Blade Bound (Chicagoland Vampires 13)

“Hi, Elisa,” Catcher said.

“Catch!”

Elisa didn’t have a shy bone in her body.

I walked over, pressed a gentle kiss to Lulu’s forehead. “How’s the World’s Tiniest Yeti today?”

“Uninterested in sleep,” Mallory said with a yawn. There were circles under her eyes, and Catcher didn’t look much better. “I’ll give her to you for a dollar.”

“I will take you up on that temporarily,” I said, carefully taking the tiny package and sitting on the floor at their feet. Every newborn was tiny, but there was always something surreal about holding a creature so tiny, so delicate. She looked up at me, blinked Mallory’s blue eyes.

“Hi, baby Lulu.”

She blinked again, her lashes nearly as thick and long as her hair.

“You’re going to be on the porch with a rifle when she’s old enough,” I told Catcher, brushing her hair back.

“Like he’s going to be any different,” Catcher said, gesturing to Ethan, who was kissing the palms Elisa held out to him.

“Aspen stakes, but probably, yeah. Although I’d think you’d have to be pretty brave to call on the daughter of a Master vampire.”

“Especially the only daughter of a Master vampire,” Mallory said. “Her suitor is gonna have to come correct real quick.”

“That’s a good girl,” Ethan said as she squirmed in his arms. “Do you want to say hello to Lulu?”

Elisa nodded, and Ethan put her down. She waddled toward me, reached out a hand to touch Lulu’s hair. But before she made contact, she looked up at Mallory, who nodded.

“You can touch, Elisa.”

“Elisa,” I said, “do you remember how we said to love the baby?”

She nodded solemnly, her blond hair bouncing. “Careful.”

“That’s right.” I put my hand over hers, helped her softly touch her.

“Soft,” Elisa quietly said, raising her emerald green eyes to mine. “Baby soft?”

“Yes, she is. Like your baby?” Her baby was a floppy-eared, floppy-legged rabbit nearly as tall as she was that she’d dragged around by an ear as soon as she started walking. It had been a gift from Mallory, her first stuffed animal.

Elisa nodded gravely. “Baby,” she agreed. “Soft.”

“Good girl,” Mallory said. “You’re really good at that, Elisa.”

“Hep.”

“She likes to help,” I translated. “Ethan let her put a book on the shelves in his office yesterday, and she was pretty sure she’d earned her own House.”

“So she got his looks and his attitude?” Mallory said, glancing up at Ethan.

“And my charm,” he said.

There was a knock at the threshold. We looked back, found Margot in the doorway. She smiled at us. “We’re ready if you are.”

“I think we’re ready.” Hands on his hips, Ethan looked down at Elisa. “Would you like some cake?”

She just blinked up at him, gaze blank. This would be her first experience with cake, which made it special for both of us.

Ethan held out his hands, and she abandoned Lulu and me, practically jumped into his arms. He situated her on his hip again. “Let’s see if you can hold as much sugar as your mother does.”