Pawliday Love

Fangs and Forever

FANGS AND FOREVER

S able had lived a million lives. Lives of adventure. Lives of daring. Lives of…

“Nine,” murmured Loukas Cato from where he glanced up at the sleek brown cat currently balancing her way across the top of his library bookshelf. The number seemed important somehow, and he’d felt the need to speak it aloud as soon as he spotted her. “You’ve lived nine lives. That’s the standard number of lives for a feline, supernatural or not. I wonder what your limit actually is…”

The cat landed in front of him, shaking the small table — and the open book in front of him — when her soft paws hit the surface. The reference tome was one he’d picked up in a used bookstore a few decades earlier, and he’d read it hundreds of times already. In the flickering light of his fireplace, he could barely see the words anymore. Or perhaps that was simply exhaustion.

Another midwinter approached, and the endless loneliness only seemed more pronounced this time of year. How he longed for companionship. For someone to spend these long, dark nights with him.

Sable stepped daintily onto the open pages of his book and stared up at him in a way that could have been vaguely condescending. A large yawn showed off her impressive fangs.

If she weren’t a 7 pound ball of fluff and attitude, Loukas might have been annoyed. The temptation to flash his own fangs back at her passed quickly. He didn’t actually want to scare her off.

Loukas sighed, leaned back, and folded his arms. The black silk of his long-sleeve shirt pulled taut, and his collar felt too tight, too restricting. It was an outfit for a different age. Somehow, he always ended up behind the times.

“Yes, yes, I have you,” he told the cat as Sable settled in for a nap atop his book. Little strands of brown fur fluttered over the edges to settle on the table's surface. He reached out to scratch behind one ear — just in the spot she liked — and his efforts dislodged a few scraps of dry, fluttery linen that crumbled away at his touch. Loukas’ voice went low, almost cracking with some emotion he hadn’t expected. “I didn’t expect you to show up tonight. It’s been a long time, friend.”

It had been 47 years, in fact, since he’d last seen the cat. Too many winters. Too many years.

Not that Loukas had specific expectations about timing. Some gaps in their acquaintance lasted months. Others spanned centuries.

The two things that never changed were her propensity to rise from the dead to come find him and the fact that Loukas was always the one to put her to rest when her time with him ended. Being a vampire made being available for the second part convenient. The first, too, he supposed.

Seeing her here now reminded him of that last time he’d done that duty. He’d wrapped her gently in the strips of linen that matched those she’d originally been mummified in during her original tenure here on earth and set her back in the tiny feline-shaped sarcophagus to spend however long resting until the magic demanded she rise again.

“Ah, Sable,” he murmured, fishing in his pocket for a thin pink collar with a silver ankh-shaped pendant adorned with her name. He’d bought the collar a decade ago, not knowing when he’d see her again. It had moved from pocket to pocket ever since. Fastening it around her neck, he mused aloud in a one-sided conversation.

“It has been a lonely existence without you. Not that I ever expected less, being what I am. If there were still others of my kind, perhaps things would be different…”

He’d heard rumors of small enclaves of vampires still out there in the world, hidden so well that they went undetected by mortals. If the tales were true, then they were also hidden so well he’d never been able to locate them.

The last vampire clan he’d encountered had been destroyed by mortal hunters when a few members took too much from their local community and drew attention to their existence. He’d escaped with his life, but as far as he knew, no one else had.

Before that, there had been the Vilissi family. They’d been down to two ancient members by the time he found them. After an accident involving a house fire took out one of the pair, the other had chosen to seek the dark, final end.

Thinking about the lack of immortals in his world always made Loukas depressed. He preferred to aim his thoughts in better directions. Like researching ways to help Sable find peace instead of inexplicably rising from her mummified state over and over to keep him company.

A cat shouldn’t be tied to a vampire for all eternity. Even if finding a solution for her meant spending the rest of his own forever alone, he still intended to do it. That’s what he’d been working on when she arrived. Searching for possible solutions to her curse.

