Page 35 of Kiss the Dawn
A cloud passed over his sunny features. “Your father is dead.”
“Oh…” I hadn’t considered that one of my biological parents might be dead. That I wouldn’t get to meet them. “How did he die?”
“He lost his life on a hunt.”
“He was a hunter?”
He lifted his chin. “One of the best. He would have been so proud to know that you’d joined the Order. That even though you were taken from us, you’d found a path where you protected the innocent from the monsters of this world.”
A weight settled on my chest because I think I would have liked to have met this man. The person who I probably got my drive to hunt from. Althoughhunting had been scarce since coming to Dracul territory. I missed it.
“You have a look in your eye,” Frederick said. “I saw it in Wesley’s eyes often. The look that told me he was craving the thrill of the hunt.”
The way he spoke about my father, the pride and love…I’d assumed he was my maternal grandfather but now… “Wesley was your son?”
“Yes, Orina, he was. My only son. Marrying into the Bloodmere family meant he was forced to give up his calling to do his duty and produce heirs. He missed it. I could tell.”
“So your side of the family areallhunters?”
“Yes, we—” There was a knock on the door. “Ah, that must be your sisters.”
He opened the door to two beautiful women with dark, luscious locks. They came gliding in, regal and put together in gowns like Daphne’s, fur lined coats thrown over the top. They looked so similar, like twins with their bright eyes and flushed cheeks.
“Oh…Oh look at your hair,” one of them said. “Silver like Mama’s.”
My roots had obviously grown out too much.
“Why would you stain it with color?” the other asked. “You should wear it with pride.”
“Oh goodness, Clara, stop being so rude,” the other sister said. I noted she had kind eyes too. Eyes like Frederick. Eyes like mine. I liked her.
Clara, however, had a sharp look about her. Likeshe was searching for faults that she could crow about. I bet she’d only come to see me to do just that. Find faults and report back to the other siblings that hadn’t bothered to make the trip.
What the fuck was I doing, coming here and expecting some kind of family reunion? Fuck that. Lorenzo needed to find the loophole fast so we could leave.
“Orina?” Frederick said gently, jolting me out of my thoughts.
I pushed down my disconcertion. “You said there’d be food?”
“You came all this way, and all you can think about is food?” Clara said.
I pulled myself up from my seat and smiled, cold and thin. “When I’m hungry, I get cranky, and when I’m cranky, I don’t have much patience for rudeness.”
I stared her down, and she had enough grace to look sheepish.
The other one let out a delighted giggle. “Oh, you sounded just like Mama then. I’m Jules, by the way.” She beamed at me as if we were about to become bosom buddies.
Clara looked as if she was biting her cheeks.
Another knock sounded.
“Food’s arrived,” Frederick said.
He opened the door to a man pushing a trolley laden with silver dome-covered dishes.
It looked like we really wouldn’t be leaving this room after all.
The trio stood back while the trolley guy began unloading. There were so many dishes it was going to take forever, so I pitched in and helped. The shock on Jules’s face and the disapproval on Clara’s told me all I needed to know about how things ran here. Not too different from the Dracul territory when it came to pomp and ceremony, then. But the clothes were from a different era to Dracul. The dresses the women wore were high-necked and long-sleeved. I doubted there was an abundance of petticoats beneath the skirts. The material looked hardier too.
