“Because—” he began, then started laughing too hard to get it out.
“Say it, you whackjob,” I said, trying not to grin. “Why?”
“Because you like things that bite you and drink your blood!” Lash managed, and then he was choking, he was laughing so hard.
“What are you laughing about?” Devlin said grumpily, waking up. “I’d better still have all my hair, Lash. None of my blood donors can come today.”
“You’re okay, Dev,” Lash said, still laughing uproariously. “I promised you I’d never do that again to you, anyway.”
I wanted to laugh myself, imagining what Lash must have done to Devlin, but I managed to stifle most of it. “You bring bad taste to whole new levels,” I said, yet I couldn’t help smiling.
Lash finally stopped laughing, his easy expression sliding into a wide grin. “I wanted the jeweler to make me some mosquitoes, instead, but he said he didn’t have delicate enough tools.”
I wondered when he said that if there wasn’t another reason he’d given me these. Mosquitoes would remind me of the Everglades, and what Lash and I shared there.
“Do you like them?” Lash said, suddenly hesitant.
“If you get them out of the box for me, I’ll put them on,” I answered with a joyful smile.
Devlin wasn’t moving or saying anything, just watching us. Lash unfastened the earrings from the case, then handed them to me one at a time. I thought them pretty, despite Lash’s reasoning behind the gift. And the more I thought about his reason, the more hilarious I thought it was. “Thank you,” I said, kissing him gently. “I like them very much.”
Devlin looked up at us, his expression very guarded. “We should get up,” he said, moving off me reluctantly. “Venus will be wanting to open her presents. I also have something for Sar myself.”
I blushed, though I had expected this. “Dev, you shouldn’t have. I—”
“You’re here with us,” Devlin interrupted. “And you are going to give me your Oath tomorrow night, Sar. I’ll include Lash, as I said I would. That’s enough for both of us.” Lash said nothing, but he nodded in agreement.
It dawned on me that both he and Dev thought that I hadn’t gotten them anything, and they were trying to reassure me. I was more than content to let them think that, for now.
* * * *
Christmas breakfast was delightful. Devlin had gotten a potion the night before from Titus, so he joined Lash, Venus, and I in eating some pancakes, eggs, toast, bacon, hash browns, ham and sausage. It was true he only had one helping, and Lash had two, but at the speed Lash ate, Devlin wasn’t made to feel he rushed any, even though as usual he had only five minutes to finish eating. Serena was absent, visiting Theoron at his request to spend Christmas morning with him at his home. I wondered about Nick but said nothing, as it certainly wasn’t my business. I was feeling odd enough not having T or Elle here for breakfast. But it made sense that Elle was with her father, and that I’d see her later on. As for T, he was almost a full adult now. He had his own life to lead, and one day, he’d have his own family.
I felt really old and unnecessary, thinking about all that. But then Devlin hugged me, and I looked over at Lash talking with Venus, and decided it was okay. I had people who loved me, and people to love, and that was what Christmas morning was truly about anyway.
Our breakfast was largely undisturbed, save by Terian, who came by to drop off a gift basket from both Titus and Leri, and some wine from he and Sundown. I offered him some breakfast, which he was glad to accept. Apparently, Serena was discussing her faith with Jenny and T this morning, and he was glad to be absent from that, though Sundown was there listening.
“It’s hard enough just moving around today,” Terian said with a groan.
“But Chr...my G...um, He wasn’t even actually born on this day—” I began.
“Doesn’t matter, it matters that so many believe he was born today,” Terian said, scarfing down ham and bacon and sausage in large quantities, so much so Lash was eyeing him with an irritated look. “It’s a huge outpouring of belief, and it makes me feel weak.”
“Why is that, exactly?” Lash hissed, his tone interested. “I have heard that alluded to by Titus, that it is not the religion itself, but the faith behind it that causes you pain?”
“I’m not telling you anything,” Terian said, giving him a dark appraising look. “You might use it against me someday.”
