“I am sorry, Ky.”
“All for the cause, right?” she snickered and shifted so that her back was to him.
He rounded the bed and sat on the side she was facing, “I hope that in time you’ll come to understand how important you are, that you and I can build a friendship.”
She snickered again.
He leaned over and kissed her forehead, “I’m not who I was. I can’t relate to those human emotions but I have recollections that tell me that as far as human relationships go, you meant an awful lot to me. I feel affection for you. I’m proud to be your father, to have helped bring you into this world. For what that’s worth. Be well, Kyla. See you on the other side.”
The other side? What, when she was forced to be a vampire? When they were done all their pre-turning experiments on her?
“Wait. Do I have brothers or sisters?” she asked.
He gave her a sad smile and shook his head and then the door closed. He was gone. She shook her head. She didn’t know if that head shake of his was sympathy or a ‘no’.
The emptiness didn’t feel bigger for the loss of Lyle Spencer, rather Lyle Kelly. All she felt the loss of right now was the loss of Tristan. She couldn’t let herself feel the other loss she was suffering from. She didn’t know how she’d ever let herself feel that loss. It’d only been a few hours from conception to death for a tiny bundle of cells but that bundle of cells would’ve been a product of their love. Would’ve become a person. She pushed those thoughts away.
She reached out to Tristan in her head, in her heart, and she didn’t know what she wanted him to feel but she hoped he would feel her, that he’d know that she was thinking about him.
She didn’t think much time had passed when she heard the door open again. She turned over and was face to face with Tristan’s mother.
Holy shit.
The woman stood at her beside.
“Up. Get dressed. We’re taking a walk.” She clapped her hands in a “chop chop” manner. Her face then went sour and she muttered, “Smells like despair in here,” with disgust. She left.
Kyla didn’t feel like she had a whole lot of choice in the matter so she got up and saw that all their dirty clothes had been laundered and folded and were in a pile on top of the dresser beside the Puma duffle bag. She went to the bathroom with a pair of yoga pants, underwear, socks, and her thin cotton hoodie. It covered below her butt, thankfully, and would hopefully camouflage the ginormous overnight pad she was wearing.
Her stomach felt raw. She was bleeding pretty heavily when she went to the bathroom. She changed the pad, put in a tampon as well, and then washed up and put her hair up in a half ponytail, half bun and brushed her teeth. She could barely handle looking in the mirror, though. At a quick glance of herself all she could think about was him. Where did they have him? Was he himself?
She found Tristan’s mother near the front door. The woman was tall, taller than Kyla and beautiful. Her face was unlined, although she looked to be in her early to mid forties, and she was elegant and graceful. Clearly Tristan got his movie-star looks honestly. She was wearing riding clothes and riding boots.
“Kyla,” she held out a gloved hand and removed it and then reached for Kyla’s hand. Kyla shook it.
“Taryn Walker. Shall we?” She opened the front door and gestured for Kyla to go ahead.
The sun felt hot on her skin but inside she felt cold and empty.
“Are we going to see Tristan?” Kyla asked, finally, as it looked like they were heading toward the main house.
“No. Just a stroll.”
“Have you seen him? How is he?”
“I haven’t today yet but I saw him yesterday. He’s…agitated.”
“Is he himself?”
“Yes. More himself than ever,” she got an evil gleam in her eye.
Kyla didn’t know what that meant but she shuddered inwardly.
“Does Tristan speak of me?” Taryn asked.
“No. I’ve asked but he doesn’t say much.”
“Our relationship is complex.”
They were passing a corner on the stone path that led from the front of the cottage to where it forked. The path Taryn chose headed in the opposite direction of the main house and went back towards the back of cottage.
“Why is it that you wanted to talk to me?” Kyla asked.
“I’m very intrigued by you. I suspect you’re a lot like I was, before I was turned.”
“Really?”
“Tristan wants to do the right thing for you but he also needs to do the right thing for everyone,” she said.
Kyla wasn’t sure what she was getting at.
“My relationship with my son has been strained since I was turned. We were very close before that. Tristan’s father was murdered while I was pregnant with him and I gave him all the nurturing and love I had. We were one another’s world, my son and I. Things changed after I became vampire. He and I have diverging opinions on a lot of issues including where you are concerned and that has already made a tense situation even worse.”