The Vampire Jessup: The Vampire Saga
by Julien Gregg

You've read the tales of Eric Maxwell, Darias and Ren now hear from the 700 year old Vampire Jessup. This is not the tale of how he was turned, though that tale may come later. This is the tale of what came after the events of Neverland: I Vampire 2. Told from Jessup's perspective, follow him on a journey of protection and love. This story contains scenes depicting murder, violence, bloodletting, homosexual sex, rape and has a strong adult theme. If you are offended by this type of material or it is not legal for you to read this type of material in your place of residence, please leave the site now.

This story is a work of fiction its characters do not exist outside the story. Any resemblance to living people or places is strictly coincidence. This story is Copyright © 2015 Julien Gregg. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This story contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

Two

Where was I? Oh yes, Jax's eyes. To say they were beautiful is an understatement. This memoir is not about Jax so much as it is about me, Noah and of course Perrin. Yet to move on so quickly after saying simply that Jax's eyes were beautiful would be wrong of me.

I've been a vampire for thousands of years now. I've been the victim of a mind trap that kept me literally locked inside a shell that I became thanks to the vampire, Sloan. I have never known the affections of a woman in my entire life both human and vampire. At first that bothered me, but as the years moved along and I came to love what and who I am. I got over that. To say that I embraced homosexuality isn't really what happened, but to say that I accepted that part of myself was more on key. Jax was a beautiful man in every regard. He had the perfect body, the dark eyes and dark hair. He had the killer smile and the sexy way he walked. This man was Forsaken which meant he was bred for battle and strife, but he was also bred for sex.

He was now Miguel's drone which meant that he was off limits to me, but that didn't mean that I couldn't look at him and wish that I'd been the one to sink my teeth into his neck or the one to bond him in that sexual way that our bondings take place. I'd had drones in the past, so I knew intimately what it meant to bond them. Miguel had just done that very thing with Jax and I was a jealous vampire.

Anyway, back on point. This isn't about Jax. It is about me, Perrin and Noah. I was sitting in Eric's house on the small sofa with Noah nearly snuggled against me. Brendan was across from me on the couch with the glass of blood in front of him on the table. We were discussing papers for Noah and myself. What I'd actually come for was a drone, but it seemed we'd get to that later. We were safe in the house for the most part. There were four vampires and three Forsaken, so Noah was safe enough.

"I can have papers that'll stand up to any investigation by tomorrow night," Jax said in that deep Forsaken voice.

"Thank you," I said, looking away from him. If I stared at him too much longer I'd embarrass myself.

Just then Blaze came into the room followed by a sprite of a woman who looked no older than eighteen with long curling blond hair and big blue eyes. Her body was pixie petite and it seemed that she should have fairy wings, she was just so pretty. Her porcelain skin seemed to shine in the candlelight. She was all smiles as she took in the scene before her. Then her eyes fell on Noah and she beamed.

"Aren't you adorable!" she cooed at him. "Come with me, Little Guy. I'll find you something good to eat. You must be starving."

"Blaze," said Brendan as he watched the young woman walk out of the room holding fast to Noah's hand. "You had been talking about being bonded by a vampire before you married Beth. Has your decision changed?"

"No," he said, looking back and forth from Perrin to me. "Beth knows what I want. She's on board, though she isn't sure about the sexual aspect of the bonding."

"You remember Jessup," he said. "Why don't the two of you get to know each other while Jax works on papers. Miguel, I'd like to have a chat with you."

I followed Blaze out of the parlor and down the hall to the dining room that was rarely used by any other than the Forsaken, and now I supposed Beth would eat in there. We sat at the table and were joined a few minutes later by Beth and Noah. She'd made the boy sandwiches and given him a glass of milk. It all smelled horrid to me, but then I had never gained the ability to stomach human food. I'd been a vampire for so long that I couldn't remember ever having actually eaten any of it as a human.

"So are you to be Blaze's vampire?" Beth asked, smiling at me with that beguiling smile of hers. She was actually the first of our little group to speak.

"We're going to discuss it," I said. "If Blaze is willing, and if you are willing I will bond him."

Blaze looked exactly like Cain although his arms were free of tattoos. He had the same overly muscular physique with close cropped dark hair and dark eyes. He oozed violence, but then that was a good thing if he was to protect Noah. I stared at him for a long moment, thinking about what it would be like to have him and Beth around constantly. It would be good for Noah. Blaze could protect him and Beth could mother him. It was actually perfect.

