“Jude!” she cried, throwing her arms around him. It looked like she might suffocate him with her hug.
Dad appeared in the doorway. His mouth fell open, and his eyes got shiny with tears, watching the reunion of mother and son. “Are you sure about this, Gracie?” he asked, approaching slowly.
“Yes,” I said, and squeezed his arm.
“Good girl.” Dad swallowed hard and went to Jude and my mom. The three of them embraced.
“Let’s go inside,” I said to Daniel. He took my hand, and we left the others so they could cry and talk and embrace some more.
I was right about the rest of the household—they were fat-dogging-it all over the house. Brent and Zach were sprawled across the front room furniture, passed out napping, with hands resting on their full bellies. April, Charity, and James snuggled together on the couch, watching one of James’s Playhouse Disney DVDs—but I couldn’t help noticing that Charity’s attention seemed to be a bit preoccupied. She kept glancing out the window at Ryan, who appeared to be getting a lesson in the finer ways of staking from Talbot out on the back porch.
“Hey,” I said, trying to get the girls’ attention.
Both April and Charity sat up when they saw me.
“You’re back,” Charity said.
“How did it go with Jude?” April asked.
“He’s here,” I said. “Outside with my parents.”
April jumped up. “Do you think it’s okay if I join them?”
“Me, too?” Charity asked.
“Yeah. The happier we can make his homecoming, the better.”
I watched as April and Charity bounded out of the family room, leaving Baby James to suck on the edge of his blankey with blissful oblivion. At least I never had to worry about his running off with a pack of paranormal thugs.
“I’m going out back,” Daniel said, hitching his thumb at Talbot and Ryan in the backyard. “I need to ask Talbot a few questions about the Shadow Kings.”
“Okay,” I said, and let go of his hand. I also wanted to hear everything Talbot had to say about the Shadow Kings, but at the moment, Jude’s homecoming had to be my priority. I headed to the dining room and piled up a plate of food for Jude from what remained of the breakfast-for-dinner extravaganza.
I picked up the plate and was about to head for the kitchen to warm it up when I found Slade standing in the dining room doorway, blocking my exit. The dish almost dropped from my hands.
“I need to talk to you,” he said, coming closer to me than he ever had before.
“About what?” I stepped back, but the table blocked me from going any farther.
“Why did you do it?” He grabbed my arm tight, almost tipping all the food off the plate and onto the ground. The tattoos on his skin looked garishly colorful compared to my pale arms. “I need to know why. I can’t handle it anymore.”
“Okay. What the heck are you talking about?” I pulled my arm from his grasp.
“Why did you save me from that Akh at the trance party? Why didn’t you let it kill me?”
I put the plate on the table. “Why would I let it kill you? I don’t want you to die.” I didn’t want to lose any more of the lost boys like I had Marcos.
Slade swallowed hard. “But I deserved it. I deserved to die.” A look of genuine confusion passed over his eyes. “I disobeyed a direct order from you. I couldn’t help you save your father. I couldn’t go into that fire. You should have punished me for refusing to go. That’s what Caleb would have done. But instead, you saved my life. Why? What do you have in store for me? What punishment could be worse than death by Akh? I can’t handle not knowing when the ax is finally going to drop. Just do it now and get it over with. Kill me.…”