She shoved off the counter and hurried outof the kitchen to her bedroom once more. Aiden prowled after her.Standing in the doorway of her bedroom, he gazed at the paintingsof ocean scenes on the walls and the blue comforter on the neatlymade bed. He heard her muttering to someone in the bathroom to hisright and turned to find her pouring water out of a fishbowl.
“It’s okay, Beta Blue. I’ll get you somefresh water soon.” She came out of the bathroom with the bowlclasped in both hands. She stopped when she saw him and hugged thebowl against her chest as if he were going to take it from her.“I’m not leaving him.”
“You don’t have to. I’ll ask Declan to takecare of the plants for you if we can’t come back soon.”
Maggie’s heart melted; her shouldersslumped. “I know it seems stupid, but….” Her words trailed off asshe gazed at the plants hanging from their hooks and cluttering hersills. Many of them were orchids, but she had spider plants, anorange tree, two ferns, and three red prayer plants. She’d ownedthem all since they could fit in her palm.
“I care for them,” she admitted. “And BetaBlue, or Blue as he’s better known, he’s been keeping me companyfor three years now.”
“It’s not stupid,” he said, “but we have toget out of here.”
She followed him back into the living roomwith Blue.
CHAPTER 23
Maggie watched the city flash by from thepassenger seat of the black Toyota. She’d spent her life in andaround Boston. Normally it felt like her home; today it felt likeenemies lurked in every corner of the vast city.
“I feel like I can’t trust anyone,” shemurmured.
“You can trust me.”
“I haven’t known you for twenty-four hoursyet, so I’m not ready to hop on the trust train with you. I onlycame with you because I trust you more than a stranger. You everhear the saying the devil you know is better than the devil youdon’t?”
“And I’m the devil?”
“I haven’t decided.”
He smiled at her. “Let me know when youdo.”
“I will.”
“The amount of time you know someone doesn’talways matter when it comes to trust. Sometimes you can know aperson for years and still never trust them.”
“True. We never can know what another personor vampire is thinking.”
“But there are some we trust as much asourselves.”There are some I trust more than myself,Aidenthought.
“Do you have anyone like that?”
“My parents, my siblings, and theStooges.”
“Who are the Stooges?”
“Mike, David, Doug, and Jack. They all grewup with my dad and were all turned into vampires around the sametime as each other. They’ve been together ever since. The Stoogesare like uncles to my siblings and me. Do you have anyone youtrust?”
She rested her hand on top of Blue’s bowl asshe shifted it in her lap. “I have Roger.”
“What about your parents?”
Maggie absently traced the opening of Blue’sbowl. “I don’t know who my father is, and my mom is nuts.”
He chuckled. “I think all moms can be alittle nuts, but I’m sure it has nothing to do with theirchildren.”
“I’m sure it doesn’t either,” Maggie saidwith a smile. “But my mother reallyiscertifiable. She’salso a murderer. She was locked away before I was born. I haven’tseen her since the day I turned eighteen. Which is also the onlytime, other than my birth, I’ve ever seen her. While I was a wardof the state, I wasn’t told anything about her. On my eighteenthbirthday, I learned the truth about her, where she was, and I wentto see her. I swore I’d never go back.”
There were only two people she’d ever toldabout her mother. One was Roger, and the other was dead. She didn’tknow why she’d revealed it to Aiden, but she figured he shouldprobably have a heads-up if they were going to spend an unspecifiedamount of time together. If she were going to go crazy too, itwould probably happen before all this was over, so he deserved tobe warned she had homicidal lunatic ingrained in her DNA.
However, after last night, she knew her momwasn’t crazy after all, at least not entirely. At the very least,her mother had hit on the truth in her ravings.
