Chapter 14 #2
“Yes, sweetheart,” she coos. “I’m more than certain I can help you with that.”
I glance over to Collin, who huffs. “I can’t read her mind. But based on what I’m getting from her vitals, I’m fairly sure she believes what she’s telling you. That doesn’t mean it’ll be worth the price.”
For whatever reason, the claws of the Obligation choose this moment to bite hard into my arteries. It’s like the worst heartburn ever. I purse my lips to hide the pain, but right now, there’s a lot I’d pay to be free of it.
“If I let you look at it, you will help me?”
“Yes,” she says, agreeing much more quickly than I expected, and not moving her hand from the cold stone countertop.
I reach into my back pocket, all my senses on full alert for treachery. “To be clear, I’m not giving it to you, Mom. I’m just letting you examine it briefly.”
Her smile broadens. “Now, that’s my boy,” she says. “It’s taken you long enough to finally grow up. Don’t worry, I’m just going to look at it.”
I don’t know what’s creepier: that Mom is agreeing to help with so little fuss, or that she seems legit psyched that I’m clearly not trusting her. But there’s no point in dragging this out. I remove the watch from my pocket and place it in her hand.
“Oh,” she says, breathless, her eyes wide as saucers. She turns it over and over in her hand. “Oh, yes.”
“So, you know what it is…”
“I do.” She looks up at me, practically shining. “It’s the key to making all our dreams come true, baby cheeks.”
Uh-huh.
“And you also knew this was something I could get? How?”
She sniffs and shoots me a chiding smirk. The message is clear: I’m not going to get any information for free.
I quickly take the watch out of her hand. “Fine. Whatever. You said you’d help me, remember?” I slip it back into my pocket and Collin reappears back where he was. He looks relieved.
She rises and goes to the refrigerator, unknowingly forcing Collin to move. “I did. And I will,” she says, calmly, her back toward me. “But tell me first: Are you able to use it?”
Collin shakes his head, but clearly I’m going to need to pick my battles, so I say, “Yes. I can.”
After an almost imperceptible beat, she opens the fridge door, removes eggs, onions, cheddar cheese, and chicken-apple sausage, and places them on the countertop.
All my favorite ingredients in a scramble.
“Well, that’s good, sweetheart. And it’s clearly had a positive effect already.
I imagine you rehearsed this conversation with the Avatar.
Did it help you escape from the elf, too?
Of course it did! I promise, anything you’ve done so far is merely scratching the surface of its potential. And with my loving guidance—”
Right. That greedy little fantasy needs to be nipped in the bud!
“We’re not keeping it, Mom,” I say. “I’m going to free the spirit inside it.”
She freezes. But just for a second, before she fluidly continues making my all-time favorite breakfast food. Even the whole wheat toast cut into circles without the crusts.
“I see. Is that so?” She keeps her back toward me. “Then it sounds like it’s time for you to tell me the whole story.”
And so I do.
Or a lot of it, anyway. I leave out the sexy parts. And the part about me using any incubus powers. And everything about Emma—the last thing I want to do is put that poor girl on my mother’s radar. But she gets all the major events.
I wasn’t sure what part of my little tale of woe she’d latch onto first, but apparently it’s the encounter with my fellow creatures of the night that spins her gears the most.
“Tch. Alvin! You needed a Monster Hunter to save you from vampires?”
“Vampires are legit dangerous, Mom!”
Her eyelids lower with long-suffering disappointment. “Vampires are human. And infected. And dead. If you fed, they’d be running from you.”
“Well, sorry, Mom. You know I’ve always been a little squeamish about eating people. Just one of my little quirks, I guess.” I know I shouldn’t rise to the bait, but there is heat in my chest and I can’t keep the edge out of my voice.
“How many times do I have to tell you? You don’t need to kill them. And it’s not like it hurts…”
She smirks her high-school-cheerleader mouth salaciously, probably thinking she’s making a joke. Or maybe just enjoying my reaction. But rather than getting into another drawn-out convo about why I’ll never be the incubus son she’s always wanted, I grit my teeth and try to get us back on track.
“Can you help free me from the Obligation or not?”
She frowns, pensive, and twirls a chunk of pancake in a puddle of honey-hued syrup with her fork.
(She took over my original plate when I got the scramble.
The eggs and toast were incredible, by the way.
Almost worth being here.) “And you are determined not to use this literal gift from Heaven for the benefit of either of us?”
