"Amanda wants to meet you, Valerius. Please? Just for a minute and then I'm sure she'll head home."
She scowled at Tabitha's calm, rational tone. Normally when her sister didn't get her way, she turned rather violent. Or at the very least, shouted.
His face softened instantly as he reached out and cupped Tabitha's scarred cheek in his hand. "I hate when you give me that look." He brushed his fingers over her eyebrow and smiled gently at her. "Okay." He dropped his hand to hers, then pulled it up and kissed the back of her hand.
Tabitha kissed his cheek before she stepped away and headed toward the library.
Her heart thumping at what she'd just seen, Amanda stepped back into the room so that they wouldn't know she'd been spying on them. But as she waited, images of their encounter played through her mind...
Valerius couldn't believe he was about to meet his enemy's wife.
Tabitha's twin sister.
He'd never been more nervous or unsure of himself.
But he refused to let that show. Stiffening his spine, he walked into the library, where Tabitha greeted her sister.
It was extremely odd to listen to them speak to each other. The only way he could tell their voices apart was their vocabulary. Tabitha had a unique way of speaking, whereas her twin sister was more eloquent and proper.
Amanda's eyes widened a bit as she scanned him from head to toe. Whatever she thought of him, she gave no clue.
"You must be Valerius," she said, stepping forward to offer him her hand.
"It's an honor," he said formally before he shook her hand very briefly, released it, and stepped back six paces.
She looked at Tabitha. "You two are the odd couple, aren't you?"
Tabitha shrugged before she tucked her hands in her pockets. "Thank God he's cuter than Tony Randall and I don't have Jack Klugman's nose."
Valerius became even more rigid.
Tabitha ran her hand affectionately down his arm. "Relax, hon. She doesn't bite. Only I do that." She winked at him.
The problem was, he didn't know how to relax. Especially not while her twin was staring at him as if he were something sinister.
Amanda watched her sister with the Roman general she had assumed she would hate on first meeting. To her surprise, she didn't.
He wasn't friendly, that was certainly true. He stood there with a crisp, arrogant look that seemed to defy her to insult him. But as she looked closer, she realized it was nothing more than a facade. He actually expected her to say something vicious to him and was just bracing himself to take it.
In fact, her psychic sense didn't pick up cruelty of any sort. Though he looked completely ill at ease, his gaze softened ever so subtly every time he glanced at Tabitha.
And there was no way to miss the way Tabitha reacted to him.
Oh, good grief, they really did love each other. What a nightmare!
"Well," Amanda said slowly, "I can stand here making everyone uncomfortable or I can go home. I should probably head back before it gets dark anyway. So-"
"My apologies, Mrs. Hunter," he said quickly. "I didn't mean to make you uneasy. If you wish to stay and talk to Tabitha, I'll be more than happy to withdraw."
She smiled at his kindness. "No, it's okay. I just wanted to meet you for myself. I've never been the kind of person to let someone else make up my mind for me and I wanted to know if you really were a three-toed, horned demon. But strangely enough, you look like an accountant."
"From her, that's a compliment," Tabitha said with a laugh.
He looked even more uncomfortable.
"It's okay," Amanda said. "Really. I just felt this insane need to know who was holding my sister hostage. It's not like her to not call me three dozen times a day."
"I'm not holding her hostage," he said quickly as if the accusation offended him. "She can leave anytime she chooses."
Amanda smiled. "I know." She looked at Tabitha and shook her head. "It's going to be hell at Thanksgiving, huh? Never mind the terror of Christmas. And we thought Granny Flora was bad with Uncle Robert."
Tabitha's heart pounded at what her sister was saying. "You don't mind?"
"Oh, I mind, all right. I would sooner kill myself than ever hurt Kyrian, but I can't hurt you either and I'm not willing to lose you over something that happened two thousand years ago. Maybe we'll get lucky and one of the Daimons'll get Valerius before this is over."
"Amanda!" Tabitha snapped.
"I was joking, Tabby. Really." She took Valerius's hand and held it against Tabitha's. "One of these is not like the other, one of these does not belong," she sang under her breath.
Then she sobered. "Are you going to ask Ash for Valerius's soul back?"
Tabitha felt a bit awkward with that question. "We haven't gotten that far."
"I see."
Tabitha stiffened at the "Mom" tone Amanda used. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Amanda looked at her as if she had no clue. "It means nothing."
"Yeah, right," Tabitha said, her anger mounting. "I know that tone. You don't think I'm serious about him, do you?"
Amanda sputtered. "I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to say that, Amanda. You know, I'm really tired of being the brunt of the family jokes. I've never understood why I'm the weird, crazy one when Tia dances naked out in the bayous in voodoo ceremonies; Selena chains herself to fences; Karma is a bull inseminator; Aunt Jasmine is trying to splice a Venus flytrap with kudzu to make a man-killing plant to devour her ex-"
"She what?" Valerius asked.
Tabitha ignored him. "And you, precious Amanda, who is everyone's darling. First you unknowingly date a half-Apollite whose adopted father is out to kill you for your powers and then you end up married to a vampire that I have to tolerate even though I personally think he's a pompous, overbearing, humorless boor. Why am I the crazy one in all this?"
"Tabitha-"
"Don't Tabitha me when you know it seriously pisses me off!"
Amanda's eyes flared. "Fine, you want to know why you're the crazy one? Because you flit from one extreme to the other. Good grief, you had, what? Nine majors in college?"
"Thirteen."
"See? You are a flibbertigibbet. If not for us taking care of you, you'd be one of those homeless people you feed every night and you know it. It's why you feed them."
"I can take care of myself."
"Yeah, right. How many jobs did you have until Irena left you the store? She didn't want to retire, by the way. Dad paid her to because it was the only job you ever held on to for more than a few days."
"You bitch!" Tabitha lunged for her sister, only to have Valerius intercept her.
"Tabitha, calm down," he said, holding her back.
"No! I'm tired of being treated like the village idiot by those who claim they love me."
"We wouldn't treat you that way if you didn't act it. My God, Tabitha look at yourself. Look at why Eric left you. I love you, I really do, but you have done nothing but cause strife all your life."
"Don't you dare speak to her that way," Valerius snarled as he moved away from Tabitha to confront Amanda. "I don't give a damn who you are, I'll throw you out. No one talks to her like that. No one. There is nothing wrong with Tabitha. She's nothing but kindness to anyone. If you can't see all her good qualities, then there's something seriously wrong with you."
A smile instantly broke across Amanda's face. "And that really was what I needed to know."
"You were playing with me?" Tabitha snapped.
"No," Amanda said sternly. "This is no playing matter. But before I go make my husband absolutely miserable, I have to know that you two are serious and that Valerius isn't just another one of your 'let me make my family crazy' fixations."
Tabitha glared at her as her volatile emotions swirled. "There are times, Mandy, when I think I hate you."
"I know. Bring him by the house tonight and we'll try this again."
"I can't believe you're doing this for us," Valerius said.
Amanda took a deep breath. "No offense, I'm not. I'm doing this for Kyrian. Ash told me something and I'm here to make sure it happens."
And with that, she turned and headed for the door.
"Mandy?" Tabitha called, stopping her before she left. "Do we have a truce?"
"No. We have a volatile, homicidal family. But at least it won't be boring. I'll see you tonight."
Tabitha watched as her sister left. Deep in the pit of her stomach, a strong sense of foreboding settled. It was bleak and harsh. Frightening and cold.
It was almost as if she knew instinctively that tonight one of them would die...