Chapter 38
38
Esther
T he streetlights were on by the time Esther made it back to August’s house. Uther waited for her on the porch. She hadn’t even finished climbing the steps before he bombarded her with questions.
“Did you talk to her? What did she say? Is she taking the potion? Are you back together again? Are you going to be a vampire?”
“Okay, hold on.” Esther walked past him to the door. “Let’s go inside, and I can catch you up.”
“Oh.” He took a step, blocking her path. “Um, what if we just sat out here for a bit and caught up?”
“Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s just…” He glanced at the front door. “Okay, so August has someone over.”
“What do you mean, August has someone over?” She walked around Uther and peered through the window, cupping her hands to block the glare.
Uther grabbed her arm and pulled her from the glass. “Can you be less subtle?”
“Probably.” An idea that sounded a lot like Ashley popped into her head, and she grabbed the doorknob and yanked it open. “Hey, August.” She spoke so her voice traveled through the house. “What are you up to?”
August appeared in the kitchen doorway, followed by a much smaller woman in a severe bun. “Esther, you’re back.” His voice was annoyed and grumbly. “You remember my Aunt Hannah.”
“Ms. Comstock.” Crap . “Yes, we spoke once before, about the journal from the collection. Thank you again for the interview. It was instrumental in clarifying discrepancies in my final report.”
“Indeed.” Hannah sniffed dismissively and walked back into the kitchen.
August and Uther shared an obvious and wordless conversation. From what Esther deduced from their body language and facial expressions, Uther had been tasked with providing August with privacy while entertaining his aunt and could he please try harder next time, and Uther made gestures toward Esther that seemed rather rude in her opinion.
“Your friends may join us,” Hannah called from the kitchen.
Esther pushed past August before he could interject and joined his aunt at the table. A few moments passed before August and Uther joined them. They were probably silently arguing again.
“Are you sure you want them here for this?” August remained by the doorway, shifting his weight back and forth, as though he’d run right out the door again if it were socially permissible.
Hannah met him with a stern look, and he took his seat next to her.
“You say it’s in the tea.” Hannah nodded to the cup in front of her.
Esther hadn’t noticed until then that tea had been served.
August glanced at Esther before answering. “I’m not sure we should be talking?—”
“I know they are familiar with vampires.” Hannah folded her hands gently on the table in front of her. “You are all terrible at keeping secrets. But it is not an issue at present, so please, continue.”
“I, umm…” August blinked repeatedly, before regaining his momentum. “Yes. You drink the tea, and it will reverse the vampire curse.”
“I see.” She turned the glass ninety degrees, as though inspecting every angle for abnormalities.
It was only then Esther pieced together the very private moment she’d barged into. Her attempt at making a bold choice had led to an awkward intrusion into a personal moment. Classic Esther .
Esther stood again, her chair scraping against the kitchen linoleum. “I can give you some privacy.”
“Don’t you want to know what happens?” The way the woman said it was a challenge.
Esther looked to Uther, but he was mirroring her expression. It was her choice. She sat back down.
August gestured to the innocent-looking cup. “You’ve lived hundreds of years this way. Maybe there’s no reason to take the cure. But I had one made with you in mind because…”
He paused and looked around the room.
Whether the look he gave Esther was embarrassment to have an audience or seeking comfort, Esther wasn’t sure, but she nodded encouragingly all the same.
“I hoped we could be aunt and nephew in the typical sense of the word. I’d stop by for tea and cookies, and we’d catch up on each other’s lives on a regular basis. I’d shovel your sidewalk in the winter so you don’t slip on your way to the car. We’d buy each other Christmas gifts, and I’d introduce you to my boyfriend. It’s all selfish stuff, but you’re the only family I have in town, and I can’t stop by except at night, and then it’s all this drama with you being a vampire and I’m a witch and what a mess my parents made of things.” He stopped to take a breath because his words were picking up and his shoulders were hunching like a shield. “And I can’t help but hope a part of you wants a normal relationship as well.”
Hannah kept her gaze firmly on August. They were both the same set of hazel, and for some reason, this observation was what finally connected them for Esther. Hannah was tiny and blond to August’s broad shoulders and dark hair. But over a few hundred years of adding and subtracting family genes, this one marker still connected them.
Hannah picked up the tea in both hands and held it close. There was a domestic innocence to the move. Just an older woman having tea with her nephew and wanting to warm her hands.
“I saw the page,” she said. “From the grimoire. I’ve had it for decades. But you must have realized this, or you wouldn’t have taken it.”
“I’m sorry, I just?—”
Hannah lifted a hand, cutting him off.
