Blood Lines

34. Reconcile

Lena awoke to a still well-lit sky. She was still used to waking early due to their class schedule. Exhausted as she had often been, she had tried for Clae's sake to attend her classes. Apparently the habit had stuck. She headed downstairs, thinking that Alina wouldn't rise for at least another few hours. She made herself some strong coffee and breakfast and ate on the porch, reabsorbing the calming sensation of the waves that she had lost the previous evening, trying not to think about the details of last night. But it was impossible. She wanted to scream for the insanity of it all. For one dark moment, she wondered what would have happened had she not forced Jasper off of Clae the night of Valentines. He would have bitten her albeit in the form of rape, perhaps been satisfied and the whole saga would have closed. Then she snorted at the stupidity of that thought. Rapists didn't stop after they caught their quarry. He would have either continued to harass Clae or moved on to another victim. No, she had done the right thing, but in doing so she had created an entire cascade for herself.

Her phone buzzed. Predictably, it was Clae. She hesitated and then picked up the call, glancing back inside briefly to make sure her grandmother hadn't yet risen.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," came the voice on the other end. "Did you make it home ok?"

"Yeah. Got in around four last night."

"Oh good. How's your grandma?"

Lena paused. "She's...good I guess. Getting used to me being here again."

"Oh. Well that's good. Hey, you sound a bit scratchy. You're not getting sick are you?"

"No," Lena said quickly. "It's just..." For a moment she teetered on the idea of telling Clae what had happened last night. It sounded relieving to tell her. On the other hand, it wasn't really her business. Not her world. "I'm just getting used to the temperature again. It's way colder here."

"Oh, gotcha. So listen I'm going job hunting today. I'll start at the first place I hear back from. I'll have enough money saved up to visit you in no time."

"That's very diligent of you," Lena chided her, smirking. She couldn't think of what else to say. It didn't seem like a great idea for Clae to visit anymore, not after the attitude her grandmother had taken. "Well don't work yourself to death. Hey, I'm coming to the city in June. Will you be around say the 21st?"

"Yeah!" came the eager reply.

"Great I can meet up with you sometime then. Not sure what day."

"Awesome! You can stay with me and my dad for as long as you like!"

How about forever? Lena almost asked sarcastically, but she forced herself down.

"Great, I'll send you the details soon. Listen I can hear my grandma getting up, I better go make her some breakfast. Talk to you later, ok?"

"Sure," Clae replied. "Have a good day!"

Lena hung up quickly before the I love you brigade could begin. She hadn't heard Alina getting up, but she had started to feel almost deceitful the longer the conversation went on. She wasn't being honest with Clae, not even trying. Instead she was stupidly making plans as though everything was fine. Well, she wasn't about to break up with her just yet. She wasn't going to be rash. She needed to figure out what was going on, how to deal with her father, how to respond to this heir business.

"Good morning," a voice said behind her, making her jump.

Alina had arisen after all, so quietly Lena hadn't even noticed. "How about that breakfast then?"

"Sure," Lena said dully. She must have caught the end of her conversation.

"Blood shots are in the freezer. We should each take one," Alina commented as Lena slid her eggs and toast out of the pan and onto a plate ten minutes later.

Lena shrugged. She probably did need it, she hadn't had a shot in almost eight days now. Maybe it would help to calm her nerves. She thawed two of the little red packets in the late afternoon sun and handed one to Alina. They both cracked theirs open and sipped down the little shot. Far from being satisfying and not even close to being as pleasurable as when she drank Clae's blood, the meal did little to impact her except to evaporate the slightly hungry feeling that had started to permeate the back of her thoughts. But this in itself was enough to allow her to relax a bit.

After a moment she said, "hey, I'm sorry about what happened. I swear I didn't mean to drag you into all this. Honestly I didn't mean for any of this to happen. It just...did."

Alina glanced at her and nodded. "I know kid. I was being too hard on you last night."

She sighed heavily. "I just can't go through this shit again. Your mom was bad enough. And if you end up getting killed as well-" she broke off and stood to clear the dishes. Lena was sure she heard a sniff. "Just be damn careful with this situation, ok? Those people are dangerous. Having a human lover is dangerous too. Don't take anything for granted."

Lena nodded. She didn't really need that advice, but she would take it none the less.

"Who is this girl anyways? I've never known you to keep anyone around longer than a couple of weeks."

Lena rolled her eyes. Of course she was going to play nice now. Bad cop good cop was Alina's favorite form of parenting. "She's in my department. She's actually the top botanist in our class. You'd like her."

"Botanist, huh?" Alina seemed vaguely less hostile. "Well at least she's interested in something useful. Well, I've got to go, I need to prepare the herbs I collected last week for market. I believe you were going to see about a job?"

Lena smirked. "Yeah nana, I'm getting a job. I'll see you tonight, ok?"