CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Once we made it to Burn Falls, we went to the twenty-four-hour storage facility and unloaded everything Calla owned. It didn’t take Athan and me much time to empty the truck, but we had to move at human speed because of the security cameras. Afterward, we dropped Calla off at her house because it was almost daybreak, and then Athan and I headed to mine to rest for the day.

The next evening before I headed to Anchorage for my shift, Athan and I discussed what would happen now that Calla was back in Burn Falls.

“Same plan as before?” he asked as we drank mugs of blood I’d heated in the microwave.

“Yeah. After my shift, I’ll go there and stay with her until almost sunrise.”

“You do know I need to head back to Russia and see if my club is still standing?”

“I know. I didn’t plan for any of this. You think I’d know that after eighty-nine years of being a vampire I’d be in a relationship with a human? Let alone a human who might be in danger because we have no idea why her father was attacked?”

“I get it. But I also think that since it’s been a few weeks since her dad was attacked that the vampire has moved on. I think it was a random attack by a Fledgling and they left because they got scared or was only passing through.”

“If it were any other human besides Calla, I would take the chance and be okay with you leaving, but I’m not sure I’m ready. If anything were to happen to her while I was in Anchorage, I wouldn’t get back here in time. No matter how fast I can run.”

He paused for a brief moment. “Do you love her?”

I blinked at him. I knew I cared deeply for her, but there was no way I could spend the next sixty some odd years with her until she took her last breath. That was why I never got close to humans except for Martin and his family. I didn’t want to think about the day I’d have to tell them goodbye for good. I also got the feeling that Calla wanted kids one day since most women did. If we stayed together that could never happen. But I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Calla either. I needed to make sure she was safe before I’d be able to let her go.

“I have love for her,” I stated.

“Are you going to break her beating heart?”

“I’m going to try not to.”

Over the next few days, I didn’t see Calla. My nights were spent at the hospital, and when I wasn’t there, Calla was sleeping. We, of course, talked on the phone, but that wasn’t the same. I’d thought about crawling into her bedroom window after my shifts, except I didn’t want to freak her out by just appearing next to her.

Tonight I wanted to surprise her—and Athan bitched that he wanted the night off—so I decided to show up at the distillery and take her to dinner. When I got to the office, she was wearing a tight, knee-high skirt, and was bent over a pile of papers. I thought about not saying anything while I admired her backside, and I did for at least a minute, running my gaze over her curves that I was getting accustomed to.

“Is the view always this good?”

Calla whirled around and clenched her chest. “Oh my God. You scared me. What are you doing here?”

She wrapped her arms around my waist and placed her head on my chest. I kissed the top of her head. “Came to take you to dinner.”

“I’ve been so swamped, I’m not even sure what time it is.”

“It’s almost six.”

“Where’s Athan?”

“Taking the night off since I don’t need to be at the hospital.”

“He keeps talking about going back to Russia.”

“Yeah, I think it’s safe to send him back, but I’m having a hard time chancing it.”

She looked up at me, and I placed a quick kiss on her soft lips. “It’s been a month. I think we’re in the clear.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Let me just finish this supply order, and then we can leave for the night.” She turned and moved to her chair at her desk.

“Do you want to go back to my place after dinner?” I asked, arching my eyebrow suggestively.

Calla flushed. “Sounds good. I’ve been curious what your house—I mean, Martin’s house looks like.”

I chuckled and sat on the edge of her desk. “I might have gifted it to Martin for the sole purpose of the deed, but it’s all mine.”

“Wait,” she looked up from her paperwork, pausing what she was writing. “How was it that I was able to invite you into my mom’s house then? I’m not on the deed.”

“It’s the owner of the house or someone who’s currently residing in the home. Since you were living there for Christmas, you were able to invite me in.”

“That’s kind of scary if you think about it with vampires and their compulsion.”

“There’s an unspoken rule to not manipulate a human into inviting them in so you can kill them.” The night I killed the man who killed Martin’s mother, I had done just that, but I wasn’t going to tell Calla that tidbit. “I haven’t known of any mysterious attacks since your father …” I trailed off as I caught a glimpse of an old photograph on the other edge of her desk.

Calla followed my gaze. “That’s my great-grandmother.”

My eyes flicked to hers, and if I had blood coursing through my veins, I knew that it would have drained away from my face. I reached for the framed photo and stared at it, not believing what—or who—I was seeing.

“Did you know her?” Calla asked.

