Bonds of Blood [Lords of the Expanse] (Siren Publishing Classic) (32 page)

“He will always pull his sister’s hair or put tadpoles in her shoes. It’s who he is, love,” Andries told her softly. “But he has to grow up and find himself as well, Xandra. It’s part of the process, and when he knows who he is and how to protect our world and his soul tie, the gods willing, he will return and drive you crazy with his pranks once more.”

“Promise, Andries?” Xandra asked as she looked up at him with red, swollen eyes from the tears she shed for the loss of their son and sighed. “It hurts, so badly it hurts, but I have to believe that you are right, Andries.”

“I am right, love,” he told her as he gently wiped at her face, drying her tears with the pad of his thumb. “He will always be our baby, and he will always have that side to him. It will only be tempered, my love. He’ll learn to control himself and to respect the female that will one day be his.”

Xandra nodded and sniffled again. “He will have a wonderful woman who will love him for who he is, and they will give us grandchildren, right?” She watched as Andria waited until the flier was gone before she ran off to her bedroom to begin to sob, covering her face as she did so.

“Lots of them, I am sure,” Andries said as he watched his daughter with a heavy heart. “I’ll go talk to her, love,” he murmured softly, knowing that Andria was feeling the beginning of the separation, something that had never happened before to the twins. They’d gone everywhere together, doing everything together, nearly inseparable. “Why don’t you go and lay down for a little while and rest. I’ll come and join you after I talk with her.”

Xandra nodded. She couldn’t agree more because she couldn’t deal with the pain in her heart, and seeing her daughter like that was hurting her even more. “I love you, Andries.” She felt the tears in her eyes. “This is something no Vampire ever faced before, separation anxiety.”

“I love you, too,” he said softly, kissing her gently before following after his little girl. Sighing, he knocked on her door and went in despite the watery “go away” from his child. Walking to her bed, he tugged on her hand until she sat and leaned into him to cry. Shifting her to his lap, he held her close as he rocked her back and forth. “It will be all right, baby,” he promised, though how, at that moment, he had no idea.

Andria restlessly turned in his arms and cried. “He’s so confused, Daddy.” She sobbed against his chest. “Dalek’s hurting and confused and won’t let me help. He won’t let me in, Daddy, and it’s just not fair that he gets to go away to school and I don’t get to go with him. You need to tell them they have to let me be there, too, Daddy.”

“Oh, baby.” Andries’s chest tightened in pain for his daughter. She and her mother both had the ability to drive him to his knees. “Honey, you know that he’s going in for military training, not a place for you to be. It’s necessary for the males, to help them learn to control the beast inside each of us so that we don’t hurt the ones we love. Give him a couple of days to settle and then try talking to him again. He’ll let you in, Andria, but it will be in his own time. He’s stubborn, little girl, just like his mother.” He said it without even flinching, knowing his wife would have smacked his ears for saying that before laughing.

“But who’s gonna teach me to get through all of the things that I seem to do wrong, Daddy?” Turning a tear-stained face up, she continued. “I can’t even drink blood from a cup.” And then fresh new tears and sobs as she brokenly said, “He was going to teach me how to drink blood from a cup and not get sick.”

“Baby girl, you know that your mother or I will gladly teach you,” he said softly as he stroked back her hair. “We are your parents and we will help you to learn anything you want. You just have to ask, little one. You never have to fear that we will be upset with you or disappointed. How could we ever be when we have the most perfect daughter in the world? You are a blessing, Andria, and we will always be here for you,” he murmured, still rocking her, knowing that her upset stemmed more from losing her other half, her twin, than from Dalek not being there to teach her things she didn’t want her parents to know of.

“But I don’t want you to teach me,” she wailed. “I want
Dalek
!” Again a fresh tirade of tears as she tossed herself back against her father, sobbing because she felt alone. For the first time ever she felt alone. “How do people do this, Daddy? How can they be born without a brother and feel okay with it?”

“I don’t know, baby girl,” he whispered, feeling his child’s pain as though it was his own. “But you have to remember, little one, you are the first to have a brother born at the same time. The rest of us, if we were blessed, didn’t have any siblings until a hundred years later.” His thoughts turned to his own brother as his chest tightened in memory.

