by Helen Bright
“Do you think he could have been lying about him being dead Alex, I mean, did they say he had a proper Viking burial?” I asked, knowing a little about the way a Viking warrior would be sent on his way to Valhalla and would have to have had a funeral on a grand scale.
“I can’t remember everything that was said about his passing other than what Sebbi said that day he told us. I don’t even remember the others who readied the settlement ever speaking about it.”
Alex turned away from the computer for a moment, then spun back around and asked me to play it back again.
After starting and stopping the image too many times to mention we decided to carry on looking at the rest of the footage to see if we could see anyone else who resembled the man Julia saw, but there was no one who sparked any recognition for either Alex or Julia.
“If it was Brandr, then why would he wait until now to make contact,” asked Julia thoughtfully.
I thought that was a really good question, but Alex just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
“Honestly Julia, I’m not sure it is him. Sebbi said he was dead, and I believe it was he who killed him.” He said this to reassure the woman he loved. But I had known him as a brother for centuries and because of this I could easily pick up the doubt and confusion in his voice.
“Alex I can email this footage to Freya and see if she recognises him,” I said as I started typing the email.
“No Josh, we can leave it for tonight. I want to be with her when she sees the footage in case it triggers any bad memories. I will speak to her tomorrow and tell her that Julia and I are expecting a baby. But for tonight we want to keep the news to ourselves if that’s ok.”
“Yeah of course, although I have to say I want to shout it from the rooftops because I’m so chuffed about being an uncle. Can I buy the pram? I can say I bought them their first vehicle then,” I said with a huge smile on my face.
“I’m a good babysitter too. Just ask Keeley. I even change nappies.” “That’s good to know Josh,” said Julia laughing. “I hope Alex will change nappies too.” “Of course I will,” he said in reply to Julia. “I am going to be the best dad ever.”
I had no doubt he would be, this man who stood smiling before me. And the very same man who had saved me from death, all those many years ago at Liverpool docks. This good, kind soul who had brought me in to his family and treat me like a brother. I swore to him a long time ago that I would gladly lay down my life for him and for Freya, as they had given me my own. They both told me they loved me, and their love did not come with any conditions, so I must stop feeling obligated to them.
But I would do it anyhow.
However, looking at Julia, and knowing what precious cargo she carried, I vowed to be her and the child’s protector always, no matter if Alex was there or not. This woman held the future of our family, and I would make sure that she was safe whatever life threw at her.
Chapter 37
Alex
We visited Julia’s parents the next afternoon. She wanted to tell them before we told anyone else and I respected that, even though I was desperate to tell Freya.
Sue and George Browne were quite shocked with the news, as was to be expected. But once they had gotten over the shock they seemed to come around to the idea.
So we decided to hit them with the rest of our news, which was the fact that Julia and I were bonded. I explained that meant that Julia would take my blood and I would take hers, and because of the bonding, while ever she had my blood on a regular basis, she would not age or get ill. And also she would become stronger than a normal human, and would heal from any injuries much quicker.
George Brown looked at his daughter for the longest time before saying, “I am happy that you are happy Julia. I do think you could have waited a while until you decided to start a family, but I can see that you love my daughter Alex so I will say no more about that. Can I just ask about our grandchild? Will it be human or vampire?”
A valid question that deserved a full answer. So I explained all about a blood born immortal. I also explained a little about my background and how old I was.
I thought Sue Browne was going to faint and that George’s jaw would never close again. Perhaps I should have held back on that one.
Then after our visit with the Browne’s we went back home to Skype Freya.
On hearing our good news Freya squealed so loud she had Leonard running in to check on her. When he heard the news he went and brought everyone else in the house up to Skype with us. I was glad that Freya had people around her to share in this good news. She opened the video we sent to her and minimised our Skype page. She fast forwarded it to nineteen minutes to see the guy that I thought looked like Brandr.
She said she thought he may have looked like him but couldn’t really remember. She was only about nine when he left, and he had been away in battle most of her life anyway. And even when he was home he avoided being in the same room as her.
We concluded that it probably wasn’t him but said she would watch the full video anyway. She was coming down to visit us again next week with Gregor.
I think Gregor was going to try and convince Freya to stay in Barrowfield so that she could oversee the renovations, but I knew she would go back to Aldbrough. I knew also that she would be bringing the ring and the rest of the Jewellery that I had purchased for Julia. Maxwell had been true to his word and was making the engraving his priority.
Julia and I were going to tell Nik and Gina about the baby before we started work tonight so I called through to Nik and arranged to call in.
Nik’s cottage was decorated more modern than my own. Josh’s was the same.
Whilst I liked the cottage look with traditional wood and stone finishes and sumptuous fabrics, Nik preferred beige and grey coloured fabrics, chunky sofa’s, angular wooden furniture and chrome finishing’s. So you can imagine my shock to find a decidedly more feminine home when I entered Nik’s cottage.
