Love, Lies and Blood Ties: A young adult paranormal romance (Love, Lies and Ties Book 2)

by C. J. Laurence

  “MUM!” I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me right about now.

  Luke smiled and patted Mum’s hand. “My name is Luke Freeman. We spoke on the phone.”

  Mum slapped a hand over her mouth as her entire face turned beetroot red. “I’m so sorry.” Then she looked at me and playfully slapped my arm. “Kitty Cat, why didn’t you stop me before I opened my mouth?”

  I rolled my eyes and glanced at Hannah, who, bless her heart, had stood with her back pressed against the front door the entire time, not saying a word.

  She came at me with her arms outstretched and gave me one of her signature hugs. She gave absolutely world class friend hugs. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment.

  “You didn’t tell me you had two hunks in your life,” she whispered in my ear.

  I couldn’t help but giggle. Typical Hannah to ease the tension with a joke. I opened my eyes and stepped back, catching sight of a playful smile tweaking at Luke’s lips. He’d heard her. Could this get any more embarrassing?

  “Would you like some help with your bags?” Luke said, gesturing towards the door.

  “Oh,” Mum said, gushing like a teenage girl with her first crush. “And such a gentleman too. Are you single?”

  “MUM! Seriously?”

  She looked at me and grinned. “Bet you’ve missed me, hey, Kitty Cat?”

  Luke opened the front door and headed outside to the car, shadowed by Mum.

  “Like a hole in the head,” I said, looking at Hannah. “Thank you for enduring hours confined in a small space with her.”

  “Anything for my bestie,” she replied. “Besides, I need to meet Marcus. Where is he?”

  I pulled my lips into a thin line. “Yeah, he’s not here. He’s gone away for a few days.”

  Hannah’s jaw dropped. “You are kidding me, right? He left you whilst all this was going on?”

  I sighed. “Believe me, I’m not happy, but it’s to do with his missing mum.”

  “This might sound a little harsh, but she’ll still be missing tomorrow, the day after, and even next week. He couldn’t have delayed it for a few days?”

  In my mind, I’d already justified it. Marcus needed to find those witches and solve the riddle of his mum. He’d been in emotional agony for two centuries. My pain would still be here when he got back. Deep down though, real deep down, I knew what Hannah was saying was correct. He should have been here.

  “It was one of those leads where he had to follow it up straight away or risk losing it.”

  Hannah frowned. “Ok, whatever. Let’s talk about hunk number two. Where did you find him?”

  “He’s dad’s handyman.”

  “No way. You get to see him every day?” She raised her eyebrows. “Can I come live with you?”

  “What about Daniel?” I asked, referring to her current beau. They’d been going steady for nearly a year.

  “Who?” she replied. “Daniel who?”

  “Have you split up again?”

  She shook her head. “How can you even mention his name? It’s like comparing fatty burnt bacon to a prime cut of steak that just melts in the mouth.”

  “Hannah,” I said, laughing.

  “Look at him,” she said, cocking her head to one side and admiring the view of Luke. “Makes me realise I need to be looking at men, not boys.”

  As Luke hauled four suitcases out of the boot of the car, Mum actually went up to him and stroked his arm, asking if he needed help.

  “I think I might be burying both of my parents at this rate,” I said.

  ***

  After Luke dragged their overloaded suitcases onto the first floor and showed them their respective rooms, he came back down to me in Dad’s room.

  “Interesting mum you have there, Kitty Cat,” he said, chuckling.

  “I hate that name. She’s called me it since I was three.”

  “I think it’s cute.”

  “You’re hardly going to disagree with a woman who’s literally just drooled all over you, are you?”

  Luke sat down next to me. He leaned over and said, “Why? Are you jealous?”

  “No,” I said, maybe a little too quickly. “It’s just wrong. You’re my friend and she’s my mum. It’s weird.”

  “I quite like jealousy on you, looks cute.”