"Does it matter that he's married?" Beth asked as she ran her fingers through Noah's blond locks as the boy ate.

"No," I said, smiling at her. "It's actually a plus that he's married. I'll have Noah to look after and he'll be needing a woman to mother him."

"This is the boy that was on the news earlier?" she asked. Blaze was still just looking at me.

"Yes," I said. "I killed his father. Then Perrin and I dispatched his legion of minions. It was all on the news. What wasn't on the news were the human prisoners in the basement of their house. His father was selling innocents to a vampire named Silas. I got the name from Noah."

"So you think this vampire, Silas, is going to come after you and possibly Noah?" Blaze said, saying his first words since we'd sat down.

"Yes," I said. "I will do whatever it takes to keep him safe."

"It was explained to us what the vampire gets out of the bonding," Beth said as she stroked Noah's hair. "What happens to the Forsaken?"

"Forsaken men are resilient by nature," I said, picking my words carefully. "They live longer than human men and heal faster than human men on their own. A bonded Forsaken has some of the same immortality that the vampire has. They heal even faster and are nearly impossible to kill. I know that the toll on their bodies when they morph is extensive. It requires days of healing between morphs. It's also extremely painful for the Forsaken. Once he's bonded that won't be such an issue. It will still be painful, but he won't feel most of that. He also won't require as long to heal from it. He'll be more centered, more in tune with what's going on around him. He'll also be more violent, more protective. The hormonal time before, during and after a full moon will go away. He'll be able to change at will more easily and not worry about the moon."

"And our children," she said, looking from me to Blaze and back. "The males will be bred drones, right? That means they'll be turned into vampires?"

"First of all I will say that a bonded Forsaken, or a bonded human male becomes more fertile," I said carefully. "The bond changes the chemical makeup of their bodies slightly. If I bond Blaze he will be extremely fertile. You will get pregnant. There won't be any trying to get pregnant anymore. Your children will all be male. That's one of the changes made by the bond. Yes, they will be bred drones but they are Forsaken which means that they won't necessarily become vampires. They will be bonded to a vampire when they reach adulthood."

She was silent after that. She watched as Noah ate his sandwiches and drank his milk. Then she took him out of the room to get a bath and get ready for bed. I took the time to talk with Blaze about what he expected from the bond. He was quiet for a few minutes after I asked him that question and I studied him. He was more muscular than I liked, but then he was a Forsaken. Jax was young and would probably pack on more muscle as the years went by. Blaze and Cain had obviously tried to pack on as much as they could. They were very good looking men even though their natural expressions were of anger. I imagined having sex with Blaze and I couldn't picture it. What would it be like to have this muscular man in my arms? What would it be like to be inside this man? I just couldn't picture it.

"I want the longer life," he said in his deep voice. "I want the stamina, the accelerated healing and all of the power that comes with a bonding. I've only known one other bonded Forsaken in my life. That's Reston. The changes I saw in him were positive. He seems happy enough. Did you know he's planning to marry?"

"I did know that," I said with a smile.

Reston was Brendan's drone. He was a Forsaken and like Cain, Blaze and Jax he was born Forsaken. He wasn't as muscular as Cain and Blaze, but he had a muscular physique. He, like them exuded a violent charm. He looked nothing like them though. Where they were dark Reston was fair. His blond hair was long and shaggy but it suited his chiseled looks and his amber colored eyes.

"I'm not sure about the sex though," Blaze said after a moment. "I mean I know it has to happen for the bonding, but do we have to have sex all the time?"

"No," I said. "The sexual aspect of the bonding is required, Blaze, but after that we never have to touch each other sexually again if neither of us want that."

"But I'll need your blood every day," Blaze said, looking at me hard.

"Yes," I said. "You'll need my blood, but you'll find that Forsaken drones don't require blood every day. It may be because of the sex, but if we're not having sex then we'll see how much blood you really need to stay alive."

"Are you planning to turn the boy?" he asked, startling me.

"No," I said quickly. "I have no intention of ever turning Noah. I want to save the boy, to raise him and give him a life he'd never have had with his father. I want him away from the trafficking. I realize it won't be a normal life, what with vampires around. I just want him to have the things that he should have had with his real father."

