigh calls her grandmother Granny, and I don’t have a Granny. I just have Nangie. She’s not really my grandmother, but Mommy said she’s kinda sorta family and we can pretend she’s my grandmother. But I don’t call her Granny because her grandkids call her Nana, but when I was little I got confused ‘cause they called her Nana but Mommy called her Angie, so I kind of mixed the two together, and I called her Nangie and she said that’s okay. But you’re my daddy’s mommy, so you’re really my grandmother. So, can I call you Granny?”
Sage had blurted all that out without even pausing to take a breath, and when she finished, Mam clasped her hands together, erupting in a deep, wholehearted laugh that crinkled her eyes as she gazed at Sage with more wonder than I’d seen from my mother in a long while.
“Why don’t you call me Mam-gu?” Mam said, moving forward onto her knees, her palms on her thighs. “That’s what I called my grandmother.”
Aria looked uncertain, but Sage beamed.
“Maam-ghee?” she asked, drawing out the syllables.
Mam nodded. “Yes, exactly. Like your Nangie, but with a ghee sound instead of a gee. It’s Welsh.”
“Mam-gu,” Sage said again, mimicking my mother’s pronunciation perfectly.
“Yes, very good,” Mam said, still staring at Sage like she was enthralled by her. Aria looked at me warily, but she didn’t protest.
“Mam-gu it is,” I said as Zeck returned from changing out of his suit. “We need to get going. Why don’t you thank Mam-gu for letting us come and swim?”
“Thanks for letting us swim, Mam-gu,” Sage said dutifully. “Your pool is a little scary, though.”
“I’ll have to see about getting that fountain fixed so it doesn’t do that next time.” Mam’s eyes met mine. “Nicolaas, a word, perhaps, before you go?”
I’d expected that, but I dreaded it all the same.
“Zeck, would you mind escorting Aria and Sage out to the van while I have a word with Mam?”
Aria’s eyes seemed to hold both a silent plea and a silent apology, and I reached for her hand and gave it a brief squeeze of reassurance.
I would not break the promise I’d made, even though I no longer agreed that it was for the best.
“Sage is delightful,” Mam said when they’d gone. She was grinning from ear to ear, her eyes on the door as though she could still see Sage there. “The red hair reminds me of your father’s, of course. What a lovely coincidence.”
“Yes. I’ve often thought those two would be two peas in a pod.” I grimaced as I corrected the statement to our current reality. “Would have been…two peas in a pod.”
“Oh, he would have been over the moon for her, cariad. I’m very happy for you. You wear fatherhood well.”
“Thank you,” I bowed my head slightly in gratitude for her recognition.
Her smile disappeared as she clasped her hands in front of her. “Now, you want to tell me what’s going on?”
I knew that was coming.
“Not really. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to ignore what you saw?”
“What I saw and what I felt?” She arched a perfectly manicured brow. “Your human wife is suddenly brimming with supernatural energy. Care to explain how that happened? What have you done, Nicky?”
“Why do you assume I’ve done something?”
“Because that girl was human, was she not? And yet she now has the energy of the immortal and is able to command the elements to do her will.”
“And you think I could somehow accomplish that transformation? You think too highly of me, Mam.”
She stepped closer, crossing one arm over her waist as she lowered her voice. “Here’s what I do know. The two of you have been hiding something since the moment Graeco plucked you from the roof. You were both covered in blood, very little of it yours, and despite being shot through the chest with a crossbow, she somehow was up and walking around without being the worse for wear.”
“How do you know she was shot in the chest?”
Mam scoffed with a roll of her dark brown eyes. “Please, Nicky. Did it never cross your mind that we’d see what happened when we pulled the footage from the roof?”
I was annoyed that I hadn’t considered that but hopeful at the prospect of what they’d found. “Did you see the shooter? Did you get any clear images?”
“As a matter of fact, we did. Graeco is chasing down a few leads as we speak.”
“Why didn’t you say so? I want to see that footage.”
