Disclaimer: I disclaim.


When I woke again, I had already been carried off the plane, and was leaned against the wall of the hangar in a wad of wool. Rickie was shouting something at Marcus that I couldn't hear over plane engines, and another vampire stood off to the side, staring at the line where the shade met the sunlight.

I swallowed over a lump of cotton in my throat, then coughed a bit, and Marcus swung his head to me in an eerie motion, as if I'd screamed. Then he drifted over to me and squatted just a little too fast in front of me. I shook my head and blinked a couple times. Rickie had followed him over, sitting down beside me so he could say something in my ear.

"We don't have a ride," he growled out angrily, "These idiots were planning to run to the manor."

I burst out into more painful laughter. Oh, man, oh man, oh man! I'd never laughed so much in my life until I got kidnapped by vampires for baby makage.

"Where's my cell?" I yelled back. Rickie's face got redder and madder.

"They left our luggage, your purse, our phones, your parasol... The only thing they brought was your medication."

The laughter was officially over. I turned on Marcus, who seemed confused about the whole thing.

"You left my parasol?" I hissed, unwilling to let that pretty, distracting face deter my wrath, "You do know I'm allergic to sunlight, right? As in I get a rash when I don't have enough coverage? Aren't you burned by it too? I thought a vampire would know better?"

Rickie tensed beside me. "Vampire?" he squeaked, "That's what they are? But it's daylight..."

Oh, there's the humor. I'd forgotten Rickie didn't yet know that I was to be a vampire baby mama. You wonder why I bring this up every few paragraphs? It was starting to sink in. I wasn't ever going to have children. My plan was to waste my time in the greenhouse and will away my money to Rickie when I finally broke completely, which I hadn't planned on doing within a year...

Oh, no! I was going to die. In. Out. In. Out. Breathe Lucy, I told myself. I closed my eyes to focus on my breathing, and thought about pleasant things, like flowers. And birds. And more flowers. My favorite veteran's honor red roses. The lovely red cardinals that had built a nest in my lace leaf Japanese Maple. I felt a cold finger touch my cheek gently, and my eyes flew open to see red.

The same filmy red that had been on my mind, that I'd been distracting myself from with flowers and birds. I took a gulp of air and focused on Marcus's eyes. They were brighter than I thought. Less filmy. I started to calm down a bit and thought about the situation at hand. We could probably use someone else's phone. I knew the gardener's number off of the top of my head, and she would probably be at home now anyway. So that was two or three hours to wait?

"What time is it?" I asked Rick, who was still grumbling about stupid vampires and flaming Italians. Snort. I was fairly certain that Rickie was talking about actual fire, and that Marcus was straight, but the other dude? I looked over at him. He was beautiful, like they all were, and his features were masculine, but the way he was pouting over there, pursing his pale lips and watching the sunlight inch closer... I tried not to laugh, almost failing, and had to ask Rickie to repeat what he said when I realized he'd been shouting at me again.

"It's four in the afternoon," he said again, and I frowned. Anne would be headed home soon, and she lived a little further away than two hours from the manor. I didn't know which direction that was from here, because I didn't know where here was.

"Ask the owner here if we can borrow a cell phone. I'm going to call Anne to pick us up," I called to Rickie.

"What?" he asked, but Marcus was already up in moving, walking towards a man in grayish coveralls with a walkie-talkie. He spoke very briefly, and came back with an older model of phone in a sturdy old case. He glided over to me again, which is when I realized that he was wearing some really funky clothing.

Hmm. You'd think I would have noticed already that he was in all black with a cape. And I thought that I dressed old fashioned. When he reached where Rickie and I were sitting on the floor, instead of my expectations of him handing the phone to my one functioning, outstretched hand, he reached both of his stony arms about me and bodily lifted me against his cold chest. I saw both Rickie and Demetri twitch from my periphery. Huh. Maybe the other guy was gay.

In a move I don't think even my Rickie could do while carrying me, Marcus shifted me into one arm, and placed the cell phone into my hand. I blinked a couple of times, then got over it and started dialing one of two numbers that I actually knew. The phone rang two or three times in my ear before a lovely voice rang out that I realized I was fond of only then, after the ordeal through which I was still undergoing.

