Page 94 of Call of the Blood

“Don’t speak his name, or he’ll find a way to appear,” Alexius said quickly, looking annoyed. “I knew he’d try, eventually. With everything going on, it was only a matter of time. I was hoping we would get back to Savannah so Maria could tell him we were already gone, and he’d have to come to me. Or she can keep ignoring him. He can’t act against her the way he would any other disrespectful nest.”

“Why are you ignoring him?”

“That’s between him and me for right now. I know you don’t like him.”

“Okay. I don’t know why you tolerate him. I mean, he has his positives, but…”

Alexius stopped walking and sighed, looking me directly in the eye.

“The same reason you will tolerate Lexi. Someone important loves or loved them. Declan loves Lexi. Jacob loved Isaiah. The absence of Jacob doesn’t change that Isaiah was the love of Jacob’s life.”

“I can’t argue with that,” I said, making a face.

The rest of the night was making plans. Someone from Maria’s nest was going to schedule the moving of much of Declan’s things to Savannah, though it would take a few weeks to arrive. Alexius and I decided what room he would go in, and the humans at home had to be prepared for the safety protocols again for a new vampire.

“What will you do if he wants to come back here when he’s in control?”

I looked up from the notes and plans we were making at Alexius’s question, sighing.

“I don’t know. We’ll figure that out if it happens.”

“Okay. Just know, as an Orphan like you, the choice is all his. The nests he might want to join, the politics he’s part of. He’s not your vampire, Everly. Just like you aren’t mine or anyone from Edwin’s line.”

“I know,” I said softly.

But like so many other things, that had to be a problem for another day. I was still trying to deal with the fact that none of my human family had survived. Henry so easily destroyed it after everything it had survived. Everything I had worked for, lost. The hollowness would rise up from those thoughts, then I would distract myself and let myself feel fulfilled in other ways, and then it would come back.

The entire night went this way as we planned for the aftermath of Henry’s insanity. Every time I thought about Henry, questions came back. The entire picture would never be painted now, and I had to find peace with that. Henry had answered questions with silence when Alexius spoke to him and had robbed me of truths I had held for seventeen years. My father didn’t die naturally, which is what I had always believed, but now, I didn’t know how he really died. I only knew that Henry had either been the reason or the cause.

And not knowing was something I was going to have to live with. There wasn’t any reasonable way for me to find out anymore.

Only an hour from sunrise, Maria came to our suite.

“I have something. Here. You can take this home with you to save me on shipping.” She put the jar on the table between Alexius and me.

My uncle’s names were written on it.

It was over. We were going home and would heal, once again. This time, we were taking more than the dead home with us, though.

35

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Rupert welcomed me home with a hug, tight, warm, and caring.

“I’m so sorry, Everly,” he said as he held me. It was a struggle with the crutches I was required to carry around, even though my foot didn’t hurt this night.

“It’s… not fine, but you know. We make do.”

“If you need to talk to anyone, you let me know. I will either provide you the ear you need or find the ear you need. I’ll use every connection I have.”

“I’ll be okay, Rupert. I will. It… might take some time, but there’s no reason to think I can’t get past this. In the end, the person who caused so much tragedy in my life is dead. He can’t cause any more.” I pulled away. “That’s going to have to be good enough.”

But that hollow space in my chest wouldn’t dissipate. I pretended I wasn’t empty inside. I distracted myself from the broken thoughts of a person who lost what felt like everything. I had to keep taking steps forward, and we were finally home, back in Savannah, where we would be safe.

“Declan is in his room now. Whenever he finishes this Turn, he’ll be comfortable.” Alexius walked up to us, and Rupert backed away from me quickly, putting over two feet between us.

“He’s not naked like I was, right?” I’d ask why Rupert ran away from me later. I had a feeling, but I hoped Alexius wasn’t telling him that I couldn’t be near other men I wasn’t related to.