Lash shot him a look of bared teeth, and then he got that Terian was joking with him. Lash seemed not to know what to do when he realized that, so he grinned. “I probably would,” he said finally, and laughed. “Keep your secrets, Tears.”
We all went quiet, hearing Lash use his nickname. Lash seemed ill at ease the moment all of us focused on him, and I quickly covered for him, asking Terian if he had gotten the basket we sent.
“Yes, and thanks,” he said, eating the last of his pancakes. “It got devoured last night, when we were sitting, and talking...”
He trailed off, and now it was me ill at ease, thinking of the friends I’d made over the past few years all sitting there without me, and not missing me at all. But this time Dev covered for me.
“Titus got my present as well?” he purred.
Terian blushed, and nodded. “He said to thank you. He needed...them.”
Devlin nodded, but that had put a pall on the conversation. Because I was guessing what Devlin had sent to Titus. Dead bodies as presents? Eww.
Terian hugged Venus and I good-bye, nodded to Dev and Lash, and a moment later, he was gone.
“Shall we open presents?” Devlin said with a grin, and Venus ran for the living room with a shout.
“I guess that’s a ‘yes,’” Lash said, chuckling.
I loaded the dishwasher, and put the pans in the sink to soak. Then I went in to join them.
The presents took an hour to finish, in spite of there being a pile of them. But Venus made short work of the wrapping, taking about .5 seconds to rip it off on average. Devlin took a lot of pictures with his phone, and it was true, most of the presents were for Venus. Books, movies, dolls, clothes, toys, and shoes. But she was polite, and thanks were given, after a while at least.
Devlin had gotten me several gifts: a silvery velvet robe, and also a new black velvet robe for lounging, and a huge basket of chocolate, and also a pair of bear head earrings not unlike the ones Danial had gotten me with his symbol. Like those, these bears had red eyes, not green.
I felt self-conscious, but I took out Lash’s earrings he had given me, and put Devlin’s on. He nodded in appreciation.
Lash had also gotten me a few other small gifts. A gift certificate for Amazon.com, a gift certificate for Penzy’s spices, and a pair of well made, top-of-the-line work gloves. I was touched, that he knew me well enough to know I needed work gloves. I’d never gotten them as a gift before, not even from my parents. I had not a single pair to my name here at Hayden, as all the spare pairs that I’d stockpiled at my house were ashes.
I gave him a smile and said thanks, and tried hard not to make it seem as though this gift was nothing other than a small tool I was grateful for. But as I opened them, and looked up at Lash, he caught the look in my eyes, and I saw it reflected in his eyes, before he changed, his eyes going flat. I thanked him quickly, and moved onto the next present, putting the gloves aside.
He’s right to hide, and you’d better do the same. I didn’t want Dev getting jealous on this morning of all mornings. It was enough for both of us that his gift had touched me deeply. I’d have time to thank him privately later on in the evening.
I gave Devlin his own copy of Sweeny Todd, a six-month subscription to a flower bouquet of the month club, and his own handmade robe of silver lamé, with a silver-gray velvet collar and sash. He seemed to like it, telling me he would wear the robe for me later. I presented Lash with a bottle of Ardbeg 1974, which he almost salivated over. But according to the experts on the Internet, it was the best scotch to be had on the ma
rket today. It had taken a large chunk of my savings to procure it, but hell, what was money for, if not for things like this?
Soon, all the presents were opened, and Venus was happily coloring on the floor in a new book, with new crayons, dressed in a fairy costume I’d made for her. Lash, Devlin, and I were curled together on the couch watching Sweeny Todd, when we heard the phone ring. Lash answered it, but when he called to Devlin to pick up, I knew by his voice that something was very wrong.
I got to an extension in time to hear Samuel’s panicked voice. “Devlin, Harriet seems to be succumbing to the vampire virus,” he said brokenly. “Her body’s turning colder every day, and she seems to be unable to eat solid food, or anything but blood!”
“How much of your blood did you give her?” Devlin said loudly. “Too much and she’ll turn and lose the babies!”
