Page 18 of Kiss Across the Universe
Instead, everyone gathered about the buffet, talking quietly. Everyone was family. They could talk about whatever they wanted, and they were. Alannah had got her private family gathering, as requested.
Only now she couldn’t relax.
None of her parents would look at her directly and the tension in her gut ratcheted tighter. They blamed her for Kit’s departure. Of course they did.
She did, too. But if she refused to eat, then the level of upset in the house would rise even further. It would ruin other people’s Thanksgiving, not just hers.
So Alannah had dutifully served herself a meal. Just by adding small dollops of each dish available, she filled her plate. She found a seat at the table where Jesse and Aran were sitting, and managed to choke down enough of the food that no one could accuse her of not eating. Although she ate so slowly that Jesse and Aran were finished long before she was and she felt full long before she thought she could stop eating.
Behind and around her, the other tables were noisy and cheerful. There were more people at the tables that didn’t eat or drink than there were humans. Surely they appreciated not having to pretend to eat? They weren’t forced to serve themselves a plate and cut everything up and move it around so that it looked like they had eaten some of it. They didn’t have to find plant pots to pour their champagne into. They could sit at a bare place setting and just talk with each other about the peculiarities of their life, which was therealpleasure for the vampires here.
It certainly sounded as though they were enjoying themselves.
That let the tension in Alannah’s gut loosen just a little.
One of the louder voices was Nyara’s. When Nyara called for yet another toast, Jesse and Aran looked at each other with indulgent smiles. Alannah realized the corners of her own mouth were lifting, too. Nyara was a vampire when she was in her own time line, but because of the way she and her friends and family moved through time, their symbionts went into hibernation when they were in the past. Any past, and not just a past that pre-dated their turning, the way her family of natural jumpers experienced.
It meant that Nyara could eat and drink as she liked, and she was indulging herself thoroughly, today.
Marit seemed to be enjoying herself just as much. The migraine she had been suffering through was clearly resolved, for she sat at the table with London, Remi and Kieren, and Alannah heard her chatting happily and laughing almost as much as Nyara was.
Alannah let the conversations around her swirl, not really focusing on any of them. Jesse and Aran were happy to chat together about general subjects, which would let Alannah hop in when she wanted to…or not. Alannah knew Aran was pissed at her about making Kit leave. It was only now that Alannah remembered that he and Kit were friends, too. They were near each other in age, although if Aran kept lingering in history, he’d soon be older than Kit. But ever since Kit had taken Aran hiking along one of the more challenging trails in Banff National Park, the two of them had been buddies.
Not that Aran had much time for anyone outside his family, these days.
But he wasn’t giving Alannah grief about Kit’s departure, making her feel guilty. He hadn’t protested when she sat at their table. He’d just nodded and kept the conversation with Jesse open so that Alannah didn’t feel like she was elbowing in on their table.
Sometimes, Aran was a decent guy.
For the first time in this long, horrible day, Alannah let herself drift and let go of all the nubbly problems digging into her mind like mining bits and tried to talk herself into eating just a few more bites before everything cooled off and become inedible. Then she could go find an isolated spot in the house, with a glass of whisky to sip, and call the day saved, for everyone but her seemed to be happy.
“…probably wouldn’t be here at all except for that idiot Rufus Shore.” Nyara’s voice lifted above the others. Her tone was withering, with a hard note of ruthless judgement that only true leaders could manage to inject.
The conversations around the table faltered, because everyone here knew who Rufus Shore was.
Alannah turned to check on Brody. Rufus Shore had done more to screw up her father’s life than anyone else here.
No, he had screwed up the lives ofallher parents.
Brody’s expression was completely blank. He was holding in his reaction. And Alannah was not the only one who had swiveled to check on him.
Brody lifted his hand a little, a flat gesture that seemed to indicate calmness. “Old history,” he said, his tone even.
Alannah knew he was lying. Everyone else must surely see that, too. Rufus Shore had brought Dara, Brody’s older brother, forward to this time from the fifth century, thenlefthim here. Dara had put Brody through weeks of torture just to pay him back for having lived so long and for finding personal happiness. He had forced Brody to convince Taylor and Veris he was leaving them. He had put Taylor and Veris through a different kind of hell.
And then there was Nial, from the other timeline, whom Dara had also abducted and pushed into a titanium cage to rot, leaving Winter and Sebastian to mourn for weeks and search uselessly for their lost mate all over their world.
When Brody’s gaze settled on Alannah and his eyes narrowed, Alannah realized she was rubbing the side of her head. That was where the baseball bat had slammed into her head. The memory of the impact felt almost as though it had happened all over again. Her skin tingled, and her skull seemed to throb, as impossible as that was.
She put her hand down hastily. No need to make Brody feel any more guilty about the role he had been forced to play in his mad older brother’s plans. Dara and his men had beaten Alannah with the bat to force Brody’s hand, but Winter had not just cured her, she had made Alannah whole as if nothing had ever happened to her. Alannah hadn’t suffered so much as a headache afterwards.
But Brody had carried the guilt foryearsand sometimes she still caught a glimpse of darkness in his eyes, when he thought no one was observing him, while he watched Taylor and Veris, and sometimes when she caught him studyingher. Alannah wouldn’t add more shadow to that darkness. Not today.
She smiled at Brody, trying to convey all her thoughts in that single expression.
“Oh, it’s not old history at all,” Nyara replied to Brody’s airy assurance.
Alannah’s gut tightened.