Not that he could do any work now that she’d decided to plop down on his book and take a nap.

He returned to scratching her favorite spot behind her ear.

Sable, indifferent to his conflicted emotional state, purred into his hand.

Emmaline “Emmi” Wallace rushed through a question and answer session to a small group of tourists, trying to resist the urge to check the time. This day had been a mess, and it didn’t seem as though the evening would go any better.

There had been a mix-up in the crates sent for the new exhibit, a problem with the plumbing in the second-floor bathroom, and the last group tour had run late enough that they were still here after the official 6 o’clock closing time. It was the final day open before the museum shut down for the winter holidays, and she had far too much to do before she could… what? Go home to an empty apartment and wish she were still at the museum surrounded by a history she could never touch?

Anyway, she was supposed to meet the museum’s new potential benefactor at 6:30 before clocking out, and she still had to do a final walkthrough to make sure everything was secure before he got here.

Being promoted to director of the Natural History museum without being given any extra staff to help run the place wasn’t exactly the exciting career trajectory she’d anticipated. But still, Emmi was determined to prove she could keep the place open — that it was worth keeping open.

There were items here that held centuries of secrets. And while Emmi didn’t have the kind of magic that made a splash on newspaper front pages, she did have an uncanny ability to sense certain details about the past in objects that looked to others like inert artifacts.

Exploring the tiniest details of history wasn’t on her immediate agenda, though. Keeping the place running so she could continue pursuing her curiosity was.

No matter how much she wished she could spend years diving into the details of every historical object that she came across, Emmi was, unfortunately, only human. And she had a job to do.

“If no one has any more questions,” she said, guiding the group toward the exit, “we can wrap up this tour and get you all on your way.”

A young teen in the back raised her hand. Great. Emmi hoped whatever question the kid had could be answered in one sentence and didn’t involve explaining the sex lives of ancient European peasants.

“Yes?” she asked, putting on her brightest, most helpful smile.

The teen pointed down the hall behind her toward the exhibit on burial customs from different cultures.

“Why’s there a cat in the museum?”

A cat?

Emmi spun around, catching the swish of a brown tail as something furry dipped around a corner into the exhibit area.

Apparently, catching a cat who somehow snuck into the museum was yet another unexpected duty she needed to take on tonight.

She ushered the tourists out, locked the front door, then checked her phone to see if she had time to go in search of a lost cat.

Fifteen minutes. That’s how long she had until the mystery new museum benefactor was supposed to show up. She could either chase the cat, make her rounds to check all the doors, or stop in a bathroom to make sure she was presentable enough to convince some stranger to spend money to keep the museum afloat in the new year.

Emmi chose the cat.

Not the wisest choice, probably. But something about the feline piqued her interest. How had it gotten inside? Was it chasing a rodent? Did that mean there were mice in the museum and she’d have to call an exterminator?

Turning the corner into exhibit hall A, she scanned the room for the lost feline. There was no sign of the creature. Three exhibit halls later, and she couldn’t figure out where the thing might have gone.

Maybe she and the teen had both imagined it.

There was no time left to continue the search, though. A buzz rang through the air, indicating someone at the front door, just as her phone alarm went off to let her know it was time to meet the potential patron.

Waiting at the front door of the Natural History museum as a light snow fell around him, Loukas prepared himself for a boring meeting that would end as these things always did. Maybe he could get out of this one quickly. Arrange his donation and avoid all the small talk and efforts to get him to socialize.

For some reason, museum directors always wanted sponsors to show up at official events and put their names on plaques. Loukas preferred anonymity.

Maybe that’s why he’d ended up alone. It was hard to find companions — even temporary ones — when you stayed in your hidden mansion on the hill reading old reference books instead of socializing.

He had to come out to do this, though.

