She was a good mother. And you never forget that. She never drowned you, did she? Or sold you off to those people willing to give us a lot of money. The things I could have done with that much money. But no, your grandmother said it wasn’t right. I think not killing you when we had the chance made us wonderful parents, don’t you? Vinnie was too shocked to answer him. Now, get your ass over to the grounds that you killed me on. You’re going to help me get myself back together. And you’ll do it or so help me, Victoria, I will make you pay.
How? Her father started to tell her how to get to him. No. I know where I killed you. It’s a place I go to often when I want to feel good about myself. How is it you think you’ll make me pay? Do you think to come into my house and murder me? Won’t work. We’ve taken precautions so you can’t. Are you going to tell Mother to come to me? Won’t work either. She’s dead, thanks to the council. Who, by the way, said you should have been killed long before I volunteered for the job.
You volunteered to kill me? What kind of child did we raise? You’re not a child of mine as of this moment. She started to point out she’d not been a child to them since she’d taken her first breath, but he spoke before she could. Now, get over here now, Victoria. It’s your duty as my child to help me.
You just disowned me. He said nothing. No. I’m not going to you. I won’t be bothered by you again. Don’t contact me again, Father. Or so help me, I’ll have Mitch come to you and zap you over right this minute. And so you know, he is coming for you.
She closed the connection between them. It was much easier than she’d ever thought it would be. And she knew it was solid too, the wall she’d put between them. She wondered if it was because he’d told her she was no longer a child of his or something else that gave her the ability to cut him off. Not that it mattered, he was gone and she felt free of him.
When they arrived at their home, Vinnie woke Mitch up and he smiled at her. She thought it was the most precious thing in the world, to see him smiling at her with such love. She touched her fingers to his cheek, then to his lips. She smiled back at him when he bit her finger.
“I do so love you, Mitch. I don’t know how I ever thought I could not have a mate.” He kissed her fingers now and held them to his heart. “You are by and far the best thing that has ever happened to me, and will be forever.”
“I want to have children with you.” She nodded, her eyes filling with tears of joy. “I’m not sure how it works with me being human and all, but I’d very much like to have several children with you.”
“It’s the same way.” He nodded, still smiling. “Our children could be necromancers or vampires, or a combination of both. Even just human. With the two of us being what we are, we can’t know what our children will be.”
“They’re going to be loved, cared for, and will know we love them more than life itself.” There was a knock at the window and they opened the door. Vinnie wasn’t surprised to see her grandmother at the door waiting for them, but what she was surprised about was the fact that the council was standing on the wrap around porch.
“We’d like a word with you, if you please?” Nodding, Vinnie glanced at her grandmother, who was smiling. “There is a problem we’d like to talk over with you. It’s about...well, not a problem but a...we were wondering that...should you like to—?”
“Could you just ask me?” She knew she should have curbed her temper a little, but they were making her nervous. “Just ask me or tell me whatever it is you’re doing here.”
“We have items too. That we’d like for you to sell for us. We’ve no desire for the money, should it sell, but we have so much...we’d like to rid ourselves of the burden of taking care of it.”
Mitch laughed, and she had to think what they were saying. “You have items? As in old furniture?” The man nodded and smiled at her. “I don’t understand. How is that a problem that...unless you mean there are more than just the three of you that have items you want to get rid of.”
“There are many of us. We would like to have the things handled by you, as we have said, but we’d also like for you to take the money and put it into a fund to help others like us.” She asked him what he meant. “There are so many of the older vampires that have lost so much. Due to poor planning or other reasons, there are many vampires that are without even the basic needs of a place to rest. These people are not like your parents. They are not as understanding in the world as we have become and have been taken advantage of.”
“So you wish to sell your things in my shop so that you can fund these other vampires that have nothing. You can’t do that.” He asked her why. “Well, for one reason, I have to account for the money that I make. Secondly, if you put it out there that you’ll be helping everyone with their hand out just because of poor planning, then you’re going to have a bunch of people not doing shit, because why should they when you’re giving it all to them? Then you’ll have others coming around too. Humans that work for these vampires. They’ll want their share of it as well.”