Safe Hex With a Vampire (25 page)

Everyone looked confused. Roman recovered
first and asked, “Do you have something you want to tell me?” in a
cool voice. “I mean about Claudia, not why you’re in my home.”

Sofia flushed. “I’m sure Claudia has already
told you what happened.”

“I’m not Claudia,” Tempest explained.

Sofia seemed to deflate.

“This is my granddaughter,” Roman said, and
then he gestured to Ivy. “Both of these young ladies are my
granddaughters.” Most people would probably have guessed that he
felt nothing, but Tempest saw the slight tensing of the muscles in
his jaw. “The last time I saw you with Claudia, you wanted her
dead. Obviously, you saw her after that. You saw her after I
believed she was dead. Would you care to elaborate?”

“I don’t understand,” Sofia said and she
appeared more than a little lost. “How can you have
granddaughters?”

“It would seem that on rare occasions we can
have female children, but the women don’t inherit our longevity,”
Roman explained.

“I just assumed that she wasn’t pregnant
when she couldn’t take blood or energy,” Sofia said, but she seemed
to be talking mostly to herself “I tried to teach her how to feed
but she couldn’t do it. Oh, and the blood made her terribly
sick.”

“How were you managing to take blood without
a male to help you?” Roman asked with a look of horror on his
face.

“With a knife of course,” Sofia said as if
he were an idiot.

“Of course,” he muttered, “you and Claudia
were just going around slicing people open to get blood. I wonder
why I hadn’t guessed that.”

Sofia merely shrugged, oblivious to his
sarcasm.

Aiden held Tempest closer as she swayed
some. “Can we finish this discussion inside? Tempest really needs
to lie down.”

Roman nodded and gestured toward the house.
“Justin should be here soon.”

They all moved into the family room. There
was a huge television on the wall, and several comfortable sofas
and recliners around the room. Aiden settled her onto one of the
sofas and Roman wrapped a fluffy blanket around her. Ivy watched
with amusement as the men fussed over Tempest.

When they were satisfied that Tempest was
comfortable, Roman sat down and turned his attention to Sofia
again. He idly played with the wedding band on his finger as he
considered what he’d already learned. When he rested his hand on
his knee, Tempest noticed the pink nail polish stain on his dress
pants. She didn’t get a chance to wonder where that stain had come
from.

“Now that we have Tempest settled in, I
would like to know what really happened to Claudia after my father
found her,” Roman said.

Sofia paced back and forth rather than
taking a seat. “I’m not really sure where to begin,” she said.

“Start with how Claudia ended up with you,”
Roman suggested.

Sofia finally stopped pacing and sat down
across from Roman. “You already know that I was angry at your
father for bringing Claudia home. She was just another woman to
replace me. It had been happening for years and obviously it did
nothing for my ego. As you may have guessed, at that time I was
having an affair myself. After our confrontation, I realized that
my jealousy was silly. Claudia didn’t want your father any more
than I did or she wouldn’t have run off with you. Why fight with
her over a man neither of us wanted? My intention had been to just
let you go on with your lives.

“Alessandro, my lover,” she gave that
explanation to Tempest and Ivy, “left me a note saying that he had
found a way for us to be together. I knew right away that he was
going to offer to trade Claudia to your father for my freedom. I
also knew that your father would kill us all, if we were lucky.
During my marriage, I discovered that there are many things worse
than death. I knew about your estate in London and I knew Viktor
was heading to Ireland so I hoped to beat your father there and
find a way to keep us all alive. By chance, I ran into three men
taking Claudia away. They were humans talking about the horrible
things they would do to her before she died.”

Roman paled, but Sofia smiled. “Claudia was
so brave. She didn’t show an ounce of fear. When they noticed me,
naturally, they thought I was no threat. I used a simple compulsion
to make them kill each other, and fled with Claudia. I took her to
Scotland because I knew that the Maitland’s would be willing to
hide her from your father until I found you.”

“How did you know how to find the
Maitland’s?” Roman asked, obviously struggling to keep up with the
story.