“I am old.” She chuckled at her tea. “At first, the days fly by so quickly. Then the years, then decades. I understand you think it’s the witches and vampires that keep us apart, but I have been separate from our family for much longer than your parents’ generation.” She took a sip from her tea before continuing. “You are correct in your assumption. I do miss having a family.”
August smiled and his eyes were watering, but he kept silent, waiting for her to continue.
“But I should tell you, this won’t work.”
The smile dropped from August’s face. “What do you mean it won’t work? Why are you drinking it if you know it won’t?”
Hannah took another sip. “I would like to have tea with my nephew, while he introduces me to his friends. Is this that boyfriend you mentioned?”
“Hi.” Uther gave an awkward wave that turned into hand wringing, and Esther smiled.
“Yes.” August’s features reanimated. “Aunt Hannah, this is Uther.”
“Uther,” she replied and reached out to shake his hand. “How Arthurian.”
He shot up from this seat to take her hand. “I didn’t pick it.”
“No, I doubt you did. But it suits, I think. Are you good to my nephew? You treat him well, like a prince should?”
“Oh my god, Aunt Hannah.” August covered his mouth, red splotches covering his cheeks.
Esther didn’t think she’d seen August embarrassed before.
“Of course,” Uther replied, all serious.
“See that you do.” She turned to Esther, and Esther sat up straighter. “And I’ve already met you. Do you keep his confidence as well?”
“I like to think so.”
She nodded and placed a hand on Esther’s arm.
Esther understood the tea then. Whether the potion worked or not, her hands were warm now. They could pretend this was a human moment, being properly introduced to August’s aunt for the first time.
“See that you do.” She turned back to August. “And that chatty vampire, Ashley. Is she good to you as well?”
“Ashley?” Esther studied August, looking for a reason for Hannah to be asking about her.
His brows furrowed and he shook his head. “What do you mean?”
Hannah took another sip of tea. “That girl could befriend a teaspoon. If anyone could break you out of this reclusive hovel you buried yourself in, it was her.”
Uther snickered behind his hand. “That sounds about right.”
She finished her tea. “I like this aunt business. I think I might have been rather good at it, given the chance.”
“You’re a natural,” said August. He was back to smiling. “Did you want some more tea?”
Hannah smiled, and wrinkles framed her eyes that Esther hadn’t noticed before. “No, thank you, dear. Actually, it’s a warm night, and if memory serves, you have a lovely garden out back. Would it be terribly rude if I asked you to take a stroll with me?”
“No, of course not.”
The three of them—Esther, Uther, and August—leaped from their chairs, the room filled with the sound of wood scraping as they stood like this was a Jane Austen novel. Hannah took August’s arm, and the two of them went out back. Esther and Uther remained behind in the kitchen, wanting to give them a private moment together.
“How long do you think they’ll be? Should we make some tea? Start a movie?” Uther asked.
“Let’s put on some tea and give them a few minutes.” Esther glanced out the window.
It was dark, aside from a decorative streetlight over the bench in the backyard. August and Hannah sat side by side, their backs to the window.
Tea was made, and Uther and Esther entertained themselves, sharing videos on their phones.
“No, wait!” The call came from outside, but they both recognized the panic in August’s voice.
Esther and Uther sprinted out the back door. August was alone on the bench, his fingers raking through his hair and his shoulders heaving.
Uther got to him first. “August, are you all right?”
“Don’t sit there!” August shot up and grabbed Uther, pulling him from the bench.
“What happened?” There was no sign of Hannah anywhere.
August was bent over sobbing into Uther’s shoulder. “She’s…she’s gone.”
“Where did she go?” Esther tried rubbing August’s back, but she wasn’t sure that was any help.
He pulled back from Uther’s shoulder, tears streaming down his face. “I didn’t want this. I would have tried harder if I’d known. I just wanted to fix her. To fix us.”
“August.” Esther put her hands on his shoulders, trying to anchor him. “Just point where she went. We’ll find her.”
He hiccuped and pointed at the bench. Brow furrowed, Esther released August and approached the bench. They hadn’t noticed before with August in tears, but there was a pile of gray soot on the side of the bench where Hannah had been sitting.
Esther gasped when she recognized what it was. “What happened, August?”
His breathing was slowly coming back under control. Uther had taken over rubbing his back and helping him stand upright.
“I didn’t notice at first. The shadows were blocking her face. She started to slow, so we sat down. It all seemed normal. But then her voice changed, and that’s when I noticed.” He sniffed, and a tear tracked down his cheek. “She was aging, right there in front of me. Then she just dissolved into dust.”
“Jesus,” whispered Uther.
Esther covered her mouth.
Hannah was right. The potion didn’t work.
“Ashley.”
Esther ran like her life depended on it.