Chapter 21
Zaos
Granddad did, in fact, bring over three different magicked-up pieces for Hugo to wear. He wanted to ensure that someone couldn’t just break a chain around his neck or steal his ring or whatever and leave him vulnerable to the sun. I appreciated the thought.
Hugo now wore a necklace with a supposedly unbreakable chain, a bracelet with the same assurance, and a ring, and Granddad and Grandpa wanted Hugo to pierce his ear or something and were talking about tattooing something on him as a backup.
They even said they’d bring over a couple more rings and another bracelet for his other arm, just to be safe.
Hugo’s eyes had widened at that, but he hadn’t complained at all.
In fact, he’d been very gracious and thankful to everyone. He was handling this way better than anticipated.
Way better than me, that was for sure.
The fact that they wanted to have him wear so many more sunlight amulets or whatever you wanted to call them was actually freaking me out a little.
But maybe that was because everything was freaking me out.
I had a feeling I’d be freaked out for a very, very long time after what happened, after what I’d seen, after seeing my viramore dying on the floor and—
I cut that thought off and took a deep breath before my worry reached Hugo. He had enough going on. He certainly didn’t need my bullshit on top of everything he was dealing with.
Due to the circumstances, I’d gotten special permission to take my final from home since it was the last major grade I had to turn in for my summer class. So as of about fifteen minutes ago, I was done with school for the next month before my last semester started.
Hopefully that would give us enough time to get everything figured out and start living at home again.
Well, actually, that was going to be a problem.
One I needed to bring up with Hugo. But at least we had the portal now, so even if we were staying here, I could go to school and come right back with ease.
Without us there at the house, the construction crew was working longer hours to finish our addition. According to Grandpa, our home would be done in about a week. Then we just needed to buy furniture and decorate. Hugo and I were debating asking my sister and cousins if they were up to the task.
Neither of us were very picky, and I wasn’t sure when we’d have the chance to go shopping.
Hugo should be fine to be around strangers soon, but even though he could technically go out in the sun, his instincts weren’t letting him.
And being summertime, the sun didn’t go down until most stores were already closed.
So yeah, I’d talk to Hugo today about asking my sister and cousins for help. We could ask Kian too, but I wasn’t sure he was up for it. Although, he might appreciate the distraction.
He’d still been spending nearly every night with us, which none of us minded at all. He was healing, and I hoped being around family was helping him.
Over the next few days, more and more of my family came to visit us at Uncle Toby and Uncle Thay’s house. They wanted to make sure we knew they cared, and I was pretty sure everyone was also making sure Hugo was able to be around people without vamping out and trying to suck everyone dry.
But he was so calm about everything that I knew there was no risk.
“How long do you think we need to stay here?” Hugo asked one night after my uncles left their house for a work call.
“Probably another week or two, I think. But, um, I wanted to talk to you about after that.”
“What do you mean?”
I cringed but pushed ahead. “I know having the portal makes it really easy to go back and forth, but if we cross over, and Uncle Toby’s still here, well… your body is only going to feel the distance. You might panic being so far from your sire.”
He stiffened for a few beats. “So… what does that mean? Do we have to stay here for a few more weeks?”
This time, I tried to hold in my cringe. “Well, not exactly. Um… we could maybe, uh, have Granddad finish our house here.”
He tilted his head up to look me in the eyes. “You want to move back to coven land?”
“Not permanently or anything. But for a time, yeah, I think that would be a good option. We could have our own space, but still be close to your sire. We might even need to stay here sometimes if your vampy side is feeling, uh, like it needs him or whatever, but maybe this would be… good.”
He was quiet for a long time before he offered me a small smile. “You’ve been wanting to set up a second house here anyway, so… I think that’s a great idea.”
“Really?”
He nodded, and I took a moment to examine our connection and make sure he was really okay with the plan and wasn’t just saying it for my benefit.
He snuggled into my side and hummed, whispering, “I’m fine as long as I’m with you. I love our home in Clairiston, but I love it here too. And you’ve always wanted a home here, so yeah, babe, I’m good with this. It’ll be nice to have a little privacy too.”
I snorted at that. “You have no idea how little privacy we’re gonna have here, even in our own home, just so you know.”
