Page 53 of Blood Descendants
“He could do with a little more disappointment in his life, arrogant prick,” I mutter, watching my volume as well.
Ares smiles at that, that proud, admiring smile he so often uses. “Come on, let’s get you some food.”
Ares places his hand at the small of my back and leads me forward toward the tables where dinner is being served. I take it all in, trying to get a grasp on this wild event.
Maybe I’m getting some kind of vampire radar, but I swear, I can tell who is vampire and who is human. Of course, there are the human children and some of their human mothers. There are other humans milling about as well. Not just servers but others dressed in gorgeous clothes. And there are more vampires in attendance than just the Barons. If my guesses are right, there are thirty or so vampires in attendance. Which is a pretty large percentage of New York’s vampire population if there really are only a hundred or so.
I don’t know why, but I expected this to be a massive event with hundreds of people. Instead, there are probably only sixty, a few more if I include those who are working the event.
They picked the perfect space, though. It feels busy in here. Any larger of a space, and it would just feel kind of… pathetic.
“Lana Hunt?”
My head turns at my name called. A woman walks up to join Ares and me at our table, her own dinner plate in hand.
“That’s me,” I confirm as she sits in the seat right beside me, undeterred by the lack of invitation.
“Francesca Bosco,” she says as she extends a hand. I take it, evaluating the woman. She’s probably in her sixties, and while she is beautiful, she kind of looks a little… plastic. Like she’s been fighting the reality of aging and isn’t doing it the most gracefully. “I like to introduce myself to all the human wives. It can be a lonely place to be.”
“You’re also married to a Born?” I say stupidly. It’s obvious, but I’m not sure how to make conversation. There are too many damn weird scenarios in this world.
She nods, her eyes scanning the room. “Giovanni and I got married before I even knew he was a vampire.” She stabs at her salad, but I kind of doubt if she’s going to eat any of it. “Not sure how I missed the signs. I mean, he never left the place during the day. And the way that man could pick me up? I wasn’t the trim little thing you see before you now when we met. Gio was into thicker women at the time.”
As she stares down at her food, I cast a glance at Ares, brows raised. I do not know what to make of Francesca.
“I was pregnant with our first son before Gio told me what he was,” she says, looking up at me as she nibbles on one little carrot. “And by that point, what was I going to do? Take off? I loved the bastard, and we were starting a family.”
Oh boy. I’m a little scared to see where this story goes. Ares pointed out Giovanni’s triplets and twins, and there is no way Francesca is young enough to be their mother.
“I gave that man three sons before this body didn’t want to cooperate anymore,” she barrels right on. “Which is a real shame because I always wanted a whole brood of kids. But you know, modern medicine is a miraculous thing. Did you know they can take your eggs, his sperm, and put them in another woman called a surrogate?”
Oh. I didn’t expect this twist. I nearly choke on my water. “Yes, I did.”
She nods, pressing right on. “We did that as soon as I couldn’t get pregnant. Thankfully, I still had a good handful of eggs. And you might not think it possible, what with how hard it is for a vampire to conceive, it’s a miracle we got the three we did, but my Gio gave his donation, and voila, that medical clinic cooked up the triplets, and that poor woman. That’s not what she was expecting. But she popped out my girls. Well, not popped out. They had to cut her open. But Gio paid her handsomely for her troubles. And then the twins. Aren’t they darling?”
I’m pretty sure she only took two breaths throughout all of that info dumping. She overwhelmed me like a tide with her oversharing of personal information. “They are,” I say without thinking.
“Anyway, I just wanted you to know that it is possible, even though you’ll keep aging, and they won’t. Gio still goes down on me every Sunday night without fail. Bless that man, forever forty-six, with this old lady. Bless his heart.”
She calls out to someone else and waves. Without a word of goodbye, she stands, hauling her plate with her as she goes to greet her next listener.
“Wow,” I say, my brows rising. A chuckle rises up my throat, and I turn to find Ares with a smile, shaking his head. “I learned way more about Giovanni’s sperm than I ever hoped for.”
“You’re a rock star, taking all of that,” Ares laughs, his eyes following Francesca through the crowd. “You never know, all that information might be useful someday.”
I watch as Giovanni crosses to his wife, pressing a kiss to her temple. “It’s kind of sad though, isn’t it?” I observe. “He’s going to live forever, and she’s going to die of old age someday.Their love will be forever for him, but till death do them part for her.”
She looks like she could be his mother. Like she is, no question, twenty years older. But it wasn’t always the case.
“Only a vampire can love you forever,” Ares says quietly. I look over at him to find him observing as Giovanni takes Francesca by the hand and leads her to the dance floor. I wonder what’s going through his mind, but he doesn’t offer any other thoughts.
But as I look around and see Cliff’s wife sitting with her children, I realize it’s the case for any mixed-species relationship.
Something twists in my chest.
If this were real between Ares and I, it would be our story.
Ares is forever twenty-six years old. And I may only be twenty-four, but give it just two years, and we’d be the same age. And then I would be older. And it would continue on like that forever. Because Ares won’t age another day.
