I frowned too. The cattle were important to the Adams for more reasons than just the vampire’s survival. They were also the primary source of the family’s wealth. Although, they seemed affluent, even for successful ranchers.
Julian hopped out of his seat and darted off to the massive oak overhang covering the front door. Nika squirmed as she watched him run, so Teren set her down; she was instantly on her brother’s tail. Spike, having fallen asleep between his two favorite people, woke up and chased after them.
As I watched the trio approach the massive double doors that led into the warmest home I’d ever been to, I watched those doors open at just the right moment to let them all rush inside. Spike barked and sniffed everything while Nika and Julian leapt into the awaiting arms of their grandmother.
As she hugged them tight, kneeling in front of the door, her sky blue eyes looked over to her son.
Teren’s mother was like all of the vampires in the family. Well, all except Nika. Alanna had the straight, jet-black hair and crystal clear blue eyes, all in a face and body that belied her true age. She looked no older than Teren. She looked a bit younger than me. That made calling her “mom” feel a little odd, but I did it, to please her.
“Good morning, my lovelies,” she said warmly, kissing a grandchild on each head.
Teren and I waved our greetings then grabbed the various bags that accumulated whenever you went anywhere with kids. It wasn’t as if the ranch didn’t have every toy or luxury they could have asked for, but try telling that to a three-year-old who needed to bring his set of army men or her plastic ponies. It was a good thing for Teren and me that we had super strength.
We walked to the house, fully loaded down, as the kids broke off from Alanna to go say hi to their great-grandma, Grandma Immy, as they called her. I watched them flee up the impressive duel staircase that lead to Imogen’s rooms, Julian tripping halfway up and Nika pausing to help him.
Smiling as Imogen greeted them through the walls, I dropped my bags and engulfed the woman who had brought my husband into the world. “Hi, Mom,” I said warmly as I patted her chilly back.
“Hello, Daughter,” she replied just as warmly. When we separated, she naturally drifted over to Teren, squeezing his waist tight.
He laughed and tried to hug her back around his armful of bags. “Morning, Mom. Does dad know about—?”
Alanna straightened and shook her head, cutting him off. “Yes, I told him about the cows when I woke up and smelled it. He’s out examining them now.” She stepped away from her son, folding her arms over her chest. “We don’t usually have a predator problem, but with Grandma gone…” She shrugged.
I let my senses pinpoint the location of the one vampire not with us. It being daylight, I knew that the pureblood vampire was sleeping, but Halina wasn’t at the ranch. She wasn’t even in the city. She was down south, way down south in L.A., visiting with her sort of boyfriend. Her location had been down in that direction all week. Since she was a night owl, she’d naturally kept the property pretty clear of threats, being the biggest one herself. Her absence had let a little bit of bravery seep into those hungry creatures.
Teren looked over at where we’d smelled the blood, then back to me. “I should give him a hand cleaning up.”
I smiled and nodded, loving how Teren turned into rancher-Teren, anytime he came here. It was sexy on him.
He smiled crookedly, as if he were aware of my thoughts, then he grabbed the bags I’d dropped on the floor and blurred away upstairs. Once back down, he paused briefly to kiss my cheek, then he darted out to help his father. I watched the effortless streaking, feeling him in my head as the distance between us lengthened.
Alanna laughed and shook her head. “For someone who refuses to seclude himself here…he sure does love it.” She grinned wryly at her son’s opposing attitudes about his life, and I joined her.
She had a point. Teren lived in the city so he could feel a part of society. The vamps here mostly stayed to themselves, keeping contact with the outside world minimal. Teren enjoyed feeling as normal as he could and refused to hide away. Of course, he also had the least amount of side effects from his condition, so he could do that pretty easily, so long as he didn’t have to eat in front of anyone and no one lovingly rested their head against his silent chest. No one but me, that is.
But when he got out here, you had to wonder why he went through all the effort. This was a place he obviously loved, a lifestyle that was completely natural on him. But for his stubbornness, he could easily stay and run this place with his dad…and be perfectly content doing it.
Spike sat at the floor near my feet, thumping his tail on the cool marble entryway. Alanna reached down to ruffle his fur, not bothered in the least by his presence. “Would you like something to eat, boy,” she cooed, just like she would have for the children. He thumped his tail more and her ice eyes flashed up to me. “What about you? Hungry, dear?”
I smiled and shook my head. Alanna never stopped trying to do things for people. She was the mother I hoped to be one day. Patting Spike’s back as he started walking to the kitchen, I debated when and if I’d see the full vampire. Maybe we hadn’t had to worry about Spike’s safety after all. “Is Halina gone to Gabriel’s all weekend then?” I asked casually, mainly just curious if she’d be back, but also wondering how that pairing was doing.
Alanna looked back at me with a small smile as we walked down the hallway. "She’s coming up tonight, she wants to see the kids.” Her eyes flicked up to where they were playing in Imogen’s room; leapfrog by the sound of it. Smiling wider, she brought her youthful face back to mine. “She wanted to leave last night, but I guess she got…distracted.”
