Hey guys. So this chapter has nearly been my undoing. It's been so hard to write a scene with SO MANY CHARACTERS in it. But I really wanted to check in with everyone and see how they're all doing... Christian, Lissa, their kids, Jill, Eddie, their drama, Rose, Dimitri, and their kids, plus Adrian's other friends (he does have other friends, I mean, he's a friendly guy) and all the drama that goes on when there's a bunch of people all together.

But the scene has been hard to write so I kept taking time off to write other chapters instead. That's the good news, I guess – now I have a lot more developed as to what's going to happen next, and there's a bit more action to come (which sort of surprised me, but I realized that some things weren't quite wrapped up to my satisfaction, Rick-wise).

Anyway, this chapter turned out so long that I finally just decided to cut it in half and post this much of it so far. I have no idea when I'll get the other half up. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, sigh!

Thanks for your patience.

Chapter 25: The Party (part 1)

Looking back on it later, I was surprised that Adrian's party went as well as it did, since the entire time, I had the feeling that we were inches away from disaster. Yet somehow, we managed to get through the entire night with only a few small scratches and bruises.

The guests started arriving at around 7, about a half an hour before sunset. The first few people to ring our bell were some of our neighbors from the building – human guests who didn't have a problem with socializing during daylight hours. Several of Adrian's drinking buddies showed up with six-packs of Yuengling beer and good-wishes for all. Amy's friend Ronnie came with her mother and father, and we were all surprised when Ronnie threw her arms around Adrian and loudly wished him a happy birthday, then shyly presented him with a hand-made birthday card. Adrian thanked the little girl sincerely for the card, which she told us had taken her nearly an hour to make. Then he stuck it on the fridge with a magnet, giving it the place of honor. When the girls went off to play in Amy's room, Adrian offered Ronnie's mother and father a drink, and I smiled as I caught Tina, Ronnie's mother, surreptitiously checking out Adrian's butt when he bent to get a beer from the bottom shelf of the fridge. Adrian really had an effect on girls and women of all ages.

I was explaining our "preemptive nap" theory to Tina when the doorbell rang again. Adrian opened the door to find Rose and Dimitri, accompanied by their two sons.

"Where's Amy?" Cole asked, grinning, and Adrian told him to go down the hall to the girls' room so that they could all play. As Cole and Zach ran down the hall to find their new friends, I said a little prayer that the boys wouldn't say anything strange to Ronnie, who knew nothing about the world of dhampirs and Moroi. Rose quietly assured me that she had warned them about interacting with humans, but that didn't quite put my fears to rest.

Then Adrian and I were faced with the task of introducing Rose and Dimitri to our human guests, and nearly everyone reacted with surprise as they took in Dimitri's imposing height and presence. I found my hand going to the cross I wore around my neck – an old nervous gesture. Would someone wonder if there was something... unusual... about Dimitri? But my fears turned out to be unfounded. His pleasant manners, coupled with Rose's charm and friendly demeanor, put everyone at ease. Soon we were all chatting while we ate some snacks and had a few drinks.

The drinks were another source of concern for me, since I knew that alcohol hadn't always been good for Adrian, but I noticed that he was sticking to light beer, and clearly pacing himself. It was a far cry from his old hard-drinking ways, and I smiled when I saw him letting his beer go flat as he paid more attention to conversation than he did to his beer. I myself stuck with diet Coke, just in case my afternoon "activities" with Adrian had had their intended affect.

Eddie arrived a short while after Rose did, bringing another problem with him: a date. She was a dhampir named Elise, and she was pretty and very friendly looking, with curly brown hair that she had cut short to show off an impressive array of molnija marks. I didn't want to be rude to Elise by grilling Eddie in front of her, but as soon as I had a chance, I pulled Eddie aside under the pretense of getting him a drink so that I could find out what was going on.

"Elise seems nice," I said, as I dug through the fridge for a bottle of Corona.

"She is nice," he said. "She's also calm, mature, and confident."

I wondered if that was a dig at Jill, who had sometimes had trouble controlling her emotions over the years. "Have you known her long?" I asked, handing over the bottle.

