My Savior (12 page)

Ryuu's eyes widened. "Tuna and meat loaf?"

Amelia's fear over the terrifying feral development evaporated as she watched Meryn bicker with her squire. Meryn was completely unfazed by the alarming changes in the ferals because, having only been here for a few short months, that was all she had ever known.

Around the table, everyone was smiling at the tiny human, and Amelia realized that maybe the mates truly had been brought here for a reason. Meryn's attitude and fresh perspective were needed to keep them from becoming too overwhelmed. It gave her hope because there was no way Fate would bring her all this way after giving her dreams of her mate for over thirty years just to take him away.

"Tuna sounds good to me, too," Amelia agreed feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"Actually, me too, Ryuu. Sorry." Rheia blushed.

Ryuu pinched the bridge of his nose. "Anyone else?" Everyone else shook their heads. Ryuu frowned at Rheia then at Meryn, but when his gaze turned to her, he looked confused. "I know why the two of them have odd cravings, but you're not with child."

Amelia shrugged. "I'll try anything once. I live in the moment. Life is too short not to eat meatloaf with tuna."

Ryuu shook his head. "Two, there's two."

Beth nodded her head. "I know Ryuu, it'll be okay," she said in a soothing manner.

Ryuu straightened his back. "Ladies if you will but give me a moment to serve the rest of the table, I will return with your additional side dish."

Meryn grinned evilly. "But it's not going on the side; I'm putting it on top."

Ryuu sighed and continued to serve the table. "Yes
denka,
of course."

Gavriel leaned back in his chair. "Amelia, may I ask, how old are you?"

"Thirty-six, why?"

"Just curious. Ryuu and Beth are right, you and Meryn both have a very optimistic and simple view of the world," Gavriel explained.

"Dammit! You're older than me. Except for Penny, I'm still the youngest. Even Jaxon and Noah are older." Meryn growled.

Aiden kissed his mate's neck causing her to laugh. "Meryn, you know, as a human you are treated according to how humans age, not paranormals."

"Exactly," Amelia agreed. "To a paranormal, age is just a number, unless you have brothers."

"Amen," Rheia said.

"Or fathers," Beth agreed.

"Yeah, unless you have testosterone-driven male relatives, ages don't really mean anything, just like expiration dates on food," Amelia added.

Everyone stared at her except Meryn who just nodded and ate a huge bite of her peas and mashed potatoes.

"What?" Amelia asked, looking around.

Keelan sat forward. "Do you mean that ages and expiration dates are the same because they are both numbers?"

"No, I meant that they are both pointless numbers. Ages are a pointless unit of measure for races that can live thousands of years and expiration dates are pointless because they are just for show."

Meryn nodded again. "True."

Aiden turned to her, looking horrified. "No, baby, they are
not
just for show."

Meryn scrunched up her face and turned to Amelia. "Really?" Amelia shrugged.

Aiden nodded vigorously. "Yes!"

Meryn thought about it for a moment. "What about pickles? Pickles don't expire, do they, Ryuu?"

"Not the ones packaged by NASA for deep space exploration,
denka
. Did you want the tuna plain or mixed with mayonnaise as if it were going on a sandwich?" he asked as he finished serving Aiden before refilling his wine glass. Keelan snickered.

Meryn looked at her and Rheia. "With mayonnaise?" Amelia and Rheia nodded.

Ryuu gave a half bow. "I will be back in a moment with your tuna."

Meryn turned to Rheia. "What about medicines? Do they really go bad?"

Rheia nodded. "Yes, sometimes they lose potency, and sometimes they develop dangerous side effects."

"Ryuu!" Aiden bellowed.

"I'll check everything," Ryuu replied from the kitchen.

Aiden picked up his wine glass again.

The rest of dinner went by at a leisurely pace as everyone discussed the events of their day. When the meal was over, Meryn stretched. "Come along, Pond, it's time for movie night."

"Why did you call her Pond?" Colton asked.

Rheia patted his arm. "It's a
Doctor Who
thing."

"I haven't caught up to Penny yet."
 

Rheia laughed. "You will. You're her favorite
Doctor Who
watching partner after Meryn."

Keelan quickly agreed to movie night. "Great idea, Meryn. I think we should watch something fun, uplifting, and lighthearted." He winked at Amelia. She felt her heart melt a bit. Keelan was trying so hard to help his friend.

