Dawning (5 page)
He sipped his
drink then set it down on the table. “I won’t always be here, Nina.
You know that. Your mother will be around a lot longer.”
“Yeah, well,
that can’t be helped either.” Standing, I took my tea to the sink
and dumped it. I was no longer in the mood for a nice cup of
soothing tea. Talking about my mother had that affect. Anything
that comforting or joyful faded when I thought about her.
She had
abandoned me when I was ten and I had yet to forgive her. Nor did I
see that ever happening. In the past seventeen years, I’d seen her
only twice—both times on my birthday, once when I was turning
sixteen and the other time when I was turning twenty-one. She’d
arrived unexpectedly on the doorstep, bearing gifts for both Da and
I. As if expensive presents could make up for her abandonment.
For my sweet
sixteenth, she gave me a glass globe. Inside was a tiny village
made out of porcelain nestled in a wooded glen beside a tall
mountain. When you shook the globe, tiny glowing stars would dance
around. Quite beautiful. She told me it was the realm of Nightfall
where she had been born, the place she had left us for. Every time
I shook it, she said, she would know that I was thinking of
her.
Without
thanking her for it, I had smashed it into a thousand pieces on the
hard wood floor in our living room.
Da had yelled
at me and told me how ungrateful I had been. All the while, I
glared at A’lona, wishing her to vanish into mist. She had just
returned my look, but there had been no anger in her gaze or
malice. Just understanding. That had angered me the most. Because
if she had truly understood, she wouldn’t have left me in the first
place.
I remembered
spending the rest of the day in the room, crying and tearing apart
all my pretty things. Later, tired and hungry, I had snuck out of
my room to the kitchen to snag a piece of my birthday cake. As I
crept past my father’s room, I had heard them together. The
realization had angered and disgusted me, and I had almost burst
into the room to drag her out of the house by her hair. But I
didn’t. I couldn’t do that to my father.
After only a
day, A’lona had once again disappeared, and my father sunk into a
depression, sobbing until his throat was hoarse. For days after,
he’d refuse to eat or go to work. A week later, the depression
broke and he was back to his normal happy self.
So on my
twenty-first birthday when she showed up at the door again, bearing
gifts, I had thought for sure that Da would tell her to go back to
Nightfall and leave us be. But he didn’t. Once more, he had
welcomed her in with open arms.
I understood
then why it was that way. He’d been fae-struck and he’d always love
her, no matter what and no matter how long she’d leave him for.
Humans were cursed to love the fae forever. That was just one of
the reasons I wasn’t in a serious relationship. It just wouldn’t be
fair to the other person.
That time she
had given me an exquisite bracelet made from amethyst and
moonstone. Real moonstone, not the beads that pretend they are made
from the lunar rock. I had thanked her, kissed her on the cheek,
then that night when they had retired to my father’s room, I
sneaked outside and buried it in the garden.
Moonflowers
grew in that spot now, encircling a small pond where two toads have
taken up residence. Every night their dark blue petals unfurled to
soak up the moon’s rays—the exact spot where Da always saw the
pixies playing. Pixies from Nightfall, the place where my mother
was born and lived.
Movement
stirred behind me. I hadn’t heard Da move up behind me. He set his
empty cup on the counter and placed his quivering hand on my
shoulder. I leaned into his touch.
“You have to
stop hating her, Nina. It will only eat at you from the inside
out.”
I shook my
head. “Why should I? What has she done to deserve my
forgiveness?”
“She can’t help
what she is. Would you fault a wolf from hunting and killing its
prey to feed itself?”
Thoughts of
Severin instantly filled my mind.
“Its nature is
to do what it must to survive.” He squeezed my shoulder again then
let his hand fall. “So it is with your mother. She does what she
does to survive.”
I didn’t look
at him even when he pressed a quick kiss to my cheek and said,
“Goodnight, darling. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Night.”
I waited until
he’d left the kitchen before I rinsed and set our cups in the
dishwasher, his words mulling around in my head. I didn’t want to
consider that A’lona had valid motivations for what she did. To me,
there couldn’t have been any reason to abandon a child at the
tender age of ten. No reason to leave her without any explanation
to be raised by her father. I could never have done that.
I stood at the
sink and stared out the big window toward the backyard garden. The
moonflowers were in full bloom. Dark petals fluttered in the light
breeze as the stamens glowed like fireflies dancing in the
moonlight. If I squinted, I knew I would see the buzzing of wings
around the pond. Full dark was the perfect time for pixies to
play.
Instead,
yawning, I turned from the display, clicked off the light in the
kitchen and took the stairs to my bedroom. I was too tired to deal
with those from Nightfall. I had my own supernatural being to deal
with in this realm.
Severin’s sexy
rugged face and exquisite naked form planted firmly in my mind as I
shed my clothes and slid under the covers. There went my good
night’s sleep.
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About the
Author
2008
Romantic Times Reviewer Choice Winner
and Canadian author, Vivi
Anna likes to burn up the pages with her unique brand of fantasy
fiction. Vivi always writes fast paced action-adventure with strong
independent women that can kick some butt, and dark delicious
heroes to kill for. Readers can find out more about Vivi and her
work at
www.vivianna.net
.
Other books by
Vivi Anna:
NINA DECKER
NOVEL
Glimmer
VALORIAN
CHRONICLES
Blood
Secrets
Dark Lies
Veiled
Truth
The Vampire’s
Quest
The Vampire’s
Kiss
The Wolf’s
Heart – coming October 2011
HELL KAT
NOVELS
Hell Kat
Inferno
OTHERS
Demon
Dreamer
In the Company
of Wolves
Of the Moon