“That won’t be possible.” She stepped away and turned toward the window. “I had Graeco destroy it.”
“What?” I moved to be in her sight line, outraged. “Why would you do that?”
Unmoved by my emotion, she turned and stepped so close we were almost toe to toe. “To protect you and your beloved, ‘machgen i. I know what you did on that roof. I know you attempted to turn her to save her life.”
“Yes, but you and I both know it didn’t work. It couldn’t work. I’m a freak within our kind, remember? I am unable to perform that particular vampiric function.”
“You don’t know that. All you know is that you weren’t successful at turning the other girl. Unless you’ve attempted with others and you haven’t told me?”
“What? No.”
Her shoulders relaxed and she moved toward the table.
“Be that as it may, something changed Aria’s fate on that roof. A direct hit like the one she took from the Vardiyati’s bow should have killed her, or at the very least, left her in need of medical attention. Yet, she rose to race across the roof with you and left of her own accord after refusing a healer. So, yes, in the absence of being able to discuss the matter with you, I made an executive decision that whatever had transpired should remain a private matter.”
Though I was frustrated not to be able to see the assailant’s image with my own eyes, I remembered well what he looked like. My concern now was for Aria. “Who else knows about this?”
“Only Graeco.”
“Good.” I nodded, relieved that my wife’s transformation wasn’t public knowledge at VCBI or within the Gilde.
She moved in a blur to stand in front of me, hands on her hips as her jaw tightened.
“What’s going on, Nicky? Even if you had turned her, that wouldn’t explain why she’s suddenly commanding the elements. What aren’t you telling me?”
I needed answers, and I knew she was more likely than anyone to have them. I was terrified by what was happening to Aria and frustrated by my inability to help her or reassure her. I knew when it came down to it, my mother would always have my back, and she seemed to have accepted Aria and Sage as my family, and therefore, hers.
She would help us; she would turn over every stone and go to the ends of the earth if I asked her to. I was certain of that. She’d done it for me before.
But I had made a promise to my wife, and our relationship was sacred to me. I’d let Aria down before by hiding the truth of my origins, and she’d forgiven me. I’d sworn never to betray her in any way again, and I would keep that oath. Even if I believed it was in her best interest to break it.
“The story is not mine to tell. I’ve given Aria my word, and I’ll not betray her trust.”
My mother’s eyes narrowed slightly, and her lips pursed into a tight frown. She’d never been one to tolerate defiance.
“A noble notion, to be sure, ‘machgen I, but given the circumstances we find ourselves in, now’s not the time for keeping secrets. There are many we are responsible for beyond those standing outside waiting for you. I need to know what threats we face.”
I squared my shoulders at her insinuation. “Aria is not a threat to anyone.”
She stepped closer once more, her mouth widening into a smile that held no humor or mirth.
“Are you sure about that? You seemed in quite the hurry to retrieve Sage from her arms in the pool.”
“This conversation is done. I need to get my family home.”
I moved to go past her, but she clamped her hand down on my arm, her strength not diminished in the least by her age.
“I saw your fear when she sucked the water from my pool and threw it toward the sky, and I see the worry in your eyes now. Don’t be a fool. Those two may be what you hold most dear, but you are what I hold most dear. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what you’re dealing with. You call them your family, but have you forgotten what it means to belong to one? You don’t have to fight your battles alone, Nicolaas. Neither of you do. Let me help you. Let me help Aria.”
Wrenching my arm from her grip, I turned for the door. “Good night, Mam. I’ll speak with you tomorrow.”
Nineteen
Nick
“I want you to take her to school in the morning,” Aria said once Sage was in bed that night.
The directive surprised me since she’d been so adamantly against the idea earlier, but the incident in the pool had shaken her.
She hardly said two words on the drive back from Mam’s estate, and she’d barely touched the dinner we picked up on the way home.
I’d asked if she was all right multiple times, and each time, she’d nod but say nothing. Until finally she snapped and said, “Would you stop asking me that? I said I’m fine.”
