“We’re not sure what our daughters are yet, but this little guy is a vampire,” she cooed.
I assumed so since he was sucking on her finger. But I asked just the same. “Are you giving him your blood?”
“She is,” Doc said in a rush of zeal, zest coloring his tone.
“We tried formula,” Layla added. “But he wanted nothing of it so far. We’ll need to mix your blood or mine with his formula.”
“We’ll need to make sure the portion is mostly Sam’s,” Doc responded. “It’s essential that a young vampire feeds on his father’s blood. I’ll go into more detail about that later. I’ll also run a full DNA workup on them. For now, I’ll leave you two alone.” He patted me on the back before he left.
When the door clicked shut, I snapped out of my drunken bubble and crossed the mini apartment-style room. Doc had thought of everything in designing the birthing suite. In addition to the standard hospital equipment and furniture, there were rocking gliders, a small kitchenette with an under-counter fridge, a TV, a bathroom, and other amenities scattered about. Doc had also made sure the new dad had a pullout couch to bunk on.
“Can you wash your hands before you hold any of them?” Layla asked.
I ducked into the bathroom directly to my left. I needed to splash water on my face to rid myself of the hours of sweat, anyway. Once inside, I made quick work of cleaning up. I didn’t dwell on the horror that I saw in the mirror—dark circles beneath my dull green eyes or my day-old beard that made me look like an ogre. I snarled at myself. I would probably scare my kids. But I couldn’t worry about that right now. I dampened my hair, then tied it back into a low ponytail at my nape with a leather strap I had on my wrist. I finished with a thorough scrubbing of my hands. Now I was decent and clean enough to hold my kids.
I strutted out as the steadybang, bang, bangof my heart kept time with each step I took.
She beamed at me. “You’re tired, vampire. I can see it in your eyes.”
I sidled up to her bedside. “I don’t matter. You do.” I bent over, captured her face in my hands, and ghosted my lips over hers. “I want to devour you, hold you, and never let you go. You scared the living crap out of me.” A tear fell from me and landed on her nose. “I love you so freaking much, Layla. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d lost you.”
“You can’t get rid of me, vampire,” she teased, seemingly trying not to burst into tears herself.
“Never plan to, baby doll.” I straightened, laying eyes on my boy, and my knees buckled—black hair, green eyes, and staring up at his mom as though she was his everything.
“Do you want to hold him?” she asked.
“Fuck yeah.” I wasn’t ignoring my daughters, but they were asleep. I could see them on the other side of the bed and hear their tiny hearts beating.
She removed her finger from our son’s mouth.
Immediately, he started crying again.
She gently handed him to me, and the moment he was in my arms, a wave of energy whooshed over me, and suddenly I could feel the magic stringing us together, a thick rope bonding father and son. No doubt he was inhuman.
I couldn’t thread words together to describe the bevy of emotions coursing through me except that my mind, body, and soul overflowed with a deep sense of love so strong, it brought tears to my eyes. I loved Layla to no end, but the way I felt for my son was a different kind of love. I was beginning to understand something my old man had told me over the years.Jo and you are my life. I would die if anything happened to you two.
I completely understood him now. I would literally burn, gut, carve, scratch, rip, shred, and slice and dice anyone who dared try to hurt my children. That was a fact, and I wouldn’t care who they were or who they were related to.
My fangs clicked into place, and I punctured the tip of my finger before inserting it into his mouth. He latched on, sucking like he was starving.
He stared at me with his shamrock-colored eyes as if he were peering directly into my soul.
As he suckled, I was mesmerized. “I don’t think you look like a Liam.”
“I agree,” Layla said. “Your mom believed in the mysticism and symbolism of the stars and planets. So, what do you think of the names Apollo or Orion? Those were both on our list. I vote for Orion.”
I tucked my fangs away. “Mm. Orion is the brightest and most popular constellation in the night sky, and it also means the hunter. It kind of fits him since it’s who we are.”
She toyed with her necklace that was holding her ruby engagement ring. “My husband the astronomer. And I didn’t know that Orion meant hunter. But I’m glad we’re in agreement. Orion Mason it is, then.”
The name definitely had a nice ring to it. “What do you think, Orion?” I asked him as his eyelids became heavy.
Removing my finger from his mouth, I turned around and sat in the glider next to the bed and rocked.
“You’re a natural with him, Sam,” she said, sounding content. “How did I get so lucky?”
“I’m the one who is lucky, baby doll. Fate got it right with us again.”
