Page 26 of Reclaiming Home

“Yeah! Sounds good!” I called to Carys, my gaze still locked to Brodie.

He lifted the phone to his ear. “What’s up, sweetness?”

His fond tone and the pet name told me enough. There was already someone he loved. I could be pack and nothing more.

I gave him a little smile and gestured toward the door. “I’ll go help her.”

While we waited for the steaks to marinate, we went through the downstairs, taking inventory of… well, everything.

“The couches will have to go and we’ll get one of those giant sectionals,” Brodie murmured as he walked across the large family room.

“Do we want all the fireplaces in working order by winter?” Carys asked, frowning at the dust that clung to the innards of the fireplace. “There are what, two here and three upstairs?”

Brodie did quick math. “Sounds about right. The kitchen wood stove is ancient though. Do you think you want to keep it?”

Carys hummed. “I haven’t been using it, obviously, but I think it could be a cool thing to have. But let’s prioritize this one and the ones in the bedrooms we’re going to use.”

“Okay. Rian should be coming to visit sometime before snowfall so we’ll need more usable rooms. He’s a philanthropist and has a bunch of events lined up before that, so he’s going to take care of those and then head on over.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” she said, chuckling. “What’s he like?”

I glanced at Brodie who was beaming. “He’s like this weird emo ray of sunshine. Tends to be moody, but has a super bubbly side. For how long he’s been around, it’s kind of odd he has all those emotions.”

“Right, don’t vampires tend to get sort of… less emotional the older they are?”

Clearly my sister had been looking into the non-human species more than I ever had. Then again, she had always been a romantic, and the amount of romcoms where a dashing vampire came and swept a human off her feet or a werewolf saved a poor human when she gets stranded in her car when a freak snowstorm occurred was a bit ridiculous.

I remembered Carys and her friends giggling at some movies and romance novels in their early teens. Maybe that was where her knowledge came from? I made a mental note to check out some websites online asap, starting after dinner. I was hopeful for the future for the first time in two years.

The others were still chatting about vampires and how the old myths that said vampires couldn’t go into sunlight were bullshit, but my attention went to the rest of the room.

I walked to the side where the door to the old sunroom was. I opened it and peered in, frowning. All the glass panes were shattered, but at least someone had put some tarps over it.

I carefully walked into the room, grimacing at the lack of light. I used my phone’s flashlight to look around and took in the mess.

It was clear the elements had gotten in here, too. Luckily the sunroom was only one half of the backside of the house. The other half was the back porch and the utility room—if I was being gracious about the definition of the latter. The washer and dryer were older than me, but apparently still worked pretty well.

I peered at the table pushed against the outer wall where some tarp was flapping in the breeze, half in and half outside. It seemed like there were old gardening tools there, and my plant-brain perked up. I started toward the table, and had just enough time to register a creak, a crash, and then the ground fell from beneath me.

Chapter Seven

Brodie

Carys was giggling her head off at something I’d said, when I realized Kye had gone through the door in the back. I turned to go make sure he was safe, when I heard the sound of something crashing and his yelp.

By the time I crossed the family room and burst through the door into the sunroom, I could smell his blood.

“Carys, bring the big flashlight!” I yelled.

She’d joked about it when she’d seen I bought one earlier, but right now I was glad I had done that and put it in the charger as well.

The floor beneath me groaned, and I backed away as I tried to peer into the room.

Carys got there seconds later, thrusting the flashlight at me. “Here!”

I turned it on and swept the sunroom, realizing there was a gaping hole in the floor.

Carys gasped. “Oh gods!”

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