Page 15 of Ever Dark Academy: Volume 6

“He did.”

“Which is why he was acting all Mother Hen-ish, I think,” Jack said with an understanding smile.

“It’s a great honor to be considered by the father of the prince,” Ryder said.

Jack’s eyebrows lifted, but then he nodded. “My son has always been important to me. But it is still hard to remember he’s the Vampire Prince, too.”

“How has it been coming back to him all grown up?” Ryder asked.

Jack’s eyebrows lifted again, but then a genuine look of gratefulness passed over his features. “Wonderful, but hard. I find myself mourning the boy he was when I… died.”

Ryder nodded. “I am having some of the same difficulties in regards to the Children I left so long ago. They have changed, but I still sometimes see them and treat them as if they are stuck in amber.”

“It’s gratifying to see them not needing you as much, but sometimes…”

“Sometimes you wish they would,” Ryder finished for him.

Jack nodded. “Not that I’m sure I could do anything for him. Not as a human anyways. And maybe only slightly more as a Vampire as I would be far weaker than he is.”

“Knowing that you’ll always be there might be of more comfort to him than anything else,” Ryder said softly.

Another nod from Jack. “I think you may be right about that.”

“So I am happy to tell you all you want to know about the Weryn Bloodline, but it’s really our people who make us who and what we are,” Ryder said. “So it might be good to have a group of us speak to you and not just me.”

Jack brightened. “That sounds perfect. So long as everyone has the time.”

“Yes, I…” Ryder stopped as he felt Balthazar’s presence in his head before he heard the other Immortal’s voice.

Ryder! Oh, my dear man, we have a slight issue, Balthazar said. When it rains, it pours, you know.

Plan

“I’m going,” Grayson said and he knew that the set of his jaw made it look like he was expecting–or even inviting–a punch. Not that any of these people would hurt him like that. But he felt emotionally like he was exposing himself even as his brain couldn’t quite ascertain why. “Mom won’t know any of you. She’ll be scared. She won’t understand what’s going on.”

Even as he said it, he knew it was garbage. His mother wouldn’t know him either. He was as much a stranger to her as Caemorn, Balthazar, Christian or Fiona were. In fact, she might know them better than him, because they had been on television and the internet, giving interviews, not to mention Christian’s own show with Julian. The parasocial relationship was likely there with them while only the memory of a boy was in his favor. But he was nothing like that boy anymore. He wanted to go because…

“We need to talk about this,” Balthazar said, lifting a hand as if to physically restrain him.

Grayson’s eyes narrowed. “You’re going to tell me that it’s too dangerous for me to go to Earth. But that’s not true! Fiona will teleport us both to my mom’s house and then back again. We’ll be perfectly safe even if I’m just… just… human.”

And can’t use my powers. And will feel like I want to projectile vomit after the teleporting.

“That actually wasn’t what I was going to say,” Balthazar told him.

“Balthazar,” Christian sighed and pinched the top of his nose.

“All right, it was a little of what I was going to say, but not the whole thing!” Balthazar amended a little huffily. “You’re not supposed to let people know when I’m shading the truth, Christian.”

“Shading the truth here isn’t the right plan,” Christian offered. “Grayson already…” Christian bit his lower lip and stopped what he was going to say.

“I’m already… what?” Grayson demanded.

Christian’s expression was very opaque as he said, “You’ve had a lot of surprises tonight. You’re not fond of those. Especially ones that make you feel strategically vulnerable.”

Strategically vulnerable.

He blinked at that. It was what he felt. Yet it wasn’t what he had been thinking, but Christian had pulled it out of him just the same. It seemed the Speaker to the Dead knew more about what he was experiencing than he did. He wondered if Christian had been talking to his dad and Sam before letting Grayson know that they were there. His father did know him as did Sam. Both men had been with him for a long time.