He chuckled and hugged me tighter, his head on my chest. “Call your grandparents so they can start asking the trees to turn into a house or whatever wild magic-y thing you said they do.”
“Honestly, that’s exactly what they do.” I pulled out my phone, keeping one hand on Hugo’s back, tracing circles along it, and put in the call.
We met my grandparents at the back of my dads’ gardens near a stream. Across the stream, Kian and Virion both had their own smaller living tree houses, and down the stream a bit, a few of our cousins had homes.
My siblings and I always planned on having homes right in a row there, so I already had the perfect spot in mind right beside Kian’s house.
I pointed it out to Granddad and Grandpa after they gave us each a big hug, and Granddad asked, “How many bedrooms do you want? Two? Three? We can always add more in later on if you guys ever want more space or, you know, kids or whatever.”
Hugo’s wide eyes met my own. Kids? What? We so weren’t anywhere close to that in our lives. Holy shit.
Granddad continued like he hadn’t just given my viramore and me heart attacks. “And I assume you’re okay with an open plan kitchen, living, and dining room area?”
I blew out a breath, pushing the scary kid thoughts away and concentrating on right now. “Yes, that works for us. Um, what about three bedrooms? That way we have a guest room, and we can make one an office if we want?”
“Alright. I’m also going to add in a library area on the first floor. Everyone can use a nice reading room. Could be good for studying too, not that you have much longer for that.”
“True, but I’m sure I’ll still have plenty to learn as I go along. Plus, I love reading.”
When I glanced at Hugo, his eyes were wide and excited-looking. In my head, I heard him think, “How cool would it be if it was a secret reading nook?”
That made me smile, and to Granddad, I asked, “Could we make it a secret room?”
Hugo’s head whipped over to me, but he didn’t say anything out loud.
“Sure. That’ll be fun.” Granddad stared at the spot, clearly thinking. “Do you want a bookcase as a door to hide it or something like that?”
“A bookcase door would be awesome.”
Granddad smirked at me. “Sure, I can do that.”
“Really?” Hugo blurted.
Granddad chuckled. “Definitely, kiddo.”
Hugo blushed, and I grinned at him.
Granddad continued, “We definitely need a basement so you can build a dark room or whatever you vamps call it.”
I blinked. I hadn’t even thought of that, which made me cringe. That was something I should’ve thought of when my primary job was to protect Hugo. He might need that one day. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s a great idea.”
Before I could freak out that our home in Clairiston didn’t have a basement, Grandpa added, “Don’t worry, Zay.
We had Jules come out to the Clairiston house with us to figure something out.
We’re building a small basement under where your back deck was, and we’re extending your kitchen and living room out over it.
Or at least we’ll be doing that after you two approve the plans.
The basement will only be big enough for the one room and small bathroom.
And hopefully you don’t mind adding a little square footage to the main house.
We figured it was safer if there was some house over the top of it so no one could, um, just dig into it if they were after…
well, shit. Sorry. You know what I mean.
Plus, the stairway will be inside, so it gives you a way down without exposing yourselves to the sun. ”
My eyes widened. “You guys did all of that already?”
“We didn’t build anything yet since we wanted to talk to you guys about it. Well, we started digging since, no matter what, you need a dark room, but we haven’t touched the house yet. But yeah, we plan to do it.”
I threw my arms around him. “Thank you. Thank you for always thinking of ways to protect us.”
He hugged me back but said, “Actually, this time, it was Uncle Toby who came to us with the idea. He, Thayer, Jules, and Em all came to us to tell us how important it was to have a dark room in the house. So we talked it over, looked at the plans of your house and the addition, and came up with a plan. If the addition wasn’t so close to being done, we could’ve put the room under there and made you a bigger basement, but this should work out fine. ”
Hugo said, “It’s perfect. Thank you so much for doing all of that.”
“No need for all that.” Grandpa shot him a smile. “But you’re welcome.”
Granddad said, “Let’s get this shit started.”
Before I could respond, his green magic flowed out of him and right at the trees on the other side of the stream.
I’d seen Granddad do this a million times all over our property, but it never ceased to amaze me.
The trees responded to him and his magic immediately, growing and twisting and moving around almost like they were animals or something.