Accidental Sire(82)

"Oops," I murmured, and realized that my fangs were down. "Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Overby. I'm going to move now, slowly, away from you. I'm sorry."


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Ben snickered. "Mom, Dad, this is my girlfriend, Meagan. Meagan, meet Bob and Kim Overby."

"Just call me Bob," Mr. Overby told me in a shaky, hesitant voice as I stepped backward, behind Ben.

Jane quietly shooed everybody else into the kitchen, leaving the living room open for our incredibly uncomfortable conversation.

"I was interrupting a hug, wasn't I?" I asked, willing my fangs to go back into my gumline.

Mrs. Overby began crying softly, and Ben stepped forward to hug her so delicately he barely touched her.

His father patted his back and ruffled his hair. "Missed you, son."

OK, now I was getting a little misty. I needed to get out of here. I crept quietly toward the kitchen door to join the others. Also, did Ben call me his girlfriend back there? Why was I just now hearing that?

We weren't to that stage yet, right? I mean, sure, we lived together and worked together and spent most of our free time talking about our favorite fandoms. We ate most of our meals together. And we slept together most nights.

Holy hell, I was Ben Overby's girlfriend. That sneaky little vampire.

Just as I reached the kitchen door, Mrs. Overby asked, "So were you turned around the same time as Ben?"

I stopped. Did this mean Ben and Jane hadn't told the Overbys how involved I'd been in their son's transition? I looked to Ben, who had a completely neutral expression on his face.

"Um, yes, right before," I said. "But we met before we were turned."

"Well, that's nice." Mrs. Overby sniffled. "That he has someone he knows with him."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Overby. I know this has to be a shock, and then not being able to see him for so long . . ."

She interrupted me before I could confess. "We knew this was going to happen eventually. I mean, we weren't hoping for it. We're not particularly happy about it. But no one can spend that much time around vampires and not end up getting bitten somehow."

Mrs. Overby was trying to put a happy face on it, but she still sounded a little bitter. It was going to take quite a bit of persuasion to recruit her to the Meagan fan club. Or just the "not stab Meagan through the heart with a wooden stake when no one is looking" club. I'd never met the parents of a boy I was dating-was "dating" the right word? How did you get your special man friend's parents to like you? Were there Jezebel articles about this sort of thing? Maybe I should call Keagan. She was pretty stable, romantically speaking. I mean, I couldn't ask Ophelia, because she had obviously failed at securing Jane's affections. 

Mr. Overby added, "We're trying to focus on the positives. Ben will never get sick. He probably won't die in some silly car accident or something. In some ways, it sets our minds at ease."

"And in some ways, it's awful," Mrs. Overby confessed. "He's never going to have kids, never going to be able to go out during the day."

"But if it means that we can keep seeing Ben, we're going to focus on the positives," Mr. Overby said pointedly.

He glared at his wife, who stared back at him, and then she turned to me and smiled brightly before asking, "How long have you two been seeing each other?"

Oh, right, because Ben called me his girlfriend earlier. I had sort of blocked that out for a second.

My mouth dropped open, but I couldn't seem to find an answer that didn't make me sound like a son-turning, tobacco-field hussy. Ben also seemed hesitant to answer. And we were saved by the proverbial bell when Jane came out of the kitchen in a beeline for the front door and locked it, punching the code for the scarier parts of the security system to come online. Huge outdoor lights shone from the trees onto the house just before large metal shutters slid over the windows. Several dead bolts clicked into place, and the front door made this shhhup sound as it hermetically sealed itself. Ben's parents clutched at each other in alarm.

"Jane, what's going on?" Ben asked. "Are we at war or something?"

Jane's mouth was set in an angry line. "Dr. Hudson has escaped Council custody."





13




It is possible to be overprotective of your vampire offspring. If your childe disappears suddenly or starts threatening you with silver spray when you go in for a hug, it's time to loosen the reins a bit.

-The Accidental Sire: How to Raise an Unplanned Vampire

It took logical thinking, Gabriel, and an enormous bottle of what Dick called vampire Prozac to talk Jane into dialing the cancel code into the security system. For one thing, there were too many people in the house to maintain our "panic room" state. Danny had school on Monday. Also, Jolene had some pretty serious Black Friday plans, and given her werewolf strength, I was pretty sure she could kick the metal window shades out if she wanted.