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“But, if I do, I’ll want to stay.”
“Exactly. I think your heart is already given.”
“I can’t leave you. I won’t.”
“Abigail, the truth is, I don’t want you to leave Flagstaff either, not if it means you’ll never come back as just human. I’d rather keep you here as my big sis, the one I can always turn to no matter what happens, the one who gave me such tremendous security for a good long decade. But I think you need to do this especially since I know you’ve been unhappy for years now.”
“No I haven’t,” Abigail retorted. “I’ve enjoyed the bakery and I love your girls. You’re my life, Megs.”
“That’s not what I meant. Let me say it differently. You’ve never had a choice about your life before. Never. Now you do. And the only question you really need to ask right now is: what do you want?
“I’m not that sickly child anymore and our parents have been gone for a long time. I found the love of my life and I’ve built a life with him. The bakery, Abigail, well, it was the biggest gift you could have ever given me.
“I’m suited for this work, but the one thing I’ve come to realize, especially when you got so excited about opening a second bakery in Hollow Tree, is that you’re meant for different things, maybe even bigger things.” She gestured with a wave of her hand in the direction of the leaves she’d been making. “How many of those have you made?”
“What? The leaves?”
“Yeah, the leaves. How many have you made today?”
“None.”
“I’ve made about a thousand, did you know that?”
Abigail shrugged but she was a little surprised. “Really? Although, given how many cupcakes we sell, and how many leaves go on each one, it makes sense.” She laid her head on her knees. “Don’t you ever get bored, though?”
“You mean like you?”
“Yeah. Bored like me.”
“You’ve just made my point. I’m never bored. Not even making a thousand leaves a day. Never.”
At that, Abigail lifted her head and stared at her sister. “We’re very different, you and I.”
“Yes, we are.” Megan squeezed her arm. “I think you need to look at this situation differently and ask whether or not this new, unexpected path is the right one for you. Joe and I will adjust, so long as the girls get to see their Auntie Abigail every once in a while, fangs or not.”
Abigail couldn’t believe that Megan was actually giving her permission for something so outrageous. “So you really wouldn’t mind if I became a vampire?”
Megan shrugged. “I’ll admit it would be strange, and probably would be for awhile, but that’s not what matters. I want you to be happy and I want your life to mean something to you. Right now, here in Flagstaff, Abigail this isn’t your life you’re living. It’s mine.”
All the pieces fell together with those words. This was Megan’s life that Abigail helped build for her, with never a thought for herself. But she had meant what she had said. She’d never been unhappy.
But now, for the first time in her life, she could think beyond the bakery, beyond her human life, perhaps even embrace a life lived mostly at night, in the dark, in a castle, beside a wonderful vampire that yes, she had come to love.
“I love him,” she said.
“Oh, Abs, even I could see that.”
Abigail laughed. “I feel like I just wasted the last two weeks.”
“I would take that as an insult since you’ve been helping me, but in this case, I think I agree with you.”
Abigail’s heart grew light, as though a tremendous burden had been lifted. She turned to her sister and hugged her, although taking care since she was essentially still recovering from surgery.
“Thank you,” Abigail said. “I mean, I have no idea what has happened in the last couple of weeks or even if he wants me. But I’m going to find out.”
But even as she had this thought, a vibration passed through her and she had the worst feeling that something had gone wrong in Merhaine.
*** *** ***
With lightning speed above the ground, Gerrod swept past the frontline. He could see the troll family under attack by a wraith in flight circling above like, the vulture she was. He was battling deep in Shepherd County, in a rural area, his vampire ability to see at night setting the landscape in a glow. The creature would dive in, and strike, hurting one or the other of the three realm-folk huddled together.
Her partner, a vampire, also moved with astonishing speed, a sure sign they were symbiotic, a joined pair. The perversion of becoming Invictus added tremendous power and unfortunately a seemingly endless desire to do harm to the helpless.
The vampire was less subtle and jerked the husband away from mother and baby. He carried him a hundred yards distant and began to feast. The troll’s legs flopped up and down.
Derek pathed, We see them, Gerrod. Jason’s on his way.
Stay back for orders. Let me get this pair shredded and the family to safety.
He heard the troll baby shrieking and could see that it bore slices on its arms.
Fury tightened Gerrod’s chest. He readied his power as he flew in their direction, just a foot off the ground, upright, his hands and arms vibrating, ready to release killing streams of energy.
But just as he detected movement to both his left and his right, he was suddenly somersaulting through the air. His limbs were caught in what he finally recognized as some kind of netting.
With his face smashed into the netting and near the ground, his body upside down, he watched the wraith go in for the kill and finish the family off, shrieking her victory as she then flew in his direction, her eyes dark with blood-lust.
He couldn’t move. He couldn’t harness his power. And he couldn’t telepath his Guards.
What the hell had the Invictus done to him?
Then he smelled it: Fae magic, something done with oils. The netting was covered in it and in a flash, darkness spread over his mind, then nothing.
*** *** ***
Abigail got a strange sick feeling deep in her stomach, a stronger version of what she had felt earlier. She wiped the last of the tables. The hour was past eight and she was ready to close. Bakeries weren’t known for evening traffic and the last of the staff had just left. Megan had gone home hours earlier. Both Joe and Abigail had insisted on it.
But Megan had also insisted that she reschedule for the next few days so that Abigail could go back to Merhaine and make her final decision.
