Page 17 of This Blood that Bonds Us
She paused and stared into the woodgrain of the table. “I’ve spent all this time thinking and wishing I’d done something different. Maybe I should have asked more questions. I thought about how many times I should have stood my ground and stayed. But I knew that look in your brother’s eyes, and I trusted him. The day I’d always believed would come had finally come. Something your brothers had been running away from had finally caught up with them, and they were scared.”
Mom sniffled and wiped at the redness of her nose. There was a strange pause. A lingering emptiness in the air. Something we all knew but wouldn’t say. The Family had poisoned everything. And somehow, even in the glow of the cabin, the cold crept in.
“Honey, the soup will get cold if you don’t eat.” Mom rubbed Presley’s back.
“Oh, right,” he said.
I gathered the tiniest bit of broth I could onto my spoon. The soup wasn’t steaming anymore, but I blew on it anyway. When the spoon touched my lips, my whole body reacted. Drawing in on itself. The sample was so small I couldn’t even get a read on the taste, but the moment I tried to swallow, I gagged. I changed my mind. There was no trick. Maybe Akira’s senses had dulled, because my body rejected it like it was rancid.
Presley, who had taken a much larger bite, coughed it up on the table, and Kim held her hand over her mouth, trying to force it down.
“What is it? The meat is fresh. A neighbor just brought it over.”
“No.” I coughed. “It’s not your food.”
“Are you sick?”
Presley and I shared a look. “Kinda.”
Mom waited, glancing between the three of us.
I shrugged at Presley, not knowing what to say. I didn’t know how we could keep it a secret. Or was it even necessary. It’s notlike my mom would try to turn us into the police or anything. Plus, she deserved an explanation.
Presley smiled sheepishly and turned to her. “Uh, do you remember that movie I always used to make you watch . . . with the girl . . . and the love triangle, and the guy with the hair who could do cool stuff?”
“Of course I remember that. You dragged me to all five of those movies.”
“Well, we’re kinda like that.” Presley looked at me for help, and I shook my head.
“You’re a . . . wolf?”
“No, we’re like the other thing. The other guy. The sparkly one with good hair.”
“We don’t sparkle,” I said. “And we’re not cold or anything.”
“Are you telling me you’re . . . vampires?”
We nodded.
“All three of you?”
We nodded again.
There was a long silence as we waited for her to process.
Kimberly squeezed my leg, and I squeezed back. She’d been able to believe it once. Mom could too.
My mom had gone pale and fiddled with her coffee cup. “You’re not playing a prank on me, are you?”
I’d never seen Mom blow up. She was always calm, probably a learned behavior from work, so her silent processing didn’t scare me.
“No, Mom. This is real. We could show you . . . if it helps.”
“Show me how?”
I motioned to Presley.
“Do you want some honey for your tea?” Presley said.
