25. Not a day went by without the kittens getting into trouble somehow.
TWENTY-FIVE
Not a day went by without the kittens getting into trouble somehow.
Between the repairs to the Eclipse and some upgrades my father wished to install on the ancient ship, along with the tedious task of notifying the families of Breckenan’s victims, we delayed the ball and our ceremony by a year.
Something seemed wrong about beginning our happily ever after with loose ends dangling.
The truth behind Breckenan’s actions, founded on a deep and twisted love, bothered me for months following our departure from Gorgona.
All he’d wanted was to bring his family back from the dead. That he had zero care for the cost continued to shock me despite the passage of time. Even on the morning of our wedding night, I struggled to come to terms with everything that had happened and why.
Thousands of people had perished at Breckenan’s hands during his attempt to raise his beloved family from the dead.
All of them, even what little remained of Breckenan, were interred together in a concrete vault two feet thick, which had been imbued with sufficient magic to safeguard the remains from even my family.
I could only hope our precautions would be enough.
That the vault had been dumped into the deepest part of Mariana Trench offered some confidence none of them would come back to haunt us later.
As many of the vampires attending our ceremony couldn’t walk under the sun well, we would begin the festivities at sunset, where everyone would board my precious ship.
During the day, as I’d taken to staying up three times a week and enjoying my rest four, I would be putting the finishing touches on my preparations, which involved herding all our animals.
The blue anoles insisted on breeding at alarming frequency, and as such, they would not be coming with us.
Both females had eggs, and those eggs, once they were hatched, would be headed to Gorgona to help secure the anole population. Their next clutches would be headed to elsewhere in the Amazon, where the species would be introduced and replace the lost anole populations there.
The blue anoles had a few advantages over others in their species, and with luck, the jungles would once again be thriving, the tiny reptiles serving as a critical food source for many others, including snakes like my little girl, whom I’d named Chompy.
Chompy tended to take a bite out of anyone who wasn’t me, including my father. My father had learned to keep his hands to himself; nothing he said or did convinced my little pet to like him.
When I had Chompy out, she curled around my wrist, snuggled with me, and observed the world around her.
For the most part, she stayed in her habitat, which had required us to knock out a wall in my favorite bathroom to install.
While most of the cliff motif remained, she had a whole section of jungle to enjoy, which Emerick kept stocked with her favorite foods.
The times she failed to hunt on her own, he handled the details, sparing me from having to face the reality of what my pet ate.
Chompy would not be going with us on our voyage and honeymoon.
The last thing we needed was my adorable snake escaping and taking over the world.
As for the kittens, they’d grown, as kittens did, and tended to follow us around with adorable dedication. They would be going on our honeymoon with us, and when we couldn’t take them on certain outings, they would remain on my ship, which would be our primary mode of transportation.
My father wanted to show us the world.
I questioned how we’d get everyone boarded on time without missing anything or anyone.
The pile of things I thought I needed to take with us grew, and it included my laptop, my carving kit, everything to keep our kittens happy, particularly Klepto, who needed many toys or she’d start stealing socks, panties, and anything else of interest. While Typhoon would join her sister in creating trouble, she would play with her catnip rainbow unless Klepto goaded her into misbehavior.
Not a day went by without the kittens getting into trouble somehow.
“We do not need to take the entire penthouse with us, Pepper,” my husband informed me as he went about his morning chores and preparations.
“If we forget something, we can buy it on the way. You already have everything the kittens need, and if you happen to forget something, the ship has plenty of extras. I helped your father make the supply list for them. You could just bring them and they’d be fine. ”
“Treats?”
“Covered.”
As our kittens lived for their supper, which involved a small can of wet food each, I stared at the stockpile I’d gathered out of the pantry. “Their gooshy goos?”
“They are at zero risk of running out of their gooshy goos. You could leave that entire pile here and there would be no chance of them starving.”
“I don’t own enough panties to keep any for me if Klepto gets bored,” I complained.