"Cool, how about
Bedazzled
?" Meryn suggested.

"I've never heard of that one; what's it about?" Keelan leaned forward.

"A guy sells his soul to the devil for seven wishes," Meryn replied.

Keelan stared at her his eyes wide. "How is that happy and uplifting?"

"It's funny," she protested.

Amelia tried hard to keep a straight face. "I'll have to pass. I'm turning in early so I can have breakfast with you all tomorrow."

Meryn clapped her hands. "Good! We're going to visit Adelaide tomorrow. I can introduce you."

"Who's Adelaide?"

"She's Aiden's mom. Her squire, Marius, makes the best cake I have ever eaten." Meryn patted her belly.

Gavriel sat forward. "You're driving?"

Beth shook her head. "We were going to walk."

He paled. "But, it is a thirty-minute walk. There are animals and branches, and exposed roots." Gavriel's eyes looked a bit wild.

Beth placed a comforting hand on his arm. "I'll be fine."

"Yeah, if they get into trouble, Meryn can always come back here to tell us Beth has fallen down the well," Colton joked.

"What the fuck am I? Lassie? You're the dog," Meryn shot back.

"I'm not a dog!" Colton protested.

Gavriel turned to Aiden. "Are there wells?"

Laughing, Beth shook her head. "Fine, we'll drive."

Meryn shrugged. "Whatever works." She stood. "Okay, let's go watch a movie."

Amelia watched as Beth shared a look with Ryuu. Both looked at Meryn and then at her. "Meryn, before we go, I'd like to check on something," Beth said, pointing to Meryn's chair.

Meryn frowned and sat down. "If this is about the chocolate cupcakes, I didn't know they were yours," she said nervously.

Beth shook her head. "No, this isn't about cupcakes." She waited until Ryuu was standing behind Meryn. Now Amelia was starting to get nervous.

Beth took a deep breath. "It's just that I couldn't help noticing the similarities between you and Amelia, so I approached Ryuu to see if he had any suspicions. When he agreed with my hypothesis, I started to do some digging."

Meryn held up a hand. "Whoa, hold up, Bunny. Suspicions about what?" She looked behind her and glared up at her squire. "What did you agree with?"

"Meryn, what was your mother's maiden name?" Beth asked.

Everyone turned to stare at Meryn. "Camden, why?"

Amelia felt her stomach drop as she gasped. "That's impossible."

"What?" Meryn asked again.

Beth turned to Amelia. "I checked the birth records. In 1952, Lily Camden was born to Estelle and William Camden. Ten years later, in 1961, Violet Camden was born."

Amelia stood. "That's impossible! If my Aunt Violet had had a child, my mother would have told me I had a cousin!" she insisted.

"What the fuck is going on?" Meryn shouted, jumping out of her chair.

Ryuu placed a hand on the back of her neck, and instantly, Meryn's face became serene; she sat back down in her chair. "Easy
denka
, you need to stay calm."

Meryn shook her head back and forth slowly and leaned forward, effectively removing his hand from her neck. "Stop with the sneaky ninja shit."

Ryuu's eyes danced, though he didn't smile. "Of course,
denka,
I will keep my stealthy ninja skills to a minimum."

Amelia refused to believe what she was being told. Her mother might not be perfect, but she would have told her she had a cousin her own age. She pulled out her phone and called her brother. As usual, he answered on the first ring. She felt a warm hand on her lower back. When she looked down, she was surprised to see Darian supporting her gently, glaring around the table.

"Why are you upset?" Caiden asked immediately. He had always had the uncanny ability to know when she needed him.

"Do you know anything about my mother's family?"
 

"I know that you had an aunt who was about ten years younger than Mother, and that she and her husband died in the early eighties."

"Did they have any children?"

"No."

Amelia turned to the room to face Beth. "You must be wrong."

"Amelia, what's going on out there?" Caiden demanded.

"They're saying that Meryn's mother is my aunt," she explained.

"What!" Meryn exploded finally putting the pieces together.

"Hold on, it just so happens our parents are visiting right now, let me get Mother on the phone." They all heard loud footsteps on stone a muffled conversation, and then her mother, Lily, was on the phone.

