BLOOD TIES
THE STUFF OF DREAMS
Chapter 2
The following night I was up before Henry and sitting at the island eating when he came out of the bedroom. I could feel him watching me, it made me look at him.
He was grinning, and happy. Hus tousled curls made him look young; but the age in his eyes said he wants. Right now those blue eyes were shining and it made me smile.
"What are you grinning at? You look like a fat cat."
He appeared at my side and kissed me suddenly. "You taste like tomatoes and garlic."
"I am eating." I chuckled. "Glad to see you are happy."
"Aside from the fact that you are wearing the suit I gave you; which looks great, I am happy."
"Glad to hear it." I smiled at him.
"Would you mind if I worked for a bit, before we left?" He asked.
I shook my head; "Go ahead and work, I'll give you a fifteen minute warning before I am ready."
He kissed m again, "Thanks."
I watched him set up at is drawing table and smiled to myself. On the surface, Henry was a normal guy. And that made me chuckle as I turned back to my book and dinner.
We finally made it to the baby store; Henry could barely wait to start looking at things. He'd made a list before we left. I had yet to see it. I was in search of a cart and left him to browse.
Henry looked around once more at the bright, colorful displays and felt awkward despite being happy. Randomly he picked up a stuffed duck and stared at it.
He heard me step up behind him and turned to smile. I had the catalogue in the one other and a large cart in front of me; I took one look at that happy, gleeful face and knew that before we left we were going to fill the cart. I still couldn't decide if that as a good thing or not.
"Henry we don't have to do this. We've got months before we need anything."
He pulled out the list in response. We stood together looking at the list of items. I sighed in defeat, "Do you even have room for all this?"
"Of course I do. I own several properties in the city. I can relocate to one of the bigger ones." Henry took the list, picked an item and started to go around; peering at cribs and inspecting them.
I followed him after a moment, "You'd move, just like that?"
"Yes." Henry looked up at me; the look was serious. "I would do anything for you and the baby."
I smiled; gently touching his hand. "I know."
Henry straightened and studied another crib. He gave a nod, "This is nice; well built, solid, and it changes to a double bed." He looked at the information page attached to the crib. "Comes in Oak, Black lacquer or Cherry wood. I like the cherry."
I grabbed the price sticker, "Henry it's almost $500!"
"So?" He grabbed the sticker that had the item code on it. "She'll like it."
"She?" I asked, "Why not a he?"
Henry chuckled and moved on; I followed. "Let's not go nuts with the spending, Henry."
He looked at me and it was a annoyed expression. "We talked about this last night, Clare. If I want to spend money, then I can." He ended up grinning at her, "Unless you want to try for a second one?"
Clare chuckled at the expression on his face. "First we deal with this one."
Henry moved on to the gliding rockers. He sat in several different models. Each time he inspected it closely and would move to another one. I stood back and watched him. He was actually enjoying himself; really enjoying himself. Who would have thought that Henry Fitzroy would like being a dad?
"Clare, come and sit in these; tell me what you like." Henry waved me over into a large frame cherry wood rocker with black covers. After a while he indicated another; I sat in the ones he liked.
"So, which one?" He asked, sitting down beside me.
As I sat in the last one; trying to deice, I saw a woman look over and stare. I frowned; the woman was in a cloak and wore a black dress. She was pretty but oddly made-up. Henry turned and waved as the girl came rushing over.
"Henry!" She laughed lightly; clutching a gift set in her arms, "What on earth are you doing here?" She looked at me and smiled, "Hi."
Henry came behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. "Corrine, this is Clare."
The woman's heavily lined eyes widened; she got the most amazing smile on her face. "Henry, I didn't think you could have kids!?"
"Clare is an exceptionally rare woman." The warmth and gentleness in his tone made my heart swell. I put my left hand over his and smiled at him. Henry looked down and returned the expression.
"Well congrats you two!!!" This is huge!" Corrine smiled brightly as she looked at me. "I guess I will be seeing more of you then."
"Ah, I guess." I had no clue what was happening.
"Corrine works with Vicki," Henry clarified, "We can talk about all that later."
Corrine saw my ring and gasped; she reached for my hand. "Wow, colored diamonds!" He gave Henry an approving look, "How old fashioned of you, Henry. Putting in six stones, let me think now; three are her family, and three are yours, right? Isn't that the old way of doing it?"
Henry laughed gently, "Right you are, Corrine, trust you to notice that."
I studied the ring again, taking in what Corrine had said. Three of the stones were his family and three were mine? I wondered which were which.
"Clare, ready to go?" Henry asked.
I looked up, Corrine was still standing with us and smiling at me. I nodded, Henry took my right hand and pushed the cart ahead of him.
"I still can't believe it all; you are going to be a dad!" She shook her long black hair. "Amazing. So how does that work anyway?"
Henry gave her a playful look, "Didn't you ever learn where babies come from?"
"I know all that," She playfully nudged him, "I meant with you being…well, what you are and her being human."
We approached the cash register; there was a line up. We waited.
"Well, Clare here isn't just human," Henry put his arm around me and kissed the top of my head. "She's magical."
I chuckled at him.
"Magical…you mean like a witch?" Corrine asked.
"More like Harry Potter on steroids." Henry joked and I shook my head at him.
Corrine was staring at me with wide, amazed eyes. "So you do magic and stuff?"
"I try not to cast spells if I don't have to. It's not good to mess with the way things are."
Corinne was watching, "Did you use magic to get a baby with Henry?"
I frowned at her as he tensed beside me. "What?" I was insulted and annoyed. "No, I certainly did not! If it were that simple, I would have done it with my husband before he died." I shrugged off Henry's arm and stormed out of the store.
Corrine and Henry stared after me. "Was it something I said," Corrine asked gently.
"She's just emotional right now." Henry muttered and they moved up to the register.
I was leaning up against Henry's car; looking up at the moon in the night sky. I heard the two of them part ways and Henry stopped with the cart beside the car. He didn't say anything, just loaded the boxed crib and the few bags we had.
I looked over at him. He was busy with the items and didn't notice. "Henry, I swear I didn't use magic."
He looked at me, his blue eyes dark in the dim light. "I know you didn't. I would have felt it."
"I can't explain how this came to be; you, me and baby. I just know that it did. I mean I went through the histories and there are two other accounts of this happening. My great-aunt Rebecca and my twice great-grandmother, Winifred. But it never mentioned how; just that it did."
Henry considered my words, "I've never heard anything; and I knew both of them."
I looked at the ground for a long time. "They were murdered; them and their lovers and the babies. The family hunted them down; they were afraid of what would happen if the children lived. And it was feared that whatever the two women carried would be passed on. So they were killed too."
"Well both of them had children, human ones, and I can say for certain that your mother was human and so were her sisters and brothers."
He closed the trunk and put his arms around me. "And besides, Clare, I will never let that happen to you. No one is ever going to hurt you or the baby. Not ever; I just won't let it happen."
"But their own family hunted them down, Henry." I looked at him, "My ancestors did this; and they like vampires. I mean they like you; what's wrong with the rest of them?"
He sighed, "That's a question that I can't answer, Clare. Each of us is different; we each live the best way we can. I don't remember ever meeting those two vampires; but perhaps they were bad guys."
I sighed and cuddled closer to him. "I guess."
"Come on, let's go home." He held the door aside for me and I climbed in. A few minutes later we were driving and I had no idea what to say, so I was quiet.