Vampire Babysitter (Camren)

Chapter 3

"What do you mean 'we're keeping Ari?'" I repeated. It couldn't sound like what I thought it did. "She's human. We can't keep a human baby! We're vampires! Vampires don't raise babies."

"Dawg, trust me, I'm on your side," Dinah soothed, though her gigantic grin said otherwise. "It was all Demi. You should've seen her." She eagerly replayed the memory for me.

Her face twisted with fury, Demi slammed a fist down on the officer's desk. It looked frightening but required a lot of restraint on her part. She could have easily shattered the wood. The man behind the desk must have been accustomed to dealing with tempers because his stern expression didn't budge. He gave Demi an unimpressed look.

"There's nothing I can do."

"You didn't put in much effort!" Demi growled at him. "All you did was type a few words into a computer! Her mother's dead. I accept that. But she must have some other family. I refuse to let you toss her aside without looking."

"I'm sorry, but she has no family that fulfills the state's requirements," the officer said in the kind of polite monotone developed over years of dealing with stubborn people. "In Ms. Grande's will you are listed as the child's lawful guardian in the event of her death. If we can't find an immediate relative of the deceased and/or the child who is willing to care for her in your place, the child becomes a ward of the state and therefore a candidate for foster care. Ms. Grande chose not to list the child's father on her birth certificate and she has no other living relatives who fulfill the State's requirements. I'm sorry it upsets you, but that's the law."

"That is such bullshit," Demi snapped. "Dinah, is what he's saying true?"

Dinah nodded, apologetic. "'I’m afraid so. If her father's relatives were around, we might've been able to build a case for them but since his identity is unknown, I'd say we're shit out of luck."

Demi's nostrils flared. "Fine. If that's how it is, I accept guardianship." She snatched the papers she'd placed on the officer's desk earlier. Pulling a pen from her pocket, she scribbled her neat signature on the required lines.

"I assume that's all that's required of me at this time?" She straightened, glaring at the man behind the desk. "If there's anything else, please contact my lawyer."

Demi dropped a business card on the desk with an arrogant flick.

"Come on, Dinah, let's get out of here."

"It was awesome," Dinah recounted fondly, slapping an embarrassed Demi on the back. "She was such a badass. It made me proud to call her my best friend."

"Wait a second," I said, still trying to play catch up with everything I'd seen in Dinah's head. "Ari's mother is dead?"

Dinah sobered. "Yeah. Suicide. She dropped Ari here, went home and shot herself. The cop said the whole of an apartment they found her in was swept clean of any belongings except the gun. I guess that's why she didn't leave much of anything with Ari. There was nothing left to leave. She didn't have a cent to her name."

I glanced at the little girl on the couch playing with her new dolls. She was a healthy weight and seemed to be a happy baby, not that I really knew much about how babies normally acted. Regardless, she didn't seem to have come from a poverty-stricken household.

"But she seems so normal," I hedged. "I'd never have guessed."

"Ms. Grande loved her," Demi said simply. "I'm willing to bet she made sure Ari was taken care of, even if it was at her own expense."

"So that's it?" I clarified, still watching Ari. "We're her legal guardians now?"

"Well, technically I am," Demi offered a sheepish smile, "but yes, I hope you'll help out. Speaking of which, how was she while we were gone?"