Tainted Blood (7 page)

Laney Jo,

It has been such a pleasure to be a part of your life and to watch you become the beautiful woman that you are today. You have given me so much joy. Thank you.

Happy 19
th
Birthday, my sweet girl.

I love you with all of my heart,

~Aunt Lilly

My heart ached. She was thanking me. Thanking
me
for bringing
her
joy when the last time we’d been together we’d argued and then… I had to stop myself because the memory was too awful. I closed the card and placed it inside the purse that my aunt had made especially for me. They were the last gifts she would ever give me. It was the last message I would ever receive from her. I missed her so much.

Carter pulled me in for a hug to comfort me. I pulled away sooner than I wanted to, sooner than I needed to. If someone saw, who knows what rumors would start flying around next. So I pulled myself together and began heading for the
cemetery gates.

“Happy birthday, Laney,” Carter said.

“Thanks.” I gave him a quick smile, and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, hugging me to his side as we walked.

“How’s your day been so far?”

“Started out kind of weird actually.”

“Oh?” he said as his let go of me.

“I think Oliver’s still getting over his issues with our drunken night.” I shrugged. “Was an odd morning, that’s all.”

“I can’t apologize enough. I truly am sorry.”

I shrugged again and handed him the keys to my car. I didn’t feel like driving, and he didn’t question me.

As we pulled away from the cemetery I took advantage of our time alone and pelted him with questions. “You’re getting married!” I blurted.

He didn’t say anything, just kind of chuckled uncomfortably.

“What were you thinking? You couldn’t just get back together, you needed to go all out and drop to one knee?”

“She’s the greatest thing in my life, and I almost blew it.” He brushed his shaggy blonde bangs out of his eyes as he continued to focus on the road.

“Are you sure this is the right thing to do?” I questioned. “Getting married isn’t something to be taken lightly. It’s forever, Carter.”

He shot me a sidelong glance. “Kinda like bonding with a vampire?”

“Touché,” I muttered. He had me there. I crossed my arms over my chest and slouched down in the seat. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” I pouted. And maybe that was my biggest issue with the whole ordeal. We’d grown so close and had been through so much together, and then he does
this
.
Without even telling me he was considering it. Maybe I felt a little betrayed, or left out. “You didn’t even tell me your got her a ring.”

“It was my mom’s, my real mom’s. Julie gave it to me a few days after we saw her at the ball park. She gave me some of my real mom’s jewelry that she’d been saving for me since I was young. One of those items happened to be my real mom’s wedding set. She also mentioned something to me about not letting my happiness get away. So I decided I wouldn’t.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Look, Laney. I know you’re not totally thrilled about this but I don’t see how it’s much different from what you’re planning to do.”

“What am I planning to do?”

“With Oliver.” He gave me a “duh” look. “Once you guys…you know.” He ran his hand through his hair. Something he did especially when he was uncomfortable. “Well, it’s pretty much like you’re married.”

I felt a burst of anger push though me. I knew Carter did not approve of the whole vampire bonding thing, but it gave him no right to judge me. Although, I guess I sort of deserved it since that was exactly what I had been doing to him. I took a deep, calming breath then said, “Let’s drop this.”

It was silent for a few minutes, and then Carter said, “Missed you in class today. We have a bio exam coming up.”

“Great.” I was so not prepared for any sort of exam. I’d barely passed my last quiz.

We were home by the time I mentally stressed myself out over my grades. It was my birthday, and I really didn’t want to be stressing over school at the moment, but I really did need to pull it together. I still hadn’t heard from Oliver so I decided to squeeze in a bit of studying while I waited.

I had just finished copying Carter’s biology notes when Felix showed up at the apartment and told us that he needed to speak to me in private.
Uh-oh.

Carter said he’d take a walk and left soon after Felix’s arrival.

Felix took a seat across from me at the dining table, and the chair groaned in protest. He folded his massive forearms on the table, and his sky blue eyes settled on me. “That boy you met today, you need to keep your distance from him, understand?” I nodded, but asked why. “He just, well, I.” He looked away from me. “I really can’t say.” This was the first time I’d ever seen Felix stumble over his words

“Is he dangerous?” I asked. He told me that he wasn’t. “Then what’s the big deal?”

“Delaney,” his focus fell back on me, and his eyes met mine with all seriousness, “he is not supposed to be out in the world. There are plans set in place for Phoenix, and he is beginning to get a bit, well, rebellious.” He sighed heavily. “Spending time with you, or anyone outside of the coven, will only fuel his already defiant behavior. So I beg of you, Delaney, stay away from him. Understand?” There was an implied
or else.

I nodded but I still planned to meet with Phen on Saturday. Felix had unknowingly fueled
my
desire to know more about this boy. I had been intrigued by him before, now I really wanted to find out what his story was.

Felix pushed up from the table and creaked under the weight of his arms. He slipped his sunglasses into place and headed for the door.

Just before he stepped outside, he turned back and said, “Happy birthday, Delaney. I hope you have a nice evening.”

I told him thanks, and he left. I was so curious about Phen.
The coven had plans for him? I
wondered what kinds of plans, but considering I knew little about this coven, or any coven for that matter, I couldn’t imagine what his plans entailed.

Carter came back shortly after Felix had left. He plopped himself down on the couch and watched TV while I texted my MIA boyfriend. I tried to call him too, but it went straight to voicemail.

I got a happy birthday text from Zoey and a couple more from people I wasn’t all that close to. I thought about my grandparents and my father. I wondered if any of them were thinking about me, and the fact it was the day I arrived into the world.

