First things first, thank all of you for the lovely and encouraging reviews! They always help keep me going! Secondly, I'd like to try to explain something about the last chapter.

When I came up of the idea of Aleera finding a girl and taking her back as her own child, it never occurred to me, as some of you have seen it as, that she'd be doing it for the child's sake. If I hadn't already started the chapter in first person, I would have liked to have changed it, just to help show that point. To me, her 'saving' the girl was, in essence, a more selfish action than anything else. She didn't have children. Here was someone else's child, and that someone else wasn't there to stop her, so she took it. Like a little kid, really.

Does that make any sense?

I know it's still a little bit of an OOC trait, but... oh well. I have whole story ahead to make up for it.

Love you all to pieces,

Pax

It had been many a year since the little room had been used. None of the current inhabitants had done more than to peek in, curious, and after discovering nothing extraordinary, closed the door and move on.

However, in Aleera's excited and already planning mind, it would do perfectly. She landed on the small terrace, reverting back into her more presentable form, and carried her delicate, frozen companion through the glass doors. It was cold in the stone chamber; a fire would need to be lit in the hearth. But for now Aleera merely carried the girl to the dusty bed and placed under the covers.

The last time she had started a fire had been a long time ago. Arranging the logs was easy enough. It was the part with the match that was difficult, for every time a flame would flare up on the end of the stick, Aleera would start and release it, only to drop onto the stone and extinguish.

Aleera heard the fluttering of wings. With a sharp glance at the open balcony entry, she saw a figure materialize on the railing and make for the door. Just before they entered the room, Aleera flitted in front of her prize, hiding her from view.

The two brides regarding each other for a moment; Verona with mild curiosity and inquiry, Aleera with considerably less placate thoughts.

"What is that?"

The question that she knew would come, but cursed. Tossing her hair, Aleera adopted a small, coy smile.

"Why don't you come see for yourself?"

Verona did not move for a moment, then stepped around her younger confidant. Silence. Then a harsh look.

"A human?"

A single finger twisted around a red curl.

"Yes."

The reaction was instantaneous. Verona turned on her, fangs growing, eyes gleaming.

"You dare bring a human into the home of our Master!" Have you lost your mind, Aleera?"

Aleera replied with the same physical distortions, hissing.

"She is to be my child! She was abandoned by her own kind, and now I will raise her!"

"Raise her! She is not a newborn! She is not even an infant!" she gesture to the sleeping mortal,

"In only a matter of years she will be full grown!"

"Then I will mother her until that day!"

Verona faltered slightly at hearing 'mother'. She composed herself, calmness again in her voice.

"Aleera, you must see the madness of the situation? How could this possibly come to be?"

Aleera delayed responding while allowing herself time to quell her rage. Finally, with chest heaving with emotion, she countered.

"Verona. You and I had to watch our beautiful children perish! Who better then yourself would understand my pain?"

Taking a step towards the taller bride, she reached out and brushed her fingers across the pale cheek.

"You felt it, did you not? For we are not the same as the master. We must still feel that dreadful pain."

Verona looked from Aleera, to the girl, and back to Aleera.

"I did." she whispered "I did feel it."

"She could be your daughter, as well! The two of us together could rear her. Make her better than all the other humans. And if does not live up to what we want her to be" Aleera lowered her eyelashes, grinning"She could be a treat for us both."

Verona raised a sleek eyebrow, again surveying the child with eyes less doubtful than before.

"The Master..."

"He will let us keep her." Aleera murmured"he knows we long for a family. The Master will let her stay."

Verona did not say anything for many minutes. Aleera waited, growing impatient, but resolving not to speak her thoughts should she dampen her chances of winning Verona over. At last, Verona spoke.

"If the Master allows it, I will have no quarrel with the child staying."

Aleera smiled at her, and then the two looked down upon the girl. She still slept, her face expressionless and pale, framed by dark, ginger brown hair that tumbled over her shoulders.

"Where did you find her?"

The suddenness of Verona's question startled Aleera.

"In the snow fields."

"Aleera! Have you forgotten that humans can not live in such cold conditions? She needs to be warmed or she will die."

"I know!" Aleera hissed back, pointing to the hill of matches "I tried to start a fire."

Verona straightened herself, and proceeded to the fireplace.

"Make sure the quilt is tucked in around her, and close the doors! They're letting in a wind."

Aleera huffed, for she did not like being told what to do, but obeyed her elder. When the doors where tightly shut, she glided back to the bed side and pulled the blanket up under the girl's chin. The crackling of a fire filled the room; Verona had no doubt succeeded. Aleera ran her fingers lightly over the sallow face, touching each cheek, up across the child's forehead, and down her delicately pointed nose.

"What shall we name her, do you think?"

Verona returned to her side, eyes pensive.

"Did it not occur to you that she might already have a name?"

Aleera made a face, displeased.

"Then when she awakes, I shall ask her name, and if I do not like it, we shall give her a new name."

The two brides nodded in agreement. While they appeared calm, the hearts of both were near bursting with happiness. At last, a child. After all the long years of hope and failure. The feeling was dampened slightly by the mere fact that it was a human child they were to raise, but as they watched her peacefully sleep, the girl became more and more beautiful to both Aleera and Verona. Suddenly, the familiar clip of heeled boots echoed through the hall, just outside the door. The two vampires froze.

Their Master was home.