Following them, we entered their jungle playland room. While I'd been recovering at the ranch after having them, Teren's mother and grandmother had snuck over here and decorated the place. And while I loathed painting, and had no artistic abilities whatsoever, those vampiric girls were quite incredible at it. They had painted the room like it was a work of art: light green rolling hills, blue sky with fluffy white clouds, huge trees with branches that extended from one corner to another. And living in the world they'd created, was just about every jungle animal you could imagine - elephants, tigers, and the kids' favorite, monkeys. It was perfect and amazing, and that was just the walls. They'd completed the look with toys, curtains, bedding, lamps, play rugs - everything you could ask for to give your child a dream bedroom.
I was seriously considering telling Alanna and Imogen to forsake the family business and go into interior decorating.
Teren settled on the floor with them as they begged for which tales they wanted to hear. Teren loved to tell them bedtime stories and he usually told them things that had actually happened to us. Of course, he would turn our scarier stories into fairy tales, so they wouldn't give the children nightmares - the evil troll stealing the valiant prince and the brave princess, the jealous monster putting the princess into a deep sleep, and the prince awakening her with a kiss. But the family stories he told just as they'd happened. And the twins' favorite story was one that I sort of wished he'd never told them. It was kind of an embarrassing moment for me. But Teren had a thing for the memory, and repeated it often.
"Five years ago, on a beautiful, sunny spring day, I met the most beautiful creature on earth. She had the longest, prettiest, dark brown hair. It glowed in the sunshine, like she was an angel. Her beauty stole my breath. I'd never seen someone who looked so...perfect. Her eyes were a warm, deep brown and as our gazes locked on that busy sidewalk, it took me exactly one second to fall madly in love with her."
He paused dramatically, and the twins, already knowing what was coming, started giggling. I contained a sigh. "Then...one second later, she smashed right into me, pouring her boiling hot coffee down the front of my shirt."
A chorus of laughter went around the room and I rolled my eyes and shook my head at my husband. He laughed with the twins as they sat on either side of his lap, all of them thoroughly enjoying the story that he'd told them umpteen times before - the story of how we'd first met.
He glanced at me, leaning on the doorframe with my arms crossed over my chest, and smiled. It was one of those half-smiles that spoke volumes of how much he adored me, regardless of his never-ending teasing about our first encounter. I gave him a twisted smile, feigning displeasure. He grinned even wider, seeing right through it. He knew I loved the image of him sitting with our children, sharing our history with them. And with our sometimes terrifying history, my moment of clumsiness was a preferable thing for him to share with them. Some stories just couldn't be watered down into fairy tales.
Nika's little hands came up to clutch his face, bringing his attention back to her, where she preferred it. She was Daddy's little girl, down to the core, and she had him wrapped around her finger so tight, I didn't know how they'd ever separate. Her shoulder-length hair shifted around her as she leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the nose. "Then what, Daddy?"
Teren laughed and nuzzled his face in hers, the scruff of his stubble making her giggle and flinch away from him. On his other leg, Julian clapped his hands together. "More, Daddy!"
Teren looked over at his son, and in that instant as I watched them, it was like watching Teren look into a mirror. With pale blue eyes and thick, black hair, like the rest of the Adams group, Julian was so much like Teren that it hurt my heart sometimes. My eyes, being slightly more enhanced than the average human's, could see the miniscule variations that made Julian distinctly different from his father, but to everyone they met, they were near twins. Or would be one day, when Julian grew into a man.
But right now, he was his Daddy's little boy, and he and Teren shared a look that only a father and son can share. As he rubbed Julian's back, he continued with his tale. "Well, as my chest was burning, the most beautiful woman in the world began to try and clean up the mess with the one lone paper napkin that she had in her hand. It was much too small to do anything, but she had the most adorable look on her face as she tried, so I let her keep feeling like she was helping. It's always nice to let others feel helpful."
He looked up at me and laughed a little. Julian and Nika looked up at me too, giggling. With a wry smile, Teren said, "The woman looked so upset that she'd lost her favorite treat." He tilted his head at me as the twins giggled and cuddled into his side. Enfolding them both in a hug, he said, "And she looked horribly embarrassed that she'd run into me."
Nika peeked up at him lovingly. "What happened next, Daddy?"
Teren smiled down at her and kissed her head. "You've heard this story so many times, you probably know it better than I do. What do you think happened?"
Nika sat up straight and clasped her hands together, holding them to her chest. "You kissed Mommy!" she exclaimed merrily, sighing a little. I couldn't help but laugh and shake my head at her. Just a few months shy of being four, and she was already a romantic.
Teren laughed too and was about to comment, but Julian across from her piped up. "No, Mommy ran away." Julian smiled, looking happy that he'd remembered the story correctly.
I raised my eyebrows at Teren, who laughed at my face. "Well, I wouldn't say she ran away, but, yes, she left in a hurry."
