Chapter 25
Zaos
Since I’d successfully taken my new vampy-blood-sucking potion, we went to the big house to meet Hugo’s sire so we could try going back home by ourselves.
I was nervous, but I was doing my best not to let my nerves flow into Hugo.
Our bond was relatively new, and while we were both used to it, we were still figuring out how to block things—like my nerves—from each other.
Not that I normally cared if he heard my thoughts or felt my emotions, but sometimes it was hard to concentrate on your surroundings when you had another’s thoughts and feelings running amok inside you.
We were figuring it out.
Right now, Hugo seemed a tiny bit nervous, but I was pretty sure those were his own feelings, and I was blocking him from mine. I hoped.
We stood in the shed with the portal, and after Hugo hugged his sire, he turned to me and said, “I’m ready.”
With a nod, I took his hand and tugged him through.
Uncle Del had outdone himself with these portals. It truly felt like you were just stepping through some thick air, and then bam, you were in another place. There was no disorientation or anything. It was amazing.
“How do you feel?” I asked the second we were through.
Hugo let out a small laugh. “It’s been two seconds.”
I shrugged. “And? How do you feel?”
He rolled his shoulders and blew out a breath. “Honestly, a little weird, but not bad. I don’t feel like I need to run back to him… yet.”
I nodded. “Do you want to go inside? Do you want to walk around and check out the addition, or just sit around, or what?”
He grinned at me. “You’re cute.” He tugged me along without answering.
Looking at our now humungous house, I still couldn’t believe it was the same place I’d lived in for the last few years.
It looked completely different with its two-story addition that was probably four times as big as my original house.
Not to mention how much bigger the living space now was in the original house.
Where our deck used to be was now… house. A bigger living room, dining room, and kitchen. And underneath was our vampire-safe dark room. They’d even made us a new deck with our same table, chairs, and grill sitting on it, plus a bunch of flowers. The flowers were probably Granddad’s doing.
“Let’s go downstairs. We haven’t seen it since your uncles decorated or whatever.”
All of my vampire uncles had decided to buy us furniture for the dark room, and I was pretty sure they installed one of those special blue lights or whatever it was they used in the dark room.
I followed Hugo into the house and down the secret staircase—hidden for security reasons, even though we had wards.
Hugo flicked a switch, and yep, it was a blue light that came on. There were some regular lamps as well, so we turned those on so we could explore without bumping into things. Well, Hugo could see in the dark now, but I couldn’t, at least not super well, so the lights were for my benefit.
The immediate area at the bottom of the steps had a small couch, coffee table, and end table with a few pictures on the wall, but there was a door hidden in the far wall. Another secret door. This was apparently in case someone broke into our home while we were sleeping down here or something.
How that would happen, no one knew. My wards were nearly as good as the wards around our coven land. No one was getting in here without my or my family’s permission.
Hugo walked over, found the panel, and pushed it. The secret door swung open, and I could feel Hugo’s excitement. He really loved these secret rooms, didn’t he?
He found another blue light switch, then found a regular light and flicked it on for me.
There was a huge bed with a quilt made of a bunch of different patterned squares, all of them in the purple family. There were probably twenty pillows that matched the quilt in color. It kinda made me want to jump on them or something, like a little kid messing things up.
Hugo snorted, obviously hearing my thoughts.
Each side of the bed had a nightstand. There were two chairs and a small table in the far corner, and another door that led to a big bathroom with a tub and a shower, everything in white and purple.
“I don’t know who picked the purple, but I really like it,” Hugo said after walking around the entire room and bathroom.
“I like it too,” I agreed.
After he nodded his approval, we headed out, and I noted all the locks on the inside of the door. Apparently, this room was doubling as a safe room in case of an emergency, so it made sense that we’d be able to lock ourselves inside.
I glanced at the door and walls again, this time, using my magical senses. The entire room was laced with wards and spells. None of them would harm us, but they sure as hell would hurt anyone trying to get to us.
A few years ago, I probably would’ve been annoyed by all these extra precautionary measures, but after everything that’d happened since I’d met my viramore, I was beyond relieved to see it all. In fact, I might ask my grandfathers to do the whole house. Better safe than sorry.
I couldn’t—wouldn’t—go through losing Hugo again, not even for a moment.
As if sensing the direction of my thoughts—hell, maybe he’d overheard them—Hugo walked back over to me, took my hand in his, kissed my cheek, and gently pulled me toward the stairs.
We ended up touring the addition and checking out the ten extra bedrooms and the large family room.
We’d been back here with Uncle Toby a few times, but I knew my family was still adding things into the space.
They knew not to touch the existing house, but we’d pretty much given them free rein over the new rooms.
It looked like someone had entirely too much fun decorating. Each bedroom had a different theme, anything from a color to something like butterflies or sea creatures or whatever. It was… a little insane, but also kind of fun.
Since Hugo kept smiling every time we opened a bedroom door, I was content to leave things as they were.
I was sure the kids would have a ball exploring the different themes the next time we had a party or my family decided to just drop in.
After we finished our little tour, Hugo turned to me with a grin. “This is remarkable, Zay. Really, really remarkable.”
“I think so too.”
“Your family is just… they’re wonderful and amazing. They’ve helped us so much. I have no idea how we’re going to repay them.”
I stepped closer to him and cupped his cheek. “Isa mezelie, they’re your family now too. And we don’t have to repay them.”
“But this is so much. They paid for so many things. Not to mention all the time and energy they put into—”
I cut him off with a small kiss. “We don’t have to repay anything.” Before he could protest, I added, “There will be a time when we help them out too. It’s not to repay them, but because they’re family and we care about each other.”
He took a shaky breath. “Right. I… I get that… but what about all the money they spent?”
“No one in my family cares about money. I know that’s a super privileged thing to say, but it’s true.
My grandfathers and all their kids invested their money decades ago and were really smart with everything.
Our coven has more money than we know what to do with.
Everyone pitches in where they can, and if someone needs to use coven money, well, then they do. ”
He made a face at that, then took a breath and blew it out. “Right. I… I’m not used to that. At all. I could barely afford food half the time when we were growing up, so… yeah. I…”
I kissed his forehead. “Trust me, sweetheart, I know how you feel. My dads didn’t adopt me until I was twelve.
From the time I was born until they took me in, I had to fight for every scrap of food I could get my hands on.
It took me a long time to truly trust my dads and the coven and to accept and know that they weren’t tallying up everything they gave me so they could shove it in my face later.
It was… a struggle. But I’m telling you that we don’t have to worry about any of this. ”
After inhaling deeply again, he gave a single nod. “Right. I’ll… I’ll try to remember that.”
I kissed his forehead again and gave him a long hug.
He hugged me back, and after a bit, he mumbled, “I think I need to go back. There’s this pull I feel telling me I’m too far from my sire, so… yeah…”
“Alright. We knew this would happen, so it’s no big deal. It’s a normal vampire thing.”
“A baby vampire, you mean.”
After a quick peck to his lips, I released him. “Yep. A baby vampire thing.”
He snorted and elbowed me, and we headed back to the portal. I wasn’t even the tiniest bit surprised to find Uncle Toby standing right outside the shed, waiting for us.
The second Hugo walked through the shed door, Uncle Toby held his arms out. My viramore fell into them, and I watched them hug for a long time. It was honestly a sweet moment, so I stood back and let them have it.