  I slammed the journal I was reading shut and fixed him a steely stare. “Jealousy is wanting something someone else has. Protecting what’s mine is being territorial. Get it right.”

  He quirked an eyebrow up. “I’m yours now, am I?”

  I faltered for a second. I hadn’t even realised what I’d just said. “Yes, you’re my friend. A good friend at that.”

  He smiled. “As your good friend, I can assure you I have no romantic interest in your mum.”

  “Or Hannah?”

  “Or Hannah. My brother might be quite taken with her though.”

  “I am not introducing her to Mason, she doesn’t deserve that punishment. Mum on the other hand…”

  Luke chuckled. “No, not Mason. You’ve not met him, but you’d get on great. His name is Max.”

  I smirked. “Oh yes…that infamous M again.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “Don’t you dare.”

  “Don’t you think it’d be fun to see what Mum thinks of it?”

  “No, I really really don’t.”

  “Spoil sport.”

  He gave me a cheeky wink then said, “Your mum would probably think it’s rather cute. Shall we test the theory?”

  He had a point there. She would most likely say it was adorable and dribble all over him even more. “Ok, you win. No more mention of the M word.”

  “Thought as much.”

  “You don’t play fair.”

  “I didn’t realise I had to?”

  I laughed. “Well yes. You have to let me win. All the time.”

  “And that’s playing fair, is it?”

  “Duh.”

  He laughed. “Ok. I’ll see what I can do but no promises.”

  Hannah came in then, asking for food.

  “You and your stomach,” I said, standing up. “I’m telling you, you’ve got worms. No one eats as much as you do and doesn’t gain weight.”

  “I have a high metabolism, it’s not my fault. I was born this way.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, like I’ve not heard that one before.”

  As I took Hannah into the kitchen, Mum came downstairs and followed us. I popped some crumpets in the toaster, mindful of not making too much mess before Sophie had to prepare tea. She hated a cluttered kitchen.

  “You’ve not forgotten how I like mine, have you?” Hannah said.

  “No, Hannah,” I said, getting the knife and the butter out.

  For some weird reason, she liked the top and the bottom buttered. It didn’t matter how many times I told her the butter dripped through to the bottom anyway, she wouldn’t have it.

  “But you only butter one side of toast,” I’d say. “Or butter one side of the bread for a sandwich.”

  “Yes, but this isn’t toast or a sandwich, is it? It’s mine, which means I can eat it how I like.”

  It was a constant argument we’d had for years. I wasn’t feeling particularly playful at the moment though to poke fun at it.

  “What time did you guys set off?” I asked, plonking down a plate with eight on.

  “Hannah stayed at mine last night and we left around four this morning.”

  “I wondered if you’d come early. Luke said you’d be here at dinner time.”

  “I needed to be here as soon as possible for my little girl,” Mum said, in between mouthfuls of crumpets.

  “Thanks, Mum.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I shook my head, tears instantly springing from nowhere. “Not right now, no.”

  “Is there anything you want to talk about?”

  The toasters popped up at the same time, another eight crumpets done. Of course there was something I w
anted to talk about, I just hadn’t figured out yet how to broach the subject.

  “Actually, yes,” I said, turning my back on her as I took all the crumpets out. “But perhaps now isn’t the best of times.”

  “No time like the present,” Mum said.

  “That’s true,” I said, smearing butter all over Hannah’s four crumpets.

  “Especially when you have that bitch Keres on your tail.”

  The knife in my hand clattered to the floor. I turned around, shaking, and leaned back on the worktop to support myself. My heart pounded so hard I could hear my own pulse.

  “What did you just say?”

  Luke strode into the kitchen and came straight to my side. He bent down and picked up the knife. Then he turned to Hannah and said, “You are, aren’t you?”

  She crossed her legs at her ankles and leaned back in her chair, really pulling off the whole nonchalant vibe. Biting into a dripping crumpet, she grinned and said, “Yep.”

  “What?” I asked.

