“It’s her, I’m telling you, Randall. I saw her come in here and—there! See, I told you it was her. Petronella?”
Pet had recognized that soft voice and stiffened at the first words she’d caught of the conversation as the door to the private room opened, but sighed with resignation as her name was called. Grimacing at Santo, she muttered, “Hang on to your hat. The ’rents are here,” and then standing, she turned to offer a reluctant smile to the couple by the door.
“Darling, I thought it was you!” Her tall, mostly still blond, and curvy mother rushed forward and enveloped her in her arms briefly before pulling back to frown. “What on earth is going on? I called Quinn and she said she was out of town at a conference and you were watching Parker because Patrick took off. But I’ve called the house several times last night and today and got no answer. We were starting to worry so much we were going to stop there on our way home after dinner.”
“You should have tried my cell phone, Mother,” Pet said calmly, thinking that Marguerite and the men obviously weren’t answering the phone at her sister’s house. But then that was probably a good thing. If Quinn called and a strange man answered, it would not be good. Her parents on the other hand, probably would have been ecstatic to think a man was there with Pet. They would have started planning wedding invitations. Rolling her eyes at that thought, she explained, “I took Parker back to my place. We’re staying there.”
“Why on earth would you roust the boy from his home when all his toys and things are there? And where is he?” she added, her eyes moving around the room as if expecting him to pop out from under the table.
“At my apartment,” Pet said, and then added quickly, “with not one, but two responsible adults watching him.”
Mary Stone’s eyes narrowed at once. “Why aren’t you watching him? You are the one supposed to be watching him.”
Pet felt her teeth grind. No matter what she did, her mother always made her feel like she was in the wrong. Raising her chin, she said, “Actually, Patrick is the one who’s supposed to be watching him, but he took off quite suddenly the morning Quinn was supposed to fly out for her conference and when she asked me, I stepped in to take care of Parker in his stead,” she said firmly.
“Then why aren’t you?” Mary shot back at once.
“Because I’m on a date, Mother,” Pet said with exasperation. “Good Lord! You’re always pestering me about finding myself a man and settling down. But here I am on a date, in the very expensive and very fancy private room of your favorite restaurant, and you’re interrupting it and giving me hell because I left Parker with babysitters for a couple hours.”
“Oh.” Mary blinked, her brain doing a regroup, and then she planted a smile on her face and turned to Santo. “I’m so sorry to have interrupted your—oh, my God!”
“Mary?” Pet’s father said with concern, finally moving away from the door to join them. Randall Stone had always taken a step back and allowed his wife to handle their daughters in situations like this. He stiffened, though, and grabbed her mother’s arm to pull her back several steps when he got a good look at Santo.
“Crap,” Pet muttered, closing her eyes. She should have realized how they would react the minute they saw Santo’s eyes. And she should have maneuvered her mother away and back to the door where her father had been waiting before Mary could see that Santo was an immortal. This wasn’t going to be good.
She turned to see Santo’s raised eyebrows as he eyed her parents. He seemed stunned that they too knew about immortals.
“Petronella, come here at once.”
Pet turned with surprise at the fear in her mother’s voice, something she’d never heard before. Demand, command, disappointment, anger . . . those, she’d heard. But fear? Not her mother, the lioness. However, Mary Stone looked afraid and was holding her hand out almost desperately to her, while keeping her frightened gaze trained on Santo.
Sighing, Pet moved to join her parents by the door and said soothingly, “It’s all right. He’s one of the good immortals. Like Meng Tian.”
“Meng Tian got your mother killed,” Mary cried, clutching at her arm and trying to drag her to the door.
Pet’s mouth tightened at the accusation, and she dug her heels in. Refusing to move, she said stubbornly, “It wasn’t his fault.”
“She’d be alive today if she hadn’t got tangled up with him,” Mary argued grimly.
“I know, but—”
“There are no buts. This date is over, and I never want you to see that . . . man, again,” her mother said firmly, pulling harder on her arm.
Pet could have pointed out that she was a grown woman and could see who she wanted, and normally she would have, but the chef and their waiter were gawking at them, her mother was panicking, her father didn’t look like he was doing much better, and she gathered her mother’s strident tones were gaining attention from the rest of the restaurant because one of the other waiters had stuck their head through the door to look around to see what the fuss was about. In the end, Pet simply turned to Santo impatiently. “Will you take care of this, please? I know you can.”
He nodded solemnly and then turned his gaze first to the waiter at the door, who suddenly smiled and backed out. Santo then turned his concentrated gaze on her parents. Both immediately lost all expression and turned to walk calmly out of the room. Finally, he shifted his attention to the chef and their own waiter, who relaxed and went back to work.
When Santo then turned to her, Pet sighed and muttered, “Thank you,” as she returned to her seat. After taking a fortifying sip of wine, she asked, “What did you put in my parents’ minds?”
“That they ran into you here, were happy to see you, and left you to your date,” he said quietly.
Pet nodded just as solemnly and took another sip of wine, and then stilled when he said, “Will you now tell me how you know about immortals?”
“You didn’t read their minds while you were controlling them?” she asked, one eyebrow arched, because she was sure he would have, might even have had to while in their minds.