"Hello Miss Lucy! How is your vacation going? I take it you want an update on your precious babies? They miss you terribly! I've never seen such behavior out of them, no perk in 'em. It try to talk to 'em 'n coddle 'em, but they won't get any less droopy. I swear Miss Lucy, your babies is the oddest sort I've ever seen. So damn pretty all the time. But right now the look a bit under the weather as much as such precious beauties can."

I'd forgotten how talkative that moron was.

"Anne, the vacation was cut short," I replied tersely, ignoring the question in Marcus's eyes when he heard the word 'babies'. What, did he think she meant really babies? "I need you to pick us up at a small private airstrip, in... wherever the hell this place is. Marcus, where are we again?"

I handed the phone over and glanced at Rickie while Marcus spoke in smooth accented English, probably charming the underwear off of my gardener. Rickie seemed uncomfortable with the way I was being held, I could see the nerves. He looked like he was biting the inside of his cheek again.

"Rickie," I said, "Quit biting your cheek."

"Tell him to put you down," he countered. Then looked away, as Demetri was closing in on us, having taken interest in what Marcus was saying, I suppose. Then I realized that the phone was being pressed to my ear, and Anne had probably been talking to me for several seconds... long enough for the conversation to be eights planets away.

"-llo! Hello! Miss Lucy?"

"I wasn't listening Anne, was it important?"

"Wha? Of course it was important Miss Lucy! Everything I say is important! And who may I ask is the gentleman you just handed the phone to? Did you bring home an Italian? Must have been one hell of a vacation to return in two days totin' a lovely new gigolo. Didn't you think to bring one back for me?" I could hear her pout in her voice and smiled at the sight of it in my brain.

Such a cheeky, bratty woman. Why did I put up with her? That would be because she knew her shit, and my gardens were always her first priority. I think she may have had an unhealthy fixation on them though. Seriously? My plants wouldn't have even known I was gone, much less wilted without me.

"Then be a good dear and repeat yourself," I finally answered.

"I said," she sang sweetly, "that I would be there in less than an hour, because I went home early and that airstrip is close to home for me. Put in a good word for the owner, will you? He's so cuuuuuute!"

And then I hung up the phone because she was obnoxious. Rickie took the cell from my hand and walked over to the man in coveralls, and spent more time over there than I would have thought, unless he'd heard Anne over the phone? She did have an awfully loud voice with a brassy timbre.

But, really, louder than plane engines? I thought, before realizing that it was suddenly quiet, with no planes in sight.

Ah. Sometimes I'm woefully unobservant. Marcus tightened his arms around me, so I looked at him in response. His eyes seemed to be smiling at me, and there were gentle looking creases spreading from the corners. Even vampires look more attractive with crow's feet. What do you know. He expertly maneuvered us until we were sitting on the cool cement of the hangar into what I was beginning to assume was his favorite position. He was once again wrapped around my frame, with my broken parts off to the side and his fingers on my face.

I sighed, partially out of irritation and partially contentment. Don't you dare repeat that!

He, to no great surprise, drug his fingers along my chin back to the side of my neck and pressed his cold, hard nose into my hair on the other side of my neck, breathing slowly and deeply.

"Why do you do that?" I asked.

"I want to make myself familiar with your scent... to get used to, ehm..."

"Get acclimated?" I supplied.

"Si, this is the word."

And then he said nothing. I looked over and noticed Rickie was still talking to the owner. I noticed him gesturing to a small jet as he spoke, and assumed he was making another expensive purchase with my wallet.

"Il colore che scorre come l'acqua tra di noi è in crescita dal momento. Il profumo è in fiore e splende come il sole nella nostra connessione."

Ooh. Do that again, I thought, but what I said was, "Yo no hablo Italiano. Habla en ingles por favor."

He looked down at me, and I'm pretty sure it was a funny picture. One, because I could feel my face drawn into a frown. Two, because he let out a laugh that would have made the groundhog forget seeing his shadow to come hear. It was breathtakingly beautiful to my ears. It seemed a little unused, but still velvety and rich.

He looked at me, or almost, it seemed, and smiled a little.

"You liked that," he said, and I'm sure my face went all sorts of red.

"Wha! N-no! I! I don't..." I said, more lamely than ever have I known myself to be.

He seemed to sense my distress (who wouldn't), and changed the subject for me.

"This Anne," he said quietly, "She looks after your children?" He asked, the smile leaving his eyes.

"N-no!" I sputtered, "I'm not a mother, uh... yet?" I cringed. And he frowned. He looked contemplative, and my confusion must have been obvious, because he changed the subject quickly, glancing for a moment at the other vampire.

