"Hey, I think I'm finally getting used to that," I said, as I skipped away from Van's arms toward the door of the bootleg cave. Van had just shadow-walked us here after a brief stopover in our suite for clean clothes. It was the third time I'd shadow-walked this evening, and the first time I felt no disorientation from the experience.
"Excellent," Van replied, putting himself between me and the door. "Remember-"
"To go canny around Henry? Aye, I remember, you silly old gloom merchant," I stuck my tongue out at him and mocked his sometimes Northern Irish accent.
"Gloom merchant?" he scoffed. "It wasn't gloom I was giving you a half-hour ago."
"Hush, Van!" I giggled. "Can't Henry hear you?"
"Not just him!" Ace called through the door cheerfully. "Celie, you dead wrong if you think my brother is currently gloomy. Compared to his normal baseline, he's positively exuberant ever since you started opening your—"
"Choose your next words carefully, brother," Van said mildly through the door. "I'll remind you that you're speaking of my wife, and the Lady of our Sept."
Ace opened the door and leaned against it, hooking thumbs in the suspenders of his rough work clothes. "Oh, I think the lady has a thing to say about whether or not she considers herself your wife, but now that you mention it, Van—she has been awfully reserved with her opinion on the matter. What say you, Ceciliadh? Are you still Miss Dunne, free agent, or do you now claim the revered title of Mistress Livingstone, Lady of Our Sept?"
I tried to see around Ace, but like Evander, his hair grew immoderately when he hungered, and unlike Evander's, Ace's was a mass of spreading curls. Between his broad shoulders and tangle of hair, I couldn't get eyes on Henry.
"Call me whatever you like, Master Shit-Stirrer," I huffed and made an impatient gesture with my hand to indicate Ace should step aside.
A dimple appeared in his right cheek, though he smothered his smile. "Well, now she does sound like your impertinent wife. You've actually called me that before."
"If the shoe fits."
"Stow your banter for another time, you two. You can step aside, Ace, she's got her stinging glamour on and is fully prepared to defend herself if Henry should find his control...erratic." Ace slid away at once, and it was then that I realized his lingering in the door was to make sure that Van actually intended for me to enter.
Henry was sitting alone at the wooden table that was now permanently stained with dark pools—his blood. The bare light bulb above the table had been loosened so that it did not shine and the only light in the room was a candle that sat in front of Henry. There was a stack of books on the table, as well as a scattered pile of sheet music. A guitar leaned against the table, and Henry's saxophone sat propped in a chair, but Henry was entirely focused upon the candle flame and took no notice of me when I entered the room.
"Newborn vampires are often distracted by flames," Evander murmured to me. "We can see so much more of the light spectrum than with our former human sight." He stepped in front of me and said, "Henry, as I told you I would, I've brought you some company to relieve your boredom."
Henry looked up. For one second his face was blank, and before I even had time to register his new, chiseled vampire beauty, he simply disappeared. I felt a flicker of confusion, then I heard Van growl, and Henry reappeared three feet in front of me. I jumped, surprised at his sudden reappearance.
He saw the confusion on my face. He blinked away again and reappeared several more feet from me.
"I'm sorry," he said at once, but he wasn't apologizing to me. His eyes were on Evander.
"You have nothing to apologize for, you've done no harm," Evander said much more slowly than his normal speech as if he was trying dial back Henry's speed.
"But I can hear her heart beating faster. I can smell her adrenaline. I scared her," then, Henry, remembering his human manners, focused his attention on me. "I'm sorry, my Lady," he bowed formally to me.
"Oh my god, Van, have you gone medieval on poor Henry? There is no need to fuss and bow," I said, moving toward the table and gesturing for Henry to sit.
"Henry is simply trying to show you the proper respect as the Mistress of his Sept," Evander said mildly. "But it's not necessary to address Celie as such, unless I have called a formal assembly. Furthermore, Ceciliadh doesn't scare quite so easily as all that, Henry. You merely surprised her with your speed. You will begin to notice that all creatures will respond with a small amount of adrenaline to being startled. When you are able to take the stage again, your entire audience will flush with startlement as Celie just did. They will know something is different and dangerous about you, but their human need for normalcy will wash away that initial knowing and they will focus on your music and beauty and not your ferocity."