"We've only been out a few times," Eddie said.

"And you brought her to this party because...?"

"Because I like her." He met my eye with a touch of defiance.

I sighed. "But Jill is coming," I said.

"Jill will be fine," Eddie said, wryly. He grabbed a lime from the fruit bowl on the counter and began slicing it into sections on the cutting board I had set out for cheese and crackers. "She's seeing someone, and I'm pretty sure she'll be bringing him."

"She has a boyfriend?" I exclaimed, as I watched lime juice spraying all over my nice clean cutting board.

"Scott Zeklos," Eddie said. The look on his face was similar to the look someone got when saying the name "Adolph Hitler."

"Ah," I said. "A royal."

"A royal with enough Dragomir blood in his line to 'count,'" Eddie said, putting a quarter of lime into his beer. "If Jill marries him, she can make more little Dragomirs for the family line." Lissa and Christian had agreed to give their children the last name Dragomir, rather than Ozera, and Adrian had told me that it was hoped by many that Jill would do the same, if and when she had children with an "appropriate" mate. The whole thing was kind of gross to me, and reminded me of the inbreeding that had left the entire Russian royal family with severe cases of hemophilia.

"I never thought that Jill really cared about that sort of thing," I said. I grabbed a paper towel to dab up the lime juice from the cutting board before it got on any of the cheese.

Eddie gave me another humorless smile. "She knows her duty," he said. "She's learned it over the last ten years."

"Well, if anyone knows duty, it's you," I said tartly. "So cut her some slack, ok? And try not to make a scene at my party. I want this to go smoothly for Adrian."

"Don't worry," Eddie said. "I'll just stay away from her. That's better than fighting anyway."

"Thanks," I said, then sighed. "What happened, anyway? I thought that you two were starting to talk it out."

Eddie shrugged. "When I got back from North Carolina, I was really going to try again, you know? Watching you and Adrian together made me think that maybe... maybe love really can win out. Or something." He took a long sip of his beer. "But she was already dating that douchebag. So what could I do?"

"You could try telling her how you feel," I suggested, mildly.

"She already knows how I feel," Eddie said. "She's decided that other things are more important. And I wish her the best, Sydney, I really do."

"I'm sure you do," I said.

"And you, too," Eddie said, with the air of someone changing the subject. "Did I hear right? Are you and Adrian really engaged?"

Sheepishly, I lifted up my hand so Eddie could look at the ring.

"Ooh, are we ring-gazing?" Rose said, coming over to join us. "Let me see the precious!"

I laughed and let her see, too, and I ended up telling them the story of ring-shopping with Adrian, and how hard it had been to convince him that I really wanted just a small stone. Soon we were all drifting back out to the living room area to join the rest of the crowd.

By now, someone had put on some music, and people were mingling and talking happily. I made the rounds to make sure that everyone had enough to drink and that the snacks were circulating, and once I was done with that task, I paused uncertainly, looking around the room. Dimitri was talking about old western movies with one of Adrian's buddies, and Rose and Tina were talking about Tina's recent trip to Russia. Adrian was laughing with Eddie and Elise, and from the looks of things, he was having a great time. I felt a little out of place. I knew everyone, of course, but I didn't know who I wanted to talk to, or what I wanted to talk about. On top of all of that, I had a nagging worry about the girls, including little Ronnie. What if the girls weren't getting along with Cole and Zach?

I finally decided to sneak away to peek into Amy's room. As soon as I saw the kids, though, my fears were put to rest. The five of them were in the middle of what looked like a pretty fun game of "pretend." As far as I could tell, the pillow pit had become a fort, or possibly a boat, and there were sheets and blankets stretched over other furniture to create tunnels or obstacles of some kind. It made sense to the kids, anyway, and their laughter was audible even down the hall as I rejoined the grownups in the living room.

"Hey, Sydney!" Elise said, as I walked by. "Come over and talk to us about the wedding!"

I put on a smile and joined the group consisting of Elise, Tina, and Rose. "Adrian and I don't have any plans yet," I said. "Do you guys have any ideas or advice?"

