Page 6 of Blood Ties (City of Blood #1)
The notation does not provide any additional information that isn’t available in the family tree other than the dates of birth for Marcus’s siblings.
No other family members have birth dates which may or may not be supportive of my theory that they reproduce.
Also, the word sirelings could be in support of or against the theory also.
Basically no more than I knew before, except, I have names for other family members that I have never seen and would not recognize if I saw them on the street or in my bar.
I do know for certain though, the mystery vamp from last night is most definitely on this page, but which one is he?
Is he a cousin of Marcus or one of his brothers?
Or maybe his nephew Sebastien, the heir apparent?
Holding the spine tightly, I study the lineage on the page. Was the heir in my bar last night? Commanding control?
Sarah should be back to work tomorrow but I don’t think I can wait that long to talk to her—the bar isn’t really a safe place anyway. Hopefully she is up to visitors.
“SAAAARRRAAAHHH!” I call out from the front entry of her house, a half hour later. I can unlock her house with my palm so no need to knock. I barge in and start yelling, which I have heard, from her, that she hates, so I keep doing it.
“SARAH! Love of my life! Sister of my heart! Where are you?”
“Elina, for fuck sake, please come inside like a normal human. I’m in the reading room,” Sarah shouts from the back of the house. Weaving through the narrow rooms and down the hallway, I move toward the direction of her voice.
“No thanks, this is much more fun. How ya doing today? How do you feel? Ready to get back to work?” I send a barrage of questions her way as I flop down onto a green velvet chair and look over at my best friend with a huge smile on my face.
Flaming red, curly hair, big green eyes, and a lot of freckles—I am so grateful she’s on her feet again after last week's attack. She’s sitting at her sewing table, smiling back at me, and shaking her head at my loud entrance and obvious comfort here.
“Lina, what are you up to today? You’re going to see me at work tomorrow, and Sundays you usually spend at home. You’re here for a reason—spill it.” She lowers her brows and crosses her arms over her chest, watching me curiously.
“Ok, but listening only. No opinions until the end.” I level her a look that says I mean it, control yourself.
“I don’t know if you heard about what happened at Velvet last night, but some blood-sucker killed a woman right in the bar in the middle of the night.
There was a Blood Raven in the bar too–” Queue the big green eyes getting bigger.
“I know! They never come into the bar. Anyway, he extinguished him and took care of the bodies. He told me I didn’t need to call anyone or anything.
So, I got my ass out of there. Now I can’t stop thinking about him and I want to know who he was.
I just came from the archives and I saw the family tree, and I have some suspicions who it could be, as well as some theories about how they make baby Malvani vamps.
Oh, AND I saw him in the bathroom fucking Amelie and feeding on her before this whole thing happened.
God, I wish you had been there. Did I mention how tall he was?
LIKE A TREE!” I rush out in a long babbling speech and suck in a deep breath.
Sarah huffs out a laugh.
“I…I don’t even know where to start. Are you ok?
” I wave a dismissive hand in her direction.
“Amelie, huh? In the bathroom? With a Blood Raven? Not a bit of shame in that woman’s body.
I wonder if she knew who he was? Probably not—in a brothel giving it away for free.
” She shakes her head like she can’t believe it but also knows it’s true.
“So, he was tall like a tree was he?” More laughter from my best friend, who I fear may be seeing through the show I’m putting on.
“Was he hot?” Sarah asks, leaning forward like the answer is really important to her.
“ I…he…Blood Raven, Sarah. Killer, night dweller, royalty! It doesn’t matter if he was hot,” I respond, stuttering a little as a blush rises to my cheeks.
“Lina, you’re blushing. I’m sure his long, black hair and brown eyes didn’t do it for you at all,” she comments with an eye roll.
“His hair is short and wavy, and his eyes are dark grey. Who are you...oh.” I narrow my eyes at her.
“Listen, I didn’t pay that close attention, I only noticed.
You know what, leave me alone. Ugh! Anyway, according to the family tree, there are only a few possibilities of who it could be.
Lucian and Orion are cousins of Marcus, Victor and Darius are his brothers, and Sebastien is his nephew and heir.
Those are the only living men in the family.
We know they don’t really age quickly but Marcus doesn't look at that young, like in his fifties maybe? So, it stands to reason his cousins and brothers would look similarly aged. Which leaves Sebastien. The vamp at the bar looked maybe 30? Also Marcus is over 1000 years old and looks like he’s fifty. So…?”
“Seems possible. So you think the hot tree-like vampire is Sebastien, heir to the Blood Raven throne?” I nod in response to her question.
“Interesting. My question is, do you think he will come back to the bar and see you? Oh, also how do you think they make Malvani babies? There are no vampire babies. Just new vampires. You’ve seen it yourself; family and friends turning, overtaken with bloodlust.” Sarah looks sad as she finishes her thought, no doubt remembering Ethan and my heart breaks a little for her.
She should be married with babies by now, not all alone here.
“I think the Malvanis reproduce. The old fashioned way. Like, yeah, there is lots of fucking and no babies, so there has to be some other part to it, I guess. The family hasn’t expanded since Marcus and his siblings sired their children and none of those children are married.
We also have no idea how old they are because the family tree didn’t have birth dates for anyone at all, and only a footnote told how old Marcus and his siblings are.
From what I have seen of the family, when they are in the papers or city events, they look pretty similar.
I don’t know. Someone has to know though.
” I have no idea who would know but there has to be someone.
“Your hotty vamp definitely knows. Ask him when he comes back.”
“He’s not coming back!” Spying the clock sitting on the shelf above Sarah’s head, I realize the time.
“I have to go, Grand-mere is waiting. Why don’t you come over for supper?
You can stay over so you don’t have to travel back after dark.
I have to get to Velvet in the morning to clean up from last night since I ducked out after the incident.
” I extend the invite, hopefully, but I already know she will decline.
After Ethan was enthralled and left, and later turned, she simply isn’t like she used to be.
“Next time, I promise,” she whispers as I lean in to hug her.
“Love you.”
“Love you too.”
“Why do you think that maman didn’t ever tell you who my papa was?” I ask Grand-mere Celeste over crawfish pie for supper.
“I wish I knew,” she says. She fidgets and stirs her food around, as though she is suddenly not interested in eating.
“After your maman died, I wish I knew so you could have a parent. She didn’t have a boyfriend that I knew of.
It was only me and her like it’s been just me and you.
She didn’t stay out overly late, didn’t put herself in danger, but she also never brought anyone home.
She broke down crying one day and told me she was pregnant.
I begged her to know who had done it, if for no reason other than to make him step up and be a part of your life.
Babies need two parents. After Grand-pere Jean died when she was a teenager, you needed a man around to be a parent.
Then, when we lost her, all we had was each other, Elina.
But I think we did alright,” she tells me while she strokes my hair out of my face, a wayward curl looping at my temple.
“I wish she had told you, too.” I never let myself think of him, this mystery man. Knowing my mother cried when asked about it makes me so sad. Who was this man?
Maybe I’ll add finding my father to my list of mysteries of late. An enigmatic vampire from a royal family and a poor orphan of unknown parentage. Quite the mystery indeed.