She shrugged and I knew exactly what had distracted her. There really was only one thing that would keep Halina away from a grandchild visit and he had a powerful demeanor and startlingly beautiful emerald eyes. I grinned and shook my head. “Well, the kids will be happy to feel her closer.”
That was one question we’d had to endure all week. “When is Grammy Lina gonna move?” We told them repeatedly that she was with Grandpa Gabriel, but, really, that didn’t stop the questioning, it only added, “Is Grandpa Gabby gonna be there?” Even though we visited nearly every weekend, it was always quite the event to our kids, nearly rivaling Christmas.
Entering the kitchen, I watched Alanna open one of the deep mahogany cabinets and pull out a can of dog food, the good kind too. I smiled. Alanna was prepared for everything, even random visits from grand-pups. Taking in the tidy opulence of the master-chef quality kitchen, I asked, “Is Gabriel coming back with her? I’m sure the kids would love to see him too.”
I frowned after my question, not displeased if he showed, but not entirely pleased either. I always felt like we should all be sitting under a bright light with a giant magnifying glass over our heads whenever he visited.
Alanna popped the gooey dog food out, the mush making a sucking noise as it released from the can. The smell was atrocious, but Spike attacked it like she’d just poured a liter of blood into his bowl.
Looking back up at me, she shrugged. “I don’t know.” Shaking her head, she sighed a little. “It’s hard to tell sometimes, what’s going on with those two.”
I leaned back against the counter opposite her, the granite cool under my fingertips. “Do you think she actually loves him?” I raised an eyebrow. It seemed such a foreign word when you put it together with the seductive Halina.
Alanna cocked her head, thinking. While she debated, we both heard Imogen say from upstairs, “I think Mother does love him…not that she’ll ever admit it. She plays it off as just a physical relationship, but I’ve seen things.”
I cringed a little bit at how open the mother and daughter were with each other, but, in the beginning, all they’d had was each other. I suppose that had bonded them in a way that was much closer than the average family.
I nodded, then shook my head. “Halina in love…what is the world coming to?”
Both vampire women laughed, my children joining along, even though they didn’t understand what we were laughing at.
A few hours later, after running through every room in the massive spread that the Adams lived in, my breathless children ran up to me in the living room. Relaxing with a glass of wine and rustling my feet in Spike’s fur as he stretched out in front of the enormous, artistic fireplace, I lazily smiled at them as they crawled all over me.
Julian sat in my lap while Nika grabbed my face. “Mommy, can we go see Daddy?”
Feeling that Teren was no longer near the place where the “incident” with the cows had happened, I nodded at them. Julian squealed and then they took off, running out the backdoor to where they could sense him. Spike lifted his head as they darted between Alanna’s legs, but then rested back down, too comfortable to chase after them. I felt the same way.
Alanna smiled at my contentment, patting my shoulder, then when on about maintaining the luxurious home that they lived in. I closed my eyes, offering to help, and heard her chuckle and tell me to relax as she slipped out of the main building to one of the other side buildings.
The ranch had three buildings in all, the main two-story dwelling being where the family stayed, with Halina’s room being underground. The side buildings held various rooms along with several guest rooms. And all the buildings formed a U shape around a huge swimming pool in the back yard. Coming here was like coming to a resort. Getting married here had been idyllic.
Settling back into the couch, I felt my family reunite. I smiled at the mental image of Teren and his dad greeting the kids. Teren’s dad, Jack, was completely human, but obviously in the loop. He adored those kids, doting on them nearly as badly as the vampiric women. It would be a miracle if I could somehow raise those two without them getting spoiled to pieces.
Setting my empty glass on the coffee table, I drifted in and out of alertness, my hearing and smell drifting in and out as well. I could make out Imogen and Alanna talking to each other, even though they weren’t anywhere near the other. I could smell the roast Alanna had broiling in the kitchen, along with the hint of fresh blood that was still wafting in the room from outside. I could hear and sense Spike’s breathing, steady and slow, as he too started drifting off.
It was some time later when my eyes popped back open and my alertness slowly returned to me. I stretched out, Spike wrapped around my feet, groaning lightly as I moved him. Mentally rolling my eyes, I wondered why this ranch constantly wore me out, even if hadn’t done anything. Maybe it was just so comfortable here that it lulled me into submission. I think I preferred that thought.
Sitting up, I yawned slightly. Glancing out back, to when I could still see bright rays of afternoon sun glinting off the water in the pool, I felt for the other vampires.
Imogen was in her room, waiting out the remnants of day, her knitting needles clacking away. Alanna and Jack were talking about the attack in the kitchen; apparently a mountain lion had taken down two cows, one with child. Both Alanna and Jack were upset about it. As Imogen offered to stay out nights when Halina was away, to spook off any would-be predators, I felt for my children.
Their presence always in the back of my mind, I felt them outside with Teren, still playing in the pastures. Standing, I listened to Alanna and Imogen work out a plan to watch-guard the property when their nocturnal predator was away with her boyfriend. I felt bad that I couldn’t help. Seeing as how I could barely keep my eyes open here during the day, I knew I wouldn’t be very helpful on guard duty. Plus, I knew they wouldn’t let me do it. Not while I was alive. Not when I didn’t have the super healing attributes that they all had as undead vampires. They’d keep me away from danger just as surely as I kept the kids out of danger.
