Teren smiled as he slung his arms around my waist. "It's nice to see you'll only be using our powers for good."
Grinning, I rested my head against his. "Just being practical with my vampire boyfriend and his vampire family...especially if I'm going to have his vampire child."
He froze and stopped smiling. "You don't have to do that." His forehead moved against mine as he shook his head. "I'm not even sure if we should continue this...trait."
I pulled back to study his worried expression. "I don't know if I want to yet." I put my hands against his chest. "I guess I'm just telling you that I'll consider it. I'll consider it if you will."
He half-smiled. "Okay. We'll...consider it together then."
"Together...I like that idea. I love you." I gave him a warm kiss.
"I love you too," he whispered against my lips.
We spent most of the day lounging around his house in various stages of undress. We would have made his family proud-which both amused me and icked me out. We didn't bring up the baby topic again, or his impending demise, but both subjects swirled around my head. I was finally becoming okay about the latter event. Him not being as human as me would be a startling change, but really, I was in too deep with him to let that little hiccup ruin our relationship. And I looked at Alanna and Jack as my role models. They were happy. Deliriously happy I'd dare say, and we could have that, too. Plus, my boyfriend would be a hot twenty something for...well, quite possibly for eternity. I didn't overlook the bonus of that. Although at some point, I supposed that would make me a cougar.
The former event, getting pregnant within the year, that one was a little harder to wrap my head around. It wasn't that I'd never pictured having kids. I had even done the five second what would our children look like analysis on Teren's and my first date, but it was always a way off in the future event-right up there with teleporting and flying cars. It was definitely not something I thought I'd ever feel such enormous pressure to do right away. Most parents wanted their kids to wait until they were settled and ready-and preferably dating for longer than a month. But Teren's family didn't have the luxury of waiting. It really was now or never with them. That was a lot for a girl to consider.
Sunday, we decided to take Spike for a long walk along the beach. Happy as a pup could be, he yipped at birds, and dashed up to the edge of the water, before spinning and running back to a safe distance. I held Teren's warm hand in my own and marveled at the novelty of walking on a sunny California beach with a vampire.
"Why doesn't sunlight affect you?"
Teren laughed and looked over at me. "I have been waiting for that question ever since I first told you what I was. You held out much longer than I thought you would." I gave him a dour expression. Laughing again, he answered me, "Some of the vampire side effects seem to be diluting with each mixed generation." I looked up at him with a confused face, and he shrugged his shoulders and explained further. "Great-Gran is a full vampire, so she can't be in the sun at all..."
"Hence the being nocturnal," I stated and he nodded.
"Gran can be around sunlight, but she generally avoids it. She says it's like sticking your head in a hot oven."
I cringed as I remembered opening my mom's hot stove as a child and having that wave of heat blast me in the face. Being in that for only two seconds hadn't been enjoyable. "Oh, that doesn't sound pleasant at all."
"Yeah. Mom can be in the sun for short periods of time, but after a while, it does make her uncomfortable and if she stays too long, she burns-like an intense sunburn."
"Huh...and you?"
He held his palms up to the sunny sky. "I love the sun and it appears to love me right back. I suppose that could change when I fully cross over, but I don't think so. Mom and Gran said they were the same afterwards, in that regard."
"Interesting. What about silver and garlic and holy water?"
"Ah...are we having the myths conversation?" I squeezed his hand and nodded with enthusiasm. I wanted to know everything he could and couldn't do. Teren was amused by my reaction. "Well, they're much the same, although the water one is a complete myth, and garlic is more gross than dangerous."
"Oh...good to know."
He smirked at me. "Maybe I shouldn't be telling you all of our weaknesses."
I poked him in the stomach. "You don't seem to have any. You seem to have all of the benefits with none of the setbacks." He shrugged in agreement. "So...our kids would have that too?"
"Kids...now all of a sudden you want more than one?" I poked him again and he laughed. "Yes, our kids would be even more human." He said the last part quietly and looked over at the ocean, where Spike had finally gotten enough courage to dip his paws. His pale eyes were speculative, and I wondered what he was thinking about. Before I could ask though, he turned back to me with a bright smile. "I wouldn't mention anything about kids around my parents, unless you want them breathing down your neck...even more."
I laughed. "Don't worry. I had no intention of doing that." I sighed and watched a now semi-wet Spike bark at a seagull. "I suppose we should go back there soon. I should apologize for the way I left."
Teren swung our hands. "You have nothing to apologize for. They were out of line, and you had every right to ask to leave." He gave me a pointed look. "If I were human, I'd have done the same."
That was the first time he'd ever referenced himself as anything but human. It gave me a slight shudder, which I ignored, as I snuggled into his side while we walked.
"How exactly was Halina turned?"
"Standard vampire lore-she was drained of all her blood and it was replaced by a vampire's."
