Bloodline

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"I think we should talk to your dad."

Keros didn't even look up from where he was admiring a jewelry case at the vendor's. The sun glinted off the sunglasses sitting on top of his head, his hair tied back, his blue eyes glowing even in the sun. His expression, though, said he clearly did not want to talk about it right now.

Except we'd been ignoring the elephant in the room for over a week now.

A week since our rescue from the Mother. A week since we've even heard from her. It'd also been a week since Blaine declared Keros was no longer allowed to see me. So Keros had simply decided not to tell his father that he was seeing me, and was out with the cousins, all of whom played along with it in support of us, but I was starting to feel incredibly guilty.

According to the cousins, Blaine had been an absolute wreck about Keros having been kidnapped. Blaine had lost his first child and had his second one kidnapped, not counting the multiple kidnapping attempts while Keros and Holly were growing up. He was thoroughly traumatized when it came to his children and it explained his overprotectiveness, and frankly, could you blame him after that amount of trauma? And that was on top of everything else the cousins told me about Blaine.

Now I just felt guilty going behind Blaine's back.

Sure, Keros was an adult and could make his own choices, but it still somehow felt wrong now informing Blaine we were still hanging out... dating, actually. Keros had called me his boyfriend the other day, and I guess that made it official, but it didn't feel official without Blaine knowing. It just felt... wrong.

"Eventually," Keros answered at last, making me give him a droll stare and he frowned, "Why do we need to do it so soon? He's just going to freak out again..." His voice trailed as if he were imagining it and he grimaced. I frowned.

"Okay, but he's just going to freak out even more knowing we've been doing this behind his back anyway."

"I don't need his permission to hang out with people."

"I know that, but he deserves to know who you're hanging out with... who you're dating," I murmured, making Keros glance at me solemnly, "I like your dad, I really do. He may not like me, but... he obviously cares a lot about you." Keros averted his eyes back to the case of jewelry, running his finger along the edge thoughtfully. He couldn't disagree with me and he knew it. He sighed and looked at me.

"He's just going to say really hurtful things. I know he is. He always does when he's mad."

"A few mean words aren't gonna hurt my feelings," I said dryly, "Your dad has a sharp tongue, but my skin is made of cowhide. There's nothing he can say that hasn't already been said anyway." Keros raised an eyebrow, then looked away.

"Alright... If you think it's the right thing to do, I won't stop you," he said at last, "I do feel kind of... I dunno... Uncomfortable, not telling him, because I tell him... well, a lot." I smiled at that.

"You trust him."

"I trust him to do exactly what I know he'll do," Keros said under his breath. I gave him a hopeful smile and squeezed his hand. He squeezed back after a moment, then sighed and inclined his head. We steered away from the street vendors and made our way toward Keros's beach house.

"How're the cousins doing?" I asked as we walked. Keros shrugged.

"Fine as they can be. Hadrian has one last show to do here in Atlantis before he heads back to Purgatory. We're all going to see it on Friday, if you're up to it."

"Absolutely. I'd love to see Hadrian in action. You guys talk a lot about his dancing."

"It makes up a huge part of who he is. He's really dedicated. I think it'd make him really happy to see you there," Keros admitted. I smiled.