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I sat to the right of Hector, focusing on the woman in front of me, Darla. “So, what brings you back?”
Darla glanced at her husband. “The tour ended, and we were tired. We just wanted to check in on things.”
Hector laughed rigidly. “That's rich coming from a couple of people who abandoned me.”
Patrick struggled with his words for a second and then said, “We did leave you with Aunt Gerta.”
Darla raised her forefinger. “It's not like she's a bad caregiver.”
Hector clenched his fists on the table. “No, she just drinks a lot. And criticizes everything I do. And tries to tell me how to do things. And thinks that the only way to do things is her way. So, you know, I got a whole belt load of crap as soon as you guys left to live the rock star life. How's that been going so far?” Hector glared at his father. “You still doing cocaine?”
Patrick looked hurt for a second. But when he wiped his nose, he nodded forcefully. “Actually, I've been free of drugs for like three years now.”
Darla nodded. “Same. We've been going to meetings.”
I touched Hector's arm. “That sounds pretty good. I think it's always a great start to take care of yourself.”
Hector flinched when I took his hand. “Right.”
Some of the tension melted from his body.
“Yeah, it's always a good idea to take care of yourself,” I said. “We've been trying to do the same thing here. We had acouple of hiccups, but…” I trailed off, feeling like something was lurking in the background, some kind of doubt that I couldn't pinpoint. I ignored it as best I could. “We had a weird encounter the other night.”
Darla frowned with concern. “What do you mean?”
Hector took my hand in his. “We were just performing a ritual to make sure that we were mates and Faye here got attacked by some local demons.”
Patrick growled viciously, though I didn’t take the sound to be directed at us. “We heard some rumors in town about some demons coming through, but we didn't think that they would be bold enough to approach this pack.”
“We’ve been dealing with increased attacks lately,” I explained. “They were trying to get to me. Because of my power.”
Darla reached for my hand. “Are you okay?”
It was weird to feel the concern in the room. Hector had suddenly dropped all his resentments and joined his parents in showing concern for me. I looked down at my plate, staring at the flaky biscuit there that I'd only taken one bite of. I was nauseous. I was tired. I wanted to do so many things to my mate right now while napping at the same time. “I'm sorry. It's just a little overwhelming.”
Darla patted my hand. “Of course, it is. It's hard with demons. They're probably the most unnatural in our world.”
I nodded as I thought about the details of my fight. The way I had to force myself to look at the light instead of falling into the darkness. It was tough and I was still tired from it. “I'm okay. And I understand how it feels to have problems with family.”
Hector snorted while Patrick shook his head.
Patrick gestured around. “I don't see what the problem is.”
Darla gave him a look of warning. “Patrick, don't start with that.”
“No, no, I should start with it. We should talk about it, right?” Patrick sat up a little straighter. “This kid thinks that we abandoned him when we put him in a safe place so that we could go on tour.”
Hector huffed. “You've been on tour for the last ten years. Maybe even longer. Is that your idea of good parenting?”
Patrick sneered. “It was better than you watch us overdose, wasn't it?”
I covered my mouth, feeling the nausea rise again.
Darla waved her hands. “Please, don't start arguing. I don't want this to happen again.”
Hector mimicked his mother’s movements. “No, this is theperfecttime. Honestly, we should get it all out in the open, just like Patrick here said.”
Patrick growled. “I don't think it's right for you to call me by my name.”
