Unraveling Mordecai

Prologue
Whatever I'd been expecting, it hadn't been this. So far, I'd nearly lost Sarah to vampires, werewolves, other males, her family, and herself. But losing her to our children? I could not make an impossible decision.

 

CHAPTER ONE - SHE'S BACK

No matter how many times I saw her, I was still amazed at her Aphrodisian looks. Her selflessness, her kindness, her willingness to overlook my deepest flaws and see how much I loved her.
She was finally back after her summer in France on her family's farm. She was greatly tanned-even more tanned than usual-and her brown curly hair had been highlighted and cut to her shoulders. She had gained back much needed weight, and she had been working out. She had more musculature to her arms, legs, and abs.
What's more, she was finally happy. She was sad to leave her family, but happy to be back in front of me. She'd been taking her medication as prescribed, including her seizure and heart medication.
"Reese?"
I blinked. Then I woke up from my daydream.
"Come in, Sarah," I said.
She threw her arms around me immediately and kissed my jaw.
"I love you," she said.
"I love you most," I replied. As I'd said before, she would never have any conception of just how much I loved her. I would take a bullet for her.
"I missed you," she said. "I'm so glad I finally got to see you. I haven't been feeling great these past few days."
"I know, love, I heard. Selena told me." My sister had texted me two days before, updating me on the situation. Sarah had had a bad case of sun fever, and had gotten sick. She was better now, after lots of water and cool air.
Now that our high school career was over, I couldn't wait to marry her. We had planned the day for the Winter Solstice, on the day that Mom and Alexander had gotten married. But she needed lots of rest first, and we needed to plan our new life together, maybe even buy a house. Not a big one, two or three bedrooms max, just a starter home.
One room for us, one room for the baby, and a room for the guests.
Suddenly, she ran to the bathroom, and I heard her retching. A few minutes later, she came back out.
"Can I borrow your sweatpants?" she asked.
"Of course," I said, walking up to my room with her following behind. I gave her a pair of my old boxers, and she changed, tossing her wet jeans and underwear in the laundry hamper. I'd steal those later. She changed into my old black sweatpants, and then she sat on my bed, holding her stomach.
"I must have eaten some bad chicken," she said. "Come to think of it, I've been eating a lot of bad chicken lately."
"Stop eating chicken," I said.
"That's probably a good idea. Even Zie, who normally cooks really well, hasn't been having much luck with chicken lately."
Zie Huang was their cook and housekeeper. She also babysat Cirino sometimes. Cirino was Sarah's first baby, the one conceived by Michael Nales, whom I had destroyed after he raped her.
She ran to the bathroom again, and this time I made her stay in there until her stomach was completely empty. I gave her an unused toothbrush to brush her teeth with. I was glad she had her hair in its usual bun, or she'd have to take a shower to get the vomit out of her hair. Not that I minded loaning her my clothes. In fact, she frequently stole my clothes. I had been looking for a shirt or a jacket more than once only to realize she'd taken it.
I loaned her one of my band shirts next. She laid on the bed next.
"Period problems?" I asked.
"No," she said. "I haven't had any period...well, I do still have cramps, but no blood."
"Ah," I said. "Would you like to watch a movie, or would you like me to read to you?"
"Read," she said. She produced a book from her purse, which she'd set on the carpet. "Read this one. It's the latest vampire hit."
"Blood Night, by Jamie Williams," I read off the cover. "When are you going to get over him?"
"Um, never," she said.
"A tale of intrigue, romance, passion, lust, and rivalry," I continued. "When Dirk Zoeller moves to small town Indrigo, cheerleaders' hearts get broken and football players plot a dangerous prank against the one person they shouldn't mess with. How very fascinating."
"Read," she commanded.
"Fine. 'It was a dusky night when I approached the graveyard. The stars were covered by the dark clouds, the graves crooked and cracked. I almost did not see the ghost girl until it was too late.' Sarah, this is dreck."
"Read."
"'I approached the girl cautiously. She sat, staring ahead. She was dressed in old-fashioned clothing, closer to my time than this time. She wore a long grey dress with puffed sleeves and ruffled wrists. Her petticoat was visible under the hem. She wore old riding boots. Her hair was blond, meticulousy curled and pinned in a high updo. She did not react, nor stir, as I approached her. Then, as I stopped a foot away, her head slowly turned, and then I realized that her throat had been slit.'"
"Wow."
Wow, indeed. I would have never admitted this to Sarah, but as I moved deeper into the story, I grew interested as well. This was actually a decent story. When the ghost's skin melted away to reveal muscle and bone underneath, I actually shuddered. When she screamed for him to leave, to stay away, Sarah shuddered and climbed into my lap.
It was interesting, until we got to the part where he registered for high school and was immediately stalked by a cheerleader. Sarah had been a cheerleader, so I kind of understood the need for cheerleaders to keep up their image.
Finally, I heard the doorbell ring, interrupting our story time.
Since no one else was home, it was up to me to answer the door.
I went down, Sarah following close behind, and opened the door. A tall vampire with yellow eyes and long blond hair in a ponytail stood there, looking nervous.
"Is this the home of Mordecai Emerson?" he asked, sounding as nervous as he looked.
"What business do you have with my father?" I asked. "Vampires don't normally come to this house unless they're nomads or rogues."
"I...uh..." He turned and looked at Sarah. "I can see I'm interrupting something. I'll just...come back later."
He turned around and trotted down the steps, getting into a beautiful black 1976 Impala.
"That was weird," Sarah said. "What did he want with Mordecai?"
"He didn't say," I told her. "But do you know who he looks like?"
She nodded. "He looks like Mordecai."
"Mmm," I hummed.
We'd had vampires claiming to be sons of my uncle and Louis before, even a couple claiming to be Grandfather's long-lost sons, but they'd all been proven to be fakes. But this could have been real.
He looked like my father, for one thing. For another, he was nervous. Vampires claiming to be related to us were never nervous. They were usually confident, or at least pretending to be.
Sarah took a bathroom break, and I fixed her a glass of iced tea.
Just then, Father came in, glaring.
"I smell vampire," he said.
"Yes, something unusual happened," I said. "A vampire came by looking for you. He looks like you, even."
"A vampire who looks like me came looking for me?" His brows furrowed.
"Hey, Dad, is it possible that you have a son somewhere?" I asked.
"I suppose it's possible," he said, frowning. "I've had many, many lovers over the years. I can't remember all their names."
He sniffed the air. "Is Sarah here?"
"She's in the bathroom-"
The doorbell rang, interrupting me again. Father and I looked at each other, and he opened the door. But it was only Louis, carrying a large box.
"You'll never guess what I found!" he said happily. "
"Vinyl records?" I guessed. It turned out, I was right. When he set the box down, I looked inside, and saw a dozen vinyl records.
"Yep! Let's see...Barry Manilow, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Heart, Joan Jett, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd, Stevie Nicks, Nick Cave...a lot of good ones. I found them at a garage sale. Do you know how rare these are? You don't see much of them around anymore. When they came out with the record player, I was one of the first ones to jump on board."
"He was," Father confirmed.
"Whatcha got there?"
"Where have you been?" I asked my familiar, Shadowfang. He jumped on the table, tail swishing.
"Out in the garden. I killed five snakes, and ate a grasshopper. He was tasty."
"What is it with you and snakes?" I asked.
He avoided answering the question, and instead he looked inside the box. He started to jump in, but Louis grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and set him on the floor.
"Not on the records!"
Louis took the box of records up to his room, and Shadowfang sat in front of the fireplace and pouted about his box being taken away.
"Where's Mishka?" I asked.
"Taking a nap, I expect," Shadowfang replied. "She was playing with the kids earlier." The kids being the kittens, Catniss and Belle. Their son Frodo had gone to live with my best friend, Ariella, and Anakin had gone to live with Mason, my other best friend. They were all familiars, and therefore could take human form at any time. Shadowfang even had a driver's license. His human form was a tall, tanned man with black hair and a thin shadow of a beard with dark brown eyes. His cat eyes were, in fact, yellow.
The door opened again, and my Uncle Soren entered the house, looking as grumpy as ever. He and Father had both lost their loves in the spring. My uncle had taken it especially hard because he and Mitra were on the rocks, so to speak, when she had died. He still blamed himself.
"There is a kid out in the driveway," he growled. "Just sitting there in a black Impala."
"What?" My father went out to look. "I wonder why Louis or I didn't see him?"
"He could have left and then come back," I offered.
"He could have." Father's brows furrowed further. I noticed for the first time that he was starting to look like he was in his mid-thirties. Before that, he looked like he could be in his early thirties or even late twenties. He was over two thousand years old, but he hadn't looked this tired or old before. I knew what Louis had had told me before, though, when I questioned him about Grandfather: all vampires age differently. Some look their age. Others don't age at all. Ones who were humans or Elves before are frozen in time, so to speak.
But natural-borns, like my father, slowly aged over time. Someday, I would look as old as him. My uncle looked like he could be in his late thirties or early forties, and my Grandfather looked like he could be in his fifties, with not a grey hair to spare. His hair was still as vibrant a red as it had ever been. My uncle's hair had a burgundy tone, and my father's was blond. Louis had light brown hair, and my hair is jet black.
We all have similar body types, except for my uncle, who is broad in the shoulders, chest, and stomach, with trunks for legs and the thickest, most muscular arms I've ever seen. He was known not only for being the next king in line, but for his physical strength as well.
The rest of us are thin and muscular.
Sarah finally came out of the bathroom, and greeted my family. Father's nose wrinkled, and so did my uncle's. I was confused. Did she stink? She smelled wonderful to me. Like gardenias and roses and Spanish amber.
Belle finally came out of the cat tree where she'd been hiding, twining herself around Sarah's legs.
"Hi, girl," Sarah said, scratching her ears. Belle chirped and purred.
"It's good to see you, Sarah," Father said.
"You, too, Mordecai," she said. She looked at me.
"He knows about the guy who came by earlier," I said. "Apparently, he's sitting in our driveway right now."
"I hope he's not another crazy," she said.
Ever since my father had spilled the beans about the vampire race's existence, many of my kind had not been happy with us, and even Sarah had gotten death threats, not that she knew about them, which I was grateful for. I still got death threats daily, not only from vampires, but from humans, Elves, goblins, and other beings.
Then the doorbell rang a third time, and Uncle Soren answered it this time. There was the vampire from earlier.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
"Yes." The vampire shuffled his feet. "Can I speak to Mordecai?"
"I'm Mordecai," Father said, offering his hand. "Come in, young man. Please, take a seat."
The vampire boy sat on the couch, and he looked uncomfortable.
"My name is David," he blurted out. "David McCurt."
"It's nice to meet you, David," Father said. "Now, what can I do for you?"
"I...I'm...I'm..." David closed his eyes and swallowed. "I'm your son." He kept his eyes closed, and for a moment no one said anything, until we heard Louis' laughter from upstairs.
"LOUIS! SHUT UP!" Uncle Soren shouted, making David jump and Louis laugh louder.
David scratched his arm, and I noticed small scars on his arm, which looked like they could be from fingernails or even knives.
"I apologize for them," Father said to David. "Now, what makes you think that you're my son?"
"My mother...Ferri McCurt...before she died, she said she had a relationship with you."
"Ferri?" Father frowned. "That was twenty-five years ago. That would mean..." His eyes widened and he looked at David again. I saw Father swallow. Then he leaned over and embraced David. David looked shocked for a minute, then hugged Father back.
"It's so good to meet you!" Father exclaimed. "I had always thought Reese was my only kid. I've had other vampires say they were my sons or daughters, but they all turned out to be fakes. But you're real. You're real. I can't believe this. Soren, he's real."
"Yeah, and so is his Impala," Uncle Soren sarcasted.
"Ferri was well off," Father said. He looked at David. "How did she die?"
"She had porphyria," David explained. Father frowned, then looked at me. I knew what he was thinking. I had porphyria, too, one of the most dangerous vampire diseases. You lose your mind at random times, and you can't control it. It also thins your blood and creates dangerous levels of iron, poisoning your blood. Not even vampire venom is helpful at that point.
"Reese has porphyria, too," Father said. David frowned and looked at me.
"He does?"
"He does, indeed. Tell, me, David, do you have accommodation?"
"I'm staying in my car."
"Poppycock. I insist you stay with us."
"Uh, Mordecai, can I see you in the kitchen?" Uncle Soren asked.
"Soren, look at him," Father snapped, gesturing to David. "The similarities are overwhelming!"
"Yes, but we've been down this road before, and they've all been fakes," Uncle Soren reminded him.
"Soren, he's my son. I know he is. My gut is screaming that he is, and my gut is never wrong."
"Yeah, well, my gut says otherwise. I'm sorry, David, but I don't trust you. If I am wrong, I will apologize, but if I'm right, you are never to speak to any of us ever again. Do I make myself clear?"
David gulped and nodded. I saw tears prick his eyes.
"He can stay in the bedroom by mine and Reese's," Father said. "I don't trust you around him, Soren."
Uncle Soren gave him the finger. David looked shocked.
"They have a love-hate relationship," I explained. "It depends on their moods and what sort of insults they've thrown at each other recently."
Uncle Soren stood up and stomped up the stairs. I heard Louis yelp, and then a door slamming.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
Louis came down the stairs seconds later and introduced himself to David.
"I'm Louis, the awesome one," he said, shaking David's hand. "And yes, I'm currently dating a shapeshifter, but I promise he won't give you any trouble. Reese is also dating a human, but she won't be human for long." He winked at me. I glared at him.
"Louis, if you're not going to behave, get out," Father ordered. "Come, David, I'll show you to your room." Father did show David to his room, my new brother looking uncomfortable the whole way there. I thought about Rosales, my father's fledgling who had been like a son to him.
I'd never met Rosales, but I'd heard about him. He had died before I was conceived.
Sarah cuddled into me, and then she said, "Um, the book?"
"Book? Oh, right, I was reading to you before, wasn't I?"
I carried her up the stairs, followed closely by Belle and Shadowfang.
"We were at the part where he was insulting the football captain," Sarah said.
But before I got through the chapter, she fell asleep in my lap. I tucked her into my bed and kissed her. I thought about David. I'd never had a brother before. Louis often said that I was like a brother to him, and I had Kieran, Alexander's son, as a stepbrother.
And then there was Cirino, who was like an adopted brother. There was Taran and Viktor, my ex-stepbrothers, although I didn't really know them, as my mother had been married to their father before I re-met her.
Sarah snoozed, mumbling incoherently.
"That's not right," she muttered, her eyelids fluttering.
I kissed her and stroked her hair. She muttered again, this time she said my name. Reese. I focused my hearing on David, and I carefully left my room and closed the door. I went to the room that Father had put David in. I heard them talking. I knocked on the door.
"Come in," Father said. "It's okay, David, it's just Reese."
I entered the room, and David was sitting on the bed, with Father standing over him. I closed the door behind me.
"So...you’re my brother," I said.
David nodded.
“Okay, um…what do you want to know?” I asked.
“Everything,” he said.
“Okay, well, you know me, obviously. And you’ve met my girlfriend, Sarah. Fiancée, actually. She’s going to officially be my wife in December, on the Winter Solstice. We’re currently working on the invitations and everything. I met her four years ago, but we first got together two years ago. She had been….assaulted…and I saved her. I started dating her and testified against Michael Nales on her behalf.”
“Do you have any other siblings? And what about you, Father? Are you married?”
“No, I’m not married, but I do have another brother, an adopted one, named Mathias. We have a history, so to speak. I don’t talk about him much, and don’t ever mention him in front of Soren. He’s sensitive about it. Not about having an adopted brother, but Mathias has had a long and difficult life. My brother and I were partly to blame for that…actually, we were fully to blame for it. It’s a long and tragic story, but it is important to our family history. Reese didn’t even know it until recently. I regret not telling him sooner, but I didn’t think he was ready.”
“Father babies me,” I told David.
“I do,” Father admitted. “I can’t help it. A vampire parent’s instincts are much stronger than a human’s instincts, especially the maternal instinct. The relationship between Reese and I or Marina and her children are the norm, while relationships like Soren’s and Louis’ are rare. Louis can barely stand Soren these days. Resents, him, I think, for the tragedies he’s caused and the strife he’s put us through. Soren himself is sensitive about it, so again, don’t mention it in front of him. Soren blames himself for our mother’s death and the death of his wife, Alga. He also blames himself for the recent events that caused turmoil for us.”
“What are those events?” David asked.
Father explained about the Book of Transformation and Death, how it had caused problems for centuries, what had occurred that time in the Night Market with Uncle Soren and Samuel, how Alana was powerful and magical, and how Samuel Jr. had been killed in the process, and Samuel’s plan for revenge, and the spell that resurrected the dead.
David listened with rapt attention, his eyes going wider and wider with every few lines of description and clarification.
I could tell he was confused, but he still listened carefully, as if it was the most important piece of the puzzle. After the explanation, David actually looked paler, if that was possible. And then Father told David that the book had been destroyed, but the spells were still in effect.
My brother looked both amazed and confused.

I heard the telltale sound of my stepfather’s Bugatti Veyron that he’d bought for my mother for their wedding. I headed outside, along with Sarah, who was now sipping an iced tea. There was a passenger in my mother’s car, and when she stepped out, I was amazed at how much she looked like Mother and Selena.
Her skin was rough, her eyes lined with crow’s feet, her hair just as wildly curly, long, and the color of black ink. She had the same crystal-blue eyes, the same curvy figure, with exaggerated hips and chest. She wore a long crimson velvet skirt and a fitted brown top. On her feet she wore flat boots.
“Is this him?” she asked in an ancient-sounding Greek accent. “You’re right; he is handsome. He has my hair color, but he’s got your father’s nose.” The woman laughed. “A family curse, eh, Marina?” Mom didn’t say anything.
“Just who do you think you are?” Sarah asked, and I quickly covered her mouth with my hand.
“Watch your tongue, girl, before I snatch it from your mouth. I can turn you into a toad easily with a snap of my fingers.”
“She apologizes,” I apologized.
“And so protective of that insolent little harlot!”
“Watch it,” Mother warned. “She’s my child just as much as he is.”
“But she’s not actually your child, is she?” The woman laughed.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, I jumped, but it was only Father, along with David, Louis, and Uncle Soren.
“Hello, Satira,” he said glumly.
She nodded at him. “Mordecai.”
“Dad, who is this?” I asked.
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing, and he looked at Mother, who nodded.
“My mother-in-law, also known as your grandmother,” he said.
“Cranky old bitch, isn’t she?” Louis said.
Satira eyed him. “And just who are you, the king of royally irritating self-centered annoying little brats?”
“Hey, I may be a brat, but one thing I am not is self-centered.”
Uncle Soren snorted.
“More relatives?” I groaned. “Are there any more I should know about? Maybe a third cousin or two?”
“It was your mother’s decision not to tell you about her, not mine,” Father said.
Satira shook her head. “Shameful.”
“I don’t tell you about every girlfriend I’ve ever had,” Father said.
“Have you been married before Mom?”
“Oh, sure…plenty of times. But it never produced anything. I think I’m a seed that’s meant to bear only one fruit, and that’s you. I mean, you and David,” he said, glancing back at my brother.
Satira shook her head. “A man who can’t produce any seeds is a man who does not deserve to live.”
“Mother!” Mom shouted. “What about me? None of my babies lived until I became a vampire.”
Satira merely shook her head again. “When I was human, I was a midwife. I helped deliver babies of the royal court. I nursed them and bathed them. When I married Balthazar, I knew I would have lots of little ones, but I only produced you and your sisters.”
“Are my sisters and I not enough?”
“What’s the point of having lots of babies if I do not produce at least one son?”
“Old-fashioned old buzzard,” Louis muttered. “Do you know that some women choose not to have babies at all? And that’s okay. I mean, it’s their decision.”
I was surprised to hear something so feministic coming out of his mouth.
“I was forced to have a baby,” Sarah said, and we all looked at her. “Lady, I was raped. I got pregnant, and I couldn’t abort him due to family values. So I was forced to have a C-section, because I’m too small down there to have a safe birth. I’m still his mother, but part of me wishes he’d been born to somebody else…Marina, maybe. She’s a better mother than I ever could be.”
“Mouthy girl,” Satira said. She turned and crossed her arms, then grinned over her shoulder. “I see the Major Arcana,” she said. “The Lovers. Eilief is the Hierophant. Krauvas is the Magician.”
“You know Krauvas?” I interrupted.
“Shush, boy. And yes, I know Krauvas. He and I used to date. My daughter is the Mother.”
“There is no Major Arcana called the Mother,” Sarah interrupted this time. “I know. I’ve been studying the cards.”
“Soren is the Hanged Man,” Satira continued. “Mordecai is Justice.”
“What’s she talking about?” I asked.
“She’s comparing us to tarot cards, specifically the Major Arcana,” Sarah said. Then she turned to Satira. “Why don’t you just tell us what you want and get it over with?”
“Don’t be rude, Sarah,” I warned.
“She’s right to be rude,” Mother said. “My mother never wants anything to do with any of us unless she wants something. What is it this time? Money? Wine?”
“I have an offer to make,” Satira said.
Silence. And then. “No. No freaking way.”
“Don’t listen to her, kids,” Dad said. “She is a master of the dark arts. She’d twist a knife in your back as soon as you turn it.”
“Is resurrection really such a bad thing?” Satira asked.
“Lady, we don’t know what the fuck you’re babbling about,” Louis snapped.
“Yes, resurrection is normally considered black magic,” Dad said.
“Unless you mean the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” Sarah added.
“No, girl, I don’t mean the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I mean the resurrection of Sadie and Faolan.”
“She’s lying,” Father said. “Don’t listen to her. Magic always has a price. What do you want, Satira? And no bullshit this time.”
“I want the souls of Reese and Selena,” Satira said.
It all happened in a flash. Mother turned and slugged her own mother, and Satira was on the ground, holding a fat lip.
“You’re not taking my children!” Mother cried.
“What’s so bad about taking their souls?” David asked. It was the first time he’d spoken up.
“They will still be alive, but they won’t be themselves,” Father said. “What makes them them will cease to exist. They will become vampire zombies.”
“Cool,” Louis said. Uncle Soren whacked him on the back of the head. “I mean, not cool. I mean, that’s something I didn’t know about, and I know everything.”
He was sadly mistaken in that regard. Uncle Soren made to hit Louis again, but this time he flinched, and Uncle Soren backed off.
Satira picked herself up off the ground, still holding her left cheek. Huh. I had not seen Mother hit her cheek, only her mouth. But pain can travel sometimes, so maybe that was it. Then a girl appeared, and Uncle Soren let out a whoop.
The girl looked amazingly like Mitra. Same hairstyle and shade, same sharp features and almond-shaped brown eyes, same thin body type with small breasts and a cute butt. She wore a faded white t-shirt that referenced Wonder Woman, pale blue jeans, and military-style boots. She carried a backpack around her back and a brown crossbody purse.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a wand. She handed it to Satira, who said, “Thank you, Cholena.” Satira turned to us. “I believe you’re all familiar with the child of Mitra Dearwood and Katonah Wolfe?”
“The child of Mitra…” Uncle Soren began. He stared at the girl, who glared back.
“You killed my mother.” It wasn’t a question, more of a statement. Her voice was soft and dainty, slightly high-pitched. It was different from Mitra’s big booming alto voice.
“So is your last name Dearwood or Wolfe?” Louis asked.
“It’s hyphenated,” Cholena replied. “Which one of you is Soren?”
“That would be me,” Uncle Soren said. “I loved your mother, Cholena, and she loved me. She was torn between her vows to your father and her unconditional love for me.”
Her features softened, and she started to approach him. Chirag, one of our guards, made a move to stop her, but Uncle Soren told Chirag to let her approach him.
She slowly approached him, and it struck me how tiny she was, especially compared to him. She was shorter than Sarah, and thinner than Mitra. I could almost see her ribs through her shirt.
She looked at all of us, her eyes lingering on Sarah, who stared back icily. I wondered if she had lady-loving inclinations. And then she kicked Uncle Soren in the crotch.
He fell over, clutching his privates, cursing her out loud.
“You’re responsible for my mom’s death, pencil-dick, so I feel plenty justified,” Cholena said.
“Fucking bitch,” he cursed. She stomped on his hand, cracking the bones. I heard him cry out again, and then he grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her to the ground. She landed on her back, and he dragged her, so she was level with him.
He grabbed her head and started to twist it, and I shouted, “Uncle Soren, think of who she is!”
He growled, but he stopped trying to snap her neck at least.
He grabbed her by the throat and held her up off the ground by three feet. “Try that again and I won’t be so merciful, girl.”
He dropped her onto the ground where she lay, coughing.
I predicted that these two would be crazy about each other in a matter of days.
“She’s just like Mitra, isn’t she?” Satira gloated. “Strong and powerful. The Ancient Feminine is incredibly pleased with the Dearwood women.”
“How did you meet her?” I asked.
“Through a friend. Quite a coincidence, really.”
“You’re not telling the whole story.”
“Oh, the whole story will eventually come out. But not today. What do you think of her, Soren?”
Uncle Soren grumbled under his breath about impertinent women and ancient witches who annoyed the daylights out of him.
“Why are you really here, Satira?” Father asked.
“I told you. Marina, your sister and I miss you dearly. Do you think you could-“
“No. I chose Catholicism, and you chose witchcraft. Do not try to tempt me.”
“But your children, the unborn ones, they still have a choice, and so do Reese and Selena.”
“Stay away from my children,” Mom growled. “Leave now.”
“Satira, get off my property,” Father warned. Satira sighed dramatically and shrugged.
“As you wish.”
She turned around and left, Cholena following close behind.
“Bitch,” Father muttered. “Marina, why did you bring her here?”
Mother blushed. “I thought she’d changed.”
“Well, obviously she hasn’t. Please, be more careful whom you bring around our son.”
“Just a minute, Mordecai-“
“Please don’t fight,” I begged my parents. “I didn’t even know she was still alive until today. I don’t know anything about your side of the family, Mom. Do you really have a sister? How many siblings do you have?”
“Five, all sisters,” Mom said. “Two of them are dead and one of them lives with Satira. The other two, I don’t know about.”

 

CHAPTER TWO – ONE, TWO PREGNANCIES

We didn’t see Satira again for several days. By then, Cholena had made a regular presence at the edge of Father’s property. She was usually carving wood or sketching in a drawing pad or writing in a composition book.
I figured she was keeping an eye on us, possibly intimidating my uncle on purpose. Sarah divided her time between Father and Mother’s houses, bringing a set of clothes each time. She was more tired, hungrier, and thirstier. What was even odder, was that she began to have strange cravings similar to mine. She would only eat rare beef or sometimes even eat raw hamburger. I asked her to stop, but she glared at me.
I began to have my own suspicions. We’d been down this path before, where I’d thought Sarah was pregnant, but I was wrong. This time, I was more certain.
Meanwhile, everyone got along with David swimmingly except for Uncle Soren. He acted like he didn’t exist, even outright ignoring him during question-and-answer time. Father made an announce of the “appearance of a child” on the vampire news.
Not everyone had taken the news that vampires were real and alive well. I still got death threats daily. But we had also begun a new project: the first vampire TV station, dedicated solely to the supernatural and paranormal. It was stationed in Trenton, the capital city of New Jersey. Father needed to be gone for days at a time to take care of it-or Uncle Soren. This time, though, we all went.

The driver pulled up to the station building. Across the street were religious protestors-it looked like Westboro Baptist Church members. I showed my ID and was led to a makeup room. A man with caramel skin and silver eyeliner introduced himself as Jimmy, and he said he would do my makeup and hair.
“How long have you been growing out your hair?” he asked, picking up a brush that I recognized as a Mason Pearson brush.
“It’s been long since I was fourteen,” I told him. “The white tips are a trait of our family. Even Louis has white tips, and he’s the only one who doesn’t have yellow eyes. Emerson eyes, some call them.”
“Whatever you call them, they’re beautiful,” Jimmy complimented. “Now, how much makeup do you usually wear?”
“I used to wear eyeliner and black lipstick,” I said. “But I stopped doing that except for special occasions a few years ago. Now I usually go au naturel. I also used to wear earrings.”
“I can see the scars,” Jimmy said, examining my face. “You’ve got a nice complexion. Small pores. What kind of blood do you drink, human or animal?”
“Human,” I responded.
“That explains it. Animal drinkers usually rot from the inside out unless they have human blood every now and then. It’s a slow death.”
“My father always said that animal drinkers were an abomination.”
Jimmy laughed. “I’m an animal drinker.”
Well, that was embarrassing. For me, I mean.
“But you say that animal drinkers rot?”
“Eventually, but it takes years and years,” Jimmy said. “I think I’ve got time.”
“You could always drink bagged blood.”
“Tried it. Hated it. Okay, is your hair naturally straight, or do you straighten it? I’m thinking a low ponytail. Is that okay with you?”
I answered his questions and consented to the ponytail. He fixed my hair up and used a black elastic to keep it tied together. Then he applied a thin layer of foundation and powder, and then lined my eyes in black. After some thought, he decided to paint my lips a slightly pinker color.
I actually looked handsome when he was done.
“Do you usually prefer prey or predator?” I asked.
“I actually prefer wolf, if I can get it,” he said. “But if I can’t, cow’s blood will work. It’s against my religion to eat any pork products.”
“My girlfriend’s Jewish.”
He laughed. “So am I.”
“Stay away from her.”
“No worries-I only like men. Particularly rich, handsome men. I wouldn’t go for her, but I might go for your dad.”
I nearly barfed. He laughed at the look on my face, and finished my makeup by spraying a finishing spray.
The wardrobe girl handed me an expensive white shirt and black pants with dress shoes and socks. She allowed me a curtain, at least, so I could dress in private. Her name was Sheila.

I sat on a couch beside my father a few minutes later, David on his other side. Sarah sat beside me, dressed in a formal knee-length crimson dress with rose detailing. Her hair was done up in an intricate curly updo, her makeup applied perfectly by Jimmy. Her lips were a brownish red, her eyes had silver and blue makeup around them.
Her ring was clearly visible on her finger, her nails painted a dark red. I’d never noticed before how unusual she was. Her skin was dark, but her eyes were bright green, her hair was thick and curly, almost always tied up, and she seemed too beautiful to be real.
I reached for her hand, and she smiled at me.
“Okay,” said a man coming over with a microphone clipped to his shirt and earbuds in. “It’s nice to meet you, Your Excellency,” he said to my father, shaking his hand. “I’m Cal Zigg. I’m the producer of your show.”
“It is nice to meet you, as well,” Father said. “As you know, I am Prince Mordecai, and these are my sons, Reese and David, and Reese’s betrothed, Sarah.”
Cal shook all of our hands and kissed Sarah’s knuckles. Someone started playing gothic music and then Kate Un appeared. Oh, great. I knew that Uncle Soren had promised her a position on this station in order to keep her mouth shut about their brief affair.
I sat up straight and urged Sarah to do the same. David looked nervous. He kept messing with his collar, and Father had to keep adjusting it.
Kate Un sat in the host’s chair and greeted us with a nod. Then she plastered a fake smile on her face as the assistant cameraman counted down.
“We are on in three, two…one.”
“Hello, and welcome to Live Talk, the only live show on the first ever vampire channel. I’m here with Prince Mordecai and some other very special guests. Prince Mordecai, why don’t you introduce us?”
Insolent bitch.
“Twenty-six years ago, I met a young woman,” Father said. “This was before I married Marina Santorino and produced Reese, who, as you can see, is on my left, along with his beautiful fiancee, Sarah Cresley. On my right, there is a child I didn’t know existed until very recently. He found me and told me who he was, and I believe him. Now, there have been many fakes and attempts to claim familial bonding, but this is a true connection. I know it is, because my gut instinct is never wrong. This is my son, David.”
The camera panned to David, who abashedly looked at his lap. Then he looked up.
“I never knew who my father was until three weeks ago,” he said. “There has never been a man in my life. I had to learn how to be a man on my own. Now that I know who my father is, I’m eager to get to know him, along with my brother and other relatives.”
“How did you find Prince Mordecai?” Kate asked.
“After my mother…” He cleared his throat. “After my mother passed away, I went through her old journals and found Prince Mordecai’s name. I read the whole book, and learned about the affair. I looked him up by name, and found his photo online. I felt an instant connection when I saw him. I mean, the similarities, the hair and eyes alone, it’s uncanny.”
My father wrapped his arm around David’s shoulders and pecked him on the cheek.
“Prince Reese, what are your thoughts about all of this?” Kate asked.
“I’m as excited as Dad is,” I said. “I’ve always wanted an older brother. Little did I know that I actually had one all along.”
“Sarah?” Kate asked. “How do you feel about all this?”
“I’m happy for Reese and his family,” she said. “It’s like getting a brand-new family member. There’s always room for more.”
“Sarah is correct,” Father said. “Like she said, there’s always room for more. I’ve gotten many, many fakes, vampires claiming to be related to us, but they’ve always been proven false. This one is real. David is, in fact, my son.”
“What fantastic news,” Kate said, layering on the sweetness. “A new family member for the Emerson-Nicolai clan! This is Kate Un, reporting for Live Talk on the new station VTV!”
Sarah clung to me and gave a big smooch on the cheek.
Then Uncle Soren began raging.
“Outrageous!” he shouted. He pointed at David. “That boy is no more your son than Alexander is mine! This is absolutely ridiculous! I don’t believe for one second that he’s related to us! I don’t care what your goal, is, boy, but it ends here and now!”
He moved toward David threateningly, but Father planted himself in front of David.
“Touch him and I’ll rip your arms off, Soren,” he promised. “The DNA test will prove that he’s my son. I don’t care what you do to me, but if you hurt David, Louis will have a father to bury.”
“That was dark, Uncle Mordecai,” Louis said. My father and his father both ignored him. Uncle Soren continued to glare at David, who cowered and quavered under the look of the most powerful vampire in the world.
Sarah clung even tighter, and I realized without looking at her that my uncle had frightened her.
Beckett appeared. He looked at Sarah. “Ca va, Sarah?”
“Oui, Daddy, je vais bien,” She replied.
“Il t’a blessé ?”
“Non, je vais bien, papa, vraiment. Qu’est-ce que tu fais ici de toute façon?”
“Je suis venu aider Mordecai. J’ai été engagé comme producteur pour un de ses spectacles.” He nodded to me. “Reese.”
When he left, I asked Sarah what that was about.
“He heard Soren’s yelling and came to check on me,” she said. “Your dad hired him as a producer for one of the new shows.”
“That’s…good,” I said.
“It’s fantastic,” Sarah said. “Daddy needs money. He and Mom are finally getting officially divorced.”
“He’s still wearing his glasses.”
“He says it’s due to habit, but I think his vision hasn’t improved any. That’s the tough part about being part human. You’ll always have some human qualities.”
“He doesn’t like me.”
“No, Reese, that’s not the case. It’s actually…I shouldn’t say this, but you’ll find out anyway. He’s jealous of you.”
“Jealous? Of me? Why?” I asked suspiciously.
“You’ve been able to protect me better than he ever has. You’re young and virile, and he wishes he had your body. He also thinks you’re more attractive than he is. He’s jealous because you’re my first love, and he wasn’t around to see me fall for you. He’s also a little wary, since you’re a vampire.”
“He’s a vampire, too.”
“But he wasn’t until recently, and he had to have the help of a goddess. Our ancestor, even. I still can’t believe I’m part goddess. But anyway, you shouldn’t take his rudeness seriously. I’ll have a talk with him if that makes you feel better.”
She pecked my jaw. And then we realized that the cameras were still recording everything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Shit, shit, shit.” Father paced around the living room. “Shit, damn, fuck. Fucking bitch. Who knows how many people saw that nastiness? The one that is my brother?”
“Approximately a hundred million, give or take,” Louis said. Father glared at him.
Sarah was in our room, singing “Top of the World” by the Carpenters. I was sitting on the couch. Sarah came down, wearing gray yoga pants and a white jacket.
“Aren’t you hot, babe?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, “But not because of the jacket.”
I grinned at her sudden burst of vanity. But a part inside of me groaned. She sat between me and Louis, who was currently flipping through cartoons. He settled on Baby Looney Tunes. While he and Sarah laughed at the characters’ antics, I wondered what was wrong with me. Sarah never used to annoy me this much. Okay, maybe I did blame her a bit for saying too much on camera, but it really wasn’t her fault.
I’d long ago accepted that she wasn’t perfect…or had I?
I mean, her physical beauty alone…everyone thought she was perfect. She worked so hard to maintain that façade that it had worn her down, and she suffered physically, mentally, and emotionally. She even had seizures and a heart attack. How much more could she take?
I realized she was reaching for my hand, and I moved away slightly. She gave me a hurt look, then scooted closer to Louis, which made me jealous. Was she making me jealous on purpose?
As soon as the cartoon was over, Louis flipped to the news.
“OMG, stop right there!” Sarah shrieked.
“Did you really just say ‘OMG’?” Louis asked her. She ignored him.
“Jamie Williams is in town! He’s like, my favorite author of all time! He writes the best books, and the best poems! He’s soooo romantic!”
“Hey, I can be romantic,” I protested. She ignored me. Instead, she eyed him. I looked up and saw him.
He had shoulder-length straight blond hair, bright green eyes, and a widow’s peak with a slightly balding forehead. He was skinny and tall, and he wore a Victorian-era suit with a top hat and cane. He even wore gloves. He waved at the camera crew, and Kate Un stepped up to him.
“Jamie, what can we expect while you’re in town?” she asked.
“My dear lady,” he spoke in an English accent, “I will be signing copies of my new book, Blood Moon, and I will be…ah, my agent said not to say anything, but he’s not here, is he? I will be holding a contest for all the young ladies and gentlemen who enjoy my work. A poetry contest. It can be a haiku, free thought, or any other. It can rhyme or not. Whoever comes up with the best one will be escorted to dinner by me at Sea Gala, a restaurant by the beach here in New Jersey. He or she will enjoy a fine meal, romantic talk, a fully-paid-for dinner, a romantic walk on the beach, maybe a little romantic book shopping or museum-hopping. The poems are due Friday the thirteenth of September, and I will read the contest winner the next Monday. Good luck!”
He walked away, turning his back to the camera and laughing maniacally.
“Sarah,” I said, “I absolutely forbid you to submit anything to him.”
“Excuse me?” she turned to glare at me. “You are not the boss of me.”
“How many times did he say the word ‘romantic’? Did anybody keep count?” Louis asked.
“Sarah, I’m only thinking of us,” I told her.
“No, you’re jealous. Again,” she said. “You’re suffocating me with your jealousy, Reese. I love you, but if we want to make this work, you have to let me make my own decisions and mistakes.”
“Sarah-“
“Don’t you ‘Sarah’ me! I don’t even know if you truly love me, or if you’re just obsessed with my looks. Sure, I’m gorgeous, but I’m also a human, damn it! Well, part human. I’m not perfect, and I’m not your wife yet!”
She got up and stormed upstairs.
“Nice going, dude,” Louis said. I stuck my tongue out at him and hissed as Shadowfang jumped onto my leg.
“I smell trouble on the horizon,” my cat familiar said. I ran my fingers through his long, black fur and he turned to looked at me with his large yellow eyes. “Women trouble. First Satira shows up, then Cholena, and now I smell babies.”
“Hmm, that nose has never been wrong before,” Louis noted.
“Her underwear did smell off,” I admitted.
“She smells off because she’s having a baby, Reese,” Louis said. “Think about it: her temper’s shorter, she’s got a craving for milk, she can’t eat chicken without puking, and her wings are not holding her up as high. She’s pregnant, little buddy.”

After this revelation, I went to see Sarah. She was reading our book on my bed, earbuds in her ears, playing soft rock music.
“Sarah,” I sat, sitting on the bed. She saw me and took the pods out of her ears. “Sarah, I’m sorry. I did have a jealous moment. I’m really trying to control it, but it’s like…it’s like a monster that’s stuck inside my gut, trying to crawl out, but I can’t let him because it would upset you. I love you, Sarah. I want you to be mine.”
“Reese,” she replied, sitting on her knees, “You don’t have to worry. I’m not interested in Jamie romantically. I love you. You’re my soulmate, my fiancé, my fated husband. The Fates brought us together, and we’ll stay together, through thick and thin, or poorer or for richer, for better or for worse, until death do we part.”
“Let’s not talk of death,” I said, pulling her onto my lap. “I’d rather be consumed alive than lose you.”
She made a disgusted face at that.
But I didn’t mean it, not really. There was something seriously wrong here. Was I growing bored with my relationship with Sarah? She was my longest romantic partner, and my second, and only female partner, besides Sadie, but my relationship with Sadie was purely sexual. I leaned my head down to her stomach and took a big whiff.
I smelled a lot of things: estrogen, blood, cotton, and…was that plastic? Huh. But there was another smell, the smell of something new and exciting. I smell new muscles, new bones, new skin. I smelled new blood and cells and a vampire scent.
A baby. Maybe two.
“Sarah,” I said. “How would you react if you learned that you were pregnant?”
She laughed nervously. “I hope I’m not pregnant.”
Disappointment sagged my shoulders, and I snarled on instinct and nipped her shoulder.
“What was that for?” she asked, rubbing the spot.
“Sorry,” I said. “Just a little love mark.”
“You never bite me that hard, Reese. Is something-“ Her eyes widened. I could see the cogs working in her brain. She counted on her fingers, mouthing the numbers. Her eyes began to shine even more as she looked up at me.
Then she pulled up her jacket. There was a small bump.
“A father,” I said to myself. “I’m going to be a father.”
She quickly covered her stomach and buried her face in my chest. Then she began to cry. She sobbed and sobbed. I just held her while she cried. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she slowed down to a short, hiccupy breath.
“I don’t want to be pregnant,” she whined. “Not yet, at least. I want to enjoy my first few years as an adult!”
“Sorry, babe,” I lied. “You can blame me. It’s all my fault. Remember when we had sex back in May? The condom broke, and I didn’t realize until later that it was expired.”
“You idiot!” She punched me in the chest, then said “ouch” and cradled her hand. “You fucking moron! You are such an imbecile! A stupid, stupid, dumb quack!”
“You can call me all the names you want,” I lectured,” but it won’t change the fact that we’re going to have a baby. Maybe two. I think a girl…and a boy.”
She burst into tears. She hit me again and again.
“I hate you!” she shouted. “I hate you! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.”
“Do you, really?” I asked, every phrase like a knife in my chest.
“No,” she whimpered. She buried her head in my chest. “I’m sorry I’m acting childish.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” I assured her. “Sarah look at me. Look at me.” She looked at me. “We’ll get through this together,” I said, tilting her chin up. “I promise. If I need to turn you sooner rather than later-“
“Will you have to?”
“I may have to. Not all vampire/human hybrids are viable, and some of them kill their own mothers.”
She shuddered and looked up at me with wide eyes.
“I have to call Marina,” she said.
A few minutes later, we were at a café downtown, waiting for Mother and Alexander.
Sarah wanted to sit outside, so we did. I kept my hood over my eyes, keeping the sun off.
Mother arrived soon with Alexander and Sabine.
“Hello, children,” Mother said, pecking my forehead and kissing Sarah’s cheek.
“Son. Daughter,” Alexander greeted in his own gruff way. “Did you have something to inform us about?”
“Let’s all go inside,” Sarah said.
We followed her to an inside table.
“Well…Reese thinks I’m pregnant,” Sarah blurted out.
There was a pause. Then:
“Honey, we know,” Mother said. “We could smell it. We weren’t sure when we should tell you. I know that you might not enjoy being pregnant again, but we will support you and Reese in this endeavor.”
Sabine just scowled.
“Where is Cirino?” I asked.
“With the new nanny,” Mother said. “We hired a new nanny named Colleen. She will watch Cirino while Zie cleans the house.”
“You’re not mad because we’re not married?” Sarah asked.
“Certainly not,” Mother said. “In my time a woman could get cast out in the mountains to die for such a grievance, but such is not the case anymore. We are happy for you.”
Sarah let out a breath she was holding and leaned into me. I purred and pecked her head. Her phone dinged, and she pulled it out of her pocket.
“Who are you texting?” I asked.
“Mia.”
“Rayport? Sarah, she betrayed you! She beat you to a pulp!”
“I didn’t say we were friends again, I said I was texting her. We’re working on a new project.”
“What kind of project?”
“A none-of-your-business project.” She leaned over and kissed me. I looked at Alexander, who grimaced.
“I promised not to say anything,” he said. “She told your mother this plan, and as her mate, I can read her mind, as she can read mine. Sarah is keeping it blocked from you on purpose so she doesn’t accidentally slip up and reveal her plans.”
“I’d like to know,” I said.
Sarah pulled a small notebook out of her purse.
“Hmm, what should I write? Oh, I know.”
“The poem? Sarah, I told you not to write it!”
“Reese, you are not my father, you are my boyfriend. Keep it up and you won’t be my boyfriend much longer.”
The shock on Mother and Alexander’s faces was disturbing. The shock in my heart was like an ax coming down on me.
She ordered a burger and Sabine ordered a salad. I ordered white milk, and Mother and Alexander ordered coffee.
I sighed. She was right, as always. Women always are.
“I’m sorry, Sarah, but…he’s much more attractive than me, and I’m-“
She cut me off with a kiss. “Stop being insecure. I love you for you, not what you look like. Reese, if you want to…experiment, with our relationship, I’m open to that, too.”
“Experiment?”
“If you want to see other people while we’re together-“
Alexander barked a laugh; Sabine turned red and Mother gave them both dirty looks.
“Sarah, I want no one but you. You should know that. But I’m against you seeing other males.”
“I understand that. I do. I’d be jealous if there was a girl between us. Sometimes I do get jealous. I even get jealous of Amara or Ariella. They’re both thinner than I am, and Amara has a new hair color every week, and Ari’s known you longer than I have. But you are mine, and I am yours, and it will stay that way unless one of us says otherwise.”
She sipped her Cherry Coke.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated, nuzzling her. “I know I should have it under control by now. This is my fault. I love you and I don’t want to lose you.”
She pecked my jaw again and continued writing her poem.

CHAPTER THREE – JAMIE WILLIAMS
The rest of August went by fast. We celebrated Louis’ birthday with a small party of about two hundred vampires at our castle in Denmark- that was a quick trip. Uncle Soren kept an eye on Cholena-Mother kept an eye on Satira, and we all kept an eye on David.
I didn’t completely trust him, even if what he said was true and he was my brother. He didn’t reveal any more about his family or mother, other than to remind us that she’d died recently. He helped me pick out a necklace for Sarah- a silver chain with a heart pendant set in diamonds. It took him a while to absorb the fact that he was going to be an uncle, just like it had taken me a while to absorb the fact that I was going to be a father.
We began to seriously plan the wedding. We wanted to be married before we tried college. Sarah and Mother and Selena spent countless hours discussing dresses and flowers and cakes-I was thinking hard about what sort of ring I wanted her to wear. One that was similar to her engagement ring, certainly, but the diamond had to be bigger, the gold purer.
Sarah said she wanted baby’s breath in her floral arrangement for sure, but said roses were everyone’s choice. I loaned her a book on flowers- their meanings, and whether they were edible or not. She wanted lavender at the center of every table to represent France, where half her family was from. She wanted to incorporate the breaking of the glass to represent her Jewish half, and Mother laughed and told her that at Greek weddings, they break plates.
So there was going to be a lot of broken glass at our wedding. I had an idea and told Mother: my idea was to break a glass heart to signify our love for each other.
Sarah also had to get used to the idea that she would have to swap blood with me, as is customary at vampire weddings. A ritual knife would be sterilized and cleaned, but she still turned green at the thought. Fortunately, I told her that vampires don’t carry diseases or infections such as herpes, but we do have a form of Vampire HIV, which attacks the blood-absorbing vessels that gives us energy and keeps our immune systems healthy. I told her I’d get tested if it made her feel better, and she told me that she’d get tested as well.
We’d been dating long enough to know that we were both clean, but one never knew, especially, since we had both slept with different people in the past. We timed her transformation for the sex part of the wedding ceremony.
Another thing to consider was the baby-how long would she take to grow? Would she grow fast, normally, or slowly? Very little was known about vampire/human babies. Would she kill Sarah? That was at the top of my list of fears, that she’d kill her own mother. But Sarah was strong. But she had a very weak body due to her bout with bulimia and her heart problems, and her past rape. Who knew what Nales had done to those organs? Would she need another C-section? Could she even have one? Did she want an epidural, or a natural birth?
I knew I would be there no matter what. It was customary for vampire fathers to be there at the birth of the baby, unless the mother was human. He could easily kill her and/or his baby.
Would she give birth before or after her transformation?
All these questions and more raced through my mind as I rushed around to get things ready. First, we had to set a date. We set the date for the Winter Solstice and quickly sent the invitations, created by Louis on a computer and used our family crest on parchment envelopes.
Our family crest is the Viking sigil for death, with a raven beside it, a fox below the sigil, and the sigil for courage beside the fox. Sigil, animal, animal, sigil.
I once asked my father why a fox instead of a wolf, and he told me not to ask questions I didn’t want to know the answer to.
On the first of September, Sarah sent in her poem to Jamie Williams. And we waited. While we waited, I’d often catch her talking to our baby, as if she could already hear her mother’s voice. Actually, most babies can hear their mother if their hearing is formed. I also talked to my baby sometimes. I would also rub or stroke the belly, sometimes kissing it and purring.
Cirino knew something was going on. He was starting to talk more and understand things better.
“Baby,” Sarah would tell him, pointing to her stomach.
“Ba,” he would reply in turn.
“Baby,” Sarah corrected.
“She has a baby inside of her,” Selena told Cirino. He smiled at her and held out his arms to her instead. She would pick him up and dance with him, singing old songs like “Mr. Sandman”. She was growing fond of him. I still felt a little resentment towards him, even though I knew none of it was his fault. Michael had chosen to attack Sarah, and she chose to keep the resulting embryo due to her religious beliefs. It all worked out in the end, as Alexander was seeking a baby boy to have as a companion, and he and Mother had quickly adopted Cirino, but they let Sarah name him and see him when she still lived with Alicia.
Satira had basically said that sons were superior to daughters, yet she’d had all girls. That struck me as odd. Girls were clearly as good as boys were, superior in some ways, but it used to be a deeply held belief that boys were the stronger sex. And they still were, physically, at least. But statistically, women were better drivers.
I asked Selena about it, and she waved me off and said she couldn’t talk about it. I remembered that she’d lost a baby son herself, not long ago. I wondered how many she’d really lost. She was certainly more cheerful now than when she first arrived, maybe that was because of Mother.
Cirino turned and smiled at me, and my heart melted. He would be my son one day. My stepson, but still, my son. Sarah began singing in French, a beautiful lyrical masterpiece about love and roses and cats and baby hair. Her voice pierced my heart like a pin; her soprano was incredibly beautiful.
She stopped singing and turned on the TV, and we watched The Twilight Zone for a while.
“No vampires, but plenty of aliens,” Sarah muttered.
“The Twilight Zone is mostly speculative fiction,” I said. “With the occasional dystopian story.”
She smiled and me and put her head on my chest. Soon, she was snoozing away. Then she was singing in her sleep.
“What song is she singing?” I asked. I’d heard it, she played it sometimes on her phone.
“That song is called ‘Best I Ever Had’ by Vertical Horizon,” Selena said. “Came out in the early 2000s. She loves that band.”
“And it’s…well, still technically in the early years of the century,” I said.
Sarah woke up with a snort. “I can’t see,” she complained.
“Open your eyes, dear,” I chuckled.
She did open them, blinked, and then giggled, blushing.
“Was I talking in my sleep?” she asked.
“You frequently talk in your sleep. This time, though, you sang a song.”
“Which one?”
I told her, and she giggled again.
She leaned forward and kissed me, then winced.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“My breasts are tender,” she explained.
“Handle with care, then.”
Both my girlfriend and my sister laughed at that one. Cirino laughed, too, though he had no idea what it meant. Then Sarah turned serious.
“How is Eilief?”
My face fell. My grandfather was no better. He was getting sicker, actually-he hadn’t even been able to attend Louis’ birthday party.
“He’s not good. He’s been really ill, Sarah.”
“That sucks. Well, tell him that I said hi.”
“Will do.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was the day of the announcement of Jamie Williams’ Romantic Poem contest winner. I was seated beside Sarah, she was seated beside Selena, and Mom and Alexander were on Selena’s other side. Sarah had her hands on her belly, looking anxious.
Jamie himself was standing on a podium in front of the news crew, both local and national, and he looked dashing in a dark purple suit.
“The winner of this contest will be treated to a romantic date with me,” he said. “He or she will accompany me on a romantic walk on the beach, dinner at a restaurant, and my personal attention. And maybe her poem will even be featured in my next book, coming out next February, titled Moonlight Kiss. And the winner of the contest is: Sarah Cresley, of North Hampton, New Jersey!”
There was enthusiastic applause, then Jamie continued. “I will read her poem now.”

The salt of my tears
Replaced by your kiss
My first love
The one and only
Reese Emerson

More applause, and I sat there, stunned. She’d written the poem about me. And I’d acted like a major jerk. Damn, she really did love me.
“I shouldn’t have won,” she sighed. “I’m sure there were others better than mine.”
“Nonsense, dear, you did well,” Mother praised. She seemed stunned as well, yet proud, and Alexander just grunted in agreement.
“You’re not going to throw me out now, are you?” Sarah asked nervously.
“Why would they throw you out?” I asked.
Mother and Alexander avoided looking at me.
“Last time you had a jealous fit at that restaurant, and I told you that I wouldn’t be your girlfriend much longer if you kept it up. Marina told me to start packing, and then we got into a big fight. There were a lot of tears and yelling.”
I glared at Mother, then Alexander.
“Leave me out of this,” he growled.
“Mother, how could you? She’s my mate!”
“But you are my son! She threatened to leave you!”
“Mother, it was my fault. When you look at Sarah, you used to see yourself in her. Now you’re yelling at her and causing her to cry! She can’t trust Alicia, and Beckett’s apartment isn’t suitable for humans. Sarah, if you need to move in with me, just say the word.”
“Thank you, Reese. You’re a good boyfriend.”
“She’s lying,” Alexander quipped. “She’s been ready to dump you for weeks, Reese.”
“Alexander!” Sarah shouted. “I love Reese! I had my doubts, yes, but I’m not ready to let him go now.”
“But you were.”
“Shut up, Alexander,” I warned. He snarled at me, and Sarah went upstairs to cool down.
“Are you trying to break us up?” I asked, leaving my mother and stepfather to go comfort my sweet mate.
“Did you really consider breaking up with me?” I asked as I walked into her room. She was sitting on the bed, knees up to her chin, tears leaking out of her eyes.
“I won’t lie, I did consider it,” she said. “But I don’t want to lose you now.”
“It’s okay, baby,” I said, embracing her. “I haven’t exactly treated you well, either. In fact, sometimes I was downright terrible. I mean, I even broke up with you because I thought it would be better for both of us! And you can see how wrong I was. We belong together, Sarah. I won’t let you go again. No matter what anyone says.” I paused, and then said aloud: “No wonder Beckett hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you, Reese, I swear on Great Grandmother Cresley’s grave. He doesn’t know how to treat you, because you were there for me when he couldn’t be.”
“He hates me. Sarah, I’m so sorry. This is my fault. I love you, baby.”
She said nothing and laid down on the bed. I laid down around her front and cuddled with her, but she pulled away from me. I gave her a hurt look.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meeting Jamie was not going to be fun for me. I planned to stalk them as well.
The limousine that had come to pick up Sarah was black, and Jamie himself was inside. She was wearing her best green v-neck sundress, and I watched nervously as he stepped out of the vehicle. Sarah smiled and blushed, looking down at her feet.
Jamie smiled as he approached her. “I assume you are Sarah?” he asked.
She nodded, giggling girlishly.
Jamie nodded. “I thought so. Only a beautiful American flower such as yourself could have written such beautiful prose.”
“T-thanks,” she stammered. “This is Reese, my boyfriend.”
“Hello, fine sir,” Jamie said to me, grasping my hand and shaking it. “You have a wonderful gem before you. I would not let her go.”
I snarled, but if he noticed, he ignored it, the damn English bastard. There was nothing more than I wanted to do at that moment than rip his throat out, but I resisted for Sarah’s sake. She’d find out what a jerk he was soon enough, I predicted.
The blood in my gut soured as he introduced himself to Beckett next.
“I’m Sarah’s father,” Beckett said, shaking Jamie’s hand. “Beckett Cresley.”
“Good morning, sir,” Jamie said. “I am Jamie Williams. Bestselling author, English gentleman, and lover of beautiful women such as your daughter.”
Sarah grinned so hugely that her face was split in two.
I growled, the monster of jealousy burbling deep inside of me.
“Grab him,” I heard my father’s voice say below human hearing. I felt Toby’s hands on my shoulders next.
“She’s mine,” I snarled. Beckett growled at me to stay silent and stay back. All of this was going on beneath Sarah’s notice.
Jamie offered his arm to her, and she took it. The girl holding the camera snapped pictures of the two of them. I noticed her admiring Sarah’s ass and wondered if she had lady-loving inclinations. Ari had once told me that girls check each other out all the time, but I didn’t know whether or not to believe her.
Jamie allowed Sarah to get into the expensive vehicle first, and then he followed her.
“Reese, calm down,” Father said.
“Mordecai,” Beckett said, “May I speak with Reese, alone?”
We all stopped and stared.
“M-me?” I stuttered.
“Beckett, I know Reese has made some mistakes in the past, but if you’re going to kill him-“
“No, just talk. Come, Reese.”
Toby let me go, and I followed Beckett to a bench in the backyard. Mom and Alexander were renovating the backyard, turning it into a massive garden. There were massive stones and fountain decorations scattered around, and workmen had already begun digging a hole for a massive pond.
I felt sick as my future father-in-law sat beside me.
“Reese,” he began. “The only reason why Sarah is still alive, is because I died for her.”
“I…what?”
“When Sarah was born, I consulted an oracle about her future. I learned that she was going to die on November the first, of her sixteenth year.”
“That was the day that Nales…” I trailed off.
“Yes. I begged the Fates to kill me instead, told them I would do anything. I offered them all the money I had. They took it in exchange for letting me die in Sarah’s place.”
“She died you died from stomach cancer.”
“Yes. And I did. But then Samuel brought me back as a vampire with the aid of the witch goddess Hecate. Hecate has a vengeance against Aphrodite because of her beauty. Hecate is known as the Goddess With Three Faces: the maid, the matron, and the crone, and both the matron and the crone are as ugly as sin. There was also Hephaestus involved, but I won’t get into that. Now that I’m alive again, sort of, Sarah’s life is in danger again.”
“What? I can’t let her die!” I shouted. “She’s pregnant with our baby! She’s going to marry me!”
“No, she’s not,” Beckett said. “Not unless either you or I die in her stead. And I’ve already died once. I don’t know if I’ll be able to die again, and frankly, I don’t want to.”
I slowly inched away from him. He chuckled dryly.
“Relax, I’m not going to kill you. But I will say I don’t approve of this match. You’ve hurt her too badly. You broke up with her and had relations with another.”
“Beckett, I know, and it won’t happen again, I swear!”
“I know it won’t. Besides, if I die again, she won’t forgive me this time. Which means that someone else must die.”
“I’m not going to kill innocents.”
“I’m not talking about innocents. I’m talking about Jamie Williams.”
“The English bastard?! I’m all for that.”
“I don’t trust him, Reese. He wants something with Sarah. He chose her poem too easily, almost like he picked her out specifically. I was there during the taping of his interview. He kept thinking I hope she sees this. I hope she enters.”
I looked up at him. “How do you know what he was thinking?”
“There was a vampire behind the camera who can read strangers’ minds. She told me. And I have no reason to distrust or dismiss her claims.”
Was this my fault? Had I caused this? What if I hadn’t taken care of Sarah that day? Would I be with her?
“Your connection goes deeper than the Fates,” Beckett continued. “Your connection with my daughter goes down into your souls. You are twin flames, soulmates. Nothing can separate you, I see that now. I don’t like you, Reese, and I don’t trust you, but I know you won’t purposely hurt Sarah again.”
“I’ve never hurt her on purpose,” I breathed. “I love and adore her, Beckett. I worship her. I know I hurt her deeply, which I take full responsibility for. It was my fault. I’d rather she live than stay with me, though.”
He looked stunned at my words. “You do love my daughter,” he breathed. “But we can’t save her, Reese. You’ve already kissed her and I’ve already died for her. This baby will kill her unless you can turn her into a vampire.”
“I want to,” I said, “But she doesn’t want to become one, not yet. We have to wait.”
“No, you need to change her now.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Beckett, she knows what’s best for her. We like to think we do, but we don’t. Only she does.”
“Why, Reese?”
“What?”
“Why do you love my daughter?”
“Because she’s kind, funny, intelligent, and selfless.”
“And because she’s beautiful.”
“No. Like I told somebody else not long ago, I’d much rather she weren’t. She’s a goddess and I’m…well, a descendant of Hades. I’m hideous and selfish and horrible and I lie all the time and I’m the worst person in the world according to my parents.”
“Your parents don’t hate you, Reese. Mine do, that’s why they threw me out of their house when I was eighteen. I moved to America after that and fell in love with the daughter of an Italian immigrant and an Israelite immigrant and we conceived a beautiful baby girl named Sarah, after the woman in the Bible. My father was Christian and my mother believed in the Greek gods and goddesses. As for me, I know the truth. God exists, but so does Aphrodite. He may have created the other gods and goddesses, I don’t know. In real life, I was taught that God is very jealous and does not approve of other gods and goddesses or mortals worshipping them. I probably committed blasphemy by talking about it. Anyway, after I learned that Sarah was doomed and I exchanged my life for hers, I told Alicia what I’d done and we decided to have another child, and along came Sabine. We treated the girls the same, but we probably spoiled Sarah a little more, because we knew her time was limited.
“I know it wasn’t fair, and it backfired: Sabine turned into a brat, which made us resent her more. Sarah sort of became the favorite, but I tried to teach her morals, too. She absorbed them and learned morals quicker than Sabine did, which again, was probably our fault. Another thing I learned was that the Fates weren’t wholly responsible for my daughter’s eventual fate: Hecate was. She hated Aphrodite and wanted to curse all her descendants, so she did. All over a god who barely noticed Hecate’s existence.”
“Love is a funny thing,” I muttered.
“Yes, it is. Which made me wonder: was she really in love? Eros, Aphrodite’s son, also known as Cupid, is known as a mischievous man. I beseeched him and asked him some questions. He claimed he had nothing to do with it, but I didn’t believe him. I still don’t know the full story.”
I hugged myself. I looked at the time. An hour had already passed. I needed to go find Sarah and Jamie. But before I could, I got a call from Father.
“I had another vision,” he said. “But not of the present; this one was of an alternate future, or so I think. I spoke with Krauvas, and he consulted his tarot deck. He spoke with Hecate, or so he thinks, and he agrees with me. In this alternate future, Sarah is accused by you of having sex with Jamie, but it isn’t true-she was raped again, this time by him. He used magic to put the seeds of doubt in everyone’s minds, and everyone turns against Sarah eventually, and she commits suicide. It’s happening now in an alternate universe. We need to make sure it doesn’t happen here.”
“Well, of course,” Beckett said. “What is Jamie doing now? Can you get a reading on him?”
“He’s acting like a perfect gentleman in our universe. He’s at the restaurant now, eating crab legs with Sarah.”

I made it to the restaurant in record time, but Sarah and Jamie were getting ready to leave. Sarah grabbed her purse, and Jamie put her jacket around her shoulders.
“Care to join me for a stroll along the beach?” he asked.
“I’d love to,” she replied breathlessly. That was me who should have asked her to take a walk with me. And anyway, she was wearing high heels, not walking shoes. I growled a little when she produced a pair of pink Converse sneakers and socks and put the heels in her other hand.
I thought about the other universe, the separate universe where I would lose Sarah. It would destroy me; did my other self not realize that? I carefully watched from a distance as he offered her his arm and they started walking. I followed behind, my steps as silent as a cat’s.
My heavy boots weren’t made for such light sand. I nearly fell in the ocean a few times. They walked a mile and a half, and Jamie stopped at a secluded spot on the beach. My nightmares about the ocean began to hit me. This wasn’t safe. Not at all. I sent Father a text.

Reese: How does Sarah in the other universe die?
Mordecai: She drowns herself in the ocean.
I nearly ran forward and snatched her up right then and there. But I controlled my instincts and stayed where I was. I found a bridge nearby and hid under it.
Sarah sighed daintily and stared out at the ocean.
“I’ve always loved the sea,” she said. “I used to live nearby. Daddy would always bring me out here and I would dip my toes in. Then I would chase the waves. Run back and forth. It made my dad laugh.”
“Did you live near here?” Jamie asked.
She hesitated. “Closer to Atlantic City. I used to play on the beach all the time with my friends. My best friend at the time was a girl named Kirsten. I think she’s married now.”
“Do you wish you had a different life?” he asked.
“Sometimes. Not different friends or family or a different boyfriend, but different experiences.”
“You’ve been with Reese a long time, haven’t you?”
“About two years, almost three.”
“What is it about him that you like?”
“Hmm. I think I like his kindness most of all. Like, he’ll be in the street, and he’ll see someone who needs food or shelter, and he’ll give them a hundred bucks straight out of his wallet. Without even a hesitation. Or he’ll see an animal in distress, and he’ll stop to help it. He loves his cats, particularly, especially Shadowfang.”
“Shadowfang? Where did that name come from?”
“The first time Reese watched The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, he thought that Gandalf called the Horse Lord Shadowfang instead of Shadowfax. It’s one of his favorite book and movie series.”
“What else do you like about him?”
“I really like his intelligence. Like, he’ll go off on a rant about how the U.S. government should spend money this way instead of that, or he’ll start talking about a specific animal and its characteristics. He also knows a lot of words, some of which I’ve never heard of or read. Sometimes my adopted mother says I sound like him when I talk.”
She giggled.
“Do you think I am like him?”
“I don’t know you well enough to really compare you two. I will say that you’re more old-fashioned than he is. Which is romantic, but I prefer a modern thinker when I date.”
She thought I was modern, kind, and intelligent? And I had begun doubting our relationship and her seriousness about it. I was an idiot. A pathetic, jealous, insecure, self-centered moron. I hit my head against the wood of the bridge, causing several spiders to fall. I tried not to scream as one landed on my head and I flicked it off.
I needed therapy. That’s what I needed.
I watched as they became silent again and gazed out to the dark blue water.
“Oh look, there’s some crabs,” Sarah suddenly said. I looked over at her. She was on her hands and knees, watching the little creatures as they grabbed plankton and minnows.
I might not have noticed it, if I hadn’t turned my eyes toward Jamie just then. He moved his foot at the exact same time Sarah started to stand up, and she fell facedown in the water.
I panicked then.
“Sarah!” I shouted.
“Oh dear, are you all right?” Jamie asked, his voice full of sugar.
“I’m fine,” Sarah said. “I must’ve tripped.” He helped her up, and she brushed off her dress. “I think one of the crabs pinched my finger, though.”
“The little cretins,” Jamie said. “I hope you’re not hurt. But look, now your pretty dress is wet.”
“It’s just a dress,” Sarah said.
“I insist on buying you another.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“No, no, it was my fault. If I hadn’t brought you out here, it might not have happened.”
It was his fault, but not for the reason he stated. He had purposely knocked her down.
Control your instincts. Control your instincts. Remember, Sarah doesn’t like jealousy.
I took a deep, unnecessary breath, and continued to watch and listen as Jamie asked Sarah if she’d like to look at the shops. She agreed, of course. The girl’s favorite thing to do is go shopping.

Within a few minutes, Sarah and Jamie were at a small gift shop run by the local Native American tribe. Sarah picked out a mythology book and Jamie bought a shark’s tooth necklace and a shell pendant that had been carved in the shape of a heart and painted pale pink.
Sarah smiled shyly at the clerk, who gave her a flirtatious grin in return.
“Five dollars,” he said.
“The book was ten dollars,” she corrected.
“For you, it’s five dollars.”
“Oh, um, thanks?” She looked uncomfortable, much to my delight. “I have a fiancé, though.”
“Too bad,” the clerk said, shaking his long hair. “I’d love to take you out to dinner.”
She paid him and Jamie bought the jewelry with cash. He gave her the shell pendant and the shark tooth necklace.
“Oh, thank you,” she chirped, looking much happier now that the cashier wasn’t flirting with her. Jamie gave the clerk a death glare, and then led Sarah to the next shop, which was an ice cream parlor. She chose chocolate and he chose cookie dough.
She chattered to him about her dogs, her sister, and her father. She didn’t tell him the scary stuff, though, only that her parents were divorced and she didn’t see her mother anymore for personal reasons. She said that she adored my family, especially my mother and sister, both of whom had treated her like a mother should treat her daughter.
He talked about his homes in London, Surrey, Edinburgh, York, and Berlin. Hah. I could top that. I had a home in every country in the world, and several U.S. states. He talked about his massive library and his stock shares and his bookstore where he sold copies of every one of his books, plus several other authors who had a contract with him. I’d have to look into that.
I saw his shoe touching hers several times. If she felt it, she would move her foot. If she didn’t…it took all my strength not to snap his neck.
They visited a clothing store next, where Jamie found a similar dress to the one Sarah was wearing, but in hot pink, not green. I would have gotten her another green one. She tried in on and modeled it for him. The girl with the camera was there, and snapped a couple pictures. She looked miserable.
I tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped and turned around, and saw me. Then she narrowed her eyes.
“Aren’t you Sarah’s boyfriend?” she asked in an American accent.
“Yes, I’m Reese,” I said. “What can you tell me about Jamie?”
She shrugged. “What do you want to know? I know everything about him.”
“Are you friends? I asked.
“Oh, hardly. He’s my ex-boyfriend. I only took this job because the pay will be incredible. I’m Hannah March.”
“Reese Emerson,” I introduced myself. “What’s he really like? I saw him trip her at the beach.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. He’s always doing weird shit like that so he can be “the perfect gentleman” or whatever. He only does it so he can help a damsel in distress and look like a hero.”
“How did you meet him?”
“Through my parents. They’re his publishers. They thought that if he and I dated…”
“I get it. Why did you break up, if I may ask?”
She shrugged. “He cheated on me with some curvy redheaded chick with blue eyes. I dumped him that night.”
“Why don’t your parents dump him?”
“Because he rakes in the dough. He makes a huge amount with everything he does. His writing, the ghostwriting he does, his bookstores, and so on.”
“Ghostwriting?”
“That’s when somebody writes under a real author’s name.”
“I know what ghostwriting is. But who has he ghostwritten for?”
“I don’t know. A lot of popular authors. People who aren’t as well-known as him. My sister, for one thing, and my brother. They’re both authors, but their books didn’t sell well, so they wrote down their ideas for him and he turned them into books. Moonlight Kiss is actually my sister’s idea. It’s about a girl who thinks that her soulmate will meet her at the edge of the lake and kiss her there on the Winter Solstice, and she’s confused when he doesn’t show up.”
“Sounds romantic,” I said sarcastically. She rolled her eyes.
“I know, right? Mushy stuff. But my parents always did like my sister more. They practically crushed my dreams and said I was too dumb to go to college, so I dropped out of high school, and now I work as a photographer. They threatened, to…well, cut me off if I didn’t take these pictures. But whatever.”
“Hannah! Sarah and I are ready to go!”
Hannah turned and frowned. “I have to go. Maybe we’ll see each other again, Reese?” She fluttered her blond eyelashes.
“I’ll message you,” I promised. This girl was chock-full of information. I hid in a rack as Sarah came into view and Hannah turned to greet her and Jamie.
“Let’s go,” Jamie said curtly. “Lazy bitch,” he mumbled under his breath. Whoa. Hannah was right. Jamie Williams was not a nice boy.

After some more shopping, smoothies, and a light dinner, the day was over, and it was time to take Sarah home. She exchanged phone numbers with him and smiled at Hannah, who just scowled.
Jamie passed the bags over to Hannah, who struggled with her camera and put them in the trunk of the limo.

When we got home, Jamie forced Hannah to help Sarah carry her bags upstairs, take a few final pictures, and he kissed her cheek and left. Hannah spotted me and waved, and then Jamie grabbed her shoulder and shoved her roughly to the car, which Sarah did not see.
I greeted her with a hug and a long, sloppy kiss. I smelled her all over. I paid careful attention to her lady parts.
She turned to me and we went inside and settled in for the night. I was staying the night, so I already had some clothes and my hairbrush there.
“How was your day?” I asked.
“It was perfect,” she sighed. “Well, except for the part when I fell in the ocean. But I’m okay. My dress isn’t, though. But here’s the weird thing: I could have sworn that Jamie caused me to fall in. I hope it was just an accident. Did you see it?”
I froze, then turned to face her. “You saw me?”
She grinned mischievously. “You’re not as sneaky as you think you are, Reese. I knew you were there the whole time, because I know you. I know why, though. You wanted to make sure he was trustworthy. It’s okay. I’m not upset. I was at first, but I’m over it now.”
I was abashed to the point where I wanted to bury myself in the garden.
“Yes, I saw that,” I said. “I think it was just an accident, though.” That was clearly a lie, and any vampire or decent liar could have seen right through it, but Sarah trusted me enough to think I was being honest with her. Besides, I didn’t want her to get upset, to skew her view of Jamie Williams.
We headed inside, Spunk greeting Sarah first, then me with kisses and dirty paws.
“Where have you been, dirty boy?” Sarah asked.
“He’s been out in the garden,” Mom said. “Sarah, did you tell Reese?”
“No, not yet.”
“Tell me what?” I asked, hoping for good news, curiosity nearly choking me.
“How would you feel about getting another dog?” Sarah asked me.
“Another dog?” I looked at the stupid golden retriever in front of me and the Chihuahua who stood growling at a distance. “What kind of dog?”
“A pitbull,” Sarah said. “They used to be illegal in this town, but they recently changed the laws, and I’ve got my eye on a couple of sweet girls. I’ve already met one of them: her name is Jasmine. And the other one’s name is Lola. There’s also a male that Sabine wants to get named Koda, but he’s a husky, and a Boston terrier puppy named Scooter.”
“That’s a lot of dogs,” I said in amazement. “Plus, we’re about to have a baby-“
“Which is why you don’t leave animals alone with babies or little kids,” Sarah reminded me. “I’m not going to rehome either of my dogs; that’s just selfish and irresponsible. I made a commitment to take care of them throughout their lives. And as long as I can financially, I will. Besides, pets are good for babies. Helps them adapt and learn empathy, how to treat animals and people.”
“You’re right,” I said, realizing now how silly I was. “Okay, if you want a dog or two, we’ll get a dog or two. But they’re your responsibility, just like the cats are mine.”
She gave me a mocking salute, to which I stuck my tongue out at her for. She recoiled back slightly, but her expression stayed relaxed and happy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is it with women and roses? I thought groggily as Sarah woke me up by singing “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden”. Mother’s favorite song was “White Rose of Athens”, and Selena’s was “The Rose” by Bette Midler, although that one was technically about love.
I heard a gasp, then a scream, and a muffled gasp.
I ran out the door and into the laundry room where I’d heard Sarah’s voice coming from. In front of me was a man who was frantically holding Sarah and keeping his hand over her mouth. He had long silver hair, bright yellow-green eyes similar to Faolan’s, and he was stockier and smelled like both werewolf and vampire.
This must be Liam Wolfheart.
Reese! Help me!
Hang on, baby, I’m here.
Did I just have a conversation with Sarah inside our minds? A conversation for another time.
“Let her go,” I growled.
The wolf/vampire hybrid let Sarah go, and then she spun around and kicked him in the testicles. He fell over, sputtering.
“Fucking bitch,” he cursed in a thick German accent.
Sarah ran to me and I squeezed her into me.
“Who are you?” I demanded.
“Liam Wolfheart,” he said. I knew it. “I’m here for Selena.”
“My sister? No. Fuck off.”
“Please…I’m desperate. None of our children have lived.”
“Children? There was more than one?”
“I only let her go so she could see Marina again. And you…I assume you’re Reese.”
“Toby! Get your lazy ass down here!” I called out.
My bodyguard and friend stumbled down the steps, still tangled up in his bedsheets. He landed in a heap on the floor, and then Alexander appeared at the top.
“Pitiful,” he said, referring to Toby’s clumsiness.
“Alexander, who is this freak?” Sarah asked. My stepfather scowled.
“A person who is not welcome in our home anymore. A person who lost both my friendship and protection when he stole away my stepdaughter.”
“Alexander, I loved her,” Liam said, spreading his hands. “From the moment we locked eyes. And she said to me ‘So, you’re the famous Liam. I hear you stole some gold, but returned ruby earrings to my stepfather. So what are you? A villain, or a hero?’ And I knew she was my soulmate.”
“But she did not feel the same way,” Alexander said, coming down to face his enemy. He jumped over Toby, who had yet to untangle himself.
“You have little protection here,” Liam said. “Three humans, and two young vampires, and one lowly guard who is barely a boy.”
“I consider that racist,” Toby said aloud, to which he was promptly ignored by everyone except Sarah, who smiled gently at him.
“You should have come two days ago,” Alexander said. “Sarah was meeting a famous author and he had several people with him, including a couple of guards.”
Liam was about to argue, but then he paused and looked behind us. I turned and saw my sister, who had a gun in her right hand and a stake in the other. Her hands were shaking.
“You came for me,” she muttered.
“You forced me to,” Liam said. “But if you wish it, I will leave.”
“No! You won’t hurt me ever again!” She fired the gun, which woke up Cirino, who began crying. Blood blossomed in Liam’s midsection, between his fingers, but he still remained standing, although he held onto the dryer.
“I love you, Selena,” he moaned. “Can’t you see? We’re destined!”
Then Mother appeared. If you’ve ever see a mother bear defend her cub or a cat protecting her kitten, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a mother vampire. She took the gun from Selena and the stake and then fired a few more rounds. Liam fell to the ground, but he still wasn’t dead. Mother shot him several more times, but, amazingly, he got up and started walking to the garage door.
“Don’t let him get away,” Mother said firmly.
“Let him go, dear,” Alexander told her. “He won’t bother us here again.”
And Liam, dragging blood, snapped his fingers and disappeared into thin air.