Naturally, they all did. Tina told us about her own wedding, and Elise described one that she'd been to recently. Then Rose launched into a description of her wedding to Dimitri. It had apparently taken place in Baia, the town in Siberia where Dimitri was from, and had been attended by pretty much the entire town. Rose rolled her eyes as she told us how Dimitri's grandmother had ranted loudly during the entire ceremony, but after Rose and Dimitri had taken their vows, the old woman suddenly ran over and welcomed her to the family. And then, Rose said, she and Dimitri had gone on a road trip in the United States for their honeymoon. "We went to see the Corn Palace," Rose said, sheepishly. "And a few other places like that. It was sort of a... personal joke. Places you're supposed to see before you die, that kind of thing. Um. It's hard to explain." She began playing with her hair a little absentmindedly, a happy smile on her face, and Elise bravely took over the conversation by talking about a road trip she'd gone on when she was eighteen.

So, after that, even I started to relax and join in the various conversations. But once the sun went down, a new problem sprang up for me. One of Adrian's Moroi friends arrived, and Tina watched him walking around the room with curiosity. "Is that a relative of Adrian's?" she asked.

"No," I said. "Just a friend, I think."

"He looks a lot like him," she said, obviously curious. "He's so thin and pale. It's like he's a vampire or something."

I laughed and changed the subject, but I began to grow uneasy. More Moroi were supposed to arrive any minute now, and it occurred to me that some of our human guests might get kind of curious about why so many of Adrian's friends were so unusual looking. And when Adrian put his arm around me and excitedly mentioned that Lissa was going to make it after all – bringing Christian and her three children with her – I knew we'd be in trouble. What if the children were too young to have learned how to hide their fangs? If they went to play with the other kids, Ronnie might notice that something strange was going on.

But thankfully, just before 8 o'clock, Tina said that she had to take Ronnie home, since it was a school night. The rest of the children walked Ronnie to the door to say goodbye, and the poor girl seemed sad to be leaving the party before so many of the other guests. Adrian gave her a hug and thanked her again for the card, and she grinned dizzily at all of us before her mother and father practically dragged her out of the door.

Shortly after Ronnie's family left, Lissa and Christian arrived with their three children and their three black-suited dhampir Guardians, who took up observational stances around the room. I looked around surreptitiously, outwardly calm but secretly watchful and nervous. Wouldn't someone notice the arrival of these unusual looking people and their strange bodyguards? But thankfully, the only humans left at the party by then were Adrian's easy-going drinking buddies. And to judge by their general demeanor, they were more interested in how pretty Lissa was than in how long her children's teeth were.

As Lissa and Christian said hello to all of us, I was grateful to the years of alchemist training that allowed me to hide my discomposure. The queen was even more beautiful than I'd remembered her, and Christian Ozera was the second-most handsome man I'd ever seen in my life – after Adrian, of course. But the pair was pleasant and gracious and Lissa was obviously so happy to see Adrian that I found myself relaxing a little again. Anyone who loved Adrian even half as much as I did had to be ok, right? When Adrian took Christian into the kitchen to get him a beer and some snacks, I was left to chat with Lissa.

"Sorry that we're kind of out of it," Lissa said, as she settled on the couch with her children. "The kids just woke up. But this is Margot. Say hi to Sydney, Margot." Margot, a smaller, female version of Christian with a thick tangle of dark hair and bright blue eyes, nodded sleepily and greeted me obediently. "And this is Andre." A four-year-old boy with light brown hair and sea-green eyes was clinging to her leg, and when he heard his name, he hid his face in the folds of her skirt. "And this is Freddy," Lissa concluded, smiling down at the sleeping baby in her lap.

"It's nice to meet you," I said to the children, smiling as brightly as I could. It was unnerving to see a baby Moroi. His skin was so pale, and when he yawned, I could see that he already had his fangs. I found myself wondering if Moroi mothers breastfed, and if they did, whether they produced milk or blood. Then I pushed the idea out of my head, not wanting to know the answer. Just at that moment, Adrian rejoined us, putting his arm around me in an almost protective gesture. I glanced over at the kitchen area to see Christian chatting with Eddie and Elise.

