Katya'sPOV
I was on my way out of my room when my path was blocked by my cousin. "Zoya!" I teased. She was a St Vlad's Senior and I was St Vlad's Sophomore, though sometimes it felt like I was the senior.
"Katya!" She laughed back before pulling me into a hug. If you didn't know better you would say we were sisters. Thanks to the Belikov gene I looked like my father. Height included. I was lucky to get my mother's curls and curves.
"Cuz- it's only been a day!" We were on the annual Christmas Ski-Trip and I'd been in training all day. Thank you Mom! Thank you Dad!
"Your parents are kill-joys."
"Watch it Zo," I warned, "they're your uncle and aunt too. The only reason you're out here and allowed to become a full-fledged guardian." We'd basically adopted her when she was eight, she had her heart set on becoming a guardian like Mom. She loved my parents so much she actually called them 'Mom' and 'Dad' frequently, and Aunt Karo didn't mind- she was still 'Mama' to Zo. "And they're not that bad. It's just this time of year."
The crappy begging of their relationship, Mase Ashford's death and Mom's first kills all rotate around Christmas and it takes it's toll. On the two of them, as well as my two little brothers and three little sisters, as well as me.
"Yeah. It is. And it's understandable. I wouldn't be ready to go through all that at this age. Sorry Kat."
"All good Zo. Now, where are we heading?"
"Dinner!"
"With?"
"Ivashkov-Sage and Dragomir-Ozera."
"The parents or the kids?"
"Both."
"And badass Belikov's?"
"Off duty, so Mom and Dad will be there."
Ew! Off duty around Christmas always translates into extreme lovey dovey. And another sibling more often than not. How they hid that passion and love when Mom was still in school I'll never know. I knew the story- from everyone's side (bar Tasha's, naturally)- but it was still glaringly obvious they were made for each other. "Ew! You know what that usually translates to."
"Which is worse? On duty and unapproachable, or off duty and likely ending up with another baby in the family?"
"Immediately? On duty. Long term? Another baby. Nine months of a mother from hell, followed by a permanent addition to the badass Belikov bunch." Okay. That's not totally fair. Dad keeps an overly-hormonal Mom in check, and both love us to bits. And, unlike her mother and father when she was our age, she's around for all of us- as is Dad. They shouldn't be able to have children so they treasure and spoil us.
"You know you actually like having a big family Kat. You know you're meant to be impossible and that each extra baby makes the Strigoi scared."
"Hmm. Zo. Do you always have to be right?!" I teased.
"Yes. Because you're too tough on Mom and Dad."
The Strigoi quaked every time the word of another Rose and Dimitri Belikov offspring spread. Both of my parents had personal enemies in the ranks, as a result of their past involvement and of their hunting. Dad still hadn't 'dealt with' 'destroying' his past contacts and their contacts. Each year, around Mom's birthday, they went hunting. It still worried me, they were the best out there and both had 'immunity' against being turned but that wasn't what worried me. It was their mental states. They looked after each other's but I had to wonder just how tough it was on them to go after those who wanted them dead, wanted their children dead.
That being said, we were wanted dead but we couldn't be killed or turned. We were born with 'anti-Strigoi' defences. Dad's 'immunity' had been passed down, alongside the combination of a restored Strigoi dad and twice-back-from-the-dead mom, meant we came out as 'enhanced dhampir'. (Thank you Spirit.) Where our speed, strength, and agility were genetically on-par a Strigoi, and our skin was impenetrable. We had magic in all five elements- though Spirit's darkness didn't touch us- and used it offensively and defensively.
Our existence created preservation issues for the Strigoi. Simply because we could kill but, from the moment we were born, couldn't be killed or turned. We were an asset and weapon for the Moroi and dhampir society; one in the guise of a family.
"You're right Zo. I am too tough on them." I commented as I walked into the dining hall.
"Too tough on who Katya?" Mom asked from behind me. I spun to face her and smiled.
"You and Dad." I replied.
"Did you mention me, Katy?" My dad came up and wrapped his arms around Mom's waist. And the look on their faces told me that I was going to be getting another brother or sister.
"Dad!" I groaned. I hated 'Katy' in the same manner Mom hated 'Rosie'. "Yes. I did mention you."
"Now why would you do that?"
"Because I was saying I'm too tough on you two. I love you to bits but this," I gestured to their entanglement, "and it's results, always makes me feel grossed out."
"Kat," they sighed in unison.
"Exactly what I mean." I chuckled half-heartedly.
"She has a point comrade," another baby would result from this night, "I couldn't stand watching Mom and Abe reignite that relationship. And we've subjected her to this her whole life."
"Do you always have to make sense milaya?" Dad pulled Mom into a kiss and I left to find my other friends. My parents were beyond the most lethal guardians, in battle and on duty they were stoic, but off duty they forgot a world existed. It was sickening.