“No,” I whispered, looking back at the man I despised. He was smiling, and I wanted to reach through the glass of the frame and straight to his heart and then rip it from his chest.

“Do you know the guy?”

“Do you know who he is?” I asked back. Had I mentioned his name to Calla? I was almost positive I had, but I didn’t recall Calla having any indication that she knew who Renzo was.

She stood and moved next to me, looking over my shoulder. “No, and neither does my mom. It’s not my great-grandpa, Jack either. Did you know him?” Calla asked again.

I stared into her emerald eyes, wishing I could compel her to tell me the truth. I didn’t believe she was telling me a lie, but with compulsion, it helped to know for a fact. “Are you sure you don’t know who this is?”

“No, not at all. Maybe my father did, but—”

“He’s my sire,” I blurted, wanting to gauge her reaction.

“What?” She breathed in a long breath, and I watched her face. She was surprised just like me.

“The vampire that turned me.”

“I got that, but how is that possible?”

“Was she a vampire?” I pointed at the woman in the picture. She had the same facial features as Calla, and if the photo were in color, I’d say the same chestnut hair and green eyes.

Calla sat back down in her office chair. “Of course not.”

“Are you sure?”

She balked. “Well, no, but my grandmother was born a few months after this picture was taken.”

My head literally felt as though it was spinning. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Athan.

“I’m in the middle—”

“Get to the distillery. Now,” I barked.

“Is everything okay?”

“Do I sound like everything’s okay?”

“Is it—”

“Just fucking get here.”

“I’ll be there in two.”

I hung up the phone. “What do you know about your great-grandmother?”

“I just know that the whiskey we make is her recipe.”

“She’s from Ireland?”

“Yeah.” Calla slipped the frame out of my hand and started to open the back. “The date the picture was taken is on the back of the photo.”

She handed me the picture. February 14, 1946, was handwritten on the back of the photograph. Renzo and the woman appeared to be at a casino or nightclub, and I knew for a fact that he was a vampire at the time. He was turned in 1874, and he turned me in 1928. I knew that before the Great Depression, wealthy people traveled to Paris and other countries to party at the hot spots, and Renzo was definitely wealthy. There was a possibility he’d met her after I left Chicago.

As I stared at the picture, I sensed Athan outside. A moment later, he was in the office.

“What’s the big emergency?”

I shoved the photo at him. He took it and then his dark gaze met mine again.

“What the fuck?”

“Yeah.”

He turned toward Calla and repeated, “What the fuck?”

“She knows nothing,” I stated and snatched the picture back from him.

“I don’t understand how it’s possible,” Calla said again. “How did she know your sire?”

“The world’s a small place. Now you know why I move every ten years.”

“How old’s your sire?”

I quickly did the math because I knew Renzo was born in 1849. “One-hundred and sixty-nine.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

Athan asked me telepathically, “Who’s the broad?”

“Calla’s great-grandmother.”

“Is he her great-grandfather?”

“She said no. And plus, he was turned seventy-two years before this picture was taken, so obviously he was a vampire.”

“Is this woman on her mother or father’s side?”

“Father’s. Your favorite whiskey is her recipe.”

“No shit?” Athan said out loud.

“Is he your sire too?” Calla asked Athan.

“Yeah.”

“How did you two get away from him?”

“Drove,” I stated, but then elaborated when Calla’s eyebrows scrunched. “You’ve heard of Capone?”

“Yeah, who hasn’t?”

I told Calla about the night I was supposed to kill Malone and how I wasn’t able to do it. She took the picture from me and looked at the back.

“So maybe they were friends?”

“What does your mom know?” Athan asked.

“Just that her name was Gael and she’s my grandma’s mother. I never met her. She died when my dad was a teenager.”

“And she died human?” he probed.

“I mean …” Calla hesitated. “As far as I know.”

“Is your grandmother still alive?” Athan inquired.

“Yes, actually, but she’s in her nineties.”

“Does she look ninety?” I figured she would, or there would be a lot of people, including her family, asking questions.

“Yes.”

“And she lives in Ireland?” I queried some more.

“Yes.”

“Does she go out during the day?” Athan asked.

Calla thought for a moment. “Yes, but hold on.” We watched as she rummaged through the top drawer of her desk. “I was putting my dad’s old pictures in frames and wanted to decorate his—I mean my office with them. But I only had the one, so I decided to put Gael’s picture in it since it’s her recipe. Here are a few others of our family. This one is of Gael and her husband and kids. As you can see, they are all outside.”

