So I had grabbed everything I didn’t recognize from the spelled, voice-protected PO Box, dumped it in the pillowcase I had grabbed to haul anything I found, and now I was in the middle of the golden abyss, waiting to reappear in the front room of my tent.
And, like normal, I first noticed the scents as we started to appear. Everything smelled normal, making me feel better; the scents of those that were supposed to be there were. Sounds of their breathing — no one was speaking — hit me next. Then I blinked from the brightness of the Mage sparks as we appeared inside the room. I rubbed my eyes with my free hand, then my gaze darted around the room until I saw King Zeller sitting where he had been before, holding Isa’s sleeping form, his pinkie finger held tightly inside Isa’s gripping fist.
He scowled. “It took you almost a half-hour.” Yep, his cheeks were flushed to match all of his pissed off aggression; he wasn’t bothering to hide his emotions.
I shrugged, enjoying — actually enjoying — his discomfort. “Quit your whining.” I lifted the bag, still holding onto Antonio’s hand. “Or I won’t show you what I found.”
His gaze darted to our joined hands, his Vampire growling grumpily, but his mouth stayed beautifully shut.
My lips lifted, muttering, “There’s a good Vampire King. At least you know when you’re beat.”
Angered by my taunting, his Vampire hissed.
Antonio pulled his hand from mine, shaking his head at me and sighing. “Try to be nice, Lil.” He waved a hand at King Zeller. “I know I raised you to have better manners than this.”
I snorted. “When?”
Antonio blinked. Stayed mute. Blinked again. “Well, I should have.” His head cocked at King Zeller. “So work with me and pretend as if I did.”
Elder Merrick chuckled quietly, staring at Antonio. “The similarities between you two are limitless.”
Antonio’s head teetered back and forth. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“You’ve been mute this entire time,” King Zeller rumbled at them, glaring. “Please, don’t stop now.”
Sighing, I moved to the couch, but stopped abruptly when Bindi brushed past the tent flap, rushing so much that she stumbled as she stopped. She waved a piece of paper at me…and started gurgling. Again I sighed, and I moved back to her, grabbing the sheet of paper from her.
Read the printout.
Stared.
Read it again, then nodded to her. “Thank you, Bindi. That’ll be all.”
After she left, I walked to the couch. Sat down steadily. And handed over the piece of paper to King Zeller as I dumped the items of the pillowcase onto the coffee table.
He read it, then he calmly murmured, “Well, now we know for certain.”
Yes.
We now did.
King Zeller was, indeed, Isa’s father.
And I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, knowing for certain I’d had sex with him…and I couldn’t remember a damn thing about it. “At least you don’t remember anything about it, either.” I fumbled with an envelope, my hands shaking a bit. “I mean, how awkward would it be if one of us did and the other didn’t, right?”
“Right,” he stated softly, laying the piece of paper down on the table — which his dad covertly pulled away to review — and rested a gentle hand on top of mine while I rummaged to get the package open. I jerked at the contact, blinking rapidly, not about to look at him. Fuck me if tears weren’t threatening to spill over, relief and anger mixing together at finally knowing for certain who was Isa’s father — even if I did not like the guy. He gently squeezed my hand before lifting the package from my grip and easily opening it, hardly hindered by Isa lying in his arms. Staying silent, he handed me the open package.
I coughed, hiding my sniffle, which I had to do or risk having snot running down my face, and peered into the package past the tears in my eyes. I blinked blurrily and pulled out a VHS tape. There was nothing else inside, the label on the tape reading: Lil’s King Hall Graduation. I peered at Antonio because it was his handwriting.
“You taped my graduation?” Hell, I couldn’t remember large chunks of it.
“Yes.” A short answer.
My lips thinned, and I quickly wiped away an errant tear that verged on falling, and grabbed the next package. And opened it a bit easier. It was another VHS tape. Nothing else, except for the label that stated: Lil’s first Awakening with Pearl, Jack, and Ezra.
I stilled, staring at the names, and flipped the wording toward King Zeller so he could read it, even as I turned my attention back to Antonio since again the handwriting was his. I gauged him, blinking away the tears that didn’t seem to want to stop stinging my eyes. “You knew.” My hand trembled as I set the tape down, hearing King Zeller grunt after reading it. “You knew in advance this was going to happen. Knew you wouldn’t be able to speak.” I cleared my throat hard when he still didn’t express anything, my voice gruff and full of emotion. “You’re not such a bastard.”