Loukas always sponsored the exhibits that tended for Sable’s sarcophagus. It was a century-old tradition by now, a way to ensure the safety of her mortal remains between reanimations. He’d learned long ago that trying to keep an ancient feline sarcophagus on his person during frequent moves between countries wasn’t feasible. Museums had the means and ability to get such things through customs and keep them safe over years.

The museum’s front door opened, and all thoughts of donations and avoiding parties fled Loukas’ mind.

“I’m so sorry for making you wait,” said the woman who opened the door. “Please, come in, Mr. Cato.”

She was much younger than he’d expected, probably in her mid-20s, and far prettier than most of the museum directors he’d met with over the years. Her shoulder-length brown hair was slightly tousled, and she was slightly out of breath, as though she’d run across the entire museum to reach the door. He could sense her pulse racing beneath her skin, fast and powerful. There was a fleeting instant in which he imagined sinking his fangs into her throat and tasting her. A mental twist that imagined tasting her in other ways. Then Loukas shook his head slightly, dislodging those thoughts to focus on his mission.

“It’s of no concern, Ms. Wallace,” he said, stepping into the museum foyer after her. “I have all the time in the world.”

He shouldn’t have said it, and her curious glance only emphasized the point. But sometimes he couldn’t help himself from searching for a connection. Even a fleeting one.

“You can call me Emmi,” said the woman as she led him past exhibit rooms to an office in the back. Loukas admired her as they walked. The soft curves of her body weren’t quite disguised by the thick sweater and leggings she wore, and her skin glowed with some inner light.

And while most mortals tended to find him intimidating, his supernatural senses picked up clues of her interest in him as well. She’d been quick to glance away from him after letting him inside. He had the impression she was making a concerted effort to control her runaway pulse.

Attraction wasn’t connection, though. And he had no interest in temporary dalliances with someone who would ultimately exit his life and leave him lonelier than before they’d met.

With an arm wave at the exhibit hall they were passing, the woman spoke. Her words were formal and polite, but he could hear something else beneath them, some nervous energy he wanted to investigate. “I can give you a tour first if you’d like. Or after we discuss the specifics of your donation.”

“Later is fine.” His eyes latched onto hers as she turned her head to make sure he was following. That warm amber gaze drew him, made him more relaxed than he should have been with a stranger. “And please, it’s Loukas.”

Normally, Loukas turned down offers of private tours. He kept things formal and used last names. He handled the financial matters quickly and avoided further dealings with mortals. But perhaps this once, he’d relent. Spending a small portion of his night with a beautiful woman seemed not too difficult a task. It wouldn’t alleviate his perpetual loneliness, but it might provide an enjoyable distraction.

Something soft pressed against the bottom of his silk pants, a familiar pressure he knew would leave a smattering of brown fur across the black fabric.

“The cat!” exclaimed the museum director, reaching down to grab the wayward feline.

With a sigh, Loukas reached down to pet Sable’s head.

Their hands collided and an unexpected spark reverberated between them.

When Emmi had opened the door to greet the new museum donor, she’d expected an elderly patron. A socialite. A person with too much money and a desire to show off an interest in culture without knowing a thing about actual culture.

She hadn’t expected a hot guy with piercing dark eyes dressed all in black who made her want to climb him like a tree. It wasn’t often that Emmi felt instant attraction to someone, but she couldn’t imagine how anyone wouldn’t have that reaction to this man.

When their hands touched as they both reached for the cat, her brain stopped being able to process anything at all. Her magic kicked in and impressions flooded in as though the man were an artifact himself and not a person. A living, complex artifact who happened to have a pet cat that magically appeared in her museum.

Not that she had any complaints.

He felt like ancient mysteries. Like secrets she wanted to uncover.

She wasn’t especially familiar with different forms of magic, despite having minor magic of her own, but the man’s touch definitely wasn’t normal .

In the ensuing awkward pause, Loukas scooped up the cat. His eyes hadn’t left her face, though.

“She’s yours,” said Emmi, belatedly realizing that the cat was too well groomed and healthy to be a feral. “I saw her earlier and thought she was a stray who snuck inside. I was trying to catch her before you got here.”