"Hi, Margot!" he said. "Hi, Andre!"

"Hi, Uncle Adrian," the children said, in near unison.

"You know, " Adrian said, leaning towards Margot. "My daughter, Amy, is nine. That's about your age, right?"

Margot nodded again. "I'm eight and three quarters," she said. She was already taller than Amy by an inch, with delicate features and a clear little voice.

"Well, do you want me to introduce you to her?" Adrian offered.

"I can go by myself," Margot said, then turned her head to the side and studied him for a minute. "I didn't know you had a daughter, Uncle Adrian."

"Well, I do," Adrian said, smiling. "Two of them, actually. And you, little man," he added to Andre. "I know the other kids are a little older than you, but they're all nice and I'm sure they'd like to play with you."

Andre smiled and hid his face in his mother's skirt again.

"Your cousins are here, too," Lissa put in, stroking the little boy's hair. "You always get along with them."

"Cole and Zach?" Margot said, perking up a little.

One piece of the puzzle fell into place in my mind as I realized that Lissa's children had been told to think of Rose's children as their "cousins." I wondered if they knew that they were actually half-siblings. It seemed like the kind of thing that would be very difficult to explain to children. Heck, it was probably difficult to explain to adults.

"Do you want me to show you to Amy's room?" I offered, looking down at the two children. "That's where Cole and Zach are."

Margot eyed me with interest. "You're a human, aren't you?" she said. She stated it as a fact, but there was a slight tinge of disapproval in her little voice.

"Shhhh," Lissa said looking around, hoping that none of the human guests had overheard. "Public manners, Margot."

"I am human, yes," I said, softly. "And so is my daughter Violet. But my other daughter, Amy, is a dhampir. They're playing with Cole and Zach in that room down there." I pointed down the hallway.

Margot stood up, taking her little brother by the hand. "Come on, Andre, let's go play," she said.

"What if the human girl doesn't like us?" Andre asked, gripping the edge of the couch.

"Violet's not afraid of Moroi," Adrian said. "She lives with me, right?"

"It'll be ok, Andre," Margot said. "Bye, Mom and Dad. Bye, Uncle Adrian and um, Aunt Sydney." Then she pulled Andre's hand again, and he stood up. We all waved goodbye as the two children went down the hall to Amy's room.

"I don't know if I'll ever get used to you saying 'my daughter,'" Lissa said, shaking her head, as soon as the children were out of earshot.

"That's ok," Adrian said, sitting down on the couch with her, and pulling me down with him. I landed in his lap, and he leaned his chin on my shoulder. "I'm still not used to calling you Queen."

Lissa smiled, and started to respond before her she noticed my engagement ring. "Looks like I'm going to have to get used to you saying 'my wife,' too," she said. "Let me see this ring, Sydney!" Why did everyone always want to see the ring, I wondered? I was tempted to tell her that diamonds weren't actually scarce; they were held in reserve by the De Beers family to artificially inflate their price. But I bit my tongue and held out the ring for her, and she examined it cooly. "It's beautiful," she said. "Not quite as showy as I would have guessed."

"She wouldn't let me get the one I wanted to get," Adrian said, sulking. "It had a diamond about the size of a ping-pong ball."

Lissa laughed, a sound like the tinkling of bells. "Of course," she said. "That's our Adrian."

Adrian laughed along good naturedly, but I had to bite my tongue again to keep from pointing out that Adrian was mine, not "ours." "I'd appreciate it if our engagement doesn't become common knowledge just yet, Your Majesty," I said.

"Call me Lissa, please, Sydney. We're almost family now. And of course, I completely understand. It will be kind of awkward, won't it? To have a human marrying a Moroi – and a royal Moroi, on top of it all?" She shook her head. "Some people won't understand at all."

"And you?" I asked. "How do you feel?"

"Well," she said, a little awkwardly. "As Adrian's friend, I think the most important thing is that he's happy. And you look great, Adrian." Her eyes grew slightly unfocused for a moment as she looked at the spot over Adrian's head. "I'm not seeing any darkness at all in you."

