A Shade of Vampire 77 A Fate of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,108

fascinated by the musical notes produced by the silky, tightly wound strings. Tamara had joined Eva and Varga at what was commonly referred to as the Death Crew’s table. Laughter rippled across the room, occasionally followed by cheers and the clinking of spiced rose water glasses.

“It was our biggest one yet, though,” I said to her, my nose bumping hers, softly. She sighed deeply.

“Yeah, you’re right about that. But we made it,” she replied, glancing to the side for a moment, before she set her sights on me again. “Maybe it’s time we address the adoption thing again, Derek. Not that I’m putting pressure on you, not at all… but are we still for it? Yea? Nay?”

We’d been so busy with the ritual’s physical and psychological fallout that we hadn’t had a moment left to discuss our initial plans of adopting a child from the human world. Having our original family back had been intense enough, for all the right reasons. But Sofia was right. It was time to address our plans, indeed. Only, I didn’t have the right answer for her, and she somehow guessed it before I could even think of what I might say.

“You want to wait a little while longer?” she asked. The question was more or less rhetorical, but I was still impressed by her finesse. Every day that went by, I loved this woman more. I wondered how much more I could love her, given my physical limitations. My heart might give out.

“I don’t want us to rush into it,” I replied gently. “We’ve been through hell, Sofia. I felt differently after Strava, for example. I was more than ready to go ahead with it when the first fae started to fall under the Hermessi’s influence. But we nearly lost our worlds. All of them. It could’ve all been gone in the blink of an eye. We did lose our son and a good chunk of our family, for a little while. Remember how that felt?”

Sofia’s smile faded. She gave me a brief nod. “I do.”

“I’m still reeling from that. Let’s… Let’s just take a few more months, okay? Just enough to look over our shoulders and wholeheartedly say that yeah, we’re ready.”

“I get it, Derek. The ritual drained us emotionally. We’d be rushing into it now. Had the ritual not happened, we’d have brought home a human baby already,” she said, relieving the pressure that had begun to gather in my temples. “But the ritual did happen. And it took its toll.”

I pulled her close, my lips pressing over hers in a sweet, heartfelt kiss. It was the best way to thank her for being so kind and understanding. I was truly the luckiest guy alive to have found her, all those years ago.

Lucas leaned in from my right, grinning like the devil. “So, no baby yet, huh?”

“You jerk. You’ve been eavesdropping?” I retorted, slightly irritated.

He laughed. “You’re at a table with your entire family. Did you not think we’d hear you?!”

Only then did I realize that the conversation at our table had died down a while ago. Our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, my brother, my sister, and each of their respective spouses had been watching and listening to us the whole time. Awkward silence reigned supreme for about a minute, until Rose broke it.

“You know what, Mom, Dad? You do what you want, when you both feel ready. We’re all behind you on this. You know that, right? Whatever you decide, there will be no support lacking from us.”

“And baby clothes. Chantal is already growing out of hers,” Vita replied.

“Who says they want a baby girl?” Lucas asked. “What if they get a strapping little boy?”

“Jericho’s growing out of his,” Caia said, smiling.

“Right. So there are options for baby clothes. Glad to see our evening devolve to this point,” Vivienne replied, slightly amused. “From exploring the neighboring galaxies to onesies. My, oh my, how we’ve fallen!”

The whole table exploded in a wave of laughter, drawing everyone’s attention. Riding the wave, Lucas cheered and raised his spiced rose water glass in the air, diverting the entire party back to its original purpose. “Cheers to the engaged couple, Eva and Varga!” he shouted. “Long may you two live!”

Naturally, it got everybody else applauding and cheering, as the young couple smiled and nodded and mouthed thank yous all around. I was so lost in the moment that I failed to see Amane and Amal get up from their table and walk toward ours, until