3. That does not bode well. #3
My husband’s behavior amused my father into chuckling.
“No, holy water and stakes do not work against me. I’m sure there’s some way for me to die.
I have not yet discovered what that way might be.
Much like Pepper, stakes can inconvenience me for a few moments, but they reject slaying me much like they reject slaying her.
She has inherited my legacy. My sons have, to a certain degree, as well.
But Pepper has inherited everything our line has to offer. ”
Benoit dared to ruffle my hair, and I batted his hands away.
“Someone determined can vanquish us with stakes, but we’re harder to kill.
I suspect if a stake were to be fatally thrust into you, little sister, it would reduce itself to sawdust or ash before killing you.
That’s what happens when Father gets himself into more trouble than he can get himself out of. ”
My father sighed. “I have come to terms with my apparent immortality, and I suspect I will continue to do so as long as I adhere to my original convictions. My nature is such where even considering another path is rather abhorrent for me. You inherited my tendencies and general convictions, Pepper. At least I know you did so of your own choosing.”
That I had. “Thus the show you put on. You suspected I would be a lot like you, especially in terms of my lifespan, so you wanted to make certain I had somewhere to land should things go poorly.”
He nodded. “Your turning was more like my conversion than a proper turning. You lacked many of the unpleasantries of a turning, although you suffered some when you went to the ground to recover. While we can recover in the ground, we recover better under the light of the sun that birthed us. Every now and again, I recommend finding a pleasant puddle of sunlight to sleep in, perhaps as a feline. It will rejuvenate you.”
“The first time I caught your father sleeping in a puddle of sunlight, I about fainted,” my mother admitted. “Here I am, believing he’s a vampire and sunlight is bad for vampires, and he’s passed out happy as can be in the yard sunbathing . In the nude!”
“It was our private garden, none of the neighbors were home, and you wanted me out of your hair,” my father replied, and he grinned at my mother.
“And why bother getting dressed after showering if I’m going to bask in the sun for a while?
And anyway, it was part of my cover. If anyone asked you, you could honestly say you’ve seen me outside, naked, in the middle of the day, taking naps. ”
“That part is true, and I have told people that before,” she confessed. “It turns out you’re not the only man who will sneak outside naked to sunbathe.”
My father snickered.
“He wanted you watching,” Emerick’s maker commented. “That is how ancient vampires operate. I’m old enough I could take a nap outside, but I’d wake up cranky and with a headache rather than feeling my oats and ready to romp. I’m guessing you become energized, Charlie?”
“I do,” my father confirmed. “It’s much like how Pepper is behaving now that she’s figured out a little motivation is all she needs to go outside in the daylight.
Of course, her enjoyment of naps will be problematic.
Sleeping during the day is her absolute favorite hobby, and I wish you the best of luck breaking her of that. ”
“I have no intention of breaking her of that habit as long as she can be up during the day if needed,” my husband confessed while he went to work plating the chickens so he could feed the hungry horde loitering outside the penthouse awaiting any scraps we might feed them.
As every available inch of space in the kitchen, our table, and anywhere else in the penthouse that could hold a plated chicken had one, nobody would starve.
My turkey lurked in the oven, and according to the timer, I would be waiting for twenty more minutes before it came out and fell prey to my hunger.
“You have to let it rest,” my husband scolded.
I scowled. “How did you know?”
“You licked your lips while staring at the oven. You’ll have yours in thirty minutes, and you can try the chicken as a snack first. Knowing you, you’re going to destroy that entire turkey, and then you’re going to complain that you don’t have any leftovers tomorrow.”
I eyed one of his precious chickens. “I bet those would make decent hot chicken sandwiches.”
Laughing, he shook his head. “I’ll save enough for you to try a hot chicken sandwich tomorrow. So, Mr. Francis. If stakes and holy water can’t kill you, is there anything that can ?”
“I truly don’t know. I have endured what would kill other vampires, and as long as even a scrap of me still exists, I reform, be it in the ground or in the light of the sun.
It just takes time. It has been a while since I’ve been inconvenienced in such a way.
What I don’t know is how Pepper will handle those situations, but I fear she is much like me.
What she endured would have killed any other vampire.
It wasn’t luck that had her clawing her way from that shallow grave.
It was her heritage. The sun willed her to live, so she did.
And that she has walked in my footsteps is concerning.
When I was young, that was how I hunted; I drank my vampiric victims dry so they might never again rise, and then I laid their corpses out in the sun to burn, observing them until they reduced to ash.
For her sake, I hope the blood bond you share offers you the gifts of our heritage.
That is something I have never experimented with.
” My father sighed and regarded my mother with a solemn expression. “Intentionally, that is.”
“I made my choices, and you made yours. Pepper is worth the prices we both paid for her life. And if I contract immortality because of your blood and your heritage, then so be it. I trust one of you to handle the situation appropriately should I become like that first master you spoke of, mad and preying upon the innocent.”
“You’re more likely to prey upon poor Clarke,” my father replied, and he dared to roll his eyes, something my mother found rather irritating.
She huffed, lifted her chin, and refused to meet his gaze.
“In good news, I do not mind being her prey, so all is well. And while I’m not you, I’m difficult enough to kill as is this rowdy son of mine.”
“You have done a good job with the raising of this child of yours,” my father replied, and he made two smaller crescents, one made of mixed camel and lamb and one made solely with beef, setting them on a plate and offering them to me.
“This was the last meal my mother made before my brother killed our family. He then perished upon the rising of the morning sun, leaving me with only ash to bury. It was her favorite food, and I always make it on the anniversary of her death. This is the first year I have made it twice.”
As my father was more open about the past than I’d ever seen him before, I mustered the courage to ask, “What day did she die?”
“My mother died the day before your birthday, albeit thousands of years prior, and you began your life during the same early hours as I began mine.” My father touched his hand to his heart and made a gesture, curling his fingers and twisting his wrist until his palm faced the ceiling.
“I sometimes wonder if my old god still lingers out there sometimes, watching and abiding the way I do, hunting for the darkness in the world and seeking to burn it away. To this day, I feel your death and life are miracles in their purest form, the sort of magic we believed in when the world was new. And make no mistake, Pepper. I love your brothers more than my next breath. But you are the mirror of the family I had lost and grieved for. But there is one last secret you should know.”
Something about my father’s tone indicated that things could become worse, and I took a moment to consider the possibilities, coming up with one that chilled me even more than the knowledge my life was the full circle of his.
“The Master of the Originals was part of our family, wasn’t he? A brother? Your father?”
“My grandfather,” my father replied, and a sigh slipped out of him.
“And many of the Originals? My uncles in one form or another, suffering from the cruel hand of fate tearing my aunts from them. Their blood made them, and they have not forgotten that—and it was my grandfather who shed that blood. The surviving vampires to walk this world were born because of our family in some fashion or another. That is why it is our responsibility to make certain that Jeremy Breckenan does not succeed at his plans, whatever they might be. There is no need for even darker vampires or greater sin. We have sin aplenty among us as it is. But it’s important to know the truth, because it will shape what the Lowrance brood becomes in the future.
You will no longer be able to hunt just real estate and wealth.
Should a golden age of vampires ever come to be, where we all might walk in the light of the noon sun, that ancient evil must never be allowed to rise again.
Times have changed, and should that cup overflow once more, everything we know shall fall to ruin. ”
I picked the crescent containing the camel and lamb, taking a tentative nibble.
The dough proved crisp on the outside yet soft on the inside, and the filling’s spice countered the gamey flavor of the camel.
“Emerick? I’m going to need you to get more of my apple tree out of storage.
It seems we have a great deal of work to do. ”
“Indeed.”