“Um, what was that thing he did with his fingers?” Sarah asked an hour later, as Mother gave her a cup of cocoa.
“The Disappearing Act,” Mother said. “I’ve seen my mother and sisters do it many times before. You have to be extremely skilled in reconfiguring yourself.”
“What?”
“Evaporate yourself by separating your own molecules and cells, and then reappear somewhere else. It’s complicated and extremely difficult, and it takes years of practice. Only someone as skilled as my mother could have taught him that trick. Selena, did you ever see him do that before?”
“No.” My sister was still shaking, even an hour later. “He forced me to become pregnant when I wasn’t ready. I was forced to have natural births, and all of them died. They were all a part of him; hybrids, unable to stay alive for long. I didn’t even get to name most of them. There was a little one…she was so tiny, and she had hair like yours, Mother. But her little body wasn’t able to take the heat of her werewolf side, or the pressure and trauma of her vampire side. She died within the hour.”
Mother hugged Selena. “I’m sorry, dear. I would have liked to meet her.”
“I had a niece?” I asked aloud. Sarah climbed into my lap and clung to me. I could feel the baby inside of her, and I purred.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Darkness isn’t scary.

I was floating in the water…no, not floating, drowning. My body was being carried to the bottom of the lake by some force I could not see. When I looked down, I could see Hell. The things I saw, the things I felt…should not be repeated. I will tell you that I felt instant terror. I started struggling for the surface, but something grabbed me around the waist.
I looked down. One of Satan’s minions had grabbed me in his claws and gave me a black-toothed grin. His eyes were pupilless, red orbs, his skin the color of rocks, and wrinkly. I continued to struggle, and he kept pulling me down.
Then I saw a white light in my peripheral vision. An angel, my angel, my own personal, sweet angel, was diving into the water. She had gotten her wings wet on purpose to save me. She grabbed my hand, and pulled me up. Or, she tried. The demon was pulling us both down. And then I saw Jamie Williams. He had grabbed her ankle and was pulling her up.
“You’re mine!” he shouted in a deep, otherworldly voice.
“Reese!” she shouted, taking in a mouthful of water.
“Sarah, don’t speak!” I shouted. “I’ll get to you, I promise!”
“I don’t need saving! I’ll save you!”
“Sarah…Sarah…”

“Sarah…Sarah…”
“Reese, shhh. It’s me. I’m here.” She was gently kissing me and nuzzling me. Still half-awake and frightened, I nipped her nose. She pulled back a bit and put her hand over her nose.
“Am I alive?” I asked. “Is Shadowfang freakjokenSarahzoid?”
“What?”
“I’m just talking nonsense. I had a bad dream.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, it will only scare you.”
“It certainly scared you. You were thrashing around in your sleep for like, two minutes before I could wake you up.”
“What time is it?”
“Six in the morning. Do you want to go back to sleep?”
“No, better not risk it. If you want to go back to sleep, that’s fine with me, but I’m getting up.”
I sat up, and then realized I was on the wrong side of the bed. Sarah realized this, too. She propelled herself forward, allowing me to swing around and get out of the full bed that we both occupied.
She fell back asleep almost instantly and was snoring when I put the blankets over her and then creeped out of the room, nearly tripping over Spunk in the process.
“Bad dog!” I chided, and he wagged his tail and licked his lips. I stumbled down the steps and found the book I’d been reading the night before. I turned the lamp on and tried to read, but it was clear that I wasn’t going to get very far after I read the same sentence about ten times. I sighed. I would finish Stephen King’s latest novel later.
I rubbed my eyes and looked outside. It was still dark, and I could see Chirag shifting his weight as he kept watch over the house.
I considered turning on the TV, but I might wake up Mother and Alexander. Even at the lowest volume, they would still hear the electricity and static. I went to the home library instead. Every home needs its own private library. This one had a lot of vampire novels, old tomes, scrolls with spells and rituals, and a few things I wasn’t allowed to look at.
I yawned and sank into the plush red chair that Alexander used as a reading chair. I fell asleep, and was only woken some hours later when I heard a loud scream.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I fell out of the chair and banged my head against a bookshelf. I shook it off and stumbled forward.
That scream sounded like Mother’s.
I started to run down the steps, tripping over my pajama bottoms and landing on my butt in the process, and crawled forward. I stood up and quickly pulled up my pajama bottoms as high as they would go, then headed toward Sabine’s room, where I’d heard the scream.
Mother was standing in the doorway, shaking. I looked past her and saw a body of a vampire that I did not recognize. From the smell, he’d been there for some time. He was hanging from a noose in the ceiling. Luckily, Sabine was at school.
I searched for a pair of scissors and stood on Sabine’s bed and started cutting him down. He started to wheeze and cough as I worked. The poor dude was still alive. I wondered what the point was. Hanging vampires hurts us, but doesn’t kill us. We don’t need air to live, and breaking the hyoid bone does nothing.
I finished cutting the sucker down, and Mother shouted, “Don’t look, Sarah!”
Too late. Sarah stifled a scream and gasped instead.
The vampire began to twitch, and I ordered Mother and Sarah to stay back. Chirag was so fired after this.
I put the vampire on the bed in one of the spare rooms and called Ethan and Uncle Soren. Father was unfortunately away to settle an estate dispute, and Grandfather was still sick and needed Louis or Uncle Soren to watch him if the worst were to happen.
Ethan was there in minutes with his medical kit and Uncle Soren sent Louis in his stead. The vampire slowly began to wake up.
“Hello, I’m Ethan,” Ethan said. “What’s your name?”
“L-Lee.”
“Lee, do you remember what happened?”
“I was going to meet a guy for business, and then…” Lee winced.
“It’s all right, Lee,” Ethan said, squeezing his hand. “I’m here. I’m here.”
Lee closed his eyes and clutched his head with his free hand.
“I remember…I remember someone…someone on the High Council. Bram Sterling, maybe? I had a business transaction with him…” His eyes widened and he looked at me. “Please, don’t kill me. I needed the money!”
“No one is going to kill you,” Ethan assured him. “Not while I’m here. Tell me, what did Bram Sterling want?”
“Information. Several…several of the royal guards are spies for the Council. They think that this time is too modern to continued to have a royal family. They would rather have a democratic rule.”
“It already sort of is,” I pointed out, and Louis shushed me.
“Bram has convinced the rest of the vampire world that the Emerson and Nicolai families are going to tear the race apart and cause a massive war. I’m a hacker. I hacked into Mordecai and Soren’s computers to find what information I could. There’s also some other spies, but I don’t know their names. Bram put a tracker in their left arms to track their movements.”
“Satira,” I breathed. “She touched her arm when you hit her, Mom.”
“You remember that?” Sarah quipped. Mother shushed her.
“What else do you know?” Louis demanded.
“That’s it! I swear! Please, don’t kill me!”
“Shhh, it’s all right,” Ethan soothed him, and I wondered at his odd behavior. He leaned down and smelled Lee, and I realized that he was attracted to the strange vampire. Feeling sick to my stomach, I sat on the chair, and Sarah stood beside me. She kneeled down and kissed my hand.
“It will be okay,” she assured me. “We’ll get this sorted out. We always have. We’ve always gotten through the worst.”
How could she be so positive? This was bad. Really bad. The Council had powers the royal family didn’t have-the power to outvote laws, create new ones, amend or get rid of old ones, and they had a bigger variety of members than we had. Of course, we could create new laws and get rid of old ones, too, but we couldn’t outvote the Council. We’d been so concerned about Grandfather, we had become lax in our ruling of the vampire world and keeping the Council in check.
Sarah sat up and kissed me. I felt sick. I wrapped my arms around her.
“Louis and Soren will take care of it,” Sarah told me. “Want to play Mortal Kombat?”
“Not now,” I replied. “I need to think.”
She nodded and kissed me.

By the afternoon, Chirag had disappeared, and more guards were surrounding the house. I didn’t know all their names, but Chris was here, and so was Toby. I took a potion for dreamless sleep, and took a nice, long nap. Sarah cuddled with me the whole time.
By tomorrow morning, she was purring and muttering. I thought she was feeling frisky, so I turned around and faced her, then realized she was still asleep. A serene smile made her look like a sleeping angel. I pecked her nose and pulled her in. My tall, muscular body protecting her small, curvy, pregnant one. A male protecting his female. Keeping her safe.
“Reese,” she muttered. “I love you. Reese.”
I kissed her softly. “Wake up, honey,” I cooed. She continued purring, then whined, and her smile disappeared.
“No, no…Mike…no…”
“Babe, it’s okay,” I said. “Mike can’t hurt you anymore. I’ll protect you.”
“Ba…baby…Reese…Jamie…no…no, not him!”
“Sarah, wake up!” I licked her cheek in a desperate attempt to wake her up. I was afraid to shake her-I could break her neck that way.
“Mike, no! No! Stop! I don’t want this!”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Sarah! It’s me!”
She opened her eyes and rubbed them. “Reese?” She closed her eyes for a second, her brow furrowing. “Reese!” She hugged me tightly. “It happened again, Reese. I was having a nice dream…a sex dream…and then it got…dark…and there was Nales….” She began to cry.
“It’s okay, baby,” I said. “He’s not here. He can’t hurt you anymore. I’ll keep you safe.” I licked her eyes and kissed her soft pink lips.
“I’m worried, Reese,” she said. “I know I didn’t show it yesterday, but I was terrified when that guy was found. They know where we live. We can’t trust anyone except family, and some of our family we can’t even trust. I don’t trust Satira. You know she showed up the other day when you were at the music store, looking at guitars? She wanted me to go with her, but Mom, your mom, I mean, told me to stay where I was and told Satira to fuck off.
“Your mom told me all about her. Apparently, your mom’s side comes from a long line of witches and warlocks, and your mom abandoned witchcraft for Catholicism because it was more modern and made sense. She didn’t want to practice the dark arts, like Satira wanted her to. Satira started yelling at her, accusing her of abandoning her family and leaving us. Your mom accused her of causing all those miscarriages and stillborns she had when she was, well, not yet a vampire. Satira said something in Greek, and she mentioned Baba Yaga. Your mom looked like she’d been smacked, and then she started screaming at her in Greek. Then Satira sort of smirked and then turned around and left.”
I thought about David. He’d shown up the same day as Satira. I found that a bit, well, odd. Now Lee was here, claiming he had hacked into our computers for Bram Sterling, who was Head of the Vampire Council. I knew Bram hated us. Heck, he’d even canceled our credit cards without us knowing about it.
I knew that Uncle Soren and Bram had never gotten along in particular. Bram thought my uncle was too gruff and rough and strict, and Uncle Soren thought that Bram was, well, sort of evil. There had been a few incidents where Bram had taken things too far-killed a prisoner who didn’t deserve to be killed or who had information we needed, killing humans for fun, and even his ex-wife had accused him of being abusive to her.
You have to understand, even though time and things change, a lot of vampires don’t value human life as much as we do. They are seen as weak and inferior; a parasite, even. Vampires and humans have never really gotten along. We’ve slaughtered them, and they’ve killed some of us. Even today, there are Vampire Hunters who specifically go after vampires who attack humans or are a leech on society.
There are new laws surrounding this, but of course, the Hunters don’t follow vampire laws, only their own laws. Each vampire death must be recorded and a reason must be given for the vampire’s death. Even vampires kill each other sometimes, over territory, food, and mates.
The laws are very clear around these things. That’s why we are here; to settle disputes and enforce the laws, even if we break them occasionally.
The Council is here to keep us in check and to rule in our stead if we are not able to. That’s what they were supposed to be doing while Uncle Soren, Grandfather, and Louis were in America to help Grandfather recover from stress and depression. Now, apparently, they wanted us gone. Not cool.
“Sorry, little buddy,” Louis said, coming into the room. “I’m going to have to call Slutty Scorpia.”
I groaned.
“Who’s Slutty Scorpia?” Sarah asked, looking both concerned and curious.
“She’s a hacker,” Louis said, grinning. “She’s also a little bit crazy about little buddy here.”
“Do not call Slutty Scorpia,” I said. “Louis, I’m begging you.”
“Sorry,” he said.
“She locked me in a closet until I said I loved her! She stole my underwear and my hairbrush! She liked smelling my shoes!”
“How come I’ve never heard of her?” Sarah asked. If she were a color, she would be a tiny bit green. She was getting jealous, which amused me.
“I can’t stand her,” I said. “She cut up my shirts, she chased me around the garden, she even yanked my earring out of my ear and I had to have surgery to fix it. She’s crazy as hell.”
“All you had to do was say yes to one date,” Louis said, grinning.
“If I’d done that, she would have never stopped chasing me! I finally got her to back off by complaining to Father, and he told her to leave me alone.”
She nuzzled against me and kissed my neck.
“You’re mine,” she said.
“Jealous?” I teased.
“A little,” she admitted.
“No need to be. You’re the one carrying my baby.” I put my hand on her stomach and grinned. She just clung to me, her legs around my waist, her arms locked around my neck. She laid her head against my chest, purring. I purred, too, my chest rumbling with love and pleasure as she claimed me.
We stayed like that for a long time, just cuddling, while Louis quietly left the room to make the unfortunate call to my old enemy, Scorpia Garden.
I first met Scorpia when we were both ten. She was an orphan who’d been adopted by our guard, Raz. He was a powerful guard, if a bit strict and uncaring. Any emotion he showed was toward Scorpia, whom he saw as a daughter, seeing as he was the one who had found her at the castle entrance and took her in. A heartbreaking note was left from her mother, saying that she loved Scorpia, but couldn’t take care of her. She was born under the sign Scorpio, thus, her name was born.
When I met her, I was exploring the garden by myself and watching the fish in the pond swim around.
I was sitting on my hands and knees, watching Pearl and the other koi swim around. Father was in France, dealing with some issue that required his attention, so I was with Uncle Soren for the summer.
“Hey.”
I glanced behind me. I stood up and turned around, and saw a girl vampire. She was sort of pretty, with ivory skin and black hair and brown eyes. She wore black jeans, black Converses, a black jacket, and a striped black and white shirt.
“Hey,” I replied. “What’ s your name?”
“Scorpia.”
“Hey, Scorpia. I’m-“
“I know who you are. Your name is Reese. You’re Prince Mordecai’s son.”
“Er, yes.”
“I’ve been watching you.”
“Really? Why?”
“I think you’re cute.”
Now I was uncomfortable.
“Er, thanks. I have to, um…”
“Do you think I’m cute?”
I was silent. She stared at me expectantly.
“Er, yeah, sure. I have to, um, go now. My uncle-“
“Do you want to kiss me?”
“Um, no,” I said honestly.
“But you just said I’m cute.”
“I think kittens are cute, but I don’t want to kiss one,” I told her.
“Kittens have germs. I don’t. My dad works for your dad. I was left on the castle steps when I was a baby, and Raz found me. He adopted me and named me Scorpia. My favorite color is red, I like cats and dogs, I have a hamster named Minnie, and my favorite music is classic rock.”
“Cool. I like cats, too. I don’t care for dogs, though. I don’t really have any pets, but I have a favorite koi in this pond. His name is Pearl.”
“A boy fish named Pearl? That’s…weird. Don’t you have some dogs, or something?”
“The only dogs I have are the dogs who watch our sheep and cows and stuff. Father says that livestock are a necessary item for vampires who employ human servants.”
“Livestock? What’s that?”
“You know, cows and horses and sheep and pigs. We sell their meat and hides and wool at a discount for humans who can’t afford to eat regularly-priced meat and they’re also for our human employees. We have to feed them somehow. That’s also why we keep a vegetable garden and an apple orchard. It’s not just because the apples smell nice, which they do, but because-“
She put her finger against my lips. “You talk too much.” And then she kissed me. Later, I would muse over what possessed her to do that. I was a prince. No one was allowed in my space unless I said so, but I was too nice to say no most of the time. As I grew into a teenager, I started to grow a thicker skin and told Scorpia to stop following me around, and then she started crying and begging me to go on one date with her. I had no interest in her, and I told her such.
She went crazy. She started following me around, stealing anything that smelled like me, cutting up my clothes, and so on. She became adept at stalking me online. She became so skilled on a computer that Father hired her to test the security systems. She found and fixed several flaws, and he paid her well for it.
I finally had enough when I was fourteen and asked Father to tell her to back off, and then she stopped speaking to me. She remained a security employee, and everyone started calling her Hacker Stalker.

I was interrupted from memory lane when I heard a snore. Sarah had fallen asleep again! I smiled into her hair and nibbled a few strands. She was so soft, so breakable. And now she was pregnant with my baby. She was already three months along, but she was still small. That concerned me. When Mother was pregnant with me, she’d been huge, almost as big as she was now with triplets. And vampire/human pregnancies always, always, resulted in someone’s death; either the mother’s, or the baby’s, or even both.
Sarah loved being pregnant. She would just stare at her own belly for an hour. She loved the chance to eat whatever she wanted, although she wasn’t able to eat as much due to the pressure on her organs. She had a mixture of good and bad dreams, and chicken made her sick, even if it was well-cooked and prepared correctly. She was addicted to eggs, especially raw eggs. She added them to her spinach and strawberry smoothies.
One of the things that irked her was that she was not allowed to drink as much coffee as she normally did. She loved the icky dark brown/black stuff that stained teeth and caused her heart to beat faster than normal. (Did you know that women’s hearts beat faster than men’s anyway?)
I was becoming nervous. I loved this baby as much as she did, but what if I had to choose between my child and my mate? What then?
Mother was always complaining about the constant kicking from the triplets. Did our baby kick Sarah, or was it too early for that? Did vampire babies grow faster or slower with human mothers? I needed to ask Alexander.
I put Sarah in bed and found my stepfather in his study, writing something at his desk.
“Can I talk to you?” I asked.
“Not now. I’m busy.”
“What was it like…I mean, with Kieran and Celine?”
“Difficult and long. Now go away. Go listen to that crap you call music or read one of those pieces of trash you call a novel.”
“Are you ever nice to anybody except Mother?”
“Not really. She’s the only one I like, besides Cirino. Now scoot. Skedaddle.”
I stuck my tongue out at the back of his head, then went outside to smoke a cigarette. Except…
Crap, I don’t have any cigarettes.
Time for a visit to the gas station. I needed a refill on my Nissan, anyway.

The gas station was only a mile away, so I was able to get there in time and filled up the tank in minutes. I went inside after I was done.
“Pack of Marlboro Silvers, please,” I said.
“Long or shorts?”
“Long.”
The clerk scanned my ID and I handed him some cash for the cigarettes.
“Reese? Reese Emerson?”
I turned at the high-pitched feminine voice.
Oh, shit fire.
It was Scarlett Hart. She wore a black tank top, short tight denim shorts, silver hoop earrings, and her usual red lipstick. Her black hair was in its usual high ponytail. She wore ankle boots and fishnets.
“Hi, Scarlett.”
“Hello. I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes.
“I live in this town. I sort of need to stay nearby.”
“What are you doing with yourself these days?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m about to become a father in six months. Sarah’s pregnant.”
She blinked, then touched my arm. “I bet you get lonely. You can’t have sex while she’s pregnant.”
“I manage.”
“It’s not the same as real sex, though, is it? I mean, real sex is…well, it’s amazing. Being close to someone you have feelings for, being connected in the best way possible, it’s so incredible.”
She stepped closer to me; she smelled like roses. I could feel myself getting excited.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
“What do you say? You want to feel what a real woman can do to your manhood?”
“No, thanks, Scarlett,” I replied. “Sarah is a real woman, and she’s handled my manhood well.”
I left her looking rejected and furious.

I went straight to Louis.
“Scarlett hit on me, and I got turned on,” I said.
“Hold on,” he said to the person at the other end of the phone. He put his hand over the receiver. “One-minute, little buddy. Geez. Sorry, Ambassador, what was that?” he continued. “Okay, well, I wouldn’t know for sure. My father or my uncle might, though. Do you have Mordecai’s number? His number is-“ He rattled off the number. “That’s his work number. Sorry, I don’t give out his personal number without his permission. I understand, but this is not a life-or-death issue. It’s an economy issue. I know, economy issues can become life-or-death, but it’s not an immediate concern. There’s no need for that kind of language. I understand, ma’am. Ma’am-ah, she hung up on me. What were you saying, little buddy?”
I repeated myself.
Louis rubbed his chin thoughtfully. I noticed that he had some whiskers growing on his chin. “I mean, you have been with Sarah for a while, and Scarlett’s a very beautiful girl. Maybe you’re just getting the urge.”
“The urge?”
“You know, guy’s been with his girlfriend for a while, a beautiful lady catches his attention. The urge.”
“You mean cheating?!”
Louis shrugged. “Men your age are prone to weakness, little buddy. Similar to guys in their forties or fifties. You’ve been with other people besides Sarah.”
“Yes, but with Evan, we weren’t together yet, and my tryst with Sadie doesn’t count, because we were technically broken up at the time. Even Sarah admitted that, although I know it hurt her. Just like it hurt me when she briefly dated Caden Cartwright while we were broken up.”
Louis shrugged. “I can’t really give you any advice, little buddy. You know the difference between right and wrong. Would it kill you if you and Sarah broke up? Probably. Would it kill you if you had relations with Scarlett? Probably not. Would it kill Sarah? Maybe. But that’s only if she finds out, right?”
“You’ve cheated before!”
“Yes, and it came back to bite me in the butt when Claudia gave me what-for for cheating on Reni. I also cheated on Jillian, Diana, Harper, Clara, and Little Wolf. All of them dumped me or kicked my ass, except for Clara, who begged me to stay with her. Man, that chick was nuts. Little Wolf was just as nuts, but in a different way-she literally kicked my ass and then tried to tear my balls off. I had to restrain her and then tie her up. She still hates me to this day. But if there’s anything I learned from my many, many trysts, it’s this: cheating hurts everyone involved, especially the cheater and the cheatee.”
I thought about what he said as I went back to Sarah’s room. She was in the shower, so I laid out some underwear for her and a clean t-shirt that said POPCORN ROCKS! I looked through her clothes and found a few that still had tags on them. I snipped the tags off, then laid out a pair of jeans and brown ankle boots for her. She’d wear this outfit.
When she came back in, towel wrapped around her head, she looked at the outfit and laughed.
“I need a maternity shirt, Reese,” she said.
“This isn’t maternity?” I lifted it up.
“No, it’s for people with flat stomachs, because it’s meant to expose a little midriff.”
I tilted my head in confusion. “What’s the point?”
“To look cute, duh.” She examined the outfit I’d laid out. “Sorry Reese, but this outfit is a major flop. Nothing will fit me now.”
Frustrated, I wadded up the shirt and threw it across the room.
“Hey, you tried,” she assured me, pecking me on the lips. She had chosen soap that smelled like oranges this time. I was sort of getting tired of smelling the same scent all the time-gardenias and roses, despite her efforts to have a different scent every day. Well, she was distantly related to the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, and sexuality.
I’d only met Aphrodite briefly, and never got a chance to speak to her, and I was still revved by the experience when I thought about it. But Sarah no longer revved me up the way she used to. I knew everything about her at this point. There was very little spark. Plus, she’d gained some weight. I know that’s extremely shallow and self-centered, and I know that pregnant women are supposed to gain weight, but she just had so many stretch marks now that I found it ridiculous.
Sarah glared at me for my brief fit, and then she went to her closet.
“Damn, I cut the tags off those shirts,” she said. “I was going to return them.”
Oops.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We picked the dogs up on Saturday. First, we got the husky, Koda. He was a pretty blue-eyed and black-and-white-furred yearling stud, and he jumped around us and licked our hands as I handed over the cash to his previous owner, a woman named Judy.
Then we got the Boston terrier pup named Scooter, and he came from a puppy mill owner. She explained that he’d just gotten over kennel cough, and was still weak. He was beautiful, with black and white spots all over him. He and Koda growled at each other at first, then started to play in the backseat of Sarah’s gold Honda.
They also jumped all over me. Koda kissed me multiple times, and tried to lick Sarah, but I kept him back so she could drive safely.
We went to the shelter where Jasmine was being kept, and we found a lovely tanned-brown happy-go-lucky pitbull with one brown eye and one blue eye playing with her sister. We were less happy when we found out that the owner went back on his word and promised Lola to another family. Sarah got upset, and I yelled at the owner for lying to us. And then we were even less happy when Scarlett came to pick up the dog.
“Hello, Reese, Sarah. Abe,” she said, walking toward us.
“You’re the buyer?” I asked in disbelief. Scarlett shrugged.
“Hey, she was promised to me.”
“She was also promised to us.”
She shrugged again. “Too bad. I need the protection more.”
“You bought a dog for protection?”
“Yes. Thanks to you, my parents threw me out of the house, and now I’m forced to work as both a dancer and a barista while I scrounge up metal to sell. They won’t even pay for college anymore!”
“And you blame us?”
“Well, it is your fault. You had to let everyone know what we were doing, Reese. And so did you, Sarah. You know what, I don’t even want the dog anymore. Go ahead and take her.”
She stalked away, and that’s how we wound up with Lola.

It was cramped in the car with four dogs. I had the Boston terrier pup in my lap, and the two pitbulls and the husky in the back. Lola and Jasmine were sniffing Koda, while he was sniffing Jasmine.
When we got home, all the dogs burst out of the car when we opened the doors. Koda spotted a rabbit and started chasing her, while Jasmine and Lola started smelling the lilac bushes. Scooter jumped out of my arms and immediately ran over to an ornamental cherry tree.
I opened the door, and was greeted by Shadowfang in his cat form. He twisted around my legs.
“You smell like dog,” he complained. Then his fur stood up on end and he arched his back. Lola had come inside, and was now staring at him curiously.
“You did bring a dog over,” he said.
“Actually-“
“Oh my god, I see more than one! How could you do this to me, Reese Emerson?!”
“Hey, they aren’t mine, at least, not fully. They belong to the girls.”
“Why so many?”
“Two of them belong to Sabine, the other two are Sarah’s.”
Just then, Spunk and Coffee appeared, and Coffee growled from a distance while Spunk sniffed Lola and she sniffed him back. Sarah let the other three dogs in, and it was pure chaos for about an hour while the dogs introduced themselves to each other and Jasmine chased Shadowfang around the living room. He finally jumped to the top of the refrigerator and refused to come down.
“Are you ever going to forgive me, Shadow?” Sarah asked.
“That depends. Are you keeping the mongrels?”
She shrugged. “Sorry. But yeah, they’re permanent.”
“Then no.”
She turned to me with a hurt look.
“He’ll forgive you,” I assured her, chuckling. “Eventually.”
Mom walked downstairs then with Selena and the chaos started up again. Zie appeared with Cirino a few minutes after that and they all wanted to meet the baby. He wasn’t sure if he liked all the dogs. He’d smile, then it would disappear and he’d hide his face in Zie’s chest.
“Why’d you get the mutts, anyway?” Shadow asked.
“Sarah needed an emotional support animal,” Mother replied. “Spunk could be it, but he’s stupid, and Coffee is a bitch. We are going to train these dogs to be good dogs. Besides, we need protection. We are going to train Koda and Lola and Jasmine to be protectors of the girls. We need them when we cannot be around. And we cannot trust the guards anymore. Chirag was only the latest to betray us, and before we know it, even Toby may turn his back on us!”
“Toby wouldn’t,” I assured her. “He’s too loyal to my uncle, and I consider him a friend.”
“More guards are coming tonight,” Alexander said, moving the baby gate as he walked downstairs. “I believe their names are Marcus and Renata. They are mates, as I’ve been told. They take their jobs seriously and came highly recommended from the vampire governor of Minnesota.”
“There are vampire governors?” Sarah asked.
“Well, sure,” I said. “There are also vampire mayors, vampire presidents, and so on. But we’re at the top. The vampire presidential position for the USA has been vacant for years, which is one reason why my father chose to come here. The old president hated his guts.”
She looked confused, so I dropped the subject.
“Well, the king and the princes and the Council can’t keep track of everything and enforce laws in every country by themselves, can they?” Alexander said sarcastically.
Sarah ignored him and bent down to pet Jasmine, who was eagerly sniffing Coffee now. The little tyrant was starting to growl in warning, so Sarah picked her up and petted her. Selena and I put out bowls of food and water for the dogs, then I went to coax Shadowfang down.
“It’s perfectly safe,” I encouraged.
“I’m perfectly safe up here, they can’t get to me,” he replied. “I swear, I will never forgive your girlfriend for this, Reese Emerson.”
“It’s not her fault,” I argued. “She needs an emotional support animal, and so does Sabine. Besides, you didn’t meet the owners We did. One of them was a puppy mill owner. Almost all the dogs had kennel cough, and a few had heartworms. They were in cramped cages with barely any water and rotten food. One of them was so underfed you could see her bones poking through the skin.”
“All dogs are a menace,” he talked back. “I hate dogs, and I especially hate females. They always want to cuddle with you and kiss you and make sure you have food.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“Of course it is! It’s a trick just so they can get you later. After a few days they’re feasting on what’s left of your flesh, and your bones are being chewed on by ants and worms.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, I may have had a mate who at one point was eaten by a stray dog. It broke my heart. And all our kittens died because I couldn’t feed them and they were still drinking milk.”
“Oh, I…I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t know. I didn’t tell you. Of course, afterwards I found Mishka and we had kittens, one of whom you ran over. Thanks for that.”
“I know, and I still hate myself for it. I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Shadow.”
My heart broke all over again when I thought of Remy.
Trying to control my tears, I went to find Sarah on her bed, brushing Koda.
“Babe, what’s wrong?” she asked, noticing my eyes. Her brow furrowed with worry lines. I told her about my conversation with Shadowfang, and she got up and embraced me. “Oh, babe, I’m so sorry.”
This was why I loved her, I reminded myself. She was so kind and selfless. I was not worthy to lick her boots. After a few minutes, though, I pushed her away gently, and we sat on her bed again.
“Question: will I still have hairy legs when I’m a vampire?” she asked.
I grimaced at the bad timing. “Sorry, babe.”
She groaned. Huh. That was odd. Normally she wouldn’t be that heartless so quickly. It irked me, and once again, I thought of Scarlett. Scarlett had nice legs. Creamy and slim. I’d now encountered her twice this month, and I wondered if I’d see her again.
My heart broke even more when I thought of me and Scarlett together. It would tear Sarah apart if I voiced these thoughts. Scarlett was the girl who’d turned all my beloved’s friends against her. She started a thieving ring and blamed Sarah when they were caught, even though it was Jordan who told all the parents, not Sarah.
Stomach sinking, I bit my lip and tried not to cry.
Be a man, I chastised myself. I went to the window and looked outside. Sabine was back from her walk, and she was dancing along to music blaring from her phone. She looked up and saw me, then glared at me. She still blamed me for James’ death. Then I saw something else.
No, it can’t be…
I thought I saw a cat with dark grey fur run by. It looked like…like Remy. But that was impossible.
Resurrection is entirely possible, but only with a god or goddess’ aid.
But it was. I heard sobbing a few minutes later, a scream, and more crying.
I ran downstairs, afraid that Mother or Selena was hurt, but it wasn’t them. It was Remy. He was alive!
“How…What…?
“Hi, Reese,” he said, cheerfully. “I know this is a shock, but I can explain.”
“Please do.”
“I faked my death to get away from Samuel.”
I started banging my head against the nearest wall.
Remy and Shadowfang circled around each other, meowing, purring. My heart leaped into my throat, and Sarah followed me into the room.
Shadowfang looked up at her. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know for sure,” she admitted. “But I’d seen him once or twice. I thought it was his ghost, the way Daddy tried to haunt Reese.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded. “We were supposed to be honest with each other.”
“Like I said, I didn’t know for sure,” she said.
“I’ve been blaming myself,” I said, irritated. “Damn it, Sarah.”
She flinched at my sudden anger. I winced. “Sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to snap at you. But please, tell me next time.”
“I will,” she said. But she avoided me while we cuddled with Remy, with my nose inhaling the scent of his soft fur and white dandruff. (He had a major dandruff problem.)
Father came over with the rest of the cats as soon as he got the call. For an hour, it was pure chaos. Everyone wanted to sniff and lick Remy, a few tears were shed from both me and Sarah (actually, a lot of tears were shed), and I slowly began to forgive myself. It wasn’t wholly my fault, anyway. Samuel had forced the cat under my car wheels.
Then, for some reason, he’d revived the young feline, and Remy was here now. He was safe. I was not dreaming. And yet, I’d managed to upset Sarah in this happy time.

CHAPTER FOUR – IN WHICH WE SINK LOWER

Finally, the family was together again. Sarah gave me some much-needed space, sensing my irritation with her. I felt guilty about being irritated with her, and I voiced my guilt to Alexander, who said that he’d been married countless times and got frustrated with every single one of his wives.
But my guilt and irritation were overwhelmed with my happiness that Remy was back. My life was almost complete, but I wasn’t quite happy with myself. Because I was attracted to Scarlett Hart.

A few days after that day, I encountered her yet again, this time at the library. I was returning a book on feminine magic and Stephen King’s latest novel when I saw her. She was at the café beside the small bookshop.
“Sorry, honey, your card was declined,” the girl behind the counter said.
“Shit,” Scarlett said in reply. “Never mind, then. Thanks, anyway.”
“I’ll pay for it,” I said, coming up behind her. Scarlett turned and saw me, then looked suspicious.
I handed the cashier some cash and she set the coffee on the counter.
“Why would you pay for me?” Scarlett asked, suspiciously.
“It’s called forgiveness,” I told her. She took the hot coffee and studied me.
“Did Sarah forgive me?”
“Oh, she forgave you a long time ago. What you did still gives her nightmares, but she forgave you. It took me a long time, but I’ve forgiven you, too. Here.” I pressed a few hundred dollars into her hand. When she saw the amount, her eyes welled up with tears.
“Damn you, Reese,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “Damn you and Sarah to hell.” But she took the money anyway and put the cash in her designer purse with the old leather handles.
I went back into the main library and picked out my next few books, found a DVD I’d been wanting to see, and went home.

“I saw Scarlett at the library,” I told Selena while she was feeding Cirino.
“What did she say to you?” she asked. Soft food dripped down the baby’s chin, and she scooped it up with a spoon.
“Bah,” he said. He was starting to look more like Sarah. He had the same button nose, the same color eyes, the same ears, and the same high cheekbones and heart-shaped face. Luckily, Michael hadn’t shown up since he’d been resurrected. He didn’t even ask for visits with the baby, which I was grateful for, and so was Sarah.
“Nothing much. I paid for her coffee when her card was rejected, and she asked me why I did it. I told her it was called forgiveness, and then she damned me to hell.”
“Sometimes when people make mistakes, it’s harder for them to forgive themselves than for other people to forgive them,” my sister said. “Did she accept your generosity?”
“Yes, but reluctantly. I’ve encountered her at least three times now since we graduated, all in recent days.
“You live in the same town. It was bound to happen.”
“I always assumed I would never see any of my classmates again. I know now that I was wrong. You’re right, it happens in a city this size.” I thought about Sarah, and wondered what she’d think of me handing Scarlett three hundred dollars. I didn’t know for sure how she’d feel about me being kind to her old enemy.
“There’s some good news,” Sarah said, walking into the kitchen. “Jamie Williams said he’s going to stay in North Hampton! He said he likes the city, and the quaint bookstores and coffee shops. He finds The Natural History Museum fascinating, and he wants to get to know me better!”
“Do you believe him?” I asked, cautiously.
“Well, yes and no,” she admitted. “North Hampton is no different than any other city. We’ve got crime here, bad people and stuff. I wonder what his real reason is?”
“It’s you, dear,” Selena told her.
Sarah looked at my sister and cocked her pretty head. “Me? Why? What’s so special about me?”
“Face it, honey, you’re quite the woman. You’re beautiful, smart, funny, and kind. I’m glad my brother’s marrying you.”
Sarah looked horrified. “Oh. Oh no. Not another one!”
“Another what?” I asked.
“Another admirer! I had plenty of them growing up, but ever since I started dating you, it’s like I can’t keep them away! It’s like I’m cursed or something!”
“Do I need to knock some people’s heads in?” I pounded my palm.
She grimaced. “If you could just stay close to me, that would be great. I can’t literally fight people in my condition. By the way, I heard what happened with Scarlett today.”
Now it was my turn to grimace. “Sarah, I-“
“I’m proud of you, Reese. You’re becoming more mature. You’re forgiving people.”
I was not expecting that. She never ceased to surprise me.
“Oh, yes. You’re not angry?”
“I was a little irritated at first, but I realized I was being childish. You were simply doing a nice thing for somebody else. That’s nice, in a world of greed and selfishness.”
Remy and Shadowfang walked into the room, and I bent down to pick up Shadow while Sarah picked up Remy.
“Kitty,” Cirino said, pointing at Shadow.
“That’s right,” Selena told him. “What does a kitty say?”
“Mew.”
“That’s right. You’re a fast learner. I wonder if it’s all the attention you receive, or Mother’s milk?”
“She’s still feeding him her milk?” I asked in disbelief.
“It’s a basic maternal instinct, Reese. He won’t drink cow’s milk right now, but he will drink vampire and human milk.”
“I wonder what vampire milk tastes like?” Shadowfang said, licking his lips.
“Probably super sour,” Remy said.
“You don’t want him to be four years old and still drinking breast milk,” I pointed out.
“I know, and Mother will wean him soon, I know she will. In the meantime, he drinks so much milk that we have to ration it.”
Remy climbed onto Sarah’s shoulders, and nibbled a lock of her hair. She sat down beside me and the cat jumped onto the table. Shadow leaped onto the table as well,
“I’m glad you’re back, kitty,” I said, scratching Remy’s chin.
“So am I,” Sarah agreed.
“Me, too,” Shadowfang echoed. “But you never gave us the full story. What really happened?”
Remy turned around and rolled on his back. “I smell peaches. Are you feeding the baby peaches?”
“Clearly he’s not going to tell us,” I said. “Were you really resurrected? Or did you even die at all?”
He didn’t say anything to that and leaped onto the kitchen counter instead and began sniffing a roast chicken. Spunk came into the kitch
“Where are the other dogs?” I asked.
“Groomer’s for Koda and Lola, vet for Scooter and Jasmine,” Selena explained. “Then we switch it out and Koda and Lola will be at the vet while Scooter and Jasmine will be at the groomer’s.”
“When will their training begin?”
“Next week. Jasmine will be able to tell when Sarah will have any issues with the pregnancy, and Koda will be able to sense seizures or any heart problems.”
“Why not just get one dog?”
“Because most service dogs are trained for only one or two things. Scooter is just an emotional support animal for Sabine, and Lola and Jasmine can’t be apart, or Lola mutilates herself.”
“What does she do to herself?”
“Chews her paws down to the bone,” Sarah explained. “Apparently, both Lola and Jasmine used to be bait dogs in a dogfighting ring, and they were rescued together as well.”
Sarah checked her watch, then said, “Shit, I’m going to be late.”
“Where are you going?” I asked her.
“Doctor’s appointment. Private stuff. It’s not about the baby. Don’t bother coming along. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
She went up to her room, and when she emerged, she was wearing an olive green maternity dress and had put some fresh makeup on and ran a brush through her hair and tied it up in a ponytail. She wore flats on her feet.
“I’ll be back,” she said, standing up on her toes to kiss me.
“If you are not returned in the perfect condition that you are already in…..”
“You worry too much. I’ll only be gone an hour. Two at the most. I have to drop off some books at the library, too, and do some banking on my computer.”
She kissed me again, and then stepped outside.
“She didn’t have her computer with her,” I noted. “And our child…any doctor will know immediately that it’s not fully human. She’s hiding something.”
“It’s private, Reese,” Selena told me. “Leave her alone.”
“I can’t-she’s my fiancée. My mate. My future wife. I can’t just let her go and not know for sure.” I peeked out the window, and she was already driving away. I decided to follow her.

I took the Ferrari to follow her. She drove a less-than-familiar route-in the opposite direction of the hospital. Her eyes, focused on the road, occasionally trailed down to her stomach. My heart would have been pounding if I was alive. What was she up to? Why this place?
She soon pulled up to a gated neighborhood and typed in a code on the box. The same code as last time. I remembered this neighborhood. The home of the Kingdom of the North Hampton Fae.
She pulled up to the first house on the left, and then parked and got out of her car. She locked her car, then knocked on the door three times. A tall, dark man answered the door.
“Password?” he growled.
“Fowley,” she replied, which caused him to step aside and let her in.
Stomach sinking, I punched in the same code as she had, an odd combination of five numbers which I would later realize spelled out the word “fairy” in number code. I pulled up to the same house, parked, and got out. I went up to the door and knocked three times.
The same man opened the door. When he saw me, he scowled. “No vampires.”
“Fowley,” I said, resisting the urge to throttle him.
“No vampires,” he repeated.
“My wife is in there!”
“The cute brunette? She’s clearly one of us. I could smell the magic in her blood.”
“Please,” I begged. “She’s not safe here. Not without me.”
“No vampires.”
“What if I gave you something? Anything! Do you want money?”
I held out five Benjamins, and his eyes lit up. He snatched it greedily and counted it.
“Five minutes,” he grumbled.
“I need at least an hour.” I held out five more bills. He took them and smiled at the amount. He had sharp, yellow teeth that were caked with plaque and tartar.
“Thirty minutes.”
“Dude, that’s not cool! My mate is in there!”
“She will be safe with Fowley. He is head over heels for her.”
I growled and shoved past him. Man, he stunk. Clearly a troll in disguise, or maybe a goblin. No, goblins were shorter.
I followed the sound of voices to the basement, where I found an old wooden door with gold and silver handprints on it.
“Out of my way!”
A small man shoved past me, and then stood on his toes and pressed his palm against the gold handprint.
“What if you don’t have hands?” I asked.
He looked at me, disgusted. “Then you say the password. Who let a vampire in?”
I snuck in behind him and came across the same throne room I’d been in before. Fowley was on a throne made of wood and vines and flowers, the ground made of soft earth, and perched on the Elf’s head was a crown of daisies and gardenias and lilies. Sarah was beside him, her hands folded in front of her. When she saw me, she looked terrified.
“What is your name and your bidding?” Fowley asked the short man.
“Sire, my wife and I have no money. We are penniless and will soon be out of food. We have ten children, with two more on the way. All we have is maggoty meat and bread. Our children will starve and die if we are not helped.”
Fowley nodded to a reptilian man that I recognized as Azur, and the lizard mand handed a small bag of coins and bills to the small man.
“Thank you, Sire. Thank you.”
The man turned to the side, and I saw that his eyes were filled with tears. He left through a side door on the right, and then it was my turn. Fowley frowned.
“How did you get in, vampire? Did Cranka let you in? He will be fired for this. Leave now, before I have your head on a pike.”
“NO!” Sarah shouted. She ran to me, and the people around us began muttering. “He’s my fiancé, Fowley.”
“Your fiancé?” He looked heartbroken. “You never told me. You know how I feel about you. Why now, when it is too late?”
“I didn’t tell him about you, either,” she admitted.
He looked furious. The air crackled with energy, and flames appeared in his eyes. His hair turned white and stood on end, and his fingernails grew into long, ten-inch claws.
“Girl, I will kill you for this treachery!” He threw a firebolt at us, and I shielded her with my body, but the bolt never hit me. Her wings had popped out of her back and she had lifted us into the air. I also noticed a blue force field around us.
“Azur?” Sarah asked, looking at the reptilian. He had his hands held out, both palms facing forward, projecting the field.
“Leave. Now,” he commanded in his gravelly voice.
Sarah flew through the side door and out. Behind us, energy crackled and sparked, and Azur was trying to keep Fowley calm.
“Well, there goes that job,” Sarah muttered.
“We are going to have a long talk,” I told her.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Sarah Harper Cresley, what were you thinking?!” Mother was as furious as I was. “Working for that…that…fairy!”
“I’m a fairy,” Sarah pointed out.
“That’s besides the point,” I said. “You could have put yourself and our baby in danger!”
“I wasn’t in any danger until you showed up! Besides, I needed the money for Mom and Dad.”
“You’re still giving money to that woman?” I thought Mother would explode with fury. But she just looked sad. “She still has control over you?”
“She can’t get a job, because she’s a vampire now, her side of the family isn’t talking to us, and you won’t give her one. I wanted her to have a healthy life as a vampire, even if her human life was full of downs and unhealthy habits.”
Sarah burst into tears, and Mother instinctively embraced her.
“My baby,” she muttered. “My first human baby. Why have you been mistreated so? I swore I would get rid of that woman for you, but she keeps coming back like a dog that won’t go away. You could have asked us for money. You did not have to do that.”
“I’m sorry,” Sarah said. “I’m so sorry.”
Great. I’d screwed up again. She was going to think this was her fault. My heart aching, I wrapped my arms around her from behind, and kissed her scalp.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered. “This is my fault, not yours.”
“No, it is my fault,” she hiccoughed. “I should have just been honest with you.”
“It’s all right, sweetheart. Come here.”
I tried to pry her away from Mother, but Mother growled and tightened her grip on the girl. I growled back, and hissed at her. She hissed back.
“Why are you hissing at each other?” Sarah asked.
“We had a brief fight over who gets to hold you,” Mother explained, recovering more quickly than I did. She let her go and I took her in. She wrapped her arms around my middle and started to sob. I kissed her cute button nose and nibbled her lips. A few more seconds and we were kissing furiously. I picked her up and carried her upstairs.
We made sweet love for an hour, then Sarah felt a cramp and said we had to stop. Around midnight, there was a knock at the door.
I answered the door, and there was a tall, thin man with a greenish tint to his skin and eyes like a crocodile. I knew immediately that it was Azur. He held out a large pink bag.
“Sarah forgot her purse,” he explained.
“Did you go through it?” I asked, and he grimaced.
“I may have, and I may have not. Fowley is calm now, but she is banned until invited back.”
“Duly noted. Why did you protect us?”
He winced. “Because…I love her too.”
I paused, then my fist headed straight for his nose, but he caught it and twisted my arm. I cursed wildly as the muscles tore.
“I do not simply want to fuck her,” he said. “Although I do want to do that as well. I know that she has a babe in her belly, although I did not know the identity of the father. Now I do. It’s you. You are her mate. Her soulmate. I would very much like to protect her and hold her, but that is not a possibility. I make do with whores and dancers. I have been alone for a century, and now that I find a woman worthy of me, she is already taken. I hope she has a long, fulfilling life and you treat her well. Goodbye, Reese.”

I put the purse on the foyer table and locked the door after making sure no cats escaped while I was talking to the lizard man.
I crawled in next to Sarah. She shivered when she felt my cold skin, so I wrapped her in another blanket and kissed her.
“French fries,” she muttered.
“That’s right,” I said. “French fries. Now sleep, my love.”
I slept for twelve hours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took me a while to wake up. I had a pounding headache, and my lover was still sleeping beside me, snoring lightly. I rolled her onto her side, felt her naked skin against mine. I put my hands against her and purred. Our little one slept peacefully, her heart beating soundly.
Sarah opened her eyes, then closed them again due to the bright light escaping from the blinds.
“Oh, my head,” she muttered. Then her eyes shot open. “Oh my goodness. I screwed up. Fowley is going to be pissed. He’s going to-“
“Hey, shhh,” I soothed her. “He won’t be a problem. You’re mine, remember? He can’t hurt you now.”
“You don’t know his power. I do. He’ll send goons to us, and then he’ll-“
“Shhh,” I encouraged. “It was my fault, baby. I upset him. I should have known better…but I wish you’d told me.”
“I knew you would be against it,” she said, her eyes shining. “But I needed the money bad. And I can’t sit around feeling useless. I found out that Fowley needed a female guard, and I’ve taken some self-defense classes, so I thought I could do it for him. I’m sorry, Reese. It was my fault, not yours.”
“Shhh, baby, hush. I know why you did it. You should know by now that you can ask me for anything, and I’ll do my damnedest to do it for you. I love you more than life itself, Sarah Harper Cresley.”
I kissed her roughly. Then someone knocked at the door, and I growled at the interruption.
“It’s Selena,” I told Sarah.
“Come in,” she said sweetly.
Selena opened the door a crack and said, “Sarah, your gift is here. We all pitched in, and Reese picked it out.”
“Oh.” She looked at me. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”
“Yes, I did,” I corrected her. “I can’t have you driving a clunky old Honda around.”
“Hey, don’t knock on my Honda. Hondas are more expensive upfront, but they last forever.” Her eyes widened. “Reese, you didn’t.”
“I did. I bought you a car, lover. I hope you like it. I got it in a color you like, one that doesn’t show dirt.”
I let her go and groaned when I saw that I’d bruised her arms. She didn’t seem to care, though, as she walked around her room pulling clothes out and getting dressed.
“A car.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it. I don’t deserve you, Reese.”
“I disagree strongly,” I told her. “It is I who is unworthy of you.”
“Did you just try to quote North and South?”
“I did. Did I get it right?”
“You were close. A car. Is it pink?”
I chuckled. “Sorry, babe, it’s not pink, but it is a nice shade of blue.”
“I like blue, too.” She pinched an unbruised part of her arm. “I hope I’m not dreaming.”
I hugged her from behind. She pulled on her boots, struggling a bit due to her stomach getting in the way, and grabbed a jacket.
I carefully helped her down the steps, conscious of her condition (she was definitely showing now), and opened the door for her, careful not to let any dogs or cats get out. (I had to physically restrain Lola and Jasmine, who sniffed at Sarah, perhaps sensing her pregnancy.)
The brand-new navy blue Lamborghini sat in the driveway with a big red bow on top. I looked over at Sarah. Tears shined in her eyes, and she started to cry.
“If you don’t like it, we can always return it,” I told her.
She suddenly hugged me in what would have been a bone-crushing hug if she’d been a vampire.
“It’s…I can’t…believe…you…it’s beautiful….”
I kissed the top of her head. I inhaled her scent, the floral scent that was her soul and her feminine musky scent that made her female. I could also smell her blood, which was always enticing to me, but not in a way that made me want to consume her. Blood to taste or sip like fine wine, not inhale like Louis does when he eats.
She cried for nearly an hour, at which point she was too hungry to care about the car.
Zie made eggs and buttered toast and poured Sarah and Sabine glasses of milk.
“All babies need milk,” she said. Sarah blushed while Sabine rolled her eyes.
Sabine had grown a bit since I’d met her. She was sixteen now, almost seventeen, the same age Sarah was when we first began dating almost three years before.
“I hate you, Sarah,” Sabine muttered, and Sarah obviously heard, because she ran out of the room crying.
“What is your problem?” I snapped at the brat. “None of this is her fault.”
She tore our family apart! I know why Daddy died, it was to prevent Sarah’s death! She makes us look bad! She’s dating you, which, let’s face it, you’re not a real prince. She caused Mom to drink alcohol again and she’s the reason why Mom started hitting us!”
“How dare you!” That didn’t come from me, but from Mother. Her eyes were blazing with fury. “Your sister has done a lot more for your family than you realize! Did you know your mother was in debt? NO, because you’re a selfish brat who only thinks of herself! Sarah is not the reason why James died! That was pure bad luck. Sarah is not the reason why your grandmother and grandfather aren’t speaking to you, that fault lies with your accursed mother! Stop blaming Sarah, and take some responsibility for once!”
Sabine ran from the room, also crying. Mother softened.
“I shouldn’t have yelled at her.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “Someone needed to set her straight. You’re right, none of this was Sarah’s fault. She got caught in the crossfire, and it shows. She secretly hates herself for it, for her past mistakes, and the way she’s been treated, made her self-esteem plummet. It all started with Nales.” I ground my teeth at the mention of his name. “He’s the one who caused this. If he’d never raped her, then she wouldn’t have been crying, and I wouldn’t have….” I trailed off and looked at Mother.
She smiled weakly. “You blame yourself, don’t you, son?”
“Think about it. If I’d never been infatuated with her in the first place-“
“You can blame the Fates for that, dear.”
“The Fates had nothing to do with it. I made so many mistakes, Mom, and I’m making one right now. Mom, I’m losing interest. I’m attracted to Scarlett Hart, of all people! And you know her history with Sarah.”
Mom looked furious. “You are my son, but if you break Sarah’s heart, I’ll crush your skull between my hands. Do I make myself clear?”
I gulped. “Yes, ma’am.”
She smiled. “It’s natural to feel some tension occasionally. Couples fight, and even lose interest in each other. Every relationship has its ups and downs, it’s how you handle them that matters.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
“Certainly not. I’d rather die than break that girl’s heart. I’ve already fought with her twice. I don’t want to hurt her anymore. I know we will probably fight again, Sabine and Selena and I fight all the time, but that doesn’t mean I love her any less.”
“You really care for my girl, don’t you, Mom?”
“Of course I do. The Fates would never grant Marina Santorino Nicolai’s child a mate that they could not handle.” She fluffed her wildly curly raven-black hair. I noticed something.
“You cut your hair,” I noted.
“Oh, yes, I trimmed off a foot or two. I needed a change of hairstyle. I’ve had the same hairstyle for four hundred years! Isn’t that a riot? But your father and uncle haven’t changed their hairstyles in thousands of years. Your cousin at least went short once or twice. In the old days, long hair was a sign of beauty and skill. Of course, we now know that it depends on the heart and soul, not the length of a person’s hair.” She pressed a fist against her chest.
“How are the babies?” I asked.
She smiled and put both hands on her belly. “Come feel.”
I eased forward and carefully put my hand on her. She was huge, no offense meant. But then again, she was having triplets. She was sure that at least two of them were boys. “Little princes”, she called them. She called the girl “a sweet angel.”
“She doesn’t kick at all,” Mother said, putting my other hand on her. “My boys are feisty and ornery, while the girl is quiet and sleeps a lot. I hope that is a good thing. You know, I had so many miscarriages and stillborns, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever become a mother, something I wanted to be more than anything. It was only when I became a vampire that one of my trysts with my ex-husband bore a fruit, which became Selena. Years later, I married your father and romped with him, which of course resulted in you.”
“Too much information, Mom.”

Sarah and Sabine avoided each other, and by that afternoon, Sabine had run away again. While Mother sent out search parties, I tried comfort Sarah. I managed to convince her that it wasn’t her fault, at least for a little bit, and told a few lame jokes to make her smile. She tried, she really did, but it looked more like a grimace.
We played with the dogs for a couple hours, and then some guys came to work on Mother’s garden in the backyard. She was building a massive stone walkway and patio which led to a pool and would have pink rosebushes. She let Sarah help pick out the stone and the flowers that they would use. Later, she planned to build a koi pond. I told her about Pearl, my sort-of-pet koi, and she thought it was hilarious that I would consider a fish to be my best friend.
I reminded her that I had a new best friend, who also happened to be my fiancée and soulmate. She tweaked my chin and said I was silly.
We watched Frogs, Creature From the Swamp Lagoon, Beauty and the Beast, Twilight, and The Fault in our Stars. Sarah was a little freaked out by the creature features, but I reminded her that if any frog tried to eat her, I would protect her. She hated frogs, anyway.
She fell asleep on my lap sometime halfway through The Fault in our Stars, and I carried her up to bed. I called Father to check in with him, and he told me to be safe, as usual.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” he reminded me.
“Father, I’ve already done something stupid. It cost Sarah her job and nearly cost our lives.”
“What did you do?” he asked after a long hiss that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
I explained about Fowley and Sarah’s job, then what I did.
“Silly girl,” he said, and I could picture him shaking his head. “Fowley is dangerous and unpredictable, even at the best of times. I hope you helped her get home safely.”
“Of course I did! She’s the mother of my baby.”
“Speaking of which, I’d like an update on the child.”
It hit me. If I was having my first child…that would make him a grandfather, unless David somehow had kids and didn’t tell us. I’d seen very little of my brother since I moved into Mother’s house for the chilly season. Father told me he and David got along well, and he and Louis were like brothers, but Uncle Soren was still suspicious, and he frequently gave David reasons to be apprehensive of him.
I visited them at the house from time to time, even staying the night on occasion. Father seemed hurt that I chose to spend more time with Alexander than him. Things were still tense between them.
“He’s not my father, you are,” told him one night as we smoked on the porch and watched David and Louis wrestle in the yard. They adored each other and were more like brothers than David and I were.
“Still, he’s…” My father closed his eye, then opened them, and his pupils were slits. “When I think about him, I want to destroy a small city. Have you forgotten that he nearly killed you, Reese? He even admitted that he wanted to wring Sarah’s neck when he first met her, simply because he hates humans. He took Cirino because he thought that Kieran would never speak to him again. The plan was for him to raise Cirino and eventually turn him into a vampire. The plan was never for her or you to live. He would have killed you, too, if your mother hadn’t interfered.”
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, his pupils were round again.
“How do you feel now with him here?” I gestured to David.
“Oh, I’m thrilled he’s here. He keeps me company when you’re not around. He tells me stories about his other siblings and his mother. I knew Ferri years ago, and it was extremely brief. I never thought for one second that anything might have become of our brief relationship.”
He closed his eyes. “It must have happened that night in December. We were both drunk, and neither of us used any protection or cared about possible disease or pregnancy. David told me his birthday’s in August. That would mean….” He paused and counted on his fingers. “He just turned twenty-five.”
“But he told you that, though.”
“I know, but I still can’t believe it. I was sure you were it, Reese. None of us have born much fruit other than what we have. There is a possibility that there may be more, but I doubt it.”
He looked over at the guys wrestling.
“That was a cheap shot!” David shouted.
“One thing you should know about me: I don’t play fair!” Louis responded, jumping on my brother. “You’re doing great, dude! But I can still kick your butt!”
Beyond the edge of the property line, I could see Cholena, still writing in that notebook of hers.
“What’s she still doing here?” I asked Father.
“Cholena? I don’t know. I think Satira sent her to watch us, but I’m not going to make her leave, even though her presence hurts Soren. He still blames himself for Mitra’s death. And no one has seen Katonah in weeks. Soren went to see her human family, but they all yelled at him and tried to shoot him. So they also blame him.”
My heart broke for both my uncle and Cholena. Cholena lost her mother, and my uncle lost his mate. Again. Plus, Mitra wasn’t bad company. She kept up lively conversations, and, even though her attitude sucked most of the time, she kept it real, even when she admitted she was torn between Katonah and my uncle, and even when we weren’t exactly nice to her.

I stepped off the porch and walked all the way over to where Cholena was sitting. She glared at me, and hissed when I got too close for her liking.
“What are you writing?” I asked. She showed me. It was a sketchbook…and it had a picture of Louis on it. It captured his likeness perfectly, even the mischievous glint in his blue eyes and the tangles in his long brown hair.
“It looks like him,” I said.
She said nothing and turned back to her picture.
“What else have you drawn?” I asked. She showed me. The cemetery. The lake. A deer and her fawn. A pack of wolves in the distance. A fox digging. A buck rubbing his antlers on a tree. Even a few humans, which I realized were her family.
She continued to glare at me, even as I complimented each drawing. She was even better than Sarah, and Sarah was good at drawing and loved it. Her glare grew deeper when I casually asked about Satira. She closed her sketchbook and grabbed her messenger bag and walked away, giving me the finger.
“You tried, little buddy,” Louis said, patting my shoulder as I walked by him.
“Did you see the first drawing she showed him?” David asked.
“No, what was it?”
“It was you, Louis.”
“What? Me? Why would she draw me?”
“It’s possible that she’s drawn all of us,” Father told him, stepping on his cigarette. “She just showed the picture of you.”
“Huh,” was my cousin’s response. “Hey, I’m hungry. Who wants make dinner for me?”
“You can get your own,” Father told him.
“You got David his-“
“David is still a guest and therefore deserves a little more…um…”
“Yeah, right. You just want to be a parent again.”
“So what if I do? I haven’t met David before last month and Reese is nearly grown. He claims he doesn’t need me, anymore.”
“I never said that,” I argued.
“You didn’t say it with your words, son, but with your actions.”
“In other words, he’s hurt that you decided to live with your mom for a while,” Louis explained.
“Sarah and the baby need me,” I argued. “She can’t leave the home because she’ll be out of their protection, and there’s less vampires there than here. No one has any reason to attack Mother’s house, but they have plenty reason to attack this house, and this house has had plenty of attacks. I don’t want her caught in the crossfire.”
“I don’t want that any more than you do, Reese, but she’s just as safe here because there are more vampires to protect her. We still have Toby and Sam and Sarah has Chris. She’s perfectly safe.”
“I disagree. I’m not willing to risk her or my baby’s life just so you can see me.”
He gave me an extremely offended look and went inside. Minutes later, I heard the television turn on.
“He misses you, little buddy,” Louis explained. “We all do, but especially him. Go easy on him. Can’t you spend a couple more nights with us? It would make us all happy, and he’d stop bitching to me.”
“Mmm, fine,” I growled. “If it will make him happy, sure. I can stay a few more nights.”
I went inside and told Father the good news. He planted a big smooch on my forehead and told me I was a good kid.
We watched the news for a bit, then switched to a crime drama, then switched to a documentary about freakshows. I asked Father about them, and he explained that medical anomalies were not fully understood and those who had certain conditions that affected them physically, such as dwarfism, giantism, and conjoined twins were common in freakshows.
One of the most popular freakshow attractions were “pinheads”, or people with microcephaly. Among the most famous were people like Schlitze, who was a man with the condition and even starred in a 1932 movie.
We watched that for a while, and then Father sat up and began sniffing the air. I took a big whiff. I smelled female vampire. Her scent was unfamiliar, and I could tell by her scent that she was a fledgling.
I followed my father and cousin outside, and we spotted a thin figure studying us from a tree branch at the edge of the woods.
“We will not harm you,” Father said, stepping forward. Instead of being comforted, the female shrank back and hissed. She was like a female version of me-skinny, muscular, but her black hair was shortened into a bob and her eyes were brown. I purred to try to ease her, and her eyes flicked over to me.
“Hello, I’m Reese,” I said.
She jumped down and landed perfectly on her feet.
“Call me Kole,” she said. “With a K.”
“Hi, Kole,” Louis said. “Did you come here alone?”
She looked sad. “Yeah. I don’t know where or what I am. I remember being bitten, but everything before that is a blank. Can you help me?”
“Be careful, she may have been sent to spy on us,” Father said. Kole heard, and looked confused.
“She smells like she’s alone,” Louis pointed out. “This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had vampires come to this house because they smelled our scent and wanted to know who we were or got confused. Remember that one coven who came with Meiko? Or that coven after that?”
A light went off over my head. “Was Zeke’s clan just curious, or were they sent to spy on us as well? I mean, that one chick connected with Sarah, and afterwards, little buddy met Ambrose for the first time, and Ambrose used to work for Bram Sterling.”
“Ambrose has always worked for himself,” Father said. He looked at Kole. “I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt, but she does seem lost and confused. Louis, why don’t you take her and explain things to her?”
“Reese can do it,” Louis said, winking at me. I frowned. Louis knew I was with Sarah.
Kole looked at me, and fluttered her eyelashes. I almost told her I had a girlfriend. Then Cholena stepped lazily out of the woods, her bag over her shoulder. When the two girls saw each other, they stared for a long time.
"I sense distension in the ranks," Louis whisper-shouted.
"What are you doing here, Cholena?" Father asked her.
"I have some questions about my mother," she said, turning to look at him.
"Let's go to the yard."
The day was overcast, though not in a way that threatened rain.
"What do you want to know?" I asked, as all the vampires sat in a half circle.
"My mother...was she pretty?"
"Very," I answered. "She was gorgeous. She had this shiny short hair, and this thin body. She was small, but not as small as you."
"Who are we talking about?" Kole asked.
"Mitra," I said. "Cholena, this is Kole, Kole, this is Cholena." The two girls stared at each other again, then Kole said "mate" under her breath. Mate? Were they mates? Cholena didn't seem to care as she threw her legs out, propping herself up on her hands. She jumped, bringing her feet together, and then jumped up as high as she could. Which was pretty damn high.
Then Kole jumped up, and the two girls intertwined their fingers in midair. David came out to join us then, and he watched this display with interest.
"Sorry I haven't been around much," I told my brother as he sat beside me. "With the wedding only a few months away, and with this baby coming..."
"I understand," he said, watching the girls as they landed near a patch of oak trees. "You've been busy. But one would think that you might put your brother ahead just for a little while."
Okay, so he was hurt. I knew he was trying to make me feel guilty about not staying or seeing him much.
Cholena ran back in a split second, panting, Kole right behind her. Then I heard a voice I didn't want to hear again.
"Kole! Kole, where are you?"
"Satira," Louis said, and Father groaned.
"She's not that bad," Kole said.
"How do you know her?" I asked.
"She created me. As a companion."
"Did you and Cholena know each other before this?" I asked.
"Er, no," Kole said, and I knew she was lying. But I said nothing against her statement and looked at my father. His brows were furrowed, and he scratched his abdomen absentmindedly.
"Fuck me," he said. "Were you two sent to spy on us?"
Kole and Cholena looked at each other, then looked back at us, and said, "No," at the same time. I could tell Father didn't believe them. He sighed. "I really need to hire more guards. Go on, leave, both of you. Go!"
Kole and Cholena didn't need to be told again. They hurried off in the direction of Satira's voice.
Father laughed , then grabbed the cherry tree I'd planted years earlier and shook it Ornamental cherries fell. "Gods, what a creature! I'm so glad she's not my mother-in-law anymore."
I sighed and stretched out under the gray sky. It was considered to be a beautiful day by vampire standards, and I was determined not to let Satira's shenanigans get to me.
My phone rang, blaring Sarah's ringtone.
"Yes, cookie?"
"Reese Mordecai Emerson, you are in so much trouble."
"What did I do?"
"They detected three heartbeats, one of which is mine."
"What does..." It clicked. "Does that mean..."
"Yes, my future husband and favorite lover, we are having twins."
I buried my mouth in my jacket and screamed.
"Hello? Hello?"
Twins. We were going to have twins.
I could see Father's eyes were wide, and he looked at me and smiled. "Congratulations, son. Twins. That's an achievement, especially for vampires."
"Half-vampires," Louis reminded him. "Remember, she's still human, or fairy, or whatever."
"That doesn't matter!" I shouted. I literally jumped for joy. I used my hands and feet to propel myself around the yard.
"Hello, Sarah? This is Mordecai. Yes, he's alive. He's just jumping around like a lunatic because he's so excited. Congratulations, dear. Yes, I'm excited, too. I get to be a grandfather before any of these other losers. Reese will be all right, he'll be wired for days, though. What are they? Oh, another prince? And a princess? He'll be happy to hear that. All right, thank you for telling us, sweetheart. Goodbye."
He looked at me, smiling. I was somewhere between grinning like a fool and panting out of excitement. "A boy and a girl, son. Looks like you're getting the first two at the same time."
Caitlin Juniper and Joseph? Yes!!
I was as excited as any new father could be, and it took several laps around our land to work off my energy. I even dove into the lake and climbed on top of a tombstone in the cemetery and howled like a werewolf.
I knew I would never be able to sleep that night, so I stayed up, reading all the books I could about parenting.
The next day, Father, David, Louis, and I met Mother, Selena, and Sarah at the library. I hugged Sarah, squeezing her more tightly than I'd intended, and spun her around once. She laughed and planted a kiss on my chin. I put my hand on her stomach. Yes...I could hear their heartbeats now, two little lives burning brightly.
I purred and licked Sarah's hair to mark her as mine. There were other ways to mark her, but none that would be appropriate in a public library. She was already starting to show.
"Let's discuss finances," Father said, as he sat across from Mother, who slid into the chair with some difficulty. I failed to understand why she still wore high heels at this stage of her pregnancy. She was farther along than Sarah was, and with triplets. She didn't yet know the genders-she wanted to be surprised. I knew she'd be equally happy with either boys or girls, or if there were two boys and a girl or two girls and a boy. I myself was eager to meet my new half-siblings.
"The children must have a joint account," Mother said. "At least one."
"I agree. And the current wealth between them is...well, Reese has over ten million dollars in his account. And I have more in his name. He will have full access to each account when he gets married. There are five accounts in America, ten in Denmark. Ten million in each one, twenty million in his first ever one. You do the math."
Sarah's and David's jaws had dropped, Louis was smirking, and Selena pretended to browse the cozy mystery novels.
"There are also a few that, upon my death, will become his. Ten trillion dollars in all in my name."
Sarah blinked and her brows furrowed. "Are you pulling my leg, Mordecai?"
He smiled gently at her. "No, dear, I'm not. I am always honest about money. But I won't die for some time yet, if we're lucky, so no need to worry about it just yet."
"Sarah has thirty-seven thousand dollars approximately," Mother said. "That's all in one account. Most of it I've given to her, or you have. Thirty-seven thousand six hundred and forty-five dollars in all. And I have another account set up for her when she gives birth or turns twenty-one."
I did the calculations in my head. One hundred and twenty million dollars plus thirty-seven thousand six hundred and forty-five-wow. We were rich.
"Will you cut him off?" Mother asked.
"Of course not. Not unless he starts gambling or spends frivolously."
We all looked at Sarah, who blushed and looked at her red-painted nails.
"I know how much you like clothes and shoes, sweetheart," Father said. "But, please, try to control yourself."
She nervously fiddled with her bracelet. Then she looked up.
"Scarlett," she hissed. I looked up. There was Sarah's old nemesis and ex-friend, Scarlett, browsing the bookshelves. "What is she doing here?"
"It's a public library, lover," I said. I purred and stroked her hair to calm her down. "Shhh, it's all right. I'm here."
She shook her head. "No, I need to say something. First she flirts with you, then she shows up to take the same dogs as us, and now this! This is getting ridiculous!"
"We live in the same town, cookie," I said quietly. "Baby girl, it's all right. I'm here."
She hissed. "She's coming this way."
"Mom, take Sarah out of here. I'll deal with Scarlett."
Mom didn't hesitate. She took my beautiful fiancee's hand and led her away.
"Crazy bitch," I muttered.
"Why would she come over here?" Louis asked. "She knows that her mere presence upsets Sarah."
"That's it," I said. "She knows she upsets Sarah, so she follows us around."
"That's crazy talk," David said. "I haven't known you long, little brother, but this is too crazy even for me. I have enough sisters as it is-I can't handle any girl drama. Sorry."
"You're on your own, son," Father said apologetically, leaving just as the Raven Queen approached.
"Hey, Reese," she said. "Doing a little browsing?"
"Actually, we were just having a private conversation," I said, irked at her callousness.
"Well, don't let little old me stop you from 'having your private conversation'."
"Must you always intrude?"
"All I saw were two friends and their family, and then everyone left except you and him, whatever his name is."
"Louis," my cousin said, extending his hand. "Louis Soren Emerson, milady. My father is Prince Soren, second ruler of our world. Also known across our race for his physical strength and bulging muscles."
Scarlett laughed a dry, humorless laugh. "You're a funny guy, Lewis."
"It's Lew-wee," he corrected, but she ignored him in favor of me.
"Hey, handsome," she teased, moving my bangs out of the way.
"Don't touch me," I growled, moving out of her reach. "You ruined Sarah."
"I didn't ruin her," she argued. "I thought she told on us. I was wrong. I didn't rape her, or get her pregnant."
"She lost most of her friends because of you!"
"But she made new ones! You and Ariella Spears, and Mason..." She trailed off. She looked stung for a moment, then shook it off.
"You're fucking crazy," I said. "She wasn't even the one who told your parents; Jordan was!"
She raised her fist as if to hit me, then thought better of it. Then she started saying a string of random numbers.
"What?" I said.
"It's my phone number, stupid," she said. "When you finally see sense, call me. I'll be waiting."
Then she moved off to the women's fiction section.
"You're right, she is a crazy bitch," Louis said. He slapped my shoulder. "Tough break, little buddy. Personally, I like the crazy ones. But I like the sweet ones, too."
Sarah was outside throwing a temper tantrum. When she saw me, she rushed toward me and grabbed my shoulders.
"What did the crazy bitch want?" she demanded.
"To fuck me," I answered. "She gave me her phone number."
The sound that came out of Sarah's mouth would have put a banshee to shame.
"Calm down, baby girl," I said. "Of course I said no."
She breathed and half-laughed, half-sobbed into my chest.
"Dumpling, what's wrong?"
"I'm fat! Can't you see? I'm fat and plain!"
I almost laughed. "My little cupcake, all women go through body changes when they become pregnant. And you are the opposite of plain. You're beautiful! You're the prettiest girl I've ever seen!"
She wiped a tear away and sniffed. "You mean that?"
"Of course I do. The first thing I noticed about you was your eyes. They're a beautiful shade of green, and your hair is so soft and curly! And your nose is cute, and your face is a nice shape, and so are your lips! They're full and red and pouty. Perfect for kissing. I love every part of you, including your flaws. In fact, I think your stretch marks are the most beautiful part of you. They show that you're strong. You've been through a lot, and you came out on top. You're a survivor."
She hugged me, wiping her eyes on my shirt. "I'm being silly, aren't I?"
"Just a tiny bit, dear Sarah Harper."
"Sorry I freaked out. But I love you so much, I don't want to lose you, or drive you away, like I've driven away so many other people!"
"Sarah Cresley, you are not responsible for other people's actions. If anything, they are responsible for abandoning you."
"My parents, my sister, my best friend, my crush...they all hurt me in some way or another. You would never purposely hurt me, I know Daddy wouldn't, either, but my mom did. She was supposed to protect me, keep me safe. She failed."
"You have a new mother now," I reminded. "If you choose her. My mother adores you, you know. She sees herself in you and thinks you're intelligent and sweet."
Sarah shyly peeked out at Mother, who gave her a reassuring smile.
"Can...can I hug you?" Sarah asked Mother.
"Of course, dear. Just be careful of the fledglings." My two favorite women embraced, and my mother kissed my girlfriend on top of the head. I remembered the first time I saw them together, in the library in our castle in Denmark. They got along so well. Sarah was studying the rites of Aphrodite, if I remembered correctly. Her own ancestor, but she didn't know she was studying her goddess ancestor then.
Mother came from a different background-one full of witchcraft and dark magic, which she abandoned for Roman Catholicism. She'd told me a bit about her life before becoming a vampire. Satira, her mother, was a well-known practitioner of the dark arts, and so were her sisters. She didn't know the whereabouts of my aunts, nor did she act like she cared. She said that her sister all looked similar-curly hair and blue eyes. But she also said that she had a redheaded sister and a blonde sister.
I knew very little about Satira other than that. She had been turned into a vampire by some kind of wraith vampire that hadn't seen the moonlight or eaten a meal in a long time.
Sarah and Mother had similar histories in that both their fathers died, and their mothers were not good mothers, and they were both essentially raped and had produced a child. I was the product of my mother's rape, Sarah had produced Cirino. They both loved to sing and draw, and they both loved being pregnant. Then there were the physical similarities-dark curly hair (although Sarah's hair was lighter in color and shade), light-colored eyes, smooth skin, heart-shaped faces, and both were strong women.
And then I saw him. Michael Nales. He'd wisely stayed away since he was resurrected, and the mere sight of him now filled me with anger. He saw me, too, and avoided eye contact as he walked into the library. But he paused and looked at Sarah. Her eyes went wide when she saw him. Then she walked up to him, stared at him for a minute, and then blam! She socked him.
He actually fell to the ground clutching his nose. "Okay, I deserved that," he said. Sarah smacked him across the face. Then she yanked his hair and shoved his face into the concrete.
"Okay, baby girl," I said, easing her away. "That's enough, Sarah."
She gave me an extremely hurt look, then ran away. Mom glared at me next. "That was insensitive, Reese."
Then she took off after Sarah. Shit. I'd upset her again.
I needed to see Grandfather.