I took the photo and looked at the back, seeing that it was dated July 2, 1951.

“And this one is of my grandma and grandpa on what I assumed was their wedding day.”

Athan looked over my shoulder as I took the picture from Calla. It was dated October 4, 1967, and they were both dressed in wedding attire. They were also outside in front of a car, proving that she wasn’t a vampire.

“To recap,” I started so we were all on the same page, and I was clear as fuck, “the picture with Renzo is dated 1946 and is of your great-grandmother. The picture of your grandma (your great-grandmother’s daughter) is dated 1951 and of her as a kid with your great-grandmother and another man, plus other children. The one dated 1967 is of your grandma and grandpa on their wedding day. And all the ones after Renzo’s are outside and prove they weren’t vampires.”

“I think so unless you know of a way that vampires can have children and go outside in the sun,” Calla said, taking the pictures back from me.

I looked at Athan, and he said, “I don’t. I’ve never known a vamp to have kids or not get burned in the sun.”

I nodded because I didn’t know of any other way besides them being human either. “Okay, so Renzo and Gael only knew each other then and didn’t have a kid together. Still one hell of a coincidence.”

“Yeah,” Calla sighed. “It sure is.”

We’d left the distillery and went to dinner at Bartoli’s. Athan left to go back to do whatever he was doing when I’d called him, and he said he wasn’t coming back to my place until it was almost time for the sun to rise. That, of course, meant he was giving us alone time—in my own house.

I pulled my car into my garage and cut the engine. “I may be one-hundred and fourteen, but I’ve never had a girl spend the night before.”

Her emerald eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Back when I was dating Mary, it was before people really had sex before marriage or even left home before they were married. We were both still living at home with our parents and only had sex in my car—or in the back of a club a few times.”

“So you were an exhibitionist?”

“Not by choice. I was a horny guy who only had two things on his mind: money and getting laid.”

“Tonight’s your lucky night then, Dr. Delano.”

It was weird hearing my real name with doctor in front of it. I’d never gone as Dr. Delano because I didn’t want to chance Renzo finding me. I liked it though.

“You have money, and you’re going to get laid.” She smirked and opened the passenger door to get out.

The moment I stepped foot out of my car, my senses were on high alert. My body went rigid, and I snapped before moving, “Get in the house, Calla.”

“I’m go—”

“No!” I moved to the door that led to the kitchen and swung it open. “Now.”

Calla hesitated for a moment.

“Get in the fucking house!” Without another word, she walked inside, and I slammed the door behind her and spun around to face my driveway. “I can fucking smell you, you know?” I said, walking toward where I could sense and smell the vampire I didn’t know. If vampires didn’t have the ability to sense each other or smell each other in the same location, I’d think he was here to attack me thinking I was human. If he didn’t know, then he knew now but was still standing in the shadows.

“I come in peace.”

“Who are you?”

He stepped around the bush that was adjacent to my driveway. “Will you let me explain before you rip my head off?”

“Why do you think I’ll rip your head off?”

“Because of what I need to tell you.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and stared him down as he stood at least five feet from me. “Okay. Spit it out. You have thirty seconds.”

“Renzo sent—”

I was on him in a blink of an eye, pushing him against a tree and holding him by the throat. “Don’t utter his fucking name,” I growled, bearing my teeth.

“You need to hear me out,” he croaked, not showing any emotion. “It’s important.”

We stared at each other, and my eyes narrowed. “Where is he?”

“Chicago.” My grip loosened and he fell to the ground on his feet. “Please let me tell you everything before you kill me.”

“Why would I kill you?”

“Just—please. I could have never come here.”

I crossed my arms over my chest again and narrowed my eyes at his muscular form. I could tell he was younger than I was—in the vampire sense—so even though we had the same build, it wouldn’t be a fair fight, and I would, in fact, rip his head off. “You probably shouldn’t have come if you think I’d kill you. How do you even know me or where I live?”

“Again, let me explain.”

“Fine. Spit it out.”

“Remember you said you’d let me finish?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes.”

“Renzo sent me to bring Miles O’Bannion back to Chicago.”

My body went rigid again, and I fisted my hands together at my sides while he stood there, like nothing was happening. “You killed Miles?”

“Not on purpose.”

“Start from the beginning. Why did he send you for Miles? How does he even know Miles?” Just earlier we discovered that Renzo knew Miles’s grandmother, so it was possible that he knew Miles and I wanted to hear him explain it.

