Page 1 of Love Bleeds

Chapter One

Most babies get their first teeth in when they're around six months old. Not my nephew. My nephew grew his first tooth when he was half that age, and it wasn't just a regular baby tooth, either, it was afang.I tried not to stare too hard while I was holding him and he grinned at me.

It wasn't easy.

Truth was, with his mouth closed, my nephew was the most adorable baby in the world. With his mouth open, he looked like he could play the lead-role in a B-rated horror movie. Something like,Revenge of the Vampire Babies.

Because he was a vampire baby, when it came down to it. Okay,half-vampire, but still. He looked creepy with that fang. Not that my brother agreed, no. Collin hadfawnedover that stupid tooth as if it was precious rather than horrifying. Then again, he had jumped into bed with a vampire, so his judgement couldn't be trusted anyway.

Especially considering that he'd thought I'd make an adequate babysitter.

Yeah, rational thinking definitely wasn't my brother's forte.

I directed my gaze away from my nephew's tooth. "Maybe I should set you down, would you like that?" I asked him as I paced the room with him in my arms. "No, you wouldn't," I answered myself. "You'd just start crying again, the way you do every time I try. I don't know how much longer I can carry you, you know." The little bugger wasn't heavy, not really, but I'd been holding him for a while now. He cooed and looked at me with his Daddy's eyes. My brother's eyes. When I focused on his big eyes, I had to admit, he was damn cute.

But then, once I let my guard down, there was that fang again.

"What do you want with a fang?" I mused. "You can't even have solid foods yet." At least, if he were human he couldn't. Maybe it was different for vampires? Or in this case, half-vampires. When I was being honest with myself, I knew what that fang was for. Drawing blood.

I tried to suppress the thought and hoped to hell that Collin would be back before feeding time. We didn't know if the baby strictly needed blood, or if he did, how much, but his parents had decided to be safe rather than sorry and added a small amount of blood to his meals once that stupid tooth had shown up. Nix seemed happy with his food. I tried not to get queasy every time I watched him drink.

I'd also figured out just the right angle to tilt my head so I wouldn't have to see the bottles of blood in the fridge every time I opened it to get food for myself.

These days, I ate out more often than I used to.

Rocking the baby, I glanced at the clock that hung above the door to the living room. It was just after three pm.

"Your daddies should be back soon," I said to Nix.

He started crying as if the mere mention of his daddies suddenly made him miss them.

My first thought was, oh God, I broke it.

Talon and Collin should never have left me alone with the baby. I didn't know anything about babies. "Shush," I tried. "What's wrong with you?" I looked the baby up and down, trying to find the bug. The problem, I corrected myself mentally, not the bug. My nephew wasn't a piece of software code.

Things would be so much easier if he were.

We'll be back as soon as we can,Collin had promised, but it had been over an hour now. I glanced at the clock again as if that would make my brother return faster. He and his vampire boyfriend had been summoned to the high council of witches for a hearing pretty suddenly so I'd agreed to babysit.

And now here I was.

I held the baby up and tried sniffing at his diaper. It passed the test.

So... um... "Are you hungry?" I ventured.

Nix didn't reply in words, of course. He just started crying harder, which I took as an affirmative, anyway.

I swallowed. "You'll be okay with just the regular formula until your daddies come home, right?"

Again, no intelligible response.

"Look, I'm trying my hardest here, okay?"

Next time when they needed a babysitter, they would have to get Remy or Elena or even Jared. Still holding my nephew, I walked into the kitchen to prepare the formula when a popping noise sounded behind me. I whirled around.

A witch with electric blue hair stood in the doorway to the kitchen. Puck. Fantastic. Just what I needed: for someone to see what an awkward mess I was.

"What do you want?" I asked Puck over the baby's cries, maybe a bit more harshly than needed.