by Myln Hurn
“This is Windy!”
“Yes, indeed. Short for windbag. Good morning, my darlings!” Lamenta swept into the room behind Tatiana and Hunter. “How is my favorite three-year-old?”
Blue grinned up at Lamenta. Today Lamenta had pink hair. “I’m good, Auntie Lam! Is today the day?”
“No, darling. Not much longer and then we will be having the grandest party you’ve ever seen.” She turned and smiled at Tatiana. Her gaze lowered to the paper cup in Tatiana’s hand, which held her leftover soda from breakfast. “Iain will have a fit when they get back. I just hope I can be there to see it.” Her gaze shifted to Hunter.
“Good Lord! Hunter Blue, as I live and breathe! Fauster doesn’t know you are here yet, does he? If he does and didn’t tell me…I think I’ll skin him alive!”
Hunter smiled slowly. “No, Lamenta, he doesn’t know I’ve come back yet.”
The fifty-something woman clapped her hands together. Blue quickly joined in, even though it was doubtful she knew why she was applauding. Lamenta put her hands down for Blue to grab and then danced the little girl around the room. Almost immediately mayhem erupted. The puppies decided food could wait with all the excitement going on. Yipping dogs joined in on the dance, making walking hazardous.
A few moments later, two cats walked into the room. Seeing the confusion, both unusually large felines pranced into the fray. Meows and barks meshed with Blue’s giggles and Lamenta’s hearty laughter. Hunter decided quickly that anything that lived with Lamenta must think that confusion and mayhem must be magnified exponentially. He was close to covering his ears with his hands when a couple of birds appeared. Where they came from could have been anyone’s guess.
One of the birds was a white parrot. He couldn’t remember the type, if he’d ever known it, but it was like the one on a television cop show he had watched. This one seemed to enjoy flapping its wings and squawking. The second bird was smaller and it flew to Tatiana’s shoulder and began talking.
“Party! Party!”
Tatiana reached up and rubbed the bird’s chest with her fingers. “Yes, Oef. It’s a party.”
Hunter shook his head and reached out to take Tatiana’s elbow in his hand. “The bird is called ‘ooh-hef’?”
Lamenta stopped dancing and picked Blue up. She came over to Hunter, ignoring the remaining celebrators. “She means capitol ‘O’ and capitol ‘F.’ I got the mynah from Fauster so I named it after him. Let’s all go out to my living room and have tea.”
Hunter looked at Tatiana, lifting his eyebrow in silent query. Tatiana smiled and shrugged. “Old Fart. But around Blue we use the initials. Tea should be fun. Lamenta seems to be in a really good mood today.”
Hunter stood in the nearly deserted room for a moment, savoring the silence. Now he understood about Tatiana’s questioning his coming over here. He turned to go when he saw the fluffy mother dog looking up at him with a sad look in her eyes. Squatting down, he rubbed her soft furry head for a few seconds.
“How do you stand this insanity?” he murmured quietly. A moment later the dog blinked slowly and he was sure its expression changed to a smile. Shaking his head, he gave the dog a last rub and then stood. “Sure, you get used to it.” He turned and walked out before he felt the need to consider why he was talking to a dog.
Chapter 9
Hunter stayed for one cup of tea before he retreated. Lamenta’s living room was a large room with pillows. No chairs, no sofas or even a footstool he could sit on. Just lots of different sized pillows in a huge assortment of colors and firmness to sit and lean on. The puppies were joined by their mother and the cats sat down opposite Hunter, proceeding to stare straight at him. It was unnerving, he told Tatiana later that night. For now, when Lamenta announced it was time for class to start and to get their spell books out, he knew he had stayed too long.
He agreed to return in two hours and check to see how much longer they would stay. Sometimes Blue wasn’t in the mood, and even though there were lots of things here to play with, she was still only three and therefore had a limited attention span, no matter what the thrill of the moment was. Ignoring the look in the older woman’s eyes, he left Lamenta’s building and found himself on the street facing Fauster’s home.
