“Oh, my goodness, you look so thin.” Nan covered her mouth as I entered the room. “Did they feed you?” She wrapped her arms around me.
“It’s been a rough couple of weeks.” I stepped out of her embrace. “Nan, Pop, this is Camille.” I took Camille’s hand. When I looked to her face it turned rose colored.
“Oh, it’s so good to meet you.” Nan hugged Camille.
Pop shook her hand as she offered it. “Nice to see you’re safe.”
“It’s so nice to meet both of you. Thank you for having us.”
“No trouble at all, come in. Let’s get you all situated.”
Janine claimed a room with Camille, and while I couldn’t blame her for wanting to be close to her daughter, it disappointed me. I told myself we’d have plenty of time together once we got to Alena’s safe house. Tyler, Grady, and I were sharing a room so Camille’s grandparents could have a room of their own.
“So, no magic talk I’m assuming when the humans come?’ Nan asked when I met her in the kitchen.
“Janine and Grady are picking them up from the airport this afternoon. I’m not sure what they’re telling them.” I took a pot from her and dipped it in the soapy water.
“Have you thought about your parents, maybe like seeing your mom?” Her eyebrows rose.
I dried the pot and stashed it in the cabinet. “I’ve thought about it. I haven’t decided yet.” I backed out of the room.
Finding Camille and her family in the living room, I chose a seat beside Pop on the couch.
“Chess?” He pointed to the board in front of us.
“Sure.” I arranged the pieces into their positions.
As we took our turns, my attention was split between the game and Camille’s family. I watched as they talked and joked with each other. Seeing them interact as a cohesive and happy unit made my feelings vacillate between joy for her and jealousy over what I’d never had.
“I know your mother would love to see you.” Pop brought me out of my thoughts.
“I may take Camille to meet her.” My eyes darted to Camille.
Pop leaned towards me. “Really?”
“Yeah, why?”
He moved his knight. “Just surprised.”
“I think I get her a little better now.”
“What led you to that grand epiphany?” He knocked over my rook.
I laid his king down. “Don’t make a big deal out of it, okay.” I made my way to my room and changed for a work out thinking that may be the only place I’d be able to have some alone time.
Camille found me thirty minutes into my lifting routine. “So, what’s the plan, are we hiding out here all week?”
“Actually, no, I was thinking we could go to Catalina Island, maybe drive down the coast to San Diego, or visit Joshua Tree National Park, all very cool things to do in Southern California.”
“Do you think those would be approved trips?”
“I have no idea, but if we wear caps, I don’t see why it would be a problem. Plus, why would they think to look at the most populated spot in California. We’d have to be idiots to venture out in public like that.” I rested the bar on the stand and stole a kiss.
“Hey.” Her cheeks reddened.
“No one is here.” My eyes darted to the door and back to hers.
A smile spread across her face. “I know. It’s weird with my family though.”
“Tyler is going to have to get used to it.”
“Between you and Alena, he’s going to lose it.”
“What’s up with him and Alena?”
“Well, he feels this magical obsession with being near her, but Hunter’s always there.”
I moved to the leg station. “Does he like her, like, like her, like her?”
“I’m not sure he can separate the two. Could you?”
“With someone like Alena, yes.”
“You have to get over this thing with her.” She circled around me as I raised my feet.
“I don’t have a thing with her.” Finishing my leg reps, I reached for a towel. “I was thinking we could go visit my mom, just you and me.”
She pointed at me. “You do.” A smile spread across her face. “And really?”
“She doesn’t live too far from here, and it’s remote.”
“I would like that.”
“Are you sure? She’s a little hokey.” I popped the towel in Camille’s direction.
“Of course. Like being a witch isn’t hokey.”
“I guess so.”
She stood on her toes and kissed me. “Anyone who is important to you is important to me.” Swiping my towel from me, she strode from the room.
I could hardly believe I’d committed to visiting Mom. Nan and Pop had made me visit before I’d left for Iceland. In and out of rehab until she moved to the communal farm, it took me a year to get past the anger and talk to her. What kind of mother abandoned her own son and checked out of normal civilization? Sure, she’d tried job after job, where her anger or drug issues always ended up getting her fired. As a child, I learned to prefer her manic and angry moods to her drunk stupor or drug-induced haze. At least she paid attention to me when she wasn’t high. I wondered if the guilt drove her away. But then I realized she was happy at the farm, had moved for herself, which further enraged me. And under the resentment lay pain, fueled by Dad’s lack of parenting. Couldn’t one of them decide to be there for me?
Jumping on the treadmill, I thought back over the past year. The visions started on my seventeenth birthday. I’d always had random reoccurring nightmares, but these were different. I hallucinated about angels, demons, biblical occurrences, the rapture, heaven, and hell. Realizing these were awakening my magic, conjured animosity for my father. I poured my pent-up feelings into my workout, increasing the treadmill’s speed to a seven-minute mile.
“Are you trying to kill the motor?” Pop’s voice startled me, and I slammed my hand against the stop button.
“I’m taking Camille to visit Mom tomorrow.” I wiped my brow with the towel he offered.
