Her Secret

by Tara Fox Hall

His alone were retractable, like the ones seen in movies. I was happy about that, despite the difficulty Theoron was having with food now. Danial, Devlin, and all other vampires had fangs that were always present. Danial had said once that it had taken him a few months to learn how to speak clearly again, and that he sometimes cut himself on his fangs while speaking. Theoron wouldn’t have that problem, once he mastered retracting his upper and lower fangs.

  “Trying,” Theoron said crossly, managing to retract three of his four fangs.

  “Go ahead and drink the rest,” I said, offering him the bowl. “It’s pretty melted. Then it’s to bed with you.”

  Theoron finished the ice cream quickly, then yawned, all his fangs again out. Terian put him back in his crib, and I gave Theoron a quick kiss. We left him sleeping a few moments later.

  Terian and I walked together out to the great room.

  “He’s managing well,” Terian said happily. “He’ll probably be able to retract all of them at will by the end of this week.”

  “That’s good,” I replied casually. “How was your hot date?”

  Terian started, stared at me, and then walked directly into the wall. I cracked up laughing.

  “You did that on purpose, Sar,” he said, giving me an irritated look.

  I gave him an innocent one back. “Are you going to give me her name or not?”

  “Brian said something,” Terian muttered. “He’s the only one I told.”

  “Hey, I just care if you’re happy,” I assured him. “Tell me about her.”

  “Fine. But let’s go out in the sun, okay? It’s not snowing.”

  “It’s okay by me if you don’t mind the mud.”

  Terian and I went to the mudroom. Sitting down on the stone bench, we pulled on our boots. Terian locked the door behind us, then checked his gun before slipping in into his shoulder holster. We walked over to the edge of the woods in the direction of the werecompound.

  “Tell me everything,” I said eagerly. “How did you meet?”

  “I went to a festival one weekend,” Terian said hesitantly. “She was there. I caught sight of her a few times. Although I noticed her, she didn’t talk to me.”

  “Festival?”

  “A kind of gala for people like me...well, people who are interested in sorcery, or who practice it.”

  “Real witches?” I said skeptically.

  “About half and half,” Terian admitted. “Some pretenders were there, but that’s normal. I wasn’t looking for friends, anyway, but for local ingredients. Buying online is fine, but it’s safer to see what you’re paying for before you’ve paid for it.”

  “Don’t tell me you’ve ordered eye of newt online and gotten eye of gecko?” I teased.

  “In another second I’m not going to tell you anything more,” Terian said, frowning at me.

  “Sorry, I’ll stop. Tell, please. Did you ask her for her number?”

  “No,” Terian said proudly. “She gave it to me without me asking.”

  Was this another stripper? “Where?” I managed. “In the parking lot?”

  “When everyone went and got pumpkins,” Terian said. “Right after your condition presented itself. You and Theo didn’t go, remember?”

  “I remember. Danial told me about it that Saturday I stayed over.”

  Danial, Elle, and Theoron had gone with Terian, Cia, Aran, Aran Jr., Janice, and Ivan to a local pumpkin farm, leaving the rest of the foxes behind to watch the estate. They’d had a great time. Elle had picked out a huge pumpkin, and even Danial with all his strength had to have Terian help him lift it into the Expedition. Later that night, they’d set to carving in the great room. When everyone was done, Danial had set them all up together on a table, and taken a picture, which he’d shown me.

  Terian had carved the classic face, with triangles for eyes, then used magic to make the pumpkin grow horns. Elle had treated the pumpkin as a canvas, carving the headless horseman. Danial had helped Theoron make a bat. Cia had made a cat silhouette, and Janice and Ivan had seen the competition and also carved classic faces, though Janice had made her face look distinctly fox-like. Ivan’s for some reason had huge bushy eyebrows.

  I’d been dismayed about missing that night, and Danial had seen it. With a soft smile, he’d produced another large pumpkin. On it had been carved a fox walking through the snow, leaving footprints behind it, looking over its shoulder.