I didn’t ask again, but she’d been distant all night, not only with me but also with Sage. When it came time to do our bedtime rituals after dinner, Aria had announced she was going to shower, leaving me to get Sage ready for bed alone. It wasn’t a problem; I handled bedtime many times alone when Aria was teaching at the martial arts studio or in class at school. I enjoyed telling bedtime stories and tucking Sage in.
“I was hoping perhaps the lot of you could stay for dinner,” Gwen said as she joined us. “Chef could prepare something lovely within the hour.”
Sage bounced up and down in front of me. “Please, Mommy?” I’ve never seen a house with a bowling alley before.”
Suddenly, it was all too much, and I felt like I might get dragged under the waves of anxiety washing over me.
“I just want to go home,” I managed to say.
“But Mom…”
“Let’s not argue with your mom, Sage,” Gwen said with a smile in my direction. “We’ll do it another time. Soon, I hope.”
I nodded, not knowing how else to respond.
“Let’s get changed and hit the road,” Nick said, moving his hand to the small of my back with a nudge. “Sage, grab the bag your mom brought and come with us.”
Gwen stepped aside as Nick led me to the changing room, and though Sage protested that boys weren’t allowed in the girls’ room, I was relieved to have him stay by my side.
I longed to bombard him with the questions racing through my mind, but I held my tongue for Sage’s sake.
She had no such reservations.
“How did the water do that, Daddy?” she called out from her changing stall. “And why didn’t you tell me we were coming to your mommy’s house? I never met your mommy before.”
She talked nonstop from the time she entered the stall until the time she exited in her dry clothes.
I hadn’t even bothered taking off my wet suit. I just pulled my jeans and T-shirt on over it, eager to be dressed and be gone.
“Why are you wearing your swimsuit to go home?” Sage asked Nick.
“Because I wore my clothes to swim.” He gathered Sage’s wet suit from the stall and put in the tote bag with his wet clothes, and then he put the pile of wet towels in the white hamper in the corner before taking my hand. “You ready?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Sage, take this bag to Zeck.” He held the tote bag out to her. “I need to talk to Mommy for a second.”
I resisted the urge to reach out and stop her, to pull her to me and protect her. Instinctively, I knew Gwen was not going to hurt my daughter. And neither was Zeck. But I still felt rattled from the unknown…outside me and within me.
“Mam will have questions,” Nick said when Sage was gone.
“What are you going to tell her?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Obviously, she knows something is up. You turned her pool into a self-propelled water show.”
“You honestly think that was me?”
“Yes, I do. I don’t understand how, but I don’t have any other explanation.”
“I’m assuming there’s a bloodline that can make water do stuff?”
“Yes. The Galdorcræft.”
“And they’re the same ones who can bend the metal, right? Like I did with the faucet? So maybe I do have an ancestor who was Galdorcræft.”
“Yes, it’s the same bloodline, but to wield multiple earth elements, you’d have to be a direct descendant from both sides of your parentage. And the ease with which you’re doing it…I don’t know, Angel. I just don’t know.”
Eighteen
Nick
“We should get going.” Aria took a couple of steps toward the changing room door to exit before I reached to grasp her elbow.
“Wait. We haven’t decided what I’m going to tell Mam.”
“I don’t know what to tell her. Like you said, it’s not like we have an explanation.”
“No, but we do know more than we’ve let on to her. Are you comfortable with me bringing her into the circle?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, babe, but I just don’t feel right doing that. Did you get the testing kit?”
“No. The lab security scanner had been updated since I left, and it didn’t recognize me. I know Graeco said last night he thought it was due to the lockdown, but I’m thinking my security profile must have been erased from the system downtown and here at the estate after I left. I had gone to find Marcella to ask her to let me in, but when she mentioned that Mam was arriving here I came straight to you.”
“Which is a good thing, considering what happened, but it means we still don’t have answers.”
“Right, but if we tell my mother what’s going on, we could just go to the lab now, pull the sample, and analyze it without the need for secrecy.”
