Page 36 of Blood Ties (City of Blood #1)

Bash

Something feels different now. Like our future is stretched out before us and we can’t veer from the course. Not that we would want to, anyway. The change in Elina since she met my mother is stark. Gone is the reluctant woman I held gently, unsure if she wanted this life I was offering her.

In her place is a strong woman, resolute.

She is enthusiastically all in. She seems to have come to some decision about herself, or our future, and is determined to follow the path she chose.

I am eternally grateful to fall asleep with her in my arms and to rise to her waiting in my bed. I hope this change is permanent.

Meeting her grandmother feels like an important step in a very slow march in our journey together.

I didn’t just want Elina to love me, I needed her to choose me, and Celeste was an important catalyst for that decision.

I can’t help but draw the parallels between our meetings with the respective parents.

My mother cares about me the way Celeste cares about Elina, and they both threatened us not to disappoint them. I will protect Elina.

Meeting my mother forced her to make some hard choices, and decide on the spot whether she was going to put in the fight necessary for us.

Once she made that decision, she quickly made plans for the rest of the pieces to be in the right place.

She is prepared to stand by my side and face whatever comes next.

I love her more everyday.

I hope beyond hope that she will let me spend eternity by her side.

We no longer measure time between us in minutes and days, but in moments.

In May, Ethan and I laughed while Sarah and Elina danced giddily in rain-slicked streets. Their heated bodies full of red wine and joy. The two of us watching them as though they were the embodiment of summer—of freedom—with love etched in our features.

In June, Celeste Girard laughed—truly laughed—at a joke Ethan made, over a cozy night at Sarah’s house where we laughed until we cried, played board games, and the humans ate home-cooked creole food until they couldn't move.

In July, while at a small jazz club, we danced under the lights and I spun Elina’s back to my front, holding her close. I lifted her arm to my neck and took a deep inhale of the inside of her wrist, laying a gentle kiss there in a silent vow.

In August, when the summer heat was at the peak of its suffocating wetness, we sought refuge on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain and laid in the gently lapping water, under the light of the full moon.

We laughed. We languished in our bodies moving together, covered in sweat. I tasted Elina’s neck, her wrists, her thighs, and fell more in love everyday.

I read from centuries old books, turning the thin pages carefully, sharing history and lore with my rapt audience.

I held Elina while she cried after Celeste asked her what she planned to do when Sarah finally turned.

Sarah and Elina spent hours sparring with Ethan under the stars, learning not only to fight, but to win. To be able to take on predators who prowl the streets but also the monsters who pretend to be men.

There are whispers that get louder everyday. “L’Empire des Ombres Nocturnus,” said in hushed voices that cut off when I get close.

A quick and rough fleur-de-lis carved into the brick of an alley. A message.

Could it be possible? The Shadow Kingdom, thought lost and broken, has found a way to grow within our very city?

The shadows are pressing in.

I have to keep Elina safe. And Ethan and Sarah. Celeste. Our family.

“Re Marcus. Mother.” I incline my head respectfully toward Marcus, and the other council members in turn.

“Sebastien, thank you for joining us tonight.” Marcus reminds me subtly that I have been more than a little absent during the summer. “We need to discuss this Ombra problem. We can’t wait any longer.”

“The Ombra problem is a pretty casual way to describe a coup happening right under our noses,” Samson Kitteridge of the Lower 9th barks.

“It’s not a coup,” Evan Rocher of St Roch cuts in. “It's an insidious growth invading the streets.”

“These dramatics are actually quite ridiculous. It’s not a coup or invasion. It’s a pocket of resistance from before. We will find them, extinguish them, and be done with it.” Henry sighs, wearied by this. Seemingly the only voice of reason within this absolutely chaotic and paranoid council.

“I think we should focus our efforts on locating them. Having the enthrall do it during the day seems the best course of action, locating the nest while they rest.” Amelia Moreau of Uptown, this time.

“We have to do something quickly!” Michael Thomas of the Warehouse district intones. “The shadows rise every day, gaining a foothold for the masses. I don’t understand how they are wandering undetected around our city!”

“I agree,” says his brother Kellan, from Algiers Point.

“We have to keep a more level head about this. We are the council and he is our Re.” I raise my voice above the growing panic.

