Page 54 of Silent Stalker
While Emerick eyed Edgar as though he wanted to take him from the woman, he settled with a sigh and kissed the child’s temple. “For a hundred years, I searched. I’ve walked every path of this park without finding him. I looked under every stone I could, all without finding him.”
“He would have been buried deep,” Ben replied, gesturing in the direction of where I’d located him. “And he would have been in quite the state, for him to take so long to rise again after his illness. Perhaps someone in his brood wished to spare you. None of us would have been able to guess if he would have risen again, and he did disappear during the cholera outbreak.”
Something in Emerick’s expression eased, and he nodded. “I had come to that conclusion time and time again, but it feels somehow different when faced with the reality of it.”
“Uncle Emerick?” Edgar asked.
“Yes, Edgar?”
“Why is everyone talking weird?”
I held my breath, waiting to see how Emerick would handle explaining to the child that well over a hundred years had gone by since he’d been buried.
“You slept a long time, which is why you woke up thirsty. We’re talking weird because this is how people talk now. Were you able to learn from Pepper?”
“She talks weird, but her voice is really pretty. Uncle Ben said she is Aunt Pepper? And there’ll be a ceremony?”
“There’ll be a ceremony, and you can carry the ring and throw flowers down the aisle,” Emerick promised. “We haven’t set a date yet, but you know all those papers we don’t like? We already handled the papers, so the ceremony only confirms what we’ve already done. She’s very young for a vampire, though, so you need to be on your best behavior. Like you, she has some dietary problems we must manage.”
“Is Aunt Pepper sick?”
“No, she just had a difficult raising, a lot like you. She has to drink from the vein often, although I’m her primary donor because we’re blood bound. She’s adapting to bottled blood still.”
“The blood she gave me was really tasty, and she showed me her teef!” Edgar opened his mouth and displayed his fangs. “Hers are bigger.”
“Teeth,” Emerick corrected, and he drew back, straightening his shoulders and regarding me with a raised brow. “You’ve been busy tonight.”
I held up my latest branch. “There was a nest about to fall down on it, and there were baby birds in it. I moved the birds before taking the branch, and I tried to secure the nest up there. When I left, Mom and Dad were trying to guard their babies from me. They did a great job. So yeah, I guess I have been a little busy.”
“Then it is good that the branch held on for as long as it did.” He sighed, closed his eyes, and took a moment to compose himself. “You truly just found him?”
“I did. I was looking for branches, and I found him, all covered in dirt and thirsty. It won’t be a problem I shared my blood?”
“No, not at all. You did the right thing, although I’ll tell our friends in Japan you gave some to Edgar. I expect we’ll get a few extra bottles a day so he can have the blend as well. We… try to find ways to allow him to grow, but there are limited things we were willing to try. Wagyu in the quality we get wasn’t an option then.”
As always, Emerick looked towards the future, even when everything got turned upside down on him. “Please tell me he’s old enough for his own room.”
Emerick laughed. “He’s old enough for his own room, although if he’s having a bad night, he’ll want to stay close to someone. We’ll make it work. Everyone will pitch in for his schooling. Some of our routine will have to change.”
I had no idea how broods handled having children under foot. On the other hand, could I really count a few weeks of having a new lifestyle an actual routine? Of all the adapting I’d done, I expected including Edgar would be the easiest of the lot. “What do we do now?”
“We go home, you work on carving your new stakes, and we’ll find out if there’s anything new on the wire. Once you have some new stakes carved, we hunt. For some reason, I think we’re going to need your stakes for this. They understand the concept of live capture. The rest? We have to guess and hope for the best.”
“It’s been quiet tonight?”
“It’s been quiet. The little we’ve learned from the rescued, there shouldn’t be many more if any other captives. That doesn’t mean there aren’t vampires being taken by that brood, but we don’t think there will be another dumping of victims, at least for a while. We do need to keep an eye out for disappearing vampires, though.” Emerick approached Annora and held out his arms for Edgar. The woman huffed, turned her head, and ignored the brood master.
Edgar giggled.
“You lost that one,” Gerry stated, and he clapped Emerick’s shoulder. “Let’s head back to the estate so you can fret. And use your kerchief before you alarm your wife. You’re filthy now.”
While Emerick had gotten dirt on him from handling Edgar, I suspected Gerry referred to the tear streaks on Emerick’s cheeks. With a few soft curses, Emerick wiped his face. “I’m going to have to burn this handkerchief now.”
“I’m sure it can be washed. It’s just a little mud and blood. That’s nothing some bleach and determination can’t handle.”
Emerick shot Gerry a glare and stormed off the way he’d come, leaving me to stare at his back in confusion. “What was that all about? He can’t really be that upset over his handkerchief, right?”
“He’s not upset over the handkerchief. He’s upset Annora claimed aunty rights and won’t let him dote. Annora is wise enough to not give up her aunty rights because we want to leave here sometime tonight, and we don’t have enough time for Emerick to work everything out. We’ll take care of him. He’s going to be a mess for a few hours. This was not on our agenda for this evening.”
