Enlightened (Love and Light Series) (5 page)

“Bye, Patrick,” Rachel gave a little wave as he turned away.

“Bye.” Loti twisted to the back of her chair, hands on the rail, watching him walk away. “He’s so sweet.”

“I wish he and Nan would get married already,” Rachel muttered.

Loti turned back to Rachel, tilting her head. “Maybe they don’t see the point. I mean, they’re in their seventies.”

“Or maybe they both feel guilty.” Rachel raised her eyebrows as she poked her fork at her potatoes.

“You mean about your grandfather?” Loti asked.

Rachel nodded, staring after Patrick with a frown.

Loti glanced back, but Patrick was gone. “After all these years? Joe passed away before you were born.”

Rachel sighed, giving up on the potatoes. She speared a piece of broccoli rabe, chewed it in deep thought. Loti spooned a bit of chicken and cilantro into her mouth, not tasting it.

“Yeah. I know.” Rachel took another bite, her focus on her food.

Loti ate her soup like she was on autopilot, letting the silence stretch out between them. When the bowl was empty, she set it aside and pursed her lips.

 “So, what were you saying about Wolf before Patrick came over?”

Rachel blinked. “Oh. Right.” She wiped her mouth with the cloth napkin, draped it over her lap, and sat back. She inhaled through her nose, then said, “It wasn’t what you might think. Wolf, yes, can be myopic about things, but he was trying to figure something out, not taking advantage of me. He had some experience with amplifying magic before, and when he realized how strong my magic was, he wanted to explore the possibilities. I’m sorry we never made it work. Maybe we would have, eventually, but—” she turned her palms up and out, curling her lips under as she pressed them together. “We knew we couldn’t go any further without crossing boundaries. That’s when Nanny Brown found out what we’d been up to.”

Loti tried to listen, to keep her mind empty, but it only made the thoughts more persistent. Her guess was Rachel and Wolf’s blood exchange complicated their familial relationship and created a bond between them. The unintended consequences would have been obvious to a keen observer like Rachel’s grandmother. Katie Brown paid attention to everything, especially to her granddaughter. “So Nan figured out what was going on and told your folks?” Loti concluded.

Rachel nodded. “To some extent, yes. She confronted me first, and we both went to Mom. Who, of course, jumped to the wrong conclusion, but we explained it. My mom was so much more understanding than my dad.” Rachel shuddered.

“I bet he was livid,” Loti whispered, her eyes widening at the mental image of Rachel’s father, the epitome of a Southern gentleman, losing his shit.

“To say the least. But in the end, he sort of forgave us. I agreed it would be best if Wolf left for a while.” She got a faraway look in her eye. “It took more than a year with a healer to get over it.” Rachel picked up her wine glass and settled back in her chair, resting one arm over her stomach.

She dipped the glass at Loti. “If you ever have to decide to feed a vamp, make sure you know what in the hell you’re getting yourself into.” She drained the glass and slapped it down.

 “So, why is he back?” Loti leaned her elbows on the table, holding her face in her hands.

“I’m not sure. He said was it was time, and—” Rachel hesitated.

“And?”

“And he needed to talk to me about something.”

Loti raised an eyebrow, but Rachel wasn’t looking at her anymore. She was digging in her purse for her wallet.

“Do you still need a ride home?” The tone of her voice said the subject was closed.

Loti debated whether to ask Rachel about the strange sensations and whether Wolf could have been doing something, but it seemed silly now. He didn’t know she was there, and it could have been her sixth sense’s way of telling her what he was.

They were both silent on the car ride home; Rachel focused on the dark, country road, and Loti fiddled with the heater vents. The radio was tuned to 80’s on 8 and Huey Lewis crooned “Heart and Soul”. Loti’s mind wandered from her last minute to-do list to the vampire again. Had he known she was there? And if so, why on earth would he have hypnotized her, or whatever vampires did? But they had to look in your eyes to do that, didn’t they?

“Have you wrapped up everything at work?” Rachel broke through her reverie.

“Yeah, finally. What a process.” She folded her arms over her stomach.

Searching for new therapists for her clients had taken months, but she couldn’t plop her case load in just anyone’s lap. Each person was unique, and she had to consider their personality, current state of mind, and physical health, as well as their spiritual bent. It was complicated. Finding a new yoga instructor had been easy in comparison. Untangling herself from her life in Jefferson was a slow, tedious chore, but it needed to be done if she had any hope of moving on.

Drowning herself in her yoga therapy clients and classes didn’t help her get a handle on her life after David’s death. And there were the bizarre ailments that sprung up: asthma and something akin to anxiety attacks. She lost weight—although that wasn’t a mystery because food didn’t taste good anymore. It had no taste. Her healer had the audacity to tell her she needed to grieve.

“I am grieving,” she snapped at him.

“No, you’re not,” he said like the father she’d lost.

The gravel crunched under the tires as Rachel turned into Loti’s driveway, the noise snapping her back to the present. As the car maneuvered down the winding road, Loti sank a little deeper into her seat watching the white Christmas lights come into view. David had hung them on the gable over the front door for their last Christmas together, six months before his death. It seemed so silly at the time because no one could see their house from the road.

“Who cares? We can see them, and I like Christmas lights.” He waved a dismissive hand from his perch on the top step of his dad’s wooden ladder—the one with DO NOT STAND HERE in capital red letters. It swayed slightly and Loti rushed to grab it.

“Good grief, David. Are you trying to kill yourself?” she yelled.

