Page 74 of Wedlock

“I’m afraid it was dead, Falcon. She saw Spider dash its brains out against the castle wall.”

“You’re sure?”

“She has no reason to lie about this.”

I close my eyes for a second and turn away from them. As Wolf and Jag said, the child was a bastard. But it still pains me to learn its fate.

“Who took it then?” I scowl, turning back. “And why?”

“Free Men,” Jag says quietly. “Asumpta claims they turned up and attacked Spider. They were the ones who took out all the guards, but they were unsuccessful in destroying him — he was wounded, but got away.

“Hang on,” I hold my hand up to stall him, “the Free Men took a dead baby?”

“I’ll admit, it doesn’t make any sense to me either,” he shakes his head, “but I left no stone unturned in my questioning. It seems the logical conclusion.”

“Logic,” I mutter, “never played a part in any of this.”

57

“It’s a beautiful name, Yin. I couldn’t have chosen better myself.”

“I was worried you might think it impertinent. After all, she’s your daughter, not mine.”

“She’s just as much yours, Yin. When I needed a friend you were there in spades. You saved my life and the lives of these babies. And I’m honoured that you’d choose to give her a Japanese name.”

“It suits her, don’t you think?”

“Suzume,” I smile, “Sparrow. Yes, it suits her.”

“Swift and light,” Yin smiles, “but adaptable and smart. She’ll need to be all these things when she’s older.”

“Hopefully much older,” I shake my head, thinking about my children’s future, knowing they’ll have to live their whole lives under the radar and in the shadows. They can never reveal what they are to humans, or be discovered by other vampires. The only ones they can truly be themselves with are each other.

‘Thank god I managed to reunite them.’

I look around uneasily.

Even though we’re lounging by a pool under the stars, my daughter on Yin’s lap, my boy on mine, I still feel like any moment a vampire is going to burst through the clipped, thick hedges, and attack us.

“God, Yin. Everything sounds like it’s all going to Hell in a handbasket, doesn’t it?”

“No. Not for us. Maybe for the vampires, but they deserve it. The main thing is that you’re safe, your children are safe. No one will ever find us here. You’re still all keyed up from the adrenaline of escaping and the long flight, but this environment will soon seep into your bones, and you’ll learn to mattari suru.”

“Which is?”

“Relax.”

I nod and open my mouth to confess to her that I’d phoned Eleanor and Falcon while I was on the run, but change my mind. If that’s why I’m feeling insecure here, then perhaps that’s my penance. No need to also disrupt Yin’s zen.

“Where exactly are we?” I ask instead around a mouth full of fresh mango. I’d offer some fruit to Talon, but he’s still way too little to eat solids, although I’m starting to take with a grain of salt everything I know about babies now that I’m raising vampires.

“I own this island,” Yin smiles, stretching and looking down into the face of my wide-eyed daughter. “It was a gift for my twenty-first birthday. An inheritance from my mother. She was independently wealthy when she married my father and retained many assets up until her untimely death. She left me this island in her will — maybe she knew that one day I’d need a place to hide… up until three days ago I’d never been here.”

“Yin,” I laugh. “If someone gave me an island, visiting it would be the first thing I’d do.”

“Father never let me,” she shrugs. “I think he wanted me to divorce myself from anything to do with my mother, just as he had.”

“She must have really loved you to leave you an entire island,” I smile at her. “It’s a wonder your father even let you know about it.”