As I started walking to the door, I heard a voice I knew pretty well, a voice that was not my sister. "Ugh, I hate San Francisco...it stinks of salt."
Rolling my eyes, I walked over to the door and immediately opened it. In front of me was a blonde, spoiled, princess of a vampire, one that Teren and I tolerated with as much grace as possible, since she had been the one to find us when we'd both needed her the most. Smacking on an annoyingly loud piece of gum, she popped off her bug-like sunglasses as I said hello. "Hi, Starla."
"Hi-ya," she said, immediately starting to walk into the house.
Containing a sigh, I was just about to ask her what she was doing all the way up here, when the door on her BMW opened. My jaw dropped open when Gabriel stepped out of the car. It wasn't that I was shocked he was up here, Gabriel came up a couple of times a month to see Halina and visit with the kids, but seeing him here, in broad daylight, was a little disorienting.
"Good afternoon, Emma." He walked up to me, imposing, powerful, and extraordinarily beautiful. His emerald eyes caught a fragment of the sunlight and glinted at me; they seemed more like jewels than eyes in that moment.
"Good afternoon, Gabriel," I stammered back, looking up at the sky.
Gabriel was in Alanna's generation. He could tolerate small doses of rays, but not hours of it. When he did visit, he always made the long drive at night. Tinted windows, while effective in blocking the harmful effects of the sun for humans, just wasn't enough for vampiric skin. Some of them preferred the privacy and mystery of dark glass, but really, it was just aesthetics for them.
I felt Teren walk over to me as I heard Starla sigh and plop down on our couch, making herself at home in our home. "You guys have cable?" I heard her call out, but I ignored it, fixated on the ancient mixed vampire in my doorway.
"Gabriel?" Teren asked, extending a hand out to him. "We're honored to have you, but...how are you here during the day?"
He looked up at the sky too, and Gabriel chuckled at the both of us. Smiling languidly, he indicated our house through the open door. "It is bright out here. May I come in?" he asked politely.
I felt myself flush, irritated for not immediately letting him in. Gabriel wasn't as self welcoming as Starla. "Of course, please, come inside."
Both of his feet had barely hit our threshold before he was nearly tackled by two tiny beings.
"Grandpa Gabby!"
Nika and Julian attached to a leg as I softly closed the door behind him. The children had shortened his name earlier on. They spoke well for their age, or so I was told, but Gabriel was a mouthful, even for smarty pants like our little miracles. Gabriel found the nickname charming and never corrected them.
A wide smile on his handsome face, he ran an ageless, lineless hand through their hair. "Teren, Emma...my, how you've shrunk."
The twins giggled and looked up at him. "No, it's us, Grandpa Gabby."
He squatted down to their level, a genuine happiness on his face. He may be scientifically curious about our children, but he did care for them. "Well, so it is. Nika and Julian. You look so much like your parents, I didn't recognize you."
I heard Starla on the couch sigh as she started flipping though television stations. She wasn't much for coming up here, since the drive was a pretty long one. She also had a decidedly snobbish view of her home town, and saw just about everywhere else as being below it, although, she did like our home in San Francisco much better than the dirt-filled ranch.
Ignoring Starla's barely contained displeasure, I watched Gabriel scoop up a child in each arm, eyeing them closely, like he was mentally tallying their weight, height, and general health.
Looking outside at the bright, early evening sunshine, I again wondered how he'd managed to come up all this way. As our group walked into the living room, Teren asked him that very thing. "How did you make it all the way up here, Gabriel?" He shook his head as they each took a seat on the couch, Gabriel plopping down with his arms still loaded down with giggling toddlers. "Aren't you in pain?" Teren asked softly, not wanting the question to bother the kids too much.
Gabriel smiled at Nika bouncing on his knee and answered Teren's question to her. "Well, I discovered something...neat, and I decided to test it out." Nika giggled at the word and Starla tore her eyes from the mindless program she'd found to raise an eyebrow at him. Gabriel was well over a half century old and some words just sounded really strange coming from his mouth.
Teren and I looked at each other as Julian repeated, "Neat." Curious, I asked, "You discovered something?"
Gabriel looked over to me, running a hand back through his light, sandy-brown hair. Smiling, he nodded. "Yes, a compound that blocks the affects of the sun." He shifted the children to his side and leaned over his knees, going into teacher mode. His face animated, he started going over the specifics of what his brilliant mind had conjured up.
Splaying his hands out over his knees, he said, "I've been working on a way for early generation mixed to enjoy a more normal life." His lips twisted into a sad smile. "None of us should have to hide from the sun." Gabriel shrugged, and for a moment, all of his vast years were apparent on his face. He'd had to do a great deal of hiding throughout his life.
He leaned forward and the kids, no longer the center of his attention, started climbing over Starla. She groaned, but did nothing to stop them from snuggling in her lap.