“Hey, this was my dad’s. It’s gotta be the best. It’ll hold.”

“It’s probably thirty years old.” Her lips pressed into a pale slash as her eyes flared.

David laughed, putting the final touches on the string of lights. He popped the two ends together and bent down, his foot pawing the air for the first wrung. There was a loud snap as the ladder broke, collapsing under him. Loti couldn’t hold it together and David crashed down, knocking the wind out of her in the process. They were sprawled across the slate walkway. Frightened she couldn’t catch her breath, she flailed at David, who sat up and gathered her into his arms.

“Relax, darlin’,” he whispered, then kissed her.

She struggled for a second before dissolving into his arms. He explored her yielding lips, and she responded in kind. He kissed the corners of her mouth then her top lip and the bottom. He placed a kiss on her chin and a line of kisses along her jaw to her ear where he found the soft spot just behind her jaw bone, and she gasped. Air rushed back into her lungs, and she sputtered into a coughing fit. He nipped the spot, grinning as she took another deep breath and let it out.

“All better?” he mumbled.

“Mmmm hmmmm.”

“Earth to Loti.” Rachel snapped her fingers in Loti’s face.

“Huh?” Bewildered, she looked around at the glowing, blue dashboard as the car idled in her driveway. She glanced up at the string of lights. He’d gone to see his healer, who was known as Model-T, when his elbow and foot didn’t get better right away. Most families had a healer who they went to on a regular basis. Healers used a wide variety of traditional methods to create balance and promote health—herbs, essential oils, energetic practices. The healer expressed concern about the lack of healing and referred him to a technical doctor for tests. Technical doctors were a relatively new phenomenon who relied on technological advances rather than traditional metaphysics.

“I’ll pick you up Saturday afternoon around 2:00 p.m.? Is that too early? Check-in’s at 4:00 pm., so that should give us plenty of time,” Rachel said.

Loti extricated herself from the pickup. “Sounds good. I’ll be pretty busy during the day, but maybe we can get together tomorrow night and go over some things?”

“I’ll call or text you.” Rachel smiled. “And hey—”

Loti paused, the door half-way closed.

“Thanks for not judging me.”

Loti shrugged. “That’s what friends do—or don’t do. And who am I to judge? I’ve got my own ghosts.” She tossed her blue satchel over her shoulder, and Rachel waved as Loti slammed the truck door. The leaves weren’t on the trees yet, so the bare trunks played peek-a-boo with the red taillights as the F150 pulled down the winding driveway. She glanced up at the horizon where an arching sliver of light peeked over the ridge line. It was larger than life already—it would be a full moon.

~~~~~~~~~~~

As the moon rose over the trees, Rachel wondered how far away Wolf was. She sat on the porch swing her father helped her install last summer, her apprehension growing.
So much water under the bridge,
she mused. Although the effects of the blood bond had gone away, she never stopped caring about her uncle or worrying about him for that matter. It was an hour before Wolf’s Fat Boy thundered through the tranquil night. She smirked; what a drama-king. He could run, or fly, faster than that stupid bike. Still not wearing a helmet, he parked by her blue truck. She steeled herself, ready to confront him. But as he turned toward her, his eyes glowing with the moonlight, her breath caught at just how beautiful he was. Reaching around to his back, he slid the hairband off and shook his jet black hair loose from the braid.

“Much better,” he grumbled.

Rachel never forgot how deep his voice was or the way it vibrated in her chest
. He’s vampire; never forget that.

“Rachel.” He smiled and held out his hands.

She ran down the three steps and into his arms. He lifted her off the ground and spun her around like she was eighteen again. Giggling, she braced her hands on his shoulders, and like the years apart had never happened, she was light inside. He lowered her down and kissed the back of her hand. Tears glistened on her cheeks.

“Sweet, Rachel, don’t cry,” Wolf soothed, tucking his knuckles under her chin and tilting her face up so he could wipe the tears away with his thumbs.

“I’m just. . .happy. . .sad. . . oh, hell.” She jerked away. “I missed you, okay?”

“I missed you too, sweet Rachel.”

“Oh stop with the ‘sweet Rachel’.” She rubbed her cheek. “It’s corny.”

Wolf burst out laughing. “Good to see you haven’t lost your spark.” He grabbed the fleshy part of her arms and crushed her to his chest. “It’s good to see you.”

And as many times as she’d rehearsed their first meeting over the years—reprimanding him for taking advantage of her when she was so young, for staying away so long, extracting a promise from him that he would never do anything like it again—she couldn’t follow the script. It all was unexpectedly moot because now that he returned she was acutely aware there was still a bond between them. Not of blood, but one they had forged with the little and big life moments they shared. Like when her high school boyfriend broke up with her before the prom, and Wolf had taken her to Paris to show her there was a much bigger world. He was her protector, her rock when the rest of the world fell apart. At least he had been until he left.

“Why did you stay away so long?” she murmured into his chest.

Wolf held her a moment before unwrapping his arms, the leather jacket creaking. “I’m sorry about that.” He rubbed the side of his nose, his eyes contrite. “I lost track of time.”

Rachel punched him in the sternum.

“Ow.” He rubbed the spot, flinching as he stepped back, trying to look wounded. “You’ve gotten stronger.” It was almost endearing.

“Have you been to see Nan? She’s missed you too. You didn’t have to stay away from her.” Rachel stuck out her bottom lip, very aware she was acting childish but not able to stop.