by C. L. Quinn
That had been impossibly hard to say the first time, he wasn’t sure he could repeat it and remain convincing. “I merely…”
“I heard what you said, Mies. What makes you think that we are together?”
“I saw you two enter the same apartment. Do you not live together?”
“Yes, we do. So does Naji. The three of us share an apartment. Four.”
Mies felt like his chest might explode. “You’re not together?”
“That is my man you’re talking about, vampire.” Naji stepped closer to Nikolai and he put an arm around her.
“I’m in love with Naji, Mies. Sarah and I are good friends. I love her, but like a sister. You know that.”
“I’ve been gone a long time and I thought that things had changed. I am sorry for the misunderstanding.”
“Mies, I need to speak with you.” Sarah turned to the others. “Could we have the room?”
“Yes, I think that’s wise.” Park moved towards the door, Nikolai behind her, then Naji, but not before Sarah stopped her and took the bundle.
Alone now, Mies focused on the bundle that was now moving. “It’s a child.”
Sarah hesitated, pulled the blanket away, and presented Zia to him. “Yours.”
She wanted to shock him. She wanted him to know how wrong he was to run from her, to think that she was finished with him, to take away their chance to be together.
His eyes on the baby, Mies didn’t move. “What?”
“Your daughter. Mine. What we made during the few days before you had to go.”
“You’re Shoazan.”
“Aren’t you quick? Mies, we need to sit and you need to hear me.”
“Yes, yes, I am yours,” he promised as he led Sarah and the baby to a wide blue and white vinyl-covered bench. He couldn’t stop staring at the child who stared back at him. He recognized his eyes in her. Not these, the ones in the new body, but his eyes.
“May I hold her?”
“I would love to see you do so.”
Carefully, Sarah handed Zia over to her father for the first time.
“She looks like you,” he said without looking up.
“And you. She’s a perfect blend of the two of us.”
He held his daughter away from him at first to look at her, then folded her near his chest close enough to smell her hair.
“I couldn’t know.”
Sarah’s eyes softened. “I know you couldn’t. First things first, Mies. I need to tell you, Zia is sick.”
His face buried in the baby’s hair, a hand curved around her head, he lifted his head. “Vampire children do not get sick.”
“This one is.”
His expression changed to panic. “Is it the virus?”
“No! Mies, we’ve controlled that, so no. It’s her odd parentage. She has DNA from you, from me, and from Nikolai. Her vampire genome is unable to bond completely with her. We’ve kept her well for a while using blood meals, but they’ve stopped working. Park thinks that only your blood can heal her, blood to blood. Her incomplete vampire DNA needs your blood to finish the bond. Will you help us?”
“Sarah…” His eyes moved to Sarah’s, his pain apparent, devotion apparent. “Of course. I would give her or you every last drop of my blood if you needed it. That you would even feel you need to ask cuts me.”
“I knew the man that you were, and I’m hoping that nothing has changed, but we’re kind of starting over. You misjudged the relationship I had with Nikolai, but the one we have is just as fragile. Let me get to know you again. That you are willing to stay with me and help Zia means everything to me.”
“There is no other choice. This is my child too.”
“She is. Why don’t we take her home now and help her?”
“Immediately. I am completely yours.”
Following a single nod of acceptance, they stood to join the others outside the shop. When Sarah started to take Zia, Mies kept the baby in his arms.
He would give anything for them. If she couldn’t see how completely he meant that, then she indeed did not see him. He would save his daughter and save what he had with Sarah too.
It was a new world, he was a new man, and they would start over.
Mies stood in the elegant apartment shared by the three people he knew best when he was here in the new world seven months ago. He waited for the first blood woman who he now knew was called Park to do some blood tests on his baby before they began a healing process with his blood.
He watched Sarah across the large room as she consulted with Park about this blood infusion and how to most effectively treat his daughter.
Still having trouble wrapping his head around events, still stunned that he and Sarah made a first blood child, Mies knew one thing, he would never leave them. Even if Sarah decided that she didn’t want him, he would still be here for her and Zia no matter what.
Sliding the cell phone from his pocket, he dialed the only number he had in it.
“Xavier, having fun?”
“I’ve three women in bed with me. What do ya think?”
“I think you’re too busy for me to keep you. Listen, I appreciate your offer to stay with you but it seems I must stay in Boston after all.”
“Aw, ye’re sure?”
“I’m sure. Perhaps someday.”
“Aye. All right then, back to me work. Now, where did I leave off, was it one, two, or three?”
The connection went dead and Mies closed the phone. It might have been quite an interesting time in Paris.
Sarah came over to him. “We’re going for a blood transfusion, quick and direct, get it precisely where we want it as efficiently as possible. Our concern is triggering a conversion, which is not what we want with a child.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about that. Conversion for a first blood child won’t trigger until maturity, and the spirit amulet guides that. I assume she doesn’t have one yet.”
“No. Tamesine was going to help me with it soon. That’s good news, if it’s so. All we need to do now is get your blood. Come with me.”