"You're fast, Henry," I smiled at him, patting the table to invite him again to sit across from me. "Faster than these old bloodbags?"
Ace snorted. Henry was growing increasingly agitated with each passing second. He seemed hyper-aware of the other vampire's mildest gestures, and his eyes cut to Ace as if he was trying to gauge whether Ace's snort indicated some type of disapproval for his display of speed, but Ace only smiled at him. "You're among friends, Henry. It's all right to admit such a gift that has been so obviously demonstrated," Ace assured him. "You're right, Ceciliadh. Whereas Van and Abraham have supernatural traveling abilities, Henry has developed super-speed as a result of his vampirism. He is the swiftest of us all."
"Well, that will probably come in handy, right?" I smiled at the new vampire, but Henry was breathing shallowing and gulping convulsively, now. He put one large hand over his mouth and nose and held his other hand out as if he were warning me off.
"Yes, Ceciliadh's scent is filling the room now, and I quite agree, she smells delicious," Evander said mildly. "But you have been well-fed, Henry. Turn your attention from her blood scent and focus on the sensations of your last meal, warming you, energizing you. We've overfed you once to show you that it is not a pleasant experience. Remind yourself that Celie's blood would only overfeed you, and your desire for it is no more than a child's desire for one too many sweet cakes. Yes?"
Henry nodded, but he kept his hand over his mouth and he held out the index finger of his other hand in the universal gesture indicating that he needed a minute to compose himself.
I eyed Henry as I cast in my mind, reinforcing my glamour. Earlier today, Maeve's new dark power had flowed all over me, like a gothic sunburn. It was useful now in putting some extra punch into my defensive glamour. I didn't know if Henry could sense that I was pushing power into my glamour, but Evander could because he cast me a side-eye and shook his head in warning.
"Go canny, lass," Evander said to me. "Henry is in control of his actions. He will not attack you unless your magic becomes a threat to him. He's just trying to master the newness of scenting pumping blood so that he doesn't fang out, as you like to put it."
"Uhm..." I dialed back my defenses a bit and cast about for something to take the pressure off Henry. It couldn't help that we were all gaping at him as he struggled not to draw fangs and drool venom in response to my scent.
"So these special gifts. Do you have any, Ace?"
He smothered his smile. "A couple, but I fear, as my good-sister, you will never get the demonstration of my most special ability."
Van made a disapproving noise, but I laughed outright. "Tell me another tall tale."
"Alas, I can tell no tales about my abilities," Ace nodded at Evander. "It is forbidden by my Lord's compulsion."
"Alistair's gift is so rare that we do not speak of it, except inside a formal assembly of the Sept," Van explained to me.
"Wait, Ace—do you read minds? Are you reading my mind right now!?!?" I exclaimed.
"Yes," Ace said at once.
"He is not," Evander objected.
Ace squinted his eyes and raised a menacing eyebrow. "But do you know that for sure, Brother? Perhaps it is a gift I have never revealed even to you?"
"You're too much of a gossip to keep the scandalous secrets you would encounter in the minds of others. If you could read people's minds, I would have known that Celie was a traveler from the future long before she revealed it. Moreover, if you could read minds, I fear you not be well pleased with me, at the moment."
Ace gave Henry another casual glance, but Henry was still struggling to master his fangs, so Ace returned his attention to Evander. "Why, brother? What have you done? Did you wreck my car while I've been keeping Henry company?"
"No. I have made an arrangement with Lucy Moreau. She's agreed to relocate to Sanguine Springs for legitimate employment. In addition to working at the resort, one of her duties will be blood donation. She will strictly be a house benefactor. No direct feeding, from any of us. Jesse will collect her blood, and it will be one of our rotating rations."
"What? Absolutely not. She's my favorite whore!" Ace exclaimed. He pronounced the word in an old-fashioned way, like whoor.
"Not anymore. She's leaving that profession behind in France to become a respectable hospitality employee here at the resort, helping Minnie with her duties. She'll be compensated for both her work and her blood."
I laughed, thinking that Van was just messing with Ace, but when Van smiled at me and said, "Good, I'm glad to see you are welcoming of our new benefactor and her sordid past," my laugh faded.
