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Terrick nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“Mate?” I asked softly.
“Yes, love?” Terrick asked.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m doing my best.”
“Hey, I can make the waffles. You can sit down and finish my shake,” I said as his thirst wound around me over our mating link.
“Shit!” he swore under his breath and went back to the freezer.
“Did you really forget you were thirsty?” I asked him.
“Being in dad-mode will do that to you,” my carrier laughed.
“Maybe drink two then,” I suggested.
In the end, it was Dad who made the waffles while Terrick drank his shakes and I texted Dakota to thank him for sending my phone with my parents. Under the table I put my toes on top of Terrick’s to remind him he wasn’t alone in any of this. I was here now, and I wasn’t going anywhere. As he drank the shakes some of the tension fled his shoulders.
“I found shirts in one of the bedrooms. They’re like dresses,” Salta came back into the kitchen with her hair wet and wearing a t-shirt that fell just below her knees. “I don’t like wearing dirty clothes.”
“You look perfect, sweetheart,” Terrick said as his baby sister sat down next to him.
Her big eyes were full of questions that I wasn’t sure any of us had the answers to.
Chapter Eighteen
Terrick
I didn’t bother calling Mom even as the day dragged on. She had an uncanny way of knowing where we all were all the time anyway. If she wanted to retrieve Salta she’d show up. After breakfast, someone in the village managed to scrounge up a sundress for her to wear. It was pink with yellow flowers. She twirled around like the little princess she was, showing it off to all of us. Scott clapped and something inside me melted a little. Maybe Mom wouldn’t come. Maybe she’d just leave Salta with me and Scott. We’d keep her safe from all the pitiful looks everyone flashed at her any time our father was mentioned.
The good news was, she hadn’t cut up a single person on her trek through the Other World. The elves had all let her pass without question through the gateways. That was the biggest perk of our pointed ears. After she arrived in the village, everyone worried about what might’ve happened to bring her here. It was Liam who put two and two together and started to come for me, but her shouting had already drawn me there.
Dad’s energy was everywhere in the house after Salta arrived. He wasn’t showing himself, but he was watching us like he always did. Having him around chased the tension from my shoulders. He’d spot trouble coming before we ever did.
That night we tucked Salta into bed and planned to fall into our own after a very long day of being stuffed full of food to celebrate our meeting. She fell asleep like she always did. Her head hit the pillow and then she was gone. I envied her that ability. I lost it somewhere around fifteen and never got it back.
As soon as her eyes were closed, and I turned on her ‘just in case’ nightlight our mother knocked on the back door. I sprinted through the house, but Scott had already opened it and invited her inside. She looked grim and tired. Heavy bags hung under her eyes, and I started for the freezer. She was an old vampire who mostly fed live on wild game preferring the taste of the real thing to more modern answers.
“No, thank you,” she shook her head in lieu of hello.
Mom always had a way of picking up the slightest thoughts over any link she was on. She pushed up her long flowing sleeves to her elbows and rested her arms on the table. I frowned at her before I could stop myself. She had sent me away from everything I knew. Sure, it worked out to my benefit in the end, but she had no way of knowing that.
“I did know,” she nodded.
“I’m missing something,” Scott said and crossed his arms over his solar plexus like she might reach into him and steal his secrets next.
“You’ve only just met him. You’ve missed many things. Terrick, will you please join us at the table?” she said, turning her voice to the tone she always used when talking to members of the coven in an official meeting.
“I did know. You dreamt of him so many times. I knew he was out in the world somewhere and since none of us could touch upon that stone heart you built up, I deduced he’d be the only one. I didn’t expect you to wreck the car or to meet him so quickly, but you weren’t happy, and it seeped into everyone.”
“Not everyone,” I said, my jaw clenching.
“Salta was and is a very happy child. I’m glad to see she didn’t butcher anyone on her grand quest to rescue you. I can’t believe that woman posted a very public video of where you were. Times may be safer now, but they will never be that safe.”
“Trista has that way about her,” Scott said, letting his arms sink onto the table and away from his belly.
