We’d decided to stay another night at the cabin because I was unwilling to arrive in Occident at the crack of dawn. “I called Aaron earlier. He’s excited to see us,” he lied.
“You mean he’s excited to see you,” I said, with a kiss to his cheek. “Did you tell him you’re bringing more than one vampire home?”
“Not exactly,” he said and glanced out the side window. “I told him I was bringing someone home who wanted to meet Gramps.”
“Gramps? Is that what you call my distant relative?” Josiah asked.
“Yes, but only when he can’t hear me. He might be eighty-two, but he’s more than capable of making sure he’s respected.” Blake chuckled.
“What’s his name?” Mark asked.
“Joseph, Joseph Miller,” Blake said.
“I had a younger brother named Joseph,” Josiah said.
“He’s named after his father, and his father before him.”
“You don’t say,” Josiah said from the back, and when I glanced at him in the mirror, he had a faraway look in his eyes again, but also a grin, before they met mine. If I looked hard enough, I could see a hint of Blake in his eyes and the way he carried himself. But mostly it was the color of his hair and his tall, thin build.
“I swear I won’t hurt anyone there,” he said, and patted Blake’s shoulder, making me hiss and Blake reach for my hand.
“Are you going to tell him who you are?” Blake asked. Because I had no clue how any of this could work. But I thought Blake’s grandfather would want to meet the source of the story he’d always told.
“Yes, I think I will. And I’m going to tell him who Marlon is since he’s the star of the story,” Josiah said. Mark leaned against his side, and I would have sworn the more time they were together the closer they’d become.
“He’s never going to believe this,” Blake mumbled.
Six hours later, after we had fed on two elks we’d drained before leaving the cabin, we pulled up to Blake’s house. It was dark inside, but Aaron’s car was parked out front, and I could already smell him. As soon as Blake slammed the truck into park and turnedoff the engine, he rushed inside, me right behind him. Aaron was asleep on the couch. A box of cold pizza sat on the coffee table in front of him that Blake moved aside so he could sit. “Aaron?” he whispered, but when he didn’t move, he gave him a good shake and said his name a little louder.
“Twenty more minutes,” he groaned as he tried to move away from him. Humans were so strange.
“Sure likes to sleep, don’t he?” I said from the doorway, flanked by everyone else.
“Agh!” Aaron yelled before bolting upright and looking around at us all. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Aaron, it’s me,” Blake said and patted his knee.
“Blake?” he asked and blinked his eyes a few times.
“Of course. Who else would it—” He pulled Blake in for a hug before he had a chance to finish his sentence, making him laugh and me growl. I was obviously one territorial fucking vampire. And I was so proud of how far Blake had come in a short time to be able to hug Aaron without restraint.
“I missed you so much,” Aaron said before his eyes slid to the four vampires standing in the doorway.
“Who is that?” he whispered while shoving his thumb in my direction over his shoulder.
“Aaron, I’d like you to meet a few friends we made on the way,” he said before he pointed at Mark, Elias, and even Josiah. Aaron looked at each of them but stayed far away from me and Josiah, reminding me I’d need to admit to him I was not going to hurt him, even if I did enjoy his fear.
“You don’t have to worry about me anymore. I’m not going to eat you,” I finally said to him before pulling him in for what had to be the most uncomfortable hug he’d ever experienced. Aaron shoved back before staring at me with his eyes so wide I worried they might pop right out of his head.
“Isn’t that the guy who buried you?” he asked me once he’d recovered.
“Yep, but we worked it out,” I said before draping my arm over Blake’s shoulders, who had stayed suspiciously silent during our weird interaction. “No one is here to hurt any humans.” Vampires though. . . It’s not that I wouldn’t love the opportunity to rip off Josiah’s head, but I didn’t want to hurt Mark. He seemed nice enough.
“Why do you have a kid? Are you drinking his blood?” Aaron asked and clutched his throat.
“I’m older than any of them and much wiser,” Elias said, and held his hand out to Aaron, who took it like he was being offered a live rattlesnake. Elias was wearing some of my clothes that hung on him but were better than the old, bloodstained ones he’d had on before.
“How old?” Aaron asked, because he was just as curious as Blake, and there was nothing that was going to hold him back. Elias told him how old he thought he was and how he hadn’t changed at all since he’d been changed, and all the while Aaron listened with intense fascination and curiosity.
