Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (35 page)

“What’s up?” she
asked, and
smiled wide.

“That’s my shirt!
” Jarvis complained.
“
Sis
, your
tits
are going to stretch the hell out of it!”

“Would you rather I go topless?” she countered and he glared at her.

I raised my hand.
“I
am in complete support of that suggestion
,” I piped in, causing her to blush and Jarvis to roll his eyes.
“Dinner i
s
served,
”
I said since her shirt was staying on and Jarvis was getting ready to throw another tantrum over his minger shirt getting stretched.

Dinner was interesting and not something I would ever subject myself to again without much coercion and promise of sex.

Sky and Reign watched me
while
I ate.
I
smiled
while
I chewed, trying to keep the irritation from showing on my face at being their bloody dinner theater.
Jay Dee kept looking at me apologetically; obviously her parents’ behavior was embarrassing her.
Jarvis was completely oblivious to it, he kept moaning over the food, stealing more than one bite from his sister’s plate when she wasn’t looking—it took all of my self-restraint to not stab him in the hand with my fork over it.

Eventually
,
Sky laughed.
“This is ridiculous,” she
said and
rolled her eyes.
“Where did you two meet?” she
asked and
smiled
warmly
.

“School,” Jay Dee
said with a shrug.
“We share first and fourth period together.
I totally tackled him
his first day of gym, causing a fumble. It was awesome
.”

Everyone laughed
, everyone
but me; I rolled my eyes s
o she kicked me under the table, giving me a warning look.

After that, conversations flowed around the table.
Her father
, Reign,
said very little, but he smiled and joked on occasion.
Jarvis was rambling on about some of the things he had seen while traveling through Eastern Russia. I had seen them all before, but the excitement in which he described them with made me want to see them again, almost as if I would have be
en
seeing them for the first time.

Their family
was
very
peculiar to me. They were
warm and caring,
funny and kind,
and
vividly aware of each other’s
emotional well-being.

I envied them greatly.

My family was never like
that
, not that I remember
ed
, and I wish
ed
that they had been now that I
had seen
it firsthand.

“Where did you get the necklace?
” Sky asked, looking at her daughter curiously.

The question stole Reign’s attention and his
bronze
complexion paled considerably.

Jay Dee looked down, oblivious to the silent exchange between her parents,
and picked up the pendant
which
was resting
just
below her suprasternal notch
.
“Funny story…well not funny at all actually, it kind of pissed me off, and if it were anyone other than Yahto, I would have totally been kicking ass and taking names.
Anyway, he said that when they found me, I had it on and they took it because they didn’t trust the white man,” she
said with a shrug
.
“I really haven’t given it much thought. I just put it on and left it at that.”

The silent exchange between her parents continued, and it made me curious as to why they seemingly recognized the pendant.

“May I?
” I asked
, holding my hand out expectantly
and she nodded.

Her parents started to object—that was the tell I was waiting for—
so
I cocked an eyebrow.

Both instantly sat back
in the chairs,
glared at me, and closed their mouths.

Jay Dee took the necklace off and handed it to me.

Bloody hell!

This is a bloody totem, and by the looks on her parents faces’ they are well aware that this belonged to Jay Dee, as well as know the significance of the piece.
Fascinating.
It
is not
entirely u
nheard of for rare pieces
like this to be lost in the human world
, but still, to have a human wash up on shore wearing such a remarkable piece is nutter.

Jay Dee looked at me
, her large onyx eyes pleading for an explination
.

“
Duc…Miss Jay Dee, the blue is
ancient Roman necklace
set in the middle of
a J
erusalem Cross. The
glass
alone
would date back more than two thousand years.
See these four smaller crosses at the corners?
” I asked, leaning into her and pointed to them and she nodded. “
They are thought to symbolize the four books of the gospel and the four directions in which the gospel spread from Jerusalem.”

I handed it back to her.

“
It truly is a lovely piece,” I commented, my eyes flickering to her parents and their eyes narrowed. “It is
like me family ring,” I
said, turning back to Jay Dee and cocked an eyebrow.

Jay Dee’s eyes widened before she nodded
nonchalantly and secur
ed the necklace around her neck, tucking it under the collar of her shirt.

“Why didn’t Yahto
’s dumb
ass say something
?”
Jarvis asked as
he
helped himself to a fifth steak
.
“I mean, I get the keeping it from the white man thing, I would have done the same, but come on. He waited thirteen years to bring it over?”

Jay Dee shrugged
.
“He forgot about it.
Bro
, you act like you just met him!
I may have the blonde hair, but Yahto totally has the blond roots.”

That was amusing and true.

“Indeed,” Reign mumbled under his breath.

