Page 67 of Wedlock (Vampire Bachelor Games #3)

I stand in front of her where she sits sipping her green tea near the picture window, watching the valley below, as she customarily has every morning these past three years, and reiterate my extraordinary claim.

“I mean it, Yin. If I lie, I’ll swallow a thousand needles.”

She shakes her head, still disbelieving, and offers her pinky.

“Where did you hear that saying?”

I extend my finger and shake hers, laughing.

“Suzume. She said it when she was trying to convince Talon she wouldn’t eat his birthday cake if he left the room.”

“That little minx,” she laughs, “she knows a pinky promise is binding. She should only make a promise for something really important, not cake.”

“I know,” I laugh, “but to a three-year-old cake is a very important thing. Anyhow, the point is, I’m absolutely serious when I tell you that this evening I saw her and Talon flying.”

“I have to see it to believe it,” she rolls her eyes.

“C’mon, then.”

Taking her by the hand I lead her to their bedroom where they lie, their hands entwined, as usual. Only today they’re not stretched out like little starfish in their cot, they’re sound asleep and hovering slightly above the mattress.

Yin gasps.

“I told you I thought I saw Suzume do this when she was just a couple of months old. I convinced myself I was imagining it.”

“I know,” I breathe, “they’re the most amazing little supernatural creatures. Nothing really surprises me anymore. I didn’t think so, anyway, until I saw this.”

“And they can actually fly around?”

“It was clumsy, but they definitely can levitate to reach things, and hover for a while. Suzume’s a little better at it than Talon.

“It’s remarkable,” Yin says, her voice full of wonder. “Why just start doing this now, though?”

I slap my forehead and stare at her.

“Three years!”

She gives me her ‘get to the point’ look.

“Are you going to fill in some gaps for me here?”

“I kept hearing ‘three years’ all the time. How a mother had to breastfeed her first vampire baby for three years, and I couldn’t understand why.”

“You haven’t,” Yin shrugs, “and they’re fine.”

“Exactly, the twins have been on solids, cow's milk, and donated blood for ages, and they’re as healthy as horses. This should have made me question even more what was so important about that three-year time frame, but I kind of forgot once I left the castle.”

“Did Eleanor ever mention it?”

“Only in vague terms. I asked Asumpta and she gave me a cryptic bullshit answer.”

“Which was?” Yin asks, her tone exasperated.

“She said because some vampires could do something that others couldn’t.”

“And you think she meant fly?”

“Yes! I think they start to fly at three.”

“This makes no sense,” Yin frowns. “Falcon can’t fly.”

“I know. Very few can anymore, apparently. Spider could, though.”

“But if Falcon can’t fly, there must be something in your blood, a recessive gene or something that you passed onto the twins…or maybe your blood combined with his is special in some way.”

“Which might be why Eleanor chose me to begin with,” I extrapolate out loud, “which makes a hell of a lot more sense than her just thinking I’d be compatible with Falcon. Me, an ordinary teacher.”

“This is not good,” Yin says quietly. “Not good at all.”

“Why?”

“Because if what you say is true, a wife who produces flying vampires would be rare and valuable.”

“Oh, shit. That’s why they say wives have to breastfeed for three years and can’t be dispensed with before then. It’s not really about feeding. They need to know if the human woman is special.”

Yin nods, her brow furrowing as she ponders the ramifications while I think out loud.

“Knowing vampire’s there’s some binding fucked-up lore and laws that would have to be adhered to… Jesus, Yin. Have I gone through everything, The Games, the confinement in the castle, the thrall from Viper, everything, just so Falcon could have flying babies?”

“No,” she murmurs. “There has to be more to it than that.”

“Yes,” I frown, trying to think through the consequences of having such a special daughter.

“If every firstborn royal daughter is taken as a template, then Eleanor must have known that any daughter I had, if she could fly, would be especially valuable to the royals. Do you think she hoped to use my daughter as some kind of leverage?”

“Or she plans to use her for some other purpose.”

“Something to do with The Free Men?” I tap my forehead with my fingers, willing my brain to draw the right conclusions.

“I don’t think so,” Yin shakes her head, “but I could make some enquiries. In the meantime, what we do know is that she let her daughter be taken.”

“Yes, and she said her daughter was ‘no longer herself,’ so we have to assume she was used as a template and is a royal somewhere now.”

“Mmmm,” Yin nods, “we need to find out where, and if that’s actually the case. One thing’s for sure, though, she let her daughter be taken, and she’ll let yours go too.”

I stare at her. I’m sure my eyes are as round as saucers, my heart’s racing so fast I feel like it’s going to burst out of my chest. “I’ve always known any daughter would be sacrificed; that’s one of my main reasons for running.”

“Yet it makes no sense for Eleanor to have revealed the templates, or the future of any royal daughter,” Yin murmurs, “unless she didn’t think you’d run.”

“Maybe she was just thinking to prepare me for the inevitable?”

“Possibly,” Yin nods, “or she didn’t think you’d be able to run under hupotasso.”

“Falcon put a spanner in the works when he didn’t bite me,” I nod, thinking through everything Eleanor had told me and her possible motivations for doing so.

“He may have inadvertently saved Suzume from a fate worse than death. Fuck. This world of vampires sucks ass so hard,” I moan.

“I thought if I left Falcon an heir and he married again then maybe they’d stop chasing after a while.

But if The Families find out she can fly… ”

“They’d never stop hunting her,” Yin finishes my thought, “or you.”

“No one can know,” I whisper.

“No one,” she agrees.