Bound by Night(78)

Riker. “Bastien . . . you said you don’t know who your father is. Did anyone tell you anything about him at all? Or anything about your mother?”
“They said I look like her.”
“You do. Very much.” Riker just hoped no one questioned Bastien’s dark hair and mocha skin that was a little too tan for someone who had never seen the sun, because neither Riker nor Terese bore that coloring.
The insane breeder male at the lab had.
“How did you know her?” Bastien asked. “You told Nicole about my name.”
Now Riker needed to proceed carefully, dole out the information in small doses and see if Bastien would
reach the logical conclusion himself. “That’s because
your mother was my mate, Bastien.”
“Oh.” He frowned. “Did you serve humans, too?”
“No.” Riker used a finger to straighten the largest pile of cards, the one with a rabbit on top. “Humans captured her. They stole her away from me and turned her into a slave. Do you know what a slave is?”
He nodded, but his gaze had turned wary. “They said she liked working for the Martin family. It’s an honor to work for humans—”
“No,” Riker snapped. “It’s not.”
Bastien scrambled backward, knocking over his chair and scattering the cards. And for a split second, Riker could have sworn the kid vanished. Then he was there again, crouched in the corner, eyes wild, panting like he’d run a marathon.
“Jesus.” Riker swallowed. So much for proceeding carefully. He’d just scared the boy half to death.
“I’m sorry, Bastien. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” He righted the chair and held out his hand, inviting Bastien to come back. “I’m just very angry with the humans.”
“Why?” Bastien crept toward the table, but when he sat, he did so a little farther away from Riker than he’d been before.
Riker struggled to keep in mind that Bastien had been raised by humans, had relied on them for his very survival. Like an abused dog that wouldn’t run away because it didn’t know any better, Bastien hadn’t yet realized that the people he’d spent twenty years with were the enemy.
“They’ve lied to you, son.” Riker kept his voice low and level and his hands folded tamely in front of him. “They’re a cruel, selfish race that enslaves and abuses animals and people. That’s what they did to your mother. That’s what they did to you. You should have been born here and raised by vampires who love you instead of being kept in a cage and poked with needles.”
Bastien appeared to consider what Riker had said.
“Why do you care?”
“Because I made a promise to your mother twenty years ago. I promised that I would raise you and love you. I couldn’t raise you, but I can love you.” He inhaled deeply and blew out the breath in a rush. “You’re my son, Bastien.”
“You’re my . . . father?”
Riker nodded. Bastien stared, his big eyes swimming in confusion and disbelief.
And then everything went to hell in a handbasket.
The table exploded upward, scattering cards and knocking Riker onto the floor. Bastien disappeared again. What the fuck?
“Bastien?” Riker leaped to his feet as Grant ran over.
“What happened?”
“I have no idea.” Riker swallowed. “Did you see him . . .”
“Disappear?” Grant nodded. “Amazing. Never seen anything like it.”
A scuffling sound came from inside the teepee.
Very slowly, Riker approached the tent and peeked through the flap. Bastien was huddled against a wooden support, curled into a ball under a blanket.
“Maybe you should go,” Grant suggested. “Give him time to get himself together. I’ll have him help me around the lab. He listened to everything they said in the Daedalus facility . . . he’s got a surprisingly competent grasp of what I do in here, and he’s very curious.”
Dammit. Riker had, after twenty years, been given an opportunity to make a wrong right, and instead, he’d fucked it up. And what in the ever-living hell was the disappearing-act thing? He’d never even heard of a vampire who could do that.
“Rike?” Grant tapped him on the shoulder. “Anyone home?”
“Yeah.” Riker nodded, but the question remained.
Had Daedalus done something to Bastien? “Yeah,” he repeated. “I’m fine. I’ll send Nicole. See if she can get him to the library.” Mind churning, he headed toward the door but paused as he reached for the handle. “And Grant? Don’t stick him with any needles. He’s had enough of that at Daedalus.”
Bastien had been through way too much at that horror show, and somehow Riker was going to make it up to him.