She led him to a room near the back of the apartment. It was windowless, but dressed in pale colors with soft backlighting. “Why don’t you have a seat here and we’ll set up.”
Daylight was nearing and fatigue beginning to set in, so Mies dropped happily into a big, light green, overstuffed chair. Sarah busied herself near him, setting up a small table with a tray on it.
“Zia,” he said suddenly. “Where did you come up with the name?”
Sarah smiled. “It’s short for Crezia. I remembered the story about the Shoazan who first gave her life to try to protect her race. It seemed the perfect name.”
“Aye, it is.”
“Aye?”
“Picked it up from a new friend. I met a first blood on the beach the night that we met in the bar.”
“First blood, eh? Would his name have been Xavier?”
Jealousy fired off. Had she been with another first blood? “How do you know Xavier?”
“Settle down. I recognize the tone. I was blood-bonded to Xavier for almost a hundred years. He is like a father to me.”
It took a few moments for Mies’s respiration to drop back down. “He’s a good man.”
“He is a good man. I thought he’d left the city.”
“Tomorrow. Right now he’s ass deep in women.”
“That is definitely my Xavier. A thousand years of sex and creative debauchery. From what I understand, he always leaves his lovers wanting more.”
At that second, Sarah leaned across Mies to pull one of his arms forward. Her loose top gaped and his view, paired with the discussion earlier about sex, fired up his cock, which had been playing nice and keeping down since he saw Sarah tonight. It wanted in on the action now.
Down, boy, down, not now. Zia mattered more than anything right now. But his desire for Sarah had grown, not lessened, since he’d been here before. Was it possible that he could make a family with the woman
who should have been his mate and the child that he’d never dreamed to hope for?
“I’m going to draw some blood now.”
“Go ahead. You needn’t worry that it’ll hurt me.”
“I know. Just doctor’s habit, I guess.”
Mies flexed his arm. Sarah tried to remain professional, although all she wanted to do was to lick this man until he cried for mercy. He presented a heavily muscled arm for his blood draw, and he reeked of the pheromones that got her into trouble in the first place, and did nothing for her self-control now.
Sarah drew ten tubes to make sure that they had enough. She started to put a bandage on the site when Mies smiled at her.
“I’ve got this.”
Yeah, vampires had no problem closing wounds.
“Okay, uh, then, I’ll, uh…get this to Park.”
Sarah hurried from the room as Mies lifted himself off the chair. Had she been nervous? Aye, she had. That bode well for him. He’d gone tonight from thinking that he had a life ahead of him that he had no idea what to do with, to the possibility of building a new one with the most extraordinary woman at his side and a beautiful little girl.
Walking back into the living room, he noticed Nikolai in the big glass and chrome kitchen.
“Do you have any whisky?” he asked.
“God, I missed you. Yes, have a seat at the bar and I’ll bring a bottle.”
Drinks again with Nikolai. Mies didn’t know what the universe had planned for him, but this, being with Nikolai and Sarah, felt like home.
“Here, Park, I pulled ten vials.”
“Thanks, that should be enough.”
As Park finished preparations to transfuse the blood to Zia, Sarah leaned back against the wall.
Shit! Just being close to him, even in that new body, especially in that new body, her libido hit her hard. The body was bigger and sexier, largely because she knew that it was entirely Mies. She wanted him, more than ever, and now, with the fact that he was the father of her child, and that her child was vampire, the normal human life impossible, there was no reason not to be with him.
“Sarah? Where were you?”
Pushing away from the wall, she joined Park at the center of the room. “I’m right here.”
“No, where were you? I’d called you twice and you didn’t respond.”
“Oh. Sorry, yes, my head is somewhere else.”
“I know where it is and I can’t blame you. Your Mies is an uber first blood. Now that he is full-blooded, you have quite a ride ahead.”
“I’m not sure that I should start that up again.”
Park stopped, a vile of blood suspended in mid-air.
“Not sure? Oh, you’re sure all right. I know the look. You’re in love.”
“I didn’t want to be.”
“You didn’t have a choice. Real love slips in even when we try to keep it out. Don’t deny him or yourself, or this child, the days ahead.”
Placing a hand on her belly, which was doing flip-flops now, Sarah nodded. “So, we’re ready?”
“Yes, just need to place this last vial. Okay, go get our girl.”
The infusion went well. The needle didn’t bother Zia at all. In fact, she giggled through the entire procedure. Sarah played mother and Park played doctor, so Sarah was free to sit near the head of the table they’d placed her on and kiss Zia all over the face to distract her.
Gathered around her bassinet, the baby’s extended family waited for results. Naji sat on Nikolai’s lap and Mies stood beside Sarah.
“Look at her color,” Park pointed out. “She’s already better than she was this morning. Mies, your blood is a genetic match to hers. The combination of that and vampire blood’s healing properties should repair that odd genetic defect. It won’t take long either. By tomorrow night, I’ll be able to use the lab results to determine if she’s okay. I honestly think she will be.”
With no forethought, Sarah turned into Mies’s arms and he lifted her, held her, and kissed her gently on the forehead.
