Not a sound…not a blink…not even a gurgle.
The air shuddered out of me as with wide eyes I turned my attention to King Zeller, unable to hide my emotions, freaked the f**k out. “There would have to be a record of a marriage.”
He shook his head. “Not if we did it by old tradition.”
I shook my own head. “I don’t even know what that means.” Fidgeting, I tightened my ponytail. “If you knew me at all back then, you would have married me the old-fashioned way, not with some old tradition.” I nodded, knowing this was right. “There would have to be a record of this.”
King Zeller’s arched brows furrowed. He was quiet for the span of a minute, but he didn’t dispute or question my certainty on this. “If there was a marriage certificate, it more than likely would have been mailed to us, as is the normal custom after it’s processed.” He shook his head. “I don’t have any documentation like that.” His eyes caught mine. “Unless you do?”
I stared at him, realizing I was hugging my legs to my chest, and quickly dropped them, understanding how weak I had to appear. Scanning my memory gave me no new leads on legal paperwork, but it didn’t take long for me to realize where I would have sent documentation like that. I shook my head and chuckled softly. “I have a place where I send paperwork.” I held up an instant finger when his lips parted. “And don’t even ask where it’s at. It’s heavily spelled for a reason, and I sure as f**k don’t trust you to know about it.” My gaze went to Antonio. “Wanna take me on a quick trip?”
Chapter Seven
Riding in the golden emptiness that was Antonio’s fastest means of transportation, I worried that I had made the wrong decision leaving Isa with King Zeller to go to the PO Box in New York that Antonio had spelled for me years ago for all official paperwork I wanted hidden. King Zeller had argued to go along, believing I would hide information from him, but his argument hadn’t rung complete truth. I had pretty much gotten the gist that he wanted to snoop through my spelled PO Box, and I had firmly put my foot down, telling him to go to hell. And, although it had been somewhat amusing to see him sit back down to silently scowl — sulk — taking Isa’s sleeping form back from where he had passed her off when he had tried to intimidate me with his height, I still worried I hadn’t made the right choice leaving her with him. But damn if his Vampire growling at me when I had tried to take her hadn’t freaked me out enough to back down. Well, that, and he had given me his word — gruffly — that he, and she, would be there when I got back…as long as I came back with everything that might pertain to our mysterious relationship.
So I had grabbed everything I didn’t recognize from the spelled, voice-protected PO Box, dumped it in the pillowcase I had grabbed to haul anything I found, and now I was in the middle of the golden abyss, waiting to reappear in the front room of my tent.
And, like normal, I first noticed the scents as we started to appear. Everything smelled normal, making me feel better; the scents of those that were supposed to be there were. Sounds of their breathing — no one was speaking — hit me next. Then I blinked from the brightness of the Mage sparks as we appeared inside the room. I rubbed my eyes with my free hand, then my gaze darted around the room until I saw King Zeller sitting where he had been before, holding Isa’s sleeping form, his pinkie finger held tightly inside Isa’s gripping fist.
He scowled. “It took you almost a half-hour.” Yep, his cheeks were flushed to match all of his pissed off aggression; he wasn’t bothering to hide his emotions.
I shrugged, enjoying — actually enjoying — his discomfort. “Quit your whining.” I lifted the bag, still holding onto Antonio’s hand. “Or I won’t show you what I found.”
His gaze darted to our joined hands, his Vampire growling grumpily, but his mouth stayed beautifully shut.
My lips lifted, muttering, “There’s a good Vampire King. At least you know when you’re beat.”
Angered by my taunting, his Vampire hissed.
Antonio pulled his hand from mine, shaking his head at me and sighing. “Try to be nice, Lil.” He waved a hand at King Zeller. “I know I raised you to have better manners than this.”
I snorted. “When?”
Antonio blinked. Stayed mute. Blinked again. “Well, I should have.” His head cocked at King Zeller. “So work with me and pretend as if I did.”
Elder Merrick chuckled quietly, staring at Antonio. “The similarities between you two are limitless.”
Antonio’s head teetered back and forth. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“You’ve been mute this entire time,” King Zeller rumbled at them, glaring. “Please, don’t stop now.”
Sighing, I moved to the couch, but stopped abruptly when Bindi brushed past the tent flap, rushing so much that she stumbled as she stopped. She waved a piece of paper at me…and started gurgling. Again I sighed, and I moved back to her, grabbing the sheet of paper from her.
Read the printout.
Stared.
Read it again, then nodded to her. “Thank you, Bindi. That’ll be all.”
After she left, I walked to the couch. Sat down steadily. And handed over the piece of paper to King Zeller as I dumped the items of the pillowcase onto the coffee table.
He read it, then he calmly murmured, “Well, now we know for certain.”
Yes.
We now did.
King Zeller was, indeed, Isa’s father.
And I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, knowing for certain I’d had sex with him…and I couldn’t remember a damn thing about it. “At least you don’t remember anything about it, either.” I fumbled with an envelope, my hands shaking a bit. “I mean, how awkward would it be if one of us did and the other didn’t, right?”
“Right,” he stated softly, laying the piece of paper down on the table — which his dad covertly pulled away to review — and rested a gentle hand on top of mine while I rummaged to get the package open. I jerked at the contact, blinking rapidly, not about to look at him. Fuck me if tears weren’t threatening to spill over, relief and anger mixing together at finally knowing for certain who was Isa’s father — even if I did not like the guy. He gently squeezed my hand before lifting the package from my grip and easily opening it, hardly hindered by Isa lying in his arms. Staying silent, he handed me the open package.