Page 38

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

FRANKIE

“What’s poison Roycy ?” I asked as we stepped through Tegan’s portal back to Headquarters. “Did I hear that right?”

Royce spun on his toes to walk backwards in front of me, his black eyebrows wagging. You’ll see, he mouthed and wiggled his fingers in front of his face.

Thiago rolled his eyes and shook his head. “C’mon, Poison Ivy, Saffie said to meet her out back—and that little one scares me, so let’s not keep her waiting.”

“Poison Roycy is my sister’s creation,” Tenn said with a rough voice behind me.

As the two of them skipped around the side of the house, I turned to face my cousin. “How so?”

He shrugged one shoulder and stopped, giving Jackson a squeeze of his shoulder as he passed by. “Hope has the ability to come up with spells on the fly, in ways no one else can?—”

“Hence the gold bands on her fingers?” I wiggled mine as if they didn’t know what fingers were.

Tegan threw her head back and sighed, pressing her hands to her chest. “I just love the Proctor family so much. You’re powerful, you’re smart, and you’re all batshit crazy. I’ve got one as a soulmate, one as a best friend, and now this one who just gets shit.”

I smirked. “So, what did your sister do to Royce?”

“Made him a fucking menace,” Cooper grumbled as he walked by. He held his hand out and glanced over his shoulder.

Savannah hurried past me with both hands stretched out in front of her. When she took both of Cooper’s hands in hers, they both grinned and blushed. Then Savannah wagged her eyebrows. “Just think, now he won’t be able to let our enemies know he’s doing it.”

The others all laughed and made jokes as they stomped up the steps of the porch and went inside.

Tegan stopped short. “Let me go get Em and Constance—be right back, babe. Stay.”

Before he could protest, she was gone. He sighed and looked back to me. “Isn’t it just infuriating that the one person whose entire existence matters most to you can just vanish at will?”

“RIGHT!” I tugged on my hair in frustration. “You get it! It’s horrible. One second, they’re there. The next, they’re gone. Like where did mine even go?”

He shook his head. “Yours is so damn old I don’t think he remembers what it’s like to have someone need to know every working detail of his mind.”

“Imma lobotomize him soon if he doesn’t start using his words.”

Tenn hung his head and laughed. “Don’t let mine hear you say that or she’ll help.”

“She does strike me as one who’d enjoy dissecting a brain while it’s still inside a body.” I tapped on my temples. “Like a hermit crab still in its shell.”

He laughed. “C’mon, let’s go tear the kitchen apart and see what we can eat.” On cue, his stomach growled.

“Should I warn everyone to get out of your way?”

His stomach growled again . “ Ya know, maybe.” He laughed as he walked through the door.

By the time I took the few steps around him, I spotted half the house lingering around the kitchen like there was a literal race to get inside. Through the crowd, I heard Myrtle’s voice. Tenn flicked his wrist and the group slid apart like the Red Sea so he could slip inside. Myrtle hissed and then Tenn went flying back out of the kitchen with a grin and a shameless giggle as he rubbed the back of his head. Only Myrtle would be brave enough to smack him, even playfully, then again, grandmothers were like that. I knew she was many times removed from him, that her son was Tenn’s direct ancestor, but not for the first time I wondered where I fit in that bloodline.

A deep chuckle from my left made me glance over. My heart sank. Emersyn was back in her spot in front of the hearth. Her father and Bentley sat on either side of her, and I knew that was not a coincidence. Cooper stood close to his brother with Savannah leaning into him.

Bentley looked up and met my stare, then nodded his head toward the back. “Hey, Franks, can you check on the dogs out back?”

“You bet.” I gave him two thumbs-up, then hurried to the back door.

I pushed the back door open and found all six of the dogs lying on the grass in a circle around Saber. I frowned and glanced around. There was no one else out here, just her and the dogs. Something in the way she sat there with her knees pulled up to her chest gave me pause. I couldn’t see her face, her back was to the house, but I did see the way she gently swayed. I’d never seen even a hint of vulnerability from this woman, so this was jarring. She’d left in the middle of our battle to do something for Everest, but I had no idea what specifically, except that it had something to do with their armor.

Everest. Saber wasn’t just some woman or some vampire, she was Everest’s daughter. I had no idea how she’d managed to keep her emotions so controlled. Sure, the signs were there but only in hindsight. All the worrying glances and the way they communicated without speaking, that was a thousand years of father and daughter bonding. I’d promised Everest I’d keep their secret, and I would, however that didn’t apply to her. She had the right to know I knew the truth. And since she was my soulmate’s daughter, I wanted us to have a healthy relationship. We were going to be in each other’s lives, so we had to build something real.