“Excuse the paint smell,” said Gina breathlessly as she hurried around the room re arranging throw cushions. They are delivering the new furniture tomorrow so we wanted to get all the painting done before that arrived.
The walls had been painted in a pale mint green and Nik was hanging up cream striped curtains with mint green and pink flowers across the bottom. He was shirtless and it seemed funny to see Nik’s large muscle bound chest splattered with such a pretty pastel colour.
Then Gina got out a pamphlet showing a three door sideboard cabinet, TV unit, coffee table and lamp cabinets all made in oak. Julia loved the furniture and the light airy look to Nik’s home and I felt a little guilty in that moment because I hadn’t even considered that she may want to change the look of our cottage to something she preferred.
Gina offered us tea or coffee but Julia declined, although being a total tea addict I couldn’t pass up a cuppa. Apparently caffeine isn’t good for the baby so Julia was limiting her intake until we got some decaf stuff. We then sat and waited for Nik to finish hanging the curtains before we announced our news.
He came straight over to sit by me but turned towards Julia and leaned in to take in her scent.
“You’re pregnant. Only just, but the scent is definitely there.” “Wow that was quick work you two,” Gina said, handing me my tea. “I bet you are both a little bit shell shocked.” “Well I am, but Alex did say he was getting me pregnant as soon as he could. I just didn’t think it would be this quick,” laughed Julia.
“Well congratulations to you both. When do you think you will be due?” asked Nik.
“Early August I think. I only scented it two days ago so we think she is only around three weeks pregnant.” I looked at Julia at that moment and pictured her as she would be in the coming summer, beautiful as ever but with a radiant glow about her and belly swollen with our child.
“I am so lucky.”
I didn’t think I had said that out loud until Nik slapped me on the back and said, “Yes you are Alex. You have your w
oman, and now a child on the way. What more could a man want.”
“Well when I saw her at that party nearly fifteen years ago, Josh asked me what I wanted from her and I remember saying everything. And now I have everything I could ever want, and it’s all due to Julia.”
Julia blushed, but through our bond she told me I was getting some good loving for that remark.
“You will have to let us know what we can buy for the baby when the time comes Julia. And as you can see, Nik is a dab hand at painting,” Gina said as she gestured round the room. “So when you decide on what colours you want for the baby’s room, Nik can decorate for you. Although if you are anything like me, I had my babies in the bedroom with me until they were nearly a year old.”
“Well thanks for offering my decorating services Gina you slave driver,” joked Nik as he poked Gina in the side. “And why ever would you want to keep babies in your room for that long?”
“I just wanted to know they were ok, and I needed to hear them breathing. That may sound like I lay awake all night listening to them but it’s not like that.
You become so in tune with your baby that when they have the slightest murmur you become alert even from sleep and can deal with it accordingly. I breast fed both my babies, so I didn’t have to warm bottles up. So when they just started to murmur and become restless, I just picked them up and put them to my breast. It’s better than letting them get to the screaming stage because they take a lot longer to calm down then. When they were snuffley, with a cold or a bad cough I found it worked better that they were in with me.”
“Didn’t your husband mind?” asked Julia.
“He slept in another room,” said Gina very matter of fact.
“Selfish bastard,” muttered Nik under his breath.
“Well we better get in to work and see what Night Movers has going on tonight,” I said as I stood and offered Julia my hand so I could pull her up of the sofa. She looked tired and it was no wonder. We had been up earlier than usual and had told her parents and Freya our news, which had made it an emotionally draining day.
“Nik spoke to Josh last night and he told him about the guy on the security footage you thought you may have recognised. Are you any nearer to finding out who this vampire is?”
“No Gina, I wish I was. It looked like the guy who I thought was my father, but he died many years ago so it couldn’t be him. Well it’s hard for me to imagine that it could be him from what I know.”
“Alex, both myself and Julia are living and working with vampires. We are happy to exchange blood during sex and we will be bound to them forever. If you had asked either of us fifteen years ago if we could imagine that then I’m sure we would have had you committed.”
She was right of course. But for some reason after seeing that look on Sebbi’s face I knew he had killed him.
It still didn’t help us to find out who this Brian Vargan was though, and now that we had a baby on the way, we were seriously going to have to pull out all the stops to see what this guy was up to.
Chapter 38
Nik
After Alex and Julia left I noticed that Gina had become quite subdued. She was pottering around the room putting things from my old cupboards in boxes and bags, just until after our new furniture came.
I asked her if she was ok and she just said she was just stressing about getting all the cupboards emptied so they would be ready for when the local animal rescue charity came to pick them up. Of course she was just giving me a bullshit excuse but I let it go for now.
Yesterday we had been to the local garden centre and noticed a display of paintings by a local artist.
There were paintings of the local duck pond and of various countryside views around Barrowfield and Rothley.
He also had some of North and East Yorkshires seaside resorts and we ended up purchasing a painting of Bridlington harbour. I hung it in the hallway just before our bedroom. Gina said that was a good place to put it because she would see it before she went to bed and it would give her sweet dreams of a place she loved.
