Page 54 of Absolution

Seiran didn’t say anything, instead focusing on the food. It seemed to be some sort of stuffed potatoes, with bacon, broccoli, ranch dressing and dill pickles, which sounded weird. He set me up on cleaning an entire four pounds of strawberries of which he planned to dunk in chocolate. “Are you making a romantic dinner?” I asked him.

“Seems to fit,” he said. He added some fresh steaks to a bag of marinade. “Since you had sex already. Sort of like a date at home, right?”

I didn’t think I needed to wine and dine Con or Luca, but I didn’t point it out to Seiran that he was being romantic when he’d always thought of himself as practical.

“Luca could probably use the iron anyway,” Seiran said.

“He’s had plenty of iron,” I assured Seiran recalling the bite to my thigh. Who knew that could be so erotic?

“Don’t rain on my parade, Sammie.”

I put my hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay.”

“Do you need more food? You’re so thin. Not unhealthy, but very lean.”

“I ate well today,” I promised him. Wasn’t hungry at all. But I’d had the first blood pack, nibbled from Luca twice, and finished off the second doctored blood pack right before Seiran had arrived. “I thought the vampire thing was why I’d gotten so lean.”

He stared at me for a while before finally saying, “I don’t know much about vampires.”

“And yet you’re practically married to one.”

Again he flinched. I think it was the reminder that they were bound. “He hasn’t slept. Even today when he came in late. Jamie said he paced the apartment.”

The agitation sounded a lot like Matthew’s. He’d gotten worse without sleep and no amount of blood could have fixed him in the end. Would he have been saner if he’d gone to ground? Somehow I didn’t think even the earth could fix that sort of crazy.

“I told him I was taking the babies out for a walk.”

“You lied to the big guy.”

His shoulders slumped. “I did walk them around the lobby.”

I snorted, that did not fix the lie. “Seiran…”

“I know. I just…”

“You have babies to focus on.” The twins were awake and mostly just making tiny noises at each other. I kept an eye on them as I dipped the strawberries and put them on a parchment-lined pan to harden.

“They’re talking to each other. I can’t understand it, but I feel the change in their emotions. They’re worried. Brand new babies and they are worried. Pretty sure it’s because of me. They shouldn’t have to worry about anything.”

I agreed, but Seiran hadn’t signed up to do this himself. Hell, he hadn’t wanted to be a dad at all. His anxiety planted too many scenarios in his head of what could go wrong. And wasn’t that exactly what was happening?

“I talked to my mom,” he said after he put the potatoes in the oven for the second time. We’d already been in the kitchen for over an hour. I could hear Con and Luca chatting in-between the small noises of the conversations in the game. They were playing Witcher 3, as far as I could tell. I loved that game. Would have enjoyed it more if the MC, who was a hot daddy, could buy more than just female whores at each town. But the game had plenty of gore and violence to suit most internal demon slaying needs.

“And?”

“She is giving me a house. Not the one I grew up in, but one she had built for me here. She wants me to take a look with her, see if there’s anything else to change before I move in with the twins. It has a lot of the same things my dad’s house had, or so she tells me. She wanted to make it an ideal place for two earth witches to grow up.”

“So you don’t have to go to California?”

“No. I wouldn’t anyway. The California house has already been converted into a safe house for young male witches. Last I heard it was full, and thriving. They don’t need my trouble.”

“How is your mom with Mizuki?”

Seiran finished putting everything away except the steaks, his eyes focused on the counter mostly as he seemed lost in thought. “She’s very animated with him. With both of them. Brings them gifts, holds them, feeds them, changes them and doesn’t seem bothered if they throw up on her.”

“Baby throw up is unavoidable.” I knew from experience.

“When I was little…” he began, “I sort of remember her always being there. Then she changed. What if she does that again?”