Chapter 34
Giving birth had been an electrifying way to ring in the new year, though I wouldn’t recommend it for the fainthearted. I’d cursed poor Robert more times than I could count, and delivery had been painful and scary. Still, there was nothing else I would have rather been doing.
Our son was named after Robert’s human father, Andrew, and, of course, my grandfather, Sebastian.
I know all mothers think this about their child, but my baby was perfect in every way a baby could be.
From the instant Andrew was born, and each and every day I’d spent with him since, I felt love so intense and complete that it made my heart ache.
Robert told me he felt the same. All I had to do was look into my husband’s eyes whenever he held his son to see that he was a man in love.
It was like our DNA had been spliced right down the middle. Andrew’s hair was chocolatey brown and wavy like mine, but his eyes were grayish blue, like Robert’s. He had my nose and Robert’s full mouth. Maybe I was biased, but the kid was gorgeous.
Robert was the best father in the world, which I knew he’d be. It worked out perfectly as far as scheduling. Because Robert was naturally nocturnal, I never had to get up during the night to tend to the baby. Unless I needed to breast feed. Robert couldn’t help with that.
Andrew didn’t seem bothered that his father was a vampire.
He might change his mind when he was older and better understood what immortality meant, but for now he was happy enough.
Robert and I still hadn’t given up hope that I might one day be changed, though we were in no hurry.
We tried to take each day one at a time, but I suspected I’d feel more pressure the older I got.
Little Andrew was a bit of a celebrity amongst vampires.
Having been born from a vampire-human union, he was a symbol of hope for them.
With the help of a new serum the VGO were developing, vampires who dreamed of parenthood might now be able to turn human long enough to safely procreate.
Finally, my blood was going to be used for something that would bring happiness to others.
The VGO, with most members now reverted to their original vampy splendor, were hosting a birthday party at their headquarters to celebrate Andrew turning one.
They said they were indebted to me for not only inspiring the procreation serum but also for devising the theory that led to a remedy for the extinction they’d faced.
Whenever Joseph and other vamps brought any of it up, I always said anyone in my position would have done the same thing, and that I’d come up with the theory without anticipating reward or recognition.
Still, it was nice not being hunted or extorted for blood for a change.
Robert and I were looking forward to Andrew’s party.
During our flight to Scotland in the light-tight airplane the VGO had sent for us, we’d discussed how strange it was to feel like celebrated guests.
The last and only time we’d ever been to the VGO headquarters was when we’d come to beg for our lives.
Now, here they were, throwing our human son a party. Life was so strange.
During the flight to Scotland, I reflected on my own first birthday party.
My grandmother had shown me photos of the event when I was a teenager, and looking at them had made me feel so bad that I never asked to see them again.
For my party, my young parents had taped a few deflated balloons and limp streamers around the duplex we were living in at the time, before we’d been evicted and had to live in a motel.
Some neighborhood kids were there, none that I’d recognized—we moved around a lot when I was a kid.
In most of the photos, my parents were drunkenly passed out in lawn chairs while other parents awkwardly tried to keep the party going.
My clothes were mismatched and dirty, my hair tangled.
A cake had been purchased from the local grocery store, the kind that was about twenty percent spongy vanilla cake and eighty percent sickly-sweet frosting.
The baker had gotten my name wrong: Happy Birthday, Oliver!
Someone had tried to fix the misspelling, but the smudge was evident.
Andrew’s party would be different. Unlike my own parents, Robert and I were happy to have a child, and we thanked our lucky stars for Andrew every day. Also, if the VGO were anything, it was grandiose. Whatever they had planned, it would be over the top.
Other vampires Robert and I had never even met had been spoiling Andrew rotten.
Since his birth, we’d received countless gifts in the mail: cashmere receiving blankets, designer baby clothes, handmade leather baby shoes from Italy, platinum gold baby rattles, a vintage rocking horse with real horsehair, a hand-carved mahogany crib .
. . The list went on and on. I must have written hundreds of thank you letters.
On top of the vamps the VGO had invited, Liz, Sebastian, Marlena, and Andrew’s godparents, Jerry and Tim, were attending Andrew’s party.
We’d even invited Leopold, who’d somehow managed to weasel his way back into the good graces of the VGO.
Robert had said inviting his maker would be the polite thing to do, and I’d agreed because I knew it would make Robert happy.
I’d promised Robert I’d be pleasant to Leopold, though it didn’t mean that I had to like him. Robert thought it was a fair bargain.
Liz was meeting us in Edinburgh. She’d been spending a lot of time there lately, as she and Joseph were now an official item.
The rest of the party was waiting for us at the castle that served as the VGO headquarters.
The VGO had gone all out for the party, according to the text Liz had sent me, and they’d even decorated a baby room for Andrew for the three days we were going to be there.
I’d worried that Liz would be offended by our choice of godparents—that maybe she’d assumed that I’d naturally pick her, with her being my best friend.
Liz, in true Liz nature, had understood.
She assured me she’d love and protect Andrew, no matter what.
Besides the obvious reason that Jerry and Tim were kind and decent people, Robert and I had selected them because we wanted to ensure that Andrew would still have human parents in his life, should anything ever happen to me.
Jerry and Tim had applied for adoption themselves, but red tape was holding them up.
They’d babysat for Andrew oodles of times and were so good with him.
Everyone was happy. Which made me happy.