I didn’t respond right away as his words sunk in. He spun on his heels and began marching away. My grandfather.
He was halfway down the hall when I realized he was leaving.
“Meathead says hi!” I blurted out. I didn’t even realize I said it until Amos was back right in front of me full of desperation and confusion instead of the anger he marched away with.
“What did you say?”
“Meathead says hi? I don’t even know if he meant for me to say it to you, but it felt right. Do you know a ‘Meathead’?”
Silence hung heavy between us as the question hung in the air.
“Yeah, I knew someone called Meathead.” Amos took a step back and relaxed his pose. “It was what I called my son when he was a boy. How, though, do you know about it?”
My eyes darted toward Xander for help. He gave me a nod of encouragement but otherwise stayed silent. He was letting me stand on my own two feet, letting me meet my grandfather without anyone getting in the way.
“My dad,” I said. “My dad told me to say it when he visited me in my dreams last night.” There was a pregnant pause as Amos held his breath. “My dad was Eric, your son.”
“That’s impossible.” The words came out almost a whisper. “Eric’s daughter died. They said he killed her. I knew it was a lie because Eric would never… I didn’t even know she existed until he was gone. My own granddaughter. My son. They both died.”
“My dad meets me in a field of flowers,” I told him. “He has a tattoo that wraps all the way around his left forearm. It’s a pattern of swirls that looks a lot like the marks on my back.” I didn’t even realize it, but it was true. His tattoo was almost identical to my mark and I wondered if my mom did it on purpose when she gave me the curse. “He looks just like you, except his hair is darker, almost black and he smells of spices that I can’t quite place, but I love nonetheless. He gives the best hugs and calls me ‘sweetheart’.”
I held up my hand and a picture appeared in it. It was a picture I found in my backpack on our trip to California. It was the only picture I found of both of my parents and me together. I handed to Amos’ shaky hands.
“That’s my family.”
Amos, looked at the picture for several minutes, his eyes scanning every detail then handed it back to me and cleared his throat.
“Diane told me you were special, but she didn’t tell me how special.”
“That was because I didn’t know! Honest!”
Di held her hands up and I wanted to smack her in the face. I was the only halfbreed in history and she was not a dumb vampire. I knew she did her research, or rather, had someone do research for her. She had to know Eric Von Brandt sired a halfbreed daughter. She knew exactly what she was doing and I wanted to know why. But I kept my mouth shut and ignored her because I didn’t want her to ruin this precious moment.
“I wouldn’t say I’m special. Just unique, I guess,” I replied.
Amos eyes roamed over my face, taking in my features and I became nervous again. When he had his fill, he cleared his throat again and looked away.
“Emelia, I’d like to talk to you at dinner if that’s okay,” he told me, dismissing our conversation.
I thought for sure I’d at least get a hug from my newly-found grandfather, but he seemed to want to turn off the emotions. He became stoic once again and I couldn’t hide the disappointment.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll see you at dinner.” I lowered my eyes and walked around Amos toward the stairs.
Xander grabbed my wrist, making me stop and look at him. With his eyes, he asked me if I was okay, but he didn’t dare ask aloud.
“You want me to walk you?”
I took a step down and kissed him on the lips. Man, I loved him.
“Nah, I’m okay,” I told him and gave him another kiss.
“Ahhh. Young love!”
Di clapped her hands in front of her face and I looked back to the other two people in the room. She looked like everything was going according to plan, whatever it was and Amos looked like he was pretending not to be interested. It was uncomfortable to say the least.
“I’ll see you in a bit,” I told Xander and gave him one last kiss before nodding to Amos and making my way up the stairs.
Dad said he was not as bad as he seemed. I hoped he was right.
Chapter Ten
“Earth to Emelia.”
I looked up to see Camille’s snarky expression and I realized I had walked all the way up to the third floor conservatory in a distracted fog. I didn’t know how long I had been standing there, but by the caster’s confused smile, it was longer than it should have been.
I blinked a couple of times and smiled. “Sorry. Just have a lot on my mind.”
“Oh yeah? Wanna elaborate?” She raised a pierced eyebrow in question.
I walked over to the table where a couple of pots sat and called for my spellbook. It appeared in my hand almost instantly. I sat it down and began leafing through it to find the potion we would be working on.
“Um, not really,” I finally responded. “It’s just family stuff.”
There was a beat of silence, then I heard Camille’s footsteps come toward me and stop.
“You’re a real bitch sometimes, you know that?”
I looked up with furrowed brows and took in her defensive pose. I mean, she wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t understand why she would say that in this circumstance.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m trying to talk
