Page 17 of April's Fool (Northarbor Coven Book 2)

Gone

Amorandes

“What do you mean, they’re gone?” Damon demanded, an edge of pain in his voice.

Cody’s eyes flashed with fire, which quickly banked as he looked between us. “Exactly what I said.” He sighed. “Oak got a call saying he was needed at the coven house. He and Thyme went back after a few hours of sleep. Toth opened a portal for them.”

“So the witches are gone?” I asked my son.

Cody looked distinctly uncomfortable, then scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. He avoided looking at either of us. “Not just the witches.”

My eyes met Damon’s, seeing the same betrayal there that was probably in mine. It hurt like a kick to the chest that Gregoris could just up and leave me without a word of what had happened to him. I couldn’t begin to imagine what Damon felt.

Damon stalked from the room, his fury crackling around him. I made my apologies to Cody. “It’s okay, Dad, I get it.” While I adored him calling me dad, I hated the kicked puppy look he wore in the face of Damon’s anger. It wasn’t his fault we had been let down by our friends and they had left him to play messenger.

“You know—“

“Yeah, he’s mad at Parker. He’s his only family. Just to leave like that…” I picked up Cody’s anger. He hadn’t learned to mask his emotions yet. All incubi and succubi learned at an early age to mask strong emotions with their magic until they were feeding someone. Toth had masked a lot of Cody’s emotions for him, or placed a barrier when they were intimate, but my son needed to learn to do this for himself.

I caught up with Damon in our room as his call connected. “What the fuck, Parks?” Damon glanced over his shoulder as I entered and perched on the edge of the bed. He put the phone on speaker.

“I’m sorry, Damon.” At least he sounded sincerely sorry. “Gregoris just wouldn’t settle. He kept talking about how he’d failed, and something about a Seer.” My eyes widened at the mention of the demon we had gone to. “Once he was recovered enough, I asked him to portal us out of here. We slipped out of the castle when you were sleeping.”

Damon let out a little growl. Now was not the time to find him sexy. “Without saying a word? What the fuck? I thought we were family.” His eyes shone with unshed tears. “How could you just leave?” His voice cracked. “You aren’t safe in Northarbor. ”

“We aren’t there.” There was a pause as Parker decided what to tell us. “We went to Vegas.”

“Vegas? What the hell is going on with you, Parker?”

“Gregoris is my mate.” We all had guessed as much based on their behavior. Though it was good to have the confirmation, I would have preferred it from Gregoris. Not on a call like this.

“I don’t know how or why. Don’t even care. As soon as my hand touched his, my hawk knew. He’s it for me, Damon—“

“And I’m happy for you, so fucking happy. You deserve this, but Jesus, Parks, you could have spoken to me. We could have made a plan!”

“You are?”

“Of course I am. Mori is happy for Gregoris too, aren’t you, baby?”

There was such a plea in Damon’s eyes for me to agree. “I really am,” I said honestly. “All I want is for him to be happy.” My voice cracked as I asked, “Why did he abandon me?”

Damon wrapped me in his arms. I leaned my head on his as I held back a sob. Gregoris has been in my life for so long, I couldn’t remember a time without him near me.

“I’m happy he has you, Parker. Look after him, won’t you?” I managed to get out as I swallowed back my emotions. Making Gregoris feel more guilty over his actions wouldn’t make him come back any faster.

“Of course I will.” Even through the phone, the honesty was clear. “Once we all take a few days, we’ll get back on this hit thing and maybe come back to Toth’s.” Those sounded like empty words to me. I was sure that I wouldn’t see my friend and guard for some time. “Northarbor isn’t safe for any of us.”

“I know,” Damon said, looking sad. “Stay safe, okay?”

“You too. Stay with Mori. Stay at the castle, where you’re safe. For me, please, Damon. I need to know you’re okay. You’ve got Mori, Toth, and Cody to watch over you. Gregoris just—“

“Needs you more. I get it. Call soon, okay?”

“I will.”

Parker ended the call, making the room fall into silence. I stood with Damon still in my arms as I thought about what we should do next.

“I’m going to call my parents. They’ll want to know that Gregoris is gone.”

“Okay,” Damon said numbly.

“I’m warning you though, they are really protective and just want to come meet Cody. We might not be able to get rid of them for a bit.”

Damon gave a wobbly smile. “They sound fun. You can’t just wait around here and babysit me. There’s all your businesses to run, so if you need to head home…”

I froze. What made him think I would abandon him now? That I was going to give up on whatever we were building? I paced as I set him right.

“Damon, I’m not going anywhere. I’m telling my parents so they can arrange a new guard for me and bring the pertinent documents here for work. The Sweetwater pack wants to speak to me about the heat club, but I can do that from here, or go to them once I have another guard.” I stopped in front of him to cup his face. “I’m staying with you.”

Relief shone in his eyes. “Okay.”

The next few days were a whirlwind of preparations. Rather than make my parents stay at a hotel, Cody convinced Toth to allow them to stay in the castle, so it had to be made ready for them. Cody was worried about his home not meeting their standards, so went a little overboard with the cleaning and redecorating. It was rather cute how much he wanted to make a good impression on them.

Despite there being available rooms, Damon never moved back into his own one, sleeping each night with me. Unfortunately, we were still tied into our promise to Cody, and aside from a few kisses and another stolen moment in the orchard, we couldn’t take our growing relationship to the next level. Still, I appreciated the time with him. We curled up together every evening, and I followed him around all day, likely looking like a lost puppy, as he helped my sons get the castle to visitor standard.

I laughed so hard when Cody said that. It seemed to me that he didn’t count me as a visitor, some stranger. He accepted my place in his life and was making way for me. I loved him and Toth. I was growing to care for Damon in a way I knew could soon be love.

