Bloodlust: An Alien Vampire Romance (The Dark World Series Book 3)

by T. J. Quinn

  Chapter 7

  Jumping Into The Mix

  ~ Danielle ~

  Music Mix

  Danielle found Andrew’s children with the Kalian neighbor, Trav. The gentleman was nice and polite but slightly suspicious about giving up Andrew’s children to her. It took him over an hour to get ahold of their father to verify that she had permission to take them, leaving her feeling kind of ignorant for not thinking to get authenticated video verification before coming.

  Andrew was right they were very small and sweet. One appeared to be about two and the other about five. Dropping down to her knees, she spoke to them at eye level. “My name is Danielle, and your father got tied up with some business, so we thought it would be fun if I visited with you for a bit.” Her command of Kalian was rudimentary at best. With the help of the Kalian neighbor, she muddled through.

  “Can you thank mister Trav for his hospitality?”

  Both of the little ones gave him a hug and murmured their thanks.

  Turning to the still slightly apprehensive man, she traded contact information with him.

  He spoke hesitantly, “If you need anything, contact me. I will render what assistance I can.”

  Smiling politely, she tried to put his mind at east. “I know this is a really strange situation, but I believe Andrew is my one. Rest assured I’ll take good care of his little ones.”

  “If what you say is true, the two of you must have the worst timing in the entire world to have discovered it now.”

  “It depends on how you look at it. I’ve been searching for a very long time. To have found him when he needs me the most can only draw us closer.”

  Finally relaxing a little, he commented. “I never knew humans had ones. Only the Kalian believe in such things.”

  “I was raised with a Kalian family. Maybe some of your beliefs rubbed off on me.”

  “Ah, this makes more sense to me now. You and Andrew have my best wishes. Again, if you need anything at all, just contact me.”

  “Thanks for everything. I don’t know what Andrew would have done without you.”

  “The Kalian tend to look after each other when we can. I only wish I weren’t working two jobs. I am sending credits to my aging parents, or I would have taken time off to provide more care for Andrew’s tiny daughters.”

  “He’s got me for that now, so don’t worry about them. I promise to see they are well cared for. Speaking of which, we should probably get going.”

  “Goodbye, Miss. Daniella.”

  Gathering the girls up, she murmured a quick goodbye and took them next door to their home. The girls ran inside, and Danielle explored the house. She found the nest in the corner of his bedroom just as he had said. It was larger than she would have expected. It was made of steel and had a large glass bowl filled with liquid and a gentle blue light which seemed to be providing warmth as well as lighting. She had to admit that it did not look beautiful. It looked very utilitarian but seemed to function well. The unborn child was about the size of a large fist. Danielle could not tell if the unborn child was a male or female, but it was beautiful.

  She ran her hand gently over the glass bowl. It was easy to see why the Kalian believed the nest was superior to the mother’s womb. It afforded the growing fetus more space to grow, the nutrients could be optimized to enhance growth, and the unborn child was not affected by everything the woman consumed. A substantial number of human women still drank alcohol, ate chemical laden foods and even did designer drugs while they were pregnant. This nest offered an unparalleled opportunity for the unborn child to thrive. The health and safety of Andrew’s children were now her responsibility and Daniella was not about to take any chances on something unexpected happening.

  Settling the little ones into their play room, she called a top-rated security company and arranged for a comprehensive security system to be installed along with a back-up power supply that kicked in automatically.

  Her phone jingled about an hour later.

  Looking at the view screen, she hit the talk button as she made food for the little ones. “Hello Edward.”

  “Jon filled us in on the situation. It is most unfortunate Andrew Staunton does not have anyone to manage his family. I’m not surprised to see you step up. Although we could have put the daughters in state’s custody, his unborn child would have had a tough time making it while we litigated this case. You’re doing the right thing by recusing yourself from his case.”

  “It turns out he’s a close family friend. Our fathers were fighting partners during the war, and we’ve always been extremely close to his family. They even took me for about six months when I was a little girl, and my mother was hospitalized.”

  “Jesus, are you serious? It’s a good thing he thought to call you.”

  Rather than going into the all the details with her law partner, Daniella simply agreed. “Yes, I’ll do what I can for him, and I’m grateful to Jon for taking the case.”

  “About that…”

  Cutting him off, Daniella interjected firmly. “I know what you’re going to say. This is not the case for him to cut his teeth on and you’d be right about that. However, he is Kalian, and the clients really trust him to do right by them. They’re really skittish right now and introducing a new lead attorney would really throw them for a loop.”

  “He can’t hope to win this case on his own, Daniella. Even you must see that.”

  “I agree. He will do an excellent job if we get some more experienced partners in there to support him. Let him take the lead and give him the resources and guidance he needs to move forward. I promise it is the best option moving forward.”

  Sighing, the older attorney finally capitulated. “I suppose you are correct.”

  Encourage Jem to help him interact with the clients. They need a little TLC from our firm, and Jem has really good soft skills.”

