Holly smiles at him. “Thank you for everything.”
“It is my pleasure.” Cody draws himself up to full height. “I think you should share everything with your mother, she has a good soul and can handle this.” He leaves Holly staring after him, confused and contemplative.
“Holly?” her mom whispers from the bed. “Are you there, Holly?”
“Yeah, Mom. I’m here.” Holly pops up and takes her Mom’s hand. “Do you need something?”
“I had a strange dream.” She looks pale and shrunken in the giant hospital bed, as if she’s withering away before Holly’s eyes.
“What was it about?” Holly asks, sitting on the edge of the bed beside her mother.
“I dreamed that Tristan came back and asked me if he could marry you.” Her mom’s eyes look past Holly, unfocused and watery. “But then somebody, no, something with red eyes came and tried to stop him. It was a horrible beast, ugly and evil and it tried to kill you, Holly, right there in front of me and I couldn’t stop it. Tristan, he cried tears of blood over your body. And I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t move or breathe or help at all.”
“Wow, that’s a nightmare, Mom.” Holly’s breath catches in her throat as she tries to soothe her mother.
“I don’t think it was, Holly.” Carrie Chamberlain’s eyes go wide, almost wild. “I think something very bad is going to happen to you.”
“Mom, nothing is going to happen to me,” Holly assures her. “I’m going to be just fine.”
“I just have a bad feeling that something is going to happen to you.” Her mom claws at her arm. “Holly, you have to be careful.”
“I will be, Mom. I promise,” Holly swears. “Besides, I’m staying right here with you until you’re up and moving again, okay?”
“You have to go to school, Holly Lynn.” Carrie Chamberlain’s famous use of the middle name lacks the punch it used to have.
“I’m on top of everything I need to be on top of. I can work on my thesis right here on the couch.” Holly gestures dramatically in hopes of cheering her Mom. “The professor I’m doing TA duties for has agreed to give me time off to be with you.” So it’s a little fib, but, she’s pretty certain Tristan can just drop things by the house if he needs her.
“Are you sure, Holly? I don’t want you to put your life on hold for me.” Her mom seems skeptical.
“Mom, I’m not, I promise.” Holly decides to take Cody’s advice. “Besides, I met the new neighbor.”
“What?! When?” Carrie Chamberlain is suddenly quite alert. “Is he handsome? Is he single?”
“Mom, you are never in a million years going to believe who it is.” Holly pauses for effect, her Mom hanging on every syllable. “Tristan is back.”
Her Mom breaks into a wide smile and relaxes into the bed. “So, he has kept his promise after all this time.”
“Yeah,” Holly says, “but I don’t know how to get past everything that’s happened.” Or the fact that he’s a vampire now, she thinks.
“Holly, you and Tristan have loved each other for most of your lives.” Her mom is still smiling. “Have you asked him what happened? Why he has stopped writing you?”
“Not exactly,” Holly lies. She sort of understands that part but she sure as hell has a lot more questions before he’s off the hook for sending her letters back.
“Then maybe you should start there,” her mom advises. “You don’t know what happened to him while you were apart. All you know is that he is back, in the house he grew up in.”
Holly looks away, unable to bear the weight of her mother’s gaze. If only she knew the truth, knew what she knew about the world. “I don’t know, Mom.”
“Did I ever tell you about Gavin?” Carrie Chamberlain’s voice is suddenly thick with emotion.
“Who?” Holly asks, focusing on a hole in the rug.
“Gavin was the first man I ever loved.” Her mom squeezes Holly’s hand weakly. “Not that I didn’t love your father, I did love him very much, but Gavin was the love of my life and I lost him.”
“Mom!” Holly’s head snaps up. “How come you never told us? Did Dad know?”
“Of course he knew.” Carrie Chamberlain frowns. “He knew every minute of every day and he still loved me more than anything in this world, except maybe for you. But, I loved Gavin and that meant there was always a space your father could never fill.”
“What happened, Mom?” Holly sees her mother in a whole new light.
“I met Gavin when I was thirteen. He was beautiful and bold and brilliant. I fell hard, Holly. And he loved me, too.” Tears well in her Mom’s eyes. “We were promised to each other by the time we were fifteen but his father stipulated that Gavin must spend two years studying at Oxford before settling down. It hurt, knowing we would be separated, but it was the way of things for families like Gavin’s. Who was I? Just some girl mooning after their son.”
Her mom’s voice turns bitter. “We said good-bye at the airport and it was the last I saw him alive. He died in an accident in London just six months after he left.”
“Oh my God! Mom, I’m so sorry.” Holly clasps her hand over her mouth. “What did you do? How did you get over that?”
“The same way you got over Tristan leaving. We do what we must to survive. I pieced my heart back together and carried on. A year later, I met your father and I saw in him many of the qualities I loved about Gavin.”
“But it was never the same with Dad.” Holly frowns.