  “You gave it my eyes.” They weren’t green, and there was nothing else to say they were mine, yet somehow I knew they were.

  “That gave me the most problems,” he admitted.

  “I didn’t know you had so much talent,” I said, awed. “But now I understand why you encouraged Elle so much—”

  “Sar!” Terian said loudly, breaking into my memories. “Are you listening?”

  “Sorry,” I said, flushing. “Danial never mentioned you met anyone that night.”

  “He didn’t see her. I noticed her, and smiled at her. She returned the smile and came over. We talked about Halloween, and costumes, and then she gave me her number, and said she wanted to see more of me.”

  “Did she, now?” I grinned widely. “What has she seen so far?”

  “You’re bad, even when The Lust doesn’t have hold of you,” Terian said, shaking his head. He stopped walking and turned to me. “We’ve kissed a little, that’s all. But I like her a lot. Maybe it’s because she’s the first supernatural girl I’ve been with.”

  I gaped. “What?”

  “Somewhere in her family line there was something other than human. What that was, she hasn’t said.”

  A woman who wasn’t fully human would likely find it easier to accept Terian’s half-demon nature. I hugged him, relieved. “I’m very happy for you,” I said emphatically. “What’s her name?”

  “Valarie,” he said, drawing it out to roll over his tongue.

  “When are you seeing her again?”

  “This weekend,” he sighed. “The problem is waiting until then.” He began to walk again.

  I followed him down the path, into the werecompound to his lab.

  Terian took off his gun, and hung the rig on the door, along with his jacket. “So what is it you’re after today, besides gossip?”

  “What?” I said, hanging my jacket beside his.

  “You followed me all this way for a reason other than my dating life, Sar,” he said, giving me a knowing look.

  “Two reasons,” I admitted. “First, can I get you to give me a box this size that is invisible, or make this one invisible?” I held out a wooden box to him that was three inches on a side.

  “For what reason?” he asked suspiciously.

  “To keep a choker in,” I said vaguely, hoping he’d think I meant Danial’s. “I don’t want to keep it in my jewelry chest with my other jewelry.”

  “I can’t make it completely invisible,” he said slowly, turning the box to examine it. “But I can make it respond to you the way Danial’s safe is in his room responds to him. No one will be able to see it but you, except when you open and close it.”

  “That will be fine.” What a relief.

  “Leave the box here. It will take me a day or so to do it. What’s number two?”

  “You said the second potion I drank would end my dream of Theo, make it fade until it was just a normal dream. But he was alive, not dead, and the dream got renewed. What exactly does that mean?”

  “I’m not sure,” Terian said with a shrug. “That is what the translation of the spell said, that the dream would be renewed.”

  “Give me your opinion, then.”

  “I’m guessing that it means that you and he are bound, much as you were the first time.”

  “Bound how?” I asked. “I can have normal dreams of him now, Terian. That seems to be the only thing that’s different. What does it mean for us that we shared the dream again?”

  “It’s very rare, to have the dream once, Sar. It’s rarer still to have it twice.”

  “That’
s wonderful, but what does that mean?’ I asked, frustrated.

  “What is it you really want to know? You’re upset.”

  “I thought the dreaming together signified soul mates or something to that effect. If that’s true, why did Theo fall in love with someone else?”

  “That women you found him with was probably just sex, you know how weres are—”

  “I’m not talking about Aspen. Theo loved a girl he met overseas, Terian. He said he loved her as much as me, but that wasn’t true; he loved her more. He was planning to come back here, break things off with me if I was still waiting, and then go back and marry her. He admitted as much to me.”

  Terian said nothing, but a little blackness curled out of him before he clamped down on it. “If he loved her so much, what happened so that he ended up with that other girl out west?” he asked, his tone sulfurous.

  “She married someone else at her father’s wishes. She told Theo not to come back.” I paused. “I need to know if what we had was true love, how could he toss aside what we had so easily?”

  “He shouldn’t have been able to,” Terian said finally. “I know that isn’t what you wanted to hear, but that’s my only answer.”