Before I could ask him just what he'd created, he told me. "I made a breakthrough in a compound that I've been struggling with. I bonded it with glass and had it installed in Starla's car." He smiled as he glanced out our window. "The sun would normally have me needing a break from it after several minutes," he looked back at us, "but I was in it for hours, protected under the coated glass, and I didn't feel any hint of the pain that I would generally feel."
He smiled satisfactorily, obviously pleased with himself, and leaned back on the couch. Nika abandoned Starla to nestle in his side and he smiled down on her, a hand running over her tiny shoulders.
Teren next to me shook his head. "Wow, that's amazing, Gabriel. Can you do the same thing for full vampires?" I saw a gleam of hope in his eyes that maybe his great-grandmother could finally get to see what she'd longed to for so long.
Gabriel's smile faded as he looked over Teren's eager face. Slowly, he shook his head. "I'm sorry, Teren. Believe me, I would like to give that gift to them too." He smiled with one side of his mouth. "I've recently had a certain...personal desire to see that happen." Sighing, he shook his head. "But a full vampire's physiology is so different and complex. I just haven't been able to successfully create a coating strong enough for purebloods." He sighed again then shrugged and smiled. "It is on my to-do list though."
I laughed lightly. His to-do list probably involved things that most humans wouldn't ever accomplish in their lifetime, even the most brilliant humans on earth. And aside from the fact that Gabriel was a genius and wouldn't ever naturally die, so time wasn't really a factor, I was pretty sure that he'd have completed everything on that list anyway. He was just determined like that.
Gabriel watched my face for a second, then shifted his emerald eyes to Teren. "I've created enough to have your parents' home refitted with the new glass, so your family will feel more at ease there." He smiled widely. "Especially your grandmother. Imogen shouldn't have to hide in just a few tiny bedrooms. People should feel comfortable in their own homes."
Teren's mouth opened wide and I swear his eyes watered. My jaw dropped a little too and for a split-second, I wondered if Gabriel had done that out of compassion for the first-generation mixed, or if some part of him looked at Imogen as some sort of step-daughter.
Shaking his head, Teren reached out and clasped his arm. "Thank you. I...my family..." He looked over at me, then back to Gabriel. "We just can't thank you enough for what you've given us."
Starla snorted and popped her gum, but Gabriel beside her ignored it, focusing on the two of us instead. As Julian gave up on Starla as well, preferring to snuggle with Grandpa Gabriel, he looked down on our twins. "I'm sure you'll find some way to repay me," he said, very, very quietly.
The inquisitive look in his eyes was unsettling, but I pushed back the pang of fear in my belly. Gabriel would never hurt our children and even though he may be monitoring them visually, he would never test them without our permission. Halina would have his head if he did.
Finding comfort in the teenage vixen's protective nature, I curiously asked Gabriel, "Why is the sun harmful to vampires anyway? I've never understood that." That one myth had always seemed a little odd to me. What about being undead made the sun...unsavory?
Gabriel looked up from where my kids were listening to his silent chest. Tilting his head at me, his face back to scientific impartialness, he asked, "Have you ever heard of Solar Urticaria?"
I looked over at Teren, frowning. He was frowning too. "Um...no."
Gabriel smiled softly, like he wasn't surprised. "That is understandable. It is rare for humans." He leaned forward again, the kids on either side of him mimicking his posture. "It is a condition in which exposure to ultraviolet radiation, and in some, even rarer cases, any sort of light, induces a case of hives all over the skin."
He spread his hands out, the kids miming the motion. "All pureblood vampires suffer from a form of this condition...but a hundred times over the human variation. To them, any exposure is fatal, igniting the skin." He shrugged, and my kids followed suit. Starla looked over, smirking at them. "In mixed, the effects are diluted, and usually fade by the third generation. In first, it is the most severe, causing immense pain and discomfit, even indirectly. In second, like myself, the direct sun can be tolerated in small doses."
He leaned back, watching his tiny copycats as he did so. Smiling at them, he added, "Much like with the human version of this, no one truly understands why." He looked back up at us, a small smile on his lips as he shook his head. "The body, vampiric or otherwise, is a miraculous and complicated thing." He smiled wider. "Solving that puzzle is also on my to-do list."
I laughed a little as I leaned into Teren's side, both grateful that neither he nor I, nor our children, suffered from the rare trait that the other vampires did; it pushed us all that much closer to the normal end of the spectrum. Watching Gabriel take a moment to explain to the children how their hearts worked to pump their non self-propelling human blood, I was also grateful that the vampiric community had this brilliant man among them, striving to solve their limitations.
Looking out our wall of windows that faced the Pacific ocean, offering a sunset to die for, no pun intended, I also considered the flip side of Gabriel's research. If he did succeed in blocking vampire's limitations, they would be more prevalent among the human race. And the human race, like it or not, was right at the top of their dinner menu. A shudder running through me, I was warmed by the idea that the vial that was keeping me alive had been a five hundred year project for Gabriel. It could be several centuries before vampires roamed free under the sun, maybe a few millennia even.