Chapter 26
Hugo
After two weeks, I could finally stay away from my sire for a little over twenty-four hours before my vampire side—or baby vampire side, as everyone liked to call it—flipped out and needed to be near Toby for a while.
Which meant we were doing a lot of back and forth these days.
Kian had been staying with us—both on coven land and in Clairiston City—but it was less often every week.
When he wasn’t with us, he was usually with his sister or one of his cousins.
No one was really eager to let him stay by himself for long, and while I could tell we were all starting to drive him a little nuts, he was humoring us by letting us take care of him.
Kinda like how I was letting everyone take care of me, even though I didn’t need it anymore. Or at least, I didn’t feel like I needed it most of the time. It was nice having that support, though… definitely something I appreciated and found myself soaking up more often than not.
Zay and I tried to stay in Clairiston when we had work—my boss was scheduling me on nights Zay had work too to make things easier, which was awesome.
On days—or nights—where we didn’t have to work, we stayed at our coven house, usually after spending a long time with my sire, usually while Zay hung out with Key.
I actually liked it.
Going back and forth like that would’ve sounded like hell a few months ago, but now, I loved it.
I loved getting our privacy when we were in Clairiston, and I loved spending time with Zay’s family when we were on coven land.
I was pretty sure the ease of travel between the two places helped.
If I left something at the other house, it only took a few minutes to walk back over and get it.
But the best part?
Zay was happy.
Like really, truly, bone-deep happy.
I knew he’d been missing his family, but he’d loved his independence too. This was the best of both worlds.
And I wanted to make it a permanent thing.
With that in mind, the moment Zay walked through the door—we were in our Clairiston house—I said, “I think we should make a permanent schedule with half our week here and half at the coven house. But with the days split up since I can’t stay away from Toby that long.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Um, hello to you too.”
I snorted out a laugh, walked over to him, and gave him a hard kiss on the lips before backing away, determined not to get distracted. “Seriously though. I like going back and forth. I think this should, like, be our thing from now on.”
He smiled gently at me. “Yeah?”
“Definitely.”
“Well, isa mezelie, I’m fine with that. We can do three days here and four days there, at least while you still need to be near your sire.”
I nodded. “Perfect.”
Before he could say anything else, I launched myself at him, laughing when he caught me and gave me a deep kiss.
“Take me to the bedroom, baby,” I murmured.
He chuckled and easily carried me through the house. “You’re gonna bite me, right?”
“Psh. Like you have to ask.”
He chuckled, threw me on the bed, and stripped.