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“So the accounts are still valid?” I asked.
“Oh yes. They all have grown considerably over the past decade. We have a team of investors dedicated to your accounts. We take care of all of our clients here,” he said and shot a quick look at Markus, who was still glaring. Mr. Ronin visibly gulped before he turned to his computer. He printed a document and was going to hand it to me before he hesitated. “I’m really sorry, miss, but I need to see identification.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Markus growled loudly. I could feel the rage and knew Atlas was just under the surface at this point.
“Sweetie, it’s fine. It’s procedure.” I tried to smile at Mr. Ronin as I reached for my purse. I handed him the ID Markus had insisted on getting the week after leaving Blood Moon.
“Thank you for understanding,” he said, his hand shaking as he took it. I could smell nothing but fear coming from him as he handed me the papers he had printed out, and my ID a few moments later. The door opened behind us before I could look at them.
“Everything okay, Mr. Ronin?” A security guard asked as he looked between us and the banker.
“Of course! Yes. Everything is fine. Just a misunderstanding,” he said quickly, shooing him away from his office.
I looked at the papers he handed me, and I worked very hard not to let my eyes bug out the same way he had when he saw my name. I handed them quietly to Markus, who flipped through them with a raised eyebrow.
“She will need some debit cards and checkbooks to access her accounts,” Markus pointed out, glaring at Mr. Ronin again.
“Of course. I can order all of that straight away. I will need some paperwork filled out for the checkbooks, and she can select what she wants from it. About seventy percent of the funds are tied up in investments; the rest are in savings. We will need some advanced notice if you want us to withdraw any of the funds.”
“That won’t be necessary just yet,” Markus explained. “We will consult with my attorney first if we decide to liquidate our accounts or transfer them to another institution.”
I sighed as Mr. Ronin became even more flustered as he worked his computer as fast as his old fingers could go.
‘You’re basically threatening to shut his bank branch down, my love. Is that really necessary?’I asked Markus and watched as his lip twitched as he suppressed a smirk.
‘Yes, it is Tuli. We can’t kill him for his disrespect to you. The least you can do is let Atlas and me watch this human squirm for what he said,’Markus responded, and I tried not to laugh. It would only encourage them both.
“I also have a safety deposit box key. Could we have a look at its contents, please?” I asked Mr. Ronin, showing him the key after he made me choose check templates and debit cards and had me fill out a bunch of information regarding some credit cards. All the information was making my head hurt.
“Of course. How could I forget? We had to restructure the entire vault to make his deposit box,” he answered standing up. We followed behind him, Markus slipping his fingers through mine. More than a few women checked Markus out as we crossed the bank floor, making Kara and me want to growl. I could feel it building in my chest. He was holding my hand; it should be clear he was taken, even to humans. Markus let go of my hand abruptly, and before I could complain, he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close. I looked up at him and saw him smirk down at me knowingly. I blushed, busted.
‘You’re so cute when you’re jealous,’he mind-linked smugly. I didn’t bother to respond.
“Here we are. I will give you some time,” Mr. Ronin said as he motioned to a giant locker-style deposit box before he closed the door behind him.
“Are you ready for this Tuli?” Markus asked, eyeing the giant safety deposit box with some trepidation. I took a deep steadying breath and nodded, grabbing the key and unlocking the door. It opened to reveal about ten different regular-sized deposit boxes. I grabbed the first one and brought it out onto the table. Markus grabbed the second and placed it next to it, and so we went until we’d gotten all ten boxes onto the table.
I opened the first one with a shaky hand. It contained stacks of pictures of my parents and myself. I looked through them with Markus’ chin on my shoulder. At the bottom of the stacks was a memory stick, which I hoped contained more pictures on it.
The second box had a pretty basic last will and testament, where they left everything to me and listed Alexander as my guardian and trustee. I found a few more deeds in my name and a couple still in my parents’ names along with car titles and other documents.
“We can drop the will and all the titles and deeds to my attorneys before we head home so they can start transferring everything over to you. The ones in their name might have been transferred to Alpha Geoff as part of the challenge, but it doesn’t hurt to have a look,” Markus said as he piled things into categories.
Two of the deposit boxes were full of jewelry. We decided to keep most of it in the deposit boxes for now, but I took a set of sapphire jewelry that would complement my eyes and some amber pieces that I thought I might be able to wear for the ceremony.
The next four boxes had what looked like formal and ceremonial dresses. I knew my mother was Mexican, but I didn’t know she had such beautiful pieces from home. They were breathtaking and, if I wasn’t mistaken, handmade. The intricate, delicate stitches decorated some part of each dress with what I’d begun to recognize as Aztec symbols. I’d been doing a lot of research since my visit with the Moon Goddess. They looked old, but new at the same time, almost as if they were made of magic.
Only one of the dresses didn’t look like it belonged with the theme of the other dresses. It was a light-yellow bohemian-style halter dress with light fabric under handmade lace. It had brown beading dangling curtain style in the torso. The material ended around the knee level, but the lace fabric continued down to cover the legs. Something about it called to me when Markus pulled it out and I had to touch it.
I felt my body jerk backward the moment I did. I saw a younger version of my father. It was nighttime, but I could still see the curly mop of black hair, blue eyes, and the soft smile I never forgot. He was in loose khaki slacks and a light button shirt with the top four buttons undone, the sleeves rolled up, talking to a younger version of Lucien and looking up at the full moon, laughing at something Lucien was telling him. A younger version of my mother came out wearing the dress that triggered the vision of a place called Cantina de la Loba. My father’s head suddenly turned upwards, nose sniffing the air. He looked around until his eyes connected with my mother’s. “Mate” His eyes turned black as he approached my mother, who smiled widely at him.
I jerked forward and found myself back in the present, where Markus was looking at me with his head cocked.
“What did I just see?” he asked, and I smiled.
“I think that was the moment my parents found each other,” I answered, looking down at the dress. A sudden thought occurred to me and I had to ask, “Did you see the vision I had during Lucian’s funeral?”
“I saw something. It wasn’t clear though. It was like I was looking at it through a fog. I just saw figures running and heard laughter. I couldn’t make sense of it. Part of me thought I imagined it.” He looked at me funny.