"You either," he said. "Still wearing Sonya's rings?"

"I get a new one every month," she said, smiling. "They're a miracle. I'm sure she'd make one for you if you asked."

"I'll think about it," Adrian said.

The conversation drifted to the topic of Sonya and Mikhail, and I realized that Lissa had managed to avoid answering my question directly. I got the distinct impression that she wasn't too fond of the idea of Adrian marrying a human, but at least she wasn't making a big deal out of it. I told myself to be thankful for small favors.

I managed to mingle for the next half hour or so. Thankfully, Rose and Eddie were always happy to draw me into conversations, and the beer that everyone was drinking was making most of the guests a lot more relaxed and talkative than maybe they would have been ordinarily.

Dimitri and I had just started talking about the karate class the girls had joined when little Andre toddled back down the hallway from Amy's room, crying.

"Mommy," he said, trying to climb into Lissa's lap, which was currently occupied by baby Freddie. "Mommy, the big kids are being mean."

"Oh, poor Andre," Lissa said, reaching out to wipe some of his tears.

"Come here, buddy," Christian said. He was sitting next to Lissa on the couch, and he helped Andre into his lap. "What's going on?"

"The big kids... are being... mean," Andre said, between sobs.

Lissa and Christian exchanged glances. "You want to take this one?" Lissa said to Christian, and he nodded.

"Come on, buddy," Christian said, picking Andre up. "Let's go talk to the big kids."

"I'll go with you," I said. "In case it's my girls who are the problem."

"Cool with me," he said, and we headed down the hall.

As we walked, Andre repeated his complaints in a series of breathy sobs, saving Christian and me the trouble of making conversation, and I found myself thinking about the fact that Christian was actually the father of four of the children in Amy's room. It must be difficult for him to watch another man raise his sons, I thought.

I opened the door to Amy's room and we walked in. Immediately, Cole and Zach ran over to give their "uncle" a hug. Christian put Andre down and introduced himself to my daughters. "You must be Amy," he said. "You look so much like your mother." Amy smiled. "And you're Violet, right?" he said to the younger girl, and she nodded. "You remind me of your father, you know that?" Violet shook her head, confused. "You have the same great smile as Adrian," Christian said, bopping her on the nose, and she giggled. "See? Same smile."

"So, kids," I said. "Does anyone want to tell me what happened to upset Andre?"

"I don't know," Zach said. "We weren't trying to be mean."

"We were playing Volcano," Cole said. "You know... the floor is lava."

"Sounds like fun," Christian said, his hand resting on Zach's shoulder. I saw him looking at the boys with a slightly wistful expression.

"Andre doesn't like that game," Margot said. "I tried to tell him that he had magic shoes that the lava couldn't touch..."

"I don't like lava," Andre sobbed.

"And then he wanted to hug Big Bear," Amy said, looking over at the corner of her room. There stood the enormous teddy-bear that my father had given her for her seventh birthday. It was four feet tall and almost as wide, with a huge fuzzy belly that begged to be hugged. I could see why a four-year-old would want to cuddle with a bear like that.

"You didn't want to let him play with Big Bear?" I asked.

"It's a present from Grampa," Amy said, pouting. "I didn't want it to get ruined. He might not give me any more presents once he finds out that … I'm … you know. Special."

"Oh, sweetheart," I said, and knelt down to hug her. "I understand that. But I don't think Andre is going to ruin Big Bear."

Amy looked over at Andre, who was pouting, his lower lip trembling as he looked over at the bear. "Ok," she said, reluctantly. "Andre, you can play with Big Bear."

The little boy's face lit up with joy and he ran over to all but dive into the huge stuffed animal. I gave Amy another hug. "You did great, honey," I said. "Really. I'm proud of you."

Violet was watching Andre, who had sat down in the bear's lap. "Hey," she said to him. "Do you want to come over to my room and play there? There's no lava there."

Andre smiled shyly. "Ok," he said. "Can I take Big Bear?"

I looked over at Amy, who nodded.

"Let me help with that," Christian said, and, picking up the huge stuffed animal, followed Violet and Andre out of the room.