  “Braxton and Harper have been enthusiastic about the work we’re doing on this one. I think between the four of them, we have a good chance at grabbing some glory.”

  “Did you manage to link up a judge to talk about house arrest?”

  “They wouldn’t even discuss it because they don’t want to be seen as undermining law enforcement on this issue. The judge reluctantly signed an order for the 3D link-up. I honestly don’t think he wanted the responsibility of something going wrong and getting blamed for a worst-case scenario outcome.”

  “Thank goodness. Being able to get instructions will get me through until some other arrangements can be made.”

  Danielle called a security firm and had them communicate with Andrew for directions on where to put the monitoring equipment. She had only one stipulation, and that was no equipment in the bathrooms. They arrived by about four in the afternoon install the security system and with the link upgrade. It was a fairly commonplace procedure. The security firm was renowned for completed installs quickly and at the customer’s convenience. They were in and out in two hours.

  The judge had limited the link to one-way communication to avoid the appearance of giving unlimited video chatting to a single family. That made sense to Daniella. The one-way link was the minimum necessary level of communication necessary to get the job done.

  Andrew could receive 3D visual images of his bedroom to monitor the nest, the girl’s bedroom, his living room, dining room and kitchen. He could also monitor grounds outside his home. The system gave him the capacity to give verbal directions and hear everything going on in the home.

  There was also an image link from two monitoring devices and her cell phone. She clipped a device onto each of his children so he could see everything going on in front of each child. The security firm had run through the particulars with her, so she knew his screen was split three ways. One he could control to look at any of the stationary screens, and the other two were from the clips worn by his little ones.

  Pulling out some work from her brief case, she settled down to work as the two little ones ate their food. Daniella noticed th
ey sat close and whispered back and forth. They were smiling and seemed happy, so she wasn’t overly concerned about how they were coping. Since they were so young, it might take them a minute to realize their father was not coming home anytime soon. Time was different for small children. If she kept them busy, they not feel the drag of time the way most adults did. Getting on her electronic tablet, she began scanning children’s movies and games.

  Chapter 8

  Jumping Into The Mix

  ~ Andrew ~

  Music Mix

  Andrew watched from his jail cell as the beautiful human busied herself straightening up his place and making dinner for the girls. She was graceful and self-assured in a way few humans were. Seeing a virtual stranger in his home when he was not there would normally be something that provoked his ire, but seeing Danielle there caring for his children seemed not only right, but it provoked a primitive possessive visceral response.

  He watched her make food from a box for dinner. Though he did not approve of her choice in food items, he kept the objection to himself. His gratitude about her agreeing to care for his children was reason enough not to pester with tiny details. Relief surged through his chest when he saw that she did not seem to be drinking intoxicating beverages, vaping, using mood modifiers, or doing anything else that he found truly objectionable around his children.

  In fact, she seemed warm, polite, and interactional with them. He noticed that she used mostly hand gestures and rudimentary Kalian to communicate with the girls. Somehow, she made it work.

  Andrew was mesmerized by watching her play and interact with his small daughters. It was exactly how he always dreamed a female would care for his young. His little ones were giggling and happy all evening. Danielle streamed a game of some sort that the girls appeared to enjoy. It appeared to one focused on picking and arranging virtual flower arrangements. He thought it was only a game that little girls would find interesting. He was a little surprised that Danielle spent time playing the game with them. Perhaps it was a female thing.

  For some reason, his youngest sat on her leg instead of the furniture. He started to say something to the child but decided to just see how Danielle reacted to having an alien child touching her. He didn’t have to wait long. The little girl began having a problem with her game and Danielle brought her arms up around the child, pulled her into her lap and moved the child’s hands on the controller until she learned the move. His little daughter began to laugh. Danielle turned her sideways tickling her before sitting her down on the sofa and going off to get their baths ready. He noticed the girls laughing and whispering with each other. He was relieved. They seemed happy, and he had to admit nothing he saw led him to believe she saw caring for his young to be an unpleasant burden.

  She got them bathed, ready for bed, and they all piled onto one of the beds for story time. He could not hear what the children were trying to tell her because they were whispering. But, once story time was over, he watched Danielle go to the living room, get a framed picture of him, take it to the girls room. She let them kiss the picture and sat it on the small table between their beds. Andrew could feel himself becoming emotional. He hated for his children to do without him. She left them a night light and kept the door cracked.

  Danielle curled up on his sofa, got onto her computer, and pulled up a Kalian language program. She quietly began practicing her articulation. He was impressed. The woman was beautiful, driven, and even disciplined herself to pronounce words correctly in his language, presumably to communicate with his children. It was clear she was doing everything she could to make this situation work. She seemed like a truly nice person.

  He also saw her pull up information on nesting and began skimming through it. She was very detail oriented, and he respected her for that. Breathing out a sigh of relief, he was slowly starting to believe this might all work out somehow.

