Page 289 of Golden Eagle

“No reason you and Lanny and Nik have to go with him, though.” She phrased it like a question; curious, probing a little, her voice tightening.

When Trina turned her head, Rachel was looking at her with a gaze that was prepared for anything. Guarded, careful. It surprised her. “No,” she agreed. “No reason.”

“But youwillgo, won’t you? You want to.”

Trina set her mug down on the table. “I never said that.”

“You didn’t have to.” Her mother’s expression broke, then, a slow, almost wistful smile touching her mouth. “You’re restless, too.”

“I’m not,” Trina protested, but it tasted like a lie. She sighed. “I don’t want to be restless,” she amended. “There’s nothing left for me in the city. I should just – be happy to be here. With you, and Dad. Quality family time.”

“Those boys are your family too, though, aren’t they? Pack?”

Her throat felt tight, suddenly, and she nodded.

Rachel glanced out the window again, and breathed a one-note laugh. “How many times has your father threatened to shoot those squirrels? But he’s the one who bought the corn at the nursery for them, and he was up in his long-johns putting it out earlier, too. Because life is precious, he always says, and if he can help something, even the squirrels who chew holes in the bird seed bags, he will.

“That’s you, too, Trina.” She turned back, smile wider, fond and sad all at once. “It scared me to death when you said you wanted to be a detective, but I’d been expecting it. I always knew you’d want to be in a position to help people, even if it was dangerous.

“I won’t pretend I know what’s going on with this ‘war.’ Honestly, until real recently, I thought Dracula was just a guy with bad hair and a cape in movies.”

They both snorted.

“But I don’t see you sitting around here taking up knitting when there’s something you feel like you ought to do.”

Trina let out a shaky breath. “I’d love to say you’re wrong, but…”

“But I know my baby.”

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

Rachel covered the back of her hand with her own. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Nothing.” She patted her hand. “Just…maybe let the pretty, bulletproof prince be the first one to charge in, okay?”

She smiled. “Yeah, okay. Sounds fair.”

“Good.” Rachel pushed to her feet. “Now go wake up Lanny and Jamie. They can help me get the big tables out of storage.”

~*~

“Hail, good gentlewoman! ‘Tis a delightful seasonal morning in this fair kingdom,” Val called in a really good – but really overdone – British accent as Trina skirted the trampled ring of snow where he’d been sparring with Kolya.

Fulk made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat.

But Trina smiled, and Val smiled back, all dazzling sharp fangs and steaming breath in the chill.

Kolya gave her a small nod of greeting, which wasn’t unfriendly, and felt very him.

“Morning, boys,” she said, dodging a pile of snow in her mom’s Wellies and pulling her coat more tightly shut. “Don’t mind me. I’m actually looking for your better half,” she told Val.

“She means Mia,” Fulk explained.

“Yes, I know.” Val’s smile flickered, his former joy warring with an obvious concern, his brows knitting at mention of his mate. “She and Annabel are inside. Having coffee, I believe.” He said it in the voice of someone only recently learning about things like morning routines with coffee. “You’ve come for a visit?” he asked, still concerned, and, though subtle about it, protective now, too.

Trina halted, and sent him her most sincere smile, hoping her good intentions were something he could read – doubtless he could, if what she’d learned about vampires was anything to go by.

His tension eased a fraction, as she’d hoped.

“I wanted to thank her,” she said, softly. “For what she did the night of the raid.”

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