My grandfather had been transformed into a human almost completely. His heart was beating again, and he was extremely wrinkled and his red hair was gone, replaced by white strands barely sticking on. He was blind in both eyes, but he heard just as well as he'd ever had.
"Hello, Reese," he croaked, finally sounding like the thousands-of-years-old vampire that he was.
"Hello, Grandfather," I said. "How are you doing?"
"As well as can be expected. How are you?"
"I'm...not so great, Grandfather. There's been some...developments."
"What kind of developments?"
"Sarah finally punched Nales in the face, and I told her to stop. But before that, Mitra's daughter, Cholena, showed up. Then Satira-"
"Satira's back?!"
"Yes, Grandfather. She's back, and she wants mine and Selena's souls. No doubt for some dark purpose."
"Satira has always been practiced in black magic. I never much liked her, anyway. She's a whore and a bitch. And she's horrible to her daughters, especially Marina. I always liked that nose of your mother's, but Satira makes fun of it. As for getting your soul, I wouldn't let her go within a hundred yards of you or the other children."
"And, ah, there's something else."
"What is it, Reese?"
"No, I shouldn't be the one to tell you, Dad should."
"I know about David, Reese."
I was taken aback. "You do?"
"Yes. Mordecai even introduced me while you were away at the Nicolai house, abandoning me for your absent mother."
"Grandfather, Sarah's pregnant with twins. I had to stay with her, and she's more safe there than here. More guards posted, plus Zie's keeping her well-fed and watered."
"Twins? Oh, be still my heart. Boys or girls?"
"One of each. We've already picked out the names. The boy will be called Joseph, after the Earthly father of Jesus Christ, as a reference to Sarah's Christian half, and the other will be called Caitlin Juniper. With an I instead of a Y between the L and the N. Sarah likes it that way. And Juniper, because, well, you know what junipers are."
"Yes, I used to own a bit of wood that had quite a few juniper trees. Those are good names, my grandson." He coughed dryly. "I hope I get to see you married before I die."
"Grandfather, you're not going to die. We'll find a cure."
"No, Reese, I will die. One way or the other, soon, very soon, I will die."
Tears came into my eyes. "But you can't die! You're my grandfather!"
He smiled gently in my general direction-not at me.
"Almost everyone except gods die. Even vampires."
I reached out for his hand, and he grabbed mine-his was covered in wrinkles and liver spots and was bony. I cried for a long time.

"Shhh, they're both asleep."
"Has Reese been here the whole time?"
"Yes. Try not to wake him up."
My father's and uncle's voices hit my ears. My dreams were vague-something about a hotel and my cat and a flood and greasy human food.
I slowly stirred and rubbed my eyes. I realized I was still holding Grandfather's hand, and eased out of it. My father was starting to cradle me in his arms and purr. The only thing more important than a mate to a vampire is their parent or creator. Fledglings are not considered as important because so many are made-the ones who are born the normal way are considered much more valuable. It's rare for female vampires to carry a child to term, especially twins or triplets. Even human-borns like my mother often have long and difficult pregnancies.
Vampire babies are naturally stronger than human babies, and they like to kick-hard. My mother already had bruises on her stomach due to my siblings' antics. I missed her now, even as my father held me. There's nothing quite like a parent's loving touch. The closest example is that of a mate. Except that my mate was still angry with me for my insensitive comment earlier.
My father's purring increased as I started to purr.
"I wish my son loved me as much as yours loves you," Uncle Soren sighed. I squirmed a bit, and Father growled and tightened his grip.
"I need to talk to Sarah," I protested. He mumbled, but relented, letting me go so I could talk to her.

I was greeted with dog kisses and jumps when I stepped through the door. Both the new dogs and the old dogs congregated on me, especially Spunk and Jasmine. I almost didn't see Shadowfang until I accidentally stepped on his tail, and he yowled.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I apologized profusely.
"Reese?" Sarah sat up on the couch and rubbed her eyes.
"I'm sorry, baby, did I wake you?" I asked.
"It's okay; I waited for you. I wanted to say I'm sorry if I've been a bitch to you lately. I'm not making excuses, but pregnancy hormones and all that."
"It's okay, lover," I said, leaning over the couch and taking her face in my hands. "And no, you haven't been a bitch to me. I've been dealing with my own shit lately, and I took some of it out on you. I should be the one apologizing, not you."
I kissed her lips, and looked out at the spread before her. Decaffeinated tea, a magazine, a book, the TV remote.
I told her about the strange new vampire, Kole, and and mentioned her strange behavior around Cholena.
"They seemed to know each other," I said. "And then we heard Satira calling for Cholena. I have my suspicions."
"It is odd," she said. "Why do all these vampires come to you? And then David and Cholena show up? And then Satira? It's weird."
"It's a mystery," I agreed. I updated her on Grandfather's condition, and then she fell asleep. I carried her upstairs to our new bed-a king size. It dwarfed her when she laid in it. I preened her while she slept, stroking her hair and admiring her collarbone and her cleavage. I looked around. I decided to clean up a bit-dirty clothes in the hamper, books on shelves or on the side table, notebooks and laptops on the desk, shoes in the closet, makeup put away...and then I saw her purse.
I'd gone through her purse before, and I always hated myself afterwards for invading her privacy. A woman's purse is sacred. This week's edition was a Louis Vuitton Speedy in 35, so Sarah had told me when she pulled it out of the closet. Her purses always were bigger than she seemed to need them to be.
Just a peek.
I took in a deep gulp of air, then opened the mouth of the bag. I saw all the usuals-her wallet, her makeup bag, and...was that a gun?!
It was, it was a gun. A Glock. I opened it up. No bullets. But there was a box of bullets in her purse. Why did she have this? She was surrounded by vampires, people who would protect her, gladly give their lives for her. Maybe she needed this for extra security?
I knew she carried a small knife around, but I'd never have thought of her as a gun carrier. I kept looking. Old water bottles, extra keys, lipstick, lotion, hand sanitizer, extra cash, movie tickets...movie tickets? Huh. I hadn't gone to the movies with her, and we hadn't seen any of our friends from school since we graduated.
I kept looking for any sign, any evidence. I found one other odd thing: a flip cell phone, the old kind that was used twenty years ago. Stomach twisting into a knot, I carefully put everything back where I'd found it and got ready for bed.

CHAPTER FIVE - SUSPICION
She was up before me. I woke up around noon, feeling refreshed. I hissed slightly at the bright sun streaming in from the cracks in the blinds. Sarah was sitting in her reading chair, playing on her regular phone.
I was thirsty, but she was more important. I crawled out of bed and slowly slid along the carpet on my belly. When I reached her toes, I nibbled them, and she giggled.
"Don't chip the paint, Reese," she gently chided.
"What color are we this week?" I teased, looking at her toes. "Oh, gold and silver? Gold on one toe, silver on the others?"
"I couldn't decide which color I wanted to paint them," she explained. "And I was sick of red polish."
"How are the babies?" I asked.
"They want greasy food. Hash browns, bacon, eggs with cheese and peppers."
"You're half-Jewish," I noted.
"I meant turkey bacon. I'm not the type to cheat at anything, except tests and sales."
My heart wrenched at that. I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced myself to sit up beside her. She noticed there was something amiss.
"Reese? What's wrong?" she asked, her pretty brows furrowed.
"Sarah, I...I...I can't...I found your gun."
She blinked. "Oh."
"I smelled the gunpowder and I just..."
"You went through my purse."
"Yes."
She sighed. "Well, I can understand that. I should have been more careful where I left it."
"Sarah, why do you have that gun? You have more protection than anyone in the world."
"I can't let anyone else die. Not without a reason."
"Protecting you is not a good enough reason?"
"Definitely not. I won't have more people die because of me or Sabine."
"Sweet, lovely, angelic Sarah, it's not your fault. None of it is."
She sniffled. "I read Mom's diary after...well...I'm cursed."
I couldn't move at that. "C-cursed?"
She nodded. "I was supposed to die on my sixteenth birthday, but Daddy died instead. He pretended to have cancer so there was a sensible reason for his death. No one else should have to die because of me."
"Sarah...." I swallowed. I looked down at my hands, then her. "Who?"
"Who, what?"
"Who cursed you?"
"I don't know. I know that I was betrothed to Caden when we were younger, but now, I have you. I would rather die than have anyone else."
I was touched by her devotion and selflessness. She continued.
"You protected me. You avenged me. You kept me safe when no one else could or would. You loved me even though I'm not perfect. I adore and love you, Reese. I have for a long time."
I wrapped my arms around her in a fantastic embrace and kissed her roughly. Eventually, she needed to breathe, and I pulled away.
"Sarah, you don't need to be perfect to be loved. Just be yourself. Anyone would love you then. Even serial killers have their multiple admirers."
She smiled weakly at that, and hugged me tighter. Then she winced.
"Ow, my back," she complained.
"Is it your wings?" I asked, cautiously.
"More between my shoulder blades. Oh crap." She ran to the bathroom, and I heard vomiting. I went dowstairs and heated up some blood for myself, then brought some tea for Sarah. She was busy brushing the yuckiness out of her mouth when I returned. She smiled when I brought her the tea. "Reese, you're a saint."
She laid down in bed on her side, and I brought her a bucket. She asked me to read to her, so I did that for a while, until she threw up again and had to run to the bathroom to clean out her mouth again. Zie brought some buttered toast and a sachet of herbs she said were meant to help pregnant women.
Amazingly, the smell of the herbs did calm Sarah down, but they also made her sleepy. She slept for a while, then woke up and started crying and complaining that she was wasting her life away by sleeping. I cooed to her and whispered calming things to her...well, I tried. She cried harder after I said something about looking tired.
"I'm not pretty anymore!" she sobbed. "I'm fat and ugly! And my sister hates me! My parents are vampires, and the Abrahams won't even talk to me because I'm with a vampire!"
"Honey, it's all right," I urged. I hated the thought of it, but I considered using hypnosis to calm her down. She was starting to upset me.
"What did you do?!" Selena asked, finally opening the door.
"I didn't do anything!" I said. "She just started getting upset after her nap!"
"How long did she sleep?"
"Three hours!"
Sarah sobbed harder and finally, Mother burst in and I was promptly thrown out of the room.
If anyone can calm her down, it's Mother, I thought. She adores her.
I went into a spare room and turned on the TV. I watched the news for a while, then switched to cartoons. But I couldn't laugh, because my thoughts were on my fiancee. I could hear her simpering soprano voice as Selena's alto urged her to keep calm. Then I heard something I didn't want to hear.
What if my babies die?
I couldn't bear the thought of losing any of them. Not Sarah, not Caitlin Juniper, not Joseph. I loved my children so much already that just the thought of living without them was unbearable. This had to be our fate. I'd even seen the future, a future with all of us together and happy. I had thought it was a new gift at first, but maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was just Fate. However, I hadn't taken my grandfather's slow descent into dust into account, or Sarah's emotional state, or David, or Satira.
I hadn't seen as much of my brother as I would have liked, and I'd already seen all I wished to see of Satira.
I needed a mentor, someone to guide me when things got rough. I couldn't count on Father, he was too emotionally invested, especially with David now here. And Uncle Soren was far too unstable, and Louis would just make things worse. I considered Krauvas, but remembered that he was Mason's father, and I did not want to see Mason yet.
I considered my options, which were few and far between. Grandfather was dying. I could go to Alexander...I shuddered at the thought of asking him for advice. Truthfully, I never had great role models. I had to learn how to keep a relationship together on my own. I had plenty of role models who taught me how to be a man, but that was it.
I sighed. I had no choice. I had to go to Alexander. I shuddered again at the thought.

I found him in the backyard, overseeing the work being done on the garden. The men had finished laying the stone for a massive pond, and now were laying more brick for a path from the patio to the pond, where we would sit, watch the fish, and maybe have a greenhouse in the future, and a pool.
"The red brick goes there! The hose must be attached to the fountain!"
"Hello, Alexander."
He turned to me and nodded. "Reese."
"I need to ask you something."
"What is it, boy?"
"Actually, I need advice."
He smirked and turned back to the workers. "And you thought I was the best candidate. You refuse to be my son, yet you want my expertise."
I sighed internally. I couldn't believe he was still irked about the fact that I wasn't his biological son. He had been so desperate for both companionship and a son, and he found out about me and decided I would do, that was my theory. I remembered when I first saw him. Sarah was in the hospital, and Alexander spotted me coming out of her room. We had just found out she was pregnant, and he was looking to adopt a baby, anyway, preferably a boy.
Someone he could mold into a version of himself.
"Never mind, I see that this was a mistake." I started to walk away, but guess who grabbed my shoulder? Alexander.
"Now you listen here, boy, and listen carefully. I spent too many years alone. Kieran still hates me, and Marina hated herself too much to be with me for years. You were my last chance to have a legacy, to not be so lonely. I could have killed you for all you know; I should have. Now if you want my advice, you ask for it, you little bastard."
"Let me go!" I tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip and his nails grew, causing me to yelp in pain.
"Ambrogio Nicolai, you let our son go right now!"
If he could, Alexander would have paled. The scariest thing in the world is a protective parent. And my mother stood on the patio, hands on her hips, glaring at her husband.
"Dearest," he simpered. "Reese came to me for advice and mouthed off. So I had to teach him a lesson, you see."
"So you grabbed him and scratched him?"
"Lovely wife," he began,
"Don't start with me, Ambrogio Nicolai. Come inside, Reese."
I quickly hurried in, and shut the door behind me. Seconds later, Mother's and Alexander's raised voices echoed in my ears.
"I shouldn't have mouthed off to him," I rued.
"It's not your fault," Selena said, coming up behind me. "He's just a big meanie."
"How's Sarah?"
"Asleep. She was shaking and cold to the touch, but Mother hypnotized her into sleeping."
"Hypnosis?"
"Don't tell me you're against what Mother did."
"No, but-"
I heard a scream from outside.
I ran outside, only to find Mother in the stone pond, laying on her side. Half the workers ran to her side, and a few glared at Alexander. I jumped in the pond, Selena following me.
"Mother! Are you all right?"
She looked at Alexander, a new hatred in her eyes. "He pushed me."
"Dearest, I didn't mean-"
"You son of a bitch!" Selena jumped on him and started pounding him. He spun her around and held her in a bear hug, while she squirmed. Then I saw it. Blood. Pooling between my mother's legs.
"Dearest!" Alexander put Selena down and walked toward us.
"Don't!" Mother shouted. "Don't come near me again!" Tears in her eyes, she ran inside.
Selena helped Mother, while I told Alexander it was best if he left. He looked stricken, but nodded and left in his Bugatti Veyron.
I heard sobbing coming from Mother's room, and I called Ethan Potter. He promised to come over right away. Then I checked on Sarah. She was disturbed by all the noise, but I sang to her, and she fell back asleep. \
Ethan arrived minutes later, and Zie let him in. She led him to Mother's room, where he stayed with her for hours. I could still smell fresh vampire blood.

Sarah and I cuddled for a long time.
"What would happen if someone put the nozzle of an air hose in their mouth?" Sarah asked. "Would they blow up?"
"Geez, what goes through your mind when you're alone?" I replied.
"You don't want to know. How's Marina?"
I fine-tuned my ears. "Still hurting. Damn Alexander. He's gone too far this time."
"I...I need to stretch my wings," Sarah said, getting up. I followed her to the front yard, where her wings grew out of her back and she flapped them. Just then, it began to rain.
"Shit," Sarah said. "I can't fly when it's raining. I don't have enough experience."
"Have any of your other cousins gotten their wings yet?" I asked.
"Just Kaz. His are white, like an angel's. No one else is old enough yet."
"Not even your cousin Riley?"
"Riley's still figuring out who Riley is. They can't wait to get their wings, though, and neither can Bow or the boys. But the younger ones are nervous. We've told them that it hurts when they first come out, and Phillip especially is afraid of pain. But most people don't suddenly get their wings like I did-it takes time."
"That's because you were overdue," I said. "And you deserve your wings more than anyone else."
"That's sweet, Reese, but you're wrong. Kaz deserves them more than I do, if not as much. He's a volunteer firefighter, he helps out on the farm, he volunteers at the library and the animal shelter, all while getting good grades. He's headed to Oxford next year."
"Impressive, but you are so amazing as well, my lovely Sarah." I grabbed her wrist, and she spun around in the mud and kissed my lips, her wings bringing her to my height.
I smelled salt, and realized she was crying. I mentally sighed. Her self-esteem was so low, no thanks to Nales and Scarlett and Sabine and Puck. I'd have to work on that with her. I needed her to be completely healthy before her change.
I grabbed her shoulders, pulling her into me. She tasted like tea and spearmint and her favorite lipstick. She wrapped her legs around my waist, hugging me. Finally, she needed to breathe. Damn human needs.
I walked her to the garage, where she flapped her wings furiously, drying them. Then, to my shock, a feather fell off.
"Oh my gods, Sarah, your wings..."
"What?" She looked down and laughed. "Yeah, that happens sometimes. I have a whole bunch of them in my desk drawer. She picked up the feather and handed it to me. "Soft as a kitten."
I ran my finger along the fine feather. It was soft, the softest feather I'd ever felt.
"You can have it," she said. "It'll grow back."
I put the feather in my belt, and kissed her again.
"You're so selfless," I said, pecking her.
"Not really. I'm selfish when it comes to you. I want you, and nobody else can have you. Except your family. I trust them."
"You're not selfish. You're sweet, and amazing, and I adore you. I don't want to lose you, Sarah."
"You won't lose me. We'll go to Denmark on the first of November, and we'll have a fantastically grand time and an incredible wedding. I've already got my dress picked out, and the flowers, and everything."
"I've done about half the planning," I said. "I picked the castle, and the carriage, and even the horses. Have you ever ridden in a horse-drawn carriage?"
"No, but it sounds dreamy."
"It's fun. It'll be more romantic than buying a car. And I have all your presents ordered."
She looked amazed. "You got me more presents? Reese, you just bought me a Lamborghini! I haven't even got to drive it yet!"
"That's my fault, dear. I want it installed with every safety feature available. When it's finished, you can have it back."
"Oh, Reese Mordecai..."
"Oh, Sarah Harper."
We kissed again and again until she announced that she needed to use the bathroom. I've said it before and I'll say it again: damn human needs.

"What kind of gifts did you buy her?" Louis asked. We were playing blackjack with David and my father and my uncle.
"I got her some river pearls, and some elegant shoes that I hope she'll like, and of course, you already know about the horses."
"What horses?" David asked.
"Goth Boy over here thinks his girlfriend needs more pets, so he got her three horses. Two mares and a stallion, all from good breeding lines. They cost a fortune, too."
"I have Dad to thank for that," I said, nodding toward my father.
"Anything for you, son. Oh, look at that, I win again."
Louis had a brief temper tantrum which involved flipping over the table and scattering the cards all around. We spent the next ten minutes trying to find them all, and then Uncle Soren told Louis he was no longer allowed to play if he was going to act like a sore loser. Louis promised to behave ("We'll see how long that lasts") if he would be allowed to join us again.
We played a few more games and my father won five hundred dollars. Louis dared me to play strip poker, and Uncle Soren yanked some hairs out of his head.
"Control your spawn, brother," Father said as he shuffled the cards.
"Is it always like this?" David asked me.
"Yes," I said. "Sometimes it's worse."
"Behave, Louis," Uncle Soren warned.
"Look here, Blood-Breath-"
He got a smack on the back of the head for the name-calling.
"When Reese marries Sarah, I want you on your best behavior," Uncle Soren told Louis. "No drunken toasts, no courting the females, no overspending."
Louis seemed embarrassed.
"We went to the track earlier," David broke in. "Louis can really-"
My father dropped his cards. "You went to the track?!"
Uncle Soren sighed and shook his head.
"Thanks, big mouth," Louis said to David.
"What did I say?" David asked.
"It's not your fault," Father told him. "Louis is forbidden to go to the horse track, and he knows it. He had a slight gambling problem at one time."
"Slight?" Uncle Soren snorted. "He went to you, crying, because he was in massive debt and had to borrow money from loan sharks. I still can't believe you gave it to him."
"Thanks, Dad."
"Shut up, Louis."
"Louis got his first taste of the casinos when we went to Vegas for the first time," Father said. "He lost everything and more. He came to me, sobbing, because he was afraid of your reaction, Soren. And I didn't give him a cent until he promised to see a professional."
"You shouldn't have given it to him," Uncle Soren said. "How will he ever learn if you're constantly rescuing him?"
"I'm devoted to my son and my nephew, Soren."
"Do not question my devotion as a father, Mordecai. I just wish he'd learn something before I leave this plane."
"I can't think about that," Louis said, his eyes shining. "I know it was my own fault, and I was desperate, or I wouldn't have gone to Uncle Mordecai. I'm just glad he has a heart."
"You still need to pay me back, dear nephew."
Louis swallowed nervously. "It's just nice to know that I can still pick a winner."
"Who won?" Father asked.
"Silver Bullet," David told him. "I won five hundred dollars."
"Reese, don't gamble," Louis said. "It may just cost you." He smiled crookedly, but his eyes were still full of sadness.
"I'm still angry at him for causing us to-"
"Soren! Not helping!" Dad shouted. "He feels bad enough about it without you always harping on him. Sometimes people need help, and there's nothing wrong with that. It only becomes a problem if you don't learn from your mistakes or take advantage."
"Which he does."
"Soren, you're being a dick. Quit it."
Louis stuck his tongue out at his father, which he received a smack on the back of the head for.
We played a few more games, and then Sarah came over with the dogs to meet David. They all liked him, especially Lola. They were practically soulmates. Coffee hated him, like she does all men. Spunk, Jasmine, and Koda liked him. Scooter was a little wary, possibly because Uncle Soren was there, and he hates him.
Shadowfang came over in his human form, and he sniffed David while still in human form. David was confused and disturbed, and I told Shadow to keep his nose to himself. He changed to cat form, and sat on my lap while the dogs played and Sarah texted her friends.
Something bothered me. Why was Scarlett there when we went to pick up Jasmine and Lola? Why was she reappearing in our lives? And what did Satira really want? And how did she meet Cholena, and how did Kole fit into all this?
Kole had come by occasionally to say hi and to ask a few questions about vampire life, but she still wouldn't say who created her or why. My father thought she might have been abandoned by her creator-that happens sometimes. But since we were already a formed coven, she didn't want to interfere, which I found odd, since most fledglings are desperate for a connection, especially if they've been abandoned by their creator or had a broken mate-bond or even came from a broken coven.
I rubbed Jasmine's soft short-furred white head and she gave me a smile that only a pitbull could give. I was a little impressed, since most dogs don't like me, and I don't normally like dogs. But I'd have to form a relationship with these dogs, because as I said, Jasmine was meant to be a therapy dog for Sarah and Lola was Jasmine's sister and bond.
Sarah confessed to me that Lola was meant as a gift to Sabine, but the little brat was ungrateful. Sisters of different species, bonded in friendship and blood. Koda and Scooter were meant as companions for Spunk for when Sarah had to travel, since Coffee hated dogs as well as men. Koda, a husky, was a beautiful male with a bright personality and full of love. Scooter was still a Boston terrier puppy, and still coming out of his shell.

Koda put his paw on my leg, and Shadowfang sat up and pawed at Koda's head.
"Be nice," I warned him, scratching Koda's head.
"The dog says that feels good," Shadow said. "He likes his new family."
"Good, because we like him."
"I don't."
"That's because you're a cat. Can't you at least be civil?"
Shadow pretended to meow then, and Koda gave him a big, sloppy kiss.
"What else did you get Sarah?" David asked as he and Father played poker.
"I gave her some money for her wedding dress and accessories. I hired the best makeup artist in Denmark to do her makeup and a world-renowned hairstylist to do her hair."
"You spoil her," Father said. "I mean, shopping sprees, horses, cars, dogs..."
"She's growing," I said. "You can definitely tell she's pregnant now."
"I noticed. She's beautiful, Reese. Even more beautiful than before. Your mother was the same way-when she was pregnant with Selena, she glowed. You gave her a harder time because you weighed so much?"
"How much did he weigh?" David asked.
"Thirty-two pounds."
"Dad," I said, "No baby weighs thirty-two pounds when they're born."
"Okay, twelve pounds."
"I think you're telling a tall one."
"Okay, eight pounds."
"That's at least more reasonable."
"You were a little chunk, though. Of course, you got skinnier as you grew up, and now you're a stick."
We were distracted by Louis, who came in, wearing reindeer antlers.
"I, um..." he trailed off. "I lost a bet."
"What did you do this time?" Father asked.
"I got feelings for someone new. Dad bet me this headband that I couldn't go two months without liking someone new. And I did, and he caught me. The only problem is, I'm still dating Paul."
"I'm amazed," I said. "You're still with Paul? You've been with him for months now."
"Who did you fall for now?" Father asked.
Louis looked humiliated. He would have been blushing if vampires could blush. It's not easy to embarrass him, either.
I noticed David sneak a peek at Dad's cards, but said nothing. Cheater. Unfortunately, Dad noticed, too.
"Nice try, son," he said, smiling at my new brother. Now David was embarrassed. "I'll get the chessboard set up."
Louis took off the antlers and sat beside David. "I can give you some pointers, dude."
"No cheating, Louis," Father warned. "That's how I beat you the last hundred times."
"Um, Dad?" David began. "I, um...I don't know how to play chess."
We all gave him horrified looks.
"You've never played chess?" I asked.
"I'm up for learning how, though."
"Good boy," Father said. "It's a shame others don't share your thirst for knowledge and would rather cheat." He aimed the last sentence at Louis, who stuck his tongue out at Father.
"Who do you like now?" I asked Louis.
"Uh...nobody."
Father frowned at him. "Louis."
"Okay, fine. Well, you know, Cholena's pretty hot-"
"Oh, no. No, no, no. You are not falling for that girl," Father snapped. "I don't trust her one bit, and neither should you."
Louis scowled, then crossed his arms and sulked like the grown toddler he was.
Father taught David how to play chess, with Louis giving David bad advice the whole time.
"No, don't move there, or you'll put your queen in danger."
"Hey, Louis?" I broke in.
"If you tell me to shut up, Reese, I'll cut all your hair off."
I wisely kept my mouth shut.
"Where's Uncle Soren?" David asked.
"Doing research," Father said. "He's asking around about Kole, trying to find out where the girl came from. And trying to find Satira at the same time, but the old shrew seems to have vanished." \
"You never got along with Satira, did you?" I asked.
"No, I didn't. She treats your mother like shit and introduced Liam Wolfheart to Selena, causing him to believe she was his soulmate. Now she wants your souls. For what purpose, I do not know, but it can't be good. It never is with her."
He and David played chess for a couple hours, while Louis turned on the TV and watched some stupid comedy. I read a book on how to be a good father. I knew the basics of how to change a diaper and feed a baby, but I didn't know how to be a father.
I texted Selena a few times, asking about Mother. She said Mother was still being watched. Luckily the bleeding had almost stopped-she was running on empty. Ethan kept stealing bags of human blood from Mercy Hospital and feeding them to Mother. He was still observing the babies carefully, looking for signs of death or injury. I liked how gentle he was with Mother. He had once told me that he assisted in delivering babies when he was human.
I waited anxiously for news about Mother and my unborn siblings for two weeks. I had partially moved back into Father's house, and Sarah stayed with me. She enjoyed getting to know David, and he enjoyed getting to know her. She told him how we met and began dating, although she didn't mention her trauma or Nales.
Sarah had started drinking coffee again, although it was at least decaf and sugar-free. The poor girl was addicted to the stuff. I enjoyed spoiling her, rubbing her feet and brushing her hair. She also enjoyed me putting my hands on her belly and feeling our babies. She loved being pregnant, except for the morning sickness and constant hunger pains. The girl could eat a horse's weight in junk food.
And she did love her food-spicy jalapeno chips, coffee ice cream, asparagus, cauliflower, decaf mochas, milk, cheese, pizza, French fries, Mentos, cola, and so on. She always wanted food. We constantly got delivery people at the door with Chinese or pizza or Cajun. Father was concerned that all the food would make her sick, and it occasionally did.
She also loved baths. Bubbles, bath bombs, lavender oil, tea tree shampoo, rain-scented perfume, and so on. I once caught her falling asleep in the tub. I carried her to bed where I dried her off and then dressed her in a clean gown and panties.
She would occasionally cry as well. She cried for the smallest things, from a lost book to leaving a blanket on the couch, to a late package, and she cried for big things as well, such as Mother and all of her unlucky pregnancies. We still didn't know anything about what had happened to the babies that were currently inside her.
She worried so much that it made me worry. Her anxiety was through the roof. I made her keep taking her pills every morning and night, before she went to bed and after her breakfast. Even the obnoxiously big ones, which she tried to hide under her tongue. I forced her to open her mouth and checked under her tongue after I caught her flushing a specific pill down the toilet. She would only drink milk with her pills-it was the only thing that didn't upset her stomach.
Selena had all sorts of advice to give, some of it was actually very helpful. She'd been pregnant before several times, and even though she'd lost every single one, she still knew how to handle these things.
Finally, Ethan called me. I put him on speaker, as Sarah and Selena were in the room with me, discussing the best baby necessities.
"What's up?" I replied. I heard sobbing in the background.
"I'm so sorry," Ethan said. "Your mother's fall did...how do I say this? One of the babies has died."
The sobbing grew louder, and I looked at Selena and Sarah, both of whom burst into tears.
"Poor Marina," Sarah said. "Is there anything we can do?"
"Just be there for her," Ethan said. "Don't force her to talk about it or bring it up. There's still a risk that she may lose the other two. Marina, do you want to talk to your kids? Sorry, kids, she doesn't want to talk right now. I'll keep checking in on her every few days and watch the progress of the pregnancy."
"Thank you, Ethan, goodbye," I said, hanging up. I blinked back tears. My poor brother or sister. Screw Alexander. He went too far this time. He'd pay for this.
My father came into the room, looking sad.
"You heard?" I asked, and he nodded.
"Louis, David, and Soren heard as well." He sat beside me and hugged me tightly. "I'm so sorry, Reese. You too, Selena. I promise we'll get revenge on Alexander one day."
My sister burst out sobbing. The guys came into the room and sat beside her. Louis gave a half-hearted attempt at a hug, but Selena pushed him away. He gave her a stung look, and I realized that he cared more than he showed.
However, Sarah accepted hugs from David and Uncle Soren, then they both hugged me. We were all silent, the girls and I crying our hearts out. I cursed Alexander and called him every name I could think of in my head. I needed to destroy something. So I told my family I'd be back and then went into the woods.
I killed an unfortunate coyote, a fox, a bear, and a herd of deer, destroyed many trees, and even cracked a couple of tombstones in the cemetery. I went to the lake and dove to the bottom, tearing up several fish with my teeth. Then I ran around the territory a few times, urinated on a patch of wild roses, and then went back home.
Father informed me that now Selena was out destroying something, and I hoped my sister would be okay. Sarah was still crying, hiccuping. Her wings were starting to poke out of her back, and I took her out to the pool area. Her wings burst out of her back, and she began flying around, half-blinded by her tears, trying to get her anger out of her system.
I'd seen Sarah upset on a few occasions. Frustration, anxiety, sadness, and irritation were common with her. Rarely had I seen her truly angry as she was now. Her beautiful brown skin turned tomato red, and she began shouting expletives at the top of her lungs. I didn't try to stop her, I just let her vent.
Our heartbreak continued on even as we prepared to leave for Denmark to get ready for the wedding. Sarah, as usual, packed more than what was necessary, and she helped me remember a few things that I would have forgotten otherwise.
She asked me if she could invite Jamie Williams, and I reluctantly agreed. Our wedding guests would consist of more than friends and family-it would have allied covens, politicians, the Vampire Council, and so on.
I was beginning to get nervous. There was still so much to do. Luckily, I had help. Toby made himself useful on several occasions when I forgot to invite somebody or send money for a plane ticket. I raised his salary in gratitude.
But things got even more stressful when Spencer showed up. He'd been fired for his lack of usefulness during a time which we needed all the guards to be vigilant. And he'd cheated on Toby. Now he wanted Toby back, and he wouldn't take no for an answer.
I heard them arguing in the mornings and at night, and Toby was becoming more and more upset each time.
"Take me back," Spencer said. "We're soulmates, Toby."
"I'm not the one who put my dick in a sixteen-year-old," Toby snarled. "Leave me alone, Spencer. Fuck off."
Uncle Soren appeared then, and glared at Spencer. Spencer wisely slunk away. As Uncle Soren's fledgling, Toby was under his protection.
And another thing: Sabine was missing again. Sarah tried calling and texting her, to no avail. She wouldn't even answer for Beckett or Mother. I couldn't help feeling that I was responsible for her running away.
My own personal heartache came to a head one day, when a visitor from Sarah's past showed up at our door. I was reading a book to Sarah, when the doorbell rang. Since no one was here but us and a couple guards, I gave Toby permission to answer it.
"Hi, is Sarah here?" a shrill female voice asked. Sarah's eyes widened, and she went downstairs as fast as her pregnancy would allow.
"Caitlin?" Sarah asked. At the door was a brown-haired female our age, with dark brown eyes and pale skin. Compared to Sarah, she was rather plain.
"Sarah?" the female looked around at her.
"It is you!" Sarah shouted. A big grin split her beautiful face in half. She and the human hugged each other tightly. "I can't believe it! I haven't seen you since middle school!"
I cleared my throat.
"Oh, Caitlin, this is my fiance, Reese. Reese, this is Caitlin, my best friend from Atlantic City."
Caitlin's eyes widened. "Oh, so this is him? You were right, he is handsome."
"Thank you," I said. "It's nice to meet you, Caitlin." As per custom, I kissed her knuckles.
"How did you find us?" Sarah asked.
Caitlin smiled and rolled her eyes. "Your friend Ariella is the biggest gossip. She said she knew you."
"What are you doing here?" Sarah asked.
"That's another story. Guy problems. And work. I needed to get away. I knew you of all people would understand."
Sarah blinked, and I stood there, not sure what to say. Was Caitlin assaulted by a guy? Did the same thing that happened to Sarah happen to her?
"How do you know Ari?" Sarah continued.
"She and I were friends on Facebook before, just talking, you know, and she said she knew you and mentioned where you live now."
"Ari wouldn't do that," I said automatically. Sarah grabbed my hand and squeezed it, both indicating that she knew that and that I should shut up.
"Why do I get the feeling that you're holding something back, Cait?" Sarah asked. Suddenly, then other girl broke down in tears and began crying loudly. I suspected that it was fake. But Sarah, bless her large heart, looked concerned.
Sarah, something's not right, I thought-spoke to her.
I know, Reese, she thought-spoke back. This is odd. Caitlin used to never fake her tears. She's hiding something, I'm sure of it.
My girl was intelligent.
"Caitlin, what's wrong?" Sarah asked. I looked at her, confused. I would have just told Caitlin to shut up and leave.
"It's been horrible, Sarah," she sobbed. "I'm so torn right now. There are two guys, and they both want me!"
"Really?" Sarah blinked. "Who?"
"You remember Nathan Arnold?"
"How could I forget?" Sarah replied sarcastically. "He pulled my hair all the time and then kissed me in the sixth grade." I growled at that. Sarah squeezed my hand again.
"It's between him...and Jesse Gold."
"That redneck?" Sarah scoffed. "They're both losers, Caitlin. Nathan is an immature man-whore with Peter Pan syndrome and I remember Jesse trying to kiss all the girls. He kissed me once, and it was so gross. We were only thirteen, and he smelled like tobacco and armpit sweat."
"They've both matured," Caitlin sniffed. "If you only met them, Sarah, you'd know why I'm confused."
"But there's more, isn't there?" Sarah prompted.
"Yes, Sarah. I was raped!" Now the girl's tears were real. My heart broke instantly, and I felt sorry for her. Sarah paused, then wrapped her arms around her old friend. "I knew you'd help, Sarah."
Sarah's eyes filled with tears, and I growled at Caitlin for upsetting my mate, then hated myself. The girl had been through a trauma and was quite possibly alone and definitely scared. I didn't know her from Adam. Sarah embraced her friend for a long time, then she invited Caitlin in.
"Mortal Kombat?" Sarah asked. "For nostalgic reasons?"
Caitlin weakly smiled. "I thought you'd never ask."
It's been a while since Sarah played her games, I thought. Maybe Caitlin introduced her to them.
I followed the girls upstairs to my room. Caitlin's nose wrinkled, I assumed because of all the black. I sat on my desk chair while Caitlin and Sarah took the bed.
I watched as Sarah set up the Xbox. She handed Caitlin a controller, and she took the other one.
Caitlin chose Reptile, Sarah chose Rain. The girls played viciously. Sarah sometimes let me win; she wasn't doing that with Caitlin. The minute Rain blew up Reptile, she paused the game and then turned to me.
"Reese, would you mind-?"
"Yeah, I'll go."
I decided to visit a secondhand record store that I hadn't been to in a year. To my disappoinment, they were closing the store, so everything was on sale. I stocked up on Heart, Stevie Nicks, Pink Floyd, Pantera, Metallica, Journey, KISS, and Toto. As soon as I paid, in cash, I left the store just as Scarlett was walking in.
Oh, great.
She paused and looked at me. "Hi, Reese."
"Scarlett."
"What are you doing here?"
I held up my purchases. "I took advantage of the sale."
"That's great. I'm here for some rock. Anything good?"
"I don't know, that depends on your taste."
"I personally prefer classic rock. AC/DC, stuff like that."
"Nice to see you, Scarlett," I lied, then slipped past her into the Barnes & Noble next door.
I looked around and grabbed some religion books, some classic novels, a few teen and young adult that I thought Sarah would like, and I took a peek at the children's section, where a security guard followed me around. He only left me alone after I paid for my books.
I considered putting the purchases in the Nissan, then realized that the heat would be bad for the books and the records. Instead, I ducked into a coffee shop, where I ordered a water and sat reading one of the books. Before long, Scarlett reappeared in the doorway, ordered a caramel macchiato, and sat across from me.
"Let's make a proposal," she said. "You kiss me once, and I don't tell Sarah you cheated on her."
I glared. She was bluffing. She couldn't possibly know that I'd slept with Sadie before she committed suicide. It was during a fight with Sarah, and I had mistaken her words for a breakup. When she sighed and said that we'd simply had a fight, I hated myself instantly even more than I already did.
I didn't want to lose her, not now, not ever. So I'd kept my mouth shut about the affair and hoped no one would find out. Well, Father knew. And Uncle Soren. Other than that, I hoped no one else knew. Louis wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut, and Grandfather would want to get any confessions off his chest before he died.
Still, I stayed firm. "Not happening, Hart."
"Come on, Reese," she said pleadingly. "It's my last chance before I leave for Salem."
"Salem? Seriously, Scarlett?"
She nodded. "Seriously. You can either join me, or lose Sarah. Your choice."
"Number one, I'd lose Sarah with either of those options, two, I don't give in to ultimatums, three, I'd never join you, and four, you disgust me. And five, I won't ever leave Sarah."
"But you've been having doubts, haven't you?"
I blinked.
"Yes, I know all about what goes on in a boy's mind, Reese. You've been having doubts, thinking that maybe, just maybe, there's another boy in her life. Think, Reese. Use your incredible thinking brain. You know as well as I do that there's something about Sarah that draws members of the male variety to her. She has tons of guy friends, and almost all of them have considered fucking her at least once. She has so many options."
I hated to admit it, but she was right. I'd been having doubts. She took my silence as confirmation and nodded.
"You'll never have a better offer, Reese. When's your birthday?"
"The first of October."
"That's tomorrow. Come on, sweetheart, take a deep, unneeded breath and pull me in."
"Don't call me sweetheart. Your words are poisonous, Scarlett Hart. I don't care how beautiful you are, Sarah's beauty surpasses yours in every category, especially her inner beauty. She may not like herself right now, but I do. I adore and worship her. I knew she was different than the rest of you. And I was right. You're a vile, vain, horrid woman, Scarlett. Stay away from me. For the last time, stay away from me."
I grabbed my purchases and left Scarlett there, fuming. When I got home, I heard batches of French coming from upstairs. It was Beckett and Sarah.
"Vraiment, Sarah? Pourquoi Caitlin?" ("Really, Sarah? Why Caitlin?"
"Papa, elle avait peur et avait besoin d'aide. Je sais qu'elle a déjà menti, mais je pense que c'est pour de vrai." ("Papa, I know she's lied before, but I think this is for real. She's scared and needs our help.")
"N'oublie pas, mon amour, elle t'a fait du mal avant ton départ," Beckett said. ("Don't forget, she hurt you before.")
"Je n'ai pas oublié. Mais je suis sur lui depuis des années, papa. J'ai Reese maintenant." ("I haven't forgotten. I've been over him for years, Papa. I have Reese now.")
Stomach roiling, I cleared my throat loudly.
"He's back," Beckett said. I heard tension in his voice.
"Papa, don't be jealous. Reese was my rock when I had no one else."
"I know I'm being irrational, but if I get my hands on him..."
"Papa! Not okay!"
"Okay, okay, I'll control my jealousy. Any sign of your sister?"
"None. She's ignoring all my calls and texts. I can't help feeling guilty-"
"Sarah Harper, don't you dare blame yourself for his mistakes. It was his uncle's fault that the young vampire died."
"It wasn't Soren's fault! It was Samuel who ordered all those murders to be committed, and it was Alana who went through with half of them. No one could have been safe with those two around."
"If Soren had just given him the Book-"
"The Book's dangerous, Papa. No one is supposed to rise from the dead."
"But I did, and I'm glad I'm back. I can protect you now."
"I am, too." I heard the shuffling of clothing, and assumed they were hugging.
"You're my petite rose, dear daughter.That's why I died for you."
"I don't fully understand."
"Sarah, it's quite simple. When you were a baby, you were cursed to die. But I found a loophole. If someone else died in your stead, you would live."
"Papa, if what you're saying is true, you interfered with fate!"
"It was worth it, to watch you blossom and grow from Heaven."
More shuffling of clothing. "I missed you, Papa."
"I missed you too, mi petite rose."
I entered the room, carefully avoiding Beckett's eyes as I sat in my desk chair.
"Where have you been?" he snapped.
"Where's Caitlin?" I redirected.
"In the bath," Sarah said. "Where were you, Reese?"
"I went to the Douglas Plaza. I got you some books, lover."
"Ooh, thank you." I handed her her bag of books and she eagerly looked through them. "I've been wanting to read this one. I was planning to buy this one anyway. This looks interesting. Ooh, a detective story. And a book of fairytales? You know me so well."
"A book of fairytales?" I asked, surprised. "I don't remember picking up a book of fairytales." I took the book from her and thumbed through it. It had all the usuals, like Tom Thumb and Thumbelina, Red Riding Hood, A Midsummer Night's Dream. I was confused. A Shakespeare story in a book of fairytales. Then I realized that its pages had been ripped out and added between Sleeping Beauty and Beauty & the Beast.
Now I was very confused.
"Scarlett," I muttered.
"Huh?" Sarah looked up from her perusal of the pages of the latest great teen novel. "What about her?"
"I met her in the coffee shop. She asked me to leave you, and go to her instead."
"I'm glad you didn't."
"Yeah, me, too."
I kissed her on the cheek, and Beckett raised an eyebrow.

Two days later, I was running to burn off energy, and I was near the lake. I suddenly smelled a vampire smell, and saw a glimpse of white skin. I sniffed the air again. It was a female scent, very old.
I looked around and then sat down by the dock. I smelled grass, flowers, dying leaves, earth, and the scent of the lake. I pulled out my phone and texted Sarah, asking how she was. I spotted a snake suddenly, and edged away. I can't stand snakes. And this was a northern copperhead, one of the most venomous species on Earth. Not that his venom would affect me, but I'd prefer not to get bitten.
"Reese."
I turned around at my name. "Hi, Kole."
She sat down beside me and pulled up some grass. "So I suppose you've figured it out by now?"
"That your creator abandoned you?"
She nodded. "I'm sorry if I bothered you. I'm just so alone, and I have no family or friends to turn to. I was raised in foster care, and I ran away. I guess this was just one time too many, and I got lucky." She said the last part sarcastically. "I didn't even know vampires existed until he bit me. I know he wanted me to do something, but I don't want to do what he says he wants me to do. All I want is for somebody to take care of me and teach me how to be a vampire."
"It's hard sometimes," I said.
"Are there rules I should know about?"
"Yes. One, never drink from another vampire unless the situation is dire. That's one of our biggest laws, because it's considered cannibalism. For another, try to drink from bagged blood, and don't kill humans." She winced at that. "Or, since you already have," I began, and she looked guilty, "try to hide the body. Don't ever take another vampire's mate, that's another big law. If you're an animal or plant drinker,-"
"Animal drinkers? Plant drinkers?"
I nodded. "Animal and plant drinkers do exist, but it's considered taboo to drink from an animal. It's ridiculous, because it doesn't give us the right nutrition or satisfy us like human blood does. And all you'll get is a constant thirst. Plant drinkers, or chlorophyll eaters, only drink plant juice. I don't know how many there are or when they were created, but they're slowly dying out. I've never met one yet. I've met some animal drinkers, though, and they are the most pretentious, egotistical tools in the vampire race. I had a girl try to convert me years, ago, but I ignored her."
Kole nodded, taking in all this information.
"There is a Vampire Council in addition to the royal family, and there are twelve members, the head of which is Bram Sterling. He hates us, because we overrule him. The rivalry between us and the Council is ongoing and constant, and it will probably end in death. I don't know all the Council members' names, but I know a few."
She nodded again, absorbing her lesson in vampire rules and laws.
"We used to have a Law of Secrecy, but it was abolished years ago. It doesn't matter anymore-most humans don't believe we exist, anyway. My family and I admitted on television that we exist, and we created our own vampire channel, called VStation. It's all about vampires. Shows, movies, news, and so on."
"And what about mates?" she asked.
"When you see your mate, you'll know it's them almost immediately. A mate is the most precious, worthwhile thing in our existence, and there are so many fewer females than males, which is why they are so coveted. Without a mate, a vampire will get depressed, isolate himself. He'll slowly be driven into madness by his loneliness and will eventually go off the deep end or commit suicide. If a mate dies, their death is mourned."
I paused. I looked at Kole; she was staring at me intently.
"Um, Kole?" I said nervously.
"Yes, Reese?" She fluttered her dark eyelashes.
"I'm in love with Sarah. Normally vampires only date other vampires or humans, but Sarah...she's not all human. We only recently discovered that she's actually part fairy."
She blinked. "She is? Well, she's very lucky to have you. I'm jealous of her."
If I could blush, I would have then. "I'd say I'm lucky to have her."
"How can I find my mate?"
"Just be patient. He'll come to you eventually. Fate always finds a way, and the Fates are hard to change."
I leaned back and watched as a turtle poked its head out of the water. It stared at me for a moment, then dived back down. I looked at Kole, who was stretched out on the dock, her legs spread out sexily and her elbows on the ground.
If I didn't have Sarah, I'd consider dating Kole. She was hot, for one thing, and for another, she was alone, and needed vampire company. Just like my Sarah.
Then I heard the flapping of gigantic wings, and Sarah landed softly between us, her purple wings spread out.
"Hello, Reese," she said, wrapping her arms around me and kissing me sloppily on the cheek. "Hi, Kole." Did I detect a note of jealousy in her voice?
"Sarah," Kole replied, nodding at her. Sarah sat beside me and folded her wings. I kissed her back on the lips, and she left a Divine Crimson lipstick mark on my cheek and lips. I was amused at her possessiveness. The girl adored me as much as I adored her. She practically sat on my lap, wrapping a wing around me and stretching out the other wing to keep Kole away.
For a while we just sat there, listening to the sounds of the woods and the lake. Occasionally a fish jumped or a turtle poked its head out. I saw snakes under the water and minnows. I watched as a turtle ate a minnow. Predator and prey. Me and Sarah. I kissed my girl's soft brown hair, smelling her favorite Aveda shampoo and conditioner.
"Will you sing to me, Reese?" Sarah asked, fluttering her pretty lashes. Kole scowled. Sarah turned around and smiled sweetly to the other girl. "Reese is extremely musical. He plays the guitar and the piano, and he writes songs, and his singing isn't bad, either."
"Flatterer," I said, and then I started singing "The Rose", which was one of Sarah's favorites. Both girls stared at me in amazement as my bass voice hit the low notes and the high notes. When I finished the song, they clapped.
"Well, girls, it's getting late," I said. "Do you want to go home?"
"Carry me," Sarah said, pulling in her wings and smiling flirtatiously. She held out her arms to me, and I picked her up. Kole's scowl got deeper, and we started the trek home. Along the way, I gave Kole tips on how to hunt safely and legally. Also, how to avoid vampire slayers. Sarah had already heard all of this, and she closed her eyes and purred, leaning her head against my chest.
When we got home, David and Louis were wrestling, Uncle Soren was working on his motorcycle, and my father was smoking a cigarette on the porch. Shadowfang lay near the lilac bushes, purring and twitching his tail.
When he saw Kole, David nipped Louis to end the tournament, and Louis conceded. He brushed himself off and smiled at her. Kole took his hand and he twirled her around, then kissed her knuckles.
Uncle Soren sat up, wiped his hands on a rag, and frowned at David and Kole. I knew he didn't trust either of them; frankly, I didn't, either, not Kole, at least. But they seemed to be getting along with each other.
We still didn't know that much about either of them, although Father tried to get David to open up.
"Oh, happy birthday, Reese," David said, looking at me. "Dad told me that it was your birthday on the first. How does it feel to be nineteen?"
"Same as being eighteen," I replied. "Sarah's birthday is in Febraury."
"An Aquarius?" David asked. Sarah nodded.
"Yep. I'm an Aquarius. Reese is a Libra."
"Sagittarius," Louis said, gesturing to himself.
"Taurus," Uncle Soren broke in.
"Cancer," Father said.
"What about you, Toby?" I asked.
"Leo," he replied. It was then that I noticed a gun on his belt.
"Why do you have a gun, Toby?"
He looked baffled at my question. "To defend you and Sarah, of course."
"Guns don't work on vampires."
"It doesn't kill us," Uncle Soren said, "But it can still cause injury."

 

 

,

Prologue
Whatever I'd been expecting, it hadn't been this. So far, I'd nearly lost Sarah to vampires, werewolves, other males, her family, and herself. But losing her to our children? I could not make an impossible decision.

 

CHAPTER ONE - SHE'S BACK

No matter how many times I saw her, I was still amazed at her Aphrodisian looks. Her selflessness, her kindness, her willingness to overlook my deepest flaws and see how much I loved her.
She was finally back after her summer in France on her family's farm. She was greatly tanned-even more tanned than usual-and her brown curly hair had been highlighted and cut to her shoulders. She had gained back much needed weight, and she had been working out. She had more musculature to her arms, legs, and abs.
What's more, she was finally happy. She was sad to leave her family, but happy to be back in front of me. She'd been taking her medication as prescribed, including her seizure and heart medication.
"Reese?"
I blinked. Then I woke up from my daydream.
"Come in, Sarah," I said.
She threw her arms around me immediately and kissed my jaw.
"I love you," she said.
"I love you most," I replied. As I'd said before, she would never have any conception of just how much I loved her. I would take a bullet for her.
"I missed you," she said. "I'm so glad I finally got to see you. I haven't been feeling great these past few days."
"I know, love, I heard. Selena told me." My sister had texted me two days before, updating me on the situation. Sarah had had a bad case of sun fever, and had gotten sick. She was better now, after lots of water and cool air.
Now that our high school career was over, I couldn't wait to marry her. We had planned the day for the Winter Solstice, on the day that Mom and Alexander had gotten married. But she needed lots of rest first, and we needed to plan our new life together, maybe even buy a house. Not a big one, two or three bedrooms max, just a starter home.
One room for us, one room for the baby, and a room for the guests.
Suddenly, she ran to the bathroom, and I heard her retching. A few minutes later, she came back out.
"Can I borrow your sweatpants?" she asked.
"Of course," I said, walking up to my room with her following behind. I gave her a pair of my old boxers, and she changed, tossing her wet jeans and underwear in the laundry hamper. I'd steal those later. She changed into my old black sweatpants, and then she sat on my bed, holding her stomach.
"I must have eaten some bad chicken," she said. "Come to think of it, I've been eating a lot of bad chicken lately."
"Stop eating chicken," I said.
"That's probably a good idea. Even Zie, who normally cooks really well, hasn't been having much luck with chicken lately."
Zie Huang was their cook and housekeeper. She also babysat Cirino sometimes. Cirino was Sarah's first baby, the one conceived by Michael Nales, whom I had destroyed after he raped her.
She ran to the bathroom again, and this time I made her stay in there until her stomach was completely empty. I gave her an unused toothbrush to brush her teeth with. I was glad she had her hair in its usual bun, or she'd have to take a shower to get the vomit out of her hair. Not that I minded loaning her my clothes. In fact, she frequently stole my clothes. I had been looking for a shirt or a jacket more than once only to realize she'd taken it.
I loaned her one of my band shirts next. She laid on the bed next.
"Period problems?" I asked.
"No," she said. "I haven't had any period...well, I do still have cramps, but no blood."
"Ah," I said. "Would you like to watch a movie, or would you like me to read to you?"
"Read," she said. She produced a book from her purse, which she'd set on the carpet. "Read this one. It's the latest vampire hit."
"Blood Night, by Jamie Williams," I read off the cover. "When are you going to get over him?"
"Um, never," she said.
"A tale of intrigue, romance, passion, lust, and rivalry," I continued. "When Dirk Zoeller moves to small town Indrigo, cheerleaders' hearts get broken and football players plot a dangerous prank against the one person they shouldn't mess with. How very fascinating."
"Read," she commanded.
"Fine. 'It was a dusky night when I approached the graveyard. The stars were covered by the dark clouds, the graves crooked and cracked. I almost did not see the ghost girl until it was too late.' Sarah, this is dreck."
"Read."
"'I approached the girl cautiously. She sat, staring ahead. She was dressed in old-fashioned clothing, closer to my time than this time. She wore a long grey dress with puffed sleeves and ruffled wrists. Her petticoat was visible under the hem. She wore old riding boots. Her hair was blond, meticulousy curled and pinned in a high updo. She did not react, nor stir, as I approached her. Then, as I stopped a foot away, her head slowly turned, and then I realized that her throat had been slit.'"
"Wow."
Wow, indeed. I would have never admitted this to Sarah, but as I moved deeper into the story, I grew interested as well. This was actually a decent story. When the ghost's skin melted away to reveal muscle and bone underneath, I actually shuddered. When she screamed for him to leave, to stay away, Sarah shuddered and climbed into my lap.
It was interesting, until we got to the part where he registered for high school and was immediately stalked by a cheerleader. Sarah had been a cheerleader, so I kind of understood the need for cheerleaders to keep up their image.
Finally, I heard the doorbell ring, interrupting our story time.
Since no one else was home, it was up to me to answer the door.
I went down, Sarah following close behind, and opened the door. A tall vampire with yellow eyes and long blond hair in a ponytail stood there, looking nervous.
"Is this the home of Mordecai Emerson?" he asked, sounding as nervous as he looked.
"What business do you have with my father?" I asked. "Vampires don't normally come to this house unless they're nomads or rogues."
"I...uh..." He turned and looked at Sarah. "I can see I'm interrupting something. I'll just...come back later."
He turned around and trotted down the steps, getting into a beautiful black 1976 Impala.
"That was weird," Sarah said. "What did he want with Mordecai?"
"He didn't say," I told her. "But do you know who he looks like?"
She nodded. "He looks like Mordecai."
"Mmm," I hummed.
We'd had vampires claiming to be sons of my uncle and Louis before, even a couple claiming to be Grandfather's long-lost sons, but they'd all been proven to be fakes. But this could have been real.
He looked like my father, for one thing. For another, he was nervous. Vampires claiming to be related to us were never nervous. They were usually confident, or at least pretending to be.
Sarah took a bathroom break, and I fixed her a glass of iced tea.
Just then, Father came in, glaring.
"I smell vampire," he said.
"Yes, something unusual happened," I said. "A vampire came by looking for you. He looks like you, even."
"A vampire who looks like me came looking for me?" His brows furrowed.
"Hey, Dad, is it possible that you have a son somewhere?" I asked.
"I suppose it's possible," he said, frowning. "I've had many, many lovers over the years. I can't remember all their names."
He sniffed the air. "Is Sarah here?"
"She's in the bathroom-"
The doorbell rang, interrupting me again. Father and I looked at each other, and he opened the door. But it was only Louis, carrying a large box.
"You'll never guess what I found!" he said happily. "
"Vinyl records?" I guessed. It turned out, I was right. When he set the box down, I looked inside, and saw a dozen vinyl records.
"Yep! Let's see...Barry Manilow, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Heart, Joan Jett, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd, Stevie Nicks, Nick Cave...a lot of good ones. I found them at a garage sale. Do you know how rare these are? You don't see much of them around anymore. When they came out with the record player, I was one of the first ones to jump on board."
"He was," Father confirmed.
"Whatcha got there?"
"Where have you been?" I asked my familiar, Shadowfang. He jumped on the table, tail swishing.
"Out in the garden. I killed five snakes, and ate a grasshopper. He was tasty."
"What is it with you and snakes?" I asked.
He avoided answering the question, and instead he looked inside the box. He started to jump in, but Louis grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and set him on the floor.
"Not on the records!"
Louis took the box of records up to his room, and Shadowfang sat in front of the fireplace and pouted about his box being taken away.
"Where's Mishka?" I asked.
"Taking a nap, I expect," Shadowfang replied. "She was playing with the kids earlier." The kids being the kittens, Catniss and Belle. Their son Frodo had gone to live with my best friend, Ariella, and Anakin had gone to live with Mason, my other best friend. They were all familiars, and therefore could take human form at any time. Shadowfang even had a driver's license. His human form was a tall, tanned man with black hair and a thin shadow of a beard with dark brown eyes. His cat eyes were, in fact, yellow.
The door opened again, and my Uncle Soren entered the house, looking as grumpy as ever. He and Father had both lost their loves in the spring. My uncle had taken it especially hard because he and Mitra were on the rocks, so to speak, when she had died. He still blamed himself.
"There is a kid out in the driveway," he growled. "Just sitting there in a black Impala."
"What?" My father went out to look. "I wonder why Louis or I didn't see him?"
"He could have left and then come back," I offered.
"He could have." Father's brows furrowed further. I noticed for the first time that he was starting to look like he was in his mid-thirties. Before that, he looked like he could be in his early thirties or even late twenties. He was over two thousand years old, but he hadn't looked this tired or old before. I knew what Louis had had told me before, though, when I questioned him about Grandfather: all vampires age differently. Some look their age. Others don't age at all. Ones who were humans or Elves before are frozen in time, so to speak.
But natural-borns, like my father, slowly aged over time. Someday, I would look as old as him. My uncle looked like he could be in his late thirties or early forties, and my Grandfather looked like he could be in his fifties, with not a grey hair to spare. His hair was still as vibrant a red as it had ever been. My uncle's hair had a burgundy tone, and my father's was blond. Louis had light brown hair, and my hair is jet black.
We all have similar body types, except for my uncle, who is broad in the shoulders, chest, and stomach, with trunks for legs and the thickest, most muscular arms I've ever seen. He was known not only for being the next king in line, but for his physical strength as well.
The rest of us are thin and muscular.
Sarah finally came out of the bathroom, and greeted my family. Father's nose wrinkled, and so did my uncle's. I was confused. Did she stink? She smelled wonderful to me. Like gardenias and roses and Spanish amber.
Belle finally came out of the cat tree where she'd been hiding, twining herself around Sarah's legs.
"Hi, girl," Sarah said, scratching her ears. Belle chirped and purred.
"It's good to see you, Sarah," Father said.
"You, too, Mordecai," she said. She looked at me.
"He knows about the guy who came by earlier," I said. "Apparently, he's sitting in our driveway right now."
"I hope he's not another crazy," she said.
Ever since my father had spilled the beans about the vampire race's existence, many of my kind had not been happy with us, and even Sarah had gotten death threats, not that she knew about them, which I was grateful for. I still got death threats daily, not only from vampires, but from humans, Elves, goblins, and other beings.
Then the doorbell rang a third time, and Uncle Soren answered it this time. There was the vampire from earlier.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
"Yes." The vampire shuffled his feet. "Can I speak to Mordecai?"
"I'm Mordecai," Father said, offering his hand. "Come in, young man. Please, take a seat."
The vampire boy sat on the couch, and he looked uncomfortable.
"My name is David," he blurted out. "David McCurt."
"It's nice to meet you, David," Father said. "Now, what can I do for you?"
"I...I'm...I'm..." David closed his eyes and swallowed. "I'm your son." He kept his eyes closed, and for a moment no one said anything, until we heard Louis' laughter from upstairs.
"LOUIS! SHUT UP!" Uncle Soren shouted, making David jump and Louis laugh louder.
David scratched his arm, and I noticed small scars on his arm, which looked like they could be from fingernails or even knives.
"I apologize for them," Father said to David. "Now, what makes you think that you're my son?"
"My mother...Ferri McCurt...before she died, she said she had a relationship with you."
"Ferri?" Father frowned. "That was twenty-five years ago. That would mean..." His eyes widened and he looked at David again. I saw Father swallow. Then he leaned over and embraced David. David looked shocked for a minute, then hugged Father back.
"It's so good to meet you!" Father exclaimed. "I had always thought Reese was my only kid. I've had other vampires say they were my sons or daughters, but they all turned out to be fakes. But you're real. You're real. I can't believe this. Soren, he's real."
"Yeah, and so is his Impala," Uncle Soren sarcasted.
"Ferri was well off," Father said. He looked at David. "How did she die?"
"She had porphyria," David explained. Father frowned, then looked at me. I knew what he was thinking. I had porphyria, too, one of the most dangerous vampire diseases. You lose your mind at random times, and you can't control it. It also thins your blood and creates dangerous levels of iron, poisoning your blood. Not even vampire venom is helpful at that point.
"Reese has porphyria, too," Father said. David frowned and looked at me.
"He does?"
"He does, indeed. Tell, me, David, do you have accommodation?"
"I'm staying in my car."
"Poppycock. I insist you stay with us."
"Uh, Mordecai, can I see you in the kitchen?" Uncle Soren asked.
"Soren, look at him," Father snapped, gesturing to David. "The similarities are overwhelming!"
"Yes, but we've been down this road before, and they've all been fakes," Uncle Soren reminded him.
"Soren, he's my son. I know he is. My gut is screaming that he is, and my gut is never wrong."
"Yeah, well, my gut says otherwise. I'm sorry, David, but I don't trust you. If I am wrong, I will apologize, but if I'm right, you are never to speak to any of us ever again. Do I make myself clear?"
David gulped and nodded. I saw tears prick his eyes.
"He can stay in the bedroom by mine and Reese's," Father said. "I don't trust you around him, Soren."
Uncle Soren gave him the finger. David looked shocked.
"They have a love-hate relationship," I explained. "It depends on their moods and what sort of insults they've thrown at each other recently."
Uncle Soren stood up and stomped up the stairs. I heard Louis yelp, and then a door slamming.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
Louis came down the stairs seconds later and introduced himself to David.
"I'm Louis, the awesome one," he said, shaking David's hand. "And yes, I'm currently dating a shapeshifter, but I promise he won't give you any trouble. Reese is also dating a human, but she won't be human for long." He winked at me. I glared at him.
"Louis, if you're not going to behave, get out," Father ordered. "Come, David, I'll show you to your room." Father did show David to his room, my new brother looking uncomfortable the whole way there. I thought about Rosales, my father's fledgling who had been like a son to him.
I'd never met Rosales, but I'd heard about him. He had died before I was conceived.
Sarah cuddled into me, and then she said, "Um, the book?"
"Book? Oh, right, I was reading to you before, wasn't I?"
I carried her up the stairs, followed closely by Belle and Shadowfang.
"We were at the part where he was insulting the football captain," Sarah said.
But before I got through the chapter, she fell asleep in my lap. I tucked her into my bed and kissed her. I thought about David. I'd never had a brother before. Louis often said that I was like a brother to him, and I had Kieran, Alexander's son, as a stepbrother.
And then there was Cirino, who was like an adopted brother. There was Taran and Viktor, my ex-stepbrothers, although I didn't really know them, as my mother had been married to their father before I re-met her.
Sarah snoozed, mumbling incoherently.
"That's not right," she muttered, her eyelids fluttering.
I kissed her and stroked her hair. She muttered again, this time she said my name. Reese. I focused my hearing on David, and I carefully left my room and closed the door. I went to the room that Father had put David in. I heard them talking. I knocked on the door.
"Come in," Father said. "It's okay, David, it's just Reese."
I entered the room, and David was sitting on the bed, with Father standing over him. I closed the door behind me.
"So...you’re my brother," I said.
David nodded.
“Okay, um…what do you want to know?” I asked.
“Everything,” he said.
“Okay, well, you know me, obviously. And you’ve met my girlfriend, Sarah. Fiancée, actually. She’s going to officially be my wife in December, on the Winter Solstice. We’re currently working on the invitations and everything. I met her four years ago, but we first got together two years ago. She had been….assaulted…and I saved her. I started dating her and testified against Michael Nales on her behalf.”
“Do you have any other siblings? And what about you, Father? Are you married?”
“No, I’m not married, but I do have another brother, an adopted one, named Mathias. We have a history, so to speak. I don’t talk about him much, and don’t ever mention him in front of Soren. He’s sensitive about it. Not about having an adopted brother, but Mathias has had a long and difficult life. My brother and I were partly to blame for that…actually, we were fully to blame for it. It’s a long and tragic story, but it is important to our family history. Reese didn’t even know it until recently. I regret not telling him sooner, but I didn’t think he was ready.”
“Father babies me,” I told David.
“I do,” Father admitted. “I can’t help it. A vampire parent’s instincts are much stronger than a human’s instincts, especially the maternal instinct. The relationship between Reese and I or Marina and her children are the norm, while relationships like Soren’s and Louis’ are rare. Louis can barely stand Soren these days. Resents, him, I think, for the tragedies he’s caused and the strife he’s put us through. Soren himself is sensitive about it, so again, don’t mention it in front of him. Soren blames himself for our mother’s death and the death of his wife, Alga. He also blames himself for the recent events that caused turmoil for us.”
“What are those events?” David asked.
Father explained about the Book of Transformation and Death, how it had caused problems for centuries, what had occurred that time in the Night Market with Uncle Soren and Samuel, how Alana was powerful and magical, and how Samuel Jr. had been killed in the process, and Samuel’s plan for revenge, and the spell that resurrected the dead.
David listened with rapt attention, his eyes going wider and wider with every few lines of description and clarification.
I could tell he was confused, but he still listened carefully, as if it was the most important piece of the puzzle. After the explanation, David actually looked paler, if that was possible. And then Father told David that the book had been destroyed, but the spells were still in effect.
My brother looked both amazed and confused.

I heard the telltale sound of my stepfather’s Bugatti Veyron that he’d bought for my mother for their wedding. I headed outside, along with Sarah, who was now sipping an iced tea. There was a passenger in my mother’s car, and when she stepped out, I was amazed at how much she looked like Mother and Selena.
Her skin was rough, her eyes lined with crow’s feet, her hair just as wildly curly, long, and the color of black ink. She had the same crystal-blue eyes, the same curvy figure, with exaggerated hips and chest. She wore a long crimson velvet skirt and a fitted brown top. On her feet she wore flat boots.
“Is this him?” she asked in an ancient-sounding Greek accent. “You’re right; he is handsome. He has my hair color, but he’s got your father’s nose.” The woman laughed. “A family curse, eh, Marina?” Mom didn’t say anything.
“Just who do you think you are?” Sarah asked, and I quickly covered her mouth with my hand.
“Watch your tongue, girl, before I snatch it from your mouth. I can turn you into a toad easily with a snap of my fingers.”
“She apologizes,” I apologized.
“And so protective of that insolent little harlot!”
“Watch it,” Mother warned. “She’s my child just as much as he is.”
“But she’s not actually your child, is she?” The woman laughed.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, I jumped, but it was only Father, along with David, Louis, and Uncle Soren.
“Hello, Satira,” he said glumly.
She nodded at him. “Mordecai.”
“Dad, who is this?” I asked.
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing, and he looked at Mother, who nodded.
“My mother-in-law, also known as your grandmother,” he said.
“Cranky old bitch, isn’t she?” Louis said.
Satira eyed him. “And just who are you, the king of royally irritating self-centered annoying little brats?”
“Hey, I may be a brat, but one thing I am not is self-centered.”
Uncle Soren snorted.
“More relatives?” I groaned. “Are there any more I should know about? Maybe a third cousin or two?”
“It was your mother’s decision not to tell you about her, not mine,” Father said.
Satira shook her head. “Shameful.”
“I don’t tell you about every girlfriend I’ve ever had,” Father said.
“Have you been married before Mom?”
“Oh, sure…plenty of times. But it never produced anything. I think I’m a seed that’s meant to bear only one fruit, and that’s you. I mean, you and David,” he said, glancing back at my brother.
Satira shook her head. “A man who can’t produce any seeds is a man who does not deserve to live.”
“Mother!” Mom shouted. “What about me? None of my babies lived until I became a vampire.”
Satira merely shook her head again. “When I was human, I was a midwife. I helped deliver babies of the royal court. I nursed them and bathed them. When I married Balthazar, I knew I would have lots of little ones, but I only produced you and your sisters.”
“Are my sisters and I not enough?”
“What’s the point of having lots of babies if I do not produce at least one son?”
“Old-fashioned old buzzard,” Louis muttered. “Do you know that some women choose not to have babies at all? And that’s okay. I mean, it’s their decision.”
I was surprised to hear something so feministic coming out of his mouth.
“I was forced to have a baby,” Sarah said, and we all looked at her. “Lady, I was raped. I got pregnant, and I couldn’t abort him due to family values. So I was forced to have a C-section, because I’m too small down there to have a safe birth. I’m still his mother, but part of me wishes he’d been born to somebody else…Marina, maybe. She’s a better mother than I ever could be.”
“Mouthy girl,” Satira said. She turned and crossed her arms, then grinned over her shoulder. “I see the Major Arcana,” she said. “The Lovers. Eilief is the Hierophant. Krauvas is the Magician.”
“You know Krauvas?” I interrupted.
“Shush, boy. And yes, I know Krauvas. He and I used to date. My daughter is the Mother.”
“There is no Major Arcana called the Mother,” Sarah interrupted this time. “I know. I’ve been studying the cards.”
“Soren is the Hanged Man,” Satira continued. “Mordecai is Justice.”
“What’s she talking about?” I asked.
“She’s comparing us to tarot cards, specifically the Major Arcana,” Sarah said. Then she turned to Satira. “Why don’t you just tell us what you want and get it over with?”
“Don’t be rude, Sarah,” I warned.
“She’s right to be rude,” Mother said. “My mother never wants anything to do with any of us unless she wants something. What is it this time? Money? Wine?”
“I have an offer to make,” Satira said.
Silence. And then. “No. No freaking way.”
“Don’t listen to her, kids,” Dad said. “She is a master of the dark arts. She’d twist a knife in your back as soon as you turn it.”
“Is resurrection really such a bad thing?” Satira asked.
“Lady, we don’t know what the fuck you’re babbling about,” Louis snapped.
“Yes, resurrection is normally considered black magic,” Dad said.
“Unless you mean the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” Sarah added.
“No, girl, I don’t mean the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I mean the resurrection of Sadie and Faolan.”
“She’s lying,” Father said. “Don’t listen to her. Magic always has a price. What do you want, Satira? And no bullshit this time.”
“I want the souls of Reese and Selena,” Satira said.
It all happened in a flash. Mother turned and slugged her own mother, and Satira was on the ground, holding a fat lip.
“You’re not taking my children!” Mother cried.
“What’s so bad about taking their souls?” David asked. It was the first time he’d spoken up.
“They will still be alive, but they won’t be themselves,” Father said. “What makes them them will cease to exist. They will become vampire zombies.”
“Cool,” Louis said. Uncle Soren whacked him on the back of the head. “I mean, not cool. I mean, that’s something I didn’t know about, and I know everything.”
He was sadly mistaken in that regard. Uncle Soren made to hit Louis again, but this time he flinched, and Uncle Soren backed off.
Satira picked herself up off the ground, still holding her left cheek. Huh. I had not seen Mother hit her cheek, only her mouth. But pain can travel sometimes, so maybe that was it. Then a girl appeared, and Uncle Soren let out a whoop.
The girl looked amazingly like Mitra. Same hairstyle and shade, same sharp features and almond-shaped brown eyes, same thin body type with small breasts and a cute butt. She wore a faded white t-shirt that referenced Wonder Woman, pale blue jeans, and military-style boots. She carried a backpack around her back and a brown crossbody purse.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a wand. She handed it to Satira, who said, “Thank you, Cholena.” Satira turned to us. “I believe you’re all familiar with the child of Mitra Dearwood and Katonah Wolfe?”
“The child of Mitra…” Uncle Soren began. He stared at the girl, who glared back.
“You killed my mother.” It wasn’t a question, more of a statement. Her voice was soft and dainty, slightly high-pitched. It was different from Mitra’s big booming alto voice.
“So is your last name Dearwood or Wolfe?” Louis asked.
“It’s hyphenated,” Cholena replied. “Which one of you is Soren?”
“That would be me,” Uncle Soren said. “I loved your mother, Cholena, and she loved me. She was torn between her vows to your father and her unconditional love for me.”
Her features softened, and she started to approach him. Chirag, one of our guards, made a move to stop her, but Uncle Soren told Chirag to let her approach him.
She slowly approached him, and it struck me how tiny she was, especially compared to him. She was shorter than Sarah, and thinner than Mitra. I could almost see her ribs through her shirt.
She looked at all of us, her eyes lingering on Sarah, who stared back icily. I wondered if she had lady-loving inclinations. And then she kicked Uncle Soren in the crotch.
He fell over, clutching his privates, cursing her out loud.
“You’re responsible for my mom’s death, pencil-dick, so I feel plenty justified,” Cholena said.
“Fucking bitch,” he cursed. She stomped on his hand, cracking the bones. I heard him cry out again, and then he grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her to the ground. She landed on her back, and he dragged her, so she was level with him.
He grabbed her head and started to twist it, and I shouted, “Uncle Soren, think of who she is!”
He growled, but he stopped trying to snap her neck at least.
He grabbed her by the throat and held her up off the ground by three feet. “Try that again and I won’t be so merciful, girl.”
He dropped her onto the ground where she lay, coughing.
I predicted that these two would be crazy about each other in a matter of days.
“She’s just like Mitra, isn’t she?” Satira gloated. “Strong and powerful. The Ancient Feminine is incredibly pleased with the Dearwood women.”
“How did you meet her?” I asked.
“Through a friend. Quite a coincidence, really.”
“You’re not telling the whole story.”
“Oh, the whole story will eventually come out. But not today. What do you think of her, Soren?”
Uncle Soren grumbled under his breath about impertinent women and ancient witches who annoyed the daylights out of him.
“Why are you really here, Satira?” Father asked.
“I told you. Marina, your sister and I miss you dearly. Do you think you could-“
“No. I chose Catholicism, and you chose witchcraft. Do not try to tempt me.”
“But your children, the unborn ones, they still have a choice, and so do Reese and Selena.”
“Stay away from my children,” Mom growled. “Leave now.”
“Satira, get off my property,” Father warned. Satira sighed dramatically and shrugged.
“As you wish.”
She turned around and left, Cholena following close behind.
“Bitch,” Father muttered. “Marina, why did you bring her here?”
Mother blushed. “I thought she’d changed.”
“Well, obviously she hasn’t. Please, be more careful whom you bring around our son.”
“Just a minute, Mordecai-“
“Please don’t fight,” I begged my parents. “I didn’t even know she was still alive until today. I don’t know anything about your side of the family, Mom. Do you really have a sister? How many siblings do you have?”
“Five, all sisters,” Mom said. “Two of them are dead and one of them lives with Satira. The other two, I don’t know about.”

