Chapter Twenty-Nine

When we got home, Granny was in the family room with a few of the Old Crones Book Club. Judging from the open bottle of wine and the fancy snacks, we’d interrupted the tail end of a book club meeting. Or a coven meeting. I got those two things confused sometimes.

I went over to Granny and gave her a hug. “How was your conference?” I asked. “I missed you.”

She chattered a bit about what she’d learned and casually mentioned a night out with the silver fox. I tried to remain calm, but the pressure was getting to me. Finally, I blurted it out.

“We need to talk to you,” I said. I had to break the news quickly, like ripping off a Band-Aid. “Adam Sheridan is dating Vanessa Mariotti.”

Granny’s hands flew out and she almost tipped over her glass of wine, but she caught it at the last second. “Your mother is going out with Vaughn’s dad? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” I said. The whole story came tumbling out.

“How long?” she asked.

“Vaughn’s dad started dating someone this summer,” I said. “But neither Vaughn nor I knew it was her.” I paused. “We both met her for the first time tonight. She looks…human.”

Granny was silent for a long time. “Did you ask her how she managed that?”

“You don’t trust her,” I said.

Her face softened. “I know she hurt you.”

I ignored that. Granny wasn’t talking about when Vanessa had hurt me this summer.

“She doesn’t look or smell like a vampire,” I said.

“Maybe Vanessa was who took your tonic and that’s why she looks human,” Edna suggested.

“I wouldn’t put it past her to take the tonic,” Granny said. “But the tonic doesn’t work on a full vampire.”

“Interesting,” Evelyn said.

I wasn’t convinced that my mother was sincere, but I’d made my own mistakes. “Granny, do you think it’s possible she’s just reverted? I did kill Jure. He could have been her maker.”

“I’ve learned that many things are possible,” she replied.

“She looks human now,” I protested. “Smells human, too. I couldn’t detect a trace of vampire.”

“She’s up to something,” Vaughn said.

“What if she’s not?” I replied. “What if killing Jure freed her? What if she’s human now? There could be another reason she’s with Vaughn’s dad,” I insisted. “Something non-nefarious. He is good-looking.”

Evelyn gave a snort. “Vanessa is up to no good,” she said. “It’s not a coincidence she’s dating your boyfriend’s father.”

“I thought that was a possibility, too,” I admitted.

“Maybe she is human,” Granny Mariotti said. “But I’ve never heard of someone like the Executioner returning to human. After all, traditional belief is that once you kill a human by draining them dry, the process is not reversible.”

“She nearly killed you,” Vaughn said. “She nearly killed me. I can’t believe we’re even arguing that woman’s humanity.”

“But she didn’t,” Granny pointed out.

“But what if?” I asked hoarsely. “What if she’s really human?”

I secretly hoped in my heart that my mother was coming back to us.

…

On Saturday I was working at the main office of Sheridan Catering. It was mostly filing paperwork, but it kept me inside, away from the sunshine and customers I may or may not have tried to bite.

I was filing without really paying much attention to anything except the file they went into when I glanced down and noticed a familiar name. Vanessa Mariotti had used the company credit card to charge a hefty sum, but there was no description. I wrote down the name and address on a sticky and shoved it in my back pocket.

My mother walked in the front office while I was staring at the paperwork and stood in full sunlight.

“Tansy, what are you doing here?” she asked.

I slipped the papers beneath a batch of invoices and turned to face her. “I work here. What are you doing here?”

My mother was beautiful, with creamy skin, green eyes, and hair a shade darker red than my own, but I’d never seen her look so human before. Hopeful. Alive. Not the Executioner, but a woman in love.

Maybe we were wrong about her?

“Is Adam available? I thought I’d take him to lunch,” she said. The fond smile that crossed her face was almost perfect.

“I think he’s still on the phone with one of our suppliers,” I said. He hadn’t been to the catering office much lately. Now it was my turn to frown. A lot of people relied on the jobs he provided, and I didn’t want his infatuation with my mother to mess with that.

“I’ll wait,” Vanessa replied. She sat on the small loveseat in the reception area. I turned around and went back to my job.

When I next looked up, my mother was hunched over, vomiting something into a waste basket.

“I’ll get Mr. Sheridan,” I said.

“No, don’t leave me,” she groaned. “Can you help me?”

“What’s wrong with you?”

She started to pant, and her face went pale. “Could you get me some water?”

I got a bottle out of the small fridge where we kept beverages for guests and handed it to her. She gulped it down and then motioned for more. She drank that one quickly as well.

“I must be coming down with something,” she said. “I’ll go home to rest. I don’t want to infect Adam.”

She hurried off, and I stared after her.

My mom was still young. What if she was pregnant, like Gertie? The thought didn’t thrill me. I’d always wanted a sibling, but the thought of my boyfriend and I both introducing a kid as a sibling made me want to throw up, too.

I’d gotten used to the human-looking version of my mother, but after she’d thrown up, she’d looked cold. Pale. Dead? Like the Executioner.

Was my mother truly human or was she just faking it? I had to find out.