I shook my head and looked at the floor, remembering that day. So much had changed after that afternoon. I learned that vampires were real. I fell in love with one and decided to stay with him, regardless of the drawbacks, because he was worth every single one of them. I decided to try and have his children, before it was too late for him to create them. I stayed by his side as he prepared to changeover from a living vampire to a dead one. I even killed for him, to help him complete his conversion and to save us both.
Then things had settled. We'd had a dreamlike few months, where nearly everything was perfect. We discovered I was pregnant, with twins no less. We got married in an ideal ceremony at his parents' place, a ranch where the vampires could leave in peace, without fear of being discovered. Teren and I had anxiously been awaiting our new arrivals, when quite unexpectedly - as most tragedies are - I was attacked by that jerk vampire who'd felt slighted. He'd bitten me for no better reason than to hurt Teren, because he'd felt Teren had been inhospitable to him, by not allowing him to "hunt" wherever he wanted.
That vampire had changed my happy family irrevocably. But I suppose, in a way, since everything had worked out, that strange man had completed our family too, giving us the chance to spend the rest of our unnaturally long lives...together.
Nika, remembering how the story went now, looked over at me reminiscing by the door and clapped her hands. "Mommy had a magic card for Daddy."
I smiled at my daughter's fanciful imagination and Teren laughed and grinned. "I suppose it was magic, because when I called her, and asked her if I could get her another treat, do you know what she said?"
Julian piped up, raising his hand in the air, and looking over at me, his pale eyes joyous that he knew the answer. Much like his father, Julian always liked to have the answer. "Yes!" he pronounced.
Nika giggled. "And, I love you."
Teren laughed again and rustled her hair. "No, not yet, sweetheart."
Leaning into her, he peeked up at me, his eyes overflowing with warmth and love. "The most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, agreed to meet with me, agreed to have dinner with me, and over time, agreed to marry me." He smiled widely as he whispered that.
Nika and Julian, both recognizing the end of Teren's story, clapped their hands and squealed. "Again, Daddy!" they said at the same time.
Teren laughed and began shifting children off his lap. "I've told you that story at least ten times this week. Aren't you sick of it?"
As he set Nika on the floor, she grabbed his hand, shaking her head. "Again, Daddy."
Setting Julian beside her, Teren stood up. Julian grabbed his other hand. "Daddy, again!"
Teren looked up at me. Smiling at him, I walked into the room and placed a loving kiss upon each tiny head. Standing in front of Teren, who now had a child attached to each leg, I whispered, "Go ahead. I'll just be waiting for you...in bed...minus these." I pulled at my clothes suggestively.
Teren groaned and eyed me up and down in a way that made my still beating heart race. He groaned again, hearing it. Shifting his attention to the miniature beings attached to his body, he lightly patted their backs. "Okay, one more and then it's bedtime."
He looked up at me while they squealed and dashed to their side-by-side beds. "Mommy and Daddy need to snuggle."
I chuckled at him and gave him a teasingly light kiss. He closed his eyes and his breath was faster when I pulled away. Smiling to myself, I turned my back on him, tucked my pajama-clad children into their covers, washing them in kisses that had them squealing in delight, and then left him to his repeat story telling. I was fairly certain that this time he'd breeze through the story without letting them participate.
Teren's deep voice filled the room as I left it, and looking back at the trio, I smiled at Nika and Julian holding hands across the short distance between their beds. It wasn't unusual for them to fall asleep that way and on occasion, they were still like that when they woke up.
After giving myself my daily shot, a sting that I was completely used to now, I got ready for bed. Sliding under our cool covers, I kept my seductive promise and didn't bother with any pajamas. Teren and I didn't get to have "snuggle" time as often as I'd have preferred, but we tried to make it work. Having children with super hearing could put a damper on your love life. Now that they were more aware, we generally avoided doing anything while they were awake.
Especially after a particularly embarrassing time when they had heard us...
They had been about two and a half, and we hadn't thought much about plopping in a movie for them and disappearing into for bedroom for a little...reconnecting. We thought about it after the movie though, when Nika and Julian both had concerned and slightly scared looks on their faces. They'd run up to me after I'd gone in to check on them, and wouldn't let me go. It had taken some deciphering of their disjointed language, but I'd finally understood that they'd heard everything, and they'd thought I was in pain.
Yeah, that sort of killed the mood for me for a long time. Of course, Teren thought it was hilarious, and didn't see a problem with just explaining to them what we'd been doing. I...just could not do that yet.
We eventually came up with the compromise to at least hold off on being intimate until they were sleeping. And really, since their language skills had improved dramatically in the year since that encounter, I really didn't need them telling any of our family members that Mommy made funny noises in the bedroom with Daddy. Just the thought of them saying that to Halina made my cheeks heat.
A cool body blurred into bed with me, chilly arms wrapping around my waist as a stubbled jaw nestled in my throat. I sighed contently, twisting my legs up with his; he was just as bare as I was. Knowing where this was going, the anticipation of it started surging through me, but the two toddlers talking through the walls helped to contain my fire.