“Come on, let’s let the adults talk. Oh, what are you, anyway? I know you’re something but not something I’m familiar with. Or are you a dragon like your dad?”
“No, techno vampire,” Milo responded automatically, looking at me for some clue as to how he should respond.
“No way, really?” Sterling stopped abruptly, looking at Milo with renewed interest. “I didn’t even know about techno vampires until a few months back, my cousin was explaining how his brother-in-law knew one who had died and you all have some genetic disease?”
Milo cringed. Techno vampires didn’t really share that information, usually, because it made some people feel awkward around them.
But then Sterling continued in a very unexpected way. “My cousin’s sister-in-law’s boyfriend – whatever relationship that is to me, I dunno – graduated from med school last year and is a medical researcher or whatever. After Sorrel’s techno vampire friend died, Kade – the sister-in-law’s boyfriend – decided to try to research how to prevent the disease. He’s got a techno vampire helping him, giving him samples and whatever. You should get in contact with him! He hasn’t solved it yet but he’s trying, at least. From what I hear, he might be the first person trying to.”
Milo’s eyes widened and shot to me, before looking back at Sterling with undisguised hope. “Really? He might – he might figure out how to stop it?”
“That’s the plan, at least. He’s a fairy, he can spend centuries researching if he needs to, but according to my cousin, he’s already made a couple of steps in the process so he doesn’t think it’ll take that long. I can’t say it’ll be within the next couple of years,” Sterling admitted, “’cause I don’t know anything about how long this stuff takes, but at least he’s getting started in the process, right?”
Milo turned to me. “Please, Dad,” he begged, “can I help him? He could use more samples or something from another techno vampire, right? That would help? If there’s even a chance, I have to try. Even if,” he paused for a half second, “even if it doesn’t happen in my lifetime, I still have to try.”
My only concern was Milo’s safety and happiness. I was on board with this, as long as he’d be safe. I looked at Gwen, that at Sterling, not sure who could answer my question better.
“This fairy is someone you trust? He won’t…do anything to misuse the information or something like that?”
Apparently my question was amusing to Gwen, because she laughed a bit, but Sterling shook his head as he answered.
“Nah, nah, Riven – my cousin – trusts him and he’s a fairy, remember? Fairies are light end magic. Kade’s really shy and quiet, but he’s a good guy. Come on,” he told Milo. “I’ll take you down to the rehab center and you can meet Alex, and I’ll give you Kade’s contact info. Oh, wait, I don’t have it. Okay, I’ll get it from Riven and give it to you. Then you can talk to him and figure out what you’re going to do.” He dragged Milo out the door, but this time Milo looked much more excited about the prospect.
But that now left me alone with Gwen, who had her arms crossed as she looked at me.
I took a deep breath as I faced her, knowing I was about to have one of the toughest conversations I’d ever had in my life. Even interrogations of hardened criminals felt like they’d be easier than this.
To my surprise, she spoke first. “Techno vampire?” She asked it as a question, and for a moment it stumped me why it was a question at all.
Then it dawned on me. Of course, I was a dragon, and he was a techno vampire – there was no way we’d be biologically related.
“I adopted him as a baby,” I explained. “I knew about techno vampires’ disease and didn’t want him to grow up in a home or homes that wouldn’t understand the burden that places on him.” I paused ever so briefly. “I also adopted a gryphon daughter and a witch son as well.”
“Hmm.” She seemed almost thoughtful, but then we fell back into silence and I knew it was time for me to get to the point of what I needed to say.
So I took a deep breath, looked her in the eyes, and began. “First of all, I need to apologize. I said something as a teenager that was dumb and stupid and thoughtless and mean and I’ve regretted it almost every day of my life. Really,” I added as a look of disbelief crossed her face. “I think about you and what I said back then all the time and regret it more than I can even say. I long since realized it was a stupid belief and it would be worth even a short lifetime of love to have the right person in your life. I’ve never even ended up dating again because no one could even begin to compare to you – not that I’m here for that,” I added swiftly, remembering in time that she was married and this would not be a welcome part of the conversation. “I know that ship has long since sailed. I just want – I want to tell you how terribly wrong I was and beg for your forgiveness. If…you would be willing to forgive me.”
She looked at me, her eyes piercing as she searched my face, and while I cringed, I let her do that, hoping she’d see the genuine regret there.
“You broke my heart,” she said at last. “You were my first love and you threw that away like it was nothing.”
I cringed again. “I know, and I’m so sorry. I kept away from you after that because I felt so ashamed about what I’d said and was too stupid and proud to apologize and then – then we had both graduated. I went back right after graduation, intent on finding you and apologizing because I couldn’t live with it anymore, but they said you’d moved and no one knew where to. I assumed,” I admitted slowly, “that you’d enjoyed a long life by now and even if I did ever happen across you, it wouldn’t be a welcome reminder. So I didn’t keep looking, even when I had the resources to do so from work.”
She considered that, and also seemed to be aware of the unasked question – but choose to ignore it.
“I moved on,” she answered. “I met Bruce, we had Sterling. He was with me for over 50 years.”
I couldn’t help but notice the past tense. “Was?” I asked tentatively.
