“You really believe that sob story she told you?” Nathan asked as we watched her go.
“I should, considering vampires can usually tell when humans are lying. And if by some miracle she’s trained in how to fool our senses, there’s also the fact that you emailed me her background. All of which lines up with what she shared.”
“Companions spend a lot of time with us. Self-preservation dictates they learn a few tricks to survive. She could very well know how to get around our senses. All you have is her word that Chadwick made a move on the kid. Maybe it wasn’t as she said and he just got tired of her. She could be using you to get back in his good graces.”
I shook my head, not believing it. “You didn’t see the way he was acting at the gathering. He wanted her and she wanted nothing to do with him.”
Her version of events made more sense than the one Nathan suggested.
“If you say so.”
“I do say so, which is why, when Joseph is done, you’re going to make sure she’s somewhere safe without letting any harm come to her.”
“Always the softy.”
I ducked back into the room and started to close the door. Nathan caught it before I could. “Why are you sending her with me? I’d think this would be something you’d want to sit in on. What with your concern over her safety and all.”
“I just have something I need to check into first,” I told him.
Nathan watched me with a speculative gaze. “Before you go gallivanting around town, you should know Liam and Thomas are waiting for you in the war room.”
“Are you serious?” I protested as my phone started ringing from the bed.
“Don’t go doing anything stupid without me,” Nathan responded with a grin before starting down the hallway in the direction Deborah had taken. “See you in a bit, A.”
The phone rang again. I slammed the door and hurried over to the bed in case a miracle had happened and Connor had escaped Ahrun and was now calling me. It seemed I was doomed for disappointment when instead of Connor’s name, “Mom” flashed across the screen.
I stopped in mid-step, treating the phone like it had become a snake that might bite me. The urge to pretend I’d missed her call was strong.
A brief moment of maturity compelled me to answer.
“Mom—to what do I owe the pleasure?”
A short silence crackled down the line.
“Aileen.”
The soft voice on the other side of the phone didn’t sound like the Elise Travers I knew. Uncertain of herself, when my mom was known for sallying forth without a single second of self-doubt.
“It’s a busy night for me so if you don’t have anything to say, I need to go,” I said into the awkward silence that resulted.
“Don’t hang up. Please.”
The desperation and pleading in her voice made me hesitate.
“I heard from your father that you attended Linda’s ballet recital.”
“I did.”
“I know she enjoyed that.”
“It was enjoyable for me too,” I responded.
“It was torture, wasn’t it?”
That surprised a laugh out of me. “The worst.”
Now that the ice was broken, my mom was more relaxed. “I heard something happened at dinner. That you got sick?”
