"Frank!"
"What, what?" I asked, rubbing the sleep away from my eyes.
It was my mother.
What was she doing here?
Natalie and Brianna were just behind her. Both look terrified. And pained.
I sat up. "What is it?"
"Oh, sweetie," my mother said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. She reached out, grabbed my shoulders, and pulled me to her, cradling my face against her chest.
A brief moment of relief passed over me. She wasn't mad at me. It had sounded like she was, but she wasn't.
But as my neurons slowly started firing again, I realized what that meant. Picked up on her tone of voice.
My kids.
It had to be. Why else did they all look like they felt so sorry for me?
"What happened?" I asked, dreading the answer.
"You're not going to like this," my mother said.
You don't say.
Brianna burst into tears and pressed herself against Natalie. My sister held our cousin close and ran her hands through her hair.
Oh fuck. It was even worse than I'd feared.
That's when they told me that both Val and Josh were gone.
We had to assume they'd been Devoured, for they were nowhere to be found. And trying to locate them supernaturally offered no help at all. Mom had even thought to go to the echo of the mortal world to check for them there too. Again, nothing. If they were alive, she'd have felt something.
When I told them about my early morning encounter, and the way the fox had stared at me when licking my blood, they all agreed that there was only one conclusion to be drawn.
He'd used my blood to track down my
blood
. My children. And taken them from me.
When I burst into tears, Brianna asked my mother and sister to leave the two of us alone.
I was glad she did. But then, if my mother had said the same thing, I'd have been glad too. Maybe even if Nat had. At just that moment, sorting out the mess of my love life was
not
a high priority. I wasn't sure who I wanted to be alone with. All I knew was that I
did
want to be alone with one of them. I just couldn't bear having three pairs of eyes staring down at me in pity like that.
We didn't talk. My cousin just held me in her arms while I alternated back and forth between sobbing gently, demanding of no one in particular that they tell me why, and moaning in anguish. She didn't whisper soothing sounds, or tell me it would be okay, or anything. Which was good, because it wouldn't be. But I was glad to have her there, holding me. The pain would have been even worse without that.
Eventually, I couldn't cry anymore. I don't want to say I got control of myself, because I think I went into shock. But the sobbing and wailing and moaning was done, and the way people looked at me suddenly seemed like the silliest thing in the world to be concerned about. So I told Brianna to let the others back in.
As numb as I was, I wasn't entirely cognitively impaired. When my mother said that the thing I'd described sounded like a white fox, and explained what that meant, it more or less sank in. I'd thought of an arctic fox, which was of course just another name for the same animal. But I should have made the connection.
Our killer belonged to one of the great houses of Winter. He was one of Daphne's brood. Whether he was a son, a grandson, a nephew, or what have you, made no difference. He was her creature. Her fault. Her responsibility.
"We have to kill her," I said.
"Frank," Natalie said, laying a hand on my arm.
"No, I'm serious. In a few days, Brianna and I are supposed to have dinner with Iva. She'll know where we can find the bitch. If she doesn't want to tell us, we'll make her."
"You don't mean that," Brianna said.
"Why not?" I snapped.
Much more harshly than I'd meant to.
It wasn't Brianna I was mad at.
She recoiled. Then pursed her lips, and looked away.
"I'm sorry," I said, pulling her in for a hug . "I shouldn't have snapped at you. But I don't see why we shouldn't try to squeeze Iva."
"We don't stand a chance against Daphne," Brianna said.
"She's right, Frank," Natalie said.
"Be sensible, dear," my mother added.
That one burned. The others were being patient. Trying to talk sense into me. Because, well, I
wasn't
being sensible. But did my mother have to say it like that?
"We don't even know that Daphne ordered him to do it," Natalie said. "I think the best thing to do is find this guy, do what you have to with him, and pretend we never knew who he was or where he came from until we know more."
"If you don't trust yourself with him, I can interrogate him for you," Brianna said. Then promptly added, "Of course, I'll let you have him when I'm finished."
Damn, I loved that woman. Thinking about what she'd do to get information out of him gave me goose bumps.
"We'll go to that dinner,see what information we can get from Iva, and figure out our next move after that," she added.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed my mother giving Brianna a cool nod of approval. Which actually angered me. I wanted to tell her it was Bobby's fault as much as Daphne's. But I knew that was just guilt by association. What reason did I have to be mad at Bobby anyway? Things would have fallen apart between me and Mom anyway.
I agreed to Brianna's proposal then asked Mom and Nat to leave again.
#
The next day, I finally decided to go and see my mother. It was long overdue. And I'd been cold towards her the day before. She'd come to comfort me in my hour of grieving. I should have been grateful.
I found a rather unexpected scene unfolding in her living room.
By the oversized fireplace, Uncle Bobby was tied to a chair, a ball-gag in his mouth. On the leather sofa, my mother was locked in the early stages of foreplay with...my father.