“Yes?”
“I believe your note was addressed to me.”
Simon’s head began to spin, and he grabbed hold of the table infront of him. Gray wrapped his arms around him from behind and supported him. “It’s you?”
His voice was low and weak, but Simon couldn’t seem to make it stronger. He’d known Cormac for years and had visited with him on several occasions when he was a child. He had never picked up on any magic from Cormac, never once thought he could be the one they were searching for.
“Simon, where are you? Let me come to you.”
“I, I don’t—”
Gray plucked the phone from Simon’s weak grip and switched the call so it was on speaker. “Cormac, this is Gray, Alpha of the High Moon Pack. Simon is under my protection at the moment.”
“Alpha?” Simon could hear the anger and confusion in Cormac’s tone. “Why on earth would Simon need the protection of an alpha? What is going on?”
“That’s a very long story,” Gray answered. “And one we would like to explain to you. However, I think we should meet somewhere else. I’m not comfortable allowing you onto pack grounds at this point.”
“Fine. Come to me.”
While Gray wasn’t comfortable with that solution, they needed Cormac’s expertise, so he agreed to the vampire’s terms. Given his history with Simon’s grandfather, they had to trust Cormac meant them no harm. Cormac gave Gray directions, and they arranged to meet later that evening. When he hung up the phone, Simon turned around in Gray’s hold and wrapped his arms around him.
Gray held him close, whispering into his hair. Simon didn’t listen to the words, but the comforting tone helped to soothe him. His emotions were spinning out of control. One part of him was elated they’d found Cormac so quickly and that the person they needed to talk to was someone Simon knew.
The other part of him wondered how he could have missed such an important connection. How could he not have known who Cormac was or at least felt Cormac was something more than just a friend of his grandfather’s?
Wrapped in the security of Gray’s arms, he basked in the strength he drew from Gray’s touch. Doubts began to creep in, though, doubtsabout his own judgment. If he’d missed something this important from Cormac for so many years, how could he trust himself to know what he was feeling for Gray?
ON THE way to meet Cormac, Simon tried to remember the last time he’d seen the vampire. It had been a long time, before he began his apprenticeship. Simon had moved into his grandfather’s cabin the summer after he’d turned eighteen and graduated from high school.
There had been quite the fight with his parents over his decision. They wanted Simon to go to college, get a degree. More importantly, they wanted him to be normal, like they were.
Simon knew that wasn’t for him. He’d known since he was ten that he was going to be a mage, just like his grandfather. The cabin was already in his name and had been set up in trust through his grandfather’s will to be his. That summer, Cormac had stopped by to visit. It was the last time Simon had seen him.
Simon stretched his legs out in front of him and leaned back in a lawn chair. An ice-cold glass of lemonade dripped its condensation over his hand, and Simon lifted it up and rubbed the coolness against his forehead.
His grandfather’s garden was a disaster. Part of the trust for the property had included a “caretaker,” but it was clear to Simon the man had no idea how to care for anything. Sure, the maintenance on the house was fine. There were no broken windows or leaky pipes. But the garden, his grandfather’s pride and joy, couldn’t have been worse.
For nearly a week, Simon pulled weeds, trimmed shrubs, and raked leaves. Every day, from sunup to sundown, he worked to bring some semblance of life back to the grounds. The evidence of new life surrounded him, but he still had a long way to go.
He heard a car pull into the drive and knew he needed to get up to see who was there. With a small groan, he pulled himself to his feet and started walking around the house.
Cormac, his grandfather’s friend, rounded the corner before he could get there. He was one of those guys who never seemed tochange. Simon had only seen him a few times, but each time he’d been dressed in slacks and a nice shirt. Even in the heat of summer.
“Simon, I’m happy you’re finally here.”
His grandfather had shared with Cormac his plans to leave the property to Simon. “It’s good to be here. Well, good in some ways. Bad in the amount of weeds.” Simon chuckled and Cormac laughed along with him.
“Oh, your grandfather would have had a fit if he had seen this place the way it was not long ago. Can you imagine how angry he would be?”
Simon smiled and shook his head. His grandfather’s temper where his garden was concerned was legendary. Greenhouses in the area shivered in terror when they saw him approach. Even mail-order companies were not safe from his wrath when his plants were not up to par. “He would have lost it for sure.”
Cormac placed a comforting hand on Simon’s shoulder. “I miss him very much.”
“So do I. I always thought I would do my apprenticeship with him, you know? Even though he’s been gone so long, I still think that he’ll be the one training me. Silly, huh?”
“Never silly. You still have, what, two years?”
“Yes, sir. My apprenticeship officially begins on my twentieth birthday. I just turned eighteen a few weeks ago.”
