Page 22 of Blood Descendants
“My mother, Annika Hunt, didn’t know what Augustus was when they started dating,” Ares begins. He slouches down in his chair, lacing his fingers together and resting them on his chest. “He told her when she let him know she was pregnant. She freaked, tried to break things off. Which Augustus kind of allowed.”
I don’t like the way that sounds. Controlling asshole.
“But he kept tabs on her, so he knew when she went to the hospital in labor,” Ares continues. “She found a little sympathy and let him in for my birth. The bastard was sneaky, though. Wrote down my name on the birth certificate before she even had the chance to wipe the sweat from her brow.”
“It suits you,” I say, raising one eyebrow.
A little smile in the corner of his mouth tells me Ares agrees, but he shrugs one shoulder. “She was angry enough about it all, she took me home and cut him out. And the bastard seemed okay with that, at least for the time being. I wouldn’t be useful to him for a few years.”
“That’s disgusting,” I say, the ick spreading through my entire body.
Ares nods. “My mother was the heiress to one of thebiggest pharmaceutical companies in the country and was already managing everything on her own by that time. She wasn’t hurting for money and wanted nothing to do with Augustus’ fortune. She lived her life here in Manhattan. But she really wanted me to have a sibling. She went to a sperm bank, and when I was three, my sister Florence was born.”
The only person he’s ever loved besides his mother. That’s what he told me.
“Growing up, my mother never talked about my father. I didn’t even know his name. He didn’t come looking for me. Mom wanted to pretend he didn’t exist, wanted to pretend I’d be nothing but human forever. But when I was fourteen, I got curious. I started digging for who he was.”
“Was that a mistake?” I ask, curiosity making my words bold.
Ares shrugs again. “It wouldn’t have mattered. Augustus was keeping tabs on me, biding his time. He had no interest in being a traditional father. One way or another, when I was old enough, he would have come after me. Instead, I learned his name and went and found him.”
“Did you know what he was?” I ask, my brows furrowing.
“Not at first. Augustus was pleased to have contact now that I was older. He started teaching me about his business, about real estate. He gave me my first million to invest when I was fifteen and was pretty damn proud when I doubled it before I turned sixteen. But he didn’t tell me what he was until I was eighteen. And he advised me on what age I should end my life so I’d Resurrect and stop aging.”
“Shit,” I say, shaking my head. Most eighteen-year-olds are just starting to deal with the looming financial responsibilityof striking out on their own. Ares had to contemplate when he should take his own life and trust he’d really come back as a vampire.
“Yeah,” Ares says, his tone a little dramatic. “I had years to think about my death. To wonder if Augustus was telling the truth that I’d really come back from the dead as something else. In the meantime, I went to college after graduating, got the degree in business he determined I should have. And I helped him grow his empire while starting my own.”
So much wealth. Augustus was wealthy. Annika was wealthy. And at such a young age, Ares became wealthy all on his own.
“Florence was always the brilliant one, though,” Ares says, changing directions. “She was always so damn smart. She graduated high school when she was just fifteen years old and immediately started college. She finished her doctorate by the time she was twenty-two.”
“Is that even possible?” I ask in amazement.
“It is when you have an eidetic memory, and you immediately understand everything you set your mind to,” Ares says. “She was our mother’s protégé and was already furthering the company by leaps and bounds after just a year working there. But then our mother went missing. The circumstances were… suspicious. She was found in Harlem four weeks later, dead.”
Anxiety pitches in my blood, and I can’t help but think of my own mother. “I’m so sorry.”
Ares nods in appreciation. “We found out she’d been taken by someone who thought they could get money out of her. Guess it went south. They never reached out for ransom money, which was stupid because Florence and I would have paid anything to get her back.”
I can’t imagine how awful that must feel, knowing you would have cooperated with her captor but never got the opportunity. And then they lost their mother because of it.
“Three weeks later, I decided it was time to see if Augustus was telling the truth,” Ares continues. “I was afraid whoever had killed our mother was going to come after Florence, too. So, I ended it. Resurrected four days later, just like my father said I would. I could protect my sister far more effectively as a vampire.”
The morbid side of me is wildly curious how he did it, how Ares met the end of his mortal life. But that isn’t the kind of question you should ask.
“Within two months of Resurrecting, Augustus started pressuring me to start having my own children. He wanted to make our family line stronger. I’d known about my half-siblings for a while, but it hit different when he was asking me to go find some women to knock up to produce my own little heirs.”
My stomach turns.
“I let him know in no uncertain terms that I had no intention of trying to make him more heirs. Augustus doesn’t like being told no. So, as I told you, it eventually grew so bad that I left after three years of that bullshit. I knew Florence was safe. So, I took off. And I haven’t talked to Augustus since.”
“But that’s about to change,” I say, all the pieces finally starting to fall into place.
“With a ‘fiancée’ at my side, going along with the lie that I’m ready to have my own children, that’s about to change.” Ares’ dark eyes are fixed on me.
I let out a hard breath, my eyes falling to the floor. That was all a lot. And while our pasts, the way we grew up, wereso different, we also have some crazy things in common, things that most people will never understand.
