Hey guys! I'm really sorry you've had over a week to wait for this update, what can I say? Writer's block has got me bad and because of this the words just won't come. I have the entire story laid out in my head, but getting it out onto a Word document is nigh on impossible! I should think those reading this who write too will understand my frustration! I don't know when I'll be posting another chapter, but I do hope you can be patient with this. Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter, I look forward to what you all think of this one.
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Eric's POV
"Well hello, tiny wolf queen, and how are you this morning? Oh, happy to see me, I see so clearly with that big grin, you asshole." Yes, I know, I shouldn't refer to a three month old baby as an asshole, but she is one. She's an asshole because every time she smiles at me, I smile back. She's an asshole because I'm not supposed to get attached to babies, and I have to her a little, I confess. I hate her for being so insufferably adorable, and for rousing that long dead 'male protector' streak in me. I must say it's awfully strange, how it's come to me before it has Tyra. She's still struggling massively with it, and at the moment I'm going through the same problems I was a few weeks back, my wife seemingly very reluctant to take on her full parental duties to this baby.
She coped okay for a few weeks, but now, now we're almost ready to move into our new home (which she and her friends have spent the last week decorating) she's gone back to relying on Ginger or now also Esmeralda to look after Milla in the daytime, and in the evenings she's always conveniently busy with, well, whatever excuse she picks. A hell of a lot revolves around her growing friendship with Sookie at present, and while I appreciate and have no problem with the fact the two are becoming close, it doesn't mean Milla should be palmed off on me all the damn time. I like that Tyra is making more friends, I really do and wouldn't stop her at all. However, when it's be being left holding the baby, I damn well will stop this newly found social butterfly streak in her solely to avoid spending time with Milla. The child will barely settle for her. As soon as she sees me, she's happy, smiley and content, because she actually knows me.
"Oh yes, I think someone will be cutting her first teeth shortly, what with all this chewing and drooling," I tell Milla as she grasps my finger and pulls it up to her mouth to begin chewing it. That's what babies do when their teeth are near coming through, I remember as much with my own children. I should be going to sleep now, but since Tyra stayed at the new house last night with her best friend Anna, I got lumped with bubs here, again, and so my rest cannot commence until Ginger arrives here at 7am to take over looking after her. Tyra text me at 3am last night to say she and Anna had just finished the last of the tiling in the bathroom, and that she was going to sleep. I really do hope that all of this reluctance to be with Milla and look after her evens out once we're all moved into our new home. It could just be because of that, I might perhaps be dramatising the situation.
"There, one fed, clean and fresh baby. Now it's time to play, so let us go and raid your toy box while we wait Ginger." I tell Milla, carrying her to the rug where I set her down to play usually, and then reaching for the soft toys I pass to her in turn, watching as she grasps and studies each of them. Ginger arrives at five minutes to seven, looking thrilled as ever to be spending time with Milla before she takes the baby and all of her stuff up to the office so I can gladly be the dead body I truly am throughout the daytime hours. When I awake in the evening, it's to my favourite sight, my beautiful wife.
"This is a surprise, you waiting for me to wake. How has your day been?" I ask as I pull her down into my arms and kiss her forehead.
"Tiring, but productive I must say. I have all of my work finished and now I'm going to change into my painting clothes and get our house finished tonight, with Anna and Sookie's help. All we have to do then is leave the place to air for a day or so to let the paint fumes out and voila, we can move in. Well, we can when we've received the rest of our furniture," she explains.
"And who will be looking after Milla this evening, while you do all of this? I told you already I'm busy tonight, I have a meeting with Cassius and Fabien," I ask her, interested over what her reply will be.
"Esmeralda and Stanley are looking after her. You know, I never thought I'd see it, a vampire who genuinely likes babies, but Stanley is the first to get up and take her whenever I arrive, so she's staying there until the morning and I'll go and collect her first thing from Esmeralda, hand over her work that she has to do and then take Milla back here, where I'll look after her and not Ginger. She needs a break," she replies, with words that at first make me feel somewhat annoyed that Milla is being palmed off again, but happier when I hear her state she'll be taking care of her all day tomorrow.
