Virgins and Vampires: Blood Falls (The Blood Falls Book 3)

Our hunger won us over and we slid to the House of Wren to scrounge up some food. The refrigerator was full of leftovers from chicken pot pie dinner.

Kris frowned. “I kind of wanted them to fuck dinner up so badly they missed me.”

“You’ve become quite the chef.” I dished out a bowl and put it in the microwave.

He shrugged. “It’s more than that. I…I like providing for my family. I like knowing they’re fed and taken care of. I’ve gotten a lot of pride and satisfaction out of that lately.”

And that at least partly explained the sudden hunt for a house. His garage apartment wouldn’t do. Not without some serious shielding. My bedroom was fine. No one could enter it without my permission when I was inside and only five other Gatlin could access it when I was out. But it was mine and underfoot of so many who kept a close eye on me. It wasn’t private.

And Kris wanted to provide. To make me happy. To keep me safe.

Fuck, it was sexy.

His eyes darted up and locked with mine. “What just happened?”

I shrugged, pulling my bowl out of the microwave and moving to sit at the counter. “You turned me on.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Yes you did.”

He frowned, thinking. He heated up his bowl and came to sit beside me. “I don’t get it.”

“You don’t need to. Just enjoy the fact that it can happen.”

He shrugged and nodded, digging into the leftover dinner.

“I thought I heard voices,” Bridge said as she came down the stairs from the Princess Tower—the upstairs bedrooms that had been assigned to the Wren sisters over the years. “Uh oh. Dinner didn’t go well?”

I shook my head and explained how my parents immediately started fighting. “I should have known better. They haven’t shared a meal in years.”

Bridge grimaced. “Do you ever think Fate threw them together to create you?”

“No,” I answered honestly. “I think they loved each other for a time. The exact same things that make them so incompatible now are what made them love each other then. Mom loved his free spirit. He got her out of her stuffy routines. Dad liked undoing all that uptightness. He still loves her.”

Bridge’s eyebrows shot up. “You think so?”

“Oh yeah,” Kris said between bites. “No doubt. He’s got eyes for no one but Malynda.”

It shocked me he saw it in only a few minutes. Which made me curious. “And what about my mother? Does she still love Alan?”

Bridge’s gaze ping-ponged between us as she leaned on the counter. “Oh yeah. Kris is so good at this stuff. He always knows who’s hot for who.”

Including us.

“I think so. I’m not completely positive yet, but my initial reaction was that yes, she still loves him, but there’s something there she hates. Something that keeps her from all of it: loving Alan, letting Rain live her own life, getting out of those ridiculous dresses. She’s stuck on something.”

I always thought she was stuck in the past, but my highly brilliant and empathic mate was right, now that I thought of it that way. She was stuck on something specific that was preventing her from living. “It’s interesting that you say she hates something. Hate. I’ve never been able to put my finger on this emotion simmering below it all. You’re right. It’s hate.”

I started seeing my mother in a whole new light. It changed how I saw their marriage, my childhood, even the way she acted today. “No wonder she’s so dramatic.”

Kris grunted. Bridge nodded. “Parents must be complicated. Aunt Bethany was complicated enough.”

“When do you think she’ll be back?”

The siblings traded a look. “Maybe never,” Bridge said. “She lived here for us. Now that we’re all grown up and she has Sun back…we think this vacation will turn into a new chapter in all our lives.”

It was hard to imagine the House of Wren without Bethany in it. “Where do you think they’ll go?” With a war on the horizon I didn’t like the idea of anyone going too far.

“They’re welcome to make a home here,” Kris said, pushing his bowl back, “but I suspect they want a clean start. Maybe they’ll go to Gatlin, but my money’s on Sato land. Bethany has always been close with Sun’s sister.”

“And it’s right next door,” I murmured. It made sense. I didn’t have half the experience of Bethany and Sun, and I was excited to have a fresh start with Kris at our new chosen home.

“How did the practice session go?” Bridge asked.

“Well. I learned a lot. Saoirse isn’t going to like hearing it will take some time to get ready though. It took it out of me and I was only on the Plane for a few minutes.”

Kris went tense beside me. Bridge’s eyes widened. “That bad huh? Kris just went all feral.”

“She fainted,” he bit out like it physically hurt him to relive it.

“I’ll get better at it.” It had to be like training for a mountain hike. At least that’s what I told myself. Why give me all these gifts if I couldn’t do something with them?

“We will.” He held out his hand.

I took it, feeling our bond flow through us, feeling the rightness of being with Kris. “We will.”

Bridge gagged. “Get a room you two.”

“We have,” Kris grinned. “An old house by the lower creek on Gatlin land.”

“Awwww! That’s so sweet. Now please go there before I gag again.”

And so we did.

