He just wanted one relaxing day without a significant problem.Every instinct screamed that he wasn’t going to get it.
CHAPTER14
“Really, Mother?Is that even going to fit in your place?”
Trina Heart stepped back to get a good look at the large wooden wardrobe.“I think so, and it will look magnificent with my new side tables.”She tilted her head toward the mahogany tables decorated with phoenixes in flight.“Besides, I’ve always wanted to visit Narnia.”
Glenn snickered behind him.
“I’m sensing a theme,” he said, his tone drier than the Sahara.
He didn’t sigh, he didn’t, but he was damn close.They’d gone to ten antique stores in three hours.He hadn’t even known there were ten antique stores in their neighborhood, and he’d lived there his entire life.It was as if they’d opened new ones overnight solely for his mother’s shopping odyssey.
Braed followed them from store to store like a dark cloud of doom.Somehow, his disapproving frown didn’t dim his mother’s enthusiasm.She teased Braed from time to time with the outlandish things she found, but he never cracked a smile.
Quentin wanted to crack him, even if his attitude didn’t faze his mother.
“After this, I’m out of transport orbs.”
She checked her watch.“The movie is going to start soon anyway.”She rushed to pay for her latest purchase.
“Do you really not have any more?”Glenn whispered.
“I’ll never tell,” he whispered back.
Glenn’s laughter was really starting to get on his nerves.
Damn hyena.
Quentin had started the day in a good mood, ready to spend some time with his mother.She’d called him last night to remind him of their mother-son day of antiquing and bad movie watching.
He smiled in anticipation of a campy movie experience, unlike most people who yearned for a cinematic masterpiece.Quentin and his mother wallowed in the swamp of terrible monster movies.
It was their thing.
Jaks had been annoyed by the entire concept, claiming Quentin already knew what vampires were like.
Quentin had found the conversation hilarious.
Two hours later, his feet ached, and his only purchase was a small container of paperclips shaped like vampire fangs to present to Jaks later as a gag gift.He shoved the small packet in his pocket next to his remaining capture orb after his mother stole his bag to put her ‘treasures’ inside.He was keeping it for emergencies.With so many people after him, it was best to have a backup, no matter how minimal.
“I just want my new place to have good furniture,” she argued when Quentin mentioned his sore feet.
“Didn’t it come furnished?”Glenn asked.
“If that’s what you want to call it,” she sniffed.
Quentin laughed.After working hard as a single mother to afford any comforts, Trina Heart had a strong urge to create a cozy space with the money allotted for new vampires.Jaks provided all members with a stipend for their first two years after the change, until they could find their feet.According to Jaks, not everyone took the entire two years, but vampire leaders watched over their own, or at least the good ones did.
Quentin was a bit proud.Apparently, Vlad hadn’t cared.He’d let the newbies stay at the mansion, but was convinced bringing in blood and having a place to live was enough provision.
He refused to coddle them.
Asshole.
Now that she had a clan stipend and no housing bills, his mother wasn’t going to hold back.She still hadn’t decided what she wanted to do as a career in her newly lengthened life, but she’d confided in Quentin that she was going to take time to find something that she truly enjoyed.She’d spent so long in the business world that she was ready to explore her more artistic side.
“I’m going to get popcorn.You two can fight over tasteful decor without me.”They probably would too.Despite Glenn’s haphazard clothing style, he had ‘opinions’ about home decorating.A facet of his personality Quentin had never known before.