“I gave her only a small amount, as you instructed, and when her teeth began to get sharp, I stopped. But she’s had only a few drops in December! And I’ve taken none of her blood! What is wrong with her? She wouldn’t wake up for me this morning, and when she did, she acted drugged!”
I felt the blood drain from my face. I was glad I couldn’t see Devlin. Harriet was losing her resistance to the virus, and Samuel’s blood was too potent now for her system to resist. But she’d gotten dependent on vampire blood to live, from what Titus had done to her with my blood, and she needed more of the virus in her body. It had to be that! She had my symptoms, the ones I’d had when I’d needed more of the virus!
“Your blood is too strong for her,” Devlin said finally. “I’m half your age, Samuel. You are turning her! You need a vampire who is not as strong to give her their blood. Because like Sar, she needs vampire blood now to live. You don’t give it to her soon and she’ll die!”
“I thought of that first! Michael has given her a little of his blood this morning, as a favor to me,” Samuel said angrily. “He is younger than you, but it didn’t work! She reacted as if she’d had my blood, and her teeth began to get sharp at once!”
Harriet most likely needed more of my resistant blood, and another transformative spell from Titus. But how to get it to her? What if it killed her, in her condition? What if it killed her children?
I sank heavily into the nearest chair, because it was all a moot point. My blood was mortal now, not the way it had been when Titus had used it for the spell last time. I couldn’t save her, even if I found a way to get my blood to her. She was going to die for sure.
“Let me talk to Titus,” Devlin said quietly. “I assume you have consulted Cyrus?”
“Yes, and he said he had no experience with this, that there was nothing he could do that might not kill her! I fired him on the spot in my anger, and he’s already left my estate!”
“I’ll call you back,” Devlin said quickly. “Five minutes. Keep her awake, Samuel! Even if you have to hurt her, do it! She loses consciousness now, she may never wake up.”
“I’ll do it,” Samuel stated, and I heard a click, as he and Devlin hung up.
I walked into the kitchen. Lash hugged me gently, but didn’t say anything. Two minutes later Devlin came down the stairs, dressed, Titus in tow.
“Devlin, it probably won’t work,” Titus was saying. “She’s got to be five months pregnant by now, and any kind of transformative spell will hurt the babies.”
“What about just some of Sar’s blood, mixed with yours?” Devlin said, leaning on the table, and looking down pensively. “Wouldn’t that help her resistance, at least a little?”
“She’ll probably die anyway,” Titus said irritably. “I told you this would come back to bite us in the ass.”
“It served its purpose at the time,” Devlin said with a growl. “Truthfully, I never expected your spell to work as well as it did, to change her enough so she could remain pregnant this long.”
“I’m good at what I do,” Titus said, pride in his deep bass voice. “You know I’m one of the best. That’s why you hired me in the first place.”
“Well, then figure out something to try!” Devlin said, slamming his hand on the table. “You have another three minutes!”
Lash cleared his throat, and we all looked at him. “We don’t need to save her,” he hissed softly, his eyes flat. “We need to save the babies. That is what Samuel truly cares about, not Harriet.”
I felt a chill, and moved my eyes to the floor. Devlin and Titus didn’t move.
“If Harriet dies and the babies with her, Sar’s going to be in danger again. They’ll want her. And it’ll get out eventually that she can still have children—”
Titus gave me a look of shock, but Lash’s eyes were on Dev, and he kept going.
“—but if we can save the children in Harriet, Samuel and Perseus will be busy enough with them to leave Sar alone. Zane isn’t important enough to matter, not since Robert got killed.”
Robert had worked for Zane? No wonder he’d seemed to have lost so much standing at the party. It would be like Danial losing Theo, or Devlin losing Lash.
“Samuel took some of his territory over, near Egypt, and Zane might even be deposed soon, if he doesn’t hire another gunslinger. So that leaves only Michael as a problem, and I’ll bet if we agreed to give him some of Sar’s blood, enough to give him his own dhamphir with another female, and told him what to do, he’d leave her alone, too.”
“But you are talking about killing women, Lash,” I said in a strangled voice. “Using them, and then killing them. Their bodies won’t be able to take it, as Harriet’s can’t! They’ll turn!”