“Thank you,” she whispered into his right ear.
He continued to hold her because the one thing on his mind after curing his daughter was to get Sarah back into his arms again. She was there, and he determined at that moment that she would stay there.
Daylight arrived and the vampires retired to the two light-tight bedrooms in the apartment. Park had hugged Sarah, Naji, and Nikolai, then brushed a hand lightly over Mies’s shoulder before she went into her room, her step light, because she was sure that Zia was finally going to be healthy.
Mies nodded and headed into the room assigned to him without words. Before he closed the door, he glanced at Sarah, a long gaze, and then went inside.
Naji fixed breakfast for her roommates and they gathered for a quick bite before they, too, would get some sleep.
Nikolai nursed a big cup of decaffeinated coffee.
“It is so wonderful being with Mies again. To be able to interact with him normally, to touch him, to smile at him, to speak directly to him, I never could have hoped for this. My God, I hope they are not just fucking with us all and take him back away.”
“You think?” Naji said.
“I think they are childish assholes to mess with lives like this. I mean, they took another life to put him in this body.”
Sarah set her cup down. “I don’t think so. Mies said that the body was empty and I believe it was. This Jason Stone, he was a daredevil and that last skydiving jump went horribly wrong. I saw him at the hospital, just before he died. Mies wasn’t there.”
“So you think they sent him back for good, that he might get to stay with us?”
Stretching, Sarah shook her head. “I don’t know.”
She yawned and slid out of her seat. “Naji, would you guys look after Zia? I need to take a shower.”
“Sure, love. We’ll just take her into our room with us. If you want to come get her, just come on in anytime and take her.”
“Thanks, guys. This is one of those days when all I want to do is drop into bed and slip into oblivion for a while. I think I can finally do it, because it’s the first time in a long time, I don’t have to be afraid for Zia.”
Nikolai pulled Sarah close and hugged her. “I think not. Mies is home, for now, and all is right with the world. Go get some good sleep, my darling.”
She walked away from Nikolai and Naji, smiling. No, she didn’t think that Zia was okay now, she knew it. Zia sent a spiritual message to her minutes after the transfusion that simply let her mother know that she was whole again. No more worries. Well, just one, and Sarah was going to take care of that tonight.
The water pressure in the apartment was strong, so when Sarah stood under the showerhead to let it pummel her back, the pulsating massage was beyond relaxing. Muscles loosened, and the headache she’d had for three days was gone. The past few days had been hell. When Nikolai had started talking about the cruel capriciousness of the universe, she’d almost screamed.
For now, her world might be back in order so, for the same reason, she wanted to thank the godless lot, or whatever the universal powers were, for Zia and for bringing Mies back to her. Nothing else mattered right now.
Ten minutes into the shower, she finally reached for the soap, scrubbed her skin clean, washed her hair, and then dried off. As she towel-dried her hair, she caught her image in the mirror, her eyes glittering. Mies was here, and she didn’t know how long he might be, so she made a decision.
She ran her hand over her body, the fingertips lingering between her legs. They moved along the edge and dipped into the soft folds to remind herself what she’d missed, to prepare herself for what she was going to do as soon as she was finished with this shower.
Sarah was going to show that vampire real power.
After a quick shower, he dropped, still damp, spread out, legs wide, the damn cock refusing to stay down, and closed his eyes.
When this was done, when they knew that Zia was safe, he planned to remind Sarah h
ow he felt buried inside her. He needed to let her know that she was his and that from this day forward, they were together, they would make a family, and happy lives in this modern world.
The powers-that-be would be wise to understand that this vampire was finished being their pawn, that he would move the stars in the heavens before he’d let them take him away from his mate and child again.
Sarah. Her nearness made it almost impossible for him to remain in this room and stay away from her. His fading consciousness kept him on the bed. When he woke tonight, he would take her out of the apartment to declare his intentions.
Sleep quickly invaded his exhausted mind as his hand wandered down to calm the stiff organ, to remind it that it would get no satisfaction today.
The room was pitch dark, no interior light burned and no outside light penetrated. Sarah brought a candle with her, and after she lit it and set it on a table several feet from the bed, she walked over to stare at the dark form spread out on the pale sheets.
Everything about this new body suited Mies’s personality; it was big, strong, and hard. Hair the shade of summer wheat seemed to fit him more than Nikolai’s rich dark color had, and those pastel green eyes had enchanted her the first time she looked into them.
Yes, the body was magnificent, and she couldn’t wait to touch every square inch, but at the core of all of it, Mies was what she wanted...to touch him and make love to him, to feel him move inside her, connected, as they had been before.
A low moan let her know that he wasn’t fully asleep now, that he might be aware of her presence. Oh, she was going to make sure he was aware of her presence.
Her thin dress abandoned on the floor, Sarah crawled over the naked body, her eyes resting on the big cock nestled between powerful thighs. She groaned. Her intention today had not been sex, but now…
She intended to let him know that he could not walk away from her and Zia. If he thought that he had done so because she didn’t want him, she would show him how wrong he was.
