vampires of san francisco 07 - suckers lost and found (31 page)

“A year ago last week,” she says. The melancholy is dripping off of her.

“I’m so sorry for your loss, Annie,” Lilith says. She walks up to the girl and links their arms. “Let’s go talk about this job and see if you still want it when we’re done talking. Then we can go from there.”

“Thanks for even considering me.” Annie smiles down at Lilith. Lilith’s nesting is going to go into overdrive with a young bird like Annie to look after. Not sure if this is a good idea.

Sebastian leads both women into his study. The rest of us look at each other. Diel shrugs and opens the fridge to make himself some more food. The demon is a hoover. You’d never know it. Diel’s high metabolism burns it as fast as he can eat it. Hannah is always complaining about the grocery bill.

“I like her,” Manda says.

“She is really sweet. I think she is a bit lonely and today brought it all home being surrounded by so many vampires. She’s been by herself,” Andrew says. 

“I hope it works out. I really like her and think she will take good care of them,” Liam says. Andrew nods.

“I would feel better knowing they have someone here while she goes through her pregnancy. Sebastian can’t stay away from work forever,” Manda says. She grabs my hand and I squeeze it. I mentally make a plan to get some help for her too. It will be the same situation except I will be able to be with her twenty-four seven. She still needs some female companionship and I don’t particularly like cleaning and making tea.

About thirty minutes pass before Sebastian ushers the two girls into the dining room. Everyone is smiling and happy. I think we just added another misfit to our rag-tag team.

THIRTY-FOUR / LILITH

Annie is a godsend. She’s intelligent, funny and compassionate. Sebastian and I asked her everything we could think of, including how she felt about babysitting, which is something I hadn’t even considered until meeting her. She was more than amenable. I’d say she was excited at the prospect.

“Everyone, Annie is going to work for us. Thank the Goddess,” I say. I give her a one arm hug and she ducks her head. It seems to be her go-to when she is nervous.

I take her hand.

“You have nothing to worry about,” I whisper in her ear. She smiles and nods at me. We’ll have to work at bringing her out of her shell.

“Annie is going to start tomorrow. She has to give notice. Then this fall she will be starting school full time in addition to helping us here. She only has another year and a half to go to get her MBA. Of course, Sebastian wants to scoop her up for the club. We will have a fight about it at some point,” I say laughing. Annie giggles. 

Sebastian is smiling at her like he has found a daughter and protégé in one. I feel the same way. We’ll have to go shopping soon. Before the baby comes. It hits me like a Mac Truck. I will never be able to just bounce around again. I will have a little life to contend with. A huge smile plasters my face as I think of being irrevocably linked to the child growing inside me.

Sebastian comes up behind me and nuzzles my neck.

“What has you smiling ma petite mamman?”

“The baby. I am so ready to be a mom. Maybe not the childbirth part. It scares the crap out of me. But the being connected to a little soul we created is amazing.”

“Mmm, I agree. I can’t wait to meet our daughter or son. And I will be with you the whole time you are in labor and delivery. You can cuss me out as much as you want, I’ll still hold your hand.”

“I’ll remember that.”

Sabastian chuckles and rubs my belly. I feel the baby move around in response to Bast’s voice and his belly rub.

“I’ll get going. I have a lot to do before tomorrow. What time should I get here?” Annie asks.

“When do you wake up?” Bast asks.

“Oh I don’t sleep,” she says and smiles shyly. “Lionne wasn’t sure why but none of his children sleep. Just a perk, I guess.”

“I guess?? Freaking awesome. I can’t wait until I don’t have to sleep,” Hannah says. It’s been a bone of contention with her, especially since the babies have been born and she is forced to miss time with them. I wonder if I will feel the same. Who am I kidding? I already am greedy for every moment of this pregnancy. I can’t imagine I won’t miss the hours I have to sleep when Bast has the baby completely to himself. Maybe they will sleep when I do.

“You are truly lucky, Annie. I’m already jealous.” I smile at her to let her know it is in good humor. “You still have two members of our family to meet. They’ve been having some much-needed quiet time the last few days.”

“I’ll go and fetch them,” Liam says.

“Thanks, Liam. Helena and Julian are very old vampires and have nurtured us all. They actually sired Liam and Andrew but are just friends with the rest of us. The closest of friends,” Sebastian says.