"I look forward to the end of the week, when we can be settled in our new home. Pam is too; because of course she gets this place as her brand new, much larger apartment." I reply, kissing my wife again before I let her continue with her evening, getting up and getting myself ready for mine. I don't feel much like dressing up this evening, so keep my attire casual in a pair of dark blue jeans, a deep green t shirt and my leather flip flops, heading upstairs to the club. I expect few people to be there since we've just opened, but find the bar to be surprisingly at least a quarter full. I then remind myself that of course, Wednesday night we run a two for one offer on most drinks (except spirit double measures, or we'd be bankrupt) so both humans and vampires are here in earlier abundance than usual.
As I stroll through the club, nodding at my bar staff as I go, I can't help but notice Deborah has her attention held thick and fast by whoever the vampire at the other side of the bar holding her hands is. I usually don't allow such fraternising with the clientele, but there's no one currently waiting to be served, so I'll overlook it this time. It's just as I'm nearing the exit on my way to speak with Pam that I suddenly get a flash through my head of a phone call I listened in on a few weeks ago. I wonder if the vampire currently wooing Deborah happens to be called Elliot, and if a certain Quentin Rothman sent him here to do exactly what he looks like he's doing, getting close to a member of my staff.
"The guy with the slightly greying hair at the bar with Deborah, have you encountered his presence before?" I ask Pam quietly when I reach her side.
"Yeah, his name's Michael, he's dating her as far as I know. It's a new thing, she met him about a fortnight or so ago at a strip club when one of her friends was having her, what do they call it, the party they throw for the bride to be? Bachelorette party, that's it. Yeah, she met him there," Pam replies while I process her words. Now, reason would usually state here that Michael isn't anything to worry about, but I don't buy that for a second. Why don't I buy it, I hear you ask? I don't buy it because I'd never put it past Quentin to have my staff followed, to make the meet between said member of staff and his mole look completely innocent. Of course he has no clue I'm on to him, but still he's not a dumb man by any means.
"We'll see, thank you for that information." I reply to Pam before walking back into the club and right past Michael and Deborah, who are still fawning over each other. Even though the night is picking up a little I'm quite prepared to let them stand there lost in each other for a short time yet, because as always, I have a plan. Walking to the other end of the bar I curl my finger at Ginger in a 'come here' motion, and then whisper in her ear when she's close enough.
"The old trick, two minutes," I tell her, watching her nod before she goes back to bottling up. I have a little routine I do whenever I want something that happens to be on someone's person, and Ginger pulls it off so well without rousing any suspicion that I always use her. I'll say no more for now, you'll see. I then walk back down to the other end of the bar, attracting Deborah's attention as I arrive at her new beau's side.
"Michael, this is my boss, Eric," she says a little awkwardly, looking a bit shy and probably thinking that I'm over here to tell her to get the hell back to work.
"Pleased to meet you, Eric, and please tell me, do you make a habit of hiring staff as lovely as Debbie?" he says, using the rarely heard affectionate shortening of my bar managers name. I've only ever heard her grandmother, the old witch Beth who was so helpful to me last year, call her by that name.
"Oh I think we both know she's one in a million. You can't be local, I know this because I haven't seen your face in my club before, and Fangtasia is of course the regular haunt for pretty much all local vampires," I reply cordially, keeping a semi smile fixed to my face as I make this small talk with him.
"No, I live in Monroe. I usually drink at the biker bar over there, providing the local wolf pack ain't in there. Fucking smelly dogs," he replies, to which I add the obligatory few bursts of laughter at his observation. I nod, and just as I'm beginning to ask my next question...
"Oh heck and damnit, I'm so sorry, I just about drowned you here! Oh I'm so clumsy!" Ginger exclaims after she's deliberately knocked into Michael's back and deposited the jug of ice water she was carrying on a tray all over him.
"It's okay, babe, only water," Michael replies jovially enough.
"Here, let me take your jacket and go stick it under the dryer in the ladies restroom, it's the least I can do. Again, I'm real sorry, mister," Ginger replies as she takes Michael's jacket at the collar and he shrugs himself out of it, calling for Mai-Ling to bring a mop and bucket while she folds the jacket over her arm. A second later I stick my hand out behind me, and a moment after that Ginger presses his wallet into my hand, which I then quickly tuck into my back pocket. She's not as dumb as some would think, and being sneaky is what she's good at. No one suspects her at all, and I use that to my advantage time and again when I ask her to do 'the old trick', where she deliberately deposits an order all over my unsuspecting target.
"Who wanted the water, Ginger?" I call after her.
"The girls in the corner underneath the big red lamp," she calls back before vanishing into the ladies.