“That will make Emma happy.”
“I want to be able to forgive her.”
“Maybe tomorrow will help. Wash up. Tyler said Grady and Janine will be here soon with her folks, and dinner’s almost ready.”
“What did Janine tell them about why this place is so secure? Do they know why they’re relocating?” I asked Tyler as I waited with Camille for their grandparents.
“Mom said she wanted to move back here soon and wanted them nearby. Grady found a house at a winery inland. They won’t even realize it is a safe house. We told them that your family is very paranoid.”
“Wonderful.” I rolled my eyes and stretched my arm behind Camille.
Camille leaned into me. “They don’t need to know about all of this.”
We heard the bell notifying us someone was at the door.
“Here goes nothing.” Tyler crossed to the entrance, punching in the code to open the outside door.
We met them in the outer foyer. Janine’s mother and father craned their necks, surveying their surroundings as they hugged Camille and Tyler.
“This is Jude.” Camille took my hand and pulled me towards them. “We’ll be staying with his grandparents until the house is ready.”
“You can call me Charlie. This is my wife, Ella, except her singing isn’t nearly as nice as the other one.” Chuckling, her grandfather thrust his hand out.
“Well,” Ella took my hand in hers, “any friend of Camille’s is a friend of ours.”
We ushered them inside to where Nan and Pop waited to greet them. Nan prepared a big spread, and I felt guilty I hadn’t helped more. When I voiced my apology, Nan put her hand to my cheek.
“You’re a good boy. I was okay. Janine and Camille helped while you were working out. I know how important that is for you.”
My face warmed. “Thank you.” I looked between them. “This is amazing.”
“What should we do tonight?” Camille asked
.
“Monopoly?” Tyler offered.
“It’s on.” Camille held her fist out to her brother. “I pick Jude and Dad.”
“Well, I have Mom and my grandma.” Tyler pointed at Ella.
After the dishes were cleared and kitchen cleaned, we set up the game while Nan, Pop, and Charlie made small talk. Their idea of a Monopoly game turned out to be more like a tournament to the death, and we played until after midnight.
“Jude.” Camille found me in the hall after I’d washed up for bed.
“Yes.” I smiled at her, thinking I’d never met anyone so beautiful.
“Sorry about the sleeping arrangements.”
“It’s okay. I had my pass in Italy.”
She stood on her toes and kissed my lips. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Ugh, stop.” Tyler rounded the corner.
“Good night.” I spun and waved my hand behind my head.
I watched as a naked woman snapped a round fruit from a tree. She cowered under the tree beside a serpent and took a bite from the red fruit. A voice called to her. “Why have you disobeyed me?” When she looked up, her face was that of my father’s.
Sweat covered my body, and I threw my covers off and jumped out of bed. Seeing the dark furniture, I realized I was in my room at the safe house.
Still, the dream haunted me, and I tiptoed down the hall to Camille’s room. Opening the door, I saw her sleeping next to Janine. Convinced that she was safe and well, I made my way back to my room.
“Is everything okay?” I jumped at the sound of Pop’s voice.
“Yeah, just a nightmare.”
“Witches don’t have nightmares. What did you see?”
“Nothing, it’s fine. Thanks for checking.” I spun to my door.
Quicker than I’d ever seen him move, he zipped around me and placed his arm on the doorframe, blocking my path. “Tell me what you saw. You went and checked on Camille. Did you see something happen to her?”
I shook my head and moved to enter my room. “No, it was a dream, a weird dream.”
Lying down again, I tried to sleep, but the dream played out in my head again and again. What if Michael’s coven found out where our safe house was? What if they tortured the information from Dad? No, I told myself. Dad told Nan and Pop to go there. He wouldn’t have if he didn’t think it was safe. Praying my dad’s judgment or knowledge hadn’t been compromised, I tossed and turned until five. I dressed in my workout clothes and went to the gym. It wasn’t an hour before Grady, Tyler, and Pop joined me.
“Since when do you practice magic?” I asked Pop as he started sparring with me.
“If your father thinks we’re in danger, I figure it’s best to be prepared. Maybe I only got a hundred or so years in me, but I’d rather have them than not.”
“Tell me about your life.” I flung a blade above his head.
Reversing the blade’s path, he explained how he was born in Spain during the holy wars. How he and his family survived the Spanish influenza. When the Spanish came to the new world, he and Nan crossed to Cuba and then settled in Florida. “After that, we kept moving west, drawn like all the other witches to this city, the city of Angels.”
“You think there’s something special about this area?”
“No, I think a lot of witches came here because it is a beautiful place to live.”
“When all this is finished, I want to come back and read all our family’s histories.”
“Come this way.” He led me into a room filled with books. “Here.” Crossing the room, he lifted several texts from the shelf. “I think these will be most helpful. They’re all the spells our family has accumulated over the centuries.”
“This is amazing.” I leafed through the pages.
“Breakfast,” Nan called through the doorway.
“Ugh, and I didn’t help again.” I hugged her.
“Don’t you worry about that. You’ve got more things to think about than cooking food.”
