Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Blinking rapidly, Elena said, “I know.” It came out a rasp.
It will be…rather wonderful to have a grandbabe who is immortal, and who will most certainly consider us decrepit ancients.
Elena laughed, her wings brushing his back as she leaned even deeper into his embrace. Kid’s going to have one heck of a family.
That he or she will. Jean-Baptiste stroked a hand over her hair. I presume, since you asked me to walk away from the crowd, that we are not to tell others yet?
It’s too early.
I understand. His smile was pure sunlight. I cannot wait to brag to my fellow warriors when it is time.
Elena was still laughing when a huffing little boy ran over to tug on Jean-Baptiste’s hand. “Grandpa, come, play!”
“Go,” Elena said when her grandfather glanced at her. We’ll get together privately soon.
Jean-Baptiste took the time to press a kiss to her temple before he allowed himself to be pulled away by his tiny playmate.
Elena smiled and went to step closer to the flower garden, wanting a better look at the dahlias…when she glimpsed a figure out of the corner of her eye, the man all but hidden behind the most distant tree in the park.
She scowled at the idea of anyone spying on the family gathering.
The media knew that harassing any member of her family would lead to an immediate and harsh punishment—because Elena did not fuck around when it came to these people whose only crime was that they continued to treat her as kin.
Jason’s team also kept a constant quiet eye on the descendants.
Regardless, Elena wasn’t about to be complacent—because why the hell was a man lurking on the fringes like that? Might have nothing to do with her, and everything to do with all the children running about.
Jaw set, she strode in that direction, was almost on him when he stepped out from behind the tree.
Her stride hitched, her eyes going wide. “Harrison.”
12
He’s so afraid, Ellie. Of the day I go. Of the day our children go.
—Elizabeth “Beth” Marguerite Deveraux-Ling to her big sister, Elena (One warm afternoon before Tea and Cake)
It had been over a century since Elena had seen her sister’s once-husband.
He looked…bad.
Hollows under his eyes and his body thin and hunched in, his normally olive-toned skin sallow enough to appear jaundiced and his lips pale.
As if he hadn’t fed in weeks.
He hadn’t looked good a century ago, either, but this was much, much worse. No trace remained of the slender, handsome man with a sharp chin and bright eyes who’d charmed Beth. “Hey,” she said, able to be kind to him because no matter if he was far from Elena’s favorite person, Harrison Ling had loved Beth to the very end. “Where have you been?”
He’d long ago fulfilled any contracts he’d signed with angelic courts, or with the teams of more powerful vampires. Jason had reported that he’d seen her brother-in-law in Titus’s territory seven decades earlier, but it had been a passing comment, Jason just having glimpsed Harrison while on other business. Because Elena had asked the spymaster to take Harrison off his watch list centuries earlier, give her brother-in-law his privacy.
The thread that had tied them together had broken long ago, Harrison’s life his own.
“Here and there.” Harrison shrugged, his dark eyes on the gathering in the distance. “It’s gotten bigger since the last time I saw the family.”
A family that contained many people of his bloodline. His and Beth’s daughter, Maggie, had ended up with four kids, their son Laurent with three. Seven grandchildren for a delighted Beth to spoil, and later, two great-grandchildren born at just the right time that Beth had been able to hold them, too.
“Yeah.” She shifted to stand next to him while keeping enough distance that her wings didn’t touch him.
They’d never had that kind of relationship, she and Harrison.
When he didn’t say anything further, she said, “You don’t look good.” She kept her voice gentle in memory of her sister’s love for this flawed man. “Do you need help?”
“I’ve tried, Ellie.” A shallow breath. “I’ve tried for so long to move on, even to do what you’re doing and become part of the family Beth and I began.” His voice was faded, his pain a dull throb. “But I want to see her face when I wake. I want to hear her laugh as she teases me. I don’t want to be in this world without Beth, without our children.”
Once, Elena would’ve said, Tough shit, then you shouldn’t have rushed to become a vampire before you knew that Beth wasn’t compatible with the process, couldn’t be Made. But that was before she’d watched him stand steadfast in his love, be a wonderful husband and an amazing father.
Yes, he’d been stupid. But a lot of people did stupid things when they were young.