"Dad's gone," my cousin's voice was barely above a whisper. "You must come home for the Evaluations," she uttered and the phone line went dead.
*****
After Keri's Uncle - the Alpha of the Silver Bullets pack - loses his battle with cancer, the young...
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"Well, it's like I always say: a grumpy Callum is a normal Callum."
I chuckled at my cousin's words.
When Kelly had first told me about Callum's toaster incident, I'd been worried, but now that I knew no one had gotten hurt and there wasn't much damage, I could laugh it off. Apparently Callum had been a little more snappy since that unfortunate event, but hey, I wasn't the one on the receiving end of his bad mood and Kelly seemed to take it in her stride.
"It's time to feed Ollie so I'll talk to you later, okay?" I asked into the phone and after she replied with "Yeah, sure. Have fun babysitting" I turned the device off and set off to prepare the little one's baby formula.
Through the baby phone, I could hear the rustling of his sheets as he moved in his crib, but the sound got lost as I turned on the warm water and thoroughly washed my hands with the liquid soap Everett and Lisa had bought. I'd been in their kitchen before so I wouldn't have had trouble finding what I needed even if Lisa hadn't given me another tour before she and Everett had left. I measured some water and poured it in Ollie's baby bottle, then added several scoops of the powder, put on the cap and shook the bottle. I was just about ready to head to Ollie's bedroom when a noise came from the baby phone; a noise that was actually a voice.
"I know I keep calling you a little beast, but I had no idea you'd still be this little."
Hearing Alec over the baby phone was the last thing I was expecting.
Why was he here?
Did he know Lisa and his father were out?
And then he surprised me even more:
"You haven't exactly grown since the hospital, have you?"
Alec had been at the hospital when Ollie was born?
But... How did he know to go there?
And how come no one saw him?
"So very little indeed, and - ugh! - you have his eyes, that ugly green-grey, even now. Shouldn't they change color as you grow?"
I made a move towards the kitchen door, but halted.
Alec didn't seem to know I could hear him; what better time to see him at his most honest?
I was sure he wouldn't hurt Ollie; insult yes, but the baby was too young to understand and I needed only a minute to get to them if Alec raised his voice and scared his half-brother. In the end, I took a step back and silently listened, waiting to discover once and for all the reason for Alec's sudden visit.
"For your sake, you better take after your mother; she is the prettier one in the family," the half-vampire's words were followed by silence and I wondered what he could be doing. Perhaps I should go to the nursery after all...
"You are way too young to talk, aren't you?" The boy went on. "Well, this would be a boring visit then. Perhaps I should come back in half a year or so... But even then you'd only be saying basic things like 'mama' and 'dada'."
