They Come by Night (60 page)

“Yes, ma’am.” The sun had just set, and it was still light enough that the streetlights hadn’t come on yet. Adam was awake, and I knew as if I’d been there that he’d reached for me and been disappointed I wasn’t beside him. “Bye for now, Mrs. Andrews.”

“Good-bye, boys.” She stood there watching as we walked on. “Who’s that?” she cried out, her voice filled with alarm when Raymond appeared as if out of nowhere—which he had—and approached us.

I sighed and called back over my shoulder, “It’s okay, Mrs. Andrews. I know him.”

“She really should return to her house,” Raymond muttered. He stared at her intently.

“I… I have to go in now,” she said, sounding confused, and then she turned and climbed the steps to her front door.

“Thanks, Raymond. Although you could have showed up about five minutes sooner.”

“Be thankful I arrived at all.” He looked over my brothers. “So these are the twins.”

“Yes, David, Jonathan, this is Raymond.”

“How do you do?” They spoke in unison and both held out a hand to him.

“You’re not afraid of me?”

“Why would we be? Aren’t you Ty’s friend?”

“Yes.”

“You’re French, aren’t you? We recognize your accent. Mama and Daddy took us to France for Bastille Day. That’s our birthday.” David sounded as if the Bastille had been stormed in 1789 simply so 217 years later, their birthday would fall on that day, and I had to bite back a laugh.

“Ah,
oui
?” He began talking to them in French, and they answered him in flawless accents. Well, they sounded flawless to me. I’d taken five years of Spanish.

Finally they switched back to English. “Did you know Ty can’t be touched?”

“We didn’t know, and we hurt him when we touched him.”

“But we won’t do that again.” Jonathan smiled up at Raymond and took his hand.

“
She
is going to be pleased,” Raymond announced, as if my brothers were a source of pride for him personally.

“Who’s
she
?” David asked, taking Raymond’s other hand.

“Why is
she
going to be pleased?” Jonathan had seemed content to let David do all the talking, but he’d become chattier around Raymond.

I could have kicked Raymond for bringing up the American vampyr who would be responsible for my brothers in ten years. I flashed him a warning glare and groused, “You’re just saying that because they know French.”

He simply smiled. “Tyrell, we’re
all
just as proud of you.”

“Oh… er….”

“All who?” Jonathan asked. For a change, David let his brother take the lead.

Raymond smiled at them both and shook his head.

Harker took that moment to poop, and Mina must have decided that was a good idea, because she did also. I cleaned up after them.

“Here.” I handed Raymond the bags I’d put the dogs’ waste in. “Make yourself useful.”

He gave the bags a pained glance but took them after releasing my brothers’ hands.

Just then, the twins’ father called, “David! Jonathan! We have to leave, boys.”

We turned back and walked to the house.

T
HE HOUSE was quiet.

David and Jonathan and their dad had left, Mr. Taylor murmuring apologetically that by the time he got home, it would be past the twins’ bedtime, and their mother would be very unhappy.

Luke had to work the late shift, in spite of having lost his brother, and he took Ekaterina’s phone number with him when he climbed into his car. Raymond pretended he didn’t see my look, but apparently he didn’t mind. Was he playing matchmaker?

Raymond didn’t stay. He grinned and turned down Dad’s grudging invitation to enter the house. “Adam is here. I must see Ekaterina home.”

How had he known she wouldn’t have a car available? William and Henry had volunteered to drive my sisters home. Sarah and Bethany seemed pleased about that.

Mrs. Wilder offered to stay the night with Dad. She was a nice woman. No matter how Matthew had turned out, Dad needed someone to help him mourn his firstborn child’s passing.

She and Dad walked into the kitchen, and Harker trailed after them.

Now I was alone except for Mina. I sprawled on the couch, and she rested on my stomach. It had been a long, sad day, and I was glad it was almost over.

I thought back over the past eight months. So much had happened. I knew why de Vivar wanted me, but would I ever know why Matthew had been willing to give me to him?