 

CHAPTER TWO – ONE, TWO PREGNANCIES

We didn’t see Satira again for several days. By then, Cholena had made a regular presence at the edge of Father’s property. She was usually carving wood or sketching in a drawing pad or writing in a composition book.
I figured she was keeping an eye on us, possibly intimidating my uncle on purpose. Sarah divided her time between Father and Mother’s houses, bringing a set of clothes each time. She was more tired, hungrier, and thirstier. What was even odder, was that she began to have strange cravings similar to mine. She would only eat rare beef or sometimes even eat raw hamburger. I asked her to stop, but she glared at me.
I began to have my own suspicions. We’d been down this path before, where I’d thought Sarah was pregnant, but I was wrong. This time, I was more certain.
Meanwhile, everyone got along with David swimmingly except for Uncle Soren. He acted like he didn’t exist, even outright ignoring him during question-and-answer time. Father made an announce of the “appearance of a child” on the vampire news.
Not everyone had taken the news that vampires were real and alive well. I still got death threats daily. But we had also begun a new project: the first vampire TV station, dedicated solely to the supernatural and paranormal. It was stationed in Trenton, the capital city of New Jersey. Father needed to be gone for days at a time to take care of it-or Uncle Soren. This time, though, we all went.

The driver pulled up to the station building. Across the street were religious protestors-it looked like Westboro Baptist Church members. I showed my ID and was led to a makeup room. A man with caramel skin and silver eyeliner introduced himself as Jimmy, and he said he would do my makeup and hair.
“How long have you been growing out your hair?” he asked, picking up a brush that I recognized as a Mason Pearson brush.
“It’s been long since I was fourteen,” I told him. “The white tips are a trait of our family. Even Louis has white tips, and he’s the only one who doesn’t have yellow eyes. Emerson eyes, some call them.”
“Whatever you call them, they’re beautiful,” Jimmy complimented. “Now, how much makeup do you usually wear?”
“I used to wear eyeliner and black lipstick,” I said. “But I stopped doing that except for special occasions a few years ago. Now I usually go au naturel. I also used to wear earrings.”
“I can see the scars,” Jimmy said, examining my face. “You’ve got a nice complexion. Small pores. What kind of blood do you drink, human or animal?”
“Human,” I responded.
“That explains it. Animal drinkers usually rot from the inside out unless they have human blood every now and then. It’s a slow death.”
“My father always said that animal drinkers were an abomination.”
Jimmy laughed. “I’m an animal drinker.”
Well, that was embarrassing. For me, I mean.
“But you say that animal drinkers rot?”
“Eventually, but it takes years and years,” Jimmy said. “I think I’ve got time.”
“You could always drink bagged blood.”
“Tried it. Hated it. Okay, is your hair naturally straight, or do you straighten it? I’m thinking a low ponytail. Is that okay with you?”
I answered his questions and consented to the ponytail. He fixed my hair up and used a black elastic to keep it tied together. Then he applied a thin layer of foundation and powder, and then lined my eyes in black. After some thought, he decided to paint my lips a slightly pinker color.
I actually looked handsome when he was done.
“Do you usually prefer prey or predator?” I asked.
“I actually prefer wolf, if I can get it,” he said. “But if I can’t, cow’s blood will work. It’s against my religion to eat any pork products.”
“My girlfriend’s Jewish.”
He laughed. “So am I.”
“Stay away from her.”
“No worries-I only like men. Particularly rich, handsome men. I wouldn’t go for her, but I might go for your dad.”
I nearly barfed. He laughed at the look on my face, and finished my makeup by spraying a finishing spray.
The wardrobe girl handed me an expensive white shirt and black pants with dress shoes and socks. She allowed me a curtain, at least, so I could dress in private. Her name was Sheila.

I sat on a couch beside my father a few minutes later, David on his other side. Sarah sat beside me, dressed in a formal knee-length crimson dress with rose detailing. Her hair was done up in an intricate curly updo, her makeup applied perfectly by Jimmy. Her lips were a brownish red, her eyes had silver and blue makeup around them.
Her ring was clearly visible on her finger, her nails painted a dark red. I’d never noticed before how unusual she was. Her skin was dark, but her eyes were bright green, her hair was thick and curly, almost always tied up, and she seemed too beautiful to be real.
I reached for her hand, and she smiled at me.
“Okay,” said a man coming over with a microphone clipped to his shirt and earbuds in. “It’s nice to meet you, Your Excellency,” he said to my father, shaking his hand. “I’m Cal Zigg. I’m the producer of your show.”
“It is nice to meet you, as well,” Father said. “As you know, I am Prince Mordecai, and these are my sons, Reese and David, and Reese’s betrothed, Sarah.”
Cal shook all of our hands and kissed Sarah’s knuckles. Someone started playing gothic music and then Kate Un appeared. Oh, great. I knew that Uncle Soren had promised her a position on this station in order to keep her mouth shut about their brief affair.
I sat up straight and urged Sarah to do the same. David looked nervous. He kept messing with his collar, and Father had to keep adjusting it.
Kate Un sat in the host’s chair and greeted us with a nod. Then she plastered a fake smile on her face as the assistant cameraman counted down.
“We are on in three, two…one.”
“Hello, and welcome to Live Talk, the only live show on the first ever vampire channel. I’m here with Prince Mordecai and some other very special guests. Prince Mordecai, why don’t you introduce us?”
Insolent bitch.
“Twenty-six years ago, I met a young woman,” Father said. “This was before I married Marina Santorino and produced Reese, who, as you can see, is on my left, along with his beautiful fiancee, Sarah Cresley. On my right, there is a child I didn’t know existed until very recently. He found me and told me who he was, and I believe him. Now, there have been many fakes and attempts to claim familial bonding, but this is a true connection. I know it is, because my gut instinct is never wrong. This is my son, David.”
The camera panned to David, who abashedly looked at his lap. Then he looked up.
“I never knew who my father was until three weeks ago,” he said. “There has never been a man in my life. I had to learn how to be a man on my own. Now that I know who my father is, I’m eager to get to know him, along with my brother and other relatives.”
“How did you find Prince Mordecai?” Kate asked.
“After my mother…” He cleared his throat. “After my mother passed away, I went through her old journals and found Prince Mordecai’s name. I read the whole book, and learned about the affair. I looked him up by name, and found his photo online. I felt an instant connection when I saw him. I mean, the similarities, the hair and eyes alone, it’s uncanny.”
My father wrapped his arm around David’s shoulders and pecked him on the cheek.
“Prince Reese, what are your thoughts about all of this?” Kate asked.
“I’m as excited as Dad is,” I said. “I’ve always wanted an older brother. Little did I know that I actually had one all along.”
“Sarah?” Kate asked. “How do you feel about all this?”
“I’m happy for Reese and his family,” she said. “It’s like getting a brand-new family member. There’s always room for more.”
“Sarah is correct,” Father said. “Like she said, there’s always room for more. I’ve gotten many, many fakes, vampires claiming to be related to us, but they’ve always been proven false. This one is real. David is, in fact, my son.”
“What fantastic news,” Kate said, layering on the sweetness. “A new family member for the Emerson-Nicolai clan! This is Kate Un, reporting for Live Talk on the new station VTV!”
Sarah clung to me and gave a big smooch on the cheek.
Then Uncle Soren began raging.
“Outrageous!” he shouted. He pointed at David. “That boy is no more your son than Alexander is mine! This is absolutely ridiculous! I don’t believe for one second that he’s related to us! I don’t care what your goal, is, boy, but it ends here and now!”
He moved toward David threateningly, but Father planted himself in front of David.
“Touch him and I’ll rip your arms off, Soren,” he promised. “The DNA test will prove that he’s my son. I don’t care what you do to me, but if you hurt David, Louis will have a father to bury.”
“That was dark, Uncle Mordecai,” Louis said. My father and his father both ignored him. Uncle Soren continued to glare at David, who cowered and quavered under the look of the most powerful vampire in the world.
Sarah clung even tighter, and I realized without looking at her that my uncle had frightened her.
Beckett appeared. He looked at Sarah. “Ca va, Sarah?”
“Oui, Daddy, je vais bien,” She replied.
“Il t’a blessé ?”
“Non, je vais bien, papa, vraiment. Qu’est-ce que tu fais ici de toute façon?”
“Je suis venu aider Mordecai. J’ai été engagé comme producteur pour un de ses spectacles.” He nodded to me. “Reese.”
When he left, I asked Sarah what that was about.
“He heard Soren’s yelling and came to check on me,” she said. “Your dad hired him as a producer for one of the new shows.”
“That’s…good,” I said.
“It’s fantastic,” Sarah said. “Daddy needs money. He and Mom are finally getting officially divorced.”
“He’s still wearing his glasses.”
“He says it’s due to habit, but I think his vision hasn’t improved any. That’s the tough part about being part human. You’ll always have some human qualities.”
“He doesn’t like me.”
“No, Reese, that’s not the case. It’s actually…I shouldn’t say this, but you’ll find out anyway. He’s jealous of you.”
“Jealous? Of me? Why?” I asked suspiciously.
“You’ve been able to protect me better than he ever has. You’re young and virile, and he wishes he had your body. He also thinks you’re more attractive than he is. He’s jealous because you’re my first love, and he wasn’t around to see me fall for you. He’s also a little wary, since you’re a vampire.”
“He’s a vampire, too.”
“But he wasn’t until recently, and he had to have the help of a goddess. Our ancestor, even. I still can’t believe I’m part goddess. But anyway, you shouldn’t take his rudeness seriously. I’ll have a talk with him if that makes you feel better.”
She pecked my jaw. And then we realized that the cameras were still recording everything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Shit, shit, shit.” Father paced around the living room. “Shit, damn, fuck. Fucking bitch. Who knows how many people saw that nastiness? The one that is my brother?”
“Approximately a hundred million, give or take,” Louis said. Father glared at him.
Sarah was in our room, singing “Top of the World” by the Carpenters. I was sitting on the couch. Sarah came down, wearing gray yoga pants and a white jacket.
“Aren’t you hot, babe?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, “But not because of the jacket.”
I grinned at her sudden burst of vanity. But a part inside of me groaned. She sat between me and Louis, who was currently flipping through cartoons. He settled on Baby Looney Tunes. While he and Sarah laughed at the characters’ antics, I wondered what was wrong with me. Sarah never used to annoy me this much. Okay, maybe I did blame her a bit for saying too much on camera, but it really wasn’t her fault.
I’d long ago accepted that she wasn’t perfect…or had I?
I mean, her physical beauty alone…everyone thought she was perfect. She worked so hard to maintain that façade that it had worn her down, and she suffered physically, mentally, and emotionally. She even had seizures and a heart attack. How much more could she take?
I realized she was reaching for my hand, and I moved away slightly. She gave me a hurt look, then scooted closer to Louis, which made me jealous. Was she making me jealous on purpose?
As soon as the cartoon was over, Louis flipped to the news.
“OMG, stop right there!” Sarah shrieked.
“Did you really just say ‘OMG’?” Louis asked her. She ignored him.
“Jamie Williams is in town! He’s like, my favorite author of all time! He writes the best books, and the best poems! He’s soooo romantic!”
“Hey, I can be romantic,” I protested. She ignored me. Instead, she eyed him. I looked up and saw him.
He had shoulder-length straight blond hair, bright green eyes, and a widow’s peak with a slightly balding forehead. He was skinny and tall, and he wore a Victorian-era suit with a top hat and cane. He even wore gloves. He waved at the camera crew, and Kate Un stepped up to him.
“Jamie, what can we expect while you’re in town?” she asked.
“My dear lady,” he spoke in an English accent, “I will be signing copies of my new book, Blood Moon, and I will be…ah, my agent said not to say anything, but he’s not here, is he? I will be holding a contest for all the young ladies and gentlemen who enjoy my work. A poetry contest. It can be a haiku, free thought, or any other. It can rhyme or not. Whoever comes up with the best one will be escorted to dinner by me at Sea Gala, a restaurant by the beach here in New Jersey. He or she will enjoy a fine meal, romantic talk, a fully-paid-for dinner, a romantic walk on the beach, maybe a little romantic book shopping or museum-hopping. The poems are due Friday the thirteenth of September, and I will read the contest winner the next Monday. Good luck!”
He walked away, turning his back to the camera and laughing maniacally.
“Sarah,” I said, “I absolutely forbid you to submit anything to him.”
“Excuse me?” she turned to glare at me. “You are not the boss of me.”
“How many times did he say the word ‘romantic’? Did anybody keep count?” Louis asked.
“Sarah, I’m only thinking of us,” I told her.
“No, you’re jealous. Again,” she said. “You’re suffocating me with your jealousy, Reese. I love you, but if we want to make this work, you have to let me make my own decisions and mistakes.”
“Sarah-“
“Don’t you ‘Sarah’ me! I don’t even know if you truly love me, or if you’re just obsessed with my looks. Sure, I’m gorgeous, but I’m also a human, damn it! Well, part human. I’m not perfect, and I’m not your wife yet!”
She got up and stormed upstairs.
“Nice going, dude,” Louis said. I stuck my tongue out at him and hissed as Shadowfang jumped onto my leg.
“I smell trouble on the horizon,” my cat familiar said. I ran my fingers through his long, black fur and he turned to looked at me with his large yellow eyes. “Women trouble. First Satira shows up, then Cholena, and now I smell babies.”
“Hmm, that nose has never been wrong before,” Louis noted.
“Her underwear did smell off,” I admitted.
“She smells off because she’s having a baby, Reese,” Louis said. “Think about it: her temper’s shorter, she’s got a craving for milk, she can’t eat chicken without puking, and her wings are not holding her up as high. She’s pregnant, little buddy.”

After this revelation, I went to see Sarah. She was reading our book on my bed, earbuds in her ears, playing soft rock music.
“Sarah,” I sat, sitting on the bed. She saw me and took the pods out of her ears. “Sarah, I’m sorry. I did have a jealous moment. I’m really trying to control it, but it’s like…it’s like a monster that’s stuck inside my gut, trying to crawl out, but I can’t let him because it would upset you. I love you, Sarah. I want you to be mine.”
“Reese,” she replied, sitting on her knees, “You don’t have to worry. I’m not interested in Jamie romantically. I love you. You’re my soulmate, my fiancé, my fated husband. The Fates brought us together, and we’ll stay together, through thick and thin, or poorer or for richer, for better or for worse, until death do we part.”
“Let’s not talk of death,” I said, pulling her onto my lap. “I’d rather be consumed alive than lose you.”
She made a disgusted face at that.
But I didn’t mean it, not really. There was something seriously wrong here. Was I growing bored with my relationship with Sarah? She was my longest romantic partner, and my second, and only female partner, besides Sadie, but my relationship with Sadie was purely sexual. I leaned my head down to her stomach and took a big whiff.
I smelled a lot of things: estrogen, blood, cotton, and…was that plastic? Huh. But there was another smell, the smell of something new and exciting. I smell new muscles, new bones, new skin. I smelled new blood and cells and a vampire scent.
A baby. Maybe two.
“Sarah,” I said. “How would you react if you learned that you were pregnant?”
She laughed nervously. “I hope I’m not pregnant.”
Disappointment sagged my shoulders, and I snarled on instinct and nipped her shoulder.
“What was that for?” she asked, rubbing the spot.
“Sorry,” I said. “Just a little love mark.”
“You never bite me that hard, Reese. Is something-“ Her eyes widened. I could see the cogs working in her brain. She counted on her fingers, mouthing the numbers. Her eyes began to shine even more as she looked up at me.
Then she pulled up her jacket. There was a small bump.
“A father,” I said to myself. “I’m going to be a father.”
She quickly covered her stomach and buried her face in my chest. Then she began to cry. She sobbed and sobbed. I just held her while she cried. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she slowed down to a short, hiccupy breath.
“I don’t want to be pregnant,” she whined. “Not yet, at least. I want to enjoy my first few years as an adult!”
“Sorry, babe,” I lied. “You can blame me. It’s all my fault. Remember when we had sex back in May? The condom broke, and I didn’t realize until later that it was expired.”
“You idiot!” She punched me in the chest, then said “ouch” and cradled her hand. “You fucking moron! You are such an imbecile! A stupid, stupid, dumb quack!”
“You can call me all the names you want,” I lectured,” but it won’t change the fact that we’re going to have a baby. Maybe two. I think a girl…and a boy.”
She burst into tears. She hit me again and again.
“I hate you!” she shouted. “I hate you! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.”
“Do you, really?” I asked, every phrase like a knife in my chest.
“No,” she whimpered. She buried her head in my chest. “I’m sorry I’m acting childish.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” I assured her. “Sarah look at me. Look at me.” She looked at me. “We’ll get through this together,” I said, tilting her chin up. “I promise. If I need to turn you sooner rather than later-“
“Will you have to?”
“I may have to. Not all vampire/human hybrids are viable, and some of them kill their own mothers.”
She shuddered and looked up at me with wide eyes.
“I have to call Marina,” she said.
A few minutes later, we were at a café downtown, waiting for Mother and Alexander.
Sarah wanted to sit outside, so we did. I kept my hood over my eyes, keeping the sun off.
Mother arrived soon with Alexander and Sabine.
“Hello, children,” Mother said, pecking my forehead and kissing Sarah’s cheek.
“Son. Daughter,” Alexander greeted in his own gruff way. “Did you have something to inform us about?”
“Let’s all go inside,” Sarah said.
We followed her to an inside table.
“Well…Reese thinks I’m pregnant,” Sarah blurted out.
There was a pause. Then:
“Honey, we know,” Mother said. “We could smell it. We weren’t sure when we should tell you. I know that you might not enjoy being pregnant again, but we will support you and Reese in this endeavor.”
Sabine just scowled.
“Where is Cirino?” I asked.
“With the new nanny,” Mother said. “We hired a new nanny named Colleen. She will watch Cirino while Zie cleans the house.”
“You’re not mad because we’re not married?” Sarah asked.
“Certainly not,” Mother said. “In my time a woman could get cast out in the mountains to die for such a grievance, but such is not the case anymore. We are happy for you.”
Sarah let out a breath she was holding and leaned into me. I purred and pecked her head. Her phone dinged, and she pulled it out of her pocket.
“Who are you texting?” I asked.
“Mia.”
“Rayport? Sarah, she betrayed you! She beat you to a pulp!”
“I didn’t say we were friends again, I said I was texting her. We’re working on a new project.”
“What kind of project?”
“A none-of-your-business project.” She leaned over and kissed me. I looked at Alexander, who grimaced.
“I promised not to say anything,” he said. “She told your mother this plan, and as her mate, I can read her mind, as she can read mine. Sarah is keeping it blocked from you on purpose so she doesn’t accidentally slip up and reveal her plans.”
“I’d like to know,” I said.
Sarah pulled a small notebook out of her purse.
“Hmm, what should I write? Oh, I know.”
“The poem? Sarah, I told you not to write it!”
“Reese, you are not my father, you are my boyfriend. Keep it up and you won’t be my boyfriend much longer.”
The shock on Mother and Alexander’s faces was disturbing. The shock in my heart was like an ax coming down on me.
She ordered a burger and Sabine ordered a salad. I ordered white milk, and Mother and Alexander ordered coffee.
I sighed. She was right, as always. Women always are.
“I’m sorry, Sarah, but…he’s much more attractive than me, and I’m-“
She cut me off with a kiss. “Stop being insecure. I love you for you, not what you look like. Reese, if you want to…experiment, with our relationship, I’m open to that, too.”
“Experiment?”
“If you want to see other people while we’re together-“
Alexander barked a laugh; Sabine turned red and Mother gave them both dirty looks.
“Sarah, I want no one but you. You should know that. But I’m against you seeing other males.”
“I understand that. I do. I’d be jealous if there was a girl between us. Sometimes I do get jealous. I even get jealous of Amara or Ariella. They’re both thinner than I am, and Amara has a new hair color every week, and Ari’s known you longer than I have. But you are mine, and I am yours, and it will stay that way unless one of us says otherwise.”
She sipped her Cherry Coke.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated, nuzzling her. “I know I should have it under control by now. This is my fault. I love you and I don’t want to lose you.”
She pecked my jaw again and continued writing her poem.

CHAPTER THREE – JAMIE WILLIAMS
The rest of August went by fast. We celebrated Louis’ birthday with a small party of about two hundred vampires at our castle in Denmark- that was a quick trip. Uncle Soren kept an eye on Cholena-Mother kept an eye on Satira, and we all kept an eye on David.
I didn’t completely trust him, even if what he said was true and he was my brother. He didn’t reveal any more about his family or mother, other than to remind us that she’d died recently. He helped me pick out a necklace for Sarah- a silver chain with a heart pendant set in diamonds. It took him a while to absorb the fact that he was going to be an uncle, just like it had taken me a while to absorb the fact that I was going to be a father.
We began to seriously plan the wedding. We wanted to be married before we tried college. Sarah and Mother and Selena spent countless hours discussing dresses and flowers and cakes-I was thinking hard about what sort of ring I wanted her to wear. One that was similar to her engagement ring, certainly, but the diamond had to be bigger, the gold purer.
Sarah said she wanted baby’s breath in her floral arrangement for sure, but said roses were everyone’s choice. I loaned her a book on flowers- their meanings, and whether they were edible or not. She wanted lavender at the center of every table to represent France, where half her family was from. She wanted to incorporate the breaking of the glass to represent her Jewish half, and Mother laughed and told her that at Greek weddings, they break plates.
So there was going to be a lot of broken glass at our wedding. I had an idea and told Mother: my idea was to break a glass heart to signify our love for each other.
Sarah also had to get used to the idea that she would have to swap blood with me, as is customary at vampire weddings. A ritual knife would be sterilized and cleaned, but she still turned green at the thought. Fortunately, I told her that vampires don’t carry diseases or infections such as herpes, but we do have a form of Vampire HIV, which attacks the blood-absorbing vessels that gives us energy and keeps our immune systems healthy. I told her I’d get tested if it made her feel better, and she told me that she’d get tested as well.
We’d been dating long enough to know that we were both clean, but one never knew, especially, since we had both slept with different people in the past. We timed her transformation for the sex part of the wedding ceremony.
Another thing to consider was the baby-how long would she take to grow? Would she grow fast, normally, or slowly? Very little was known about vampire/human babies. Would she kill Sarah? That was at the top of my list of fears, that she’d kill her own mother. But Sarah was strong. But she had a very weak body due to her bout with bulimia and her heart problems, and her past rape. Who knew what Nales had done to those organs? Would she need another C-section? Could she even have one? Did she want an epidural, or a natural birth?
I knew I would be there no matter what. It was customary for vampire fathers to be there at the birth of the baby, unless the mother was human. He could easily kill her and/or his baby.
Would she give birth before or after her transformation?
All these questions and more raced through my mind as I rushed around to get things ready. First, we had to set a date. We set the date for the Winter Solstice and quickly sent the invitations, created by Louis on a computer and used our family crest on parchment envelopes.
Our family crest is the Viking sigil for death, with a raven beside it, a fox below the sigil, and the sigil for courage beside the fox. Sigil, animal, animal, sigil.
I once asked my father why a fox instead of a wolf, and he told me not to ask questions I didn’t want to know the answer to.
On the first of September, Sarah sent in her poem to Jamie Williams. And we waited. While we waited, I’d often catch her talking to our baby, as if she could already hear her mother’s voice. Actually, most babies can hear their mother if their hearing is formed. I also talked to my baby sometimes. I would also rub or stroke the belly, sometimes kissing it and purring.
Cirino knew something was going on. He was starting to talk more and understand things better.
“Baby,” Sarah would tell him, pointing to her stomach.
“Ba,” he would reply in turn.
“Baby,” Sarah corrected.
“She has a baby inside of her,” Selena told Cirino. He smiled at her and held out his arms to her instead. She would pick him up and dance with him, singing old songs like “Mr. Sandman”. She was growing fond of him. I still felt a little resentment towards him, even though I knew none of it was his fault. Michael had chosen to attack Sarah, and she chose to keep the resulting embryo due to her religious beliefs. It all worked out in the end, as Alexander was seeking a baby boy to have as a companion, and he and Mother had quickly adopted Cirino, but they let Sarah name him and see him when she still lived with Alicia.
Satira had basically said that sons were superior to daughters, yet she’d had all girls. That struck me as odd. Girls were clearly as good as boys were, superior in some ways, but it used to be a deeply held belief that boys were the stronger sex. And they still were, physically, at least. But statistically, women were better drivers.
I asked Selena about it, and she waved me off and said she couldn’t talk about it. I remembered that she’d lost a baby son herself, not long ago. I wondered how many she’d really lost. She was certainly more cheerful now than when she first arrived, maybe that was because of Mother.
Cirino turned and smiled at me, and my heart melted. He would be my son one day. My stepson, but still, my son. Sarah began singing in French, a beautiful lyrical masterpiece about love and roses and cats and baby hair. Her voice pierced my heart like a pin; her soprano was incredibly beautiful.
She stopped singing and turned on the TV, and we watched The Twilight Zone for a while.
“No vampires, but plenty of aliens,” Sarah muttered.
“The Twilight Zone is mostly speculative fiction,” I said. “With the occasional dystopian story.”
She smiled and me and put her head on my chest. Soon, she was snoozing away. Then she was singing in her sleep.
“What song is she singing?” I asked. I’d heard it, she played it sometimes on her phone.
“That song is called ‘Best I Ever Had’ by Vertical Horizon,” Selena said. “Came out in the early 2000s. She loves that band.”
“And it’s…well, still technically in the early years of the century,” I said.
Sarah woke up with a snort. “I can’t see,” she complained.
“Open your eyes, dear,” I chuckled.
She did open them, blinked, and then giggled, blushing.
“Was I talking in my sleep?” she asked.
“You frequently talk in your sleep. This time, though, you sang a song.”
“Which one?”
I told her, and she giggled again.
She leaned forward and kissed me, then winced.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“My breasts are tender,” she explained.
“Handle with care, then.”
Both my girlfriend and my sister laughed at that one. Cirino laughed, too, though he had no idea what it meant. Then Sarah turned serious.
“How is Eilief?”
My face fell. My grandfather was no better. He was getting sicker, actually-he hadn’t even been able to attend Louis’ birthday party.
“He’s not good. He’s been really ill, Sarah.”
“That sucks. Well, tell him that I said hi.”
“Will do.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was the day of the announcement of Jamie Williams’ Romantic Poem contest winner. I was seated beside Sarah, she was seated beside Selena, and Mom and Alexander were on Selena’s other side. Sarah had her hands on her belly, looking anxious.
Jamie himself was standing on a podium in front of the news crew, both local and national, and he looked dashing in a dark purple suit.
“The winner of this contest will be treated to a romantic date with me,” he said. “He or she will accompany me on a romantic walk on the beach, dinner at a restaurant, and my personal attention. And maybe her poem will even be featured in my next book, coming out next February, titled Moonlight Kiss. And the winner of the contest is: Sarah Cresley, of North Hampton, New Jersey!”
There was enthusiastic applause, then Jamie continued. “I will read her poem now.”

The salt of my tears
Replaced by your kiss
My first love
The one and only
Reese Emerson

More applause, and I sat there, stunned. She’d written the poem about me. And I’d acted like a major jerk. Damn, she really did love me.
“I shouldn’t have won,” she sighed. “I’m sure there were others better than mine.”
“Nonsense, dear, you did well,” Mother praised. She seemed stunned as well, yet proud, and Alexander just grunted in agreement.
“You’re not going to throw me out now, are you?” Sarah asked nervously.
“Why would they throw you out?” I asked.
Mother and Alexander avoided looking at me.
“Last time you had a jealous fit at that restaurant, and I told you that I wouldn’t be your girlfriend much longer if you kept it up. Marina told me to start packing, and then we got into a big fight. There were a lot of tears and yelling.”
I glared at Mother, then Alexander.
“Leave me out of this,” he growled.
“Mother, how could you? She’s my mate!”
“But you are my son! She threatened to leave you!”
“Mother, it was my fault. When you look at Sarah, you used to see yourself in her. Now you’re yelling at her and causing her to cry! She can’t trust Alicia, and Beckett’s apartment isn’t suitable for humans. Sarah, if you need to move in with me, just say the word.”
“Thank you, Reese. You’re a good boyfriend.”
“She’s lying,” Alexander quipped. “She’s been ready to dump you for weeks, Reese.”
“Alexander!” Sarah shouted. “I love Reese! I had my doubts, yes, but I’m not ready to let him go now.”
“But you were.”
“Shut up, Alexander,” I warned. He snarled at me, and Sarah went upstairs to cool down.
“Are you trying to break us up?” I asked, leaving my mother and stepfather to go comfort my sweet mate.
“Did you really consider breaking up with me?” I asked as I walked into her room. She was sitting on the bed, knees up to her chin, tears leaking out of her eyes.
“I won’t lie, I did consider it,” she said. “But I don’t want to lose you now.”
“It’s okay, baby,” I said, embracing her. “I haven’t exactly treated you well, either. In fact, sometimes I was downright terrible. I mean, I even broke up with you because I thought it would be better for both of us! And you can see how wrong I was. We belong together, Sarah. I won’t let you go again. No matter what anyone says.” I paused, and then said aloud: “No wonder Beckett hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you, Reese, I swear on Great Grandmother Cresley’s grave. He doesn’t know how to treat you, because you were there for me when he couldn’t be.”
“He hates me. Sarah, I’m so sorry. This is my fault. I love you, baby.”
She said nothing and laid down on the bed. I laid down around her front and cuddled with her, but she pulled away from me. I gave her a hurt look.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meeting Jamie was not going to be fun for me. I planned to stalk them as well.
The limousine that had come to pick up Sarah was black, and Jamie himself was inside. She was wearing her best green v-neck sundress, and I watched nervously as he stepped out of the vehicle. Sarah smiled and blushed, looking down at her feet.
Jamie smiled as he approached her. “I assume you are Sarah?” he asked.
She nodded, giggling girlishly.
Jamie nodded. “I thought so. Only a beautiful American flower such as yourself could have written such beautiful prose.”
“T-thanks,” she stammered. “This is Reese, my boyfriend.”
“Hello, fine sir,” Jamie said to me, grasping my hand and shaking it. “You have a wonderful gem before you. I would not let her go.”
I snarled, but if he noticed, he ignored it, the damn English bastard. There was nothing more than I wanted to do at that moment than rip his throat out, but I resisted for Sarah’s sake. She’d find out what a jerk he was soon enough, I predicted.
The blood in my gut soured as he introduced himself to Beckett next.
“I’m Sarah’s father,” Beckett said, shaking Jamie’s hand. “Beckett Cresley.”
“Good morning, sir,” Jamie said. “I am Jamie Williams. Bestselling author, English gentleman, and lover of beautiful women such as your daughter.”
Sarah grinned so hugely that her face was split in two.
I growled, the monster of jealousy burbling deep inside of me.
“Grab him,” I heard my father’s voice say below human hearing. I felt Toby’s hands on my shoulders next.
“She’s mine,” I snarled. Beckett growled at me to stay silent and stay back. All of this was going on beneath Sarah’s notice.
Jamie offered his arm to her, and she took it. The girl holding the camera snapped pictures of the two of them. I noticed her admiring Sarah’s ass and wondered if she had lady-loving inclinations. Ari had once told me that girls check each other out all the time, but I didn’t know whether or not to believe her.
Jamie allowed Sarah to get into the expensive vehicle first, and then he followed her.
“Reese, calm down,” Father said.
“Mordecai,” Beckett said, “May I speak with Reese, alone?”
We all stopped and stared.
“M-me?” I stuttered.
“Beckett, I know Reese has made some mistakes in the past, but if you’re going to kill him-“
“No, just talk. Come, Reese.”
Toby let me go, and I followed Beckett to a bench in the backyard. Mom and Alexander were renovating the backyard, turning it into a massive garden. There were massive stones and fountain decorations scattered around, and workmen had already begun digging a hole for a massive pond.
I felt sick as my future father-in-law sat beside me.
“Reese,” he began. “The only reason why Sarah is still alive, is because I died for her.”
“I…what?”
“When Sarah was born, I consulted an oracle about her future. I learned that she was going to die on November the first, of her sixteenth year.”
“That was the day that Nales…” I trailed off.
“Yes. I begged the Fates to kill me instead, told them I would do anything. I offered them all the money I had. They took it in exchange for letting me die in Sarah’s place.”
“She died you died from stomach cancer.”
“Yes. And I did. But then Samuel brought me back as a vampire with the aid of the witch goddess Hecate. Hecate has a vengeance against Aphrodite because of her beauty. Hecate is known as the Goddess With Three Faces: the maid, the matron, and the crone, and both the matron and the crone are as ugly as sin. There was also Hephaestus involved, but I won’t get into that. Now that I’m alive again, sort of, Sarah’s life is in danger again.”
“What? I can’t let her die!” I shouted. “She’s pregnant with our baby! She’s going to marry me!”
“No, she’s not,” Beckett said. “Not unless either you or I die in her stead. And I’ve already died once. I don’t know if I’ll be able to die again, and frankly, I don’t want to.”
I slowly inched away from him. He chuckled dryly.
“Relax, I’m not going to kill you. But I will say I don’t approve of this match. You’ve hurt her too badly. You broke up with her and had relations with another.”
“Beckett, I know, and it won’t happen again, I swear!”
“I know it won’t. Besides, if I die again, she won’t forgive me this time. Which means that someone else must die.”
“I’m not going to kill innocents.”
“I’m not talking about innocents. I’m talking about Jamie Williams.”
“The English bastard?! I’m all for that.”
“I don’t trust him, Reese. He wants something with Sarah. He chose her poem too easily, almost like he picked her out specifically. I was there during the taping of his interview. He kept thinking I hope she sees this. I hope she enters.”
I looked up at him. “How do you know what he was thinking?”
“There was a vampire behind the camera who can read strangers’ minds. She told me. And I have no reason to distrust or dismiss her claims.”
Was this my fault? Had I caused this? What if I hadn’t taken care of Sarah that day? Would I be with her?
“Your connection goes deeper than the Fates,” Beckett continued. “Your connection with my daughter goes down into your souls. You are twin flames, soulmates. Nothing can separate you, I see that now. I don’t like you, Reese, and I don’t trust you, but I know you won’t purposely hurt Sarah again.”
“I’ve never hurt her on purpose,” I breathed. “I love and adore her, Beckett. I worship her. I know I hurt her deeply, which I take full responsibility for. It was my fault. I’d rather she live than stay with me, though.”
He looked stunned at my words. “You do love my daughter,” he breathed. “But we can’t save her, Reese. You’ve already kissed her and I’ve already died for her. This baby will kill her unless you can turn her into a vampire.”
“I want to,” I said, “But she doesn’t want to become one, not yet. We have to wait.”
“No, you need to change her now.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Beckett, she knows what’s best for her. We like to think we do, but we don’t. Only she does.”
“Why, Reese?”
“What?”
“Why do you love my daughter?”
“Because she’s kind, funny, intelligent, and selfless.”
“And because she’s beautiful.”
“No. Like I told somebody else not long ago, I’d much rather she weren’t. She’s a goddess and I’m…well, a descendant of Hades. I’m hideous and selfish and horrible and I lie all the time and I’m the worst person in the world according to my parents.”
“Your parents don’t hate you, Reese. Mine do, that’s why they threw me out of their house when I was eighteen. I moved to America after that and fell in love with the daughter of an Italian immigrant and an Israelite immigrant and we conceived a beautiful baby girl named Sarah, after the woman in the Bible. My father was Christian and my mother believed in the Greek gods and goddesses. As for me, I know the truth. God exists, but so does Aphrodite. He may have created the other gods and goddesses, I don’t know. In real life, I was taught that God is very jealous and does not approve of other gods and goddesses or mortals worshipping them. I probably committed blasphemy by talking about it. Anyway, after I learned that Sarah was doomed and I exchanged my life for hers, I told Alicia what I’d done and we decided to have another child, and along came Sabine. We treated the girls the same, but we probably spoiled Sarah a little more, because we knew her time was limited.
“I know it wasn’t fair, and it backfired: Sabine turned into a brat, which made us resent her more. Sarah sort of became the favorite, but I tried to teach her morals, too. She absorbed them and learned morals quicker than Sabine did, which again, was probably our fault. Another thing I learned was that the Fates weren’t wholly responsible for my daughter’s eventual fate: Hecate was. She hated Aphrodite and wanted to curse all her descendants, so she did. All over a god who barely noticed Hecate’s existence.”
“Love is a funny thing,” I muttered.
“Yes, it is. Which made me wonder: was she really in love? Eros, Aphrodite’s son, also known as Cupid, is known as a mischievous man. I beseeched him and asked him some questions. He claimed he had nothing to do with it, but I didn’t believe him. I still don’t know the full story.”
I hugged myself. I looked at the time. An hour had already passed. I needed to go find Sarah and Jamie. But before I could, I got a call from Father.
“I had another vision,” he said. “But not of the present; this one was of an alternate future, or so I think. I spoke with Krauvas, and he consulted his tarot deck. He spoke with Hecate, or so he thinks, and he agrees with me. In this alternate future, Sarah is accused by you of having sex with Jamie, but it isn’t true-she was raped again, this time by him. He used magic to put the seeds of doubt in everyone’s minds, and everyone turns against Sarah eventually, and she commits suicide. It’s happening now in an alternate universe. We need to make sure it doesn’t happen here.”
“Well, of course,” Beckett said. “What is Jamie doing now? Can you get a reading on him?”
“He’s acting like a perfect gentleman in our universe. He’s at the restaurant now, eating crab legs with Sarah.”

I made it to the restaurant in record time, but Sarah and Jamie were getting ready to leave. Sarah grabbed her purse, and Jamie put her jacket around her shoulders.
“Care to join me for a stroll along the beach?” he asked.
“I’d love to,” she replied breathlessly. That was me who should have asked her to take a walk with me. And anyway, she was wearing high heels, not walking shoes. I growled a little when she produced a pair of pink Converse sneakers and socks and put the heels in her other hand.
I thought about the other universe, the separate universe where I would lose Sarah. It would destroy me; did my other self not realize that? I carefully watched from a distance as he offered her his arm and they started walking. I followed behind, my steps as silent as a cat’s.
My heavy boots weren’t made for such light sand. I nearly fell in the ocean a few times. They walked a mile and a half, and Jamie stopped at a secluded spot on the beach. My nightmares about the ocean began to hit me. This wasn’t safe. Not at all. I sent Father a text.

Reese: How does Sarah in the other universe die?
Mordecai: She drowns herself in the ocean.
I nearly ran forward and snatched her up right then and there. But I controlled my instincts and stayed where I was. I found a bridge nearby and hid under it.
Sarah sighed daintily and stared out at the ocean.
“I’ve always loved the sea,” she said. “I used to live nearby. Daddy would always bring me out here and I would dip my toes in. Then I would chase the waves. Run back and forth. It made my dad laugh.”
“Did you live near here?” Jamie asked.
She hesitated. “Closer to Atlantic City. I used to play on the beach all the time with my friends. My best friend at the time was a girl named Kirsten. I think she’s married now.”
“Do you wish you had a different life?” he asked.
“Sometimes. Not different friends or family or a different boyfriend, but different experiences.”
“You’ve been with Reese a long time, haven’t you?”
“About two years, almost three.”
“What is it about him that you like?”
“Hmm. I think I like his kindness most of all. Like, he’ll be in the street, and he’ll see someone who needs food or shelter, and he’ll give them a hundred bucks straight out of his wallet. Without even a hesitation. Or he’ll see an animal in distress, and he’ll stop to help it. He loves his cats, particularly, especially Shadowfang.”
“Shadowfang? Where did that name come from?”
“The first time Reese watched The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, he thought that Gandalf called the Horse Lord Shadowfang instead of Shadowfax. It’s one of his favorite book and movie series.”
“What else do you like about him?”
“I really like his intelligence. Like, he’ll go off on a rant about how the U.S. government should spend money this way instead of that, or he’ll start talking about a specific animal and its characteristics. He also knows a lot of words, some of which I’ve never heard of or read. Sometimes my adopted mother says I sound like him when I talk.”
She giggled.
“Do you think I am like him?”
“I don’t know you well enough to really compare you two. I will say that you’re more old-fashioned than he is. Which is romantic, but I prefer a modern thinker when I date.”
She thought I was modern, kind, and intelligent? And I had begun doubting our relationship and her seriousness about it. I was an idiot. A pathetic, jealous, insecure, self-centered moron. I hit my head against the wood of the bridge, causing several spiders to fall. I tried not to scream as one landed on my head and I flicked it off.
I needed therapy. That’s what I needed.
I watched as they became silent again and gazed out to the dark blue water.
“Oh look, there’s some crabs,” Sarah suddenly said. I looked over at her. She was on her hands and knees, watching the little creatures as they grabbed plankton and minnows.
I might not have noticed it, if I hadn’t turned my eyes toward Jamie just then. He moved his foot at the exact same time Sarah started to stand up, and she fell facedown in the water.
I panicked then.
“Sarah!” I shouted.
“Oh dear, are you all right?” Jamie asked, his voice full of sugar.
“I’m fine,” Sarah said. “I must’ve tripped.” He helped her up, and she brushed off her dress. “I think one of the crabs pinched my finger, though.”
“The little cretins,” Jamie said. “I hope you’re not hurt. But look, now your pretty dress is wet.”
“It’s just a dress,” Sarah said.
“I insist on buying you another.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“No, no, it was my fault. If I hadn’t brought you out here, it might not have happened.”
It was his fault, but not for the reason he stated. He had purposely knocked her down.
Control your instincts. Control your instincts. Remember, Sarah doesn’t like jealousy.
I took a deep, unnecessary breath, and continued to watch and listen as Jamie asked Sarah if she’d like to look at the shops. She agreed, of course. The girl’s favorite thing to do is go shopping.

Within a few minutes, Sarah and Jamie were at a small gift shop run by the local Native American tribe. Sarah picked out a mythology book and Jamie bought a shark’s tooth necklace and a shell pendant that had been carved in the shape of a heart and painted pale pink.
Sarah smiled shyly at the clerk, who gave her a flirtatious grin in return.
“Five dollars,” he said.
“The book was ten dollars,” she corrected.
“For you, it’s five dollars.”
“Oh, um, thanks?” She looked uncomfortable, much to my delight. “I have a fiancé, though.”
“Too bad,” the clerk said, shaking his long hair. “I’d love to take you out to dinner.”
She paid him and Jamie bought the jewelry with cash. He gave her the shell pendant and the shark tooth necklace.
“Oh, thank you,” she chirped, looking much happier now that the cashier wasn’t flirting with her. Jamie gave the clerk a death glare, and then led Sarah to the next shop, which was an ice cream parlor. She chose chocolate and he chose cookie dough.
She chattered to him about her dogs, her sister, and her father. She didn’t tell him the scary stuff, though, only that her parents were divorced and she didn’t see her mother anymore for personal reasons. She said that she adored my family, especially my mother and sister, both of whom had treated her like a mother should treat her daughter.
He talked about his homes in London, Surrey, Edinburgh, York, and Berlin. Hah. I could top that. I had a home in every country in the world, and several U.S. states. He talked about his massive library and his stock shares and his bookstore where he sold copies of every one of his books, plus several other authors who had a contract with him. I’d have to look into that.
I saw his shoe touching hers several times. If she felt it, she would move her foot. If she didn’t…it took all my strength not to snap his neck.
They visited a clothing store next, where Jamie found a similar dress to the one Sarah was wearing, but in hot pink, not green. I would have gotten her another green one. She tried in on and modeled it for him. The girl with the camera was there, and snapped a couple pictures. She looked miserable.
I tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped and turned around, and saw me. Then she narrowed her eyes.
“Aren’t you Sarah’s boyfriend?” she asked in an American accent.
“Yes, I’m Reese,” I said. “What can you tell me about Jamie?”
She shrugged. “What do you want to know? I know everything about him.”
“Are you friends? I asked.
“Oh, hardly. He’s my ex-boyfriend. I only took this job because the pay will be incredible. I’m Hannah March.”
“Reese Emerson,” I introduced myself. “What’s he really like? I saw him trip her at the beach.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. He’s always doing weird shit like that so he can be “the perfect gentleman” or whatever. He only does it so he can help a damsel in distress and look like a hero.”
“How did you meet him?”
“Through my parents. They’re his publishers. They thought that if he and I dated…”
“I get it. Why did you break up, if I may ask?”
She shrugged. “He cheated on me with some curvy redheaded chick with blue eyes. I dumped him that night.”
“Why don’t your parents dump him?”
“Because he rakes in the dough. He makes a huge amount with everything he does. His writing, the ghostwriting he does, his bookstores, and so on.”
“Ghostwriting?”
“That’s when somebody writes under a real author’s name.”
“I know what ghostwriting is. But who has he ghostwritten for?”
“I don’t know. A lot of popular authors. People who aren’t as well-known as him. My sister, for one thing, and my brother. They’re both authors, but their books didn’t sell well, so they wrote down their ideas for him and he turned them into books. Moonlight Kiss is actually my sister’s idea. It’s about a girl who thinks that her soulmate will meet her at the edge of the lake and kiss her there on the Winter Solstice, and she’s confused when he doesn’t show up.”
“Sounds romantic,” I said sarcastically. She rolled her eyes.
“I know, right? Mushy stuff. But my parents always did like my sister more. They practically crushed my dreams and said I was too dumb to go to college, so I dropped out of high school, and now I work as a photographer. They threatened, to…well, cut me off if I didn’t take these pictures. But whatever.”
“Hannah! Sarah and I are ready to go!”
Hannah turned and frowned. “I have to go. Maybe we’ll see each other again, Reese?” She fluttered her blond eyelashes.
“I’ll message you,” I promised. This girl was chock-full of information. I hid in a rack as Sarah came into view and Hannah turned to greet her and Jamie.
“Let’s go,” Jamie said curtly. “Lazy bitch,” he mumbled under his breath. Whoa. Hannah was right. Jamie Williams was not a nice boy.

After some more shopping, smoothies, and a light dinner, the day was over, and it was time to take Sarah home. She exchanged phone numbers with him and smiled at Hannah, who just scowled.
Jamie passed the bags over to Hannah, who struggled with her camera and put them in the trunk of the limo.

When we got home, Jamie forced Hannah to help Sarah carry her bags upstairs, take a few final pictures, and he kissed her cheek and left. Hannah spotted me and waved, and then Jamie grabbed her shoulder and shoved her roughly to the car, which Sarah did not see.
I greeted her with a hug and a long, sloppy kiss. I smelled her all over. I paid careful attention to her lady parts.
She turned to me and we went inside and settled in for the night. I was staying the night, so I already had some clothes and my hairbrush there.
“How was your day?” I asked.
“It was perfect,” she sighed. “Well, except for the part when I fell in the ocean. But I’m okay. My dress isn’t, though. But here’s the weird thing: I could have sworn that Jamie caused me to fall in. I hope it was just an accident. Did you see it?”
I froze, then turned to face her. “You saw me?”
She grinned mischievously. “You’re not as sneaky as you think you are, Reese. I knew you were there the whole time, because I know you. I know why, though. You wanted to make sure he was trustworthy. It’s okay. I’m not upset. I was at first, but I’m over it now.”
I was abashed to the point where I wanted to bury myself in the garden.
“Yes, I saw that,” I said. “I think it was just an accident, though.” That was clearly a lie, and any vampire or decent liar could have seen right through it, but Sarah trusted me enough to think I was being honest with her. Besides, I didn’t want her to get upset, to skew her view of Jamie Williams.
We headed inside, Spunk greeting Sarah first, then me with kisses and dirty paws.
“Where have you been, dirty boy?” Sarah asked.
“He’s been out in the garden,” Mom said. “Sarah, did you tell Reese?”
“No, not yet.”
“Tell me what?” I asked, hoping for good news, curiosity nearly choking me.
“How would you feel about getting another dog?” Sarah asked me.
“Another dog?” I looked at the stupid golden retriever in front of me and the Chihuahua who stood growling at a distance. “What kind of dog?”
“A pitbull,” Sarah said. “They used to be illegal in this town, but they recently changed the laws, and I’ve got my eye on a couple of sweet girls. I’ve already met one of them: her name is Jasmine. And the other one’s name is Lola. There’s also a male that Sabine wants to get named Koda, but he’s a husky, and a Boston terrier puppy named Scooter.”
“That’s a lot of dogs,” I said in amazement. “Plus, we’re about to have a baby-“
“Which is why you don’t leave animals alone with babies or little kids,” Sarah reminded me. “I’m not going to rehome either of my dogs; that’s just selfish and irresponsible. I made a commitment to take care of them throughout their lives. And as long as I can financially, I will. Besides, pets are good for babies. Helps them adapt and learn empathy, how to treat animals and people.”
“You’re right,” I said, realizing now how silly I was. “Okay, if you want a dog or two, we’ll get a dog or two. But they’re your responsibility, just like the cats are mine.”
She gave me a mocking salute, to which I stuck my tongue out at her for. She recoiled back slightly, but her expression stayed relaxed and happy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is it with women and roses? I thought groggily as Sarah woke me up by singing “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden”. Mother’s favorite song was “White Rose of Athens”, and Selena’s was “The Rose” by Bette Midler, although that one was technically about love.
I heard a gasp, then a scream, and a muffled gasp.
I ran out the door and into the laundry room where I’d heard Sarah’s voice coming from. In front of me was a man who was frantically holding Sarah and keeping his hand over her mouth. He had long silver hair, bright yellow-green eyes similar to Faolan’s, and he was stockier and smelled like both werewolf and vampire.
This must be Liam Wolfheart.
Reese! Help me!
Hang on, baby, I’m here.
Did I just have a conversation with Sarah inside our minds? A conversation for another time.
“Let her go,” I growled.
The wolf/vampire hybrid let Sarah go, and then she spun around and kicked him in the testicles. He fell over, sputtering.
“Fucking bitch,” he cursed in a thick German accent.
Sarah ran to me and I squeezed her into me.
“Who are you?” I demanded.
“Liam Wolfheart,” he said. I knew it. “I’m here for Selena.”
“My sister? No. Fuck off.”
“Please…I’m desperate. None of our children have lived.”
“Children? There was more than one?”
“I only let her go so she could see Marina again. And you…I assume you’re Reese.”
“Toby! Get your lazy ass down here!” I called out.
My bodyguard and friend stumbled down the steps, still tangled up in his bedsheets. He landed in a heap on the floor, and then Alexander appeared at the top.
“Pitiful,” he said, referring to Toby’s clumsiness.
“Alexander, who is this freak?” Sarah asked. My stepfather scowled.
“A person who is not welcome in our home anymore. A person who lost both my friendship and protection when he stole away my stepdaughter.”
“Alexander, I loved her,” Liam said, spreading his hands. “From the moment we locked eyes. And she said to me ‘So, you’re the famous Liam. I hear you stole some gold, but returned ruby earrings to my stepfather. So what are you? A villain, or a hero?’ And I knew she was my soulmate.”
“But she did not feel the same way,” Alexander said, coming down to face his enemy. He jumped over Toby, who had yet to untangle himself.
“You have little protection here,” Liam said. “Three humans, and two young vampires, and one lowly guard who is barely a boy.”
“I consider that racist,” Toby said aloud, to which he was promptly ignored by everyone except Sarah, who smiled gently at him.
“You should have come two days ago,” Alexander said. “Sarah was meeting a famous author and he had several people with him, including a couple of guards.”
Liam was about to argue, but then he paused and looked behind us. I turned and saw my sister, who had a gun in her right hand and a stake in the other. Her hands were shaking.
“You came for me,” she muttered.
“You forced me to,” Liam said. “But if you wish it, I will leave.”
“No! You won’t hurt me ever again!” She fired the gun, which woke up Cirino, who began crying. Blood blossomed in Liam’s midsection, between his fingers, but he still remained standing, although he held onto the dryer.
“I love you, Selena,” he moaned. “Can’t you see? We’re destined!”
Then Mother appeared. If you’ve ever see a mother bear defend her cub or a cat protecting her kitten, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a mother vampire. She took the gun from Selena and the stake and then fired a few more rounds. Liam fell to the ground, but he still wasn’t dead. Mother shot him several more times, but, amazingly, he got up and started walking to the garage door.
“Don’t let him get away,” Mother said firmly.
“Let him go, dear,” Alexander told her. “He won’t bother us here again.”
And Liam, dragging blood, snapped his fingers and disappeared into thin air.

“Um, what was that thing he did with his fingers?” Sarah asked an hour later, as Mother gave her a cup of cocoa.
“The Disappearing Act,” Mother said. “I’ve seen my mother and sisters do it many times before. You have to be extremely skilled in reconfiguring yourself.”
“What?”
“Evaporate yourself by separating your own molecules and cells, and then reappear somewhere else. It’s complicated and extremely difficult, and it takes years of practice. Only someone as skilled as my mother could have taught him that trick. Selena, did you ever see him do that before?”
“No.” My sister was still shaking, even an hour later. “He forced me to become pregnant when I wasn’t ready. I was forced to have natural births, and all of them died. They were all a part of him; hybrids, unable to stay alive for long. I didn’t even get to name most of them. There was a little one…she was so tiny, and she had hair like yours, Mother. But her little body wasn’t able to take the heat of her werewolf side, or the pressure and trauma of her vampire side. She died within the hour.”
Mother hugged Selena. “I’m sorry, dear. I would have liked to meet her.”
“I had a niece?” I asked aloud. Sarah climbed into my lap and clung to me. I could feel the baby inside of her, and I purred.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Darkness isn’t scary.

I was floating in the water…no, not floating, drowning. My body was being carried to the bottom of the lake by some force I could not see. When I looked down, I could see Hell. The things I saw, the things I felt…should not be repeated. I will tell you that I felt instant terror. I started struggling for the surface, but something grabbed me around the waist.
I looked down. One of Satan’s minions had grabbed me in his claws and gave me a black-toothed grin. His eyes were pupilless, red orbs, his skin the color of rocks, and wrinkly. I continued to struggle, and he kept pulling me down.
Then I saw a white light in my peripheral vision. An angel, my angel, my own personal, sweet angel, was diving into the water. She had gotten her wings wet on purpose to save me. She grabbed my hand, and pulled me up. Or, she tried. The demon was pulling us both down. And then I saw Jamie Williams. He had grabbed her ankle and was pulling her up.
“You’re mine!” he shouted in a deep, otherworldly voice.
“Reese!” she shouted, taking in a mouthful of water.
“Sarah, don’t speak!” I shouted. “I’ll get to you, I promise!”
“I don’t need saving! I’ll save you!”
“Sarah…Sarah…”

“Sarah…Sarah…”
“Reese, shhh. It’s me. I’m here.” She was gently kissing me and nuzzling me. Still half-awake and frightened, I nipped her nose. She pulled back a bit and put her hand over her nose.
“Am I alive?” I asked. “Is Shadowfang freakjokenSarahzoid?”
“What?”
“I’m just talking nonsense. I had a bad dream.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, it will only scare you.”
“It certainly scared you. You were thrashing around in your sleep for like, two minutes before I could wake you up.”
“What time is it?”
“Six in the morning. Do you want to go back to sleep?”
“No, better not risk it. If you want to go back to sleep, that’s fine with me, but I’m getting up.”
I sat up, and then realized I was on the wrong side of the bed. Sarah realized this, too. She propelled herself forward, allowing me to swing around and get out of the full bed that we both occupied.
She fell back asleep almost instantly and was snoring when I put the blankets over her and then creeped out of the room, nearly tripping over Spunk in the process.
“Bad dog!” I chided, and he wagged his tail and licked his lips. I stumbled down the steps and found the book I’d been reading the night before. I turned the lamp on and tried to read, but it was clear that I wasn’t going to get very far after I read the same sentence about ten times. I sighed. I would finish Stephen King’s latest novel later.
I rubbed my eyes and looked outside. It was still dark, and I could see Chirag shifting his weight as he kept watch over the house.
I considered turning on the TV, but I might wake up Mother and Alexander. Even at the lowest volume, they would still hear the electricity and static. I went to the home library instead. Every home needs its own private library. This one had a lot of vampire novels, old tomes, scrolls with spells and rituals, and a few things I wasn’t allowed to look at.
I yawned and sank into the plush red chair that Alexander used as a reading chair. I fell asleep, and was only woken some hours later when I heard a loud scream.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I fell out of the chair and banged my head against a bookshelf. I shook it off and stumbled forward.
That scream sounded like Mother’s.
I started to run down the steps, tripping over my pajama bottoms and landing on my butt in the process, and crawled forward. I stood up and quickly pulled up my pajama bottoms as high as they would go, then headed toward Sabine’s room, where I’d heard the scream.
Mother was standing in the doorway, shaking. I looked past her and saw a body of a vampire that I did not recognize. From the smell, he’d been there for some time. He was hanging from a noose in the ceiling. Luckily, Sabine was at school.
I searched for a pair of scissors and stood on Sabine’s bed and started cutting him down. He started to wheeze and cough as I worked. The poor dude was still alive. I wondered what the point was. Hanging vampires hurts us, but doesn’t kill us. We don’t need air to live, and breaking the hyoid bone does nothing.
I finished cutting the sucker down, and Mother shouted, “Don’t look, Sarah!”
Too late. Sarah stifled a scream and gasped instead.
The vampire began to twitch, and I ordered Mother and Sarah to stay back. Chirag was so fired after this.
I put the vampire on the bed in one of the spare rooms and called Ethan and Uncle Soren. Father was unfortunately away to settle an estate dispute, and Grandfather was still sick and needed Louis or Uncle Soren to watch him if the worst were to happen.
Ethan was there in minutes with his medical kit and Uncle Soren sent Louis in his stead. The vampire slowly began to wake up.
“Hello, I’m Ethan,” Ethan said. “What’s your name?”
“L-Lee.”
“Lee, do you remember what happened?”
“I was going to meet a guy for business, and then…” Lee winced.
“It’s all right, Lee,” Ethan said, squeezing his hand. “I’m here. I’m here.”
Lee closed his eyes and clutched his head with his free hand.
“I remember…I remember someone…someone on the High Council. Bram Sterling, maybe? I had a business transaction with him…” His eyes widened and he looked at me. “Please, don’t kill me. I needed the money!”
“No one is going to kill you,” Ethan assured him. “Not while I’m here. Tell me, what did Bram Sterling want?”
“Information. Several…several of the royal guards are spies for the Council. They think that this time is too modern to continued to have a royal family. They would rather have a democratic rule.”
“It already sort of is,” I pointed out, and Louis shushed me.
“Bram has convinced the rest of the vampire world that the Emerson and Nicolai families are going to tear the race apart and cause a massive war. I’m a hacker. I hacked into Mordecai and Soren’s computers to find what information I could. There’s also some other spies, but I don’t know their names. Bram put a tracker in their left arms to track their movements.”
“Satira,” I breathed. “She touched her arm when you hit her, Mom.”
“You remember that?” Sarah quipped. Mother shushed her.
“What else do you know?” Louis demanded.
“That’s it! I swear! Please, don’t kill me!”
“Shhh, it’s all right,” Ethan soothed him, and I wondered at his odd behavior. He leaned down and smelled Lee, and I realized that he was attracted to the strange vampire. Feeling sick to my stomach, I sat on the chair, and Sarah stood beside me. She kneeled down and kissed my hand.
“It will be okay,” she assured me. “We’ll get this sorted out. We always have. We’ve always gotten through the worst.”
How could she be so positive? This was bad. Really bad. The Council had powers the royal family didn’t have-the power to outvote laws, create new ones, amend or get rid of old ones, and they had a bigger variety of members than we had. Of course, we could create new laws and get rid of old ones, too, but we couldn’t outvote the Council. We’d been so concerned about Grandfather, we had become lax in our ruling of the vampire world and keeping the Council in check.
Sarah sat up and kissed me. I felt sick. I wrapped my arms around her.
“Louis and Soren will take care of it,” Sarah told me. “Want to play Mortal Kombat?”
“Not now,” I replied. “I need to think.”
She nodded and kissed me.

By the afternoon, Chirag had disappeared, and more guards were surrounding the house. I didn’t know all their names, but Chris was here, and so was Toby. I took a potion for dreamless sleep, and took a nice, long nap. Sarah cuddled with me the whole time.
By tomorrow morning, she was purring and muttering. I thought she was feeling frisky, so I turned around and faced her, then realized she was still asleep. A serene smile made her look like a sleeping angel. I pecked her nose and pulled her in. My tall, muscular body protecting her small, curvy, pregnant one. A male protecting his female. Keeping her safe.
“Reese,” she muttered. “I love you. Reese.”
I kissed her softly. “Wake up, honey,” I cooed. She continued purring, then whined, and her smile disappeared.
“No, no…Mike…no…”
“Babe, it’s okay,” I said. “Mike can’t hurt you anymore. I’ll protect you.”
“Ba…baby…Reese…Jamie…no…no, not him!”
“Sarah, wake up!” I licked her cheek in a desperate attempt to wake her up. I was afraid to shake her-I could break her neck that way.
“Mike, no! No! Stop! I don’t want this!”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Sarah! It’s me!”
She opened her eyes and rubbed them. “Reese?” She closed her eyes for a second, her brow furrowing. “Reese!” She hugged me tightly. “It happened again, Reese. I was having a nice dream…a sex dream…and then it got…dark…and there was Nales….” She began to cry.
“It’s okay, baby,” I said. “He’s not here. He can’t hurt you anymore. I’ll keep you safe.” I licked her eyes and kissed her soft pink lips.
“I’m worried, Reese,” she said. “I know I didn’t show it yesterday, but I was terrified when that guy was found. They know where we live. We can’t trust anyone except family, and some of our family we can’t even trust. I don’t trust Satira. You know she showed up the other day when you were at the music store, looking at guitars? She wanted me to go with her, but Mom, your mom, I mean, told me to stay where I was and told Satira to fuck off.
“Your mom told me all about her. Apparently, your mom’s side comes from a long line of witches and warlocks, and your mom abandoned witchcraft for Catholicism because it was more modern and made sense. She didn’t want to practice the dark arts, like Satira wanted her to. Satira started yelling at her, accusing her of abandoning her family and leaving us. Your mom accused her of causing all those miscarriages and stillborns she had when she was, well, not yet a vampire. Satira said something in Greek, and she mentioned Baba Yaga. Your mom looked like she’d been smacked, and then she started screaming at her in Greek. Then Satira sort of smirked and then turned around and left.”
I thought about David. He’d shown up the same day as Satira. I found that a bit, well, odd. Now Lee was here, claiming he had hacked into our computers for Bram Sterling, who was Head of the Vampire Council. I knew Bram hated us. Heck, he’d even canceled our credit cards without us knowing about it.
I knew that Uncle Soren and Bram had never gotten along in particular. Bram thought my uncle was too gruff and rough and strict, and Uncle Soren thought that Bram was, well, sort of evil. There had been a few incidents where Bram had taken things too far-killed a prisoner who didn’t deserve to be killed or who had information we needed, killing humans for fun, and even his ex-wife had accused him of being abusive to her.
You have to understand, even though time and things change, a lot of vampires don’t value human life as much as we do. They are seen as weak and inferior; a parasite, even. Vampires and humans have never really gotten along. We’ve slaughtered them, and they’ve killed some of us. Even today, there are Vampire Hunters who specifically go after vampires who attack humans or are a leech on society.
There are new laws surrounding this, but of course, the Hunters don’t follow vampire laws, only their own laws. Each vampire death must be recorded and a reason must be given for the vampire’s death. Even vampires kill each other sometimes, over territory, food, and mates.
The laws are very clear around these things. That’s why we are here; to settle disputes and enforce the laws, even if we break them occasionally.
The Council is here to keep us in check and to rule in our stead if we are not able to. That’s what they were supposed to be doing while Uncle Soren, Grandfather, and Louis were in America to help Grandfather recover from stress and depression. Now, apparently, they wanted us gone. Not cool.
“Sorry, little buddy,” Louis said, coming into the room. “I’m going to have to call Slutty Scorpia.”
I groaned.
“Who’s Slutty Scorpia?” Sarah asked, looking both concerned and curious.
“She’s a hacker,” Louis said, grinning. “She’s also a little bit crazy about little buddy here.”
“Do not call Slutty Scorpia,” I said. “Louis, I’m begging you.”
“Sorry,” he said.
“She locked me in a closet until I said I loved her! She stole my underwear and my hairbrush! She liked smelling my shoes!”
“How come I’ve never heard of her?” Sarah asked. If she were a color, she would be a tiny bit green. She was getting jealous, which amused me.
“I can’t stand her,” I said. “She cut up my shirts, she chased me around the garden, she even yanked my earring out of my ear and I had to have surgery to fix it. She’s crazy as hell.”
“All you had to do was say yes to one date,” Louis said, grinning.
“If I’d done that, she would have never stopped chasing me! I finally got her to back off by complaining to Father, and he told her to leave me alone.”
She nuzzled against me and kissed my neck.
“You’re mine,” she said.
“Jealous?” I teased.
“A little,” she admitted.
“No need to be. You’re the one carrying my baby.” I put my hand on her stomach and grinned. She just clung to me, her legs around my waist, her arms locked around my neck. She laid her head against my chest, purring. I purred, too, my chest rumbling with love and pleasure as she claimed me.
We stayed like that for a long time, just cuddling, while Louis quietly left the room to make the unfortunate call to my old enemy, Scorpia Garden.
I first met Scorpia when we were both ten. She was an orphan who’d been adopted by our guard, Raz. He was a powerful guard, if a bit strict and uncaring. Any emotion he showed was toward Scorpia, whom he saw as a daughter, seeing as he was the one who had found her at the castle entrance and took her in. A heartbreaking note was left from her mother, saying that she loved Scorpia, but couldn’t take care of her. She was born under the sign Scorpio, thus, her name was born.
When I met her, I was exploring the garden by myself and watching the fish in the pond swim around.
I was sitting on my hands and knees, watching Pearl and the other koi swim around. Father was in France, dealing with some issue that required his attention, so I was with Uncle Soren for the summer.
“Hey.”
I glanced behind me. I stood up and turned around, and saw a girl vampire. She was sort of pretty, with ivory skin and black hair and brown eyes. She wore black jeans, black Converses, a black jacket, and a striped black and white shirt.
“Hey,” I replied. “What’ s your name?”
“Scorpia.”
“Hey, Scorpia. I’m-“
“I know who you are. Your name is Reese. You’re Prince Mordecai’s son.”
“Er, yes.”
“I’ve been watching you.”
“Really? Why?”
“I think you’re cute.”
Now I was uncomfortable.
“Er, thanks. I have to, um…”
“Do you think I’m cute?”
I was silent. She stared at me expectantly.
“Er, yeah, sure. I have to, um, go now. My uncle-“
“Do you want to kiss me?”
“Um, no,” I said honestly.
“But you just said I’m cute.”
“I think kittens are cute, but I don’t want to kiss one,” I told her.
“Kittens have germs. I don’t. My dad works for your dad. I was left on the castle steps when I was a baby, and Raz found me. He adopted me and named me Scorpia. My favorite color is red, I like cats and dogs, I have a hamster named Minnie, and my favorite music is classic rock.”
“Cool. I like cats, too. I don’t care for dogs, though. I don’t really have any pets, but I have a favorite koi in this pond. His name is Pearl.”
“A boy fish named Pearl? That’s…weird. Don’t you have some dogs, or something?”
“The only dogs I have are the dogs who watch our sheep and cows and stuff. Father says that livestock are a necessary item for vampires who employ human servants.”
“Livestock? What’s that?”
“You know, cows and horses and sheep and pigs. We sell their meat and hides and wool at a discount for humans who can’t afford to eat regularly-priced meat and they’re also for our human employees. We have to feed them somehow. That’s also why we keep a vegetable garden and an apple orchard. It’s not just because the apples smell nice, which they do, but because-“
She put her finger against my lips. “You talk too much.” And then she kissed me. Later, I would muse over what possessed her to do that. I was a prince. No one was allowed in my space unless I said so, but I was too nice to say no most of the time. As I grew into a teenager, I started to grow a thicker skin and told Scorpia to stop following me around, and then she started crying and begging me to go on one date with her. I had no interest in her, and I told her such.
She went crazy. She started following me around, stealing anything that smelled like me, cutting up my clothes, and so on. She became adept at stalking me online. She became so skilled on a computer that Father hired her to test the security systems. She found and fixed several flaws, and he paid her well for it.
I finally had enough when I was fourteen and asked Father to tell her to back off, and then she stopped speaking to me. She remained a security employee, and everyone started calling her Hacker Stalker.

I was interrupted from memory lane when I heard a snore. Sarah had fallen asleep again! I smiled into her hair and nibbled a few strands. She was so soft, so breakable. And now she was pregnant with my baby. She was already three months along, but she was still small. That concerned me. When Mother was pregnant with me, she’d been huge, almost as big as she was now with triplets. And vampire/human pregnancies always, always, resulted in someone’s death; either the mother’s, or the baby’s, or even both.
Sarah loved being pregnant. She would just stare at her own belly for an hour. She loved the chance to eat whatever she wanted, although she wasn’t able to eat as much due to the pressure on her organs. She had a mixture of good and bad dreams, and chicken made her sick, even if it was well-cooked and prepared correctly. She was addicted to eggs, especially raw eggs. She added them to her spinach and strawberry smoothies.
One of the things that irked her was that she was not allowed to drink as much coffee as she normally did. She loved the icky dark brown/black stuff that stained teeth and caused her heart to beat faster than normal. (Did you know that women’s hearts beat faster than men’s anyway?)
I was becoming nervous. I loved this baby as much as she did, but what if I had to choose between my child and my mate? What then?
Mother was always complaining about the constant kicking from the triplets. Did our baby kick Sarah, or was it too early for that? Did vampire babies grow faster or slower with human mothers? I needed to ask Alexander.
I put Sarah in bed and found my stepfather in his study, writing something at his desk.
“Can I talk to you?” I asked.
“Not now. I’m busy.”
“What was it like…I mean, with Kieran and Celine?”
“Difficult and long. Now go away. Go listen to that crap you call music or read one of those pieces of trash you call a novel.”
“Are you ever nice to anybody except Mother?”
“Not really. She’s the only one I like, besides Cirino. Now scoot. Skedaddle.”
I stuck my tongue out at the back of his head, then went outside to smoke a cigarette. Except…
Crap, I don’t have any cigarettes.
Time for a visit to the gas station. I needed a refill on my Nissan, anyway.

The gas station was only a mile away, so I was able to get there in time and filled up the tank in minutes. I went inside after I was done.
“Pack of Marlboro Silvers, please,” I said.
“Long or shorts?”
“Long.”
The clerk scanned my ID and I handed him some cash for the cigarettes.
“Reese? Reese Emerson?”
I turned at the high-pitched feminine voice.
Oh, shit fire.
It was Scarlett Hart. She wore a black tank top, short tight denim shorts, silver hoop earrings, and her usual red lipstick. Her black hair was in its usual high ponytail. She wore ankle boots and fishnets.
“Hi, Scarlett.”
“Hello. I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes.
“I live in this town. I sort of need to stay nearby.”
“What are you doing with yourself these days?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m about to become a father in six months. Sarah’s pregnant.”
She blinked, then touched my arm. “I bet you get lonely. You can’t have sex while she’s pregnant.”
“I manage.”
“It’s not the same as real sex, though, is it? I mean, real sex is…well, it’s amazing. Being close to someone you have feelings for, being connected in the best way possible, it’s so incredible.”
She stepped closer to me; she smelled like roses. I could feel myself getting excited.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
“What do you say? You want to feel what a real woman can do to your manhood?”
“No, thanks, Scarlett,” I replied. “Sarah is a real woman, and she’s handled my manhood well.”
I left her looking rejected and furious.

I went straight to Louis.
“Scarlett hit on me, and I got turned on,” I said.
“Hold on,” he said to the person at the other end of the phone. He put his hand over the receiver. “One-minute, little buddy. Geez. Sorry, Ambassador, what was that?” he continued. “Okay, well, I wouldn’t know for sure. My father or my uncle might, though. Do you have Mordecai’s number? His number is-“ He rattled off the number. “That’s his work number. Sorry, I don’t give out his personal number without his permission. I understand, but this is not a life-or-death issue. It’s an economy issue. I know, economy issues can become life-or-death, but it’s not an immediate concern. There’s no need for that kind of language. I understand, ma’am. Ma’am-ah, she hung up on me. What were you saying, little buddy?”
I repeated myself.
Louis rubbed his chin thoughtfully. I noticed that he had some whiskers growing on his chin. “I mean, you have been with Sarah for a while, and Scarlett’s a very beautiful girl. Maybe you’re just getting the urge.”
“The urge?”
“You know, guy’s been with his girlfriend for a while, a beautiful lady catches his attention. The urge.”
“You mean cheating?!”
Louis shrugged. “Men your age are prone to weakness, little buddy. Similar to guys in their forties or fifties. You’ve been with other people besides Sarah.”
“Yes, but with Evan, we weren’t together yet, and my tryst with Sadie doesn’t count, because we were technically broken up at the time. Even Sarah admitted that, although I know it hurt her. Just like it hurt me when she briefly dated Caden Cartwright while we were broken up.”
Louis shrugged. “I can’t really give you any advice, little buddy. You know the difference between right and wrong. Would it kill you if you and Sarah broke up? Probably. Would it kill you if you had relations with Scarlett? Probably not. Would it kill Sarah? Maybe. But that’s only if she finds out, right?”
“You’ve cheated before!”
“Yes, and it came back to bite me in the butt when Claudia gave me what-for for cheating on Reni. I also cheated on Jillian, Diana, Harper, Clara, and Little Wolf. All of them dumped me or kicked my ass, except for Clara, who begged me to stay with her. Man, that chick was nuts. Little Wolf was just as nuts, but in a different way-she literally kicked my ass and then tried to tear my balls off. I had to restrain her and then tie her up. She still hates me to this day. But if there’s anything I learned from my many, many trysts, it’s this: cheating hurts everyone involved, especially the cheater and the cheatee.”
I thought about what he said as I went back to Sarah’s room. She was in the shower, so I laid out some underwear for her and a clean t-shirt that said POPCORN ROCKS! I looked through her clothes and found a few that still had tags on them. I snipped the tags off, then laid out a pair of jeans and brown ankle boots for her. She’d wear this outfit.
When she came back in, towel wrapped around her head, she looked at the outfit and laughed.
“I need a maternity shirt, Reese,” she said.
“This isn’t maternity?” I lifted it up.
“No, it’s for people with flat stomachs, because it’s meant to expose a little midriff.”
I tilted my head in confusion. “What’s the point?”
“To look cute, duh.” She examined the outfit I’d laid out. “Sorry Reese, but this outfit is a major flop. Nothing will fit me now.”
Frustrated, I wadded up the shirt and threw it across the room.
“Hey, you tried,” she assured me, pecking me on the lips. She had chosen soap that smelled like oranges this time. I was sort of getting tired of smelling the same scent all the time-gardenias and roses, despite her efforts to have a different scent every day. Well, she was distantly related to the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, and sexuality.
I’d only met Aphrodite briefly, and never got a chance to speak to her, and I was still revved by the experience when I thought about it. But Sarah no longer revved me up the way she used to. I knew everything about her at this point. There was very little spark. Plus, she’d gained some weight. I know that’s extremely shallow and self-centered, and I know that pregnant women are supposed to gain weight, but she just had so many stretch marks now that I found it ridiculous.
Sarah glared at me for my brief fit, and then she went to her closet.
“Damn, I cut the tags off those shirts,” she said. “I was going to return them.”
Oops.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We picked the dogs up on Saturday. First, we got the husky, Koda. He was a pretty blue-eyed and black-and-white-furred yearling stud, and he jumped around us and licked our hands as I handed over the cash to his previous owner, a woman named Judy.
Then we got the Boston terrier pup named Scooter, and he came from a puppy mill owner. She explained that he’d just gotten over kennel cough, and was still weak. He was beautiful, with black and white spots all over him. He and Koda growled at each other at first, then started to play in the backseat of Sarah’s gold Honda.
They also jumped all over me. Koda kissed me multiple times, and tried to lick Sarah, but I kept him back so she could drive safely.
We went to the shelter where Jasmine was being kept, and we found a lovely tanned-brown happy-go-lucky pitbull with one brown eye and one blue eye playing with her sister. We were less happy when we found out that the owner went back on his word and promised Lola to another family. Sarah got upset, and I yelled at the owner for lying to us. And then we were even less happy when Scarlett came to pick up the dog.
“Hello, Reese, Sarah. Abe,” she said, walking toward us.
“You’re the buyer?” I asked in disbelief. Scarlett shrugged.
“Hey, she was promised to me.”
“She was also promised to us.”
She shrugged again. “Too bad. I need the protection more.”
“You bought a dog for protection?”
“Yes. Thanks to you, my parents threw me out of the house, and now I’m forced to work as both a dancer and a barista while I scrounge up metal to sell. They won’t even pay for college anymore!”
“And you blame us?”
“Well, it is your fault. You had to let everyone know what we were doing, Reese. And so did you, Sarah. You know what, I don’t even want the dog anymore. Go ahead and take her.”
She stalked away, and that’s how we wound up with Lola.

