Missing Vampire: Reward Available (Hypernaturals 6)

Captain Morgan

My little girl swung between Fiona and Morgan, using their arms like ropes. When she saw me she pulled away and came running and flew into my arms "Daddy!", as if I had not just seen her at breakfast.

I feel the same way.

"Hi, darling. You having fun?" I kissed her little face.

"Can I go swimming with Momma Morgan and Fiona? Please?"

Diana is a little fish and swims pretty well for her age, but she knows she has to ask before going anywhere near the water.

I looked up at the two women. "Hi you all. Just on a break. Wanted to get some love." I gave my little girl another hug.

"Fiona? Don't you have better things to do than play with my daughter?" I asked "I mean: I hate to impose..."

"Name one thing more important than that little girl." Fiona replied.

"Uhh. Sorry. Can't." I admitted.

Morgan came over and laid a hand on Diana's back. "How long is your break?"

"About twenty more minutes." I suppressed a sigh.

"Then join us in the pool, Adrian. It is very nice." Morgan invited.

"I have not actually been in it." I told her.

"Then you really should.", Morgan pulled me willingly away from the house. She seemed to be a little more 'up' and insistent than usual.

"Lead the way." I told her.

The pool is Olympic size huge, and inside a massive enclosure so that it can be used year-round, and also control small children from getting into it unsupervised. The building wraps and covered the pool, and it has places to change, bathrooms and such. The roof is tall enough that it does not interfere with using the diving board. Not that we are going to use the deep end.

We dropped our clothes onto lounge chairs and I jumped in and turned barely in time to catch Diana as she jumped into my arms giggling happily.

Fiona slipped in more sedately, and Morgan stood at the edge smiling at us.

"Coming in?" I asked. "This is your idea."

"Oh yes. Waiting for Diana to swim back to the edge."

Diana paddled her way back to Morgan and grabbed the edge. "Look how good I swim Mommy Morgan!" she said.

"You are such a good swimmer, Diana. Can you hang on there for a minute?" Morgan asked

"Yes. Why? I want to swim back to Daddy."

"Because honey..." Morgan jumped into my arms unexpectedly. When we surfaced Diana giggled uncontrollably and then started to swim back to us. We picked her up and squeezed her tight.

"... I want to jump in too!" Morgan finished, laughing and kissing Diana.

Diana swam over to Fiona next.

"Oh, what a good swimmer you are!" Fiona told her and picked her up to toss her straight up and catch her. Diana squealed with joy.

I looked over at Morgan "You and Diana seem to have bonded even more while I was gone. I would not have thought that possible. "

"How could we not? So did Angel. She moved into the house with Nakoma. You scared us."

"I know I said it before..." I started

"No! Just no, Adrain! Do not say you are sorry." Morgan shook her head fiercely, her hair sloshing. "I said before, even though I thrive on facts and not beliefs, I knew you went to ground. I was more sure of that than Jessica or Helen. I do not know why I knew. It is not that you HAD to be OK? It is that I intellectually understood that, wherever you were, you were trying to get back to us with every formidable talent and ability you could bring to bear. You mind, your body, your senses. I kept mentally picturing you up on that cross when they nearly killed you, and I knew you would never let that happen to you again. I do not like to use this word, but I believed in you. You were coming back to us. Not only to us: To me."