HE'S ALIVE!

Selene walked the streets of Rome, one hand tightly clutching her purse and the other clutching her husband's arm. It was a windy day, romantic and cloudy, and that was the reason the two honeymooners had at last left their hotel room to roam about.

In the sun.

Selene still couldn't stop the instinctive flinch she had when she walked into direct sunlight. For decades, the sunlight had been the enemy, and now…She lifted her face to the sunlight. It felt so good, so warm…

Wham!

Selene's mind whirled as she felt like she had walked into a concrete wall. Michael grabbed her, of course, and then she looked up at the man she had walked into.

Her jaw literally dropped.

"Lucian?"

Michael's whisper was strangled and choked. It felt like it had been wrenched from his throat. Selene did not blame him. They were seeing ghosts! Ghosts dressed in casual trousers and a buttoned-up leather jackets at that.

They were in serious need of medical help. Immediately.

"Oh, hello, Michael and…Selene. It's Selene, isn't it?"

"You…you died! I saw you die! I took your locket and…left…oh God! You were alive then, weren't you? And we didn't even help! We left you…"

Michael hushed Selene, gazing intently at the man in front of him. "So, how did you…?"

"I ripped off pieces of me one-by-one and waited for them to heal. The parts effected most by that damned molten silver first." Lucian's voice was deadpan as he led them to a sunny little café and sat on a table in the porch. "You married, I see," he added, looking at the rings on the thunderstruck couple's fingers. "Congratulations."

"Th-Thanks." Michael fumbled.

"Can you even die?" Selene exploded in a furious whisper. "I mean, is it like, possible?"

"With the correct methods, yes." Lucian gave the infuriating reply with an incline of his head.

Michael had to gather his wife close to stop her from throttling Lucian. There was a lot of Death Dealing still left in her, and she had been feeling guilty for leaving Lucian's body in the underground tunnels for a long time now.

"What have you been up to?" Michael's attempt to change the explosive topic was obvious.

"DADDY!"

The screech came from a human tornado that collided bodily with Lucian's legs under the table. Poor girl. Selene knew first hand what it felt like to collide with him.

On closer inspection, she turned out to be a brunette girl, hardly four, with pig-tails, whose white dress was grimy with dirt. Michael wondered who she was. Of course she was NOT Lucian's daughter.

Lucian didn't do daughters. He was not the kind of man people envisions carrying baby-bags around.

"Sonjai is sick and tired of me!" the little imp declared promptly.

"Sonja! Where are your manners? Speaking of manners, where are mine? Selene and Michael Corwin, this is Sonja, my daughter."

"DAUGHTER!"

Selene's shriek caused people to turn to look at her. Michael, who was feeling faint, clutched at her for support. "You can't!"

"Excuse me?" Lucian raised an eyebrow, half-amused and half-insulted.

"Err… I mean…I meant… it's just that…you—I…Actually…"

"Dad."

The speaker, who was seen by our couple through glazed eyes, had raven black hair going past his shoulders, and tied in a complicated braid like Lucian's hair. His eyes were a piercing ice-blue, almost like Selene's. He looked to be no more than seven.

The Corwins didn't know it, but they were in shock. They felt like they were lagging behind. Even Lucian had two kids.

"Selene, Michael, this is Sonjai, my son," said Lucian as Sonjai shook hands with both of them.

"Where's your mummy?"

Sonjai shrugged. "She died."

"Oh. Sorry," said Michael, looking at Lucian. He still remembered the pain he had glimpsed in Lucian for Sonja after his bite. "You seem to have lousy luck with women."

Lucian smiled. "Not that lousy. Sonjai's mother is still alive, and so is Sonja's. they're test-tube babies," he added, anticipating the next question.

"We are special. We were made in a lab," said Sonja helpfully.

"They know what test-tube babies are," Sonjai snapped.

Lucian smacked the boy lightly on the head. "Talk properly," he admonished, then turned back to the couple in front of him. "They are my biological children. Their mothers were humans that were willing to experiment."

"Sonja the Vampire was my mummy," Sonjai stated, and was enthusiastically seconded by his sister.

"They…they know quite a lot about her. I keep telling them."

"So," Selene asked Sonjai. "You're half Lycan?"

"We're hybrids. Like him," Sonja nodded at Michael.

"But how…?" Selene's eyes widened. "Were their mothers vampires?"

"Uh-uh," said Lucian. "We injected them with Michael's blood after birth—we are cloning your genes, by the way—and then injected them with Viktor's blood."

"Viktor's?"

"There's a kick in the ass if ever there was one," laughed Michael.

"Serves him right," Lucian muttered. "He murdered my bride."