"Wait...you're serious? You've hired a prostitute you're fond of sleeping with to be your new blood donor?"
Van made an impatient dismissive gesture with his hand. "No, I mean...yes, she has been a blood brothel worker. She has never been my especial interest for anything but her blood. She's not really my type in bed, but her taste reminds me of an old-fashioned pudding," Evander grinned broadly, clearly expecting an explosion.
Which he got, but not from me. My response—which obviously was going to be that it sounded like he'd at least tried her out in bed in order to be able to determine that she wasn't his type— was cut off by Ace pulling apart his suspenders in irritation as he yelled, "Because she was my especial interest!!!" He looked at the scraps of suspenders he held in his hands, threw them down in disgust, cinched his baggy pants up higher on his hips and stabbed an aggressive finger at Van. "Goddamn you, Evander! You've stolen my best weekend excursions away from me! On purpose!"
"Not on purpose, no. I contacted Madame LeClerc about a possible temporary benefactor from her employee pool and Lucy jumped at the idea of a more permanent arrangement. Lucy contacted me," Van countered. "It's a good exchange, Ace. She's trained her body to feed vampires. She knows how to eat, how to drink, how to care for herself. She's an exceptionally prolific blood maker. She can donate twice weekly without harm. Moreover, she wishes to make a respectable life for herself, and I wish to give her a fresh start."
"Why didn't she ask me for help?" Ace wiped a hand over the creases in his brow in such a weary way that it was obvious that the question was rhetorical, at least to him. "Fuck. Lucy," he complained bitterly as if the woman stood before him. He rounded on Evander and jabbed the finger at him again. "I know what you are doing. It won't work."
"I'm merely solving the problem of our blood needs and helping a worthy young woman out of a complicated situation she wishes to leave. If you have...issues with Miss Moreau, well then. You shall have an opportunity to resolve them." Evander had a strange smile on his face.
"The only complication is your deluded, wrong-minded beliefs regarding my issues with Miss Moreau," Ace growled. "You're a romantic fool for bringing her here, Evander."
"All men in love are romantic fools," Evander agreed winking at me. "Isn't that so, Henry?"
It was then that I realized what Evander had been doing. His attention had never truly been off Henry—not for one second. But he'd created this little byplay with Ace in order to take the pressure off Henry interacting with me until he got used to my presence and the scent of my blood. Possibly he'd even hoped to distract Henry with the scene as well. Apparently, Evander's plan had worked. Henry had relaxed. He had stopped breathing, but his arms looked loose at his sides and his fangs were tucked away.
"I guess all women in love are romantic fools, too. Because it's a damn foolish thing Minnie is planning to do. To wait for me to be fit for her," he explained. He moved too quickly to the table and pulled a stack of tied letters that had been couched between two books. "She writes me morning, noon, and night. Tells me everything I'm missing during the day and in the club, too."
"I know," I smiled. "You'll be back out there, soon."
Henry gave his head a terse shake. "No, I won't. I'm...I'm going away. With Abraham. To France. I won't be coming back. Not in Minnie's lifetime."
"What?!?!?" I exclaimed.
Ace sighed wearily. "Henry, we've been over this—"
"Yes, we've been over it, and Evander agrees, it's better for Minnie—"
"What!?!?!" I rounded on Evander.
He put up his hands in defense. "I never said I agreed it was better, I said I would not force him to remain here if his wish is to leave Minnie to a normal human life."
I turned to Henry. "Well, that's not going to happen, Henry. Minnie is mortal, but she is not human. Minnie is a witch. A black witch, at that. She's certainly never going to have a normal human life. But she can have a wonderful supernatural life with you."
He shook her head. "She never wanted to be a witch. Ever. She took that medicine Maeve gave her since we were kids. She can go back to taking it. She can find a nice, normal, human man. She can have the life, the family—the babies that she wants—"
"Oh, hell. It's about that? Children?" I rolled my eyes. "You vampires have a real hang-up about not being able to father children, don't you?"
Ace raised his eyebrows and gave an ambivalent grimace indicating Darrow eased the concern for him. Evander sighed and shrugged. "It's a sacrifice some find harder to accept than others. Henry feels strongly that Minnie will resent his inability to give her children."
"She won't."