Just standing there and looking at the building evoked a wealth of emotions inside him. He had sworn to never return, but he should have known that words spoken in anger and pain are often regretted. Certainly there were things he had said to Fauster that he had regretted over the years. As time passed and he learned to live with the changes in his body and his life, he had begun to appreciate that life on this side of the street. Being the hunted vampire, not the demon-hunter, could really change your perspective about things. So many times he had considered just catching the next flight and returning here to talk it all over, calmly and rationally this time, with—
God! His own brain still stumbled over the truth. Fauster Blue had lived a lie for all of Hunter’s life. The old vampire had given his child—his son—over to a man who believed he was Fauster’s brother. Hunter was brought up by two people he called parents, and instead they were some very distant relatives of Fauster’s. His parents had never given him any reason to doubt their love for him as their flesh-and-blood son. When AnnaBelle had come along, they had become a family of four, instead of three.
Thinking about it now, Hunter realized that most of his anger came from what he believed he had lost upon conversion. If only he had been less headstrong, he would have seen that his parents still loved him. They had been aware of Fauster’s plans all along, having been as much a pawn as he. Fauster admitted they were unaware of the planned breeding between the two of them. And AnnaBelle, the one person he would have given his life for, would never turn her back on him. She loved him and had tried to continue to see him even when he ran away.
After her visit to Oz nearly four years ago, they had stayed in very close contact. Hunter knew that he would ultimately reveal everything he knew about Fauster to her, but at this point he knew she was protected by what she knew now and by Iain.
Granted, his only contact with his brother-in-law so far had been through phone calls and video conferencing, but they had a common shared goal. They both loved AnnaBelle, if not in the same way, and would give their life to protect her and her child.
It was funny, Hunter thought ruefully, shaking his head. Blue was so much like AnnaBelle in some ways it was almost freaky. And in others, he saw traits that belonged to her father. If Fauster had had his way, Blue would have been Hunter’s child. His entire mind and body rebelled at the idea once again. It would be very easy to love Blue as much as he had AnnaBelle. But now, the rebellion within him was a combination of the old reasons, and currently there was a new element. It was his desire and his growing need for Tatiana. The strength of the need was definitely increasing each time he saw her, even if they didn’t make love.
God! He had thought he would never feel this strong an emotion for a woman other than his sister. But this time the love he felt was sexual, with the caring and protecting elements, but even more; when he was inside Tatiana, he felt as if he had come home. There was such a sense of peace that it was uncanny. Of course, there was passion, fire and demand, too. Buried deeply within Tatiana’s body, he experienced something he’d never known during sex with other women before. It went beyond the calm and peacefulness. It flamed higher than the passion and desire. He wanted to mark her as his woman, his mate. His need was to procreate, but it could only be with one woman! Only Tatiana should bring his child into the world.
It was almost too easy to imagine Tatiana’s small body changing with pregnancy. Her breasts would become heavier as they readied to nurse her child. How would her nipples change, he wondered? And what would they be like with the baby sucking them all the time? Would her breasts be too sensitive to be touched, even in the lightest of caresses? Her belly would slowly round while her waistline thickened. It was arousing thinking about his hands caressing her
burgeoning belly. Would her pussy change on the outside before the birth, and what about after? Somehow he knew as sure as he trusted his love for his sister, that he would still be as strongly attracted to Tatiana after the birth as before.
There was no doubt at that moment, either in his heart or his mind, that he would still desire Tatiana. If her body changed from giving birth and it didn’t return to its previous size or tautness, he was still going to want her. The feelings inside him were not going to be altered by appearance or time. It did seem strange that he was so sure, but the feeling was unshakable. How could he not worship the woman who had given life to his child?