Clearly, the pink collar and obvious familiarity with the man made it clear the cat was, in fact, not a stray.

“Her name is Sable,” said Loukas, and her gaze caught on his strong hands as they swept down the cat’s back.

She probably should have stopped speaking at that point, but it seemed to be a choice between talking or starting to stroke the man like he was stroking the cat. This, she knew, would be an extremely inappropriate thing to do.

Emmi kept talking.

“I’m not sure how she got in or how she evaded me. There must be a hole somewhere. This museum needs so many repairs it’s ridiculous. It got neglected before I came onboard and… Wait. Not that I expect you to donate out of pity. The repairs are my problem. I’m supposed to be showing you the good things about the place, not complaining about holes in the building.”

Loukas stepped slightly closer. The hand that wasn’t holding the cat settled on her arm.

“It’s fine, Emmi.” His voice was honestly as sexy as the rest of him, and Emmi suddenly wished she’d met him in different circumstances.”I’ve already wired the money to the museum’s donation account.”

“Oh,” she said. “That’s good…”

The spot where his cool hand touched her arm commanded all her attention. It wasn’t quite like touching an artifact with an interesting history. In those cases, she’d sometimes get flashes of insight about how or why the object was created. She might suddenly know details about who made the item, or the role it had played during a specific historical event.

Touching Loukas felt like she’d tapped into some sort of living history. It should have been frightening. Instead, it intrigued her.

“What are you?” The words escaped before she could call them back. Then the cat in his arms turned her eyes up to Emmi, and she saw at least a half dozen lives reflected in that slit- eyed green gaze. The feline was clearly no more mortal than her owner. “What is she ?”

Loukas searched her face for a moment before responding. Emmi felt as though she was under inspection, like he couldn’t decide how much to tell her.

“She’s cursed,” he said, and for some strange reason, Emmi believed him.

Loukas had never before admitted his feline companion’s problem to any other being. Answering that question had seemed easier than answering the other one, though. The one about what he was.

“I’m not exactly certain yet why she was cursed, or everything the curse entails,” he explained as Emmi led him into her office. He looked down at Sable, who had settled herself in the crook of his arm, her chin lifted to rest on his chest. “She can’t exactly tell me.”

Emmi laughed, and there was far less nervousness there than he would have expected. She had a pleasant laugh.

“Speaking to animals isn’t your superpower, I’m guessing.”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Mine either, so you’re out of luck on that front.” Emmi shrugged. She reached out to touch Sable, then paused halfway there, her hand hovering in the air. “May I?”

Loukas nodded, and Emmi’s hand settled on Sable’s back. The cat purred, then shifted as though attempting to force the woman’s hand to touch his again. A sharp glance, and the cat stopped fidgeting.

Emmi’s eyes drifted shut, and she scrunched up her nose.

“You have magic,” Loukas observed.

It wasn’t precisely rare, but he hadn’t met many magic users despite his long life. Some called them witches, and they tended to congregate in formal covens where they could learn from each other and hone their skills.

“Minor magic,” clarified Emmi, her eyes fluttering open again. “I get impressions sometimes when I touch old things. Nothing to brag about, honestly.”

It bothered Loukas that she disparaged her own skills. But that thought was sidetracked by her description of her magic.

“Old things?”

Emmi blushed, and Loukas’ attention was drawn to the flush of blood beneath her skin.

“Yeah.” She averted her eyes, stroking a hand down Sable’s back. “You’ve known each other a long time, haven’t you?”

He wasn’t certain why he felt safe answering her, but as a fellow supernatural, she likely wasn’t a danger to his existence. Her own abilities would be something she kept under wraps around mortals.

“Centuries,” he said, keeping his voice as steady as possible. This wasn’t something he spoke about often. But for as little as he knew her, Loukas felt that Emmi might understand, at least a little. He found himself suddenly desperate for someone who understood.

