Page 88 of Death Dance

TWENTY-SEVEN

What about my happiness?

Half an hour after sunset, a rather lengthy line of people, mostly vampires, queued to board my ship, and all were dressed as though they had been transported to hundreds of years ago and had transformed into the human equivalent of peacocks. I giggled from my perch in our statehouse, likewise having undergone a similar transformation.

Rather than the slinky dress I’d worn to lay siege to my father’s ivory tower, I had a white ballgown encrusted with amethysts, all of which had been sourced from the mine my father had purchased for us. I sparkled whenever I moved, and I would be taking advantage of every excuse to wear the dress, no matter how irritating it had been to put on.

Emerick joined me, and Klepto, in typical Klepto fashion, did her best to remove his socks while he wore them. Alas for her, his dress shoes hampered her efforts. “I’ll wear the crimson suit when we return home so you can strip me out of it later.”

I grinned at his offer.

Upon being given the reins to the ball, the dance, and the ceremony, my father had become the ultimate tyrant, choosing everything from attire to seating. As he was who he was, nobody dared to criticize him, not even his uncles. I’d gotten more liberties than most, as I’d helped pick my dresses—all twenty of them for the cruise—along with the rest of my attire. Then, because my father loved me and wanted me to know it, he’d secured my assistance with dressing my husband.

I pointed at one of the wardrobes holding our dressy attire. “I threatened to use the full force of my tears if the suit was not aboard, so I will accept that offer at my leisure.”

“I see you have been busy securing your happiness. What about my happiness?” he teased.

I considered the boarding vampires below, many of them members of our brood, while the rest were associated with the matrons, knew my father or the Originals, or held my husband’s esteem. “Do you remember the project I told you I was working on with my father?”

“The wedding project, the secret project, or the extra secret project I only know is possibly going on because the inventory of blood bottles isn’t matching reality in our penthouse?”

Crap. “The extra secret project.”

“I assumed it had something to do with the magic quantity in blood to help Edgar, as we’re having better than expected results with him. Thus far, we haven’t had any hiccups, not since the inventory stopped matching reality. What have you been doing with the blood?”

Emerick never failed to amaze me, especially when I thought he wasn’t paying attention. “My father had a thought, and he wasn’t willing to try the thought on Edgar first, as Edgar still struggles to understand things sometimes—or did when we were working on that part of the experiment, which was about six months ago.”

“I had noticed, about two months back, Edgar had a significant jump in his social skills and learning capacity.”

I nodded. “We were working on that project, and since we were getting results, you seemed happy, and my father was handling all the payments for the blood, we figured you wouldn’t mind us keeping it a secret. But since we’re now aboard and more vampires than normal need to be keeping an eye on Edgar, I thought it was wise to let you in on what is going on.”

“I had worried about Edgar coming to the festivities because it’s on a ship,” he admitted.

“Father arranged for a complete team to be keeping an eye on him and all the other children, but right now, he’s testing at human strength—and he had his first glass of regular milk last week without consequence.”

“It actually worked?”

I nodded. “I also had my first glass of regular milk three months ago, and nothing in the penthouse was damaged. Not only did I have my first glass of milk, I rampaged on an entire pint of ice cream before my father took all the treats away.”

Emerick raised a brow. “When did you pull that off?”

“You were running an errand with Ben. My father came to visit with the illicit goods. He was prepared to clean up after me, but he wanted to see if our experiment worked. Apparently, it worked. I’m still a vampire, but I’m a vampire who can have lactose at will. There is an unfortunate consequence of my ability to drink milk.”

He sighed. “I knew it had to be too good to be true. What happened?”

“I cannot have any alcohol, not even a sip.” I made a show of flinging my arm over my brow and pretending I might faint at any moment. “My drinking ways are over.”

For a solid minute, he stared at me before bursting into laughter. “Pepper, if you did more than sniff at wine with fancy dinners, I might have bought into that being an actual problem. I’m giving you full points for your presentation. You had me worried for a moment. I do know you were looking forward to the mezcal, however.”

“The ban on alcohol is temporary, fortunately, and I’ve been promised I will get my very own special bottle in a year, which is when I’ve been told my ban on alcohol will expire.”

Emerick’s brows furrowed. “Now I’m confused.”

“The experiment worked a little too well, so now you have to deal with me bitching about weekly ultrasounds for the next five or so months. The mansion has a nursery because we’re going to need it. In other news, if you offer a woman excessive amounts of female cattle blood, the vampire part mostly takes a nap, allowing for the consumption of lactose and the development of children. We had not been expecting the development of children part of this equation, so we hadn’t thought maybe I should dodge taking you, my spouse, to bed at my leisure. The experiment did not change my healthy interest in enjoying your person in the slightest. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to keep our teeth to ourselves for the next five or so months, as we have no idea if biting will cause any problems.”

Emerick stared at me. “You’re pregnant?”

As I found joking around helped me cope with my worries over the entire situation, I replied, “Yep. Happy wedding day! You’re getting future dirty diapers as your gift.”