The Moon's Light

Chapter Thirty-Three

I held Aisling on the couch while Jason and Katty cooked. I stared down at the little girl in my arms, barely registering the movie playing. I was too focused on the domestic bliss going on in the kitchen and the tiny bundle of joy in my arms. She cooed up at me and I smiled back.

I lifted my head when the door opened. I had been expecting any of the family. Or one of my friends. Instead, it was a Vampire woman that I recognized. She had terrified me and shoved me into a panic attack my first day here. She swept into the kitchen, going straight for a surprised Katty. A male Vampire trailed behind her. He looked familiar too.

"Mom! Dad!"

I froze. Katty's parents. Jason was looking a little wary too. He forced a smile through his surprise when Katty's mother happily pulled him into a hug after she was done crushing Katty. "Katty dear! We came to see the baby. And this must be the father. Where is your little darling?"

I bit my lip when the woman's eyes lit on me and my daughter. She didn't even look at me. She just happily came around the couch and leaned down to scoop Aisling out of my arms. I wasn't sure if I should resist or not. My instinct was to protect my own. But I didn't see this woman hurting her own granddaughter.

She noticed my hesitation before letting her take Aisling and seemed to notice me for the first time. She glanced over my head with a smile. "Protective human you have here. Good choice for a nanny. Even if he is male."

I felt Katty's hand on my shoulder and glanced up at her. She was smiling tightly. "He's not a nanny, Mother."

Mother blinked in surprise. "You let your pantry handle your child?" She sounded like it was some great horror. Like letting me handle Aisling was like tossing a child into a cow pen. In her eyes, I was little better than some slaughter animal.

Katty cleared her throat. "Max is one of the fathers."

Dead silence reigned for a long moment. I felt pinned under harsh scrutiny. I compulsively reached up to lace my fingers with Katty's for comfort. The move triggered Mother into moving herself. She held Aisling a little tighter and backed away from me.

"Unacceptable." She nodded towards Jason, still in the kitchen. "While he's not of good breeding he did give you a daughter so I can accept him as a son." She glowered down at me. "This is a blood gift. And not a particularly good one. He cannot be the father. He can be nothing more than a distraction from your day to day life."

An icy feeling filled me. A shiver rolled down my back and I shrank back into the couch, trying to get closer to Katty. The old fear came back. The insecurity that I was nothing to these Vampires and would be tossed out or killed whenever the thought fancied them.

Katty's fingers released from my shoulder and I almost let out a whine. I gasped in relief when she placed both hands on my shoulders, close to my neck and protecting my pulse. She slid her hands up to fully cover my pulse, just barely keeping low enough she didn't trigger anything. Jason had found that one when he wrapped a hand around my neck to pull me towards him for a kiss. Instead I had accidentally thrown a punch at him.

I focused on Katty's words to finish settling the panic out of my body. "I'm sorry Mother. Max is the father. However you feel about humans is not necessarily how I feel about them. Max would do anything for our daughter, including laying down his life. Both of them would. That counts for more in my book than the best breeding."

I turned when Father spoke. "Katty. I think your mother is right on this one." I bit my lip at the look of betrayal on Katty's face. I guessed she was used to her father being on her side. He glanced at Jason, who was looking rather uncomfortable about the whole thing. "Young Jason is an adequate spouse. You can have your flings and your pets, but a human spouse..." He shook his head sadly. "It never works out sweetheart."