Free B00AO57VOY EBOK by AJ Myers Page A

her,
Nate?” Grams asked, giving him a stern look as she came to take my empty plate
and glass and load them into the dishwasher.  “She has good reason for her
mistrust of vampires, you know.”
    “She started it with that
Dracula crack,” he said, giving me a little squeeze when I giggled.  “She’s
evil, Shea.  Not the dark underworld variety maybe, but evil nonetheless. 
Then, she might be a bit more pleasant if she’d pull that broomstick out of
her…”
    His voice trailed off when
Grams shot him a look that practically dared him to finish that sentence and I
giggled again.  I settled back against him, breathing in the scent of him and
feeling the leashed strength in the arms around me.
    “Where did you run off to
this morning?” I asked him when Grams turned around to wipe off the
countertops.
    “I went to check out the
O’Connell family,” he told me with a shrug, twirling one of my curls around his
finger like he was distracted.
    “Did you find out
anything?”  Grams asked as she scrubbed at a particularly stubborn spot of
waffle batter on the counter. 
    “I couldn’t get a thing off
any of them that would lead me to believe they know where their darling little
boy is,” he said, shrugging.  “He picked the perfect host.  I actually kind of
feel sorry for the poor kid he’s using.  The reward they’re offering for
information aside, they don’t seem all that upset that he’s ‘missing’.  He’s
kind of low on their priority list.”
    I know the feeling, I
thought sadly, burrowing further into the strong arms around me.  I’d never
been all that high on my parents’ priority list, either.  Nathan leaned down
and kissed the side of my neck, tightening his hold a little, and I quickly
changed the subject to something less painful for me. 
    “How did he get back from
the lost plane, anyway?”  I asked.  Grams reaction surprised me.  Her back went
ramrod straight and she slowly turned to look at me.  There was something in
her eyes that I didn’t like at all, and I felt a chill slip down my
spine when she finally spoke.
    “Someone summoned him back,”
she said coldly, flicking a look at Nathan.  “I’m not sure who would have been
so foolish to do such a thing, knowing his reappearance would guarantee mine ,
but I intend to find out.  And when I do…”
    I was glad when she didn’t
finish that sentence.  On the surface, Grams looked sweet and gentle, just like
your ideal grandmother.  But when she was angry, she changed.  She
became…colder.  There was something about her in those moments that was
absolutely terrifying.  Seeing that coldness in her, I suddenly understood her
little fairy tale from the night before about the viciousness of blood witches
when you pissed them off.
    Whoever had summoned Jack
back from the lost plane was in deep shit.
    I stayed where I was for as
long as I could, just enjoying being close to Nathan and Grams, my rocks in the
storm that was my life.  If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought
everything was perfectly normal as we sat there talking about our plans for the
day and Grams cleaned the kitchen around us.  It was nice and made me feel like
the world wasn’t so crazy. 
    I should have known it
wouldn’t last.
    The second Grams finished
straightening the room around us, she took a stool across from me at the island
and gave me a piercing look over the rim of her coffee mug.  “Now, sweetheart,
I want you to tell me what happened last night.”
    “Nathan already told you,” I
muttered, wishing I’d escaped to the solitude of a hot shower when I’d had the
chance.
    “Yes, and it was Nathan’s
description of last night’s exciting events that bothers me,” she said softly,
giving me a troubled look. 
    “What happened to you in
that morgue?” Nathan asked gently, holding me closer when I started to tense up. 
“I’ve never seen anything like that, Em.  You were gone .  Your body was
there, but you