Page 18 of Lover Forbidden (The Black Dagger Brotherhood #23)

And then the coughing started again.

As Lyric dove for the oxygen mask hanging from the headboard, the elder Lyric batted the hissing plastic cup away. “Enough… with… that…”

Given the refusal, all she could do was sit and wait until things quieted down again—while she wondered if she needed to go wake up her other father.

But the male was indeed out like a light, and she hated that she’d added to his worry tonight.

On her first break during the subscriber event, she’d been sure to FaceTime him, along with her mahmen and Xcor, from the bathroom to offer reassurance she was okay.

Talk about proof of life—

“Now, tell me about the coat,” the elder Lyric said weakly.

She kept the face mask in her palm, feeling the stream of air against her wrist. “Well, I was doing an event at this club and…”

When Lyric got to the end of the story—and she cut things off before the part about her bringing the hard hat over to the job site—her granmahmen seemed to be breathing much better.

“So about this man…” the female whispered. “He must have been quite strong to hold up an entire billboard.”

As Lyric’s cheeks turned red, she cleared her throat. “Ah, yes, he was very strong. For a human.”

“They’re not that different from us, actually—and that blush on your cheeks tells me you noticed this, too.”

“He’s a total stranger.”

“And yet you have his jacket.”

Lyric ran her hand over the sleeve, feeling the rough weave of the outer layer. “Just a stranger.”

“Everyone starts out that way.”

“I’m never going to see him again.”

Well, she supposed that wasn’t exactly true. She’d see him from afar, maybe. When she went back to Bathe. If she went back there.

Partying suddenly didn’t seem any more interesting than posting and promoting herself on Zideo.

“May I offer a piece of advice… as an old female who has seen a lot?”

Covering a yawn, she nodded. “Of course, Granmahmen .”

When that frail hand patted the bed on the empty side, Lyric had to smile. Getting up, she went around the footboard and stretched out on top of the quilt, curling onto her side and taking that thin palm into her own.

“Tell me,” she prompted. “I feel as if my life is going nowhere, so I’m very open to any wisdom from you.”

“Our time here is so very short.” All the elder Lyric could do was turn her head, and she did that, their eyes meeting. “You need to find that man and follow that blush into his arms—”

“ Granmahmen! ” she exclaimed with a giggle.

“I haven’t always been old, you realize.” The elder Lyric smiled in a knowing way. “And your grandfather wasn’t always an accountant.”

“I… I don’t know what to say to that.” She smiled back. At least until she thought again of her meeting—Devlin, was it?—at the site. “And anyway, it was just a path-crossing thing.”

“A man doesn’t give his coat away to just anybody on a cold winter’s night.”

She remembered standing in front of him and was relieved to recall how tall he’d been. How broad through the chest and shoulder.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she mumbled. “Maybe he just happens to have good manners.”

Hadn’t he said something about his mother raising him right? Jesus, even their conversation was spotty in her memory.

“In January around here?” Her granmahmen made a dismissive sound. “Plus you are the most beautiful female he’s ever seen.”

“You are biased.”

“I am accurate,” came the retort. “Oh, Lyric, my namesake, my granddaughter, you have the world ahead of you because you have time at your disposal. Use that blessing. Find him and follow your heart. Everything will work out in the end between you two, and if it’s not working out, you’re just not at the end yet. ”

Okay, that was crazy talk.

Still, she brought her granmahmen ’s hand up and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “I didn’t know you were such a romantic. And I hate to bring this up again, but he’s a human, so there’s no—I mean, there’s nowhere we can go with… anything.”

“Then let it end as it does, on its own terms. Surely that is better than nothing at all? And when it’s over, you can be glad you knew him, and you can keep him in your heart for when you’re an old female like me and on your deathbed.

You’ll be so glad for that reflected warmth.

It’s the only hearth for old bones, those memories of when we were young. ”

Lyric opened her mouth to refute her granmahmen ’s pronouncement as to her condition. Except they both would know who had uttered the lie and who had had the courage to speak the truth.

As her tears started to come, she couldn’t stop them. The collision of the near death she’d been spared with the certainty of what was coming so soon was just too much to hold in.

Her granmahmen reached out and brushed her cheeks with a gentle, wavering touch.

“I don’t want you to go,” Lyric said hoarsely.

“I don’t want to go, either, but it is not my choice.” That smile returned. “Have I ever told you how proud of you I am?”

Lyric had to laugh in a messy burst. “All the time.”

“Good, I want you to remember that when I’m not here anymore.” Those beautiful, sunken eyes grew grave. “I cannot think of anybody better to carry my name on than you.”

As her throat constricted, Lyric shook her head. “How can you say that? I’m not doing anything with my life… I’m going nowhere.”

“That’s just this particular stage.” Suddenly, her granmahmen ’s voice grew stronger, steadier, the force of her resurging.

“You’ll find your stride and your path, and someday you’ll think back to this moment, and you’ll remember what I’m telling you.

Lyric, blooded daughter of Qhuinn, heart daughter of mine own Blaylock, the future you want is waiting for you.

Go out and grab it. We must live while we can so that when we go from this earth, the only thing we regret is the people we are leaving behind.

Not all the things we didn’t do because we didn’t have the courage. ”

Lyric closed her eyes. “I love you so much, Granmahmen .”

“And I you, dearest one. Always.” The deflation came on as fast as the momentary surge of strength had so unexpectedly arrived.

“I’ll be waiting for you in the Fade, granddaughter mine—but take your time down here.

Life is… wonderful, even when you’re confused.

Promise me… that you’ll go find the man who gave you this coat. ”

“I don’t know. We’ll see.”

“Love is magic. And everybody needs magic in their heart…”

With that, her granmahmen drifted off, those eyes closing, her lips going lax. But there was breathing, slow, yet steady, and the hand remained warmed.

Taking a deep breath, Lyric followed her elder’s example and gave in to her own exhaustion, drifting away until all she knew was whose palm she held on to, the tie that was soon to be broken…

So deep was her slumber that she missed the redheaded male who came to stand in the doorway, staring at the mahmen who’d brought him into the world, and the daughter he and his hellren lived for.

Blay had to wonder how your heart could be so full.

While at the same time shattered with sadness.