“I know.” I followed her down the hall. “But there are a lot of people. I want to do my part.”
I sat down beside Camille, and Nan set an insulated container in front of me. “Just for you.” She patted my shoulder. “I figured you could use some extra nutrition today.” She winked.
I tasted the drink and realized it was blood, human blood. Glancing at Pop, he nodded my way. I guessed they decided I needed the extra energy after my sleepless night. Trying not to think about who made the donation, I downed the drink and finished breakfast.
After the meal, Camille and I dressed and packed for our day in the country.
“Are you sure this is safe?” Tyler asked as we made the last arrangements.
“Why would they be looking in rural California? They have no reason to think Camille is anywhere but with Alena and Hunter. It would be stupid to break the trinity up.”
“So why are we here at all?” Tyler threw up his hands and placed them on his hips.
Camille stepped between us. “I’m tired of other people discussing my safety. I’m here because of Mom, Grandma, and Grandpa. We deserve some time to be together. I’ll see you this afternoon, Tyler.”
I mentally marked a point in Camille’s column. She stuffed her hair in a ball cap, and I fitted mine down over my forehead.
“I almost feel like a normal person,” I told her as I took her hand.
“We’ll have lots of normal days after this is all over.” I opened the door of Pop’s SUV for her and she lingered in the space. “How does one even contemplate living hundreds of years?”
“I don’t know.” My mind wandered to thoughts of my father and how old he might be. How could you know someone for seventeen years and not learn their biggest secret?
“I like that we’re getting some time, just us.” Camille spun to face me.
“Me, too.” I planted a kiss on her lips.
Our topics of conversation ranged from my mom and dad, to activities I’d participated in at school. She admitted how she’d always wanted to own a horse and be a veterinarian.
“You’ll make a great vet.” I glanced her way and took her hand.
“I’m pretty sure you need a high school diploma at least.”
“We’ll get our diplomas, and we can get into any college we want.”
“I want to earn my way in, not coerce my way in.”
“Well, if you want to do it the hard way.” I smirked, knowing there was no other way but the straight and narrow for her.
The drive took an hour, and we pulled off the paved road onto the dirt lane that led to the farm a little after ten.
“It’s beautiful here. So, green.” Camille looked out her window.
I leaned towards the windshield and scanned the sky. “And sunny.”
Camille turned to face me. “Anything special I should know?”
“No, you know she’s half vampire, but otherwise, no.” I tapped my fingers on the wheel and shrugged.
“Does she know she’s half vampire?”
“My Pop says no.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Not even about you and your dad.”
“Not now, maybe after this is all over. I wanted her to meet you.” I shut off the engine and jumped over the car to open Camille’s door for her.
“Like that wasn’t obvious.”
“No one’s looking.” I planted a kiss on her mouth.
She stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around my waist.
“If you do that”—I pulled her hands from my back—“I’m never going to stop kissing you.”
“That wouldn’t be so bad.” She smiled and took my hand. “What should I say about my eyes?”
“They’re not that much darker than a dark brown.”
“You are such a bad liar.” She walked away.
I caught up with her in one long step. Approaching the farm house, we climbed the stairs to the porch. No one
seemed to be inside. The wood planks creaked under foot as we wound to the back. We waited after knocking on the back door, me rolling on my heels. Hearing footsteps inside, I peered through the screen. A gray-haired woman approached the door.
“Have you been waiting? Sorry I was in the cellar. How can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Emma James.”
“Jude?”
“Yes.” Not recognizing the woman, my face flushed. “Sorry, should I know you?”
“No, dear, sorry, I recognized you from the picture Emma has on her dresser. Come in.” She opened the door and waved us inside. “We’ll go find your mom. It’s been a while since you’ve visited, right?”
“I was overseas.”
“Oh, yes, Iceland.” She held her index finger up. “Let me get my hat.” She lifted it from a hook and started towards the door. We exited onto the back porch and walked down to the path lined with beds of flowers.
“Emma is in the back field. Do you want me to show you?”
“I know my way, thanks.”
“So much for anonymity,” Camille said as we walked through the garden.
“It will be fine.” I acted like I didn’t think there was any danger. Still, I scanned the trees surrounding the property as we walked.
Seeing four women in the strawberry patch, we made our way to the rows of low plants. Mom squatted in the middle of the field, picking berries and plopping them into a large basket. Skirting the field, I led Camille towards my mom.
“Are you nervous?” she asked, squeezing my hand.
“No.”
“Your hand is sweating.”
I slid it from hers and rubbed it on my pants. “Fine, maybe a little. I’ve never brought a girl to meet her. She can be a little emotional.”
“Now, I’m nervous.”
“She’ll love you.” I forced a smile, praying her manic mood swings hadn’t returned.
As we approached, Mom glanced up and her eyes grew wide. She covered her mouth with her hands, jumped over a row and ran to us.
“Jude, oh my goodness, you’re back.” She threw her arms around me, nearly squeezing the air from my lungs. “You’re so tall. Did you grow again?” Releasing me, she took a step back.
I nodded. “Maybe a little.”
The Kingdom Journals Complete Series Box Set Page 67
