Chapter 9- Information

We stood there in the shower for a moment as Lucian kissed up and down my neck, nuzzling me and not letting go. He held me so tightly, like he might lose me any moment, and I held him tightly back to reassure him. Now that I knew exactly what was going on, he had no reason to fear losing me. My heart was still pounding wildly at his every touch, his every movement. I had never known it was possible to have mind-blowing sex like this two times in a row, and I figured I was in for a lifetime of wild rides so long as we were together. Lucian was in my soul, his intertwined with mine forever now. Everything I felt emotionally just heightened the experience.

I was far too awake to sleep now, so I figured now would be as good a time as any to learn all about Lucian's mysterious and mythical past. I had, naturally, never met a werewolf, or even heard of a Lycan, before. Everything I'd heard about them was in myths and fun or scary stories for Halloween. Now that I knew they actually existed, and I had no doubt in my mind after the proof that had been laid before my very eyes, I wanted to know the difference between fact and fiction, and I wanted to know Lucian's own story of how he'd come about to be here in Seattle, Washington.

Lucian chortled at me.

"What?"

"You've still got shampoo in your hair," he teased.

"Well I was a little too busy to rinse it out," I laughed, poking him in the side. "God, Lucian, you're still…"

"What?"

"Nothing." I looked down and blushed.

"Oh, that," he burst out laughing now. "That's a side effect of being a Lycan. Around the time of a full moon, which will be tomorrow, we have heightened appetites, and heightened… appetites," he stressed, grinning.

I blushed again. "Oh, well um, that's good to know. Heh…" I started to giggle like a schoolgirl with a ridiculous crush. And I found that I couldn't stop staring. And staring. And staring.

"You seem quite distracted. Perhaps I'd better go put on a towel," he smiled devilishly.

"Yeah um, me… too… I…" I stood still, daydreaming for a moment. He patted my butt affectionately on his way to the linen closet. We'd been so consumed in the moment that we hadn't grabbed towels on our way in.

I went into my bedroom after him, rummaging through my drawers for things I wanted to wear. I settled on a cute matching pair of underwear and bra; white with different colored hearts varying between red, orange, yellow and light blue. Lucian eyed me with one eyebrow raised.

"You approve, I take it?" I asked, swinging my hips like a model, with my right hand on my hip.

"Oh I'm sure I'd approve of anything, but yes, I do," he grinned. "You also look good with nothing."

"Wicked boy!" I giggled, slapping him with my towel on the butt- he was laying belly down on my bed. His eyebrow raised just a notch higher, amused.

I pulled out my favorite pair of Abercrombie sweatpants- my comfort pants since I'd been six months pregnant with Misha in the summer of 2008- and my Eastern Michigan Marching Band '06 t-shirt and slipped into them. Then I grabbed a pair of white socks and pulled my long brown hair back with a matching brown hair tie that was sitting out on my dresser.

"What's… marching band?" he inquired, genuinely curious. "We Lycans, vampires and Hybrids keep to ourselves and avoid contact with humans. I know nothing of modern culture. I've only lived among my kind and the vampires with the world safely in the distance or above. And I met one hybrid briefly. I was there for his transform-"

I did a double take in his direction. "Whoa, wait," I cut him off, "did you say vampires? There are vampires? And what did you say, hybrids? Hybrids of what?"

"Yes, there are real vampires in the world." He eyed my carefully, gauging my response. "I suppose I could have found a much better prelude into that discussion… and hybrids are half Lycan and half vampire, usually bitten by both, or bred by both in some rare cases." His head lowered slightly down to the bed, his eyes downcast.

"Um, wow. Okay. Vampires. Jesus Christ..." I muttered. "Well marching band is… well it's an ensemble of instrument players. You know, flutes, a piccolo or two, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, usually mellaphones, trombones, euphoniums, tubas, and lots of percussion. Bass drums, snare drums, symbols, and a ton of other stuff, and then the color guard. It's pretty elaborate. And well all march on the football field at halftime into different formations that the crowd can see from the bleachers, and oh yeah pregame too, while playing our instruments, and the color guard dances…"

"Slow down a bit. Football field, what's that? Color guard? Mellaphones?"

