A Shade of Vampire 40: A Throne of Fire(32)

“You arrogant—” my dad burst out.

“Caleb,” my mom managed, shaking her head. “Hazel, we’ll talk about this later,” she warned me. “I mean it. But right now, I’m too happy to think straight… so, Caleb? We’re going to put a hold on this for a while. I mean it.”

My father growled at Tejus, but stepped back, eyeing him suspiciously.

“Tejus?” I got my ‘boyfriend’s’ attention away from my father. “Let’s go back to the castle. Everyone else, you need to follow us. It’s not far.”

“Follow me,” Tejus snapped, leading the bull-horses by the reins. Ash hurried to join him, clearly eager to put some distance between him and Claudia. I couldn’t quite hear what she was saying, but there was a lot of snapping and gesturing going on. At least Ash had been Ruby’s rescuer initially—he hadn’t been the one to take her captive.

“Don’t say another word,” I hissed at Benedict. “I mean it. You’re such a massive ass.”

Benedict chortled. I tried to frown, but it was so good to hear the sound of him happy. I felt the corners of my disapproving mouth turn up, and turned my head away as we walked to hide it.

“Hazel, I can’t believe we found you, alive and safe,” she said. “We were so worried. We love you so much – and I don’t tell you enough! I’m just sorry it took us so long to get here.”

“I know.” I smiled. “I love you too. I’m glad you’re here. We need your help. The whole of Nevertide is in danger—we’ve been trying to fight it as best we could, but we need the experts.”

“I got that impression,” she replied softly, glancing up at the sky.

“Yeah. Things have gotten bad.”

She squeezed my arm.

“But you and Benedict are safe—that’s the important thing.”

I nodded. I just wasn’t sure for how long. If GASP had turned up a few days ago, I would have thought our problems were finally over, but after seeing what I had today, I felt differently. I had no idea how we were going to fight whatever that was—the entity’s army? The entity itself? There was no way of knowing for sure. But it had scared the life out of me, and I didn’t know if GASP would be better equipped to deal with it than we were.

“You do seem different.” She smiled at me, brushing a strand of my hair off my face. “But I can’t put my finger on it…”

I shrugged nonchalantly, hoping I could put off this discussion till we were in the castle, and maybe even until my parents had warmed to Tejus a bit. Though I wouldn’t be holding my breath.

“Maybe it’s just because you haven’t seen me in a while?”

“Hmm…maybe… You must have a lot to tell me.” She eyed Tejus meaningfully.

“Yeah.” I smiled weakly. “You could say that.”

I’m in major trouble.





Ash





I had never in my life seen anything like the group that stood before me. They had emerged swiftly from the forest, appearing almost instantly—pale creatures, some inhumanly beautiful and deadly-looking, some with wings, and some strange-looking, almost nymphish people who had air where their legs ought to have been.

A short blonde woman, moving at the speed of light, rushed toward Ruby, flinging herself into her open arms. It could have only been her mother. The facial similarities were too evident for it to be anyone else.

So, this is GASP, I thought, trying not to appear too wide-eyed.

“I can’t believe we finally found you.” Ruby’s mother’s voice was muffled by her daughter’s hair. “I was out of my mind with worry—this place is so strange, and we just kept fearing the worst!”

“I’m safe, Mom, I’m safe. I’ve missed you!”

As the mother and daughter hugged, a man stood by, gazing at them both with disbelief in his expression. He was lean, with a slightly crooked nose, but handsome.

“Dad!” Ruby exclaimed, peering at him from behind her mother.

The man grinned, holding out his arms to embrace his daughter. She hugged him tightly, and I watched a similar scenario happening with Julian—a blonde woman with almond-shaped eyes crying into his hair before scolding him about his glasses.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ruby’s father held her out at arm’s length, studying her intently.

“I’m fine, Dad, honestly. I’m just so glad you’re here. How did you even get here? How did you find out where they’d taken us?” Ruby burst out with a barrage of questions, practically hopping from one foot to the other as she waited for her father’s reply.