“Oh,” Sofia said with a knowing smile.
“Lochlan Maitland was at one time a friend of your father’s. During
his many visits, we became very good friends.” She leaned in close
to Ivy and said in a conspiratorial voice, “The Maitland’s are
quite impressive, in case you’re still single.”

Ivy blushed.

“You had an affair with him too?” Roman
sounded more impressed than reproachful.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Roman,” Sofia scoffed.
“Lochlan prefers men.”

Roman laughed. “That certainly explains his
falling out with my father. Please continue.”

“Oh, I did have a brief tryst with Collin
Maitland, but that hardly counts,” she said without giving Roman a
chance to reply before she continued. “I had so much fun traveling
with Claudia,” Sofia said with a childlike smile. “Do you know that
I’d never really had a female friend before that? She was so
spirited and full of life. I hated to leave her, but I had promised
to find you. I never could have guessed that it would take me so
long. By the time I located you, nearly a century had passed. There
wasn’t any reason to tell you all of this. Claudia was gone, and
you couldn’t stand the sight of me.” She shrugged her delicate
shoulders. “I’m not really sure what happened to her after that. I
thought about contacting the Maitland’s to find out, but I just
couldn’t stand the idea of hearing about her death. I know that was
cowardly, but it was easier to lie to myself and pretend I would
see her again one day.”

Roman remained silent as he tried to process
what Sofia had just told him.

“There are other women in their family,”
Aiden said.

Sofia smiled brightly. “I would really like
to meet them all!”

Roman looked sad and a little lost.

It came as no surprise when Ivy moved to
stand by his chair. “Are you okay?” Then she gave him a shy smile.
“I’m still not really sure what to call you.”

He took her hand in his and gave it a gentle
squeeze. “There have been a great many shocks for all of us lately.
We’ll work through them together, and figure out titles.”

“I’m sorry about your son,” Tempest said,
remembering his recent loss.

Roman looked momentarily thrown off balance.
“Thank you,” he finally said. “It was a terrible shock.”

Ivy’s eyes widened and Tempest wondered what
she had suddenly picked up from their grandfather. It was becoming
obvious that there was much more to him than people knew.

The sound of the doorbell was a welcome
interruption.

“That’s probably Justin. I’ll go let him
in,” Roman said as he hastily left the room.

Justin arrived with Isaiah and Drew in tow.
Isaiah obviously hadn’t moved past the t shirts he’d become
fond of during his period of insanity. Today he wore one that said,
I’m immoral. I’m bored. Let’s party
. Thankfully, he had
moved past the sweatpants and bare feet. Today he wore jeans and
running shoes.

Drew’s hair was neatly combed, meaning he
hadn’t had time to style it for Tempest. Aiden was glad Drew was
wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt with his jeans. The boy was far
too enamored of Tempest and Aiden might have lost his temper had
Drew shown up without a shirt again.

Justin’s casual attire of jeans and a navy
blue turtleneck reminded Aiden that this was his first day of a new
semester at school. He was carrying what looked like a large
suitcase, and he appeared just as annoyed as always.

Drew was about to rush straight to Tempest’s
side when he spotted Sofia. “Grandmama!” he said with glee. Drew
was the only person in the family who didn’t call her Sofia. That
was most likely because he was her favorite.

“Andrew!” she said and walked over to give
him a hug. “It is so nice to see you. You are always such a sweet
boy. What have you been up to, you little scamp?”

There was a collective eye rolling in
the room.

“I’ve decided to start writing romance
novels.” There was a stunned silence following that
announcement.

“You’re far too young to start a job,” Sofia
assured him.

“I want to become a big success so I can get
married,” he explained and his gaze shifted to Tempest.

“Absolutely not!” Sofia said. “You are
barely old enough to date, and certainly not old enough for
marriage talk.”

Drew pouted.

Isaiah went over to hug Ivy. “Hello,
Cousin,” he said softly.

She hugged him back and kissed his cheek.
“You look better.”

Justin obviously wasn’t in the mood for
socializing. “Everyone out so I can examine Tempest.” He pointed at
Aiden and added, “You can stay.”