Santo nodded once in acknowledgment but added, “It made little sense.”
“What did you see?” she asked at once.
“Horror, fear . . . a child’s charred body.”
Pet blew out her breath and dropped back in her seat as his words brought her own unpleasant memories to the foreground.
After a moment, Santo asked, “Can you tell me now?”
“Does it matter?” she asked wearily. He was leaving soon anyway. Why did he have to open this can of worms? The very can of worms she’d wanted to avoid since realizing that immortals were staying next door.
“Marguerite seems to think it does,” he said softly.
Pet frowned. Of course, the immortal woman had read it from her thoughts. It was how Marguerite knew about the Brass Circle. Pet had forgotten how hard it was to keep secrets from immortals. It had been a long time since she’d lived with one.
“Everything about you matters to me.”
That made her stiffen and avoid his gaze as confusion swirled within her.
“She will tell me if I ask,” he added quietly. “I would rather you tell me.”
Pet almost told him to ask Marguerite, but just as quickly changed her mind. Though, she couldn’t say why. Sitting up again, she kept her gaze on the fork she’d taken to rolling in its spot as she cleared her throat and said, “My biological mother was married to an immortal and became one herself.”
Santo leaned back as shock rolled through him. He’d tried to think of possible explanations for her knowledge, but this was the last one he’d expected. A father who was immortal and a mother who was not? It wasn’t impossible. While it was rare for an immortal to impregnate a mortal woman, it happened on occasion, and if the mother was mortal, the child, or in this case, twins, would be mortal as well. “Your father is—?”
“My stepfather,” she corrected quietly. “Our birth father died shortly after Quinn an
d I were born. Two years later, my mother met and married our stepfather. He was my dad.”
“And he was an immortal?” Santo asked, wanting to be sure he wasn’t misunderstanding.
Pet nodded. “He had brown eyes with bright silver flecks in them. His name was Meng Tian.”
Santo didn’t recognize the name any more now than he had when Pet had told Mary Stone that he was a good immortal like this Meng Tian. But that didn’t mean anything. While he knew the names of the families that had survived the fall of Atlantis, there had been so many new branches to those families over the millennia that it was impossible to know them all.
“I do not know him,” Santo said finally, and noted the disappointment that flickered over her face in response. For some reason she’d hoped he’d known the immortal. Perhaps to save her having to explain, he thought.
“Well, Meng Tian was a good immortal,” Pet said finally. “He and my mother were very happy. They loved each other very much, but they made sure we felt loved too. My childhood in China was full of good memories with lots of laughter and happiness. I always felt loved.”
The fact that she’d repeated that her birth mother and stepfather had always made her feel loved, coupled with her reactions to her adoptive parents just moments ago, told him a great deal. Pet had said she was the black sheep of the family because she’d chosen history instead of the medical field like Quinn had, but he suspected it had started long before that. She obviously hadn’t felt loved by her adoptive parents for some reason, and that angered him a great deal. No child should be allowed to feel unloved, but especially not his Pet, who was perfect in every way . . . Except perhaps cooking, if Parker was to be believed, he thought with a faint smile.
“I’ve thought Dad was a police officer since I was a child,” Pet continued. “But I think now he must have been an Enforcer in China.”
Santo’s gaze sharpened on her. His voice was a low growl when he asked, “Why?”
“Because Mom always said ‘he was like a police officer,’ but he never wore a uniform that I saw. I didn’t really know there were what basically amounts to immortal police until Marguerite said you were all working with Enforcers.” She shrugged. “Now I think that’s probably what he was. An Enforcer.”
Santo nodded at her reasoning and suspected she was right. Immortals usually avoided mortals when they could. It was too hard to watch them age and die. Being a police officer in a mortal unit, working with them day in and day out, coming to like and care for them, and then watching them die before their time would be hard. It could also be dangerous for an immortal. In a job such as that, if a mortal friend and coworker were shot or seriously injured . . . In the heat of the moment, the immortal could be tempted to try to save the mortal by turning them. Which would be a death sentence to the immortal if he or she had already used their one turn.
“Anyway,” Pet breathed out. “When Quinn and I were six . . .” She paused and seemed lost in her memories for a moment, and then frowned and continued, “Meng Tian usually worked at night after we went to bed. He was always home in the mornings and during the day while mother homeschooled us. We had to be quiet to keep from disturbing him.”
“You were homeschooled?” he asked with interest, but then realized they had probably had to be since they knew about immortals. Attending a school, making friends . . . Both would have been risky. Pet and Quinn could have been tempted to tell about their immortal mother and father.
“Yes,” Pet said now. “Mother made it fun despite the need to be quiet.”
“Your mother didn’t sleep during the day?” Santo asked.
Pet shook her head. “We all slept late, but she got up as soon as we stirred, fed us, looked after us, and taught us. Usually she took us out into the courtyard during the day so that we could play and learn without disturbing Dad, but she was always covered up despite the fact that she stayed under the sheltered half of the courtyard.” Her eyebrows drew together. “For some reason, I don’t think that cover over the courtyard was normal, so it was probably something Dad had erected to give added protection from the sun.”
