'I know you couldn't have. No way could you have looked her in the face and been so ... cruel. You were her favorite brother even though you hunted and killed things with Dad, and she hated that, but she still loved you more.'

'She didn't love me more, Jerry; she loved me different, that's all.'

'You lying bastard.' His voice held the tears a moment before the first of them slid down his cheek. His voice was choking on his tears when he said, 'I hate you, you lying bastard.'

'I know,' Micah said, and something I heard in his voice made me have to look at his face so I could see the tears falling down his face.

It was Jerry who made the first move forward, but Micah didn't wait for more. They were suddenly hugging, clinging to each other and crying. Jerry was still calling him a lying bastard, but somewhere in all the name-calling I heard Micah say, 'I love you, too.'

CHAPTER 14

When both men had dried their tears enough so they could pretend they hadn't been crying, Jerry took us to the family waiting room. It had a few couches, chairs, a coffee table full of magazines that almost no one ever read, and a few paintings on the walls, everything in colors that were supposed to be cheerful, or soothing, but never really were. It looked like a hundred other waiting rooms I'd seen, where I'd go to talk to families or police about the person in the other room, in surgery, and what had attacked them. To police it was, How do we hunt it down and kill it? To families of victims it was, What can you tell me that will help me hunt it down and kill it? It was a room like so many others, except this one had some of Micah's family in it, and that made it unique and strangely more intimidating. We might never walk down an aisle together, but Micah was a permanent part of my life and I was as happy as I'd ever been. Wedding band or not, these strangers were my potential in-laws. Scary, even to us tough-as-nails vampire hunters.

Micah's mom had the same big pale blue-gray eyes as Jerry, and she looked like him, or rather he looked like her. Her shoulder-length hair was the same tight curls, but the color was paler brown, on the borderline between ash brown and sandy blond. She had that clear, soft shade of skin that only nature and some very fun genetics give you. She looked a little more ethnic than her sister, but not by much. Her full lips were lipsticked and her makeup was perfect, but she wasn't wearing that much and if I hadn't known she was Micah's mom I would not have put her over fifty, but she had to be, didn't she? She was heavier than she'd probably been when she was younger, but it was mostly just more curves, so it looked good on her. A nicely tailored suit flattered the fuller figure rather than hid it, which I liked a lot. She was voluptuous, exotic, and beautiful, and Micah's mom. She was also a hugger.

She enveloped Micah in a hug like he was the last solid thing in the world and she was holding on for dear life. We caught snatches of what she was saying through the tears: 'So glad you're home ... your dad will be so happy ... love you ...'

Micah said the only things he could: 'Love you, and I'm sorry.' He said other things, but they were mostly lost to his mother's crying. Nathaniel probably heard more of it, but he stood there holding my hand and waited for the emotional storm to abate enough for us to matter. Dev and Nicky had moved back to the entrance to the waiting area. There was only one way in, so they could guard just fine from there, and give us room for the family reunion at the same time. It was bodyguard multitasking at its best.

Micah extracted himself enough to say, 'Mom, this is Anita, and Nathaniel.'

She hugged me to her, and I had to let go of Nathaniel's hand to return the hug. She started crying again, saying, 'Thank you, thank you for bringing Mike home! Thank you so much.'

I mumbled, 'You're welcome,' and tried to figure out how soon I could break free of the hug and still be polite. My face was buried in her shoulder because in her heels she was at least five foot nine and I hadn't had time to go on tiptoe to keep from being smashed in the hug.

Jerry said, 'Let her breathe, Mom.'

She pulled back, laughing a little, dabbing at her eyes with her well-manicured hands. 'I'm sorry; I'm a hugger, so just a warning.'

In my head I thought, Too late for the warning, but on the surface I smiled and nodded, because I had nothing useful to say. People took it wrong if you told them not to touch you in situations like this, so I'd learned to smile and keep my mouth shut.

