“No,” Sonia stated flatly, her eyes on Yuri and they were cold. “He isn’t.”
“Sonny –” Gregor started but Sonia cut him off.
“Callum took me to the cabin, Gregor.”
It surprised Callum to see Gregor flinch but he recovered quickly, stood, faced her and said again, “Sonny –”
“You told me it had burned down.”
“My dear.”
“You tore them away from me, not piece by piece but fast and painful, like ripping off a Band-Aid,” she snapped. “Is that what you thought? If you took it away quickly, it’d hurt less?” She didn’t give Gregor the chance to answer, she went on, “Well, I’d already lost them quickly once so it f**king well didn’t!”
“Sonny, give me one moment to explain,” Gregor said.
Sonia obviously didn’t feel in a magnanimous mood for she proclaimed, “Callum gave them back to me. He took me to the cabin and he introduced me to Regan. She even has pictures. Do you know who doesn’t have pictures of my mother and father? Me!”
“Lassiter and Cherise made me promise I’d erase your old life so you could live your new one,” Gregor returned quietly. “I didn’t like it but there were a great number of things Lassiter and I didn’t agree on. But he was your father. That’s what they wanted. I vowed to do as they asked and I did it.”
Callum stared at the vampire.
The different immortal beings on earth all had uneasy relationships with each other. The relationship between vampire and werewolf was the uneasiest. However, Callum had always respected the vampire vow.
Any vow a vampire took he or she would never break it. They’d die to keep it and vampires enjoyed their immortality and most held it sacred. Unlike werewolves, who often skirmished and felt losses, sometimes numerous, amongst their own, vampires had only warred once in all of history. They didn’t reproduce as easily as werewolves (who were quite prolific) and they had a variety of edicts that governed them which were pure lunacy but had been put in place to protect their species. Lastly, they couldn’t procreate with humans, which werewolves could and did, frequently, which was one reason why Yuri would never be allowed Sonia as his mortal mate. Vampire law forbid it.
Werewolves by their nature were lusty and unless there was an insurrection or rebellion against the monarchy, the laws were few and wolves were free to make their own lives amongst their brethren, humans or inhumans as they liked. If Callum or his father before him or his before him attempted to enforce abundant strictures on wolves, his brethren would rebel and their culture would descend into chaos. Free to live their lives, however, werewolves were naturally warm, sociable and practically consumed life, likely because, with their intermittent fighting, it could be shortened.
Vampires were colder, far more controlled and practically every move they made was governed.
The differences between the cultures were even evident in their clothes. Both Yuri and Gregor were wearing superbly tailored suits. Callum hadn’t even bothered to button the torn flannel shirt he wore over his jeans. He couldn’t even remember the last time he wore a suit and didn’t currently own one.
Because they were opposites, the two peoples did not get on well with each other and studiously avoided contact.
Callum had only met one vampire that he respected. His name was Lucien and Callum liked him because Lucien’s intensity reminded Callum of a wolf.
Not to mention, Lucien was an epic warrior.
Sonia broke into his thoughts with an astute one of her own.
Too astute.
“You talk like they knew they were going to die,” she accused and every male in the room, vampire and wolf, went still.
Callum watched with further surprise as Gregor’s face slightly softened at the same time he quickly covered.
“Parents, my dear, when they become parents tend to plan for such things. Death is an ugly fact of life and when someone loves another, they’ll want the one they love to be cared for if they’re not around. So, Sonny, they prepared for that time, they gave strict instructions and, when I agreed to be your guardian should that unfortunate event occur, I vowed I’d follow them and I did.”
It was a good cover because it was the truth, with only the fact not shared that Lassiter and Cherise Arlington prepared carefully for their deaths because what they were doing in their lives put them in mortal danger.
Callum gazed down at Sonia to see that Gregor’s words had affected her. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears and it cut him to the quick seeing them. He dropped her hand but curled an arm around her shoulders, tucking her front into his side.
She rested her cheek against his pectoral and wrapped her arms around his middle. Her soft body molded to his and she took in a stuttering breath.
That cut him to the quick as well and his arm around her shoulders grew tighter.
Sonia wasn’t quite done, however.
“Why would they want you to erase them?” she asked Gregor, her voice no longer flat and accusatory, it was soft and sad.