Vampire Twins Meet The Pack (Book One)

Chapter Thirty Eight

I heard Lanie's surprised squeal as I hurried to enter behind her. She was beaming and giving Patricia a hug, so I couldn't help but smile too. I was so glad that Bishop had decided to do this for her. It was obvious that he had accepted us, and glancing around at Jaydon and Ryan, I was pretty sure that we had accepted him too.

Patricia disappeared into the kitchen and Steve reached over to turn off the lights. A few seconds later Patricia reappeared, her face illuminated in the near darkness by the flickering flames of the eight candles on Lanie's chocolate birthday cake. We started singing the happy birthday song, every single one of us in sync. Lanie's smile grew, if that was at all possible, as Patricia set it down on the table by her. "Make a wish," Patricia whispered, and Lanie squeezed her eyes as tightly shut as possible. Her lips moved as she made her wish, and then her eyes popped open and her grin returned as she blew all the candles out in one big breath.

We all whooped and cheered and Steve turned back on the lights as Patricia carried the cake back into the kitchen so that she could cut it up and serve it along with the vanilla ice cream. Jenni and I followed her so that we could bring the ready plates back out for everyone to eat. Peter and Ariana were getting everyone to sit down at the table so that the food would be easier to dish out.

Lanie remembered her manners and thanked Jenni as she was handed her slice of cake. Before too long we were all seated and eating. Well, eating might be too nice of a term. Since it was cake and ice cream, we were totally pigging out. There would be no leftovers from this party, not that any of us cared.

After we were done and the paper plates and plastic silverware had all been disposed of we started carrying in Lanie's presents. There was one for her from each of us, and a few more from Steve and Patricia that were most likely clothes. We told her to stay in her chair and we piled them around her, blocking her in. She grinned and picked up the closest one, one from Patricia. It was a box of clothes, and she thanked Patricia before moving on to the next one.

The entire time she was opening presents she remembered to say thank you, and the givers of the presents that she liked the best got a hug. That meant that I got a hug for giving her a silver locket and a ginormous stuffed teddy bear. When I had bought it Steve had tried to tell me that she was getting too big for stuffed animals, but I argued back that no one was ever too old for a huge teddy bear. I would have loved to get a bear like that.

A music player, some books, a journal, clothes, some earrings and other such trinkets soon littered the table around her. There was only one gift left, and it was from Bishop. She took a deep breath and then lifted it up onto the table in front of her to start unwrapping it. And the look of sheer joy and surprise that crossed her face when she opened it was the most priceless moment of the day.