“I look forward to meeting them,” Annie says. “I’ve heard so much about them both from Lionne. He had a lot of respect for them.”

“They’ve earned it,” I say. “Can I get you some wine, Annie?”

“Let me do it, Lily. Why don’t you have a seat and point me in the right direction,” she says. She has the sweetest smile. Very innocent and it matches her long blonde hair, and girl-next-door face.

Helena and Julian flash in.

“Who have we got here?” Helena asks.

“This is Annie Smith. She was Lionne’s girlfriend before he passed. She is going to help me around here.”

“Thank you, Annie, for helping Lily. She is going to have her hands full soon,” Julian says proudly.

“And we will be busy spoiling all the babies,” Helena says.

“It will be a pleasure for me to do it. Sebastian is going to help me finish school, too.”

“What are you going to school for?” Julian asks.

“I’m working on my MBA with an emphasis in entertainment.”

“Watch out or Sebastian will scoop you up for the club,” Helena says and winks at her.

“That’s what Lily said. I would love to work at You Belong to Me. But that’s not why I wanted this job. I want to belong to something again. Be around people and feel I have a purpose in life again.” She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Lionne died so suddenly and just after I turned. I thought my forever would be with him and I think I’ve been quite lost since then.”

“Oh, my poor darling,” Helena says as she wraps her up in her arms. I move to gather them both up. The baby likes it and kicks. Helena lets out a whoop and swarms my stomach making me laugh.

“It’s been moving all morning. It was so strange at first but now I can barely wait until the next time he or she moves again,” I say.

“I understand you wanting to be surprised on the sex of the baby but I hate calling it an it,” Helena says, pouting a little.

“I know that bothers me too. Not enough to change my mind but maybe we should come up with a nickname like jr. or baby St.John.”

“Oohh, I like ganja baby,” Hannah yells from across the kitchen. She’s showing Annie where the wine, coffee, glasses and mugs are kept.

“I think petite enfant is better than ganja baby,” Sebastian quickly interjects. He gives Hannah a hug.

“I like that. Little baby. It works,” Aidan says.

“I like it too,” Manda says as she snuggles up to Aidan and kisses his cheek. He’s not happy with that and takes her lips in a deep kiss.

“Well, things are getting steamy in here,” Andrew says waving at his face like he is flushed. “The little baby needs to be shielded from that,” he says pointing to Aidan and Manda.

Aidan laughs and Manda looks embarrassed.

“Now all we have to do is wait and pick out names,” I say.

It’s like I set off a bomb. Everyone starts yelling their choices.

THIRTY-FIVE / LILITH

It’s been three weeks. I’m huge. I literally feel like I have an alien the size of a pumpkin in my stomach. The baby is so active that at times my tummy is visibly changing shapes under my clothes and people can see and of course they comment. At night, Sebastian pulls my night gown up and lays his hands on my belly, talking in French to the baby. It’s the sweetest thing. I usually end up in hormonal tears from my sheer joy and happiness.

I’ve continued to have appointments with Dr. Hildebrand every couple of days. My morning sickness is gone but I am eating daily now. I’m always hungry. Aidan shows up about three every afternoon with dinner. He doesn’t even have to ask anymore. I’ve been craving creole blood so he goes out of his way to go to Louisiana and find some for me. It’s such a nice gesture and my stomach appreciates it greatly.

“Lily, are you ready to shop for furniture? We leave in fifteen minutes, cherie.”

“Oui, Sebastian.” I’m practicing my French because Sebastian is insistent the baby be bilingual.

“Bonne, ma petite mamman.” Sebastian gives me a kiss as a reward. Hmm… need to speak French more often. “Hannah, Helena and Manda are here already. Aidan is going with us to take care of delivery. We both know how dangerous it is when you all shop.”

I laugh but can’t disagree.

I take one look in the mirror and know that there is nothing I can do to change the basketball tummy. I run my hands through my hair til it looks at least decent.

“Cherie, you look beautiful. So ripe and lush. I love it.” His constant and enthusiastic support is comforting as I lose my shape.

“You’re biased. Help with my shoes? It’s been a week since I could see my feet and it’s raining out so I want my ankle boots.”

