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Ethan arched a brow at me "Did she have coffee for breakfast?"

I patted her little bottoh Probably because you’re so pretty"

Elisa nodded solemnly and patted his face with one hand, the other hand wrapped tightly around his House medal "Pretty"

Ethan cho her head around

"Not as pretty as Elisa or Morinned, always amused to hear a four-hundred-year-old vampire call me "Mommy" And still awed that it had happened That we’d conceived her, that ht her into the world

It hadn’t been a perfect journey The "" sickness (albeit at dusk) had been horrific, the cravings completely bizarre, and, at the end, labor that had to be halted then the sun rose And there’d been a ht we’d lost her Even nohen she was healthy and happy and here, the memory made my body clench with fear

She was the first vampire child in history--the only vampire born of vampires But more important, most important, she was ours She had been born of love, and born into a House of vampires who loved her nearly as much as we did She was part of me, and part of Ethan, and so ht possible

I owed ave him my heart And now Elisa held them both

• • •

We headed to the House’s first floor with a diaper bag; the House was big enough that it was faster and si it every tie Which was often I liked to joke that she was the only person who could throw up on one of Ethan’s expensive custom suits and live to tell the tale There wasn’t a vampire in the House asn’t wrapped around her tiny little finger

As far as we could tell, she hadn’t been negatively affected by the ry, and had a quick teenetics, no ic required

Mallory, Catcher, and Lulu sat on the couch in Ethan’s office, Lulu nestled in her , except for the head of thick dark hair she’d been born with Mallory had put a tiny polka-dot bow in it today

"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 ive her to you for a dollar"

"I will take you up on that tee and sitting on the floor at their feet Every newborn was tiny, but there was always so a creature so tiny, so delicate She looked up at me, blinked Mallory’s blue eyes

"Hi, baby Lulu"