Chapter Six

My house was rapidly filling up.  Even though Godwin’s family lived locally, at my mother’s request, he settled into one of the guest rooms.  I could tell that Kenton wasn’t happy about it.  I assumed that it was because he’d been forced by  the Association to move back to his own home.  My mother must have recognized the jealous bug crawling around in him as well because, before she left, she assured my vampire lover that his distant cousin was only going to be with me long enough to develop the magic within me. She also insisted that, after meeting the wicked Amelia, she felt I needed a support team, if not protection, from the she vampire.

Kenton could hardly argue that fact.  Regrets for bringing Amelia to my home had surfaced more than once in him since her arrival.  Not only did she turn out to be a spy for the Association who ratted on his staying with me almost immediately, he worried about me having to deal with her constant cutting attitude where I was concerned.  There was also the fact that he questioned what type of an influence she’d be on Cindy.  He feared she’d turn my bestie into my enemy before she was through. 

So did I.

Sleep eluded me as I worried about how my mother was faring with the other werewolves who were  on the loose and under the influence of the full moon.  Had she found somewhere safe to be? 

I’d considered insisting that she stay with us in the house, but Kenton was against it.  This was her first full moon experience as a wolf and how she’d react to it was a mystery.   The possibility of her losing touch with her humanity and becoming pure predator was high.  Should she be inside the house with us and that happened, he’d have no choice but to kill her.  She was better off out there with the others. 

I understood, but that didn’t mean I was happy about it.  My mother had made it clear that she’d told Michael to basically go pound sand.  She had no friends out there with her.

I rolled around in bed until about three in the morning before I gave up trying to sleep.  I climbed out of bed, slipped on a  robe and slippers, and padded my way down to the kitchen.  Warm milk had always helped me sleep over the years, so I made my way to the cupboard for a mug. I filled the mug with milk and was just putting it into the microwave to warm up when I heard a loud thump on the patio outside.

With the moon’s brilliant glow resembling a flashlight in the sky, I hadn’t bothered to turn on the light to the kitchen.  I found the warm illumination soothing and, since I had no trouble seeing, there was no need to break the mood with artificial lighting.

The sound of a chair crashing made me practically jump out of my skin.  I held my breath while I inched toward the edge of the sliding glass door.  Using extreme caution, I eased my head past the door frame far enough to allow me to peek outside.  An enormous gasp of disbelief escaped me when I saw my mother’s bloody wolf body lying next to the overturned chair.

“Mom!” I shouted as I pulled the door opened and ran to her side.

“Get back inside,” she managed to say telepathically. “They’re all around the house.”

“Not without you,” I insisted as tears flooded my cheeks.

She tried to insist again, but I refused to listen. I grabbed her hind legs and dragged her into the house as fast as I could.  I’d barely closed the door before two wolves bounded onto the patio.  Their eyes glowed red as saliva dripped from their gnashing teeth.

I quickly pulled the blinds shut so that I didn’t have to look at them as I focused on my mother.  She’d had her flesh torn along her ribs and shoulder.  Blood was pooling onto the ivory colored marbled floor around her still body.  It was so still that, had I not been able to see her labored breathing, I would have thought her dead.

I’d just pressed a towel onto the worst wound when Cindy came flying into the room.  Her eyes had turned to those scary black orbs -only now they glowed with a wild, fiery tinge of orange around the rims- and her fangs were distended.  Since she’d been sleeping, her bed head only added to her terrifying image.  “I smell blood!”

“It’s my mother,” I moaned.  “They got to her.”

I nervously watched as Cindy got down on all fours and licked at my mother’s ever increasing pool of blood.  “Cindy, that’s disgusting.”

She stopped and snarled. “Would you rather I drank from her?”

“I’d rather you didn’t drink the blood at all,” I said with force.  “I know for a fact that you’ve already fed. You’re just being a glutton.”

“A glutton?” she screeched as she stood up and placed her hands on her hips.  I was immediately reminded of Amelia as she faced Michael. “That’s a bitchy thing to say.”

Although she looked scary as hell, I refused to be intimidated.  “That’s my mother’s blood you’re making merry with.  Show some respect.”

“What’s going on?” Amelia said as she came up from her basement apartment.  “You’re making enough noise to raise the dead.”  She stopped and looked down at my mother.  “Oh my. Looks like she’s on her way out.” She sniffed the air. “It smells like it too.”

“Shut up, Amelia!” I bellowed.  “Instead of being your usual nasty self, why not help me.  I know that you have the power to heal her with your blood.”

