When Zane returned home a few days later, Bree and Jasper waited for him on the grand staircase.Once he entered through the doors, Jasper became excited and wriggled in Bree’s arms, cooing and babbling.Zane went over to them, baby talking to his son, and when he got close Jasper reached out to him.Zane took him from Bree’s embrace and she smiled.“He loves his daddy.”
“And I’m sure he loves his mommy more.” Zane leaned in and kissed Bree lightly on her lips.
“You know I don’t want to know about your trip,” Bree bit her lip, sadness evident in her eyes, “but did you at least get to see Mitzi while you were away?”
“No.Darius thought that if she saw me too soon she’d regress.I guess he just got past the depression phase in her.He doesn’t want to see her fall back into it.”
“Would that be because he really cares about her, or because it may affect her work.” Zane detected a little acid in Bree’s voice.
“It’s going to work out.He doesn’t hate her, in fact, he is seeing the ‘differences’ in her that set her apart from other women.It will come in time.”
“I just hate the thought of her suffering.” Jasper squirmed out of Zane’s arms and Zane let him try his skill at crawling up the staircase, hovering over him with a close eye. “Really Zane, do you think he will get hurt if he falls?He’s a vampire.”
“It really bothers you, doesn’t it?” Zane watched as Jasper flew up the stairs with ease.Once at the top, he sat with his legs between the rails and kicked them.He lost a shoe and Zane walked over to retrieve it.Jasper just giggled down at him as he kicked off his other shoe, smiling wide with dimples deep, just like his mother’s.
Bree sighed as she sat down on the stairs.Her green skirts fanned out around her in soft layers. “Please don’t ask me, Zane.You know what my reply will be and then you will just get angry.” She paused for a minute, then spoke without looking up at her vampire husband.“Were you any less cruel, at least, when you fed on those poor humans you hunted back at the world I used to call home?”
“No.I was worse.”He looked at her, his face flat and his eyes dark.
“How many did you kill?”
“A handfull.”
“Bring back any new slaves?”
“About fourteen.”
“What are they like?”
“Rowdy college kids.But they’ll be tamed in no time.I haven’t visited them yet to inform them of what will be expected of their lives here.”
Bree took Zane’s hands in her own and looked up at him.“Oh no, college kids?Kids with bright futures?Why couldn’t you have taken homeless or abandoned kids, or kids too poor to make anything of themselves, kids needing a little help surviving.”
“And you think they will have it easier surviving here with me as their master, Bree?”
“Why not drug addicts, they could get cleaned up here, make friends, have a purpose.”
Zane laughed, then returned his gaze back down to Bree, who was still sitting beneath him. “Purpose?To be slaves or food for vampires?Bree, since when did you wish that on anyone?Are you becoming more like me rather than me becoming more like you?”
“No, no, that isn’t what I meant.” Bree sighed again and looked down.She still held Zane’s hands and now she put them to her head, hitting her head lightly against them in frustration. “It’s just – sad, Zane.It’s just so sad.” Bree then flattened Zane’s hands and stroked them.She traced the lines of his veins with her fingers, the lines were red, he had recently eaten.“I just makes me really sad…”