Even as the thought formed in his head, Hunter suddenly wondered why Fauster had deserted the woman who had given birth to Hunter. My God! Why had he never cared before about his birth mother? Was it because he had experienced too much trauma at one time and his heart and mind had shut down on learning anything? It was possible he would have stayed in his safe cocoon if AnnaBelle had not visited him. Because of her visit he had finally started dealing with his anger and pain at having his life jerked around by a man he had thought cared about him.
To discover that the man should have loved him enough to protect him above all things had made working through the pain even more difficult. Another would turn to his loved ones for support and understanding, but his “parents” were seen as being part of Fauster’s plan from the beginning. AnnaBelle had been in the dark until she visited him. Talking with her over the last several years had helped him heal and grow. The question now was whether or not he was ready to face his father, his betrayer and his nemesis. Did he need to confront Fauster for his healing to be complete?
He abruptly turned and walked to his car. Unlocking the door, he reached under the seat and pulled a small package out. Grabbing his safari-style vest off the back seat, he donned it and stuffed the packet into an inner pocket. Before he could change his mind he walked across the street and into Fauster’s building. Smiling because the door was unlocked, not that that would have kept him out, he started for the second floor. At this time of day, Fauster would most likely be in his laboratory—working on God knew what!
* * * * *
Tatiana turned slowly from the window overlooking the street below. She had been sure Hunter was going to drive away. She was undecided on what she thought would be the better route for him to take right now. There was a chance that he was strong enough to handle a face-to-face encounter with Fauster, but now she felt like she had a personal stake in just how well a meeting with the old vampire went. It was hard to believe that she was feeling so deeply about him so soon. If Fauster found out, he would have more than a tizzy fit. Of that she was one hundred percent certain!
“You owe me one spell, Tatiana,” Lamenta spoke quietly from the far end of the room.
Tatiana shook her head. “How can you be so sure?”
Lamenta smiled, paused to show Blue something and then looked back up. “Well, I could tell you that your body language spoke volumes. Or I could mention that I read your mind—” She stopped as Tatiana put her hands on her hips. They had rules about reading one another’s private thoughts. “Or I could point out the series of mirrors placed about the room, which allows me a lovely view of the street and Fauster’s front door.”
Tatiana’s eyes immediately darted around the room, noting the mirrors. “How long have you had those up?”
“For years, sweetheart. I just don’t let anyone see them. You have now become the third to see the mirrors.”
Tatiana walked over and flopped down onto a pillow near the one Lamenta and Blue were sitting upon. “Okay, you’re one, I’m two and who is the third?”
Lamenta shook her head, pausing to lightly stroke her hand over Blue’s curls. “You were the third, darling. Blue has known about them since she could tell me. She knows it is our secret, though.”
“Are you spying on Fauster? Is he really a dirty old vampire? Is he a tramp vamp?”
Lamenta laughed as she shook her head negatively. “No, to the last two questions, and a reserved yes to the first. Sometimes it is a good idea to know what your man is up to, good and bad. Now, about that spell…”
* * * * *
Fauster was absorbed in soldering something. The protective mask he was wearing and the iron still firing, combined with Fauster’s ability to completely focus on one thing, allowed Hunter to cross the room and turn the soldering iron off at the base.
“What the hell?” Fauster looked at the useless iron and then flipped his mask up.
“Hello, Fauster.”
“Hell’s bells!” Fauster grabbed at his chest and staggered backward slightly.
“It’s interesting seeing you as well. I’m sure you’ll understand if I continue to call you Fauster. It’s been a long time. What are you dabbling with now?”
“Where did you come from? How did you get in here? How long have you been in the city? Are you just now coming to see me? AnnaBelle isn’t here!”
“I came from Lamenta’s, the door was unlocked, I’ve been here a few days and I know she isn’t in town.”
Fauster laid the mask down and removed his gloves, glancing over his shoulder at Hunter. His nervousness was obvious even though it surprised Hunter. “I swear I locked that damned door. So where have you been staying?”
“At AnnaBelle’s, with Blue and her nanny.” Hunter wasn’t sure if downplaying Tatiana would pass by Fauster without comment. “I reckon I’ll hang around until AnnaBelle returns. Since she’ll be short on space, I’m sure Lamenta would offer to put me up.”
