She smiled lovingly at him and kissed him gently on the mouth.
I turned away from the pair, wiped my tears, and went to collect my jacket. Behind me, I was surprised to hear Mom agree to wait for him. While he hurried to clean up our mostly uneaten breakfasts, she joined me by the door.
Some of my doubt must have shown on my face.
“I know it’s hard for you to believe, but I do want him to be happy.”
“Why? He tastes better that way?” The bitterness in my tone surprised me and hurt her.
“No, because he gave me you,” she said quietly.
I swallowed hard and watched Dad.
“If you ever leave him again, he’ll forget how to live and will die within days.”
“I promise to take care of him, Eliana.”
“Take care of him? He didn’t even finish his breakfast.”
“Neither did I, so he’ll insist on making us something when we return. I won’t allow him to starve.”
I shook my head, knowing that I was fighting a losing battle. Mom would try to take care of him for me, but I knew it would only last until her hunger distracted her.
Dad finished wiping down the table and hurried toward us. As he took Mom’s long coat from the closet, doubt crept into his gaze.
“Would you like to change first?” he asked her.
Mom smiled at him and ran a finger along his jaw. He shivered and briefly closed his eyes.
“You have exquisite taste, Jason. I’m going to proudly wear this dress all day and tell everyone my husband picked it out for me.”
His gaze was hungry when he opened his eyes again to help Mom into her jacket. He was positively ecstatic to be going along with us. He drove the very nice car that I knew wasn’t his, while Mom explained a little about her new business venture.
“Uttira doesn’t have any lucrative middle ground for its residents to interact with non-residents. So I proposed a solution. The night club is on the very edge of Uttira’s boundary. With my influence and connections, patrons from outside the boundary will seek admittance to the club. They’ll crowd the parking lot and wait all night just for a chance to enter. It will be adult-only, of course, with a few exceptions. I’m excited for you to see it.”
My stomach churned with what this would mean for all those unsuspecting humans. And me. Because I held no illusions regarding who the underage exception would be.
The large building came into view a moment before I spotted the telltale shimmer in the road ahead. My skin prickled as we neared the old wood mill and Uttira’s boundary. Hopefully, I wouldn’t get close enough to trigger the ward. After finally getting rid of Piepen’s taste, I did not want to smell burnt hair for a day.
A flash of movement caught my eye through the thin trees beside the road. The fast-flowing water licked at the steep, icy banks and rushed toward the building to wash over the decrepit waterwheel that no longer turned. That one of Lake Uttira’s deeper tributaries hugged the south side of the old building meant convenient access for any water-dwelling creatures who wanted to check out Mom’s club. Not that it was much of a club yet.
Other than the new windows and the refreshed gravel parking lot that wrapped around three sides of the weathered building, the place looked rundown.
Dad pulled up to a door marked “Uttira resident entrance” on the west side of the building, and Mom looked back at me with a smile.
“Are you ready?”
Dad hurried around the car to open the door for her before I could answer. She accepted his hand and rose to kiss him lightly on the lips.
“We’ll be out in a few minutes, my darling.”
“I’ll keep the car warm for you.”
I let myself out and moved away from them, unable to see his devotion as anything more than the subservience it was. Bitterness curdled my insides until I felt sick with it. Adira and my mom were insane if they thought I would ever willingly do that to another person.
“It’s not impressive now, but it will be,” Mom said from beside me.
“This is the main entrance for our kind,” she continued. “Humans will not be able to enter or leave this building by any means other than the east door. Likewise, those without a mark can only enter through the west door. What do you think?”
