Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
SAVANNAH
Warner walked in from the kitchen with an apple, he glanced around at everyone else sitting around. “What are we waiting for again?”
“My parents,” Auryn said with a sheepish smile, her eyes half closed as she leaned her head back against the couch. “Damn, that felt good to say.”
Mamaw, not Auryn. That’s your whole ass grandmother, Savannah, put some respect on the name.
“I told them dawn, so we give them until dawn. Actually, we give them until they return.” Tenn sighed and rubbed his chest. “They’ve earned a little time and patience.”
It was barely starting to get light in the sky, it was that pretty violet shade that couldn’t decide if it was day or night.
The sun would be poking its head up behind the mountains on the east soon enough…
it was a damn travesty to be woken up before the sun.
I preferred the dark of night. I preferred my vampire hours.
This dawn bullshit was for marathon runners and rope-dropping Disney adults.
Then again, I still wasn’t sure why it was called rope dropping.
I ain’t never been to any of the Disney parks so I had a lot of questions.
Like was the rope hanging from poles or something so that they’d literally drop it down at park opening?
Was it literally a rope or was it one of those CGI things.
It was Disney, afterall. Also, why were people lined up at the front entrance when the park opened?
Didn’t make a lick of sense to me. I wanted other people to be the guinea pig on rides so if that teenager working there wasn’t fully awake yet at least I wouldn’t find out the hard way.
I frowned. “Hey do they do that whole rope dropping thing at Hidden Kingdom? Or is that like strictly a Disney thing?”
Every single person turned to stare at me with a blank expression.
It was my own flesh and blood of a father who hung his head and sighed. “Savannah, how did ambushing fallen angels to steal their blood get you to rope-dropping at Disney?”
“Probably the same way you got from hey Savannah doesn’t know I’m an eldritch being straight to lemme just chase her around as a toy-sized dragon.”
He opened his mouth then burst out laughing.
Beside him at the table on my right, mom was working on a crossword puzzle. She shook her head. “I warned you she was gonna have things to say.”
Dad grinned. “Like she said to grandfather last night?”
Mamaw chuckled. “Worth it.”
“I’m probably going to regret this…” Tim shook his head. “But it’s early and I think if I don’t ask how the hell you got to thinking about Disney it might eat a hole in my brain.”
“Lewk. I’m only smart when the m comes after a p.
If there’s one o’them a’s in there I’m dumb as shit.
” I ripped a piece of my breakfast muffin off and ate it but everyone was still watching me.
“FINE. I was thinkin’bout how rude it was to have to fight against my vampire nature —oh wait a damn minute.
Papaw Frost is a vampire. So is mamaw? Are you?
Am I? Hold up, do I have hidden fangs? I need to know b’fore I bite someone and accidentally turn them. ”
At the same exact time everyone else turned to look at Cooper who was sitting on the ledge at the hearth beside Emersyn.
He just pursed his lips and nodded. “It’s not not a good question.”
“So the thing is—”
“No. Mmmhhmmm. Nope.” I shook my head while holding my pointer finger up. “I’ve changed my mind. I ain’t ready for that at this ungodly of an hour. Point is I was thinking about how the only people who voluntarily got up before dawn were marathon runners and Disney adults for rope-dropping.”
“Don’t hate on Disney adults,” Henley said with a playful mock glare.
“I ain’t hatin’ I just have questions.” I cursed and leaned back in my seat. “Can’t a girl have questions every once and a while?”
Mom looked up from her crossword and frowned.
“And you ain’t never taken me to Disney World either. I’m just sayin’ that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck — then again, I’ve seen a goose and they walk like ducks but they ain’t ducks so why is that a saying?”
Tenn blinked. “There’s a lot happening in there, eh?”
“Yeah, like why do I care if the early bird gets the worm? What if I don’t like worms? What if I like lightning bugs and can only hunt those at night? Why we judgin’ people who like the night?” I gestured to the room though not to anyone specifically. “Why ain’t there midnight marathons?”
Tegan nodded. “Not a bad point.”
“Now, would I run a marathon if they had one at night? No. Of course not but I’d like us night birds to get some respect.”
Lennox was flipping through the Book of Shadows but she paused to snap her fingers and point at me. “Have you seen the zombie marathons? Where people volunteer to be the zombies who chase all the runners?”
I gasped. “Dad, I wanna do that. I think I could be a villain. They be sauntering everywhere. Heroes always be sprinting, always running and shit. You ever see Darth Vader run? No, ma’am and I ain’t ‘bout to either.”
“Didn’t Darth Vader lose?”