Aria chewed on her bottom lip as she looked away, and then she looked back to me. “And then I’ve opened myself up to who knows what kind of scrutiny. I’m not ready for that. I know you trust her, and I’m not saying I don’t trust her, but—”
“It’s not just that I trust her. She is probably the most knowledgeable source we could find on the bloodlines. She’s literally an expert on the topic. I think we’re making things harder than it has to be by not involving her.”
“You’re probably right. It might make things easier, and I suppose it makes sense to do that, but it also takes this out of my hands in a much bigger way. I don’t want to be anyone’s science experiment, and I can’t ignore this feeling in my gut that I need to protect…myself…and my identity, whatever that may be.”
“Then, we’ll find another way.” I sighed in exasperation, frustrated with the urgent need to get answers and the seeming lack of a path forward to finding them. I was certain my mother would be able to help, but I had to honor Aria’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health.
Even if it made me feel helpless. Even if I worried that every moment we delayed made it harder for me to protect both her and Sage from the unknown.
Perhaps sensing my despair, Aria moved closer, wrapping her arms around my neck as she stretched onto her toes to kiss me. “I’m sorry I’m putting you in this position, Nick. I know you’re trying to help, and I’m sorry I’m asking you to go against your convictions to appease me. Just give me—or us—a little more time to figure things out, okay? If we don’t have answers in the next couple of days, we’ll go to your mom and tell her everything.”
“And what do I tell her in the meantime about what happened here today?”
“Is there any chance she won’t ask?” The tilting lilt of Aria’s voice conveyed she already knew the answer to the question.
“No chance at all.”
“In all honesty, we have no explanation to give her. Can’t you just tell her that? That we don’t know how it happened? That’s the truth.”
“It is, but that’s certain to lead to more questions, is it not?”
She pulled back from our embrace with a frown. “I honestly don’t know what to tell her, Nick, and I hate asking you to lie for me or hide things from your mom for me. Can’t you just try to put her off or avoid the conversation? And yes, I realize as I say that how unrealistic it is, but I don’t know what else to do. And right now, I just want to get to Sage. I want to go home and take off these wet clothes and try not to lose my freaking mind over what’s happening to me.”
“Then, let’s go.”
We exited the changing room to find Mam and Sage in animated conversation, and despite the turmoil Mam’s arrival had caused, it filled my heart with warmth to see my mother and my daughter laughing together.
Was there any way the realms would allow me to have this in my life? Could the families of my birth and my choosing ever merge and coexist in peace?
Or would it be easier for everyone involved for me to keep them separate? Easier for everyone…except me?
“Why don’t you thank Mrs. Gwenhwyfar for letting us come and swim in her pool?” Aria said to Sage as we prepared to leave.
Sage stared up at my mother, her nose wrinkled in confusion. “If you’re my daddy’s mommy, then you’re my grandmother, right?”
Mam’s eyes widened as Aria attempted to rein Sage in. “Sage, let’s not—”
But before Aria could finish, Mam cut in.
“Why yes, you are correct.” Her smile beamed broad and warm as she lowered herself to a squat to be eye to eye with Sage. “I am Nick’s mother, so if you are his daughter, I suppose that does make me your grandmother, Sage.”
“So, can I call you Granny?”
“Sage!” Aria admonished with a gasp. “That’s not a polite thing to ask.”
“It’s all right,” my mother said to Aria with a gentle wave of her hand as Sage continued, undaunted by her mother’s displeasure and perhaps encouraged by my mother’s receptive reaction.
“My friend Marleigh calls her grandmother Granny, and I don’t have a Granny. I just have Nangie. She’s not really my grandmother, but Mommy said she’s kinda sorta family and we can pretend she’s my grandmother. But I don’t call her Granny because her grandkids call her Nana, but when I was little I got confused ‘cause they called her Nana but Mommy called her Angie, so I kind of mixed the two together, and I called her Nangie and she said that’s okay. But you’re my daddy’s mommy, so you’re really my grandmother. So, can I call you Granny?”
