Page 55 of Death Dance

After Breckenan was dead and gone, I would ask.

The ball, which would signify the true start of my immortal life with Emerick, remained a problem. “Just how fancy does the stupid death dance have to be, Emerick? Can I just say fuck it to the party games and just make a really nice social evening on the ship? Because let’s face it: after destroying our prey, are any of us going to really have the energy for this stupid ball? We have to worry about the girls now, too.”

“We can do a social party instead of elaborate puzzles meant to challenge everyone. Our parties are not usually child friendly, and this one will need to be. We could even open it to the children of our guests and run the party in two segments: one during the day, for the vampires who have mastered the art of staying awake during the day and the children, and one at night for everyone else. We’ll still do some entertainment and games, but nothing elaborate.”

“That seems more my speed, and it will not make me cry at the expenses. The wedding gifts will be expensive enough.”

“Have you decided on what you want as the wedding gifts?”

“I will carve some stakes and trinkets for a raffle, which will be free to enter. They can get extra tickets through being obnoxious with giving us presents. We will limit the number of gifts they can give us to no more than three a person. That should keep the insanity manageable.”

Emerick snickered. “An excellent call on limiting the number of gifts, but please remember that you are dealing with vampires who will break the rules when it comes to gifts. Depending on what the raffle tickets are for, you may find we are given delivery slips for massive boxes that are packed with smaller gifts to get around your rules.”

Color me unsurprised. “My family will be the real problem.”

“Your family will be expected to be extravagant, but we are going to insist all livestock are left on shore. If they want to parade their goods onto the ship, they can do it themselves. With luck, laze will beat out their desire to flaunt your parentage.”

I considered calling Giovanni to make certain there was nothing wrong with my husband. “Emerick, you realize that we’re dealing with ancient vampires who have been waiting thousands of years for me to arrive, right? There is zero chance laze is going to defeat them. I’m willing to bet they’ll pitch a fit should I break a nail at this stage.”

“It concerns me you may be correct.”

“We can remind them that ships have a set weight capacity, and they must not go over a set amount of weight per person. Sinking the ship we’re on would be less than ideal.”

“Indeed. I shall implement sane weight limits and have excess gifts sent to one of our storage warehouses. That way, there is zero chance we underestimate their desire to shower us with wealth.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What storage warehouses? Wait, outside of the one that’s four blocks from our home. I know of that one. That was plural.”

“Once this mess is done, I’ll begin introducing you to the full extent of our operations. I didn’t want to overwhelm you.”

“I’m sure I can handle your wealth just fine, Mr. Lowrance. I was able to handle my father just deciding to buy mines because my brothers got fiscal security from him as well. I took over an entire brood, so I’m not sure what he’s worried about.”

“Maintaining appearances, mostly,” Emerick replied with laughter in his voice. “Old vampires are expected to care for their children. It’s not like many human families, where the adults take care of the children until the adults are too old to take care of themselves; the parents are expected to care for the children for the duration of their long lives. The children do have an expectation of assisting their parents should assistance be needed, but it’s very rarely fiscal assistance. For a parent to require fiscal assistance from their vampiric children is rather… shameful.”

I sighed. “Is there a manual for this? I need a manual. There’s way too much for me to learn about vampires.” I popped the top off the first of my Wagyu bottles and went to work getting it into my stomach where it belonged. “Question. Why don’t I feel fatigued?”

“Adrenaline. Their circumstances have you wired, so your body is ignoring the symptoms of blood loss. You’ll go from alert to passed out, and I will enjoy tucking you into bed with our kittens. Don’t tell them this, but I do quite enjoy our little monsters so far. They are pleasant companions.”

“They’re the only companions you have that can’t talk back—at least in English.” I smiled at Klepto, who had gone the sprawled route while Typhoon had opted to curl into a dainty furry ball. “I love their brand of chaos.”

“It’s mostly harmless, unlike the rest of the chaos in our lives. It’s soothing to see furry destruction. Sure, we might be out some furniture, but for the most part, that’s the extent of what they’ll probably damage.”

“Fragile heirlooms will be kept outside of the suite where they cannot get them.”

“We can close off a room for anything particularly fragile—or keep it at one of the other houses in a room we can close off. That won’t be a problem. I keep my antiquities at a museum house. Once we’re honeymooning, I plan to show it to you. Everything of significance I have kept over my long life is stored there. Some of it is more gruesome than others, I must admit.”

“Like what?”

“I have the skull of my first horse. I’d loved that animal, so once he died, my maker had the skull retrieved, preserved, and kept until I was ready to accept it. It was a gift as much as a lesson. That’s the only skull I kept, but I carved a stake from the bones of every horse I’ve ever owned that was truly mine.”

“Wait. Stakes? You can carve stakes from bones?”

“You can. They aren’t potent in quite the same way as wooden stakes, but if you bleach the bones in the sunlight, they can be imbued with some of the sun’s gift. Bone stakes are best used when you want to subdue a target. Honestly, I don’t know if they can kill, but they’re quite good at immobilizing prey.”

“Why did you use the sappers on me if the bones were an option?”

“You can’t just reuse a bone. If you use the bone after it has been carved, it needs to rest in the sun for a year or two until it can be used again. Wooden stakes don’t have such limitations. However, age doesn’t matter for bones. It balances out.” Emerick shrugged. “I can show you some bone stakes once we get home.”

“I wonder if bone stakes might work against Breckenan. He’s a necromancer, isn’t he?”