by BE Kelly
“Busy bodies,” Duff grumbled.
“I’m sorry,” Eden said. “I didn’t know or I wouldn’t have pushed. I didn’t mean to cause a scene.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Duff insisted. “We shouldn’t have lied to you and everyone else needs to mind their damn business.”
“He’s right,” Anson agreed, “you didn’t do anything wrong.” She smiled at him and Anson smirked back at her.
“And?” she asked.
“And I shouldn’t have lied to you, Eden. It won’t happen again,” Anson promised.
“We give you our word,” Duff added.
“I appreciate that,” she said. “Now, how about you two take me to town and show me around? I need some new things and I’d still like to do some research.”
“It’s a date,” Duff agreed.
Eden
They spent the rest of the day together and she couldn’t remember having a better time. She picked up way too many new outfits and some things for her room, including some bedding that was more to her taste, a lamp, and some pillows. A girl could never have too many throw pillows. She got the supplies she needed for her classes and even had time to swing by the book store on campus, before it closed, to pick up her books. The only thing they didn’t have time for was going to the library to do some research on her Aunt Bianca’s death, and she wondered if that was intentional.
The guys didn’t seem to want her to look into Bianca’s death and she wasn’t sure her father would be any happier with her snooping. Anson and Duff dropped her off at her dorm room after dinner and promised to meet up with her bright and early for breakfast. She was hoping that they would want to hang out—maybe even spend the night, but they seemed to want to take things slowly with her. They both gave her a scorching kiss goodbye and when she pushed them out of her dorm room and shut the door, she felt about ready to collapse, but she still had one more chore to check off of her “to do” list—calling her father. It was time for some answers and she was sure that her father would have most of them for her.
“Eden,” her father answered after the first ring. “How is Graystone?” She was sure that question was going to get old over the next four years. Now that she was on campus, her father seemed more interested in the campus and academy than he was about her and her well-being.
“The academy is fine, Dad. I’m fine too, thanks for asking,” she sassed. Her father sighed into the cell phone and she knew that he was already done with their conversation. This call was a new record. Usually, it took at least five minutes before he was ready to get off of the phone with her.
“You don’t make it easy, do you, Eden?” he asked.
“Nope,” she breathed. “I like to keep you on your toes, Dad. I called for two reasons,” she said. “First, to say thank you for the money you wired into my account. I was able to do some shopping today and get some new clothes and things I need for the room—you know, to make it my own.”
“You are very welcome. It’s important for you to settle in and add your own flare and style to the room. It was the least I could do to help since your mother couldn’t get your things up to you,” he said. Her father liked to get his little jabs in whenever he could, especially when it came to her mother. He was right, sending money was the least he could do to help her out, but she learned a long time ago to take what she could get from him and be grateful that they had any semblance of a father/daughter relationship.
“What’s the second reason why you called tonight?” her father asked. Yeah—this was the part he wasn’t going to like very much, but she needed to know.
“It’s about your sister, Bianca,” she said. The silence on the other end made her think that maybe her father hung up on her. “Dad,” she said.
“I’m here,” he said. “Your mother told me that you asked her about my sister when you were younger. Didn’t she answer your questions?” he asked.
“Some of them, yes,” she said. “But I’m wondering how she died.”
“It’s something I don’t like talking about, Eden,” he breathed. She could hear the pain in his voice and she felt bad about putting it there, but Bianca was her aunt and Eden had a right to know what happened to her.
“I know, Dad. I’d like to know more about my aunt,” she said. “Please.”
“I don’t know how much I can tell you. We were both students at Graystone when it happened. Your aunt was three years behind me in school and when it happened, my family sheltered me from a lot of the news surrounding her death,” he said. “I guess they were trying to protect me.”
“What about kids on campus?” she asked. “Didn’t they talk?” Eden thought back to the little scene in the dining hall, earlier that day with Anson and Duff. She knew firsthand how kids around campus liked to talk.
“Sure,” her father admitted. “But I also learned to ignore the gossip. Being a Graystone, the other students will talk about you constantly. You will need to learn to tune that out, Eden. Otherwise, you will go insane with the gossip that floats around campus.” She was already learning that hard lesson, but she was going to keep that little bit of information to herself.
“What did your family tell you about Bianca?” she asked, switching the focus from herself back to her aunt.
“Just that she was found in the woods. They said she had been attacked and believed it was a wolf shifter who did it,” her father said.
“Was the wolf shifter a Kirkpatrick?” she whispered, sure that she already knew the answer to her question.
“How do you know that?” her father asked. “His name is Dugan Kirkpatrick. He dated Bianca behind our family’s back. Our father put me in charge of her care on campus. He told me to keep an eye on her and when that shifter came sniffing around, I couldn’t stand by and let it happen. She knew better than to date a wolf shifter,” he growled into the cell. His words stung, like a personal assault, and she knew that telling her father about Anson and Duff was out of the question.