I paused a moment. "Wait here a minute. You owe me a lot of explanation in a minute though, Mister. You don't just say vampires and expect the conversation to be over."

"Of course. Would you expect any less from me than an explanation?" he asked humbly, smiling though at my calling him "Mister."

"No, I wouldn't," I smiled. I disappeared into my closet, searching my small rack of DVDs- I didn't own many- and pulled out a DVD of my 2005 season of marching band highlights to show him. It was my only full year in marching band, regrettably, at EMU. 2006 had been a rocky year health-wise, though I still proudly wore the t-shirt I had from band camp and the beginning of the season. I emerged from my closet with the DVD in hand and popped it into my DVD player that I kept in my room with a small TV. I didn't have one in the great room yet. "This is Eastern Michigan University's marching band- that's the college I went to and earned my degree at- in the fall of 2005. We provide the entertainment at a sporting event called football, which I'll explain what little I know about in a minute."

I sat there pointing out the color guard to him, as well as the different instruments when there were close-up shots of them, and explained marching band and some music terminology to him like pregame and halftime and the 8 to 5 step- which required me explaining the yard lines and their purpose in football along with the goal posts- and the joys and trials of band camp, as he watched the TV screen in wide-eyed wonder.

"And you took part in this? You're out there somewhere in this group?"

"I am," I declared proudly. "I absolutely loved marching band. I had to quit the next year because I was having terrible panic attacks. We didn't know that's what they were at first though because they were so bad, so the doctors spent time ruling different things out, including during a trip to the ER because I fell over I had so much trouble breathing, until my general physician determined that it was panic attacks. By then I had missed too much of the season to continue, I think it had been about a month. I suppose I could have continued, but I would have been in the middle of a new show they'd already learned, and I figured if I was that stressed I should take it easy that fall."

"I'm sorry. That must have been hard. It's really an impressive looking pastime. It looks enjoyable, too."

"It was," I admitted. "It still hurts sometimes to think about it when the football season starts in the fall. I feel like I should be out there marching with them again, and I think how I could have had two good years of that instead of one. I'd have gone for all four, but my third year my class schedule didn't allow for it, and my fourth year I was eight months pregnant by the time it was September." I swallowed hard when I realized I'd just told him another big fact about myself.

"You have a child?" he asked, shocked, but not in a bad way.

"I do, with my first husband. We're divorced. I lost the custody battle because I'd been looking for a translator job at the time after I'd graduated, and I hadn't had any luck. I lost on the technicality that I couldn't really care for Misha without an adequate income. Look, I'm not the kind of person to just get divorced like eight million times the way people do these days, I swear."

"I believe you," he assured me. "I pass no judgment on you. I was just very surprised since I hadn't seen her here, but that would explain why. I'm very sorry. You must miss her terribly."

"I do, but I won't be able to get her back now. She's very close to her dad, Alex. He's not a bad guy, he's just very wrong for me. It's weird. He was always a very good father; he just wasn't a very good husband. He had a lot of growing up to do, and he never did. I couldn't take the immaturity anymore. I needed someone who knew how to be a strong head of the house. Not overpowering and chauvinistic, just… I don't know… strong. Able. All of that. He was too passive and timid of stepping up."

He nodded. "That's very reasonable. I could imagine the pain it caused you to have someone incapable of fulfilling some important duties and meeting your needs as a wife."

"Thank you for understanding that. I hate divorce; I really do, but…"

"But it didn't feel like a real marriage," he surmised accurately.

"Exactly." I lowered my head. "But it wasn't so hard after a while. Even though I missed Misha, I got over the divorce, and I saw her enough at the time. And then I met Emery, and everything was fine, in fact everything was wonderful. I moved to Virginia with him where his home was, and I only got to talk to Misha on the phone, but I was happy with Emery. I had someone I could love again, and someone I could actually be around on a daily basis, since I couldn't see Misha that much. I was very happy until the terrible accident... a car accident. He suffered that entire night before he died in the morning. And I wasn't there. I didn't get the call from one of his friends because I was arguing with Alex actually, about Misha, and wanting to have a reconsideration of the custody hearing. Of course he would have to consent, and he didn't. I suppose it didn't matter at that point-she would have wanted to be with her dad anyway. But anyhow… then I got the call that morning." I tried not to cry telling Lucian all of this. I had thought especially now I wouldn't feel anything talking about this, but I supposed it would never completely go away.