“We found each other in the late 1500s, but she’s been around much longer than that.” He hesitated, then plunged onward. “Sable broke out of a sarcophagus that had been stored in the same location as my…”

He wasn’t certain what to say here. He didn’t wish to frighten Emmi, but he sensed she wasn’t the type to scare easily. Her gentle, encouraging nod gave him enough confidence to continue.

“My coffin.”

They stood in silence for a moment, the implications of all he’d said hanging in the air between them.

“Vampire, then,” she murmured. Looking down at Sable, she gave another nod. “And some kind of mummy, I’m guessing. Since you mentioned a sarcophagus.”

Loukas confirmed her guesses with a dip of his chin.

“You’re lucky, then,” she mused. “You’ve got all the time in the world to do whatever you want. Both of you.”

Lucky? The concept shook Loukas. He’d never considered his existence particularly lucky. It had always been quite lonely. Except for Sable.

His eyes met Emmi’s, and that strange attraction sparked between them once more.

“It isn’t so simple,” he whispered.

Then Sable leaped from his arms and headed out the office door, her tail swishing in a clear invitation to follow.

Emmi and Loukas followed the cat out of her office toward the burial traditions exhibit.

“Her sarcophagus is here,” explained Loukas, a hint of embarrassment in his tone. “It’s why I donated. To keep her resting place safe. I always try to protect her between reincarnations.”

His concern for his feline companion made Emmi like this vampire even more. She probably should have been freaked out by the entire concept of a vampire benefactor in her museum late at night, but she got the impression Loukas had no intention of causing her harm.

Their hands brushed again accidentally as they hurried through the office door. Once more, Emmi got that sense of endless mystery. There was longing and loneliness behind it, too. She wondered what it would feel like to touch him elsewhere. To press her lips to his. To press her body against him. Would it ease the loneliness enough to let his secrets unfold like petals?

Emmi turned her face away so he couldn’t read what she was thinking on her face.

But when they reached the exhibit, Sable was nowhere to be found.

“Well, that’s strange,” said Emmi, glancing around at the items displayed around the room. An 18th century tombstone from France. Grave goods from Norway. The feline sarcophagus that she presumed belonged to Sable. “I can’t imagine where she might have gone.”

Loukas stepped up beside her, and she became hyperaware of his nearness.

“She does this sometimes. I do not understand it either.”

It occurred to Emmi that perhaps she could touch Sable’s sarcophagus and find some clue to the reason for the cat’s repeated appearances. But would the vampire truly want to know? Without the cat, it seemed he would be completely alone.

She spun to face him.

“Do you have a lot of friends?”

“No.”

His response came quick, and he seemed almost startled to have voiced it.

They stood in silence before he spoke once more.

“It is hard to sustain relationships in a life like mine.”

“Except for a relationship with a cat.”

His lip twitched, and Emmi thought she liked his smile very much, brief as it was.

“Sable is unique. She keeps returning despite my efforts to put her to rest. And truth be told, it sometimes seems as though she wants to force me into relationships with others, though that never works out.”

Now his expression turned sad.

“Vampires can turn someone else, though, right? Or keep mortals as thralls for long periods?”

“It is hard to find mortals willing to walk away from their mortality.”

“You’ve asked people before, haven’t you?”

“I have offered, yes.”

“And been told no.”

“That is correct. Most do not relish the idea of an endless life.”

“What if you met someone who liked the idea of having forever to explore and learn and study all the things they wouldn’t get to in a short mortal lifespan? Would you give that a chance? Give them a try?”

They stared at each other in the dim light of the exhibit room, frozen in the wake of her questions.

Then he dipped his head forward and Emmi raised hers to meet him.

Loukas was not used to kissing. He hadn’t done it in a long time, and he had the impression that Emmi also wasn’t particularly experienced at the concept. The end result was a bit of nose bumping and awkward head tilting before they managed to settle into a real kiss.

Once they did, Loukas thought perhaps he never wanted to stop.