"She will," Henry insists. "She's thirty years old and for the last two years, she's been clamoring for a baby. She's been pushing for... for..." he gave a wary glance to Evander. "She's been trying to get me to get her in a family way. She thought if that happened, her family would have no choice but to accept us. I wouldn't, I didn't—I swear, I told her that wasn't the way we should go about things—" he added quickly more to Evander than anyone else. "I told her if she wanted that...us...a family, we would go about it respectably. We had a plan. We were going to go to France this summer to be married. Interracial marriage is legal there, and jazz is blowing up like crazy in Paris. I could have found good work. I was going to marry her and give her the life she wanted. But now, I can't do that, so I have to go on alone."
"You really don't."
"I really do," he insisted. "I love her too much to ruin her life. This was the test to make sure I could safely travel away with Abraham to the French countryside. He has a house there, but he has a housekeeper, and I had to make sure I could be around her. But now that I know I can resist the scent of your blood, I'll be leaving within the week."
"You're not going anywhere until you talk to Minnie about this," I warned Henry. "You put an engagement ring on her finger. You made promises to her. You're not running out on that."
"The man that made those promises is dead," Evander said softly.
"Bullshit," I snarled at him. "Did you leave me and Tavish when you were made? No, you did not."
Evander shook his head. "Entirely different circumstances. I chose vampirism precisely so that I could protect you."
"He chose it so that he could stay here, on this earth, with Minnie!" I shouted.
"I chose it because I could not force her to watch me die. But I will not chain her to my undead existence. In time, she'll be grateful—"
"Oh for god's sake!" I threw up my hands. "Minnie is not going to resent you for not giving her a child because she's already pregnant!"
"What?" Three voices chimed in unison.
"Minnie.Is.Pregnant." I repeated smugly.
Henry blinked, he looked at Evander nervously. "That's not possible."
"Oh really?" I challenged, crossing my arms over my chest and giving him a knowing stare.
Henry stared back, saying nothing, but Ace said, "Nice try, but you're bluffing, lass. We would know if she were pregnant. We would hear the baby's heartbeat in her womb."
"All five of you vampires have been holed up with Henry and not paying a bit of attention to Minnie's womb. Minnie has suspected for weeks. That's one reason I took her to Mystic Mountain today. To get the supplies for the potion to test her urine for pregnancy hormones. In my time, the potion for a pregnancy test is well-known by witches around the world. Nearly every witch can make it to the same accuracy level as the medical test you get from a pharmacist. I helped Maeve whip up the potion myself. She made it just as I had been taught by my father in modern times. And when we tested Minnie's urine, the potion turned positive right away. She's definitely pregnant."
"Well, damn," Ace said blankly.
"Pregnant," Henry murmured. "No. No, no, no..." Henry grasped at his heart, took a deep breath, and fanged out. Immediately Evander stepped in front of me, but Henry hadn't moved toward me. Instead, he was zipping to and fro across the room, in a comical, super-speed version of nervous pacing.
Then he stopped, and turned to me. "I just don't understand," he said.
"Boyo, if you're that clueless, she can't have been enjoying it—" Ace began with a grin.
"Shut-up, Ace," Evander growled. "You said you could leave my granddaughter without such complications, Henry Dukes. You said you hadn't touched her—"
"No, I never said that," Henry objected. "I said, there was no possible way that Minnie could have what she wants from me—children. Then you asked me if there was any possibility that she might already be with child, and I said no."
"You swore to me you could walk away, Henry. That's the only reason I gave you permission to renege on your engagement—"
"It was only the one time!" Henry exclaimed. "The night I asked her to marry me! We used...a..." he broke off, looked at me, couldn't bring himself to say the actual word for whatever kind of birth control they used and instead, blurted, "an intervention. I made sure we...used it properly. She can't be—"
"She is," I insisted. "She's carrying your child, Henry."
"You must have used an intervention with a hole in it!" Ace laughed. He moved to Henry and took him carefully by the shoulders. "Henry! Henry, you're going to be a father. That's aces, old sport!"
Blood pooled in Henry's eyes. "No, it's not. I can't be around a newborn baby. I'm a fucking vampire! All I can think about is drinking people's blood!" He grabbed Ace in his distress, accidentally tearing Ace's shirt.
