Missing Vampire: Reward Available (Hypernaturals 6)

Vera's Remote Control

I sat in the upstairs Library, having left a bed full of exhausted Vampires. I am tired too, with only a few hours of sleep in total for the night, but I need to do this. I should have already.

The phone clicked its overseas clicks and then rang. Vera answered immediately but cautiously. She could see it is international, but this is not my phone number since my phone is someplace in Turkey.

"Hello?" she answered cautiously.

"Hi Vera. It's Adrian. Temporary phone. Mine was lifted by some HPA goons. By the time they are done trying to unlock it, it will wipe itself clean."

Vera exploded "Oh my fucking god! You are all right? You are? Right? Jesus fucking christ on a pogo stick, Adrian. I have been so goddamn worried. What the fuck? I mean, I knew when Morgan and Jessica skipped town you were found, but FUCK, Adrian! Just FUCK! Stop doing that to me."

"Hi, Vera. I missed you too. Sorry for the scaring you and all that. As I said, it was the HPA. Fucking again. No crosses or pig rods this time. I never gave them the chance."

I gave Vera a thumbnail sketch of my journey. I have been telling this tale a great deal recently so I am getting it fairly polished. When I finished I added "So I landed at my house here and wanted to call you before now, but the Euro Council and Crew are here and they wanted lots of details and are draining my brain. Then Morgan and Jessica and Diana all arrived, and it all went crazy again. I think it is safe to say that my life has been really upside down. We married Morgan nearly immediately, so there is that too. Feasts and parties. The staff here love to prep a damn party. So much food: you would not believe."

"What?" Vera had no idea how to digest the entire pile of things I dumped on her. The last one sounded like it became too much and Vera flipped her circuit breaker.

"Morgan. PI. Tall woman. You watched me bite her a few years ago..." I started.

"I know who Morgan is, dimwit. She came here, to the damn Hall, with Jessica when you were missing. Often here. Jesus man. Good thing Morgan flew shotgun because Jessica was a freaking mess. Literally: Freaking."

"Here is the thing. There is a Siren hall in Bulgaria that is working with the HPA. Some of them are anyway. The HPA seemed to be trying to get me to go there, herded me along with vans and shot, so I did go there, but figured out the trap, and ..."

"Yeah, yeah: Not so fast, slick. Back to Morgan. You are married already. Amazon woman? Kicks asses? Freaks to pieces when you are kidnapped? Remember her?"

"Oh. I probably never mentioned that Vampire families are quite frequently Polyamorous. I may have goofed on you about it, but it is a real thing. When you live to be thousands of years old, Human rules do not apply. It is sort of like how Siren dudes seduce every woman they can, and claim a few but never feel tied down to any one single woman?"

"Yeah. Fuckers. Literally." Vera agreed, with some heat.

"And you know how you female Siren types create the safety and infrastructure to raise the children and are sort of sister / wives?"

"Yes. I know about that, Adrian. I fucking live here." Vera said snidely.

"So, it turns out that Vampires tend to form plural unions. Usually, it's all women because, well, Vampires are over ninety-nine percent women. It is the norm to have a plural union form around a male Vampire that survives transition and probation. Like sand in an oyster turns into a pearl. In my particular case, we go one step further and not only form a Poly group but a group marriage. That is less normal, but hey: No one ever accused me of being normal: Especially not you." I explained.