Chapter 15
“Cormac, hi! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you.”
Cormac was a friend of Simon’s grandfather whom Simon hadn’t seen in several years.
He traveled frequently, but always stopped by for a visit when he was in town.
He often brought along some sort of interesting plant or spice he’d found.
Simon remembered that his grandfather always looked forward to Cormac’s visits.
“I just returned from a trip and stopped in to see how your apprenticeship was progressing. I saw your note on the door and thought I should call.”
Simon wasn’t entirely sure how to explain himself. “Well, things are a bit complicated right now.” He tapped his fingers on the table in the mudroom.
“Apparently so.”
“I’m not sure I can explain it to you, Cormac. I don’t mean to be rude.”
“Simon?”
“Yes?”
“I believe your note was addressed to me.”
Simon’s head began to spin, and he grabbed hold of the table in front of him. Gray wrapped his arms around him from behind and supported him. “It’s you?”
His voice was low and weak, but Simon couldn’t seem to make it stronger. He’d known Cormac for years and had visited with him on several occasions when he was a child. He had never picked up on any magic from Cormac, never once thought he could be the one they were searching for.
“Simon, where are you? Let me come to you.”
“I, I don’t—”
Gray plucked the phone from Simon’s weak grip and switched the call so it was on speaker. “Cormac, this is Gray, Alpha of the High Moon Pack. Simon is under my protection at the moment.”
“Alpha?” Simon could hear the anger and confusion in Cormac’s tone. “Why on earth would Simon need the protection of an alpha? What is going on?”
“That’s a very long story,” Gray answered. “And one we would like to explain to you. However, I think we should meet somewhere else. I’m not comfortable allowing you onto pack grounds at this point.”
“Fine. Come to me.”
While Gray wasn’t comfortable with that solution, they needed Cormac’s expertise, so he agreed to the vampire’s terms. Given his history with Simon’s grandfather, they had to trust Cormac meant them no harm.
Cormac gave Gray directions, and they arranged to meet later that evening.
When he hung up the phone, Simon turned around in Gray’s hold and wrapped his arms around him.
Gray held him close, whispering into his hair. Simon didn’t listen to the words, but the comforting tone helped to soothe him. His emotions were spinning out of control. One part of him was elated they’d found Cormac so quickly and that the person they needed to talk to was someone Simon knew.
The other part of him wondered how he could have missed such an important connection. How could he not have known who Cormac was or at least felt Cormac was something more than just a friend of his grandfather’s?
Wrapped in the security of Gray’s arms, he basked in the strength he drew from Gray’s touch. Doubts began to creep in, though, doubts about his own judgment. If he’d missed something this important from Cormac for so many years, how could he trust himself to know what he was feeling for Gray?
ON THE way to meet Cormac, Simon tried to remember the last time he’d seen the vampire. It had been a long time, before he began his apprenticeship. Simon had moved into his grandfather’s cabin the summer after he’d turned eighteen and graduated from high school.
There had been quite the fight with his parents over his decision. They wanted Simon to go to college, get a degree. More importantly, they wanted him to be normal, like they were.
Simon knew that wasn’t for him. He’d known since he was ten that he was going to be a mage, just like his grandfather.
The cabin was already in his name and had been set up in trust through his grandfather’s will to be his.
That summer, Cormac had stopped by to visit.
It was the last time Simon had seen him.
Simon stretched his legs out in front of him and leaned back in a lawn chair. An ice-cold glass of lemonade dripped its condensation over his hand, and Simon lifted it up and rubbed the coolness against his forehead.
His grandfather’s garden was a disaster.
Part of the trust for the property had included a “caretaker,” but it was clear to Simon the man had no idea how to care for anything.
Sure, the maintenance on the house was fine.
There were no broken windows or leaky pipes.
But the garden, his grandfather’s pride and joy, couldn’t have been worse.
For nearly a week, Simon pulled weeds, trimmed shrubs, and raked leaves. Every day, from sunup to sundown, he worked to bring some semblance of life back to the grounds. The evidence of new life surrounded him, but he still had a long way to go.
He heard a car pull into the drive and knew he needed to get up to see who was there. With a small groan, he pulled himself to his feet and started walking around the house.
Cormac, his grandfather’s friend, rounded the corner before he could get there. He was one of those guys who never seemed to change. Simon had only seen him a few times, but each time he’d been dressed in slacks and a nice shirt. Even in the heat of summer.
“Simon, I’m happy you’re finally here.”
His grandfather had shared with Cormac his plans to leave the property to Simon. “It’s good to be here. Well, good in some ways. Bad in the amount of weeds.” Simon chuckled and Cormac laughed along with him.
“Oh, your grandfather would have had a fit if he had seen this place the way it was not long ago. Can you imagine how angry he would be?”
Simon smiled and shook his head. His grandfather’s temper where his garden was concerned was legendary. Greenhouses in the area shivered in terror when they saw him approach. Even mail-order companies were not safe from his wrath when his plants were not up to par. “He would have lost it for sure.”
Cormac placed a comforting hand on Simon’s shoulder. “I miss him very much.”
“So do I. I always thought I would do my apprenticeship with him, you know? Even though he’s been gone so long, I still think that he’ll be the one training me. Silly, huh?”
“Never silly. You still have, what, two years?”
“Yes, sir. My apprenticeship officially begins on my twentieth birthday. I just turned eighteen a few weeks ago.”
Cormac smiled and pulled a small package out of his pocket. “Oh, yes, the ever-important eighteen. I brought you something to honor the occasion.”
Simon accepted the gift and slowly unwrapped the box. Inside, he found a crystal wrapped in copper wire and connected to a leather cord. Suddenly choked up, he lifted it out and held the necklace up in front of him. “It’s just like Grandfather’s.”
“Yes, it is. I thought you would like to have one similar to his as a reminder of how much he loved you.”
Simon nodded, unable to speak, and placed the cord over his head. The crystal settled several inches below his neck. After a moment, he could feel its warmth. “Thank you, Cormac. It’s beautiful.”
Simon was startled out of his memory by Gray grasping his hand. His other immediately went to his neck, but the crystal necklace wasn’t there. Master Thomas had made him remove it during their first training session, saying it would mess up their ability to bond.
“You okay?” Gray’s voice was quiet, and Simon nodded his answer. Liam stayed quiet in the backseat, seeming to understand just how upsetting Simon found the situation.
“I just can’t believe that Cormac is the vampire, that he went through everything in the story.”
“I’m sure he’ll answer your questions,” Gray said, giving Simon’s hand a gentle squeeze. “Everything will be okay.”
“I hope so,” Simon whispered. He turned the possibilities over and over in his mind. The Cormac he remembered was a good man… vampire… whatever. Nice and kind. And he was family.
Simon felt a rush of pain at the memory of his grandfather’s death. He clenched Gray’s hand and tried to breathe normally.
Maybe now that he knew the truth, he could be close to Cormac like his grandfather had been. Maybe they could be family now, especially since his own family wanted nothing to do with him since he didn’t fit their vision of the perfect son.
Simon’s time with the pack, seeing what a family could be like, made him want that in his own life more than anything.
He looked over at Gray. Simon didn’t know what this was between them.
There was heat, lust, attraction. Was it more than that?
Could it be more? Simon didn’t know. One part of him wanted more.
The other? It wanted to know if he could have a family of his own, maybe with his great, great—however many greats—grandfather.