Into Death's Arms (24 page)

   “Well I would assume it was that young man’s father.” She shrugged her shoulders, “he looks just like him.” She hustled off to get me a to-go box.

   I cocked my head to the side. “Did you know my mother?
That’s why you said we’d met?
” I asked the
Shifter
sitting across from me.  He looked down at his hands. A thought shook me to the marrow had my mother been unfaithful to my father.  Even I had to admit the
Shifter
was gorgeous.
I felt sick to my stomach. Earlier concerns about Laurna completely forgotten, “answer me!” I demanded in a voice just a little too loud.
The other diner’s turned to glare at me then quickly looked away.

    “You’re glowing AoD,” h
e whispered.
This time AoD didn’t sound like a curse but almost an endearment.
He was looking down at his lap avoiding eye contact.
I didn’t care. I continued to glare at him.  He sighed, “Yes, I knew her.” H
is voice was very soft, filled with regret. 

   I took a deep breath. “You met with her, here?” My voice was shaking. Laurna put a calming hand over mine. I looked up at her. Her eyes were filled with sorrow for me. She knew that I hated that I knew so little about my mother. She was my father’s world
.  P
lease God don’t tell me he wasn’t hers. 

     He lick
ed his lips. “Yes, every Friday,
” He looked up at me
his face full of pain
. “Sometimes you would come with
her.”
He
had
made some kind of decision I could read it in his eyes then h
e reached into his back pocket. Pulled out his wallet and held out a picture. I took it.  I looked down at the picture. My mother, Laith, and a two-year-old
version of me looked back
.

     I felt my jaw drop.
“I don’t u
nderstand,” m
y voice sounded wea
k even to me.
“Why would my mother meet with you? Why would she bring me?”
I was starting to feel a little faint.
I mean if she’d been
unfaithful,
she wouldn’t have brought her daughter along for the event would she?

    Laurna leaned over and took a good look at the picture.  “Wow! S
o you’re related to Macyn’s mom,
” she exclaimed.
It was like hearing her through a tunnel it took a minute for me to understand the words but when I did.

    My head snapped toward her so hard I think I h
urt something in my neck. “What,
” I hissed.

     “Jeez, Mace look at ‘em standing next to each other.” She pointed at the picture.
“They look just like each other,
” I looked closer.

  Then looked up at him, holy perceptive, jeez
,
indeed I sucked as an AoD I hadn’t even seen how much the
Shifter
sitting across from me looked like my own mother. How was I ever going
to get this all right? “You are,
” The fact that I was baffled must have shown clearly on my face.

    He chuckled. “Yeah,” he took the picture back and put it back in his wallet. “It’s the only one I’ve got and I bet you’ve got lots.” He was right I did.
Tons, I think for
a while
before they had me, dad went a little photo crazed.

    
This was too much. I could feel my blood pressure rising you know when your ears get all hot and you feel kind of queasy.
“How are you related,
” I rubbed my forehead hard. It hurt like mad. 

     He growled low.  Was that supposed to be an answer?  The owner came back and stuffed my food into a box for me.  I waited for her to go and opened my mouth to ask again.  He answered before I could. “I, I am not sure I should answer that.”
He looked tormented but I really didn’t have any patience for anybody else’s crap right now I was having a hell of a time dealing with my own.

   
For a moment, I contemplated killing him just loping of his head and walking away. Sure, it’d be on the news and I’d probably get locked up for life but it was seeming like a fine option.
“You better answer
it;
I am getting real sick of this silly game
you are playing with me. You’re gonna answer or Laurna
and I
are out of here and I have the pretty distinct feeling you didn’t come here in the first place just to piss me off.”  I grabbed my purse and my to-go box and started to stand up.

   He held up a hand
, a placating gesture
.
I was so not in the mood to be placated.
“You are
right,” h
e took a deep breath.
“Iris is related to me in exactly the same way she is related to you.”

   Huh was that English. I hated that whole double talk t
hing he was…wait a minute…  “No,
” I exclaimed very loudly.
Nobody glared at me this time.
  I stood completely.  “That isn’t possible.” I hissed at him. “My mother would never…” I dropped my
voice so
only he and Laurna could hear me. “My
mother would never have
sex with
a
Shifter
.
Let alone let herself get pregnant by one.
”
Disgust coiled deep in my belly. It wasn’t possible my mother was a good AoLi one of the best.

   
I took a deep breath I knew I was glowing and had to get that under control before someone looked
too
closely at me.
I know I had just been thinking about the fact that she might have had an affair with Laith but he was gorgeous. I’d seen Kinsley he wasn’t he was…I shuddered.

    He nodded like he was agreeing with me. “Iris was held prisoner by Kinsley for something like fifty years.”
Oh,
God he was agreeing with me.

    “So,” I felt faint maybe I should have eaten something Father
Mike
had warned me about eating regularly. I wasn’t done with the after effects of the change. I needed to keep up my strength.  “Wait I thought
Shifters
could only breed with one person, a mate or something like that?”

