Andvari opened the door and sent a panicked look their direction. Eduard immediately braced for the worst.
“Eduard.” His voice was a little breathy. Shaky, even.
“What is it?”
Both Henry and Sawyer tensed as well. Nothing ever flustered their vampire.
“My clan leader. He’s on his way here. He wants to meet Sawyer.”
“Whoa,” Sawyer said. “The head of the vampires? Cool. I wanted to meet him.”
Andvari’s eyes practically bugged out of his head. “Sawyer, you don’t understand. He doesn’t leave our homeland. He just… doesn’t.”
“Well, that’s strange, but I mean, I can’t go to him right now. Did you tell him that?”
“Of course. After the attack.”
“So if he wanted to meet me, this was the way?”
Andvari visibly gulped. “Sawyer, this is… significant.”
“Yeah,” Sawyer said. “But you guys said I needed to meet the heads of the different clans and convince them I was the chosen one. We’ve kinda gotten away from all that because of all the near death experiences, but it’s still valid. And maybe we can find some clues as to who the final guardian could be.”
As usual, Sawyer had a point. Eduard ran his hand over Sawyer’s head and down to his neck. “We should prepare a special meal. I can speak to Cecil and—”
“Sawyer!” Draco burst into the room. He glanced frantically at the others before turning his attention back to Sawyer. “My mother…. My dads…”
“They’re coming by? Maybe want to have dinner tonight?” Sawyer suggested.
Draco frowned. “How’d you guess that?”
Sawyer grinned. “Augustus is coming, too. So is the head of the vampire clan. Oh! We should have a cookout! Henry, call your dads and see if they want to come. This’ll be fun.”
Eduard cleared his throat. “Sawyer, love, a visit from the vampire leader is—”
“I know. But look, we don’t want this to be a big formal affair when we have family here as well. I don’t want everyone sitting at a stuffy table wondering what the others are doing. We keep it casual.”
As far as strategies went, it wasn’t bad. They hadn’t officially issued invitations, so a casual atmosphere wouldn’t be considered insulting, even if it did raise a few eyebrows. A family dinner which happened to include the patriarch of the griffins, the matriarch of the dragons, the leader of the vampires. And his mate.
“We will make it happen,” Eduard said.
Sawyer smiled up at him. “I’m going to go talk to Viv about the menu. This is exciting. Meet the parents night!”
Eduard blanched. Yes. It was meet the parents night. He turned wide eyes to Andvari and Draco, who still looked stunned.
Sawyer stood before pecking a kiss on Eduard’s cheek and grabbing Henry’s hand. “Come on, Henry. We can talk to Viv and then go for a swim. We need to make sure Saeward’s going to be okay with all of these strangers.”
Henry nodded and followed behind as Sawyer left the room.
Eduard heard a snicker and turned to find his cousin smirking with his hand over his mouth. Eduard glared Victor’s way.
“Sorry. If you could see the faces the three of you are making, you’d be—”
Draco growled.
Victor bit his lip. “I’ll take my laptop to my room and finish these reports.”
Once Victor left, Draco leaned into Andvari. “I tried to stop her. I told her it wasn’t a great time. But she’s my mother. I just can’t say no to her. Especially when she’s upset with me.”