“No, it was never the same, but I loved your father for who he was and I knew that Gavin would never want me to live the rest of my life alone. My greatest dream was to be a mother and your father made that dream a reality.” Carrie Chamberlain smiles. “You, your brothers, and your sister have filled my life with so much that I couldn’t help but love your father back, even if it wasn’t the same kind of love.”
“But you still missed Gavin.”
“I miss him even now,” Carrie admits. “I guess what I’m trying to say, Holly, is that the love of your life only comes along once and while you can love again and have a perfectly happy, beautiful life, there is only one true love for every person. Are you willing to pass on yours because of a few bad years?”
Holly contemplates this. There is so much more to her situation, so much beyond the scope of reason. But, that kiss on the porch, nobody else has ever made her feel that. “I just don’t know, Mom.”
“Holly, it’s Tristan. Everybody who has ever seen you two together could tell you were meant to be that way. We knew it before you did.” Carrie Chamberlain sighs. “The only thing that caused Victoria DuMonde to hesitate about moving to New Orleans was her son’s love for you. We all thought he’d be back; we just didn’t know it would take this long. Holly, if you are being honest with yourself, you’ll admit that you haven’t been happy since Tristan left.”
Holly nods, she can’t deny it. Even with Greg it was just okay at the best times. “So what, I just pick up where we left off like nothing happened?”
“I didn’t say that.” Her mom squeezes her hand again, “but I am suggesting that you reopen the door and see what happens.”
“Okay, Mom,” Holly agrees. She can tell Carrie Chamberlain’s energy is waning. “Cody’s replacement should be here but maybe you should rest a little while.”
“Actually, I’m here,” A voice sings from the hallway. “I was just letting you have your privacy.” The voice, as it turns out, belongs to the tiniest nurse Holly has ever seen. Cody’s sister is just as blonde but less than half his size. She beams at Holly’s mom and walks around to the other side of the hospital bed. “Hi, Mrs. Chamberlain, I’m Cassidy and I’ll be staying with you until this evening.”
“Hello and thank you.” She holds her hand up and Cassidy takes it gently in both of hers.
“I heard your daughter suggest you get some rest, sweetie.” Cassidy beams at her ward. “That may be a good idea. The more you rest, the faster you recover. I’d also like to get you up and m
oving a little bit later.”
“Sounds good,” the older woman agrees and sinks into the pillows, closing her eyes.
Holly takes the opportunity to head to the kitchen for that coffee. Cassidy follows her but doesn’t say anything for a long while. Holly feels the smaller woman’s eyes on her as she pours a mug of coffee, so she turns and asks if she can pour a cup for Cassidy.
“I don’t drink sludge,” Cassidy snarls. “And you shouldn’t either if you want to live a long life.”
“Okay then,” Holly mutters. “Your brother warned me that you can be a bit rough around the edges. I don’t care how you talk to me as long as you treat my mom well.”
“Good. Because I can tell already that I don’t like you.” Cassidy narrows her eyes to slits, not an attractive look on the woman.
“Then we have an understanding. I’m going to take a shower and then I’ll work on the couch.”
“You’re that kind.” Cassidy looks annoyed now. “Hovering doesn’t help anybody.”
“I’m not hovering, I just want a comfortable place to work and the couch is perfect,” Holly says evenly, holding Cassidy’s stare. “So if you have a problem with that, too damn bad.” She turns on her heel and stalks out of the room.
**
Holly ignores Cassidy’s grunts and sighs of exasperation as she spreads her research on the couch and pecks away on her laptop. She actually makes decent progress by the time her mom wakes up and eats lunch.
“My daughter is almost done with her Master’s Degree,” Carrie Chamberlain brags to her nurse who takes it in stride. Cassidy is actually really good with Holly’s mom despite giving Holly the evil eye whenever she gets a chance, which she finds amusing, actually.
Holly’s cell phone rings, earning her another scowl from Cassidy so she excuses herself to take the call. “Hey, Carmen!”
“Hi-ya, Hol!” Carmen’s using her chipper voice so she must have some good news. “Guess what?”
“I don’t know, what?” Holly smiles into the phone, hopefully her friend has a lead on who, or what, has been gunning for her.
“I think I have a lead on who’s after you.” Carmen’s voice is pressured. “But it means I have to go away for a few days. Do you think you’ll be okay at home for a few days?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Holly doesn’t see herself leaving her mom’s side anytime soon and there are plenty of people to run errands if needed.
“You guess or you are sure,” Carmen presses. “I just don’t feel right leaving if you are going to go running around Seattle.”
“I’ll stay, Carmen. But do you think all of this is really necessary?”
It takes Carmen a moment to answer but when she does she sounds very serious, no sign of her usual jovial self. “Yes, Holly, yes I do. I think you absolutely need to stay home and watch your back.”
“I will, Carmen,” Holly assures her friend, “be careful.”
“Always am, Holly.” The line goes dead.
