Page 70 of Bound By Blood

“Okay, good.” Carly’s relief felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.

“So,” Lily said, smiling a little. “When exactly do I get to meet Landon? Like, officially meet him?”

Carly wetted her lips, thinking it over for a second. “How about dinner tomorrow night?”

Lily blanched. “Will he be drinking blood?” she whispered.

“No.” Carly laughed again. She remembered being exactly where Lily was and all the supernatural tales that were both wrong and true. “He can eat human food, and he probably will, but it won’t taste good to him.”

“Okay, I can do that. Dinner sounds great.”

“Good,” Carly said. She stuffed her hands into her pockets and rocked back on her heels. “I don’t suppose you’d help me pack?”

Lily nodded and they headed down the hall together.

Once in Carly’s bedroom, the girls started to pack up Carly’s clothes. They laughed about old memories and talked about how they’d form new ones. How things would be different but in a new and good way. How they’d remain close, even though they weren’t living in the same house.

When they were finished and Carly’s bags were in the trunk, she turned to Lily and wrapped her arms around her neck. “I love you,” she whispered with all her heart. She meant every single word. Lily was her rock. Always had been and always would be. She wanted her to know that.

“I love you too.” Lily pulled away with watery eyes. “Now, go to your man. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

Carly nodded and wiped away her own tear. She hopped into the car and started the engine. When she pulled away and moved down the road, her eyes stayed on the review mirror, watching Lily, who was watching her go. She watched until Carly had to bend a corner, and Lily disappeared from sight.

Carly hadn’t expected the conversation to go over so well, but the fact that Lily trusted her enough to believe her spoke volumes. Lily would forever be part of her life. That would never change. She just knew that, even though her life would be different, some things would never change.

Chapter 27

Landon Creed

Landon was sitting in his office with Loxton, the two of them going over the plan for the business and talking about what was next for the vampires as a whole. Since Loxton had helped Landon take down his father and helped him to save Carly in the process, he had become Landon’s confidant and most trusted advisor. He helped Landon through the transition of power process, and since Oakley had been deemed a traitor and had been killed and buried alongside Drayton, Loxton was the only elder left. Landon had no intention of changing that though. He felt that Loxton was capable enough to handle the job himself.

Over the last few days since his father’s death, Landon had been extremely busy, making sure that the coven didn’t fall apart and making the necessary changes to take over as the leader. It had never been what he wanted, but now that he had the position, he wanted to do it the right way. So far, he felt he was rather successful.

Drayton’s estate had been completely cleaned out and was already sold to some rich, out-of-towner who wanted to use it as a vacation home. Landon had also made it a point to get out of the majority of dealings his father had set up. He didn’t want or need anything that would give the vampires more power. They had enough of that already. Basically, anything his father had his hand in, Landon gave up.

He was also in the process of rewriting and reworking the rules for his kind, giving them a bit more freedom and allowing them to live their lives the way they wanted to. The only stipulation was that they keep the existence of vampires hidden from the humans, just like it had always been. Only under very specific circumstances were they allowed to reveal themselves. So, in many ways, that one rule had become far more flexible.

Because the company had Landon listed as being second to his father, the transition to him taking over had been fairly easy. It just required him to do a lot of paperwork and a lot of staff changes. One of which was Irma, who was no longer employed there. While she had been a good secretary, Carly didn’t want her there, and whatever Carly wanted, Landon was happy to give her. He did have to provide Irma with a hefty severance package for her silence, but that was mere change in comparison to the amount of money he possessed now.

The vampires as a whole may not care about power, but they did care about money. They needed to make a living after all, and many vampires were used to lavish lifestyles. Landon had to make sure that they had ways of keeping the money rolling in in order to support them all.

Making such drastic changes was a lot of work and very time-consuming, but he truly believed that it would be worth it in the end. As it turned out, his father was the only one who had craved power. The others just wanted to live out their immortal lives in peace. Landon was hoping to be able to provide that for them.

Unlike Drayton, who refused to acknowledge the importance of the bond, Landon wasn’t afraid or ashamed of his bond with Carly or what it meant for him. In fact, he had Loxton write it down in some of the vampires’ lore books as a way to document it, in case it ever happened again and neither he nor Carly was around to explain it.

They documented everything they knew about the connection, everything they had learned from Kata, what he had experienced and felt himself, how strong the sensations were and how he could best describe them. It wasn’t much, but he hoped that it would help whoever went searching for that information.

Despite his earlier concerns, it had not been that difficult to get the other vampires to accept Carly and the bond they shared. They were all just as curious about it and their unborn child as both he and Carly were. She seemed to fit into his world fairly easily, further solidifying that they were meant to be together.

Because it had always been believed that vampires couldn’t procreate, they had no idea if the baby would be a vampire, an immortal, or a mere human. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t know until he or she was born. But they were preparing themselves for any possibility. Already, Carly was in the process of turning the spare room into a nursery, and he had caught her speaking softly to the kid when she thought no one was around. He knew how excited she was at becoming a mother, and he had little doubt that she would be a great one.

Unfortunately, he was in the opposite boat as that was probably what Landon was struggling with the most, the prospect of becoming a father. He had given up that dream centuries ago, back when he had first become a vampire. But now that it was a reality, he was suffering from all the fears of being a new father on top of so many others. However, he couldn’t deny that he was excited about it as well.

Landon wouldn’t go so far as to say that the whole ordeal with Carly and the baby made him feel human again, but he was at least far more stable than he used to be. His darkness was a bit more under control, and he didn’t crave bloodshed as often as he used to. Though, as Loxton had explained earlier, that was probably because he was the leader now and he wasn’t as bloodthirsty as his father was. The coven took on the characteristics of their leader, something he hadn’t realized until now.

“It’s okay to take a day off every now and then, you know,” Loxton stated with a smirk as he sat in the chair across from him.

Landon shook his head. If only it were that easy. He had spent the entire morning fielding phone calls and filling out paperwork, and still, he was nowhere near being done. “The sooner I get all this started, the sooner I can slow down and focus on building my life with Carly. I’m not just responsible for her anymore, Loxton. I have to make sure the vampires are taken care of too. They need stability. With Drayton dead, everything is in turmoil right now.”