She had such a fond faraway look in her eyes when she said it, that I decided to buy us a home there so we could go when we had our nights off from work.
I was also going to sell some of my other properties that I no longer visit.
Immortals used to move around a lot a few years ago so that we didn’t get discovered. When you don’t age and are around for hundreds of years that can be a problem when there are people hunting your kind. Of course that hasn’t happened for over a hundred years now so I think we are safe here in modern day Britain.
We also used to use some of our smaller properties for when we were transporting made vampires to and from Europe, so that they were not travelling in daylight. But now we have the airplanes I think we will need the houses much less.
Gina had finished clearing out the cupboards and had six boxes of stuff for me to go through. I bent down to take a look and honestly, I became shocked at the amount of utter crap that I had amassed in the last few years since I bought the furniture. I looked up at her and said, “Gina love, apart from my photographs and legal documents you can bin the fucking lot.”
“What about these CD’s and DVD’s,” she said producing yet another box.
“Well I’ve got all the songs I like on my iPod, and I’ve seen all those films so they can all go. Apart from all three of the Godfather films,” I quickly added. No way was I letting my all time favourite films go.
“And what about all those books that are in the back bedroom?” Have you decided what you are going to do with them?”
“I don’t know yet. I’m going to let some go but there are some really valuable ones in there that my grandfather gave me. I am going to save those but some of the more modern stuff can go.”
I picked her up as I stood and sat us both down on the sofa. I took her hand and asked her what was really wrong.
“Nothing’s wrong Nik, I told you everything is ok.” “That’s a bullshit line if ever I heard one Gina. Now stop blocking me from your thoughts or tell me what’s up.” She looked a little sheepish but didn’t deny she had been blocking our bond.
After a minute or so of her not speaking I had had enough. I walked over to my toolbox and took out some black electrical insulating tape that I can’t even remember using, I had had it that long. When I turned around I could see she had a wary look in her eyes.
Good. She had a right to be wary.
I went over to lock the door and heard her stand and move away from the sofa.
“We can do this here Gina or in the bedroom, your choice,” I stated as I removed the belt from my paint splattered Jeans and emptied my pockets.
Keeping the belt and tape in my left hand I stalked towards her, but just before I could reach her she set off running towards the bedroom.
“I know that look Nik and I’m not in the mood for and kinky stuff right now,” she yelled before slamming the bedroom door behind her.
There was no lock on the door, not that one would have stopped me getting to Gina anyway, so I just went into the bedroom after her.
She stood on her side of the bed, her hands on her hips, wearing a defiant look about her face. I couldn’t wait to wipe that off. It was about time she learned that she had to share what was worrying or was upsetting her.
I walked to her slowly and pressed her up against the wall.
“Are you going to tell me what’s worrying you Gina? This is your last chance before ...”
“I can’t give you children Nik.”
Wow, I didn’t expect that to come out of her mouth.
“What made you think I wanted you to?”
“Alex looked so happy, and Julia is the reason for that. She not only loves him, but she can also give him a family. I can’t do that for you,” she sobbed.
I picked her up, carried her over to our bed and sat her on my lap. After wiping the tears from her cheeks I placed my hand to the back of her neck and pulled her face towards
mine. I kissed her with all the love and tenderness I could manage without wanting to rip her clothes off. Unfortunately I couldn’t hide the growing erection I was sporting but I tried to ignore it and Gina didn’t mention it either.
It wasn’t my fault that I couldn’t kiss her without getting hard. She was just too beautiful and sexy for me not to get hard whenever we touched. It killed me to see the sadness behind her eyes though and I needed to put her mind at rest over this.
“Gina, I love you baby, and I didn’t want you because I needed you to birth babies for me. I wanted you for you alone. Besides, you have given me a stepson and daughter. So you did give me kids in a way.”
“It’s not the same Nik. I can’t give you babies of your own.” “And thank fuck for that. I can’t stand babies. They are noisy smelly things that are a lot of hard work. It’s just not something I have ever wanted.” “But don’t you want what Alex has? He can build his family, and have someone call him dad. Haven’t you ever wanted that?”
“Do you want more kids Gina? Do you want us to have a family? Because I know for a fact that I have never mentioned it. I knew you had a hysterectomy so you couldn’t have kids, but it didn’t stop me bonding with you. Having kids has never been part of my aspirations love. I spent many years in an orphanage in Romania with Sergei before my grandfather came for me, so if you wanted more kids I would be willing to adopt an orphaned child or two with you. But I’m sorry love I don’t want babies. They would have to be about six or seven years old. Or at least five anyway before I would consider adopting them.”
That really shocked Gina. I could tell she hadn’t thought about having more kids, but with Alex and Julia’s news, Gina felt bad that she couldn’t give me at least an option of having a child of my own.
“Personally Gina, I’m just happy with what we have. There is so much that I want to do with you. I want us to travel a little, have good holidays and nights out as a couple, and just spend time with you doing normal everyday couple things.”
