The giggles overtook me at the look on his face. I couldn't help it. There were so many times when he had been so incredibly wrong...it was just funny to me now. Holding my stomach, I watched him cross his arms over his chest, his face looking not amused in the slightest.
I tried to control my giddiness, but I'd entered into that everything-is-funny stage and his expression was only making it worse. As his hands went to his waist and he actually started tapping his foot, I had to double over, the reaction was so strong. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I was quickly joined by two tiny, laughing faces looking up at me. They laughed right along with me, not really understanding what was so funny, and Teren sighed exasperatedly.
Knowing that I was pushing the limits of even his tolerance, I scooped up the kids in each arm. "Let's go get Spike." I told their excited faces.
We hurried out of the room, Teren shaking his head with his lips pursed when I looked back at him. Still chuckling softly as I walked down the stairs, I tossed a "sorry" over my shoulder.
The only sound that answered me was something similar to, "uh-huh." I smiled and shook my head. I could make it up to him another time.
Later, as the car made its way around the last turn in the Adams' super-long driveway, I inhaled a deep breath. The midmorning sun glinted off of the red Spanish tile, a visual reminder of the one thing that coming here afforded a family of vampires. Blood. Very, very fresh blood. And practically as much as we wanted, since they kept the "open-air" pantry pretty full.
The kids squealed upon seeing the house, announcing our arrival verbally, since our approach had already been felt. I laughed and leaned my head back on the seat, enjoying the way my enhanced eyes saw the beauty of this ranch.
The sharp points of the white stucco walls were easily apparent to me. The seamless wall of flat river rocks encrusted into that stucco finish along the bottom of the home, seemed even more impressive. My eyes could see the mortar holding each stone in place, could see the way they lined up perfectly. I could even see faint cracks in the rocks that I'd never noticed before.
And that was from the parking lot-sized driveway.
The rest of the home was no less impressive. Flat, clean glass windows shifted colors in the sunlight, showing me the rainbow gleam of freshly applied cleaner. The ancient logs, both structural and decorative, released a scent in the air that reminded me of summer camp, even through the confines of the car.
As Teren opened the door to get out, the other smell that was abundant at this place hit me. Cattle. Lots of cattle. Even to human noses that smell wasn't always a welcome one, but as I opened my door and stood up, I inhaled, savoring it. Somewhere in all that mess of animal was the tang of a wounded one. It smelled incredible.
Looking over at Teren as I opened Julian's door, I noticed his brows furrowing as he scanned the fields of long, waving tan grass. He smelled it too.
"Everything alright?" I asked, unbuckling Julian from his restraints.
Teren glanced down at me, then moved to open Nika's door. He nodded and shrugged. "Yeah, probably. That's just a weird place for the smell of blood to come from, and there's a lot of it." He shook his head. "We've had cougar attacks down there before." Tilting his head, he indicated a stream running between two low hills.
Unbuckling Nika's seat, he pulled her out, her tiny arms closing around his neck. "There may have been an attack last night. I should let my dad know." He shook his head and frowned.
I frowned too. The cattle were important to the Adams for more reasons than just the vampire's survival. They were also the primary source of the family's wealth. Although, they seemed affluent, even for successful ranchers.
Julian hopped out of his seat and darted off to the massive oak overhang covering the front door. Nika squirmed as she watched him run, so Teren set her down; she was instantly on her brother's tail. Spike, having fallen asleep between his two favorite people, woke up and chased after them.
As I watched the trio approach the massive double doors that led into the warmest home I'd ever been to, I watched those doors open at just the right moment to let them all rush inside. Spike barked and sniffed everything while Nika and Julian leapt into the awaiting arms of their grandmother.
As she hugged them tight, kneeling in front of the door, her sky blue eyes looked over to her son.
Teren's mother was like all of the vampires in the family. Well, all except Nika. Alanna had the straight, jet-black hair and crystal clear blue eyes, all in a face and body that belied her true age. She looked no older than Teren. She looked a bit younger than me. That made calling her "mom" feel a little odd, but I did it, to please her.
"Good morning, my lovelies," she said warmly, kissing a grandchild on each head.
Teren and I waved our greetings then grabbed the various bags that accumulated whenever you went anywhere with kids. It wasn't as if the ranch didn't have every toy or luxury they could have asked for, but try telling that to a three-year-old who needed to bring his set of army men or her plastic ponies. It was a good thing for Teren and me that we had super strength.
We walked to the house, fully loaded down, as the kids broke off from Alanna to go say hi to their great-grandma, Grandma Immy, as they called her. I watched them flee up the impressive duel staircase that lead to Imogen's rooms, Julian tripping halfway up and Nika pausing to help him.
Smiling as Imogen greeted them through the walls, I dropped my bags and engulfed the woman who had brought my husband into the world. "Hi, Mom," I said warmly as I patted her chilly back.
"Hello, Daughter," she replied just as warmly. When we separated, she naturally drifted over to Teren, squeezing his waist tight.
