Chapter Twenty-Nine
Donovan
“Look what I can do!”
Blake performed a cartwheel over FaceTime as I watched and tried not to smile like a silly kid, but I did anyway. I’d never imagined myself a kid person, yet here I was, acting like a goof.
These calls with my niece had become my favorite part of the week.
She did another cartwheel and then popped into a handstand. It was truly incredible how resilient she was among such family strife.
“Looks like we may have a gymnast in the family,” I told Blake, and she grinned from ear to ear in front of the camera.
Despite bad blood between Magnum and myself, I was one hundred percent smitten with this tiny creature. She was the sun and moon…in a very dark time…at least for me.
“Prim taught me,” Blake said excitedly. “Do you know Prim? She’s so cool!”
Sadly, I couldn’t mirror her enthusiasm when it came to Prim. Because if Prim was visiting Blake, I assumed she was going with Tulya.
“Of course I know Prim,” I finally answered. If she was picking up on my sour mood, Blake wasn’t letting on.
“Did you know sometimes Tuvy picks me up from school? And Prim comes! Did I tell you that Tuvy is back? I forgot.”
She continued to rattle on, and my heart did this strange pinging thing when Blake mentioned Tulya being home. I tried to demand my body not react that way, but when it came to Tulya, I was learning I had no control.
Coming back to Blake’s barrage of questions, I nodded while picking up my whiskey.
It was close to three in the morning in Hawaii, but early in the morning at home in Rubia.
Blake had made a habit of calling me when no one else was awake.
Now I worried Tulya would pop over to pick her up.
It was slightly overdramatic, but still…
I knew Tulya was back home. Magnum had told me she returned and was mostly better, but not one hundred percent.
Of course, he added the fact of her being on his side.
Apparently she was sniffing around for a way to bring Valerie back.
If I knew Tulya, she would succeed, even if it meant breaking ties with her mother and uncle.
My brother thought he was getting one over on me by aligning himself with the mission, but I agreed that Valerie belonged with her daughter.
Blake’s voice fell into a whisper when she said, “Uncle Don…”
“Yes, sweetie.” I responded quietly too.
“Tuvy’s going to help me see my mom again, but she said not to tell anyone. You won’t tell, will you?”
I nodded again, emotion clogging my throat as eyes the same color as mine stared at me from the screen. “I know you would like that. You know what? Cinder is not going to replace your mom. You understand that, right, B?”
It was a sentiment I’d reiterated over the last few months. In my mind, if I shared this enough, maybe, just maybe, Blake would embrace some sort of relationship with Cinder.
Gah—if I wasn’t on FaceTime, I’d slap myself. I still couldn’t believe how dirty my mother did Tulya and me, and here I was, trying to make her happy by promoting Cinder.
It was Blake’s turn to nod, and then she asked, “When are you coming back? I miss you.”
“Soon,” I lied.
“I hope so.”
“Miss you.” I was repeating her earlier sentiment when the door to the common area opened and I heard, “Who do you miss?”
I quickly blew my niece a kiss and hit end. I wasn’t certain how much Blake knew, but I didn’t need her telling Prim or Tulya that Emelee was in my hotel living room in Hawaii.
Fuck, I’m still in a hotel…which is a separate issue.
The woman behind the question was not to be stopped—she slithered onto the couch across from me, wearing a black silk nightgown, acting coyly. I was unimpressed.
“Who do you miss?” She unnecessarily repeated herself. “I’m right here, so I don’t know who you could possibly be talking about.”
I swallowed down the remainder of my whiskey, allowing it to burn my throat, wishing for something stronger—whatever that might be.
“Not that I have to answer to you, Emelee, but it was my niece. I have work in the morning, so good night.” I stood and walked across the room to the second bedroom.
“If you’re not going to come home, I’m going to stay,” she countered from her seat on the sofa.
Emelee had showed up two days ago, out of the blue.
Against my wishes, she’d been living in my quarters in Rubia.
And I guessed when Tulya returned, she came to lift her leg and pee on me.
Yeah, I’d heard the rumors about Tulya and myself having a fling, but I never suggested anything happened.
My mother had throttled into fifth gear on Emelee and me getting married, which wasn’t happening.
Another reason why I was stuck in a hotel instead of moving into something more permanent on the island.
No way I was allowing Emelee in any of my personal business. She’d decorate and never want to go.
“I’m not a violent man, so I won’t force you to leave. But this is as good as it gets for us. You can stay or go, but we are never going to be what you want. Good night, Emelee.”
I turned to walk into my bedroom and my brain felt cloudy.
It was Emelee’s power—to create confusion in the mind.
We were two negative force wielders so we matched, according to my mother.
Funny, the only way we synced up was when we went toe-to-toe in our abilities.
I sent the scantily clad woman a shock up her spine. She looked at me in horror.