“Miles is his grandson.”

“What? How is that possible?”

The vampire smirked.

“I know how babies are made asshole, but vampires can’t have children.”

He smiled again. “They can with their true love.”

“How?” I asked again, furrowing my brows and re-crossing my arms over my chest.

“The same way.”

“But how do they know it’s their true love to even get them pregnant?”

“For Renzo, he didn’t know until Gael ended up pregnant.”

“He told you all of this?”

“No. I heard him and Samuel talking about it after he saw the newspaper article.”

“What newspaper article?”

“The one with Gael’s picture.”

“Still not ringing a bell.”

“The one O’Bannion Burn put in the paper after they won the whiskey award last year. Renzo saw the picture, and he knows that Gael had his baby. He wanted to talk to Miles.”

“Talk about what?”

“Well, to see if he was a hybrid.”

“A hybrid?”

“Half vampire, half human.”

“Miles went in the sun,” I stated.

He shrugged. “If he’s part human, I’d think he could go in the sun even if he were a vampire.”

“Why not go after his baby? She’s alive.”

“He was working on it but wanted me to get Miles and bring him back since he was in the States. It was easier than traveling overseas. Plus, she’s old.”

“But you killed Miles instead,” I clipped.

“It was an accident.”

“How was it an accident?”

“Miles wouldn’t come with me, and he couldn’t be compelled. I was trying not to make a scene, but he struggled and got cut. I couldn’t resist when blood started to come out. I tried. I really did, but then I attacked him.”

“He couldn’t be compelled?” I asked, though it was more to myself as I was processing what he’d said. Calla couldn’t be compelled either, and she could go in the sun. Was she part vampire? Surely I’d know. Plus, they clearly aged given Miles was in his fifties and Calla hasn’t said anything about her grandmother looking like Benjamin Button in her old age.

“No.”

“Because he’s part vampire?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. I wasn’t expecting it.”

“But they eat human food. They do everything humans do.” I was still arguing the fact that there was no way Miles was part vampire, or Calla for that matter because every trait was human. They even smelled like humans.

“They?”

I said Calla’s name without speaking, but he’d heard.

“Oh, right. The one who scared me off.”

“Why didn’t you come back for her?”

“I’ve been on the run.”

“From Renzo?”

“Yeah. I fucked up, and I couldn’t go back.”

“Does he know where you are?”

“I’m hoping he thinks I left Burn Falls since I’m standing here now.”

Even if that were the case, Calla would still be in danger since she was carrying Renzo’s blood. “So you don’t know what he wanted to do with Miles and his mom?”

He shook his head. “No, but if I had to guess, it probably has something to do with recruiting them to make it a family business.”

“So he’s still running his mob?”

“Of course. The Chicago Outfits may have had legal troubles over the years, but Renzo is still running things. Even has ties in Russia now.”

“Russia?”

I thought of Athan. He’d never said anything about the Outfits being in Russia with him. Why would he not have told me? Maybe he didn’t know. Or was he here helping because he was still with Renzo’s mob? But then I was the one to call him, and he’d been nothing but a loyal friend to me—I think. I wasn’t sure, and I had a lot to worry about now that this vamp was telling me Renzo has ties with Burn Falls and Calla may carry his blood. Of course, the first human in forever I wanted to have a relationship with was linked to my sire. What were the odds?

“After Gambino was released from prison in 2015, he hooked Renzo up with the Russian Mafia.”

“Doing what?”

“Money laundering.”

Of course. Renzo was always about money. After a few moments, I asked, “What do you want from me?”

“I just wanted to warn you that he may be coming.”

“How did you know about me?”

“I didn’t know that you lived here. I went back to the distillery and heard you and Athan talking with the girl. You and Athan are talked about a lot in the coven, so I know about you, and I followed you here.”

“Why were you at the distillery again? Don’t you think you did enough damage?” I hissed.

“I came back to make sure the cops knew nothing.”

“Why are Athan and I still talked about?”

“No one has had the balls to leave since you two took off.”

“Until you.”

“It’s either go on the run or have my heart yanked from my chest.”

“I’ll do it if you so much as lay a finger on Calla,” I warned.

He held up his hands in defense, the first sign that he wasn’t ready to run for the hills. “If that were the case, I wouldn’t have made it known I was back.”

True. “What’s your name kid?”

“Donovan. Donovan Corbett.”