“Why do you believe it’s him?” she asked. “You said he was dating Aunt Bianca. If that was the case, why would you believe he’d hurt her?”
“Because he’s a wolf shifter and that’s what they do,” he grumbled.
“Not all wolf shifter’s are bad, dad. That would be like saying that all witches practice the dark arts and are evil. I think you were more upset that your sister went behind your back and dated a shifter. Could that be why you still blame him for her death? How do you know she was attacked by a shifter?”
“Because her insides were torn out,” he almost whispered. “That little bit of information I learned on my own. My father would have never told me that. Bianca was basically gutted. She was murdered by a supernatural and if I had to guess, it was a wolf shifter who did it. Duncan Kirkpatrick had means and motive—he wanted to keep her all to himself and when he couldn’t have her anymore, he killed her. It’s simple really.”
“What happened to Duncan Kirkpatrick?” she asked, although she already knew the answer to her question, having met his sons.
“Nothing,” her father breathed. “I raised him up as a suspect to both the local authorities and the school administrators, and neither of them did anything but question him. He was the one who found her. Says he stumbled across her body while out for a run in the forest, but I know the truth—he killed her.”
Eden gasped—it was the same way Anson had found his friend Geneva. She wondered if Anson was seeing Gen or if they were truly just friends. Everything else in the story matched up. Anson said he was just out for a run and stumbled upon her. Gen’s insides were ripped out and even though the school’s administrators and the authorities questioned him, he was released and Gen’s murder was deemed a cold case. Those were too many coincidences to be just that. Things were just not adding up. She was going to have to do some research on her end before she jumped to any conclusions, but she had a feeling that the Graystones and the Kirkpatricks were connected more than any of them ever dreamed possi
ble.
Eden skipped the dining hall the next morning, wanting to get a head start on doing some research. She looked up some of Graystone’s history—from the founding of the school back in 1839, by her six times great-grandfather, Atticus Graystone. He built the building that now housed her dormitory—Graystone Hall. She found it fascinating that one of the co-founders of the academy was a man named Stewart Kirkpatrick. The two men stood side by side in a founders day picture that she found from the ribbon-cutting ceremony before they broke ground on the library. A little more research showed her that Kirkpatricks helped build most of the present-day academy and she wasn’t sure why her father would have an issue with his sister wanting to date Dugan Kirkpatrick. From the historical pictures that she found online, it looked like Kirkpatricks and Graystones had been friends since the academy's beginnings.
Anson had been blowing up her phone all morning after she told the guys that she wasn’t hungry and would be skipping their breakfast date. Classes were going to start in just a couple of days and she wanted to get settled and do as much research as possible before they did. Blowing off Duff and Anson was harder than she imagined it would be and when they showed up at the library with a takeout container of food, she shouldn’t have been surprised.
Duff put the container of food on the desk next to her and her traitorous stomach growled as if it agreed with the guys that she had neglected it. “Really guys?” she questioned.
“You could have just told us you were at the library nosing into our family history,” Duff said, nodding to the computer screen. She had a picture of one of their distant grandfathers pulled up and she realized that there would be no denying that she was snooping through their family tree.
“Well, I started with my six times great-grandfather, Atticus Graystone and that’s when I found your six times great-grandfather, standing next to him. Stewart Kirkpatrick was a co-founder of the college. Did you two know that?” she asked.
Anson sat down on one side of her and Duff on the other.
“I guess we did. I mean, our father has told us stories about how the academy was founded by Graystones and Kirkpatricks but then he usually ended up on a tangent, telling us stories about how the Graystone family did us wrong and swindled us out of our rightful spot in the academy. We just thought he was bitter because of the feud between our two families,” Anson said.
“We never really paid much attention to him after he’d start ranting. We just let him say his peace and go about our day,” Duff added. “Could it have all been true? Did our families found Graystone Academy together?”
“Looks like it,” Eden said, pointing to the computer screen. “But why would your father lie to you all these years? Why would both of our father’s keep the truth from us?” she wondered.
Anson scrolled through the pictures that she had downloaded to a zip file and stopped on the one of his father and her aunt. It was one of the last pictures she found. Eden had to comb through the yearbooks that coordinated with the dates that her father attended school there. Dugan had his arm around Bianca and they were both smiling for the camera. They looked happy and dare she think it—in love.
“I don’t know why this would all have been kept a secret from us, but I plan on finding out,” Anson said.
“I agree, Brother. It’s time to have some questions answered,” Duff said. “I think we should make a quick run home.” He turned to face Eden and smiled. “Wanna come home with us for a night and meet dear old Dad?” he asked.
“My classes start in two days,” she said.
“Well, our father lives about thirty minutes from here, so we can run home and still be back in time for your first class,” Anson said. “So, how about it? Want to do some more research?”
Anson knew that he was really selling their idea by bringing up the whole research thing. “Research, huh?” she asked. “You already know me so well.” She wasn’t sure if it was a good idea for her to go home with Anson and Duff since she just met them, but they were right, she wanted to do some more digging to find out what was going on between their families. It might be the only way the three of them would be able to move forward, and she wanted that more than anything.