My parents agreed—for the sanity of everyone—to get to know us separately. So two nights later we sat down at a table in the kitchens with my father. He made his famous stew and served it with a dark beer and crusty bread. The kitchens were old fashioned. It had one massive fireplace on one wall, huge butcher block counters, stone walls, and big stainless-steel sinks. One room off the main kitchen was designated for eating. We could see everyone bustling about through the doors.

My father closed them for privacy. This smaller room had an old wooden table with ten chairs, a smaller fireplace, and a simple chandelier overhead. We sat close to the fire.

“So how do you spend your days?” Alan asked Kris.

“I guess you could call me the family mechanic. I converted the barn into a garage. I work on our cars, the tractors, all the farm equipment, and whatever else needs fixing.”

“He’s also working on analyzing the metals used to create our House swords and armor.”

My dad’s eyebrows shot up. “Why?”

I repeated my theory about the experiments to create something that would work against beings from another Plane of existence.

“We’ve already discovered something interesting,” Kris said. “They’re not the same.”

My mind went in five different directions. “What isn’t the same?”

“The Houses. Our swords and armor are different from yours. We’re analyzing Volci right now and initial scans show it to be different still.”

“Is there nothing in common?” My head spun. Why were they different? How were they different?

“The primary metals used are all the same but the way they’re forged and how they’re mixed with elements we aren’t familiar with, is all very different. The crystalline structures are different, all the way down to their most basic parts.”

I sat back; my stew now forgotten. I had a dozen different theories and I wanted to test them all immediately. “Is it our connection to the Plane?” That had to be it. Or not.

Fuck, there were too many variables!

“Asking more questions before you get the first answers you seek will only confuse the problem,” Dad said quietly.

It was something he said to me all the time growing up. “You’re right,” I sighed. “You’d think I’d have learned that by now, wouldn’t you?”

He patted my hand. “I’ve always said it because it’s the one thing you have the most trouble with. And I’ll keep saying it until you don’t need it anymore.”

“So…forever?”

He laughed, Kris smiled, and my heart expanded. Spending time with the two males I cared most about in the world felt right.

“You’re leaving?” Dad asked, glancing between us. “I feel it. And I believe it’s the right decision. Where will you go?” He gathered up a large spoonful of stew and slurped it down.

“There’s an old house by the lower creek,” Kris explained, “thought I’d give it a go at fixing it up.”

Dad nodded. “Quiet, far away from the main Houses, the old cottage is a good choice.”

“You know it?”

He nodded. “Oh yes. My great aunt lived there when I was small. I camp near there sometimes for the same reason she loved it and you will too. It will need a lot of work.”

Kris shrugged. “I like working with my hands.”

Dad paused, considered his stew. He did this when he was about to ask a question he didn’t know the answer to and was checking to make sure it was worth asking.

Kris shot me a look. I assured him with a psychic caress that made him smile.

“Would you like some help?” Dad finally asked. “You’re pretty busy and I’m not, but I’m good with my hands. It could be a nice way to get to know each other better.”

Kris didn’t answer right away, so Dad took that as a sign to keep talking. “I know how important it is to have a place you feel safe, a place to start your life, but I don’t want you to feel pulled away from the work you’re doing with Rain. It’s important. Sometimes I feel useless. We went to that battlefield and I felt alive fighting for my House. Then we came back and resumed our lives even though we all know there’s more to come. I can’t do anything until that day comes. You two can.” He looked down at the table like he couldn’t believe he said that much. “I just want to be useful.”

Kris kept staring at the table, uncharacteristically quiet, even to me. I couldn’t read his thoughts or emotions at all.

Dad looked at me with wide eyes and mouthed, “Did I fuck up?”

I shook my head. I didn’t know what was happening and Kris never went silent like this before. So I reached out through our bond and gasped when I felt the magnitude of his emotions. Kris wasn’t silent. His emotions were crushing him. So much so he couldn’t figure out which one to latch on to. On instinct I went to sit beside him. When I got there his arm shot out and crushed me into his side. His heart hammered into my chest.

He spoke over my head, his voice vibrating from his body to mine. “I would love your help, Alan.”

I finally pieced it all together. The silence, the emotions, the hesitation. It all made sense now as I navigated his thoughts. My father didn’t need my gifts to figure it out though. He already had decades of experience.

“You can call me Alan if you like, son, but I’d like it a whole lot if you’d call me Dad.”

I sometimes wondered what I had to offer Kris in this relationship, beyond the constant burden of loving someone with so many requirements and responsibilities. A life like that seemed so limited. In return he cared for me so purposefully. He made sure I was fed, safe, and constantly pleasured. He made my family expand to include my best friends.

But what did I offer him that was special? The pleasure went both ways, but I didn’t have the time to dote on him the way I wanted. I didn’t bring him to magic caves or take him on exciting trails. That was all Kris and I realized now how swept up I was in the magic of falling in love with him.

So I was grateful to know that I was able to offer him something special, even if it didn’t come directly from me. Through me Kris got someone to work with. A male to bond with. Something I’d always had and he hadn’t.

A dad.