Blood Kin (2 page)

The craziness had turned downright depressing, though. Said best friend, Bea, wouldn’t even speak to me on the phone.

After yet another failed speed dial, I slammed the phone Bea would not answer shut and shoved it in the pocket of my backpack. A yelp came from behind me as I tossed the pack aside.

“Ay, watch it!” Bea’s nephew, Noe, a gangly just-turned-eighteen-year-old loped into my living room, avoiding the pack, which had landed next to him.

“Damn. Sorry, Noe. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“No prob. I didn’t exactly knock,” he answered.

I kept my back to him as I tried to compose myself. Had Bea sent him to talk to me? To tell me to stop bugging her? I just wanted to explain to her why I’d done what I’d done. Why sentencing a man to death at the hands of a Sidhe instead of turning him over to proper human authorities had been my only choice. Noe knew none of this, however, only that his aunt and I were in the midst of some sort of disagreement.

“So, packing, huh?” Noe said as he settled onto a nearby chair. “You gonna keep calling Bea?”

I nodded and fiddled with the fastenings on a rolling suitcase I’d pulled out of the hall closet. Most of my clothes were at Adam’s, but some of the cooler weather gear that I expected to need for my unexpected and unwanted trip to Canada were still at my house. The temperatures would most likely be mild, but I’d probably need warmer outer gear for nighttime.

“How’d you know I’ve been calling her?” I managed to say after a moment.

“You’ve only been calling the house and the café over and over for the past few hours,” he said, leaving off the obvious “duh.”

I rubbed my eyes, trying to avoid the tears that threatened. Thirty years and I still had no clue how to handle a fight with my best friend … and this one was a doozy. Less of a fight, really, and more of a complete dissonance in moral systems.

“You’re heading to Canada?” Noe prodded.

“How’d you hear that?”

“I listened to the messages you left on the answering machine,” he said.

“Yeah, of course you did,” I muttered and put aside a pile of receipts and other detritus that I’d dug out of my
duffle bag. Last time I’d used this, Adam and I had gone on a trip to a fancy vampire hotel.

“You stopping by the house first?”

Noe tried to make the question sound casual, but failed miserably. Sorry, kid, I thought, you’re too damn young to dissemble. Ignoring him for the moment, I turned to search through the center drawer of a small chest I used for storage. It was a pretty cool item, picked up at a craft show last spring. The vendor claimed it was some sort of antique Asian-style chest. I didn’t care about its provenance and had bought it because it was unusual. Instead of hiding it away in my bedroom, I’d installed it in my living room, its washed-out red paint and metal accents complementing my other furniture.

“Damn it, where the hell’s … there you are.” I slid three passports out of the back of the top center drawer, found the red one and tucked it into a travel wallet, which I then placed inside the front pocket of my backpack. Nothing like doing busywork, pretending I needed to be more prepared, even though at this point, I was as ready as I’d ever be. No need for packing much as I had plenty of clothes at the family homestead. I wasn’t planning to take more than this small duffle bag and my carry-on backpack, private plane or not.

I liked to travel light. Besides, if I really needed anything while I was there, it was a good excuse to take a day or two trip to Vancouver.

“All those different passports yours?”

“What—oh, yeah,” I said, trying to keep my brain on what I was doing. Did I want to stop by their house? Bea was there, sure. No doubt getting some much-needed rest and recuperating from what happened last night … well, early this morning.

“Didn’t know you could have so many. You a spy?”

I stared at the boy, all six-foot-something of him sprawled across an armchair, body spare and rangy, whipcord lean in the way that only teenagers can be. “Spy?”

“Thought only spies had more than one passport.”

I laughed despite my mood. “Only in the movies,” I said. “I’m a citizen of the UK by birth, U.S. by family and Canada, well … I’m not really sure about that one, but I’ve had all three since I was a kid. Since I’m going to Canada, I’m going to travel on my Canadian passport.”

“Huh. That’s kind of cool.” He threw a long leg over the arm of the chair and started to swing it, his natural nervous energy needing some sort of outlet. One hand toyed with the pull on the reading lamp.

“So what’s up, Noe? You need something?” I tried to keep it light, keep my voice from breaking. I managed, but just barely.

“I came by because I didn’t want her to … you know … she’s—” Noe shrugged in that boneless way teenagers do. “I came by to tell you Tia told me to come see you and tell you that she’s gonna talk to her.”

