Secret Worlds (54 page)

He turned to me, his expression deflated and uncertain. “You could use your ability as a warning system. A way to protect yourself.” His gaze swept over my face, undoubtedly taking in the skepticism that had surely arrested my features. He frowned. “Before we talk about getting rid of them, let’s at least see what my parents have to say.”

AT A QUARTER TO SEVEN, voices tingled my subconscious. I listened long enough to determine their source before stopping by the kitchen. “Five minutes.”

Charles leaned against the stove. “They called?”

“I
heard
them. Something about you used to mash food in your hair as a baby,” I teased.

“Very funny,” he shot back.

I waited in the foyer until the doorbell rang. Charles walked up behind me, drying his hands on a dishtowel. He tucked the gingham square in his back pocket and placed a hand on my shoulder.

This was it. Meeting the parents.

I smoothed some non-existent wrinkles from my brown slacks and took a calming breath while Charles reached past me to open the door. I greeted each guest with a small nod. They weren’t at all what I expected.

Mr. Liette didn’t look much older than me. Mid-twenties, maybe? Same dark, toasted almond hair and deep teal eyes as his son, though Mr. Liette was pallid and sallow—not at all the same radiant glow of Charles and Mrs. Liette’s skin—and his style of dress was far more formal than his son’s, a red brocade vest peeking out from beneath his suit jacket.

Mrs. Liette looked younger than me, with hair all soft wisps and curls of auburn spiraling to her snow-dusted shoulders. Her cheekbones shimmered a pale lavender-pink and her eyes were bright emeralds, with facial features small and sharp, her hands tiny and fingers thin. She wore a lavender, empire-waist gown, the belt below her breasts braided with strands of cream-colored suede.

Charles cleared his throat, and I realized I’d been staring too long without speaking.

“Mr. Liette, Mrs. Liette,” I said. “Such a pleasure to meet you.” I offered my hand to Charles’ mom, who accepted and placed her other hand on top, her skin smooth and warm.

“The pleasure is mine, dear. Please, call me Valeria.” Valeria spoke in a warm voice that matched her smile. She turned to her husband. “This is Henry. We’ve heard wonderful things about you.”

She released my hand, and I offered mine to Henry. His touch was icier than Adrian’s had been, and I wondered if all Cruor were so cold or if Adrian and Henry were anomalies.

“Please, come in.” I stepped aside and motioned toward the living room.

Charles wrapped his mom in a hug. They looked more like siblings than mother and son. She closed her eyes and held him in the embrace for a long moment before releasing him, then her hand lingered on his cheek as she focused on him with the gentle, loving gaze only a mother could impart.

“I’m so glad you two came,” Charles said. “How was the trip?”

Henry, looking at Charles, tilted his head toward the door. Then he turned to Valeria and me. “Excuse us, please.”

What was
that
about?

Valeria’s smile never wavered. After the men stepped outside, Mr. Liette’s thoughts echoed through my mind:…
if we didn’t lose them at the edge of town.

My heart quickened, but I gave Valeria a smile I hoped covered my concerns. “I’ll put on some tea.”

I walked to the kitchen and tapped my fingers on the granite counter while water heated in the kettle. I needed to stay busy, stay out of the Liettes’ thoughts. I grabbed two carrots, an onion, a stalk of celery, and some white beans from the fridge.

Lost
who
at the edge of town?

“Let me give you a hand.”

I jumped. When I turned, Valeria was standing in the doorway.

“You startled me,” I said.

“Is everything all right, dear?”

“I think I’m just nervous.”

“Don’t be. Now, what’re you putting together?”

“A quick soup. Or I’m trying to. Charles is better with the cooking.”

“Scooch over.” Valeria eased beside me and chopped the carrots into tiny disks. “Whatever you have in the oven smells delicious.”

“Another one of Charles’ creations,” I said, immediately comfortable. “Hummingbird cake?”

The smile she offered didn’t reach her eyes. “His sister’s favorite. Fresh pineapple, bananas, cinnamon. Roasted pecans on top. I never would have guessed Charles would remember the recipe after all these years.”

She went on about the cake, but I was stuck on something else: “Charles has a sister?”