"Then she was referring to animals perhaps?"

"No. My plants," I admitted, "I have a large greenhouse. It's what I enjoy most in the world other than Rickie." He looked like that remark almost hurt, but I wasn't going to take it back. What we were doing, or having, or whatever, I didn't want to admit was important. It was frightening to be so attached to someone I'd barely just met.

"Tell me more Luce," he said instead, "I want to know."

"Wait, about what?"

"Anything."


Rose was finishing her meal when Bella finally got through.

"Rose! You answered!"

She was instantly alarmed by Bella's tone. Bella was generally as overly dramatic, if not more-so, than Edward, but there was always the chance, and there were certain people about which no chances could be taken.

"What? Is something wrong? Nessie? Is Nessie okay?"

"It isn't about Reneesme, Rose."

Rose visibly relaxed, and Emmett finished playing with his bear so that he could listen in on the conversation. They were somewhere in Alabama now, and the game was rather small. Black bears and tiny deer. But more people were out in the woods hunting than seemed worth the trouble for such insignificant trophies.

"Alice and Jasper are going down to meet you on your way back just in case. Marcus and Demetri are in Georgia."

Rose tensed up again, but Emmett seemed thrilled.

"Wouldn't this be a great opportunity? Are they alone?" he asked, pushing his face towards Rose and the mouthpiece. Both women hissed at him in response.

Emmett chuckled darkly. Only to get smacked in the face by his lovely, if violent, wife.

"Thank you for the warning Bella," replied Rosalie softly, "I'll call back when we meet up with the others." She hung the phone up and turned to her love.

Without speaking, as one, they turned to where they had parked the jeep, and where they would have a change of clothing for her messy, messy Emmett. They breezed through the Alabaman woods together, in an easterly direction until they came upon the highway where they were parked on the shoulder.

With movements too quick for the human eye to perceive, they hopped to, opened doors and got settled in the vehicle. Emmett reached into the backseat for his clothing, stretching all sorts of delightful muscles through his torn shirt. Rosalie's breath hitched a bit, and Emmett looked back with mischievous eyes.

"Em," she said, a little lower in pitch than she meant, "We have to go meet Alice and Jasper. We won't get to them until we're somewhere in northern Texas..."

He smiled back, knowingly unleashing the dimples she adored, and it was terribly apparent that he knew exactly what he was doing to her. She let out a sound that was almost a whine in the back of her throat at the temptation he always, always, always presented to her.

"What," he said, looking at her exposed knee from a rip in her jeans and slowly drawing his gaze up, "I'm just grabbing clothes...?"

"Not yet."


Learning about Luce was like a treasure hunt. Marcus had to ask the question, interpret the answer, and then pry out anything she neglected to mention, purposefully or by accident.

"So you were raised in an orphanage with the boy."

"His name is Rickie."

"With Rickie, then, yes?"

"Ah, yeah. A really poor orphanage in one of the seedier parts of Atlanta."

"What happened to your parents?"

"None?"

"Explain."

Luce scowled at him, and the bond started glowing a little hotly in his direction, almost where it met the darkness of his guilt for what he was doing to her. All of her emotions were so lively, even when she suppressed the physical signs of them. She opened her mouth to speak, and the colors got a little warbled. She was upset... ashamed.

"My mother dropped me there about as soon as she had me. She wasn't in the sort of business that paid enough for daycare, or nightcare, rather."

"Ah, a profession that will never go out of style, I'm afraid," he responded, working hard to show her that it wasn't something that bothered him. It really wasn't, he just didn't want her to make any assumptions, since it obviously bothered her. She seemed to appreciate the dry humor though, as evidenced in her relaxing against his chest.

"How did you fare?" He pried further, "living with so many others, with your condition."

"I learned how to deal."

"How?"

"Nosy. I developed really good aim with a slingshot, and learned all the best hiding spots in the area," she said, wiggling her crooked fingers at him, "I broke my fingers a lot in the process, and I never got them properly treated. The manager was a real Miss Hannigan. She treated us like objects and had all sorts of affairs in the office. I'm almost positive she got her nasty paws on Rickie's dad when that bastard dropped him there."

"Why did he leave the boy?" asked Marcus, genuinely confused. His brother was so bent on this possibility of a child that it was hard to imagine someone giving up the child they had.