Despite the run-on sentence and lack of pronoun attribution, I didn’t have a problem parsing his message. “Yeah, thanks,” I said roughly and turned away.

“You ready, sis?” My brother Tucker stuck his head through the door, one hand on the frame as he leaned in.

“Yeah.” I picked up my backpack and slung it over my shoulder, trying to avoid looking at Noe. He’d done a good thing, coming out here to talk to me. Bea was the de facto matriarch of her small family, despite the fact she was about my age. Even her elderly aunt, Tia Petra, and uncle, Tio Richard, bowed to Bea’s need to lead. She ran the house as well as she ran the café.

Bea and I had been friends for most of our lives. She’d been my first real friend, human and more accepting of my oddities than anyone outside my family. This estrangement was killing me.

“You leaving now?” Noe asked. “Without talking to Bea?”

Tucker started to say something, but I held up a hand. “We’ll actually be here until tomorrow. Tucker’s here to take me out to the ranch where we’re spending the night.”

“We were
supposed
to be leaving now,” Tucker added. “But the pilot’s delayed because of weather and can’t get here until sometime tomorrow.”

Noe stood up, brightening. “So you can come by, then, now that you have time?”

Surely Bea wouldn’t turn me away in person, would she? “I’ll be there in a while,” I said.

“You got someone to take care of the house while you’re gone?”

“We do if you’re willing,” Tucker answered for me as he picked up my larger duffle and hoisted it over his shoulder. “It’d be a big help if you could stop by every once in a while.”

“Oh, cool. You mean me. Sure.” Noe beamed. He was a good kid, mostly. Just a teenager with few prospects and very little money. He attended school part-time at the University of Texas at San Antonio and worked part-time at Bea’s café, but there were few other legal ways to make ready cash around Rio Seco.

Tucker grinned at the boy’s enthusiasm. “Excellent.” My brother dug out his wallet and slipped Noe some bills. “Thanks, kiddo. You’ll save me some worry.”

“You know when you’re coming back?”

Not a clue, I wanted to say, but didn’t really want to go
into all the reasons I was leaving so suddenly. “I’m not sure exactly,” I said, “but I’ll call, I promise.”

I damned well intended to come back as soon as I could, but so much was up in the air, I couldn’t predict anything right now.

Noe nodded and in an unexpected move, he wrapped his arms around me in a hug. “I’ll tell Tia.” With that, I took one last look at the house that I’d sort of called home for the past couple of years and walked away.

I
TRIED
to swallow but, despite having gulped down sixteen ounces of water before I stepped out of my Land Rover, my mouth was as dry as the Llano Estacado. Bea knew I was here in front of her small limestone house. The Rover had a distinctive engine sound, one we’d laughed about in the past. “You can’t ever sneak up on someone,
chica
,” she’d teased.

My hand clenched, fist tight. Damn it. Knock already, Keira Kelly.

The brown wooden door opened before I had a chance.

I cleared my throat, still unsure of what to say, but it was only Noe. “Hey,” I said, a lame attempt at being casual. I failed as utterly as he had two hours earlier at my house. I’d gone with Tucker to the ranch, dropped him and my bags off and returned to town to try to mend fences.

“Tia says that Bea says she needs some space.” He looked down at the metal strip across the threshold, his toe worrying at a bent corner. One hand was propped up on the door frame, the other stuck in the pocket of his loose-fitting jeans, waistband riding dangerously low on his hips, the top two inches of white cotton boxer topping the denim. A skinny bare chest showed evidence of a recent workout. Tia Petra probably had Noe doing some heavy lifting at the
café this morning. It was nearly three, the time I used to stop by my best friend’s restaurant for a coffee, breakfast taco and a quick gabfest … just another afternoon in the life of Keira Kelly.

But all that had changed with Adam’s arrival, Marty’s death and now … oh, so much had changed now after Bea’s near murder only two nights ago.

“Space?” I repeated the word like a badly trained parrot. “She does know I’m leaving for a while?”

The boy nodded; a more miserable expression hadn’t yet been invented. Noe was eager to please, still a bit of a teen slacker, yet always there to help the family out. “She said she’ll talk to you when you get back.” He toed the metal strip again, one bare toe running a line across the ridges. He looked up at me finally. “You are coming back, right?”

I nodded, too full of questions, pleas, emotions I couldn’t elucidate blocking my voice.

