FicWad

Genesis 6
DOUBLE KISMET



January 24, 2257

Rory Whitlock strolled down the sidewalk in San Francisco California with his hands in the pockets of his slacks and looked up at the sky. It was a beautiful, sunny day and normally he would never have thought about being outside in the sun if not for that new synthetic blood that had been invented over a century ago. Rory had to admit that the artificial blood wasn't too bad, although the real thing coming straight from the tap was definitely better. Rory could understand why he had to drink it though, because he for one didn't want to sparkle in the sun as he liked going out when it was not cloudy or rainy or nighttime and just enjoying the nice, hot, sunny day which he had been unable to do for the first 160 years of his existence or at least he hadn't around humans since the stuff hadn't been invented back when he was born in the 1950s.
Rory sighed, and turned his face up to the sun just enjoying the heat of the suns rays he was getting and then after a minute continued on his way. He was pretty lonely, with no friends outside his family and he had never met a vampire female that didn't start getting on his nerves after awhile. Sure he had dallied with various vampire females over the years, but he normally wasn't with them for more than a decade or two at most before he broke up with them, if that long.
What he would like, which he was sure would never happen, was to find a mate of his own just like his older brothers Patrick, Bryon and Trey and his younger sisters Chloe, Brianna as they were the only five so far to find mates of their own. Chloe's mate, who was and had been a vampire and not human had just shown up one day out of the blue and announced that he could see the future and that Chloe was his mate. That of course, had caused an uproar and it had taken their father's command for everybody to calm down and not attack the strange vampire. Chloe, of course, who had been staying with her parents for awhile at the house in Washington DC, which was much smaller then some of the other places the Whitlocks owned had instantly been drawn to him and the second they touched sparks had leaped off their joined hands, which had confirmed that Chloe and Josiah were indeed mates. The family hadn't exactly welcomed Josiah very warmly at first, but when they had seen how happy Chloe was they had started to welcome Josiah more heartily, despite his rather abrupt introduction. Chloe really hadn't been herself ever since she had been attacked and nearly raped so many decades ago and to see her more happy and lighthearted then she had been in a very long time made the rest of the family like Josiah just for that reason alone.
Well he had better get going as he was supposed to meet his identical twin brother Rowan pretty soon as the two of them had been traveling together for the last ten years or so. Besides he had kind of sworn off dating and the way he relieved himself of his sexual tension now was just to fuck some random whore and then feed off her afterwards. Doing that was certainly better than masturbating as the climaxes were more powerful, but Rory still wanted to find true love and not just have sex to relieve himself and he knew that his twin brother felt the same. Rory supposed that it had a lot to do with the fact that his parents had always been so blissfully happy with each other and so were the five other mated couples in his family besides his parents and that kind of emotionally charged atmosphere started to affect you after awhile.
Rory sighed again and continued his walk towards where he was supposed to meet his brother, which was at their hotel room.
Suddenly Rory stopped and stood rigidly in the middle of the sidewalk as he felt as if someone was calling him. The voice was not spoken aloud, but mentally. Finally Rory shook his head sure he had imagined it started to move again since standing in the middle of a very busy sidewalk in the middle of a very poor district of San Francisco was not a very good idea.
Rory started walking again and as he began moving away from where he had been standing he heard a mental wail of despair in his mind.
Finally Rory turned back to where he had been standing and the realized right across the street was a very rundown building that Rory realized was a group home as he had no trouble reading the very faded sign from where he was standing. Nobody was outside at all even though it was a very sunny day. Shouldn't the children be allowed outside to play for awhile before dinner? Rory thought trying remember if he knew anything about how legit group homes were run.
Finally Rory shook his head, took out his communicator and called his brother Rowan.
“Yo?” Rowan answered.
“Ro, do me a favor would you?”
“Of course, bro,” Rowan answered immediately.
Rory told his brother everything as he walked along the sidewalk making sure to talk quietly so none of the humans could hear what he was discussing, but his brother could.
“That is strange,” Rowan finally agreed as soon as Rory was done. “I'll make sure I look into this St. Melton's group home for you and get back to you as soon as I can.”
“Thanks,” Rory said as he hung up not even waiting for his brother's welcome.
If anybody could find out all the facts about St. Melton's it was his brother, because he was a computer whiz even having gone to college and taken some classes. Rowan hadn't bothered to do the full college experience just taken some computer and engineering classes as that was what he was interested in and he had passed all the classes with a 4.0 average which translated into an A+ in all his classes.
Their parents had been kind of leery of Rowan taking college courses afraid that he wouldn't be able to control himself while sitting so close to a bunch of teenagers in a very crowded classroom, but his brother had no problems and he had assured his parents of that fact. Once it was clear that Rowan could control himself their parents had relaxed a little and Rowan had seemed to enjoy going to school like a normal college aged student, although he had been careful to always wear his contacts or a pair of lightly tinted glasses that were weren't quite sunglasses and weren't really regular glasses either. The lenses were dark enough that nobody could tell the color of his eyes, and even if they looked closely Rowan's eyes would look either brown or hazel yet the lenses were also light enough so that the teacher didn't demand that Rowan take them off doing class since they weren't really sunglasses.
Those kind of glasses had worked for Ro so well that the whole family had at least one pair for whenever they went out into the sun and were around a lot of humans and didn't attract as much attention as sunglasses sometimes did depending on the situation.
In fact his brother seemed to enjoy going to college so much that every 10 to 15 years he took more engineering and computer science courses to keep himself up to date so that he always knew about the newest breakthrough or so he claimed and it might even have been true.
Rory shook his head, his twin brother was as smart as they came, and he seemed to enjoy learning new things, but why he had to keep going back to college even if they he did it only every ten or fifteen years apart and in different States he had no clue.
He and Rowan were a lot alike, but not in that way, for although he did enjoy learning new things, he preferred to do it out of the classroom and by reading books on the subject he was interested in or just by experiencing life in general.
Rory supposed that if he wanted to learn something specific that could not be just gotten out of a book or by experiencing going on around him then he would take some college courses to, but probably online and not by sitting in a classroom for hours at a time. It wasn't that his control of his bloodlust wasn't as good as anybody else's in the family, but he'd always felt that he would be extremely uncomfortable if he had just sit there with twenty or thirty other students around him without moving and pay attention to the teacher or at least pretend too.
Suddenly Rory's communicator beeped and he answered it before it could ring a second time as he was very anxious to find out about that group home because for some reason he couldn't fathom that building disturbed him, deeply or perhaps it was what or who was inside.
“Yes?” Rory answered not feeling like it was time to chitchat with his brother or anybody else.
“I found a lot of information on that group home for you,” Rowan told him.
“Well?” asked Rory shortly.
Rowan for once knew better then tease his brother when he was in this kind of mood, for something about the building he had researched had disturbed his twin deeply, which was hard to do as not much in this world could scare a vampire since they were very nearly indestructible at least physically, although emotionally was a different story.
“Well, there wasn't really much on any of the legitimate sites I found,” Rowan began, “so what I did was hack into the government sites and found something very interesting.”
“Get on with it,” Rory commanded.
So Rowan told him what he had discovered when he had hacked into not only the government site but several others. Apparently the house had once been an actual residence, but had been turned into an group home in 2050. Humans had lived there once and had also died very violently.
“So are you telling me you think it's some kind of supernatural thing that I heard calling out for me?” asked Rory in disbelief.
“Of course not,” Rowan told him calmly. “I'm just telling you what I discovered so far. I plan on doing a more in-depth background search, but even with as fast as I type that will take time as I don't want to burn out the keyboard.”
“So what do you suggest I do in the meantime?” asked Rory as he threw another glance at the group home across the street like he had been doing every minute or so since he had discovered it from where he was leaning against a signpost directly across from it.
“Why don't you come back to the hotel and we'll discuss it when you get here,” Rowan suggested a little tentatively not sure how his twin was going to react to the suggestion considering the mood he was in, “we really don't need to be discussing this kind of thing over an open line where anybody could be listening in.”
Rory sighed knowing that his brother was right and besides he really did need to apologize in person for snapping at his twin when it wasn't really his fault that he was so disturbed.
“Alright,” Rory agreed calming down as much as he was able given the situation. “Just make sure you have at least a couple of thermoses ready when I get there.”
Saying that let his twin know to have a couple of thermoses of that artificial blood ready so that he could drink it as he was really pretty thirsty but he didn't want to take the time to hunt. When he and Rowan had driven to San Francisco they had made sure to bring any ingredients to make the synthetic blood just in case they needed it and now he was glad they had. They had also come up here with about 5 gallons already made in a large cooler that was filled with dry ice to keep it as fresh as possible, but unfortunately even with these preparations the fake stuff hadn't lasted more than a week before starting to taste even more off then it did when it was fresh. It wasn't that it would harm them if it wasn't completely fresh, but who wanted to drink it when it tasted even more like crap then normal?
The only reason he continued drink it was because he liked to be out in the sun and not sparkle otherwise he would probably stop entirely and he knew that his twin shared his opinion.
“Alright, I'll see you when you get here,” Rowan said sounding relieved that Rory hadn't yelled at him again even though he understood the reason why.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

When Rory arrived back at the hotel that he and Rowan were staying at was only a few minutes later as he had made his way here almost at vampire speed making sure he had taken backstreets and that he hadn't been seen.
Rory slipped his key card into the lock of the room that he and Rowan were sharing as neither one of them had seen the point of getting two separate rooms when this one had two double beds and that would be enough to fool the maid who came to clean the room just so long as they remembered to mess up the beds as if they slept in them. The hotel that they were staying in was a very nice four star as neither twin had seen the point of staying in a dump and have the cockroaches run around in plain view. They might not have been able to get sick from cockroaches or any other germs, but that didn't mean they didn't appreciate a nice, clean hotel room that had hot water, clean sheets, a fridge for the storing of the thermoses and a nice sized tv with satellite channels. Just because they were vampires didn't mean they didn't like to be comfortable whenever they traveled.
Rory entered the hotel room to find his twin waiting and so they surveyed each other for a moment.
“I'd like to apologize for snapping at you,” Rory said. "I'm really sorry as it wasn't you I was frustrated at, but the situation.”
“I realize that and you're forgiven,” Rowan said. “If something so strange had happened to me I'd be out of sorts too. Let's just forget it, shall we? Let's try to solve this little mystery together.”
“Alright,” Rory agreed taking the last couple of steps to his brother and giving him a hug. “So have you found anything else out while I was making my way here?”
“Yes, why don't you have a thermos of that blood since you didn't take time to hunt and I'll tell you what I found.”
Rory nodded and took the thermos of blood that his twin handed him popping open the lid while at the same time sitting in one of the very comfortable chairs in the small sitting area that was off to one side of the room.
Rory took a sip from the thermos and looked at his brother expectedly and so Rowan began to tell his twin what he had discovered before he had gotten back to the hotel.
When Rowan was finished, Rory looked thoughtful taking another sip from the thermos without even really thinking about what he was doing as it was an automatic action by now considering he had been drinking this artificial stuff for over a century.
“Well, that certainly very interesting as well as disturbing.”
“It is,” Rowan agreed immediately.
“So you're sure that this group home is kind of a cover for underage porn. You're saying, that at one time it was a real group home and it still operates as one technically anyway, but they have kind of a sideline and that is that they kind of rent out the really beautiful or handsome children to people who do underage porn and these children are raped and raped again while it is recorded and photographs taken and no matter how much the children protest or scream for help nobody listens to them for the people who are in control of this operation are sick sons of bitches,” Rory said his voice and body vibrating with rage.
