Little Suckers Bite Too (San Francisco Vampires #6) (Vampires of San Francisco series)

Jessica McBrayer

Other Books by Jessica McBrayer

Stained Series

Stained

Murder of Crows

Raven’s Tale

San Francisco Vampire Series

Sucking in San Francisco

Hell Hounds are for Suckers

Sucking Bites

Suckers go to Hell

Suckers Bite Back

Little Suckers Bite Too

Suckers Lost and Found

Audibles

Sucking in San Francisco

Hell Hounds are for Suckers

Sucking Bites

Suckers Go To Hell

Stained

Murder of Crows

Raven’s Tale

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form whatsoever, without prior permission by the author. No part of this book may be reproduced, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored, or introduced into any information storage system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without express written permission of the author. If you pirate this work I will come after you.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used facetiously. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or to events or locations, is entirely coincidental.

Cover art by Marik Berghs copyrighted © 2014.

Copyright © 2014 by Jessica McBrayer

ISBN 13: 978-09899530-4-7

Published by Mess of Geckos Publishing

810 Seaview Drive, El Cerrito, CA 94530

For Hannah

The real one.

August 28
^th
1991 – October 29
^th
2011

Too little time with someone who was

bigger than life.

I miss you.

CHAPTER 1 . HANNAH

After all the craziness of Manda disappearing and Diel’s long flight from Italy, we finally make it back to our bungalow and relative calm, at least as much as a Hell Hound can allow. Diel pulls me aside. I know he is holding something back and about to explode if he doesn’t tell me what. He is smiling and twitchy. “Okay, spill it. Whatever it is that has you in a tizzy. Out with it.”

“I’m a demon. We don’t do tizzies.” He looks affronted.

“Diel, you are making me nervous. What’s going on?”

He asks me to sit down. I am starting to really freak out. My mind plays a million different scenarios of what could be wrong.

“Hannah, honey, when the doctor examined you after you were drugged, he disclosed the sex of the baby. Do you want to know what it is or do you want to be surprised?” he asks me with a proud papa smile.

“I think I want to know. I mean, we only have a few more weeks to go and I could so do some major shopping in that time.”

He laughs loudly and scoops me up from the chair.

“It’s a boy, Han. We are having a little boy,” he howls. His joy is contagious. I start laughing as he spins me around and then I start crying as is my usual lately. Fucking hormones.

“I c-can’t believe it. I can’t wait to meet him. Now. We can name him, Diel. We still haven’t decided on one except for the middle names. Aidan or Lilith. I guess this is little Chase Aidan.”

“Hmm… sounds good but he might be teased. Chase this and Chase that… I could see it happening. How about Zack? Or Dax?” he suggests.

“I don’t know. We’ll keep thinking about it.” Okay maybe that was an ‘Oh Hell no’ answer. I guess I’m learning to be tactful. But Diel is way ahead of me.

“That’s code for “I don’t like it,” he says smiling. The ridiculous grin has not left his face.

“The real question is should we tell Aidan and the manse fam?” I ask.

“I think we should tell Aidan for sure. He needs something good to focus on. I’ll call him now.”

“Put him on speaker phone, babe, please.”

“You got it, Ganja Momma.”

“Hmm… I like Gunnar…”

“Nope, you dissed Zack. I’m dissing Gunnar.” Fair enough, Gunnar was a throw-away.

“Oh, just call Aidan already…” I stretch up on tippy toes to kiss him but lose my balance. I am a little heavy in the front these days. Thank goodness a vampire – demon pregnancy only lasts four months. I’d die if I had to go forty weeks. Anyone can go sixteen, right?

“While it’s tempting to keep kissing you, the phone is ringing.” I step down but Diel keeps me in his arms, tight against his hard, strong body.

“Hello, Diel? Is something wrong with Hannah?” Aidan asks. It says too much about how awful Aidan’s life is right now if the first thing he thinks is something is an emergency.

“No, rest easy, my brother. She is fine but we do have some news about the baby.”

“Hi, Aidan. You’re on speaker phone,” I say.

“Hannah, love, what is this news? I’m waiting with baited breath.”

“We found out the sex of the baby,” I say. I almost hear Aidan’s smile.

“Hold on,” he says. And the next thing I know he is standing in front of us, sweeping me into his arms. “What is this miracle going to be? A boy or girl?” He grins widely. The most I have seen him smile since Manda disappeared.

“It’s a boy, Aidan,” Diel says grinning as broadly as Aidan. The two act like they are giving birth. There’s an example of male bonding – I do all the work and they take the credit.

Aidan spins me around, being careful of my stomach.

“We haven’t told you the best part yet,” I say.

“What is that, my love?” he asks.

“Were giving our son the middle name Aidan after you,” Diel says.

Aidan hugs me close and grabs Diel in the hug and whispers, “Thank you. I am so honored.”

“We love you, Aidan. It is only fitting. If it had been a girl we would have chosen Lilith for a middle name,” I tell him.

“I think you should let her know that, even though it’s a boy,” Aidan says as he rubs my belly with awe on his face. “Such a miracle and I am to be connected in this way. I am so thankful.”

“Enough of the mushy stuff or I will cry like I do at the diaper commercials these days. We are trying to think of a first name. I like Berkeley,” I say.

“No,” both Aidan and Diel say at the same time.

“Okay, geesh, it was just a thought.”

“How about Lucas,” Aidan suggests.

“Too suburban,” I say. “How about Cal,” I counter.

“Too close to Berkeley,” Diel says, straight-faced. I stick my tongue out at him.

“We’ll think of something. After all, we have three weeks left,” I say. Our faces freeze in panic. Three weeks is suddenly too quick.

“You could just make his first name Aidan…” Aidan says innocently. What an act.

“We love you, but we don’t need two Aidans running around. One popping in and out is enough.” He grins. Busted.

“It was just a suggestion,” Aidan says smiling. “When are you telling everyone else?”

“Now. Do you want to listen?” Diel asks.

“I’ll do you one better,” Aidan says as he grabs our hands.

Next thing I know, we are on the front steps of the manse, with Aidan ringing the bell. Andrew answers the door and smiles widely, stepping up to give me a hug.

“Ms. Hannah, Mr. Diel and Mr. Aidan. It is so good to see you. Everyone is home and in the library of course. Please come join us. I’ll make some of that mulled hot cider you like, Ms. Hannah. It’s cold out,” Andrew says as he ushers us in.

“Thanks, Andrew. It is colder over here than in Berkeley,” I say as I shiver in my maternity retro tee. Aidan summons a shawl for me. It’s beautiful and so warm. “Thank you, Aidan. It’s perfect.”

“Anything for you and your sweet baby,” he says with a wink.

“Let’s hurry and get in there before you two spill the beans,” I say, giving them the stink eye.

“Spill what beans?” I hear Lily ask. She emerges from the library, looking like a strawberry – blonde goddess. She is immaculately dressed as always and right now she is looming over me in her high heels. She bends down and kisses my cheek and hugs me hard. The baby kicks. He likes her voice. “Oomph, I felt that one. You poor girl, you must be black and blue.” It’s so good to see the self – actualized Lily. She went through Hell and came out a tough cookie.

“Nah, besides it will be over soon and I will miss having the baby inside me. I like the feeling that I have its back right now.”

“We have some news for you all,” Diel says.

“We’re waiting,” Lily says, looking at us expectantly.

“We’re having a boy,” I squeal.

Lily jumps up and down holding my hands while the rest of the family descends on us.

“Congratulations, petite maman,” Sebastian says. He kisses my cheek and shakes Diel’s hand. Enthusiasm warms his handsome face.