Quietly leaving them to their conversations, I went to go find my darlings. As I stepped into the bright California sunshine, I heard Alanna address me. “Emma, tell the kids I have some fresh cow’s blood for them.”
I shook my head at her thoughtfulness. “Okay, thank you, Mom.”
“You’re welcome, dear.”
As I heard the conversations shift back to the cows, I blurred across the fields to find the hearts that lingered outside of my body, beating or not. Streaking to the very east fields, I slowed to a normal pace.
As I walked into an empty pasture, to where I could sense Teren and my children, I came across a scene that made my heart surge. My husband was playing with them in the way that most men played with their offspring. He was laughing as he tossed them into the air. I was fine with that. Children, for some odd reason, loved being chucked around. What made my heart surge though was the fact that Teren was chucking them “vampire style.”
He would toss one in a sideways arch, the child laughing and giggling as they flew through the air. Then he would blur to where they were going to land and catch them. It was like he was playing catch with himself…with my children.
The toddlers squealed and giggled, begging him for more, their little faces alive with love and joy and complete faith that their father would never let them get hurt. Their tiny growing minds probably didn’t even comprehend the meaning of the word. Daddy had them. They were safe.
My mind had a little more understanding of just what could go wrong with Teren’s little game. Blurring over to him, I grabbed his hand when he was about to fling our giggling daughter. “Teren Nathaniel Adams! That’s enough of that!”
He looked over at me, a huge grin on his face as he swayed Nika back and forth in his arms, still prepping to launch her. “What? They love this. They’ve been asking me to do it all day.” He turned to Julian sitting on the grass beside us. “Right, little man?”
Julian grinned and clapped his little hands, his fangs extended in his merriment. As I looked at Teren’s miniature clearly enjoying himself, I sighed. Teren took my moment of indecision to chuck our daughter into the air. I gasped as I watched her tiny limbs flail about. He’d thrown her pretty far, and my heart started to race. He was already speeding over to her, but what if he missed? The ground wasn’t exactly a soft cushion. She’d break something for sure and with her mixed blood, we couldn’t take her to a doctor.
Just as my hands were going to my face, he caught her in a bucket scoop, twisting his body with the movement so the landing would be a gentle one for her. She laughed and threw her arms around his neck while he chuckled at her. “Again, Daddy!”
The vision of them together was heartwarming, but there was just no way I was letting this continue. My heart couldn’t take it. Blurring over to him, I grabbed Nika, scooping her up and resting her on my hip. Julian had already blurred over to us, only tripping once halfway through the field, and I grabbed his hand before he reached Teren.
“Me, Daddy. My turn!”
Teren reached down for his son, but I pulled them both a step away from him. He glanced up at me and rolled his eyes, a slow grin spreading on his face. “I think Mommy’s had enough of our fun for today,” he said, his grin widening.
Clutching my children tightly, I twisted my lips at him. “I wish you’d keep in mind that they don’t heal like you do. They’re mostly human, you know.”
He put his hands on his hips. “Do you really doubt my abilities? I wouldn’t let them get hurt. Ever.”
I sighed, knowing he meant well. I just also knew that things happened that were beyond our control. Our entire family was sort of proof of that. “I trust you with them, Teren.” I shrugged and sighed again. “I just can’t handle the what-ifs.”
He tilted his head and then gently shook it. “Still the worry-wart.”
I laughed in spite of myself. “One of us has to be.”
The kids started complaining once they realized their vampiric games were over. “No, more, more, more.” They started chanting that in unison, their little hands reaching out to Teren. Sometimes I cursed the fact that we’d ever taught them to speak. It was much easier to redirect an infant that couldn’t talk back to you.
Turning to head toward the h
ouse, I pulled Julian’s arm and held Nika tighter. Both were trying to escape me, to get back to Teren. “Nope, fun’s over for now.”
They started crying in earnest and Teren laughed, rustling Julian’s hair before patting him on the back. “Go with Mom.” Ducking down to Julian’s height, he added, “We’ll play again later.”
Julian giggled, his small face identical to the grown man before him, right down to the devilish grin. I gave Teren a scathing glare as he stood, but he only laughed at my look and shrugged. “What?”
Groaning in frustration, I tugged Julian’s arm. He willingly went with me, knowing Daddy had promised him more flying later. “Come on kids, Grandma has some blood for you and it’s getting cold.” That immediately got their attention, and squealing in delight, they both jerked away from me.
Setting Nika down and letting Julian go, I watched them streak off to the house. I completely understand their enthusiasm; I was getting a little thirsty myself.
Chuckling, Teren walked up to me and grabbed my hand. Sighing, I looked over at him. The sunlight bounced off his dark hair, creating a ring of light in it. It highlighted his pale eyes, showcased the sexy stubble. Even though I didn’t want to, I found myself responding to just looking at him. He smiled wider as he sensed where my mood had shifted to. Grabbing my waist, he pulled me into him. “They’re fine, but I’ll stop if it really bothers you.”
Conversion Book Three: 'Til Death Page 6