"Amelia, are you there baby?"

"I'm here."

"What does Meryn look like?"
 

Amelia turned to Meryn and really looked at her. Why hadn't she noticed it before? She evaluated people's faces for a living! She and Meryn had the same bone structure, the same nose and lips. When she looked closely, she could easily see that they could be related. The only difference was the eyes and the hair. Meryn had bright green eyes, whereas Amelia had the same grey-silver eyes of her brothers and father.
 

"When your hair is long, what does it look like?" Amelia asked, barely getting the words out. Meryn couldn't answer. She just let her tears fall. Amelia knew then that they shared the same brown curls.

"She looks like me, only she has a short pixie cut and no curls, and bright green eyes like..."

"Like me," her mother said, sniffling. "Can Meryn hear me?" she asked.

"Yes, you're on speaker."

"Meryn, sweetheart, who raised you?"

"My grandmother. I hated her, just so you know." Meryn crossed her arms over her chest looking defensive.

Lily sobbed. "Oh Violet, I failed you."

"Lily, Lily, darling what's the matter? Who is this?" Amelia heard her father demand.

"Father, it's me."

"Amelia? What in the world is going on?"

"Give me the phone, Marshall." Seconds later, her mother was back. "Meryn, sweetheart, I am so sorry! If I had known, I would have moved heaven and Earth to bring you to Storm Keep. The last time I saw Violet was two years before she died. She hadn't been pregnant then. When I heard about her death, I called Mother, and she told me that I wasn't welcome to come home. The funeral was over, and she never wanted to see me again. She never once said anything about caring for Violet's child because, she knew if she had, I would have come and gotten you."

"Why?" Amelia asked.

"Because my mother wasn't a very nice person. She believed that I was one step up from the devil because I thought differently than she did. I practically raised Violet after she was born. She was only thing that kept me in that house. I refused to leave Violet alone.
 

"When Violet was thirteen, Mother and I had an argument. She disowned me and kicked me out of the house. I swore to Violet that I would come back when she was eighteen and take her out of there.

"It was the seventies, so I drifted, hitching rides and camping with friends. Eventually I met your father. Two years after mating with him, when Violet was seventeen, I kept my promise. Your father and I went back home to check on Violet and make preparations for her to move out on her eighteenth birthday. But to my surprise, she had already married and moved out with her husband.

"When we were saying goodbye, she made me promise that if anything happened to her and she had children, I would take care of them. I swore to her that I would, and no child of my baby sister's would ever live in that house." The venom in her mother's voice scared her; she had never heard her sound like that.

Aiden looked ill as he faced Meryn who'd buried her face in her hands. "Baby?"

Meryn didn't look up; she just continued to shake her head behind her hands. "It's just when I imagine how my life could have been different if I had been raised in Storm Keep, I get so angry. If Amelia's mom had known about me, I could have had a sister and brothers, a family that loved me. I wouldn't have gone hungry or worried that my one pair of shoes wouldn't last the winter. I would have been wanted." Meryn choked out the words between sobs. Aiden pulled Meryn into his lap and wrapped his large arms around her as if to protect her from her own memories. Ryuu ran a gentle hand over her hair in an effort to comfort her.

Amelia saw the shocked expressions around the table and realized that Meryn had never told anyone exactly how bad her childhood had been. She felt her own tears trickle down her cheeks.

"That's it! Marshall, I don't care about your magic rules! We're going to dig up my mother and you're going to bring her back to life so I can beat the everloving shit out of her!" Lily yelled.

Amelia felt her eyes widen. What her mother was talking about was black magic.

"Lily, honey, calm down. You know we can't do that." Even over the phone, she could feel her father's shock.

"Kyran! Tristan! Don't just stand there; get our bags from our room and take them back down to the car. Thank God, we haven't unpacked yet."

"Lily..." Her father was trying to get her mother's attention.

"Today boys! My niece is crying, and my baby is crying! We're going to Lycaonia after we make my mother a broken corpse!"

"Lily..."

"Marshall, don't just stand there, help the boys with the bags."

"Yes, love." After a few quiet moments, she heard her mother take a deep breath. In all her life, she had never once heard her mother raise her voice. She was normally very laid back, and went with the flow, always smiling. Amelia liked this new side of her mother.