“That about covers it,” Rowan agreed also shaking with rage. “From what I can find out it's only been going on for about 15 years, but just think of how many children go through an group home in that amount of time.”
“A couple of hundred at the very least,” Rory agreed, “if not more.”
“So what do we do?” asked Rowan.
“Well,” Rory said thinking for a moment. “Why don't we see if we can contact these pedophiles, and pretend we went in on the action.”
Before Rowan could protest Rory help up a hand. “Let me finish.”
Rowan nodded.
“I said we would “pretend” we want in on the action and I'm hoping that whoever's in charge will take us on a tour of group home and after that we'll have to see because it depends on what we find,” Rory said. Rory made sure he emphasized pretend so that Rowan would understand that they would have certain roles to play and they would not be able to break out of character, like by losing their tempers for any reason.
“So, you want us to pretend that we want a piece of the action and I'm assuming that throwing a certain amount of money their way will probably make whoever runs this sideline favorable to the idea,” said Rowan.
“Exactly,” Rory agreed.
“You know, this might be a little bit too big for the two of us to handle by ourselves, don't you think we should get mom and dad to help? You know what a genius dad is at strategy and stuff and they'll be just as furious as we are when they've heard what we've discovered.”
Rory considered his brother's advice for a moment and wanted to tell Rowan that they should handle it all by themselves, but Rory also knew that was his pride talking and that they probably could use their parents help. Rory knew that both their parents would be furious when they discovered what was going on at that group home and would be here the very next day.
If there was one thing the Whitlock family believed in it was that children were innocent and deserved to be treated with respect and love and not taken advantage of and child rape and pornography were two of the worst crimes against children even in this century. Ever since the invention of the internet in the early 1980s pornography had had a very high percentage of humans who were already into it or got into simply because they used the internet and that was the way that pornographers not a lot of their filth out to the public. Rory knew his family wouldn't even think about feeding off a child unless they saw something they shouldn't and then they would have no choice, but to drain the child dry, but it would tear them up if they had to do that so they all tried to be careful. Really though, they all tried to hunt in places where there were very few or no children.
“You're right,” Rory finally agreed. “We probably could use the help and you're also right about what our parents reactions will be. If there's one thing both our parents hate it's having children taken advantage of when they should be taken care of so that they can grow up into healthy, responsible, confident adults ready to make their own mark on the world.”
“So shall I call them, or do you want to?” asked Rowan relieved that his brother had agreed that they could use their parents help, without arguing.
“Before we do that maybe we should do a little reconnaissance after it gets dark,” Rory suggested.
“What kind of reconnaissance,” Rowan asked cautiously.
“Well, I was thinking that we could go back tho the group home and kind of look around when everybody's in bed asleep. You know locate the entrance and any possible escape routes that type thing,” Rory said.
Rowan thought about that and then nodded. “That's not a bad idea. What I'd really like though is to get this place shut down permanently and every single one of the children relocated to somewhere they will be helped to get over what happened to them.”
“Couldn't we call in an anonymous tip to the police?” Rory suggested.
“Only if the police are not in on it or at least being paid to look the other way,” Rowan pointed out and Rory nodded knowing his brother was right.
“Is there anyway you can find that out?” asked Rory.
“Well, if I knew the names of the cops at the station closest to the group home I could do an in-depth background checks on each of them and see if there's been any large deposits made over the course of the last fifteen years.”
“I'll get you a roster,” Rory promised. “It shouldn't be too hard for me to sneak into the police station and avoid any of the cops, especially if I go in the middle of the night when there will be fewer on duty.”
“You know that roster doesn't include any cops that have retired in the last 15 years, because you know that humans has to retire by the time their 80 now,” Rowan said.
“Well retiring at 80 is better than having to retire at 65, like humans used to have to do, less then a 100 years ago, but now that humans live so much longer then they used to upping the retirement age was something that needed to be done,” Rory reminded his brother. “Getting back to the point though, it is barely possible that none of the cops at the closest precinct are involved in keeping the operation going and getting their cut, but I think it's more likely that at least one police officers is involved.”
“You're right,” Rowan agreed after thinking it over for minute. “I don't know how this place could have been in business so long no matter how careful they are without encountering the law at least once. I'm well aware that the police are overworked and underfunded, but still the odds of someone not being on whoever runs this operations payroll are off the charts.”
“I'll give mom and dad a call now and tell them the situation, although I will not be going into any details until after they get here since as you pointed out our communication lines can be bugged and even if that's not to likely why take chances?”
Rowan nodded and handed his brother a second thermos of blood since he saw that Rory's eyes were still mostly black with the red starting to show through. “You really do need to go hunting before you go to the police station,” Rowan told his brother looking at Rory. “You'll have an easier time controlling yourself if you are well fed and you wouldn't want to make a meal off any of the cops, now would you?”
“Well, that kind of depends on if their honest and not involved in this operation,” Rory said looking absolutely ferocious and in fact he was growling venom dripping from his now visible fangs because he was so furious.
“Hey calm down,” Rowan soothed putting an arm around his brother's shoulder and giving him a hug. “We'll take care of this and those child pornographers won't know what hit them, I promise,” Rowan told him.
Rory calmed down considerably, but he was still feeling furious and Rowan could tell as there had always been a kind of connection between them, as there was between all twins. Each one of them could often feel what the other was, especially if emotions were running high like they were right now and they always seemed to know somehow where the other was even if it was on the other side of the city.
The same thing also happened between humans who were identical, except that the connection wasn't as strong as theirs was, because they were vampires and therefore emotions were just naturally much stronger as was connections between twins.
Both Rory and Rowan could often feel when the other was in danger or feeling, frightened, furious, excited or happy even from over 500 miles away and they could always tell in what general direction the other was no matter how far apart they were and the connection on intensified the closer they got to each other. It was true, that the two brothers usually traveled together, but sometimes they needed their own company, in other words time to be alone and that was when they would separate even if it was only for a short time.
Now though, they were working together as smoothly as always and they were determined to free those children from their captivity for it was nothing more than slavery and both brothers absolutely abhorred hearing about children being taken advantage of, especially since rape was a very violent crime and it was a very real possibility that none of the children that were in that horrible place would ever be the same, because being raped against your will when you were only a young child, or when you were a teenager or adult for that matter, was one of the worst crimes that had ever been invented. Human beings as well as some vampires were sick sons of bitches because being raped destroyed the victims sense of self and most if not all sexually assaulted victims blamed themselves for what had happened to them as they all believed that they had done something to lead the man on and that they deserved what they had gotten even if it wasn't true.
It took a lot of work and patience on the part of the counselor to get the victims talk about it and work through the emotions that they had experienced so that they could come to realize that what happened to them was not their fault.
Unfortunately a lot of the victims families or friends who discovered what had happened blamed the victim instead of the perpetrator and therefore the victims had another battle to fight and that was against people who should have been supportive and understanding instead of abandoning them or being demeaning in a time of need. A lot of people whether children, teenagers or adults never completely recovered, mostly because they never got the support they needed, although not always.
“If I find out that any of the cops are involved in this pornography operation I will make them regret ever being born as I will torture them for the next six months at least before I finally let them die and descend into hell where they belong and that's a promise.”
“And I'll help,” Rowan swore, “as I agree with you. What if it's more than one person involved in this operation though whether its a cop or not?”
“Then they too will pay for what they have been doing to those innocent children,” Rory swore fervently and Rowan nodded in complete agreement.
The two brothers stood there in the middle of their hotel room absolutely united and in agreement that whoever was behind the operation and every single person responsible would pay and pay dearly. For the ringleaders though Rory had a very special punishment in mind and he hoped that things would work out so he could put his idea into action.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Rory called his parents and told them what they had discovered and both Jasper and Bella were just as both twins had predicted furious and they promised to be in San Francisco by tomorrow even if they had to run on their own two feet, which they might do anyway since it was faster then taking the car. Even the cars of today, unless it was a race car were slow compared to running full speed on their own feet.
When there was a knock on the twins hotel room door it was only 15 hours later and Rowan opened it and ushered his parents inside for they had a lot to discuss.
“Wow! You sure did get here fast!” commented Rory as soon as the door was closed.
“And you expected anything less after what you told us?” Bella asked her son dryly putting down the large duffel bag onto one of the beds that she had been carrying while Jasper did the same.
“We decided that it was just faster to use our own 2 feet and so that's what we did,” Jasper told his son with a wink even though it was clear he was very upset at the information they had given him.
“And we fed well along the way,” Bella added taking a seat in the sitting area Jasper joining her. “So tell us about what you discovered, the details that you couldn't go into over an open line.”
And so the twins did each taking turns telling their parents exactly what they had discovered about Melton's group home.
“So you're saying that you heard some kind of mental call and that is what got you interested in this place,” Jasper asked his son Rory.
“Yes, dad,” Rory answered immediately. “It was very strange and it scared me for just a second, as well as surprised me. Something is going on in that group home besides just child pornography, and I have no idea what it is, but I am determined to find out.”
“Couldn't it have been a child with some kind of mental powers reaching out to you?” asked Bella. “You know that a lot of humans have unusual talents that would be considered supernatural so maybe this was one of the children trying to get help anyway they could.”
“Possible,” Jasper said and the twins nodded. “One of the children might have very weak telepathy for example that will only get much stronger if they are ever changed into a vampire since whatever extra talents you have are boosted after you are changed.”
“Both of us are glad that you brought this to our attention,” Bella told her sons, her eyes grim, but her expression proud. “If this place has been in business for so long either they are good at working underground so to speak or somebody high up is on the take and I'm sure you can guess which option I believe it to be.”
“Yes,” the remaining three vampires and the room answered.
“The same thing Rory and I believe,” Rowan added.
“It is very hard to operate underground, without some kind of outside support,” Jasper added, “and that usually means someone like a politician and probably at least one cop is involved as well.”
“So what's the plan?” Bella asked her sons sure that they had one already. Rory told his parents the idea he had had and both of them nodded thinking it was a very good plan.
“So what do you plan to do once we find out the people involved?” asked Jasper.
“Oh,” Rory said. “I plan on taking him somewhere really private and torturing them for the next six or so months.”
Rowan nodded vigorously in agreement as he totally agreed with his brother, which was not always the case, but in this instance it was.
“In fact, I think I'll give them a little taste of their own medicine,” Rory said.
“What do you mean by that?” asked Bella.
“Well, I was thinking that if we found the ringleaders that has been raping these kids that I would rape them in turn just so they could feel what those children felt. Or maybe I'll just carve off their manhood a little piece at a time and burn it right in front of them. Really if I did that I could extend it for a very long time,” Rory said.
“That's good,” Jasper said looking smugly pleased at the thought of the humans that had done such a vile thing would get what was coming to them, for anyone who would abuse children as young as three or four years old and as old as 18 deserved what they got. Really rape was the most violent, and demeaning crime around as even murder—at least in his opinion—wasn't as bad as raping someone, because when you invaded someone's body against their will you took away their self-respect and for young children it was ten times worse as they had absolutely no idea what was happening to them and it shattered their worldview, completely. A lot of times after a child was raped repeatedly they turned into criminals who did the same thing again and again as their tormentors had when they grew up, because that was the way they had been brutally taught. Other times though a child didn't trust anybody ever again, was skittish around strangers, frightened easily, had no friends, never had a girlfriend or boyfriend, never got married or had children of their own and all because they couldn't get past what had happened to them. Really it was a very vicious cycle that just kept repeating over and over.
“In fact I would be very happy to help you with that if you wanted,” Jasper offered. “I know numerous ways to torture someone, without killing them until I'm ready. I could torture someone, even a human for 5 or 10 years if I really wanted to before I finally let them die and if anybody deserves that it's them.”
