I woke six months later feeling the same I had that night. Content and perfectly happy. Brady was crying in the nursery. I slowly got up and padded my way into their room. He was standing up with the help of the bar of his crib. Nina had started walking a month ago. Brady was sort of getting the hang of it.

I lifted him out of the crib and bobbed him up and down in my arms. He stopped crying and rested his head on my shoulder. He looked at me with his big blue eyes and flashed me a gummy smile. I rubbed my thumb up and down his cheek and kissed his forehead.

I walked out into the kitchen and put him in his highchair. "I think I'm going to make pancakes today. Do you like pancakes?"

He gurgled and stuck his hand in his mouth.

"Pancakes it is." I grabbed the Bisquick, eggs and measuring cup. I mixed everything and poured perfectly congruent pancakes into the pan. I threw some bacon into the pan adjacent to the pan with the pancakes and poured a glass of orange juice for myself. If I was actually cooking, I was going to go all out.

My mom was never a good cook. I guess it was passed on through genes because I am not a very good cook either. Give me some bread to toast and I'll burn it. Give me some cereal to pour and I'll mess it up. This morning was turning out to be a miracle.

I placed the finished and only slightly burned pancakes onto my plate along with the bacon. I grabbed Nina and placed her in the highchair next to Brady. I gave them each a little bowl of Cheerio's and sat down to eat my breakfast.

Mick groggily walked into the kitchen and stared at my plate.

"Hey." I said, "I made pancakes. Do you want some." I smiled at my joke. We both knew he couldn't eat.

He didn't crack a smile at all and just slowly sat down at the table.

"What's wrong?" I asked while my fork was in mid air, just about to make it to my mouth.

He shook his head and stared at my pancakes. "It's just… I had a dream that was eerily similar to this…"

I put my fork down. "What happened in this dream?"

He turned his head to the door quickly and shut his eyes.

"What is it?"

He held up his finger and then quickly turned to me. "You need to take them and hide. Lock yourself in the nursery. NOW!"

He stood up and ran over to the front door. I wasn't about to question a vampires judgment so I picked both of them out of their highchairs. I went into the nursery and put them down in their cribs. I locked the door and listened.

It was silent for a couple of seconds then an ear piercing gunshot tore through the house. It was then followed by scuffling of feet, a snapping of some sort and two bodies falling to the ground. I bit my lip and opened the door.

I slowly made my way down the hallway and to the front door. Mick was on the floor bleeding and the attacker was bent in a way that made me want to throw up. I kneeled down to Mick and cupped his face.

"What happened?"

"He… tried to… kill… us…" He said in a voice that was obviously in pain.

"Did he shoot you?"

He nodded and removed his shirt. He had two bullet wounds in his chest

"They're silver…" he managed to get out. I had to remove them soon or else the silver would hit his heart and he would die. That was a downside of being a vampire. No silver jewelry or dining utensils. Even though vampires don't eat, you don't want to take the chance.

"I'll get them out. Don't move." I ran into the kitchen grabbed a knife, a pair of tweezers from my bag and a lighter. I came back and kneeled beside him.

"Okay so first I'm going to…"

"Beth… I don't care just… just…" His eyes fluttered shut.

"Shit…" I mumbled. I heated the knife with the lighter and then pressed it in the wound to stop the bleeding. I then used the tweezers to remove the bullets. Note to self: buy new tweezers. They plinked one by one on the floor until I had removed them all.

I dropped the tweezers on the floor next to the bullets and looped my arms around his. I dragged him to the couch and managed to lay him down on his back. I held my shaky hands out in front of me and almost threw up.

They were bright red. I went into the kitchen and scrubbed them as if I was about to perform surgery on someone. I went back into the living room and saw Mick trying to sit up. His wounds weren't healing.

"Your wounds aren't healing."

"Too much blood loss…" he managed to get out.

I sat down beside him and his eyes started to flutter again. He kept going in and out of consciousness.

I quickly sat up and ran to get the knife on the floor. I bit my lip and slightly cut my wrist. Not a deep cut, but deep enough where I would bleed out. I held my wrist to his mouth. His fangs elongated and he gently took my arm.

He dug his fangs into the cut and I inhaled sharply. I had the most amazing feeling in my lower abdomen. It didn't hurt when he fed from me, but instead it gave me the most euphoric feeling throughout my entire body.

He drank for a while until black splotches appeared before my eyes.

"Mick." I said. My eyelids began to flutter and I was extremely dizzy. "Mick…" I managed to get out in a whisper. He looked up and removed his fangs from the cut. He licked the wound and it immediately closed up. I would've totally been amazed if I wasn't about to pass out.

"Thank you." He said.

"You're welcome." I replied as I stood up. Dumbest. Idea. Ever. My head was spinning and an explosion of black dots appeared before me. The next thing I knew I was falling. I anticipated the landing. Something along the lines of me hitting my head against the floor.

But the landing never happened. I opened my eyes slightly and saw Mick's concerned face. I smiled.

"You caught me."

He smiled slightly. "I wasn't about to let you fall." He sat down on the couch with me in his arm like an infant. I snuggled up against him and closed my eyes.

"You know you shouldn't have done that."

"Done what?" I asked sleepily.

"Let me drink from you for that long. I could've drained you."

"But you didn't." I remarked. "I'm still here. See"

"Yes I see you. But you shouldn't have let me do that. I'm a monster and I-"

I cut him off. "Knock it off with the monster crap. You're not a monster. Even if you can't get that through you're stubborn head then you're my monster who I love."

I kissed him softly on the lips then rested my head on his shoulder. He rested his chin on my soft hair and rocked me back and forth like a baby as I slowly drifted to sleep.