Page 96 of Queen of Darkness
She didn’t respond, but I was used to that. It was the normal.
“I’m here, Mom,” I whispered. “I don’t know if you can hear me in there or not, or what it’s like, but I’m here. Dad’s here. We’re ready. And it’s safe now, Mom. You did it. You kept me safe long enough. Now, I can do the same for you. You can come out.”
There was no reaction to my words. I hadn’t expected there to be. Sitting back on my haunches, I waited patiently. Five minutes went by, then half an hour. At the two-hour mark, I got up to work my leg muscles, but I never left the room. My dad stayed seated the entire time.
At the three-hour mark, she started to stir, but there was still no more recognition in her face than before.
“Come on, Mom,” I urged. “You can do this. I know you can.”
Her eyes blinked at the sound of my voice, and with aching slowness, she turned her head to look at me.
“J—Joanna,” she whispered. “My sweet Jo.”
I trembled, shaking at hearing her words. All my life, I’d waited for that. The outburst that had started all this didn’t count. This,thiswas my mother. My mom. She was still in there after all.
“Marie,” my dad said, coming to the side of the bed. “Here, take a sip of this.”
I stayed silent while he took the bottle of water and tilted a tiny trickle into her mouth, giving her time to swallow it. With each passing minute, she became more alert.
“Why am I awake?” she asked when she was ready to speak again. “Ron, where are my pills?”
“They stopped coming,” he said, stroking her face.
I blinked tears from my eyes as I watched their love rekindle before my very eyes. It was as if no time at all had passed between them.
“It’s okay, Mom,” I said, trying to stop her panic. “You don’t need them anymore.”
“Yes, I do,” she said, her voice still hoarse. “I have to take them.”
“Mom,” I said forcefully. “You do not have to take them. The rule is gone, lifted. You don’t have anything to worry about. She won’t send anyone after you. And I’ll be here to help you. I’ve gone through what you will. I know how to harness it, and,” I said, looking at my father, “I know just the way to help you focus.”
If my confused feelings for Aaron had helped me learn how to harnessmyinner demon, then the love my mom had for my father should make the task trivial.
“What? How?” my mom asked.
“Your daughter is strong-willed,” Aaron said, interjecting at last. “She decided that change was necessary, so she went out and made that change.”
“Change?” my mom repeated, confused. “What do you mean?”
“Your daughter now sits upon the throne of Madrigal,” Aaron explained. “As queen of all vampires.”
My mom’s face turned to me, her mouth hanging open. “My dearest Jo,” she whispered. “What happened?”
“Uh, well,” I said, feeling sheepish and suddenly all of my not quite twenty-two years. “That’s a long story, Mom. But I did it for you. For us. So we can be a family again.”
My mom shook her head. “I’ve got a lot to get caught up on, it seems.”
“And you will,” I whispered, letting my father take both my and her hands into his own. “And now we can do just that. Together. As a family.”
Tears glistened in her eyes. “A family,” she agreed.
Chapter Forty-Eight
“Time for a little truth,” I said, watching a shirtless, sweating Aaron lift another block of stone.
“What’s that?” Dani replied from where she stood next to me, though her eyes were focused on an equally shirtless and sweaty Vir, who was carryingtwoblocks.
Show-off.
