Of Blood & Consequence (Book 2 of The Blood Bond Series)

3. Change

Cassie was bathing a dirty-and-loving-it baby Adam, who thought that baths were about the next best thing to eating.

Or so one would think. He had an uncanny knack for getting invariably dirty with whatever filth he could find in and around the house. Dust bunnies, mud that Eli hadn't been able to completely removed from his shoes upon entering the pristine home—anything that lured him to crawl over and defile himself, he was interested in. His mother was never amused to find him in need of another bath. It was truly a case of, boys will be boys.

He splashed at the water in the tub, burbling nonsense that might have meant anything from 'this is the s**t!' to, 'what else can I get into to be granted another soapy, bubbly bath?'

Cassie muttered tiny admonishments under her breath, just glad there was no actual food in the house he could possibly get into. Whether it was sticky honey or dried-up, powdery flour, she didn't know how humans dealt with the plethora of filth that could be harnessed in a food-consuming household.

"I can't wait until you're a year old and can understand that splashing around in mud isn't as fun when you're on this side of the tub," she told him quietly as Eli slipped into the bathroom to take in his son's level of dirt. On a scale of one to ten on Eli's filth-ometer, Adam came up on a healthy eight before Cass washed away some of the dried-up grime that had splashed onto his neck and face.

"Take one eye off him and he's off galivanting in the mud. My boy." He almost sounded proud, and Cassie shot him a sharp look as his grin slowly faded as he tried to school his features to something resembling somber.

"Fine." Cassie stood up and turned to him. "Then you get the privilege of cleaning him up the next time he decides to befoul himself with mud or something else vile. Remember when that n****e off the bottle broke? Blood everywhere!"

"He was starting to teethe!" Eli exclaimed. "Could've happened to anyone, right bud?" He leaned over and pinched one of Adam's chubby cheeks, much to the baby's delight. He patted the water with the flat of his palms, splashing water at his father, who cringed back like it might scald him.

Cassie lifted her brows, slightly amused that Eli was the one getting splashed this time. "See what I have to contend with? Every time he gets dirty, we both end up wet."

Eli hauled her into his embrace, his lips at her ear. "I like it when you're wet."

Her amusement trembled and melted into pinched thighs as he pressed his hardening erection between them, his mouth opening to take her ear in with a teasing bite.

She pushed at him, even as the heat pooled and flooded her between her cinched thighs. "Eli..."

His husky chuckle accompanied a hard smack to her ass, and he let go of her before looking down to see Adam slapping the water again. In imitation of his father? Possibly. He was a clever infant already, his imitations flowing anywhere from actions to facial features when he saw one of his parents frown or smile.

"Where' Charlie?" he asked before darting away toward the door in a bid to remain dry.

"Your daughter is hanging out with Auntie Lee," she told him as she bent back down and shoved her sleeves up past her elbows again after they'd fallen down to her wrists. "Playing peekaboo last time I saw."

Eli shuddered dramatically. "She'll frighten our child with that face."

"I heard that!" Leandra called from another room. Sharp eyes and keen ears, and Eli quirked up one side of his lips as he gave another low chuckle.

"I regret nothing!"

He walked out of the room, loosening his tie after his meeting with his security team at their office downtown. His grin only widened before he disappeared around the corner to head to his bedroom to get changed into something comfortable.

***

"Cass!"

Delia came bounding into the house with a silent Michael at her back. His grin spread in a handsome s***h across his face as he saw Delia hug her friend, squeezing until she squeaked.

"Good to see you too, Deles, even if you're trying to give me a chiropractic adjustment."

"Free of charge, and you're welcome, sweetie." Her friend shrugged her shoulders and looked past Cassie to see Charlotte and Adam sitting—both of them clean for once—in matching baby floor seats, though one was a lavender and the other a light baby-blue.

Adam kicked his feet at the ground, positively gleeful for another playdate with his honorary Auntie Delia. She scooped him, then Charlotte up, planting hearty kisses on their cheeks that delighted the boisterous Adam and made Charlie give one of those toothy, soft smiles of hers.

Older than her younger brother by less than two minutes, she seemed miles ahead of him on maturity somedays, and was less rambunctious unless thoroughly riled up, usually at the behest of one of her uncles.

"Hello, my lovelies," she murmured into their chubby cheeks before taking a seat on the sofa and making herself comfortable. "Have we been good today?"

Cassie rolled her eyes while Eli chuckled. Delia smiled, knowing it was probably Adam that was testing his mother's patience by getting into something sticky or gooey, and she sniffed the air and looked at Cass.

"I thought they usually got a bath before bed?"

"Yes well, Charlotte usually does, but Adam wanted to play in the mud the moment I took my eye off him for one second. He got his early today."

Adam babbled happily at Delia, patting her face with a porky hand until she caught it and kissed the naughty boy's grasping fist. He wiggled it away after a moment and made grabby hands at the floor.

"Oh, God. Whatever you do, don't put him on the ground. If I have to bathe him twice in one day within only a few hours, I'll melt into a puddle like the Wicked Witch of the West. Stick him in the seat."

Eli moved to grab his son, placing him into the seat and spinning one of the toys to grab his attention. He batted at it and burbled nonsense while Delia sat with the more patient Charlotte in her lap.

"What's going on? Where's the rest of the family?" Delia questioned as she bounced the child on her knee.

"Next door," Cassie answered quickly. "Lee and Elinor are going to go get their nails done and a spa treatment in an hour, so they're probably primping and preening before being thoroughly and unnecessarily primped and preened."