“I would be happy to help to,” Bella agreed.
“We'll see,” Rory said noncommittally. “It really depends on how many people are involved in the operation as it might not be more than one or two, but even if we discover half a dozen humans involved all the way up to their slimy eyeballs I want the ringleader as what they're doing offends me deeply, more deeply than anything else ever has. And yes I've hunted pedophiles before, but I've never come upon such an operation as this, since pedophiles usually work alone. Of course, before this, it never occurred to me that there could be such operations, although with all the porn on the internet it should have as all that shit had to be produced somewhere as it couldn't have come out of nothing. From now on though, I think I'm going to spend a great deal of my time searching out people who enjoy raping children and feed off them. I believe they'll become my new favorite kind of human to hunt.”
“Me too,” Rowan added who had been silent while his brother was talking. “As it happens I agree with you that those humans that would rape children or anybody for that matter are totally sick sons or bitches, but the ones who sexually assault children are the worst.”
“I'm proud of you two,” Bella told her sons the pride shining in her red eyes.
“I am too,” Jasper told his sons sincerely also with pride shining in his eyes just like they were in Bella's. “I've always felt that just because we're vampires does not mean we have to be so sick and twisted that we enjoy participating or even watching something like rape. Even when I was with Maria those kind of things made me sick, although I was careful never to show it where anybody else could see since Maria took great pleasure in that kind of thing and she expected all her subordinates to enjoy it too.”
Jasper shuddered as he still remembered with perfect clarity—which wasn't surprising considering a vampire's eidetic memory—how he had to keep his emotions under control at all times when Maria forced him to watch as she was raping some human man before she drained him.
“So have you thought about how you want to put your plan into action?” asked Jasper.
“Yes,” Rowan answered and told his parents exactly what he and Rory had come up with.
“Your mother and I will be glad to help with that,” Jasper said after he glanced at his wife, who nodded when his son had finished speaking.
“Good, we figured you would be,” Rory answered, “as we know you hate pedophiles just as much as we do.”
“Exactly correct,” Bella told them. “Such slimy, evil excuses, of humanity would make me literally sick if that was possible for a vampire. I know the humans would call us evil if they ever found out about us just because we need blood to survive, but what we do in order to survive is totally different from what those sick, slimy humans do for fun and because they enjoy causing others pain and also making a ton of money off that pain in the process.”
“Don't we torture humans sometimes?” asked Rowan knowing that he and his family tortured a human occasionally if any of the Whitlocks felt the human deserved such attentions instead of just being drained before they were sent to hell where they belonged.
“That's totally different,” Bella told them.
“How?” asked Rory smiling at his mother.
“It's different because of the fact that we never torture anybody that doesn't deserve it like those pedophiles we'll be going after in awhile. We don't ever feed off children and in fact we go out of our way to avoid doing that if it all possible and we only drain those humans that are criminals of one sort or another, leaving the honest, hardworking folks alone.”
“Alright, alright,” Rory said still smiling. “I get the point and I happen to agree with you.”
“Good,” Bella said smiling back at her son.
“So shall we get started on your plan?” asked Jasper.
“Yes,” Rowan said. “Before you got here I managed to find an address of a very seedy bar in the red light district where people like that hang out. If we go there and quietly pass the word that we are looking for a certain type of action that should bring us some results or I hope so anyway.”
“And if we don't get results then I'm assuming that there are other bars we can try,” Jasper said knowing where his son was headed with this.
“Yes,” Rowan agreed. “I got the address of several other bars, but the one I mentioned seems the most likely.”
“Why?” asked Rory looking at his brother curiously as he had not been aware of this piece of information.
“Because it isn't too far away from Melton's group home just a matter of about 4 or 5 blocks, since the group home is right on the edge of the red light district, which is what makes it such a good place to have such an operation going on,” Rowan answered. “The other places I discovered are much farther away and you would think that our pedophile would go to the closest place to have a drink and make contacts with others like himself, especially if he doesn't have a car and even if he does would you like to risk it in a district where you could very easily get your hubcaps stolen? You don't necessarily need a car in San Francisco anyway with the subway and the cable cars to get you where you need to go and I can't see our perp going to the expense of owning a car unless he goes on a lot of business trips or something.”
“Logical,” Jasper said very proud of his son at the moment. “All those computer courses you keep taking have paid off.”
“We'll you taught me a lot of it, dad,” Rowan said modestly. “You taught me how to hack and how to cover my tracks afterwards, which helps a lot when I happen to be on some site that had a lot of security going through some files I'm not supposed to be in. I've broken into government files more than once as you know just to update the family's birthdays and get birth certificates, social security numbers and things like that. The main reason I keep taking those computer as well as the engineering classes every 10 to 15 years is to keep up to date with the computer technology as it advances. Well that, and I enjoy both those classes,” Rowan added with a shrug. “Besides it gives me something to do so I don't get too bored and as much as I like traveling and seeing new sights, it can be too much sometimes. I like to settle down occasionally for a few years while I take those college courses.”
Jasper could certainly understand why Rowan liked to settle somewhere occasionally even if it was only temporarily as Bella was like that and he was to now, though at first he had kept on the move because he had been running from his creator Maria. Now though he enjoyed the quiet life as much as his wife did and settling down somewhere with his mate, even though of course they still traveled quite a bit.
“It helps that you never take more then a class or two a day,” Bella added. “It might take longer to finish that way, but it's safer.”
“Also, with as many times as I've been through it, it really doesn't take me very long to study for any tests and since I have an eidetic memory I never have to read something more than once in order to remember it, so I still have plenty of time to hunt or do other things.”
“I bet the artificial blood helps,” Jasper suggested.
“Yes, it does,” Rowan agreed. “I can take classes at any university in the world no matter how sunny it gets, thanks to that synthetic blood, but let's get back to the subject at hand shall we before my brother explodes from anxiety if nothing else.”
“So one of us needs to go to that bar tonight,” Rory said, “it might take awhile to make any contacts so the same person needs to go every night until we do reel in our little fishy.”
“Well actually I don't see the reason why you and Rowan can't take turns since you are identical twins,” Bella pointed out. “No one will be able to tell you two apart even if you have different mannerisms unless they've been watching you very closely for awhile.”
“That is a good suggestion, Bella,” Jasper told his wife. “I don't know why one of you can't take one night, and the other one take the next night and then do every other night for at least a couple of weeks.”
“It might take longer than a couple of weeks,” Rory pointed out to his father.
“That's true, but while you're busy at that bar, I don't see why Rowan can't do another of the bars that he found even or vice versa though it isn't as likely a possibility. Kill two birds with one stone and all that,” Jasper said.
“That's a good suggestion,” Rowan told his father. “I'm as anxious to see that these pedophiles and whoever else is involved punished not to mention figure out what we're going to do with the children afterwards.”
“You know that kind of is a problem as we don't want any of those children to end up on the street,” Bella said looking anxious as she hadn't thought of that.
“Maybe we can send an anonymous tip to the police so they can arrest the people responsible, well except for the ringleaders that is as I still plan on taking him or her someplace and torturing them for six months at least,” Rory suggested. “Even if the ringleader's body never turns up they'll just assume that he or she escaped before they could be caught.”
“That's probably what we'll end up doing,” Jasper decided. “Of course it kind of depends on the situation at the time, but I no more want any of those children to end up on the street then you do and I know they'll probably need counseling to deal with what happened to them.”
“You know, I just thought of something,” Rory said slowly.
“What's that?” asked Bella with a raised eyebrow looking at her son waiting for him to continue. “Well, this place is an group home and I'm assuming at least some of the kids get adopted occasionally, so why don't you two pose as a couple that can't have children and hopefully that will get you a tour of the group home and introduced to the children and you can look for things that look out of place.”
“You can see how healthy and well cared for the children are and dad you'll be able tell if they're terrified or not with your talent.”
“That's not a bad idea,” Jasper agreed surprised he hadn't thought of it, “And maybe we'll be able to pick up some information that way as well. They might have some pamphlets or something we can look at and I'm sure they'll give us a tour if we request one as they'll want to make a good impression on us, since we are potential clients.”
“We could also ask a few subtle questions why we're there and infer some things that like we would be interested in seeing their merchandise,” Bella said.
“So in other words you'll imply that you are interested in having sex with a little boy or girl,” Rory said.
“And you are willing to pay through the nose for the privilege,” Rowan suggested cynically.
“I know another reason for it to be you and mom to go, dad, which is because you can use your talent to get these people to trust you. Besides you look like a couple who is very much in love so it won't seem strange at all if you show up and want to adopt or at least rent a couple of the kids,” Rory said.
“Wouldn't being a couple interfere with that?” asked Bella. “I would think if we both showed up and claimed to be in love that it would mean that we are not interested in having sex with little kids.”
“Not necessarily,” Jasper told this mate knowing exactly where his sons were going with this. “You can be very much in love and be very happy together, but you can also have other urges shall we say.”
Bella shuddered that but she didn't want to think about it as it was just too evil. “That's just very sick, twisted and disgusting.”
“Yes, it is, but if we do manage to get one or more of those children out of there it isn't like we are going to abuse them, like whoever runs this place will think,” Jasper said.
“So you're suggesting we go in as prospective buyers saying we had heard about their operation and we're interested in examining the merchandise, etc., etc,” Bella said.
“Exactly, you don't necessarily have to go if you don't think you can stand to see those kids so mistreated and play your role,” Jasper told his wife as he wasn't sure he wanted to expose to such evil even if he knew she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. If she did decide to go through he had absolutely no chance of preventing her without using force and even then she would probably just follow him after he was gone. He supposed he wouldn't have her any other way and in any case, he would never try to control her as he had told her long ago that he would never treat her as if she wasn't capable of taking care of herself because she was. The more primitive part of him wanted to force her to stay here where she would be safe, but the more logical and intelligent part knew that forcing Bella to do something she didn't want to was a very bad idea as it would cause Bella to hate him or at least resent him and their always equal relationship would take years or even decades to repair and that was only if it could be fixed. Sometimes a relationship where the trust was broken couldn't be repaired and Jasper wasn't about to take that chance. “I, on the other hand, am capable of playing a role if I have to as I have done it in the past.”
“No, I'll go and I'll just keep quiet let you do the talking,” Bella said. “It's a good thing though that I can't sleep as I'm sure I'd have nightmares if I could. It's just always amazed me what humans can do to their own kind, but it's a thousand times worse when they do it to little kids. Sometimes I don't know how the human race has survived so long since at least a quarter of them are so mentally sick.”
“Well at least that means we'll always have plenty to eat,” Rory suggested with a smirk.
“True enough,” Jasper said. “Bella, and I will go to the group home tomorrow about 10. We'll have to buy some nicer clothes though, as we didn't bring anything nice enough in order to fit into our roles. I doubt they would pay us much attention if we showed up in jeans and t-shirts. We need to dress like we have money and we can afford to pay for their services. Appearances are everything.”
“You can buy everything you need right here in this hotel as they have some really nice shops down on the first floor,” Rory suggested.
“And if you can't find anything you're looking for at the shops in the hotel I'm sure desk clerk can tell you a few names of places to go,” Rowan added.
“Good hopefully that shop down in the lobby will have what we need,” Bella said. “If I'd had any idea that we would need to dress up I would have made sure we brought some of our nicer clothes along.”
“Sorry mom,” Rory said. “I didn't want to talk about this over an open line as it is possible for somebody to listen in even if that isn't too likely.”
“Yes, it is better to be cautious,” Jasper agreed. “You never know after all. Besides it isn't like we can't afford to buy two whole new wardrobes if we had too, so it doesn't really matter if we brought the appropriate attire or not. Now let's go over our plan just so we're all on the same page, so to speak.”