It was cramped in the car with four dogs. I had the Boston terrier pup in my lap, and the two pitbulls and the husky in the back. Lola and Jasmine were sniffing Koda, while he was sniffing Jasmine.
When we got home, all the dogs burst out of the car when we opened the doors. Koda spotted a rabbit and started chasing her, while Jasmine and Lola started smelling the lilac bushes. Scooter jumped out of my arms and immediately ran over to an ornamental cherry tree.
I opened the door, and was greeted by Shadowfang in his cat form. He twisted around my legs.
“You smell like dog,” he complained. Then his fur stood up on end and he arched his back. Lola had come inside, and was now staring at him curiously.
“You did bring a dog over,” he said.
“Actually-“
“Oh my god, I see more than one! How could you do this to me, Reese Emerson?!”
“Hey, they aren’t mine, at least, not fully. They belong to the girls.”
“Why so many?”
“Two of them belong to Sabine, the other two are Sarah’s.”
Just then, Spunk and Coffee appeared, and Coffee growled from a distance while Spunk sniffed Lola and she sniffed him back. Sarah let the other three dogs in, and it was pure chaos for about an hour while the dogs introduced themselves to each other and Jasmine chased Shadowfang around the living room. He finally jumped to the top of the refrigerator and refused to come down.
“Are you ever going to forgive me, Shadow?” Sarah asked.
“That depends. Are you keeping the mongrels?”
She shrugged. “Sorry. But yeah, they’re permanent.”
“Then no.”
She turned to me with a hurt look.
“He’ll forgive you,” I assured her, chuckling. “Eventually.”
Mom walked downstairs then with Selena and the chaos started up again. Zie appeared with Cirino a few minutes after that and they all wanted to meet the baby. He wasn’t sure if he liked all the dogs. He’d smile, then it would disappear and he’d hide his face in Zie’s chest.
“Why’d you get the mutts, anyway?” Shadow asked.
“Sarah needed an emotional support animal,” Mother replied. “Spunk could be it, but he’s stupid, and Coffee is a bitch. We are going to train these dogs to be good dogs. Besides, we need protection. We are going to train Koda and Lola and Jasmine to be protectors of the girls. We need them when we cannot be around. And we cannot trust the guards anymore. Chirag was only the latest to betray us, and before we know it, even Toby may turn his back on us!”
“Toby wouldn’t,” I assured her. “He’s too loyal to my uncle, and I consider him a friend.”
“More guards are coming tonight,” Alexander said, moving the baby gate as he walked downstairs. “I believe their names are Marcus and Renata. They are mates, as I’ve been told. They take their jobs seriously and came highly recommended from the vampire governor of Minnesota.”
“There are vampire governors?” Sarah asked.
“Well, sure,” I said. “There are also vampire mayors, vampire presidents, and so on. But we’re at the top. The vampire presidential position for the USA has been vacant for years, which is one reason why my father chose to come here. The old president hated his guts.”
She looked confused, so I dropped the subject.
“Well, the king and the princes and the Council can’t keep track of everything and enforce laws in every country by themselves, can they?” Alexander said sarcastically.
Sarah ignored him and bent down to pet Jasmine, who was eagerly sniffing Coffee now. The little tyrant was starting to growl in warning, so Sarah picked her up and petted her. Selena and I put out bowls of food and water for the dogs, then I went to coax Shadowfang down.
“It’s perfectly safe,” I encouraged.
“I’m perfectly safe up here, they can’t get to me,” he replied. “I swear, I will never forgive your girlfriend for this, Reese Emerson.”
“It’s not her fault,” I argued. “She needs an emotional support animal, and so does Sabine. Besides, you didn’t meet the owners We did. One of them was a puppy mill owner. Almost all the dogs had kennel cough, and a few had heartworms. They were in cramped cages with barely any water and rotten food. One of them was so underfed you could see her bones poking through the skin.”
“All dogs are a menace,” he talked back. “I hate dogs, and I especially hate females. They always want to cuddle with you and kiss you and make sure you have food.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“Of course it is! It’s a trick just so they can get you later. After a few days they’re feasting on what’s left of your flesh, and your bones are being chewed on by ants and worms.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, I may have had a mate who at one point was eaten by a stray dog. It broke my heart. And all our kittens died because I couldn’t feed them and they were still drinking milk.”
“Oh, I…I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t know. I didn’t tell you. Of course, afterwards I found Mishka and we had kittens, one of whom you ran over. Thanks for that.”
“I know, and I still hate myself for it. I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Shadow.”
My heart broke all over again when I thought of Remy.
Trying to control my tears, I went to find Sarah on her bed, brushing Koda.
“Babe, what’s wrong?” she asked, noticing my eyes. Her brow furrowed with worry lines. I told her about my conversation with Shadowfang, and she got up and embraced me. “Oh, babe, I’m so sorry.”
This was why I loved her, I reminded myself. She was so kind and selfless. I was not worthy to lick her boots. After a few minutes, though, I pushed her away gently, and we sat on her bed again.
“Question: will I still have hairy legs when I’m a vampire?” she asked.
I grimaced at the bad timing. “Sorry, babe.”
She groaned. Huh. That was odd. Normally she wouldn’t be that heartless so quickly. It irked me, and once again, I thought of Scarlett. Scarlett had nice legs. Creamy and slim. I’d now encountered her twice this month, and I wondered if I’d see her again.
My heart broke even more when I thought of me and Scarlett together. It would tear Sarah apart if I voiced these thoughts. Scarlett was the girl who’d turned all my beloved’s friends against her. She started a thieving ring and blamed Sarah when they were caught, even though it was Jordan who told all the parents, not Sarah.
Stomach sinking, I bit my lip and tried not to cry.
Be a man, I chastised myself. I went to the window and looked outside. Sabine was back from her walk, and she was dancing along to music blaring from her phone. She looked up and saw me, then glared at me. She still blamed me for James’ death. Then I saw something else.
No, it can’t be…
I thought I saw a cat with dark grey fur run by. It looked like…like Remy. But that was impossible.
Resurrection is entirely possible, but only with a god or goddess’ aid.
But it was. I heard sobbing a few minutes later, a scream, and more crying.
I ran downstairs, afraid that Mother or Selena was hurt, but it wasn’t them. It was Remy. He was alive!
“How…What…?
“Hi, Reese,” he said, cheerfully. “I know this is a shock, but I can explain.”
“Please do.”
“I faked my death to get away from Samuel.”
I started banging my head against the nearest wall.
Remy and Shadowfang circled around each other, meowing, purring. My heart leaped into my throat, and Sarah followed me into the room.
Shadowfang looked up at her. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know for sure,” she admitted. “But I’d seen him once or twice. I thought it was his ghost, the way Daddy tried to haunt Reese.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded. “We were supposed to be honest with each other.”
“Like I said, I didn’t know for sure,” she said.
“I’ve been blaming myself,” I said, irritated. “Damn it, Sarah.”
She flinched at my sudden anger. I winced. “Sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to snap at you. But please, tell me next time.”
“I will,” she said. But she avoided me while we cuddled with Remy, with my nose inhaling the scent of his soft fur and white dandruff. (He had a major dandruff problem.)
Father came over with the rest of the cats as soon as he got the call. For an hour, it was pure chaos. Everyone wanted to sniff and lick Remy, a few tears were shed from both me and Sarah (actually, a lot of tears were shed), and I slowly began to forgive myself. It wasn’t wholly my fault, anyway. Samuel had forced the cat under my car wheels.
Then, for some reason, he’d revived the young feline, and Remy was here now. He was safe. I was not dreaming. And yet, I’d managed to upset Sarah in this happy time.

CHAPTER FOUR – IN WHICH WE SINK LOWER

Finally, the family was together again. Sarah gave me some much-needed space, sensing my irritation with her. I felt guilty about being irritated with her, and I voiced my guilt to Alexander, who said that he’d been married countless times and got frustrated with every single one of his wives.
But my guilt and irritation were overwhelmed with my happiness that Remy was back. My life was almost complete, but I wasn’t quite happy with myself. Because I was attracted to Scarlett Hart.

A few days after that day, I encountered her yet again, this time at the library. I was returning a book on feminine magic and Stephen King’s latest novel when I saw her. She was at the café beside the small bookshop.
“Sorry, honey, your card was declined,” the girl behind the counter said.
“Shit,” Scarlett said in reply. “Never mind, then. Thanks, anyway.”
“I’ll pay for it,” I said, coming up behind her. Scarlett turned and saw me, then looked suspicious.
I handed the cashier some cash and she set the coffee on the counter.
“Why would you pay for me?” Scarlett asked, suspiciously.
“It’s called forgiveness,” I told her. She took the hot coffee and studied me.
“Did Sarah forgive me?”
“Oh, she forgave you a long time ago. What you did still gives her nightmares, but she forgave you. It took me a long time, but I’ve forgiven you, too. Here.” I pressed a few hundred dollars into her hand. When she saw the amount, her eyes welled up with tears.
“Damn you, Reese,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “Damn you and Sarah to hell.” But she took the money anyway and put the cash in her designer purse with the old leather handles.
I went back into the main library and picked out my next few books, found a DVD I’d been wanting to see, and went home.

“I saw Scarlett at the library,” I told Selena while she was feeding Cirino.
“What did she say to you?” she asked. Soft food dripped down the baby’s chin, and she scooped it up with a spoon.
“Bah,” he said. He was starting to look more like Sarah. He had the same button nose, the same color eyes, the same ears, and the same high cheekbones and heart-shaped face. Luckily, Michael hadn’t shown up since he’d been resurrected. He didn’t even ask for visits with the baby, which I was grateful for, and so was Sarah.
“Nothing much. I paid for her coffee when her card was rejected, and she asked me why I did it. I told her it was called forgiveness, and then she damned me to hell.”
“Sometimes when people make mistakes, it’s harder for them to forgive themselves than for other people to forgive them,” my sister said. “Did she accept your generosity?”
“Yes, but reluctantly. I’ve encountered her at least three times now since we graduated, all in recent days.
“You live in the same town. It was bound to happen.”
“I always assumed I would never see any of my classmates again. I know now that I was wrong. You’re right, it happens in a city this size.” I thought about Sarah, and wondered what she’d think of me handing Scarlett three hundred dollars. I didn’t know for sure how she’d feel about me being kind to her old enemy.
“There’s some good news,” Sarah said, walking into the kitchen. “Jamie Williams said he’s going to stay in North Hampton! He said he likes the city, and the quaint bookstores and coffee shops. He finds The Natural History Museum fascinating, and he wants to get to know me better!”
“Do you believe him?” I asked, cautiously.
“Well, yes and no,” she admitted. “North Hampton is no different than any other city. We’ve got crime here, bad people and stuff. I wonder what his real reason is?”
“It’s you, dear,” Selena told her.
Sarah looked at my sister and cocked her pretty head. “Me? Why? What’s so special about me?”
“Face it, honey, you’re quite the woman. You’re beautiful, smart, funny, and kind. I’m glad my brother’s marrying you.”
Sarah looked horrified. “Oh. Oh no. Not another one!”
“Another what?” I asked.
“Another admirer! I had plenty of them growing up, but ever since I started dating you, it’s like I can’t keep them away! It’s like I’m cursed or something!”
“Do I need to knock some people’s heads in?” I pounded my palm.
She grimaced. “If you could just stay close to me, that would be great. I can’t literally fight people in my condition. By the way, I heard what happened with Scarlett today.”
Now it was my turn to grimace. “Sarah, I-“
“I’m proud of you, Reese. You’re becoming more mature. You’re forgiving people.”
I was not expecting that. She never ceased to surprise me.
“Oh, yes. You’re not angry?”
“I was a little irritated at first, but I realized I was being childish. You were simply doing a nice thing for somebody else. That’s nice, in a world of greed and selfishness.”
Remy and Shadowfang walked into the room, and I bent down to pick up Shadow while Sarah picked up Remy.
“Kitty,” Cirino said, pointing at Shadow.
“That’s right,” Selena told him. “What does a kitty say?”
“Mew.”
“That’s right. You’re a fast learner. I wonder if it’s all the attention you receive, or Mother’s milk?”
“She’s still feeding him her milk?” I asked in disbelief.
“It’s a basic maternal instinct, Reese. He won’t drink cow’s milk right now, but he will drink vampire and human milk.”
“I wonder what vampire milk tastes like?” Shadowfang said, licking his lips.
“Probably super sour,” Remy said.
“You don’t want him to be four years old and still drinking breast milk,” I pointed out.
“I know, and Mother will wean him soon, I know she will. In the meantime, he drinks so much milk that we have to ration it.”
Remy climbed onto Sarah’s shoulders, and nibbled a lock of her hair. She sat down beside me and the cat jumped onto the table. Shadow leaped onto the table as well,
“I’m glad you’re back, kitty,” I said, scratching Remy’s chin.
“So am I,” Sarah agreed.
“Me, too,” Shadowfang echoed. “But you never gave us the full story. What really happened?”
Remy turned around and rolled on his back. “I smell peaches. Are you feeding the baby peaches?”
“Clearly he’s not going to tell us,” I said. “Were you really resurrected? Or did you even die at all?”
He didn’t say anything to that and leaped onto the kitchen counter instead and began sniffing a roast chicken. Spunk came into the kitch
“Where are the other dogs?” I asked.
“Groomer’s for Koda and Lola, vet for Scooter and Jasmine,” Selena explained. “Then we switch it out and Koda and Lola will be at the vet while Scooter and Jasmine will be at the groomer’s.”
“When will their training begin?”
“Next week. Jasmine will be able to tell when Sarah will have any issues with the pregnancy, and Koda will be able to sense seizures or any heart problems.”
“Why not just get one dog?”
“Because most service dogs are trained for only one or two things. Scooter is just an emotional support animal for Sabine, and Lola and Jasmine can’t be apart, or Lola mutilates herself.”
“What does she do to herself?”
“Chews her paws down to the bone,” Sarah explained. “Apparently, both Lola and Jasmine used to be bait dogs in a dogfighting ring, and they were rescued together as well.”
Sarah checked her watch, then said, “Shit, I’m going to be late.”
“Where are you going?” I asked her.
“Doctor’s appointment. Private stuff. It’s not about the baby. Don’t bother coming along. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
She went up to her room, and when she emerged, she was wearing an olive green maternity dress and had put some fresh makeup on and ran a brush through her hair and tied it up in a ponytail. She wore flats on her feet.
“I’ll be back,” she said, standing up on her toes to kiss me.
“If you are not returned in the perfect condition that you are already in…..”
“You worry too much. I’ll only be gone an hour. Two at the most. I have to drop off some books at the library, too, and do some banking on my computer.”
She kissed me again, and then stepped outside.
“She didn’t have her computer with her,” I noted. “And our child…any doctor will know immediately that it’s not fully human. She’s hiding something.”
“It’s private, Reese,” Selena told me. “Leave her alone.”
“I can’t-she’s my fiancée. My mate. My future wife. I can’t just let her go and not know for sure.” I peeked out the window, and she was already driving away. I decided to follow her.

I took the Ferrari to follow her. She drove a less-than-familiar route-in the opposite direction of the hospital. Her eyes, focused on the road, occasionally trailed down to her stomach. My heart would have been pounding if I was alive. What was she up to? Why this place?
She soon pulled up to a gated neighborhood and typed in a code on the box. The same code as last time. I remembered this neighborhood. The home of the Kingdom of the North Hampton Fae.
She pulled up to the first house on the left, and then parked and got out of her car. She locked her car, then knocked on the door three times. A tall, dark man answered the door.
“Password?” he growled.
“Fowley,” she replied, which caused him to step aside and let her in.
Stomach sinking, I punched in the same code as she had, an odd combination of five numbers which I would later realize spelled out the word “fairy” in number code. I pulled up to the same house, parked, and got out. I went up to the door and knocked three times.
The same man opened the door. When he saw me, he scowled. “No vampires.”
“Fowley,” I said, resisting the urge to throttle him.
“No vampires,” he repeated.
“My wife is in there!”
“The cute brunette? She’s clearly one of us. I could smell the magic in her blood.”
“Please,” I begged. “She’s not safe here. Not without me.”
“No vampires.”
“What if I gave you something? Anything! Do you want money?”
I held out five Benjamins, and his eyes lit up. He snatched it greedily and counted it.
“Five minutes,” he grumbled.
“I need at least an hour.” I held out five more bills. He took them and smiled at the amount. He had sharp, yellow teeth that were caked with plaque and tartar.
“Thirty minutes.”
“Dude, that’s not cool! My mate is in there!”
“She will be safe with Fowley. He is head over heels for her.”
I growled and shoved past him. Man, he stunk. Clearly a troll in disguise, or maybe a goblin. No, goblins were shorter.
I followed the sound of voices to the basement, where I found an old wooden door with gold and silver handprints on it.
“Out of my way!”
A small man shoved past me, and then stood on his toes and pressed his palm against the gold handprint.
“What if you don’t have hands?” I asked.
He looked at me, disgusted. “Then you say the password. Who let a vampire in?”
I snuck in behind him and came across the same throne room I’d been in before. Fowley was on a throne made of wood and vines and flowers, the ground made of soft earth, and perched on the Elf’s head was a crown of daisies and gardenias and lilies. Sarah was beside him, her hands folded in front of her. When she saw me, she looked terrified.
“What is your name and your bidding?” Fowley asked the short man.
“Sire, my wife and I have no money. We are penniless and will soon be out of food. We have ten children, with two more on the way. All we have is maggoty meat and bread. Our children will starve and die if we are not helped.”
Fowley nodded to a reptilian man that I recognized as Azur, and the lizard mand handed a small bag of coins and bills to the small man.
“Thank you, Sire. Thank you.”
The man turned to the side, and I saw that his eyes were filled with tears. He left through a side door on the right, and then it was my turn. Fowley frowned.
“How did you get in, vampire? Did Cranka let you in? He will be fired for this. Leave now, before I have your head on a pike.”
“NO!” Sarah shouted. She ran to me, and the people around us began muttering. “He’s my fiancé, Fowley.”
“Your fiancé?” He looked heartbroken. “You never told me. You know how I feel about you. Why now, when it is too late?”
“I didn’t tell him about you, either,” she admitted.
He looked furious. The air crackled with energy, and flames appeared in his eyes. His hair turned white and stood on end, and his fingernails grew into long, ten-inch claws.
“Girl, I will kill you for this treachery!” He threw a firebolt at us, and I shielded her with my body, but the bolt never hit me. Her wings had popped out of her back and she had lifted us into the air. I also noticed a blue force field around us.
“Azur?” Sarah asked, looking at the reptilian. He had his hands held out, both palms facing forward, projecting the field.
“Leave. Now,” he commanded in his gravelly voice.
Sarah flew through the side door and out. Behind us, energy crackled and sparked, and Azur was trying to keep Fowley calm.
“Well, there goes that job,” Sarah muttered.
“We are going to have a long talk,” I told her.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Sarah Harper Cresley, what were you thinking?!” Mother was as furious as I was. “Working for that…that…fairy!”
“I’m a fairy,” Sarah pointed out.
“That’s besides the point,” I said. “You could have put yourself and our baby in danger!”
“I wasn’t in any danger until you showed up! Besides, I needed the money for Mom and Dad.”
“You’re still giving money to that woman?” I thought Mother would explode with fury. But she just looked sad. “She still has control over you?”
“She can’t get a job, because she’s a vampire now, her side of the family isn’t talking to us, and you won’t give her one. I wanted her to have a healthy life as a vampire, even if her human life was full of downs and unhealthy habits.”
Sarah burst into tears, and Mother instinctively embraced her.
“My baby,” she muttered. “My first human baby. Why have you been mistreated so? I swore I would get rid of that woman for you, but she keeps coming back like a dog that won’t go away. You could have asked us for money. You did not have to do that.”
“I’m sorry,” Sarah said. “I’m so sorry.”
Great. I’d screwed up again. She was going to think this was her fault. My heart aching, I wrapped my arms around her from behind, and kissed her scalp.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered. “This is my fault, not yours.”
“No, it is my fault,” she hiccoughed. “I should have just been honest with you.”
“It’s all right, sweetheart. Come here.”
I tried to pry her away from Mother, but Mother growled and tightened her grip on the girl. I growled back, and hissed at her. She hissed back.
“Why are you hissing at each other?” Sarah asked.
“We had a brief fight over who gets to hold you,” Mother explained, recovering more quickly than I did. She let her go and I took her in. She wrapped her arms around my middle and started to sob. I kissed her cute button nose and nibbled her lips. A few more seconds and we were kissing furiously. I picked her up and carried her upstairs.
We made sweet love for an hour, then Sarah felt a cramp and said we had to stop. Around midnight, there was a knock at the door.
I answered the door, and there was a tall, thin man with a greenish tint to his skin and eyes like a crocodile. I knew immediately that it was Azur. He held out a large pink bag.
“Sarah forgot her purse,” he explained.
“Did you go through it?” I asked, and he grimaced.
“I may have, and I may have not. Fowley is calm now, but she is banned until invited back.”
“Duly noted. Why did you protect us?”
He winced. “Because…I love her too.”
I paused, then my fist headed straight for his nose, but he caught it and twisted my arm. I cursed wildly as the muscles tore.
“I do not simply want to fuck her,” he said. “Although I do want to do that as well. I know that she has a babe in her belly, although I did not know the identity of the father. Now I do. It’s you. You are her mate. Her soulmate. I would very much like to protect her and hold her, but that is not a possibility. I make do with whores and dancers. I have been alone for a century, and now that I find a woman worthy of me, she is already taken. I hope she has a long, fulfilling life and you treat her well. Goodbye, Reese.”

I put the purse on the foyer table and locked the door after making sure no cats escaped while I was talking to the lizard man.
I crawled in next to Sarah. She shivered when she felt my cold skin, so I wrapped her in another blanket and kissed her.
“French fries,” she muttered.
“That’s right,” I said. “French fries. Now sleep, my love.”
I slept for twelve hours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took me a while to wake up. I had a pounding headache, and my lover was still sleeping beside me, snoring lightly. I rolled her onto her side, felt her naked skin against mine. I put my hands against her and purred. Our little one slept peacefully, her heart beating soundly.
Sarah opened her eyes, then closed them again due to the bright light escaping from the blinds.
“Oh, my head,” she muttered. Then her eyes shot open. “Oh my goodness. I screwed up. Fowley is going to be pissed. He’s going to-“
“Hey, shhh,” I soothed her. “He won’t be a problem. You’re mine, remember? He can’t hurt you now.”
“You don’t know his power. I do. He’ll send goons to us, and then he’ll-“
“Shhh,” I encouraged. “It was my fault, baby. I upset him. I should have known better…but I wish you’d told me.”
“I knew you would be against it,” she said, her eyes shining. “But I needed the money bad. And I can’t sit around feeling useless. I found out that Fowley needed a female guard, and I’ve taken some self-defense classes, so I thought I could do it for him. I’m sorry, Reese. It was my fault, not yours.”
“Shhh, baby, hush. I know why you did it. You should know by now that you can ask me for anything, and I’ll do my damnedest to do it for you. I love you more than life itself, Sarah Harper Cresley.”
I kissed her roughly. Then someone knocked at the door, and I growled at the interruption.
“It’s Selena,” I told Sarah.
“Come in,” she said sweetly.
Selena opened the door a crack and said, “Sarah, your gift is here. We all pitched in, and Reese picked it out.”
“Oh.” She looked at me. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”
“Yes, I did,” I corrected her. “I can’t have you driving a clunky old Honda around.”
“Hey, don’t knock on my Honda. Hondas are more expensive upfront, but they last forever.” Her eyes widened. “Reese, you didn’t.”
“I did. I bought you a car, lover. I hope you like it. I got it in a color you like, one that doesn’t show dirt.”
I let her go and groaned when I saw that I’d bruised her arms. She didn’t seem to care, though, as she walked around her room pulling clothes out and getting dressed.
“A car.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it. I don’t deserve you, Reese.”
“I disagree strongly,” I told her. “It is I who is unworthy of you.”
“Did you just try to quote North and South?”
“I did. Did I get it right?”
“You were close. A car. Is it pink?”
I chuckled. “Sorry, babe, it’s not pink, but it is a nice shade of blue.”
“I like blue, too.” She pinched an unbruised part of her arm. “I hope I’m not dreaming.”
I hugged her from behind. She pulled on her boots, struggling a bit due to her stomach getting in the way, and grabbed a jacket.
I carefully helped her down the steps, conscious of her condition (she was definitely showing now), and opened the door for her, careful not to let any dogs or cats get out. (I had to physically restrain Lola and Jasmine, who sniffed at Sarah, perhaps sensing her pregnancy.)
The brand-new navy blue Lamborghini sat in the driveway with a big red bow on top. I looked over at Sarah. Tears shined in her eyes, and she started to cry.
“If you don’t like it, we can always return it,” I told her.
She suddenly hugged me in what would have been a bone-crushing hug if she’d been a vampire.
“It’s…I can’t…believe…you…it’s beautiful….”
I kissed the top of her head. I inhaled her scent, the floral scent that was her soul and her feminine musky scent that made her female. I could also smell her blood, which was always enticing to me, but not in a way that made me want to consume her. Blood to taste or sip like fine wine, not inhale like Louis does when he eats.
She cried for nearly an hour, at which point she was too hungry to care about the car.
Zie made eggs and buttered toast and poured Sarah and Sabine glasses of milk.
“All babies need milk,” she said. Sarah blushed while Sabine rolled her eyes.
Sabine had grown a bit since I’d met her. She was sixteen now, almost seventeen, the same age Sarah was when we first began dating almost three years before.
“I hate you, Sarah,” Sabine muttered, and Sarah obviously heard, because she ran out of the room crying.
“What is your problem?” I snapped at the brat. “None of this is her fault.”
She tore our family apart! I know why Daddy died, it was to prevent Sarah’s death! She makes us look bad! She’s dating you, which, let’s face it, you’re not a real prince. She caused Mom to drink alcohol again and she’s the reason why Mom started hitting us!”
“How dare you!” That didn’t come from me, but from Mother. Her eyes were blazing with fury. “Your sister has done a lot more for your family than you realize! Did you know your mother was in debt? NO, because you’re a selfish brat who only thinks of herself! Sarah is not the reason why James died! That was pure bad luck. Sarah is not the reason why your grandmother and grandfather aren’t speaking to you, that fault lies with your accursed mother! Stop blaming Sarah, and take some responsibility for once!”
Sabine ran from the room, also crying. Mother softened.
“I shouldn’t have yelled at her.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “Someone needed to set her straight. You’re right, none of this was Sarah’s fault. She got caught in the crossfire, and it shows. She secretly hates herself for it, for her past mistakes, and the way she’s been treated, made her self-esteem plummet. It all started with Nales.” I ground my teeth at the mention of his name. “He’s the one who caused this. If he’d never raped her, then she wouldn’t have been crying, and I wouldn’t have….” I trailed off and looked at Mother.
She smiled weakly. “You blame yourself, don’t you, son?”
“Think about it. If I’d never been infatuated with her in the first place-“
“You can blame the Fates for that, dear.”
“The Fates had nothing to do with it. I made so many mistakes, Mom, and I’m making one right now. Mom, I’m losing interest. I’m attracted to Scarlett Hart, of all people! And you know her history with Sarah.”
Mom looked furious. “You are my son, but if you break Sarah’s heart, I’ll crush your skull between my hands. Do I make myself clear?”
I gulped. “Yes, ma’am.”
She smiled. “It’s natural to feel some tension occasionally. Couples fight, and even lose interest in each other. Every relationship has its ups and downs, it’s how you handle them that matters.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
“Certainly not. I’d rather die than break that girl’s heart. I’ve already fought with her twice. I don’t want to hurt her anymore. I know we will probably fight again, Sabine and Selena and I fight all the time, but that doesn’t mean I love her any less.”
“You really care for my girl, don’t you, Mom?”
“Of course I do. The Fates would never grant Marina Santorino Nicolai’s child a mate that they could not handle.” She fluffed her wildly curly raven-black hair. I noticed something.
“You cut your hair,” I noted.
“Oh, yes, I trimmed off a foot or two. I needed a change of hairstyle. I’ve had the same hairstyle for four hundred years! Isn’t that a riot? But your father and uncle haven’t changed their hairstyles in thousands of years. Your cousin at least went short once or twice. In the old days, long hair was a sign of beauty and skill. Of course, we now know that it depends on the heart and soul, not the length of a person’s hair.” She pressed a fist against her chest.
“How are the babies?” I asked.
She smiled and put both hands on her belly. “Come feel.”
I eased forward and carefully put my hand on her. She was huge, no offense meant. But then again, she was having triplets. She was sure that at least two of them were boys. “Little princes”, she called them. She called the girl “a sweet angel.”
“She doesn’t kick at all,” Mother said, putting my other hand on her. “My boys are feisty and ornery, while the girl is quiet and sleeps a lot. I hope that is a good thing. You know, I had so many miscarriages and stillborns, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever become a mother, something I wanted to be more than anything. It was only when I became a vampire that one of my trysts with my ex-husband bore a fruit, which became Selena. Years later, I married your father and romped with him, which of course resulted in you.”
“Too much information, Mom.”

Sarah and Sabine avoided each other, and by that afternoon, Sabine had run away again. While Mother sent out search parties, I tried comfort Sarah. I managed to convince her that it wasn’t her fault, at least for a little bit, and told a few lame jokes to make her smile. She tried, she really did, but it looked more like a grimace.
We played with the dogs for a couple hours, and then some guys came to work on Mother’s garden in the backyard. She was building a massive stone walkway and patio which led to a pool and would have pink rosebushes. She let Sarah help pick out the stone and the flowers that they would use. Later, she planned to build a koi pond. I told her about Pearl, my sort-of-pet koi, and she thought it was hilarious that I would consider a fish to be my best friend.
I reminded her that I had a new best friend, who also happened to be my fiancée and soulmate. She tweaked my chin and said I was silly.
We watched Frogs, Creature From the Swamp Lagoon, Beauty and the Beast, Twilight, and The Fault in our Stars. Sarah was a little freaked out by the creature features, but I reminded her that if any frog tried to eat her, I would protect her. She hated frogs, anyway.
She fell asleep on my lap sometime halfway through The Fault in our Stars, and I carried her up to bed. I called Father to check in with him, and he told me to be safe, as usual.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” he reminded me.
“Father, I’ve already done something stupid. It cost Sarah her job and nearly cost our lives.”
“What did you do?” he asked after a long hiss that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
I explained about Fowley and Sarah’s job, then what I did.
“Silly girl,” he said, and I could picture him shaking his head. “Fowley is dangerous and unpredictable, even at the best of times. I hope you helped her get home safely.”
“Of course I did! She’s the mother of my baby.”
“Speaking of which, I’d like an update on the child.”
It hit me. If I was having my first child…that would make him a grandfather, unless David somehow had kids and didn’t tell us. I’d seen very little of my brother since I moved into Mother’s house for the chilly season. Father told me he and David got along well, and he and Louis were like brothers, but Uncle Soren was still suspicious, and he frequently gave David reasons to be apprehensive of him.
I visited them at the house from time to time, even staying the night on occasion. Father seemed hurt that I chose to spend more time with Alexander than him. Things were still tense between them.
“He’s not my father, you are,” told him one night as we smoked on the porch and watched David and Louis wrestle in the yard. They adored each other and were more like brothers than David and I were.
“Still, he’s…” My father closed his eye, then opened them, and his pupils were slits. “When I think about him, I want to destroy a small city. Have you forgotten that he nearly killed you, Reese? He even admitted that he wanted to wring Sarah’s neck when he first met her, simply because he hates humans. He took Cirino because he thought that Kieran would never speak to him again. The plan was for him to raise Cirino and eventually turn him into a vampire. The plan was never for her or you to live. He would have killed you, too, if your mother hadn’t interfered.”
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, his pupils were round again.
“How do you feel now with him here?” I gestured to David.
“Oh, I’m thrilled he’s here. He keeps me company when you’re not around. He tells me stories about his other siblings and his mother. I knew Ferri years ago, and it was extremely brief. I never thought for one second that anything might have become of our brief relationship.”
He closed his eyes. “It must have happened that night in December. We were both drunk, and neither of us used any protection or cared about possible disease or pregnancy. David told me his birthday’s in August. That would mean….” He paused and counted on his fingers. “He just turned twenty-five.”
“But he told you that, though.”
“I know, but I still can’t believe it. I was sure you were it, Reese. None of us have born much fruit other than what we have. There is a possibility that there may be more, but I doubt it.”
He looked over at the guys wrestling.
“That was a cheap shot!” David shouted.
“One thing you should know about me: I don’t play fair!” Louis responded, jumping on my brother. “You’re doing great, dude! But I can still kick your butt!”
Beyond the edge of the property line, I could see Cholena, still writing in that notebook of hers.
“What’s she still doing here?” I asked Father.
“Cholena? I don’t know. I think Satira sent her to watch us, but I’m not going to make her leave, even though her presence hurts Soren. He still blames himself for Mitra’s death. And no one has seen Katonah in weeks. Soren went to see her human family, but they all yelled at him and tried to shoot him. So they also blame him.”
My heart broke for both my uncle and Cholena. Cholena lost her mother, and my uncle lost his mate. Again. Plus, Mitra wasn’t bad company. She kept up lively conversations, and, even though her attitude sucked most of the time, she kept it real, even when she admitted she was torn between Katonah and my uncle, and even when we weren’t exactly nice to her.

I stepped off the porch and walked all the way over to where Cholena was sitting. She glared at me, and hissed when I got too close for her liking.
“What are you writing?” I asked. She showed me. It was a sketchbook…and it had a picture of Louis on it. It captured his likeness perfectly, even the mischievous glint in his blue eyes and the tangles in his long brown hair.
“It looks like him,” I said.
She said nothing and turned back to her picture.
“What else have you drawn?” I asked. She showed me. The cemetery. The lake. A deer and her fawn. A pack of wolves in the distance. A fox digging. A buck rubbing his antlers on a tree. Even a few humans, which I realized were her family.
She continued to glare at me, even as I complimented each drawing. She was even better than Sarah, and Sarah was good at drawing and loved it. Her glare grew deeper when I casually asked about Satira. She closed her sketchbook and grabbed her messenger bag and walked away, giving me the finger.
“You tried, little buddy,” Louis said, patting my shoulder as I walked by him.
“Did you see the first drawing she showed him?” David asked.
“No, what was it?”
“It was you, Louis.”
“What? Me? Why would she draw me?”
“It’s possible that she’s drawn all of us,” Father told him, stepping on his cigarette. “She just showed the picture of you.”
“Huh,” was my cousin’s response. “Hey, I’m hungry. Who wants make dinner for me?”
“You can get your own,” Father told him.
“You got David his-“
“David is still a guest and therefore deserves a little more…um…”
“Yeah, right. You just want to be a parent again.”
“So what if I do? I haven’t met David before last month and Reese is nearly grown. He claims he doesn’t need me, anymore.”
“I never said that,” I argued.
“You didn’t say it with your words, son, but with your actions.”
“In other words, he’s hurt that you decided to live with your mom for a while,” Louis explained.
“Sarah and the baby need me,” I argued. “She can’t leave the home because she’ll be out of their protection, and there’s less vampires there than here. No one has any reason to attack Mother’s house, but they have plenty reason to attack this house, and this house has had plenty of attacks. I don’t want her caught in the crossfire.”
“I don’t want that any more than you do, Reese, but she’s just as safe here because there are more vampires to protect her. We still have Toby and Sam and Sarah has Chris. She’s perfectly safe.”
“I disagree. I’m not willing to risk her or my baby’s life just so you can see me.”
He gave me an extremely offended look and went inside. Minutes later, I heard the television turn on.
“He misses you, little buddy,” Louis explained. “We all do, but especially him. Go easy on him. Can’t you spend a couple more nights with us? It would make us all happy, and he’d stop bitching to me.”
“Mmm, fine,” I growled. “If it will make him happy, sure. I can stay a few more nights.”
I went inside and told Father the good news. He planted a big smooch on my forehead and told me I was a good kid.
We watched the news for a bit, then switched to a crime drama, then switched to a documentary about freakshows. I asked Father about them, and he explained that medical anomalies were not fully understood and those who had certain conditions that affected them physically, such as dwarfism, giantism, and conjoined twins were common in freakshows.
One of the most popular freakshow attractions were “pinheads”, or people with microcephaly. Among the most famous were people like Schlitze, who was a man with the condition and even starred in a 1932 movie.
We watched that for a while, and then Father sat up and began sniffing the air. I took a big whiff. I smelled female vampire. Her scent was unfamiliar, and I could tell by her scent that she was a fledgling.
I followed my father and cousin outside, and we spotted a thin figure studying us from a tree branch at the edge of the woods.
“We will not harm you,” Father said, stepping forward. Instead of being comforted, the female shrank back and hissed. She was like a female version of me-skinny, muscular, but her black hair was shortened into a bob and her eyes were brown. I purred to try to ease her, and her eyes flicked over to me.
“Hello, I’m Reese,” I said.
She jumped down and landed perfectly on her feet.
“Call me Kole,” she said. “With a K.”
“Hi, Kole,” Louis said. “Did you come here alone?”
She looked sad. “Yeah. I don’t know where or what I am. I remember being bitten, but everything before that is a blank. Can you help me?”
“Be careful, she may have been sent to spy on us,” Father said. Kole heard, and looked confused.
“She smells like she’s alone,” Louis pointed out. “This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had vampires come to this house because they smelled our scent and wanted to know who we were or got confused. Remember that one coven who came with Meiko? Or that coven after that?”
A light went off over my head. “Was Zeke’s clan just curious, or were they sent to spy on us as well? I mean, that one chick connected with Sarah, and afterwards, little buddy met Ambrose for the first time, and Ambrose used to work for Bram Sterling.”
“Ambrose has always worked for himself,” Father said. He looked at Kole. “I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt, but she does seem lost and confused. Louis, why don’t you take her and explain things to her?”
“Reese can do it,” Louis said, winking at me. I frowned. Louis knew I was with Sarah.
Kole looked at me, and fluttered her eyelashes. I almost told her I had a girlfriend. Then Cholena stepped lazily out of the woods, her bag over her shoulder. When the two girls saw each other, they stared for a long time.
"I sense distension in the ranks," Louis whisper-shouted.
"What are you doing here, Cholena?" Father asked her.
"I have some questions about my mother," she said, turning to look at him.
"Let's go to the yard."
The day was overcast, though not in a way that threatened rain.
"What do you want to know?" I asked, as all the vampires sat in a half circle.
"My mother...was she pretty?"
"Very," I answered. "She was gorgeous. She had this shiny short hair, and this thin body. She was small, but not as small as you."
"Who are we talking about?" Kole asked.
"Mitra," I said. "Cholena, this is Kole, Kole, this is Cholena." The two girls stared at each other again, then Kole said "mate" under her breath. Mate? Were they mates? Cholena didn't seem to care as she threw her legs out, propping herself up on her hands. She jumped, bringing her feet together, and then jumped up as high as she could. Which was pretty damn high.
Then Kole jumped up, and the two girls intertwined their fingers in midair. David came out to join us then, and he watched this display with interest.
"Sorry I haven't been around much," I told my brother as he sat beside me. "With the wedding only a few months away, and with this baby coming..."
"I understand," he said, watching the girls as they landed near a patch of oak trees. "You've been busy. But one would think that you might put your brother ahead just for a little while."
Okay, so he was hurt. I knew he was trying to make me feel guilty about not staying or seeing him much.
Cholena ran back in a split second, panting, Kole right behind her. Then I heard a voice I didn't want to hear again.
"Kole! Kole, where are you?"
"Satira," Louis said, and Father groaned.
"She's not that bad," Kole said.
"How do you know her?" I asked.
"She created me. As a companion."
"Did you and Cholena know each other before this?" I asked.
"Er, no," Kole said, and I knew she was lying. But I said nothing against her statement and looked at my father. His brows were furrowed, and he scratched his abdomen absentmindedly.
"Fuck me," he said. "Were you two sent to spy on us?"
Kole and Cholena looked at each other, then looked back at us, and said, "No," at the same time. I could tell Father didn't believe them. He sighed. "I really need to hire more guards. Go on, leave, both of you. Go!"
Kole and Cholena didn't need to be told again. They hurried off in the direction of Satira's voice.
Father laughed , then grabbed the cherry tree I'd planted years earlier and shook it Ornamental cherries fell. "Gods, what a creature! I'm so glad she's not my mother-in-law anymore."
I sighed and stretched out under the gray sky. It was considered to be a beautiful day by vampire standards, and I was determined not to let Satira's shenanigans get to me.
My phone rang, blaring Sarah's ringtone.
"Yes, cookie?"
"Reese Mordecai Emerson, you are in so much trouble."
"What did I do?"
"They detected three heartbeats, one of which is mine."
"What does..." It clicked. "Does that mean..."
"Yes, my future husband and favorite lover, we are having twins."
I buried my mouth in my jacket and screamed.
"Hello? Hello?"
Twins. We were going to have twins.
I could see Father's eyes were wide, and he looked at me and smiled. "Congratulations, son. Twins. That's an achievement, especially for vampires."
"Half-vampires," Louis reminded him. "Remember, she's still human, or fairy, or whatever."
"That doesn't matter!" I shouted. I literally jumped for joy. I used my hands and feet to propel myself around the yard.
"Hello, Sarah? This is Mordecai. Yes, he's alive. He's just jumping around like a lunatic because he's so excited. Congratulations, dear. Yes, I'm excited, too. I get to be a grandfather before any of these other losers. Reese will be all right, he'll be wired for days, though. What are they? Oh, another prince? And a princess? He'll be happy to hear that. All right, thank you for telling us, sweetheart. Goodbye."
He looked at me, smiling. I was somewhere between grinning like a fool and panting out of excitement. "A boy and a girl, son. Looks like you're getting the first two at the same time."
Caitlin Juniper and Joseph? Yes!!
I was as excited as any new father could be, and it took several laps around our land to work off my energy. I even dove into the lake and climbed on top of a tombstone in the cemetery and howled like a werewolf.
I knew I would never be able to sleep that night, so I stayed up, reading all the books I could about parenting.
The next day, Father, David, Louis, and I met Mother, Selena, and Sarah at the library. I hugged Sarah, squeezing her more tightly than I'd intended, and spun her around once. She laughed and planted a kiss on my chin. I put my hand on her stomach. Yes...I could hear their heartbeats now, two little lives burning brightly.
I purred and licked Sarah's hair to mark her as mine. There were other ways to mark her, but none that would be appropriate in a public library. She was already starting to show.
"Let's discuss finances," Father said, as he sat across from Mother, who slid into the chair with some difficulty. I failed to understand why she still wore high heels at this stage of her pregnancy. She was farther along than Sarah was, and with triplets. She didn't yet know the genders-she wanted to be surprised. I knew she'd be equally happy with either boys or girls, or if there were two boys and a girl or two girls and a boy. I myself was eager to meet my new half-siblings.
"The children must have a joint account," Mother said. "At least one."
"I agree. And the current wealth between them is...well, Reese has over ten million dollars in his account. And I have more in his name. He will have full access to each account when he gets married. There are five accounts in America, ten in Denmark. Ten million in each one, twenty million in his first ever one. You do the math."
Sarah's and David's jaws had dropped, Louis was smirking, and Selena pretended to browse the cozy mystery novels.
"There are also a few that, upon my death, will become his. Ten trillion dollars in all in my name."
Sarah blinked and her brows furrowed. "Are you pulling my leg, Mordecai?"
He smiled gently at her. "No, dear, I'm not. I am always honest about money. But I won't die for some time yet, if we're lucky, so no need to worry about it just yet."
"Sarah has thirty-seven thousand dollars approximately," Mother said. "That's all in one account. Most of it I've given to her, or you have. Thirty-seven thousand six hundred and forty-five dollars in all. And I have another account set up for her when she gives birth or turns twenty-one."
I did the calculations in my head. One hundred and twenty million dollars plus thirty-seven thousand six hundred and forty-five-wow. We were rich.
"Will you cut him off?" Mother asked.
"Of course not. Not unless he starts gambling or spends frivolously."
We all looked at Sarah, who blushed and looked at her red-painted nails.
"I know how much you like clothes and shoes, sweetheart," Father said. "But, please, try to control yourself."
She nervously fiddled with her bracelet. Then she looked up.
"Scarlett," she hissed. I looked up. There was Sarah's old nemesis and ex-friend, Scarlett, browsing the bookshelves. "What is she doing here?"
"It's a public library, lover," I said. I purred and stroked her hair to calm her down. "Shhh, it's all right. I'm here."
She shook her head. "No, I need to say something. First she flirts with you, then she shows up to take the same dogs as us, and now this! This is getting ridiculous!"
"We live in the same town, cookie," I said quietly. "Baby girl, it's all right. I'm here."
She hissed. "She's coming this way."
"Mom, take Sarah out of here. I'll deal with Scarlett."
Mom didn't hesitate. She took my beautiful fiancee's hand and led her away.
"Crazy bitch," I muttered.
"Why would she come over here?" Louis asked. "She knows that her mere presence upsets Sarah."
"That's it," I said. "She knows she upsets Sarah, so she follows us around."
"That's crazy talk," David said. "I haven't known you long, little brother, but this is too crazy even for me. I have enough sisters as it is-I can't handle any girl drama. Sorry."
"You're on your own, son," Father said apologetically, leaving just as the Raven Queen approached.
"Hey, Reese," she said. "Doing a little browsing?"
"Actually, we were just having a private conversation," I said, irked at her callousness.
"Well, don't let little old me stop you from 'having your private conversation'."
"Must you always intrude?"
"All I saw were two friends and their family, and then everyone left except you and him, whatever his name is."
"Louis," my cousin said, extending his hand. "Louis Soren Emerson, milady. My father is Prince Soren, second ruler of our world. Also known across our race for his physical strength and bulging muscles."
Scarlett laughed a dry, humorless laugh. "You're a funny guy, Lewis."
"It's Lew-wee," he corrected, but she ignored him in favor of me.
"Hey, handsome," she teased, moving my bangs out of the way.
"Don't touch me," I growled, moving out of her reach. "You ruined Sarah."
"I didn't ruin her," she argued. "I thought she told on us. I was wrong. I didn't rape her, or get her pregnant."
"She lost most of her friends because of you!"
"But she made new ones! You and Ariella Spears, and Mason..." She trailed off. She looked stung for a moment, then shook it off.
"You're fucking crazy," I said. "She wasn't even the one who told your parents; Jordan was!"
She raised her fist as if to hit me, then thought better of it. Then she started saying a string of random numbers.
"What?" I said.
"It's my phone number, stupid," she said. "When you finally see sense, call me. I'll be waiting."
Then she moved off to the women's fiction section.
"You're right, she is a crazy bitch," Louis said. He slapped my shoulder. "Tough break, little buddy. Personally, I like the crazy ones. But I like the sweet ones, too."
Sarah was outside throwing a temper tantrum. When she saw me, she rushed toward me and grabbed my shoulders.
"What did the crazy bitch want?" she demanded.
"To fuck me," I answered. "She gave me her phone number."
The sound that came out of Sarah's mouth would have put a banshee to shame.
"Calm down, baby girl," I said. "Of course I said no."
She breathed and half-laughed, half-sobbed into my chest.
"Dumpling, what's wrong?"
"I'm fat! Can't you see? I'm fat and plain!"
I almost laughed. "My little cupcake, all women go through body changes when they become pregnant. And you are the opposite of plain. You're beautiful! You're the prettiest girl I've ever seen!"
She wiped a tear away and sniffed. "You mean that?"
"Of course I do. The first thing I noticed about you was your eyes. They're a beautiful shade of green, and your hair is so soft and curly! And your nose is cute, and your face is a nice shape, and so are your lips! They're full and red and pouty. Perfect for kissing. I love every part of you, including your flaws. In fact, I think your stretch marks are the most beautiful part of you. They show that you're strong. You've been through a lot, and you came out on top. You're a survivor."
She hugged me, wiping her eyes on my shirt. "I'm being silly, aren't I?"
"Just a tiny bit, dear Sarah Harper."
"Sorry I freaked out. But I love you so much, I don't want to lose you, or drive you away, like I've driven away so many other people!"
"Sarah Cresley, you are not responsible for other people's actions. If anything, they are responsible for abandoning you."
"My parents, my sister, my best friend, my crush...they all hurt me in some way or another. You would never purposely hurt me, I know Daddy wouldn't, either, but my mom did. She was supposed to protect me, keep me safe. She failed."
"You have a new mother now," I reminded. "If you choose her. My mother adores you, you know. She sees herself in you and thinks you're intelligent and sweet."
Sarah shyly peeked out at Mother, who gave her a reassuring smile.
"Can...can I hug you?" Sarah asked Mother.
"Of course, dear. Just be careful of the fledglings." My two favorite women embraced, and my mother kissed my girlfriend on top of the head. I remembered the first time I saw them together, in the library in our castle in Denmark. They got along so well. Sarah was studying the rites of Aphrodite, if I remembered correctly. Her own ancestor, but she didn't know she was studying her goddess ancestor then.
Mother came from a different background-one full of witchcraft and dark magic, which she abandoned for Roman Catholicism. She'd told me a bit about her life before becoming a vampire. Satira, her mother, was a well-known practitioner of the dark arts, and so were her sisters. She didn't know the whereabouts of my aunts, nor did she act like she cared. She said that her sister all looked similar-curly hair and blue eyes. But she also said that she had a redheaded sister and a blonde sister.
I knew very little about Satira other than that. She had been turned into a vampire by some kind of wraith vampire that hadn't seen the moonlight or eaten a meal in a long time.
Sarah and Mother had similar histories in that both their fathers died, and their mothers were not good mothers, and they were both essentially raped and had produced a child. I was the product of my mother's rape, Sarah had produced Cirino. They both loved to sing and draw, and they both loved being pregnant. Then there were the physical similarities-dark curly hair (although Sarah's hair was lighter in color and shade), light-colored eyes, smooth skin, heart-shaped faces, and both were strong women.
And then I saw him. Michael Nales. He'd wisely stayed away since he was resurrected, and the mere sight of him now filled me with anger. He saw me, too, and avoided eye contact as he walked into the library. But he paused and looked at Sarah. Her eyes went wide when she saw him. Then she walked up to him, stared at him for a minute, and then blam! She socked him.
He actually fell to the ground clutching his nose. "Okay, I deserved that," he said. Sarah smacked him across the face. Then she yanked his hair and shoved his face into the concrete.
"Okay, baby girl," I said, easing her away. "That's enough, Sarah."
She gave me an extremely hurt look, then ran away. Mom glared at me next. "That was insensitive, Reese."
Then she took off after Sarah. Shit. I'd upset her again.
I needed to see Grandfather.

My grandfather had been transformed into a human almost completely. His heart was beating again, and he was extremely wrinkled and his red hair was gone, replaced by white strands barely sticking on. He was blind in both eyes, but he heard just as well as he'd ever had.
"Hello, Reese," he croaked, finally sounding like the thousands-of-years-old vampire that he was.
"Hello, Grandfather," I said. "How are you doing?"
"As well as can be expected. How are you?"
"I'm...not so great, Grandfather. There's been some...developments."
"What kind of developments?"
"Sarah finally punched Nales in the face, and I told her to stop. But before that, Mitra's daughter, Cholena, showed up. Then Satira-"
"Satira's back?!"
"Yes, Grandfather. She's back, and she wants mine and Selena's souls. No doubt for some dark purpose."
"Satira has always been practiced in black magic. I never much liked her, anyway. She's a whore and a bitch. And she's horrible to her daughters, especially Marina. I always liked that nose of your mother's, but Satira makes fun of it. As for getting your soul, I wouldn't let her go within a hundred yards of you or the other children."
"And, ah, there's something else."
"What is it, Reese?"
"No, I shouldn't be the one to tell you, Dad should."
"I know about David, Reese."
I was taken aback. "You do?"
"Yes. Mordecai even introduced me while you were away at the Nicolai house, abandoning me for your absent mother."
"Grandfather, Sarah's pregnant with twins. I had to stay with her, and she's more safe there than here. More guards posted, plus Zie's keeping her well-fed and watered."
"Twins? Oh, be still my heart. Boys or girls?"
"One of each. We've already picked out the names. The boy will be called Joseph, after the Earthly father of Jesus Christ, as a reference to Sarah's Christian half, and the other will be called Caitlin Juniper. With an I instead of a Y between the L and the N. Sarah likes it that way. And Juniper, because, well, you know what junipers are."
"Yes, I used to own a bit of wood that had quite a few juniper trees. Those are good names, my grandson." He coughed dryly. "I hope I get to see you married before I die."
"Grandfather, you're not going to die. We'll find a cure."
"No, Reese, I will die. One way or the other, soon, very soon, I will die."
Tears came into my eyes. "But you can't die! You're my grandfather!"
He smiled gently in my general direction-not at me.
"Almost everyone except gods die. Even vampires."
I reached out for his hand, and he grabbed mine-his was covered in wrinkles and liver spots and was bony. I cried for a long time.

"Shhh, they're both asleep."
"Has Reese been here the whole time?"
"Yes. Try not to wake him up."
My father's and uncle's voices hit my ears. My dreams were vague-something about a hotel and my cat and a flood and greasy human food.
I slowly stirred and rubbed my eyes. I realized I was still holding Grandfather's hand, and eased out of it. My father was starting to cradle me in his arms and purr. The only thing more important than a mate to a vampire is their parent or creator. Fledglings are not considered as important because so many are made-the ones who are born the normal way are considered much more valuable. It's rare for female vampires to carry a child to term, especially twins or triplets. Even human-borns like my mother often have long and difficult pregnancies.
Vampire babies are naturally stronger than human babies, and they like to kick-hard. My mother already had bruises on her stomach due to my siblings' antics. I missed her now, even as my father held me. There's nothing quite like a parent's loving touch. The closest example is that of a mate. Except that my mate was still angry with me for my insensitive comment earlier.
My father's purring increased as I started to purr.
"I wish my son loved me as much as yours loves you," Uncle Soren sighed. I squirmed a bit, and Father growled and tightened his grip.
"I need to talk to Sarah," I protested. He mumbled, but relented, letting me go so I could talk to her.

I was greeted with dog kisses and jumps when I stepped through the door. Both the new dogs and the old dogs congregated on me, especially Spunk and Jasmine. I almost didn't see Shadowfang until I accidentally stepped on his tail, and he yowled.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I apologized profusely.
"Reese?" Sarah sat up on the couch and rubbed her eyes.
"I'm sorry, baby, did I wake you?" I asked.
"It's okay; I waited for you. I wanted to say I'm sorry if I've been a bitch to you lately. I'm not making excuses, but pregnancy hormones and all that."
"It's okay, lover," I said, leaning over the couch and taking her face in my hands. "And no, you haven't been a bitch to me. I've been dealing with my own shit lately, and I took some of it out on you. I should be the one apologizing, not you."
I kissed her lips, and looked out at the spread before her. Decaffeinated tea, a magazine, a book, the TV remote.
I told her about the strange new vampire, Kole, and and mentioned her strange behavior around Cholena.
"They seemed to know each other," I said. "And then we heard Satira calling for Cholena. I have my suspicions."
"It is odd," she said. "Why do all these vampires come to you? And then David and Cholena show up? And then Satira? It's weird."
"It's a mystery," I agreed. I updated her on Grandfather's condition, and then she fell asleep. I carried her upstairs to our new bed-a king size. It dwarfed her when she laid in it. I preened her while she slept, stroking her hair and admiring her collarbone and her cleavage. I looked around. I decided to clean up a bit-dirty clothes in the hamper, books on shelves or on the side table, notebooks and laptops on the desk, shoes in the closet, makeup put away...and then I saw her purse.
I'd gone through her purse before, and I always hated myself afterwards for invading her privacy. A woman's purse is sacred. This week's edition was a Louis Vuitton Speedy in 35, so Sarah had told me when she pulled it out of the closet. Her purses always were bigger than she seemed to need them to be.
Just a peek.
I took in a deep gulp of air, then opened the mouth of the bag. I saw all the usuals-her wallet, her makeup bag, and...was that a gun?!
It was, it was a gun. A Glock. I opened it up. No bullets. But there was a box of bullets in her purse. Why did she have this? She was surrounded by vampires, people who would protect her, gladly give their lives for her. Maybe she needed this for extra security?
I knew she carried a small knife around, but I'd never have thought of her as a gun carrier. I kept looking. Old water bottles, extra keys, lipstick, lotion, hand sanitizer, extra cash, movie tickets...movie tickets? Huh. I hadn't gone to the movies with her, and we hadn't seen any of our friends from school since we graduated.
I kept looking for any sign, any evidence. I found one other odd thing: a flip cell phone, the old kind that was used twenty years ago. Stomach twisting into a knot, I carefully put everything back where I'd found it and got ready for bed.

CHAPTER FIVE - SUSPICION
She was up before me. I woke up around noon, feeling refreshed. I hissed slightly at the bright sun streaming in from the cracks in the blinds. Sarah was sitting in her reading chair, playing on her regular phone.
I was thirsty, but she was more important. I crawled out of bed and slowly slid along the carpet on my belly. When I reached her toes, I nibbled them, and she giggled.
"Don't chip the paint, Reese," she gently chided.
"What color are we this week?" I teased, looking at her toes. "Oh, gold and silver? Gold on one toe, silver on the others?"
"I couldn't decide which color I wanted to paint them," she explained. "And I was sick of red polish."
"How are the babies?" I asked.
"They want greasy food. Hash browns, bacon, eggs with cheese and peppers."
"You're half-Jewish," I noted.
"I meant turkey bacon. I'm not the type to cheat at anything, except tests and sales."
My heart wrenched at that. I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced myself to sit up beside her. She noticed there was something amiss.
"Reese? What's wrong?" she asked, her pretty brows furrowed.
"Sarah, I...I...I can't...I found your gun."
She blinked. "Oh."
"I smelled the gunpowder and I just..."
"You went through my purse."
"Yes."
She sighed. "Well, I can understand that. I should have been more careful where I left it."
"Sarah, why do you have that gun? You have more protection than anyone in the world."
"I can't let anyone else die. Not without a reason."
"Protecting you is not a good enough reason?"
"Definitely not. I won't have more people die because of me or Sabine."
"Sweet, lovely, angelic Sarah, it's not your fault. None of it is."
She sniffled. "I read Mom's diary after...well...I'm cursed."
I couldn't move at that. "C-cursed?"
She nodded. "I was supposed to die on my sixteenth birthday, but Daddy died instead. He pretended to have cancer so there was a sensible reason for his death. No one else should have to die because of me."
"Sarah...." I swallowed. I looked down at my hands, then her. "Who?"
"Who, what?"
"Who cursed you?"
"I don't know. I know that I was betrothed to Caden when we were younger, but now, I have you. I would rather die than have anyone else."
I was touched by her devotion and selflessness. She continued.
"You protected me. You avenged me. You kept me safe when no one else could or would. You loved me even though I'm not perfect. I adore and love you, Reese. I have for a long time."
I wrapped my arms around her in a fantastic embrace and kissed her roughly. Eventually, she needed to breathe, and I pulled away.
"Sarah, you don't need to be perfect to be loved. Just be yourself. Anyone would love you then. Even serial killers have their multiple admirers."
She smiled weakly at that, and hugged me tighter. Then she winced.
"Ow, my back," she complained.
"Is it your wings?" I asked, cautiously.
"More between my shoulder blades. Oh crap." She ran to the bathroom, and I heard vomiting. I went dowstairs and heated up some blood for myself, then brought some tea for Sarah. She was busy brushing the yuckiness out of her mouth when I returned. She smiled when I brought her the tea. "Reese, you're a saint."
She laid down in bed on her side, and I brought her a bucket. She asked me to read to her, so I did that for a while, until she threw up again and had to run to the bathroom to clean out her mouth again. Zie brought some buttered toast and a sachet of herbs she said were meant to help pregnant women.
Amazingly, the smell of the herbs did calm Sarah down, but they also made her sleepy. She slept for a while, then woke up and started crying and complaining that she was wasting her life away by sleeping. I cooed to her and whispered calming things to her...well, I tried. She cried harder after I said something about looking tired.
"I'm not pretty anymore!" she sobbed. "I'm fat and ugly! And my sister hates me! My parents are vampires, and the Abrahams won't even talk to me because I'm with a vampire!"
"Honey, it's all right," I urged. I hated the thought of it, but I considered using hypnosis to calm her down. She was starting to upset me.
"What did you do?!" Selena asked, finally opening the door.
"I didn't do anything!" I said. "She just started getting upset after her nap!"
"How long did she sleep?"
"Three hours!"
Sarah sobbed harder and finally, Mother burst in and I was promptly thrown out of the room.
If anyone can calm her down, it's Mother, I thought. She adores her.
I went into a spare room and turned on the TV. I watched the news for a while, then switched to cartoons. But I couldn't laugh, because my thoughts were on my fiancee. I could hear her simpering soprano voice as Selena's alto urged her to keep calm. Then I heard something I didn't want to hear.
What if my babies die?
I couldn't bear the thought of losing any of them. Not Sarah, not Caitlin Juniper, not Joseph. I loved my children so much already that just the thought of living without them was unbearable. This had to be our fate. I'd even seen the future, a future with all of us together and happy. I had thought it was a new gift at first, but maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was just Fate. However, I hadn't taken my grandfather's slow descent into dust into account, or Sarah's emotional state, or David, or Satira.
I hadn't seen as much of my brother as I would have liked, and I'd already seen all I wished to see of Satira.
I needed a mentor, someone to guide me when things got rough. I couldn't count on Father, he was too emotionally invested, especially with David now here. And Uncle Soren was far too unstable, and Louis would just make things worse. I considered Krauvas, but remembered that he was Mason's father, and I did not want to see Mason yet.
I considered my options, which were few and far between. Grandfather was dying. I could go to Alexander...I shuddered at the thought of asking him for advice. Truthfully, I never had great role models. I had to learn how to keep a relationship together on my own. I had plenty of role models who taught me how to be a man, but that was it.
I sighed. I had no choice. I had to go to Alexander. I shuddered again at the thought.

I found him in the backyard, overseeing the work being done on the garden. The men had finished laying the stone for a massive pond, and now were laying more brick for a path from the patio to the pond, where we would sit, watch the fish, and maybe have a greenhouse in the future, and a pool.
"The red brick goes there! The hose must be attached to the fountain!"
"Hello, Alexander."
He turned to me and nodded. "Reese."
"I need to ask you something."
"What is it, boy?"
"Actually, I need advice."
He smirked and turned back to the workers. "And you thought I was the best candidate. You refuse to be my son, yet you want my expertise."
I sighed internally. I couldn't believe he was still irked about the fact that I wasn't his biological son. He had been so desperate for both companionship and a son, and he found out about me and decided I would do, that was my theory. I remembered when I first saw him. Sarah was in the hospital, and Alexander spotted me coming out of her room. We had just found out she was pregnant, and he was looking to adopt a baby, anyway, preferably a boy.
Someone he could mold into a version of himself.
"Never mind, I see that this was a mistake." I started to walk away, but guess who grabbed my shoulder? Alexander.
"Now you listen here, boy, and listen carefully. I spent too many years alone. Kieran still hates me, and Marina hated herself too much to be with me for years. You were my last chance to have a legacy, to not be so lonely. I could have killed you for all you know; I should have. Now if you want my advice, you ask for it, you little bastard."
"Let me go!" I tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip and his nails grew, causing me to yelp in pain.
"Ambrogio Nicolai, you let our son go right now!"
If he could, Alexander would have paled. The scariest thing in the world is a protective parent. And my mother stood on the patio, hands on her hips, glaring at her husband.
"Dearest," he simpered. "Reese came to me for advice and mouthed off. So I had to teach him a lesson, you see."
"So you grabbed him and scratched him?"
"Lovely wife," he began,
"Don't start with me, Ambrogio Nicolai. Come inside, Reese."
I quickly hurried in, and shut the door behind me. Seconds later, Mother's and Alexander's raised voices echoed in my ears.
"I shouldn't have mouthed off to him," I rued.
"It's not your fault," Selena said, coming up behind me. "He's just a big meanie."
"How's Sarah?"
"Asleep. She was shaking and cold to the touch, but Mother hypnotized her into sleeping."
"Hypnosis?"
"Don't tell me you're against what Mother did."
"No, but-"
I heard a scream from outside.
I ran outside, only to find Mother in the stone pond, laying on her side. Half the workers ran to her side, and a few glared at Alexander. I jumped in the pond, Selena following me.
"Mother! Are you all right?"
She looked at Alexander, a new hatred in her eyes. "He pushed me."
"Dearest, I didn't mean-"
"You son of a bitch!" Selena jumped on him and started pounding him. He spun her around and held her in a bear hug, while she squirmed. Then I saw it. Blood. Pooling between my mother's legs.
"Dearest!" Alexander put Selena down and walked toward us.
"Don't!" Mother shouted. "Don't come near me again!" Tears in her eyes, she ran inside.
Selena helped Mother, while I told Alexander it was best if he left. He looked stricken, but nodded and left in his Bugatti Veyron.
I heard sobbing coming from Mother's room, and I called Ethan Potter. He promised to come over right away. Then I checked on Sarah. She was disturbed by all the noise, but I sang to her, and she fell back asleep. \
Ethan arrived minutes later, and Zie let him in. She led him to Mother's room, where he stayed with her for hours. I could still smell fresh vampire blood.

Sarah and I cuddled for a long time.
"What would happen if someone put the nozzle of an air hose in their mouth?" Sarah asked. "Would they blow up?"
"Geez, what goes through your mind when you're alone?" I replied.
"You don't want to know. How's Marina?"
I fine-tuned my ears. "Still hurting. Damn Alexander. He's gone too far this time."
"I...I need to stretch my wings," Sarah said, getting up. I followed her to the front yard, where her wings grew out of her back and she flapped them. Just then, it began to rain.
"Shit," Sarah said. "I can't fly when it's raining. I don't have enough experience."
"Have any of your other cousins gotten their wings yet?" I asked.
"Just Kaz. His are white, like an angel's. No one else is old enough yet."
"Not even your cousin Riley?"
"Riley's still figuring out who Riley is. They can't wait to get their wings, though, and neither can Bow or the boys. But the younger ones are nervous. We've told them that it hurts when they first come out, and Phillip especially is afraid of pain. But most people don't suddenly get their wings like I did-it takes time."
"That's because you were overdue," I said. "And you deserve your wings more than anyone else."
"That's sweet, Reese, but you're wrong. Kaz deserves them more than I do, if not as much. He's a volunteer firefighter, he helps out on the farm, he volunteers at the library and the animal shelter, all while getting good grades. He's headed to Oxford next year."
"Impressive, but you are so amazing as well, my lovely Sarah." I grabbed her wrist, and she spun around in the mud and kissed my lips, her wings bringing her to my height.
I smelled salt, and realized she was crying. I mentally sighed. Her self-esteem was so low, no thanks to Nales and Scarlett and Sabine and Puck. I'd have to work on that with her. I needed her to be completely healthy before her change.
I grabbed her shoulders, pulling her into me. She tasted like tea and spearmint and her favorite lipstick. She wrapped her legs around my waist, hugging me. Finally, she needed to breathe. Damn human needs.
I walked her to the garage, where she flapped her wings furiously, drying them. Then, to my shock, a feather fell off.
"Oh my gods, Sarah, your wings..."
"What?" She looked down and laughed. "Yeah, that happens sometimes. I have a whole bunch of them in my desk drawer. She picked up the feather and handed it to me. "Soft as a kitten."
I ran my finger along the fine feather. It was soft, the softest feather I'd ever felt.
"You can have it," she said. "It'll grow back."
I put the feather in my belt, and kissed her again.
"You're so selfless," I said, pecking her.
"Not really. I'm selfish when it comes to you. I want you, and nobody else can have you. Except your family. I trust them."
"You're not selfish. You're sweet, and amazing, and I adore you. I don't want to lose you, Sarah."
"You won't lose me. We'll go to Denmark on the first of November, and we'll have a fantastically grand time and an incredible wedding. I've already got my dress picked out, and the flowers, and everything."
"I've done about half the planning," I said. "I picked the castle, and the carriage, and even the horses. Have you ever ridden in a horse-drawn carriage?"
"No, but it sounds dreamy."
"It's fun. It'll be more romantic than buying a car. And I have all your presents ordered."
She looked amazed. "You got me more presents? Reese, you just bought me a Lamborghini! I haven't even got to drive it yet!"
"That's my fault, dear. I want it installed with every safety feature available. When it's finished, you can have it back."
"Oh, Reese Mordecai..."
"Oh, Sarah Harper."
We kissed again and again until she announced that she needed to use the bathroom. I've said it before and I'll say it again: damn human needs.

"What kind of gifts did you buy her?" Louis asked. We were playing blackjack with David and my father and my uncle.
"I got her some river pearls, and some elegant shoes that I hope she'll like, and of course, you already know about the horses."
"What horses?" David asked.
"Goth Boy over here thinks his girlfriend needs more pets, so he got her three horses. Two mares and a stallion, all from good breeding lines. They cost a fortune, too."
"I have Dad to thank for that," I said, nodding toward my father.
"Anything for you, son. Oh, look at that, I win again."
Louis had a brief temper tantrum which involved flipping over the table and scattering the cards all around. We spent the next ten minutes trying to find them all, and then Uncle Soren told Louis he was no longer allowed to play if he was going to act like a sore loser. Louis promised to behave ("We'll see how long that lasts") if he would be allowed to join us again.
We played a few more games and my father won five hundred dollars. Louis dared me to play strip poker, and Uncle Soren yanked some hairs out of his head.
"Control your spawn, brother," Father said as he shuffled the cards.
"Is it always like this?" David asked me.
"Yes," I said. "Sometimes it's worse."
"Behave, Louis," Uncle Soren warned.
"Look here, Blood-Breath-"
He got a smack on the back of the head for the name-calling.
"When Reese marries Sarah, I want you on your best behavior," Uncle Soren told Louis. "No drunken toasts, no courting the females, no overspending."
Louis seemed embarrassed.
"We went to the track earlier," David broke in. "Louis can really-"
My father dropped his cards. "You went to the track?!"
Uncle Soren sighed and shook his head.
"Thanks, big mouth," Louis said to David.
"What did I say?" David asked.
"It's not your fault," Father told him. "Louis is forbidden to go to the horse track, and he knows it. He had a slight gambling problem at one time."
"Slight?" Uncle Soren snorted. "He went to you, crying, because he was in massive debt and had to borrow money from loan sharks. I still can't believe you gave it to him."
"Thanks, Dad."
"Shut up, Louis."
"Louis got his first taste of the casinos when we went to Vegas for the first time," Father said. "He lost everything and more. He came to me, sobbing, because he was afraid of your reaction, Soren. And I didn't give him a cent until he promised to see a professional."
"You shouldn't have given it to him," Uncle Soren said. "How will he ever learn if you're constantly rescuing him?"
"I'm devoted to my son and my nephew, Soren."
"Do not question my devotion as a father, Mordecai. I just wish he'd learn something before I leave this plane."
"I can't think about that," Louis said, his eyes shining. "I know it was my own fault, and I was desperate, or I wouldn't have gone to Uncle Mordecai. I'm just glad he has a heart."
"You still need to pay me back, dear nephew."
Louis swallowed nervously. "It's just nice to know that I can still pick a winner."
"Who won?" Father asked.
"Silver Bullet," David told him. "I won five hundred dollars."
"Reese, don't gamble," Louis said. "It may just cost you." He smiled crookedly, but his eyes were still full of sadness.
"I'm still angry at him for causing us to-"
"Soren! Not helping!" Dad shouted. "He feels bad enough about it without you always harping on him. Sometimes people need help, and there's nothing wrong with that. It only becomes a problem if you don't learn from your mistakes or take advantage."
"Which he does."
"Soren, you're being a dick. Quit it."
Louis stuck his tongue out at his father, which he received a smack on the back of the head for.
We played a few more games, and then Sarah came over with the dogs to meet David. They all liked him, especially Lola. They were practically soulmates. Coffee hated him, like she does all men. Spunk, Jasmine, and Koda liked him. Scooter was a little wary, possibly because Uncle Soren was there, and he hates him.
Shadowfang came over in his human form, and he sniffed David while still in human form. David was confused and disturbed, and I told Shadow to keep his nose to himself. He changed to cat form, and sat on my lap while the dogs played and Sarah texted her friends.
Something bothered me. Why was Scarlett there when we went to pick up Jasmine and Lola? Why was she reappearing in our lives? And what did Satira really want? And how did she meet Cholena, and how did Kole fit into all this?
Kole had come by occasionally to say hi and to ask a few questions about vampire life, but she still wouldn't say who created her or why. My father thought she might have been abandoned by her creator-that happens sometimes. But since we were already a formed coven, she didn't want to interfere, which I found odd, since most fledglings are desperate for a connection, especially if they've been abandoned by their creator or had a broken mate-bond or even came from a broken coven.
I rubbed Jasmine's soft short-furred white head and she gave me a smile that only a pitbull could give. I was a little impressed, since most dogs don't like me, and I don't normally like dogs. But I'd have to form a relationship with these dogs, because as I said, Jasmine was meant to be a therapy dog for Sarah and Lola was Jasmine's sister and bond.
Sarah confessed to me that Lola was meant as a gift to Sabine, but the little brat was ungrateful. Sisters of different species, bonded in friendship and blood. Koda and Scooter were meant as companions for Spunk for when Sarah had to travel, since Coffee hated dogs as well as men. Koda, a husky, was a beautiful male with a bright personality and full of love. Scooter was still a Boston terrier puppy, and still coming out of his shell.

