Dragon Blood

Chapter 18

"I just had to check." Madeline's laugh was airy and light without even a hint of judgement. "So, tell me what's going on."

She took a long drink from her glass, enjoying the slightly sweetened wine before finally speaking. "I started seeing someone a few weeks ago. Sort of... I don't know." She put her glass down to run both her hands through her hair. "Can you promise not to talk about this with dad? Or anyone who likes to gossip to dad?"

Madeline ran her pinched thumb and forefinger across her lips, turned them like locking a door, and tossed the invisible key over her shoulder. "Lips are sealed. I promise I will not talk about it with anyone but you."

The words tumbled out of her mouth a second later without a chance to stop or think about the fact that this was her mother that she was telling all of this to. 

"I don't know, that's kind of the whole point. We had dinner once. We had drinks once. Both times I learned some crazy shit about the guy. Like, could have several books written about him level of crazy shit. And just this morning when I was leaving his place, more shit comes up that goes way beyond anything I could ever imagine. 

"My brain is screaming at me to leave him and stop getting involved with a guy who obviously has some baggage but on the other hand... I can't get him out of my head. I can't stop thinking about wanting to be with him. And it's not just a sex thing, but, oh my god, the sex is incredible, and it feels so right to be around him. I mean... you know me, I'm not one to fall for a pretty face after only knowing them for a few weeks, and you'd think that after Church I would be smarter than to just crawl into bed with someone I barely know. 

"For the love of whatever gods are out there, I invited him to your Gala after our first date even though I knew dad would see him and not approve and there's no promise that we'd even make it that far! I've told him things about myself that I haven't told anyone, except for maybe you or Maddox! I don't know what's happening to me and it's freaking me out and pissing me off."

She huffed out a breath and finished half of the wine in a single gulp. Madeline's eyebrows had been steadily growing higher and higher while her daughter ranted. "Wow," she finally said. "I haven't seen you this worked up since your qualification exams."

Rhia laughed harshly. "The qualifications don't even come close to this."

"Okay. I guess my first question is, is he or his 'crazy shit', as you put it, going to put you in danger?"

Rhia didn't answer right away. Her immediate answer was 'yes'. That vampire who claimed to be Nolan's old friend proved that much. A part of her that she was trying to squish out of existence was whispering Constantine in her ear. The knuckles of her third and fourth fingers were swollen, red, and aching, but she doubted she had done any real damage to the guy. Then there were the multiple times Nolan been tempted to feed on her, despite his rigid stance on the topic. Her own wanton yearning for him to feed from her, which also didn't make sense, scared her. "Maybe." She finally admitted.

Madeline stiffened and donned her mom face again. "Honey, are you sure you don't want to bring your father into this?"

"Oh fuck no do not bring dad in this."

"If you're in trouble..."

"I'm not in trouble. But I don't know if I can stay out of trouble."

The doorbell rang then. Madeline hesitated before pulling Rhia into a hug and kissing her cheek. "We'll talk more about this later. But I do want you to talk to me about this, okay?"

"Yeah." Rhia hitched a smile on her face.

As her mother walked out to greet whoever their new guests were, Rhia tilted the bottle over her glass again. Dinner already required thorough lubrication, but if she was going to talk about Nolan to her mother, she was going to need a lot more wine. A high-pitched shout made Rhia slosh wine over the counter. "No!" Her mother shouted. "You get out of here!"