Sky reassuringly patted his hand. “
You have it now
, Sweetheart, and that’s all that matters. Think of it this way, it was always
close at hand but never at hand, thus it was safe.
”

Jarvis and Jay Dee looked at each other, making identical faces tha
t unmistakably translated to ‘M
u
m has lost her goddamn mind’, but the look on Reign’s face was that of understanding and complacency in what his wife was reassuring him of.

“Of course,” he agreed. “And that’s the only reason why I won’t kill him,” he said.

Jay Dee gave him a look. “It’s a stupid necklace, Dad. It isn’t a big deal. Besides, he already feels super guilty about it, even teared up a little, so no harm no foul. Okay?”

Reign cocked an eyebrow.

Jarvis leaned into me. “You’re about to watch the old man get played,” he whispered and Sky
chuckled under her breath
.

Jay Dee
b
atted her lashes at him. “Daddy, let it go. I love Yahto, blond roots and all. It was his extremely belated birthday present to me,” she said in a sweet tone. “Please?” she purred.

Reign’s head tilted to the side and his
dark brown eyes softened. “Of course, Sweetheart. Anything for my little princess.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Jay Dee said with a smile.

Beyond impressive.

Once dinner
concluded, thankfully it didn’t last for many courses and excessive conversation,
Jay Dee and I
sat on the porch swing out back while Jarvis
and Sky
cleaned up.
Jay Dee
was
stretched out
on her back with her head resting on my
lap while she spun a wild flower between her fingers.

“Do you think your brother is still pissed?” she
asked with an evil smirk as she watched the spinning white and yellow flower between her fingers
.

I laughed, it was hard not to laugh.

“Most likely,” I said. “
d'Artagnan can, and will, hold a grudge for centuries.
He is a unprecedented
pain in the arse
like that
.”

“So I’ve seen,” she dryly agreed. “
Why did you try to kill him?
I mean, don’t get me wrong, he totally deserves it
and then some
, but was there a specific reason other than the fact that he’s a giant tool?”

Softly I caressed her head, allowing my
fingers to play in her silky
hair.
The sun was dipping low in the sky, the last rays of daylight
peeked out from around the mountains in the distance
, painting
the horizon
in beautiful shades of red, purple
,
and orange.
It was a beautiful moment, one
which
she was asking me to ruin with my past.
I wanted her to know me, the real me, the Tanis Ashton that I have kept hidden inside for centuries, just as mum said I
had
been doing, but at the same time
,
I wasn’t entirely sure
who
in the hell Tanis Ashton even was.

Take the leap, mum said.

That was what I was going do, for the first time in my life: take the leap.

“Before me brother blessed
us with the
dark gift….wait,
allow
me
start over,” I pleaded and she nodded. “
I am married,”
 
I blurted out and
the flower spinning between her fingers
instantly stopped
and
she
swallowed loudly
.
“I was seventeen, which
was not
young
in that century
.
I loved her and she loved me, or so I thought.
Samantha was the sole survivor in her family when the sickness hit our village.
We grew up together and were
best
friends, so I thought it was only right that we marry.
When d’Artagnan blessed me with the dark gift, he turned Samantha as well.
I
never
want
ed this life, Duckie. I did not long
to live forever, and I sure as hell
did not
want to be a monster.
However, m
e
thinking was that if I had
me wife with me
it
would somehow make it acceptable...
knowing that we could be together for all eternity
, it gave me a sense of temporary contentment with the
fate
me brother condemned me to
.
”

I
looked
from the horizon to Jay Dee but her face was as expressionless as stone.

“
They
say that there are two types of vampires
, Duckie
.
Those who stay human
,
in essence,
and simply evolve physically;
they retain who they were in their human life, and nothing is lost, only gained.
And then there are those vampires who change comple
tely by thoroughly embracing
the dark gift, thus losing their humanity
altogether
.
I, obviously, did not
change, however Sa
m
did.
It was slow
,
at first.
I knew something was wrong right away,
but she was me wife so I kept me mouth shut and turned a blind eye.
Eventually I
could not
ignore her behavior any longer, and when I went to address
it
, I walked in on her and me brother shagging in our bedchamber.

“I lost me temper and staked him, threw her out naked on the streets, and relocated without telling anyone.
Eventually me brother apologized, and being the
daft arsehole
that I
am
, I believed his apology and forgave him.
After all, it does take two to shag.
However, when he did it again, and again, a
nd again, I finally gave up on the notion of love and relationships and vowed to never be in one again...that was
nearly two hundred years
ago
.
Sometimes you have to sacrifice in order to preven
t killing those related to you,” I said the latter with a chuckle though there was nothing amusing about it in the least.