  Mum stood up and walked over to me, putting her hands on my shoulders. “Hannah gave me a potion last night, Kitty Cat. I remember everything.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I froze for a few minutes because I didn’t know what to say or do. Hannah was something, I guessed a witch from the whole potion comment, and my mum had all her memories back. I certainly hadn’t expected this.

  “Are you ok?” Luke said, rubbing his hand on my back.

  “Are you a witch?” I asked Hannah.

  She shook her head. “Nope. I’m something you would never expect.”

  I glanced at Luke.

  “Hannah is a gargoyle,” he said, as if it was the most natural thing to say.

  “A what? As in the ugly stone creatures that sit on a church?”

  “Uh hum,” Hannah said, coughing. “Do I look like an ugly stone creature to you?”

  Luke laughed. “Gargoyle’s are classed as shifters because they shift from human form to their…not so human form.”

  “Do I dare ask what that might be?” I asked, looking at Hannah with a raised eyebrow.

  “We don’t turn into stone, but we do have exceptionally thick skin. Not much can penetrate it.”

  “But what do you look like? Are you…you?”

  Hannah grinned. “Oh no. We kind of look like trolls to be honest.”

  “You mean like full on naked and slimy and stuff?”

  She laughed. “No, there’s no slime, thank you very much.”

  “But you are naked?”

  “Not as me, in human form, but naked in the sense that gargoyles don’t really have genitals so there’s nothing to cover.”

  I frowned. “But if you don’t have genitals then how do you…you know…make more of you?”

  “You mean HAVE SEX?”

  My entire face flushed with heat. I don’t know why, I just couldn’t bring myself to say the word. It felt naughty for some reason.

  “Our Cat here has a really bad aversion to the word SEX, don’t you, Cat?” Hannah said, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

  Luke put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed me. “I think it’s cute.”

  “I’m certainly not complaining,” Mum said.

  “Alright, alright. Can we please stop trying to embarrass me?”

  Hannah laughed. “In answer to your question, we have to be in human form to reproduce.”

  I pointed at her. “Now that word I can deal with.” I pursed my lips and asked, “Have you known about me all this time?”

  She nodded. “Think of us as bodyguards. I was born specifically with the purpose of being your bodyguard, so I had an extra shot of magic most gargoyles don’t get. That means I’m stronger, fiercer, and tougher than a regular gargoyle.”

  I didn’t know what to say. How could I possibly even begin to process that? Did this mean our entire friendship had been nothing but a lie? Something that was forced rather than something that developed naturally?

  “Are you ok, Kitty Cat?” Mum asked. “You’ve gone a little pale.”

  I nodded. “Yeah…it’s just a bit of a shock. I didn’t expect to find out that my best friend was actually forced to be my best friend.” A wave of tears built up in my eyes, springing out of nowhere. “I need some air.”

  My mind swimming with emotions and trying to make sense of everything, I ran for the back door and opened it, only to reveal the beginning of yet another rain shower. I slammed the door shut and sighed, cursing the stupid weather and everything about this whole damn scenario.

  “Kitty Cat,” Mum said, walking into the utility room. “I know it’s a lot to take in but it’s going to be alright now.”

  Mum put her hand on my back. Leaning against the worktop over the washing machine, I stared at the black marble effect, trying to make patterns out of the silver specks. I knew she was trying to comfort me, but I just wanted to be on my own to process all of this at my own speed, chunk by morbid chunk.

  “My whole life is unravelling around me, Mum,” I said, still staring at the worktop. “I’ve been encased in layers of lies for eighteen years and now all those layers are being peeled away and I feel nothing but naked, vulnerable, exposed. I don’t even know who I am anymore.”

  “You’re still you, Caitlyn,” she said. I knew when she used my real name she was being serious. “You’re always will be you. No one can take that away from you.”

  I turned around and sighed. “But who is Caitlyn Summers? I thought a week ago I was a regular eighteen-year-old girl with a vampire boyfriend. Now I’m some doppelganger nuclear bomb of a witch who everyone apparently wants a piece of. My parents aren’t human, my best friend isn’t either, and I’ve been abandoned by said vampire boyfriend and left in the care of a werewolf. I mean, what is this?”

