Emma
“Where’s Daniel?” Henry asked as I shuffled into the kitchen the next morning. “I figured he’d be up there with you.”
I didn’t answer him as I turned toward the counter and grabbed a cup of coffee. With the mood I was in this morning I hadn’t even bothered to run a brush through my hair yet. The hairspray from last night was still in place, making for an interesting bed head. At least I'd taken my makeup off before I crashed.
“Sis?” Henry sounded hesitant. “Is everything okay?”
After pouring a cup of coffee and holding it close to my face for imagined support, I turned. “I suppose he stayed the night at his place. I don’t really know.” I did know. If he wasn’t with me he was almost definitely at home.
Where else would he go? He wasn’t the type to go out and party or anything, no more than I was. Could he have pulled an all-nighter looking for Bryan, sure, but I doubted it. At this age doing something like that had consequences and I was fairly sure that was true for shifters as well.
Especially grumpy bear shifters.
My date the night before had been business. Had it been the most horrible night I’d ever had? No. But it also hadn’t been a tryst, either. I wasn't stepping out on Daniel, nor was I interested in Vance, but my boyfriend couldn't seem to understand either of those points judging from the way he was behaving.
Eventually, Daniel would have to understand that I had a job to do within the community, and that included helping people solve crimes sometimes. Sometimes it meant working with a firehouse cat witch or diving in a lake after water creatures. Sometimes, it would even mean working with the vampires. If he couldn't understand that then I wasn't sure this would work and that thought made my heart hurt.
The job wasn't completely safe, but no job was. The risk was higher, sure, but I was an adult and could decide for myself what was and was not too high a risk to take.
I knew if I said that to him then he'd reply with something along the lines of me not having enough experience within the supernatural world since I only just learned about it. There was a point there, just not one I was willing to concede.
The same time as my independent, fiery woman streak was running wild in my mind, so my worrywart streak was fretting over whether or not Daniel was mad at me. He’d texted me late the night before, or rather early this morning. All he’d said was it was late, and he was tired. I hadn’t replied, because I’d only seen it when I’d woken up a few minutes ago.
“So, vampires?” Henry asked as he pushed a plate of toast over toward me. “Not the best crowd to get involved with.”
He spoke from experience. After all, he was the one that got me involved with vampires the first time around. His kidnapping and my following questioning shifters, vampires, and sirens was all because of his gambling.
Even though I'd still been new to being Karma I had gone to a wolf shifters home and spoken with the alpha, I'd gone to a vampire club and spoken with Mr. Atonal, the owner, and I'd worked with the siren queen, Ariquia, to get my brother back and restore something sacred to her people, something that they thought they'd lost forever.
Since then I'd taken on just about anything I could imagine, from evil witches to cursed shifters to ghosts and water nymphs. Was I the best at handling these situations? Not by a long shot, but I was willing to put in the work, which was what most people needed more than anything else. They needed someone who was willing to try and willing to listen.
I wanted to shake him and remind him how far we'd come, but he also had a point. Vampires were, or at least seemed, more dangerous than the rest.
“I know, Henry, but it’s not the same. I’m trying to help them figure out who killed a member of their world.”
"They don't like people in their business, Emma," Henry countered.
"I'm not getting in their business, just trying to help one vampire find out who killed another. No business involved."
"You're mincing words."
Thankfully, my phone rang before I had a chance to respond, and I used the distraction as an end to the conversation. I turned it over on the table, excited for a second that it might be Daniel, but my excitement spread into warm happiness when I saw Travis’s name. “Pumpkin,” I exclaimed after I hit the answer button. “Your uncle Henry and I are both here.” I put him on speaker and sat my phone back on the table.
“Hey, Trav,” Henry said. “How’s England?”
“It’s great, Henry. I can’t believe how much I’m learning about culture and art. I’m so glad I took this opportunity. The stuff here is ancient, nothing like we have at home.” He sounded happy. As much as I missed him, I couldn’t begrudge him this amazing life experience. Who knew when he'd get to travel with this kind of freedom once he had graduated and was working?