I became aware it was no longer just me and Mina. Adam stood in the doorway to the living room.

“Good evening, Adam.”

“Good evening.” He was as gorgeous as ever, but I could tell something was bothering him.

“Off, Min.” She walked to the end of the couch and made herself comfortable, and I swung my legs off and motioned for Adam to join me. He settled himself in a corner of the couch, and after I made myself comfortable in the vee of his thighs, he drew me back to lie against his chest.

He stroked my hair and nuzzled my ear, his breath cool against my birthmark. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you, Ty.”

So that was it.

“You’re always with me, Adam. Don’t you know that?” I angled my head around and smiled into his eyes. “You’re here.” I touched my temple. “And here.” I touched my heart.

I leaned back against him, pulled his arms around me, and sighed happily.

“And here.”

They Come By Night Cast of Characters

Ben Small (b. 1963)

Magdalena Crist (b. 1965)

Matthew (1985)

Luke (l987)

Sarah (1988)

Bethany (1990)

Tyrell (1996)

Smalls
: name was changed from Lupescu

Joe – father

Ben – oldest

Dave – middle brother

Phil (Phillip) – youngest brother (sabor)

Crists
: name was changed from Dragomir when they fled Romania

Noah – father

Simon-Peter

Caleb – son Jared

Ethan

Gabriel

Abraham – daughter Hannah, son Daniel—taken by de Vivar

Jonah – wife Elisheba, daughter Naomi

Samuel

Magdalena – second marriage to Glenn Taylor produced twins David and Jonathan (b. 2006)

Vampyrs
:

Adam Dasani – nephew/equerry to the rege

Alexandru Mondragon – rege

Terese Mondragon Dasani (married Flavio Dasani), twin sons Stephan, Adam

Vidalia – Phillip Small’s vampyr, mother of his twins, Aurel and Ioan Mic (Small)

Rául Navarro y Casárez – one of the last victims of the Inquisition – Adam turned him to keep him from dying

Raymond Girard – the rege’s chief enforcer

Valeriu – Adam’s son

Juan de Vivar – met Terese Mondragon at Carlos I’s court. Not only was he a vampyr, but he'd been born a
Grande de España
; he was
el Duque de Málaga.
As such, he felt he should be able to do as he chose.

De Vivar’s vampyrs
:

Miguel

Benito

José

Antonia – whore (created rather than turned through the exchange of blood and semen instead of blood and blood)

Esteban

Diego

Corazón (mother figure)

Graciana (actress/nun)

Sor Belicia (name means “Dedicated to God” – walked into the sun rather than remain with de Vivar)

Rhiannon (Jane Jones)

Áedán Mac Lochlainn – Irish vampyr working undercover for the rege

American vampyr
:

Lindsey Diamond

Day Watchers

Ekaterina

William

Henry

Thomas

Romi

Milosh

Dodona

Vadoma

Shandor

About the Author

T
INNEAN
has been writing since the third grade, where she was inspired to try her hand at epic poetry. Fortunately, that epic poem didn’t survive the passage of time; however, her love of writing not only survived but thrived, and in high school she became a member of the magazine staff, where she contributed a number of stories.

It was with the advent of the family’s second computer—the first intimidated everyone—that her writing took off, enhanced in part by fanfiction, but mostly by the wonder that is copy and paste.

While involved in fandom, she was nominated for both Rerun and Light My Fire Awards. Now she concentrates on her original characters, and a recent novel received honorable mention in the 2013 Rainbow Awards.

A New Yorker at heart, she resides in SW Florida with her husband and two computers.

Ernest Hemingway’s words reflect Tinnean’s devotion to her craft: “Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only death can stop it.”

She can be contacted at [email protected], and can be found on Live Journal: http://tinnean.livejournal.com/, Twitter: @tinneantoo, and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tinnean.

If you’d like to sample her earlier works, they can be found at http://www.angelfire.com/fl5/tinnssinns/Welcome1.html.