Sage had blurted all that out without even pausing to take a breath, and when she finished, Mam clasped her hands together, erupting in a deep, wholehearted laugh that crinkled her eyes as she gazed at Sage with more wonder than I’d seen from my mother in a long while.
“Why don’t you call me Mam-gu?” Mam said, moving forward onto her knees, her palms on her thighs. “That’s what I called my grandmother.”
Aria looked uncertain, but Sage beamed.
“Maam-ghee?” she asked, drawing out the syllables.
Mam nodded. “Yes, exactly. Like your Nangie, but with a ghee sound instead of a gee. It’s Welsh.”
“Mam-gu,” Sage said again, mimicking my mother’s pronunciation perfectly.
“Yes, very good,” Mam said, still staring at Sage like she was enthralled by her. Aria looked at me warily, but she didn’t protest.
“Mam-gu it is,” I said as Zeck returned from changing out of his suit. “We need to get going. Why don’t you thank Mam-gu for letting us come and swim?”
“Thanks for letting us swim, Mam-gu,” Sage said dutifully. “Your pool is a little scary, though.”
“I’ll have to see about getting that fountain fixed so it doesn’t do that next time.” Mam’s eyes met mine. “Nicolaas, a word, perhaps, before you go?”
I’d expected that, but I dreaded it all the same.
“Zeck, would you mind escorting Aria and Sage out to the van while I have a word with Mam?”
Aria’s eyes seemed to hold both a silent plea and a silent apology, and I reached for her hand and gave it a brief squeeze of reassurance.
I would not break the promise I’d made, even though I no longer agreed that it was for the best.
“Sage is delightful,” Mam said when they’d gone. She was grinning from ear to ear, her eyes on the door as though she could still see Sage there. “The red hair reminds me of your father’s, of course. What a lovely coincidence.”
“Yes. I’ve often thought those two would be two peas in a pod.” I grimaced as I corrected the statement to our current reality. “Would have been…two peas in a pod.”
“Oh, he would have been over the moon for her, cariad. I’m very happy for you. You wear fatherhood well.”
“Thank you,” I bowed my head slightly in gratitude for her recognition.
Her smile disappeared as she clasped her hands in front of her. “Now, you want to tell me what’s going on?”
I knew that was coming.
“Not really. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to ignore what you saw?”
“What I saw and what I felt?” She arched a perfectly manicured brow. “Your human wife is suddenly brimming with supernatural energy. Care to explain how that happened? What have you done, Nicky?”
“Why do you assume I’ve done something?”
“Because that girl was human, was she not? And yet she now has the energy of the immortal and is able to command the elements to do her will.”
“And you think I could somehow accomplish that transformation? You think too highly of me, Mam.”
She stepped closer, crossing one arm over her waist as she lowered her voice. “Here’s what I do know. The two of you have been hiding something since the moment Graeco plucked you from the roof. You were both covered in blood, very little of it yours, and despite being shot through the chest with a crossbow, she somehow was up and walking around without being the worse for wear.”
“How do you know she was shot in the chest?”
Mam scoffed with a roll of her dark brown eyes. “Please, Nicky. Did it never cross your mind that we’d see what happened when we pulled the footage from the roof?”
I was annoyed that I hadn’t considered that but hopeful at the prospect of what they’d found. “Did you see the shooter? Did you get any clear images?”
“As a matter of fact, we did. Graeco is chasing down a few leads as we speak.”
“Why didn’t you say so? I want to see that footage.”
“That won’t be possible.” She stepped away and turned toward the window. “I had Graeco destroy it.”
“What?” I moved to be in her sight line, outraged. “Why would you do that?”
Unmoved by my emotion, she turned and stepped so close we were almost toe to toe. “To protect you and your beloved, ‘machgen i. I know what you did on that roof. I know you attempted to turn her to save her life.”