"Hey sis!" My brothers and sisters ran up and tackled me into a group hug. All of them looked like me. There was:
Dominik who was thirteen and my hight (5' 11) and still shooting up,
Danya who was twelve and was struggling to reach Mom's 5' 7 height,
Nine year old and five-nothing Amaliya,
Seven year old and 4' 7 Marisha and,
The cutest of us at three years old and barely talking Evelina.
"Hey guys! Lemme out so I can hug each of you on your own."
RPOV
"Oh Dimitri, look at them. We've done a good job." I sighed and leaned back into my husband's chest. "Katy whinges occasionally but loves the others to bits. They're a solid support system and family. And Zo slots right in too." I was watching my children play together before dinner. My niece was in the mix and included just as if she was one of my children.
"Yeah. We did. And Zo does slot right in. I love you Roza." Dimitri shifted my hair and top, causing a shiver of anticipation to run through me. I knew what he was about to do, and it was a risky move to make in public.
"I love you too," just barely escaped my lips before I moaned. My husband was tracing my body and kissing my marks. "We're in public, remember." I just barely breathed out, once I remembered how to breathe, before another kiss and teasing touch sent me into the world that was us- and us alone.
A month later we were back at Court and I was spending the morning sick. With, no surprise here, morning sickness. Dimitri was with me, rubbing soothing circles into my back and holding up my hair.
"This year's hunt's cancelled then, huh?" My husband chuckled.
"Because you've got a pregnant-yet-again wife to protect." I retorted.
"Baby number seven. We've got more than Liss and Chris." I could hear the grin, and pride.
"That's kinda funny. We're not supposed to be able to have kids yet we multiply faster than our charges," I chuckled. "I love our family Dimitri. I truly do. As odd as others see it, I love our unique kids."
"Hmm. Their not that unique. The Ivashkov-Sage's are similar."
"They aren't that similar. They don't make the Strigoi quake because they're untouchable."
"Touché. I love you Roza. Really. Always have and always will."
"Mmm. I love you more."
"I'm not going to argue that. Not after six, now up to seven, kids and everything else."
"You referring to our star-crossed start?" I teased playfully.
"Maybe."
"I miss those days Dimitri."
"What? Me hurting you? Being illegal? Sneaking moments? The darkness? The ghosts? Building resentment towards Liss?"
"I still see the ghosts, silly! It's just in a much safer sense. I mean the privacy. I miss the privacy provided by having to sneak to avoid suspicion."
KPOV
"Mom? What's up?" I answered my phone.
"What would you prefer this time baby, brother or sister?"
"Oh, no. Mom! Really? A seventh?" It was a month after the ski trip so she'd probably only just found out herself.
"Yes Kat. Deal with it!" She teasingly chastised.
"A brother. As unlikely as it is, I want a baby brother. So, no hunt this year then?"
"That's what your father said." Her answer sent me into a fit of giggles.
"You hate that, don't you? That I'm so much like Dad."
"Nope. I find it amazing that my recklessness gene got over powered by his logic genes."
"I'm not that much like him!" I retorted.
"Your just enough like him. How's school? Any boys yet? Or men?"
"Mom!" I snapped at her sarcastically. "I'm not like you. I'm not going to fall for my mentor. I'm certainly more like Dad in the department of relationships, never going to be in one- duty first." That caused Mom to laugh hysterically.
"And yet, he's ended up with me for a wife. And a massive family."
"I love you Mom. And Dad. And all my supposed-to-be-impossible siblings. Including the one you've just found out about."
"We really are an army in the making, aren't we? Once you're all trained the Strigoi won't know what hit them. If they thought you lot simply existing as you do created preservation issues, all of you trained in both physical combat and combatant magic and in the field they'll be quaking at the thought of being wiped out by one family. I love you guys too. Why do you think there's so many of you?" That last bit caused me to laugh.
"Because you and Dad can't keep your hands off each other. We are never planned, never tried for."
Mom sighed, "actually... After your dad and I found out you'd been conceived we sat down discussed it. How many, how many years apart, that sort of thing. You're really the only truly unexpected one. Each extra is a nice surprise. Well, the hormones and morning sickness aren't nice, but you're all worth it."
DPOV
"Mama?" I asked when she answered the phone.
"Hey Dimka. What's going on? Is this another announcement call?"
"Yes Mama! Number seven is on his or her way."
"Good god. And you're the child of mine who swore to never fall in love yet, if you include Zoya, you now have eight children and a wife of sixteen years. Congratulations to both of you. Do you think you'll get an eighth impossible." I thought about it.
"It all depends Mama. We're happy to have a seventh coming. And we're not supposed to be able to have any. We haven't put a limit on the number of because each shouldn't be possible." I sighed over the next part, "and they're a valuable asset, a weapon. I hate thinking of my children that way though. Just as Lissa and Christian hate thinking of each extra child they have rebuilds an exultant royal line. Both Rose and I, alongside Lissa and Christian, frequently feel our children belong more to society than to us."