Call of Night (Thorne Hill 3)

“It’s a lot,” Evander supplies, taking a drink of wine.

I meet Tabatha’s eye. “Did you know?”

“I knew you weren’t related to the Martins,” Tabatha admits, and the confession lifts an invisible weight off her shoulders. “As did the man you thought was your father. Once he realized you were not his true daughter, he sold you like a pig to slaughter. But as to knowing that you weren’t a full witch…” She reaches over and puts her hand on mine.

“I had my suspicions. I destroyed your file the day I took you from that awful laboratory, but not before I saw inside. Your blood showed qualities that weren’t human. Witches have human blood and the only way anomalies could show up like that was if you were half witch and half something else. Witches and shifters have half-magical babies with diminished powers and pathetic shifting abilities, but as soon as you got to the Academy, I knew there was nothing half about your magic. And it didn’t matter,” she presses. “You were my student and my daughter. It didn’t matter to me what you were, as it doesn’t today either. It’s who you are, and you are an incredible young woman.”

And now I’m back to blinking away tears. Silence falls over everyone and I want things to go back to normal. A weird feeling sinks to the bottom of my stomach, and I don’t want to admit it to myself just yet, but I know: things will never be normal again.

Abby finishes her wine, still visibly shaken. “You’re really okay?”

“I am. Even my bite marks from a few days ago are gone.”

“I didn’t see any on you.” Her eyes go to my neck.

“I prefer the inside of her thigh more than her neck,” Lucas says, not looking up from his phone as he orders my food. “Right above her—”

“Lucas,” I scold and he just shrugs.

“That is a good place to bite,” Eliza agrees with a smile. “Very tender and always close to fun.”

“I’m still so confused.” Abby’s voice is high and strained. “How can he be your father? Does that mean Mom had an affair?”

“No. I have a different mother too. She was a witch.” I put my hand on hers, eyes filling with tears again. “But you’re still my sister.”

A tear falls from her face and she nods. “Then Penny has no chance of having magical powers.”

“It’s probably a safe bet to assume no, even though you do see it every now and then.”

“Half-witch, half-angel,” Evander muses, studying me. “I didn’t know Nephilim existed. I’ve heard the lore but thought it was just that. Lore. Even still…an angel and a witch. In all the books I’ve never once come across that.”

“Michael said most humans aren’t able to carry a…a…Nephilim to term and they end up dying, both baby and mother. Because my mother was a witch, she was able to handle being pregnant with me but didn’t survive the birth.”

Silence falls over us again as we all let this sink in.

“How did you end up with the Martins?” Kristy asks a moment later.

“Michael told me it was my mother’s idea to hide me in plain sight if she were to die. Nephilim are the result of a forbidden relationship and demons would do anything to get their hands on a half-angel baby so they can taint them with evil and use their powers for their own good. By putting me with a nonmagical family, no one suspected anything, not even when I started showing signs of witch powers. And it worked. I didn’t suspect anything under Varra—that demon figured out the Nephilim that had been born twenty-five years ago was still alive.”

Everyone is staring at me and it makes me feel weird. “Do you think I’m a freak now?”

“I’ve always thought you were a freak, sister.” Evander doesn’t miss a beat. Abby gets up abruptly and leaves the room. Hearing Evander call me “sister” and knowing that Tabatha was more like a mother to me than our mother ever was upsets her. And now I’m telling her we’re not really related…

“I should go after her.” I hurry out of the kitchen. Abby is in the living room, sitting on the couch with her head in her hands. “Abby?”

She looks up, wiping away tears.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. It’s a lot to take in and I went from thinking my sister was going to die to learning that you’re not really my sister at all.”

“Not by blood.”

“Who was your mother?”

“A witch named Callista. I’m named after her.”

“How did Mom know to name you that?”

“She didn’t. Michael somehow suggested it or something.”

“How do you do this? How do you find out this information and keep it together?” Abby lets out a breath. “It’s so overwhelming and it’s not even me.”