Ace laughed hysterically at his tattered shirt, and shoved Henry to the wall, cracking plaster. "Get a grip on yourself, man! It's ages before the baby comes, you'll most likely be able to be around him. Maybe. In small increments," Ace turned to Evander. "Van, they can't go to France now. They'll need loads of help, just like Liadh did after you were made."
"Aye, but the resort is no place to raise a child," Van objected.
"No," Ace agreed. "We'll build them a cabin."
"Two. One for Minnie and the child, one for Henry. He won't be able to torpor safely with a wee lad or lassie tearing about his resting place—"
"I want to marry her," Henry cut in, his even more chiseled jaw squaring beautifully in determination. "As soon as I'm able."
"You can't marry her, it's illegal. Even if you could get a clergyman to perform the ceremony, the authorities will draw up an arrest warrant the day after the license is filed."
"They can try to arrest me. I'm a vampire-"
"They'll arrest her, you wee eejit. I'll not have my pregnant granddaughter rotting in jail because of your pride."
"I'm going to marry her. My mother will have a stroke if our child is borne illegitimate."
"You can have a pagan ceremony, then," Evander suggested. "A hand-fasting, like in olden times. Even now, the Mystic Mountain witches never marry legally, they only care about their coven rites. And Minnie is a witch after all, and you are a vampire. We'll have a Sept Assembly and fashion some kind of big to-do for you. I'm sure Celie will help. Perhaps Maeve, too—she's family after all."
"Do you think Henry's ma is going to appreciate a pagan wedding, do ya?" Ace asked, a laugh vibrating his query.
"Well, I imagine what she'll mostly care about is the child's birth certificate bearing Henry's name. I'm sure Jesse will handle that, won't he? Hey, Celie, where are you going?" Van called after me.
"Well, since you three vampires seem to be planning her life, I think Minnie should be here!" I shouted over my shoulder.
###
"You did what!?!?" Minnie's shriek echoed out across the busy lobby, and approximately sixty-five pairs of wealthy, jaded eyes turned to us in interest.
Oh hell, it was a bit early to be giving grist to the gossip mill. "Just...lost a piece of luggage..." I improvised. "No one's important! Certainly none of yours," I beamed across the room of Vanderbilts, Rockerfellers, Morgans, and Fords. "Carry on!"
I tucked my arm in Minnie's and hurried her to the elevator. She said nothing in the car, swaying unsteadily and looking as if she might upchuck while the attendant ferried us down to the basement level. Once we entered into the utility closet with the false back that led to the bootleg tunnel, Minnie grabbed me by the arm and hissed. "Why would you do that? Tell Henry and Evander and Ace that I'm pregnant? It was supposed to be a secret!"
"How long do you think you can keep a pregnancy secret in a place where everyone,drinks like a fish and smokes like a factory and you suddenly stop, and start getting sick at the smell of gin?" I asked skeptically.
To be honest, I thought she had raised Tracker and Trotter's suspicions today.
"I don't know!" she wailed. "But Henry has enough to deal with! The very last thing he needs to worry about is...is..." she exhaled and slumped, putting both her hands protectively on her lower belly as she looked down at her flat stomach. "Is the baby."
Her words were so dramatic and tender, I was sure that it was the first time she had claimed her child outloud. I smiled. There was no doubt in my mind that Minnie was going to be a fierce and loving mother. And no matter how much or how little Henry could be involved with the baby while he learned to vampire, I knew that he would love their child, even if it required loving him from a safe distance at times.
"Minnie. I had to tell him. He was talking crazy. He had everything twisted in his mind. He was setting up to leave because he thought you'd be better off with a mortal man who could give you children than a newborn, infertile vampire with thirst struggles."
"Leave?" she snapped. "He was setting up to leave me!?!?"
"Well, not now, obviously—"
Minnie was no longer listening to me. She was striding down the secret tunnel, her pumps striking hard and determined on the stone. By the light of bare bulbs, I could see her aura spinning with angry red sparks, like one of those fireworks that twirls and hisses on the ground.
Shit. I forgot for a minute that Minnie had a serious dark side now.
"Min, hold up!"
But she was already blasting the locked door of the bootleg cave apart with magic.
"Hey, that was good work, but let's not attack an unstable newborn vampire..."