"Then I accept," Blaze said. "I'll bond with you, Jessup. I was worried about being bonded to a vampire who would do that to a child. You convinced me that you only want to protect Noah, so I'll bond with you and help you do it."

"Don't you think you should discuss it with Beth?" I asked.

"No," he said. "We've already had our discussions. She told me it was ultimately my decision. The only thing she was upset about was sharing her husband sexually with a vampire. You've just told me that won't happen unless we both want it to."

"Then we should get started," I said, thinking that if he was willing to be bonded then he should be.

We went upstairs to the room I always used when I was staying at House Maxwell. This was the only vampire house left in existence, at least in San Juan. We had no way of knowing if another vampire house existed elsewhere. The vampires had scattered so completely that anything was possible.

I'd bonded a drone before, but I wasn't sure that Blaze would go for the ritual I usually used for bonding. I decided that there was no time to ponder it. I just went into the bathroom and began to fill the huge tub with salts and oils as the hot water gushed from the faucets. I took off my clothes as the tub filled and could see out of the corner of my eye that Blaze was stripping as well.

Blaze naked was a vision. He was all over muscular and he looked so powerful and at the same time so nervous. I was struck by the contradiction of those two things as I looked at his entire form from his massive pectoral muscles to his washboard stomach and finally to his pubic bone. I was struck by the fact that there was not as much hair on his body as I had seen on the bodies of other Forsaken. I wondered if he shaved it or trimmed it, but this didn't make sense. He didn't look like the type of guy who did those things.

I was also surprised that his dick was erect. He clearly didn't think much of homosexual sex, but here he was hard and ready for the deed that would follow this bath. I climbed into the water and let the salts and oils do their thing. He looked at me for a moment until I pointed to the other end of the tub. He got in across from me as I shut off the water and grabbed the sponges.

We washed each other as I began the mental bonding in just the way that Eric had told me it had to be done so many years ago. I simply let my mind touch his, to caress his mind and get used to the feel of his emotions and his inner self. He gave no indication that he felt it, so I just kept things going in that subtle manner as I moved the sponge over his muscular chest and stomach. He did the same things to me, and though he wasn't a homosexual the washing was very sensual and tender.

"This wasn't what I expected," he said as he washed me.

"Nothing about this will be what you expected," I replied.

"So this is where it will happen?" he asked.

"No," I said. "This is just the beginning. We'll get out of this tub and dry each other in a moment. This was simply to relax us both. Then we'll move to the bedroom to finish the bonding."

"I've never had sex with a man," he said, and I didn't correct him and say that I was a rather loose interpretation of a man. Instead I let him talk. "I've never even given it any thgought. Well at least not until Brendan talked to me about being bonded. He told me all that it entailed. He never mentioned the bath though."

"As I said, the bath is only to relax us both," I repeated. "The oils and salts I added will keep us calm and ready during the process."

"Will it hurt?" he asked, looking into my eyes.

"Parts of it will," I said. "The pain won't last long, though. I'll be calming your mind and changing the way it interprets pain as the process continues. The bite will be painful only as my fangs enter your neck. Then the euphoria will set in."

We slid closer to each other until I was sitting in his lap as he used the sponge to wash my back. I did the same thing to him, trying not to think of him as a lover but more as a tryst. I couldn't keep him as a sexual mate and I didn't want to. The idea that soon I would be inside him and then have him inside me was intriguing none the less.

The room was filled with steam as we got out of the tub and proceeded to dry each other slowly, methodically and tenderly. I got to know the crevices and ridges of his body with my towel covered hands. I had to admit that he felt perfect as I dried him. When I was leading him back to the bedroom he was more relaxed than when we'd first come into the bathroom.

We climbed onto the bed and I had to direct him into position. He was almost sitting on top of my legs. I moved him into position so that my hard dick was pointed at his hole. Then I leaned forward and sank my fangs into his neck, making him moan. Soon I could feel his hard dick pulsing between us so I knew the euphoria was in full effect. I did two things when I noticed that. First I pulled him closer to me and entered his ass slowly. He didn't flinch or tighten up and soon I was all the way inside of him. Then I reached into his mind with my own and began to restructure that part of his mind that the bond would live in. I pulled blood slowly from his neck, savoring the wondrous taste of Forsaken blood. Most of the time I just held the blood in my mouth as I fucked him, savoring the taste and the feeling of his tight hole around me. Then I could feel it. I could feel the connection forming in his mind. I sped up my thrusts and stopped pulling blood although my fangs were still in his neck. He moaned as my climax hit me. I sped up my thrusts once again until I was almost pounding him from underneath.