“That’s just not fair.” Andria sobbed still and shook her head. “It’s not fair, Daddy. He was supposed to always be here for me and he’s gone.” The child was far too young to understand what was happening to her, or her brother for that matter.

“Andria, baby, Dalek will always be a part of your life, whether he is here or not. You and he can touch one another no matter the distance. He’s just frightened right now by all the sudden changes in his life. He’s keeping it all in as a male will do, as we are trained to do, and as he’s had to start to learn before his time. Do not hate him for going to learn the control that will one day keep our world safe and his soul tie protected.”

“It’s just not fair because he has to hide all his emotions and I have to keep mine.” Andria sobbed in her father’s arms for hours until finally, with hiccupping sighs, she fell asleep there in the safety of his arms and lap.

Shaking his head, Andries sighed as he settled his daughter into bed and lay at her side. He couldn’t leave her, not now. She was so distraught that he knew he’d have to stay for a time. Hopefully his lady wife would come looking for him so she’d know why he wasn’t with her as he should be.

Xandra had come looking for him and waited until he was settled until she entered and lay on the other side of their daughter, simply wrapping her arm around both their child and her husband. She smiled as she whispered, “I love you, Andries.” Because it was all she could say in that moment.

Turning his head, he looked at her and smiled slightly. “I love you, too, Xandra,” he murmured. Shifting his hold slightly, he rested a hand over hers where it rested against Andria. Rubbing his thumb back and forth gently, he settled down and knew that it would be a long night.

Xandra closed her eyes and sighed. “This is going to be a very long time, darling,” she whispered and then opened her eyes to look at Andries. “We will be all right, love. I know that we will, but I think it will take Andria a long time in order to be all right once more.”

“She’s so put out that Dalek had to go off to the Academy and demanded I make them take her, too,” he said to his wife as he shifted to see her with an ease that wouldn’t hurt his neck.

“Twins on my home world,” she began slowly, “when they are parted, it’s very hard on them. Twins are connected as closely as soul ties are,” she whispered. “And these two, their connection is so…” She sighed and shook her head. “Their connection is so very tight that it’s hurting her badly. I’m surprised that it’s not hurting Dalek enough to debilitate him.”

“It likely is,” Andries said as he finished moving to his back so he could hold both of his women close. Stroking Xandra’s hair back, he let out a sigh. “But he’s a little different, love. As a male, he wouldn’t admit it to anyone ever,” he murmured, kissing her forehead.

“I know, Andries. Believe me, darling, I know.” She could feel her son’s hurt. Even though he didn’t speak to her any longer in her mind, she was still emotionally connected to their son. “Andria still talks to me.” And did she ever. “Lots, and lots.” She rolled her eyes. “But Dalek, Dalek I can feel his hurt, his confusion and pain.”

“It will ease, love,” he promised softly. “He will find his balance. The Academy will help him to learn it. It will help him to learn to control the beast inside before it fully explodes and blossoms within him, before it can hurt him, his sister, or any other.”

“I know, Andries, but it doesn’t make it any easier in the right now.” And she knew that he would understand what she was saying. “We will have trouble with her for a while. She and Dalek are still very closely connected, and you know that, right?”

“Of course I know that and, as I pointed out to her, they always would be,” he murmured. “Once he is a little more settled and feeling less nervous and terrified by all that is happening, he will once more talk to her. It will just take a little time. She needs to be patient or, in lieu of that, since I know it is not her strong suit, we keep her so busy that she doesn’t have time to worry about it.”

Xandra smiled and nodded. “Well, my love, you’re right about that. She is most certainly not a patient child.” Before he could say anything, she said softly, “She gets that from you, of course.” She winked at him when he gave her that look and nodded. “Oh yes, I went there, darling.”

Growling softly at her, he pulled her up higher and nipped at her lip before kissing her. “You are a vicious woman,” he teased softly. “Sleep for a while, love. I have a feeling we won’t be going anywhere for a time.” Especially since their daughter was on his other arm and locked onto him tightly.

“I know, love. You should rest while you can as well, darling.” Xandra kissed him once more. “Rest while you can, Andries, because I have a feeling Andria has found a new male figure to latch onto for a while, love.”