Koda put his paw on my leg, and Shadowfang sat up and pawed at Koda's head.
"Be nice," I warned him, scratching Koda's head.
"The dog says that feels good," Shadow said. "He likes his new family."
"Good, because we like him."
"I don't."
"That's because you're a cat. Can't you at least be civil?"
Shadow pretended to meow then, and Koda gave him a big, sloppy kiss.
"What else did you get Sarah?" David asked as he and Father played poker.
"I gave her some money for her wedding dress and accessories. I hired the best makeup artist in Denmark to do her makeup and a world-renowned hairstylist to do her hair."
"You spoil her," Father said. "I mean, shopping sprees, horses, cars, dogs..."
"She's growing," I said. "You can definitely tell she's pregnant now."
"I noticed. She's beautiful, Reese. Even more beautiful than before. Your mother was the same way-when she was pregnant with Selena, she glowed. You gave her a harder time because you weighed so much?"
"How much did he weigh?" David asked.
"Thirty-two pounds."
"Dad," I said, "No baby weighs thirty-two pounds when they're born."
"Okay, twelve pounds."
"I think you're telling a tall one."
"Okay, eight pounds."
"That's at least more reasonable."
"You were a little chunk, though. Of course, you got skinnier as you grew up, and now you're a stick."
We were distracted by Louis, who came in, wearing reindeer antlers.
"I, um..." he trailed off. "I lost a bet."
"What did you do this time?" Father asked.
"I got feelings for someone new. Dad bet me this headband that I couldn't go two months without liking someone new. And I did, and he caught me. The only problem is, I'm still dating Paul."
"I'm amazed," I said. "You're still with Paul? You've been with him for months now."
"Who did you fall for now?" Father asked.
Louis looked humiliated. He would have been blushing if vampires could blush. It's not easy to embarrass him, either.
I noticed David sneak a peek at Dad's cards, but said nothing. Cheater. Unfortunately, Dad noticed, too.
"Nice try, son," he said, smiling at my new brother. Now David was embarrassed. "I'll get the chessboard set up."
Louis took off the antlers and sat beside David. "I can give you some pointers, dude."
"No cheating, Louis," Father warned. "That's how I beat you the last hundred times."
"Um, Dad?" David began. "I, um...I don't know how to play chess."
We all gave him horrified looks.
"You've never played chess?" I asked.
"I'm up for learning how, though."
"Good boy," Father said. "It's a shame others don't share your thirst for knowledge and would rather cheat." He aimed the last sentence at Louis, who stuck his tongue out at Father.
"Who do you like now?" I asked Louis.
"Uh...nobody."
Father frowned at him. "Louis."
"Okay, fine. Well, you know, Cholena's pretty hot-"
"Oh, no. No, no, no. You are not falling for that girl," Father snapped. "I don't trust her one bit, and neither should you."
Louis scowled, then crossed his arms and sulked like the grown toddler he was.
Father taught David how to play chess, with Louis giving David bad advice the whole time.
"No, don't move there, or you'll put your queen in danger."
"Hey, Louis?" I broke in.
"If you tell me to shut up, Reese, I'll cut all your hair off."
I wisely kept my mouth shut.
"Where's Uncle Soren?" David asked.
"Doing research," Father said. "He's asking around about Kole, trying to find out where the girl came from. And trying to find Satira at the same time, but the old shrew seems to have vanished." \
"You never got along with Satira, did you?" I asked.
"No, I didn't. She treats your mother like shit and introduced Liam Wolfheart to Selena, causing him to believe she was his soulmate. Now she wants your souls. For what purpose, I do not know, but it can't be good. It never is with her."
He and David played chess for a couple hours, while Louis turned on the TV and watched some stupid comedy. I read a book on how to be a good father. I knew the basics of how to change a diaper and feed a baby, but I didn't know how to be a father.
I texted Selena a few times, asking about Mother. She said Mother was still being watched. Luckily the bleeding had almost stopped-she was running on empty. Ethan kept stealing bags of human blood from Mercy Hospital and feeding them to Mother. He was still observing the babies carefully, looking for signs of death or injury. I liked how gentle he was with Mother. He had once told me that he assisted in delivering babies when he was human.
I waited anxiously for news about Mother and my unborn siblings for two weeks. I had partially moved back into Father's house, and Sarah stayed with me. She enjoyed getting to know David, and he enjoyed getting to know her. She told him how we met and began dating, although she didn't mention her trauma or Nales.
Sarah had started drinking coffee again, although it was at least decaf and sugar-free. The poor girl was addicted to the stuff. I enjoyed spoiling her, rubbing her feet and brushing her hair. She also enjoyed me putting my hands on her belly and feeling our babies. She loved being pregnant, except for the morning sickness and constant hunger pains. The girl could eat a horse's weight in junk food.
And she did love her food-spicy jalapeno chips, coffee ice cream, asparagus, cauliflower, decaf mochas, milk, cheese, pizza, French fries, Mentos, cola, and so on. She always wanted food. We constantly got delivery people at the door with Chinese or pizza or Cajun. Father was concerned that all the food would make her sick, and it occasionally did.
She also loved baths. Bubbles, bath bombs, lavender oil, tea tree shampoo, rain-scented perfume, and so on. I once caught her falling asleep in the tub. I carried her to bed where I dried her off and then dressed her in a clean gown and panties.
She would occasionally cry as well. She cried for the smallest things, from a lost book to leaving a blanket on the couch, to a late package, and she cried for big things as well, such as Mother and all of her unlucky pregnancies. We still didn't know anything about what had happened to the babies that were currently inside her.
She worried so much that it made me worry. Her anxiety was through the roof. I made her keep taking her pills every morning and night, before she went to bed and after her breakfast. Even the obnoxiously big ones, which she tried to hide under her tongue. I forced her to open her mouth and checked under her tongue after I caught her flushing a specific pill down the toilet. She would only drink milk with her pills-it was the only thing that didn't upset her stomach.
Selena had all sorts of advice to give, some of it was actually very helpful. She'd been pregnant before several times, and even though she'd lost every single one, she still knew how to handle these things.
Finally, Ethan called me. I put him on speaker, as Sarah and Selena were in the room with me, discussing the best baby necessities.
"What's up?" I replied. I heard sobbing in the background.
"I'm so sorry," Ethan said. "Your mother's fall did...how do I say this? One of the babies has died."
The sobbing grew louder, and I looked at Selena and Sarah, both of whom burst into tears.
"Poor Marina," Sarah said. "Is there anything we can do?"
"Just be there for her," Ethan said. "Don't force her to talk about it or bring it up. There's still a risk that she may lose the other two. Marina, do you want to talk to your kids? Sorry, kids, she doesn't want to talk right now. I'll keep checking in on her every few days and watch the progress of the pregnancy."
"Thank you, Ethan, goodbye," I said, hanging up. I blinked back tears. My poor brother or sister. Screw Alexander. He went too far this time. He'd pay for this.
My father came into the room, looking sad.
"You heard?" I asked, and he nodded.
"Louis, David, and Soren heard as well." He sat beside me and hugged me tightly. "I'm so sorry, Reese. You too, Selena. I promise we'll get revenge on Alexander one day."
My sister burst out sobbing. The guys came into the room and sat beside her. Louis gave a half-hearted attempt at a hug, but Selena pushed him away. He gave her a stung look, and I realized that he cared more than he showed.
However, Sarah accepted hugs from David and Uncle Soren, then they both hugged me. We were all silent, the girls and I crying our hearts out. I cursed Alexander and called him every name I could think of in my head. I needed to destroy something. So I told my family I'd be back and then went into the woods.
I killed an unfortunate coyote, a fox, a bear, and a herd of deer, destroyed many trees, and even cracked a couple of tombstones in the cemetery. I went to the lake and dove to the bottom, tearing up several fish with my teeth. Then I ran around the territory a few times, urinated on a patch of wild roses, and then went back home.
Father informed me that now Selena was out destroying something, and I hoped my sister would be okay. Sarah was still crying, hiccuping. Her wings were starting to poke out of her back, and I took her out to the pool area. Her wings burst out of her back, and she began flying around, half-blinded by her tears, trying to get her anger out of her system.
I'd seen Sarah upset on a few occasions. Frustration, anxiety, sadness, and irritation were common with her. Rarely had I seen her truly angry as she was now. Her beautiful brown skin turned tomato red, and she began shouting expletives at the top of her lungs. I didn't try to stop her, I just let her vent.
Our heartbreak continued on even as we prepared to leave for Denmark to get ready for the wedding. Sarah, as usual, packed more than what was necessary, and she helped me remember a few things that I would have forgotten otherwise.
She asked me if she could invite Jamie Williams, and I reluctantly agreed. Our wedding guests would consist of more than friends and family-it would have allied covens, politicians, the Vampire Council, and so on.
I was beginning to get nervous. There was still so much to do. Luckily, I had help. Toby made himself useful on several occasions when I forgot to invite somebody or send money for a plane ticket. I raised his salary in gratitude.
But things got even more stressful when Spencer showed up. He'd been fired for his lack of usefulness during a time which we needed all the guards to be vigilant. And he'd cheated on Toby. Now he wanted Toby back, and he wouldn't take no for an answer.
I heard them arguing in the mornings and at night, and Toby was becoming more and more upset each time.
"Take me back," Spencer said. "We're soulmates, Toby."
"I'm not the one who put my dick in a sixteen-year-old," Toby snarled. "Leave me alone, Spencer. Fuck off."
Uncle Soren appeared then, and glared at Spencer. Spencer wisely slunk away. As Uncle Soren's fledgling, Toby was under his protection.
And another thing: Sabine was missing again. Sarah tried calling and texting her, to no avail. She wouldn't even answer for Beckett or Mother. I couldn't help feeling that I was responsible for her running away.
My own personal heartache came to a head one day, when a visitor from Sarah's past showed up at our door. I was reading a book to Sarah, when the doorbell rang. Since no one was here but us and a couple guards, I gave Toby permission to answer it.
"Hi, is Sarah here?" a shrill female voice asked. Sarah's eyes widened, and she went downstairs as fast as her pregnancy would allow.
"Caitlin?" Sarah asked. At the door was a brown-haired female our age, with dark brown eyes and pale skin. Compared to Sarah, she was rather plain.
"Sarah?" the female looked around at her.
"It is you!" Sarah shouted. A big grin split her beautiful face in half. She and the human hugged each other tightly. "I can't believe it! I haven't seen you since middle school!"
I cleared my throat.
"Oh, Caitlin, this is my fiance, Reese. Reese, this is Caitlin, my best friend from Atlantic City."
Caitlin's eyes widened. "Oh, so this is him? You were right, he is handsome."
"Thank you," I said. "It's nice to meet you, Caitlin." As per custom, I kissed her knuckles.
"How did you find us?" Sarah asked.
Caitlin smiled and rolled her eyes. "Your friend Ariella is the biggest gossip. She said she knew you."
"What are you doing here?" Sarah asked.
"That's another story. Guy problems. And work. I needed to get away. I knew you of all people would understand."
Sarah blinked, and I stood there, not sure what to say. Was Caitlin assaulted by a guy? Did the same thing that happened to Sarah happen to her?
"How do you know Ari?" Sarah continued.
"She and I were friends on Facebook before, just talking, you know, and she said she knew you and mentioned where you live now."
"Ari wouldn't do that," I said automatically. Sarah grabbed my hand and squeezed it, both indicating that she knew that and that I should shut up.
"Why do I get the feeling that you're holding something back, Cait?" Sarah asked. Suddenly, then other girl broke down in tears and began crying loudly. I suspected that it was fake. But Sarah, bless her large heart, looked concerned.
Sarah, something's not right, I thought-spoke to her.
I know, Reese, she thought-spoke back. This is odd. Caitlin used to never fake her tears. She's hiding something, I'm sure of it.
My girl was intelligent.
"Caitlin, what's wrong?" Sarah asked. I looked at her, confused. I would have just told Caitlin to shut up and leave.
"It's been horrible, Sarah," she sobbed. "I'm so torn right now. There are two guys, and they both want me!"
"Really?" Sarah blinked. "Who?"
"You remember Nathan Arnold?"
"How could I forget?" Sarah replied sarcastically. "He pulled my hair all the time and then kissed me in the sixth grade." I growled at that. Sarah squeezed my hand again.
"It's between him...and Jesse Gold."
"That redneck?" Sarah scoffed. "They're both losers, Caitlin. Nathan is an immature man-whore with Peter Pan syndrome and I remember Jesse trying to kiss all the girls. He kissed me once, and it was so gross. We were only thirteen, and he smelled like tobacco and armpit sweat."
"They've both matured," Caitlin sniffed. "If you only met them, Sarah, you'd know why I'm confused."
"But there's more, isn't there?" Sarah prompted.
"Yes, Sarah. I was raped!" Now the girl's tears were real. My heart broke instantly, and I felt sorry for her. Sarah paused, then wrapped her arms around her old friend. "I knew you'd help, Sarah."
Sarah's eyes filled with tears, and I growled at Caitlin for upsetting my mate, then hated myself. The girl had been through a trauma and was quite possibly alone and definitely scared. I didn't know her from Adam. Sarah embraced her friend for a long time, then she invited Caitlin in.
"Mortal Kombat?" Sarah asked. "For nostalgic reasons?"
Caitlin weakly smiled. "I thought you'd never ask."
It's been a while since Sarah played her games, I thought. Maybe Caitlin introduced her to them.
I followed the girls upstairs to my room. Caitlin's nose wrinkled, I assumed because of all the black. I sat on my desk chair while Caitlin and Sarah took the bed.
I watched as Sarah set up the Xbox. She handed Caitlin a controller, and she took the other one.
Caitlin chose Reptile, Sarah chose Rain. The girls played viciously. Sarah sometimes let me win; she wasn't doing that with Caitlin. The minute Rain blew up Reptile, she paused the game and then turned to me.
"Reese, would you mind-?"
"Yeah, I'll go."
I decided to visit a secondhand record store that I hadn't been to in a year. To my disappoinment, they were closing the store, so everything was on sale. I stocked up on Heart, Stevie Nicks, Pink Floyd, Pantera, Metallica, Journey, KISS, and Toto. As soon as I paid, in cash, I left the store just as Scarlett was walking in.
Oh, great.
She paused and looked at me. "Hi, Reese."
"Scarlett."
"What are you doing here?"
I held up my purchases. "I took advantage of the sale."
"That's great. I'm here for some rock. Anything good?"
"I don't know, that depends on your taste."
"I personally prefer classic rock. AC/DC, stuff like that."
"Nice to see you, Scarlett," I lied, then slipped past her into the Barnes & Noble next door.
I looked around and grabbed some religion books, some classic novels, a few teen and young adult that I thought Sarah would like, and I took a peek at the children's section, where a security guard followed me around. He only left me alone after I paid for my books.
I considered putting the purchases in the Nissan, then realized that the heat would be bad for the books and the records. Instead, I ducked into a coffee shop, where I ordered a water and sat reading one of the books. Before long, Scarlett reappeared in the doorway, ordered a caramel macchiato, and sat across from me.
"Let's make a proposal," she said. "You kiss me once, and I don't tell Sarah you cheated on her."
I glared. She was bluffing. She couldn't possibly know that I'd slept with Sadie before she committed suicide. It was during a fight with Sarah, and I had mistaken her words for a breakup. When she sighed and said that we'd simply had a fight, I hated myself instantly even more than I already did.
I didn't want to lose her, not now, not ever. So I'd kept my mouth shut about the affair and hoped no one would find out. Well, Father knew. And Uncle Soren. Other than that, I hoped no one else knew. Louis wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut, and Grandfather would want to get any confessions off his chest before he died.
Still, I stayed firm. "Not happening, Hart."
"Come on, Reese," she said pleadingly. "It's my last chance before I leave for Salem."
"Salem? Seriously, Scarlett?"
She nodded. "Seriously. You can either join me, or lose Sarah. Your choice."
"Number one, I'd lose Sarah with either of those options, two, I don't give in to ultimatums, three, I'd never join you, and four, you disgust me. And five, I won't ever leave Sarah."
"But you've been having doubts, haven't you?"
I blinked.
"Yes, I know all about what goes on in a boy's mind, Reese. You've been having doubts, thinking that maybe, just maybe, there's another boy in her life. Think, Reese. Use your incredible thinking brain. You know as well as I do that there's something about Sarah that draws members of the male variety to her. She has tons of guy friends, and almost all of them have considered fucking her at least once. She has so many options."
I hated to admit it, but she was right. I'd been having doubts. She took my silence as confirmation and nodded.
"You'll never have a better offer, Reese. When's your birthday?"
"The first of October."
"That's tomorrow. Come on, sweetheart, take a deep, unneeded breath and pull me in."
"Don't call me sweetheart. Your words are poisonous, Scarlett Hart. I don't care how beautiful you are, Sarah's beauty surpasses yours in every category, especially her inner beauty. She may not like herself right now, but I do. I adore and worship her. I knew she was different than the rest of you. And I was right. You're a vile, vain, horrid woman, Scarlett. Stay away from me. For the last time, stay away from me."
I grabbed my purchases and left Scarlett there, fuming. When I got home, I heard batches of French coming from upstairs. It was Beckett and Sarah.
"Vraiment, Sarah? Pourquoi Caitlin?" ("Really, Sarah? Why Caitlin?"
"Papa, elle avait peur et avait besoin d'aide. Je sais qu'elle a déjà menti, mais je pense que c'est pour de vrai." ("Papa, I know she's lied before, but I think this is for real. She's scared and needs our help.")
"N'oublie pas, mon amour, elle t'a fait du mal avant ton départ," Beckett said. ("Don't forget, she hurt you before.")
"Je n'ai pas oublié. Mais je suis sur lui depuis des années, papa. J'ai Reese maintenant." ("I haven't forgotten. I've been over him for years, Papa. I have Reese now.")
Stomach roiling, I cleared my throat loudly.
"He's back," Beckett said. I heard tension in his voice.
"Papa, don't be jealous. Reese was my rock when I had no one else."
"I know I'm being irrational, but if I get my hands on him..."
"Papa! Not okay!"
"Okay, okay, I'll control my jealousy. Any sign of your sister?"
"None. She's ignoring all my calls and texts. I can't help feeling guilty-"
"Sarah Harper, don't you dare blame yourself for his mistakes. It was his uncle's fault that the young vampire died."
"It wasn't Soren's fault! It was Samuel who ordered all those murders to be committed, and it was Alana who went through with half of them. No one could have been safe with those two around."
"If Soren had just given him the Book-"
"The Book's dangerous, Papa. No one is supposed to rise from the dead."
"But I did, and I'm glad I'm back. I can protect you now."
"I am, too." I heard the shuffling of clothing, and assumed they were hugging.
"You're my petite rose, dear daughter.That's why I died for you."
"I don't fully understand."
"Sarah, it's quite simple. When you were a baby, you were cursed to die. But I found a loophole. If someone else died in your stead, you would live."
"Papa, if what you're saying is true, you interfered with fate!"
"It was worth it, to watch you blossom and grow from Heaven."
More shuffling of clothing. "I missed you, Papa."
"I missed you too, mi petite rose."
I entered the room, carefully avoiding Beckett's eyes as I sat in my desk chair.
"Where have you been?" he snapped.
"Where's Caitlin?" I redirected.
"In the bath," Sarah said. "Where were you, Reese?"
"I went to the Douglas Plaza. I got you some books, lover."
"Ooh, thank you." I handed her her bag of books and she eagerly looked through them. "I've been wanting to read this one. I was planning to buy this one anyway. This looks interesting. Ooh, a detective story. And a book of fairytales? You know me so well."
"A book of fairytales?" I asked, surprised. "I don't remember picking up a book of fairytales." I took the book from her and thumbed through it. It had all the usuals, like Tom Thumb and Thumbelina, Red Riding Hood, A Midsummer Night's Dream. I was confused. A Shakespeare story in a book of fairytales. Then I realized that its pages had been ripped out and added between Sleeping Beauty and Beauty & the Beast.
Now I was very confused.
"Scarlett," I muttered.
"Huh?" Sarah looked up from her perusal of the pages of the latest great teen novel. "What about her?"
"I met her in the coffee shop. She asked me to leave you, and go to her instead."
"I'm glad you didn't."
"Yeah, me, too."
I kissed her on the cheek, and Beckett raised an eyebrow.

Two days later, I was running to burn off energy, and I was near the lake. I suddenly smelled a vampire smell, and saw a glimpse of white skin. I sniffed the air again. It was a female scent, very old.
I looked around and then sat down by the dock. I smelled grass, flowers, dying leaves, earth, and the scent of the lake. I pulled out my phone and texted Sarah, asking how she was. I spotted a snake suddenly, and edged away. I can't stand snakes. And this was a northern copperhead, one of the most venomous species on Earth. Not that his venom would affect me, but I'd prefer not to get bitten.
"Reese."
I turned around at my name. "Hi, Kole."
She sat down beside me and pulled up some grass. "So I suppose you've figured it out by now?"
"That your creator abandoned you?"
She nodded. "I'm sorry if I bothered you. I'm just so alone, and I have no family or friends to turn to. I was raised in foster care, and I ran away. I guess this was just one time too many, and I got lucky." She said the last part sarcastically. "I didn't even know vampires existed until he bit me. I know he wanted me to do something, but I don't want to do what he says he wants me to do. All I want is for somebody to take care of me and teach me how to be a vampire."
"It's hard sometimes," I said.
"Are there rules I should know about?"
"Yes. One, never drink from another vampire unless the situation is dire. That's one of our biggest laws, because it's considered cannibalism. For another, try to drink from bagged blood, and don't kill humans." She winced at that. "Or, since you already have," I began, and she looked guilty, "try to hide the body. Don't ever take another vampire's mate, that's another big law. If you're an animal or plant drinker,-"
"Animal drinkers? Plant drinkers?"
I nodded. "Animal and plant drinkers do exist, but it's considered taboo to drink from an animal. It's ridiculous, because it doesn't give us the right nutrition or satisfy us like human blood does. And all you'll get is a constant thirst. Plant drinkers, or chlorophyll eaters, only drink plant juice. I don't know how many there are or when they were created, but they're slowly dying out. I've never met one yet. I've met some animal drinkers, though, and they are the most pretentious, egotistical tools in the vampire race. I had a girl try to convert me years, ago, but I ignored her."
Kole nodded, taking in all this information.
"There is a Vampire Council in addition to the royal family, and there are twelve members, the head of which is Bram Sterling. He hates us, because we overrule him. The rivalry between us and the Council is ongoing and constant, and it will probably end in death. I don't know all the Council members' names, but I know a few."
She nodded again, absorbing her lesson in vampire rules and laws.
"We used to have a Law of Secrecy, but it was abolished years ago. It doesn't matter anymore-most humans don't believe we exist, anyway. My family and I admitted on television that we exist, and we created our own vampire channel, called VStation. It's all about vampires. Shows, movies, news, and so on."
"And what about mates?" she asked.
"When you see your mate, you'll know it's them almost immediately. A mate is the most precious, worthwhile thing in our existence, and there are so many fewer females than males, which is why they are so coveted. Without a mate, a vampire will get depressed, isolate himself. He'll slowly be driven into madness by his loneliness and will eventually go off the deep end or commit suicide. If a mate dies, their death is mourned."
I paused. I looked at Kole; she was staring at me intently.
"Um, Kole?" I said nervously.
"Yes, Reese?" She fluttered her dark eyelashes.
"I'm in love with Sarah. Normally vampires only date other vampires or humans, but Sarah...she's not all human. We only recently discovered that she's actually part fairy."
She blinked. "She is? Well, she's very lucky to have you. I'm jealous of her."
If I could blush, I would have then. "I'd say I'm lucky to have her."
"How can I find my mate?"
"Just be patient. He'll come to you eventually. Fate always finds a way, and the Fates are hard to change."
I leaned back and watched as a turtle poked its head out of the water. It stared at me for a moment, then dived back down. I looked at Kole, who was stretched out on the dock, her legs spread out sexily and her elbows on the ground.
If I didn't have Sarah, I'd consider dating Kole. She was hot, for one thing, and for another, she was alone, and needed vampire company. Just like my Sarah.
Then I heard the flapping of gigantic wings, and Sarah landed softly between us, her purple wings spread out.
"Hello, Reese," she said, wrapping her arms around me and kissing me sloppily on the cheek. "Hi, Kole." Did I detect a note of jealousy in her voice?
"Sarah," Kole replied, nodding at her. Sarah sat beside me and folded her wings. I kissed her back on the lips, and she left a Divine Crimson lipstick mark on my cheek and lips. I was amused at her possessiveness. The girl adored me as much as I adored her. She practically sat on my lap, wrapping a wing around me and stretching out the other wing to keep Kole away.
For a while we just sat there, listening to the sounds of the woods and the lake. Occasionally a fish jumped or a turtle poked its head out. I saw snakes under the water and minnows. I watched as a turtle ate a minnow. Predator and prey. Me and Sarah. I kissed my girl's soft brown hair, smelling her favorite Aveda shampoo and conditioner.
"Will you sing to me, Reese?" Sarah asked, fluttering her pretty lashes. Kole scowled. Sarah turned around and smiled sweetly to the other girl. "Reese is extremely musical. He plays the guitar and the piano, and he writes songs, and his singing isn't bad, either."
"Flatterer," I said, and then I started singing "The Rose", which was one of Sarah's favorites. Both girls stared at me in amazement as my bass voice hit the low notes and the high notes. When I finished the song, they clapped.
"Well, girls, it's getting late," I said. "Do you want to go home?"
"Carry me," Sarah said, pulling in her wings and smiling flirtatiously. She held out her arms to me, and I picked her up. Kole's scowl got deeper, and we started the trek home. Along the way, I gave Kole tips on how to hunt safely and legally. Also, how to avoid vampire slayers. Sarah had already heard all of this, and she closed her eyes and purred, leaning her head against my chest.
When we got home, David and Louis were wrestling, Uncle Soren was working on his motorcycle, and my father was smoking a cigarette on the porch. Shadowfang lay near the lilac bushes, purring and twitching his tail.
When he saw Kole, David nipped Louis to end the tournament, and Louis conceded. He brushed himself off and smiled at her. Kole took his hand and he twirled her around, then kissed her knuckles.
Uncle Soren sat up, wiped his hands on a rag, and frowned at David and Kole. I knew he didn't trust either of them; frankly, I didn't, either, not Kole, at least. But they seemed to be getting along with each other.
We still didn't know that much about either of them, although Father tried to get David to open up.
"Oh, happy birthday, Reese," David said, looking at me. "Dad told me that it was your birthday on the first. How does it feel to be nineteen?"
"Same as being eighteen," I replied. "Sarah's birthday is in Febraury."
"An Aquarius?" David asked. Sarah nodded.
"Yep. I'm an Aquarius. Reese is a Libra."
"Sagittarius," Louis said, gesturing to himself.
"Taurus," Uncle Soren broke in.
"Cancer," Father said.
"What about you, Toby?" I asked.
"Leo," he replied. It was then that I noticed a gun on his belt.
"Why do you have a gun, Toby?"
He looked baffled at my question. "To defend you and Sarah, of course."
"Guns don't work on vampires."
"It doesn't kill us," Uncle Soren said, "But it can still cause injury."

 

 

,

Prologue
Whatever I'd been expecting, it hadn't been this. So far, I'd nearly lost Sarah to vampires, werewolves, other males, her family, and herself. But losing her to our children? I could not make an impossible decision.

 

CHAPTER ONE - SHE'S BACK

No matter how many times I saw her, I was still amazed at her Aphrodisian looks. Her selflessness, her kindness, her willingness to overlook my deepest flaws and see how much I loved her.
She was finally back after her summer in France on her family's farm. She was greatly tanned-even more tanned than usual-and her brown curly hair had been highlighted and cut to her shoulders. She had gained back much needed weight, and she had been working out. She had more musculature to her arms, legs, and abs.
What's more, she was finally happy. She was sad to leave her family, but happy to be back in front of me. She'd been taking her medication as prescribed, including her seizure and heart medication.
"Reese?"
I blinked. Then I woke up from my daydream.
"Come in, Sarah," I said.
She threw her arms around me immediately and kissed my jaw.
"I love you," she said.
"I love you most," I replied. As I'd said before, she would never have any conception of just how much I loved her. I would take a bullet for her.
"I missed you," she said. "I'm so glad I finally got to see you. I haven't been feeling great these past few days."
"I know, love, I heard. Selena told me." My sister had texted me two days before, updating me on the situation. Sarah had had a bad case of sun fever, and had gotten sick. She was better now, after lots of water and cool air.
Now that our high school career was over, I couldn't wait to marry her. We had planned the day for the Winter Solstice, on the day that Mom and Alexander had gotten married. But she needed lots of rest first, and we needed to plan our new life together, maybe even buy a house. Not a big one, two or three bedrooms max, just a starter home.
One room for us, one room for the baby, and a room for the guests.
Suddenly, she ran to the bathroom, and I heard her retching. A few minutes later, she came back out.
"Can I borrow your sweatpants?" she asked.
"Of course," I said, walking up to my room with her following behind. I gave her a pair of my old boxers, and she changed, tossing her wet jeans and underwear in the laundry hamper. I'd steal those later. She changed into my old black sweatpants, and then she sat on my bed, holding her stomach.
"I must have eaten some bad chicken," she said. "Come to think of it, I've been eating a lot of bad chicken lately."
"Stop eating chicken," I said.
"That's probably a good idea. Even Zie, who normally cooks really well, hasn't been having much luck with chicken lately."
Zie Huang was their cook and housekeeper. She also babysat Cirino sometimes. Cirino was Sarah's first baby, the one conceived by Michael Nales, whom I had destroyed after he raped her.
She ran to the bathroom again, and this time I made her stay in there until her stomach was completely empty. I gave her an unused toothbrush to brush her teeth with. I was glad she had her hair in its usual bun, or she'd have to take a shower to get the vomit out of her hair. Not that I minded loaning her my clothes. In fact, she frequently stole my clothes. I had been looking for a shirt or a jacket more than once only to realize she'd taken it.
I loaned her one of my band shirts next. She laid on the bed next.
"Period problems?" I asked.
"No," she said. "I haven't had any period...well, I do still have cramps, but no blood."
"Ah," I said. "Would you like to watch a movie, or would you like me to read to you?"
"Read," she said. She produced a book from her purse, which she'd set on the carpet. "Read this one. It's the latest vampire hit."
"Blood Night, by Jamie Williams," I read off the cover. "When are you going to get over him?"
"Um, never," she said.
"A tale of intrigue, romance, passion, lust, and rivalry," I continued. "When Dirk Zoeller moves to small town Indrigo, cheerleaders' hearts get broken and football players plot a dangerous prank against the one person they shouldn't mess with. How very fascinating."
"Read," she commanded.
"Fine. 'It was a dusky night when I approached the graveyard. The stars were covered by the dark clouds, the graves crooked and cracked. I almost did not see the ghost girl until it was too late.' Sarah, this is dreck."
"Read."
"'I approached the girl cautiously. She sat, staring ahead. She was dressed in old-fashioned clothing, closer to my time than this time. She wore a long grey dress with puffed sleeves and ruffled wrists. Her petticoat was visible under the hem. She wore old riding boots. Her hair was blond, meticulousy curled and pinned in a high updo. She did not react, nor stir, as I approached her. Then, as I stopped a foot away, her head slowly turned, and then I realized that her throat had been slit.'"
"Wow."
Wow, indeed. I would have never admitted this to Sarah, but as I moved deeper into the story, I grew interested as well. This was actually a decent story. When the ghost's skin melted away to reveal muscle and bone underneath, I actually shuddered. When she screamed for him to leave, to stay away, Sarah shuddered and climbed into my lap.
It was interesting, until we got to the part where he registered for high school and was immediately stalked by a cheerleader. Sarah had been a cheerleader, so I kind of understood the need for cheerleaders to keep up their image.
Finally, I heard the doorbell ring, interrupting our story time.
Since no one else was home, it was up to me to answer the door.
I went down, Sarah following close behind, and opened the door. A tall vampire with yellow eyes and long blond hair in a ponytail stood there, looking nervous.
"Is this the home of Mordecai Emerson?" he asked, sounding as nervous as he looked.
"What business do you have with my father?" I asked. "Vampires don't normally come to this house unless they're nomads or rogues."
"I...uh..." He turned and looked at Sarah. "I can see I'm interrupting something. I'll just...come back later."
He turned around and trotted down the steps, getting into a beautiful black 1976 Impala.
"That was weird," Sarah said. "What did he want with Mordecai?"
"He didn't say," I told her. "But do you know who he looks like?"
She nodded. "He looks like Mordecai."
"Mmm," I hummed.
We'd had vampires claiming to be sons of my uncle and Louis before, even a couple claiming to be Grandfather's long-lost sons, but they'd all been proven to be fakes. But this could have been real.
He looked like my father, for one thing. For another, he was nervous. Vampires claiming to be related to us were never nervous. They were usually confident, or at least pretending to be.
Sarah took a bathroom break, and I fixed her a glass of iced tea.
Just then, Father came in, glaring.
"I smell vampire," he said.
"Yes, something unusual happened," I said. "A vampire came by looking for you. He looks like you, even."
"A vampire who looks like me came looking for me?" His brows furrowed.
"Hey, Dad, is it possible that you have a son somewhere?" I asked.
"I suppose it's possible," he said, frowning. "I've had many, many lovers over the years. I can't remember all their names."
He sniffed the air. "Is Sarah here?"
"She's in the bathroom-"
The doorbell rang, interrupting me again. Father and I looked at each other, and he opened the door. But it was only Louis, carrying a large box.
"You'll never guess what I found!" he said happily. "
"Vinyl records?" I guessed. It turned out, I was right. When he set the box down, I looked inside, and saw a dozen vinyl records.
"Yep! Let's see...Barry Manilow, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Heart, Joan Jett, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd, Stevie Nicks, Nick Cave...a lot of good ones. I found them at a garage sale. Do you know how rare these are? You don't see much of them around anymore. When they came out with the record player, I was one of the first ones to jump on board."
"He was," Father confirmed.
"Whatcha got there?"
"Where have you been?" I asked my familiar, Shadowfang. He jumped on the table, tail swishing.
"Out in the garden. I killed five snakes, and ate a grasshopper. He was tasty."
"What is it with you and snakes?" I asked.
He avoided answering the question, and instead he looked inside the box. He started to jump in, but Louis grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and set him on the floor.
"Not on the records!"
Louis took the box of records up to his room, and Shadowfang sat in front of the fireplace and pouted about his box being taken away.
"Where's Mishka?" I asked.
"Taking a nap, I expect," Shadowfang replied. "She was playing with the kids earlier." The kids being the kittens, Catniss and Belle. Their son Frodo had gone to live with my best friend, Ariella, and Anakin had gone to live with Mason, my other best friend. They were all familiars, and therefore could take human form at any time. Shadowfang even had a driver's license. His human form was a tall, tanned man with black hair and a thin shadow of a beard with dark brown eyes. His cat eyes were, in fact, yellow.
The door opened again, and my Uncle Soren entered the house, looking as grumpy as ever. He and Father had both lost their loves in the spring. My uncle had taken it especially hard because he and Mitra were on the rocks, so to speak, when she had died. He still blamed himself.
"There is a kid out in the driveway," he growled. "Just sitting there in a black Impala."
"What?" My father went out to look. "I wonder why Louis or I didn't see him?"
"He could have left and then come back," I offered.
"He could have." Father's brows furrowed further. I noticed for the first time that he was starting to look like he was in his mid-thirties. Before that, he looked like he could be in his early thirties or even late twenties. He was over two thousand years old, but he hadn't looked this tired or old before. I knew what Louis had had told me before, though, when I questioned him about Grandfather: all vampires age differently. Some look their age. Others don't age at all. Ones who were humans or Elves before are frozen in time, so to speak.
But natural-borns, like my father, slowly aged over time. Someday, I would look as old as him. My uncle looked like he could be in his late thirties or early forties, and my Grandfather looked like he could be in his fifties, with not a grey hair to spare. His hair was still as vibrant a red as it had ever been. My uncle's hair had a burgundy tone, and my father's was blond. Louis had light brown hair, and my hair is jet black.
We all have similar body types, except for my uncle, who is broad in the shoulders, chest, and stomach, with trunks for legs and the thickest, most muscular arms I've ever seen. He was known not only for being the next king in line, but for his physical strength as well.
The rest of us are thin and muscular.
Sarah finally came out of the bathroom, and greeted my family. Father's nose wrinkled, and so did my uncle's. I was confused. Did she stink? She smelled wonderful to me. Like gardenias and roses and Spanish amber.
Belle finally came out of the cat tree where she'd been hiding, twining herself around Sarah's legs.
"Hi, girl," Sarah said, scratching her ears. Belle chirped and purred.
"It's good to see you, Sarah," Father said.
"You, too, Mordecai," she said. She looked at me.
"He knows about the guy who came by earlier," I said. "Apparently, he's sitting in our driveway right now."
"I hope he's not another crazy," she said.
Ever since my father had spilled the beans about the vampire race's existence, many of my kind had not been happy with us, and even Sarah had gotten death threats, not that she knew about them, which I was grateful for. I still got death threats daily, not only from vampires, but from humans, Elves, goblins, and other beings.
Then the doorbell rang a third time, and Uncle Soren answered it this time. There was the vampire from earlier.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
"Yes." The vampire shuffled his feet. "Can I speak to Mordecai?"
"I'm Mordecai," Father said, offering his hand. "Come in, young man. Please, take a seat."
The vampire boy sat on the couch, and he looked uncomfortable.
"My name is David," he blurted out. "David McCurt."
"It's nice to meet you, David," Father said. "Now, what can I do for you?"
"I...I'm...I'm..." David closed his eyes and swallowed. "I'm your son." He kept his eyes closed, and for a moment no one said anything, until we heard Louis' laughter from upstairs.
"LOUIS! SHUT UP!" Uncle Soren shouted, making David jump and Louis laugh louder.
David scratched his arm, and I noticed small scars on his arm, which looked like they could be from fingernails or even knives.
"I apologize for them," Father said to David. "Now, what makes you think that you're my son?"
"My mother...Ferri McCurt...before she died, she said she had a relationship with you."
"Ferri?" Father frowned. "That was twenty-five years ago. That would mean..." His eyes widened and he looked at David again. I saw Father swallow. Then he leaned over and embraced David. David looked shocked for a minute, then hugged Father back.
"It's so good to meet you!" Father exclaimed. "I had always thought Reese was my only kid. I've had other vampires say they were my sons or daughters, but they all turned out to be fakes. But you're real. You're real. I can't believe this. Soren, he's real."
"Yeah, and so is his Impala," Uncle Soren sarcasted.
"Ferri was well off," Father said. He looked at David. "How did she die?"
"She had porphyria," David explained. Father frowned, then looked at me. I knew what he was thinking. I had porphyria, too, one of the most dangerous vampire diseases. You lose your mind at random times, and you can't control it. It also thins your blood and creates dangerous levels of iron, poisoning your blood. Not even vampire venom is helpful at that point.
"Reese has porphyria, too," Father said. David frowned and looked at me.
"He does?"
"He does, indeed. Tell, me, David, do you have accommodation?"
"I'm staying in my car."
"Poppycock. I insist you stay with us."
"Uh, Mordecai, can I see you in the kitchen?" Uncle Soren asked.
"Soren, look at him," Father snapped, gesturing to David. "The similarities are overwhelming!"
"Yes, but we've been down this road before, and they've all been fakes," Uncle Soren reminded him.
"Soren, he's my son. I know he is. My gut is screaming that he is, and my gut is never wrong."
"Yeah, well, my gut says otherwise. I'm sorry, David, but I don't trust you. If I am wrong, I will apologize, but if I'm right, you are never to speak to any of us ever again. Do I make myself clear?"
David gulped and nodded. I saw tears prick his eyes.
"He can stay in the bedroom by mine and Reese's," Father said. "I don't trust you around him, Soren."
Uncle Soren gave him the finger. David looked shocked.
"They have a love-hate relationship," I explained. "It depends on their moods and what sort of insults they've thrown at each other recently."
Uncle Soren stood up and stomped up the stairs. I heard Louis yelp, and then a door slamming.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
Louis came down the stairs seconds later and introduced himself to David.
"I'm Louis, the awesome one," he said, shaking David's hand. "And yes, I'm currently dating a shapeshifter, but I promise he won't give you any trouble. Reese is also dating a human, but she won't be human for long." He winked at me. I glared at him.
"Louis, if you're not going to behave, get out," Father ordered. "Come, David, I'll show you to your room." Father did show David to his room, my new brother looking uncomfortable the whole way there. I thought about Rosales, my father's fledgling who had been like a son to him.
I'd never met Rosales, but I'd heard about him. He had died before I was conceived.
Sarah cuddled into me, and then she said, "Um, the book?"
"Book? Oh, right, I was reading to you before, wasn't I?"
I carried her up the stairs, followed closely by Belle and Shadowfang.
"We were at the part where he was insulting the football captain," Sarah said.
But before I got through the chapter, she fell asleep in my lap. I tucked her into my bed and kissed her. I thought about David. I'd never had a brother before. Louis often said that I was like a brother to him, and I had Kieran, Alexander's son, as a stepbrother.
And then there was Cirino, who was like an adopted brother. There was Taran and Viktor, my ex-stepbrothers, although I didn't really know them, as my mother had been married to their father before I re-met her.
Sarah snoozed, mumbling incoherently.
"That's not right," she muttered, her eyelids fluttering.
I kissed her and stroked her hair. She muttered again, this time she said my name. Reese. I focused my hearing on David, and I carefully left my room and closed the door. I went to the room that Father had put David in. I heard them talking. I knocked on the door.
"Come in," Father said. "It's okay, David, it's just Reese."
I entered the room, and David was sitting on the bed, with Father standing over him. I closed the door behind me.
"So...you’re my brother," I said.
David nodded.
“Okay, um…what do you want to know?” I asked.
“Everything,” he said.
“Okay, well, you know me, obviously. And you’ve met my girlfriend, Sarah. Fiancée, actually. She’s going to officially be my wife in December, on the Winter Solstice. We’re currently working on the invitations and everything. I met her four years ago, but we first got together two years ago. She had been….assaulted…and I saved her. I started dating her and testified against Michael Nales on her behalf.”
“Do you have any other siblings? And what about you, Father? Are you married?”
“No, I’m not married, but I do have another brother, an adopted one, named Mathias. We have a history, so to speak. I don’t talk about him much, and don’t ever mention him in front of Soren. He’s sensitive about it. Not about having an adopted brother, but Mathias has had a long and difficult life. My brother and I were partly to blame for that…actually, we were fully to blame for it. It’s a long and tragic story, but it is important to our family history. Reese didn’t even know it until recently. I regret not telling him sooner, but I didn’t think he was ready.”
“Father babies me,” I told David.
“I do,” Father admitted. “I can’t help it. A vampire parent’s instincts are much stronger than a human’s instincts, especially the maternal instinct. The relationship between Reese and I or Marina and her children are the norm, while relationships like Soren’s and Louis’ are rare. Louis can barely stand Soren these days. Resents, him, I think, for the tragedies he’s caused and the strife he’s put us through. Soren himself is sensitive about it, so again, don’t mention it in front of him. Soren blames himself for our mother’s death and the death of his wife, Alga. He also blames himself for the recent events that caused turmoil for us.”
“What are those events?” David asked.
Father explained about the Book of Transformation and Death, how it had caused problems for centuries, what had occurred that time in the Night Market with Uncle Soren and Samuel, how Alana was powerful and magical, and how Samuel Jr. had been killed in the process, and Samuel’s plan for revenge, and the spell that resurrected the dead.
David listened with rapt attention, his eyes going wider and wider with every few lines of description and clarification.
I could tell he was confused, but he still listened carefully, as if it was the most important piece of the puzzle. After the explanation, David actually looked paler, if that was possible. And then Father told David that the book had been destroyed, but the spells were still in effect.
My brother looked both amazed and confused.

I heard the telltale sound of my stepfather’s Bugatti Veyron that he’d bought for my mother for their wedding. I headed outside, along with Sarah, who was now sipping an iced tea. There was a passenger in my mother’s car, and when she stepped out, I was amazed at how much she looked like Mother and Selena.
Her skin was rough, her eyes lined with crow’s feet, her hair just as wildly curly, long, and the color of black ink. She had the same crystal-blue eyes, the same curvy figure, with exaggerated hips and chest. She wore a long crimson velvet skirt and a fitted brown top. On her feet she wore flat boots.
“Is this him?” she asked in an ancient-sounding Greek accent. “You’re right; he is handsome. He has my hair color, but he’s got your father’s nose.” The woman laughed. “A family curse, eh, Marina?” Mom didn’t say anything.
“Just who do you think you are?” Sarah asked, and I quickly covered her mouth with my hand.
“Watch your tongue, girl, before I snatch it from your mouth. I can turn you into a toad easily with a snap of my fingers.”
“She apologizes,” I apologized.
“And so protective of that insolent little harlot!”
“Watch it,” Mother warned. “She’s my child just as much as he is.”
“But she’s not actually your child, is she?” The woman laughed.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, I jumped, but it was only Father, along with David, Louis, and Uncle Soren.
“Hello, Satira,” he said glumly.
She nodded at him. “Mordecai.”
“Dad, who is this?” I asked.
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing, and he looked at Mother, who nodded.
“My mother-in-law, also known as your grandmother,” he said.
“Cranky old bitch, isn’t she?” Louis said.
Satira eyed him. “And just who are you, the king of royally irritating self-centered annoying little brats?”
“Hey, I may be a brat, but one thing I am not is self-centered.”
Uncle Soren snorted.
“More relatives?” I groaned. “Are there any more I should know about? Maybe a third cousin or two?”
“It was your mother’s decision not to tell you about her, not mine,” Father said.
Satira shook her head. “Shameful.”
“I don’t tell you about every girlfriend I’ve ever had,” Father said.
“Have you been married before Mom?”
“Oh, sure…plenty of times. But it never produced anything. I think I’m a seed that’s meant to bear only one fruit, and that’s you. I mean, you and David,” he said, glancing back at my brother.
Satira shook her head. “A man who can’t produce any seeds is a man who does not deserve to live.”
“Mother!” Mom shouted. “What about me? None of my babies lived until I became a vampire.”
Satira merely shook her head again. “When I was human, I was a midwife. I helped deliver babies of the royal court. I nursed them and bathed them. When I married Balthazar, I knew I would have lots of little ones, but I only produced you and your sisters.”
“Are my sisters and I not enough?”
“What’s the point of having lots of babies if I do not produce at least one son?”
“Old-fashioned old buzzard,” Louis muttered. “Do you know that some women choose not to have babies at all? And that’s okay. I mean, it’s their decision.”
I was surprised to hear something so feministic coming out of his mouth.
“I was forced to have a baby,” Sarah said, and we all looked at her. “Lady, I was raped. I got pregnant, and I couldn’t abort him due to family values. So I was forced to have a C-section, because I’m too small down there to have a safe birth. I’m still his mother, but part of me wishes he’d been born to somebody else…Marina, maybe. She’s a better mother than I ever could be.”
“Mouthy girl,” Satira said. She turned and crossed her arms, then grinned over her shoulder. “I see the Major Arcana,” she said. “The Lovers. Eilief is the Hierophant. Krauvas is the Magician.”
“You know Krauvas?” I interrupted.
“Shush, boy. And yes, I know Krauvas. He and I used to date. My daughter is the Mother.”
“There is no Major Arcana called the Mother,” Sarah interrupted this time. “I know. I’ve been studying the cards.”
“Soren is the Hanged Man,” Satira continued. “Mordecai is Justice.”
“What’s she talking about?” I asked.
“She’s comparing us to tarot cards, specifically the Major Arcana,” Sarah said. Then she turned to Satira. “Why don’t you just tell us what you want and get it over with?”
“Don’t be rude, Sarah,” I warned.
“She’s right to be rude,” Mother said. “My mother never wants anything to do with any of us unless she wants something. What is it this time? Money? Wine?”
“I have an offer to make,” Satira said.
Silence. And then. “No. No freaking way.”
“Don’t listen to her, kids,” Dad said. “She is a master of the dark arts. She’d twist a knife in your back as soon as you turn it.”
“Is resurrection really such a bad thing?” Satira asked.
“Lady, we don’t know what the fuck you’re babbling about,” Louis snapped.
“Yes, resurrection is normally considered black magic,” Dad said.
“Unless you mean the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” Sarah added.
“No, girl, I don’t mean the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I mean the resurrection of Sadie and Faolan.”
“She’s lying,” Father said. “Don’t listen to her. Magic always has a price. What do you want, Satira? And no bullshit this time.”
“I want the souls of Reese and Selena,” Satira said.
It all happened in a flash. Mother turned and slugged her own mother, and Satira was on the ground, holding a fat lip.
“You’re not taking my children!” Mother cried.
“What’s so bad about taking their souls?” David asked. It was the first time he’d spoken up.
“They will still be alive, but they won’t be themselves,” Father said. “What makes them them will cease to exist. They will become vampire zombies.”
“Cool,” Louis said. Uncle Soren whacked him on the back of the head. “I mean, not cool. I mean, that’s something I didn’t know about, and I know everything.”
He was sadly mistaken in that regard. Uncle Soren made to hit Louis again, but this time he flinched, and Uncle Soren backed off.
Satira picked herself up off the ground, still holding her left cheek. Huh. I had not seen Mother hit her cheek, only her mouth. But pain can travel sometimes, so maybe that was it. Then a girl appeared, and Uncle Soren let out a whoop.
The girl looked amazingly like Mitra. Same hairstyle and shade, same sharp features and almond-shaped brown eyes, same thin body type with small breasts and a cute butt. She wore a faded white t-shirt that referenced Wonder Woman, pale blue jeans, and military-style boots. She carried a backpack around her back and a brown crossbody purse.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a wand. She handed it to Satira, who said, “Thank you, Cholena.” Satira turned to us. “I believe you’re all familiar with the child of Mitra Dearwood and Katonah Wolfe?”
“The child of Mitra…” Uncle Soren began. He stared at the girl, who glared back.
“You killed my mother.” It wasn’t a question, more of a statement. Her voice was soft and dainty, slightly high-pitched. It was different from Mitra’s big booming alto voice.
“So is your last name Dearwood or Wolfe?” Louis asked.
“It’s hyphenated,” Cholena replied. “Which one of you is Soren?”
“That would be me,” Uncle Soren said. “I loved your mother, Cholena, and she loved me. She was torn between her vows to your father and her unconditional love for me.”
Her features softened, and she started to approach him. Chirag, one of our guards, made a move to stop her, but Uncle Soren told Chirag to let her approach him.
She slowly approached him, and it struck me how tiny she was, especially compared to him. She was shorter than Sarah, and thinner than Mitra. I could almost see her ribs through her shirt.
She looked at all of us, her eyes lingering on Sarah, who stared back icily. I wondered if she had lady-loving inclinations. And then she kicked Uncle Soren in the crotch.
He fell over, clutching his privates, cursing her out loud.
“You’re responsible for my mom’s death, pencil-dick, so I feel plenty justified,” Cholena said.
“Fucking bitch,” he cursed. She stomped on his hand, cracking the bones. I heard him cry out again, and then he grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her to the ground. She landed on her back, and he dragged her, so she was level with him.
He grabbed her head and started to twist it, and I shouted, “Uncle Soren, think of who she is!”
He growled, but he stopped trying to snap her neck at least.
He grabbed her by the throat and held her up off the ground by three feet. “Try that again and I won’t be so merciful, girl.”
He dropped her onto the ground where she lay, coughing.
I predicted that these two would be crazy about each other in a matter of days.
“She’s just like Mitra, isn’t she?” Satira gloated. “Strong and powerful. The Ancient Feminine is incredibly pleased with the Dearwood women.”
“How did you meet her?” I asked.
“Through a friend. Quite a coincidence, really.”
“You’re not telling the whole story.”
“Oh, the whole story will eventually come out. But not today. What do you think of her, Soren?”
Uncle Soren grumbled under his breath about impertinent women and ancient witches who annoyed the daylights out of him.
“Why are you really here, Satira?” Father asked.
“I told you. Marina, your sister and I miss you dearly. Do you think you could-“
“No. I chose Catholicism, and you chose witchcraft. Do not try to tempt me.”
“But your children, the unborn ones, they still have a choice, and so do Reese and Selena.”
“Stay away from my children,” Mom growled. “Leave now.”
“Satira, get off my property,” Father warned. Satira sighed dramatically and shrugged.
“As you wish.”
She turned around and left, Cholena following close behind.
“Bitch,” Father muttered. “Marina, why did you bring her here?”
Mother blushed. “I thought she’d changed.”
“Well, obviously she hasn’t. Please, be more careful whom you bring around our son.”
“Just a minute, Mordecai-“
“Please don’t fight,” I begged my parents. “I didn’t even know she was still alive until today. I don’t know anything about your side of the family, Mom. Do you really have a sister? How many siblings do you have?”
“Five, all sisters,” Mom said. “Two of them are dead and one of them lives with Satira. The other two, I don’t know about.”

 

CHAPTER TWO – ONE, TWO PREGNANCIES

We didn’t see Satira again for several days. By then, Cholena had made a regular presence at the edge of Father’s property. She was usually carving wood or sketching in a drawing pad or writing in a composition book.
I figured she was keeping an eye on us, possibly intimidating my uncle on purpose. Sarah divided her time between Father and Mother’s houses, bringing a set of clothes each time. She was more tired, hungrier, and thirstier. What was even odder, was that she began to have strange cravings similar to mine. She would only eat rare beef or sometimes even eat raw hamburger. I asked her to stop, but she glared at me.
I began to have my own suspicions. We’d been down this path before, where I’d thought Sarah was pregnant, but I was wrong. This time, I was more certain.
Meanwhile, everyone got along with David swimmingly except for Uncle Soren. He acted like he didn’t exist, even outright ignoring him during question-and-answer time. Father made an announce of the “appearance of a child” on the vampire news.
Not everyone had taken the news that vampires were real and alive well. I still got death threats daily. But we had also begun a new project: the first vampire TV station, dedicated solely to the supernatural and paranormal. It was stationed in Trenton, the capital city of New Jersey. Father needed to be gone for days at a time to take care of it-or Uncle Soren. This time, though, we all went.

The driver pulled up to the station building. Across the street were religious protestors-it looked like Westboro Baptist Church members. I showed my ID and was led to a makeup room. A man with caramel skin and silver eyeliner introduced himself as Jimmy, and he said he would do my makeup and hair.
“How long have you been growing out your hair?” he asked, picking up a brush that I recognized as a Mason Pearson brush.
“It’s been long since I was fourteen,” I told him. “The white tips are a trait of our family. Even Louis has white tips, and he’s the only one who doesn’t have yellow eyes. Emerson eyes, some call them.”
“Whatever you call them, they’re beautiful,” Jimmy complimented. “Now, how much makeup do you usually wear?”
“I used to wear eyeliner and black lipstick,” I said. “But I stopped doing that except for special occasions a few years ago. Now I usually go au naturel. I also used to wear earrings.”
“I can see the scars,” Jimmy said, examining my face. “You’ve got a nice complexion. Small pores. What kind of blood do you drink, human or animal?”
“Human,” I responded.
“That explains it. Animal drinkers usually rot from the inside out unless they have human blood every now and then. It’s a slow death.”
“My father always said that animal drinkers were an abomination.”
Jimmy laughed. “I’m an animal drinker.”
Well, that was embarrassing. For me, I mean.
“But you say that animal drinkers rot?”
“Eventually, but it takes years and years,” Jimmy said. “I think I’ve got time.”
“You could always drink bagged blood.”
“Tried it. Hated it. Okay, is your hair naturally straight, or do you straighten it? I’m thinking a low ponytail. Is that okay with you?”
I answered his questions and consented to the ponytail. He fixed my hair up and used a black elastic to keep it tied together. Then he applied a thin layer of foundation and powder, and then lined my eyes in black. After some thought, he decided to paint my lips a slightly pinker color.
I actually looked handsome when he was done.
“Do you usually prefer prey or predator?” I asked.
“I actually prefer wolf, if I can get it,” he said. “But if I can’t, cow’s blood will work. It’s against my religion to eat any pork products.”
“My girlfriend’s Jewish.”
He laughed. “So am I.”
“Stay away from her.”
“No worries-I only like men. Particularly rich, handsome men. I wouldn’t go for her, but I might go for your dad.”
I nearly barfed. He laughed at the look on my face, and finished my makeup by spraying a finishing spray.
The wardrobe girl handed me an expensive white shirt and black pants with dress shoes and socks. She allowed me a curtain, at least, so I could dress in private. Her name was Sheila.

I sat on a couch beside my father a few minutes later, David on his other side. Sarah sat beside me, dressed in a formal knee-length crimson dress with rose detailing. Her hair was done up in an intricate curly updo, her makeup applied perfectly by Jimmy. Her lips were a brownish red, her eyes had silver and blue makeup around them.
Her ring was clearly visible on her finger, her nails painted a dark red. I’d never noticed before how unusual she was. Her skin was dark, but her eyes were bright green, her hair was thick and curly, almost always tied up, and she seemed too beautiful to be real.
I reached for her hand, and she smiled at me.
“Okay,” said a man coming over with a microphone clipped to his shirt and earbuds in. “It’s nice to meet you, Your Excellency,” he said to my father, shaking his hand. “I’m Cal Zigg. I’m the producer of your show.”
“It is nice to meet you, as well,” Father said. “As you know, I am Prince Mordecai, and these are my sons, Reese and David, and Reese’s betrothed, Sarah.”
Cal shook all of our hands and kissed Sarah’s knuckles. Someone started playing gothic music and then Kate Un appeared. Oh, great. I knew that Uncle Soren had promised her a position on this station in order to keep her mouth shut about their brief affair.
I sat up straight and urged Sarah to do the same. David looked nervous. He kept messing with his collar, and Father had to keep adjusting it.
Kate Un sat in the host’s chair and greeted us with a nod. Then she plastered a fake smile on her face as the assistant cameraman counted down.
“We are on in three, two…one.”
“Hello, and welcome to Live Talk, the only live show on the first ever vampire channel. I’m here with Prince Mordecai and some other very special guests. Prince Mordecai, why don’t you introduce us?”
Insolent bitch.
“Twenty-six years ago, I met a young woman,” Father said. “This was before I married Marina Santorino and produced Reese, who, as you can see, is on my left, along with his beautiful fiancee, Sarah Cresley. On my right, there is a child I didn’t know existed until very recently. He found me and told me who he was, and I believe him. Now, there have been many fakes and attempts to claim familial bonding, but this is a true connection. I know it is, because my gut instinct is never wrong. This is my son, David.”
The camera panned to David, who abashedly looked at his lap. Then he looked up.
“I never knew who my father was until three weeks ago,” he said. “There has never been a man in my life. I had to learn how to be a man on my own. Now that I know who my father is, I’m eager to get to know him, along with my brother and other relatives.”
“How did you find Prince Mordecai?” Kate asked.
“After my mother…” He cleared his throat. “After my mother passed away, I went through her old journals and found Prince Mordecai’s name. I read the whole book, and learned about the affair. I looked him up by name, and found his photo online. I felt an instant connection when I saw him. I mean, the similarities, the hair and eyes alone, it’s uncanny.”
My father wrapped his arm around David’s shoulders and pecked him on the cheek.
“Prince Reese, what are your thoughts about all of this?” Kate asked.
“I’m as excited as Dad is,” I said. “I’ve always wanted an older brother. Little did I know that I actually had one all along.”
“Sarah?” Kate asked. “How do you feel about all this?”
“I’m happy for Reese and his family,” she said. “It’s like getting a brand-new family member. There’s always room for more.”
“Sarah is correct,” Father said. “Like she said, there’s always room for more. I’ve gotten many, many fakes, vampires claiming to be related to us, but they’ve always been proven false. This one is real. David is, in fact, my son.”
“What fantastic news,” Kate said, layering on the sweetness. “A new family member for the Emerson-Nicolai clan! This is Kate Un, reporting for Live Talk on the new station VTV!”
Sarah clung to me and gave a big smooch on the cheek.
Then Uncle Soren began raging.
“Outrageous!” he shouted. He pointed at David. “That boy is no more your son than Alexander is mine! This is absolutely ridiculous! I don’t believe for one second that he’s related to us! I don’t care what your goal, is, boy, but it ends here and now!”
He moved toward David threateningly, but Father planted himself in front of David.
“Touch him and I’ll rip your arms off, Soren,” he promised. “The DNA test will prove that he’s my son. I don’t care what you do to me, but if you hurt David, Louis will have a father to bury.”
“That was dark, Uncle Mordecai,” Louis said. My father and his father both ignored him. Uncle Soren continued to glare at David, who cowered and quavered under the look of the most powerful vampire in the world.
Sarah clung even tighter, and I realized without looking at her that my uncle had frightened her.
Beckett appeared. He looked at Sarah. “Ca va, Sarah?”
“Oui, Daddy, je vais bien,” She replied.
“Il t’a blessé ?”
“Non, je vais bien, papa, vraiment. Qu’est-ce que tu fais ici de toute façon?”
“Je suis venu aider Mordecai. J’ai été engagé comme producteur pour un de ses spectacles.” He nodded to me. “Reese.”
When he left, I asked Sarah what that was about.
“He heard Soren’s yelling and came to check on me,” she said. “Your dad hired him as a producer for one of the new shows.”
“That’s…good,” I said.
“It’s fantastic,” Sarah said. “Daddy needs money. He and Mom are finally getting officially divorced.”
“He’s still wearing his glasses.”
“He says it’s due to habit, but I think his vision hasn’t improved any. That’s the tough part about being part human. You’ll always have some human qualities.”
“He doesn’t like me.”
“No, Reese, that’s not the case. It’s actually…I shouldn’t say this, but you’ll find out anyway. He’s jealous of you.”
“Jealous? Of me? Why?” I asked suspiciously.
“You’ve been able to protect me better than he ever has. You’re young and virile, and he wishes he had your body. He also thinks you’re more attractive than he is. He’s jealous because you’re my first love, and he wasn’t around to see me fall for you. He’s also a little wary, since you’re a vampire.”
“He’s a vampire, too.”
“But he wasn’t until recently, and he had to have the help of a goddess. Our ancestor, even. I still can’t believe I’m part goddess. But anyway, you shouldn’t take his rudeness seriously. I’ll have a talk with him if that makes you feel better.”
She pecked my jaw. And then we realized that the cameras were still recording everything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Shit, shit, shit.” Father paced around the living room. “Shit, damn, fuck. Fucking bitch. Who knows how many people saw that nastiness? The one that is my brother?”
“Approximately a hundred million, give or take,” Louis said. Father glared at him.
Sarah was in our room, singing “Top of the World” by the Carpenters. I was sitting on the couch. Sarah came down, wearing gray yoga pants and a white jacket.
“Aren’t you hot, babe?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, “But not because of the jacket.”
I grinned at her sudden burst of vanity. But a part inside of me groaned. She sat between me and Louis, who was currently flipping through cartoons. He settled on Baby Looney Tunes. While he and Sarah laughed at the characters’ antics, I wondered what was wrong with me. Sarah never used to annoy me this much. Okay, maybe I did blame her a bit for saying too much on camera, but it really wasn’t her fault.
I’d long ago accepted that she wasn’t perfect…or had I?
I mean, her physical beauty alone…everyone thought she was perfect. She worked so hard to maintain that façade that it had worn her down, and she suffered physically, mentally, and emotionally. She even had seizures and a heart attack. How much more could she take?
I realized she was reaching for my hand, and I moved away slightly. She gave me a hurt look, then scooted closer to Louis, which made me jealous. Was she making me jealous on purpose?
As soon as the cartoon was over, Louis flipped to the news.
“OMG, stop right there!” Sarah shrieked.
“Did you really just say ‘OMG’?” Louis asked her. She ignored him.
“Jamie Williams is in town! He’s like, my favorite author of all time! He writes the best books, and the best poems! He’s soooo romantic!”
“Hey, I can be romantic,” I protested. She ignored me. Instead, she eyed him. I looked up and saw him.
He had shoulder-length straight blond hair, bright green eyes, and a widow’s peak with a slightly balding forehead. He was skinny and tall, and he wore a Victorian-era suit with a top hat and cane. He even wore gloves. He waved at the camera crew, and Kate Un stepped up to him.
“Jamie, what can we expect while you’re in town?” she asked.
“My dear lady,” he spoke in an English accent, “I will be signing copies of my new book, Blood Moon, and I will be…ah, my agent said not to say anything, but he’s not here, is he? I will be holding a contest for all the young ladies and gentlemen who enjoy my work. A poetry contest. It can be a haiku, free thought, or any other. It can rhyme or not. Whoever comes up with the best one will be escorted to dinner by me at Sea Gala, a restaurant by the beach here in New Jersey. He or she will enjoy a fine meal, romantic talk, a fully-paid-for dinner, a romantic walk on the beach, maybe a little romantic book shopping or museum-hopping. The poems are due Friday the thirteenth of September, and I will read the contest winner the next Monday. Good luck!”
He walked away, turning his back to the camera and laughing maniacally.
“Sarah,” I said, “I absolutely forbid you to submit anything to him.”
“Excuse me?” she turned to glare at me. “You are not the boss of me.”
“How many times did he say the word ‘romantic’? Did anybody keep count?” Louis asked.
“Sarah, I’m only thinking of us,” I told her.
“No, you’re jealous. Again,” she said. “You’re suffocating me with your jealousy, Reese. I love you, but if we want to make this work, you have to let me make my own decisions and mistakes.”
“Sarah-“
“Don’t you ‘Sarah’ me! I don’t even know if you truly love me, or if you’re just obsessed with my looks. Sure, I’m gorgeous, but I’m also a human, damn it! Well, part human. I’m not perfect, and I’m not your wife yet!”
She got up and stormed upstairs.
“Nice going, dude,” Louis said. I stuck my tongue out at him and hissed as Shadowfang jumped onto my leg.
“I smell trouble on the horizon,” my cat familiar said. I ran my fingers through his long, black fur and he turned to looked at me with his large yellow eyes. “Women trouble. First Satira shows up, then Cholena, and now I smell babies.”
“Hmm, that nose has never been wrong before,” Louis noted.
“Her underwear did smell off,” I admitted.
“She smells off because she’s having a baby, Reese,” Louis said. “Think about it: her temper’s shorter, she’s got a craving for milk, she can’t eat chicken without puking, and her wings are not holding her up as high. She’s pregnant, little buddy.”

After this revelation, I went to see Sarah. She was reading our book on my bed, earbuds in her ears, playing soft rock music.
“Sarah,” I sat, sitting on the bed. She saw me and took the pods out of her ears. “Sarah, I’m sorry. I did have a jealous moment. I’m really trying to control it, but it’s like…it’s like a monster that’s stuck inside my gut, trying to crawl out, but I can’t let him because it would upset you. I love you, Sarah. I want you to be mine.”
“Reese,” she replied, sitting on her knees, “You don’t have to worry. I’m not interested in Jamie romantically. I love you. You’re my soulmate, my fiancé, my fated husband. The Fates brought us together, and we’ll stay together, through thick and thin, or poorer or for richer, for better or for worse, until death do we part.”
“Let’s not talk of death,” I said, pulling her onto my lap. “I’d rather be consumed alive than lose you.”
She made a disgusted face at that.
But I didn’t mean it, not really. There was something seriously wrong here. Was I growing bored with my relationship with Sarah? She was my longest romantic partner, and my second, and only female partner, besides Sadie, but my relationship with Sadie was purely sexual. I leaned my head down to her stomach and took a big whiff.
I smelled a lot of things: estrogen, blood, cotton, and…was that plastic? Huh. But there was another smell, the smell of something new and exciting. I smell new muscles, new bones, new skin. I smelled new blood and cells and a vampire scent.
A baby. Maybe two.
“Sarah,” I said. “How would you react if you learned that you were pregnant?”
She laughed nervously. “I hope I’m not pregnant.”
Disappointment sagged my shoulders, and I snarled on instinct and nipped her shoulder.
“What was that for?” she asked, rubbing the spot.
“Sorry,” I said. “Just a little love mark.”
“You never bite me that hard, Reese. Is something-“ Her eyes widened. I could see the cogs working in her brain. She counted on her fingers, mouthing the numbers. Her eyes began to shine even more as she looked up at me.
Then she pulled up her jacket. There was a small bump.
“A father,” I said to myself. “I’m going to be a father.”
She quickly covered her stomach and buried her face in my chest. Then she began to cry. She sobbed and sobbed. I just held her while she cried. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she slowed down to a short, hiccupy breath.
“I don’t want to be pregnant,” she whined. “Not yet, at least. I want to enjoy my first few years as an adult!”
“Sorry, babe,” I lied. “You can blame me. It’s all my fault. Remember when we had sex back in May? The condom broke, and I didn’t realize until later that it was expired.”
“You idiot!” She punched me in the chest, then said “ouch” and cradled her hand. “You fucking moron! You are such an imbecile! A stupid, stupid, dumb quack!”
“You can call me all the names you want,” I lectured,” but it won’t change the fact that we’re going to have a baby. Maybe two. I think a girl…and a boy.”
She burst into tears. She hit me again and again.
“I hate you!” she shouted. “I hate you! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.”
“Do you, really?” I asked, every phrase like a knife in my chest.
“No,” she whimpered. She buried her head in my chest. “I’m sorry I’m acting childish.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” I assured her. “Sarah look at me. Look at me.” She looked at me. “We’ll get through this together,” I said, tilting her chin up. “I promise. If I need to turn you sooner rather than later-“
“Will you have to?”
“I may have to. Not all vampire/human hybrids are viable, and some of them kill their own mothers.”
She shuddered and looked up at me with wide eyes.
“I have to call Marina,” she said.
A few minutes later, we were at a café downtown, waiting for Mother and Alexander.
Sarah wanted to sit outside, so we did. I kept my hood over my eyes, keeping the sun off.
Mother arrived soon with Alexander and Sabine.
“Hello, children,” Mother said, pecking my forehead and kissing Sarah’s cheek.
“Son. Daughter,” Alexander greeted in his own gruff way. “Did you have something to inform us about?”
“Let’s all go inside,” Sarah said.
We followed her to an inside table.
“Well…Reese thinks I’m pregnant,” Sarah blurted out.
There was a pause. Then:
“Honey, we know,” Mother said. “We could smell it. We weren’t sure when we should tell you. I know that you might not enjoy being pregnant again, but we will support you and Reese in this endeavor.”
Sabine just scowled.
“Where is Cirino?” I asked.
“With the new nanny,” Mother said. “We hired a new nanny named Colleen. She will watch Cirino while Zie cleans the house.”
“You’re not mad because we’re not married?” Sarah asked.
“Certainly not,” Mother said. “In my time a woman could get cast out in the mountains to die for such a grievance, but such is not the case anymore. We are happy for you.”
Sarah let out a breath she was holding and leaned into me. I purred and pecked her head. Her phone dinged, and she pulled it out of her pocket.
“Who are you texting?” I asked.
“Mia.”
“Rayport? Sarah, she betrayed you! She beat you to a pulp!”
“I didn’t say we were friends again, I said I was texting her. We’re working on a new project.”
“What kind of project?”
“A none-of-your-business project.” She leaned over and kissed me. I looked at Alexander, who grimaced.
“I promised not to say anything,” he said. “She told your mother this plan, and as her mate, I can read her mind, as she can read mine. Sarah is keeping it blocked from you on purpose so she doesn’t accidentally slip up and reveal her plans.”
“I’d like to know,” I said.
Sarah pulled a small notebook out of her purse.
“Hmm, what should I write? Oh, I know.”
“The poem? Sarah, I told you not to write it!”
“Reese, you are not my father, you are my boyfriend. Keep it up and you won’t be my boyfriend much longer.”
The shock on Mother and Alexander’s faces was disturbing. The shock in my heart was like an ax coming down on me.
She ordered a burger and Sabine ordered a salad. I ordered white milk, and Mother and Alexander ordered coffee.
I sighed. She was right, as always. Women always are.
“I’m sorry, Sarah, but…he’s much more attractive than me, and I’m-“
She cut me off with a kiss. “Stop being insecure. I love you for you, not what you look like. Reese, if you want to…experiment, with our relationship, I’m open to that, too.”
“Experiment?”
“If you want to see other people while we’re together-“
Alexander barked a laugh; Sabine turned red and Mother gave them both dirty looks.
“Sarah, I want no one but you. You should know that. But I’m against you seeing other males.”
“I understand that. I do. I’d be jealous if there was a girl between us. Sometimes I do get jealous. I even get jealous of Amara or Ariella. They’re both thinner than I am, and Amara has a new hair color every week, and Ari’s known you longer than I have. But you are mine, and I am yours, and it will stay that way unless one of us says otherwise.”
She sipped her Cherry Coke.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated, nuzzling her. “I know I should have it under control by now. This is my fault. I love you and I don’t want to lose you.”
She pecked my jaw again and continued writing her poem.

CHAPTER THREE – JAMIE WILLIAMS
The rest of August went by fast. We celebrated Louis’ birthday with a small party of about two hundred vampires at our castle in Denmark- that was a quick trip. Uncle Soren kept an eye on Cholena-Mother kept an eye on Satira, and we all kept an eye on David.
I didn’t completely trust him, even if what he said was true and he was my brother. He didn’t reveal any more about his family or mother, other than to remind us that she’d died recently. He helped me pick out a necklace for Sarah- a silver chain with a heart pendant set in diamonds. It took him a while to absorb the fact that he was going to be an uncle, just like it had taken me a while to absorb the fact that I was going to be a father.
We began to seriously plan the wedding. We wanted to be married before we tried college. Sarah and Mother and Selena spent countless hours discussing dresses and flowers and cakes-I was thinking hard about what sort of ring I wanted her to wear. One that was similar to her engagement ring, certainly, but the diamond had to be bigger, the gold purer.
Sarah said she wanted baby’s breath in her floral arrangement for sure, but said roses were everyone’s choice. I loaned her a book on flowers- their meanings, and whether they were edible or not. She wanted lavender at the center of every table to represent France, where half her family was from. She wanted to incorporate the breaking of the glass to represent her Jewish half, and Mother laughed and told her that at Greek weddings, they break plates.
So there was going to be a lot of broken glass at our wedding. I had an idea and told Mother: my idea was to break a glass heart to signify our love for each other.
Sarah also had to get used to the idea that she would have to swap blood with me, as is customary at vampire weddings. A ritual knife would be sterilized and cleaned, but she still turned green at the thought. Fortunately, I told her that vampires don’t carry diseases or infections such as herpes, but we do have a form of Vampire HIV, which attacks the blood-absorbing vessels that gives us energy and keeps our immune systems healthy. I told her I’d get tested if it made her feel better, and she told me that she’d get tested as well.
We’d been dating long enough to know that we were both clean, but one never knew, especially, since we had both slept with different people in the past. We timed her transformation for the sex part of the wedding ceremony.
Another thing to consider was the baby-how long would she take to grow? Would she grow fast, normally, or slowly? Very little was known about vampire/human babies. Would she kill Sarah? That was at the top of my list of fears, that she’d kill her own mother. But Sarah was strong. But she had a very weak body due to her bout with bulimia and her heart problems, and her past rape. Who knew what Nales had done to those organs? Would she need another C-section? Could she even have one? Did she want an epidural, or a natural birth?
I knew I would be there no matter what. It was customary for vampire fathers to be there at the birth of the baby, unless the mother was human. He could easily kill her and/or his baby.
Would she give birth before or after her transformation?
All these questions and more raced through my mind as I rushed around to get things ready. First, we had to set a date. We set the date for the Winter Solstice and quickly sent the invitations, created by Louis on a computer and used our family crest on parchment envelopes.
Our family crest is the Viking sigil for death, with a raven beside it, a fox below the sigil, and the sigil for courage beside the fox. Sigil, animal, animal, sigil.
I once asked my father why a fox instead of a wolf, and he told me not to ask questions I didn’t want to know the answer to.
On the first of September, Sarah sent in her poem to Jamie Williams. And we waited. While we waited, I’d often catch her talking to our baby, as if she could already hear her mother’s voice. Actually, most babies can hear their mother if their hearing is formed. I also talked to my baby sometimes. I would also rub or stroke the belly, sometimes kissing it and purring.
Cirino knew something was going on. He was starting to talk more and understand things better.
“Baby,” Sarah would tell him, pointing to her stomach.
“Ba,” he would reply in turn.
“Baby,” Sarah corrected.
“She has a baby inside of her,” Selena told Cirino. He smiled at her and held out his arms to her instead. She would pick him up and dance with him, singing old songs like “Mr. Sandman”. She was growing fond of him. I still felt a little resentment towards him, even though I knew none of it was his fault. Michael had chosen to attack Sarah, and she chose to keep the resulting embryo due to her religious beliefs. It all worked out in the end, as Alexander was seeking a baby boy to have as a companion, and he and Mother had quickly adopted Cirino, but they let Sarah name him and see him when she still lived with Alicia.
Satira had basically said that sons were superior to daughters, yet she’d had all girls. That struck me as odd. Girls were clearly as good as boys were, superior in some ways, but it used to be a deeply held belief that boys were the stronger sex. And they still were, physically, at least. But statistically, women were better drivers.
I asked Selena about it, and she waved me off and said she couldn’t talk about it. I remembered that she’d lost a baby son herself, not long ago. I wondered how many she’d really lost. She was certainly more cheerful now than when she first arrived, maybe that was because of Mother.
Cirino turned and smiled at me, and my heart melted. He would be my son one day. My stepson, but still, my son. Sarah began singing in French, a beautiful lyrical masterpiece about love and roses and cats and baby hair. Her voice pierced my heart like a pin; her soprano was incredibly beautiful.
She stopped singing and turned on the TV, and we watched The Twilight Zone for a while.
“No vampires, but plenty of aliens,” Sarah muttered.
“The Twilight Zone is mostly speculative fiction,” I said. “With the occasional dystopian story.”
She smiled and me and put her head on my chest. Soon, she was snoozing away. Then she was singing in her sleep.
“What song is she singing?” I asked. I’d heard it, she played it sometimes on her phone.
“That song is called ‘Best I Ever Had’ by Vertical Horizon,” Selena said. “Came out in the early 2000s. She loves that band.”
“And it’s…well, still technically in the early years of the century,” I said.
Sarah woke up with a snort. “I can’t see,” she complained.
“Open your eyes, dear,” I chuckled.
She did open them, blinked, and then giggled, blushing.
“Was I talking in my sleep?” she asked.
“You frequently talk in your sleep. This time, though, you sang a song.”
“Which one?”
I told her, and she giggled again.
She leaned forward and kissed me, then winced.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“My breasts are tender,” she explained.
“Handle with care, then.”
Both my girlfriend and my sister laughed at that one. Cirino laughed, too, though he had no idea what it meant. Then Sarah turned serious.
“How is Eilief?”
My face fell. My grandfather was no better. He was getting sicker, actually-he hadn’t even been able to attend Louis’ birthday party.
“He’s not good. He’s been really ill, Sarah.”
“That sucks. Well, tell him that I said hi.”
“Will do.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was the day of the announcement of Jamie Williams’ Romantic Poem contest winner. I was seated beside Sarah, she was seated beside Selena, and Mom and Alexander were on Selena’s other side. Sarah had her hands on her belly, looking anxious.
Jamie himself was standing on a podium in front of the news crew, both local and national, and he looked dashing in a dark purple suit.
“The winner of this contest will be treated to a romantic date with me,” he said. “He or she will accompany me on a romantic walk on the beach, dinner at a restaurant, and my personal attention. And maybe her poem will even be featured in my next book, coming out next February, titled Moonlight Kiss. And the winner of the contest is: Sarah Cresley, of North Hampton, New Jersey!”
There was enthusiastic applause, then Jamie continued. “I will read her poem now.”