Everybody nodded in agreement as they wanted everything to go off without a hitch so it was better if they planned everything out in advance and that was what they did for the next three hours discussing every tiny detail and every possible scenario imaginable both negative and positive.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Bella and Jasper exited a very nice black Mercedes convertible that they had rented just this morning and got out in front of Melton's group home.
Both Bella and Jasper were dressed to the nines and that was to say that Jasper was wearing a very expensive pair of navy blue slacks with a black high quality silk shirt and instead of a tie he had the first three buttons of his shirt undone showing his rather magnificent chest along with a sparkling gold necklace of a pair of crossed swords pointed upwards representing a readiness to fight and defend. The necklace had been a very lucky find and the ironic thing was that none of their targets were likely to understand what it meant unless they knew their military history, which was unlikely. Also he was wearing a very expensive men's style platinum bracelet on one wrist as well as a high quality watch on the other. Jasper's long blonde hair was tied back in a neat tail and he was wearing a pair of very expensive sunglasses so that nobody could see his red eyes.
As for Bella she was wearing a very expensive silk shirt in a bold red which was tucked into the waistband of a black skirt, which barely came down too her knees and showed her legs off to a nice advantage. On her feet were a nice pair of red pumps something that she never normally wore as she preferred flat shoes for most every occasion, but in this case she needed to look the part and so she had bought then. Also Bella was wearing a nice pair of sunglasses just as Jasper was and also an expensive diamond solitaire hung around her long slender neck and an expensive watch with diamonds in place of the numbers was around her right wrist. Those two jewelry items were the only things she had allowed Jasper to buy her as she didn't want to overdo it. She wanted their perps see them and think this couple has class, sophistication, money and style, but she also didn't want to be knocked on the back of the head and robbed even if the technique wouldn't work on a vampire.
The very dingy curtain, on one of the front windows, fell back into place as someone had been peering out at them as soon as they had pulled up and parked.
“Well, I believe we have made a very good impression,” Jasper told Bella quietly his tone amused.
“I believe you are right, love,” Bella agreed. “I also saw the curtain rise as soon as we pulled up and then fall back into place.”
“Well, let's go knock on the front door, shall we? We do have a mission to accomplish,” Jasper suggested.
Bella nodded to and the two of them walked up the cobblestone walkway and then the three steps that led to the front door.
Bella rang the bell and waited politely for the door to open and that didn't take more than a few seconds as apparently whoever had been gazing out the window had been waiting for them to do just that.
“Can I help you?” asked a lady who had iron gray hair done up in a bun. The lady had hazel eyes and frown lines around her mouth. Also she was really tall about 6 feet, which was above average height for a woman and was as skinny as a rail.
“Yes, my wife and I were thinking about adopting a child as we have been married several years and have been unable to have any,” Jasper told the woman politely.
The woman's interest sharpened at Jasper's words and both Jasper and Bella could see the greed that came into her hazel eyes and they could almost tell what she was thinking just by the way her eyes surveyed them as if she was calculating every expensive piece of jewelry the couple was wearing from the diamond solitaire around Bella's neck to the expensive watches on both their wrists.
“Why don't you to come in,” the woman offered moving away from the doorway so that they could enter the front door. As soon as they entered and the front door was closed behind them Bella surveyed everything and noticed how rundown and faded everything was from the wallpaper that was peeling, to the smell of mildew, which was much stronger to a vampire's nose and the visible scratches on the old pieces of furniture.
“Why don't we retire to my office?” the women suggested. “By the way I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Matilda Grover and you are?”
“Jasper and Bella Whitlock,” Jasper told her shaking her hand while Bella did the same, keeping her mouth shut.
“It's nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Whitlock,” Matilda said as she led the way to the office.
“And you,” Jasper replied practically oozing sincerity even if he wasn't feeling anything of the sort.
“So before we begin, can you tell me what made you choose Melton's group home to think about adopting a child from?”
“Well...” Jasper said and spun the story that he, his wife and twin sons had to come up with, while at the same time he used his talent at a very low and basic level so that Matilda didn't get suspicious even though personally he thought it was a very believable tale, but you never knew what somebody would think so it was just better this way.
Once Jasper was done some 10 minutes later with even Bella added a comment here and there so by the time he was done Matilda was nodding in agreement as Jasper continued to use this talent very subtly.
“Alright,” Matilda said believing every word thank to Jasper using his emphatic talent. “Why don't I give you a tour?”
“Thank you, that would be very enlightening,” Bella said voice low and musical.
Jasper shot her a look asking if she was alright and she winked at him letting him know that she was indeed alright.
“So where are all the children?” asked Bella as she looked around as Matilda led them into every room on the ground floor.
“Oh, they are around,” Matilda said. “They're upstairs playing quietly.”
“Quietly isn't the word,” Bella muttered under her breath, so that Matilda wouldn't hear her. “Tomb is a much better one.”
Bella shot her husband a look that simply said 'this place is supposed to be noisy with children's laughter and yet it is as quiet as a tomb'. “Children are not meant to be so quiet, it's unnatural,” she told Jasper very quietly her voice low enough that Matilda's human hearing wouldn't be able to pick it up.
“Yes, I agree,” Jasper murmured in the same tone. “This place that is supposed to be full of children is so quiet does not bode well really as that means that they've been taught that they are not allowed to make to much noise and if they do they will be severely punished, probably by being beaten where it doesn't show underneath their clothes. Do that kind of thing often enough and even the most lively, inquisitive child will be a shadow of their former selves and cringe at their own shadows.”
“So how many children do you have here right now?” asked Bella really interested in the answer.
“Oh I believe is only about 18 at present,” Matilda answered.
“18,” Bella muttered knowing that if she had her way they would get every single one of these children out of this place and then burn this 'group home' to the ground.
The tour consisted of showing them the living room, kitchen, the nursery for the infants, the library, which didn't have very many books in it, the classroom, which was big enough for at least 40 students without them being to crowded and the dining room where all the children ate. Matilda then took them to the second floor, which was all boys and girls dormitories, which had five beds in each one along with a bathroom at the end of each hall. The third floor was more dormitories along with a large room where the children could play with the few second and third hand toys and also do any studying and homework that they had when school was in session and this was were all were currently playing or reading quietly.
“And here are the children,” Matilda said and Jasper and Bella surveyed the room from the doorway. All the children ranged from just three or four years old, although they looked younger because they were so malnourished, all the way to 16 or 17.
All the children looked up and the fear that crossed every single one of their faces confirmed in Jasper's and Bella's mind that place was not just a group home for orphans, but a cover for a child pornography studio. Sick men and women paid to have sex with a child and didn't consider the implications what raping a young child who didn't understand what was happening and what it would do to them in the long run.
The sick puppies were going to go down!
“Children I'd like to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Whitlock. They can't have children and would like to adopt one of you,” Matilda announced. “Why don't you all come and say hello?”
The older children stood up from where they had been sitting and lined up, coming up to the two Whitlocks one by one and politely saying hello, although both Jasper and Bella saw the fear lurking in their eyes and neither Whitlock could really blame any of the children for their reactions at all.
“Why don't you leave us alone for a few minutes so we can get to know the children a little?” Bella suggested politely and Jasper made sure that he sent out the correct emotions so that Matilda would trust them and do as Bella requested.
“Alright,” Matilda agreed almost seeming to be in a daze. “I'll be back in 15 minutes.”
Matilda left and Jasper and Bella both checked for any human heartbeats outside the room before they turned towards the children.
“Are you here to hurt us?” asked one bold little girl who couldn't have been more than seven or eight, although if she was really that old, she looked several years younger considering how thin and short she was.
“Can all of you keep a secret?” Bella asked every child in the room and they all nodded even the three or four years old. Bella looked at Jasper and he nodded back indicating that all the emotions he was getting from all the children in the room was truthfulness and a willingness to hide a very big secret from their abusers and tormentors.
“Well you see, we're here to get you out of here, but it is going to take us awhile,” Bella said.
“Do you actually know what's going on here?” asked one boy who looked to be about 14 although Bella knew that he was probably at least 16 or 17.
“Yes, we do know what's going on and we don't have time to go into how we found out, just know that were working on a way to get you all free of this horrible place.”
“You're playing a role,” said the same older boy as before.
“Yes we are,” Jasper said kneeling in font of the boy who was way too short for his age. “What's your name?”
“Blane,” the boy answered immediately for some reason trusting these two strangers that he had absolutely no reason to trust at all.
“And how old are you?”
“16.”
Jasper didn't say so, but Blane sure didn't look 16 and in fact he didn't look more than 14 if that. “Well, Blane you're a very smart boy to immediately realize that my wife and I were just playing a role.
“Can you really get us out of here?” asked one girl who looked enough like Blane that they had to be siblings.
“We're sure going to give it our best shot,” Bella told the little girl kneeling in front of her. “How old are you sweetie?”
“13,” the girl answered.
Bella didn't say anything but the girl was only 4'3' and she should be at least three inches taller, maybe even a foot and a half and she was way underweight from malnourishment as well.
“And what's your name?”
“Meghan,” the girl answered, “and girl hiding over there in the corner is my twin sister Amber.”
Amber shrank back from Bella when she started to come over, and that told Bella that Meghan was probably the dominant twin and that Amber, was the shyer of the two and didn't have her sister's courage.
Both sisters looked almost exactly alike, just like her own sons did, as they both had brown hair, the same facial features and body types. In fact the only difference between the two was the fact that Meghan had grayish blue eyes and Amber's were hazel.
“Shh!” Bella soothed Amber gently. “I'm not going to hurt you.”
Bella approached Amber again and although she shrunk back a little in fear she allowed Bella to pick her up in her arms and cuddle her close.
“Jasper, Amber doesn't weigh hardly anything in all, she's severely malnourished and underweight and from what I read she and Meghan should be at least three inches taller, if not a foot and a half, then they are and they should be at least twenty to fifty pounds heavier. All these kids could use a lot of good meals actually. Some of these children might never reach their full heights and weights because they've been malnourished for so long.”
Jasper growled lowly at that, but then he heard footsteps and said, “We'll have to discuss this later, I hear Mrs. Grover coming back up the stairs.”
“Do you think you can at least get my sisters out of here now?” Blane requested. “They've been through so much since we came here, three years ago.”
Bella glanced at Jasper and he nodded in acquiescence.
“We'll try to get all of you out of here, although I'm not entirely sure that Matilda Grover will go for it,” Bella promised. “And if we can't my husband and I will come up with something else to get all of you out of this horrible place and that's a promise.” Bella nodded and gently put Amber down. “We'll be back,” Bella promised the rest of the children. “It might be a few days, but we will be back.”
Matilda Grover appeared in the doorway of the room that was being used as a playroom and Jasper immediately said, “My wife and I have made our decision, so why don't we go discuss the details in your office?”
“Wonderful!” Matilda said not speaking again until they reached her office. “So which child have you decided on?”
“Well actually, my husband and I would like to adopt three,” Bella said.
“Three?” asked Matilda in genuine astonishment.
“Yes, three, the twins Amber and Meghan and their brother Blane.”
“Ah yes,” Matilda said remembering the children Bella was talking about. “They've been here for over three years now.”
And you've allowed them to be abused for all that time, Bella thought, but did not say out loud.
“Are you sure, you can't afford to adopt all three, as even one child is an expensive proposition.”
“My family is very well off,” Jasper told the woman as calmly as possible barely holding back a growl. “We're willing to pay you $500,000 for those three specific children.”