"If you'll excuse me," I say to Michael and Deborah before going behind the bar myself, refilling the jug and adding ice and then quickly retrieving the wallet I pocketed just a second ago and pulling out one of the cards. The name does indeed read Michael, but that's just Elliot Clarke's middle name. Elliot Michael Clarke, you certainly took your time. I then hide the wallet between my hand and the tray I hold the water jug on, taking the smiling girls their water, and noting how thrilled they all look at being served by the club owner himself.
"Oh, thank you so much! It's Jilly's birthday here, and we gotta pace ourselves so we're having water between the alcoholic drinks!" a loud and slightly overweight redhead at the table tells me, pointing at a blonde girl in a sparkly pink dress, wearing one of those god awful plastic tiara's with '21' fashioned in glass jewels on it.
"Mai-Ling, champagne over here, now," I say with a click of my fingers, pointing at the table.
"Thank you so much, that's so generous!" The birthday girl herself says to me, her mouth open a little.
"You are most welcome, and happy birthday by the way, Jilly." I reply, taking her hand and kissing it while giving her a little wink. What can I say? Tyra really brought out the gentleman in me. Yes, I'm still as vengeful and bad tempered as I always was, but a certain edge I had before has been softened since I let the love of a good woman into my life. Nodding to the table of happy looking women I then turn and head back to Michael, pretending to bend to pick something up, that something being the wallet that's already in my hand beneath the tray.
"This must've fallen out when Ginger took your coat. I apologise for her clumsiness. Now if you'll excuse me I need a moment with Deborah. Excuse us." I tell 'Michael' once I've handed him his wallet. I head to my office and then keep going down to the basement once I know Deborah is right behind me, not wanting 'Michael' to be able to hear what I have to tell her, should he be tuning his ears into our conversation. I take the extra precaution of going right down to my apartment with her, picking up baby toys and tossing them back into the toy chest as I go.
"Is there a problem? Sorry, I'll apologise now and say I know I was getting a little too caught up in my new guy earlier when I should have been focusing on my job," she immediately says, good employee that she is.
"No, I've no problem there, but I suspect you will after you've heard what I have to tell you. Your new guy isn't who he says he is, and isn't your new guy at all. He's a mole who's been planted here by the king of Louisiana's representative to spy on Tyra. This is to take the sting out of the information I just gave you, and this is to keep on dating him without letting on what you know to him. Keep me informed on anything he has to say or ask regarding my wife," I tell her, pressing two and then three hundred dollar bills into her hand, watching her facial expression change to hurt, and then angry within the blink of an eye. Of course she's going to be upset, I could see with my own eyes up there just how much she's into him.
"That asshole, and yeah, no problem, I'll keep dating him. The Gucci shoes I've been eyeing on eBay can be brought for what you just pressed into my hand, so that makes up for the fact I've fucking been played by him. I don't like being used, but it's for the greater good if it keeps Tyra safe." She replies before I dismiss her and she heads back upstairs. I'm glad I have her support in all of this, because keeping Tyra and the baby safe right now are all that's on my mind. Matsukata, I'm on to you.
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Tyra's POV
"Oh the bouncy, bouncy, bouncy baby, oh yes look at you, laugh at it, that's right, it's our game!" I stand and witness Stanley saying to Milla in a comic voice as he bounces her in his arms, in a way that has the child squealing with joy. Even Stanley, a vampire, musters what I can't; looking thrilled to be holding Milla.
"Thank you both for taking her, I'll be doing this a lot less when we're all moved in," I reply as Esmeralda comes to greet me with her standard huge cuddle before I turn for the door again.
"Not at all, Tyra, you know we love looking after her so you head back and get your decorating finished. Stanley will wait up for you to fetch her in the morning, and I'll see you in the evening with the accounts. Bye for now, chicka!" she tells me before seeing me out, ready to head back up to my house and finish the painting. We've got the lounge and hallway left to do, that's it.
"Oh wow, you've started already? Such good friends I have," I say when walking in through my open front door a while later. I gave them the spare set of keys to let themselves in if they turned up while I was dropping Milla off with her babysitters, and they must've got here literally only moments as I walked through the forest over to Esmeralda's home.
"Yes you do, so you can go and make us some 'I'm so thankful for having Anna and Sookie in my life' coffees to say thank you, can't you? Hint, hint," Anna says with a wink as she rolls the paint loaded roller down my hallway wall. I give her a hug and a kiss, and then bend to drop a little kiss on Sookie's head too before heading to the kitchen. I prepare a jug of coffee and pour out three cups, taking them back to my thirsty workers before we crack on with a night of hardcore painting. By the time we've got the first coat down on the living room the hallway is dry enough to put the second coat on (the extra money for quick dry paint is worth it, and summer helps too) in an impressive space of time.