   He smiled,
his eyes lit up with a hellish type of glee.
“Why do you think he hates your father so? He may be able to play with his harem but he can’t breed with any of them.” He barked out a loud laugh, “and he doesn’t exactly like the one son he did manage to get out of her.” I blinked several times. I had little motes floating in my vision now. “
Are you
alright?” he reached out toward me.

    
I jerked away from him.
“I’m fine,
” I was
n’t so sure. “You’re my brother,
”
I asked
he nodded
in agreement
.
No way, I screamed mentally. This was just too
farfetched
. Did this
Shifter
really think I was going to buy this? I looked again at that blond hair just like my mothers. Oh God…
“Does my father know?”
What was wrong with me? My vision began to fade in and out.
I felt like hell.

      “I don’t think so, Macy
n..
.?
”
my name was the last thing I heard before I fell toward the floor.

    I woke in my own bed, wondering how I got there, until I heard voices outside my room.

     “You don’t have to leave,
”
Laurna said.

      “I really think I should, I’ve obviously upset her so much she had some sor
t of seizure,
” Laith answered her.

       “Pshaw… vain much,
” she asked. “I doubt very much it was you. I heard Father
Mike
give her very strict orders about her diet. She is supposed to eat four large meals every day and I am willing to bet she hasn’t been. You don’t know her like I do. She worries about everyone else all the time and never takes the time to take care of herself.
”

   He laughed it echoed down the hall reverberating around the house making it sound full. “Mom was like that.
I just didn’t expect it from an AoD.
” No, I thought my mom. He couldn’t have her she was mine, only he kept talking,
“
You know, she hated my father
,
but never failed to take care of me. I’ve known my whole life how I was conceived but she never made me feel unwanted
,
not once.
” His voice was rough with emotion.
My mom
,
I thought again this time a little less vehemently.

    “She is always telling me I have to stay away from her because the
Shadow-born
are after her but if I go who wil
l make sure she’s taken care of,
” she sighed. “I’m gonna heat up her food a
nd make sure she eats. You stay,
” She stated firmly.
As well as I knew
Laurna,
I bet she had shoved him into a chair and was shaking a finger at him.

    He sighed roughly,
I heard him rise, yep, she chaired him, then
I heard him lean against the wall. The sigh as the clothing he wore slid across the wall.

    “I can hear you out there,
” I announced.

   The door opened and he came in. I almost laughed who would have thought I would have a
Shifter
in my bedroom.  I’d never thought to ever have any
Shadow-born
in my bedroom. Okay maybe Tameron once or twice but that was just hormonal, my reaction to his power which was way out of my league.

    Laith stalked across the room. I have to say stalked because there is no other way to describe it. To say walked just isn’t adequate he moved with a predatorily grace that made me
think of the lions at the zoo.
He opened one of the shades so sunlight could filter into the room it fell across my bed making me feel sa
fe and warm. “Do you need water,
” he asked softly concern filled his black eyes.
He wasn’t supposed to be concerned about me.

   This was just too weird. I had a beautiful
Shifter
in my bedroom. Leaning over my bed
, all
filled up with concern for me? It was surreal.
Shifter
’s no matter what their relation did not care what happened to
Ao
.
I nodded my head
,
water sounded good
, really good
.  He shook his head in agreement spilling blond hair ove
r his face. “I’ll be right back,” h
e moved through the door and peeked just his head back in. “Laurna’s not wrong AoD you should take better care of yourself
, because if you don’t some
Shadow-born
is gonna snatch up that best friend of yours
.”
He licked his lips in a very exaggerated motion, t
hen he was off again.
I wondered briefly if all
Shifters
were that graceful.

    A soft growling sound filled my head. I blinked several times before I realized it was Dayton Tameron again.
I thought I had gotten rid of you.
I stated.

    
Not hardly, I was giving you some
time to develop your powers. Why is there a
Shifter
in your bedroom?
Anger laced his voice. The feel of it in my head caused me to break out in goose bumps all down my arms and back.

   
I rubbed my arms vigorously.
Why the hell are you so mad
?
I wanted to add that he was making me shivery but I didn’t think it was the best idea to announce to a
Vamp
ire
he had a distinct advantage over you.

     He sent anger again this time hot enough to make me gasp aloud.
It felt like a fire poker against my skin,
w
hy
is the
re
a
Shifter
in your room?
What the hell?  Was he jealous?
Wait no that is just too funny, I was
being cared for by my brother
,
who
was
also a
Shifter
while a
Vamp
ire
was
getting all mad because aforementioned brother happens to be on the
good-looking
side.

    I laughed I couldn’t help it the thought was just too funny. Tameron wanted me dead. He scr
ewed with my hormones because he could it
was
within
his power and it made me an easier kill.
All the rest was just nonsense. He felt my merriment through the link though I hadn’t given him a verbal response and
I
was getting much better at shielding my thought
s
from him.