Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 97229 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97229 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
“What’s he saying now?” Hans asked, and I repeated Grandad’s words to him.
“Hmm. Maybe he’s right, or maybe she doesn’t want to face them because she’s a nasty bitch who can’t break her own ego. I can’t say I’m all that convinced she’s some little saint under the surface, if I’m honest.”
“He doesn’t need to be convinced,” Grandad said. “She’s my wife, not his, and she’s your grandmother, not just some woman he can moan and whine about.”
There was something so simplistically honourable in the way my grandad spoke. I wished he hadn’t died when I was just a baby, because who knows… who knows how different life could have been for me. For all of us…
“The past is the past,” Hans said. “Understanding it can help us make sense of ourselves and our destinies, yes, but we can only live the future through the present.”
I didn’t try to interpret his phrases through rational thought, just let them sink into me. I also didn’t give a shit about the ins and outs of sinners, and witchcraft, and who’d done what to who. Not right then. Not with my long lost grandfather in front of me. I wanted to sit with him. Talk with him. Get to know him, even just a little.
“Yes, of course,” Hans said, and approached me with open arms. “Take your time, little one. Enjoy some space with your grandfather and then do what you will. I’ll be waiting at Edwin’s. Send me a thought and I’ll come for you.”
“Thanks,” I said and hugged him. “I know this was hard for you to do – to bring me here – and this must be shit, and this whole thing must be a crazy whirlwind, but thank you. For everything. Without you I’d be nothing. Just a girl running away from all this without a clue, trying to live a life I was never supposed to be living.”
“This is the life you should be living,” he said and laid a kiss on my forehead. “And you are more than welcome, little one. You always will be. From now on I’m not going to be a figure in the shadows. I’m going to be a part of your world.”
I chanced a bit of humour.
“I can’t wait to introduce you to the family. That’ll be a fun one.”
Hans laughed. “Hopefully nobody will fall off a turret to their death when they kick off next time around. At least I wouldn’t die from a fall. I’m too immortal for that.”
“Neither will I when I’m a vampire. Better hurry up and turn me into one, hadn’t you? And if you even think of saying patience.”
Hans grinned and stroked my face.
“Send me a thought when you’re ready.”
“Thank you.”
There was going to be so much to do, and learn, and think about. My mother and grandmother, and how I was going to approach them about this. If at all. Trying to find out how much they knew about our family history, or if they’d even care.
If they could care about me when they knew the truth of it. That I really was a witch, a psychic and a sinner. Whether they’d ever accept Hans.
And what about my father? Would I ever get to meet him?
But now wasn’t the time for it. Now was the time for my grandad.
I bid my vampire lover farewell for a short while, looking at him with love and pride as he left us, and then I sat down with the man I’d never had the chance to know.
One of them.
He told me about Orcop and growing up in this small village, and what a feisty girl my grandmother was. Stubborn and proud, but a tender soul in the heart of her, even if nobody could see it.
He shared stories about their life that made me laugh, and tales about my mother that had me grinning, and slowly he was coming back to life again. As a ghost. His pain was replaced with happiness as his memories returned in colour.
And then, when the dawn started to break, I knew it was time for him to go.
I felt heartbroken.
“I’ve never climbed down these steps,” he admitted as he rose to his feet, indicating the spiral of steps that led to the ground below. “I’ve always been waiting.”
“For what?” I asked.
He gave me a grin and ruffled my hair. “For someone to walk down with me, I guess. I always hoped it would be you. Give your vampire love my thanks, will you? It’s time for me to step into the light. My time is done. Good timing, isn’t it? Halloween morning, when the veils are the thinnest of them all. Anyone would think it was fated. Ha. I guess they’d be right.”
Fated or Hans’ careful planning.
I welled up as we made our way down the steps, the morning dawn giving a mist to the air.