The salt of my tears
Replaced by your kiss
My first love
The one and only
Reese Emerson

More applause, and I sat there, stunned. She’d written the poem about me. And I’d acted like a major jerk. Damn, she really did love me.
“I shouldn’t have won,” she sighed. “I’m sure there were others better than mine.”
“Nonsense, dear, you did well,” Mother praised. She seemed stunned as well, yet proud, and Alexander just grunted in agreement.
“You’re not going to throw me out now, are you?” Sarah asked nervously.
“Why would they throw you out?” I asked.
Mother and Alexander avoided looking at me.
“Last time you had a jealous fit at that restaurant, and I told you that I wouldn’t be your girlfriend much longer if you kept it up. Marina told me to start packing, and then we got into a big fight. There were a lot of tears and yelling.”
I glared at Mother, then Alexander.
“Leave me out of this,” he growled.
“Mother, how could you? She’s my mate!”
“But you are my son! She threatened to leave you!”
“Mother, it was my fault. When you look at Sarah, you used to see yourself in her. Now you’re yelling at her and causing her to cry! She can’t trust Alicia, and Beckett’s apartment isn’t suitable for humans. Sarah, if you need to move in with me, just say the word.”
“Thank you, Reese. You’re a good boyfriend.”
“She’s lying,” Alexander quipped. “She’s been ready to dump you for weeks, Reese.”
“Alexander!” Sarah shouted. “I love Reese! I had my doubts, yes, but I’m not ready to let him go now.”
“But you were.”
“Shut up, Alexander,” I warned. He snarled at me, and Sarah went upstairs to cool down.
“Are you trying to break us up?” I asked, leaving my mother and stepfather to go comfort my sweet mate.
“Did you really consider breaking up with me?” I asked as I walked into her room. She was sitting on the bed, knees up to her chin, tears leaking out of her eyes.
“I won’t lie, I did consider it,” she said. “But I don’t want to lose you now.”
“It’s okay, baby,” I said, embracing her. “I haven’t exactly treated you well, either. In fact, sometimes I was downright terrible. I mean, I even broke up with you because I thought it would be better for both of us! And you can see how wrong I was. We belong together, Sarah. I won’t let you go again. No matter what anyone says.” I paused, and then said aloud: “No wonder Beckett hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you, Reese, I swear on Great Grandmother Cresley’s grave. He doesn’t know how to treat you, because you were there for me when he couldn’t be.”
“He hates me. Sarah, I’m so sorry. This is my fault. I love you, baby.”
She said nothing and laid down on the bed. I laid down around her front and cuddled with her, but she pulled away from me. I gave her a hurt look.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meeting Jamie was not going to be fun for me. I planned to stalk them as well.
The limousine that had come to pick up Sarah was black, and Jamie himself was inside. She was wearing her best green v-neck sundress, and I watched nervously as he stepped out of the vehicle. Sarah smiled and blushed, looking down at her feet.
Jamie smiled as he approached her. “I assume you are Sarah?” he asked.
She nodded, giggling girlishly.
Jamie nodded. “I thought so. Only a beautiful American flower such as yourself could have written such beautiful prose.”
“T-thanks,” she stammered. “This is Reese, my boyfriend.”
“Hello, fine sir,” Jamie said to me, grasping my hand and shaking it. “You have a wonderful gem before you. I would not let her go.”
I snarled, but if he noticed, he ignored it, the damn English bastard. There was nothing more than I wanted to do at that moment than rip his throat out, but I resisted for Sarah’s sake. She’d find out what a jerk he was soon enough, I predicted.
The blood in my gut soured as he introduced himself to Beckett next.
“I’m Sarah’s father,” Beckett said, shaking Jamie’s hand. “Beckett Cresley.”
“Good morning, sir,” Jamie said. “I am Jamie Williams. Bestselling author, English gentleman, and lover of beautiful women such as your daughter.”
Sarah grinned so hugely that her face was split in two.
I growled, the monster of jealousy burbling deep inside of me.
“Grab him,” I heard my father’s voice say below human hearing. I felt Toby’s hands on my shoulders next.
“She’s mine,” I snarled. Beckett growled at me to stay silent and stay back. All of this was going on beneath Sarah’s notice.
Jamie offered his arm to her, and she took it. The girl holding the camera snapped pictures of the two of them. I noticed her admiring Sarah’s ass and wondered if she had lady-loving inclinations. Ari had once told me that girls check each other out all the time, but I didn’t know whether or not to believe her.
Jamie allowed Sarah to get into the expensive vehicle first, and then he followed her.
“Reese, calm down,” Father said.
“Mordecai,” Beckett said, “May I speak with Reese, alone?”
We all stopped and stared.
“M-me?” I stuttered.
“Beckett, I know Reese has made some mistakes in the past, but if you’re going to kill him-“
“No, just talk. Come, Reese.”
Toby let me go, and I followed Beckett to a bench in the backyard. Mom and Alexander were renovating the backyard, turning it into a massive garden. There were massive stones and fountain decorations scattered around, and workmen had already begun digging a hole for a massive pond.
I felt sick as my future father-in-law sat beside me.
“Reese,” he began. “The only reason why Sarah is still alive, is because I died for her.”
“I…what?”
“When Sarah was born, I consulted an oracle about her future. I learned that she was going to die on November the first, of her sixteenth year.”
“That was the day that Nales…” I trailed off.
“Yes. I begged the Fates to kill me instead, told them I would do anything. I offered them all the money I had. They took it in exchange for letting me die in Sarah’s place.”
“She died you died from stomach cancer.”
“Yes. And I did. But then Samuel brought me back as a vampire with the aid of the witch goddess Hecate. Hecate has a vengeance against Aphrodite because of her beauty. Hecate is known as the Goddess With Three Faces: the maid, the matron, and the crone, and both the matron and the crone are as ugly as sin. There was also Hephaestus involved, but I won’t get into that. Now that I’m alive again, sort of, Sarah’s life is in danger again.”
“What? I can’t let her die!” I shouted. “She’s pregnant with our baby! She’s going to marry me!”
“No, she’s not,” Beckett said. “Not unless either you or I die in her stead. And I’ve already died once. I don’t know if I’ll be able to die again, and frankly, I don’t want to.”
I slowly inched away from him. He chuckled dryly.
“Relax, I’m not going to kill you. But I will say I don’t approve of this match. You’ve hurt her too badly. You broke up with her and had relations with another.”
“Beckett, I know, and it won’t happen again, I swear!”
“I know it won’t. Besides, if I die again, she won’t forgive me this time. Which means that someone else must die.”
“I’m not going to kill innocents.”
“I’m not talking about innocents. I’m talking about Jamie Williams.”
“The English bastard?! I’m all for that.”
“I don’t trust him, Reese. He wants something with Sarah. He chose her poem too easily, almost like he picked her out specifically. I was there during the taping of his interview. He kept thinking I hope she sees this. I hope she enters.”
I looked up at him. “How do you know what he was thinking?”
“There was a vampire behind the camera who can read strangers’ minds. She told me. And I have no reason to distrust or dismiss her claims.”
Was this my fault? Had I caused this? What if I hadn’t taken care of Sarah that day? Would I be with her?
“Your connection goes deeper than the Fates,” Beckett continued. “Your connection with my daughter goes down into your souls. You are twin flames, soulmates. Nothing can separate you, I see that now. I don’t like you, Reese, and I don’t trust you, but I know you won’t purposely hurt Sarah again.”
“I’ve never hurt her on purpose,” I breathed. “I love and adore her, Beckett. I worship her. I know I hurt her deeply, which I take full responsibility for. It was my fault. I’d rather she live than stay with me, though.”
He looked stunned at my words. “You do love my daughter,” he breathed. “But we can’t save her, Reese. You’ve already kissed her and I’ve already died for her. This baby will kill her unless you can turn her into a vampire.”
“I want to,” I said, “But she doesn’t want to become one, not yet. We have to wait.”
“No, you need to change her now.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Beckett, she knows what’s best for her. We like to think we do, but we don’t. Only she does.”
“Why, Reese?”
“What?”
“Why do you love my daughter?”
“Because she’s kind, funny, intelligent, and selfless.”
“And because she’s beautiful.”
“No. Like I told somebody else not long ago, I’d much rather she weren’t. She’s a goddess and I’m…well, a descendant of Hades. I’m hideous and selfish and horrible and I lie all the time and I’m the worst person in the world according to my parents.”
“Your parents don’t hate you, Reese. Mine do, that’s why they threw me out of their house when I was eighteen. I moved to America after that and fell in love with the daughter of an Italian immigrant and an Israelite immigrant and we conceived a beautiful baby girl named Sarah, after the woman in the Bible. My father was Christian and my mother believed in the Greek gods and goddesses. As for me, I know the truth. God exists, but so does Aphrodite. He may have created the other gods and goddesses, I don’t know. In real life, I was taught that God is very jealous and does not approve of other gods and goddesses or mortals worshipping them. I probably committed blasphemy by talking about it. Anyway, after I learned that Sarah was doomed and I exchanged my life for hers, I told Alicia what I’d done and we decided to have another child, and along came Sabine. We treated the girls the same, but we probably spoiled Sarah a little more, because we knew her time was limited.
“I know it wasn’t fair, and it backfired: Sabine turned into a brat, which made us resent her more. Sarah sort of became the favorite, but I tried to teach her morals, too. She absorbed them and learned morals quicker than Sabine did, which again, was probably our fault. Another thing I learned was that the Fates weren’t wholly responsible for my daughter’s eventual fate: Hecate was. She hated Aphrodite and wanted to curse all her descendants, so she did. All over a god who barely noticed Hecate’s existence.”
“Love is a funny thing,” I muttered.
“Yes, it is. Which made me wonder: was she really in love? Eros, Aphrodite’s son, also known as Cupid, is known as a mischievous man. I beseeched him and asked him some questions. He claimed he had nothing to do with it, but I didn’t believe him. I still don’t know the full story.”
I hugged myself. I looked at the time. An hour had already passed. I needed to go find Sarah and Jamie. But before I could, I got a call from Father.
“I had another vision,” he said. “But not of the present; this one was of an alternate future, or so I think. I spoke with Krauvas, and he consulted his tarot deck. He spoke with Hecate, or so he thinks, and he agrees with me. In this alternate future, Sarah is accused by you of having sex with Jamie, but it isn’t true-she was raped again, this time by him. He used magic to put the seeds of doubt in everyone’s minds, and everyone turns against Sarah eventually, and she commits suicide. It’s happening now in an alternate universe. We need to make sure it doesn’t happen here.”
“Well, of course,” Beckett said. “What is Jamie doing now? Can you get a reading on him?”
“He’s acting like a perfect gentleman in our universe. He’s at the restaurant now, eating crab legs with Sarah.”

I made it to the restaurant in record time, but Sarah and Jamie were getting ready to leave. Sarah grabbed her purse, and Jamie put her jacket around her shoulders.
“Care to join me for a stroll along the beach?” he asked.
“I’d love to,” she replied breathlessly. That was me who should have asked her to take a walk with me. And anyway, she was wearing high heels, not walking shoes. I growled a little when she produced a pair of pink Converse sneakers and socks and put the heels in her other hand.
I thought about the other universe, the separate universe where I would lose Sarah. It would destroy me; did my other self not realize that? I carefully watched from a distance as he offered her his arm and they started walking. I followed behind, my steps as silent as a cat’s.
My heavy boots weren’t made for such light sand. I nearly fell in the ocean a few times. They walked a mile and a half, and Jamie stopped at a secluded spot on the beach. My nightmares about the ocean began to hit me. This wasn’t safe. Not at all. I sent Father a text.

Reese: How does Sarah in the other universe die?
Mordecai: She drowns herself in the ocean.
I nearly ran forward and snatched her up right then and there. But I controlled my instincts and stayed where I was. I found a bridge nearby and hid under it.
Sarah sighed daintily and stared out at the ocean.
“I’ve always loved the sea,” she said. “I used to live nearby. Daddy would always bring me out here and I would dip my toes in. Then I would chase the waves. Run back and forth. It made my dad laugh.”
“Did you live near here?” Jamie asked.
She hesitated. “Closer to Atlantic City. I used to play on the beach all the time with my friends. My best friend at the time was a girl named Kirsten. I think she’s married now.”
“Do you wish you had a different life?” he asked.
“Sometimes. Not different friends or family or a different boyfriend, but different experiences.”
“You’ve been with Reese a long time, haven’t you?”
“About two years, almost three.”
“What is it about him that you like?”
“Hmm. I think I like his kindness most of all. Like, he’ll be in the street, and he’ll see someone who needs food or shelter, and he’ll give them a hundred bucks straight out of his wallet. Without even a hesitation. Or he’ll see an animal in distress, and he’ll stop to help it. He loves his cats, particularly, especially Shadowfang.”
“Shadowfang? Where did that name come from?”
“The first time Reese watched The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, he thought that Gandalf called the Horse Lord Shadowfang instead of Shadowfax. It’s one of his favorite book and movie series.”
“What else do you like about him?”
“I really like his intelligence. Like, he’ll go off on a rant about how the U.S. government should spend money this way instead of that, or he’ll start talking about a specific animal and its characteristics. He also knows a lot of words, some of which I’ve never heard of or read. Sometimes my adopted mother says I sound like him when I talk.”
She giggled.
“Do you think I am like him?”
“I don’t know you well enough to really compare you two. I will say that you’re more old-fashioned than he is. Which is romantic, but I prefer a modern thinker when I date.”
She thought I was modern, kind, and intelligent? And I had begun doubting our relationship and her seriousness about it. I was an idiot. A pathetic, jealous, insecure, self-centered moron. I hit my head against the wood of the bridge, causing several spiders to fall. I tried not to scream as one landed on my head and I flicked it off.
I needed therapy. That’s what I needed.
I watched as they became silent again and gazed out to the dark blue water.
“Oh look, there’s some crabs,” Sarah suddenly said. I looked over at her. She was on her hands and knees, watching the little creatures as they grabbed plankton and minnows.
I might not have noticed it, if I hadn’t turned my eyes toward Jamie just then. He moved his foot at the exact same time Sarah started to stand up, and she fell facedown in the water.
I panicked then.
“Sarah!” I shouted.
“Oh dear, are you all right?” Jamie asked, his voice full of sugar.
“I’m fine,” Sarah said. “I must’ve tripped.” He helped her up, and she brushed off her dress. “I think one of the crabs pinched my finger, though.”
“The little cretins,” Jamie said. “I hope you’re not hurt. But look, now your pretty dress is wet.”
“It’s just a dress,” Sarah said.
“I insist on buying you another.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“No, no, it was my fault. If I hadn’t brought you out here, it might not have happened.”
It was his fault, but not for the reason he stated. He had purposely knocked her down.
Control your instincts. Control your instincts. Remember, Sarah doesn’t like jealousy.
I took a deep, unnecessary breath, and continued to watch and listen as Jamie asked Sarah if she’d like to look at the shops. She agreed, of course. The girl’s favorite thing to do is go shopping.

Within a few minutes, Sarah and Jamie were at a small gift shop run by the local Native American tribe. Sarah picked out a mythology book and Jamie bought a shark’s tooth necklace and a shell pendant that had been carved in the shape of a heart and painted pale pink.
Sarah smiled shyly at the clerk, who gave her a flirtatious grin in return.
“Five dollars,” he said.
“The book was ten dollars,” she corrected.
“For you, it’s five dollars.”
“Oh, um, thanks?” She looked uncomfortable, much to my delight. “I have a fiancé, though.”
“Too bad,” the clerk said, shaking his long hair. “I’d love to take you out to dinner.”
She paid him and Jamie bought the jewelry with cash. He gave her the shell pendant and the shark tooth necklace.
“Oh, thank you,” she chirped, looking much happier now that the cashier wasn’t flirting with her. Jamie gave the clerk a death glare, and then led Sarah to the next shop, which was an ice cream parlor. She chose chocolate and he chose cookie dough.
She chattered to him about her dogs, her sister, and her father. She didn’t tell him the scary stuff, though, only that her parents were divorced and she didn’t see her mother anymore for personal reasons. She said that she adored my family, especially my mother and sister, both of whom had treated her like a mother should treat her daughter.
He talked about his homes in London, Surrey, Edinburgh, York, and Berlin. Hah. I could top that. I had a home in every country in the world, and several U.S. states. He talked about his massive library and his stock shares and his bookstore where he sold copies of every one of his books, plus several other authors who had a contract with him. I’d have to look into that.
I saw his shoe touching hers several times. If she felt it, she would move her foot. If she didn’t…it took all my strength not to snap his neck.
They visited a clothing store next, where Jamie found a similar dress to the one Sarah was wearing, but in hot pink, not green. I would have gotten her another green one. She tried in on and modeled it for him. The girl with the camera was there, and snapped a couple pictures. She looked miserable.
I tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped and turned around, and saw me. Then she narrowed her eyes.
“Aren’t you Sarah’s boyfriend?” she asked in an American accent.
“Yes, I’m Reese,” I said. “What can you tell me about Jamie?”
She shrugged. “What do you want to know? I know everything about him.”
“Are you friends? I asked.
“Oh, hardly. He’s my ex-boyfriend. I only took this job because the pay will be incredible. I’m Hannah March.”
“Reese Emerson,” I introduced myself. “What’s he really like? I saw him trip her at the beach.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. He’s always doing weird shit like that so he can be “the perfect gentleman” or whatever. He only does it so he can help a damsel in distress and look like a hero.”
“How did you meet him?”
“Through my parents. They’re his publishers. They thought that if he and I dated…”
“I get it. Why did you break up, if I may ask?”
She shrugged. “He cheated on me with some curvy redheaded chick with blue eyes. I dumped him that night.”
“Why don’t your parents dump him?”
“Because he rakes in the dough. He makes a huge amount with everything he does. His writing, the ghostwriting he does, his bookstores, and so on.”
“Ghostwriting?”
“That’s when somebody writes under a real author’s name.”
“I know what ghostwriting is. But who has he ghostwritten for?”
“I don’t know. A lot of popular authors. People who aren’t as well-known as him. My sister, for one thing, and my brother. They’re both authors, but their books didn’t sell well, so they wrote down their ideas for him and he turned them into books. Moonlight Kiss is actually my sister’s idea. It’s about a girl who thinks that her soulmate will meet her at the edge of the lake and kiss her there on the Winter Solstice, and she’s confused when he doesn’t show up.”
“Sounds romantic,” I said sarcastically. She rolled her eyes.
“I know, right? Mushy stuff. But my parents always did like my sister more. They practically crushed my dreams and said I was too dumb to go to college, so I dropped out of high school, and now I work as a photographer. They threatened, to…well, cut me off if I didn’t take these pictures. But whatever.”
“Hannah! Sarah and I are ready to go!”
Hannah turned and frowned. “I have to go. Maybe we’ll see each other again, Reese?” She fluttered her blond eyelashes.
“I’ll message you,” I promised. This girl was chock-full of information. I hid in a rack as Sarah came into view and Hannah turned to greet her and Jamie.
“Let’s go,” Jamie said curtly. “Lazy bitch,” he mumbled under his breath. Whoa. Hannah was right. Jamie Williams was not a nice boy.

After some more shopping, smoothies, and a light dinner, the day was over, and it was time to take Sarah home. She exchanged phone numbers with him and smiled at Hannah, who just scowled.
Jamie passed the bags over to Hannah, who struggled with her camera and put them in the trunk of the limo.

When we got home, Jamie forced Hannah to help Sarah carry her bags upstairs, take a few final pictures, and he kissed her cheek and left. Hannah spotted me and waved, and then Jamie grabbed her shoulder and shoved her roughly to the car, which Sarah did not see.
I greeted her with a hug and a long, sloppy kiss. I smelled her all over. I paid careful attention to her lady parts.
She turned to me and we went inside and settled in for the night. I was staying the night, so I already had some clothes and my hairbrush there.
“How was your day?” I asked.
“It was perfect,” she sighed. “Well, except for the part when I fell in the ocean. But I’m okay. My dress isn’t, though. But here’s the weird thing: I could have sworn that Jamie caused me to fall in. I hope it was just an accident. Did you see it?”
I froze, then turned to face her. “You saw me?”
She grinned mischievously. “You’re not as sneaky as you think you are, Reese. I knew you were there the whole time, because I know you. I know why, though. You wanted to make sure he was trustworthy. It’s okay. I’m not upset. I was at first, but I’m over it now.”
I was abashed to the point where I wanted to bury myself in the garden.
“Yes, I saw that,” I said. “I think it was just an accident, though.” That was clearly a lie, and any vampire or decent liar could have seen right through it, but Sarah trusted me enough to think I was being honest with her. Besides, I didn’t want her to get upset, to skew her view of Jamie Williams.
We headed inside, Spunk greeting Sarah first, then me with kisses and dirty paws.
“Where have you been, dirty boy?” Sarah asked.
“He’s been out in the garden,” Mom said. “Sarah, did you tell Reese?”
“No, not yet.”
“Tell me what?” I asked, hoping for good news, curiosity nearly choking me.
“How would you feel about getting another dog?” Sarah asked me.
“Another dog?” I looked at the stupid golden retriever in front of me and the Chihuahua who stood growling at a distance. “What kind of dog?”
“A pitbull,” Sarah said. “They used to be illegal in this town, but they recently changed the laws, and I’ve got my eye on a couple of sweet girls. I’ve already met one of them: her name is Jasmine. And the other one’s name is Lola. There’s also a male that Sabine wants to get named Koda, but he’s a husky, and a Boston terrier puppy named Scooter.”
“That’s a lot of dogs,” I said in amazement. “Plus, we’re about to have a baby-“
“Which is why you don’t leave animals alone with babies or little kids,” Sarah reminded me. “I’m not going to rehome either of my dogs; that’s just selfish and irresponsible. I made a commitment to take care of them throughout their lives. And as long as I can financially, I will. Besides, pets are good for babies. Helps them adapt and learn empathy, how to treat animals and people.”
“You’re right,” I said, realizing now how silly I was. “Okay, if you want a dog or two, we’ll get a dog or two. But they’re your responsibility, just like the cats are mine.”
She gave me a mocking salute, to which I stuck my tongue out at her for. She recoiled back slightly, but her expression stayed relaxed and happy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is it with women and roses? I thought groggily as Sarah woke me up by singing “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden”. Mother’s favorite song was “White Rose of Athens”, and Selena’s was “The Rose” by Bette Midler, although that one was technically about love.
I heard a gasp, then a scream, and a muffled gasp.
I ran out the door and into the laundry room where I’d heard Sarah’s voice coming from. In front of me was a man who was frantically holding Sarah and keeping his hand over her mouth. He had long silver hair, bright yellow-green eyes similar to Faolan’s, and he was stockier and smelled like both werewolf and vampire.
This must be Liam Wolfheart.
Reese! Help me!
Hang on, baby, I’m here.
Did I just have a conversation with Sarah inside our minds? A conversation for another time.
“Let her go,” I growled.
The wolf/vampire hybrid let Sarah go, and then she spun around and kicked him in the testicles. He fell over, sputtering.
“Fucking bitch,” he cursed in a thick German accent.
Sarah ran to me and I squeezed her into me.
“Who are you?” I demanded.
“Liam Wolfheart,” he said. I knew it. “I’m here for Selena.”
“My sister? No. Fuck off.”
“Please…I’m desperate. None of our children have lived.”
“Children? There was more than one?”
“I only let her go so she could see Marina again. And you…I assume you’re Reese.”
“Toby! Get your lazy ass down here!” I called out.
My bodyguard and friend stumbled down the steps, still tangled up in his bedsheets. He landed in a heap on the floor, and then Alexander appeared at the top.
“Pitiful,” he said, referring to Toby’s clumsiness.
“Alexander, who is this freak?” Sarah asked. My stepfather scowled.
“A person who is not welcome in our home anymore. A person who lost both my friendship and protection when he stole away my stepdaughter.”
“Alexander, I loved her,” Liam said, spreading his hands. “From the moment we locked eyes. And she said to me ‘So, you’re the famous Liam. I hear you stole some gold, but returned ruby earrings to my stepfather. So what are you? A villain, or a hero?’ And I knew she was my soulmate.”
“But she did not feel the same way,” Alexander said, coming down to face his enemy. He jumped over Toby, who had yet to untangle himself.
“You have little protection here,” Liam said. “Three humans, and two young vampires, and one lowly guard who is barely a boy.”
“I consider that racist,” Toby said aloud, to which he was promptly ignored by everyone except Sarah, who smiled gently at him.
“You should have come two days ago,” Alexander said. “Sarah was meeting a famous author and he had several people with him, including a couple of guards.”
Liam was about to argue, but then he paused and looked behind us. I turned and saw my sister, who had a gun in her right hand and a stake in the other. Her hands were shaking.
“You came for me,” she muttered.
“You forced me to,” Liam said. “But if you wish it, I will leave.”
“No! You won’t hurt me ever again!” She fired the gun, which woke up Cirino, who began crying. Blood blossomed in Liam’s midsection, between his fingers, but he still remained standing, although he held onto the dryer.
“I love you, Selena,” he moaned. “Can’t you see? We’re destined!”
Then Mother appeared. If you’ve ever see a mother bear defend her cub or a cat protecting her kitten, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a mother vampire. She took the gun from Selena and the stake and then fired a few more rounds. Liam fell to the ground, but he still wasn’t dead. Mother shot him several more times, but, amazingly, he got up and started walking to the garage door.
“Don’t let him get away,” Mother said firmly.
“Let him go, dear,” Alexander told her. “He won’t bother us here again.”
And Liam, dragging blood, snapped his fingers and disappeared into thin air.

“Um, what was that thing he did with his fingers?” Sarah asked an hour later, as Mother gave her a cup of cocoa.
“The Disappearing Act,” Mother said. “I’ve seen my mother and sisters do it many times before. You have to be extremely skilled in reconfiguring yourself.”
“What?”
“Evaporate yourself by separating your own molecules and cells, and then reappear somewhere else. It’s complicated and extremely difficult, and it takes years of practice. Only someone as skilled as my mother could have taught him that trick. Selena, did you ever see him do that before?”
“No.” My sister was still shaking, even an hour later. “He forced me to become pregnant when I wasn’t ready. I was forced to have natural births, and all of them died. They were all a part of him; hybrids, unable to stay alive for long. I didn’t even get to name most of them. There was a little one…she was so tiny, and she had hair like yours, Mother. But her little body wasn’t able to take the heat of her werewolf side, or the pressure and trauma of her vampire side. She died within the hour.”
Mother hugged Selena. “I’m sorry, dear. I would have liked to meet her.”
“I had a niece?” I asked aloud. Sarah climbed into my lap and clung to me. I could feel the baby inside of her, and I purred.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Darkness isn’t scary.

I was floating in the water…no, not floating, drowning. My body was being carried to the bottom of the lake by some force I could not see. When I looked down, I could see Hell. The things I saw, the things I felt…should not be repeated. I will tell you that I felt instant terror. I started struggling for the surface, but something grabbed me around the waist.
I looked down. One of Satan’s minions had grabbed me in his claws and gave me a black-toothed grin. His eyes were pupilless, red orbs, his skin the color of rocks, and wrinkly. I continued to struggle, and he kept pulling me down.
Then I saw a white light in my peripheral vision. An angel, my angel, my own personal, sweet angel, was diving into the water. She had gotten her wings wet on purpose to save me. She grabbed my hand, and pulled me up. Or, she tried. The demon was pulling us both down. And then I saw Jamie Williams. He had grabbed her ankle and was pulling her up.
“You’re mine!” he shouted in a deep, otherworldly voice.
“Reese!” she shouted, taking in a mouthful of water.
“Sarah, don’t speak!” I shouted. “I’ll get to you, I promise!”
“I don’t need saving! I’ll save you!”
“Sarah…Sarah…”

“Sarah…Sarah…”
“Reese, shhh. It’s me. I’m here.” She was gently kissing me and nuzzling me. Still half-awake and frightened, I nipped her nose. She pulled back a bit and put her hand over her nose.
“Am I alive?” I asked. “Is Shadowfang freakjokenSarahzoid?”
“What?”
“I’m just talking nonsense. I had a bad dream.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, it will only scare you.”
“It certainly scared you. You were thrashing around in your sleep for like, two minutes before I could wake you up.”
“What time is it?”
“Six in the morning. Do you want to go back to sleep?”
“No, better not risk it. If you want to go back to sleep, that’s fine with me, but I’m getting up.”
I sat up, and then realized I was on the wrong side of the bed. Sarah realized this, too. She propelled herself forward, allowing me to swing around and get out of the full bed that we both occupied.
She fell back asleep almost instantly and was snoring when I put the blankets over her and then creeped out of the room, nearly tripping over Spunk in the process.
“Bad dog!” I chided, and he wagged his tail and licked his lips. I stumbled down the steps and found the book I’d been reading the night before. I turned the lamp on and tried to read, but it was clear that I wasn’t going to get very far after I read the same sentence about ten times. I sighed. I would finish Stephen King’s latest novel later.
I rubbed my eyes and looked outside. It was still dark, and I could see Chirag shifting his weight as he kept watch over the house.
I considered turning on the TV, but I might wake up Mother and Alexander. Even at the lowest volume, they would still hear the electricity and static. I went to the home library instead. Every home needs its own private library. This one had a lot of vampire novels, old tomes, scrolls with spells and rituals, and a few things I wasn’t allowed to look at.
I yawned and sank into the plush red chair that Alexander used as a reading chair. I fell asleep, and was only woken some hours later when I heard a loud scream.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I fell out of the chair and banged my head against a bookshelf. I shook it off and stumbled forward.
That scream sounded like Mother’s.
I started to run down the steps, tripping over my pajama bottoms and landing on my butt in the process, and crawled forward. I stood up and quickly pulled up my pajama bottoms as high as they would go, then headed toward Sabine’s room, where I’d heard the scream.
Mother was standing in the doorway, shaking. I looked past her and saw a body of a vampire that I did not recognize. From the smell, he’d been there for some time. He was hanging from a noose in the ceiling. Luckily, Sabine was at school.
I searched for a pair of scissors and stood on Sabine’s bed and started cutting him down. He started to wheeze and cough as I worked. The poor dude was still alive. I wondered what the point was. Hanging vampires hurts us, but doesn’t kill us. We don’t need air to live, and breaking the hyoid bone does nothing.
I finished cutting the sucker down, and Mother shouted, “Don’t look, Sarah!”
Too late. Sarah stifled a scream and gasped instead.
The vampire began to twitch, and I ordered Mother and Sarah to stay back. Chirag was so fired after this.
I put the vampire on the bed in one of the spare rooms and called Ethan and Uncle Soren. Father was unfortunately away to settle an estate dispute, and Grandfather was still sick and needed Louis or Uncle Soren to watch him if the worst were to happen.
Ethan was there in minutes with his medical kit and Uncle Soren sent Louis in his stead. The vampire slowly began to wake up.
“Hello, I’m Ethan,” Ethan said. “What’s your name?”
“L-Lee.”
“Lee, do you remember what happened?”
“I was going to meet a guy for business, and then…” Lee winced.
“It’s all right, Lee,” Ethan said, squeezing his hand. “I’m here. I’m here.”
Lee closed his eyes and clutched his head with his free hand.
“I remember…I remember someone…someone on the High Council. Bram Sterling, maybe? I had a business transaction with him…” His eyes widened and he looked at me. “Please, don’t kill me. I needed the money!”
“No one is going to kill you,” Ethan assured him. “Not while I’m here. Tell me, what did Bram Sterling want?”
“Information. Several…several of the royal guards are spies for the Council. They think that this time is too modern to continued to have a royal family. They would rather have a democratic rule.”
“It already sort of is,” I pointed out, and Louis shushed me.
“Bram has convinced the rest of the vampire world that the Emerson and Nicolai families are going to tear the race apart and cause a massive war. I’m a hacker. I hacked into Mordecai and Soren’s computers to find what information I could. There’s also some other spies, but I don’t know their names. Bram put a tracker in their left arms to track their movements.”
“Satira,” I breathed. “She touched her arm when you hit her, Mom.”
“You remember that?” Sarah quipped. Mother shushed her.
“What else do you know?” Louis demanded.
“That’s it! I swear! Please, don’t kill me!”
“Shhh, it’s all right,” Ethan soothed him, and I wondered at his odd behavior. He leaned down and smelled Lee, and I realized that he was attracted to the strange vampire. Feeling sick to my stomach, I sat on the chair, and Sarah stood beside me. She kneeled down and kissed my hand.
“It will be okay,” she assured me. “We’ll get this sorted out. We always have. We’ve always gotten through the worst.”
How could she be so positive? This was bad. Really bad. The Council had powers the royal family didn’t have-the power to outvote laws, create new ones, amend or get rid of old ones, and they had a bigger variety of members than we had. Of course, we could create new laws and get rid of old ones, too, but we couldn’t outvote the Council. We’d been so concerned about Grandfather, we had become lax in our ruling of the vampire world and keeping the Council in check.
Sarah sat up and kissed me. I felt sick. I wrapped my arms around her.
“Louis and Soren will take care of it,” Sarah told me. “Want to play Mortal Kombat?”
“Not now,” I replied. “I need to think.”
She nodded and kissed me.

By the afternoon, Chirag had disappeared, and more guards were surrounding the house. I didn’t know all their names, but Chris was here, and so was Toby. I took a potion for dreamless sleep, and took a nice, long nap. Sarah cuddled with me the whole time.
By tomorrow morning, she was purring and muttering. I thought she was feeling frisky, so I turned around and faced her, then realized she was still asleep. A serene smile made her look like a sleeping angel. I pecked her nose and pulled her in. My tall, muscular body protecting her small, curvy, pregnant one. A male protecting his female. Keeping her safe.
“Reese,” she muttered. “I love you. Reese.”
I kissed her softly. “Wake up, honey,” I cooed. She continued purring, then whined, and her smile disappeared.
“No, no…Mike…no…”
“Babe, it’s okay,” I said. “Mike can’t hurt you anymore. I’ll protect you.”
“Ba…baby…Reese…Jamie…no…no, not him!”
“Sarah, wake up!” I licked her cheek in a desperate attempt to wake her up. I was afraid to shake her-I could break her neck that way.
“Mike, no! No! Stop! I don’t want this!”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Sarah! It’s me!”
She opened her eyes and rubbed them. “Reese?” She closed her eyes for a second, her brow furrowing. “Reese!” She hugged me tightly. “It happened again, Reese. I was having a nice dream…a sex dream…and then it got…dark…and there was Nales….” She began to cry.
“It’s okay, baby,” I said. “He’s not here. He can’t hurt you anymore. I’ll keep you safe.” I licked her eyes and kissed her soft pink lips.
“I’m worried, Reese,” she said. “I know I didn’t show it yesterday, but I was terrified when that guy was found. They know where we live. We can’t trust anyone except family, and some of our family we can’t even trust. I don’t trust Satira. You know she showed up the other day when you were at the music store, looking at guitars? She wanted me to go with her, but Mom, your mom, I mean, told me to stay where I was and told Satira to fuck off.
“Your mom told me all about her. Apparently, your mom’s side comes from a long line of witches and warlocks, and your mom abandoned witchcraft for Catholicism because it was more modern and made sense. She didn’t want to practice the dark arts, like Satira wanted her to. Satira started yelling at her, accusing her of abandoning her family and leaving us. Your mom accused her of causing all those miscarriages and stillborns she had when she was, well, not yet a vampire. Satira said something in Greek, and she mentioned Baba Yaga. Your mom looked like she’d been smacked, and then she started screaming at her in Greek. Then Satira sort of smirked and then turned around and left.”
I thought about David. He’d shown up the same day as Satira. I found that a bit, well, odd. Now Lee was here, claiming he had hacked into our computers for Bram Sterling, who was Head of the Vampire Council. I knew Bram hated us. Heck, he’d even canceled our credit cards without us knowing about it.
I knew that Uncle Soren and Bram had never gotten along in particular. Bram thought my uncle was too gruff and rough and strict, and Uncle Soren thought that Bram was, well, sort of evil. There had been a few incidents where Bram had taken things too far-killed a prisoner who didn’t deserve to be killed or who had information we needed, killing humans for fun, and even his ex-wife had accused him of being abusive to her.
You have to understand, even though time and things change, a lot of vampires don’t value human life as much as we do. They are seen as weak and inferior; a parasite, even. Vampires and humans have never really gotten along. We’ve slaughtered them, and they’ve killed some of us. Even today, there are Vampire Hunters who specifically go after vampires who attack humans or are a leech on society.
There are new laws surrounding this, but of course, the Hunters don’t follow vampire laws, only their own laws. Each vampire death must be recorded and a reason must be given for the vampire’s death. Even vampires kill each other sometimes, over territory, food, and mates.
The laws are very clear around these things. That’s why we are here; to settle disputes and enforce the laws, even if we break them occasionally.
The Council is here to keep us in check and to rule in our stead if we are not able to. That’s what they were supposed to be doing while Uncle Soren, Grandfather, and Louis were in America to help Grandfather recover from stress and depression. Now, apparently, they wanted us gone. Not cool.
“Sorry, little buddy,” Louis said, coming into the room. “I’m going to have to call Slutty Scorpia.”
I groaned.
“Who’s Slutty Scorpia?” Sarah asked, looking both concerned and curious.
“She’s a hacker,” Louis said, grinning. “She’s also a little bit crazy about little buddy here.”
“Do not call Slutty Scorpia,” I said. “Louis, I’m begging you.”
“Sorry,” he said.
“She locked me in a closet until I said I loved her! She stole my underwear and my hairbrush! She liked smelling my shoes!”
“How come I’ve never heard of her?” Sarah asked. If she were a color, she would be a tiny bit green. She was getting jealous, which amused me.
“I can’t stand her,” I said. “She cut up my shirts, she chased me around the garden, she even yanked my earring out of my ear and I had to have surgery to fix it. She’s crazy as hell.”
“All you had to do was say yes to one date,” Louis said, grinning.
“If I’d done that, she would have never stopped chasing me! I finally got her to back off by complaining to Father, and he told her to leave me alone.”
She nuzzled against me and kissed my neck.
“You’re mine,” she said.
“Jealous?” I teased.
“A little,” she admitted.
“No need to be. You’re the one carrying my baby.” I put my hand on her stomach and grinned. She just clung to me, her legs around my waist, her arms locked around my neck. She laid her head against my chest, purring. I purred, too, my chest rumbling with love and pleasure as she claimed me.
We stayed like that for a long time, just cuddling, while Louis quietly left the room to make the unfortunate call to my old enemy, Scorpia Garden.
I first met Scorpia when we were both ten. She was an orphan who’d been adopted by our guard, Raz. He was a powerful guard, if a bit strict and uncaring. Any emotion he showed was toward Scorpia, whom he saw as a daughter, seeing as he was the one who had found her at the castle entrance and took her in. A heartbreaking note was left from her mother, saying that she loved Scorpia, but couldn’t take care of her. She was born under the sign Scorpio, thus, her name was born.
When I met her, I was exploring the garden by myself and watching the fish in the pond swim around.
I was sitting on my hands and knees, watching Pearl and the other koi swim around. Father was in France, dealing with some issue that required his attention, so I was with Uncle Soren for the summer.
“Hey.”
I glanced behind me. I stood up and turned around, and saw a girl vampire. She was sort of pretty, with ivory skin and black hair and brown eyes. She wore black jeans, black Converses, a black jacket, and a striped black and white shirt.
“Hey,” I replied. “What’ s your name?”
“Scorpia.”
“Hey, Scorpia. I’m-“
“I know who you are. Your name is Reese. You’re Prince Mordecai’s son.”
“Er, yes.”
“I’ve been watching you.”
“Really? Why?”
“I think you’re cute.”
Now I was uncomfortable.
“Er, thanks. I have to, um…”
“Do you think I’m cute?”
I was silent. She stared at me expectantly.
“Er, yeah, sure. I have to, um, go now. My uncle-“
“Do you want to kiss me?”
“Um, no,” I said honestly.
“But you just said I’m cute.”
“I think kittens are cute, but I don’t want to kiss one,” I told her.
“Kittens have germs. I don’t. My dad works for your dad. I was left on the castle steps when I was a baby, and Raz found me. He adopted me and named me Scorpia. My favorite color is red, I like cats and dogs, I have a hamster named Minnie, and my favorite music is classic rock.”
“Cool. I like cats, too. I don’t care for dogs, though. I don’t really have any pets, but I have a favorite koi in this pond. His name is Pearl.”
“A boy fish named Pearl? That’s…weird. Don’t you have some dogs, or something?”
“The only dogs I have are the dogs who watch our sheep and cows and stuff. Father says that livestock are a necessary item for vampires who employ human servants.”
“Livestock? What’s that?”
“You know, cows and horses and sheep and pigs. We sell their meat and hides and wool at a discount for humans who can’t afford to eat regularly-priced meat and they’re also for our human employees. We have to feed them somehow. That’s also why we keep a vegetable garden and an apple orchard. It’s not just because the apples smell nice, which they do, but because-“
She put her finger against my lips. “You talk too much.” And then she kissed me. Later, I would muse over what possessed her to do that. I was a prince. No one was allowed in my space unless I said so, but I was too nice to say no most of the time. As I grew into a teenager, I started to grow a thicker skin and told Scorpia to stop following me around, and then she started crying and begging me to go on one date with her. I had no interest in her, and I told her such.
She went crazy. She started following me around, stealing anything that smelled like me, cutting up my clothes, and so on. She became adept at stalking me online. She became so skilled on a computer that Father hired her to test the security systems. She found and fixed several flaws, and he paid her well for it.
I finally had enough when I was fourteen and asked Father to tell her to back off, and then she stopped speaking to me. She remained a security employee, and everyone started calling her Hacker Stalker.

I was interrupted from memory lane when I heard a snore. Sarah had fallen asleep again! I smiled into her hair and nibbled a few strands. She was so soft, so breakable. And now she was pregnant with my baby. She was already three months along, but she was still small. That concerned me. When Mother was pregnant with me, she’d been huge, almost as big as she was now with triplets. And vampire/human pregnancies always, always, resulted in someone’s death; either the mother’s, or the baby’s, or even both.
Sarah loved being pregnant. She would just stare at her own belly for an hour. She loved the chance to eat whatever she wanted, although she wasn’t able to eat as much due to the pressure on her organs. She had a mixture of good and bad dreams, and chicken made her sick, even if it was well-cooked and prepared correctly. She was addicted to eggs, especially raw eggs. She added them to her spinach and strawberry smoothies.
One of the things that irked her was that she was not allowed to drink as much coffee as she normally did. She loved the icky dark brown/black stuff that stained teeth and caused her heart to beat faster than normal. (Did you know that women’s hearts beat faster than men’s anyway?)
I was becoming nervous. I loved this baby as much as she did, but what if I had to choose between my child and my mate? What then?
Mother was always complaining about the constant kicking from the triplets. Did our baby kick Sarah, or was it too early for that? Did vampire babies grow faster or slower with human mothers? I needed to ask Alexander.
I put Sarah in bed and found my stepfather in his study, writing something at his desk.
“Can I talk to you?” I asked.
“Not now. I’m busy.”
“What was it like…I mean, with Kieran and Celine?”
“Difficult and long. Now go away. Go listen to that crap you call music or read one of those pieces of trash you call a novel.”
“Are you ever nice to anybody except Mother?”
“Not really. She’s the only one I like, besides Cirino. Now scoot. Skedaddle.”
I stuck my tongue out at the back of his head, then went outside to smoke a cigarette. Except…
Crap, I don’t have any cigarettes.
Time for a visit to the gas station. I needed a refill on my Nissan, anyway.

The gas station was only a mile away, so I was able to get there in time and filled up the tank in minutes. I went inside after I was done.
“Pack of Marlboro Silvers, please,” I said.
“Long or shorts?”
“Long.”
The clerk scanned my ID and I handed him some cash for the cigarettes.
“Reese? Reese Emerson?”
I turned at the high-pitched feminine voice.
Oh, shit fire.
It was Scarlett Hart. She wore a black tank top, short tight denim shorts, silver hoop earrings, and her usual red lipstick. Her black hair was in its usual high ponytail. She wore ankle boots and fishnets.
“Hi, Scarlett.”
“Hello. I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes.
“I live in this town. I sort of need to stay nearby.”
“What are you doing with yourself these days?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m about to become a father in six months. Sarah’s pregnant.”
She blinked, then touched my arm. “I bet you get lonely. You can’t have sex while she’s pregnant.”
“I manage.”
“It’s not the same as real sex, though, is it? I mean, real sex is…well, it’s amazing. Being close to someone you have feelings for, being connected in the best way possible, it’s so incredible.”
She stepped closer to me; she smelled like roses. I could feel myself getting excited.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
“What do you say? You want to feel what a real woman can do to your manhood?”
“No, thanks, Scarlett,” I replied. “Sarah is a real woman, and she’s handled my manhood well.”
I left her looking rejected and furious.

I went straight to Louis.
“Scarlett hit on me, and I got turned on,” I said.
“Hold on,” he said to the person at the other end of the phone. He put his hand over the receiver. “One-minute, little buddy. Geez. Sorry, Ambassador, what was that?” he continued. “Okay, well, I wouldn’t know for sure. My father or my uncle might, though. Do you have Mordecai’s number? His number is-“ He rattled off the number. “That’s his work number. Sorry, I don’t give out his personal number without his permission. I understand, but this is not a life-or-death issue. It’s an economy issue. I know, economy issues can become life-or-death, but it’s not an immediate concern. There’s no need for that kind of language. I understand, ma’am. Ma’am-ah, she hung up on me. What were you saying, little buddy?”
I repeated myself.
Louis rubbed his chin thoughtfully. I noticed that he had some whiskers growing on his chin. “I mean, you have been with Sarah for a while, and Scarlett’s a very beautiful girl. Maybe you’re just getting the urge.”
“The urge?”
“You know, guy’s been with his girlfriend for a while, a beautiful lady catches his attention. The urge.”
“You mean cheating?!”
Louis shrugged. “Men your age are prone to weakness, little buddy. Similar to guys in their forties or fifties. You’ve been with other people besides Sarah.”
“Yes, but with Evan, we weren’t together yet, and my tryst with Sadie doesn’t count, because we were technically broken up at the time. Even Sarah admitted that, although I know it hurt her. Just like it hurt me when she briefly dated Caden Cartwright while we were broken up.”
Louis shrugged. “I can’t really give you any advice, little buddy. You know the difference between right and wrong. Would it kill you if you and Sarah broke up? Probably. Would it kill you if you had relations with Scarlett? Probably not. Would it kill Sarah? Maybe. But that’s only if she finds out, right?”
“You’ve cheated before!”
“Yes, and it came back to bite me in the butt when Claudia gave me what-for for cheating on Reni. I also cheated on Jillian, Diana, Harper, Clara, and Little Wolf. All of them dumped me or kicked my ass, except for Clara, who begged me to stay with her. Man, that chick was nuts. Little Wolf was just as nuts, but in a different way-she literally kicked my ass and then tried to tear my balls off. I had to restrain her and then tie her up. She still hates me to this day. But if there’s anything I learned from my many, many trysts, it’s this: cheating hurts everyone involved, especially the cheater and the cheatee.”
I thought about what he said as I went back to Sarah’s room. She was in the shower, so I laid out some underwear for her and a clean t-shirt that said POPCORN ROCKS! I looked through her clothes and found a few that still had tags on them. I snipped the tags off, then laid out a pair of jeans and brown ankle boots for her. She’d wear this outfit.
When she came back in, towel wrapped around her head, she looked at the outfit and laughed.
“I need a maternity shirt, Reese,” she said.
“This isn’t maternity?” I lifted it up.
“No, it’s for people with flat stomachs, because it’s meant to expose a little midriff.”
I tilted my head in confusion. “What’s the point?”
“To look cute, duh.” She examined the outfit I’d laid out. “Sorry Reese, but this outfit is a major flop. Nothing will fit me now.”
Frustrated, I wadded up the shirt and threw it across the room.
“Hey, you tried,” she assured me, pecking me on the lips. She had chosen soap that smelled like oranges this time. I was sort of getting tired of smelling the same scent all the time-gardenias and roses, despite her efforts to have a different scent every day. Well, she was distantly related to the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, and sexuality.
I’d only met Aphrodite briefly, and never got a chance to speak to her, and I was still revved by the experience when I thought about it. But Sarah no longer revved me up the way she used to. I knew everything about her at this point. There was very little spark. Plus, she’d gained some weight. I know that’s extremely shallow and self-centered, and I know that pregnant women are supposed to gain weight, but she just had so many stretch marks now that I found it ridiculous.
Sarah glared at me for my brief fit, and then she went to her closet.
“Damn, I cut the tags off those shirts,” she said. “I was going to return them.”
Oops.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We picked the dogs up on Saturday. First, we got the husky, Koda. He was a pretty blue-eyed and black-and-white-furred yearling stud, and he jumped around us and licked our hands as I handed over the cash to his previous owner, a woman named Judy.
Then we got the Boston terrier pup named Scooter, and he came from a puppy mill owner. She explained that he’d just gotten over kennel cough, and was still weak. He was beautiful, with black and white spots all over him. He and Koda growled at each other at first, then started to play in the backseat of Sarah’s gold Honda.
They also jumped all over me. Koda kissed me multiple times, and tried to lick Sarah, but I kept him back so she could drive safely.
We went to the shelter where Jasmine was being kept, and we found a lovely tanned-brown happy-go-lucky pitbull with one brown eye and one blue eye playing with her sister. We were less happy when we found out that the owner went back on his word and promised Lola to another family. Sarah got upset, and I yelled at the owner for lying to us. And then we were even less happy when Scarlett came to pick up the dog.
“Hello, Reese, Sarah. Abe,” she said, walking toward us.
“You’re the buyer?” I asked in disbelief. Scarlett shrugged.
“Hey, she was promised to me.”
“She was also promised to us.”
She shrugged again. “Too bad. I need the protection more.”
“You bought a dog for protection?”
“Yes. Thanks to you, my parents threw me out of the house, and now I’m forced to work as both a dancer and a barista while I scrounge up metal to sell. They won’t even pay for college anymore!”
“And you blame us?”
“Well, it is your fault. You had to let everyone know what we were doing, Reese. And so did you, Sarah. You know what, I don’t even want the dog anymore. Go ahead and take her.”
She stalked away, and that’s how we wound up with Lola.

It was cramped in the car with four dogs. I had the Boston terrier pup in my lap, and the two pitbulls and the husky in the back. Lola and Jasmine were sniffing Koda, while he was sniffing Jasmine.
When we got home, all the dogs burst out of the car when we opened the doors. Koda spotted a rabbit and started chasing her, while Jasmine and Lola started smelling the lilac bushes. Scooter jumped out of my arms and immediately ran over to an ornamental cherry tree.
I opened the door, and was greeted by Shadowfang in his cat form. He twisted around my legs.
“You smell like dog,” he complained. Then his fur stood up on end and he arched his back. Lola had come inside, and was now staring at him curiously.
“You did bring a dog over,” he said.
“Actually-“
“Oh my god, I see more than one! How could you do this to me, Reese Emerson?!”
“Hey, they aren’t mine, at least, not fully. They belong to the girls.”
“Why so many?”
“Two of them belong to Sabine, the other two are Sarah’s.”
Just then, Spunk and Coffee appeared, and Coffee growled from a distance while Spunk sniffed Lola and she sniffed him back. Sarah let the other three dogs in, and it was pure chaos for about an hour while the dogs introduced themselves to each other and Jasmine chased Shadowfang around the living room. He finally jumped to the top of the refrigerator and refused to come down.
“Are you ever going to forgive me, Shadow?” Sarah asked.
“That depends. Are you keeping the mongrels?”
She shrugged. “Sorry. But yeah, they’re permanent.”
“Then no.”
She turned to me with a hurt look.
“He’ll forgive you,” I assured her, chuckling. “Eventually.”
Mom walked downstairs then with Selena and the chaos started up again. Zie appeared with Cirino a few minutes after that and they all wanted to meet the baby. He wasn’t sure if he liked all the dogs. He’d smile, then it would disappear and he’d hide his face in Zie’s chest.
“Why’d you get the mutts, anyway?” Shadow asked.
“Sarah needed an emotional support animal,” Mother replied. “Spunk could be it, but he’s stupid, and Coffee is a bitch. We are going to train these dogs to be good dogs. Besides, we need protection. We are going to train Koda and Lola and Jasmine to be protectors of the girls. We need them when we cannot be around. And we cannot trust the guards anymore. Chirag was only the latest to betray us, and before we know it, even Toby may turn his back on us!”
“Toby wouldn’t,” I assured her. “He’s too loyal to my uncle, and I consider him a friend.”
“More guards are coming tonight,” Alexander said, moving the baby gate as he walked downstairs. “I believe their names are Marcus and Renata. They are mates, as I’ve been told. They take their jobs seriously and came highly recommended from the vampire governor of Minnesota.”
“There are vampire governors?” Sarah asked.
“Well, sure,” I said. “There are also vampire mayors, vampire presidents, and so on. But we’re at the top. The vampire presidential position for the USA has been vacant for years, which is one reason why my father chose to come here. The old president hated his guts.”
She looked confused, so I dropped the subject.
“Well, the king and the princes and the Council can’t keep track of everything and enforce laws in every country by themselves, can they?” Alexander said sarcastically.
Sarah ignored him and bent down to pet Jasmine, who was eagerly sniffing Coffee now. The little tyrant was starting to growl in warning, so Sarah picked her up and petted her. Selena and I put out bowls of food and water for the dogs, then I went to coax Shadowfang down.
“It’s perfectly safe,” I encouraged.
“I’m perfectly safe up here, they can’t get to me,” he replied. “I swear, I will never forgive your girlfriend for this, Reese Emerson.”
“It’s not her fault,” I argued. “She needs an emotional support animal, and so does Sabine. Besides, you didn’t meet the owners We did. One of them was a puppy mill owner. Almost all the dogs had kennel cough, and a few had heartworms. They were in cramped cages with barely any water and rotten food. One of them was so underfed you could see her bones poking through the skin.”
“All dogs are a menace,” he talked back. “I hate dogs, and I especially hate females. They always want to cuddle with you and kiss you and make sure you have food.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“Of course it is! It’s a trick just so they can get you later. After a few days they’re feasting on what’s left of your flesh, and your bones are being chewed on by ants and worms.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, I may have had a mate who at one point was eaten by a stray dog. It broke my heart. And all our kittens died because I couldn’t feed them and they were still drinking milk.”
“Oh, I…I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t know. I didn’t tell you. Of course, afterwards I found Mishka and we had kittens, one of whom you ran over. Thanks for that.”
“I know, and I still hate myself for it. I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Shadow.”
My heart broke all over again when I thought of Remy.
Trying to control my tears, I went to find Sarah on her bed, brushing Koda.
“Babe, what’s wrong?” she asked, noticing my eyes. Her brow furrowed with worry lines. I told her about my conversation with Shadowfang, and she got up and embraced me. “Oh, babe, I’m so sorry.”
This was why I loved her, I reminded myself. She was so kind and selfless. I was not worthy to lick her boots. After a few minutes, though, I pushed her away gently, and we sat on her bed again.
“Question: will I still have hairy legs when I’m a vampire?” she asked.
I grimaced at the bad timing. “Sorry, babe.”
She groaned. Huh. That was odd. Normally she wouldn’t be that heartless so quickly. It irked me, and once again, I thought of Scarlett. Scarlett had nice legs. Creamy and slim. I’d now encountered her twice this month, and I wondered if I’d see her again.
My heart broke even more when I thought of me and Scarlett together. It would tear Sarah apart if I voiced these thoughts. Scarlett was the girl who’d turned all my beloved’s friends against her. She started a thieving ring and blamed Sarah when they were caught, even though it was Jordan who told all the parents, not Sarah.
Stomach sinking, I bit my lip and tried not to cry.
Be a man, I chastised myself. I went to the window and looked outside. Sabine was back from her walk, and she was dancing along to music blaring from her phone. She looked up and saw me, then glared at me. She still blamed me for James’ death. Then I saw something else.
No, it can’t be…
I thought I saw a cat with dark grey fur run by. It looked like…like Remy. But that was impossible.
Resurrection is entirely possible, but only with a god or goddess’ aid.
But it was. I heard sobbing a few minutes later, a scream, and more crying.
I ran downstairs, afraid that Mother or Selena was hurt, but it wasn’t them. It was Remy. He was alive!
“How…What…?
“Hi, Reese,” he said, cheerfully. “I know this is a shock, but I can explain.”
“Please do.”
“I faked my death to get away from Samuel.”
I started banging my head against the nearest wall.
Remy and Shadowfang circled around each other, meowing, purring. My heart leaped into my throat, and Sarah followed me into the room.
Shadowfang looked up at her. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know for sure,” she admitted. “But I’d seen him once or twice. I thought it was his ghost, the way Daddy tried to haunt Reese.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded. “We were supposed to be honest with each other.”
“Like I said, I didn’t know for sure,” she said.
“I’ve been blaming myself,” I said, irritated. “Damn it, Sarah.”
She flinched at my sudden anger. I winced. “Sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to snap at you. But please, tell me next time.”
“I will,” she said. But she avoided me while we cuddled with Remy, with my nose inhaling the scent of his soft fur and white dandruff. (He had a major dandruff problem.)
Father came over with the rest of the cats as soon as he got the call. For an hour, it was pure chaos. Everyone wanted to sniff and lick Remy, a few tears were shed from both me and Sarah (actually, a lot of tears were shed), and I slowly began to forgive myself. It wasn’t wholly my fault, anyway. Samuel had forced the cat under my car wheels.
Then, for some reason, he’d revived the young feline, and Remy was here now. He was safe. I was not dreaming. And yet, I’d managed to upset Sarah in this happy time.

CHAPTER FOUR – IN WHICH WE SINK LOWER

Finally, the family was together again. Sarah gave me some much-needed space, sensing my irritation with her. I felt guilty about being irritated with her, and I voiced my guilt to Alexander, who said that he’d been married countless times and got frustrated with every single one of his wives.
But my guilt and irritation were overwhelmed with my happiness that Remy was back. My life was almost complete, but I wasn’t quite happy with myself. Because I was attracted to Scarlett Hart.

A few days after that day, I encountered her yet again, this time at the library. I was returning a book on feminine magic and Stephen King’s latest novel when I saw her. She was at the café beside the small bookshop.
“Sorry, honey, your card was declined,” the girl behind the counter said.
“Shit,” Scarlett said in reply. “Never mind, then. Thanks, anyway.”
“I’ll pay for it,” I said, coming up behind her. Scarlett turned and saw me, then looked suspicious.
I handed the cashier some cash and she set the coffee on the counter.
“Why would you pay for me?” Scarlett asked, suspiciously.
“It’s called forgiveness,” I told her. She took the hot coffee and studied me.
“Did Sarah forgive me?”
“Oh, she forgave you a long time ago. What you did still gives her nightmares, but she forgave you. It took me a long time, but I’ve forgiven you, too. Here.” I pressed a few hundred dollars into her hand. When she saw the amount, her eyes welled up with tears.
“Damn you, Reese,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “Damn you and Sarah to hell.” But she took the money anyway and put the cash in her designer purse with the old leather handles.
I went back into the main library and picked out my next few books, found a DVD I’d been wanting to see, and went home.

“I saw Scarlett at the library,” I told Selena while she was feeding Cirino.
“What did she say to you?” she asked. Soft food dripped down the baby’s chin, and she scooped it up with a spoon.
“Bah,” he said. He was starting to look more like Sarah. He had the same button nose, the same color eyes, the same ears, and the same high cheekbones and heart-shaped face. Luckily, Michael hadn’t shown up since he’d been resurrected. He didn’t even ask for visits with the baby, which I was grateful for, and so was Sarah.
“Nothing much. I paid for her coffee when her card was rejected, and she asked me why I did it. I told her it was called forgiveness, and then she damned me to hell.”
“Sometimes when people make mistakes, it’s harder for them to forgive themselves than for other people to forgive them,” my sister said. “Did she accept your generosity?”
“Yes, but reluctantly. I’ve encountered her at least three times now since we graduated, all in recent days.
“You live in the same town. It was bound to happen.”
“I always assumed I would never see any of my classmates again. I know now that I was wrong. You’re right, it happens in a city this size.” I thought about Sarah, and wondered what she’d think of me handing Scarlett three hundred dollars. I didn’t know for sure how she’d feel about me being kind to her old enemy.
“There’s some good news,” Sarah said, walking into the kitchen. “Jamie Williams said he’s going to stay in North Hampton! He said he likes the city, and the quaint bookstores and coffee shops. He finds The Natural History Museum fascinating, and he wants to get to know me better!”
“Do you believe him?” I asked, cautiously.
“Well, yes and no,” she admitted. “North Hampton is no different than any other city. We’ve got crime here, bad people and stuff. I wonder what his real reason is?”
“It’s you, dear,” Selena told her.
Sarah looked at my sister and cocked her pretty head. “Me? Why? What’s so special about me?”
“Face it, honey, you’re quite the woman. You’re beautiful, smart, funny, and kind. I’m glad my brother’s marrying you.”
Sarah looked horrified. “Oh. Oh no. Not another one!”
“Another what?” I asked.
“Another admirer! I had plenty of them growing up, but ever since I started dating you, it’s like I can’t keep them away! It’s like I’m cursed or something!”
“Do I need to knock some people’s heads in?” I pounded my palm.
She grimaced. “If you could just stay close to me, that would be great. I can’t literally fight people in my condition. By the way, I heard what happened with Scarlett today.”
Now it was my turn to grimace. “Sarah, I-“
“I’m proud of you, Reese. You’re becoming more mature. You’re forgiving people.”
I was not expecting that. She never ceased to surprise me.
“Oh, yes. You’re not angry?”
“I was a little irritated at first, but I realized I was being childish. You were simply doing a nice thing for somebody else. That’s nice, in a world of greed and selfishness.”
Remy and Shadowfang walked into the room, and I bent down to pick up Shadow while Sarah picked up Remy.
“Kitty,” Cirino said, pointing at Shadow.
“That’s right,” Selena told him. “What does a kitty say?”
“Mew.”
“That’s right. You’re a fast learner. I wonder if it’s all the attention you receive, or Mother’s milk?”
“She’s still feeding him her milk?” I asked in disbelief.
“It’s a basic maternal instinct, Reese. He won’t drink cow’s milk right now, but he will drink vampire and human milk.”
“I wonder what vampire milk tastes like?” Shadowfang said, licking his lips.
“Probably super sour,” Remy said.
“You don’t want him to be four years old and still drinking breast milk,” I pointed out.
“I know, and Mother will wean him soon, I know she will. In the meantime, he drinks so much milk that we have to ration it.”
Remy climbed onto Sarah’s shoulders, and nibbled a lock of her hair. She sat down beside me and the cat jumped onto the table. Shadow leaped onto the table as well,
“I’m glad you’re back, kitty,” I said, scratching Remy’s chin.
“So am I,” Sarah agreed.
“Me, too,” Shadowfang echoed. “But you never gave us the full story. What really happened?”
Remy turned around and rolled on his back. “I smell peaches. Are you feeding the baby peaches?”
“Clearly he’s not going to tell us,” I said. “Were you really resurrected? Or did you even die at all?”
He didn’t say anything to that and leaped onto the kitchen counter instead and began sniffing a roast chicken. Spunk came into the kitch
“Where are the other dogs?” I asked.
“Groomer’s for Koda and Lola, vet for Scooter and Jasmine,” Selena explained. “Then we switch it out and Koda and Lola will be at the vet while Scooter and Jasmine will be at the groomer’s.”
“When will their training begin?”
“Next week. Jasmine will be able to tell when Sarah will have any issues with the pregnancy, and Koda will be able to sense seizures or any heart problems.”
“Why not just get one dog?”
“Because most service dogs are trained for only one or two things. Scooter is just an emotional support animal for Sabine, and Lola and Jasmine can’t be apart, or Lola mutilates herself.”
“What does she do to herself?”
“Chews her paws down to the bone,” Sarah explained. “Apparently, both Lola and Jasmine used to be bait dogs in a dogfighting ring, and they were rescued together as well.”
Sarah checked her watch, then said, “Shit, I’m going to be late.”
“Where are you going?” I asked her.
“Doctor’s appointment. Private stuff. It’s not about the baby. Don’t bother coming along. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
She went up to her room, and when she emerged, she was wearing an olive green maternity dress and had put some fresh makeup on and ran a brush through her hair and tied it up in a ponytail. She wore flats on her feet.
“I’ll be back,” she said, standing up on her toes to kiss me.
“If you are not returned in the perfect condition that you are already in…..”
“You worry too much. I’ll only be gone an hour. Two at the most. I have to drop off some books at the library, too, and do some banking on my computer.”
She kissed me again, and then stepped outside.
“She didn’t have her computer with her,” I noted. “And our child…any doctor will know immediately that it’s not fully human. She’s hiding something.”
“It’s private, Reese,” Selena told me. “Leave her alone.”
“I can’t-she’s my fiancée. My mate. My future wife. I can’t just let her go and not know for sure.” I peeked out the window, and she was already driving away. I decided to follow her.

I took the Ferrari to follow her. She drove a less-than-familiar route-in the opposite direction of the hospital. Her eyes, focused on the road, occasionally trailed down to her stomach. My heart would have been pounding if I was alive. What was she up to? Why this place?
She soon pulled up to a gated neighborhood and typed in a code on the box. The same code as last time. I remembered this neighborhood. The home of the Kingdom of the North Hampton Fae.
She pulled up to the first house on the left, and then parked and got out of her car. She locked her car, then knocked on the door three times. A tall, dark man answered the door.
“Password?” he growled.
“Fowley,” she replied, which caused him to step aside and let her in.
Stomach sinking, I punched in the same code as she had, an odd combination of five numbers which I would later realize spelled out the word “fairy” in number code. I pulled up to the same house, parked, and got out. I went up to the door and knocked three times.
The same man opened the door. When he saw me, he scowled. “No vampires.”
“Fowley,” I said, resisting the urge to throttle him.
“No vampires,” he repeated.
“My wife is in there!”
“The cute brunette? She’s clearly one of us. I could smell the magic in her blood.”
“Please,” I begged. “She’s not safe here. Not without me.”
“No vampires.”
“What if I gave you something? Anything! Do you want money?”
I held out five Benjamins, and his eyes lit up. He snatched it greedily and counted it.
“Five minutes,” he grumbled.
“I need at least an hour.” I held out five more bills. He took them and smiled at the amount. He had sharp, yellow teeth that were caked with plaque and tartar.
“Thirty minutes.”
“Dude, that’s not cool! My mate is in there!”
“She will be safe with Fowley. He is head over heels for her.”
I growled and shoved past him. Man, he stunk. Clearly a troll in disguise, or maybe a goblin. No, goblins were shorter.
I followed the sound of voices to the basement, where I found an old wooden door with gold and silver handprints on it.
“Out of my way!”
A small man shoved past me, and then stood on his toes and pressed his palm against the gold handprint.
“What if you don’t have hands?” I asked.
He looked at me, disgusted. “Then you say the password. Who let a vampire in?”
I snuck in behind him and came across the same throne room I’d been in before. Fowley was on a throne made of wood and vines and flowers, the ground made of soft earth, and perched on the Elf’s head was a crown of daisies and gardenias and lilies. Sarah was beside him, her hands folded in front of her. When she saw me, she looked terrified.
“What is your name and your bidding?” Fowley asked the short man.
“Sire, my wife and I have no money. We are penniless and will soon be out of food. We have ten children, with two more on the way. All we have is maggoty meat and bread. Our children will starve and die if we are not helped.”
Fowley nodded to a reptilian man that I recognized as Azur, and the lizard mand handed a small bag of coins and bills to the small man.
“Thank you, Sire. Thank you.”
The man turned to the side, and I saw that his eyes were filled with tears. He left through a side door on the right, and then it was my turn. Fowley frowned.
“How did you get in, vampire? Did Cranka let you in? He will be fired for this. Leave now, before I have your head on a pike.”
“NO!” Sarah shouted. She ran to me, and the people around us began muttering. “He’s my fiancé, Fowley.”
“Your fiancé?” He looked heartbroken. “You never told me. You know how I feel about you. Why now, when it is too late?”
“I didn’t tell him about you, either,” she admitted.
He looked furious. The air crackled with energy, and flames appeared in his eyes. His hair turned white and stood on end, and his fingernails grew into long, ten-inch claws.
“Girl, I will kill you for this treachery!” He threw a firebolt at us, and I shielded her with my body, but the bolt never hit me. Her wings had popped out of her back and she had lifted us into the air. I also noticed a blue force field around us.
“Azur?” Sarah asked, looking at the reptilian. He had his hands held out, both palms facing forward, projecting the field.
“Leave. Now,” he commanded in his gravelly voice.
Sarah flew through the side door and out. Behind us, energy crackled and sparked, and Azur was trying to keep Fowley calm.
“Well, there goes that job,” Sarah muttered.
“We are going to have a long talk,” I told her.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Sarah Harper Cresley, what were you thinking?!” Mother was as furious as I was. “Working for that…that…fairy!”
“I’m a fairy,” Sarah pointed out.
“That’s besides the point,” I said. “You could have put yourself and our baby in danger!”
“I wasn’t in any danger until you showed up! Besides, I needed the money for Mom and Dad.”
“You’re still giving money to that woman?” I thought Mother would explode with fury. But she just looked sad. “She still has control over you?”
“She can’t get a job, because she’s a vampire now, her side of the family isn’t talking to us, and you won’t give her one. I wanted her to have a healthy life as a vampire, even if her human life was full of downs and unhealthy habits.”
Sarah burst into tears, and Mother instinctively embraced her.
“My baby,” she muttered. “My first human baby. Why have you been mistreated so? I swore I would get rid of that woman for you, but she keeps coming back like a dog that won’t go away. You could have asked us for money. You did not have to do that.”
“I’m sorry,” Sarah said. “I’m so sorry.”
Great. I’d screwed up again. She was going to think this was her fault. My heart aching, I wrapped my arms around her from behind, and kissed her scalp.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered. “This is my fault, not yours.”
“No, it is my fault,” she hiccoughed. “I should have just been honest with you.”
“It’s all right, sweetheart. Come here.”
I tried to pry her away from Mother, but Mother growled and tightened her grip on the girl. I growled back, and hissed at her. She hissed back.
“Why are you hissing at each other?” Sarah asked.
“We had a brief fight over who gets to hold you,” Mother explained, recovering more quickly than I did. She let her go and I took her in. She wrapped her arms around my middle and started to sob. I kissed her cute button nose and nibbled her lips. A few more seconds and we were kissing furiously. I picked her up and carried her upstairs.
We made sweet love for an hour, then Sarah felt a cramp and said we had to stop. Around midnight, there was a knock at the door.
I answered the door, and there was a tall, thin man with a greenish tint to his skin and eyes like a crocodile. I knew immediately that it was Azur. He held out a large pink bag.
“Sarah forgot her purse,” he explained.
“Did you go through it?” I asked, and he grimaced.
“I may have, and I may have not. Fowley is calm now, but she is banned until invited back.”
“Duly noted. Why did you protect us?”
He winced. “Because…I love her too.”
I paused, then my fist headed straight for his nose, but he caught it and twisted my arm. I cursed wildly as the muscles tore.
“I do not simply want to fuck her,” he said. “Although I do want to do that as well. I know that she has a babe in her belly, although I did not know the identity of the father. Now I do. It’s you. You are her mate. Her soulmate. I would very much like to protect her and hold her, but that is not a possibility. I make do with whores and dancers. I have been alone for a century, and now that I find a woman worthy of me, she is already taken. I hope she has a long, fulfilling life and you treat her well. Goodbye, Reese.”

