Teren chuckled and rolled onto his back, Nika immediately scrambling on top of him. He looked over at me, twisting his lips and shaking his head. "Nice going...Mommy."
I rolled my eyes and smacked his shoulder. "Quiet, you. You're the one that was up before the dawn."
Chuckling to himself, Teren squeezed Nika to him in several short bursts, making her laugh; Julian sleepily laughed too.
Since we were all up, we decided to have a nice filling breakfast together. Humming to himself, Teren finished off the kids' pancakes by adding strawberry eyes, whip cream mouths and a blueberry nose. The twins giggled in delight at their pancake people and I smiled at the peace on my husband's face. Snipping that last piece of his childhood away had certainly freed him. He was lighter than I'd ever seen him. Well, it rivaled when the children were born, at least.
Still having to go into work before me, he kissed all of us goodbye, lingering on me the longest. His fingers clutched my face while he gave me an intimately deep kiss, for a morning farewell. My heart was a little fast when he pulled away.
He smiled as he discretely ran his fingers over my heart, copping a feel in the process. "I love that I can still do that do you," he whispered.
I bit my lip, squeezing his bottom. "Maybe later, you could do a bit more?"
He glanced over at the kids making bubbles in their glasses of milk. Laughing huskily, he turned back to me. "They'll probably be passing out earlier than usual tonight." The edge of his lip curved up as his pale eyes flicked down my body. "I'm sure I can come up with something."
I had to stop biting my lip as I momentarily lost the hold on my teeth. Nearly slicing my skin, I quickly slipped them back up, but Teren noticed the loss of control and smiled devilishly. Smacking his shoulder, my face feeling overly heated at slipping up in a way that I hadn't slipped up in months, I shoved his cocky butt out the door. Laughing, he kissed me goodbye a final time then practically skipped to his car. I smiled and shook my head at his good mood.
His good mood stayed with him throughout his day at work, where he called me and told me about Ben and Tracey wanting to take me out tomorrow night. I matter-of-factly told him that I was backing out of those plans, that I didn't want to make a big deal about my birthday. A quiet weekend at the ranch with my family sounded ideal to me. He laughingly told me that he and Ben had already made all of the arrangements. It was a done deal. I sighed, irritated at his good mood.
Saturday morning found Teren and me heading to the family ranch, like typical, just with plans to leave it for a few hours in the evening. I wasn't too thrilled about it, and told Teren that we weren't leaving until after bedtime, so I could still tuck the kids in.
Grinning ear-to-ear, he only said, "That's fine, the fun doesn't start until later anyway." I twisted my lips at him, wondering just what he had in store for me. Smiling secretively, he would say nothing more on the matter.
Shutting the car off in the drive of the palatial Adams estate, he chuckled at the look of curious annoyance on my face. "We're here kids," he proclaimed brightly as he opened the door.
Rolling my eyes, I opened mine and went about the task of unbuckling the kids. No sooner were they free than they were surging to the open front door, Alanna bent over on her knees awaiting them. I blinked in surprise when I saw Imogen standing back in the recesses of the entryway. Imogen didn't come out during broad daylight, it was too painful. She was standing a ways back from the open door, none of its indirect light reaching her, but the home was loaded with wide windows and she was drenched in the sunlight streaming through them.
Teren stared at her, shaking his head. "I'll be damned," he muttered. "He did it." I glanced up at Teren's stunned face, then remembered what Gabriel had said before he'd dropped the Carrie-bomb on us. He'd developed a protective coating that blocked the harmful side effects of the sun from mixed vampires. He had offered to have the Adams home fitted with the new glass and apparently he had. I shook my head as I grabbed Teren's hand. Gabriel worked fast; that had only been a couple of days ago.
We walked into the home and Alanna shut the door behind us. Imogen was smiling and laughing, frolicking with her grandchildren, chasing them around the fountain of a woman crying that took a place of prominence in the room. My eyes stung watching the bright rays streak over Imogen's dark hair. She hadn't had a moment like this...her entire life.
Alanna smiled at her mother, pink tears down her cheeks. All of us silently watching Imogen play tag, happy, content, and most of all, pain-free, she quietly said, "She's been like this ever since Gabriel finished with the windows." Twisting to smile at Teren, she shook her head. "She won't go back to her rooms." She laughed on the end, wiping her cheeks dry.
Teren and I laughed as well, Teren slinging an arm over his mom's shoulders. When the kids eventually tore off to play in another room in the house, Imogen stood up and walked over to us, her face more alive than I'd ever remembered seeing it. "Teren, Emma...it's so good to see you out and about on this fine morning."
She laughed as she embraced me in a cool hug. I laughed as I wrapped my arms around the grandmotherly woman, my joy for her causing the tears stinging my eyes to splash onto my cheeks. Darn emotional vampires.
"Imogen...I'm so happy for you." I pulled back from her to stare at Alanna as well. She had an arm around her son's waist and was standing in a bright shaft of light under a large sun-filled window. She'd been standing there for awhile, perfectly free from pain as well. "Both of you."
Alanna sighed, glancing up at her son and then down at the floors to where I could feel Halina's still presence. Her eyes swinging back to me, she looked over my body. "Gabriel...he's done so much for our family. I really don't know how we'll ever repay him."