As I watched her fidget and rock in place, I thought perhaps this was the right time to start that something real. So, I walked off the porch toward her. The moment my feet hit the grass, her aura slammed into me like I’d walked into a wall of seaweed in the ocean. It was thick, tense, and itched my skin everywhere it touched me. That feeling removed any doubt I had in approaching her.

I wasn’t surprised when her back straightened a good twenty feet before I got to her. She’d sensed my approach. Yet she waited to glance over her shoulder until I was a few feet away. Her eyes were tense, but she plastered on a fake smile as I stopped beside her. “Hey, Frankie.”

“Hey, Saber,” I said in my most cheerful voice as I crouched down to pet my dogs lying between us. “Mind if I join y’all?”

“Yeah, of course. I just thought they needed the attention.” She ruffled Squishy’s fur and little embers fell to the grass. “They can feel it too.”

I sighed but then Houdini crawled into my lap and that pressure on my chest lightened ever so slightly. “I wish my furbabies were fire-doggos too, then I’d be less worried about them.”

She chuckled. “Maybe Everest can think of something for them.”

“Yeah . . .” I watched her face. There was something bothering her, and now that I’d noticed it, I couldn’t shake it. I cleared my throat and scanned the backyard to make sure we were still alone. “Well, your father does seem to have a few tricks up his sleeve.”

She gasped and sat up straight. Those red and hazel-gold eyes were so wide I saw the whites all the way around them. “ What did you say? ” she whispered.

“You heard me.” I turned toward her, which was difficult with Houdini in my lap, but it was important to look her in the face for this conversation. I gave her a small smile. “He told me the truth, that you’re his biological daughter.”

Her jaw dropped.

“He also said your mother was his wife and that she died a long, long time ago,” I added softly. “I hope it’s okay that he told me. I admit, I may have cornered him because I accidentally heard your conversation about making him promise not to sacrifice himself for me?—”

“Oh, God.” She groaned and pressed a hand to her stomach. “Frankie, listen?—”

“No.” I leaned over Houdini and squeezed the hand not on her stomach. “You have nothing to apologize for, Saber. You two have been waiting a thousand years for this freedom . . . You deserve to have each other on the other side of this war. I don’t want to come between that, or between the two of you.”

“Frankie . . .”

“Look, I’m not gonna try and be your stepmom since I’m eighteen and you’re as old as Sweyn, but I’d like a chance to start over.” I ran my hands through Houdini’s fur. “Everest is my soulmate and your father. That means if we’re lucky enough to survive this war, then we’ve got a long future together, and it’s important to me that we get along—-No, that’s a lie. Get along is too cordial. I want to be friends, Saber. I want us to be close.”

Her eyes shimmered with emotion. “I want us to be close too.”

“Then we are starting over from here with the truth on the table.” I nodded and held my arm out for Bobokins as he attempted to climb into my lap as well. “And I promise your secret is safe with me . . . I won’t even tell Mei-Ling, and that says a lot.”

“I appreciate that.” She chuckled, then wrapped her arms back around her knees. “We don’t know how long this will have to remain a secret or if we can let our truths be known once Sweyn and the Unseelies are gone?—”

“Well, you two will let me know.”

“Thank you,” she said softly, peeking up at me through dark eyelashes.

“You’re welcome. We’re family now, right? That’s what families do.”

Her face flushed. She smiled and looked away as she nodded. “ Family, ” she whispered so softly I wasn’t sure I heard her right.

That aura of hers was still pulsing. If anything, it had gotten worse. I leaned forward to try and catch her gaze. “What’s wrong?”

She scoffed, then pushed her black hair off her face. “What isn’t?”

I started to ask what she meant when a thought occurred to me. In all my dealings with Saber, which admittedly weren’t a lot, I’d never seen her be friendly with anyone. Like legit friendly. Sure, she’d made friends with Braison and Malik—-I’d seen that much clearly but they were new to the vampire world, new to her, so they didn’t count. Shi-Shi seemed slightly awkward around them, like she wasn’t quite sure how to act, so I didn’t suspect she hung around them much.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” She rubbed her arms with her hands. “Friends think out loud, don’t they?”

That made me smile. “Mei-Ling and I say that all the time to each other.”

She arched one eyebrow. “So?”