“Dammit, Warner!” Emersyn shouted suddenly. She huffed and wrapped her arms around herself. Everyone else in the room froze in place in shock. Em shook her head. “Spoiler warning next time, okay?”
Tegan had just taken a sip of her morning coffee so it sprayed out of her mouth.
Dad scratched his jaw. “Is this what you’ve been like since joining The Coven?”
“Yes,” they all answered in perfect unison.
I shrugged. “Why reflect when you can deflect?”
The front door opened, we all turned in time to watch Everest and Frankie stroll inside hand-in-hand. The sight of their intertwined fingers brought tears to my eyes. Grandparents or not, their love story was one for the fairytales…the story books…the happily-ever-afters.
Everest had never looked so light.
He wore Tenn’s black ripped jeans and black v-neck shirt still, but he’d added a strange looking jacket that almost looked like armor but was a shimmery fabric.
And the boots he wore made Tenn’s look clean.
His long white hair was loose around his shoulders except for the front strands that were braided and pulled back to a knot behind his head.
Frankie was in a nearly identical outfit.
No, ma’am, we talked about this. That’s Papaw Frost and Mamaw Franks.
Mamaw shook her head and smiled. “You’re still wearing his jeans.”
Papaw Frost grinned. “I have finally learned the trick to these modern garments, they must be well broken in and ripped. They’re quite comfortable.”
Tenn cackled.
Tegan sighed and threw her hands up. “Yet another person besides me who got into your pants.”
Tenn’s jaw dropped. “BABE.”
Libby spit her water all over Daniel, which made Kendall and Kylie giggle.
Tim chuckled as he walked over to squeeze Tenn's shoulder. “All right, Frost Mountain, did your wife catch you up to speed?”
Papaw Frost opened his mouth then shut it and frowned. He looked down at her.
She bit her bottom lip and shrugged. “I had other plans for my mouth, thank you very much.”
Mamaw shook her head and sat on the back edge of the couch. “You do realize there’s already one pregnant Coven member…and the faded Mark on mom’s arm includes her in the risk zone.”
Mamaw Franks scowled then looked up at Papaw Frost. “What did I used to do to prevent conception?”
Papaw Frost reached out and shoved her to the ground with both hands. Hard.
The gasp the rest of us gasped could’ve been used as a film sound effect.
Mamaw Franks, on the other hand, was cackling on the ground. Papaw Frost leaned over her and laughed. They spoke to each other but it was not in English so I had no idea what they said. Mamaw rolled her eyes.
“So that’s what I did wrong.”
The sound I made was not human. “DAD!”
“Sorry, I could not help myself.” Papaw Frost chuckled and scratched his jaw. “I find myself unsure of what to do with myself and this dangerous amount of…happiness.”
“Well don’t worry, Benny here likes to rain on that parade.” I pointed to our Hierophant. “Go’head. Tell papaw Frost what he’s missed.”
Papaw Frost glanced around then scowled. “Wait, Akecheta is here?”
“No,” mamaw said softly. “He’s in Issale, and I’m sure he’s up to speed.”
“Then who is she talking about—”
“You, ma’am.” I gestured wildly in his direction. “Papaw Frost Mountain. Yew.”
His pale eyebrows rose. He pointed to himself. “I’m Papaw?”
“Didn’t we go over this last night after you woke up?” I crossed my arms and arched one eyebrow. “Remember, after we discussed your new nail polish.”
He narrowed his eyes on me. “So papaw means both grandfather and great-grandfather?”
“Yessum, it sure does. ‘Least down’ere in Appalachia.”
My dad cleared his throat to get papaws’ attention. “Her accent gets thicker the more worked up she gets.”
“How am I supposed to know if you’re talking about me or Akecheta?”
“Because he’s papaw, ‘cause he’s my papaw. But you’re papaw frost.”
“Easy there, Darkling.” He gave me a sideways grin and patted me on the top of the head. “So what did I miss?”
Warner cleared his throat and stood. “So what had happened was Savannah started asking questions about the rope-droppers at Disney—”
“Not that part!” I hissed.
Jackson grabbed Warner by the back of the shirt and yanked him back down to the couch. With a shake of his head, he looked to papaw Frost with a sigh. “Valathame gave us a prophecy dictating that she’ll be sending us clues one-by-one to collect what we need to remove this barrier on the tome.”
Tegan snapped her fingers and a piece of paper hovered in the air in front of him.
He plucked it out of the air and read it. His eyebrows rose. “Okay, so we need to visit the sirens?”
But mamaw Franks was already grimacing. “Right about the sirens…we kinda, sorta already went and long story short they’re all dead.”
His eyes widened. “Say that again?”
“The sirens are dead, killed by the Unseelies.”