Anson
Anson decided not to give his father a heads up that they were coming by. What would be the point? Once he told his father that he and Duff were bringing home a Graystone, he’d go on a tangent about all of the injustices that had made his life so unfair. As if living in a mansion, surrounded by staff and the finer things in life, was a hardship.
They were about ten minutes out and he knew that it was time for him and Duff to have a little talk with Eden—one that she wasn’t going to like. “We need to talk, Eden,” Anson said.
“That sounds serious,” she said. “I’ve admitted that I don’t have a lot of experience in the relationship area but isn’t that something you should say to me at the end of our relationship, and not the beginning?” she teased.
“Wow,” Duff breathed. “You’re already thinking about the end of our relationship, Eden?” he asked, feigning hurt.
“Anson was the one who brought up having to talk,” she defended. “Don’t try to pin this on me. So, what do we need to discuss?” she asked.
“Your name,” Anson blurted out. Yeah—he needed to work on his delivery. He was never very good at breaking something “gently” to others. He was a cut to the chase kind of guy.
“My name?” she questioned.
“Yeah—if our father finds out that you’re a Graystone he’ll never give us the information that we’re looking for. To him, the feud between our families is very real. If you want answers, we’ll have to omit your last name when we introduce you,” Duff said.
“Or I could just use my mother’s maiden name,” she offered. “Her last name was Street. Just introduce me as Eden Street,” she said. He knew that she didn’t like the idea, but Anson was grateful that she was granting them this concession.
“Thank you, Eden,” Anson said. “I appreciate that you’re willing to do that for us.”
“You’re right,” she said. “I talked to my father yesterday and he said some pretty hateful things about your father. Even when I told him that not all shifters are bad, he insisted that didn’t apply to Kirkpatrick shifters. Whatever happened between your father and mine, it was bad. They hate each other and we need to find out why, after generations of Kirkpatricks and Graystones being friends, that streak ended with our fathers.”
“Okay, so you’re Eden Street for the next twenty-four hours and we’ll find a way to get some answers,” Duff said.
Anson chuckled and Eden looked at him as if he lost his mind. “What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Well, this is just a very strange way for the three of us to get to know each other. Hell, you only just agreed to give us a chance and here we are taking you home to meet our father,” Anson said. Their whole “relationship” if that was what it could even be called, was a complete shit storm.
“Will your father mind you bringing home a random friend from the academy?” she asked. Their father didn’t pay much attention to who they brought home or whom they were dating. Hell, he didn’t seem to care that Duff and he shared women. That was all too much information for their father and he’d have to be more involved in their lives to care.
“Not really,” Duff admitted. “We’ll be lucky to get ten minutes with the man. He’s usually busy with work or drunk off his ass, so fingers crossed we can talk to sober dad for at least a few moments.”
“The other thing is—no magic,” Anson said. He had noticed her using her magic here and there over the past few days. Most witches around campus flaunted their abilities, but not Eden. She seemed to quietly hide the fact that she was a witch. It was almost as if she didn’t like using her gifts, especially around other people.
“No magic?” she asked.
“It’s our father’s rule. When Duff and I were kids, he got sick of us being able to communicate with eac
h other and me reading minds. So, we all made a pact—no magic while we are home,” Anson said.
“So you just gave your word and it’s a done deal—no magic?” she asked.
“A wolf’s word is his bond. We agreed and that’s that. We aren’t allowed to use our gifts in the house and I know Dad will expect the same from you,” Duff said.
“Okay—I agree. I don’t like to use my abilities anyway,” she admitted. “I didn’t get my gifts, as you call them, until later. In fact, my father worried that I wasn’t ever going to become a witch. As soon as I got my abilities, he started making plans to sign me up to Graystone so that I could follow in his footsteps.”
“Thank you for agreeing to our stipulations. I know that we’re asking a lot but it’s only for a night,” Anson said.
“No problem,” Eden breathed. “I just hope this is worth it and we can get some answers.”
“Me too,” Anson agreed. He worried that they were making this trip home in vein and possibly exposing their relationship with Eden. That was the last thing he wanted to do but if they didn’t get some answers, their relationship would be doomed before it even had a chance to take off.
He pulled into the driveway and he could feel his brother’s anxiety over being home. Even though they lived close, they didn’t get home very often because what was the point? Their father wasn’t around very much and they didn’t really grow up in the house. It didn’t feel like home—not without their mum there. Going home now felt empty and depressing, and he and Duff avoided the trip at all costs.
“Wow,” Eden breathed. “You’re family’s house is so big. It’s beautiful.”
“Our great-grandfather built the house,” Duff said. “He wanted to be close to the academy but far enough away to have his privacy. This place became his refuge and it’s just been passed down from generation to generation. We grew up in Scotland, but whenever our father was teaching at Graystone, we’d stay here, at this house.”