I glared, hoping she got the message.
“Don’t ever do that again,” I stated firmly and didn’t wait for a reply.
As I laid down on my bed, I wondered what it would have been like if I’d asked Tulya to come with me. I’d heard from Marley, who I also kept in touch with on the down-low, that Tulya had never fully healed. Did that make her disposable to her mother now?
My thoughts were a runaway train in the dark. In an effort to get them to stop, I began to formulate a way to send Emelee back—maybe a house project? She could think it was for the two of us.
Although I knew I was never returning to Rubia. Or Tulya.
A few days had passed and Emelee was still traipsing around the hotel room. I went out daily for business meetings and prayed to every god I could conjure up that she would be missing when I returned.
My attitude had deteriorated substantially over the last seventy-two hours. I’d even avoided Blake’s FaceTime yesterday.
“No, I will not be coming back,” I barked through the phone to my mother who called under the guise of having some good news. “Emelee can come back and do whatever she likes in my wing of the house. I’m doing what I need to do here—”
“This is why your father never wanted to own hotels.”
“And it’s why I do.” We continued to spar over the phone until I said, “Is that it?”
I’d finally made it back to my room and wanted to change and go downstairs for a steak. And a whiskey…maybe a double after I found Emelee in the common living area getting a massage.
“I found out people have been speaking with the human. I don’t know who. Maybe multiple. Surely your asshat of a brother and maybe that tart who didn’t do the full transfer—”
Stomping toward my private bedroom, I growled, “Tart? What the hell? That’s your best friend’s daughter.”
I ripped my tie loose and toed off my loafers, the phone lodged in between my neck and shoulder. If I carried on like this for much longer, I’d need a massage.
“She only did part of what we asked. If she’d transferred all the pain, the human would have been mad or angry and tucked tail and retreated. Instead, she is working behind the scenes to come back.”
“Who is your information from?” I had no idea who my mom’s source was, but her network was far and wide.
“My stinky little rug rat of a granddaughter. Little girl was blabbering to someone on the phone that she was going to see her mom soon.”
Slamming my fist into the hotel’s bureau, I was furious. My FaceTimes with Blake were no longer safe or sacred. “That’s her mother. Of course she wants to see her.”
I walked into the en suite bathroom and turned on the shower, allowing it to steam up.
“I don’t care. You know the rules, and since you and Ezza’s daughter broke protocol, it’s up to you to fix this.”
I didn’t question her referring to Tulya as Ezza’s daughter; it was better than the Tart. “I’m out of the fixing business. Send Magnum to speak with Valerie and try and get her to acquiesce again.”
“Boy, who do you think you’re talking to? You will not defy me. Magnum will bring that human right back here to his side. This is up to you, and you will not go against me.”
My blood boiled in this moment, but I had one card to play, and that was what I did.
I had called Abraham late last night under the guise of wanting to know if Tulya’s hand could be fixed.
I’d played dumb when asking how she was coming along.
I’d mentioned the possibility of me zapping her hand, wondering if that would help.
He’d let on that while I was grasping at straws and pondering why, it seemed as though some of my zingers made their way into Tulya during the transfer, which gutted me.
“I will come back and help with this if—and it’s the only way I will do this—if you end this agreement with Emelee. I did some digging…”
When I’d begun pushing Abraham on how he knew this could happen to Tulya’s hand, he fessed up.
He’d been in love with a human woman and was forced to let his feelings go.
At the time, a cousin of his used his power to trap his lover in the house, while Abraham traveled back to Rubia.
The length of time he had to use his power caused his leg to go rigid.
I’d held on to this information and then told the medic he owed me, allowing me to chaperone Tulya on a mission that carried this risk.
“You see, Mother, I called in a favor and had a quick look at Emelee’s medical records.
She’s not able to have children. A complication from when she was a teenager.
I know this is a painful subject and not a valid reason to not choose a partner, but considering you forbid me from partnering with someone who would dilute or affect the power lines, why Emelee? ”
“What?”
“The medic told me. Emelee cannot have babies. There will be no biological heirs from me if I marry her. We could adopt…”
“If you’re telling the truth, I will ruin her. She didn’t tell me.”
“Ask her yourself.”
“You know what? This opens up another possibility. You and Emelee can raise Blake.”
“Mother, she is my brother’s daughter. I’m not taking her away from him.” Her mind worked overtime, finding a solution to everything, but this wasn’t a viable one.
“Get on a plane, Donovan, if you know what is good for you” was all she said.
I couldn’t wait to return the woman she’d sent to shackle me, get a glimpse of Tulya, and then tuck tail and run back to Hawaii. If heading to see Valerie in Miami was my cost of doing business, so be it. I had no plans to interfere with Blake seeing her mom. She should be with her every day.