“Bruce was a merfolk – orca shifter.” Her eyes went briefly to the picture of the orca on the back wall before returning to me. “He died several years ago.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” I genuinely was, despite the sense of hope that hit me as well. No, wait, she obviously had another man in her life now, plus it was terrible of me to feel hope because her husband had died. “I assumed your husband was the man I saw you with earlier.”
For a moment she looked at me blankly. “Percy? Oh, no – he’s my brother.”
Brother. I hadn’t even known she had a brother. I wasn’t sure what kind of supernatural he was, but probably a witch like his dad, right?
I forced myself to forget about the question of whether she was involved with someone or not – I mean, she did have that protection mark from an oceanid, although it might be from Sterling’s girlfriend since he had a matching mark, but it could just as easily be someone else – and back to the question of whether she might be willing to forgive me. “Anyway, the point is, I was cruel to you and I’ve wished I could take it back, but I can’t. All I can do is ask that you please consider forgiving me. I know I don’t deserve it and even if you do, I get that that doesn’t mean it’s okay to stay in your life – I won’t push you into that if you don’t want it. Although, if you do…I would like to be friends again,” I added tentatively.
Her eyes searched my face again, her expression unreadable. “I’m surprised you haven’t asked yet. You’re not a fool – you have to know something is wrong with my aging but you haven’t asked.”
I took a moment to choose my response carefully. “I don’t believe I have the right to ask. You have no reason to have to tell me anything.”
Abruptly, she sighed deeply, then motioned to the table. “I think we should sit.”
Confused, I obeyed her direction, noticing that she now seemed a little uneasy. Nervous, even.
“I’m not human.” Her statement surprised me, even though it shouldn’t have given the obvious aging discrepancy I could see with my own eyes. “I’m a unicorn.”
This time it was my turn to have my eyes widen. A…unicorn? Unicorns had disappeared hundreds of years ago, they weren’t even thought to exist anymore and – and they used to appear as human when they did. I hadn’t even thought about that as a possibility, despite the now obvious connection, because, well, unicorns didn’t exist anymore.
Gwen continued, her eyes not quite meeting mine. “Mother drilled it into me and Percy to keep it a secret unless we absolutely trusted someone. I didn’t know you well enough back then to tell you the truth – that I actually was a supernatural, too. Even with Bruce, it took years before I told him. Sterling and I, we have to be protected like humans because we read like them, and it – it gets complicated. Even around other supernaturals we have to pretend to be human because otherwise our lives can be in danger.”
She leaned back a little in her chair, finally looking me in the eyes again, taking in my stunned expression. “Point is, we don’t usually tell someone unless we trust them. I’m making an exception for you here because you basically caught me out with the whole aging thing, plus I do think I can trust you. Now, anyway, ironically. You’re a police officer, you adopted a kid to give them a good life – whoever you were back then, that doesn’t seem to be who you are now. So, yes,” she said slowly, “I’ll forgive you for what happened back then. We were both kids, and people change. I’m not sure about being friends again, but I’ll think about that.”
“Thank you.” I meant it, deeply. “For forgiving me, and for telling me. I promise, I won’t repeat it to anyone.” Even my kids. Revealing her secret to me meant she was trusting me with her life, and I wasn’t about to betray that trust.
“I never told anyone other than Bruce for decades,” she mused, “but recently more and more people have found out and they’ve all been good about it. Sometimes I wonder if Mother wasn’t too paranoid,” her eyes darkened, “and then I remember that Mother died because she trusted the wrong person. We’re not easy to kill, but we can still die. Trusting the wrong person is the most likely means of death for us.”
“I will not let your trust in me turn out badly for you or Sterling,” I swore to her. I put magic into my words and I saw her eyes flit briefly to it – right, unicorn. Unicorns could see magic. She’d know I’d made a promise with magic in it, a promise that I couldn’t break even if I wanted to.
Gwen seemed to relax a little more with that. “So, a police officer now? Didn’t you want to be a lawyer?”
I accepted the change of subject, willing to talk about anything that she wanted if it meant she might let me stay in her life. I was desperate, almost, to convince her to be friends again. I didn’t really deserve it, not after what I’d done, but if she was willing to forgive me, if there was even the slightest chance she might be willing to be friends as well, I’d do everything I could to make her understand how much I wanted that.
“I was, actually, until I switched lives. I was looking too young for my supposed age.” I grimaced a bit, but she understood that particular bother. The annoyance of having to change lives every so often as years went by and it started to become obvious that we weren’t like humans. “I decided to go into police work this time. I’m currently police superintendent over in Port Fylin,” I added.
“Port Fylin?” She seemed startled. “So close.”
I suddenly wondered if I had chosen to settle here instead of Port Fylin, if I’d have met her sooner? I immediately pushed that thought out of my head – even if I had, she might still have been married at the time, and I’d never have met Milo or Elyse, and probably not Jace, either, so settling down in Port Fylin had been the right choice.
“What about you?” I asked hesitantly. “What do you do?”
“Bookkeeping and auditing. I’ve always been good at numbers and when Sterling was younger, it was something I could do from home. I mostly freelance. My only regular gig is my brother’s company.”
We fell silent, neither one of us apparently sure what to talk about next, so I dove to an easy topic for me – my kids.
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