Chapter 24
Zaos
When I walked out of my bedroom the next day, I expected to find Hugo out in the living room since he hadn’t been in bed. I didn’t expect to find Uncle Toby on the couch and Uncle Thay in the kitchen.
Which, if I would’ve been paying attention to my surroundings, I would’ve smelt or felt them there, but when I was home, especially on coven land, I let my guard down… perhaps too much.
I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and stared at them, blinking the sleep out of my eyes. Uncle Thay sent me a smile, but I was sure he was trying not to laugh. I rolled my eyes at him, and then he did chuckle as he went back to… whatever he was doing in there.
“Dinner—or breakfast to you—will be done in a few minutes,” he called over. “It’s breakfast food.”
Oh, he was cooking. Right. Made sense.
“Thanks,” I said with a yawn.
Being on Hugo’s nighttime schedule was kinda kicking my butt a little.
Probably because I was juggling work again, so I was half on his schedule and half on my regular schedule.
I was going to have to talk to the hospital and ask them to put me on nights, and when school started, hopefully I could take some super early morning classes that I could take right after work, then come home and sleep.
Or maybe the other way around—taking some night classes, then going to work or whatever.
I was pretty sure either of those would work… maybe.
It would take some doing, and Hugo and I were figuring it out.
We’d talked about it, and since he had all those sun charms, he was going to try either staying up longer after the sun came up or waking up early.
That way he could meet me halfway, so to speak, since I, unfortunately, had to be on a somewhat regular schedule because of school.
Plus, we wanted to, you know, hang out with other people when they were actually awake, so there was that.
But that was a worry for another day.
Right now, I was more curious about what Uncle Toby was talking to Hugo about in the living room.
I joined them, dropping down onto the couch beside my viramore. He reached over and set a hand on my thigh without even looking at me, and I grinned at the side of his face as I covered his hand with my own.
“What’s going on?” I asked after a moment.
Uncle Toby said, “Since Hugo’s drinking from you now, you need to take a supplement.”
“Uh… right. We talked about that.” I could feel myself blushing when I thought about Hugo drinking from my neck, and then from my thigh. Mmm. It had been sooooo fucking good.
Hugo squeezed my thigh, and I knew he was telling me to stop thinking about it. He was right. This was so not the time.
I shook myself out and faced my uncle. “What supplement is it?”
“It’s a potion so you make more blood. You need enough blood to sustain yourself and Hugo now. While he’ll still need my blood for at least a few more months, he’ll slowly move to taking blood from only you, likely with an occasional blood bag here and there.”
“Is it safe?” Hugo asked. “Won’t making all that extra blood, like, make him sick or something?”
My uncle smiled at him. “It’s perfectly safe.
You have to remember that Zay isn’t a human.
He’s not as fragile as all of that, and this potion has been used for centuries and then perfected even further by Delaro.
Thayer takes it—he has been for decades—and so does anyone in our coven who has a vampire mate or regularly feeds a vampire.
Del even sells it in his store now, so there are others using it as well. ”
Hugo nodded, and I asked, “Does it taste bad?”
Uncle Thay answered as he walked into the room, carrying two plates of food. “No, it kinda tastes like fruit juice or something, I dunno. Del did something to make it taste good.” He shrugged and passed me a plate. “It’s a breakfast casserole even though it’s dinnertime.”
“Mm. It’s perfect and smells delicious. Thank you.”
“No problem, kiddo.”
Because of Hugo’s bond with Uncle Toby, Uncle Thay and I had been spending a ton of time together.
It was actually really nice because he was kind of hilarious, especially when he told stories about all the trouble he and Uncle Bas caused as kids.
I had no idea how my grandfathers put up with the two of them.
And with Uncle Jorah. He was nearly as bad as the two of them, it seemed, and the three of them had that Power Of Three bond going on, so I was sure they’d driven Granddad and Grandpa nutty.
Uncle Toby said, “Del’s bringing you some when he gets home from the store tonight, so… in a few hours, probably. Will you be here tonight?”
Since my mouth was full of deliciousness, I turned to Hugo and lifted a brow in question. He grinned at me and nodded, then said, “Yeah, we’ll be here tonight. Should he start taking it right away?”
“Definitely. Start tonight and take a dose every single night, okay?”
I nodded.
“Great.”
“Actually,” Hugo said. “Toby, do you think we could try going through the portal to our other house? Like just Zay and me?”
He stared at my viramore for a long time. “Are you sure you feel ready?”
“Yes, but I’m nervous, and I only want to go for like an hour or something.”
Uncle Toby nodded. “Alright. After Del brings you the potion, and Zay takes it, we can meet at the big house. I’ll stay there while you two go through the portal. That way, I’m right there when you come back through. I have a feeling you might need me when you get back.”
“I think so too.”
Uncle Toby reached over and gave Hugo a quick side-hug, and my viramore leaned into him.
I was used to it now, and I didn’t get jealous. I knew he wasn’t a threat in any way. He was more like a father figure than anything else to my Hugo. He was our family.
They stayed for a while longer, and the four of us chatted until they left to talk to Uncle Bas about some kind of BCA business. I didn’t ask for details because I didn’t want to know or be involved in any of that.
After they left, Hugo and I cuddled on the couch and watched some TV. Since my other uncle would be here soon, we didn’t want to start anything even though I was dying for him to drink from me again.
I could tell he was hungry too, so I said, “Do you want to drink from me?”
“What? No. Absolutely not.”
I jerked at the vehemence in his voice. “Why not? Did you not like it?”
He actually rolled his eyes at me and pushed my chest. “You’re ridiculous.
Like you couldn’t tell how much I liked it.
No, baby, I’m not drinking from you until you’ve taken some of this potion.
And actually, Uncle Toby told me to wait twenty-four hours after your first dose to give your body time to adjust.”
“What? You can’t feed from me tonight?” I was beyond disappointed, and Hugo must’ve sensed it because he chuckled and patted my chest.
“Not until tomorrow.”
“But you’re hungry.”
He shrugged and nodded. “A little. He let me drink from him before you woke up, but I wasn’t that hungry then, so he left me some vials of his blood in the fridge. I’ll drink them in a bit.”
“You could drink them now.”
He sent me a small smile and snuggled in closer. “I’m perfectly happy right where I am.”
That shut me up, and I snuggled deeper into the couch, pulling him tightly against me.
When Uncle Del showed up, I was nearly asleep on the couch. Snuggling with my viramore made me so content that I was sleepy, apparently.
“Come in!” I yelled at the knock on the door.
I wasn’t even surprised when both of Uncle Del’s viramores showed up with him.
Uncle Nik and Uncle Gray gave us each hugs, but Uncle Del gave me the biggest one.
Which was kinda funny since he was so tiny.
I had no idea how he could give such good dad hugs when he was like the skinniest person ever and super short to boot.
But he did it… somehow. Must be all the practice with his own kids.
“Here you go. That’s enough for the next week. I’ll bring you some more this weekend so you can start stocking up.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind doing this? I feel bad that you’re having to make all of this for me.”
He waved me off with a shrug and small smile. “I make a ton of it every week already, so it’s really not a big deal.”
“Thank you.”
He patted my shoulder. “You’re welcome. Now let me show you how much to take and all that, alright?”
I nodded and followed him into the kitchen.