Page 59 of Filthy Rich Vampires: For Eternity

She was a siren.

“Kelly,” Julian greeted her in a clipped tone when I failed.

She cast a sharp look at my mate as she pulled the lapels of her wool coat against the winter wind. For a moment, none of us moved. Then, finally, she did.

It wasn’t the tearful reunion I’d once pictured. She didn’t throw her arms around me. She came close enough to speak but kept her distance.

That might have something to do with the brooding six feet of vampire in front of me.

My mother looked me up and down, studying me with glittering interest that sent a chill through me. But I straightened, remembering the mate at my side and the crown that waited for me, even as I wondered what she saw. If I looked as different to her now as she did to me. And even with her beauty fully revealed, everything about her was sharper than before. Her stare sliced through me as her eyebrows knit together at what she found.

Her chin lifted, regal and poised, and she glared at Julian. “So you mated with my daughter despite vampire law.”

My jaw unhinged, and it took effort to close it.

“Yes,” he said coolly. “We are mated and engaged to be married.”

Something sparked in her eyes, but her tone was measured when she spoke, “I assume you’ve completed The Rites.”

“No.” I finally found my voice. Moving to Julian’s side, I met her eyes. “We will, though.”

Her answering snort made me bristle.

Who was this stranger? She looked like my mother, but all the warmth had left her. All the love she’d shown me through the years seemed to be gone.

“Good luck,” she said flatly.

My temper flared, melting the numbness that had frozen me earlier. “We will complete The Rites and be married and have children and anything else we choose, regardless of what you or the Vampire Council think.”

“At least they haven’t broken you. Although, there are rumors...disturbing rumors.”

I’d had enough of this strange reunion. She didn’t get to control the conversation. Not while I was burning with questions, questions I’d been asking myself for months. “Where have you been?” I blurted out. “We looked everywhere for you.” Pain split my words. Julian’s hand on my back grounded me, but my voice cracked again anyway. “Why didn’t you tell us you were alive?”

I heard her breath catch before she spoke. Light from a nearby streetlamp caught her eyes and I saw a flash of sadness lurking there, as if she was just as haunted as me.

“When you left me, I was forced to come here.”

“By whom?” I demanded.

Easy, my love. Hear her out.

I shot a glare at my mate.

“I was dying. I had no choice.”

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on what she was telling me. “Who made you come?”

“No one,” she said, shaking her head. “I needed to heal. I called on unnatural magic to glamour you. My body couldn’t handle that power. That is why I was sick. I needed our magic to heal, and our magic is strongest here, especially now.” She raised her eyebrows in silent question, giving me a glimpse of the woman who’d raised me. “There are rumors that you...”

I remained silent, trying to process what she was telling me. “No one made you come here?”

“No,” she said quietly. “I came because I knew that only being near the Rio Oscuro would help me.”

If felt as though I was breaking in two. Half of me wanted to collapse with relief. She wasn’t dying. But the other half felt like screaming.

She knew about the Rio Oscuro and vampires and magic and... everything.

Everything. She knew everything.

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