“Your father installed a lock on the main dresser that will keep Klepto out of your panties,” he promised with a grin. “Now, it won’t keep me away from your panties, which is an entirely different problem.”
“You can’t peek at tonight’s panties until after we finish the ceremony. They are special panties I gave to Salania so you can’t sneak peeks.”
“I resent that we did not sleep through the day so we could get closer to the time I am permitted to investigate these mysterious panties.”
“They’re very lacy.”
To make certain I kept Emerick’s attention, I’d been a tyrant of the highest order, removing every scrap of leather and lace from our penthouse and sending them over to my ship a week ago.
Then, as I wanted him hungry and ready to show me a good time, I’d concocted over a hundred reasons why we had to delay any form of intimacy.
He’d clued in to my gamble three days in, and to my amusement, he’d started counting unique excuses.
“You’re going to get yourself into more trouble than you can get yourself out of, Mrs. Lowrance,” he warned.
“And I will do so with a smile plastered on my face. Now, get ready. I’m just glad my family decided they didn’t have to give you your dowry on the ship, but we have to drive an hour—in a vehicle that’s part of the dowry!”
I had no idea what the new vehicle was, nor did Emerick, but it would be waiting outside in twenty minutes for us to begin the festivities.
“Remember, your great uncles got together and got you a vehicle. You spent the day before yesterday flinging yourself at it, rubbing all over it like the cat you are, and doing your best to purr. You cried because you weren’t supposed to like it more than your Toyota, your Beetle, or your Jaguar, yet there you were, crying because you liked it more. ”
There was another reason I had cried, a reason I’d very carefully hidden from my spouse, as it had involved a testy experiment my father had helped oversee in an effort to help underdeveloped vampires mature.
As I had zero tolerance to lactose when my vampiric nature was roused, I made the perfect test subject.
Testing if bottled bloods in high quantity could be used to control the predatory nature of vampirism had worked a little too well.
If all continued to go well, in six months, Emerick and I would be welcoming two little ones into the world.
Under normal circumstances, female vampires terminated any possible pregnancies before they had a chance to truly start, failing to establish critical blood supply to the developing fetus. In most cases, the egg failed to attach to the uterus wall.
Part of my gambit involved keeping Emerick’s teeth off my person, as we had no idea if any bites would undo our accidental success.
After having made it through the first trimester, I had zero interests in taking any risks.
Thanks to my father, I was able to hide I was consuming far more blood than normal, allowing my human biological processes to resume. I could even eat cheese without worry, although I would be keeping that dirty little secret to myself until later in the evening.
I faked a sniffle and lifted my chin. “She’s a purple Mercedes, and she’s what happens when you take a family car and make her extra fancy.”
Unbeknownst to Emerick, there was also a purple SUV, also a Mercedes, for when we would need to haul the pint-sized terrors anywhere they wished, be it sporting events, camping, and so on.
Also unbeknownst to Emerick, I endured weekly ultrasounds and other testing to make certain there was nothing wrong with the babies, both of which were girls.
Thus far, they were fine, and there was no evidence of the deformity that had claimed my life so shortly after birth.
I refused to question how we’d gotten twin girls out of the gate, but I would enjoy informing my husband why I would not be enjoying any of the wine or tequila to go with our festivities once on board the ship.
I’d learned enough Spanish to talk to those at the casa, informing them of why I couldn’t drink their prized mezcal for a while yet, although I’d appreciate a gift of a pretty bottle in the meantime.
I suspected things would get out of hand once the girls were born, as a trip to the casa to introduce the infants to the families there would be necessary.
I wanted them all to understand vampirism wasn’t the end of their journey but the beginning of it—and their journey could be filled with light, laughter, and the patter of little feet should they want it badly enough.
I neglected to inform them we would be having girls, although I had warned them we would be doing our best to keep two babies alive. My father had his speculations, and he suspected I used some form of magic on my spouse to get the result I wanted, which was entire herds of little girls.
In that, I was like every other vampire in existence.