He needed no instruction or compulsion once I let myself fall from his ass. We repositioned as I licked the wound in his neck to heal it. Then he was sliding his dick into me as his own fangs sank into my neck. I had to push with my mind to keep him from pulling too much blood and turning himself into a vampire. I let him fuck me though his thrusts were much more powerful than mine. I was getting thoroughly fucked while he slowly drank my blood. I kept at his mind until the knot formed and I could feel him both with my mind and in my mind. His climax was loud and violent. It rocked us both and I was suddenly very sorry that I couldn't keep him as a sexual mate. When it was over he lay back on the bed and looked at me with those blood ringed eyes.

"I can feel you in my head," he said as he looked at me in such wonder over the new sensations running through his body.

"Yes," I said, smiling at him. "I can feel you in mine, too. You're bonded."

"And I love you," he said sincerely. "I didn't think I would. Did you compel me?"

"I don't have that power," I said. "The bond forms and links us together so completely that I think you are only mistaking the feeling for love."

"No," he said. "I'm yours now."

"You belong to your wife," I informed him. "I only bonded you."

"I feel strange," he said suddenly, and I smiled.

"The sun is coming up," I informed him. "I can feel it, so you can feel it. Don't worry, Blaze, you won't need to sleep now that the sun is rising. I will though. Please keep Noah safe today."

He leaned forward and kissed me like I'd never been kissed before. Not even Tyron Par had kissed me like this. His arms went around me, pulling me to him as his tongue caressed mine. He moaned against my mouth and then I had my arms around him, pulling him even closer. Then he pulled back and grinned at me.

"Sleep well," he said. "I will keep our Noah safe."

I watched him as he climbed off the bed and dressed. His blood ringed eyes never left mine as he put his clothes on. I thought he would kiss me once again as that smoldering look entered those eyes but he smiled warmly and then left the room, leaving me to ponder what had happened and what was happening still, for I could still feel that bright spark in my head that was his passion for me.

I put my head back against the pillows, not bothering with clothing and let my mind wander as the sun did it's number on my consciousness. I didn't exactly have to sleep, but prowling the house all day captive by the sun wasn't what I had in mind. I thought about my new drone and the awareness in my head of what he was doing. I felt his reaction to Beth's fear of the blood rings in his eyes. I should have told him that those would fade to amber in a few days. He seemed worried about what Beth thought about his having had sex with me, but he was happy enough a few minutes later. I closed my eyes and let sleep claim me as I felt the love he now felt for Noah and his fierce desire to protect him.

My eyes opened again when the sun was out of the sky. I stretched though it wasn't at all necessary. Then I sat up and looked around the dark room. It wasn't dark long. Blaze was there lighting candles around the room. I still couldn't understand Brendan's insistence on candlelight. He was dressed in black leather jeans with a tight black t-shirt over his massive upper body. Black workman's boots covered his feet. He smiled at me and then handed me clothing out of the closet. He stood there, watching me dress as the desire radiated through the bond. I ignored it and got dressed in silence.

He followed me up to Brendan's livestock pen on the top floor of the house. He stood by and passively watched as I fed from a dark skinned man who had been snatched before a police raid could claim him. He was wanted in twelve states for murder, rape and theft. He tasted evil and delicious and was soon ash at my feet. One of Brendan's drones I did not know came forward to sweep up the ash. He was a tall man with hair the color of sand and green eyes. They were ringed in gold and the effect was amazing to behold. He smiled at me.

"Will you be needing another?" he asked in a clipped English accent.

"No," I said. "Thank you."

"My name is Thomas," he said, smiling still. "It was a pleasure to serve you."

We left him there, holding his little bag of ash that my victim had become and went down to the ground floor. Noah was seated in the dining room with Reston and Cain. Jax was nowhere to be seen. I assumed that he and Miguel had returned to the crypt at the cemetery. I didn't think more of it as Blaze took his seat beside Beth as she put food on a plate for him. The smell of the cooked meat was disgusting to me so I smiled at them and then searched out Brendan.

