AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So it seems,” she comments, both amusement and curiosity floating in her warm brown eyes. It might have something to do with the fact that she caught me in a similarly compromising position with Donovan not too long ago. Well, the cat is out of the bag now.
As if simply thinking of cats summons him, my nan’s monstrous black cat, Mr. Mischief, comes strolling into the kitchen, rubbing against Mildred’s legs until she leans down and picks him up. A deep rumble of a purr emanates from him as she scratches under his chin. For a one-hundred-and-ninety-three-year-old woman, she looks closer to someone in their early forties and elegant as always. Her blonde hair is pulled up into a French twist, she’s dressed in high-quality gray, wool slacks, and a soft white blouse, and her minimal cosmetics are expertly applied. Despite feeling embarrassed about being caught with Nolan, something inside me eases in her presence. Mildred is an extremely powerful witch. She’ll figure out how to save Nolan and protect my secret at the same time.
Standing next to my nan, Dalia frowns disapprovingly. “They are like dogs in heat.”
Mildred raises an eyebrow at the sour woman. “They are teenagers. It’s something to be expected. We should be glad all we saw was them kissing in the kitchen.”
“Maybe for humans…” She slowly sweeps her eyes down my nan. “And witches, but vampires have strict etiquette for our young. If it were up to me, my grandson would be in boarding school with his cousins, learning how to act properly.”
“Then it’s a good thing it’s not up to you,” Mildred retorts dismissively as she puts the mammoth cat back on the ground. He rubs against her legs again and then settles at her feet. With his gaze focused on Dalia, he stretches out his paws and slides his claws over the wooden floor. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was threatening her. Crossing her arms over her chest, Mildred continues, “I’ll have you know your daughter and son-in-law have raised a fine young man who is kind, loyal, and generous of spirit. You are lucky to have the opportunity to get to know him. I recommend taking advantage of it as opposed to wasting time focusing on how he doesn’t meet whatever previously held expectations you had.”
Dalia’s hands fist at her sides, and her eyes narrow into slits. “How dare you tell me how I should interact with my grandson!” Realizing she’s lost her cool, she quickly recovers, squaring her shoulders and looking down her nose. In a cold tone, she says, “As I understand it, witches are the source of all of his current suffering, so as it stands, if he was raised among his own kind, he would be safe and healthy right now—something I will report to the queen. Perhaps you should focus more on keeping your own house, or is it normal for teenage witches to sleep in the same bed as their paramours?”
The only sign of Mildred’s surprise is a slight widening of her eyes. The rest of her face is the picture of unimpressed indifference, but it’s enough for me to know we’ll be having a conversation about the topic soon. I didn’t lie, per se, I just didn’t correct any assumptions that I was staying in a separate room. As I try to shrink against the counter, Nolan tightens his grip on my hands. He opens his mouth to say something but is cut off by Nan.
“By the goddess, you’re insufferable,” she blurts, rubbing between her brows. “First of all, he was raised outside of Prima because his parents were exiled. Don’t pretend it was a choice made out of a genuine desire to leave vampire society.”
“Only because they refused to do what was necessary,” Dalia argues, mimicking Mildred’s stance with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Necessary? Necessary!” Mildred shouts, anger building in her eyes. “Demanding a parent kill their own child is barbaric.”
“And leaving her to prey on innocents was a better choice?” she counters, the cold veneer cracking in her voice.
“As if you care,” my nan scoffs, glaring at the other woman. “I’ve known hundreds of people like you in my long life. Upholding your image and tradition is more important than the suffering of your family.”
My heart aches for my nan. It’s been nearly fifteen years since my mother’s death, and the fact that her daughter was a spirit witch was kept secret from her—a secret that led to her eventual death—will haunt Mildred for the rest of her life. Knowing her as I do now, there is no doubt in my mind she would have given up anything and fought to her last breath to protect my mother.
“Despite what you may think, I’m not a monster,” Nolan’s grandmother states, looking surprisingly tired. “Letti was my flesh and blood. I loved her dearly, but the moment she took that demon’s bargain, she stopped being my granddaughter. How many people died because Lillian and Robert allowed sentiment to cloud their judgment?”