After a few more minutes of feeling bad for myself, over the fact that no one seemed to really give a crap it was my birthday, I decided I wanted to call my grandparents and maybe try to have a relationship with them. Perhaps that was because I was feeling lonely—Lilly was gone, and she’d always made such a fuss about my birthday. Or maybe it was because I actually had family out there that wanted to be a part of my life. Either way, I wanted to give it a try.

I sent Felix a text and told him that I wanted my grandparents’ contact information. My phone rang soon after. It was Felix.

“Are you sure?” he asked as I answered the phone. I said I was. “Remember, your father had his reasons for not wanting them in your life. Please keep that in mind when you call them.”

Yeah, he didn’t want them or even himself in my life. “I will,” I answered and then something occurred to me. If Felix had my grandparents’ contact information maybe he had my father’s as well. “Felix?”

“Yes, Delaney?” his voice boomed in response.

My voice was smaller than I would’ve liked it to have been when I asked, “Do you have my father’s information too?”

I heard him let out a heavy sigh. “I do.”

My heart rate picked up. “May I have it?” He said nothing for a long while, and finally I said, “Felix, may I have it?”

“I can give you your grandparents’ number but your father’s is more…difficult. I’ll have to find out how to go about contacting him. Give me some time, okay?”

I agreed, a little reluctantly and then took down the number to reach my grandparents. I didn’t understand why all the secrecy with my father. If he’d been in danger when I was a baby and had feared for the safety of me and my mother, why was I out in the open now?
Why
am
I not being protected?
I wondered.
Or am I…?
Oh my God! What if
I
was who Oliver had originally come here to protect? He’d told me it was Carter, but what if it was both of us?

Felix had once told me that I was always a part of Oliver’s plan, he just had to find me…
Wait, was this a good thing?
Oliver couldn’t be a danger, could he?
No, there’s no way.
I somehow knew that he wasn’t a danger to me. Felix wouldn’t let that happen. But why, why wouldn’t Felix let that happen? Was Felix protecting me from someone or something?

I shook my head. I was being crazy. It all sounded too…right. “No,” I said to myself out loud, and it startled me. It was more likely that my father was being protected by vampires, like Isaac’s family.

Maybe…

I shook the thoughts away and took a couple of deep breaths. I stared at the number for a long while. Once I got enough nerve to call my grandparents, I dialed the number, closed my eyes, and waited.

By the second ring my heart was beating frantically. On the third someone answered, and my head was spinning from the nervousness I felt.

“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.

“Uh, hi. This is Laney.” Silence on the other end. “I, uh, I mean Delaney.”

“Oh, I know who you are, dear. I’m just surprised to hear from you.” I could hear the emotion in her voice. It was my grandmother on the other end of the line.

“I, uh, just called to say hello. I guess this is kind of weird. I’m not really sure what to say.” And apparently my mouth had decided to recite all that my brain was thinking.

She chuckled softly and said, “It’s alright, dear. I don’t know what to say either.” She chuckled again. “I guess there is just so much I’d like to ask you, to know about you, that I don’t know where to start.” She was quiet for a moment and then added, “I can say that I am glad that you called.”

“Me too,” I said softly.

She began asking me things about my life: like what classes I was taking and which ones I enjoyed the most. She asked about things from my childhood and things about Lilly.

I asked her about my mother and Lilly but mostly about my mom. I wanted to know what she was like.

We talked for a long time, and at some point my grandfather got on the phone too and all three of us chatted. They were both retired and had lots of hobbies. They lived near the Phoenix, Arizona area, which I already knew because Lilly had told me she and my mother were born and raised there.

Felix sent me a text while I was on the phone with my grandparents. He told me that he’d be calling soon and to be alone when he called. So I told my grandparents that I needed to go, and before we hung up, they both wished me a happy birthday. It brought tears to my eyes that they remembered. We agreed to keep in touch, and I told them I would call again, soon.

As I waited for Felix to call and wondered frantically why I needed to be alone when he did, I began getting ready for the evening. I had birthday plans with Oliver, Kiera, Carter, and Zoey to have dinner and see a movie. I still wondered why I hadn’t heard from Oliver. I was actually beginning to worry about him and figured I’d mention it to Felix when he called.

My phone rang soon after I had finished getting ready for the evening, and Felix’s voice boomed from the other end. “Delaney, I’m going to connect you to your father. Are you ready?”

Am
I ready?
Hell no, I wasn’t ready! I had no idea what I was going to say to the man.

My lack of response caused Felix to repeat his question, “Delaney, are you ready?”

I finally got out a muffled “Mmm-hmmm.”

“Okay, please hold,” he said this like it was something he did often, and again, I wondered.

I was actually shaking while I waited for my father to pick up. I had no memory of speaking to him. I had no memory of his voice. Actually, I had no memories of him at all, only the photos that Lilly had shared with me. My heart pounded against my chest, and I wished I had written down a list of questions I wanted to ask him.

The phone clicked, and I was afraid we’d been disconnected, but then an accented voice said, “Draven Alexander speaking.” My heart was hammering. My father had an accent, an accent that I didn’t recognize but a voice that I did. I remembered it as soon as I heard him. I knew it was him, and I had to fight back the tears as I tried to speak, but nothing came out. “Hello, is anyone there?” his voice came again.

I had goosebumps covering me when I was finally able to whisper, “Hi.” I forced it out for fear that he would hang up if I didn’t say something soon.