"Other than that, you kids all getting along?" I asked, looking around.

"Oh, definitely," Cole said, smiling. "Amy has cool toys." Zach nodded his agreement.

"And she's really cool," Margot said, with a smile that transformed her face and made her look surprisingly beautiful.

Amy smiled. "Thanks, guys," she said.

"Well, I'm glad you're all having fun," I said. "I'll see you later, ok?"

They all said goodbye and I left the room, running into Christian in the hallway.

"You've got two great kids there," he said, as we started to walk back to the main room. "They're really sweet."

"You've got some nice kids, yourself," I said. "Five of them, I guess, huh?"

Christian sighed. "Don't let Lissa hear you say that," he said. "I only really have three."

"Oh," I said. "Sorry."

"It's ok," he said. "It's just a little... you know... awkward. Sometimes."

"But I thought the whole thing was Lissa's idea," I said.

"It was," he said. "And she's ok with it most of the time. But she just gets uncomfortable when people notice the resemblance between me and Rose's kids." He sighed again. "I guess the way I see it is, those boys are kind of lucky. I mean, they have two dads who love them, so what could be bad about that?"

We stopped walking at the entrance to the living room. "Is it difficult for you?" I asked. "I mean, to see them with Dimitri?"

"No," he said. "Well, a little, sometimes. But he's a great dad to them. They're happy kids. And it's not like I don't get to see them." He smiled. "Honestly, most of the time, it's pretty great. We're this big weird family. And now you're part of it, I guess. Are you ready for that? Can you handle all this craziness?"

"I can try," I said, smiling.

"Is it going ok so far?" he asked, his expression growing more serious.

"More or less," I said, carefully, thinking about how difficult this party had been for me. "It's a learning process, you know?"

"Yeah, I can sort of sympathize," Christian said. "I mean, a little. For me... See, my wife was raised to be this perfect princess, and I was raised by a future murderer because my parents were murderers, so... Yeah. Not exactly the same life experiences."

"Yeah," I said.

He looked down at the floor. "It's not always easy," he said.

"I'm sorry," I said. I studied his handsome face. It was hard to imagine someone like him – someone so charming and confident – having any troubles at all.

He seemed to sort of shake himself. "I'm sorry I'm rambling like this," he said. "I don't even really know you that well. I guess I'm just in a weird mood."

"I guess sometimes it's easier to talk to someone you don't really know," I said.

"Yeah," he said. "We'll have to -"

"Christian?" Lissa called. "Freddy needs changing!"

"Duty calls," Christian said. "Or in this case, I guess you could say, 'doody calls.'" He made a face. "I can't believe I just said that."

I laughed. "Parenthood does strange things to people. I'll see you in a bit."

He smiled. "Yeah, let's talk some more later, ok?" he said.

"Definitely," I said, absurdly grateful that one of Adrian's Moroi friends was so sympathetic and easy to talk to. I watched as Christian went to take Freddie from Lissa's outstretched hands, then looked around for Rose, Eddie, or Adrian. But Rose and Eddie looked deep in conversation with Lissa, and Adrian was talking to Dimitri and some of his human buddies. I gripped my hands together tightly, feeling shy all of a sudden. Then the doorbell rang and I went to answer it, grateful that I had something to do.

I opened the door to find Jill, accompanied by her Moroi date. I had barely had a chance to say hello before Jill threw her arms around me, shrieking, "Sydney! Oh my GOD!"

"Hi, Jill," I said, laughing. "Good to see you too!" We pulled apart and I managed to get a decent look at her. She was wearing a form fitting dress in shades of blue and green, and her hair had obviously seen a lot of professional care – it was smooth, shiny, and gorgeous, and went nearly to her waist. She was, as always, breathtakingly beautiful, and I saw Adrian's drinking buddies look over in astonishment. In contrast, her date seemed extremely dull – handsome in a generic way, wearing an expensive suit and a bored expression.

I let the couple in and closed the door. Jill introduced me to her date, Scott, and he shook my hand with obvious distaste as he took in the fact that I was human. As Jill introduced Scott to the other guests, I mused that at least he hadn't asked if I was a feeder.