I found him in the parlor, but I was shocked to also fine both Miguel and Jax in the parlor with him. They had bags stacked against the side of the sofa and that perplexed me. Were they going somewhere? I hadn't heard anything about it, but then I'd been so wrapped up in protecting Noah and bonding Blaze that I hadn't paid attention to anything else.

"Ah, Jessup," Brendan said as I came into the room. "Jax has the papers you need. Come take a look."

I walked over and took the large folder from the sexy Forsaken's hands and looked at the birth records, passports and driver's license. There were other things, too. Hospital forms, a death certificate for a woman who never existed. She was listed as Noah Maxwell's mother. I was listed as his father. They were all very well done.

"These look exquisite," I said as I looked up into those yellow rimmed eyes and tried not to feel the desire for him all over again.

"We also took care of the station," Jax said. "Perrin and Miguel used what mind control they possess to persuade the producers that it had been an elaborate hoax and that Noah Dansik never existed. We also erased that name from every public record and created school records and the like for Noah Maxwell instead."

"I thought Perrin had already taken care of the station," I said, looking from Jax to Miguel and back.

"He had removed the tapes and gotten them to stop reporting it," said Miguel. "We have made it final. No one knows anything about Noah Dansik anymore."

"Thank you," I said not knowing what else to say.

"It has been decided where you will be going," Brendan said. "You need a big city, and Chicago is big enough, but I'm sure you'll like that you and the others will be staying in a house outside of Chicago in the suburb of Kale. A house has already been purchased in your name. Miguel knows where it is."

"So he and Jax will be going with us?" I asked. I didn't like that for a number of reasons. One was that I didn't exactly like Miguel. Another was that I didn't want the sexual distraction of Jax around me all the time. Brendan was our leader so I had to do what he said but I didn't have to like it.

"And Perrin as well," he said. "He's bonded Seamus. They grumbled about it but they seemed to get along all right after the bonding. They're out getting supplies."

So there would be three mature vampires, two bred Forsaken and one bitten Forsaken. There would be a lot of tension in this group. The two bred Forsaken, if they were like their brethren always felt superior to the bitten men who changed with the moon and only with the moon. I didn't know if I was ready for this kind of problem. I was a little angry with Brendan for saddling me with these people.

"I feel no ill will toward Seamus," Jax said as he looked at me. It was strange, like he'd read my mind. I wasn't his bonded Master.

"What of your brothers?" I asked.

"None of us will bother Seamus," Jax said. "We are the children of a bitten Forsaken. It would be sort of stupid for us to have a problem with Seamus. I cannot say if he has a problem with the three of us, though."

"Perrin will keep him in line," Brendan said, dismissing the issue. "The drones will be transporting the three of you in pine boxes onto the aircraft. The cover story is that the three of you are members of Beth's family who died in an explosion here in San Juan. She's taking you home to Chicago to bury you in the family plot."

"Perfect," I sighed. I hated traveling like the dead. "How long is the flight?"

"It will begin and end before you even know what happened," Brendan said. "This will take place when the sun is in the sky. It's best to travel then because the vampire who might be hunting you has to sleep then as well."

That was something I hadn't even thought of. Perhaps it was best that Brendan was thinking. I still didn't like Miguel and Jax coming with us. I suppose I had imagined that Perrin would be coming along. I'd had no idea that he'd be bonding Seamus. That had Brendan's schemes written all over it. It was a bit funny how Brendan could now order around vampires that were so much older than he was. Perrin was his brother in the blood after all. His older brother.

Then Perrin and Seamus came into the room and I was struck once again by just how hot Seamus was. I could see why Brock had bitten him all those years ago. The deceptively young looking man had the same dark hair and blue eyes as Brock, but where Brock had been almost as muscular as Blaze and Cain, Seamus was sculpted but not overly done. He was dressed in black leather pants and black construction boots. I was beginning to wonder what it was about black leather pants and Forsaken men.

"So when do we leave?" Perrin asked as they came into the room. "We've got all of the supplies we need. The rest can be bought in Chicago."

"The flight leaves at nine in the morning," Brendan replied. "The crates are ready for the three of you. I was just telling Jessup what was going on."

"I'll let the Forsaken deal with the supplies I bought," Perrin said. "They're mostly for the kid."

