"Ashe, are you coming down for dinner?" His mother poked her head inside his bedroom door an hour later.
"Not hungry," Ashe turned a page.
"You have to eat something. I know they didn't serve lunch on Winkler's jet."
"Don't mention that name to me, Mom." Ashe still hadn't looked at his mother.
"Honey, I understand you're upset. You have to eat and Mr. Winkler is doing what he thinks is best for you. He's not a bad man, Ashe. Besides, I wanted to talk to you about what you want for your birthday. I have soup and sandwiches downstairs. Come and eat."
"Not hungry, and I don't want anything for my birthday."
"Son, you will get up now and go downstairs to eat." Aedan stood in the doorway beside his mother, his eyes red and power in his voice. Ashe blinked at his father. Was he trying to place compulsion?
"Nice try, Dad. I'm not hungry and I don't want anything for my birthday."
"Nathan, I gave him the strongest I had on the second try, and it still rolled right off him. I don't know what this means," Aedan paced in front of Nathan. They'd gone to Nathan's garage and shut the door so Lavonna and Dori wouldn't hear.
"What would it mean if he were human, Aedan?" Nathan was trying to get Aedan to view the incident objectively.
"That would mean one thing, but he's not human."
"And what if that's exactly what it means?"
"I will not allow anyone to touch that child. Ashe will not become vampire unless he wants it. I'm telling you now to respect my wishes in this. I do not want this getting to the Council. They already know too much about him. Radomir promised he would hold off on telling Wlodek that Ashe can mist and mindspeak, because Radomir owes Ashe blood debt. You and I know how tenuous that promise might be."
"I know," Nathan nodded. "They won't conscript until he's eighteen at the earliest, so you have two years, at least."
"Do you want your girls looking eighteen forever? Do you? You know that anyone turned below the age of twenty will look that way for eternity. That law needs to be changed to twenty at the very least. Twenty-five if I had my way."
"We don't get to make or change the laws that govern our race, Aedan. The Council and the Aristocracy do that."
"I'm eight hundred sixty-seven, and they still treat me as a child most of the time. Even Adele doesn't know how old I am. I don't want to frighten her or Ashe with that."
"Father," Nathan sighed. He so seldom called Aedan that. Hadn't called his vampire sire that in a very long time. Nathan was nearing six hundred, and Aedan had never abused his vampire child. "Father, you fret too much over this. Let it go. You know I will keep this secret, but I cannot control what Radomir or Winkler do or say. I think Radomir liked Ashe very much, else I think the Honored One would already have come to test Ashe himself."
"He's just a boy," Aedan muttered, dropping into a folding chair Nathan had placed inside his garage.
"I know. It's too bad that Adele couldn't conceive on her own—that a fertilized egg had to be procured to birth your son. But he is yours, Aedan. Never forget that. Just as Corilyn and Dorilou are mine."
"He has my stubbornness, that much is certain," Aedan's Irish accent showed at times.
"I wasn't going to bring it up, but since you freely admit it," Nathan grinned.
Ashe had no cell phone and Sali and the others couldn't visit, but he still had his computer. He booted it up to go looking around the area that way. He also had email from Sali, Wynn, Dori and Cori. Then he came across something from someone he didn't recognize. He almost didn't open it. Afterward, he could never say whether he thought it a good thing or a bad thing that he did.
Greetings, the message began. I am your grandfather.
Chapter 5
You are not obligated to me, the message continued, but I must take the opportunity to warn you while I may. Trust no Elemaiya. They may offer many things, but those offers conceal lies. On both sides. Above all, do not reveal yourself to them. All will attempt to kill you should you do this. I cannot offer anything to you and past this message, you must mistrust me as well. The Queen has forgotten me for many years, but she will come soon and I must obey. I leave you with these final warnings: Make them fear you, grandchild, and beware the Diamond at the shining.
I grant the love you are due,
Your grandfather
"What the?" Ashe couldn't finish the sentence, he was so shocked. "How did you find me? Bloody 'ell," he quoted one of his favorite lines from a movie.
Ashe didn't have many listed in his email address book so he set about transferring those to a new email address and deleting his old one. After all, hadn't the one who'd contacted him said not to trust any Elemaiya, including the one sending the message? Ashe took him at his word. Before he deleted everything, however, he printed a copy of the message and slipped it inside the dictionary on the top shelf of his library.
"Time for bed," his mother's voice floated from down the hall. She knew Ashe would hear. Frowning grimly, he shut down the computer and went looking for clean pajamas.
"The Corpus Christi Packmaster has offered us space for a garden, and she has also offered summer jobs for anyone sixteen and older," Adele said Friday morning as Ashe sat at the kitchen island, eating a bowl of cereal. He'd gotten up before his mother because his stomach was growling. Adele had given the cereal an irritated frown before going to the stove to prepare an omelet. Now she sat opposite Ashe and was chattering away, although Ashe hadn't spoken, preferring silence except for the clinking of his spoon in the bowl and the sound of the cereal crunching in his mouth.
"What kind of work, you ask, and a female Packmaster?" Adele was asking the questions Ashe was considering, so he kept chewing. "Her name is Shirley Walker, word has it she can stop a speeding bus one-handed and she owns cotton fields, grapefruit, avocado and peach groves. She needs help with the peach and avocado harvests. And no, cotton isn't picked by hand any longer. Machines do that."
"Knew that already," Ashe said before he thought.
"And here I thought you'd lost your ability to speak," Adele gave a small smile. "You need more than a bowl of cereal, Ashe."
"I can make my own eggs," he grumbled, dipping up the last square of cereal and a half-spoon of milk.
"Then make eggs," Adele said. "You need more than that; you haven't eaten since early yesterday." She nodded at the now empty bowl. Ashe picked it up and walked to the new dishwasher. The appliance was nicer than the one they'd had in Cloud Chief. He then went to the fridge and pulled out the carton of eggs. His mother had gone to the grocery store, Ashe saw. The refrigerator was full.