Page 45 of Grave Beginnings

“What about school?” Ivan asked.

“Is there a test or something coming up that you need to be there for? I can drop you off before work tomorrow.”

“It’s a private school,” Ivan said.

“Oh.” Could I afford to send him to a private school? Was it a special variant one?

“I don’t want to go back. They hate me there.”

“Then you don’t have to go back. We can sign you up for one of those online homeschool things, or find one near here, or something.”

His gaze followed me as I finished in the kitchen, wary. I knew that look, as I’d lived it myself, and saw it all the time when I volunteered at the women’s shelter.

“Ivan… I don’t have all the answers. I’m sorry about that. But we’ll figure it out.”

“I could stay with Grandpa.”

“You can’t. His place doesn’t allow kids, and his neighbors are always in his business.” I had been thinking for the past year or two that I needed to buy a house. Maybe this was a sign that it was time to head in that direction.

“Should I have gone with that guy?”

“No,” I said instantly. Not that I knew anything about Xavier and what he might do for shifter variants. “I don’t know much about him, but I can sense something strange.” Powerful, and damn near terrifying.

“His power was soothing,” Ivan said quietly as he settled onto the couch. “Like he promised something I was missing.”

That sounded a lot like mind control, which freaked me out. “Might be better to stay away from him. I met a vampire today who could control my mind. That guy seemed powerful enough to do stuff like that too.”

“I don’t want to be a burden,” Ivan whispered into the cocoon of blankets he wound himself into, making my stomach flip over with an all too familiar fear.

“You’re not,” I said. “Mom and Dad were great at making me feel like everything I did, like just my existence, created all this trouble for them. But neither of us asked to be here. It was theirjobto take care of us. They failed, not us. You are not a burden. Will it be easy? I don’t know, honestly. Nothing in life is easy, even picking what to eat for dinner most days is a chore. But we’ll figure it out together, okay?”

He was silent for a long time, then finally said, “Okay.”

“Sleep. Everything always looks better when we’re not tired.” I turned out the lights, leaving a nightlight in the bathroom and dragging all my stuff to my room. As tired as I was, I thought it might be a while before I fell asleep myself, but it was fine.

15

I pulledout the laptop and logged in, planning to rewatch the interviews with my headset on and ensure Ivan went to sleep. Since it was almost eleven, I’d have to rest myself, but not until I knew Ivan wasn’t going to run again. I ordered triple the amount of groceries, my grocery budget for the month crying, but it was necessary, as I had a shifter to feed. Nikki promised to watch for the delivery and help Ivan get everything put away. Did the kid know how to cook anything? I’d ordered cereal, milk, and a handful of snacks.

A new email appeared in my box from Merrill, introducing himself as another SV in our office, and he looked forward to meeting me. At least someone did. Maybe he could answer some questions I had about SVs. I sent him a reply asking about any books I could read that gave specific information on my ability while being as vague about my variant as possible.

A message appeared on the side of my screen:

Workaholic.

It had Angel’s avatar next to it.

Look who’s talking.

A picture of a piece of cake appeared in the text box.

Is that from the bakery?

Of course.

Fuck, I needed to find that place.

Asshole. Not sharing cake with me.