So on my twenty-first birthday when she showed up at the door again, bearing gifts, I had thought for sure that Da would tell her to go back to Nightfall and leave us be. But he didn’t. Once more, he had welcomed her in with open arms.
I understood then why it was that way. He’d been fae-struck and he’d always love her, no matter what and no matter how long she’d leave him for. Humans were cursed to love the fae forever. That was just one of the reasons I wasn’t in a serious relationship. It just wouldn’t be fair to the other person.
That time she had given me an exquisite bracelet made from amethyst and moonstone. Real moonstone, not the beads that pretend they are made from the lunar rock. I had thanked her, kissed her on the cheek, then that night when they had retired to my father’s room, I sneaked outside and buried it in the garden.
Moonflowers grew in that spot now, encircling a small pond where two toads have taken up residence. Every night their dark blue petals unfurled to soak up the moon’s rays--the exact spot where Da always saw the pixies playing. Pixies from Nightfall, the place where my mother was born and lived.
Movement stirred behind me. I hadn’t heard Da move up behind me. He set his empty cup on the counter and placed his quivering hand on my shoulder. I leaned into his touch.
“You have to stop hating her, Nina. It will only eat at you from the inside out.”
I shook my head. “Why should I? What has she done to deserve my forgiveness?”
“She can’t help what she is. Would you fault a wolf from hunting and killing its prey to feed itself?”
Thoughts of Severin instantly filled my mind.
“Its nature is to do what it must to survive.” He squeezed my shoulder again then let his hand fall. “So it is with your mother. She does what she does to survive.”
I didn’t look at him even when he pressed a quick kiss to my cheek and said, “Goodnight, darling. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Night.”
I waited until he’d left the kitchen before I rinsed and set our cups in the dishwasher, his words mulling around in my head. I didn’t want to consider that A’lona had valid motivations for what she did. To me, there couldn’t have been any reason to abandon a child at the tender age of ten. No reason to leave her without any explanation to be raised by her father. I could never have done that.
I stood at the sink and stared out the big window toward the backyard garden. The moonflowers were in full bloom. Dark petals fluttered in the light breeze as the stamens glowed like fireflies dancing in the moonlight. If I squinted, I knew I would see the buzzing of wings around the pond. Full dark was the perfect time for pixies to play.
Instead, yawning, I turned from the display, clicked off the light in the kitchen and took the stairs to my bedroom. I was too tired to deal with those from Nightfall. I had my own supernatural being to deal with in this realm.
Severin’s sexy rugged face and exquisite na**d form planted firmly in my mind as I shed my clothes and slid under the covers. There went my good night’s sleep.
***
Chapter 4
Trying to hide another yawn behind my hand, I nodded to the elderly man telling me about the pains he’d been having in his bowels. Thankfully, I was halfway through my shift. I hadn’t slept well and was having a difficult time keeping my eyes open. Dreams of Severin kept me involved for most of the night.
I finished taking the patient’s blood pressure and marked down the numbers on his chart. “Okay, Mr. Goldman, the doctor will be in right away to see you.”
With the chart in hand, I pulled back the sunny yellow curtain and returned to the triage desk to enter information onto the huge whiteboard on the wall containing room numbers and patient names. As I was writing, Diana slid up in next to me.
“Feeling better?”
I nodded, and then yawned.
She looked me up and down. “Uh-uh. You didn’t get any sleep, did you?”
“I got some.”
“Yesterday get to you?” Without waiting for a reply, she said, “Yeah, that woman’s death got to me too.” She stroked her fingers over the stethoscope wrapped around her neck.
She did that when she had something on her mind.]
“Everyone’s still buzzing about it. Wondering if there are going to be more werewolf attacks.”
“Do we really know that was one?” I asked stiffly as I turned and walked back to the triage desk to grab another patient file.
Diana followed. “Hey, what’s with you?”
I rolled my shoulders, feeling the tension cramping my muscles. “Nothing.”
“Hey, did you hear—” Kevin, one of the other nurses, leaned close to us “—about the body they found in East Hastings early this morning?’
I shook my head.
“Body’s all cut up, organs removed I heard. One of the cops I know said it looked like a ritual killing.”
“Really?” Diana said.