“To save you,” Lash said, meeting my eyes, his tone unhappy. “I don’t like it either, Sar. But I’d do it, to save you. And it would only be Harriet, and maybe one other woman. And turning is not the same as dying. Harriet would probably not be discarded, if she turned, if Samuel’s baby lived.”
“But what if that’s not enough?” I broke in, furious suddenly. “What if Michael wants more than one? God knows, one doesn’t seem to be enough for any man I’ve had a child for!”
Devlin narrowed his eyes, but Lash just looked at me and nodded. “Point taken,” he said. “That’s my only suggestion. And we are out of time.”
“I’ve got nothing,” Devlin muttered. “Titus?”
“I’ll give you a potion to give her, like last time,” Titus said, rubbing his hand on his eyes. “Give me a few minutes. And Sar, I’ll need a little of your blood.”
“It is back to being summer, almost,” Devlin said. “It should work.”
“I won’t guarantee it will save either the woman or the child,” Titus rumbled. “It may kill her instead, but I have no other ideas either. And she’ll turn for sure if we do nothing, and then the children inside her will wither and die.”
“Sar, get dressed,” Devlin said quickly. “You’ll need to watch Venus while we’re gone, and Lash, you’ll need to come with me, as soon as the potion’s made.”
“What? Where?” I said. “Where are you going?”
“England, of course,” Devlin said with a roll of his eyes. “To Samuel’s country estate.”
* * * *
An hour later, Lash returned with Devlin and Titus. They slammed in through the front door, and the three of them went directly into the kitchen, and opened a dusty bottle, splitting it three ways into large pint mugs. It went without saying that if Titus was imbibing, it was blood, not wine. I knew when I saw that whatever had happened couldn’t be good. I pulled up a chair at the table, and sat down, keeping an eye on Venus in the dining room who was still going to town with her new coloring books.
For a while, no one said anything—they just drank, and looked irritated.
“Did she die?” I asked finally.
“No,” Lash hissed. “But she almost did.”
Titus continued, “When the potion hit her system, she went into cardiac arrest, and she was dead for thirty seconds. She recovered, under the ministrations of Samuel’s medical team, and she’s stable now, but she hasn’t reg
ained consciousness. The babies are stable, and doing well. The good news is I think she will eventually regain consciousness, with what we did for her. We’ve bought her some time, at least. The bad news is that Samuel accused me of trying to kill her, and I got us out of there only by a hair’s breadth.”
“But the worst of it was I’d hoped to procure some of Samuel’s blood for Danial, in return for saving her,” Devlin said miserably. “I’d hoped he’d be grateful, if we helped her, and give it to me. It would go a long way to making Danial like he was—”
“Dev, Danial is not going to be like he was, not ever,” Titus growled, finishing his wine and standing up. “The sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be—”
“Fucking shut your mouth,” Devlin hissed, his eyes red. “Leave, Titus. Now.”
Titus snarled, showing his rows of fangs and promptly disappeared.
I went to Devlin and hugged him, but said nothing. There were no words of comfort I could give.
* * * *
That night went as well as could be expected. My parents had showered presents on the three children, and T, Elle, and Venus enjoyed themselves. My mother complimented me on Venus’s dress, and was polite. But I could see she still didn’t speak to Devlin, though he tried his best to be as polite as possible to her. She did go overboard being nice to Lash though, and I saw how ill at ease he was, wondering why she was doing it. Finally, he pulled me aside in the upstairs hallway before we had dinner, and asked me why she was fawning over him.
“I don’t know. I think she favors weres over vampires. And she’s never liked Devlin.”
“I just want her to not pay so much attention to me. Dev’s getting mad.”
I rolled my eyes. “Devlin knew this was how it was going to be when he agreed to come.”
“Can’t you say something to her?”
My mother? Yeah, right. “I could tell her you are my lover, too, if you want. Then she’ll either treat you like she’s treating Devlin, or she’ll outright scream at you for sleeping with me.”
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