Page 50 of Call of the Blood

“She stopped recording when Dad died,” I whispered.

“Yeah, yeah, she did. But we have this.”

Declan and I were shoving each other, like little kids, in an argument in the yard. Dad swooped in and was able to broker a peace. Seeing him, I wanted to cry, but I blinked back the tears I had cried on and off for over fifteen years. In one of the last clips, I saw a surprising face. Not surprising for Declan and me back then. Surprising that he’d allowed himself to be on camera. Uncle Henry, grinning next to our father in one shot and swinging Declan around in another. He watched me messing with a computer, listening as I tried to explain it to him since he was secretly old, we liked to say, and everyone knew old people didn’t know computers. He called me Evie, which made my mother very obviously frustrated.

“I can’t believe you said that to his face,” Declan said with a chuckle.

“I can.” I would say it to him today if he was in the room. “I can’t believe Mom somehow kept all these, and we didn’t know.”

“How often do you think she rewatched them?”

“Enough to think of converting the VHS tapes into a DVD. How much is there?”

“Like seven hours,” he answered. “And it’s not the only one. Our parents recorded us so much.”

“We’ll have to constantly record whatever kids you have,” I said, smiling. “Everything. Every little award and game and birthday. Hold these memories for them the way they were held for us.”

“I like that.”

It was another twenty minutes of footage before Henry showed back up. I still hadn’t told Declan about finding Henry nor Henry about Declan. Henry had wanted to walk away from the human family. Declan was still human. I was going to keep them separate.

But I really wanted to tell Declan. It sat on the edge of my tongue, wanting to tumble out. I was going to see Henry in two nights, another attempt to continue to try not to hate the vampire who had walked away from the family. I was trying to let go of my resentment for his absence during the nightmare after Jacob’s death; we had so little family left, I had to try.

But there was something about how he was willing to leave us before that made me want to keep him an old memory for Declan.

Declan and I watched the video late into the night. We laughed and got teary-eyed at the old memories. When our dad was passing our Christmas presents during his last Christmas with us, Declan stabbed me in the heart.

“I can see myself doing that with Lexi on the couch with our kids,” he whispered. “I can see Lucas being a patient grandfather, who doesn’t look old enough, but kids won’t notice at first. Her mother, Yiva, is a fantastic cook. The dinners we can have during the holidays...”

“Yiva? Where does that name come from?”

“I knew she had some Norse background when I met her. I learned last week that she was a real Viking, and she teasingly told me I should have guessed. Her name literally means she-wolf,” Declan explained, chuckling. “Lucas told me she should probably be a higher rank in the pack than she is. She enjoys where she is, though, and doesn’t fight anyone up.”

“You really like Lexi’s family.”

“Yeah, and I thought I would just marry a woman from an amazing family, but then…” Declan laughed. “Werewolves.”

“Having grown up with vampires and now rubbing elbows with werewolves, what do you think?” I asked, propping my head on a hand, watching him.

“Certain vampires can be warm, but in general, vampires are just colder. Physically, emotionally… and vampires eat humans. The fear is more instinctual. Like with you, I’m fine, but I’ll admit that Alexius, your boss, actually scared me a bit. He walked like a predator. Werewolves are always warm. It’s always community and bonding and protecting those lower than you and following the wisdom and strength of those above. And learning about Callahan? How much he really cares about every single werewolf in his pack? Apparently, he wasn’t even mad that you called him, or at Lexi, or at me, from what Lucas told me.”

“No, Lucas was the mad one,” I said, remembering the call. “Callahan was just tired. I caught him in the middle of a meeting. Lucas seemed to be mad for you. You know, he gave you some very sweet compliments before he blew up about needing to yell at Lexi.”

“I love her parents,” he said, smiling sleepily. “So warm. Always a big family gathering or, now that I know, a pack event. They invite everyone to their weddings, and they bond really tightly. The pack takes care of its orphans and protects each other from human-caused problems.” He was beginning to slur his words from how tired he was.

I stood up slowly.

“I should get going,” I told him, reaching for a blanket. I threw it over him as I watched him fight his eyes.

“Really? You can crash here,” he said, waving a hand.

“No, no. I’ve got two hours to get home.” It was two and a half hours to sunrise, but I liked giving myself that thirty minutes of safe time inside. “I should use them. And you are going to destroy your sleep schedule if we do this too much.” I knew he was going to pass out right there on the couch. “Thank you for the memories.”

“We should make copies,” he mumbled, but then those eyes closed, and I knew he was going to be out like a light.

I locked up his place for him. Thankfully, he had a digital lock on the front door that auto-locked ten seconds after I walked out. I waited those ten seconds, just to make sure.

I went out to the parking lot and froze as the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I could smell blood. I still had the building at my back, and I used it as protection to look around to see who I could see. The blood was human. Or, the stronger of the two bloods was human. The blood of a vampire had also been shed.