“Oh, dear.” Valeria stopped chopping. “Please, don’t mind me.” She went back to slicing, working a little slower. She slid the sliced carrots aside with the edge of the knife.

I debated responding, but by the time I worked up the nerve to speak, the moment had passed. We sliced the remaining vegetables in silence. Though I shouldn’t have, I tried using my curse/gift to pry for more, but she’d pushed the sister from her mind. Two other children—young twins, one girl and one boy—lingered in the first sister’s place.

The front door creaked and clicked shut, jolting me from her thoughts, and the men thudded their way to the kitchen. I felt as though I’d been caught stealing…a feeling I knew all too well and never wanted to relive. I needed to stay out of their heads.

“Smells good in here,” Henry said.

Valeria smiled over her shoulder. “Oh, hush.” To me, she said, “You do have blood on hand? Henry of course can’t have soup or cake.”

“Charles has some from his last hunt,” I said.

I’d nearly forgotten pure earth elementals couldn’t eat human food. When I was first getting to know Charles, he’d said he needed blood because he was Strigoi. In truth, he needed it because he was part Cruor. I gave Charles a long look as I swept the vegetables into my hand and plunked them into the soup pot.

Were there other things he wasn’t telling me? He’d never mentioned a sister.

Pouring some animal blood into a glass, I tried to pretend the red liquid was something else. I thought of blood oranges, but that put me off from oranges more than comforted me over the idea of warming blood.

I carried everyone’s drinks into the living room on a tea tray. As I handed Valeria a cup of tea, I glanced at Henry. He sipped his blood, and my stomach lurched. Charles never drank blood in my presence. The jug in the fridge was tolerable, but consumption was another matter.

Henry set aside his glass. “Relax and join us, Sophia.”

Everyone was already sitting. I’d been staring. I hurriedly sat next to Charles on the couch. “So…how did you two meet?”

Another award-winning icebreaker.

Valeria plunged right into her story. She told me she was born to one of Queen Anne Boleyn’s maids in 1531, and she and her mother stayed with the royal family even after Anne’s death, continuing under Queen Elizabeth the First’s reign.

“My mother hadn’t known my father was Strigoi,” Valeria said, “but once I hit my teen years, I began shifting. We confronted my father, who explained what I was and what it would mean for me, but he refused to offer any support. He wouldn’t even accept responsibility over my life, as it was frowned upon for someone of the court to mingle with servants.

“At first, I’d been unable to control when the shifts occurred. My mother feared someone at the court might learn and have me executed. She gave me what little money she had and sent me to the street, swiping tears from beneath her eyes and trying to keep her composure so that no one would read anything into the exchange taking place between us. Different times, back then.”

The air in the room grew heavier. I curled up my legs and sipped my tea as Valeria shared the story of how she met Henry, her words painting the history between them like a movie in my mind.

...

AS THE LAW of 1547 said, after three days without a job, Valeria had to offer to work for any employer for any wages, even if only for food and drink. But no one would hire her; they all wanted strong men.

It was Henry’s father who, after finding her begging at the market, finally took her to the local magistrate, where under law she was made a slave to their family for two years. She’d been in service to Henry’s father for a year when he found a necklace she had kept hidden—the only keepsake of her mother, her only symbol of hope. He took the necklace from her as payment for the food and shelter he provided, and she dared not argue.

One night, Henry went out, and a week passed before his return. He knocked on Valeria’s window and asked her to leave with him. “I’ve wanted you since the first time I laid eyes on you. Now I am certain we can have a life away from all this.”

“If they catch me, I’ll be branded to a life of slavery.”

Henry shook his head. “I promise no one will hurt you. Come now.”

She climbed out the window, and the two ran as far and as fast as they could—Valeria in such a state at the time that she hadn’t even noticed Henry keeping up with her own unusual speed. They didn’t stop running until they reached a small, windowless house with a thatched roof.

“You don’t open that door,” he told her.

He didn’t say anything else to her for three days.

Every night, he set out to hunt and returned with a small animal. He shucked its skin in silence, cleaned its meat, and cooked for only Valeria to eat. Rain fell on the forth night. The roof sagged, and vermin and insects fell from it to the dirt floor below. Though the beds were made from straw and ridden with lice and fleas, neither attempted to bother Valeria or Henry. Even the rats stayed away.