Once Jill had made the rounds and left Scott to chat with Lissa and Adrian, she pulled me aside. "Let's go catch up!" she enthused. "I want to hear everything about how you are!"

"I'm fine," I said, as we walked to a quiet side of the large room. "Things are great."

"Yes, but it's been ten years, Sydney, and I want to hear absolutely everything! Tell me all about..." But she trailed off then, and I followed her gaze to the kitchen table, where Eddie was standing with his arm around Elise. "Who is that?" Jill asked me, in a low tone.

"Her name is Elise," I said, blandly. "She seems nice. I guess she's a Guardian, judging from her molnija marks."

"Of course," Jill said, with a sigh. "What is she like?"

"I don't really know," I said. "She seems nice enough."

"I'm sure she's great," Jill said, and plastered a completely fake smile on her face.

"Jill," I said, trying to keep my tone as patient as possible. "If you want to talk to Eddie about getting back together, just talk to him. It's not right for you to be annoyed at him for dating someone else when you're the one who has a boyfriend."

"I just started going out with Scott because I knew that Eddie would never come back to me," Jill said, the smile fading. "And see? I was right. He's with this girl Elise now."

"Oh, for heaven's sake," I said. "He only started dating Elise because you were dating Scott!"

"Well, maybe it's for the best," Jill said. "I mean, Eddie's a great guy. He's good looking, and sweet, and gentle, and patient, and funny, and sexy and everything... and a good cook, you'd be surprised. And um, he's pretty great in … never mind." She blushed. "But I mean, yeah, he's a great guy, but he's not the right guy for me."

"Why not?"

"We're just not right together," she said, shaking her head. "He doesn't really care about me, not the way that I care about him. Anyway, I don't want to talk about Eddie. I want to hear about you. Is it true that you have two kids?" She leaned closer and whispered, "And one is with Adrian, from back when we were in Palm Springs?"

"Yeah," I said. "It's true. Want to meet them?"

Her eyes widened. "Oh em gee, Sydney, I'd love that! Can I? Are they here? Would it be weird? I guess they're not scared of Moroi, huh?"

"Not really," I said. "They love Adrian."

"Awww," Jill said. "That's cute. I always thought he'd make a great dad someday. So, where are they?"

"They're down in Amy's room, playing with the other kids," I said.

"Oh, Rose and Lissa's kids are here? How fun!" she said. "Let's go."

So, we went down the hall to Amy's room and knocked on the door. Several chipper voices said we could come in, and we pushed the door open to find the room in even further disarray than when I'd seen it just a few minutes ago. Now towels were bunched up on the floor, probably to form "islands," and stuffed animals were placed in what had to be strategic positions.

"Aunt Jill!" shrieked Cole, Zach, and Margot, and they immediately mobbed her, knocking her over onto Amy's bed in their enthusiasm.

"Hi, lovelies!" Jill said, giving them all hugs and kisses.

Amy stood to the side, watching the scene with interest. Once Jill had greeted the other kids, she looked over at Amy and smiled. "You must be Amy," she said, and got up to greet her. "It's amazing to meet you! Wow, you must hear this all the time but you look so much like your father! I mean, in a good way, of course, like, I'm not saying that you look like a guy, you look totally beautiful! Oh my God, this is so cool!" And before Amy could respond to this flood of words, Jill had grabbed her and hugged her tightly.

"Um, hi," Amy said. "Who are you?"

Jill laughed. "I'm sorry! My name is Jill. I knew your mother and your father back a long time ago, before you were born. We were all good friends, and sometimes we used to tell people that we were all brothers and sisters – me, your mom, your dad, and our friend Eddie."

"I know Eddie," Amy said, smiling. "He's really nice."

"Yeah," Jill said, her smile getting thin. "He is. Anyway, we were great friends for a long time, and that's why I'm so excited to meet you! I feel like we're family already."

"Oh," Amy said, giving her an uncertain smile. "Ok."

"Jill's a model," I said. "She travels all over the world doing fashion shoots."

This impressed Amy a lot more than boring stories of her mother's adolescence, and her eyes grew wide before she said, "Do you know Boyz Willbee Boyz?"