"Dare I say it? Dare I actually think we've finished?" I say to my girls as we put down our paint brushes and rollers, inspecting our work.
"You go ahead and say it, sweetie, because we are, we're done!" Sookie says in celebratory tones, putting her arm around my shoulders. I rest my head to hers and let out a long, stupid sounding groan and then fall to my knees, making her and Anna laugh heartily. I truly can't believe it, that it's all finished, but believe it I do later in the week when I'm moving the furniture in and suddenly all my mind's eye plans on where to put everything just do not match the reality.
"I think we're going to have to wait for Eric to wake up and help us, aren't we?" I tell Milla after changing her stinky diaper, lifting her up and then experiencing something I never have before. When I lifted her, she smiled at me. She's never done that before. Also, instantly I smiled back at her and felt this fluttery feeling in my chest. Is this it? Is this finally the first heartstring pull this baby has prompted? I don't know, but for some reason I suddenly feel terrified. Taking her to her bassinet I put her back, clicking the baby monitor on and clipping it onto my belt before going to get the one room I've not struggled with finished, and that's our bedroom. Hers is next on the list. All I have to do in here is hang the drapes and short the new bed linen out, oh and then move all of Eric's stuff into our huge walk in wardrobe, which I definitely got too used to living at the club apartment. Pam is so excited by all the space she has now it's hers, and is already enjoying spending her money on clothes and shoes in order to fill it.
"There, all finished and ready to be christened." I laugh to myself, thinking on Eric's comment last night that he thought it only fair we christen every single room of our new house, sexually speaking, that is. I look forward to that. I'm really looking forward to his opinion on the whole house in fact, since he's only seen it pre-decoration. I haven't allowed him to come and see how we're doing with it at all, demanded in fact that he stay away until moving day. Well now the day has come, I've only a few hours to wait until I see my betrothed's reaction to my efforts.
"Well, didn't my beautiful lady do well? I love it, Tyra, and I've only seen the hallway and lounge. It's definitely very 'us' in taste," Eric tells me, three hours later after him and a team of removal men with the rest of our stuff from the old apartment have arrived. He pulls an impressed face at the kitchen although I know it doesn't interest him at all, and with that on we go to the rest of the house, not before I've picked up a tearful Milla on my way.
"I think you'll like it in here the most, or maybe I'm just hoping you will on account of the effort Dmitri and I put in when wallpapering it," I tell him as I bounce Milla, who's crying because she has a diaper rash and is sore. I decide to run the risk of getting peed or pooped on and set her down to remove her diaper and vest, dressing her just in the t shirt she had on so her sore little cheeks can get an airing. It'll mean she's quieter at least, and I cherish those moments like you wouldn't believe.
"This is beautiful, really beautiful. As you'll recall I didn't think much of you using wallpaper at all, I much prefer a painted wall, but I can't find fault with this. The way you've matched everything so precisely too, and the contrasting items look perfect. I love the way this fireplace has turned out. I definitely think it was a good idea to have one in the bedroom. I love it all, and would you look at this new sight I have too, you acting affectionately with the baby," he replies, pointing at me.
"I am?" I ask, unaware I'm doing anything particularly notable.
"Stroking her back like that fondly, I only ever see you do that when you're bringing her gas up after a feed," he replies, smiling at me with a little pride while I notice that I have been doing that absently when I immediately cease my circling hand. I then wonder why I stopped myself, frowning as I look down at Milla while walking on to the rest of the house past our bedroom, my husband too distracted by loving everything else he sees to notice my perplexed face. Finally, I can feel myself beginning to warm a little to this child, and it throws me into a state of panic. Why? Dismissing it as me just being a steadfast non-parental type I shake it from my mind and continue around the house with Eric, until it's time for him to show me something, it would seem.
"I bet you thought you were the only person who had something to show off this evening, didn't you?" he asks me after opening the double shadow glass doors that open out into our back yard. We've got the turf down but the rest still looks a little bit like a building site at the moment. We're awaiting the landscaper to come and begin this after he came to lay the turf yesterday, digging and planting the flower beds and pots, hooking up the little fountain I brought to the water supply, making a start on the rockery, all that kind of stuff.