I sat down and let them plan what I was going to do. There was no point in arguing. I could see that now. I understood why Eric had left Brendan in charge. He was decisive and a bit cold, but he could get the job done when he needed to. He also wasn't afraid to stand up to the older generation of vampires that were now under him.

I did sit up and pay attention when Jax, Beth and Noah came into the room. I was a bit surprised when Noah came to sit beside me. After all Beth had been showering him with love all day. I had thought he would form a bond with her, but then I guess I did take him away from the life he was living.

"Did you have a good day?" I asked him as he snuggled close to me.

"Yeah," he said. "I missed you though."

"Well you know I have to sleep all day," I said, stroking his blond hair.

"I know," he said. "Blaze is fun. He kept me busy talking about Chicago. Are we really moving there?"

"Well we're moving to a small suburb outside of Chicago," I said. "We'll be close enough if you want them to take you into the city to explore."

"Can't you take me?" he asked.

"Well sure if you want to be out all night long," I said with a chuckle. I could actually see myself showing him the city at night, showing him all of the places where the vampires might hide. It wasn't a fatherly thing to do though.

Then I stopped myself. Me, a father? Well that was certainly new. I was turned when I was fifteen years old. I still looked like a fourteen year old boy to anyone who didn't know how to look close enough to spot the tell tale signs of agelessness. I had fallen in love with a Forsaken and started a war by turning him into a vampire. Then I spent seven hundred years in a mind trap inflicted by a vampire who hated everyone. I'd never had a chance to think about what it would be like to have a child. I can't say I never wanted one before because I just didn't think about it. Now that I had one to look after I was kind of proud to be the fatherly kind of figure he needed.

Then I had another thought and started to explain to him what was about to happen. I showed him his new paperwork and passport. Then I told him about the crates that I, Miguel and Perrin would have to travel in. He listened to everything I had to say and looked at the paperwork. Then he hugged me.

"It'll be all right," he said. "You won't be in the crates forever."

Then I was laughing. Only he could make me laugh when I was still a bit angry about Miguel and Jax going with us. I had expected Perrin, though I hadn't known he would be bonding Seamus. I was still angry about Miguel though. So only Noah could make me laugh through all of that.

"It'll be time for you to get to bed soon," I said to him. He looked at me with a pout that was so cute I almost laughed again.

"If I'm going to live with vampires I should be able to stay up all night," he said.

"We'll talk about that when we get to where we're going," I assured him. I had many plans that centered around how he was going to be raised. "But for now you should let Beth help you get ready for bed. I won't see you again until the plane lands and the sun goes down, so be a good boy for me all right?"

"I will," he said, hugging me again. Oh, Gods how you've conspired to put this young cherub in my midst!

I watched him leave the room with Beth and then looked at the vampires in the room with me. I thought about what it would mean to have them with me. Perrin I could tolerate. Miguel was another matter entirely. I supposed I could get over my aversion to him. The Forsaken were necessary, but I was still going to find it difficult to look at Jax without thinking about peeling his leather pants off of him and having my way with him.

"We may all be going together," I said to them when they all stopped talking. "Just remember one thing. I am the leader of this coven."

"We know that," Perrin replied. "Just don't expect us each to go find a child to raise. I still say you're crazy."

"I may be crazy," I said, grinning wide enough to show my fangs. "I just might be."

They spent a lot of time packing supplies and clothing into suitcases. Some of the supplies would be transported in the crates with me, Perrin and Miguel. I wasn't happy about it but Brendan reminded me that we'd all be asleep. I didn't argue with any of them. I was a little more prepared to argue when it was time to get into the crates. The sun was about to rise though so I kept silent. I climbed inside and let them nail the thing shut. I arranged all of the boxes and bags around me and let sleep claim me.

The trip was instantaneous for me. I'm sure it was for Perrin and Miguel as well. When they pried the lids off our crates we were already in the house we would be living in. I was still a little put out that I hadn't even had a hand in picking the house we'd live in. We were in a basement so I knew that this was where we'd make our lairs. I hoped the basement had walls for privacy. I didn't want to sleep with the other two right on top of me all of the time.