"Oh." I thought on that for a moment. He'd stressed earlier that he wouldn't be a monster, that he would still be himself when he changed, so, the vampire who changed her... I just couldn't see why anyone would turn a woman so obviously pregnant. "Why would someone do that to her, when she was with child?"
He looked down at our feet crunching along in the perfectly white sand. "Sometimes, people are just bad, Emma...whether human or vampire." I clenched his hand and laid my head on his shoulder as I thought about how true that was. The world was just a messed up place. He let out a weary exhale and I looked up at him. "Personally, I think he was just curious what would happen...to the baby, I mean." He shrugged his shoulders. "It's too late now. We can't ask him."
"Oh, did he run off and leave her alone?" For some reason, that sounded worse than him turning a pregnant woman. I'd think being a new vampire would be scary, especially all alone. Teren surprised me by laughing.
"No...not exactly." Curious, I searched his face for some hint of what he meant by that. He didn't leave me in the dark for long. "Great-Gran kind of staked him. She was a little...angry."
My mouth dropped wide open. "She staked him! A little angry..."
"Okay, maybe a lot."
"Remind me to never piss her off." A shudder passed through me and if it were possible, I was now even more terrified of the teenage-looking vampire.
Teren nodded and smiled. "That would be best..." He obviously saw a side of Halina that I didn't, and he found part of her highly amusing.
"What happened to her husband? Imogen's father?"
"He died...around the same time." His smile left and his tone went flat.
Realizing that the vampire that turned her had probably killed him, which would explain the anger and the subsequent staking of her creator, I redirected the conversation. "So, you really can be staked?"
"Sure. We heal most everywhere else, but...the heart...destroy that, and with anything, not just wood, and you destroy us. We don't know why, but it's the one human thing we really seem to still need."
I squeezed his hand. "That's nice." Now he examined me for a hint of what I meant. "Something we'll still have in common," I explained.
We walked along the beach in silence while I held onto his arm. I discretely watched him as we shuffled along the sandy slope, edging down to the breaking waters of the Pacific-his tan skin underneath my slightly paler skin, his black hair shining in the sunlight, the slight rise and fall of his chest that was visible to me as the breeze compressed his shirt to him, his pale eyes watching his pup frisk back and forth from the surf to the dunes. He was so alive. It was hard to picture him any other way.
"Maybe the change won't happen with you. Maybe you're different...maybe you'll stay human?"
He looked down on me. His eyes were wistful for a moment, before he shook his head. "I can feel it, Emma. It's coming, I'm already changing." Stopping, he put his arms around my waist. "I'm sorry...but I will die."
I averted my eyes, willing them to not water; if he could handle this, then I could. I felt his hand on my chin and I looked up at him. The very edges of his lips curled into a smile and then he brought those wondrous lips to mine. For a moment, as the sea breeze tickled our skin and the heavenly scent of him, mixed with the faint residue of salt in the air, I forgot that things would change. That they already were changing. I took my one moment in the sun with my vampire, and forced out all the rest.
I spent Sunday night at Teren's again, so Monday, I had to wake up especially early so I could go home and change into work clothes. Teren worked earlier than I did, so he was almost ready to leave himself, when I finally got my slow body out the door. He handed me some coffee in a travel mug and gave me a soft goodbye kiss at my car, which hadn't moved from his driveway since Friday night.
I was all smiles and giggles as I drove home. I was all contented sighs as I got dressed and styled my hair into loose waves. I was all doe-eyed goofiness as I walked into work and spouted a merry good morning to Clarice, who grunted some sort of response. And I was reminded again just how much had changed in one weekend, when a familiar blonde cautiously peeked her head over my cubicle wall.
I shut the drawer where I was stuffing my extremely full purse when I saw the top of her blonde head. I smiled and laughed at her apprehension. "Hi, Tracey! Good morning." My voice was all happy and light, darn near rainbows and sunshine.
She poked her head up all the way. "Hey. You seem in a better mood." She narrowed her eyes. "You were really out of it Friday. I thought Clarice was going to random drug test you." She furrowed her brow, like maybe she thought Clarice should have.
I giggled in my happiness. "I'm not on drugs, Tracey. But I am happy." I stood up and leaned over the wall with her. "Teren and I got back together. Everything is..." I sighed like a lovesick dork, "wonderful."
She hesitantly smiled, maybe remembering my many mood swings last week. "That's great, Emma. If that's what you want...then I'm happy for you."
I frowned. "What do you mean, if that's what I want? Of course it's what I want."
She frowned too. "Well, you obviously broke up with him for a reason, and there are plenty of other fish out there. Just don't feel like you have to...settle."
I pulled back from the wall and made my way to my desk to turn on my computer. "I'm not. Nobody...settles for Teren Adams." I flicked the screen on and watched it come to life. "He's amazing, Trace...the best."