Kevin nodded eagerly, clearly thrilled to be in on the good gossip. “I guess they found some weird rocks with symbols painted on them all in circle around the body. Weird, huh?”
“What kind of symbols?” A sudden chill rushed down my spine. I wrapped my arms around my body in response, trying to rub it away.
“Don’t know.” He shrugged. “Hey, do you think the werewolves are behind it?” he asked, his eyes all lit up.
Before I could say anything, my cell phone vibrated in my pants pocket. I checked the number before I answered and recognized my home number. My father.
He never called me.
I walked away from the nurse’s station and answered it. “What’s wrong?”
“The pixies are after me.”
“Da,” I sighed. “What did I say about them?”
“They’re angry for some reason, Nina. One of them bit my ear.”
“Are you hurt? Did you fall or something in the garden? Do you want me to call Mrs. Duka next door and see if she can come over?” I cradled the phone between my shoulder and ear, while I rubbed at my temple where a headache was brewed.
“Gah! Get away, you pest!”
His voice was shrill making my heart jump in my chest. “Da?”
“Damn it!”
I heard something break in the background. Something that sounded suspiciously like glass.
“No! Get back!”
Then nothing. I listened to a dead line.
As I redialed my home number, Diana watched me out of the corner of her eye. Concern furrowed her brow. “Everything okay?”
“I don’t know yet.” A busy signal buzzed in my ear. I pressed end, then redialed. Again, I got a busy signal.
Flipping my phone closed, I slid it into my pocket. My stomach clenched. I had a very bad feeling that something wasn’t right at my house. Had my father finally gone off the deep end? Or was it something worse? Something from Nightfall.
“I need to go, Diana.” I didn’t meet her gaze. I didn’t want her to see how frightened I was becoming.
“Your dad’s not doing well, is he?”
“He has his good days and his bad days.” I sighed. “Guess which one this is?”
“Maybe you should consider finding a facility for him.”
I looked at her then with a frown, irritation building inside. “I’m not putting my father in a home.”
“Nina, it might be the best thing for him.” She paused and rubbed at her stethoscope. “For you, too. Alzheimer’s can take its toll on a family. I know. My grandfather had it.”
“My father doesn’t have Alzheimer’s. He’s just…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. How could I possibly explain to Diana that my dad was fae-struck, and it had sucked the life out of him, both physically and mentally?
“Okay, go. I’ll make sure you’re covered here.”
For all her prickly qualities, she possessed a few good ones too that just happened to miraculously show up when I really needed them to. Like now. She knew I didn’t want to be pressed about my father.
“Are you sure?”
She nodded and then squeezed my shoulder in an uncharacteristic show of friendship. “I’ll see you when you get back.”
“Thanks.” I rushed to the staff room to grab my bag and my helmet. I ran down the four flights of stairs to the parking garage—parking indoors seemed smart from now on—mentally calculated how long it would take to get home. I desperately hoped that my dad was having an episode. Because I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around the alternative.
I made it home in twenty minutes. It would’ve been sooner but there was an accident on Hastings that forced me to take a different route. I did still speed though.
Hastily parking my bike on the driveway, I unlocked the front door and pushed it open, calling to my father, “Da?”
No answer.
Dropping my purse and keys onto the table at the front foray, I ventured further into the house, first going into the living room and kitchen. He was not there, but a chair was overturned, lying on its side on the kitchen floor. My heart slamming inside my chest, I picked it up and set it back.
I ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time to my father’s bedroom. I pushed open the door to find the room empty. His bed was neatly made, everything looked in order. I quickly checked my room, although he’d have no reason to be in there. I also checked the bathroom. The room was as I left it this morning.
But something caught my eye as my gaze swept the small window. I rushed to it and looked down into the garden. My father lay on his side on the grass near the garden, unmoving.
I sprinted down the stairs and out the balcony doors in a panicky rush, praying under my breath that he was still alive. I would never forgive myself if he had died on his own, alone and without help.
As I neared him, I saw fresh angry red scratches on his hands, arms, and face. Fearing the worse, I crouched down and placed my fingers on his neck to feel for a pulse. “Da?”
He groaned and I let the breath I was holding go, mumbling a thank you to the benevolent spirit that had heard my prayer. His pulse was strong under my fingers.