“We can’t be here yelling and frantic like school children.

Whatever this is, we will get to the bottom of it.

We will extinguish it and move on.” I plead with them to control themselves.

“You are not in need of parenting, start acting as though we have thousands of years of military and strategic history between us and cut the hysterics down to a minimum. Honestly, I have never met more dramatic people than the lot of you.”

An outraged gasp escapes a few council members. I look around me and find the faces of those who still haven't spoken, trying to get a read on their thoughts.

Talia sits contemplatively, her hands steepled under her chin.

Victor and Darius, stoic, flank Marcus.

Mother watches everything unfold with a supernatural stillness, the kind of stillness that makes you nervous.

Celina Fallon of the Treme, and Domingo from Mid-City, are the only others who haven’t said anything. Their silence feels weighty.

“I will decide our course of action,” Marcus finally cuts through the quiet that has descended after my scolding. “Sebastien is right, of course. We need to keep a level head and do what is best for our city, and our lives.”

Talia mumbles under her breath.

“Something to add Talia, or are you disrespecting me for entertainment?” Marcus demands of her.

“No, Re, I was remarking to myself that of course the principe is right, he always is.” The disdain in her voice isn’t veiled, it is outright hostile.

“It would have been helpful if he had added anything meaningful during the last couple of months, but we are all surely grateful he has graced us with his esteemed presence today.”

“Alright, that's enough. You’re all dismissed.” Marcus waves his hand. “Except you, nipote, you’ll stay,” he adds, as he levels me a look that brooks no argument. I keep my seat. I notice my mother has also kept hers.

“Bash, what the hell is happening with you. You’ve been absent from nearly every meeting since May.

There have been multiple reports of you lying on beaches and hanging out in clubs with human women.

You are permitted to do whatever you want, with whoever you want obviously,” he studies me, “but to completely disappear into the human world as soon as you arise is distinctly out of character for you. We gave you the summer to ‘sow your wild oats’ or whatever it is that you’re doing, but you are a member of the Casa del Corvo di Sangue and you have responsibilities to us.

You can not continue to act as though you are not an important member of the leadership.

You’re not human. Stop pretending to be. ”

I glance over at my mother, expecting her to step in.

She does not look pleased by the reprimand being leveled on me.

I thought we had come to an understanding that Elina is my now, and if she is ever to be my future, I need to devote time to cultivating this relationship.

It appears she has not passed that information along to Marcus.

I sit back in my chair, my posture relaxed. I’m not a threat but I am also not threatened.

“Uncle, I have found someone.” He looks at me incredulously, as though he knows what is coming but refuses to believe it. “A human woman. Mother knows all about her, has even met with her a few times in the last couple of months.”

He swings his head in mother’s direction and she has the good sense to stay quiet while looking sufficiently contrite.

“What do you mean you ‘have found someone’? Someone what? She’s a human?

Her life is as easily snuffed out as a candle flame.

She is growing old by the minute. What do you mean, Sebastien?

” He questions me with the authority of his office, not as my uncle.

“I am Re. Anyone you are considering as a partner, or to take the legame, must be discussed with and approved by, me.”

Mother sits up. “Marcus, human emotions are different from ours. Less driven by instinctual need and slower to develop. He has been courting her since April, but only in the last month or so is he drawing her closer to being serious about their future. He means to spend the rest of her life by her side.” Mother tells him, doubt coloring her tone, like she can’t believe I am doing this either. “I didn’t tell you as there-”

“Stop, Vespera. I don’t want excuses why you didn’t tell me. I don’t want droning monologues about their love or whatever it is you are telling me. I should have been informed if there was anything going on besides you fucking and feeding on some human whore from the Quarter.”

I flinch, not only at his tone, but that he has reduced Elina to something she is not, and never will be.

“She isn’t a whore and it isn’t that simple. I’m in love with her. I am choosing her. She is my future, Marcus.”

“The hell you are! Not without my approval you’re not!

” He roars at me, the glass trembling in the windows.

“I make the rules, you don’t choose, I do!

If you want her, you will present her to me.

Friday night. You will bring her here and you will present her to the court.

I will decide.” His voice rings with finality, fury, and I have no choice but to comply. “Get out.”