I stopped talking. She wasn't listening to me, she was advancing on Henry, who sat at the table, his head bowed, his hands clasped together almost like he was praying. Ace moved to intervene, and Minnie slapped him with one helluva hex.
"Ow," he complained. "Van, she hexed me! Dammit, I wish I had those cufflinks Celie made!"
She threw a hex at Van, too, when he stepped between her and the table where Henry sat, but I was prepared now and I blocked it. He took her by both arms.
"Calm yourself, lassie."
"Get out of my way, Evander. I have a thing to say to my fiancé!"
"You'll say it calmly, or you'll be saying it to the wall in the dark room where I take you and leave you locked in until you calm down."
Evander looked like a dashing young man in his mid-twenties, but when he spoke to any of the Livingstones with that stern tone, they all saw the grandfather, the patriarch. Minnie did indeed calm down, taking a few gulping breaths and blinking away tears before he let her go. Then he pulled out the chair opposite Henry and invited her to sit down. Henry stared at her with a somewhat stony expression, because either he had decided, or Van had compelled him, not to breathe. And when a vampire stopped breathing, their heart stopped beating, and their borrowed blood started congealing, and they were more like a movable statue than a living human being.
That's is exactly what Henry looked like—a beautiful, fixed statue. Only the whites of his eyes betrayed movement. His pupils were vibrating tightly as he took in every tiny detail of Minnie's appearance.
"Good God, girl. I never saw how truly beautiful you were with my human eyes," was the very first thing the vampire Henry ever said to her.
I nearly swooned for her, but Minnie was too pissed to be impressed by his romantic opening.
"Screw you, Henry Dukes. Do you think you can just decide to leave me because you're a vampire and that's a little bit tricky for you? Do you think you get to run off somewhere feeling sorry for yourself because you think your body has no life except for the spark in the blood you have to drink?"
"I love you, Min," Henry said softly. "I love you enough to do what's best for you, no matter what I want. It's always been like that. You know that. I loved you when you weren't sure whether you loved me or Daniel. I loved you enough to step back and make it easy for you to choose the man that could give you the best life. It just seemed like...maybe it was time to do that again. Let you choose an easier road than the one I'm walking."
"God, you're so infuriating, Henry. I killed a man to save you. I'm a black witch now. You crave blood? Well, I crave death. You're crazy if you think some kindler, gentler man is what I need. I need you, Vampire. I've spent all of my adult life waiting for you to realize that what's best for me is you and what's best for you is me. We make each other happy. We will still make each other happy—in the night, beneath the blood moon."
He hadn't reacted with any surprise to her confessions about her dark side. "Celie says we've made more than just happiness, though. Is it true? You truly think you're...you're in a family way?"
Minnie stood up and walked around the table. Everyone in the room tensed, except for her and Henry. Henry wasn't breathing, wasn't scenting her. He cocked his head in a strange disconnected way as she got closer to him, and his eyes fixed on her flat belly. She reached for his head as if he weren't an entirely unstable newborn killer. He let her pull his ear to her stomach. His hands went slowly to her hips, and he closed his eyes.
"I can hear him," he whispered. "A tiny heartbeat. So fast. Like sparrow's wings."
"Her," Minnie said. "It's a her. She's a witch. I can feel her power sparking to life."
Oh, hell. A powerful witch, if that was the case. Maeve had told me earlier today that a witch could be sensed in the womb by her witch mother. "Usually around the time of the quickening," she had said. "I felt your father's power just hours before I felt him moving inside me the first time. I knew then what he was. Male, witch, fae. Rare, and so powerful."
I blinked, and Henry was no longer sitting. He was standing. Minnie looked confused by the switch, too.
"I'm sorry," he told her. "I just wanted to hug you, let you know how happy I am about the baby."
He had said he wanted to hug her, but he didn't make any move to do so. He was uncertain, out of place in his own skin.
"Are you happy?" she searched his face.
"I'm shocked. I'm worried. But yes, I'm also happy. Are you happy?" he asked.
"I was, until I heard you were leaving me."
"I'm not leaving you."
"Because of the baby? Only because of the baby?"