Holly walks back into the living room to find her Mom engaged in exercises with Cassidy so she slips back out and upstairs to her bedroom. She pulls out the box of old Tristan memories and the package he sent her this week. Holly pours through everything, allowing the feelings to flood back. Everything was so easy with Tristan and she caught a glimpse of it when he visited her in the hospital then again at dinner. In comparison, her other boyfriends all felt like work, even the fun parts. They never seemed to get her the way Tristan always had.
Maybe her Mom was right, maybe her life would be better if she would just forgive Tristan. But Tristan is different, he’s not even human anymore. How can that work? She wonders if her mom would have taken Gavin back if he’d returned as a vampire. Would she still have chosen her true love over a family? Holly pushes her memorabilia aside and for the first time lets everything out, tears of frustration and rage and sorrow that she’s held back for too long.
When she’s all cried out, Holly wipes her face clean and carefully places everything back in their respective boxes. She puts them in the closet, side by side.
“Holly!” Cassidy’s panicked voice carries up the stairs.
Taking the steps two at a time, Holly skids to a stop in the living room where Cassidy is performing CPR on her mom. Frozen, Holly surveys the scene, briefly wondering why an Angel of Death would care to resuscitate her mom.
“Don’t just stand there! Call 9-1-1, idiot!” Cassidy screams at her as she starts another set of compressions.
Holly flips her phone out and dials 9-1-1 for the second time this week. Her responses are automatic, robotic and foreign-feeling as they roll off her tongue. Cassidy is just as mechanical as she performs perfect CPR on her mom, who remains unresponsive and pale.
Holly backs up until she hits the wall and slides down to the floor, head hanging between her knees. She should call her siblings. All she wants to do is hide, disappear into a hole and never come out. She’s not ready to do this again, not ready to lose her mom.
The paramedics at the door jolt Holly from her solo pity party. She lets them in and they take over for Cassidy. In a flurry, Carrie Chamberlain is back in an ambulance on her way to the hospital again. Holly follows numbly, sliding into the back once more as they work on her mom.
One of the guys asks her questions, Holly thinks she answers but all she can focus on is her mom’s hand where her wedding band remains. She remembers the few times her mom has removed that golden band and the too white skin beneath it.
Holly calls Beau from the lobby at the hospital. No, she doesn’t have any news. Yes, Mom was still breathing when they arrived. No, she hasn’t called anybody else. No, she doesn’t know what happened. Beau promises to call everybody else and get there as soon as possible. Holly crawls into the worn couch that she’d sat in the other evening to wait.
She picks at the same hole she played with before. Holly doesn’t move until her siblings arrive. One by one she hugs each of them, relaying the limited information she has. They resume a silent vigil in the lobby, everyone except her sister who still has not arrived in Seattle.
“I can’t believe we’re back here again,” Chad mutters repeatedly. He paces the lobby, picks another chair, paces some more, sits next to Holly, then paces some more.
Finally, when they don’t think they can take anymore, a doctor emerges from behind the swinging doors and changes Holly’s life forever.
*
The day they put her mom in the ground, interring her beside her father, it is raining. The soft, steady Seattle rain. Holly’s eyes are puffy from crying. She spent the night going through old photo albums by herself. Tristan came by but she didn’t let him in. She couldn’t deal with him on top of her grief.
He can’t accompany her to the funeral or to the wake, for that matter. Carmen has not returned her calls. So, Holly walks alone. Her siblings are all supported by their spouses while she brings up the rear of the procession, holding a single violet in her hands, the flower she chose to place on her Mother’s casket.
Holly does not cry today, not openly at least. A few defiant tears pass unabated and roll down her cheek but she wipes them away with the back of her hand. She makes a point of standing tall, facing the mourners with as much grace as she can muster.
Even when they lower Carrie Chamberlain into the ground, her daughter remains stoic, watchful. She rides in a limo with her nieces and nephews, happy to be around their laughter and antics in stark contrast to everybody else. Holly almost smiles as they tease each other and toss ice cubes around the back. Almost.
The wake passes by, a house full of guests paying their condolences and sharing memories of Carrie Chamberlain over the years. Holly should feel flattered that so many people loved her mother but all she feels is numb. The detached sensation continues as the house empties until she’s left alone in the house with dozens of floral arrangements. Her siblings all bowed out, home with their families except for her sister who left for the airport in the middle of the wake.
Holly drifts from arrangement to arrangement, reading the cards. Nothing surprising until she comes to the most unusual piece they received and likely the most expensive. Holly pulls the card and nearly drops it. The inscription simply reads, “always” and is signed by a Gavin Dashiel. It can’t be, she doesn’t see how it could possibly be. Gavin is an unusual name.
Holly returns to the living room and opens her laptop and pulls up the internet. She types “Gavin Dashiel” into the search bar and waits for the results. Holly flips through several pages and finds nothing pertinent. But then, she probably wouldn’t if he died in the 1970s. She heads to her mom’s room and begins poking around. Holly feels like she’s invading her mom’s privacy but at the same time chastises herself for being silly. Mom told her that story for a reason and the coincidence is just too strange in light of everything Holly has learned over the past few months.
Promised By Blood_A Paranormal Vampire Romance Page 16
