Six, p.37
Six, page 37
“My father was no monster,” Morgan barked. He quickly lowered his voice as he saw a few wayward stares from the dining room. “And what about my mother? What did she do to deserve—”
“My son was in a rage, a berserker blood-induced frenzy,” Lorcan said sadly. “He found your mother and your sister cowering in the bathroom. Your mother did everything she could to fight him so your sister could escape, but, I’m sorry—”
“You’re sorry?” Morgan growled. “You think that you can just say that you are sorry?”
“By the time I got there, my son was holding your sister in his arms. The act of attacking someone so young, so helpless, had finally awoken him from his fury. He begged me then and there to kill him, my own son—”
“Lorcan, what did you do?” Paige asked softly.
“I did what any father would do. I cleaned up after my child. I put your mother in the bathtub, boy, and I staged the crime scene. I knocked my son out, put him in the trunk, and drove away as fast as I could while holding your little sister in my lap.”
“They found her body in a dumpster,” Morgan choked out.
“They found a body, yes. It’s sad to say that they are relatively easy to come by in my world, and nineties forensics were shite compared to today.”
“What did you do to her?”
“I gave her a tiny portion of myself, far smaller than I gave to you, Paige. The odds were that she would die within hours. Any normal child would have died before dawn. I gave her to one of my servants who had been trying to adopt for years, with the instructions that if she lived, she was all his.”
“And she lived?” Morgan asked skeptically.
“Indeed. I made certain that she grew up as far away from my kind as possible. I released my servant, and the little orphan from Georgia grew up completely normal in the suburbs. I thought it was best to have no further influence or contact with her and that she would live out her days in peace.”
“But—” both Paige and Morgan prompted him.
“But like my father said, fate is your most faithful dog; it always comes back to find you,” Lorcan sighed. “You see, my son drank your father’s blood, Morgan, and unlike me, he did not have the same resistances. He grew weak, despondent, and had no desire to live—”
“Good,” Morgan said flatly.
“I thought that I could cure him, so I made a deal with one of my family’s enemies. I made Lady Jaeger compel her vampire son, your great-grandfather, Paige, to wipe my son’s memories as well as swear her daughter, Minerva, to an oath of silence about the whole incident. It cost me dearly, but I thought it was worth it. Your great-grandfather was told some lie about a night of acid and bad blood, and he thinks to this day that he was simply erasing a bender.”
“Everything was fine . . . for a few years. I thought I had saved my son, but while you can wipe away the memories, the guilt he felt ran deep, as did the poisonous blood. My son began to fall to what my kind calls the slow death. His fangs fell out, and he began to die by degrees, torn apart by what I made him forget. I gave up all hope.”
“What does this have to do with Gwen?” Morgan growled.
“Well, you can imagine my surprise when a year ago, my son decides to show up at a party, something he hadn’t done in ages, and he has the last person in the entire world I would ever expect to help him hanging on his arm—”
“What?” Morgan asked.
“My son found a guardian angel to save him, probably the only person in the world who could ever make him forgive himself—”
“Gwen?” Morgan asked.
“Actually, she goes by Georgia now.”
36
“So, what happens now?” Paige asked as she surveyed the closing crowd at Mayweather’s Pub. The normal humans had all left for the night, leaving Tina alone to shut down the kitchen. Wesley followed her around like an eager puppy, while Kayleigh and Bernard compared laptops and giggled about zombies.
“I’m telling you, zombies are ridiculous,” the redheaded werewolf chick sighed. She flagged the vampire at the bar. “Lorcan, tell him how zombies will never work!”
“Yes, zombies are rather silly,” Lorcan said. “Who would ever believe in them?”
Paige watched Kyle roll his eyes and growl at his phone as his dating app began buzzing. It was only when Sammy wandered over and set down his phone that the male redheaded werewolf began to smile. Billy and Toy lounged in another booth, still pounding shots and comparing nicknames. Paige could just hear “Shorty Spice and Morganator sitting in a tree—” drifting from the table.
Only Nadia and Morgan seemed distant and aloof. Lorcan wandered over to the purple-haired werewolf and gave her a surprisingly paternal hug. Paige took it as her cue to inch closer to Morgan.
“She almost ended up captured by the same vampires who killed her mom—” Paige noted. She cringed as she watched Morgan tense up.
“Yeah, it would be terrible to be stuck with the vampires who killed your parents,” he said bitterly before taking a drink of beer. His faced softened a little, and he too slid a little closer to Paige. “The story he told us about my sister, about his son, do you think it actually happened the way he said?” Morgan asked.
“I don’t know. If you asked me a couple of months ago, I’d have told you that vampires were as ridiculous as zombies and werewolves . . . puh-leez.”
“Yeah, werewolves, sheesh,” Morgan said with his first real smile of the night. He offered her a sip of his beer.
She took a deep, long drink before sighing, “So, I don’t exactly have a job or a car or even a place to live right now—”
“Sounds awfully familiar.”
“Yeah. I have a pretty good idea that Lorcan is going to get us wrapped up in all sorts of trouble from now on, and we still have to figure out how to introduce you to your sister—who has no idea that you exist—without completely shattering her worldview either . . .”
“Yup,” Morgan said with an exaggerated nod.
“So, do you want to just steal Billy’s RV and go get some tacos until we figure out something better?” Paige asked as she slapped down the empty bottle.
Morgan’s smile grew wider. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Paige and Georgia will return in TEN, Rules Undying: Book 3…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
R. E. Carr likes to split her time between the alien (well, resident alien) she married, her two adorable offspring and the vast army of characters who constantly argue in her brain. She uses her past life as a video game reviewer to remind herself just how awesome it is to be writing novels now.
And hey, if you want free stories, make sure to sign up for her newsletter at www.rachelecarr.com.
ALSO BY R. E. CARR
R.E. Carr is the author of several books, including:
RULES UNDYING SERIES
Four
Six
Ten
Point One Five
Zero
One
FALSE ICONS
Second String Savior
Wannabe Wizard
Halfhearted Hunter
OTHER WORKS
The Download
Sins of the Past
The Accidental Summoner
Follow R.E. Carr on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/totalrecarr/
Follow R.E. Carr on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TotalRECarr
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Once again, the author would like to thank the lovely Cheri, for having to deal with spectacular misuse of commas. Also, she would like to thank Reginald for another brilliant cover. This time around there is a cluster of brave beta readers to thank – Kate, Katie, Kris, DJ, and Deb; oh, and one crazy Russian who kept translating even if she’s not a spy.
The author must thank the entire staff of her local Westborough, MA coffee shop, for without copious amounts of tea, this novel would never have been possible. Lastly, of course, the author has to give a shout out to Kindle Press and to the legion of fantastic Four fans who made this happen. Mada ikite iru . . . who knows what the future will hold?
R.E. Carr, Six