Micah drew Nathaniel forward. 'Mom, this is Nathaniel Graison.' He didn't add my significant other like he had with Cousin Juliet. It was harder sometimes with parents.

His mom looked at Nathaniel, then looked at Micah for a clue as to who he was to him.

Micah took Nathaniel's hand and my hand, took a deep breath, and said, 'Nathaniel is our live-in partner.'

A look that I couldn't interpret crossed her face, and then she hugged Nathaniel as tightly and completely as she had me. He hesitated for a second, then returned the hug, his face a little puzzled, but smiling over her shoulder.

She said, 'So happy to meet you and Anita both; you have no idea how happy I am to meet my son's friends.'

Micah and I exchanged a look. I tried to say with my eyes, Well, that went well. I was betting my stepmom wouldn't do nearly as well with it, but then again, Micah had been convinced his mom wouldn't do this well with Nathaniel. Maybe our parents were more grown up than we gave them credit for?

Micah's mom drew back from the hug, and I heard Nathaniel say, 'I'm glad to meet you, too, really.' He was smiling, happy and relieved, because none of us had been betting on it going this well.

A tall man came up behind Micah's mom. He was over six feet by a few inches, completely bald, with what amounted to five o'clock shadow in a thin pale half-circle on his scalp to show that he had started shaving his head after he went bald, rather than as a fashion statement. His eyebrows were thick, nearly black, and arched over dark-rimmed glasses. His eyes were a bright, clear blue. His dark suit, pale blue shirt, and dark tie fit his slender frame well and helped bring out the blue of his eyes and the stark paleness of his skin. The glasses and the baldness distracted me from the rest of his face, so it took a moment to realize he was handsome.

He put his hands on Micah's mom's shoulders in a gesture that, though innocent, was totally a couple gesture. I felt, more than saw, Micah tense. 'So glad you could be here, Mike,' the tall man said, and held out his hand.

Micah took the hand. 'I'm glad I could be here, too.' He turned back to me and said, 'Anita, Nathaniel, this is Tyson Morgan, my mom's ... husband.'

I had my own stepmom so I knew the awkward moment when you wanted to acknowledge them but not claim them as your parent.

Micah's stepdad's hand was big with long, thin fingers to match the rest of his lanky frame. He smiled. 'Dr Tyson Morgan. I teach at the college with Bea.'

'Anita Blake, U.S. Marshal.'

His mouth quirked, like a small, lopsided smile, and then he shook his head, more at himself, I think. 'I guess I'm prouder than I should be of being Dr Morgan, sorry, but please call me Ty.'

'No need to be sorry, it's a big accomplishment. Doctor of what, since you teach at the college?'

'American literature,' he said.

Micah was searching the other people in the waiting room. 'Where's Beth?'

'She's at home with the other kids,' Ty said.

'Twain has to be what, fourteen now?' Micah said.

They both nodded. 'And Hawthorne is twelve,' Bea said.

I fought to keep my thoughts off my face. Twain and Hawthorne; I realized that the kids were named after Mark Twain and Nathaniel Hawthorne, both American authors, but names like that were usually reserved for cats that lived in the literature building, not for children. Twain was tolerable, but Hawthorne, for a boy? Elementary school must have been brutal.

Bea added, 'We have two more now; did you know that from our Facebook page?'

Micah shook his head. 'I go online mostly for business. Two more? Boys or girls?'

'One of each,' she said, smiling.

'How old?' he asked.

'Frost is six and Fen is four.'

Micah looked past them to Jerry. He shrugged. 'There's a lot of catching up to do.' He held up his left hand and we saw the wedding band for the first time.

'Who to, and how long?' Micah asked.

'Someone new; she's a nurse here at the hospital, her name's Janet. Less than two years. Before you ask, I did marry Kelsey after high school. It lasted about two years and didn't work from the start. Janet and I are doing good.'

'I don't even know what you do for a living,' Micah said.

'Work at a local engineering firm. I work with Janet's brother. That's how we met. How long have you ... all been together?'