"I'm sorry," he said. "That must have been so incredibly awful and painful." He took my hand in his, sitting up to make eye contact. "I hope you don't blame yourself about the phone call; you couldn't have known." His eyes were kind and sympathetic. Understanding showed in his features.

"It was. And I did blame myself at first, but I finally accepted the facts and forgave myself. These past six months I just wanted to die sometimes." I took a deep breath. "But then I met you," tears welled in my eyes, and my voice broke for a moment, "and suddenly my heart felt again for the first time; things I thought I'd never be able to feel in a thousand years."

"I know that feeling completely," he whispered, and smiled softly at me. I smiled back.

"Yes, because you're my soul mate."

"And you are mine." He pulled me close into his arms and kissed the top of my head, cradling me in his arms and stroking my cheek soothingly.

We spent more time on my history than I'd planned on as I told Lucian all about the divorce and the times before it, and Emery's accident, and even when he and I had met. I felt more than a little guilty telling him about me falling in love with another man, even if it was before I met him, but he insisted to know all about my emotional journey and how I'd gotten to the point in my life I was at now. I also told him as much as I could about the world around him in which he lived, since he didn't know much about it. I promised I'd show him as much of the city as I was familiar with, and he promised the same, and I told him that I would help him ease into human life by spending as much time with him as possible. My heart fluttered at the mention of spending a lot of time with him, and he smiled widely at the prospect himself.

"It's six AM, we really should turn in now," I said, yawning. "But just do me a favor and please tell me this. Do vampires live here in the United States?"

"No, fear not. As far as I'm aware they all live over in Europe, as do the Lycans and full-bred werewolves. I was the first to come over here that I'm aware of. At any rate, you are in no mortal danger. We stay concentrated in the same area, though, in England. You can sleep sound. You're safe. And you're safe with me here, even if there are any vampires here. Most likely they would be refugees, seeking a new life apart from that which is laid out for them from birth or creation."

I smiled. "Okay. That's good enough for me. Hey, don't you want to wear anything besides my towel?" I asked suddenly, realizing he was still wearing it.

"I'm afraid I have no change of clothing. We both were in quite a rush to get to the shower…" He grinned, as did I.

"I'll grab some for you tomorrow. I guess I'll just have to sleep next to a nude hot guy. Oh darn!" I was dripping with sarcasm.

"Yes, pity," he teased, kissing my neck. He took the towel off and threw it to the floor, and my eyes grew wide, and my jaw dropped.

"Don't tempt me."

"One more round before we sleep?" He winked at me, looking very hopeful.

"Stop it," I giggled. "I'm really tired now."

"Very well, then. Good night Maya, my love. I love you more than my inadequate words can describe."

"Good night, Lucian. I love you too. I love you deeply, passionately, unconditionally, and forever."

We held each other tightly, and I fell asleep feeling more satisfied, content and secure than I had in half a year. For the first time in my entire life, I felt completely whole. There'd be time for me to learn Lucian's story later. For now I was just grateful that I'd gotten telling mine out of the way, and that he hadn't run away knowing that I'd been divorced once and that I had a daughter. He really did accept me for everything, just as I accepted him. He was one special guy, and it wasn't just because he was a Lycan. It was because he was my Lucian.

A/N: So first off, yes, portions of this story are autobiographical. Don't forget, Maya is my literary persona. Yes, I really am a band geek *cue dork chant*.

Now on to the technical stuff. I have no idea how custody proceedings really work, or if you can have second hearings later on, or if you have to have the permission of the current parent with custody or not, so I apologize if I'm wrong. I'm just trying to get the story to work to my advantage. We can't have a girl involved in a full-out Lycan/vampire war *hint hint spoiler that it's going to get more intense!*, so I need the custody thing to keep her out of harm's way.

And lastly, I'm sorry if there were any inconsistencies in this chapter, or if anything didn't make sense; I wrote it between 2 and 3 in the morning. I edited as best I could. I'm pretty sure I already mentioned somewhere in the story that the full moon was coming up in a couple of days, but I don't feel like rereading everything to find where I wrote that. So again, sorry if there's any inconsistency. And sorry my author's notes are so long.