Delia shook her head, in awe that the un-aging vampire clan took to facials and seaweed wraps with such fervor. If she'd still been human, she would have understood the need to beautify, but Ellie and Lee always came back looking the same as always, although their nails were usually a different color.

"I think they just like the pampering," Cassie surmised with a smirk. "Having someone at your beck and call at all times has its advantages."

"I don't know what you mean..." Eli looked back at her, deadpan. She glanced over at him, giving a small, knowing half-smile like he knew just what she was saying. After having been taken by Tanner nearly a year ago, she found she'd come back to a very eager manservant in Eli. It was like he'd wanted to soak her up with all the weeks she'd been gone, though he'd interrogated her about what had happened while she was held hostage. He'd threatened to find a way to raise Tanner from the dead just so he could kill him over and over again more than once. In lieu of that, though, she'd been waited on hand and foot while she 'recovered', even though within a day she was on normal rations of blood and everyone assured him she and the babies would be alright.

It took him a full month to actually believe that. Then he was looking less worried and finally started to relax a bit, which was all that mattered to Cass, and she sometimes wondered how much sleep the man had been able to get when she'd been gone. She never questioned Alex, Crane, Ellie, or Lee about it. The past was the past, and that part of her life could kick rocks for all she cared.

"Right." Cassie flicked her eyes back over to Delia, and she offered her guests a beverage while she had the notion in her head.

"No thanks. What I'm really thirsty for is gossip. Tell me something is happening in the world that I haven't read from the safety of my own home and on the internet. I never realized isolation was so damn difficult."

Cassie watched the two men leave the room together, no doubt to discuss business or baseball or whatever else they had in common. She shrugged her shoulders and spoke.

"Not much to say, really. My mom's been bothering me with emails all this past week after two of complete radio silence. I don't know if she was so drunk she forgot she even had a computer, or maybe she had a buy a new one because she spilled Jim Beam on the keyboard." She shrugged.

"No getting her into rehab, eh?" Delia shook her head.

"I offered the best rehab money could buy, but she wouldn't budge. She said she would think about it come summertime, but that's what she's said in the past. I don't hold out any hope with her honestly. One day, I'll just get a call and have to head north to arrange a funeral." Cassie frowned, her forehead puckering.

Delia knew she'd tried washing her hands of her mother over a year ago, but knew it would always bother her that she was helpless when it came to drying her mother out. As the saying went, you could lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

"Did you threaten to cut her off completely? I mean I know she has her own money and has learned to pay her bills on time and all that, but maybe if you told her you wouldn't speak to her ever again it might push her in the right direction. It's not like she has a lot of family." It was something Delia had thought a lot about, having her own family troubles. While Cassie's mother had problems with alcohol, her own was addicted to d**k. She still had no clue which of dozens of men could be her father, nor did she much care. A man who would f**k a woman like Sasha Parker was probably a poor specimen of human, and not someone she would want to get to know for some daddy-daughter bonding time.

And she probably wouldn't have been able to find out with all the DNA tests that Maury Povich could provide in a week of 'Who's The Father' episodes.

The only thing about the whole situation that bothered Delia, was the fact that her mother was supposed to be caring for her grandmother, Caroline Parker, who suffered from any number of health problems down in Phoenix, Arizona. Lupus and COPD were among her maladies, though she kept up a good face and assured Delia every week that she felt 'fit as a fiddle' in only the way a grandmother could.

The two friends chatted a bit more before the twins clamored for food, and they both went into the kitchen to warm up some blood for the hungry brood. As they heated it up, Delia asked another question.

"Eli bothering you about making more babies yet?" She smiled slow and knowing, and bumped her hip into Cassie's when she went to get out a sturdy metal n****e.

"God, no," she spluttered out, nearly dropping the microwaveable cup she was holding. "I need these out of their 'bite anything with blood that moves' phase before tackling another."

"Or two." Cassie slanted a look at her before moving on. "You never know. It certainly looks like twins run in the family. And Eli waited centuries for a mate and family. I'm sure he's still eager as ever."

"Bite your tongue, woman." Cassie filled the bowl with blood and popped it into the microwave. "Until these two hellions I've got in the other room learn to behave, there's no more babies for me."

"What about babies, my love?" Eli breezed into the kitchen, placing two mugs into the sink before rinsing them out, one by one.

"I was telling Delia here that we're waiting a bit to have more children," she grunted out. She felt cornered between the two.

"Hmm, well I did promise we would wait, but I'm always up for renegotiations at any time. My calendar is free for the foreseeable future." He kissed her brow to soften the clinical business vernacular. "If we can handle Adam in all his messy gloriousness, another baby shouldn't be that much more. I might be biased, but I think we make beautiful children together."

Delia had to silently agree. Both of the babies favored their parents in several ways, but had spectacularly different personalities. Adam boasted his mother's emerald green eyes and dark brown hair, and Charlie was black-haired with the sparkling blue irises of her father. Both alert and bushy-tailed when awake, the droop of their eyes after a bath or a good, hearty feeding melted their parents' un-beating hearts every time.

Delia couldn't wait until she reached a mature vampire age to procreate. She always enjoyed coming over and visiting with Cassie and Eli's young ones, and, though she'd never felt like there was a maternal bone in her now indestructible body before, she felt the need to nurture her own young.

She guessed all it took was the right guy at the wrong time to change her wishy-washy little mind. 

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