Tenzin says so. I was lucky to have him as my weapons instructor. You should ask him to show you a few things, Nat. I’m fairly positive it’ll come in handy at some point.”
“I’m going to hope that most of my battles are won through the whole ‘Pen is mightier than the sword’ philosophy, but I’ll keep that in mind. Dez, can I?” She held her hands out for Carina to give her something else to focus on.
“Sure. My arms could use a break.”
Carina immediately started pulling on Natalie’s hair, which caused her to laugh and wince at the same time.
“She’s so funny, Dez. Amazing. Do you love it?”
“It has its moments, but yes. Totally love being a mom.”
Beatrice smiled and reached over, tickling the baby’s tummy and eliciting a giggle. “And she’s definitely the cutest member of the family. Don’t tell Gio.”
“Or Ben,” Dez said.
Natalie watched the two women, one mortal, one immortal, tease back and forth. She watched baby Carina nibble on the vampire’s hand as both women watched Ben practice the forms Baojia was teaching him, slowly speeding up with each repetition.
“This is special,” she murmured. Beatrice and Dez stopped talking and looked at her. “What you guys have here? The family you’ve built. It’s really special.” She swallowed back the lump in her throat and kissed the top of the baby’s head. Her whole life, she’d wanted something like what they had. Did they even realize how lucky they were? For years, it had only been Natalie and her mom and dad. Then her mom was gone and her dad… Well, he was sort of gone, too. She had friends, close ones, even. But it was nothing like what her old friends had built between them.
Beatrice smiled as if she could read Natalie’s thoughts. “Human. Vampire. Family’s family.”
“Yeah, starting to get that.” Her attention shifted when the baby pulled at her hair again, tugging Natalie’s face down to her own. Carina patted her chin with one drooly hand as she grinned and babbled. At that moment, Natalie saw him from the corner of her eye, staring at her holding the baby, an odd look on his face. She looked away, suddenly realizing what had led to Baojia’s unexpected confession the night before.
He was like her now. He didn’t have a family either.
The moment was interrupted by a whirl of movement. A dark-haired pixie of a woman spun into the room, energy sparking around her. She flung a long, hockey-like stick toward the practice mat, yelling, “Catch, Ben!” as she did. Baojia zipped toward the incoming projectile, grabbing it before it hit anything, then he glared at the newcomer. As if by magic, she was sitting next to Beatrice and bumping her shoulder. “Hey, there. Miss me?”
Beatrice said, “Incoming.”
Natalie barely caught her breath before the woman was standing again, one hand held out toward Baojia, who was baring his teeth and already had a sword in his hand. Flames burst into the strange vampire’s hand and Natalie let out a yelp as a sheet of water appeared out of nowhere to flank Baojia. Carina wiggled and laughed in her lap, clapping at the sudden special effects show that had appeared before her.
“Hello,” the stranger said with a smile. “Friend. Sorry, thought they would have warned you.”
Baojia said nothing, a low growl rumbling from his throat as he remained in a ready stance, his eyes never leaving the fire vampire.
“Brigid,” Beatrice said, “you might want to move away from the redhead with the baby.”
Dez was obviously trying not to panic, even though Carina was delighted by the action. “Yeah, guys. Baby here. Teeny, tiny human.”
“Oh, is that how it is? She’s his?” The woman shrugged and took a step back. “Understandable, then. Sorry about that.”
Natalie scooted farther away from the woman, and every foot that separated them seemed to put Baojia more at ease. Eventually, the sword was lowered and the water returned to the fountains, though his fangs remained visible in his mouth. He made no effort to hide them as he walked toward her and leaned down, rubbing his cheek along hers in a quick movement before he turned and stomped back to the practice mat where Ben had been standing and staring silently. Eventually, Ben lifted the long stick the woman had thrown.
“Is this the hurling thing?”
“Yep,” Brigid called. “Also handy for bashing idiotic husbands across the back of the head, should the need arise.” Everyone looked at her. “What?”
Ben said, “I’ll keep that in