  “He was frozen in cougar form for a while by a sorcerer. Could that have been the reason?”

  “No.”

  “He was apart from me for more than a year, He was badly hurt—”

  Terian crossed the room to hold me in his arms. “Sar, stop looking for a reason. Whatever the reason really was, it doesn’t matter now. Theo’s married to you.”

  “It does matter,” I said, wiping my filling eyes and drawing back from him. “Theo isn’t the man he was when he left, and I’m not the woman I was then, no matter how I’ve tried to be. He doesn’t like who I became while he was gone, Terian.”

  “Sar, he loves you.”

  “No,” I said, resigned. “I think he loves who I was.”

  “People change over time,” Terian said consolingly. “You’re much more mature than you were before. That’s a good thing.”

  “That’s just it. Theo was the single most important thing in my world years ago, but he’s not anymore; Theoron is. Danial’s also become much more important to me—”

  “I’m sure Theo understands that,” Terian assured. “He didn’t love this other woman more back then because of how different you are now.”

  “It’s good he and I are going to counseling,” I muttered, wiping at my eyes. “I’m constantly upset over this and can’t seem to get past it. I know it’s irrational, it’s not like I was waiting here alone, for God’s sake—”

  Terian’s phone rang. He looked at the caller ID, then smiled widely. “It’s Valerie. Can you give me a minute?”

  “Sure,” I said, going outside the room to collect myself.

  I waited there a few awkward moments. As I went to leave, Terian came out.

  “Sar, want to go with me to the Alan’s Creek Park? Valerie wants to meet me for a walk near the river in a few minutes.”

  Despite I was dying to have a look at this mystery woman, I tried to take the high road. “No, you should go without me. She’s not going to want another woman along on your date—”

  “You’re married, so she shouldn’t care. And it’s not a date, just a quick stroll on my break. C’mon, I want you to meet her.”

  Well, enough of the high road. “Sure. Let me call Brian and tell him where I’m going.”

  “He still has you call in every hour?” Terian said, raising his eyebrows.

  “I’m used to it now,” I replied, giving him a smile to soften my defensive tone. “Besides, someone needs to know we’re leaving the grounds.”

  After alerting Brian via cell, Terian grabbed my hand, and instantly, we were standing at the park gates, near some trees.

  “Aren’t you worried about someone seeing us teleport in?” I asked, peering around for possible gawkers.

  “People just think they didn’t see you walk up to the spot you appear at, not aware that they couldn’t have.” Terian let go of my hand. “Valarie is already here, somewhere by the pavilions.” He strode off.

  I followed, looking uneasily upward at the dark clouds. “That’s smart. It didn’t look this overcast back at Danial’s.”

  A crack of thunder sounded directly above me, then drops hit my hands and arms.

  I stopped and looked at Terian, bewildered. “Wait, it was supposed to be clear today. I watched the Weather Channel—”

  Terian grabbed my hand again. We were suddenly standing beneath a pavilion. Lightning cut the sky with a flash, and instantly rain poured down

  “So much for your walk,” I said as he released my hand. “Do you want to call her back and say we headed home? We’ll never find her in this downpour.”

  “She’s not answering,” Terian replied, phone to his ear.

  The rain was coming down in sheets now, soaking everything, and the wind was coming up. A few cars drove past us towards the park exit, their wipers beating furiously.

  “She probably just left—”

  “No,” Terian said slowly. “That’s her.”

  A woman was coming toward us in the rain. She was pretty, with long brown hair. She also wasn’t wet at all.

  “You have to ask her how she does that,” I whispered, awed.

  “I’ve been trying to reach you, Valarie,” Terian said, walking towards her. “Why’d you turn your phone off—?”

  She smiled at him, and then raised her hand and hit him with a lightning bolt drawn from the sky. Terian was thrown back on the ground, the bloody hole in his chest smoking.

  I let out a scream, and ran to his side. His eyes were open, unseeing. His wound was healing. The woman was advancing cautiously, eyes on me.