Nolan and I look at each other with matching pained expressions. Felix and his family died partially by Letti’s hand, and last Halloween, she nearly killed Nolan out of a jealous rage that his parents dared to have another child. The only reason she didn’t succeed is because Donovan decapitated her with his katana.
“It didn’t have to be them,” Mildred insists, raw emotion seeping into her voice. “How could anyone ask a parent to kill their own child?”
“Instead we should ask someone else to risk their lives and take on the burden of ending another’s?” Dalia asks simply with more compassion than I thought possible from the cold, direct woman. “You may not understand our ways, but family is extremely important to vampires. We believe that a parent remains responsible for their children for their entire lives, for good or ill. That means doing what must be done, even if it breaks our hearts. It’s why our early education is so important. It may seem strict or harsh to you, but these traditions have kept us and those we feed from safe.” She looks at Nolan with deep sadness and a knowing I don’t understand. “We would have kept you safe.”
Nolan appears unnerved by his grandmother’s declaration, clearing his throat and having difficulty meeting her gaze. There’s a twisted sensation in my gut because there’s truth in what she said. Had he been raised within vampire society, he wouldn’t have been cursed. He wouldn’t have had to do all those things to stay alive. He wouldn’t be dying. He also wouldn’t be mine, and my eyes sting as I think about a life lived without ever knowing him. I pull his arms around me and squeeze him into a tight hug, needing to feel him here with me. He squeezes me back.
Mildred is quiet for a moment, absorbing Dalia’s words, and then she lifts her chin and humbly replies, “I’m sorry for accusing you of being uncaring. It’s a situation with no easy answers.”
“Apology accepted,” she says stiffly, clearly not a woman who does well with emotional sentiment. “Now let’s get back to the task at hand before I lose another one of my grandchildren.”
∞∞∞
Sitting in one of the kitchen chairs we brought out into the garage—aka Mildred’s spell lab—Nolan pulls me sideways into his lap, my right side pressed against his chest. At first, I’m rigid in my posture, nervous that I’m going to earn another scathing look from Nolan’s grandmother, but she seems to be too busy going toe-to-toe with my nan to worry about what we’re doing at the moment. Whatever truce they made in the kitchen quickly vanished once it came to deciding how best to proceed.
“Relax, or I’ll make you relax,” Nolan whispers into my ear, his sultry voice causing my skin to tingle.
Pretending he doesn’t turn me into a hormonal puddle, I tilt my head to murmur, “How exactly would you make me?”
He laughs softly and then kisses the spot behind my ear while his hand slips underneath my shirt to trail his fingers up and down my lower spine, the other content to rest on my outer left thigh. It’s instant, the molten desire that builds within me, and I lean heavily into his shoulder. It’s a fight to keep my eyes from drooping closed and my mouth silent while I lose myself to the sensations of his touch. It’s ridiculous how easily he can undo me, my body beginning to quake under his quiet ministrations. I nuzzle his neck, pressing a soft kiss of my own against his skin, while my whole world narrows to him and me.
“That’s better,” he says in a husky whisper, the hand on my thigh tightening when my fingers start to trail up and down his chest. Clearing his throat, he announces, “I’m beginning to feel a bit lightheaded. I think it’s probably best if I lie down. Callie can keep an eye on me.”
My heart rate spikes as I remember our audience. I attempt to jerk back to an upright position, but I’m foiled by Nolan’s arms tightening around me. He rests his head against mine.
Not bothering to look up from her spell book, Mildred replies evenly, “I doubt my granddaughter’s supervision is going to help with your lightheadedness. In fact, I imagine it will likely compound the problem.”
I blush from the tips of my toes to the top of my head and try to wiggle out of his grasp so I can stand up, but Nolan has a viselike grip on me. I feel like I’m once more performing the job of human shield, only instead of holding off infatuated classmates, it’s his judgmental grandmother.