Everyone filed out of the room. Drew looked
like he wanted to argue but Sofia tugged him along behind her.

“So,” Justin said with a ghost of a smile,
“Caitlin says to tell you that she really wanted to come, but I’m
too much a prick to get her out of classes.”

Tempest laughed weakly. The energy that
Roman had given her was wearing off, which meant she’d been given
some pretty powerful drugs.

“Ouch,” Aiden said. “Guess that means she
won’t be spreading her legs for you today.”

Tempest glared at him. “Could you be any
more crude?”

“Yep, and the fact that you asked makes me
worry that you might have a head injury,” he said with a playful
wink.

The large suitcase turned out to be Justin’s
medical bag and it zipped out to reveal several pockets. Tempest
examined it closely. “That is really nice. Where did you get
it?”

“I had it made for me. I’ll get you one,”
Justin said as he pulled out what he needed from the bag. He looked
irritated as he started to examine her. Aiden had come to realize
that the annoyed look could mean many different things with Justin.
In this case, it meant he was focused on what he was doing. Aiden
had to admit that, despite his deplorable bedside manner, Justin
was a good doctor.

“Do you know what type of drugs you were
given?” Justin asked.

Tempest shook her head. “Ivy can call our
contact at the police department to find out what he had in the
room.”

Justin walked to the door and called out,
“Ivy, find out what kind of drugs she was given from your police
friend.” He came back in without waiting for a reply.

He continued his examination in relative
silence. Occasionally, he would ask a question. Tempest added her
own opinion that she just needed to rest and he eventually
agreed.

Aiden had moved away from Tempest during the
exam. When Justin finished he stayed in his seat at the opposite
end of the room instead of returning to her side.

“As I already mentioned, Caitlin was really
mad that I wouldn’t get her out of class to come see you, so please
call her later to let her know you’re okay. She’s probably not
speaking to me.”

Tempest smiled. “I’ll call her and see if I
can smooth things over some for you.”

“I won’t hold my breath, but thanks for
trying,” Justin said.

“Can you get everyone to stay out of the
room for a little while so I can talk to Aiden alone?” she
asked.

“I’ll do my best, but I might have to kill
Drew,” he said deadpan.

“You should probably do that just to be on
the safe side,” Aiden suggested. He was trying to keep his tone
light, but he wasn’t really sure he wanted to be alone with
Tempest. He was still angry and hurt. He also had no idea if she’d
turn her back on him again now that he’d saved her. Would she have
even called him if she hadn’t been in trouble? Probably not. He’d
been the one she contacted because she had no other options.

The room was ominously silent after Justin
pulled the door closed behind him. They could hear the faint hum of
voices outside the door. The grandfather clock ticked loudly in the
background. Tempest had said she wanted to talk, but she said
nothing.

Aiden let out a frustrated breath and stood
up. “Look,” he said, “you don’t have to say anything. I get it. You
wanted to leave and you did. You called me because you were in
danger and had no one else you could contact mentally. I know you
weren’t contacting me because you wanted me back in your life.”

“Aiden, I “

He cut her off and paced back and forth
angrily. “Don’t bother trying to say something to make me feel
better. Like I said before, I’m not going to force you to be in my
life, but I think you’re making a huge mistake. I know what you do
is important. I totally respect that and it’s actually one of the
reasons I love you. I would never want you to give up your work. If
you let me, I would help you in any way I could. Hell, it’s not
like we were going to move in together right away so why did we
have to find a solution to living arrangements or stop seeing each
other? And another thing, how could you just sneak out in the
middle of the night? Do you have any idea how that made me
feel?”

When Aiden spun to look at Tempest she was
crying.

“Damn it! Would you please stop crying? I
really hate it when you do that.” he swore and scooped her up in
his arms. He settled back down on the sofa with her in his lap.
“Let’s talk about all of this later. You’re recovering from a
trauma and you need rest. I’m sorry that I yelled at you.”

“No!” she said quickly. “I’m the one who
should be sorry. I never should have left you like that. It was
selfish. If it helps, I had decided to go find you and work things
out just before Brian shot me with the tranquilizer gun.”