Matilda whistled as that was quite a bit more and then they made per child that were used by her employers for child pornography. All her charges had been used in that way some more than others, depending on what the client wanted. Of course, her employers sideline kept paying time and again when men or women who had plenty of money wanted to have sex with a young child because it was a way for them to get what they desired without anybody finding out about their perverted natures. Of course also technically they were a group home or the old fashioned and no longer used word orphanage and occasionally a child was adopted from here and taken away and even her employers didn't try to prevent that as they didn't want to draw attention to their very lucrative sideline and be put out of business.
“I don't know…” Matilda pretended to be thinking about it.
“My wife and I, have shall we say, particular tastes... I'm sure you understand what I mean.” Jasper said subtly telling Matilda that he and his wife had a taste for young children, without actually saying so.
What Jasper was inferring was not actually true, but he felt that this might make it easier for Matilda just take the money and let Bella and him have the twins and their brother.
“Ah!” Matilda said. “I do indeed understand.” Matilda's unspoken words were, You're just like all the others that pay through the nose to have sex with a child and if you ever get caught for it you'll go to prison for a long time or straight to hell when you die since God will be so disgusted with you he won't accept you into heaven. Of course people like keep my employers in business and therefore I still get paid and quite well. “My employers will be pleased that you want to adopt so many of our children. Now, if I could have your address and phone number.”
“600 Montgomery Street,” Jasper told her, which was address for the Transamerica Pyramid as Jasper wasn't about to give her the address of the hotel where they were staying at. “Phone number, 415-820-3261.” Jasper reeled the numbers off the top of his head, but knew that if anybody tried to call that number they wouldn't get anything, except a recording telling them that they had a wrong number and to please try again.
Matilda wrote down the information that Jasper Whitlock gave her unaware that both the street address and phone number were complete fabrications.
“Now, will you be paying by check or online money transfer?”
“Online transfer,” Jasper said immediately as that was nearly impossible to trace back to him and his family, unless like his son you were an expert hacker, “as I don't usually carry checks with me as it's so much easier just to do an online transfer or to pay by cash or credit card.”
Matilda nodded as a lot of people she knew were like that including her employers so it wasn't strange at all. Matilda got up from her chair behind her desk and allowed Jasper it and he immediately started rapidly typing on the desk computer's keyboard.
“So who should I transferring the money to?” asked Jasper calmly.
Matilda gave him an account number and the name on the account and Jasper nodded and in just a few more minutes it was done.
Jasper made sure he remembered the name and account number so that his son could do some hacking and find out all about this guy.
Matilda watched the screen and when she saw that the money transfer was complete she said, “I hope those children meet your 'expectations' and if you ever want to adopt another child we hope you'll come to us.” The way Matilda said expectations Jasper and Bella knew that she was expecting them to rape those children multiple times for the next few years as they had certainly paid enough money for the privilege, although that wasn't their intent at all. Besides Matilda didn't know it and didn't need to, but $500,000 was nothing to the Whitlock family and wouldn't even put a minor dent in their bank accounts.
“Why don't you go get the children from upstairs?” Jasper suggested to his wife quietly. “I'll call a cab for you and then to take back to our place while I drive the Mercedes back.”
Bella nodded as what her husband said made sense so she quietly went upstairs to get Blane, Amber, and Meghan.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Back at the hotel, Jasper and Bella took the three children to the hotel room and then sat them down in the sitting area. Rowan and Rory did not bother them even though they had seen their father's car pull up at the hotel, because Jasper had called ahead and told them all that had happened on his way back driving the rented Mercedes.
“I'm going to order some food for all of you,” Bella said after a few minutes of silence, “what would you like?”
“Oh, no you don't have to do that,” Blane protested his pride coming to the fore even as his stomach growled.
“You need food,” Bella told them all quite bluntly. “Thanks to your mistreatment and malnourishment for at least the last three years both you and your sisters are way underweight and height. If you'd had a good diet you Blane should be at least 5'1' to 6'4' by now and you should weigh anywhere from 88 to 216 pounds depending on various factors. Your sisters should be anywhere from 4'6' to 5'8' and weigh anywhere from 61 to 163 pounds, again depending on various factors. As it is I'm not sure if you three will ever reach your full heights even if you're well fed from now until you're 18, thanks to the abuse and malnourishment.”
“Malnourishment is nothing to laugh at,” Jasper added sternly while still sending out his emotions of trust. “If you were malnourished from a baby to about eight then you will likely never gain your full height and weight. Such malnutrition so early in your life effects not only your body, but the way your brain develops and even your personality. Scientists have done studies on malnutrition for centuries now and this is what they discovered so when my wife offers you food, especially when you haven't been eating much for the last few years you don't let your pride get in the way and refuse it.”
Blane looked at his sisters who were sitting quietly, but it was clear that they were also hungry, although they hadn't said anything so far since they had been taken from the group home.
“Besides, for all intents and purposes we are your parents now, and if your real parents were here they would be giving you food to eat and you would hardly refuse it, now would you? If it helps think of us like your parents who know what's best for you.”
“Alright,” Blane said giving is not letting his pride get in the way because he knew that the Whitlocks were correct that he and his sisters had been almost starved the for last three years, but then again so had every child at the group home.
“Now that we've got that settled what would you like?” asked Jasper.
“A cheeseburger, with fries and a chocolate milkshake?”
“Alright,” Bella agreed. “But if you start to feel full or your stomach gets upset let us know because you really don't need to be eating anything rich for awhile until you're used to eating regular meals again. Think of yourself like an invalid, somebody who has been sick and has been eating things like oatmeal, chicken noddle soup, toast and other invalid food so it's going to take awhile to work yourself up to where you can eat the things you used to enjoy again. You really need to avoid things with rich flavors until your stomachs aren't so sensitive or you probably will end up throwing it up.”
“Chicken noodle soup sounds good,” Meghan said while her twin simply nodded still to scared or maybe to shy to speak.
Blane nodded a well having changed his mind about the cheeseburger, fries and milkshake at least for now.
Both Bella and Jasper knew that they were going to have a lot of long nights in the near future for they were sure that all three of the children would have nightmares, horrible ones and it would take awhile to work through all that they had been through in the last three years and in fact they might never recover completely, but there was no way of telling at the moment.
“Three bowls of chicken noodle soup it is,” Bella said, heading for the wall communicator and placing the children's order.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

All three children were out like light and were curled up together in the same big bed while Jasper and Bella sat in the sitting area on the other side of the room watching the three siblings sleep pretty peacefully.
“You know they have a pretty long road of recovery ahead of them,” Bella said.
“I know it,” Jasper said shaking his head. “Hopefully this bank number and name I got in order to transfer that money into that account will help Rowan locate who is really behind the operation. I hope so because whoever is behind this pornography operation, whoever has abused these children so badly are nothing, but the slime of the Earth and deserve nothing less than to be tortured for at least six months before they are finally allowed to die. I could do numerous things to them, and they wouldn't die until I was ready.”
“I think you'll have to pick a number,” Bella told him with a malicious smile. “I believe Rory and Rowan are way ahead of you.
“Yes, they sure did get some of my viciousness, didn't they?”
“Correction,” Bella said, “they got your sense of justice. Even if the human court system put these people in prison they still wouldn't get what they deserved as they would eventually get out and then go right back to their old habits. After all a leopard can't truly change their spots and a mugger, or a murderer, or a rapist, can't change their essential natures.”
“You do know that eventually Meghan, Amber, and Blane will have to be told that we are vampires and that they will have to be changed just as soon as they grow up,” Jasper said.
“I know, and I'm hoping when they are changed they will lose all their memories of the abuse they suffered for those three years. Also has it occurred to you that one of those children might be the one that touched Rory's mind the other day?”
“It had,” Jasper said, “but then again one of them might not be and that child might still be back at that horrible place.”
“You know, I'm a little worried about Amber, she's so timid and she's not her siblings at all, so I'm wondering why she isn't more like her sister or brother,” Bella said.
“Not all siblings are the same,” Jasper told his wife. “Not even twins. You should know this just from your own family. Just look at Melodie and Bryon, their not the same.”
“Well yes that's true, but they're also a boy and girl and there is always a few differences when they aren't the same sex.”
“Alright, maybe Rory and Rowan are better examples,” Jasper said. “Just think about the differences between our identical twin sons. Both have a lot of same personality traits, but Rowan enjoys going to college and taking computer and engineering courses while Rory likes learning new things as well, but doesn't want to sit in a classroom all day. He just seems to like learning new things while he's living his life.”
“Yes, that's true, but our sons weren't abused either like these children have been and I'm just wondering if Amber was like that before or if this is something that she's turned into in order to deal with the abuse she's suffered,” Bella said.
“We'll probably never know, it's not a good idea to ask Blane or Meghan if Amber was so shy and timid before the abuse.”
“I know,” said Bella as she cast a fond glance over at the three children. “So what are we going to do about the rest of those children at the group home?” Bella asked her husband. The way she said group home made it clear that she thought the name was ridiculous and that it sounded like a home for the physically or mentally disabled.
“Well, I was going to have Rowan see if the could find out who is the person behind this bank account,” Jasper said quietly, “as I got the account number and the name when I transferred that money. It it just a good thing though that vampires have eidetic memories because I never would have remembered that string of numbers without it.”
“That's a very good idea,” Bella said approvingly.
“I do have them occasionally,” Jasper said dryly, although he did give his wife a kiss on the cheek.
“You have them more than occasionally,” Bella told him. “You always have a lot of good ideas for most any situation. So when do you think we should introduce Blane, Meghan, and Amber to Rowan and Rory?”
“That is a problem,” Jasper said looking thoughtful. “They're all so skittish even Meghan and Blane, although they're not as bad as Amber. I can't really blame them being skittish either with all they've been through for the last few years, so I'm not sure that introducing our sons is the best idea at present. I can feel the fear coming off all of them all the time and I know they are afraid that we are going to rape them just like all those other sick sons of bitches have been doing for the last three years. What all those numerous humans have done is break all three children's trust that adults will take care of them and I wouldn't be surprised if Blane tries to take his sisters and run away figuring that's better than trusting any adult and I wouldn't really blame him if he did.”
Bella looked very upset at that and then said, “It's not like living on the street is any safer and in fact it's considerably more dangerous. You have to deal with the weather, with the human predators and with keeping yourself fed by living out of trashcan's or becoming thieves.”
“We both know that, but I'm not sure that Blane does. He might have some kind of romantic idea about him and his sisters living on their own, not realizing how hard living on the street really is. You know one of the good things about having the bank account number,” Jasper said, “is the fact that I'm sure Rowan can break into the account with it and transfer all the money that's in it to another account for Blane and his sisters.”
“Now that's my idea of an excellent revenge,” Bella said quietly, so as not to wake the children, but also gleefully. “It's too bad that our perp won't be alive long enough to realize that he is now broke.”
“I'll make sure, Rory and Rowan inform whoever it of that fact when they are torturing him,” Jasper said with a sadistic grin. “You know sometimes the best way to get revenge on somebody like that is though their bank account.”
“You know, I realize that you mentioned this a few minutes ago that we're going to have to tell the children what we are, and I think we'll have to do it soon as they aren't stupid and will soon realize that we are different because we don't eat or sleep. I mean we didn't join them for dinner and if we do that too many times I would think it be obvious that we don't need to eat and that we don't lose weight from not doing so.”
Jasper thought about that for a few moments and then realized that his wife was correct.
“You're right,” Jasper admitted. “I only hope it can wait at least a month or so though so that all three of them to get to know us a little better and realize that we aren't going to rape them like those slimeballs have been doing for the last few years.”