“I’ve developed some really unhealthy coping mechanisms over the years, and if repressing upsetting emotions and memories was a contest, I’d win first place.”

Abby turns, bottom lip quivering. “Being related was the only thing we had.”

“No, no it wasn’t. We’re sisters.”

“But we’re not.”

“We’re not related by blood. But I grew up with you, and spending time with you again has been really, really nice. You are my sister and I love you.”

Abby sniffles. “I guess it’s not any different than if you were adopted. You’d still be my sister then.”

“Exactly. Besides, you know way too much about me to just part ways now. It’s a stay-with-me-as-my-sister or I’ll have to kill you kind of deal.”

She laughs and uses her sleeve to mop up more tears. “How did you end up with us? Mom was pregnant with you, I remember. I was in the room when you were born.”

“Mom really was pregnant with a baby girl. You were in the room when she was born, but Michael must have altered your memories because that baby…she was born sleeping. Your biological sister died the same exact time I was born. I don’t really get the significance of it, but Michael made it seem like if the timing didn’t match, the cover wouldn’t work. So he…he switched us and Mom got a living baby.”

“I need more wine.” Abby stands only to whirl around and face me. “I know this might sound really shitty since you were sold like cattle, but I’m glad you’re my sister.”

“I’m glad you’re mine too.” I pull her into a hug. “Given my line of work, having a sister who’s also an ER doctor really comes in handy.” Abby laughs and wraps her arms around me. “Come on, let’s finish that second bottle.”

“Everything okay?” Lucas asks when we go back into the kitchen. He stands and takes me in his arms.

“Yes, we’re good.” I take solace in the way his body feels against mine, resting my head on his chest and closing my eyes. I stay like that for a brief moment and then turn to face everyone else again. “I’m still me, you know that, right? Nothing has changed and I don’t want you to treat me differently. Even Michael said I should go back to how things were before but be prepared for more demons to attack.”

“That is normal for you,” Evander says seriously and we laugh. Some of the tension leaves the room.

“And thank you for coming here to help save me.”

“I figured I owed you after you exorcised a demon from me,” Evader jokes. “Now we’re even.”

Kristy smiles. “And I only hired seasonal help. You need to come back to work eventually.”

“We all love you,” Tabatha says, eyes misty.

“I tolerate you,” Eliza deadpans. “Though I have to admit you’re growing on me.”

After almost dying by the hands of demonic rats to almost dying from a demonic virus, this little moment with my friends is needed. My body has been healed, but my mind is a mashed-up, bloody mess.

Things aren’t the same, as much as I want to believe they are.

Chapter 35

“I can say it now.” Lucas licks blood off my thigh and looks up. His head is between my legs, and my blood is smeared across his lips.

“Say what?” I ask, voice all breathy. We just got done having sex, and it was as

primal and passionate as ever. It’s funny how almost dying brings you together.

“That I’ve been touched by an angel.” Lucas moves up and takes me in his arms.

“Seriously?” I say with a snort of laughter.

“Oh, yeah. I’ve been touched by one and I’ve touched one myself. Many times.”

“I’m only half angel.”

“I’m still saying it.” He licks the rest of my blood off his lips and nuzzles his head against my breasts. “I love you, Callie.”

“I love you, too.”

“I thought I lost you—again.” He rolls us over so I’m lying on top of him. We resituate so we’re both comfortable. “I don’t want to go a single day of my afterlife without you.”

“You will…someday.”

“Will I, though?” He combs his fingers through my hair. “You’re half an immortal being. Angels don’t age. I don’t even know if they can die.”

“I have so many questions for Michael.”

Lucas pulls the sheets over us and kisses the top of my head. “Do you think you’ll see him again?”

“With how close I come to dying on a weekly basis, probably. Though…Lucas…there is something I didn’t tell you all. Something Michael warned me about.” I swallow hard, and the good feelings start to fade. I haven’t allowed myself time to really think about this because it scares me.