Page 14 of Blood Ties (City of Blood #1)

“Stop, Elina. Take a breath. I will explain. Vespera is my mother. Not my sire, my flesh and blood mother. She carried me and birthed me as a vampire. Correct, my father is unknown, but in order for me to be a born vampire, he had to have been one too. Women do not pass on their vampire genes. Human women can carry vampire babies and those will also be Sanguine Nocturnus when they come of age. We grow up as functionally human until around the age of 30. Then the vampirism settles in and we become this. Immortal—beautiful forever. We do continue to age, but incredibly slowly. Marcus has aged about 20 years in the 1000 years he has lived. He could live another thousand or even more. We don’t all age the same.

I am not aging at the same rate Marcus is.

My mother is only 10 human years younger and appears years younger despite also living more than 1000 years.

She only looks about ten years older than me. ”

“How old are you? How are vampire babies made? Why aren't there more vampire babies?”

“Last Sunday I celebrated my 477th birthday. My vampirism settled 448 years ago.” My mouth drops open at that.

He’s 477 years old—positively ancient! I giggle at the thought.

“What are you giggling at, Tesoro? As for how vampire babies are made—they’re made the same way as human babies.

When a man really wants a women, he takes his-”

“Stop, stop, stop. I know how babies are made,” I laugh loudly at his joke. “I was giggling because you’re so old, like ancient. Happy birthday, by the way.”

“First of all, I’m not nearly as old as my family, or any other ruling vampire family.

Second, jokes aside, we do produce vampire babies the same way.

The reason why you haven’t seen any vampire babies is because they are, like I said, functionally human.

Some are being raised by humans. I, of course, always knew what to expect since my entire family are Sanguine Nocturnus, as well as Blood Ravens.

The final question was, why aren’t there more vampire babies? ”

“Yeah, ya’ll are fucking all over town. No one even knows that vamps can make babies.” I speak earnestly, pleased to be able to ask all the questions I have.

“Well, only bloodline male vampires can reproduce.

Malvanis are a bloodline. The Devereaux family—you know them as the Shadow Kingdom family—The Vilkas are in Croatia, The Drakos are in Greece.

There are more, they are all over the planet.

Only direct descendents of the original families can reproduce.

Now, as for why we, the Malvanis, are not overrun with babies.

We have to take a blood oath, sort of like a sanguine wedding, in order to reproduce.

Even then, it's difficult sometimes. My mother only had me. My Uncle Victor and Aunt Valentina had 3 children in 200 years; Lucien, Gianna, and Filomena. Lucien died in childhood before his vampirism settled. Zio Darius and Zia Lucinda had the twins, Aurora and Alessandra, and were never able to reproduce again. Re Marcus had a daughter, Juliet, but she was extinguished more than 500 years ago.” This is such a huge amount of information, information that I feel fairly sure is not meant to be told to humans, or really even people outside of the family.

“That’s amazing. No one knows any of this.

” Excitement blooms in my chest, I can’t wait to tell Sarah everything.

“Ok, your comment leads me to my next question. How do you extinguish a vamp? And why do you smell like fire or smoke, something burning? Are those two things related?” I ask excitedly since this is really the question I have been wanting to know.

“I really shouldn’t tell you this.” He gives me a sardonic laugh.

“I don’t recall anyone smelling particularly like smoke so that may be a ‘me’ thing.

Inside all vampires, whether turned or born, is their life flame.

It's the light that replaces the sun. It’s not a literal flame, but when we are killed, or extinguished, that flame is put out.

When the flame goes out, there is a flash of light that explodes from the body as the light energy from the flame returns to the universe.

I don’t really know how it works—it’s magic, I guess.

The ways to extinguish us are decapitation or removal of the heart.

I guess the easier way for humans is to decapitate us.

The vampiro I extinguished in the bar last week?

I reached into his chest and pulled out his heart. ”

I’m momentarily taken aback by how matter of factly he speaks of the snuffing out of his own species. I think he notices, but he doesn’t comment. I glance at my watch and see that it's just after 10. Our date has run late.

“Let’s go. I’ll get you home,” he says, standing up from the reclined position he had taken on the roof.

He extends a hand and pulls me up to my feet.

Bash then leads us to the edge of the roof nearest to where we parked the car and wraps me tightly in his arms. He gazes down at me, longing in his eyes.

I tilt my head up to look him in the face and he leans down.

I know he is going to kiss me and I want him to, I really do.

I also know it’s not the right thing to do.

I have no idea how to trust him or if I even should.

He was honest with me tonight, but that doesn’t mean we have overcome all the barriers in our situation, the largest obstacle being the two completely different worlds we reside in.

He leans closer and closer, very slowly, until his breath mingles with mine.

He moves at a glacial pace, like he is giving me time to stop him.

And I don’t. I’m going to let him kiss me.

I can feel his intention, his breath. In the second before he closes the final gap and captures my lips with his, I turn my head and he kisses my cheek.

When he pulls back, if he is surprised, he doesn’t show it.

Holding me tightly, he bends his knees and jumps off the roof onto the street near the car.

This time, I know what's coming and smash my face against the hard planes of his chest. When we are back on the ground, I am in no hurry to extricate myself from his hold and he doesn’t push me away.

I stay holding on to him, breathing in his scent, and thinking I won’t ever forget this smell for as long as I live.

Eventually, we separate and he helps me into the car. The drive back to my house is silent but not uncomfortable, he holds my hand, enveloped in his cold one, the whole drive and I don’t want to pull away. Before we pull up to the curb, he asks “What’s your favorite food?”

“Crawfish etouffee,” is the first thing that pops into my head and out my mouth. He smiles. He jumps out and runs around to my side and opens the door.

“Good night, Elina.” He pauses. He breathes like what he says next really matters. “Should I stop? Do you want me to disappear? If not, I’ll be there tomorrow.”

“Good night, Bash.” I lean up and plant a kiss on the outer edge of his mouth. “I'll see you tomorrow night.”