"That plays a very large part in the bonding," Gavin was doing his best to remove my blouse. "The child realizes quickly that their sire wants them, when they are there to feed them the first time and reassure them."
"Aurelius was an amazing sire, wasn't he?" I watched Gavin's nimble fingers unbutton my top. After all, René was out for blood ever since he'd learned that Xenides and Saxom had arranged for Aurelius' death.
"Aurelius was my father. And René's. Our blood parents were never as caring as Aurelius was." I ran my fingers through Gavin's wealth of dark brown hair—he keeps it short and it looks good that way. His dark eyes narrowed in pleasure as he tasted the skin over my collarbone. I traced his jaw with a finger. He kissed my hand and placed it around his neck. Gavin had my blouse off shortly after that and rational speech stopped for a while.
* * *
"Greggy, what's up?" Greg was sitting on a barstool at the island while Franklin cleaned the kitchen when I finally made it downstairs. I went to put my arms around Greg. Gavin wasn’t far behind me; we'd shared a pint of blood after doing the horizontal bebop.
"My mother used to call me that," Greg said, patting my arms. I gave him a kiss on the cheek before letting him go. Greg's face held more lines and wrinkles than I remembered, but I wasn't about to point that out. The disease was taking its toll—in more ways than one.
"Frank, do you want some help?" I asked. I hadn't seen Lena since I'd left for Refizan, and asked Franklin about her, too.
"I'm almost done," Franklin turned to smile at me. Greg wasn't the only one looking a bit older. Greg's disease was weighing heavily on Frank, too. "Merrill found another family for Lena to work for," he said soberly. "Those two vampires that Tony, Paul and Deryn killed tracked her down, somehow. We were worried that she might be in terrible danger if she kept doing this and going home every night. So Merrill found something else for her."
"Crap," I muttered. I didn’t get to say good-bye.
"This happens, cara. Humans are placed in danger at times, because they associate with us. This is the way it has always been." Gavin came to stroke my hair before pulling me against him.
"Meanwhile, Merrill is looking for someone to live in," Franklin continued.
"Where will we find somebody, Frankie? We can get them all killed," I said, pulling away from Gavin. I was upset that I wouldn't see Lena again, too. "You can't do all this yourself," I swept a hand out. Frank had his own set of worries to deal with—Greg's health was only going to get worse. "We'll need somebody to help clean this behemoth, especially since there are so many people here, now. Where will Merrill find anyone that can help?"
"Your surrogate sire may curtail his search," Kifirin appeared as if he'd been called, and the two comesuli that I'd met before were with him. They shouted with delight when they saw me, and both came to give me a hug.
"Nexus Echo," Kifirin explained as I stared at him in shock. "It is a Larentii trick I have borrowed. They listen for key words—or names even—and they can follow up at a moment's notice if those words are spoken by certain people. It is quite handy, m'hala." He bent to give me a kiss. The comesuli were still attached to me like leeches, and they smiled their approval when Kifirin kissed me.
"This is Roff," Kifirin placed his hand on the dark-haired comesula's shoulder, "and this is his son, Giff," he did the same for the lighter-haired one. Gavin was staring speculatively at the way both were fawning over me.
"They'll fawn over you, as well," Kifirin smiled at Gavin. "You may only drink from them once every two weeks. Do not do this more often, even if they beg."
"You hear that?" I tapped Giff on the nose. He beamed excitedly at me.
"I hear that," he nodded.
"Hey, you can speak English!" I was very happy about that.
"The High Lord has done this for us. We begged him to bring us to you, and he says that your home needs help." Giff seemed ecstatic over housework. "We are very good at this, along with making oxberry wine. That is my father's trade. We can sell this and increase your wealth."
"If you sell anything, you can increase your own wealth," I said. "And we'll pay you. Fairly. What are oxberries?" I'd never heard of them.
"They are not native to this planet," Kifirin answered for him. "The closest you might come are blackberries, but that description does not do them justice. They are very sweet and make exceptional wine."
"We'll get blackberries for you, or any other kind of berries if you want to make wine," I said. "Roff, how have you been? I didn't realize when I first met you that you were Giff's father." I'd been too stunned, I think, to notice the related scents.
"There was no time for that information; you left us too quickly," Roff smiled, his honey brown eyes twinkling. "My second child, Toff, is still on Kifirin, helping my brother and his son with our business."
"Really? How old is he?" I asked.
"He has recently gained his adulthood," Roff was happy to talk about his child.
"That means forty in their culture," Kifirin supplied. "The comesuli live an average of six hundred years, and when they were near death on their homeworld of Le-Ath Veronis, the Vampire Queen and her inner circle would decide whether they should be made vampire." Frank and Greg were listening to Kifirin's explanation, spellbound. "It was the next step in their lives, should they be selected," Kifirin continued. "As comesuli, they have no genitalia and only experience sex with the vampire's bite. If they were chosen and turned, they became male or female, as they were disposed. On Le-Ath Veronis, the numbers of males and females was nearly equal."
Giff and Roff's eyes were shining as they listened to Kifirin speak of their ancestry and the promise that a new day might come for their race. I could almost read their minds on this.
"Is this true?" Gavin was surprised, although he was doing his best not to show it.
"Yes. However, I was sleeping when the Ra'Ak came and the High Demons failed to wake me as they should," Kifirin said. "Le-Ath Veronis was the last of my Dark Worlds to fall; the Vampire Queen sacrificed much to get some of her people away. She sent as many comesuli to the High Demons as she could; they accepted them at least, although they would not accept her vampires." Kifirin sounded sad.
"My Bright brothers came for the vampires and the werewolves that still lived," Kifirin went on. "The Bright Lords sowed those two races across their worlds of light, asking them to remain hidden and to respect the life already there. Some have honored those rules, while others have not. The Vampire Queen died on Le-Ath Veronis, fighting off the Copper Ra'Ak." Someday, you will take her place. Kifirin sent mindspeech to me alone.