He laughed and tried to hug her back around his armful of bags. "Morning, Mom. Does dad know about-?"
Alanna straightened and shook her head, cutting him off. "Yes, I told him about the cows when I woke up and smelled it. He's out examining them now." She stepped away from her son, folding her arms over her chest. "We don't usually have a predator problem, but with Grandma gone..." She shrugged.
I let my senses pinpoint the location of the one vampire not with us. It being daylight, I knew that the pureblood vampire was sleeping, but Halina wasn't at the ranch. She wasn't even in the city. She was down south, way down south in L.A., visiting with her sort of boyfriend. Her location had been down in that direction all week. Since she was a night owl, she'd naturally kept the property pretty clear of threats, being the biggest one herself. Her absence had let a little bit of bravery seep into those hungry creatures.
Teren looked over at where we'd smelled the blood, then back to me. "I should give him a hand cleaning up."
I smiled and nodded, loving how Teren turned into rancher-Teren, anytime he came here. It was sexy on him.
He smiled crookedly, as if he were aware of my thoughts, then he grabbed the bags I'd dropped on the floor and blurred away upstairs. Once back down, he paused briefly to kiss my cheek, then he darted out to help his father. I watched the effortless streaking, feeling him in my head as the distance between us lengthened.
Alanna laughed and shook her head. "For someone who refuses to seclude himself here...he sure does love it." She grinned wryly at her son's opposing attitudes about his life, and I joined her.
She had a point. Teren lived in the city so he could feel a part of society. The vamps here mostly stayed to themselves, keeping contact with the outside world minimal. Teren enjoyed feeling as normal as he could and refused to hide away. Of course, he also had the least amount of side effects from his condition, so he could do that pretty easily, so long as he didn't have to eat in front of anyone and no one lovingly rested their head against his silent chest. No one but me, that is.
But when he got out here, you had to wonder why he went through all the effort. This was a place he obviously loved, a lifestyle that was completely natural on him. But for his stubbornness, he could easily stay and run this place with his dad...and be perfectly content doing it.
Spike sat at the floor near my feet, thumping his tail on the cool marble entryway. Alanna reached down to ruffle his fur, not bothered in the least by his presence. "Would you like something to eat, boy," she cooed, just like she would have for the children. He thumped his tail more and her ice eyes flashed up to me. "What about you? Hungry, dear?"
I smiled and shook my head. Alanna never stopped trying to do things for people. She was the mother I hoped to be one day. Patting Spike's back as he started walking to the kitchen, I debated when and if I'd see the full vampire. Maybe we hadn't had to worry about Spike's safety after all. "Is Halina gone to Gabriel's all weekend then?" I asked casually, mainly just curious if she'd be back, but also wondering how that pairing was doing.
Alanna looked back at me with a small smile as we walked down the hallway. "She's coming up tonight, she wants to see the kids." Her eyes flicked up to where they were playing in Imogen's room; leapfrog by the sound of it. Smiling wider, she brought her youthful face back to mine. "She wanted to leave last night, but I guess she got...distracted."
She shrugged and I knew exactly what had distracted her. There really was only one thing that would keep Halina away from a grandchild visit and he had a powerful demeanor and startlingly beautiful emerald eyes. I grinned and shook my head. "Well, the kids will be happy to feel her closer."
That was one question we'd had to endure all week. "When is Grammy Lina gonna move?" We told them repeatedly that she was with Grandpa Gabriel, but, really, that didn't stop the questioning, it only added, "Is Grandpa Gabby gonna be there?" Even though we visited nearly every weekend, it was always quite the event to our kids, nearly rivaling Christmas.
Entering the kitchen, I watched Alanna open one of the deep mahogany cabinets and pull out a can of dog food, the good kind too. I smiled. Alanna was prepared for everything, even random visits from grand-pups. Taking in the tidy opulence of the master-chef quality kitchen, I asked, "Is Gabriel coming back with her? I'm sure the kids would love to see him too."
I frowned after my question, not displeased if he showed, but not entirely pleased either. I always felt like we should all be sitting under a bright light with a giant magnifying glass over our heads whenever he visited.
Alanna popped the gooey dog food out, the mush making a sucking noise as it released from the can. The smell was atrocious, but Spike attacked it like she'd just poured a liter of blood into his bowl.
Looking back up at me, she shrugged. "I don't know." Shaking her head, she sighed a little. "It's hard to tell sometimes, what's going on with those two."
I leaned back against the counter opposite her, the granite cool under my fingertips. "Do you think she actually loves him?" I raised an eyebrow. It seemed such a foreign word when you put it together with the seductive Halina.
Alanna cocked her head, thinking. While she debated, we both heard Imogen say from upstairs, "I think Mother does love him...not that she'll ever admit it. She plays it off as just a physical relationship, but I've seen things."
I cringed a little bit at how open the mother and daughter were with each other, but, in the beginning, all they'd had was each other. I suppose that had bonded them in a way that was much closer than the average family.