“If the nails digging into my arm are any indication at all, I’m betting it’s me,” he murmured, stroking his fingers through his wife’s hair. “I hate to see her so upset. It hurts, Xandra,” he said as he closed his eyes with a sigh.

“I know, Andries. Be there for her, love. Be her rock and it will make it easier for her.” It was going to cause a connection between father and daughter that wouldn’t have been seen before in the Vampire world, but with Andria and Andries and even Dalek, it was as it should be.

“Will you be all right with that, love?” he asked, worried that she’d feel left out in the scheme of things. “I don’t want you feeling pushed aside by her. I love you, Xandra, and it worries me that you’ll not be happy.”

“Our children mean far more to me than anything else, Andries. In my life it is you, our children, and then me and everything else. As long as my children and my husband are content and safe, then I am as well.”

He smiled at that. “And yet it is my children and wife first and foremost for me,” he murmured with a chuckle. Yawning widely, he shifted a little more to become comfortable. “Sorry, love, sleep now,” he breathed out before he slid into sleep.

Xandra watched him and Andria for a long while until she, too, succumbed to the pull of sleep.

* * * *

“Daddy,” Andria whispered and nudged at Andries’s side a long time later. “Daddy, why are you and Mom sleeping with me?”

Waking quickly and alertly, he blinked and looked to her. “Hello, baby girl,” he murmured softly. “You wouldn’t let me go, love, so I stayed put. Your mother came looking for us and decided to stay since I wasn’t going anywhere while you had me in your grip.”

Andria smiled and laid her head back on his arm. “Dalek would come in when I had nightmares and stay with me, too, like this, Daddy,” she confessed and reached out to touch her mother’s beautiful hair. “Will I ever be as pretty as Mommy, Daddy? Will I ever find someone who loves me like you love her?”

Startled, Andries frowned as he turned his head to look at her. “Andria, baby, you are beautiful, little one,” he told her with complete and total honesty. “You may not have your mother’s looks in totality. Unfortunately you got some of your father’s ugly mug put in the mix, but you are a strikingly gorgeous young woman that will become even more so as you grow up. You already cause me problems, love. I see the way the boys look at you and my poor heart already cannot stand the thoughts I know those filthy little beasts are having for my baby girl.”

Andria shrugged and then sniffled as she spoke. “I’m too short. I do boy stuff,” she continued but this time she buried her face against her father’s chest. “I get lost walking outside or even in the house, and I snore. What boy will want to take me for his wife, Daddy?”

“A very special man,” he told her softly, trying to keep from getting choked up while talking to her. It was just too close to the surface. He really wasn’t ready for this kind of talk with his baby girl. She was his, damn it, and would be for years more, but he suddenly felt as though the years were whipping past.

“He will be your soul tie. He will love you for who you are and will do anything to keep you happy. You will never go a day without knowing you are loved and cared for,” Andries told her softly. “You will be his moon, stars, and the light that guides him through his life, and he will be that to you. No matter what faults you think you have, to him you will be perfect.”

Andria patted her father’s chest and sighed. “I hope that you’re right, Daddy, because I want what you and Mom have. I want that very much. I’m ready to get up now. Should we wake Mommy?”

Snorting, he looked to his daughter. “Who are you kidding?” he asked with a smile. “She’s been awake this whole time, waiting for me to stick my large foot in my mouth and dig myself a hole I can’t get out of.” Looking to his wife, he kissed the top of her head. “You might as well open your eyes, my love,” he murmured softly to her.

Xandra smiled. “I knew that you wouldn’t do that, love.” She reached out and cupped her daughter’s face as she smiled. “Your father is right, Andria. You are so very beautiful, darling, and one day you will find a man who loves you so very much and who will always put your happiness above any other.”

“Of course I’m right,” Andries said with an affronted tone. “As if there was any doubt,” he snorted, shaking his head. “And there is no need for anyone to comment,” he added quickly.

Xandra and Andria simply shared a look and shook their heads. “All right, my loves,” Xandra said as she moved from Andries’s arms and off the bed. “I’m ready to go and get some food. Will there be anyone joining me, my darlings?”