Why had Henry left his comfortable life with his father for
this
?

That night, Henry arrived home from his hunt with a live rabbit. He sat across from Valeria and locked his gaze on hers. Her stomach clenched, and she leaned back. Henry’s fangs descended, and he bit into the animal’s flesh and drank.

Valeria gasped.

“I didn’t ask for this,” he said in a low, gruff voice.

She softened. “I know.”

“And you?”

Valeria swallowed, looking down at her hands.

“I saw you,” he said, “shortly after my father brought you to us. You were a bird, and then you were standing naked in the service quarters.”

She bit her lip. “You didn’t say anything.”

“Would you prefer I had?”

Henry told Valeria how, coming home from a pub one night, he had been bitten and drained, left for dead. He sensed his maker out there somewhere, but could not find him. He found other Cruor and learned as much as possible before returning for her.

In the late 1600s, they learned of the new supernatural law—the law that the races were not to mix. But they were already pregnant with Charles and so were forced into hiding. Even today they stayed as far as possible from society—supernatural and otherwise—hoping that would provide Charles the opportunity to live without fear of persecution.

...

“WE WERE ON OUR OWN after that,” Valeria said, “but I think that was the least alone we’d ever felt.”

“I still don’t understand how you carried a child,” I said. “I thought the Cruor can’t have children.”

“They can’t,” Valeria said, “but as I am Strigoi, it is of no concern. So long as I didn’t shift, my womb and the child could grow.”

“Charles explained the Strigoi age if they don’t shift, but this isn’t true for him.”

Valeria pressed her lips together. “Charles and—” Valeria covered her mouth and coughed quietly. “Charles aged like any normal child would…the way a Strigoi would. At nineteen, he gained the ability to shift. But even without shifting, he’d stopped aging. We realized then his Cruor heritage ran deeper than we’d thought, more than merely his need for blood. Charles will never age beyond nineteen.”

Nineteen
? He certainly looked older. Technically, he
was
older. I couldn’t let the revelation rattle me. He was too old for me, he was too young for me…either way, all that mattered was the opportunity for us to age together.

“What if he
could
grow older?” I asked.

Valeria beamed. “Ah, yes! He asked us about this, and he has our blessing. Believe me, anything for love.”

He’d talked to his parents about this? I couldn’t contain the small bubble of hope that stirred within me.

“I think we’ve chatted enough,” Charles cut in. His voice had a steely edge, and he didn’t wait for a reaction before continuing. “Sophia is the descendant of a spirit elemental. We should focus our energies on discussing that instead.”

The change of subject was so sudden that even I was shaken by his statement. Valeria’s eyebrows arched, and Henry’s face gave a flicker of expression—concern, perhaps?

“Is this true?” Valeria asked.

“Yes.” I looked hesitantly to Charles. “I also hear people’s thoughts. Like you and your husband.”

“Well, that is something of a dilemma.” She sipped her tea and then set her cup aside. “But only because you think it to be, Sophia.”

“What do you mean?”

“Might you be able to tap into human thoughts as well?”

I bit my lip, considering. “I don’t believe so.”

“Clairaudience, then,” she said. “Not as odd as you might think.” She placed a hand over mine. “The thoughts of mortals and immortals are anchored in separate realms in order to protect elementals from mortal telepaths. However,” she continued, “clairaudients like yourself can bridge over to access the thoughts of immortals. It’s believed to be a common gift among witches and their descendants, since they are both supernatural as well as mortal.”

“The voices left once before,” I offered, “after Charles’ friend gave me Cruor blood to heal some injuries.”

“With his life source in your system, you were temporarily pulled from your own realm. Clairaudients cannot access thoughts in the realms they occupy, so you will not hear immortal thoughts when in the immortal realm.” She stared into the middle distance, smiling softly. “I’ve met someone like you once before. In Nepal. Anytime she drank Cruor blood, though, she heard human thoughts until the immortal essence filtered from her system. Did you experience likewise?”

I shook my head. Part in answer to her question and part in shock to learn others like me existed. “I don’t think so.”