"Who or what is that?" I asked.

"They're the latest boy band craze," Jill told me, laughing. "Haven't you heard of them?"

"No, and I can't say I want to," I said.

Jill leaned down to address Amy. "I met the lead singer at a party once," she said. She leaned even closer and whispered, "He's not that cute in person."

"Wow," Amy whispered. "Coooool."

"Aunt Jill is the best," Margot said, putting her arm around her. "She's my favorite aunt."

"Oh, thank you, honey pie," Jill said, kissing Margot on the forehead. "It's so great to see all you kids."

"Are you going to stay around for a while?" Cole asked.

"I hope so!" Jill said. "I'm taking a few weeks off to relax and I want to spend some time with all of you."

"Good," Zach said, beaming.

"So, where's Andre?" Jill asked.

"He's in with Amy's little sister," Margot said, gesturing across the hall. "She's being really nice to him."

"Awww, that's nice," Jill said. "Should we go, Sydney?"

I agreed, and we ducked across the hall to peek into Violet's room. The door was open, so we paused to take in the scene. Violet was sitting in her window seat, and little Andre was sitting so close to her that he was practically in her lap. She was reading him If You Give a Mouse a Cookie in a patient, quiet voice. He was looking not at the book, but at her, with a look of adoration so complete it could almost be termed "worship." Even Big Bear had been forgotten, cast to one side of the room, as Andre listened to Violet reading the story. Jill and I exchanged a glance and then continued down the hall without going into the room.

"She seems like a really sweet kid," Jill enthused, once we were a safe distance away. "So patient with little Andre! What's her name?"

"Violet," I said.

"That's a pretty name," she said. "She looks just like you, Sydney. She's beautiful."

It was hard to respond to compliments like that. "Thanks," I said, uncomfortably. "She's very bright. She and Amy are the lights of my life."

"I can see that," Jill said, a little wistfully. "I guess I always thought I'd have a child by now, but... ." She gave a weird laugh. "Doesn't seem to be in the cards for me."

"You still have plenty of time," I said.

Jill shrugged. "I guess we'll see," she said. "Oh, hey, want to see my latest ad?"

So we sat down on the couch, and Jill pulled out a copy of Vogue. She had modeled for a famous handbag designer, and she showed me the advertisement. Naturally, she looked beautiful in the photography, but it was difficult to even recognize her under the layers of makeup and photoshopping. While I was gazing at the picture, Jill pulled out a small binder with a few more of her advertisements in it, and I realized that I'd been seeing her face for years without even knowing it, in magazines and on billboards. While she and I were talking, a few of Adrian's drinking buddies drifted over, obviously fascinated by Jill, and she ended up answering some of their questions about what it was like to be a model.

After a while, I snuck away so I could talk to Christian and Dimitri about the sports car Christian was thinking about buying. This conversation was much more my speed than the modeling conversation, and after a while I forgot that I was talking to an important royal Moroi and a 6'7 dhampir Guardian and just enjoyed talking about cars. Dimitri was pushing for Christian to get a Porsche, while I was arguing that Porsches were overrated and tended to underperform. I had just gotten Christian to promise to test-drive a Mustang when we were all distracted by raised voices coming from the kitchen area.

"I'm fine, thank you," Jill was saying to Eddie, who apparently was trying to pour a drink for her.

"I was being polite," Eddie said. "Sorry. Jeez."

"I know, but I'm not an infant," she said. "I can pour my own drinks."

"I was Just. Being. Polite," Eddie said again, with emphasis. "Try to get down off your high horse. Some of us aren't so impressed by you, princess."

"Don't forget who I am, Guardian," she said, acerbically.

"I think there's no danger of forgetting that on my end," Eddie said.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Jill asked, hands on her hips.

"I mean, maybe you should take your own advice," he said. "It's you who needs to not forget who you are, Jill."

"Oh, shut up," Jill said, lamely, and stalked off.

Almost immediately, a buzz of conversation started up as people all around the room started talking too loud and too quickly to cover the silence.

(part 2 on the way...)