While we spent time together, not getting up to anything sexual—oh the blue balls I had—we talked. A lot. About everything. I was so curious about Damon’s life. It saddened me even further to realize that until his mentor had shown up in his life, he had gone far too many years without someone to rely on. This meant that he was taking Parker’s abandonment even harder than I first thought.

It took him a day or two, but he was finally relying on me. We were building trust between us, and I was getting to know the man underneath the snarky exterior.

He had never really had a family after his mom had died when he was about four. My heart hurt for a little boy with no one else in the world and very few memories of the woman who had raised him alone. There was very little said about the families that he lived with over the years, though there was a running theme. None of them had treated him with love. None had kept him. Most had some sort of prejudice and he’d quickly gotten sent somewhere else.

I felt myself growing closer to the young man with each story we told each other. Damon let me see his early pain, so I showed him mine. Cody’s life growing up was one of my biggest regrets. I hated that I had allowed myself to be trapped into keeping my true identity hidden from him. Who he was. Damon and Cody were alike in a few ways. Damon was more ruthless, harder than Cody.

Damon was working on his prejudice towards the witches, though that wasn’t helped by them going completely silent on us. We appreciated they had a traitor in their midst to deal with. Except for the fact we were caught up in this mess, there was no good reason for Basil to continue coming after Damon.

“Oak still won’t answer my texts.” Damon was clearly frustrated as he returned his phone to his pocket. Working in a suit wasn’t a good idea, so I was pleased to see him in the comfortable sweats he had borrowed from Cody.

I kept finding myself staring at the curve of his ass as the material hugged it. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, the weather far too warm for that. I added incubus to the list of creatures in Damon’s ancestry. He was too beautiful. Unlike incubi, he had a fine layer of chest hair and a line that went down to his groin that always drew my attention down.

“Hmm, it’s only been a couple of days. Give them some more time to sort the mess out at the coven house.”

“Are you sure they’ll like me?” Damon asked as he fussed with a sofa cushion for the hundredth time. The sudden change in subject threw me for a loop.

“Shouldn’t I be asking that?” Cody laughed. I’d almost forgotten that he was in the room with us. Apparently, he didn’t trust us to do things alone. Honestly, he only caught us kissing a couple of times. It wasn’t like we broke any of his rules. “I can’t believe I’m going to meet my grandparents!”

“They will love you,” I finally answered, to looks of confusion from both of them. “All of you. In fact, I guarantee they will find something I have said or done offensive within the first five minutes and they will focus all their attention on the two of you. Cody, they will want to know every second of your day because they are your grandparents and they adore you. Damon, you will fascinate them. They haven’t ever heard of someone keeping my attention as long as you, especially since they, unfortunately, know about the promise we made. ”

That had been mortifying. In order to reschedule their visit, we had called my parents. Mama had prodded at me for more information about Gregoris until Cody had given in and told her about my attraction to Damon, the promise he had extracted, and then finally, Gregoris finding his mate.

My parents knew that my magic was choosing Damon to bond with. It had latched onto him the same way my tail did every time I let it loose. While I didn’t understand the buzz of magic that came over me when we went a long time without touching, I did understand my heart and it was bound to Damon. No one had ever given me this feeling. I knew it was mutual too from what Damon had told me of his past.

Dad had been almost as livid as Mama over me being abandoned without a guard. They were bringing my new one so I could get back to work. In another week, I had a meeting with the Sweetwater pack, so I was keen to get used to this new guard and hopefully find some time with Damon before then.

The familiar buzz of magic over my skin let me know they had arrived.

“They’re here!” Cody announced to Damon, who wouldn’t have felt the wards’ magic being activated. Cody was almost bouncing in place.

“You better come with me and let them through.” I took Damon’s hand and squeezed it. “It’ll be fine,” I assured him.

My mom’s perfume wafted ahead of her. She blew into the room like a tornado. Instead of damage, she squeezed and bussed cheeks and dropped sweet words into everyone’s ears. Even Toth had a smile on his face after she was done with him.

Dad followed behind, not with handshakes, he was too warm and enthusiastic about showing affection for that. No, it was tight bear hugs. He towered over most of us in his full demon form, so we also got kisses on our heads between our horns, like we were children.

They stood back and appraised us, speaking to each other. “They’re perfect, aren’t they Hanandes? Our grandson is so handsome and his mate is a fine demon. An ideal match. Just look at them together!” She beamed at us. Toth blushed harder than I’d ever seen.

“Oh, you’re right, of course, Amoredessa. And the human Mori is taken with? He has to be something else. He’s far too pretty just to be human, right?”

“Yes! You’re right, Hana. He must have some fae blood or something. Those eyes!” She stepped closer to examine Damon as if she needed to be right next to him to see him clearly. She manhandled him into place, so he was pressed up against my side. “Better. So beautiful together. I think we can approve this match, can’t we, Hana?”

“We can, Dessi. It’s even better knowing Damon can fight and shoot. He’ll be perfect to help Kerensanith with keeping Mori safe, especially in the human world, because he knows it better.”

“But,” Cody interjected, “Damon can’t go there until after the hit is off.”

Mama waved him away. “With two powerful demons by his side and only short visits, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure I don’t want to risk his life like that. Neither will Kerensanith.” Then the name registered with me. “Hold on, how did you get him out of retirement? Gregoris is going to be furious.”

“Who? Why?” Damon asked, looking between me and my suddenly guilty looking parents.

“We had to have Keren. He was the only one we trusted with your safety!”

“Who’s Keren?” Cody asked, looking just as confused as Damon.

“He’s Gregoris’ grandfather and I have to say that I am deeply unimpressed at my grandson. We will be having words once he and his mate show themselves,” The man himself grumped as he crossed the threshold into the house.

Damon and I shared a glance. Gregoris was in so much trouble.