Read Online Calling for a Miracle [The Order of Vampyres 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Lydia Michaels - Free Book Online Page A

“How is my brother, beautiful Anna? No doubt he is prouder than the proudest cock on the farm at the sight of you swelling with his seed.” When she did not immediately laugh at his teasing Cain looked to her eyes. Something was wrong. “What is it? What has happened? Is it Father?”
    She looked down. “No, not Jonas. It is your mother.”
    Cain sucked in a breath at the thought of trouble befalling his gentle mother. Although sweet and fiercely maternal, his mother was one of the most delicate females he had ever known. He loved her as completely as only a child could adore their mother and he would protect her with his last breath. “What is it?” He prayed she had not conceived and lost another babe. “Has she gotten with child again?”
    “No.” Whatever had happened, Annalise was having a difficult time telling him.
    “Just spit it out, Anna. If something has happened I need to know.”
    “Your mother is sick, Cain.”
    “Sick? Our kind does not get sick. Has she caught whatever has been ailing Father?”
    “Not that kind of sick.”
    “What other kind is there?”
    “I think she suffered a nervous breakdown.”
    “I do not understand what you are saying.”
    “Your father’s illness, not knowing what is causing him to withdraw and grow so lethargic, has taken a toll on all of us. We are concerned for him and do not want to alert the others to what is a private matter. Your mother wouldn’t tell me exactly what happened between her and Jonas, but I sort of walked in on her ‘falling apart.’”
    “What do you mean ‘falling apart’? My mother does not give in to emotional fits like many other females. I have watched her lose many children, a consequence of nature that would destroy lesser women, but she never handled it less than stoically. My mother is no crybaby.”
    “You’re wrong. She cries. All women cry. Only she sheds her tears in private, but today, when I saw her, it was more than crying. She was hysterical. I couldn’t seem to break through the fog of sadness and reach her. She seems to believe whatever is happening with your father is somehow her fault.”
    “What does my father have to say about this?”
    “I’m not sure that he cares!” Anna snarled.
    Cain leaned back, unaccustomed to such chilly emotions coming from his sister-in-law. “I assure you, my father cares. My mother has always been the one thing he cared about above all else, above The Order, above his children and perhaps even above his God—”
    “Then why the hell isn’t he doing something?”
    Cain raised his eyebrows at her outburst. “Has this ordeal driven you to swearing?”
    She rolled her eyes. His brother was a male that did not approve of his mate’s use of English curse words. Cain couldn’t care either way, but he always enjoyed teasing Anna about his twin’s conservative beliefs. Anna did not seem to be in any mood to be teased. “God damn it, Cain! I am not kidding. I don’t know what I have to do to get even one of you Hartzler men to take me seriously. Your mother is not well! This is no joke! She cannot continue to carry on like this. Adam refuses to interfere in your parents’ business because it is against the protection of family law. Jonas won’t talk to me. I assumed I could at least depend on you, who is always making light of the laws of The Order, to at least do something. I swear you are all as stubborn as mules and sometimes as thick as molasses.”
    Cain finally held his hands up before she unraveled into a rant that he would never be able to stifle. “Okay, okay, I’ll listen. Tell me exactly what you think I should do.”
    She looked up at him and he noticed a sheen of tears coating the whites of her eyes. “I don’t know if there’s anything you can do. She is just so sad. It’s heartbreaking to see her this way.”
    “I doubt she will discuss it with me.”
    “Perhaps, but you could approach your father about whatever is going on.”
    Cain did not look forward