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“I’M TELLING YOU, WHEN she’s mad it’s all kinds of fun. Ten hours of silence, then out of the blue, road head! Of course, she bit me for good measure, but I like that.”
“Keegan, it’s four in the morning. I really don’t need to be awake for this. I’m glad to know you got there in one piece. Now stop avoiding going into the house. Suck it up so I can go back to bed.” With that, Sig hung up on me. I swear I heard someone snoring in the background, hopefully it was Aella, but from his moody ass temperament I’d say the boy got skunked again. I felt bad for him; I wondered what the holdup was, I mean, if they were getting hot enough to rip up my seats what was the problem?
“Keegan.” I turned my head, seeing my father standing on the steps of my childhood home. The mansion sat at the end of a cul de’ sac of a slowly growing mixed community. I had grown up surrounded by my own, and then the Humans had begun to move in. It hadn’t been easy. For a long time, we kept to opposite sides of the street, but now we were all neighbors and even had the occasional mixers.
My father being there was a double edged sword. It would prove to make the announcement of my engagement to Ryane go over more smoothly, but it would also increase the tension in an already darkened home. My mother had died there. She had taken her life when I was seventeen, the voices in her head finally winning out. See, not even Vampires are immune to maladies of the mind. She had suffered from depression and anxiety with schizoid tendencies, lending hallucinations and the voices from time to time. My father didn’t know it when the marriage had been arranged, but after over two hundred years, he came to love her, problems and all.
Her death devastated him and he abandoned that house to live in Arizona. It was only since he had become King of the Vampire Clans that he had to return. It had not done much for his disposition.
“Father.” I faced him as Ryane fidgeted in the Jeep. I hadn’t awoken her yet; it was, after all, very late. “I am sorry for the hour, I know we said tomorrow, but we were in a position to come sooner.”
He nodded, waving his hand and pulling his robe closed as I looked up at the window to his bedroom, seeing the curtain move. Curious. It had been eighteen years since my mother died and he’d never shown an interest in anyone, so who was that? “Get Ryane, I’ll have Jarod and Dodge get your things. Where is Sig and the other, Aella?”
“There have been some developments back at Grigori. I’ll explain once we get inside, if that’s alright by you.”
“Of course.”
He was being awfully agreeable. I was really wondering just what or rather who he was hiding up those stairs. I nodded at him and went around the truck to Ryane.
“Baby, wake up. We’re here.” I nudged her and she opened her eyes, reaching out for me. They rolled up black as the night sky around us for an instant.
“I’m hungry,” she whispered with a groan as I slipped my hands around her to lift her out of the seat.
“I know baby, but you gotta wait.”
“No.” She sounded like an insolent child at that point as she licked my throat.
“Alright, but just a little.” No sooner than I gave her permission than her fangs broke into me. My father’s eyes narrowed as I walked past him and headed into the house with her in my arms.
Once across the threshold I put her down, “Ryane, that’s enough.”
She reluctantly lets me go then kissed me. “Thank you.” She licked my lips and then looked around, her tired eyes adjusting to the dimly lit room.
“Father likes his ambiance. Candles and sconces at night only. He’s old fashioned like that.” I smiled as I heard shuffling above us. At the top of the stair was my cousin Jackie, she looked good, a little wet though. Like she’d taken a shower recently. Come to think on it, so did my father.
I looked back at him as he closed the door behind us and stared at her.
“Really? You do realize she’s my cousin... Right? Technically, your niece?”
“Through marriage, Keegan. We share no kin blood. Not that it matters, we have no intentions of breeding. Or bonding.”
I gritted my teeth as Jackie came down the stairs and kissed my cheek.
“Hey honey, don’t be mad. He deserves to be loved as much as any of us.”
I shook my head. “Yup. I need a drink.” I took Ryane about the waist, leading her into the den.
“Keegan, don’t be like that,” Jackie called after me, but I was tuning her out.