Amelia tossed her head back and laughed. “What TV show were you watching? I can do no such thing.”

“Kenton did it for Cindy,” I cried.

“Kenton turned Cindy.  He didn’t heal her, you twit.”

“So, vampires can’t heal with their blood?” I moaned with dismay.

“And they don’t burn up in the sun, they can eat real food, etcetera, etcetera,” Amelia said with disdain.  “Don’t believe everything you see on TV or in the movies, little girl.”

“Vampires may not be able to heal with their blood, but fairies can heal with theirs,” Godwin said as he barged past Amelia and knelt down next to my mother.  “Maryanne, can you  hear me?” 

I had to stifle a gasp at the sight of Godwin in just his pajama bottoms.  He’d clearly spent a good deal of time, shirtless, in the sun and his sun kissed flesh glistened warm and sexy in the cool lighting.  

The perfect muscles of his bare torso rippled in the moonlight in a way that was so captivating, I had to struggle to remember that my mother was in dire need of help.  When I finally got my hormones back under control, I felt shame over my reaction to his sexiness.  My mother was on death’s door and I was drooling over a sexy, bare chest.  What was wrong with me?

Recognizing that it wasn’t about me and it certainly wasn’t the time or place for wallowing in shame, I pushed my disappointment with myself out of my mind and focused on my mother.  My disgust at seeing that Amelia was reacting to Godwin’s bare torso in a similar manner certainly helped me snap out of it quickly.

We watched for signs of her understanding what was happening, but she seemed to be in her last moments of life.

“My sweet Maryanne,” he whispered.  “I’m going to feed you my magical blood and I want you to drink it.  Do you understand me?  Blink if you do.”

I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw my mother’s eyelid slowly close and then open again.

Why Godwin was carrying a pocketknife in the pocket of his pajama bottoms, I’ll never know.  It really didn’t matter.  I was just glad that he was able to act quickly and slice his wrist so that my mother could lap his blood from the cut.

“You’ll need to transform back into a human if you want to completely heal,” he said, softly.

She moaned her objection to having to expend energy, but she did as he asked.

Cindy had come to her senses enough to fetch a blanket to cover my mother’s naked human body with.  As she handed it to me, our eyes met and I could see the apology in them.  I smiled my thanks as I reminded myself that she was still trying to learn how to live as a vampire. Blood was what drove them forward, as well as their weakness.  It would take time to develop the restraint both Kenton and Amelia displayed.

Godwin continued to hold his wrist to my mother’s mouth  while the wounds on her body slowly disappeared.  When he was satisfied that she was sufficiently healed, he pulled it away and went to the sink to  wash it off.  I couldn’t prevent my eyes from monitoring his every move, but I at least managed to keep any drool from escaping the corners of my mouth.

When he’d washed away the blood from his wrist, I could see no sign of the cut he’d made with his pocketknife.  He’d not only healed my mother, he’d healed himself.  I was impressed.

I watched as Godwin scooped my mother into his arms and carried her upstairs to her room.  I tried to follow, but he insisted that they be left alone for a while because he still had fairy work to do that needed to be done in private.  I wasn’t happy about it, but I did as he asked and stayed behind.

“Now that the drama is over, can we get some sleep?” Amelia asked in her usual selfish way. “Or, do you believe what they say in the movies that vampires don’t sleep?” she added with a chuckle.

“Go to hell, Amelia,” I snapped.

“Been there, darling,” she drawled as she sauntered back toward the stairs leading to her apartment. “It’s fun, in a monotonous sort of way.”

I felt as if steam was bursting out of my ears when her cackle drifted toward me as she closed the door to her stairwell behind her.  “She sounds like an old crone.”

“Why do you let her get to you like that?” Cindy asked as she headed back upstairs.

I stood in the silence of the kitchen as Cindy’s words rolled around in my head.  She was right.  Amelia was grabbing at every opportunity she could to goad me and I was allowing it.  I needed to simply shut her out. Otherwise, I was sure she’d win and drive me crazy.

I stood, alone in the kitchen, and listened to the silence.  Whether the wolves had just given up, or the fact that two vampires and a fairy were inside the house with me drove them away, I wasn’t sure, but all was silent.  I peered out from behind the blinds to find the patio empty. 

Breathing a little easier, I looked down at the pool of blood on the kitchen floor and walked to the utility closet.  At least, after I’d scrubbed the blood from the tile, I’d be tired enough to finally sleep and not be haunted by worry over where my mother was or what was happening to her.

I gave a silent thanks for Godwin’s  being there as I began the arduous job of clean up.