I put the purse on the foyer table and locked the door after making sure no cats escaped while I was talking to the lizard man.
I crawled in next to Sarah. She shivered when she felt my cold skin, so I wrapped her in another blanket and kissed her.
“French fries,” she muttered.
“That’s right,” I said. “French fries. Now sleep, my love.”
I slept for twelve hours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took me a while to wake up. I had a pounding headache, and my lover was still sleeping beside me, snoring lightly. I rolled her onto her side, felt her naked skin against mine. I put my hands against her and purred. Our little one slept peacefully, her heart beating soundly.
Sarah opened her eyes, then closed them again due to the bright light escaping from the blinds.
“Oh, my head,” she muttered. Then her eyes shot open. “Oh my goodness. I screwed up. Fowley is going to be pissed. He’s going to-“
“Hey, shhh,” I soothed her. “He won’t be a problem. You’re mine, remember? He can’t hurt you now.”
“You don’t know his power. I do. He’ll send goons to us, and then he’ll-“
“Shhh,” I encouraged. “It was my fault, baby. I upset him. I should have known better…but I wish you’d told me.”
“I knew you would be against it,” she said, her eyes shining. “But I needed the money bad. And I can’t sit around feeling useless. I found out that Fowley needed a female guard, and I’ve taken some self-defense classes, so I thought I could do it for him. I’m sorry, Reese. It was my fault, not yours.”
“Shhh, baby, hush. I know why you did it. You should know by now that you can ask me for anything, and I’ll do my damnedest to do it for you. I love you more than life itself, Sarah Harper Cresley.”
I kissed her roughly. Then someone knocked at the door, and I growled at the interruption.
“It’s Selena,” I told Sarah.
“Come in,” she said sweetly.
Selena opened the door a crack and said, “Sarah, your gift is here. We all pitched in, and Reese picked it out.”
“Oh.” She looked at me. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”
“Yes, I did,” I corrected her. “I can’t have you driving a clunky old Honda around.”
“Hey, don’t knock on my Honda. Hondas are more expensive upfront, but they last forever.” Her eyes widened. “Reese, you didn’t.”
“I did. I bought you a car, lover. I hope you like it. I got it in a color you like, one that doesn’t show dirt.”
I let her go and groaned when I saw that I’d bruised her arms. She didn’t seem to care, though, as she walked around her room pulling clothes out and getting dressed.
“A car.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it. I don’t deserve you, Reese.”
“I disagree strongly,” I told her. “It is I who is unworthy of you.”
“Did you just try to quote North and South?”
“I did. Did I get it right?”
“You were close. A car. Is it pink?”
I chuckled. “Sorry, babe, it’s not pink, but it is a nice shade of blue.”
“I like blue, too.” She pinched an unbruised part of her arm. “I hope I’m not dreaming.”
I hugged her from behind. She pulled on her boots, struggling a bit due to her stomach getting in the way, and grabbed a jacket.
I carefully helped her down the steps, conscious of her condition (she was definitely showing now), and opened the door for her, careful not to let any dogs or cats get out. (I had to physically restrain Lola and Jasmine, who sniffed at Sarah, perhaps sensing her pregnancy.)
The brand-new navy blue Lamborghini sat in the driveway with a big red bow on top. I looked over at Sarah. Tears shined in her eyes, and she started to cry.
“If you don’t like it, we can always return it,” I told her.
She suddenly hugged me in what would have been a bone-crushing hug if she’d been a vampire.
“It’s…I can’t…believe…you…it’s beautiful….”
I kissed the top of her head. I inhaled her scent, the floral scent that was her soul and her feminine musky scent that made her female. I could also smell her blood, which was always enticing to me, but not in a way that made me want to consume her. Blood to taste or sip like fine wine, not inhale like Louis does when he eats.
She cried for nearly an hour, at which point she was too hungry to care about the car.
Zie made eggs and buttered toast and poured Sarah and Sabine glasses of milk.
“All babies need milk,” she said. Sarah blushed while Sabine rolled her eyes.
Sabine had grown a bit since I’d met her. She was sixteen now, almost seventeen, the same age Sarah was when we first began dating almost three years before.
“I hate you, Sarah,” Sabine muttered, and Sarah obviously heard, because she ran out of the room crying.
“What is your problem?” I snapped at the brat. “None of this is her fault.”
She tore our family apart! I know why Daddy died, it was to prevent Sarah’s death! She makes us look bad! She’s dating you, which, let’s face it, you’re not a real prince. She caused Mom to drink alcohol again and she’s the reason why Mom started hitting us!”
“How dare you!” That didn’t come from me, but from Mother. Her eyes were blazing with fury. “Your sister has done a lot more for your family than you realize! Did you know your mother was in debt? NO, because you’re a selfish brat who only thinks of herself! Sarah is not the reason why James died! That was pure bad luck. Sarah is not the reason why your grandmother and grandfather aren’t speaking to you, that fault lies with your accursed mother! Stop blaming Sarah, and take some responsibility for once!”
Sabine ran from the room, also crying. Mother softened.
“I shouldn’t have yelled at her.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “Someone needed to set her straight. You’re right, none of this was Sarah’s fault. She got caught in the crossfire, and it shows. She secretly hates herself for it, for her past mistakes, and the way she’s been treated, made her self-esteem plummet. It all started with Nales.” I ground my teeth at the mention of his name. “He’s the one who caused this. If he’d never raped her, then she wouldn’t have been crying, and I wouldn’t have….” I trailed off and looked at Mother.
She smiled weakly. “You blame yourself, don’t you, son?”
“Think about it. If I’d never been infatuated with her in the first place-“
“You can blame the Fates for that, dear.”
“The Fates had nothing to do with it. I made so many mistakes, Mom, and I’m making one right now. Mom, I’m losing interest. I’m attracted to Scarlett Hart, of all people! And you know her history with Sarah.”
Mom looked furious. “You are my son, but if you break Sarah’s heart, I’ll crush your skull between my hands. Do I make myself clear?”
I gulped. “Yes, ma’am.”
She smiled. “It’s natural to feel some tension occasionally. Couples fight, and even lose interest in each other. Every relationship has its ups and downs, it’s how you handle them that matters.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
“Certainly not. I’d rather die than break that girl’s heart. I’ve already fought with her twice. I don’t want to hurt her anymore. I know we will probably fight again, Sabine and Selena and I fight all the time, but that doesn’t mean I love her any less.”
“You really care for my girl, don’t you, Mom?”
“Of course I do. The Fates would never grant Marina Santorino Nicolai’s child a mate that they could not handle.” She fluffed her wildly curly raven-black hair. I noticed something.
“You cut your hair,” I noted.
“Oh, yes, I trimmed off a foot or two. I needed a change of hairstyle. I’ve had the same hairstyle for four hundred years! Isn’t that a riot? But your father and uncle haven’t changed their hairstyles in thousands of years. Your cousin at least went short once or twice. In the old days, long hair was a sign of beauty and skill. Of course, we now know that it depends on the heart and soul, not the length of a person’s hair.” She pressed a fist against her chest.
“How are the babies?” I asked.
She smiled and put both hands on her belly. “Come feel.”
I eased forward and carefully put my hand on her. She was huge, no offense meant. But then again, she was having triplets. She was sure that at least two of them were boys. “Little princes”, she called them. She called the girl “a sweet angel.”
“She doesn’t kick at all,” Mother said, putting my other hand on her. “My boys are feisty and ornery, while the girl is quiet and sleeps a lot. I hope that is a good thing. You know, I had so many miscarriages and stillborns, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever become a mother, something I wanted to be more than anything. It was only when I became a vampire that one of my trysts with my ex-husband bore a fruit, which became Selena. Years later, I married your father and romped with him, which of course resulted in you.”
“Too much information, Mom.”

Sarah and Sabine avoided each other, and by that afternoon, Sabine had run away again. While Mother sent out search parties, I tried comfort Sarah. I managed to convince her that it wasn’t her fault, at least for a little bit, and told a few lame jokes to make her smile. She tried, she really did, but it looked more like a grimace.
We played with the dogs for a couple hours, and then some guys came to work on Mother’s garden in the backyard. She was building a massive stone walkway and patio which led to a pool and would have pink rosebushes. She let Sarah help pick out the stone and the flowers that they would use. Later, she planned to build a koi pond. I told her about Pearl, my sort-of-pet koi, and she thought it was hilarious that I would consider a fish to be my best friend.
I reminded her that I had a new best friend, who also happened to be my fiancée and soulmate. She tweaked my chin and said I was silly.
We watched Frogs, Creature From the Swamp Lagoon, Beauty and the Beast, Twilight, and The Fault in our Stars. Sarah was a little freaked out by the creature features, but I reminded her that if any frog tried to eat her, I would protect her. She hated frogs, anyway.
She fell asleep on my lap sometime halfway through The Fault in our Stars, and I carried her up to bed. I called Father to check in with him, and he told me to be safe, as usual.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” he reminded me.
“Father, I’ve already done something stupid. It cost Sarah her job and nearly cost our lives.”
“What did you do?” he asked after a long hiss that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
I explained about Fowley and Sarah’s job, then what I did.
“Silly girl,” he said, and I could picture him shaking his head. “Fowley is dangerous and unpredictable, even at the best of times. I hope you helped her get home safely.”
“Of course I did! She’s the mother of my baby.”
“Speaking of which, I’d like an update on the child.”
It hit me. If I was having my first child…that would make him a grandfather, unless David somehow had kids and didn’t tell us. I’d seen very little of my brother since I moved into Mother’s house for the chilly season. Father told me he and David got along well, and he and Louis were like brothers, but Uncle Soren was still suspicious, and he frequently gave David reasons to be apprehensive of him.
I visited them at the house from time to time, even staying the night on occasion. Father seemed hurt that I chose to spend more time with Alexander than him. Things were still tense between them.
“He’s not my father, you are,” told him one night as we smoked on the porch and watched David and Louis wrestle in the yard. They adored each other and were more like brothers than David and I were.
“Still, he’s…” My father closed his eye, then opened them, and his pupils were slits. “When I think about him, I want to destroy a small city. Have you forgotten that he nearly killed you, Reese? He even admitted that he wanted to wring Sarah’s neck when he first met her, simply because he hates humans. He took Cirino because he thought that Kieran would never speak to him again. The plan was for him to raise Cirino and eventually turn him into a vampire. The plan was never for her or you to live. He would have killed you, too, if your mother hadn’t interfered.”
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, his pupils were round again.
“How do you feel now with him here?” I gestured to David.
“Oh, I’m thrilled he’s here. He keeps me company when you’re not around. He tells me stories about his other siblings and his mother. I knew Ferri years ago, and it was extremely brief. I never thought for one second that anything might have become of our brief relationship.”
He closed his eyes. “It must have happened that night in December. We were both drunk, and neither of us used any protection or cared about possible disease or pregnancy. David told me his birthday’s in August. That would mean….” He paused and counted on his fingers. “He just turned twenty-five.”
“But he told you that, though.”
“I know, but I still can’t believe it. I was sure you were it, Reese. None of us have born much fruit other than what we have. There is a possibility that there may be more, but I doubt it.”
He looked over at the guys wrestling.
“That was a cheap shot!” David shouted.
“One thing you should know about me: I don’t play fair!” Louis responded, jumping on my brother. “You’re doing great, dude! But I can still kick your butt!”
Beyond the edge of the property line, I could see Cholena, still writing in that notebook of hers.
“What’s she still doing here?” I asked Father.
“Cholena? I don’t know. I think Satira sent her to watch us, but I’m not going to make her leave, even though her presence hurts Soren. He still blames himself for Mitra’s death. And no one has seen Katonah in weeks. Soren went to see her human family, but they all yelled at him and tried to shoot him. So they also blame him.”
My heart broke for both my uncle and Cholena. Cholena lost her mother, and my uncle lost his mate. Again. Plus, Mitra wasn’t bad company. She kept up lively conversations, and, even though her attitude sucked most of the time, she kept it real, even when she admitted she was torn between Katonah and my uncle, and even when we weren’t exactly nice to her.

I stepped off the porch and walked all the way over to where Cholena was sitting. She glared at me, and hissed when I got too close for her liking.
“What are you writing?” I asked. She showed me. It was a sketchbook…and it had a picture of Louis on it. It captured his likeness perfectly, even the mischievous glint in his blue eyes and the tangles in his long brown hair.
“It looks like him,” I said.
She said nothing and turned back to her picture.
“What else have you drawn?” I asked. She showed me. The cemetery. The lake. A deer and her fawn. A pack of wolves in the distance. A fox digging. A buck rubbing his antlers on a tree. Even a few humans, which I realized were her family.
She continued to glare at me, even as I complimented each drawing. She was even better than Sarah, and Sarah was good at drawing and loved it. Her glare grew deeper when I casually asked about Satira. She closed her sketchbook and grabbed her messenger bag and walked away, giving me the finger.
“You tried, little buddy,” Louis said, patting my shoulder as I walked by him.
“Did you see the first drawing she showed him?” David asked.
“No, what was it?”
“It was you, Louis.”
“What? Me? Why would she draw me?”
“It’s possible that she’s drawn all of us,” Father told him, stepping on his cigarette. “She just showed the picture of you.”
“Huh,” was my cousin’s response. “Hey, I’m hungry. Who wants make dinner for me?”
“You can get your own,” Father told him.
“You got David his-“
“David is still a guest and therefore deserves a little more…um…”
“Yeah, right. You just want to be a parent again.”
“So what if I do? I haven’t met David before last month and Reese is nearly grown. He claims he doesn’t need me, anymore.”
“I never said that,” I argued.
“You didn’t say it with your words, son, but with your actions.”
“In other words, he’s hurt that you decided to live with your mom for a while,” Louis explained.
“Sarah and the baby need me,” I argued. “She can’t leave the home because she’ll be out of their protection, and there’s less vampires there than here. No one has any reason to attack Mother’s house, but they have plenty reason to attack this house, and this house has had plenty of attacks. I don’t want her caught in the crossfire.”
“I don’t want that any more than you do, Reese, but she’s just as safe here because there are more vampires to protect her. We still have Toby and Sam and Sarah has Chris. She’s perfectly safe.”
“I disagree. I’m not willing to risk her or my baby’s life just so you can see me.”
He gave me an extremely offended look and went inside. Minutes later, I heard the television turn on.
“He misses you, little buddy,” Louis explained. “We all do, but especially him. Go easy on him. Can’t you spend a couple more nights with us? It would make us all happy, and he’d stop bitching to me.”
“Mmm, fine,” I growled. “If it will make him happy, sure. I can stay a few more nights.”
I went inside and told Father the good news. He planted a big smooch on my forehead and told me I was a good kid.
We watched the news for a bit, then switched to a crime drama, then switched to a documentary about freakshows. I asked Father about them, and he explained that medical anomalies were not fully understood and those who had certain conditions that affected them physically, such as dwarfism, giantism, and conjoined twins were common in freakshows.
One of the most popular freakshow attractions were “pinheads”, or people with microcephaly. Among the most famous were people like Schlitze, who was a man with the condition and even starred in a 1932 movie.
We watched that for a while, and then Father sat up and began sniffing the air. I took a big whiff. I smelled female vampire. Her scent was unfamiliar, and I could tell by her scent that she was a fledgling.
I followed my father and cousin outside, and we spotted a thin figure studying us from a tree branch at the edge of the woods.
“We will not harm you,” Father said, stepping forward. Instead of being comforted, the female shrank back and hissed. She was like a female version of me-skinny, muscular, but her black hair was shortened into a bob and her eyes were brown. I purred to try to ease her, and her eyes flicked over to me.
“Hello, I’m Reese,” I said.
She jumped down and landed perfectly on her feet.
“Call me Kole,” she said. “With a K.”
“Hi, Kole,” Louis said. “Did you come here alone?”
She looked sad. “Yeah. I don’t know where or what I am. I remember being bitten, but everything before that is a blank. Can you help me?”
“Be careful, she may have been sent to spy on us,” Father said. Kole heard, and looked confused.
“She smells like she’s alone,” Louis pointed out. “This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had vampires come to this house because they smelled our scent and wanted to know who we were or got confused. Remember that one coven who came with Meiko? Or that coven after that?”
A light went off over my head. “Was Zeke’s clan just curious, or were they sent to spy on us as well? I mean, that one chick connected with Sarah, and afterwards, little buddy met Ambrose for the first time, and Ambrose used to work for Bram Sterling.”
“Ambrose has always worked for himself,” Father said. He looked at Kole. “I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt, but she does seem lost and confused. Louis, why don’t you take her and explain things to her?”
“Reese can do it,” Louis said, winking at me. I frowned. Louis knew I was with Sarah.
Kole looked at me, and fluttered her eyelashes. I almost told her I had a girlfriend. Then Cholena stepped lazily out of the woods, her bag over her shoulder. When the two girls saw each other, they stared for a long time.
"I sense distension in the ranks," Louis whisper-shouted.
"What are you doing here, Cholena?" Father asked her.
"I have some questions about my mother," she said, turning to look at him.
"Let's go to the yard."
The day was overcast, though not in a way that threatened rain.
"What do you want to know?" I asked, as all the vampires sat in a half circle.
"My mother...was she pretty?"
"Very," I answered. "She was gorgeous. She had this shiny short hair, and this thin body. She was small, but not as small as you."
"Who are we talking about?" Kole asked.
"Mitra," I said. "Cholena, this is Kole, Kole, this is Cholena." The two girls stared at each other again, then Kole said "mate" under her breath. Mate? Were they mates? Cholena didn't seem to care as she threw her legs out, propping herself up on her hands. She jumped, bringing her feet together, and then jumped up as high as she could. Which was pretty damn high.
Then Kole jumped up, and the two girls intertwined their fingers in midair. David came out to join us then, and he watched this display with interest.
"Sorry I haven't been around much," I told my brother as he sat beside me. "With the wedding only a few months away, and with this baby coming..."
"I understand," he said, watching the girls as they landed near a patch of oak trees. "You've been busy. But one would think that you might put your brother ahead just for a little while."
Okay, so he was hurt. I knew he was trying to make me feel guilty about not staying or seeing him much.
Cholena ran back in a split second, panting, Kole right behind her. Then I heard a voice I didn't want to hear again.
"Kole! Kole, where are you?"
"Satira," Louis said, and Father groaned.
"She's not that bad," Kole said.
"How do you know her?" I asked.
"She created me. As a companion."
"Did you and Cholena know each other before this?" I asked.
"Er, no," Kole said, and I knew she was lying. But I said nothing against her statement and looked at my father. His brows were furrowed, and he scratched his abdomen absentmindedly.
"Fuck me," he said. "Were you two sent to spy on us?"
Kole and Cholena looked at each other, then looked back at us, and said, "No," at the same time. I could tell Father didn't believe them. He sighed. "I really need to hire more guards. Go on, leave, both of you. Go!"
Kole and Cholena didn't need to be told again. They hurried off in the direction of Satira's voice.
Father laughed , then grabbed the cherry tree I'd planted years earlier and shook it Ornamental cherries fell. "Gods, what a creature! I'm so glad she's not my mother-in-law anymore."
I sighed and stretched out under the gray sky. It was considered to be a beautiful day by vampire standards, and I was determined not to let Satira's shenanigans get to me.
My phone rang, blaring Sarah's ringtone.
"Yes, cookie?"
"Reese Mordecai Emerson, you are in so much trouble."
"What did I do?"
"They detected three heartbeats, one of which is mine."
"What does..." It clicked. "Does that mean..."
"Yes, my future husband and favorite lover, we are having twins."
I buried my mouth in my jacket and screamed.
"Hello? Hello?"
Twins. We were going to have twins.
I could see Father's eyes were wide, and he looked at me and smiled. "Congratulations, son. Twins. That's an achievement, especially for vampires."
"Half-vampires," Louis reminded him. "Remember, she's still human, or fairy, or whatever."
"That doesn't matter!" I shouted. I literally jumped for joy. I used my hands and feet to propel myself around the yard.
"Hello, Sarah? This is Mordecai. Yes, he's alive. He's just jumping around like a lunatic because he's so excited. Congratulations, dear. Yes, I'm excited, too. I get to be a grandfather before any of these other losers. Reese will be all right, he'll be wired for days, though. What are they? Oh, another prince? And a princess? He'll be happy to hear that. All right, thank you for telling us, sweetheart. Goodbye."
He looked at me, smiling. I was somewhere between grinning like a fool and panting out of excitement. "A boy and a girl, son. Looks like you're getting the first two at the same time."
Caitlin Juniper and Joseph? Yes!!
I was as excited as any new father could be, and it took several laps around our land to work off my energy. I even dove into the lake and climbed on top of a tombstone in the cemetery and howled like a werewolf.
I knew I would never be able to sleep that night, so I stayed up, reading all the books I could about parenting.
The next day, Father, David, Louis, and I met Mother, Selena, and Sarah at the library. I hugged Sarah, squeezing her more tightly than I'd intended, and spun her around once. She laughed and planted a kiss on my chin. I put my hand on her stomach. Yes...I could hear their heartbeats now, two little lives burning brightly.
I purred and licked Sarah's hair to mark her as mine. There were other ways to mark her, but none that would be appropriate in a public library. She was already starting to show.
"Let's discuss finances," Father said, as he sat across from Mother, who slid into the chair with some difficulty. I failed to understand why she still wore high heels at this stage of her pregnancy. She was farther along than Sarah was, and with triplets. She didn't yet know the genders-she wanted to be surprised. I knew she'd be equally happy with either boys or girls, or if there were two boys and a girl or two girls and a boy. I myself was eager to meet my new half-siblings.
"The children must have a joint account," Mother said. "At least one."
"I agree. And the current wealth between them is...well, Reese has over ten million dollars in his account. And I have more in his name. He will have full access to each account when he gets married. There are five accounts in America, ten in Denmark. Ten million in each one, twenty million in his first ever one. You do the math."
Sarah's and David's jaws had dropped, Louis was smirking, and Selena pretended to browse the cozy mystery novels.
"There are also a few that, upon my death, will become his. Ten trillion dollars in all in my name."
Sarah blinked and her brows furrowed. "Are you pulling my leg, Mordecai?"
He smiled gently at her. "No, dear, I'm not. I am always honest about money. But I won't die for some time yet, if we're lucky, so no need to worry about it just yet."
"Sarah has thirty-seven thousand dollars approximately," Mother said. "That's all in one account. Most of it I've given to her, or you have. Thirty-seven thousand six hundred and forty-five dollars in all. And I have another account set up for her when she gives birth or turns twenty-one."
I did the calculations in my head. One hundred and twenty million dollars plus thirty-seven thousand six hundred and forty-five-wow. We were rich.
"Will you cut him off?" Mother asked.
"Of course not. Not unless he starts gambling or spends frivolously."
We all looked at Sarah, who blushed and looked at her red-painted nails.
"I know how much you like clothes and shoes, sweetheart," Father said. "But, please, try to control yourself."
She nervously fiddled with her bracelet. Then she looked up.
"Scarlett," she hissed. I looked up. There was Sarah's old nemesis and ex-friend, Scarlett, browsing the bookshelves. "What is she doing here?"
"It's a public library, lover," I said. I purred and stroked her hair to calm her down. "Shhh, it's all right. I'm here."
She shook her head. "No, I need to say something. First she flirts with you, then she shows up to take the same dogs as us, and now this! This is getting ridiculous!"
"We live in the same town, cookie," I said quietly. "Baby girl, it's all right. I'm here."
She hissed. "She's coming this way."
"Mom, take Sarah out of here. I'll deal with Scarlett."
Mom didn't hesitate. She took my beautiful fiancee's hand and led her away.
"Crazy bitch," I muttered.
"Why would she come over here?" Louis asked. "She knows that her mere presence upsets Sarah."
"That's it," I said. "She knows she upsets Sarah, so she follows us around."
"That's crazy talk," David said. "I haven't known you long, little brother, but this is too crazy even for me. I have enough sisters as it is-I can't handle any girl drama. Sorry."
"You're on your own, son," Father said apologetically, leaving just as the Raven Queen approached.
"Hey, Reese," she said. "Doing a little browsing?"
"Actually, we were just having a private conversation," I said, irked at her callousness.
"Well, don't let little old me stop you from 'having your private conversation'."
"Must you always intrude?"
"All I saw were two friends and their family, and then everyone left except you and him, whatever his name is."
"Louis," my cousin said, extending his hand. "Louis Soren Emerson, milady. My father is Prince Soren, second ruler of our world. Also known across our race for his physical strength and bulging muscles."
Scarlett laughed a dry, humorless laugh. "You're a funny guy, Lewis."
"It's Lew-wee," he corrected, but she ignored him in favor of me.
"Hey, handsome," she teased, moving my bangs out of the way.
"Don't touch me," I growled, moving out of her reach. "You ruined Sarah."
"I didn't ruin her," she argued. "I thought she told on us. I was wrong. I didn't rape her, or get her pregnant."
"She lost most of her friends because of you!"
"But she made new ones! You and Ariella Spears, and Mason..." She trailed off. She looked stung for a moment, then shook it off.
"You're fucking crazy," I said. "She wasn't even the one who told your parents; Jordan was!"
She raised her fist as if to hit me, then thought better of it. Then she started saying a string of random numbers.
"What?" I said.
"It's my phone number, stupid," she said. "When you finally see sense, call me. I'll be waiting."
Then she moved off to the women's fiction section.
"You're right, she is a crazy bitch," Louis said. He slapped my shoulder. "Tough break, little buddy. Personally, I like the crazy ones. But I like the sweet ones, too."
Sarah was outside throwing a temper tantrum. When she saw me, she rushed toward me and grabbed my shoulders.
"What did the crazy bitch want?" she demanded.
"To fuck me," I answered. "She gave me her phone number."
The sound that came out of Sarah's mouth would have put a banshee to shame.
"Calm down, baby girl," I said. "Of course I said no."
She breathed and half-laughed, half-sobbed into my chest.
"Dumpling, what's wrong?"
"I'm fat! Can't you see? I'm fat and plain!"
I almost laughed. "My little cupcake, all women go through body changes when they become pregnant. And you are the opposite of plain. You're beautiful! You're the prettiest girl I've ever seen!"
She wiped a tear away and sniffed. "You mean that?"
"Of course I do. The first thing I noticed about you was your eyes. They're a beautiful shade of green, and your hair is so soft and curly! And your nose is cute, and your face is a nice shape, and so are your lips! They're full and red and pouty. Perfect for kissing. I love every part of you, including your flaws. In fact, I think your stretch marks are the most beautiful part of you. They show that you're strong. You've been through a lot, and you came out on top. You're a survivor."
She hugged me, wiping her eyes on my shirt. "I'm being silly, aren't I?"
"Just a tiny bit, dear Sarah Harper."
"Sorry I freaked out. But I love you so much, I don't want to lose you, or drive you away, like I've driven away so many other people!"
"Sarah Cresley, you are not responsible for other people's actions. If anything, they are responsible for abandoning you."
"My parents, my sister, my best friend, my crush...they all hurt me in some way or another. You would never purposely hurt me, I know Daddy wouldn't, either, but my mom did. She was supposed to protect me, keep me safe. She failed."
"You have a new mother now," I reminded. "If you choose her. My mother adores you, you know. She sees herself in you and thinks you're intelligent and sweet."
Sarah shyly peeked out at Mother, who gave her a reassuring smile.
"Can...can I hug you?" Sarah asked Mother.
"Of course, dear. Just be careful of the fledglings." My two favorite women embraced, and my mother kissed my girlfriend on top of the head. I remembered the first time I saw them together, in the library in our castle in Denmark. They got along so well. Sarah was studying the rites of Aphrodite, if I remembered correctly. Her own ancestor, but she didn't know she was studying her goddess ancestor then.
Mother came from a different background-one full of witchcraft and dark magic, which she abandoned for Roman Catholicism. She'd told me a bit about her life before becoming a vampire. Satira, her mother, was a well-known practitioner of the dark arts, and so were her sisters. She didn't know the whereabouts of my aunts, nor did she act like she cared. She said that her sister all looked similar-curly hair and blue eyes. But she also said that she had a redheaded sister and a blonde sister.
I knew very little about Satira other than that. She had been turned into a vampire by some kind of wraith vampire that hadn't seen the moonlight or eaten a meal in a long time.
Sarah and Mother had similar histories in that both their fathers died, and their mothers were not good mothers, and they were both essentially raped and had produced a child. I was the product of my mother's rape, Sarah had produced Cirino. They both loved to sing and draw, and they both loved being pregnant. Then there were the physical similarities-dark curly hair (although Sarah's hair was lighter in color and shade), light-colored eyes, smooth skin, heart-shaped faces, and both were strong women.
And then I saw him. Michael Nales. He'd wisely stayed away since he was resurrected, and the mere sight of him now filled me with anger. He saw me, too, and avoided eye contact as he walked into the library. But he paused and looked at Sarah. Her eyes went wide when she saw him. Then she walked up to him, stared at him for a minute, and then blam! She socked him.
He actually fell to the ground clutching his nose. "Okay, I deserved that," he said. Sarah smacked him across the face. Then she yanked his hair and shoved his face into the concrete.
"Okay, baby girl," I said, easing her away. "That's enough, Sarah."
She gave me an extremely hurt look, then ran away. Mom glared at me next. "That was insensitive, Reese."
Then she took off after Sarah. Shit. I'd upset her again.
I needed to see Grandfather.

My grandfather had been transformed into a human almost completely. His heart was beating again, and he was extremely wrinkled and his red hair was gone, replaced by white strands barely sticking on. He was blind in both eyes, but he heard just as well as he'd ever had.
"Hello, Reese," he croaked, finally sounding like the thousands-of-years-old vampire that he was.
"Hello, Grandfather," I said. "How are you doing?"
"As well as can be expected. How are you?"
"I'm...not so great, Grandfather. There's been some...developments."
"What kind of developments?"
"Sarah finally punched Nales in the face, and I told her to stop. But before that, Mitra's daughter, Cholena, showed up. Then Satira-"
"Satira's back?!"
"Yes, Grandfather. She's back, and she wants mine and Selena's souls. No doubt for some dark purpose."
"Satira has always been practiced in black magic. I never much liked her, anyway. She's a whore and a bitch. And she's horrible to her daughters, especially Marina. I always liked that nose of your mother's, but Satira makes fun of it. As for getting your soul, I wouldn't let her go within a hundred yards of you or the other children."
"And, ah, there's something else."
"What is it, Reese?"
"No, I shouldn't be the one to tell you, Dad should."
"I know about David, Reese."
I was taken aback. "You do?"
"Yes. Mordecai even introduced me while you were away at the Nicolai house, abandoning me for your absent mother."
"Grandfather, Sarah's pregnant with twins. I had to stay with her, and she's more safe there than here. More guards posted, plus Zie's keeping her well-fed and watered."
"Twins? Oh, be still my heart. Boys or girls?"
"One of each. We've already picked out the names. The boy will be called Joseph, after the Earthly father of Jesus Christ, as a reference to Sarah's Christian half, and the other will be called Caitlin Juniper. With an I instead of a Y between the L and the N. Sarah likes it that way. And Juniper, because, well, you know what junipers are."
"Yes, I used to own a bit of wood that had quite a few juniper trees. Those are good names, my grandson." He coughed dryly. "I hope I get to see you married before I die."
"Grandfather, you're not going to die. We'll find a cure."
"No, Reese, I will die. One way or the other, soon, very soon, I will die."
Tears came into my eyes. "But you can't die! You're my grandfather!"
He smiled gently in my general direction-not at me.
"Almost everyone except gods die. Even vampires."
I reached out for his hand, and he grabbed mine-his was covered in wrinkles and liver spots and was bony. I cried for a long time.

"Shhh, they're both asleep."
"Has Reese been here the whole time?"
"Yes. Try not to wake him up."
My father's and uncle's voices hit my ears. My dreams were vague-something about a hotel and my cat and a flood and greasy human food.
I slowly stirred and rubbed my eyes. I realized I was still holding Grandfather's hand, and eased out of it. My father was starting to cradle me in his arms and purr. The only thing more important than a mate to a vampire is their parent or creator. Fledglings are not considered as important because so many are made-the ones who are born the normal way are considered much more valuable. It's rare for female vampires to carry a child to term, especially twins or triplets. Even human-borns like my mother often have long and difficult pregnancies.
Vampire babies are naturally stronger than human babies, and they like to kick-hard. My mother already had bruises on her stomach due to my siblings' antics. I missed her now, even as my father held me. There's nothing quite like a parent's loving touch. The closest example is that of a mate. Except that my mate was still angry with me for my insensitive comment earlier.
My father's purring increased as I started to purr.
"I wish my son loved me as much as yours loves you," Uncle Soren sighed. I squirmed a bit, and Father growled and tightened his grip.
"I need to talk to Sarah," I protested. He mumbled, but relented, letting me go so I could talk to her.

I was greeted with dog kisses and jumps when I stepped through the door. Both the new dogs and the old dogs congregated on me, especially Spunk and Jasmine. I almost didn't see Shadowfang until I accidentally stepped on his tail, and he yowled.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I apologized profusely.
"Reese?" Sarah sat up on the couch and rubbed her eyes.
"I'm sorry, baby, did I wake you?" I asked.
"It's okay; I waited for you. I wanted to say I'm sorry if I've been a bitch to you lately. I'm not making excuses, but pregnancy hormones and all that."
"It's okay, lover," I said, leaning over the couch and taking her face in my hands. "And no, you haven't been a bitch to me. I've been dealing with my own shit lately, and I took some of it out on you. I should be the one apologizing, not you."
I kissed her lips, and looked out at the spread before her. Decaffeinated tea, a magazine, a book, the TV remote.
I told her about the strange new vampire, Kole, and and mentioned her strange behavior around Cholena.
"They seemed to know each other," I said. "And then we heard Satira calling for Cholena. I have my suspicions."
"It is odd," she said. "Why do all these vampires come to you? And then David and Cholena show up? And then Satira? It's weird."
"It's a mystery," I agreed. I updated her on Grandfather's condition, and then she fell asleep. I carried her upstairs to our new bed-a king size. It dwarfed her when she laid in it. I preened her while she slept, stroking her hair and admiring her collarbone and her cleavage. I looked around. I decided to clean up a bit-dirty clothes in the hamper, books on shelves or on the side table, notebooks and laptops on the desk, shoes in the closet, makeup put away...and then I saw her purse.
I'd gone through her purse before, and I always hated myself afterwards for invading her privacy. A woman's purse is sacred. This week's edition was a Louis Vuitton Speedy in 35, so Sarah had told me when she pulled it out of the closet. Her purses always were bigger than she seemed to need them to be.
Just a peek.
I took in a deep gulp of air, then opened the mouth of the bag. I saw all the usuals-her wallet, her makeup bag, and...was that a gun?!
It was, it was a gun. A Glock. I opened it up. No bullets. But there was a box of bullets in her purse. Why did she have this? She was surrounded by vampires, people who would protect her, gladly give their lives for her. Maybe she needed this for extra security?
I knew she carried a small knife around, but I'd never have thought of her as a gun carrier. I kept looking. Old water bottles, extra keys, lipstick, lotion, hand sanitizer, extra cash, movie tickets...movie tickets? Huh. I hadn't gone to the movies with her, and we hadn't seen any of our friends from school since we graduated.
I kept looking for any sign, any evidence. I found one other odd thing: a flip cell phone, the old kind that was used twenty years ago. Stomach twisting into a knot, I carefully put everything back where I'd found it and got ready for bed.

CHAPTER FIVE - SUSPICION
She was up before me. I woke up around noon, feeling refreshed. I hissed slightly at the bright sun streaming in from the cracks in the blinds. Sarah was sitting in her reading chair, playing on her regular phone.
I was thirsty, but she was more important. I crawled out of bed and slowly slid along the carpet on my belly. When I reached her toes, I nibbled them, and she giggled.
"Don't chip the paint, Reese," she gently chided.
"What color are we this week?" I teased, looking at her toes. "Oh, gold and silver? Gold on one toe, silver on the others?"
"I couldn't decide which color I wanted to paint them," she explained. "And I was sick of red polish."
"How are the babies?" I asked.
"They want greasy food. Hash browns, bacon, eggs with cheese and peppers."
"You're half-Jewish," I noted.
"I meant turkey bacon. I'm not the type to cheat at anything, except tests and sales."
My heart wrenched at that. I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced myself to sit up beside her. She noticed there was something amiss.
"Reese? What's wrong?" she asked, her pretty brows furrowed.
"Sarah, I...I...I can't...I found your gun."
She blinked. "Oh."
"I smelled the gunpowder and I just..."
"You went through my purse."
"Yes."
She sighed. "Well, I can understand that. I should have been more careful where I left it."
"Sarah, why do you have that gun? You have more protection than anyone in the world."
"I can't let anyone else die. Not without a reason."
"Protecting you is not a good enough reason?"
"Definitely not. I won't have more people die because of me or Sabine."
"Sweet, lovely, angelic Sarah, it's not your fault. None of it is."
She sniffled. "I read Mom's diary after...well...I'm cursed."
I couldn't move at that. "C-cursed?"
She nodded. "I was supposed to die on my sixteenth birthday, but Daddy died instead. He pretended to have cancer so there was a sensible reason for his death. No one else should have to die because of me."
"Sarah...." I swallowed. I looked down at my hands, then her. "Who?"
"Who, what?"
"Who cursed you?"
"I don't know. I know that I was betrothed to Caden when we were younger, but now, I have you. I would rather die than have anyone else."
I was touched by her devotion and selflessness. She continued.
"You protected me. You avenged me. You kept me safe when no one else could or would. You loved me even though I'm not perfect. I adore and love you, Reese. I have for a long time."
I wrapped my arms around her in a fantastic embrace and kissed her roughly. Eventually, she needed to breathe, and I pulled away.
"Sarah, you don't need to be perfect to be loved. Just be yourself. Anyone would love you then. Even serial killers have their multiple admirers."
She smiled weakly at that, and hugged me tighter. Then she winced.
"Ow, my back," she complained.
"Is it your wings?" I asked, cautiously.
"More between my shoulder blades. Oh crap." She ran to the bathroom, and I heard vomiting. I went dowstairs and heated up some blood for myself, then brought some tea for Sarah. She was busy brushing the yuckiness out of her mouth when I returned. She smiled when I brought her the tea. "Reese, you're a saint."
She laid down in bed on her side, and I brought her a bucket. She asked me to read to her, so I did that for a while, until she threw up again and had to run to the bathroom to clean out her mouth again. Zie brought some buttered toast and a sachet of herbs she said were meant to help pregnant women.
Amazingly, the smell of the herbs did calm Sarah down, but they also made her sleepy. She slept for a while, then woke up and started crying and complaining that she was wasting her life away by sleeping. I cooed to her and whispered calming things to her...well, I tried. She cried harder after I said something about looking tired.
"I'm not pretty anymore!" she sobbed. "I'm fat and ugly! And my sister hates me! My parents are vampires, and the Abrahams won't even talk to me because I'm with a vampire!"
"Honey, it's all right," I urged. I hated the thought of it, but I considered using hypnosis to calm her down. She was starting to upset me.
"What did you do?!" Selena asked, finally opening the door.
"I didn't do anything!" I said. "She just started getting upset after her nap!"
"How long did she sleep?"
"Three hours!"
Sarah sobbed harder and finally, Mother burst in and I was promptly thrown out of the room.
If anyone can calm her down, it's Mother, I thought. She adores her.
I went into a spare room and turned on the TV. I watched the news for a while, then switched to cartoons. But I couldn't laugh, because my thoughts were on my fiancee. I could hear her simpering soprano voice as Selena's alto urged her to keep calm. Then I heard something I didn't want to hear.
What if my babies die?
I couldn't bear the thought of losing any of them. Not Sarah, not Caitlin Juniper, not Joseph. I loved my children so much already that just the thought of living without them was unbearable. This had to be our fate. I'd even seen the future, a future with all of us together and happy. I had thought it was a new gift at first, but maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was just Fate. However, I hadn't taken my grandfather's slow descent into dust into account, or Sarah's emotional state, or David, or Satira.
I hadn't seen as much of my brother as I would have liked, and I'd already seen all I wished to see of Satira.
I needed a mentor, someone to guide me when things got rough. I couldn't count on Father, he was too emotionally invested, especially with David now here. And Uncle Soren was far too unstable, and Louis would just make things worse. I considered Krauvas, but remembered that he was Mason's father, and I did not want to see Mason yet.
I considered my options, which were few and far between. Grandfather was dying. I could go to Alexander...I shuddered at the thought of asking him for advice. Truthfully, I never had great role models. I had to learn how to keep a relationship together on my own. I had plenty of role models who taught me how to be a man, but that was it.
I sighed. I had no choice. I had to go to Alexander. I shuddered again at the thought.

I found him in the backyard, overseeing the work being done on the garden. The men had finished laying the stone for a massive pond, and now were laying more brick for a path from the patio to the pond, where we would sit, watch the fish, and maybe have a greenhouse in the future, and a pool.
"The red brick goes there! The hose must be attached to the fountain!"
"Hello, Alexander."
He turned to me and nodded. "Reese."
"I need to ask you something."
"What is it, boy?"
"Actually, I need advice."
He smirked and turned back to the workers. "And you thought I was the best candidate. You refuse to be my son, yet you want my expertise."
I sighed internally. I couldn't believe he was still irked about the fact that I wasn't his biological son. He had been so desperate for both companionship and a son, and he found out about me and decided I would do, that was my theory. I remembered when I first saw him. Sarah was in the hospital, and Alexander spotted me coming out of her room. We had just found out she was pregnant, and he was looking to adopt a baby, anyway, preferably a boy.
Someone he could mold into a version of himself.
"Never mind, I see that this was a mistake." I started to walk away, but guess who grabbed my shoulder? Alexander.
"Now you listen here, boy, and listen carefully. I spent too many years alone. Kieran still hates me, and Marina hated herself too much to be with me for years. You were my last chance to have a legacy, to not be so lonely. I could have killed you for all you know; I should have. Now if you want my advice, you ask for it, you little bastard."
"Let me go!" I tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip and his nails grew, causing me to yelp in pain.
"Ambrogio Nicolai, you let our son go right now!"
If he could, Alexander would have paled. The scariest thing in the world is a protective parent. And my mother stood on the patio, hands on her hips, glaring at her husband.
"Dearest," he simpered. "Reese came to me for advice and mouthed off. So I had to teach him a lesson, you see."
"So you grabbed him and scratched him?"
"Lovely wife," he began,
"Don't start with me, Ambrogio Nicolai. Come inside, Reese."
I quickly hurried in, and shut the door behind me. Seconds later, Mother's and Alexander's raised voices echoed in my ears.
"I shouldn't have mouthed off to him," I rued.
"It's not your fault," Selena said, coming up behind me. "He's just a big meanie."
"How's Sarah?"
"Asleep. She was shaking and cold to the touch, but Mother hypnotized her into sleeping."
"Hypnosis?"
"Don't tell me you're against what Mother did."
"No, but-"
I heard a scream from outside.
I ran outside, only to find Mother in the stone pond, laying on her side. Half the workers ran to her side, and a few glared at Alexander. I jumped in the pond, Selena following me.
"Mother! Are you all right?"
She looked at Alexander, a new hatred in her eyes. "He pushed me."
"Dearest, I didn't mean-"
"You son of a bitch!" Selena jumped on him and started pounding him. He spun her around and held her in a bear hug, while she squirmed. Then I saw it. Blood. Pooling between my mother's legs.
"Dearest!" Alexander put Selena down and walked toward us.
"Don't!" Mother shouted. "Don't come near me again!" Tears in her eyes, she ran inside.
Selena helped Mother, while I told Alexander it was best if he left. He looked stricken, but nodded and left in his Bugatti Veyron.
I heard sobbing coming from Mother's room, and I called Ethan Potter. He promised to come over right away. Then I checked on Sarah. She was disturbed by all the noise, but I sang to her, and she fell back asleep. \
Ethan arrived minutes later, and Zie let him in. She led him to Mother's room, where he stayed with her for hours. I could still smell fresh vampire blood.

Sarah and I cuddled for a long time.
"What would happen if someone put the nozzle of an air hose in their mouth?" Sarah asked. "Would they blow up?"
"Geez, what goes through your mind when you're alone?" I replied.
"You don't want to know. How's Marina?"
I fine-tuned my ears. "Still hurting. Damn Alexander. He's gone too far this time."
"I...I need to stretch my wings," Sarah said, getting up. I followed her to the front yard, where her wings grew out of her back and she flapped them. Just then, it began to rain.
"Shit," Sarah said. "I can't fly when it's raining. I don't have enough experience."
"Have any of your other cousins gotten their wings yet?" I asked.
"Just Kaz. His are white, like an angel's. No one else is old enough yet."
"Not even your cousin Riley?"
"Riley's still figuring out who Riley is. They can't wait to get their wings, though, and neither can Bow or the boys. But the younger ones are nervous. We've told them that it hurts when they first come out, and Phillip especially is afraid of pain. But most people don't suddenly get their wings like I did-it takes time."
"That's because you were overdue," I said. "And you deserve your wings more than anyone else."
"That's sweet, Reese, but you're wrong. Kaz deserves them more than I do, if not as much. He's a volunteer firefighter, he helps out on the farm, he volunteers at the library and the animal shelter, all while getting good grades. He's headed to Oxford next year."
"Impressive, but you are so amazing as well, my lovely Sarah." I grabbed her wrist, and she spun around in the mud and kissed my lips, her wings bringing her to my height.
I smelled salt, and realized she was crying. I mentally sighed. Her self-esteem was so low, no thanks to Nales and Scarlett and Sabine and Puck. I'd have to work on that with her. I needed her to be completely healthy before her change.
I grabbed her shoulders, pulling her into me. She tasted like tea and spearmint and her favorite lipstick. She wrapped her legs around my waist, hugging me. Finally, she needed to breathe. Damn human needs.
I walked her to the garage, where she flapped her wings furiously, drying them. Then, to my shock, a feather fell off.
"Oh my gods, Sarah, your wings..."
"What?" She looked down and laughed. "Yeah, that happens sometimes. I have a whole bunch of them in my desk drawer. She picked up the feather and handed it to me. "Soft as a kitten."
I ran my finger along the fine feather. It was soft, the softest feather I'd ever felt.
"You can have it," she said. "It'll grow back."
I put the feather in my belt, and kissed her again.
"You're so selfless," I said, pecking her.
"Not really. I'm selfish when it comes to you. I want you, and nobody else can have you. Except your family. I trust them."
"You're not selfish. You're sweet, and amazing, and I adore you. I don't want to lose you, Sarah."
"You won't lose me. We'll go to Denmark on the first of November, and we'll have a fantastically grand time and an incredible wedding. I've already got my dress picked out, and the flowers, and everything."
"I've done about half the planning," I said. "I picked the castle, and the carriage, and even the horses. Have you ever ridden in a horse-drawn carriage?"
"No, but it sounds dreamy."
"It's fun. It'll be more romantic than buying a car. And I have all your presents ordered."
She looked amazed. "You got me more presents? Reese, you just bought me a Lamborghini! I haven't even got to drive it yet!"
"That's my fault, dear. I want it installed with every safety feature available. When it's finished, you can have it back."
"Oh, Reese Mordecai..."
"Oh, Sarah Harper."
We kissed again and again until she announced that she needed to use the bathroom. I've said it before and I'll say it again: damn human needs.

"What kind of gifts did you buy her?" Louis asked. We were playing blackjack with David and my father and my uncle.
"I got her some river pearls, and some elegant shoes that I hope she'll like, and of course, you already know about the horses."
"What horses?" David asked.
"Goth Boy over here thinks his girlfriend needs more pets, so he got her three horses. Two mares and a stallion, all from good breeding lines. They cost a fortune, too."
"I have Dad to thank for that," I said, nodding toward my father.
"Anything for you, son. Oh, look at that, I win again."
Louis had a brief temper tantrum which involved flipping over the table and scattering the cards all around. We spent the next ten minutes trying to find them all, and then Uncle Soren told Louis he was no longer allowed to play if he was going to act like a sore loser. Louis promised to behave ("We'll see how long that lasts") if he would be allowed to join us again.
We played a few more games and my father won five hundred dollars. Louis dared me to play strip poker, and Uncle Soren yanked some hairs out of his head.
"Control your spawn, brother," Father said as he shuffled the cards.
"Is it always like this?" David asked me.
"Yes," I said. "Sometimes it's worse."
"Behave, Louis," Uncle Soren warned.
"Look here, Blood-Breath-"
He got a smack on the back of the head for the name-calling.
"When Reese marries Sarah, I want you on your best behavior," Uncle Soren told Louis. "No drunken toasts, no courting the females, no overspending."
Louis seemed embarrassed.
"We went to the track earlier," David broke in. "Louis can really-"
My father dropped his cards. "You went to the track?!"
Uncle Soren sighed and shook his head.
"Thanks, big mouth," Louis said to David.
"What did I say?" David asked.
"It's not your fault," Father told him. "Louis is forbidden to go to the horse track, and he knows it. He had a slight gambling problem at one time."
"Slight?" Uncle Soren snorted. "He went to you, crying, because he was in massive debt and had to borrow money from loan sharks. I still can't believe you gave it to him."
"Thanks, Dad."
"Shut up, Louis."
"Louis got his first taste of the casinos when we went to Vegas for the first time," Father said. "He lost everything and more. He came to me, sobbing, because he was afraid of your reaction, Soren. And I didn't give him a cent until he promised to see a professional."
"You shouldn't have given it to him," Uncle Soren said. "How will he ever learn if you're constantly rescuing him?"
"I'm devoted to my son and my nephew, Soren."
"Do not question my devotion as a father, Mordecai. I just wish he'd learn something before I leave this plane."
"I can't think about that," Louis said, his eyes shining. "I know it was my own fault, and I was desperate, or I wouldn't have gone to Uncle Mordecai. I'm just glad he has a heart."
"You still need to pay me back, dear nephew."
Louis swallowed nervously. "It's just nice to know that I can still pick a winner."
"Who won?" Father asked.
"Silver Bullet," David told him. "I won five hundred dollars."
"Reese, don't gamble," Louis said. "It may just cost you." He smiled crookedly, but his eyes were still full of sadness.
"I'm still angry at him for causing us to-"
"Soren! Not helping!" Dad shouted. "He feels bad enough about it without you always harping on him. Sometimes people need help, and there's nothing wrong with that. It only becomes a problem if you don't learn from your mistakes or take advantage."
"Which he does."
"Soren, you're being a dick. Quit it."
Louis stuck his tongue out at his father, which he received a smack on the back of the head for.
We played a few more games, and then Sarah came over with the dogs to meet David. They all liked him, especially Lola. They were practically soulmates. Coffee hated him, like she does all men. Spunk, Jasmine, and Koda liked him. Scooter was a little wary, possibly because Uncle Soren was there, and he hates him.
Shadowfang came over in his human form, and he sniffed David while still in human form. David was confused and disturbed, and I told Shadow to keep his nose to himself. He changed to cat form, and sat on my lap while the dogs played and Sarah texted her friends.
Something bothered me. Why was Scarlett there when we went to pick up Jasmine and Lola? Why was she reappearing in our lives? And what did Satira really want? And how did she meet Cholena, and how did Kole fit into all this?
Kole had come by occasionally to say hi and to ask a few questions about vampire life, but she still wouldn't say who created her or why. My father thought she might have been abandoned by her creator-that happens sometimes. But since we were already a formed coven, she didn't want to interfere, which I found odd, since most fledglings are desperate for a connection, especially if they've been abandoned by their creator or had a broken mate-bond or even came from a broken coven.
I rubbed Jasmine's soft short-furred white head and she gave me a smile that only a pitbull could give. I was a little impressed, since most dogs don't like me, and I don't normally like dogs. But I'd have to form a relationship with these dogs, because as I said, Jasmine was meant to be a therapy dog for Sarah and Lola was Jasmine's sister and bond.
Sarah confessed to me that Lola was meant as a gift to Sabine, but the little brat was ungrateful. Sisters of different species, bonded in friendship and blood. Koda and Scooter were meant as companions for Spunk for when Sarah had to travel, since Coffee hated dogs as well as men. Koda, a husky, was a beautiful male with a bright personality and full of love. Scooter was still a Boston terrier puppy, and still coming out of his shell.

Koda put his paw on my leg, and Shadowfang sat up and pawed at Koda's head.
"Be nice," I warned him, scratching Koda's head.
"The dog says that feels good," Shadow said. "He likes his new family."
"Good, because we like him."
"I don't."
"That's because you're a cat. Can't you at least be civil?"
Shadow pretended to meow then, and Koda gave him a big, sloppy kiss.
"What else did you get Sarah?" David asked as he and Father played poker.
"I gave her some money for her wedding dress and accessories. I hired the best makeup artist in Denmark to do her makeup and a world-renowned hairstylist to do her hair."
"You spoil her," Father said. "I mean, shopping sprees, horses, cars, dogs..."
"She's growing," I said. "You can definitely tell she's pregnant now."
"I noticed. She's beautiful, Reese. Even more beautiful than before. Your mother was the same way-when she was pregnant with Selena, she glowed. You gave her a harder time because you weighed so much?"
"How much did he weigh?" David asked.
"Thirty-two pounds."
"Dad," I said, "No baby weighs thirty-two pounds when they're born."
"Okay, twelve pounds."
"I think you're telling a tall one."
"Okay, eight pounds."
"That's at least more reasonable."
"You were a little chunk, though. Of course, you got skinnier as you grew up, and now you're a stick."
We were distracted by Louis, who came in, wearing reindeer antlers.
"I, um..." he trailed off. "I lost a bet."
"What did you do this time?" Father asked.
"I got feelings for someone new. Dad bet me this headband that I couldn't go two months without liking someone new. And I did, and he caught me. The only problem is, I'm still dating Paul."
"I'm amazed," I said. "You're still with Paul? You've been with him for months now."
"Who did you fall for now?" Father asked.
Louis looked humiliated. He would have been blushing if vampires could blush. It's not easy to embarrass him, either.
I noticed David sneak a peek at Dad's cards, but said nothing. Cheater. Unfortunately, Dad noticed, too.
"Nice try, son," he said, smiling at my new brother. Now David was embarrassed. "I'll get the chessboard set up."
Louis took off the antlers and sat beside David. "I can give you some pointers, dude."
"No cheating, Louis," Father warned. "That's how I beat you the last hundred times."
"Um, Dad?" David began. "I, um...I don't know how to play chess."
We all gave him horrified looks.
"You've never played chess?" I asked.
"I'm up for learning how, though."
"Good boy," Father said. "It's a shame others don't share your thirst for knowledge and would rather cheat." He aimed the last sentence at Louis, who stuck his tongue out at Father.
"Who do you like now?" I asked Louis.
"Uh...nobody."
Father frowned at him. "Louis."
"Okay, fine. Well, you know, Cholena's pretty hot-"
"Oh, no. No, no, no. You are not falling for that girl," Father snapped. "I don't trust her one bit, and neither should you."
Louis scowled, then crossed his arms and sulked like the grown toddler he was.
Father taught David how to play chess, with Louis giving David bad advice the whole time.
"No, don't move there, or you'll put your queen in danger."
"Hey, Louis?" I broke in.
"If you tell me to shut up, Reese, I'll cut all your hair off."
I wisely kept my mouth shut.
"Where's Uncle Soren?" David asked.
"Doing research," Father said. "He's asking around about Kole, trying to find out where the girl came from. And trying to find Satira at the same time, but the old shrew seems to have vanished." \
"You never got along with Satira, did you?" I asked.
"No, I didn't. She treats your mother like shit and introduced Liam Wolfheart to Selena, causing him to believe she was his soulmate. Now she wants your souls. For what purpose, I do not know, but it can't be good. It never is with her."
He and David played chess for a couple hours, while Louis turned on the TV and watched some stupid comedy. I read a book on how to be a good father. I knew the basics of how to change a diaper and feed a baby, but I didn't know how to be a father.
I texted Selena a few times, asking about Mother. She said Mother was still being watched. Luckily the bleeding had almost stopped-she was running on empty. Ethan kept stealing bags of human blood from Mercy Hospital and feeding them to Mother. He was still observing the babies carefully, looking for signs of death or injury. I liked how gentle he was with Mother. He had once told me that he assisted in delivering babies when he was human.
I waited anxiously for news about Mother and my unborn siblings for two weeks. I had partially moved back into Father's house, and Sarah stayed with me. She enjoyed getting to know David, and he enjoyed getting to know her. She told him how we met and began dating, although she didn't mention her trauma or Nales.
Sarah had started drinking coffee again, although it was at least decaf and sugar-free. The poor girl was addicted to the stuff. I enjoyed spoiling her, rubbing her feet and brushing her hair. She also enjoyed me putting my hands on her belly and feeling our babies. She loved being pregnant, except for the morning sickness and constant hunger pains. The girl could eat a horse's weight in junk food.
And she did love her food-spicy jalapeno chips, coffee ice cream, asparagus, cauliflower, decaf mochas, milk, cheese, pizza, French fries, Mentos, cola, and so on. She always wanted food. We constantly got delivery people at the door with Chinese or pizza or Cajun. Father was concerned that all the food would make her sick, and it occasionally did.
She also loved baths. Bubbles, bath bombs, lavender oil, tea tree shampoo, rain-scented perfume, and so on. I once caught her falling asleep in the tub. I carried her to bed where I dried her off and then dressed her in a clean gown and panties.
She would occasionally cry as well. She cried for the smallest things, from a lost book to leaving a blanket on the couch, to a late package, and she cried for big things as well, such as Mother and all of her unlucky pregnancies. We still didn't know anything about what had happened to the babies that were currently inside her.
She worried so much that it made me worry. Her anxiety was through the roof. I made her keep taking her pills every morning and night, before she went to bed and after her breakfast. Even the obnoxiously big ones, which she tried to hide under her tongue. I forced her to open her mouth and checked under her tongue after I caught her flushing a specific pill down the toilet. She would only drink milk with her pills-it was the only thing that didn't upset her stomach.
Selena had all sorts of advice to give, some of it was actually very helpful. She'd been pregnant before several times, and even though she'd lost every single one, she still knew how to handle these things.
Finally, Ethan called me. I put him on speaker, as Sarah and Selena were in the room with me, discussing the best baby necessities.
"What's up?" I replied. I heard sobbing in the background.
"I'm so sorry," Ethan said. "Your mother's fall did...how do I say this? One of the babies has died."
The sobbing grew louder, and I looked at Selena and Sarah, both of whom burst into tears.
"Poor Marina," Sarah said. "Is there anything we can do?"
"Just be there for her," Ethan said. "Don't force her to talk about it or bring it up. There's still a risk that she may lose the other two. Marina, do you want to talk to your kids? Sorry, kids, she doesn't want to talk right now. I'll keep checking in on her every few days and watch the progress of the pregnancy."
"Thank you, Ethan, goodbye," I said, hanging up. I blinked back tears. My poor brother or sister. Screw Alexander. He went too far this time. He'd pay for this.
My father came into the room, looking sad.
"You heard?" I asked, and he nodded.
"Louis, David, and Soren heard as well." He sat beside me and hugged me tightly. "I'm so sorry, Reese. You too, Selena. I promise we'll get revenge on Alexander one day."
My sister burst out sobbing. The guys came into the room and sat beside her. Louis gave a half-hearted attempt at a hug, but Selena pushed him away. He gave her a stung look, and I realized that he cared more than he showed.
However, Sarah accepted hugs from David and Uncle Soren, then they both hugged me. We were all silent, the girls and I crying our hearts out. I cursed Alexander and called him every name I could think of in my head. I needed to destroy something. So I told my family I'd be back and then went into the woods.
I killed an unfortunate coyote, a fox, a bear, and a herd of deer, destroyed many trees, and even cracked a couple of tombstones in the cemetery. I went to the lake and dove to the bottom, tearing up several fish with my teeth. Then I ran around the territory a few times, urinated on a patch of wild roses, and then went back home.
Father informed me that now Selena was out destroying something, and I hoped my sister would be okay. Sarah was still crying, hiccuping. Her wings were starting to poke out of her back, and I took her out to the pool area. Her wings burst out of her back, and she began flying around, half-blinded by her tears, trying to get her anger out of her system.
I'd seen Sarah upset on a few occasions. Frustration, anxiety, sadness, and irritation were common with her. Rarely had I seen her truly angry as she was now. Her beautiful brown skin turned tomato red, and she began shouting expletives at the top of her lungs. I didn't try to stop her, I just let her vent.
Our heartbreak continued on even as we prepared to leave for Denmark to get ready for the wedding. Sarah, as usual, packed more than what was necessary, and she helped me remember a few things that I would have forgotten otherwise.
She asked me if she could invite Jamie Williams, and I reluctantly agreed. Our wedding guests would consist of more than friends and family-it would have allied covens, politicians, the Vampire Council, and so on.
I was beginning to get nervous. There was still so much to do. Luckily, I had help. Toby made himself useful on several occasions when I forgot to invite somebody or send money for a plane ticket. I raised his salary in gratitude.
But things got even more stressful when Spencer showed up. He'd been fired for his lack of usefulness during a time which we needed all the guards to be vigilant. And he'd cheated on Toby. Now he wanted Toby back, and he wouldn't take no for an answer.
I heard them arguing in the mornings and at night, and Toby was becoming more and more upset each time.
"Take me back," Spencer said. "We're soulmates, Toby."
"I'm not the one who put my dick in a sixteen-year-old," Toby snarled. "Leave me alone, Spencer. Fuck off."
Uncle Soren appeared then, and glared at Spencer. Spencer wisely slunk away. As Uncle Soren's fledgling, Toby was under his protection.
And another thing: Sabine was missing again. Sarah tried calling and texting her, to no avail. She wouldn't even answer for Beckett or Mother. I couldn't help feeling that I was responsible for her running away.
My own personal heartache came to a head one day, when a visitor from Sarah's past showed up at our door. I was reading a book to Sarah, when the doorbell rang. Since no one was here but us and a couple guards, I gave Toby permission to answer it.
"Hi, is Sarah here?" a shrill female voice asked. Sarah's eyes widened, and she went downstairs as fast as her pregnancy would allow.
"Caitlin?" Sarah asked. At the door was a brown-haired female our age, with dark brown eyes and pale skin. Compared to Sarah, she was rather plain.
"Sarah?" the female looked around at her.
"It is you!" Sarah shouted. A big grin split her beautiful face in half. She and the human hugged each other tightly. "I can't believe it! I haven't seen you since middle school!"
I cleared my throat.
"Oh, Caitlin, this is my fiance, Reese. Reese, this is Caitlin, my best friend from Atlantic City."
Caitlin's eyes widened. "Oh, so this is him? You were right, he is handsome."
"Thank you," I said. "It's nice to meet you, Caitlin." As per custom, I kissed her knuckles.
"How did you find us?" Sarah asked.
Caitlin smiled and rolled her eyes. "Your friend Ariella is the biggest gossip. She said she knew you."
"What are you doing here?" Sarah asked.
"That's another story. Guy problems. And work. I needed to get away. I knew you of all people would understand."
Sarah blinked, and I stood there, not sure what to say. Was Caitlin assaulted by a guy? Did the same thing that happened to Sarah happen to her?
"How do you know Ari?" Sarah continued.
"She and I were friends on Facebook before, just talking, you know, and she said she knew you and mentioned where you live now."
"Ari wouldn't do that," I said automatically. Sarah grabbed my hand and squeezed it, both indicating that she knew that and that I should shut up.
"Why do I get the feeling that you're holding something back, Cait?" Sarah asked. Suddenly, then other girl broke down in tears and began crying loudly. I suspected that it was fake. But Sarah, bless her large heart, looked concerned.
Sarah, something's not right, I thought-spoke to her.
I know, Reese, she thought-spoke back. This is odd. Caitlin used to never fake her tears. She's hiding something, I'm sure of it.
My girl was intelligent.
"Caitlin, what's wrong?" Sarah asked. I looked at her, confused. I would have just told Caitlin to shut up and leave.
"It's been horrible, Sarah," she sobbed. "I'm so torn right now. There are two guys, and they both want me!"
"Really?" Sarah blinked. "Who?"
"You remember Nathan Arnold?"
"How could I forget?" Sarah replied sarcastically. "He pulled my hair all the time and then kissed me in the sixth grade." I growled at that. Sarah squeezed my hand again.
"It's between him...and Jesse Gold."
"That redneck?" Sarah scoffed. "They're both losers, Caitlin. Nathan is an immature man-whore with Peter Pan syndrome and I remember Jesse trying to kiss all the girls. He kissed me once, and it was so gross. We were only thirteen, and he smelled like tobacco and armpit sweat."
"They've both matured," Caitlin sniffed. "If you only met them, Sarah, you'd know why I'm confused."
"But there's more, isn't there?" Sarah prompted.
"Yes, Sarah. I was raped!" Now the girl's tears were real. My heart broke instantly, and I felt sorry for her. Sarah paused, then wrapped her arms around her old friend. "I knew you'd help, Sarah."
Sarah's eyes filled with tears, and I growled at Caitlin for upsetting my mate, then hated myself. The girl had been through a trauma and was quite possibly alone and definitely scared. I didn't know her from Adam. Sarah embraced her friend for a long time, then she invited Caitlin in.
"Mortal Kombat?" Sarah asked. "For nostalgic reasons?"
Caitlin weakly smiled. "I thought you'd never ask."
It's been a while since Sarah played her games, I thought. Maybe Caitlin introduced her to them.
I followed the girls upstairs to my room. Caitlin's nose wrinkled, I assumed because of all the black. I sat on my desk chair while Caitlin and Sarah took the bed.
I watched as Sarah set up the Xbox. She handed Caitlin a controller, and she took the other one.
Caitlin chose Reptile, Sarah chose Rain. The girls played viciously. Sarah sometimes let me win; she wasn't doing that with Caitlin. The minute Rain blew up Reptile, she paused the game and then turned to me.
"Reese, would you mind-?"
"Yeah, I'll go."
I decided to visit a secondhand record store that I hadn't been to in a year. To my disappoinment, they were closing the store, so everything was on sale. I stocked up on Heart, Stevie Nicks, Pink Floyd, Pantera, Metallica, Journey, KISS, and Toto. As soon as I paid, in cash, I left the store just as Scarlett was walking in.
Oh, great.
She paused and looked at me. "Hi, Reese."
"Scarlett."
"What are you doing here?"
I held up my purchases. "I took advantage of the sale."
"That's great. I'm here for some rock. Anything good?"
"I don't know, that depends on your taste."
"I personally prefer classic rock. AC/DC, stuff like that."
"Nice to see you, Scarlett," I lied, then slipped past her into the Barnes & Noble next door.
I looked around and grabbed some religion books, some classic novels, a few teen and young adult that I thought Sarah would like, and I took a peek at the children's section, where a security guard followed me around. He only left me alone after I paid for my books.
I considered putting the purchases in the Nissan, then realized that the heat would be bad for the books and the records. Instead, I ducked into a coffee shop, where I ordered a water and sat reading one of the books. Before long, Scarlett reappeared in the doorway, ordered a caramel macchiato, and sat across from me.
"Let's make a proposal," she said. "You kiss me once, and I don't tell Sarah you cheated on her."
I glared. She was bluffing. She couldn't possibly know that I'd slept with Sadie before she committed suicide. It was during a fight with Sarah, and I had mistaken her words for a breakup. When she sighed and said that we'd simply had a fight, I hated myself instantly even more than I already did.
I didn't want to lose her, not now, not ever. So I'd kept my mouth shut about the affair and hoped no one would find out. Well, Father knew. And Uncle Soren. Other than that, I hoped no one else knew. Louis wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut, and Grandfather would want to get any confessions off his chest before he died.
Still, I stayed firm. "Not happening, Hart."
"Come on, Reese," she said pleadingly. "It's my last chance before I leave for Salem."
"Salem? Seriously, Scarlett?"
She nodded. "Seriously. You can either join me, or lose Sarah. Your choice."
"Number one, I'd lose Sarah with either of those options, two, I don't give in to ultimatums, three, I'd never join you, and four, you disgust me. And five, I won't ever leave Sarah."
"But you've been having doubts, haven't you?"
I blinked.
"Yes, I know all about what goes on in a boy's mind, Reese. You've been having doubts, thinking that maybe, just maybe, there's another boy in her life. Think, Reese. Use your incredible thinking brain. You know as well as I do that there's something about Sarah that draws members of the male variety to her. She has tons of guy friends, and almost all of them have considered fucking her at least once. She has so many options."
I hated to admit it, but she was right. I'd been having doubts. She took my silence as confirmation and nodded.
"You'll never have a better offer, Reese. When's your birthday?"
"The first of October."
"That's tomorrow. Come on, sweetheart, take a deep, unneeded breath and pull me in."
"Don't call me sweetheart. Your words are poisonous, Scarlett Hart. I don't care how beautiful you are, Sarah's beauty surpasses yours in every category, especially her inner beauty. She may not like herself right now, but I do. I adore and worship her. I knew she was different than the rest of you. And I was right. You're a vile, vain, horrid woman, Scarlett. Stay away from me. For the last time, stay away from me."
I grabbed my purchases and left Scarlett there, fuming. When I got home, I heard batches of French coming from upstairs. It was Beckett and Sarah.
"Vraiment, Sarah? Pourquoi Caitlin?" ("Really, Sarah? Why Caitlin?"
"Papa, elle avait peur et avait besoin d'aide. Je sais qu'elle a déjà menti, mais je pense que c'est pour de vrai." ("Papa, I know she's lied before, but I think this is for real. She's scared and needs our help.")
"N'oublie pas, mon amour, elle t'a fait du mal avant ton départ," Beckett said. ("Don't forget, she hurt you before.")
"Je n'ai pas oublié. Mais je suis sur lui depuis des années, papa. J'ai Reese maintenant." ("I haven't forgotten. I've been over him for years, Papa. I have Reese now.")
Stomach roiling, I cleared my throat loudly.
"He's back," Beckett said. I heard tension in his voice.
"Papa, don't be jealous. Reese was my rock when I had no one else."
"I know I'm being irrational, but if I get my hands on him..."
"Papa! Not okay!"
"Okay, okay, I'll control my jealousy. Any sign of your sister?"
"None. She's ignoring all my calls and texts. I can't help feeling guilty-"
"Sarah Harper, don't you dare blame yourself for his mistakes. It was his uncle's fault that the young vampire died."
"It wasn't Soren's fault! It was Samuel who ordered all those murders to be committed, and it was Alana who went through with half of them. No one could have been safe with those two around."
"If Soren had just given him the Book-"
"The Book's dangerous, Papa. No one is supposed to rise from the dead."
"But I did, and I'm glad I'm back. I can protect you now."
"I am, too." I heard the shuffling of clothing, and assumed they were hugging.
"You're my petite rose, dear daughter.That's why I died for you."
"I don't fully understand."
"Sarah, it's quite simple. When you were a baby, you were cursed to die. But I found a loophole. If someone else died in your stead, you would live."
"Papa, if what you're saying is true, you interfered with fate!"
"It was worth it, to watch you blossom and grow from Heaven."
More shuffling of clothing. "I missed you, Papa."
"I missed you too, mi petite rose."
I entered the room, carefully avoiding Beckett's eyes as I sat in my desk chair.
"Where have you been?" he snapped.
"Where's Caitlin?" I redirected.
"In the bath," Sarah said. "Where were you, Reese?"
"I went to the Douglas Plaza. I got you some books, lover."
"Ooh, thank you." I handed her her bag of books and she eagerly looked through them. "I've been wanting to read this one. I was planning to buy this one anyway. This looks interesting. Ooh, a detective story. And a book of fairytales? You know me so well."
"A book of fairytales?" I asked, surprised. "I don't remember picking up a book of fairytales." I took the book from her and thumbed through it. It had all the usuals, like Tom Thumb and Thumbelina, Red Riding Hood, A Midsummer Night's Dream. I was confused. A Shakespeare story in a book of fairytales. Then I realized that its pages had been ripped out and added between Sleeping Beauty and Beauty & the Beast.
Now I was very confused.
"Scarlett," I muttered.
"Huh?" Sarah looked up from her perusal of the pages of the latest great teen novel. "What about her?"
"I met her in the coffee shop. She asked me to leave you, and go to her instead."
"I'm glad you didn't."
"Yeah, me, too."
I kissed her on the cheek, and Beckett raised an eyebrow.

Two days later, I was running to burn off energy, and I was near the lake. I suddenly smelled a vampire smell, and saw a glimpse of white skin. I sniffed the air again. It was a female scent, very old.
I looked around and then sat down by the dock. I smelled grass, flowers, dying leaves, earth, and the scent of the lake. I pulled out my phone and texted Sarah, asking how she was. I spotted a snake suddenly, and edged away. I can't stand snakes. And this was a northern copperhead, one of the most venomous species on Earth. Not that his venom would affect me, but I'd prefer not to get bitten.
"Reese."
I turned around at my name. "Hi, Kole."
She sat down beside me and pulled up some grass. "So I suppose you've figured it out by now?"
"That your creator abandoned you?"
She nodded. "I'm sorry if I bothered you. I'm just so alone, and I have no family or friends to turn to. I was raised in foster care, and I ran away. I guess this was just one time too many, and I got lucky." She said the last part sarcastically. "I didn't even know vampires existed until he bit me. I know he wanted me to do something, but I don't want to do what he says he wants me to do. All I want is for somebody to take care of me and teach me how to be a vampire."
"It's hard sometimes," I said.
"Are there rules I should know about?"
"Yes. One, never drink from another vampire unless the situation is dire. That's one of our biggest laws, because it's considered cannibalism. For another, try to drink from bagged blood, and don't kill humans." She winced at that. "Or, since you already have," I began, and she looked guilty, "try to hide the body. Don't ever take another vampire's mate, that's another big law. If you're an animal or plant drinker,-"
"Animal drinkers? Plant drinkers?"
I nodded. "Animal and plant drinkers do exist, but it's considered taboo to drink from an animal. It's ridiculous, because it doesn't give us the right nutrition or satisfy us like human blood does. And all you'll get is a constant thirst. Plant drinkers, or chlorophyll eaters, only drink plant juice. I don't know how many there are or when they were created, but they're slowly dying out. I've never met one yet. I've met some animal drinkers, though, and they are the most pretentious, egotistical tools in the vampire race. I had a girl try to convert me years, ago, but I ignored her."
Kole nodded, taking in all this information.
"There is a Vampire Council in addition to the royal family, and there are twelve members, the head of which is Bram Sterling. He hates us, because we overrule him. The rivalry between us and the Council is ongoing and constant, and it will probably end in death. I don't know all the Council members' names, but I know a few."
She nodded again, absorbing her lesson in vampire rules and laws.
"We used to have a Law of Secrecy, but it was abolished years ago. It doesn't matter anymore-most humans don't believe we exist, anyway. My family and I admitted on television that we exist, and we created our own vampire channel, called VStation. It's all about vampires. Shows, movies, news, and so on."
"And what about mates?" she asked.
"When you see your mate, you'll know it's them almost immediately. A mate is the most precious, worthwhile thing in our existence, and there are so many fewer females than males, which is why they are so coveted. Without a mate, a vampire will get depressed, isolate himself. He'll slowly be driven into madness by his loneliness and will eventually go off the deep end or commit suicide. If a mate dies, their death is mourned."
I paused. I looked at Kole; she was staring at me intently.
"Um, Kole?" I said nervously.
"Yes, Reese?" She fluttered her dark eyelashes.
"I'm in love with Sarah. Normally vampires only date other vampires or humans, but Sarah...she's not all human. We only recently discovered that she's actually part fairy."
She blinked. "She is? Well, she's very lucky to have you. I'm jealous of her."
If I could blush, I would have then. "I'd say I'm lucky to have her."
"How can I find my mate?"
"Just be patient. He'll come to you eventually. Fate always finds a way, and the Fates are hard to change."
I leaned back and watched as a turtle poked its head out of the water. It stared at me for a moment, then dived back down. I looked at Kole, who was stretched out on the dock, her legs spread out sexily and her elbows on the ground.
If I didn't have Sarah, I'd consider dating Kole. She was hot, for one thing, and for another, she was alone, and needed vampire company. Just like my Sarah.
Then I heard the flapping of gigantic wings, and Sarah landed softly between us, her purple wings spread out.
"Hello, Reese," she said, wrapping her arms around me and kissing me sloppily on the cheek. "Hi, Kole." Did I detect a note of jealousy in her voice?
"Sarah," Kole replied, nodding at her. Sarah sat beside me and folded her wings. I kissed her back on the lips, and she left a Divine Crimson lipstick mark on my cheek and lips. I was amused at her possessiveness. The girl adored me as much as I adored her. She practically sat on my lap, wrapping a wing around me and stretching out the other wing to keep Kole away.
For a while we just sat there, listening to the sounds of the woods and the lake. Occasionally a fish jumped or a turtle poked its head out. I saw snakes under the water and minnows. I watched as a turtle ate a minnow. Predator and prey. Me and Sarah. I kissed my girl's soft brown hair, smelling her favorite Aveda shampoo and conditioner.
"Will you sing to me, Reese?" Sarah asked, fluttering her pretty lashes. Kole scowled. Sarah turned around and smiled sweetly to the other girl. "Reese is extremely musical. He plays the guitar and the piano, and he writes songs, and his singing isn't bad, either."
"Flatterer," I said, and then I started singing "The Rose", which was one of Sarah's favorites. Both girls stared at me in amazement as my bass voice hit the low notes and the high notes. When I finished the song, they clapped.
"Well, girls, it's getting late," I said. "Do you want to go home?"
"Carry me," Sarah said, pulling in her wings and smiling flirtatiously. She held out her arms to me, and I picked her up. Kole's scowl got deeper, and we started the trek home. Along the way, I gave Kole tips on how to hunt safely and legally. Also, how to avoid vampire slayers. Sarah had already heard all of this, and she closed her eyes and purred, leaning her head against my chest.
When we got home, David and Louis were wrestling, Uncle Soren was working on his motorcycle, and my father was smoking a cigarette on the porch. Shadowfang lay near the lilac bushes, purring and twitching his tail.
When he saw Kole, David nipped Louis to end the tournament, and Louis conceded. He brushed himself off and smiled at her. Kole took his hand and he twirled her around, then kissed her knuckles.
Uncle Soren sat up, wiped his hands on a rag, and frowned at David and Kole. I knew he didn't trust either of them; frankly, I didn't, either, not Kole, at least. But they seemed to be getting along with each other.
We still didn't know that much about either of them, although Father tried to get David to open up.
"Oh, happy birthday, Reese," David said, looking at me. "Dad told me that it was your birthday on the first. How does it feel to be nineteen?"
"Same as being eighteen," I replied. "Sarah's birthday is in Febraury."
"An Aquarius?" David asked. Sarah nodded.
"Yep. I'm an Aquarius. Reese is a Libra."
"Sagittarius," Louis said, gesturing to himself.
"Taurus," Uncle Soren broke in.
"Cancer," Father said.
"What about you, Toby?" I asked.
"Leo," he replied. It was then that I noticed a gun on his belt.
"Why do you have a gun, Toby?"
He looked baffled at my question. "To defend you and Sarah, of course."
"Guns don't work on vampires."
"It doesn't kill us," Uncle Soren said, "But it can still cause injury."

 

 

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 07.05.2021

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Widmung:
Trigger warnings: *Death *Miscarriage *Rape *Lying *False allegations *Cursing