I didn’t like talking about this. I didn’t remember much from that night, but I sometimes had flashbacks of my parents panicking, and of Ailin trying to keep everyone calm. I knew some of my siblings had been unlucky enough to see some of the carnage that day, but I’d already been in the house when it started, so my parents had simply pushed me into the basement and told me to stay with my brother. That was the last time I’d seen them alive.
Hiro surprised me by reaching across the table and squeezing my hand. That gave me a little boost, so I cleared my throat and continued, “Once they killed our parents, they came for us, and… that was the night Ailin came into his full powers. His magic shielded us while he basically set a magical bomb off in our house. He killed anyone close to us, and the house came down on top of us. But his shield kept us safe.”
I took a sip of my water, stared at the table, and sighed. “When the Supreme Assembly finally showed up the next fucking day—of course those assholes were too late to actually help or save anyone—but they helped us out of the basement and rubble. Ailin was the oldest, and since his power came out, at the time, he was the most powerful witch in the world. When they wanted to separate us into foster care, he told them no, that he was the coven leader now and that he was going to take care of us.”
After a few seconds, Hiro quietly asked, “And he was only sixteen at the time?”
I nodded and finally met his eyes. “Sixteen with fifteen other kids to take care of.”
“Fifteen?”
“Yeah. He… he claimed responsibility for fifteen other kids, and because he was more powerful than the asshole leaders, they let him take charge of us—and I’m grateful for that, otherwise we would’ve been split up.”
Hiro sat there with wide, blinking eyes.
“So anyway, Ailin is biologically my older brother, but he’s also the only parent I had growing up after that night. My older sisters Aspen and Opal helped raise us, too, since Ailin was also Sage—a witch leader—when he became so powerful, but yeah… so it’s complicated. And my brothers and sisters aren’t all blood related to me, but that doesn’t make them any less my siblings than the ones that are blood.”
He nodded. “That makes sense.”
“So yeah, that’s my fucked-up childhood story… or one of them, anyway, but maybe one’s enough for today.”
“Yeah… ‘course.” He squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry if I upset you.”
“You didn’t.”
He scrutinized my face for a moment before nodding. “My parents died when I was young, too.”
“They did?” I was a little surprised that he was offering up any information about himself, to be honest, but I’d take anything he gave me.
“They were killed by a vampire they were hunting when I was ten. My uncle raised me after that, but he died when I was seventeen—that was the same year I met Millie.”
The way he glossed over the death of his parents and uncle made me think that he didn’t want to talk about it, so I went for an easier topic—well, maybe not easier, but different. “How did you and Millie meet?”
A soft smile spread over his face, and a small flare of jealousy hit me. Which was stupid. I shouldn’t be jealous of a dead person, and certainly not one that he’d obviously loved deeply. No, I shouldn’t be jealous at all. He said, “In a bar fight.”
A chuckle came out of me without permission. “That… isn’t what I thought you were going to say.”
His smile grew. “Millie was crazy, and I mean that in the best sense of the word. She had a short temper and tended to fight first, ask questions later, but she loved hard and fully, and was very protective of her inner circle.” He took a sip of his drink and squeezed my hand. “Since my uncle had passed away, I kept sneaking into bars and shit, so I got to see Millie in action. A guy—an incubus—wouldn’t leave her best friend alone, and when the guy tried to cop a feel, Millie attacked him. It was late into the night, and at a pretty seedy place, so when she attacked half the bar joined in. Another incubus was trying to attack Millie from behind while she took care of his friend, so I stepped in and stopped the guy, and got an elbow to the stomach from her as a thank you.” He snorted. “Even years afterward, she claimed I was trying to grab her ass and that’s why she elbowed me…” He shook his head. “She never was one to apologize easily.”
I smiled at that. “I wish I could’ve met her.”
His eyes met mine. “Me too. You two would’ve hit it off, and probably gotten into trouble every other day.”
I snorted. “I do like a good bar fight.”
He chuckled and shook his head, but the waitress came back over with our food—finally. We fell quiet again as we stuffed our faces, but Hiro eventually said, “I don’t know how to do this.”
“Do what?”
He waved his fork between us. “This. This viramore thing.”
“Oh, um… I don’t really either. It’s not like there’s a rule book.”
“So do we just… date?”
I nodded. “Sure.”
He pursed his lips for a moment, then nodded. I could see that he wasn’t entirely comfortable with this situation, but at least he was trying and not attempting to punish me or pretend that I didn’t exist. I’d take it. A baby step in the right direction.
The rest of the meal was pretty quiet until the waitress left the check on the table. I snagged it before he had the chance, and he immediately turned a glare on me, so I said, “I’m paying.”
“No, I don’t think so. I invited you, I pay.”
“Nope.”
He clenched his jaw. “I’m no one’s charity case, shadow boy.”
“I never thought you were, Grimsby. Stop being so dramatic.”
His nostrils flared. “Witch, I swear to god, if you don’t—”
“I’m paying, so stop with the empty threats.” I threw some cash on the table, leaving a hefty tip, and stood up. “Come on, hunter. Stop sulking.”
As he stood up and crowded me, I could see how angry he truly was, and I worried for a few seconds that maybe I’d done the wrong thing. But then the memory of his little girl with an oxygen tube came flashing through my mind, and I decided I’d rather him be angry at me and not hurting for money than for him to pay now, suffer later, his pride be damned.
I pushed his chest, although I didn’t push too hard since I liked having him close, and said, “Back off, Grim.”
Something flashed in his eyes, but I didn’t catch the emotion before it flitted away, and a tiny bit of his tension eased. “Don’t call me that.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because outside of my job, I’m Hiro.”
It seemed like there was more to that than he was willing to admit, but I nodded. “Fine. Hiro, stop hulking out over top of me so we can leave.”
“That eager to get away from me?” He flashed me a smirk, proving he was trying to joke around and let go of his anger.
“No, that eager to have the humans in this diner stop staring at us like we’re putting on a show.”