“Also we can't keep our sunglasses on all the time and we are going to have to put in the contacts we have if we don't want them to figure it out to soon,” Bella added.
Jasper made a face at that, but knew that his wife was right as Blane at least was bound to notice if they wore sunglasses all the time. “We also need to look into renting a house, for at least the next month or two,” Jasper said, “as we can't keep staying this hotel all the time. We need our own room where we can go and pretend to sleep even if we don't.”
“What are we going to do about hunting?” asked Bella. “We can't exactly leave the three children on their own, even if Blane is old enough to stay by himself and look after his sisters. If we did leave them on their own, even if it was only for just a couple of hours, they wouldn't be there when we got back as I've seen how Blane has been eyeing the door and windows as if memorizing escape routes in case they get the chance. No, we can't leave them alone by themselves until they trust that we're not going to hurt them and building that kind of trust takes time.”
“I suppose we'll have to stick to the artificial,” Jasper said making a face as he much preferred his blood fresh and real, directly from the tap, but he would just have to forgo that pleasure for now, because Bella was correct in the fact that if they left none of the three children would be there when they got back. “We can have our sons buy us the ingredients and then we can mix it up while the children are sleeping.”
“We'll have to keep it in the fridge though and I'm sure the children will be curious as to what is in those thermoses and try to take a drink or something.”
“We'll simply have Rory and Rowan buy us one of those small college fridges and put it in our room and put a lock on the door,” Jasper said. “It's the only solution I can think of. We'll simply tell them that there is alcohol in there and we don't want them to get into it.”
Bella nodded approvingly and was about to respond when one of the girls let out a scream as she woke from a horrific nightmare.
Bella had to restrain herself from using vampire speed to get over to the bed that was on the other side of the room, but even walking at a normal, hurried human pace she was over there and pulling one of the twins into her arms, comforting her in just a few seconds.
“Shh! It's all right,” Bella soothed even as the other two children sat up wide-eyed. Blane reached out for his sister while the other twin did the same and it wasn't more than a few seconds until all three were clinging to Bella as if she was a life preserver crying their eyes out.
All three children cried for a very long time, but in their own way tears could be cleansing and this was exactly what all three children needed and that was to release at least a few of their pent up emotions as it wasn't good to keep all their negative feelings inside like all three had been doing for the last few years as it could lead them to being very bitter and hateful and that was not a good thing.
When all three children finally quit crying and were just sniffling Bella got up and tucked all three children back into the big king sized bed kissing each of their foreheads lovingly.
Once the three children were back to sleep, Jasper put all about his wife shoulder and said, “Why do I think that this is only the beginning and that we are in for a lot of these nights in the near future?”
“Because you're very perceptive and intelligent and you know that dealing with the aftermath of what these kids have been through isn't going to be a walk in the park?” Bella suggested quite seriously.
“It'll be worth it in the end,” Jasper said as he looked at all three children and smoothed the hair back on the head of the two girls before doing Blane's as well.
“You already care about them, don't you?” asked Bella already knowing the answer for she knew that her husband and mate was a very deeply caring individual, which was a weird thing to say about a vampire, not that that made it any less true and that his long silent heart had gone out to the three children and all the others at the group home. Despite being a vampire Jasper had an unwavering sense right and wrong and believed in meting out punishment to those who deserved it and anybody who would do what they had done to any child definitely deserved what they got in his book and in hers as well.
“Yes, you know I do,” Jasper told his wife softly as he watched the three children sleep restlessly as a they tossed and turned. “What was done to them was...” Jasper began and then went into a string of cuss words in about a dozen different languages, “and what those bastard deserve...” he added and again went on to describe what he would like to do to the humans responsible.
“I believe some of those things you suggested are anatomically impossible,” Bella told Jasper her lips twitching as she tried not to laugh as she didn't want to wake up the children, although she certainly agreed.
“They might be,” Jasper told her with an unrepentant smirk, “but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to do those things to every single one of them just so they can know what it feels like before they die of course. Actually what I would really like to do is keep them in prison somewhere for the next 10 years or so and feed them on scraps just like they did to those children and torture them for all that time. I wouldn't rape them as that is beneath me, but I would certainly make them feel my displeasure for the next decade or more. The physical abuse is not all that the children have been through either,” Jasper said, “but they've been through mental and emotional abuse as well and those bastards need to pay for everything they did to all those children not to mention all the other children that the same thing happened to that are already out on their own.”
“Well, hopefully we can at least get them straightened out even if it takes the next 10 years. Actually I wish we could turn them into vampires now because you lose most of the memories when you are turned, especially if you have been through what they have.”
“As much as I agree with that statement that is not a good idea,” Jasper told his wife shaking his head. “While being turned into vampires would fix a lot of things, height is not one of them and we don't always want the twins to look like 7 year olds or for their brother to look 13 instead of his true age. No, what we really need to do, is feed them a lot of good meals, try to get them to talk about what happened to them, comfort them when they have a nightmare and do our best to get them to trust us. Hopefully by the time Amber and Meghan are 18 all three of them will have truly become a part of our family.”
“You're right,” Bella admitted. “It's just not their height we need to worry about but their maturity as well and the only way to truly mature is to grow up and get experiences that most everybody gets. You know, I've been wondering, what we're going to do about their education, I don't think it's a good idea at this point to send them to a public school as not only will they probably not do well in that environment thanks to the abuse they suffered, but that would make our family more visible then is safe.”
“We'll simply do what we did with our own children,” Jasper said, “and teach them ourselves, although I realize that as humans they will learn much slower than our own did. Besides those three children don't need to be registered anywhere if they're going to be turned into vampires in a few years as it will make it easier when they disappear.”
Bella nodded in agreement with Jasper's words. “Well, they're old enough to already know how to read and write, know basic geography, some history and science, and should be able to do basic math, so we won't have to teach them those things, although we might want to make sure that they know how to spell and write well. As for Blane, he probably doesn't need as many lessons as his sisters do since he was 13 when they lost their parents, so we need to set up a schedule of things that will challenge him and interest him at the same time so that he'll go to his lesson without complaining or rebelling. We should try to make the lessons fun so that we keep their interest. They also need whole new wardrobes as they can't continue to go around dressed in rags or second and third hand clothes as that would call attention to them and to us that we don't need. Besides it burns me up that they don't even have any decent clothes that aren't mended in some way.”
Jasper and Bella continued to talk for the rest of the night trying to come up with a plan on what they wanted to do with the children to get them to trust that they weren't going to be hurt with them and also to talk about their education and what the three needed to learn.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

It was 8 o'clock in the morning and Bella was telling the three children what they would be doing that day. “First, all of you will have light breakfast because as I explained last night you all need to watch what you eat for the next few weeks, after that we'll be going shopping for some decent clothes, which I am sure will take the rest of the day since the three of you need everything, from underwear to pants to shirts to shoes. The five of us will have lunch at the mall and after we finish our shopping will take you to dinner somewhere.”
The three children nodded and not even Blane didn't bother to protest as he knew very well that he and his sisters did need new clothes if they wanted to fit in. So far it looked like the Whitlocks only had their best intentions in mind and weren't planning on repeating the abuse that all of them had suffered for the last three years. Blane was very aware that people could be two-faced and that he and his sisters had only known the Whitlock for a day, so he would be on his guard for the next little while and he would make sure that he got his sisters out of the situation if it turned bad, even if that meant living on the street as their was no way in hell that he would let anybody touch his sisters in that way ever again.
Blane was sure that even if his sisters one day fell in love and got married—not that that was to likely after all the abuse of their prepubescent bodies—he would have problems with those men even being with his sisters in that way, even if Blane knew that just because all three of them had been through hell did not mean that the physical side of love could not be loving, tender and gentle. In fact what all three of them had been through for the last three years had not been love, but just sex pure and simple. You would think 16 year-old boy wouldn't know much about that considering he had been just 13 when their parents had died, but just a few months before they had passed away his dad had explained to him all about love, what it was like to love another person, really love them. His dad had explained the differences between really loving someone and therefore wanting to be gentle to make the physical side of love a good experience rather than bad and the difference between just having sex with someone you didn't really care for just to relieve your sexual tension. His father David had thought that he was old enough to understand these things even though he wasn't at the age where he had begun even looking at girls in that way yet. Blane remembered that the time he had been very embarrassed by the whole conversation and told his father that he would never be interested in girls in that way and his father had patted him on the shoulder and told him, “You just wait son until you are a little older and those feelings will change I promise.”
And so they had.
Blane had indeed begun to notice girls by the time he was 15 even though he was in that horrible group home and he had a crush on one of the older girls there that was at least two years older then he was and had left that place when she turned eighteen never to return, not that he could really blame Lena for that as she to had been raped again and again.
Actually he hadn't gotten the worse of it because while he was handsome, he wasn't handsome enough for most of the people that were interested in raping little kids, his two sisters on the other hand had been chosen quite often by various sick bastards, because they were beautiful little girls and their had been nothing he could do about it.
Besides the girls always seemed to be chosen more often then the boys as it just seemed that more men were sick bastards then women and preferred beautiful little girls that would one day blossom into a gorgeous woman and unfortunately his twin sisters fit that category.
In the three years they had been at that 'group home' Blane thought those last two words with a snort, his sisters had been chosen at least 20 or 30 times by sick people who wanted to rape them, because they couldn't 'get off' with anybody, but a young child.
The five of them did indeed go to the mall after they had a very light breakfast and Blane and his two sisters got themselves a whole new wardrobes of the most beautiful clothes Blane had ever had.
Blane would probably never admit it out loud, but he was so glad to get himself and his sisters out of that absolutely horrible place, not to mention it was nice to really be clean and actually be dressed nicely and not in clothes that had been patched so many times that there was actually little of the original material left.
When Bella said that they wanted to buy him and his sisters who new wardrobes she hadn't been kidding all three of children had more clothes then they had owned at one time in their lives.
“Well, don't you look spiffy,” Jasper told Blane as he looked at the boy in washed out jeans and golden brown shirt.
“Thank you, sir, these are the nicest clothes I've ever had in my life,” Blane told the man known as Jasper politely.
“You're welcome,” Jasper told the boy patting him on the shoulder making Blane shrink back a little in an automatic reaction.
Jasper, of course, noticed the boy's reaction, but didn't say anything because he could certainly understand it. Besides Jasper knew that it would be awhile before any of the children would trust him or Bella or anyone else.
“Thank you for the clothes,” Meghan said while her sister just nodded. “They're the prettiest clothes I've ever owned.”
“You're more than welcome, sweetheart,” Bella told the girl.
“Now shall we go get us some dinner?”
The children's stomachs growled on cue and Bella laughed. “Where would you like to go for some food? Back to the hotel room and order room service again or to a restaurant?”
“It doesn't really matter,” Blane said after glancing at his sisters.
The Whitlocks knew that now was not the time to urge Blane to tell them what he wanted or for the twins to do the same as it would be awhile before the three children trusted anybody and they might never trust anyone again completely. Hopefully as time passed the three children would become more comfortable telling the Whitlocks what they wanted and would stop behaving all the time as that was just unnatural, but on the other hand what they had been through had caused them to grow up fast.
The Whitlocks would just have to be patient.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

One month later Blane confronted the two Whitlocks after his sisters had gone to bed. Blane had noticed over the last month that neither Whitlock ever ate with them and in fact they kept drinking from some thermoses and Blane had no idea what was in them, but he knew it could be anywhere from ordinary milk or juice to something else entirely.