  My adrenaline spiking, I tried to grab Terian’s gun, but it was beneath him. Wedging my arm under him, I felt for the gun, trying to get it out of his back holster.

  Terian groaned.

  “Wake up!” I shouted in his ear.

  He blinked his eyes, then with another groan, pushed himself into a sitting position, raising his hands. He began to murmur words.

  “No,” the woman said in a commanding tone, raising her hands. Terian’s murmur was cut off instantly.

  “Who the hell are you?” I said hatefully, still trying to unclasp the goddamn gun.

  “I go by Leri,” the woman said, her long brown hair blowing in the gale around us. “But my full name is Alerian.” She turned hateful. “I’m your mother, Terian.”

  Chapter Six

  Terian and I gaped at Leri, incredulous.

  She glared back, then screeched, “Why did you have to show up here, now of all times?”

  Terian found his voice. “My brother, Keriam, told me my mother was dead. She died giving birth to me.”

  “I knew Danial had a half demon working for him, one who was good with potions, and some of the other darker arts,” Leri ranted bitterly. “When I heard you mastered teleportation in a few months, I knew you had to be mine.”

  “You’re his mother?” I said disbelievingly. “Are you part demon?”

  “She’s not,” Terian groaned. “I’d have felt it. Why not attack me when we met? Why wait until now?”

  She cast a glance at me. “I couldn’t handle this in front of Danial. He knows who I am and he’s smart enough to figure out the reason. You were supposed to come alone. What kind of dolt brings someone with him to a makeout session?”

  “You kissed your own son?” I said, grimacing.

  Leri ignored me, looking down at Terian with disdain. “Idiot,” she said harshly. “I left you with Keriam all those years ago, altering his memories to cover my trail. He was not your brother at all, he was just a college kid I found who I bespelled to take you in. His name wasn’t even Keriam, that is just what I made him believe—”

  “Whose son am I?” Terian said angrily, his eyes red. “What demon fathered me?”

  “You are Titus’s son. He knew I didn�
�t want children, but he wanted a son, badly. So he experimented with a few potions without telling me.” She laughed ruefully. “He’s a master spell caster.”

  Terian’s father was the demon who worked for Devlin. But Brian had said of the two, Leri was the more dangerous...

  “When I found out I was pregnant, I hid it from him with illusions. Everything I tried to rid myself of you failed. I decided to birth you, and then kill you—”

  My fury overwhelmed my fear. “This wasn’t his fault, you bitch! Why kill him? And why come here now? Terian’s been here for years.”

  Her eyes flicked to me, and then back to Terian. “I expected him to stay in the Midwest, where Titus almost never goes. As Danial found out two years ago, Terian is hard to kill. It was easier to give him another life apart from mine, far away from me. But now you’ve returned and it’s only a matter of time before Titus discovers your real identity.”

  “I want nothing from you or from him, either,” Terian said coldly. “I’m not here to make you answer for your sins.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Leri replied, raising her hands. “I have to erase your existence. If Titus learns of you, he’ll know what I did. He’s forgiven me many things, but he won’t forgive this. I’m not losing him, we’ve just reconciled after fighting for the last two months.”

  Lighting arced down from the sky to collect in her hands. I pulled the gun from beneath Terian with a desperate cry, and rolled away from him as Leri threw the lightning into him.

  Terian arched his back, screaming, as his chest reopened, the smell of burning flesh filled the air. He collapsed back on the ground, his eyes blank, smoke curling up from him.

  As Leri gathered more lightning, I took aim at her and fired, empting the clip of explosive bullets. Her body jerked as the bullets hit her, but she didn’t fall, the points of impact bulging, then slowly receding. The lightning in her hands flashed, then disappeared.

  “Sar,” she said evilly, gasping in pain. “Stop firing or I’ll do more than erase your memories of this when it’s done. I’ll teleport you to Tennessee and give you to the state ruler there, after reactivating your condition—”

  I threw the gun at her. “Fuck you and don’t call me Sar!”