"Don't even pretend to think that, Min. You know that I have always been in love with you. I'm not staying because of the baby. I thought about leaving because I knew you wanted a baby, and I thought I could never give you that now. Except it turns out, I already had. I'm glad, Minnie. I'm not a bit sorry for loving you that night."
"It was wonderful. I'm not sorry, either. I'm only sorry that it might be a while until we can be together again." She reached a hand up to his firm face. She pressed experimentally on his cheek.
"You're so changed. So firm. So cool. You used to be so warm."
"I know. You feel hot, and your hand was always cooler than mine when I held it."
She smiled and took both his hands in hers, chafing them.
"How's the bloodthirst?" She said it so casually as she slid her hands over his, the way someone might say, "How's the sprained ankle?" Then again, she had been raised amongst a Sept of vampires.
He gave a shrug. "Pretty bad. Then again, not as bad as I expected. It's all I can think about for most of the night, and that wears on me, but it's also not as violently urgent as I thought it would be. They say it's because they are keeping me well-nourished, and I haven't actually thirsted yet.
"Is it hard to be around me? My blood, I mean?"
"I'm not breathing right now, so...no. Not really. But if I don't breathe, I don't...connect the same, in the brain. I don't feel like me, really. So it's a trade-off."
"I don't feel like me, either," she said, bowing her head over his hands. "I'm so dark now," she confessed in a whisper. "I can tell when people are nearing death. Their dying...calls to me. It wants me to hasten it. I have to kill chickens and rabbits so I don't walk into my dad's office downtown and stab some dying octogenarian just to feed on their death."
Henry whistled, slow and ironical. "Well, aren't we going to be fine parents? A bloodsucker and a death eater."
Minnie giggled. She put a hand over her mouth, but she laughed again. Then it turned into sobs. Henry, still expressionless, took extreme care with his movements, but he took her in his arms. Ace tensed, moved slightly, but Van warned him off with an imperceptible shake of the head. Henry closed his eyes, took a slow, measured breath, and then swallowed convulsively.
But the swallow wasn't only filled with bloodthirst. It was easy to see it was a swallow of longing, heart sorrow, and love.
But he only risked the one breath, the one heartbeat, the one brief second of feeling all the feelings he felt for her. Then he exhaled and did not breathe again.
"We'll figure it out, Min. I might be monstrous now, and you might be, too, but I love you. I have always loved you. Our daughter was made from that love. Maybe she was made to be our light, our guide through this darkness."
Minnie nodded against his chest. "You're right, Henry. You're so wise. I'll think of her just like that. Our little light, growing ever brighter. We'll never be truly dark, because she is all the light we used to be, and she'll be with us soon to remind us who we are."
Henry nodded and bent closer to Minnie, curling his large frame down around her smaller one. He brushed his nose against her hair. His face relaxed. He turned his face into her neck by instinct.
He forgot not to breathe.
His eyes flew open in a glittering rapture as he fanged out. Van and Ace moved together, but they grasped at air in their attempt to restrain him, because Henry was faster than them both, and he had already put himself across the room from Minnie.
Minnie stood between the vampires, her arms empty where Henry had been just a moment before. She was confused for just a second, then she located Henry across the room, backed against the wall. Ace and Evander quickly rearranged—Ace between Henry and Minnie, Evander between Henry and me.
Henry had both hands over his eyes mouth, and his words were muffled. "I'm sorry, Min. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to...I just...lost it for a second..."
"It's okay," she said mildly. "You got it back. You're in control."
Henry was on the verge of nodding his agreement, but just at that moment, four neat red slices on each of Minnie's upper arms welled with blood. Henry had sliced her with his fingernails as he moved away from her at supersonic speed. The cuts were no thicker than papercuts, and I couldn't smell the blood but it was evident that all the vampires smelled it at the same instant. Henry and Ace both surged at once—Henry involuntarily leaping toward Minnie and Ace headbutting him, barreling him over. Evander moved so fast I felt wind swoosh by me as he pushed Minnie from the room.
I stood stock-still for just a moment as Henry and Ace tumbled on the ground but then Van's panther-like roar set me in motion. I'd never noticed that his roars had different meanings, but this one was very clear to me. It was a mating roar. I was his mate, and he was commanding me to him. I rushed toward the door even as he met me there, grabbing me by the hand and pulling me and Minnie into the shadows.