I sighed and ran my hands over my dogs’ fur. “I don’t know how to ask this without possibly sounding mean?—”

“I prefer bluntness anyway.”

“Okay.” I bit my lip and watched her face. “Who do you lean on, Saber? Like for emotional support?”

“My father,” she said without hesitation. “Goddess, that felt good to say out loud finally.”

“I’m glad you have someone to share this truth with.” I smiled. “But I meant . . . is there no one else? No friends? No girl-talk?”

“ Oh. ” She grimaced and started fidgeting with the laces on her boots. “I have had many friends, of course, but most of them have been killed by war or the bitter shortness of mortality. The ones I had, well, we were as close as I could be while keeping huge parts of me a lie. Doesn’t make things easy when you do that. Eventually it causes problems. However, in the last century, I’ve kept my friends to almost none, for safety . . . in preparation for this war.”

I frowned. “Who else knows the truth? That Everest is your father?”

Her face fell. “I have never told anyone. I’ve never even told anyone my real name.”

“Saber isn’t your real name?” I heard myself whisper.

She shook her head gently. “And this is not my real face.”

I exhaled in a rush, feeling like the wind had just been knocked from its sails. A fake name and a fake appearance. Secret identities and lies. My heart broke for her. I wondered how many identities she’d had in the last thousand years. It sounded horrible. “That’s lonely, no? No husbands then?”

She blushed and stared at Squishy’s fur.

I gasped. “Ohhh, this is boy-troubles.”

She grimaced and wrung her fingers together. “I can’t exactly talk to him about this?—”

“Your father? I’d say not.” I snort-laughed. “So, tell me . I know your secret, maybe not your real name, but I know who you are now. And I will not betray that trust. Now I may only be eighteen to your thousand, but my gut tells me you need to talk about what’s bothering you. If we’re going to be friends, then we ought to start right now. Judgement-free zone here.”

She took a deep breath. “I have a soulmate.”

My eyes widened. “Does Everest know?”

“Oh, yes.” She chuckled and tucked her hair behind her ears. “My father revealed my secret to him as well.”

“Your soulmate marks are hidden like mine?” When she nodded, I sighed. “It’s hard to keep them hidden. I want to show him off to the world as mine. I imagine you know that feeling.”

“ I do, ” she whispered. “More than you know.”

I patted the ground next to me for Bubba to come lie against me. “So, when did you meet him?”

She let out a sigh and her eyes had this new sparkle about them. Her smile curved a little more and the blush was light on her cheeks. “Eight hundred years ago. When I was hiding . . . his family . . . they hid me. Father met him just a few weeks after I met him. We were married shortly thereafter.”

I tried to imagine what meeting Everest as your father-in-law would be like. The visuals made me want to laugh. “Do they get along?”

“They’re really good friends.” Her eyes turned sad and distant. “Without my soulmate, Father and I may have fallen apart many times these eight centuries.”

“I’m glad you had him then.” I reached over and squeezed her hand. “Where is he now?”

“Hiding where it’s safe,” she said while rubbing her chest with her hand. “Waiting for any excuse to come to me.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Have you spoken to him?”

She cringed and shook her head. “It’s been too long, not too long, but too long. Does that make sense? Like it wasn’t that long ago, but it feels like forever. I hate being apart from him.”

“Have you two had to be apart a lot in the last eight centuries?”

“No.” She scrubbed her face with her hands. “This is my first alias that has required nearly no visitation. It’s been . . . torture.”

“So, what’s eating you up—wait—” I held my pointer-fingers up as my brain tried to catch up with itself. “—You have a soulmate. What about that night with Azazel?”

Her face fell.

“OHHH. That’s what’s bothering you.”

She groaned. “When you live as long as we have, and will, there are a lot of lines that get blurred. When your grandmother is Lilith, there are even more blurred lines that are blurred for the sake of survival.”

“Like Everest with Sweyn?”

She grimaced, then nodded. “Necessary evil.”

I frowned and nodded. “Does your soulmate understand this? I mean, I met Everest after his . . . relations . . . with Sweyn started, so I know it’s not the same. How does your soulmate feel about these blurred lines?”

She pulled Albert into her lap, which looked hilarious given how massive the mastiff puppy was. “We made a pact with each other centuries ago that we would do whatever we had to do to survive. That means anything. Anyone. Survival has been the only goal.”

“But?”