The basement did have walled rooms for privacy. I was glad for that, but I wasn't sure I wanted to stay in a basement. I was a vampire not a zombie after all. I went up the stairs to the ground floor to have a look around. The door opened on a kitchen. It already smelled like human food and I tried not to let that turn my stomach. I'd had no blood so far that night so there wasn't anything to expel. Dry heaves were ever so much more unpleasant for a vampire than a human. I didn't want to experience them upon my first sight of my new home.

The kitchen was large with a breakfast bar just in front of the door to the basement. A stove that reeked of natural gas was against the little wall the door to the basement was in. A long white counter stretched from the stove to the other end of the long room where the stainless steel refrigerator stood. A table and chairs sat across the room from this. There were nine chairs around the round table of dark stained Oak.

Windows nearly wrapped around the entire room, showing me the night outside. There were other houses a bit too close to ours for my comfort. I looked down at the black and white tiled floor with a sigh as I bristled over the fact that I'd not been given a chance to choose where I would live once again. The walls of this room matched the floor. The effect was not nice in my opinion.

I went through the archway to the dining room. This room was all hardwood floors and papered walls with tiny roses and green vines for the design of the paper. A bigger table, this one rectangular but also dark stained Oak with twelve matching chairs sat in the center of the room. There were windows in this room as well. They showed me more of the house next door on one side of the room. At the front of the room the windows provided me with a view of the short front yard, sidewalk and then the street. I shook my head with disgust.

I walked through another archway and into the living room of the house. Here I found more hardwood floors and papered walls. Gone were the roses and green vines. They were replaced with a very light blue background and dogwood branches in a lattice pattern. I shuddered at the sight of them. The furniture was all stuffed and covered in blue fabric, darker than the wallpaper but just as shudder evoking. A large television sat in front of the windows in the side wall. Thankfully these windows were covered with wooden blinds. The windows in the front of the room were also covered. Beth, Blaze and Jax sat in this room. Beth and Blaze were sitting on the small two-seater sofa and Jax in the recliner at the other end of the room.

I looked at them, remembering that Seamus was in the basement with Perrin. Noah wasn't in the room either. I scanned the house for his mind and found him down the hallway that lay beyond yet another archway in a room that he'd chosen for himself. I hoped the decor was better than I'd seen so far.

"Jessup," Beth said as I came into the room. "We have some things to discuss about Noah."

"Such as?" I asked, trying hard not to bite her head off. I'd bonded her husband in part so that she'd be here for Noah while I slept. I couldn't get angry at her when she wanted to talk to me about him.

"School," she said. "He's an eight year old boy. He told us on the plane that he doesn't want to go to school. Now we can home school him, but we all think it would be better for him to go to a regular school with kids his own age."

"I agree," I said. I had no idea what it would take to school a child at home. Of course when I was a human child my parents taught me to read and write. They taught me basic arithmetic as well. There was so much more involved in the educational process now than there had been all of those centuries ago. Why that had been before there was an America.

"Then you need to convince him that he needs to go to school and keep our secrets," she said. "He won't listen to any of us about this, Jessup. He said you would let him stay home."

"I'll talk to him," I said and then headed through the archway to the hallway. It had more hardwood and plastered walls that had been painted a soft yellow. I used my mind to find his room out of the six doors that were all closed along both sides of the hall. He was in the second room on the left.

I knocked before I entered his room, trying to give him respect. I wasn't sure what his father had been like with him, but with the images I'd received through the blood I could speculate that he wasn't a great father. The room was larger than I'd anticipated. The walls were plaster and painted a very light blue. The floor was more hardwood. He had a small bed and a night table. There was a chest of drawers across the room. I found the room very drab for a kid and decided that I'd change it to be whatever he wanted it to be.

"Hello, Jessup," he said as I came into the room.

"How's my Noah?" I asked as I sat next to him on the bed.

"It's boring here," he said, snuggling close to me.

"Well we can change that easily enough," I said. "We'll take a trip into the city and do some shopping to change your room into something you want."

"Thank you," he said.

"I need you to do something for me though," I said. "I really need you to go to school, Noah. You need to be around kids your age and learn the things that they're learning. Will you do that for me?"

"If you want me to," he said. "I wanted to stay home and be with you all the time."

"Well you know that I'll be asleep as long as the sun is in the sky," I told him. "You'll have me for a few hours each night after school, later than that on weekends. I really need you to go to school."

"I will," he said, hugging my side.

