Belle Morte Bites (Belle Morte 4.3)

Meet the Parent: Part Two

When we went back downstairs, Edmond sat where I'd left him, his languid grace and masculine beauty looking utterly out of place in Mum's shabby little living room.

He stood up as we came in, his eyes flicking to me. I gave him a reassuring nod.

"Mrs Mayfield –" He started.

Mum held up her hand and cut him off. "I'd like to apologise. This is an extremely difficult time for me, but that isn't your fault."

Edmond inclined his head, but Mum wasn't finished.

"I'd also like to thank you," she said.

"For what?" Edmond asked.

Mum gripped my hand. "For saving my daughter. She would have died in the snow if it wasn't for you." Her expression wobbled, and she squeezed my hand even tighter. "I suppose she did die, but you brought her back."

Edmond glanced at me again, and I caught the flash of panic in his eyes. For all his smooth sexiness, he was completely out of his element here and clearly had no idea what to do. It was one of the rare times that the only word I could use to describe him was adorable.

"Sit, sit," Mum said, flapping her hands at us, and we returned to the sofa.

Nothing had changed and yet everything had. That awful tension, the feeling of teetering on a cliff-edge had gone, and in its place was something warm and tentative, like a flower starting to unfurl.

"Now," Mum said, her expression turning serious again. "I need to know more about Belle Morte."

June had chattered about it nonstop but even if Mum had listened to it all, I understood why she wanted to hear it again. Before, Belle Morte had just been some celebrity mansion that her eldest daughter dreamed about. Now it was the place where her youngest daughter lived.

"What would you like to know?" Edmond said.

"Will my daughter be safe there?"

I felt Edmond stiffen against me, just the tiniest amount – Mum wouldn't have noticed it. In most ways Belle Morte was safe for vampires and, like the other vampire houses, it was the best place for vampires – especially new ones like me – to live. And yet if the last few weeks had proved anything, it was that threats could come from anywhere. Edmond would want to reassure my mum but he also wouldn't want to lie to her.

I stepped in.

"All the windows are shielded from the sun, and the grounds are always patrolled by guards so I don't have to worry about falling asleep outside or anything like that," I said.

I actually had fallen asleep outside, a few days ago, and it was thanks to Dexter Flynn that I'd got inside before the sun fried me. But I sure as hell wasn't going to tell Mum that.

"What about blood?" Mum asked.

Her expression twitched fractionally as she said it, but I didn't blame her. When I'd first woken up as a vampire, I'd been horrified by the reality that I'd been drinking human blood in my sleep, and that I'd have to do that for the rest of my life.

"The donors have not returned to Belle Morte, and we don't know when they will, but us older vampires can get by on animal blood for the time being," Edmond explained. "Our remaining security staff are happy to feed Renie until we can arrange a more permanent solution."

"And how long will that take?" Mum asked.

"I'm not sure," Edmond admitted. "But I can assure you that Ysanne will get it taken care of as quickly as possible."

"What about visitation? As I understand it, humans aren't typically allowed to visit vampire houses, but exceptions will have to be made for me. I'm not being barred from the house my daughter lives in."

Once again, Edmond glanced at me, and I could imagine what he was thinking. When I'd arrived at Belle Morte, I'd made it clear that absolutely nothing would stop me from finding my sister, and Mum was no different. She'd ram her car through the mansion's front door before allowing Ysanne to keep us apart.

"I wasn't sure you'd want to visit," I said softly. "I thought maybe it would be better for you if I came here."

"For now? Perhaps," Mum said. "Forever? Not a chance."

"Obviously I wouldn't be happy with that either, and I'll bring it up with Ysanne as soon as I can, but it won't be right away. She's got so much to deal with, Mum, and I don't want to put any more on her plate."

Once, I wouldn't have cared. A nasty little part of me might even have wanted to make things harder for her. But things had changed between us. I respected Ysanne in a way that I hadn't before, and maybe we wouldn't be hugging each other or swapping makeup tips any time soon, but she'd become important to me.

"We'll also want to make sure that you can visit June's grave whenever you want," Edmond added.

Mum flinched.

When June had stopped writing, Mum hadn't been worried. As far as she was concerned, June was living a dream come true in Belle Morte and was simply too busy and having too much fun to keep up with letters home. When I'd gone into Belle Morte, I'd made sure to write home to Mum but even after I'd learned that June was rabid, I hadn't told Mum about it. I'd been so determined to save June, and it had made sense to me to keep quiet rather than horrify Mum with the truth.

But things hadn't played out that way.

Mum had learned the truth via Etienne's public statement, and all of this had hit her in a different way to me.

Putting June out of her misery had been the worst thing I'd ever had to do, and it would be a very long time before I stopped seeing her face in my nightmares – assuming I ever did – but I'd had more time to adjust to it than Mum had. Nearly 2 weeks had passed since Etienne had freed June from the west wing, allowing her to go on a bloody rampage through the house, and it was then that I'd realised she couldn't be saved. Killing her had still been agony, but it had also been the final gift I could give her.

June's death had come as a total shock to Mum, one that I suspected she was still struggling to process.

"Where do things stand with you two?" Mum changed the subject.

"How do you mean?" I asked.

She fixed me with a steely look, one that was I very familiar one. It was the one she'd given me when she caught me underage drinking at thirteen, when she'd caught me sneaking out of the house at fifteen, when she disapproved of a guy I might be seeing, or any time I sassed her.

"Do you have your own room?" Mum said to me.

Edmond went very still.

"No, Mum, Edmond and I share a room," I said.

Maybe I should have reassured her with a lie, but I was sick of lies, even small ones. They'd caused so much damage these past few weeks.

Mum's mouth tightened, in the exact same way it'd done when she'd learned that I'd lost my virginity two years ago. But all she said was, "I see."

She wasn't happy about it, that much was clear, and I understood why. I loved Edmond with all my heart but we hadn't actually known each other that long, and Mum didn't know him at all. The fact that I was an adult didn't change the reality that, however fast things had moved for me and Edmond, they'd moved much faster for Mum.

But she wasn't going to object. I was the same age that I'd been when I went into Belle Morte, but I was not the same girl, and Mum realised that. I would always be her child, but I wasn't a child anymore, and she had to trust me to make my own decisions.

Awkward silence reigned for a few moments, before a wicked glint crept into Mum's eyes.

"Edmond, would you like to see Renie's baby photos?" she said.

I closed my eyes.

Well played, Mum. Well played.