"I did, but it looks like it's my turn to see something new now. Except I must say, I don't know what's out here that I need to see since what will be a gorgeous garden hasn't been planted and built yet," I say with a shrug as I retrieve a piece of my hair from Milla, since she's decided she now likes to grasp and also chew on my tresses. I don't want her to end up with a hairball in her tummy. A girl in my class at school used to sit and chew her hair, which resulted in her having to have a clump of hair the size of a baseball removed from her stomach when it began interfering with her digestion.
"All shall be revealed, literally," he replies before continuing down along the side of the house, a hatch I haven't seen before just about visible underneath some bags of sand he moves quickly before unbolting the doors across it and swinging them back to reveal a set of stone steps. Ahhh, so this is the basement hatch then, and the position of it is the surprise for me. I haven't even been down here yet, so I'm looking forward to seeing how much space we have here. He switches on a light for my benefit before we descend, and once at the bottom I have to say, the sight I behold certainly isn't what I expected to see.
"Oh no, you did not secretly build me a wine cellar!" I say before my mouth drops open and I just squeak with excitement as my eyes take in the bottles, Milla and Eric laughing at me. "Thank you!" I then add, reaching up to kiss him while he takes the baby from me.
"I'll hold her while you explore, and you're more than welcome, my darling," he replies, smiling as I begin to do just as he suggests, explore. I just can't believe this surprise, I'm completely thrilled. The first thing I see I automatically and selflessly plan on sharing with Sookie, since I know she likes a good, dry Chablis, and this is a 2002 bottle, so it'll be gorgeous. I then take in various reds, Bordeaux's, Rhone's, Burgundy's and Chianti's, one bottle dating back to 1992, making me shudder to think of the value. Then again, since we have a joint account I now know the full extent of Eric's wealth. He's up there with the oil barons and sheikh's, let's just put it that way. He isn't overly flash with it though, he keeps his true worth very much hush hush.
"I'm going to thank you for this for as many hours as I can later, you mark my words," I tell him, turning and giving him a wink he returns, fangs popping out in approval of my idea.
"I'll hold you to that, so you better go and eat something because I mean it, I expect that thanks to commence as soon as Milla goes to sleep." He replies before I continue browsing my huge collection of wines. I doubt I'll need to buy a bottle for the next few years with all of this. Not all of them are of vintage age, there are a few modern bottles, some of the necks of which are marked with tags, Eric explaining that those are the ones he was advised would be best to keep resting for a few years. Just as we're exiting the basement after seeing past my little wine cellar area, Eric gets a call on the cell that's linked to Quentin Rothman's, passing me Milla just before we climb the stairs again.
While he sits in the lounge to listen to the bugged line, Milla and I head into the kitchen so I can prepare her a feed and me some gnocchi I intend on eating with rocket and blue cheese. I ate the dish when Eric took me out for dinner last week while my parents looked after Milla, and this stuff takes so little time to cook I thought attempting it would be quite easy. I thought right since just over five minutes later I'm eating it while feeding Milla, something I can just about do one handed when I sit down and prop her up on my crossed leg, the arm her head rests against the one I hold the bottle with in a slightly bent position.
"Well, that was interesting," Eric says when he comes into the kitchen ten minutes later, taking Milla from me to feed her so I can eat properly, something I thank him for. I make a face that he should continue while taking another mouthful of gnocchi, the peppery rocket tingling on my tongue.
"That was Aiko himself calling his aide. He says he isn't satisfied with Quentin's lack of information and that he'll find more reasons to visit me here rather than the club, so he can see how you behave at home, so he said, and that I still didn't cut it with him, he said there's something about me he just doesn't trust. The more I hear of this, the more I have to consider the fact that he seems more interested over your welfare than wanting to harm that himself, and that just doesn't make sense. Not with whom his maker is. I need to unravel this, but he's working faster than me, and what's worse is I can't fucking stop him either. I can't refuse my king's request to meet me in my home without looking suspicious, which means he can get all the access to you that he likes. This is pissing me off." He replies at length, frowning. I put my dinner down and get up to hug his arm, stroking his face and kissing his forehead when he leans to my level. It's all I can think to do at hearing that. I feel like those people do who are stuck in the middle of a tornado zone, and they can see it coming, tearing up everything in it's path, but they can't stop it from doing exactly that to their life. That's how I feel at present, like Aiko Matsukata is the tornado about to come and tear up our lives.