Santo nodded solemnly. Most immortals avoided sunlight to avoid the damage it did to all humans. The problem was that while a mortal’s body basically just aged under the damage the sun’s rays did, an immortal’s body continually repaired the damage, using extra blood to do so. If her mother was out and about during the day to tend to Pet and her sister, a cover over a portion of the courtyard would have helped to keep her from sustaining the damage that would have led to a need for more blood. Adding it would have been the smart thing to do.
“I wish I could remember where we lived,” Pet said suddenly. “At least the area if nothing else.” She looked thoughtful and said, “I know China is supposed to have a population problem, but I don’t have memories of a lot of people being around, so suspect we lived somewhere that was isolated or at least less populated. I remember our home being big with just us in it, not small and crowded. I don’t remember it ever snowing where we lived, the willows were always green, so I suspect it was in the south of China. There was lots of water . . .” She shook her head, frustration crossing her face.
“What about your adoptive parents?” Santo asked. “Surely they know and can tell you?”
Her mouth tightened briefly, “I’m sure they could, but they won’t. They both refuse to talk about my mom, dad, and our sister, Erika. They think it’s better that I just forget all about it. Safer, they say.”
Santo felt a flicker of surprise at the mention of a sister named Erika. It was the first time she’d spoken of such a person, but he wasn’t surprised that her adoptive parents might be overprotective. While reading Mary Stone, he’d found a desperate need in the woman to keep Pet and her twin safe. He hadn’t been able to tell if that was tied to the burned body or not. It had felt like a litany that had lived in the woman’s head for decades.
They were both silent for a moment, and then Pet said, “Anyway, one night when Quinn and I were six and Erika was ten, Mom roused Quinn and me from our beds in the middle of the night. I was half asleep at first and confused.” She frowned. “I remember stumbling out into the hall and Erika and Dad being there. Meng Tian,” she added to clarify which father, before continuing, “That was unusual. So was the fact that Dad was grim and quiet. He was always laughing and happy around us, so I knew something was wrong.
“Mom, her name was Feiyan, Meng Feiyan,” she added, and then continued, “She didn’t even let us dress. She’d hustled us out of our room in our nightgowns. They kept telling us to hurry, we had to leave. Dad scooped up Quinn and me the minute we left our room, and started running down the hall with us, while Mom snatched up Erika and followed . . . There was some sort of sound like breaking glass or a crash. I can’t remember which, but Dad immediately turned, set us down, and pushed us toward Mom, yelling to run, he’d slow them down. Mom set down Erika and told her to run, then snatched us up. I guess at ten Erika would have been able to run faster than us,” she murmured and then shook her head. “But Erika ran back the way we’d come. Mom followed, shouting at her to get to the kitchen.”
Pet paused, looking thoughtful. “I remember there was a door out of the kitchen to a small garden with woods behind it. I think Mom meant for us to run out and hide in the woods or something, but Erika was in a panic and didn’t listen. She ran back to her room and crawled under her bed. Mom ran after her, but when she stopped in the room, we could hear the pounding of feet in the hall. Dad hadn’t been able to hold them all back. Mom hurried to the closet and set us down. As we crouched together in the very back of it, she told us we must stay quiet, not make a sound, no matter what. And then she closed the doors.”
Pet stopped and Santo watched as she reached for her wine, then left it and picked up her water instead. She took a long gulp. Setting the glass back on the table, she cleared her throat and said, “The doors banged shut, but then bounced back open a little. Not a lot, just enough that we could s
ee when Mom ran to the window across from the closet and slung a leg over the sill before pausing to wait. I was so confused. I was afraid she was leaving us, but she wasn’t actually leaving. In fact, she only started moving again when men rushed into the room, and she was yelling, ‘Run, get away, hide!’ as if we were outside as she did. But by then it was too late, and they were on her.”
Sighing, Pet murmured, “It wasn’t until I was a little older that I understood she’d been hoping to trick the men into thinking the three of us had made it out the window in front of her and to the woods on that side of the house. I imagine she thought they’d drag her out of the room and down the hall or something. But they didn’t. They dragged her to the bed, brought Father in, and made him watch as they took turns raping her.”
The words were said as if Pet were discussing the weather, but he suspected it was the only way she could say it. There was no mistaking the empty look in her eyes. She’d separated herself from what she was discussing to get past the trauma. Santo’s hands balled into fists and he withdrew them from the table and set them in his lap. He couldn’t imagine the horror of watching your life mate abused so and being unable to do a thing. How much worse must that be for a child to see? But he didn’t say a word. He simply waited, knowing she wasn’t done.
After a moment, Pet let out a shaky breath and then cleared her throat and said, “Dad was badly wounded. His chest was sliced open from his shoulder to the opposite hip, and there were other wounds as well. If he’d been mortal, he’d have been dead already, but it hardly seemed to slow him down. He went wild trying to stop them from hurting mother. He almost succeeded too, but there were too many of them, and they were able to hold him back. They kept saying things like they’d heard he was looking for them so came to see him, and this is what you got for daring to hunt the Brass Circle.”
The Trouble With Vampires Page 20