  “It’s your life, sweetpea,” she said, her emerald green eyes full of love and care.

  “It wasn’t my life a week ago, a month ago, heck, six months ago I didn’t even know vampires were real.”

  “It’s ok to feel like this. It’s perfectly understandable and expected. Just take it all in at your own pace.”

  I folded my arms over my chest and in my most sarcastic voice said, “But not too long because things need doing, right?”

  Mum looked at the floor. I didn’t want her to feel bad but to some degree I kind of wanted her to. I felt trapped and totally isolated, I didn’t know what to think, say, or even feel.

  “I need to get and out do something,” I said, sighing. “Luke, can we still go riding please? I need to clear my head.”

  He plodded through and looked out of the window in the utility room. “It’s raining, but sure.”

  “Can we go for a drive then or something? I just can’t stay in here.”

  “Of course. Let me go sort a couple of things and then we’ll go.”

  I nodded, feeling like a mountain had just been lifted from my shoulders. “I’m sorry, Mum. I know you’ve only just got here but I just…it’s too much for me at the minute.”

  Mum nodded and grabbed my hand. “It’s fine. Hannah and I can stay here and formulate plans on what to do next. We need to make sure the funeral is security tight.”

  The funeral. I hadn’t even thought about the funeral yet. A wave of nausea rolled through my stomach. All of a sudden, my chest felt tight, the same constricting feeling from yesterday. The more I tried to suck in air, the tighter my chest became. I felt trapped in my own body and my own mind. I wanted to scream to free myself, but I could barely breathe enough air to keep myself alive. My brain kicked into survival mode, demanding more air but my body refused to cooperate.

  Panic and fear hit me like a sledgehammer. Was this it? Was I going to suffocate myself to death? The more I tried to rid myself of such a claustrophobic feeling, the more I felt stuck and helpless. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I looked at Mum through a hazy film of water. Her eyes were flooded with terror and she yelled for Luke. Everything seemed to move in slow motion and I wondered if this
was what happened when you were about to die. Is this what Dad experienced? Or did he see a bright light and walk towards it, engulfing himself in the afterlife forever? Did his life flash before his eyes, in his dreams? Had he woken up to try to tell me a final goodbye, only to find me asleep?

  Luke ran through the kitchen and into the utility room. He stood in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders. “Cat, Cat, look at me.”

  I managed to move my eyes just enough to stare into his whiskey brown depths. Full of worry and concern, a pang of guilt hit my heart. I could see the profoundness of his feelings for me reflecting back at me.

  “Cat, calm down and breathe with me,” he said. “Hold your breath, now breathe out. Good. Breathe in, hold it, now breathe out.”

  He continued instructing me for a minute or so until the vice like grip on my chest started loosening. I couldn’t help but feel like a lucky mouse who’d escaped an invisible anaconda. A few minutes later, my breathing returned to normal, except for the wall of tiredness that suddenly hit me like a wrecking ball.

  “Are you ok?” Luke said, rubbing his hands up and down my arms.

  I nodded. “I’m tired.”

  “Let’s get you to bed,” he said, slipping an arm around my shoulders and ushering me through into the kitchen.

  “Do you need anything, Cat?” Mum asked, her voice shaking.

  I shook my head. “I just need to sleep for an hour or so.”

  “I’m not going anywhere. None of us are. We’ll be right here when you wake up.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  Luke guided me into the hallway and to the stairs. When I put my right foot on the bottom step and put my weight on my leg, my leg started shaking and I fell to my knees.

  “Ok, that’s enough,” he said, scooping me up like a feather. “Do you want me to stay with you?”

  I rested my head against his chest and nodded.

  A sharp knock at the front door made me jump, sending my heart into supersonic speeds.

  “It’s just the postman,” Luke said, putting me carefully down on the stairs. “Two seconds.”