Page 40 of The Baby Hex
“Under the correct circumstances, I can pass on my vampirism. Before you ask, yes, I’m a born vampire. So, is my carrier. My sire on the other hand was turned by my carrier after almost dying in an auto accident. He loved him too much to let him go. I mean, it was something we were always going to have to discuss anyway. That is, what would you want me to do? My instinct would be to save you at any cost but being a vampire might not be the life you want for yourself.”
I didn’t speak for a long moment, and I worried if I didn’t hurry up and wrap my head around what Pierce had just told me that he might take my silence for insult or disdain.
“I want to stay with you. So, if you could save me, do it. Especially if we have little kids running around or something.”
“That makes my life easier,” he nodded. “Because I think I would hate myself every day if you needed something I could give and I withheld it.”
“Don’t say it---” I pointed at him.
“Don’t say what?” he leaned back in his chair and raked his eyes up and down my body.
“That you’d rather die with me today than spend all your life without me.”
“It’s the truth. Sure, we need to get to know each other this time around but I stand by my judgement in the Other World, Crilus. I loved you then and now and I think we’ll manage a decent life together.”
I bit my lip and eyed the other bag.
“Eat the damn burger,” he laughed.
“What about you? I feel like you’ve given me most of your food.”
“That is the price of a mate occasionally,” he teased. “But I got extra because I wasn’t sure how hungry you’d be. Plus, the fridge is stocked. Most of it is blood this or that but meat is always in season in this house. So, eat up. What’s mine is yours.”
“Ha, ha,” I said and rolled my eyes.
“So, Jesel is your vampire kid or something?” I asked tentatively.
“Oh? Mine? No! I’ve only ever turned one person and he’s off exploring the northern regions. He wanted the blood so the cold wouldn’t bother him as much. He bought the ritual. No, I don’t normally sell it but you can’t give things like that away all willy-nilly. We were school chums and all that. Jesel is my sister by the blood. Well, because she was dying of some rare bear disease and my carrier took pity on her because she was so young.”
“Oh, so she’s your sister! That’s why she was looking at me like that!”
“Sister is probably the best word. Though, my carrier had turned enough people that I’ve lost track of most of them and turning someone doesn’t make them your child. It doesn’t make you related at all. The venom just takes up residence and eventually spreads throughout the body. Then you have to feed all the cells it makes with lots of blood. Turned vampires need more blood than those of us born into it. And before you ask, no,this doesn’t run in every family. If it did every vampire born in May or June would be able to turn people.”
I tried to count up when our kid would be born if we conceived this week, but it was impossible to know what our hypothetical child would be. I was a punnet square all on my own without adding in the vampyric genes of my mate. Though…
“Is your family all vampires?” I asked. “They can’t be, right? Like your sire was something before he was a vampire?
“My sire is still what he was before he became a vampire. If I turned you today it wouldn’t mean sacrificing your wolf or your crow. It makes you more and keeps you alive. It doesn’t make you less. There is sacrifice involved but that’s all on the side of the vampire who’s turning you. We give up the blood it takes to turn you. We give up some magical ummmph for a few months or so.”
“So can I know what your sire is or is that a family secret too?” I smirked.
“Oh, he’s an owl.”
“Oh,” I blinked. I’d obviously met a variety of bird shifters in my day but never an owl.
“Is that okay with you?” Pierce arched a brow and locked his eyes on mine. “Is there some ongoing war between crows and owls that I’m unaware of.”
“We have a lot of similarities in our lives. Two omega biological parents. The birds. The magic. Wait! Are your parents poly at all?” I asked.
“No. I think my carrier would eat someone over my sire. Though, they might eventually have to deal with one or both of their true-mates coming back around.”
“Damn. I always worry about my sire if that were to happen. His true-mate that is….” I sighed, wishing I could stretch out on the table now that I’d finished eating.
Instead, the fast-food trash cleaned itself up and Pierce gave me the quickie tour of his house, only hitting the highlights and promising that I was free to explore whatever I wanted as long as I didn’t fiddle with his wards or spells.
“If we live here the majority of the time, feel free to add your own. Our magic should be complimentary, at least in theory. True-mates and all.”
The tour stopped at the bedroom because I opened the door and walked in. Of all the rooms in the house, this one smelled the most like Pierce and since we hadn’t passed a magical workshop it was either in the basement, the attic, or perhaps he had a trapdoor that led to it hidden somewhere inside his bedroom. Curiosity tickled the back of my throat but there would be plenty of time to figure out all of that later.
