Danse Macabre 3: Deadly Deception

Dancing in the Dark

Author's Note: Warning, this hasn't been edited AT ALL, I'll edit it in a few days but I thought it was more important that you guys got this than it being perfect. :D So please excuse the super crappy grammar and spelling errors, and I hope you enjoy. :)
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3

Of everything I thought I was prepared for instant motherhood was not one of those things. Quiet and calm, Margot wasn't an especially difficult child. At two she could speak a phrase here and there and express to me if she needed anything. On occasion however, she'd tilt her head a certain way and I'd catch a glimpse of Kendra in her, and flash back to Margot's birth or rather her removal from Kendra's body via involuntary forced c-section before Collette and Tristan assisted in cutting someone who went from my close friend to an enemy to pieces.

With everything that happened I didn't have time to ask myself if I needed to mourn my once friend. But with the Sun Cross's rules in effect and Aleksi and I playing separated I found myself with a great deal of unexpected time on my hands.

Maybe we were better off without the vampires? Margot tugged on my hand, jarring me back into reality from the deep downward spiral of my thoughts. We stood in the lobby of my apartment building in front of the elevator, I hadn't even pressed the button before I fell into my thoughts. Frowning I caught a bit of powdered sugar on Margot's black Gucci winter coat, I knelt to brush the white dust away and she hugged me, hard and unexpectedly.

How could you think that way! Where would you be without Aleksi? Miss Manner's critique of the last few years was obviously stilted, but at the same time she was right. I couldn't really envision my life without him. Everyone in my life was gone without him. I didn't have any human friends in the area anymore with Leslie's departure.

"It's a good thing we have each other. Right?" I kept my tone cheery, but I'd be the first to admit it took a great deal of effort.

Margot beamed up at me, but I couldn't even force a smile, so I hugged her close to hide my face. I was stuck in Florence all by myself more or less. There was my family, but my sister was struggling being a newly single parent and my mother was never my greatest fan. And yes, there was Aleksi but since we were pretending to be separated our time together was sparse leaving me feeling exceptionally isolated.

"Do you need help?" A somewhat familiar voice asked, he was blonde with bright sparkling green eyes and full lips. The longer I stared at him the more familiar he seemed, but I couldn't place where I recognized him from—most likely I saw him around the building and didn't remember. He wasn't breath-taking gorgeous like a vampire, but that didn't mean he wasn't attractive. He had an easy smile, the kind that could make a whole room smile at a funeral—it was just that infectious. That grin made me wonder if he was a happy child and if it caused that pure look of elation. My mood went morose fast, and I had no one to blame but myself as I looked down at Margot, I couldn't help but wonder what she'd be like in a few years.

"I'm fine, I was just taking my..." I trailed off uncertain of what to call Margot, given that I could say with absolute certainty if Elizabeta heard Margot call me Momma it would be the end of me. "...Friend's daughter upstairs."

"Ah, would that be the friend who used to drop you off in the vintage Mercedes?"

"Yes, him..." It felt weird calling Aleksi a friend, he was so much more than that; he was master after all, and my fiancé and my lover. But was he my friend? Could I imagine Aleksi dropping everything to help me move a couch? I shook my head, it was a thread I didn't want to pull on. "She's staying with me until everything gets sorted out with the whole Sun Cross mess." Margot tugged on my hand and stamped her little foot, showing off that bit of nature over nurture that was so supremely Aleksi.