“Yes, but you and I both know it didn’t work. It couldn’t work. I’m a freak within our kind, remember? I am unable to perform that particular vampiric function.”
“You don’t know that. All you know is that you weren’t successful at turning the other girl. Unless you’ve attempted with others and you haven’t told me?”
“What? No.”
Her shoulders relaxed and she moved toward the table.
“Be that as it may, something changed Aria’s fate on that roof. A direct hit like the one she took from the Vardiyati’s bow should have killed her, or at the very least, left her in need of medical attention. Yet, she rose to race across the roof with you and left of her own accord after refusing a healer. So, yes, in the absence of being able to discuss the matter with you, I made an executive decision that whatever had transpired should remain a private matter.”
Though I was frustrated not to be able to see the assailant’s image with my own eyes, I remembered well what he looked like. My concern now was for Aria. “Who else knows about this?”
“Only Graeco.”
“Good.” I nodded, relieved that my wife’s transformation wasn’t public knowledge at VCBI or within the Gilde.
She moved in a blur to stand in front of me, hands on her hips as her jaw tightened.
“What’s going on, Nicky? Even if you had turned her, that wouldn’t explain why she’s suddenly commanding the elements. What aren’t you telling me?”
I needed answers, and I knew she was more likely than anyone to have them. I was terrified by what was happening to Aria and frustrated by my inability to help her or reassure her. I knew when it came down to it, my mother would always have my back, and she seemed to have accepted Aria and Sage as my family, and therefore, hers.
She would help us; she would turn over every stone and go to the ends of the earth if I asked her to. I was certain of that. She’d done it for me before.
But I had made a promise to my wife, and our relationship was sacred to me. I’d let Aria down before by hiding the truth of my origins, and she’d forgiven me. I’d sworn never to betray her in any way again, and I would keep that oath. Even if I believed it was in her best interest to break it.
“The story is not mine to tell. I’ve given Aria my word, and I’ll not betray her trust.”
My mother’s eyes narrowed slightly, and her lips pursed into a tight frown. She’d never been one to tolerate defiance.
“A noble notion, to be sure, ‘machgen I, but given the circumstances we find ourselves in, now’s not the time for keeping secrets. There are many we are responsible for beyond those standing outside waiting for you. I need to know what threats we face.”
I squared my shoulders at her insinuation. “Aria is not a threat to anyone.”
She stepped closer once more, her mouth widening into a smile that held no humor or mirth.
“Are you sure about that? You seemed in quite the hurry to retrieve Sage from her arms in the pool.”
“This conversation is done. I need to get my family home.”
I moved to go past her, but she clamped her hand down on my arm, her strength not diminished in the least by her age.
“I saw your fear when she sucked the water from my pool and threw it toward the sky, and I see the worry in your eyes now. Don’t be a fool. Those two may be what you hold most dear, but you are what I hold most dear. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what you’re dealing with. You call them your family, but have you forgotten what it means to belong to one? You don’t have to fight your battles alone, Nicolaas. Neither of you do. Let me help you. Let me help Aria.”
Wrenching my arm from her grip, I turned for the door. “Good night, Mam. I’ll speak with you tomorrow.”
Nineteen
Nick
“I want you to take her to school in the morning,” Aria said once Sage was in bed that night.
The directive surprised me since she’d been so adamantly against the idea earlier, but the incident in the pool had shaken her.
She hardly said two words on the drive back from Mam’s estate, and she’d barely touched the dinner we picked up on the way home.
I’d asked if she was all right multiple times, and each time, she’d nod but say nothing. Until finally she snapped and said, “Would you stop asking me that? I said I’m fine.”
I didn’t ask again, but she’d been distant all night, not only with me but also with Sage. When it came time to do our bedtime rituals after dinner, Aria had announced she was going to shower, leaving me to get Sage ready for bed alone. It wasn’t a problem; I handled bedtime many times alone when Aria was teaching at the martial arts studio or in class at school. I enjoyed telling bedtime stories and tucking Sage in.