Hunter watched as a flush moved up Fauster’s neck. Fauster grunted and started for the elevator. “Come upstairs and I’ll pour us each a drink. I need one, even if you don’t.”
Hunter followed his father silently. Even though vampires didn’t age, Fauster looked older. It seemed strange, but perhaps the years were finally catching up with him. When he thought about it, all the inventions and changes Fauster had brought about had only improved the world—made it safer for humans and vampires. That his life had been a casualty, Fauster probably saw as a fair exchange.
Suddenly he recalled for the first time something Fauster had spoken of in the hours following his conversion. To him at the time, it had sounded like a feeble excuse for manipulating people’s lives. Fauster had talked about a vampire in the future who would strive to restore the old order and vampires would rule the world, keeping humans for food, replacements and slaves. With everything else he had learned following his conversion, his senses had been too bombarded to accept this as truth. It would explain Fauster’s undying passion for finding ways to track and record vampires.
“Bourbon straight suit you?”
Hunter turned his head and saw that Fauster had found two small glasses and a full bottle of liquor. “Suits me fine. Thanks.”
Hunter walked around the loft-style apartment at the top of Fauster’s building. For a vampire who could have just about anything he wanted, Fauster certainly did live an odd life. He might be termed a near-hermit but, of course, non-celibate. As he turned away from the window that looked toward Lamenta’s building, he saw Fauster refilling his glass as he sat down on the sofa. Walking toward Fauster, he spoke quietly.
“Did you really have a master plan after I bowed out? Was it really part of your revised scheme to mate AnnaBelle with Iain, or did things not go as planned again? I’ve done a fair amount of research since you converted me and I discovered your connection to Iain. But he disagreed with your master race plan years or rather centuries ago. Exactly what had you planned?”
Fauster groaned and then coughed. He drained his glass and then filled it again. “Does it matter what I planned? You changed everything with your puritanical morals.”
“Instilled in me by the people you chose to raise me.”
Fauster leaned his head back on the sofa. “Obviously age doesn’t always make one wise.”
Hunter chuckled. He held his glass out to be fill
ed and then sat in the chair opposite the sofa. “I’m curious about what happened to the woman who gave birth to me. Is she still alive?”
Fauster closed his eyes. “No, Hunter. She died within hours of giving birth to you.”
“Were you married to her?”
“No. I wasn’t even in love with her. But sometimes we do things because duty demands it. If she had lived, I would have cared for her.”
Hunter jumped to his feet, his stomach roiling slightly in protest. “You bloody bastard! I reckon you are the coldest son of a bitch I’ve ever met.”
“Think what you will, son. I thought I was doing the right thing at the time I gave you to my brother…well, to Jarrett to raise. He and Beth did a wonderful job with both you and AnnaBelle.”
“So it is safe to assume that you have abandoned this so-called breeding plan? You don’t have someone tucked away that you wanted me to…breed, using your words, is there?”
“What if I did? What good would it do me? Are you willing to assist me with your near-perfect gene pool?”
“Will you never give up on this stupid plan, you old fool?”
Both men turned in surprise to hear Lamenta. She came into the room in a swirl of blues—blue hair, multi-colored blue dress and sparkling blue shoes. Fauster blinked his eyes several times before he spoke.
“Good Lord, woman! Are you daft? Pink hair is one thing…but blue?”
“Hush, Fauster! Hunter, don’t you think I look beautiful?”
Hunter was still trying to recover. Lamenta turned her face back toward the elevator and that’s when he saw she was even wearing blue eye shadow. “Uhm, why yes, Lamenta. You look quite a sight decked out head to toe in blue.”
“See, darling Blue? I told you your uncle would like your choice.”
Blue came toddling down the hall carrying a plastic pumpkin, the kind children often used for candy collecting on Halloween. “Hi, Unka Hun.”