Three weeks ago the Whitlocks had taken them to the house they owned and Blane immediately noticed that all the furniture looked brand spanking new as if it had just been bought and the paint and wallpaper in the various rooms looked new as well. Actually if Blane had to come up with a description it looked as if the house, which was in a very nice neighborhood, had never been lived in, although he knew that was impossible. It was just that the house had been cleaned from top to bottom to where there was no dust or dirt anywhere even in the corners.
Also in the last month since Blane and his sisters had been given regular amounts of food and were allowed to snack whenever they felt hungry all three of them had gained considerable weight and now Blane had also grown several inches and was now 5'2' and that made him only an inch shorter then Bella who was 5'3'.
In the last few weeks ever since Bella and Jasper had adopted him and his sisters he had been watching them very closely and had noticed several things that did him did make any sense. One thing neither of them seemed to do was sleep at all as the two of them were always supposedly the last go to bed after Blane and his sisters were down for the night and then they were already up and dressed first thing in the morning, although Blane knew that didn't necessarily mean anything as they might just not need as much sleep as he and sisters did. Another thing he had noticed was that they had one of those small fridges in their bedroom that sat on the floor in a corner, but what was weird was that it had a lock on the outside and Blane assumed it had booze, or possibly drugs in it. His imagination went wild imaging all sorts of things that would have to be refrigerated, but the kicker was that really made Blane believe that his new guardians were not human was the fact that he had actually seen Jasper move at a speed where he was nothing but a blur and that should have been impossible for a human and Blane was sure that he never would have seen anything at all or known them to be different if he hadn't woken up and gone to the bathroom to get a drink of water.
“Can we talk?” Blane asked as politely as he could and he immediately saw Jasper throw his wife a look that she seemed to understand without any difficulty.
“Of course,” Jasper agreed calmly.
“What did you want to talk about, Blane?” asked Bella as she and Jasper sat on the love seat in the den while Blane took one of the very comfortable chairs directly across from them.
“I want to know exactly what you are,” Blane told them bluntly as he surveyed them from where he was sitting. “I know you are not human at all.”
“How do you figure that?” asked Bella as calmly as possible.
“Because one night just a week ago, I got up to get me a drink of water and I saw Jasper moving at a speed that would have been impossible if you were human. At first I believed it was just my imagination, because after all I was half asleep, but I've seen several other things over the last few days that made me believe that what I saw was not just because I was sleepy.”
Bella sighed and shot Jasper a look who nodded.
“We knew this day was coming,” Jasper told Blane as calmly as possible.
“So what exactly are you? Aliens?” asked Blane.
Bella and Jasper chuckled at that, and then Bella said, “No, we're not aliens.”
“Then what are you?” demanded Blane.
“Vampires,” Jasper told him pretty calmly given the situation.
“Vampires, you're joking right?” asked Blane his disbelief obvious not only in his tone, but his body language as well and the Whitlocks could hardly blame the sixteen year old for his disbelief since they knew it was very hard to believe.
“You'd rather believe we're aliens from outer space?” asked Bella with a raised eyebrow. “What's the difference between believing we're aliens and believing we're vampires?”
“Aliens won't drain your blood,” Blane told them.
“They could suck out your brain though,” Bella joked having seen plenty of movies over the centuries where aliens did that.
“If you are what you say you are why did you go all to the trouble coming to that group home in the first place? I wouldn't think that you would be interested in something like what's happening to a bunch of children that are after all your food source.”
“What do you really know about vampires?” asked Jasper.
“Well, according to books and movies, all vampires are monsters that have no consciousnesses, that drink blood, turn into bats, sleep in coffins, can't go out in the sun because they'll turn to dust, can be killed by a wooden stake through the heart, have eyes as red as blood, and fangs to match, but I know that at least the one of you going out the sun part isn't true since we've been out in the sun plenty of times and you have shown no signs of turning into dust.”
“No, nothing of what is the those books and movies are nothing more then the imagination of humans who know nothing about the reality of vampires,” Bella told Blane. “About the only things they got right are the facts that we have red eyes, are immortal and drink blood the rest is pure fabrication.”
“Alright, if I was to believe you were vampires that doesn't answer my question as to why you bothered to help us at all.”
“Blane,” Jasper said sending Blane some calm with his empathic ability, “the Whitlocks have always been different from most of our kind.”
“In what way?” asked Blane surprised at himself that he was so calm, but then again after what he had been through maybe it wasn't really all that surprising. Besides the Whitlocks had had plenty of chances to harm or kill him and his sisters in the last month and instead he and his sisters had been fed better then they had been in years, been bought new clothes and toys, taken about San Francisco and showed the sites and in every way treated like they were the Whitlocks own children.
“Well, we've always been different in the fact that a lot of our kind don't care who they feed off of, not even a child,” Bella explained. “The Whitlocks have always been different in the fact that we prefer to feed off the criminals of society and yes that includes humans like that child pornographer, that forces children to have sex with adults who are just as sick as the guy who takes the pictures and films the videos. In fact we've been trying to track down the man or woman and their associates for the last month or so and as soon as we do we are going to give them what he or she deserves.”
“Alright, I suppose that makes sense,” Blane admitted, “but why go to all the trouble not to mention expense of adopting me and my sisters? I know it couldn't have been cheap to adopt all three of us, not to mention I don't see why you would bother in the first place.”
“You don't have to worry about that,” Jasper told Blane. “I plan on getting my money back just as soon as that pornographer is taken of, but even if Bella and I don't get it back we still have plenty and you and your sisters did not mention all the children at that group home needed help.”
“But why adopt us?” Blane asked again.
“Because it was the right thing to do,” Bella told him gently. “Yes, we're vampire, yes, we drink blood, but I and my family, unlike most of our kind care about people, the good people who are just trying to live their lives as best they can and so we leave them alone to do that.”
“What was done to you and your sisters, not to mention is continuing to be done to all of those kids is sick and twisted and the Whitlocks have always enjoyed going after people like that,” Jasper told Blane.
“But how did you even know what was going on?” Blane asked next and Bella shot Jasper a look that Blane didn't know how to intercept, but Jasper seemed to understand.
“Well, I mentioned Jasper's and my family, right?” asked Bella.
Blane nodded.
“Well, our twin sons, Rory and Rowan just happened to be in San Francisco just seeing the sites things like that,” Bella explained. “Well, Rory just happened to be walking across the street from your group home when suddenly he heard a mental call or maybe it is more accurate to say a cry of anguish in his mind.”
“A mental cry of anguish you say?” Blane asked not sounding or looking as disbelieving as the Whitlocks thought he would.
“Yes, do you know something about that?” asked Jasper as calmly as possible and then mentally watched Blane's emotions closely.
“I might,” Blane said noncommittally not sure whether to trust the Whitlocks with such sensitive information or not, “but what would you do with the information if I told you?”
“Nothing really,” Bella said, “but one of the reasons our sons knew something was wrong in the first place was because of that mental cry.”
Blane tried to decide if you should tell them what he knew and then decided that the Whitlocks had more than proved that they were trustworthy over the last month as his sisters had gone from scared little girls to being more confident and even Amber was actually talking a lot more than she had in the last three years. Bella had spent multiple hours drawing both of them out, talking to them, and getting them to talk about what had happened to them and they had helped a great deal in returning his sisters into the ones he had known before they had lost their parents. They were still a lot of different then they used to be, for one thing they were a lot quieter, but that was really to be expected, Blane supposed.
“Meghan has always been able to talk to other people in their minds,” Blane finally said. “It doesn't work at a very great distance and really only works with people she connects to, like it won't work with a random stranger on the street for example. Really before this it only worked with me and Amber and our parents.”
The two Whitlock's digested this information and they didn't look as disbelieving as Blane thought they would and then Jasper said, “That your sister's talent is showing up now will make it even stronger when she is turned into a vampire at 18. Meghan should be able to read anybody's mind as being turned into a vampire enhances whatever talent you have as a human.”
“What do you mean turn her into a vampire?” asked Blane beginning to get upset.
“Calm down,” Jasper told Blane and used his talent before Blane could wake his sisters.
Blane felt a calmness washed over him that was not his and he knew that one of the Whitlocks was responsible. “Just so you know I have a talent, and that is I am a empath,” Jasper told Blane calmly. “I can sense other people's emotions and effect then as well and yes, I calmed you down with my talent because we don't need to wake your sisters. Now will you allow me to explain before you go off the deep end?”
“Alright, explain,” Blane said rudely.
“Now that you know that vampires are real and your sisters will either figure it out or be told all of you will have to be changed because that is one of our main laws,” Jasper explained, “but since you and the twins are children at the moment it will have to wait until the twins are at least 18.”
Blane digested that for a second then asked what he thought was a very obvious question, “You have laws?”
“Yes we do, and the main one is that we are never to reveal ourselves to a human and if we do either on purpose like we did with you or one finds out on accident they are either to end up dead shortly afterwards or turned into one of our kind,” Bella told him, “and since you know very well that the Whitlocks never kill children that means that all three of you will have be turned into vampires just as soon as the twins reach 18, which I know is a few years in the future.”
“Why 18? Why not change us right now if that is your intent?” asked Blane.
“Because of the fact that if we changed them now they would remain forever 13,” Jasper explained calmly. “Once you're changed into vampires none of you will ever age again. You will look like the age you are changed and that means you'll always look 21 since you're three years older, while Meghan and Amber will forever look 18.”
“One good thing about changing into a vampire,” Bella told Blane.
“What's that?” asked Blane curiously.
“It is very likely that none of you will ever remember the abuse you suffered as you lose most of your memories of when you were human.”
Blane digested that moment and then asked, “Why aren't you going to change me at 18 if you are going to do the Meghan and Amber then?”
“Because having a newborn in the house with two humans even if those humans are your sisters is not a good idea,” Jasper told him with a shake of his head. “You literally act on instinct the minute you smell blood and hear a heartbeat and you would be on them and have them drained in a matter of minutes. I'm not sure I could stop you from killing your sisters as a new vampire has a very hard time with their control of their bloodlust, so it is just better if you are changed at the same time to prevent such a scenario from taking place.”
Blane shuddered at the thought of killing his sisters because of his instincts.
“A vampire's instincts are very strong,” Bella told Blane sympathetically see me know exactly what he was thinking, “especially a newborn's instincts and it takes awhile to learn how to control them, although it varies from vampire to vampire.”
“You were saying that Meghan's telepathy or whatever it is will get stronger when she is a vampire?” asked Blane.
“Yes, it will,” Jasper told him confidently. “I didn't have my empathic talents while I was human, but I did have very strong charisma where I could get anybody to do what I wanted even those much older than myself. Once I was changed though that developed into the empathic talent I have now. Becoming a vampire kind of upgrades whatever strong talents you had as a human. Most of our kind don't have any talents at all and are just plain ordinary vampires, but sometimes you get a human that has a useful talent once they are changed. Since Meghan is already showing a very weakened form of telepathy and that she was able to reach out to my son while she was still human tells me that her talent will probably be very powerful and will probably grow as she does.”
Blane digested that and knew that he was taking this much more calmly then he would have before he and his sisters had been placed in that terrible group home.
“I thank you for caring enough to interfere,” Blane said after he had thought over all the implications of what could have happened if he and his sisters hadn't been rescued. “Amber was well on her way to being so terrified around strangers, men especially, that she probably would have lived alone for the rest of her life with only her sister and brother allowed to visit.”
“Was your sister always that way?” asked Bella.
“Amber was always kind of shy around new people until she got know them. When we were left in that horrible place it became 100 times worse and anybody who approached her, except me or Meghan would make her whimper in fear, especially if it was a man or even a boy. She was okay until after that first time that some man wanted her for his own sick pleasure. When they took her away, none of us had any idea what was going to happen as we didn't know at that time that the place was being used for people who'd rent out kids, as you would rent a video so they could rape them again and again, but it quickly became obvious that our life was going to be hell until we could get out of there.”