“’Kay, then.” Noe nodded back at me. “She’ll be here. You know she’s still—” He blushed, a teen boy’s embarrassment at girly stuff overwhelming his attempt to be the man of the house.

“Yeah, she’s still my best friend,” I said, my voice finally working. “Tell her, no matter what happens, I’ll come back.” I looked at him, Bea’s amanuensis, the person who would report back to her. “Tell her. I
will
be back.” I turned away, my eyes blurring. “I’ll call her.”

The door shut behind me and I climbed into the front seat of my car.

B
OUDOIR IT WASN’T
, but the bedroom met my needs. Underground, dark, cool and comfortable, suiting my nature completely. A king-size bed dominated the room; twin nightstands, each with a matching lamp, flanked it. There were no windows in the walls to let light in: a perfect setting for a vampire king … and me, his, uh, consort.

“You are leaving, then.” “Yes, regretfully.”

Adam kissed the top of my head and ran a hand down my arm. We lay on his bed—exhausted, satiated and content.

I’d gone back to the Wild Moon after my attempt to talk to Bea, reaching Adam’s house as day turned to dusk. We’d been up for hours, laughing, talking, making love, reconnecting in ways that I’d forgotten one could. It had been so long and I was oh, so grateful. And by long, I didn’t mean the scant few weeks that Adam and I had been having issues, but long as in years—to the time before Gideon frightened me so much with his foray into the dark that I’d run back to my family. I’d never let myself go again, until Adam, but until now, he’d been reluctant to take all I had to give, all I offered. Too damn bad that our new state of reconciliation would be so short-lived. Going away now had not been on my agenda.

“Is she that frightening to you, this great-great-grandmother of yours?” He lay on his side, head propped
up on a hand, black hair draping gracefully across his pillow. His scent filled the room, now just nutmeg and vanilla. I reveled in my enhanced senses, so happy that a scent and a touch could be so evocative, yet not trigger any disturbing visions or memories. What a difference a day … and a Change makes.

I stretched, then turned to face him, tired, but in such a good way.

In less than twelve hours, I would go … west, to British Columbia, to my blood family and away from my lover. I didn’t want to, especially since Adam and I had just begun soothing and smoothing after some rough times, but considering I was now the—joy of joys—Kelly heir and duty calling and all …

“Gigi’s not frightening so much as …” I sat up and wrapped my arms around my knees. How could I phrase how I felt about my great-great-granny, aka the Clan matriarch? “The last time I saw her, slightly more than two years ago, she—”

“She hurt you.”

I lay my head on my knees and looked at Adam. So gorgeous, my vampire lover, so self-assured, competent. Nearly dying the real death hadn’t fazed him … at least on the outside. Ever the confident king.

“Hurt? I suppose you could call it that,” I said. “Mostly, I was angry.” I took a deep breath and let it out in an equally deep sigh. Digging up emotional memories wasn’t the way I wanted to spend the rest of my time with Adam, but he deserved answers. I was trying to let myself be open with him, not only as a lover, but someone who actually loves, trusts.

“Gigi’s edict came while I was in London,” I said. “With Gideon.” Adam said this calmly, without emotion.
Gideon was the man I’d been with when I’d first met Adam more than ten years ago at a soiree that was more boring than not. We’d flirted and laughed, but had never pursued anything more. On my part, it had mostly been because I’d thought Adam human—and I’d quit dating humans by then. He’d been the ultimate gentleman and, because I had a partner, he’d stayed on his side of the line.

I chewed my bottom lip, then continued. “After what happened, when he went darkside, all I wanted to do was come home. But home wasn’t where I left it. The family had moved to Canada and I didn’t want to go there. I stuck here, babysitting Marty, and you know how well that turned out.” With Marty murdered, I didn’t bother to say aloud. Not a topic I cared to think about too much and besides, Adam had been there for all of it. I’d failed in my one and only focus. Some caretaker I was.

“Did she ever explain to you why she was packing up the family?”

Adam wasn’t fooled. It wasn’t about coming back or moving or Marty, but about Gigi being Gigi—acting as queen bee of the Kelly Clan and expecting us to hop when she said “frog.” We did, because that’s who we were: in essence, her minions and her family. She was our Clan chief and her word is, was and would always be law as long as she remained in her hereditary office. If I had anything to say about it, that would be for a very, very long time.