“But it’s been . . . centuries . . . since I was . . . intimate . . . with another male. I know I had to with Azazel that night?—”

“Why?” I shook my head. “No judgement, but why did you have to sleep with him?”

“Father would’ve blown our whole secret right then and there if Azazel touched his soulmate.” She looked up at me and smiled softly. “That could’ve gotten us all killed. I couldn’t let that happen. Azazel getting his hands on you, especially after what happened at that frat house, would’ve been—No, I could not let you be in that position, so I gave Azazel something he’d been wanting longer. Me.”

I reached over and took her hand in mine. “Thank you, Saber. That was selfless of you. I appreciate the sacrifice you made for me.”

“You’re welcome.” Her face flushed.

I sensed she was slightly embarrassed, so I changed the subject slightly. “Well, your father destroyed his entire bedroom with his bare hands when you left with Zazzy, so?—”

“He destroyed his room?” Her eyes were wide and sharp.

“I was hiding in the closet. He was so mad he didn’t even sense me in there. He just tore the room apart with his fingers.”

“More proof I made the right decision. Imagine if that had been you in his bed?” She shuddered and cursed. “Well, I'm terrified of what my soulmate is going to think when he finds out. But calling and telling him that over the phone feels wrong.”

“Him finding out from someone else would feel worse.”

“That’s true.”

“Time has already passed since then. You’ve gotten lucky the word hasn’t spread, but now that you’ve sided with The Coven, I fear that secret won’t remain one.”

She started to rock back and forth. “I know. I’m worried about that.”

“So, call him.”

“I’m afraid to. What if my call somehow leads our enemies to his door?” Tears pooled in her eyes, but she did not cry. “I cannot endanger him.”

I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket. “Use mine.”

She just stared at me with wide, teary eyes.

“The Coven Leaders have assured me there are heavy amounts of magic on our phones to ensure our safety, so they can’t be tracked. I may not understand the how of that magic, but I know better than to doubt Tegan on anything at this point.” I held my phone out between us. “My phone is safe. Use it to call him.”

She opened her mouth, but no words came out.

“We could all die at any given moment, Saber.” I reached down and grabbed her hand, then pressed my phone to her palm. “Life is too scary and short. You two have eight hundred years of marriage to lean on in times like right now . . . when you feel like you’ve ruined everything. Tell him you love him, tell him you’re safe with The Coven, and then tell him what happened with Azazel.”

“ I’m scared ,” she whispered, staring at my phone like it would bite her.

“He’s your soulmate, Saber, not a silly insecure boyfriend.” I snapped my fingers, a move that told my dogs it was time to get off me. When they did, I pushed to my feet, then brushed the grass off my jeans. “And if that doesn’t help, ask yourself how you’d feel if the roles were reversed?”

Her face scrunched up like she was trying not to cry. “I’ve told him so many times I don’t care how many females, or males, he had to take to bed to keep himself alive and his cover intact.”

I arched one eyebrow. “Then why do you assume he would feel any differently? He is, after all, your soulmate. And don’t they say soulmates start as one soul that’s split into two?”

Her face turned red. “We are one soul in two different bodies.”

I nodded. “So, really, would you doubt your own soul?”

She chuckled, then pushed to her feet. “Thank you, Frankie.”

I wasn’t a hugger, yet I watched as I pulled her in for one anyway. Something about the pain in her eyes and aura just made me want to hold her. Maybe it was knowing she didn’t have someone she could talk to. If I’d only had my uncle as support growing up, life would’ve been so much harder. Sometimes a girl just needed to talk to another girl. I squeezed her tight, resting my chin on her shoulder as I held her for a long moment. She didn’t pull back either.

“Goddess, you give good hugs,” she said as she held me tight. Then she pulled back and wiped at her eyes. “I needed that.”

“I think I did too. Look at us, we’re already crushing this friendship thing.” I smiled and gave her a wink as I started to back away. “I’ll be inside when you’re done with my phone, but no rush. Take your time talking to him. And if you’re really feeling shitty about it, try FaceTime.”

“FaceTime. Right. That’s a good idea.” She stared down at my phone, so I turned to give her privacy. “Oh, hey, Frankie?”

I paused and glanced back at her. “Yeah?”

“Just so you know, for whatever it’s worth, he never slept with Sam. That was all a show for Sweyn.”

Pressure in my chest lightened. I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding on to that fear or those emotions. He never slept with her. My pulse quickened. My emotions wanted to come out to play. I smiled at her. “Thanks, Saber, that actually is nice to know.”