Standing barely an inch over Kylie’s four-ten frame, and although her spine might have begun to curve, Esther still carried herself with the straight-backed pride of a much younger woman. Her skin had taken on the faint translucence of age, but the color reminded him greatly of her granddaughter. The women also shared the same curve of the cheekbone and that distinctively stubborn chin.
Esther’s hair had gone gray, strands of steel and iron lightened by the occasional thread of silver, but it appeared to curl much like Kylie’s, though she wore it in a much shorter crop that had obviously been styled with care. The same attention to her appearance showed in her clothing, all well tailored from fabrics of obvious quality.
Everything about her stated that this was a woman to be reckoned with. He imagined that in fifty or sixty years, his Kylie would look much the same. He looked forward to seeing her mature into an equally formidable matriarch.
In that moment he realized the true importance of convincing her to accept their mating. Only a true bond between them could free him of his duty and allow him to share a natural human life span with his mate. If she were to reject him and their relationship, he would be condemned to another long slumber and an eventual awakening to a world with no Kylie in it.
The thought made him clench his fists until the knuckles ached. He could not survive in such a future. He needed her too badly.
A grunt of satisfaction escaped him when he heard his mate’s grandmother express a positive opinion of him. He would not have stepped away from Kylie even had the old woman commanded it, but he was glad not to be the cause of tension in their family. As he understood, Kylie had too few family members she could rely on as it was.
But it was the old woman’s softly voiced question that really got his attention.
What is going on with my only baby girl?
He heard Kylie’s tired sigh.
“Bubbeh, it’s nothing,” Kylie said. “I’m just tired. I guess I’ve been working too hard.”
“Du kannst nicht auf meinem rucken pishen unt mir sagen classe es regen ist.”
Dag frowned even as Kylie laughed weakly.
“I’m not pissing on your back and telling you it’s raining, bubbeh. I really have been working hard.”
“On what?” Esther demanded. “You made enough money with that big-time program you wrote that you never have to work another day in your life. And before you interrupt to tell me you like to work, I’ll remind you that in all of your years, you have never missed coming home for Passover. Not while you were in college, not while you were in negotiations for your business, not even the year you had a broken leg and mono all at the same time. Busy does not keep my ainikl from home on the holiday.”
“Bubbeh, please. What if I promise I’ll come for Shavuot instead? I know it’s not Passover, but we can light the candles together and—”
“Is it this man of yours? He doesn’t want to come with you? He doesn’t want you to go? Because I thought I already made up my mind to like him, but it hasn’t been very long. I can change it.”
“No. No, it’s not that. It’s just—”
Dag hated hearing her struggling for words that would pacify her grandmother’s fierce curiosity and determined persuasion without giving away the secrets she had so recently become privy to. Part of him wanted to race in and show the woman what was at stake if he and Kylie should fail to thwart the plans of the Order, but he knew his duty too well.
He also knew Kylie tended to get testy with him when she thought he was being overprotective, or behaving as if she could not take care of herself.
There was a stretch of silence before he heard Kylie shift in her chair and sigh. “Bubbeh, I can only apologize for not visiting you for Passover. Believe me when I tell you it’s not what I want either, but you raised me to keep to my principles and to always remember my duty to my fellow man. I can’t tell you exactly why I can’t come, because it’s a story that isn’t all mine to tell. But I can tell you that someone will be in danger that weekend, and they’ll need my help to keep them safe.”
Another brief silence. When it finally ended, he expected the same kind of insistent demand for answers he had come to expect from Kylie. The same trait that he had begun to suspect she had inherited directly from Esther.
Instead, the old woman said, “Is this going to put you in danger yourself?”
“I don’t know. But I can tell you that I’ll have friends looking out for me. Dag will be there. So will my old friend Wynn. You remember her. Bran’s sister? She’ll be there with her fiancé and maybe others. But this is too important to leave to just them. I need to be here, and I need to help.”
Esther harrumphed. “Well, I probably don’t have to tell you that I don’t like this.”
“No, bubbeh, you don’t.”
“But you’re right. I did raise you to know what is right and to do what is right when you’re the only one who can. We should all be loving and kind to each other.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do. Thank you for understanding.”
“But I still don’t like it!”
“I know, bubbeh. I’ll come for Shavuot. I promise.”