Page 75 of Wedlock

She shrugs.

“He told me about it and instantly forbade me from coming here, so it was really just another way of keeping me in my place. He most likely eventually forgot about it. I was banking on that when I scoped it out as our possible hideaway.”

“We flew over a stack of small islands on the way here,” I nod, peeling more mango. “How would anyone ever find this little one anyway?”

“Exactly,” she laughs, “Ukrainians and Israelis own the majority of them. It’s a real haven for dealers and bankers.”

“Dealers in what?”

“You name it,” she shakes her head.

I let out a little gasp as Talon reaches up his tiny hand and forms a wide ‘O’ with his mouth as he stares at the mango.

“Did you see that?” I laugh. “It almost looks like he wants solids. But that can’t be right, he’s way too little.”

“Nothing surprises me with these babies,” she shakes her head. “I swear Suzume was levitating slightly above her cot last night, although I know I must have imagined it.”

“Levitating?” I laugh. “A lack of sleep can definitely cause hallucinations, Yin. Believe me, I know.

“Speaking of sleep,” she smiles, “let’s give the babies to the night-time nannies for a bottle and tummy-time whileweget some sleep.”

I nod as she rings the bell for the nannies. Bottles of donated human blood mixed with my expressed milk are meeting the infants’ needs at the moment, and mine. My breasts are healing from the puncture marks left by tiny fangs, although they’ll likely remain scarred. More importantly, I can finally sleep during the night again, although I don’t really want to.

“Come on, Angie,” she laughs, rising, “you won’t miss anything, I assure you.”

I sigh and reluctantly rise.

“You don’t know that. They’re growing so fast, and they’re so cute when they hold hands and gurgle to each other in the cot, and…”

“And you and I have all the time in the world, and then some, to appreciate them,” she shakes her head, “but we’re only human.”

“Yes,” I chew my lip as I watch them being taken towards the house. “We’re only human.”

And they’re not.

‘How long before an island hideaway isn’t enough for my two little vampires? How much time do we really have? And what of Falcon? How much time does he have?’

58

“Falco, please,” Revna snaps her fingers impatiently, “you’re not making the best choice. If this goes to The Families’ Full Court they’ll make an example of you — you’ll be destroyed.”

“The court needs to witness my absolution and rule my innocence once and for all, Revna. I’ve considered your proposal very seriously, and the offer of True Punishment, but I can’t accept either. I’m innocent. I’m confident The Families will determine that when all the evidence is laid out before them.”

“They won’t,” she shakes her head, her voice mournful. “They missed out on justice after your father’s blood rampage. They wanted to make an example of him and he thwarted their plansby dying before they could. They won’t make the same mistake again. Why else would they fast-track the trial? It should have been ten years, twenty, before you stood on the dock. Instead, it’s today.”

I shake my head as her tears start. Real or mock, I never know with Revna. I can’t give her any comfort by letting her know about Asumpta’s potential testimony. As my key witness, Jag, Wolf and I have agreed there are too many cogs in motion to allow anyone to know about her until the trial this afternoon.

And she’s not the only ace up my sleeve.

Although all three of us think it’s bullshit, Attracta will give her evidence that my father was drunk, or poisoned, on fairy blood when he went on his rampage and then died. Her testimony will show his illness is not hereditary, and that I’m no threat to mankind or the rule of law.

‘If that’s what she’s going to testify. I trust her as far as I could spit her now.’

Revna had backed up some things Attracta had said, though. My bastard half-sister had told Wolf that The Families were appalled by my father’s actions in murdering the former Countess. Not just because of her social status, but because she had such rare blood — blood that allowed her children to fly. Father had been marked for a very bloody and painful execution for this transgression, and by dying he’d taken that retribution from them. Many hoped the blood price for his wrongdoing would now be paid by me. The only things standing between me and that end were my key witnesses, neither of whom had yet to be marked down to give evidence. They’d be called at the last minute.

“I don’t understand it,” Revna sniffs, her tears over very quickly and her tone bitter, “what do you have to go home to, even if youclear your name all by yourself? Your wife has run again. She’s left the baby and run. You declare you still love thishuman, yet she doesn’t have any of the qualities you once claimed you sought in a wife if she cares so little about you and the child you share.”

I try not to reveal my surprise at this news.