  She finally stood up, stretched and moved around turning out the lights as she went to the only other bed in the house, his bed. He should turn off the imager but found that was sitting in the darkness of his cell barely daring to breathe as she slowly stepped into his bathroom for a shower. The door closed behind her cutting off her view. As the minutes ticked by, he let his imagination run a little wild. The thought of her pale little body rubbing against his sheets made him hard, and it was totally unacceptable to be thinking of the nice lady taking care of his children that way.

  She came back out in a towel, opened one of his drawers, and pulled out a white t-shirt. Andrew chewed his bottom lip as she pulled the shirt over her head and slipped the towel down the bottom. She walked over to the nest for the 5th time and noticed that everything seemed to be going fine.

  He quickly used his speaker. “Please lower the lighting on the nest by twenty-five percent. She seemed surprised and complied. He stated in a breathless stuttering voice. “Thank you, Danielle, sweet dreams.”

  A slightly tired smile curved the corners of her mouth as she slid between his sheets. He liked the look of the lady attorney in his bed. Then he realized she was only there because he was here.

  Unable to resist, Andrew left the 3D display up. Though she fell asleep almost immediately, he lay watching her until he could no longer hold his eyes open.

  Waking the next day early, he saw the girls running to his bed just like they did when he was home. He smiled as Danielle pulled back the top blanket and let them climb into bed with her. They slept for another hour or so, before Danielle slid out of bed, got dressed, and began making breakfast.

  Andrew’s voice came gently over the speaker, “Good morning Danielle. I hope you slept well. Please make fresh fruit and toast for the girls. They don’t drink milk.”

  Danielle nodded, got out some fruit, and began cutting it up. When she turned to put toast in the toaster, his older child climbed up and began to grab the knife. Danielle saw the child slide into the chair out of the corner of her eye, and her hand shot out quick as a wink and stopped her just before her hand got to the knife. It was clear to Andrew the woman had a natural talent when it came to caring for children.

  Andrew’s used the microphone, murmuring a warning to his small one. She perked up at hearing his voice. He stated calmly in Kalian, “I have not forgotten you my little sweet. Be good for your new caretaker, and I will be home soon.” His little one teared up, and Danielle gave her a hug and rocked her until she calmed down. Giving her a piece pineapple, his little one seemed to cheer up and sat munching on the fruit as she swung her feet back and forth.

  Danielle fed the children, washed the dishes, and got them and herself dressed. She called for a driver to drop off her luxury vehicle and headed for her house. Andrew was impressed that she was careful to check the nest one last time and to set the security alarm before leaving his place.

  She walked into her apartment with the kids, pulled out two huge suitcases and began filling them with clothing from her closet and drawers. It was fascinating to watch because he knew her choices had a purpose however he could see it himself. She threw her jewelry into another case and added her makeup and few other necessities. He could see his little one walking around curiously looking at things in her room. It was a rather more effeminate environment than they were used to.

  It occurred to Andrew to wonder how long she planned to stay because she sure packed a lot of clothing. She would certainly be more familiar with how long it took situations like his to resolve than him. Gods of chaos, if she was settling in for a long duration, then that surely meant he was going to be in jail for a just as long. When the shock of that realization wore off, he looked back at the screen to find they were back in her vehicle again.

  When he saw them get out of the vehicle at the detention center, guilt churned in his stomach for putting his little ones through this. Within moments the guard came for him, and he was led to a small room and given his street clothing. That his little ones wouldn’t see him an orange jumpsuit calmed his nerves a bit.

  He slipped on his faded je
ans and a white t-shirt. He was taken out a side door to an enclosed well-landscaped area with picnic tables. Danielle had been correct when she told him it was much like a park. There were a small sand table and small gym for children to climb on. He was smart enough to know it had been designed by a psychologist to cue children into thinking of it as a park by proving familiar visual clues. That side of the building even looked more like an office complex than a prison. Humans could be quite clever at times.

  Chapter 9

  Visiting Hours

  ~ Andrew ~

  Music Mix

  Watching Danielle coming up the walk with his children, Andrew couldn’t help but admire the woman’s adaptability. The girls ran up to him and he kneeled to scoop them up into his arms. It felt good to have them close again. Since they did not have in their minds to let him go, he stood with one in each arm and followed Danielle over to the table.

  Glancing down at the helpful female, he smiled. “You were correct about this space being well designed. It is the perfect space for detainees to spend time with their children.”

  “If there is one thing you can always count on from me, it is honesty.”

  She pulled out activities for the girls and they grudgingly let go him to grab their markers. “My little ones looked and smelled clean and well cared for. I watched you making the strange design in their hair this morning. I find that I am still perplexed about it.”

  “It’s called a French braid. I don’t know the origin of the style, but it’s good for keeping the hair off their necks.”

  “The little metal clips are pretty. Thank you for caring for them as if they were your own.

  “Andrew, your girls are great. I’m having the time of my life. You should drink your coffee before it gets cold.”

  Bringing the cup to his lips, he took a sip, nearly strangling on the exceptionally sweet taste.