The connection he’d felt since that first moment she opened the door all flustered and nervous, now deepened into something else. It felt like returning home, though he hadn’t claimed any place as home for centuries.

He slanted his lips over hers, and she sighed into his kiss, opening her soft mouth to let their tongues dance in an exploratory tangle.

“This is…” he began once their lips broke apart with a shuddering breath.

“Incredible,” she finished, then nipped at his lower lip as her hands quested beneath his shirt to meet his skin. The warmth of her ignited something inside him, and he glided his own hands across her back.

His lips found their way down her jaw, dipped lower to caress her throat.

Loukas knew he shouldn’t act this way with a woman who was, essentially, a complete stranger. But something about Emmi drew him in, and now that they’d begun, he couldn’t imagine stopping. Trailing light nips against her throat, just soft enough to not break the skin, he breathed in the scent of her — a wild rush of warm woody fragrance and hints of cardamom.

“Bite me already, vampire,” she said, voice rough with desire. And while he wasn’t hungry, thanks to a regular blood supply purchased from a conveniently unscrupulous private blood bank, the idea was incredibly enticing.

Still, he hesitated. She couldn’t truly mean what she’d asked, right?

Emmi pulled back slightly, her breath coming in ragged pants as her pulse raced beneath her skin.

“Is that too much?” Then, as though realizing the full import of what she’d requested. “You can control it, right? It’s safe? I just thought maybe…”

He couldn’t help but smile at her. The woman amused him as much as enticed him, and the experience was a heady one. He thought he might want to keep her around for a long time.

“I can control how much I take, yes.” He leaned in to brush his lips against the side of her throat. “And yes, it feels good, if that’s something else you’re wondering.”

“Kinda what I was hoping for, honestly,” she replied, tilting her neck up to give him better access.

He dragged a slow kiss across her skin, right where the blood pulsed, hot and inviting.

“You’re a horrible tease,” she murmured.

“I think you like it,” he responded, amazed at the fact.

“Not as much as I’d like…oh…”

His fangs sank into her throat. There was no help for it now, no way to resist when she offered herself up so willingly. He would take whatever she offered at this point. A bite. A night. Forever.

If her kiss had felt like home, this felt like nirvana.

Her blood tasted spicy and sweet all at once. So much better than the bagged stuff he got from the donation place. There was a complexity to it that reminded him of layers of history all intertwined.

He hummed into her neck, and she moaned in response. If they didn’t stop soon, he’d be inside her within minutes, right here on the floor of the museum. He wanted this woman, body, blood, and soul. Forever.

A loud meow broke through the air, causing them to break apart before things got more heated. From atop the display case holding an ancient feline sarcophagus, Sable daintily licked one uplifted paw and waited for them to finish.

“The inscription is worn down quite a bit, but I think I could get an impression of the intent with direct contact.” Emmi stared at the ancient hieroglyphics, trying to figure out if she could upload the image to get at least a higher resolution version that might be digitally translatable. Thinking about the problem before her helped keep her mind off thinking about the vampire next to her and how incredible his kisses and his bite had felt.

They’d already removed the glass case protecting the feline sarcophagus and spent the last 20 minutes visually inspecting it.

Loukas had explained that he’d been attempting to decipher the inscription and compare it to established curses in ancient books. He had a theory that figuring out the curse might help free Sable from her endless reincarnation cycle, and his determination to do so impressed Emmi.

She glanced over at the cat, who’d reappeared when they weren’t looking and now sat on a small bench across the room. “May I touch your sarcophagus, Sable?”

It seemed right to ask the cat directly.

The ancient feline looked pointedly at each of them before graciously nodding her sleek brown head.

Emmi’s hand hovered above the ancient artifact, but she didn’t lower it quite yet. Loukas stood behind her, the coolness of his skin reminding her of his inhuman origins.

“What if this really is her last incarnation?”