"He was a drunk, gambling, abusive asshole who didn't want to take care of a kid after his wife ran off."

"How did the two of you become close?"

"It was a relationship of convenience," She said quietly, "He looked out for me with bullies, and I gave him half of my food. He grew so damn quickly," she swore, "I don't know how he survived the loss of nutrients after I got adopted."

"When was this in your life Luce," Marcus asked.

"Hmm, I was thirteen when the old hag decided to be a saint to a poor, unwanted and crippled child. Not that she was doing it for show. That would have been better."

Marcus was confused again. The bond started showing signs of her sour mood, but he couldn't understand what disturbed her about the memory. "Why do you grow so angry at the kindness of the one who took you away from the orphanage?"

Luce looked at him speculatively. Then she looked down at her hand, sighing and leaning her head back until it hit his arm, and turning her eyes to the ceiling of the hangar. She watched the rafters for a few moments before she answered, and Marcus in turn watched the glowing strands twist between them.

"Her pity," she whispered, "It was painful."

Somehow sensing that she was giving away a deeper part of herself again to him, he waited instead of pressing her. He reached one of his hands out to hers, stretching her fingers again, and then lacing them with his. They stayed that way until she found the courage to speak again.

"I'm not normal Marcus," she paused a moment, like she was going to lock up, but kept going, "I couldn't go play with the other kids. I couldn't wrestle or run or jump on the bed... I've known all of my life that I'm at a disadvantage. But I don't want that to be all there is to me!" Her face grew a little red and heated with emotion, and her eyebrows furrowed, "I'm more than helpless Marcus! I can overcome things, like anyone else! My handicap doesn't make me less! All she saw was some poor kid that she thought couldn't make it without the help." She finished in a rush.

"I hate it!" and this time she sounded more frustrated than he had ever heard her, "I hate living like this! I can't even walk around in public like a normal human being!"

For all of her fierceness, she had kept her volume low, and, removing her hand from his, she pointed her index finger at the dark skinned child that she had been so adamant about protecting. In a voice so soft that none without his advanced hearing could have made out, she said, "That boy is my redemption." And then she said no more, and he couldn't figure out how to start another conversation in the wake of her confession.

Instead he watched the threads of their connection, glimmering lightly in some unseen breeze. Then he looked at the space between Luce and Rickie. Their connection was very bright. It was all pastels and very thick, with a sweet scent drifting off of it like baked goods. It was darker on her end, but some strands were bright and shining all the way across in both directions. The only thing that calmed his jealous heart was that there was absolutely no sense of romance.

Marcus did not think he could have won her if that had been the case, and that was difficult to accept. He pulled his eyes back to the strings attaching him to Luce, and frowned at the dark strands born of his guilt. He was tainting her in more ways than one, wasn't he? The strands darkened more with this revelation, and he growled lightly, and pressed his nose back into her hair, picking up a few pieces of dark red waves to twirl around his fingers idly.

Luce tensed at the action, and he sat up to look at her, gently turning her face towards him with his free hand. She looked at his eyes fearlessly, and seemed to be considering something quite seriously before speaking again.

"I always say too much to you. Is that normal for you?" she asked, finally, looking a little bashful, and a little annoyed.

"Luce," Marcus replied, "Nothing about this is normal. I've spoken more to you since we've met than I have in the last decade." He brought the hair in his fingers to his lips, and she turned red. Marcus smiled. It was all clear to him then, and the dark strands fled from their connection. He wouldn't fulfill his end of the bargain. He was going to live with her for a year, and somehow convince her to join his eternity. She would know the joy of an almost indestructible body, and then she would be able to do all the wrestling and running and jumping she liked. Because Marcus was in love with his Luce.

He loved her.


So, I had know idea how quickly or slowly this chapter was going to take, but since I decided to take next year off from the academics, I have decidedly more time to devote to distracting pleasantries, yes? And I think I couldn't have come to a better place to end it. I almost had a block, because it's so difficult for me to describe the bonds that Marcus sees, and it's kind of boring, but necessary to the story.

If you want to know the Italian, pop it into Google translate, because that's where I got it from. Which means it likely isn't accurate, so don't quote it, peoples.

P.S. I got a review for chapter seven that got me thinking... I kind of treat Bella Cullen as a joke... She kind of is a joke, though... Ehehehe...

Also. My 'n' on my keyboard is being a bitch, so please let me know if you see any missing in the text.

Peace.