"I also need you to keep our secrets, Noah," I said. "No one can know about any of us, what we really are."

"I won't tell," he said in a voice filled with such earnest conviction. He looked up at me with those gray eyes so wide and full of sincerity that I was nearly undone. He really wouldn't tell. There was no way that a child could look at you like that and lie.

Blaze drove and Beth rode beside him in the front seat of the SUV I'd had no idea they'd purchased. I sat in the back seat with Noah beside me. We went into the city and I was happy that it took only twenty minutes to get into the city. Getting to the stores we wanted took a considerable amount of time that I didn't like. Once we were inside the stores I spent a fortune on anything he wanted. I wasn't surprised that it was a racing theme he chose. His pajamas were covered in race cars. I remembered his room at his father's house and it had been all about race cars as well.

I paid for the race car bed in blue, yellow and red in one store. We got accessories such as the stack of tires that made up the night stand, the racing trophy lamps and the desk that looked like the hood of a race car with the matching chair that looked like the driver's seat of a race car in the same blue, yellow and red as the bed in another store. We got chests of drawers that looked like tool chests on wheels at another store. These were all blue, yellow and red as well. We found wallpaper that would match that was also a race car theme in the paint and wall cover store. There we also found the racing flag rugs and curtains.

Then we bought him electronic gadgets. There were music players, handheld computers so small I was amazed that anyone could make out the information on the tiny screen, a desktop computer and television with entertainment systems and every electronic toy the boy could find at yet another store. Those we took home with us. The rest would be delivered and put together the next day by professionals. They'd paint and paper his walls as well.

As promised he was enrolled in school the very next morning. He didn't have to attend until Monday morning, but I found out that night that there would be a small meeting for parents and students to meet the teacher that would be teaching his class. Noah expected me to be there and since I was listed as his father I knew I had to be. I hunted before the meeting so that I would appear my most human. My victim was ash seconds after I'd bled him dry. No muss and no fuss. There was nothing for the authorities to find.

Blaze drove us to the school and waited outside the classroom door for us as we looked around at the small classroom that was currently about half full of students and parents. The teacher, Darian Lang was a vision and I was struck dumb just looking at him. His sandy brown hair was cut short and combed over to the left. His brown eyes were like no other brown eyes I'd ever seen before. They had depth and such vibrant hues all blended together. He smiled and my knees went weak. This man was absolutely beautiful to behold.

He was telling a group of parents about his curriculum and they were hanging on his every word. I held fast to Noah's little hand and made my way to stand with them so that I could hear the man's voice. The sound was like satin, not too deep yet masculine enough. He was smiling and really into the telling of what he planned to teach the young minds in the coming school year. He looked at me and faltered just a moment in his telling, making me wonder why. What had he seen in me when he looked at me?

When he'd finished telling the other parents about their children's education in his hands he made his way over to us. Noah was looking at the finger paintings that lined the wall under the white board. Darian came to stand directly in front of me and looked me up and down unabashedly.

"Hello," I said reaching out to shake his hand. He looked at my hand but did not take it. "I'm Jessup Maxwell and this is my son, Noah."

This close to the man I could smell his scent. It assaulted my palate like an exquisite bouquet. He smelled like a fresh sunny day in June. It was the most alluring scent I'd ever encountered. My mind filled with images of me drinking his blood and savoring the taste. I shook my head slightly to clear it. For another thought was blaring in my mind. INNOCENT BLOOD. It was there in his head like every other innocent human on the planet. One of the laws of my kind was never to drink from the innocent. Besides, the evil tasted better. I’d had innocent blood, turning Tyron and every one of my fledglings. I knew what it tasted like and I could honestly say that evil blood was better. This man was off limits unless I wanted to bond or turn him. The idea of both was appealing.

"Your son?" he asked as if it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard.

"Yes," I said, smiling. I thought I understood the source of his doubt and gave a little chuckle. "I know I look a bit young to have a child Noah's age."

"Young," he said as if he were testing the word and finding it lacking. "Oh I don't think you're anywhere near young, Mr. Maxwell. I know exactly what you are."

"I'm sorry," I said putting my hand back on Noah's shoulder. "I beg your pardon."

"Oh don't be alarmed," he said quickly in a low tone of voice. "I have no interest in exposing your secret. I just never thought I'd get to see a vampire in the flesh. I was told you were all dead."

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