Belle Morte Bites (Belle Morte 4.3)

A Cottage Dream: Part Two

Jason turned his back on the blocky shape of the partially-completed vampire house, and gazed around at the sprawling area that would one day become the house's walled-off grounds.

Renie was already pacing the area, her eyes fixed intently downwards, her auburn ponytail swishing every time she turned her head. Edmond watched her, a faintly amused expression on his face.

"How far away from the main house do you want the cottage to be?" Renie asked, pausing and looking back at Jason.

"We need to be close enough that we can come quickly if we're needed, but not so close that we don't have our own space," Gideon replied.

Renie jogged a little further away. "About here then?"

Jason looked back at the unfinished vampire house. "Yeah, that's probably about right."

"And you definitely want it on this side?"

"I think so, yeah. It's closer to that stand of trees so we'll get a bit more privacy," Jason said.

Roux had been standing quietly beside him, and she suddenly slipped her hand into his. "You'll want the front of the cottage to face away from the vampire house for the same reason, then."

Jason nodded, and squeezed her hand.

Roux was still coming to terms with the fact that Jason and Gideon were leaving Belle Morte, and Jason suspected she wouldn't be okay with this for a while, but she did everything she could not to show it.

"Will the cottage face directly this way?" Renie said, turning her back on the vampire house.

Jason joined her. Putting his hands on her shoulders, he steered her to the left, so that the house was in her periphery. "Probably about here. We want our own space, but we also want the kids to understand that they can come to us with anything, so we don't want the cottage to be completely turned away from the house. Does that make sense?"

Renie nodded. "Edmond, can you come stand here?" she said, gesturing.

He did.

"So this would be the kitchen, yeah?" Renie said.

Jason consulted his phone, where he had a folder crammed with photos that he and his girls had scavenged from property websites and google searches. He and Gideon still hadn't managed to shape these into a coherent overall picture, but they were getting closer.

"I think so," he said. "And the living room should be about here." He propelled Ludovic into position a short distance from Edmond.

"You're sure you want the living room on that side?" Roux said, cocking her head. "Those trees will take away a lot of natural light."

"If everything goes to plan, we'll still be living here when I eventually become a vampire, so I won't want a lot of natural light," Jason said.

"Good point," Roux said.

"How much of a garden will you have and how separate will it be from the rest of the grounds?" Edmond asked, still dutifully standing where the kitchen would one day be.

"We haven't decided that yet. As a human I do want a small garden, especially if Nikki does come to live with us for a bit, but when Gideon turns me, I won't be able to use the garden for years. So is it worth having a bigger garden for the few years I have left as a human or not?" Jason said.

No one answered and he hadn't expected them to. Some decisions only he and Gid could make.

"We're thinking about putting a little fence up to separate our garden from the rest of the grounds, but again, it has to be something small and simple so the kids know they can still come to us," Gideon said. "But we're not yet sure how far the grounds themselves will extend, or how much Ysanne will allow us to have. So we're focusing on the cottage first."