Page 63 of Filthy Rich Vampires: For Eternity

I let my mental shields fall and reached out to her. What are you doing?

For months, my mate had sought answers, especially the answer to what had happened to her mother. Now, it seemed she was willing to walk away.

I’m not going to sit here and let anyone — even my mother — treat you like this. We’re leaving.

“I’m not sure where to start,” Kelly admitted softly, stopping Thea in her tracks.

Thea spun around slowly, lifting her chin and looking as regal as her new title. “How about the beginning?”

“That’s a very long story,” Kelly hedged.

Thea glanced at me, and I nodded. She’d waited for this moment and deserved any peace clarity would bring. I wouldn’t rush it.

We both sat back down. I pulled Thea’s stool closer to mine, the scrape of its feet splitting the silence in the empty room.

“Thea, you’re a siren,” Kelly said solemnly.

My mate snorted, rolling her eyes. “I know that.”

“I assumed the longer you stayed with him, the more your powers would manifest.” Kelly’s mouth pursed into a disapproving arch. She sipped her tea, cupping her now bare palms around the warm mug.

“They manifested because the glamour you had on me lifted,” Thea shot back.

“That is not entirely true.” Kelly shook her head and placed the mug on the worn tabletop, which already had several centuries of water rings. “I assume you two have been reckless for a while now.” She gestured to our joined hands.

“I’m not sure that’s your business.” But Thea’s cheeks burned so hot it radiated from her. I could smell her embarrassment, and I had to bite back a smile. Humans were so strange about their bodies, especially around their parents.

“We aren’t human,” Kelly correctly me sternly. “You need to remember that.”

“Mortals,” I said out loud with a shrug.

“Sirens are the daughters of Demeter,” Kelly continued, ignoring me.

“Demeter?” Thea repeated. “I know that’s what legends say, but that’s just mythology. You don’t actually believe that?”

But her mother shook her head. “Not legends. We are the descendants of Demeter. When Hades took Persephone into the Underground, Demeter wept for her child, but she grew to hate her tears—hate the winter her child’s absence brought—and so she put her grief to use. She gave it life. We are her tears. She gave us her essence so that we could walk between life and death, between this world and the next, and call Persephone home.”

There was a moment of stunned silence. Except…it made sense. If we believed what my mother had told us, that all creatures were made by the Gods, it was possible. And if my mother—maybe even my father—was made by Hades. I couldn’t bring myself to say it, to even think it.

But Thea shook her head. “You really believe that, don’t you? That we were created by some Goddess?”

“I don’t believe it, I know,” Kelly said silently. “My mother told me as hers told her...and now I am telling you.”

“Why?” Thea asked. “Why bother now?”

“It’s a tradition in our family to wait until powers manifest.” She offered a small smile to her daughter. “You were always too busy with your studies to have a boyfriend, so it wasn’t necessary to have the talk.”

Thea was squirming in her chair now, studiously avoiding my eyes. “You didn’t tell me because I was a virgin?” she blurted out. “Don’t you think it’s the kind of thing I should know before I slept with someone?”

“If you’d taken a man to bed, it wouldn’t have mattered. The magic barely stirs when you’re with a mortal, but you chose a vampire,” she said flatly.

It was pretty clear how she felt about that.

“So did you,” Thea said coldly.

“A decision I can only live with because he gave me you. I thought it was just a stupid mistake.”

“What changed?” I dared to ask.

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