Chapter 5 #4
“That rune was on my body when I was found at the hospital. Along with a bunch of others. I’ve seen photos.”
Harper’s eyes grew wide. “Holy ish.”
“What if a mother put it on a baby to conceal that she was a hunter until she turned eighteen?” I asked.
“Asher said something about parents putting protective runes on babies to keep vampires from smelling them. So that must be common, right? If lost-borns exist, it means there are plenty of them walking around the mortal world and it’s a normal thing. ”
Please be normal.
She winced. “Actually, lost-borns are super rare, and I’ve never heard of one making it to eighteen without being discovered or…dying. Most of the runes you are talking about need to be reinforced monthly.”
This was all too much. I just wanted to go home. I swallowed hard and then stood. “My friend Rae is probably freaking out. Can I text her from here?” I reached for my phone to see that it had no signal.
“We have a way to communicate with the mortal world, but it requires a special phone. We can get you one on Monday when the shops open. We’re in a whole other dimension,” Harper told me, eyeing me with compassion.
I began to panic then, my breath coming in and out in short rasps. Tears filled my eyes, and I wanted to run, to run away from all this.
“Oh, Stella, I’m sorry. We can talk about something else. I can’t imagine what this must feel like. To suddenly find out you’re a vampire hunter and you can’t go home.” Harper slung an arm around me and squeezed.
The deep pressure calmed me a little, and I nodded. “I just… I need to let Rae know I’m not kidnapped. She’s probably freaking out,” I told her.
Harper nodded. “Most lost-borns are found when they are a couple years old, and they are brought here for safekeeping. It’s easier to just have them reported missing in the mortal world, but maybe my mom can arrange for you to go back to say goodbye. Would that help?”
Just the thought of being able to go back and get my duffel and tell Rae I wasn’t dead made me feel a hundred times better. “I need that,” I told her.
She nodded, and then there was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” Harper called out.
Celia popped her head in, and Harper stood.
“Mom, she needs to be able to go back and say goodbye. It’s too much.”
Celia scanned my face, concern etching across her features, and nodded once. “I’ll see what I can do, but right now, we have bigger problems.”
“What’s wrong?” I stood. Were they going to kick me out? I felt like a ship without an anchor, just floating in the abyss with no world to claim me. If I went back to the mortal realm, I’d be killed, and here I was safe but with no parental DNA to prove I even belonged here.
“Kitty Sinclair just left town for a few days. I think she got word I was going to subpoena her DNA. We have twenty hours left before we legally lose your right to the inheritance.”
Oh, was that all? I shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t care about any inheritance. I’ve never had money, so I don’t know what I’m missing.”
Celia sighed, giving me a small smile. “You can give the money away if you want, Stella. It’s not really about that. It’s about keeping Kitty from getting what Molly intended for you . I will die before I let someone who hated her spend her money. It’s about the damn principle of the matter!”
Hated her? The thought of a mother hating her own child made me sick.
“Okay, Mom, chill.” Harper widened her eyes.
“Sorry.” Celia straightened. “Molly was my best friend, and I’m not letting anyone take what belongs to Stella.”
“ If she even intended for it to belong to me. We don’t know that she was my birth mom,” I reminded her.
Celia and Harper shared a look.
“What?” I asked.
Celia left the room and returned with a framed photo clutched between her fingers.
“We were about your age here. We’d just graduated and were entering Nightguard as roommates.”
She handed me the photo in a gilded frame, and the breath knocked from my lungs.
I staggered backward until I was sitting on the bed.
It was like looking at myself and a younger Celia.
Their arms were wrapped around each other in a side hug, and both girls were grinning hugely with the Nightguard Academy sign behind them.
Celia had a cut under her eye, and Molly was wearing the same leather jacket I wore now.
Her eyes, her nose, her chin, her hair. It was me .
“This is…” I had no words. I placed the photo on the bed and tried to swallow the lump in my throat. Tears burned the backs of my eyelids, but I blinked them back. I didn’t want Harper and Celia to see me cry.
Did I have a mom? Was this my mom?
Celia knelt before me, smiling. “Your mom was the sweetest, smartest, most badass woman I’d ever met. Oh, and she was hilarious. Made me laugh so hard I peed once.”
“Mom, gross.” Harper cringed.
“I don’t care,” her mom shot back. “I loved her like my own flesh-and-blood sister, and I know how important it would be to her that you get this inheritance.”
I swallowed hard, trying to process it all. “Wouldn’t Kitty get it when Molly died?”
I didn’t know much about inheritances, but if Molly had been gone for my entire life, wouldn’t the money just revert back to her mom?
Celia grinned. “When Molly was fourteen, her father died. He left everything to Molly, cutting Kitty out of the will. Kitty was furious, but there was nothing she could do about it. Unfortunately, Molly died too young to make a will of her own, so it’s still got her father’s stipulation.”
I leaned forward, taking in every word.
“If in the event Molly passed away, an heir-grandchild must present themselves to claim the inheritance within eighteen years, and if they can’t, only then does it go to Kitty.
Molly was legally declared dead eighteen years ago.
It’s yours . Give it away if you want, but don’t let Kitty have it.
She abused Molly. I don’t want to go into detail, but trust me. She’s the devil incarnate.”
Abused her? You didn’t often hear about mothers abusing their children. It was usually the fathers. I felt a sudden responsibility to get this money just for the sheer fact that it would be my mother’s wish. Assuming Molly was my mom.
“I’ll do whatever it takes,” I told her. “What do we do?”