Chapter 6

©2009 - A. Jane

Two Days later…

Neak glanced back at Dewi as he brushed behind her. He just grinned at her and continued with what he was doing. He had been doing that all day, touching her in odd lot ways, and whenever she looked at him, he offered her a broad, sexy grin. What was he up to? What did he want? He said the morning after the incident in the kitchen, that he wasn’t expecting anything from her—she had needed and he had provided. Of course, he then said she was always welcome to crawl into his bed.

Did he have any idea how hard it was to resist that offer? Even now, with her fertile cycle over, looking at him made her ache, made her want. If she could get away with it, she would pull him into the storage room and ravish him.

He grinned at her as if he knew what she was thinking.

She was going to kill him!

After she fucked him.

“Neak, I was hoping you would be communicado.” Valdo eased onto one of the stools, sporting his usual daywear—his shirt was once more a bright blue and red floral eyesore. He smiled at the Tree Nymph; she seemed flustered.

“I don’t think communicado is a word.”

“I don’t see why not. If incommunicado means you’re out of communication, why can’t communicado mean you’re in communication?”

“Vampyre logic, I find it humorous.” She rolled her eyes. “What can I get for you? I hear you have a preference for dark ale.”

“Mmmm, I do. Lovely stuff. A patty melt would be good too.”

“JoJo, Glynn, patty melt for Valdo,” Neak yelled.

“I’ve got the ale.” Dewi once more brushed past Neak on his way to the tap. He grinned at her again when she glowered at him. “So, are you here to talk to Neak about her blood putting one of your comrades in the hospital?”

“I am indeed.” Valdo leaned forward eagerly, his arms resting on the bar. “After I returned home that night, I thought to warn my fellow Vampyres, keep them from making any life-threatening mistakes. But I hate making an unnecessary fool out of myself, so I did a quick search in the vampyre-dot-org database to see if anyone else had heard of such a thing.”

“Oh?” Neak picked up a pretzel out of the bowl sitting by Valdo. She kept her lips from twitching.

“’Fess up, Nymph, it ain’t true.”

“I never said my blood was bad for you bloodsuckers. I only said that Tree Nymphs were bad for your health.”

“You spoke of that Vampyre ending up in the emergency room after biting you.”

“And he did. He never had permission to bite me.” She smiled, flashing her teeth, letting him take what he would from that.

Oben came out then with Sabelle on his shoulders. Since Neak was no longer pollinating, the afternoon crowd had thinned considerably and Oben thought it would be fun for the pup to come down; give Milmar and Romie a break. He knew what Dewi said about her future, but nobody from the village knew yet and no one would dare say or do anything to upset the pup while he and Dewi were around. Besides, they couldn’t keep her locked up.

“Neak!” Sabelle’s face lit up seeing the Tree Nymph. “We gonna have ice cream now?”

Neak took the pup from Oben and placed her on her hip. “I would love to have ice cream with you now. Have you eaten lunch yet?”

Sabelle scrunched her face. “Ice cream for lunch.”

“I don’t know.”

“Ice cream for lunch.” Sabelle turned her head hearing laughter and grinned at the scruffy, laughing man. “What are you?”

Valdo blinked, surprised by such a blunt question, but he couldn’t resist the smiling child. As a Vampyre, he didn’t care about the Wair politics of half-breeds. Besides, nowadays most Vampyres were half-breeds. In fact, it was better for Vampyres to have non-Vampyre mates since a Vampyre couldn’t sustain another Vampyre—they would still have to have blood transfusions. Plus, he had a promise to keep.

He rested his chin on his fist. “I’m a Vampyre.”

“Do you got pointy ears?” She motioned to her own pointy ears.

“No, but I have pointy teeth.” He showed her his teeth, pointed to his fangs.

She stared at the teeth, fascinated. “Those aren’t like Uncle Dewi’s or Uncle Oben’s when they mad. Are you mad?”

“No, I’m not mad. My teeth are always like this.”

“Why?”

“That’s a good question, puppy.” He reached out and tapped her nose. “And one I’ve always wanted to know the answer to.”

“Oh.” She pursed her mouth, thinking about that for a moment, then grinned again. “You like ice cream?”

“I love ice cream.”

“Ice cream for lunch?”

Valdo caught Neak’s narrowed gaze, Oben and Dewi’s too. He was stuck. He agreed with the pup, but the adults had a point. Damn. He cleared his throat. “It’s best to have ice cream after lunch.”

Sabelle frowned at the Vampyre. “No. Ice cream for lunch.”

“Hey,” Valdo looked at Neak, Oben and Dewi and shrugged, “I tried. The pup wants ice cream for lunch.”

“I can withhold your hot sauce, Vampyre.” Neak raised a brow at Valdo.

“That’s cruel. I tried, the pup knows what she wants, who am I to argue with such profound logic.”

“Ice cream for lunch!” Sabelle bounced up and down, clapping her hands. She reached over and climbed from Neak’s arms onto the bar. “You promised ice cream.”

“And I never go back on my promises, but I never said we would have our ice cream for lunch, poppet.”

Sabelle pursed her lips again, deep in thought. She then smiled once more. “Lunch after ice cream.”

“To do that, the ice cream needs to be small so you’ll have room for lunch.”

The pup’s brow furrowed, not liking that notion at all. “Then I have small lunch so I have room for ice cream.”

“She is so much like Renna.” Dewi cupped Sabelle’s cheeks and kissed her loudly on the forehead. “Just like your mama.”

That announcement made Sabelle smile bigger. “Just like Mama!”

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