*~*

"You know him?" Merton held the recently faxed paper in Lyrissa's face. Staring at the picture, she blanched, doing a double take.

"Mien Gott!" she muttered. Lyrissa grabbed the picture of Mr. Dingle out of Merton's hand. "Your father kidnapped me."

"Excuse me?" Merton raised a questionable eyebrow. "You're saying our father is a dimension pirate?"

"Well yeah." Lyrissa started pacing around the room. Little flames popped up from her finders and danced around her hands. "That would explain that energy thingy. All the pirates had that. That was how they were keeping me down."

"Wait, what pirates are you taking about?" asked Becky, thoroughly confused.

"Long story short, Ly was held by the pirates because she had the orb. In the end we got her back, but she ended up moving out of our dimension anyway. She visits once and awhile, like tonight."

"Whoa!" Becky stared down at the speakerphone; on the other line she heard her mothers soft breathing. She began to speak. "Did you catch that?"

"Explains why he was away so often. Business trips. Sure." Merton said glairing. "Y'know lady, you're lucky I'm not in Pleasantville finding out about this. Your life would not be a happy one right now."

"Merton don't make threats you can't keep." His mother snapped.

"Lord, you're starting to sound like Lyrissa. Everyone just needs to shut up for a second. I'll be right back." Merton turned on his heel and walked out of the room. Becky and Lyrissa looked each other, wondering what he would come back with, if anything. They turned back as the Goth walked back into the room. He was holding two books, one on Vampires and one on Heredity. He had many books on the latter; he had graduated with a major in the subject. Running his fingers through his hair, he opened the one on vampires and started reading.

"Lyrissa hang up the phone." Merton instructed.

"Hang up on your mom?" she hesitated.

"She's not my mother. Get it?" He almost growled. "Turn the phone off."

She shrugged and hung up the phone. Becky was curled next to him on the couch gazing over his shoulder.

"What're you reading about?" she asked.

"Just stuff." Merton looked up at her. "I don't think I can deal with this right now. I told you Cally's pregnant right? Well now what, how am I gonna tell her this?"

"Cally's not going to care. She's a witch for Gods sake." Lyrissa laughed and grinned.

"Ly, this isn't funny." He said softly. "This seriously explains a lot. I think my powers were triggered when they all came to visit. I think it was the day before they left when I started noticing. I think it was that night…that means that they weren't dormant anymore, which mean now…"

"The night what?" Becky asked raising her eyebrows expectantly.

"Nothing." Merton shook his head and flipped the page. "Just means my kid's going to be full vampire. The traits are dominant if it's being passed by a male. If my genes had still been dormant then it wouldn't have mattered."

"But you said that the genes were dormant until your parents…OH! Cally's only a few days pregnant." Lyrissa turned a bright shade of pink upon her discovery.

"Doesn't that school you go to have a curfew?" He asked, exasperated.

Lyrissa grinned slightly. Ever since she'd started going to school in another dimension at Xavier's School for the Gifted, she taken to staying out late whether it was with her brother and his friends or her boyfriend (who happened to be a comic character). She took the hint Merton was giving her and excused her self to get back to her room at the school.

"Do you want to stay here tonight, I'll orb you back in the morning." Merton offered.

"Thanks." Becky smiled into her brother's eyes. "You know I'm really sorry about all this. I love you, I really do. Talk more in the morning?"

"'Course." Merton swung his arm around his little sister's shoulder and squeezed her tight.

*~*

Cally Dingle knew that something was amiss as soon as she entered her flat later that evening. It was about twelve o' clock at night and her husband wasn't awake as far as she could see. That might not be unsual for some but Cally had noticed that lately Merton was becoming quite the night owl. She put her purse onto the table by the television and padded her way quietly into the main bedroom. The room was pitch black before she flicked on the lightswitch to change for bed. But as the light went on she stifled a surprised yelp. Merton was sitting up in bed concentrating intensly on a book. The fact that he was reading didn't surprise her, it was the fact that he had obviously been doing it in the blackness of the room.

"Cal?" Merton turned at her noise. He laid the book down in his lap and looked worriedly at her. "Cal, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." She took a few calming breaths. "It's just that…honey, were you reading in the dark?"

"Er, I guess so." He shrugged sheepishly.

Cally raised her eyebrows but said nothing. Instead she unpinned her hair and began undressing for bed. "How was your night?"

"Great. Rissa and I had fun. We watched some good movies." He lied, as he watched his wife move around the room to find her nightwear.

Finally Cally settled down into bed beside Merton. Her head rested against his bare chest as she thought about what he'd just said. Merton's voice had been a little to perky for her liking. She felt him start to stroke her hair lightly as if he knew she was suspicious and he was trying to chase it away. Merton rolled over on top over her and started removing his black silk boxers. He's in a good mood, Cally thought to herself giggling slightly. She felt soft kisses being planted on her neck, before he drove himself into her. She gasped, for he seemed stronger than usual. The kisses turned harder as they continued, until they were hickeys. Then they became more than hickeys as Merton bit through her skin and stayed there, sucking harshly.

"Merton?" Cally said alarmed. "Merton, what the hell are you doing?"

Her head started to swim and she was slipping in and out of a dream like state. Cally jerked around trying to get free. When she turned to her right she caught a glimpse of the book Merton had been reading before. It was entitled A History of Lamia. Every thing fell into place for Cally then. Lamia was an old word for Vampire.

"Allium." She said grimly. She hated to do this to Merton but unless she wanted to die she had to. Merton was thrown off of her as she uttered the spell. He rolled of the bed, thumping onto the floor moaning. Cally sat up slowly, slapping her hand to her neck. Two drops of blood came from two pressure sensitive marks.

"Oh god." Came a groan from the floor. "Cally, what was that?"

"A spell to get you detached from my neck." Cally reached over and helped Merton off the floor. She looked over him, appraising his state of health. The only things out of place were two fangs sticking out over his bottom lip.

"Detached from your neck?" Merton's jaw dropped. "What…oh no." He probed his tongue around his mouth feeling his fangs and unconsciously licking the blood from his lower lip. He sat back on the bed next to Cally, hitting his forehead with a hand. "Tell me I didn't bite you. Please Cal?"

Cally wanted to offer sympathy but at the moment she couldn't. she wanted to know why he hadn't said something about this. "So my prince of darkness, when were you going to let me in on this?"

"I just found out tonight. Becky called, and…" He glanced at Cally. "This is a long story."

Cally sighed, and draped Merton's robe over his naked body. "I'm listening."

*~*