Chapter Five

I awoke in my own bed with a cold compress over my head.  The fact that I kept passing out was starting to irritate me, but I had no control over it.  There was so much in my life since we’d moved to Wolf Mountain that was out of my control.  It was getting to be overwhelming.

My mother was huddled in the corner of the room with my grandfather while Kenton held vigil at my side. 

“How do you feel?” he asked as I slowly opened my eyes.

“I’m tired of passing out like that,” I complained.

“Ebenezer said that it’s a side effect of the drink that Godwin’s been giving you.”

“I can’t believe he’s been doing all of that,” I moaned.  It’s so deceitful.”   At that moment, my head cleared and I remembered Kenton’s warning about pregnancy.  I pointed to the oversized wall hanging of a pig farm - that I’d gotten in the habit of referring to as the “ugly duckling” – and said, “I taped the pills to the back of that painting.  Don’t ask me why.  I just felt like I needed to hide them.”

Kenton  moved to the picture and pulled it away from the wall.  With a scowl, he took it completely down and turned it so that I could see the back.  There was nothing there.  My pills were gone.

“I swear that I put them there the morning after Godwin and I first got together,” I said in a panic.  “Do you remember that morning?  You told me not to waste them on him because Godwin didn’t get his women pregnant.  I taped them to the back of the painting that morning.”

“He’s  obviously found them,” Kenton said with clear irritation.

“I don’t know much about vampire pregnancies,” my mother said as she and my grandfather joined in our conversation.  “Do you have time to run to the store like you did after Ethan impregnated her?”

“What?” my grandfather bellowed.

“Later, Ebenezer,” my mother scolded. “Now is not the time to ride that high morality horse of yours.  You know very well that the werewolves are focusing on increasing the size of their pack.  Missy was a victim of that plan.  Fortunately, Kenton was able to rescue her before it was too late.”  She turned her attention to Kenton.  “Can the same thing be done now?”

Kenton shook his head.  “Even with her taking that treatment this very minute, I’m not sure if it would work.  Godwin sealed this pregnancy with magic.  Vampire pregnancies are a dickens to end on their own; especially when the males takes such pains to make sure their systems align, like I’m sure that Godwin did.  Magic just makes it all the harder.”

“I know of a way,” my grandfather said as he sat on the edge of the bed and took my hand into his.  “It would require that you give up becoming a vampire, though.”

I looked at Kenton before saying, “I only wanted to become a vampire because I wanted to spend my life with Kenton and that’s what he is.  Now that I know how devious Godwin has been, I want nothing to do with him.  I’d happily not become a vampire if there was a way to stop all of this.”

“It would also require that you return to my kingdom with me for a while,” he added.

I gave my mother a worried look, but when she closed her eyes, smiled, and nodded, I said, “Okay.”

He turned to Kenton.  “I’d like you to  come along, young man.”

Kenton’s eyes went wide. “I’m a vampire.”

“With fairy blood running through your veins and one who has proven over and over again that you are not a threat to fairies,” my grandfather said with conviction. “Will you think on it?”

“I should tell you something about me,” Kenton practically choked out.

“If you are referring to your probation and jail time, I already know,” my grandfather said.

Kenton’s face openly displayed his shock and the fact that he was at a loss over what to say or do.  My grandfather recognized his dilemma and gently told him that he had a few hours to mull things over since no one was going anywhere until my grandmother arrived.

He looked from me to Kenton and smiled.  “Things that were confusing me are starting to make sense now.”

The honking of the cab’s horn as it pulled up the drive caught our attention.

“That’s got to be the old bird now,” my grandfather said, excitedly, as he rushed out of the room with my mother hot on his heels.’

As I started to get up, Kenton grabbed my arm to assist me.  I stopped and looked into his rich, chocolate eyes that made me want to swoon every time I connected with them.

“I’m so sorry about what’s happened,” he said in a low, soft tone.

“To us, or in general?” I asked.

“Both,” he replied.

“Me too,” I sighed. “I thought Godwin was a gift.  It turns out that he’s a nightmare.  I don’t mind telling you that I’m a little frightened of him.”

“I’ll do what I can to protect you until you go with your grandfather,” he assured me.

“What about you?  He asked you to go too.”

“I know,” Kenton said as he looked away.  “I’m just not sure if that’s the right thing for me to do.  I have only a few weeks left of my probation.  I can’t begin to describe what it was like for me in that jail.  I don’t want to do anything that would land me back in there, if I can help it.”

“Yet, you told me what Godwin’s been doing,” I muttered.

“I had no choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” I said.

His eyes locked with mine.  “Sometimes, there’s not.” After a long deep breath, he added, “I’m hoping that he won’t discover what I’ve done until after my sentence is up and my probation has ended. Then, he can be as angry with me as he likes.  Just a few more weeks and I’m free.”

“It’s been a long fifty years, hasn’t it?” I asked with tear filled eyes.

He nodded, but said nothing.

I felt both sad and angry for what had happened to Kenton.  Even more so, I was angry with myself over the way I’d been played by Godwin and how uncomfortable I was when I was this close to Kenton.  I needed to be away from him, Godwin, and anything else that made me feel in any way out of sorts.

“I think we need to go downstairs and greet my grandmother.  Apparently, I met her when I was young, but I don’t remember her.  I only reunited with my grandfather this morning.  This has been a day of unveiling and surprises.”

He helped me stand and waited to make sure that my legs were sturdy enough to hold me.  “Are you good?”

I nodded and started for the door.  I made it half way before my right leg buckled and I started to fall.  He was as quick as lightning in catching me. 

I stayed still; embraced in his arms with his face so close to mine that his warm breath tickled my flesh.  I wanted him to kiss me so badly that I ached from head to toe, but he didn’t.  Instead, he swept me into his arms and carried me downstairs.  I took advantage of his closeness and threw all reservations to the wind as I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face into his neck.  It felt like old times.

“Here’s Romeo and Juliet now,” I heard my grandfather tease as we entered the sitting room with Kenton still carrying me.

Mindless of the way it looked, Kenton adamantly carried me to the sofa and gently set me down before turning to greet an absolutely stunning middle-aged woman who I immediately knew to be my grandmother.  My father may have gotten his eyes from my grandfather, but his looks were pure grandma.  It was like looking at a female version of him.

“So, this handsome young man  must be the fiancé,” she said with a warm and welcoming smile as she looked directly at me.

“That’s the ex-boyfriend,” my grandfather said. “He’s better than the fiancé, trust me.”

I gasped at the conversation that was taking place around me while I watched Kenton drop to one knee in front of my grandmother, like he’d done with my grandfather.

“He’s respectful too,” my grandfather said with a hint of pride in his voice.

My grandmother chuckled as she placed her hand on his head in a similar way that I’d witnessed my grandfather doing in the stable and asked Kenton to rise and  to not stand on ceremony.

Grandfather introduced her to Kenton as Eliza Cramby, queen of the fairies, while she laughed it off like he’d been bragging about an old beauty queen title she might have won in her younger years.