“Of course, chou chou.” He bends down to slip my boots on and tie them for me. Of course he kisses my feet and rubs them. I groan in pleasure and he chuckles.

“My feet constantly hurt these days and my lower back. Vampire healing can’t keep up with it.”

“Pauvre chou chou. I’ll start rubbing them with that lavender massage oil every night.”

Sebastian stands up and gives me a hand to help me get vertical. Ugh. I complain a lot but I have never been happier. I can’t imagine how Hannah carried twins.

“I’m ready, everyone. Let’s head out. Are we going via Aidan or taking the cars?” I ask.

“Let’s take the cars, cherie. I don’t know what the transmanifestating would do to you now and I don’t want to take any chances.”

“I’d probably just tumble over on re-entry.”

“Then for sure we are taking the cars,” Sebastian says with a look of horror on his face.

We take Bast’s Mercedes SUV that he just bought. A family vehicle with room for baby gear and Annie. He insisted we needed it for the baby. I’ve seen all the gear that Hannah and Diel have to troop around. Thanks to the size of the SUV, we are able to fit everyone in one car. Poor Aidan gets the back row though and complains loudly.

Diel and Han have moved into their house by the sea. She had Aidan help her paint all the rooms in blues and greys to match the colors of the water. It is probably one of the most soothing homes I’ve ever been in. The twins still share a room because they don’t like to be separated but they have a huge playroom now. Diel has an office and Hannah has taken up pottery again. They converted the grandma house into a studio. Who knew our ganja girl was such a domestic. Hades has a huge yard with access to the ocean. He couldn’t be happier.

Of course Aidan and Manda have moved into their house. I’ve never seen Aidan work so hard as he did to get their house ready. They did a total remodel of the inside and then had to decorate. It’s show-room gorgeous. Manda is very happy there. All the remodeling materials were ecologically sound. After I found out about the “green” paint, I made Aidan redo all my rooms with it.

My full moon transformation went well. I needed to eat from six people, though. Eyes got all silver and big and my belly stayed the same size. Dr. Hildebrand monitored the baby closely during that time and everything was good. In fact that is when we got our first 3D picture of the baby. I have it framed on my night stand. I cried for an hour after seeing it. So beautiful.

“Where to first?” Sebastian asks as we pull out of the drive. I haven’t been out of the house in forever it seems.

“First stop, smoothies. Then I have a list of boutiques in order of location,” I say.

Aidan and Bast laugh. Bast shakes his head and I give him a stern look. Squinting and pursing my lips and everything. He shuts up.

“Okay, smoothies first,” Bast says much more subdued. 

We find a local coffee spot where Bast and Aidan go in. Aidan just pops himself out of the vehicle instead of making everyone move. Soon they are headed back to the car with their arms full of delicious, fruity concoctions.

“I’ll have to see if Annie knows how to make these. I do love them,” I wax lyrical about my strawberry, banana, and blueberry smoothie.

We all slurp noisily on our way to the first boutique. I know what the chain stores have and I’m looking for something different. I have a map of the Bay Area Top Ten A-List shops and I’m dedicated.

Our first stop is Sprout San Francisco to check out cribs and furniture. Their mission is: safe and healthy. I like that. Unfortunately I wasn’t sold on any one piece of furniture yet. Will definitely come back for other things.

We went to almost all the shops on my list. In the end we bought a white mini round crib for our room, a grey Million Dollar Baby crib with matching dresser, and a Monte Designs Joya rocker in wool and walnut. We bought several Sprouts storage bins and caddies to have on the floor with toys. They are so cute with bright geometric animals on them. We had to buy the best car seat according to the research Sebastian had done and three extra car seat bases for everyone that is hoping to cart bambino St. John around. A Stokke Xplory stroller rounded out our large spree of purchases. We stocked up on layettes and sleepers, bottles, bouncers, baby carriers and booties. 

I am exhausted. I missed my afternoon nap and fell asleep in the car on the way home. I only wake up when Sebastian starts to unbuckle me.

“Shh… rest cherie. You’re tired. Let me carry you in to bed.”

“M’kay.” I wrap my arms around his neck and fall back asleep. When I wake up, Aidan has dinner for me. I am spoiled. But right now I am too uncomfortable and tired to care.