Loukas had expressed that fear to her when they’d been removing the glass case. In his research, he’d found evidence that certain magic-prone felines could revive themselves up to nine times, but no more. As far as he knew, this was Sable’s ninth life — which could mean it was her last.

“If that’s the case, I’d like to break her curse and let her go to her final rest in peace. She’s spent seven feline lifetimes with me. I can’t ask for more.”

Emmi braced herself to delve into the past, then reconsidered her plan.

“Come here,” she told Loukas, grabbing his hand as he approached. She tucked her hand into his and indicated what she intended. “We should do this together. Let’s discover Sable’s secrets and help her break her curse.”

Intertwining their fingers, she tugged their joined hands down to touch the sarcophagus.

A jolt like lightning flashed through her, and Emmi saw all the lives the ancient feline had lived.

She saw the first time Sable and Loukas had met. Saw how he’d eased the cat’s fears about being reborn into immortality and tended to her despite his reservations about getting attached to any being. Saw how Sable had recognized his loneliness and chosen him as her special mission.

Emmi saw dozens of efforts to push Loukas toward connection, toward other beings who might be compatible with him. Saw the frustration for them both when everything inevitably fell apart.

Loukas pulled her hand back from the gilded surface.

“She’s stayed for me,” he murmured.

“Not a curse at all, then,” Emmi replied. “But a mission. Nine lives to find you what you need. Nine chances to help her chosen person.”

Across the room, the cat sniffed and hopped off the bench. She twined around their legs as Emmi and Loukas stared at each other.

“She wanted you to find someone who could love you for the rest of eternity,” Emmi continued.

Loukas’ voice fell to a whisper that echoed off the funeral relics and ancient burial vessels throughout the room. “Do you think you could?”

Eternity with a hot vampire who was kind and clever and determined? Emmi didn’t know exactly how things might turn out, but as far as giving it a try…

“Hell yes,” she said, and Sable purred against her ankle. “As long as we get to keep the cat.”

A few weeks later, Loukas and Emmi sat side by side on a couch in the vampire’s mansion on the side of the hill. The weather was still cold, but the interior of Loukas’ home stayed warm and cozy now that Emmi had taken up residence there. She’d even installed a small Christmas tree in one corner of his library and insisted he learn all of her favorite carols so they could sing along to a vintage phonograph he’d acquired many years ago.

He didn’t mind. Part of companionship meant adapting to the other person’s quirks.

Sable, like Emmi, hadn’t aged a day since that fateful night at the museum. Regular blood interchange with a vampire apparently allowed such things. They’d discussed the possibility of eventually turning Emmi completely, but neither of them was in any rush. Enjoying this time, getting to know each other, was enough for now.

Lifting the small device in his hand, Loukas inspected the thin red light emerging from one end by passing a single finger through the beam.

“Quit trying to look directly at a laser beam and play with the cat,” said Emmi, taking his hand and turning the stream of light toward the ground.

“These modern devices are designed specifically for felines?” he asked, and Emmi laughed.

“You are so lucky to have me around to explain modern technology to you. You know that, right?”

Sable pounced on the red dot and growled when it refused to be captured in her little brown paw.

Loukas’ arm came around Emmi’s shoulder, and he pulled her into his side.

“I am lucky in far more ways than that, Emmi.”

Her lips met his, and the laser pointer fell to the floor.

Across the room, Sable sat back on her haunches and tilted her head. As her two immortals fell back onto the couch together, she batted at the inert laser pointer a few more times before moving on to search for her favorite fluffy mouse toy.

Those two would be a while, she knew.

But when they were done, it would be playtime again. Along with an eternity of pampering.

Sable knew which of them truly was the luckiest of the bunch.

Naturally, that would always be the cat.

Brigitte Delery hails from a land of glitter, gumbo, and genteel decay. In other words, New Orleans. She lives with her husband, teenage son, and three extremely spoiled cats. When she’s not writing on her laptop surrounded by demanding felines, Brigitte likes to wander local cemeteries, explore new restaurants, and fall into random unexpected adventures.