I swallowed a little nervously. I'd wondered that myself.
Imogen, Alanna and I spent a good chunk of the afternoon lazing in a bright patch of sunlight in the living room. Stretching languidly, I sort of felt like a giant cat, sleeping in the sunshine. Both vampire women giggled and sighed contently. I had to imagine that the heat that I could feel caressing my skin, felt even better to their cool bodies, especially since they'd never really had the chance to revel in it before.
Teren laughed at the three of us, shaking his head before heading outside to go fishing with his dad. The kids went with him. They found it enormously funny, using their enhanced abilities to snatch up the fish bare-handed, just like Daddy.
It wasn't too much later when I felt Teren and the kids zooming back to me at lightning speed. A little alarmed, I sat up on my elbows. More alarmed when I could hear my children crying, I jumped up to my feet. Alanna and Imogen sprang up with me, both looking like they wanted to rush out to Teren. Knowing he would be in the house in a matter of seconds, we made ourselves wait. Even though I only counted five of those seconds, it felt like five years.
When he entered the room, Teren immediately met my eye. "They're fine, more upset than anything."
Believing him, but needing to see for myself, I blurred over to them. The tang of blood was in the air and my heart rate spiked. Both kids reached out for me, both crying. Smelling the blood on Nika, I only grabbed her. It hurt my heart to choose, but she was the one that smelled injured. Imogen snatched up a crying Julian though, patting his back as he clung to her, sobbing. My heart racing as I held my crying daughter, I peeked up at Teren running a hand back through his hair, his lips twisting in what almost seemed like amusement.
"What happened?" I snapped out.
He shook his head and started to answer me, but my crying daughter beat him to it. Pointing viciously at Julian, she wailed, "Julie bit me!"
Julian covered his ears and sobbed harder. Blinking at a shrugging Teren, I looked over Nika. Sure enough, she had fang marks on her arm. I looked over at Alanna. Never having raised vampiric children before, or any child before, I wasn't quite sure how to handle it. She smiled softly, wisdom in her youthful eyes, and reached her arms out for Nika. "Come here, sweetheart. Grandma will clean you up and then we'll have a nice cup of cocoa."
Nika perked up, her sobs shifting to sniffles at the thought of a chocolate treat. She practically leapt from my arms into Alanna's. Hugging her tight, Alanna nodded her head at Julian. "You two may want to have a talk with him."
Imogen smiled and kissed his head. As Nika's emotions calmed down, so did my son's. When I could hear her giggle as Alanna tickled her, Julian even smiled. At that point, I figured he was probably more upset at feeling how upset Nika was. It sort of put a whole new meaning to the word guilt, when you could feel the pain and distress you caused someone.
Setting him on a chair, Imogen kissed his head again, then blurred to the kitchen with Alanna and Nika. Hearing them begin a conversation with her on biting, I started my own with my son. Teren and I squatted down in front of him as a few last sniffles escaped him. His eyes red and watery, I stroked his cheek. "Did you bite your sister?" I asked quietly.
He nodded, his lip quivering as he looked between Teren and I. Teren ran some fingers through his hair. "Why?" he asked, equally as soft.
Julian looked down and shrugged. "I was hungry."
I bit my lip. This was not the sort of thing that most mothers had to deal with. How do you tell your child that feeding off your siblings was just not okay? Especially since it was in their nature to do so. Even if we wanted to ignore it, being attuned to blood and heartbeats was just a part of being a vampire. Sure, it was easy for an adult to make the conscious choice to not attack the meals walking past them, but three year olds?
Sighing softly, I cupped both of his cheeks. "If you want some blood, you come to Mommy or Daddy, and we will get you some." Shaking my head at him, I firmly said, "You don't ever bite people. Understand?"
He nodded in my fingers, then frowned. "Daddy bites you?"
Removing my fingers, I felt my entire body flush. We tried to keep that part of our relationship hidden, but they'd apparently caught on to that little fact. As I stammered for something to say, Teren filled in for me. "I only bite Mommy because she said it was okay. You never bite someone without their permission."
His face serious as he gazed at his son, I realized that this was a conversation Teren must have heard himself as a child. He didn't have siblings to nibble on, but he'd probably been warned anyway. Julian's face got equally serious and he nodded, just once. "Okay, Daddy."
Hearing Nika laughing and telling Alanna and Imogen that she wouldn't ever bite someone, that it was icky, Teren and I smirked. Julian brightened when he saw that we weren't mad. "Can I have some cocoa?" he asked, his pale eyes hopeful.
I nodded and he dashed away, giggling like his sister. As I looked back to Teren, he started laughing. "I had no idea that he'd ever seen me bite you." I closed my eyes and shook my head. No, I was pretty sure regular parents didn't ever have these kinds of conversations.
When dusk settled in and our children were sleepily huddled off to bed, we reiterated that biting was not something that they should do, especially with each other. Halina laughed for ages when she was filled in on the situation, especially after Julian repeated to her that Daddy bites Mommy because Mommy says it's okay. I wanted to crawl into the earth and never come out again.