“I told you. I’m going to free the spirit inside. That’s non-negotiable.” I glance over at Collin, who looks back at me warmly. But he’s also shaking his head like I’m a fool.
She chuckles. It’s not kind. “I swear, I don’t know where I went wrong that’s made you so soft. You always were a weak little thing, but I did everything I could think of to toughen you up!”
I really was truly determined not to let her get to me this time.
But then she says stuff like that! I feel the Obligation take a step back as my blood pressure rises up another notch.
“Right. You never said you loved me. Not once. You used your powers on me, all the time. You made me your personal slave, cooking and cleaning up after you, seven days a week.”
The doe eyes return, made all the more infuriating since it’s on the face of a seventeen-year-old. “All things I would argue taught you important life skills, as any good parent should.”
“You practically starved me for a full year so you could pass me off as some Bangladeshi refugee kid you adopted! Totally racist, by the way, and I was nine years old! You expect me to believe you did that for my benefit?”
A shrug and a sniff. “The sympathy opened important doors for us, I am not responsible for human ignorance, and it looks to me like you’ve recovered just fine.” She gestures at my not-insignificant waistline. “All on meals paid for with my money, I might add.”
It’s been less than fifteen seconds since she’s started in on me, and already my cheeks are burning.
There’s taut cable tension in my chest and arms, and my hands are clenched into fists.
All the while she just smirks at me as if this were some game.
I just want to let loose on her and say—I don’t even know what!
To use my newfound confidence to speak up at last!
To somehow, finally get through to her that I needed a real mom growing up, not a monster!
But then I feel Collin’s hand on my shoulder, and it’s like cool water pouring onto a fire. He’s not using any powers on me. He’s just there, his expression meeting my anger with tenderness.
“She’s not worth it, Alvin. You’re miles better than her, and some part of her knows that. That’s why she’s winding you up.”
That literally seems like the least likely explanation for my mom’s behavior. But I’m sure he’s right that she’s doing this deliberately. And for whatever reason, his compliment still feels good. (Maybe it’s just knowing that, if nothing else, someone’s got my back here.)
Mom notices my cooldown immediately. But instead of being disappointed, she cocks her head, curious. “So, how’s that Obligation feeling now?”
Oh. Right. Lovely.
This was all just some kind of “teachable moment” for her. Too bad for me, it was pointless.
“Better, Mom. But I already knew how to use rage to hold it off. I can’t do that forever. What else you got?”
She takes me in, thoughtfully. “I think you underestimate how incredible it is that you are able to resist the Obligation at all. But you always were an ungrateful child.” She crosses her arms. “If it were simply a matter of you not wanting to give the watch to the elf for whatever pittance he offered, then I’d say we should arrange to have it presented to the Dragon King.
We’d need to go through intermediates, of course.
We’d want to avoid his direct scrutiny. But he’s been looking for the Avatar for a very long time, and even filtered through middlemen, the spoils of his gratitude would be immense. ”
The Dragon King! I don’t know much about supernatural politics, but it’s common knowledge he’s the top of the food chain when it comes to the paranormal world.
(Or really, all the paranormal worlds. Earth is supposedly just a backwater.) It’s why I hoped dropping his name would get the elf to back off when he had me pinned to the wall.
Mom’s just given me a surprisingly useful tidbit.
I hear Collin suck in a breath beside me. Tension radiates down his arm to his grip on my shoulder. But I don’t need to be an all-knowing spirit to realize how terrible a plan it is that Mom is suggesting.
“The Dragon King is supposedly even more evil than the elf, Mom. Hard pass.”
“He’s not evil. He’s just powerful. So powerful, in fact, that even the lowliest of his functionaries could free you of the Obligation, and ensure the elf never bothers you again. And that would be the least his court could do for us!”
I scoff. “Not evil? He literally devoured all his kids. Like at a dinner party. Before dessert.”
“Ay, Alvin! You never listen! He didn’t ‘devour’ them. He had them killed. There’s a difference.”
“No.”
She sighs, heavy. “It doesn’t matter what I say. I’m not going to be able to convince you to keep that spirit where it belongs, am I? Even if it gets us everything we could ever want?”
I don’t dare trust it, but it’s beginning to feel like maybe she’s going to let me have the win on this.
I fold my arms. “You’re not, Mom. Because it’s the right thing to do.”