We spent the next half hour listening to Travis recount how he and Jacqueline had taken the train under the English Channel and spent the weekend in Paris going to the Louvre museum and eating croissants and baguettes until they could burst. As if that wasn't enough, they'd taken the train up to Scotland and had spent a week exploring castle ruins and ancient sites, like Skara Brae, that dated back to the neolithic era. Apparently, they were older than the pyramids, which was mind blowing to think about. They also went to see some of the standing stones and fairy circles. I made a joke about him losing Jacqueline to a Scotsman through one of the stones, but it fell a little flat.
Finally it was our turn, and we didn't really have much we could tell him if I was trying to keep him from worrying, so we made some stuff up about our lives, as we usually did. He knew I was Karma, and about the magical community, but I didn’t want him worrying about his mother. “Things are going well here,” I chirped. It felt like I sounded too cheerful, too peppy for it to be real, but Travis seemed to buy it. At least long enough for Henry to push me under the bus.
“Except your mom has a boyfriend,” Henry said.
We joked for a few minutes about Henry narcing on me, and Travis moaned about not wanting to learn anything about my love life. He claimed there were some things that were better left unsaid, which made us laugh.
It was a fluffy, light conversation, and when we hung up, I couldn’t help but worry that maybe Travis was putting on a happy face every bit as much as Henry and I were. It also seemed that Henry disagreed with my decision to withhold some things from Travis because he asked, “So you just don’t want to tell him anything about the harder parts of life?”
I shrugged and said, "I want him to enjoy this experience as much as he can. There's plenty of hard ahead of him, just like there is for most people. I can't spare him from that as much as I may want to, but I can spare him from this. There's no reason for this burden to be on his shoulders right now."
Without waiting to hear if Henry was going to respond I flipped through the apps on my phone to check my texts just in case the phone call had interrupted the notification of one from Daniel. I knew it was unlikely but just like how I used to check and make sure the phone still had a dial tone back in the day I had to check the app now. There was no such luck though. Still just the last one from very early this morning. I took a chance and fired him off a reply. Sorry, just got this. I was sad to wake up without you.
There. That was sufficiently sweet, and true, and would let him know I didn’t want to fuss. Hopefully.
Seconds later, as I poured myself a second cup of coffee, my text tone had my heart hopping in my chest. But it wasn’t Daniel who was making my phone go off.
Hello Emma. This is Vance. Trista is having a problem with a rogue shifter, and I suggested Karma might be the perfect solution. It’s a good excuse for having you around. Could you come today?
I swear that vampire had a sixth sense when it came to Daniel. He seemed to know exactly what to say and how to act to piss him off the most.
After taking a bite out of the toast I chewed and considered it. I would’ve much rather have talked with Daniel first, but he was probably sleeping in.
Or ignoring me. But that didn't seem like him, so I refused to believe that, no matter how many times my brain tried to convince me that was what was happening.
We weren't teenagers anymore, so we weren't playing games. We were open and honest with each other, at least as much as we could be. Even though I wouldn't consider this relationship brand new anymore, it was still delicate, and I didn't want to screw it up.
Daniel made me happier than I'd been in longer than I cared to think about, but I wasn't going to let a man run my life again. We'd have to come to an understanding. I just hoped he was willing to try. Probably he was. This was more than likely all in my head, aftereffects of being so damaged by Rick.
Before I replied, a text from Deva slipped in. Meet us at my restaurant.
We…that sounded ominous. If something was seriously wrong, she would have told me, right? Still, I wasn't going to dally.
My day had just busied up, I just wished it wasn't with things that were so negative. First, I replied to Deva. Be there ASAP. At least if we were meeting at the restaurant I could have more than a slice of toast because I definitely wasn't about to turn down any of Deva's cooking.
Then, I texted Daniel. I want to talk, and I especially want to see you, but I have a job today and I need to meet the girls. Sleep well, and I hope to talk to you soon.
And finally, I gave Vance the answer he was looking for. I’ll meet Trista at Deva's Delights in two hours.
With all that done, I hurried upstairs to get ready. If I ran into Daniel today, I wanted to knock him dead. It may not be the fancy gown from last night, but, believe it or not, I knew how to make myself look good, or at least I had remembered how since I'd come back to Mystic Hollow.
I was remembering more and more about who I was without Rick and realizing just how much he'd taken from me, which made me realize one thing. I'd never let that happen again.