“How long were you the first time yes sister was raped?” asked Jasper trying to conceal his seething anger.
“I remember I had just turned 13 and Amber and Meghan were 10.
“Not to deliberately change the subject...” although Bella's smile told both men, that yes she was deliberately changing the subject because she felt that the emotions were becoming a little to intense, “...but when are your birthdays as we wouldn't want to miss them.”
“Mine's in March,” Blane said grateful for the changing of the subject, “and the twins are in December.”
“Exact dates?” Bella requested. “I need to know so I can get you presents when your birthday comes around.”
“That isn't necessary,” Blane protested. “The two of you have already done so much for me, Meghan and Amber, asking for anything more would just be pure greediness.”
Bella fixed him with a stare and then she said, “All my children get presents on their birthdays and that now includes you and your sisters. Besides it isn't greediness to be given a present when it's your birthday no matter what we've done for you beforehand, which isn't something another caring person wouldn't have done had they known about your plight. What we did for you and your sisters was because we couldn't stand to see the three of you in that horrible place any longer and as soon as we can figure out who the main person behind turning the group home into a place that rents out little children to be abused will be going down, I guarantee it. In fact if Jasper and I had it our way we would have adopted every single one of you, but we knew we would have enough trouble just getting the three out of there and you seemed to be in the most need at the moment.”
Blane gave in then and there as was one thing about Bella Whitlock that he had learned in the last month was that she could be very stubborn and persistent and would not give up until she got what she wanted.
“My birthday is March 18th and the twins are on December 22nd.”
“See? Was that so hard?” Bella asked cheekily ruffling Blane's hair affectionately.
Jasper chuckled at that as he knew his wife very well and knew that she would have kept pestering Blane until she got what she wanted, so it was just as well that the boy gave in so easily as there weren't many people as stubborn are persistent as his wife, except maybe him, which was one of the many reasons they were such a good match.
Blane yawned, which Bella immediately noticed and said, “Why don't you go to bed and we can discuss it some more tomorrow night after you sisters are in bed? I'll tuck you in if you want.” Blane felt like the little boy again being tucked in by his mother, but that was what Bella, vampire or not, had become in a very short space of time.
“Good night,” Bella told Blane and when she turned away she said and was heading towards his bedroom door under her breath that Blane wasn't sure if he heard her, “son.”

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

“So what do you girls want to do today?” asked Jasper. It was about two weeks later and Blane and the two Whitlocks had been having conversations every night as Jasper and Bella had been telling him all about the vampire world and answering every question that Blane could think of to throw their way.
The questions Blane asked always amazed both Jasper and Bella as they really were very well thought out questions and yet Blane was only 16 and most boys his age would not have been able to think of such insightful questions, but on the other hand Blane had been through a lot in the last three years and had matured rapidly because of that fact, so they supposed it was understandable.
“Can we go to the amusement park?” asked Amber shyly and Meghan nodded vigorously in agreement.
“Of course,” Bella agreed after looking at Jasper who nodded. Luckily the two of them were well fed and not just on that synthetic blood as they had just been hunting in the middle of the night while all three children were asleep. Their twins sons had watched the three children at their parents request while Jasper and Bella went hunting for the first time in a month and a half as they had been living off that synthetic blood for all that time. Both Jasper and Bella made sure to overstuff themselves as not only were they very happy to be hunting live humans again, they also didn't want to have to go hunting again for awhile.
Both girls had grown at least an inch in the month and a half that they had been in Jasper and Bella's custody and they were also no longer so thin that each of their ribs showed through their skin and had put on a considerable amount of weight.
“Let me fix you some breakfast first,” Bella said, “so that you'll have the energy to have as much fun as possible.”
Blane had been amazed that Bella knew how to cook after he had discovered that she was a vampire and then Bella had told him that she had been born in the early 20th century and that all women back then had to know how to cook.
“So what would you girls like for breakfast?” asked Bella.
“Chocolate chip pancakes,” Meghan requested and Amber nodded still a little shy about expressing her opinion.
“Both of them love chocolate chip pancakes,” Blane told Jasper and Bella. “They used to request them every Saturday morning when our parents were still alive.”
“I'll tell you girls what I'll do,” Bella told Meghan and Amber. “I don't have the ingredients right now for chocolate chip pancakes, but I'll go to the grocery store and buy them and you can have them tomorrow, so what about just some bacon and eggs or sausage this morning for breakfast.”
“Alright,” Amber and Meghan said looking disappointed but also knowing that Bella was being perfectly reasonable.
Bella nodded and started taking out the ingredients for bacon and eggs and toast out of the fridge.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

“So have you discovered anything?” Jasper asked his sons who were over to visit now that the three children were are in bed.
“Yes,” Rowan told his father. “I managed to trace that bank account number and also the name, which is an alias by the way.”
“So who does that account belong too?” asked Bella looking at her son.
“It belongs to a very prominent businessman, who has a very slimy reputation in certain circles,” Rory told his parents. “To the outside world he is a philanthropist that gives millions of dollars of his money to charity every year, but in other darker circles he is nothing, but a man with a lot of money who has a taste for young girls.”
“And get this,” Rowan added looking as angry as his parents or his brother had ever seen him as usually he was a lot like Jasper always calm. “This guy, has a family including four kids, three girls and a boy. Now isn't that what you would call ironic?”
“It is,” Bella said as she thought about that.
“You're sure it's him?” Jasper added looking at his sons and both Rory and Rowan nodded empathically.
“We even did some reconnaissance,” Rory added, “just to make sure what we were finding out was accurate.”
“What exactly did you boys do?” asked Jasper. “Nothing that would get you discovered I hope as we want to come down on this guy like an avalanche without him know what's happening before it's too late.”
“No, nothing like that,” Rowan assured them. “We've been going to the same bar that we thought might be connected to the whole operation for the last month and a half while you were busy taking care of the kids and we just had confirmation a couple of days ago.”
“Rowan and I have been taking turns going to that bar,” Rory explained, “since we look exactly alike anybody in the bar that was a regular thought it was the same person coming in night after night, but it still took awhile for some of the more disreputable people to trust us even after we dropped a few subtle hints into certain ears and also paid out good money in bribes.”
“Good,” Jasper said approvingly. “So have you found anybody else involved and what's this rich guy's name?”
“There are several main people involved,” Rory said, “although he's the one behind them all. His name is Sterling Cunningham the III by the way. Also we've been spending time during the day following him on he errands. One of us followed him when he went to his lawyer, we followed him when he went to this restaurant to eat, one of us followed him so much that he can't take a piss without us knowing about it.”
“We probably know his schedule better than he does,” Rowan snickered. “And don't worry about about us being spotted as these rich people are so unaware of their surroundings that someone could have a gun in their back and they would never know it until it was pressed against their rib cage. These people who have money seem to thing that it will protect them from everyone and don't bother to look behind him to see if they are being followed and we were always at least three cars behind his limo which is very easy to recognize, considering it is long and silver white.”
“Good,” Jasper approved proud of his sons taking this mantle on their shoulders for they had been busy with Blane and his twin sisters for the last little while and had been unable to do any investigating of their own. “I am very proud of you two for taking this on your shoulders while your mother and I were busy.”
“Well, I was the one that discovered there was something rotten going on at that group home,” Rory pointed out with a little glow of pride at his father's words for Jasper never praised anyone for no reason, but always gave credit where credit was due, “and I felt that I should try to discover who was behind it while you two were busy. Of course Rowan's computer skills sure have come in handy.”
“So how did you finally discover that it was this Sterling Cunningham that was behind the whole operation?” asked Bella speaking for the first time in quite awhile.
“Well, it took me awhile to get through all the blocks,” Rowan explained very proud of himself, “especially since I didn't want to leave an electronic trail and therefore have it tracked back to me. This guy must have a dozen shell companies between himself and anything shady that he is involved in. Anyone with just normal computer skills wouldn't've discovered who was really behind it and if not for those computer courses I never could have done it either, well at least not without leaving a trail anyway and that is the last thing we want.”
“That is very true,” Jasper said thinking he was now glad that his son had taken all those computer courses as it was helping them out when they needed that help.
“So who else are the main perpetrators in the scheme?” Bella asked her son with a raised eyebrow.
“There's a cop over in the precinct that is as closest to the group home by the name Lieutenant Collin Bradshaw and he is as crooked as you can get it. I've been checking into his finances and he's had an infusion of $500,000 every six months for the last 15 years. No cop makes that much honestly in a year or even ten, not even a lieutenant, so I traced that back to this Sterling Cunningham who wires that to his account every six months so that Bradshaw will keep looking the other way,” Rowan.
“Also there is another man involved by the name of Pierce Gray who is a very well known pornographer in certain circles. He is into everything involving pornography and doesn't care in the least if little kids are being used as sex toys and in fact seems to thrive on it,” Rory said.
Jasper and Bella growled at that and then Jasper asked, “Anybody else?”
Rowan shook his head, “There are some other minor players but those three are the ones behind the scheme and it is not a good idea to go after everyone involved is that would draw too much attention to us.”
“No women involved, like a judge or something?” asked Bella.
“The only ones I found were minor players,” Rowan said shaking his head negatively.
“So Cunningham's family isn't involved in his shady businesses?” asked Jasper.
“No, I checked up on them too, especially the wife,” Rowan said, “but she came back squeaky clean.”
“Good, that will leave her to look after her children and while we deal with the father,” Bella said maliciousness in red eyes. “It is better to lose one parent, then both and leave them orphans.”
“It'll be hard on the kids though even if their father just disappears off the face of the Earth,” Rory pointed out. “I'm not saying the man that is their father doesn't deserve to be tortured for six months or so before we kill him, but the kids will always wonder what happened to their dad as they'll never be a body for the family to bury. They will always wonder as they are not aware of his crimes.”
“So is this Lieutenant Colin Bradshaw married,” asked Bella.
“No,” Rory said shaking his head. “He was married but he got divorced a few years ago and the wife took the kids they had with her.”
“Good, then no one will miss him except his coworkers at the police station.”
“They won't miss him too much, dad,” Rowan told them with a nasty snicker. “He isn't very well-liked if you know what I mean.”
“That's even better,” Jasper said thinking that either luck was with that fate was intervening so that they could make these child abusers pay for what they had done. “That means that none of his associates will investigate too hard on what happened to him if he's not well liked.”
“Try hated and you'll be closer to mark, dad,” Rory told his father. “Rowan did a very through investigation on this Lieutenant Collin Bradshaw and most of his coworkers can barely stand to breath the same air as him.”
“Why do they hate him so much?” asked Bella curiously.
“Well, for the one thing he's a drunk,” Rowan explained. “He comes to work drunk most days and also he's not very nice to any of his coworkers for he tends to yell at them a lot of times for no reason, but one reason he's really hated is the fact that he tends to proposition the female officers and more then one has slapped him silly or punched his lights out for it and he puts them on report for their actions no matter how deserved they are.”
“Well, it sounds like he won't be missed,” Bella said with an impish grin.
“No, he really won't be,” Rory agreed. “He has a brother and a sister but both of them don't get along very well with him and have pretty much washed their hands of him entirely.”
“So when are we going to make a move to kidnap these three men?” asked Rowan. “I for one am eager to torture them for the next six months or so for what they have done.”
“Well,” Jasper said cautiously thinking about it. “I don't know that Bella and I will be able to help you with the kidnapping as we have three children to look after you know and they are still very wary of strangers.”
“With good reason,” Bella added.
“Yes, with good reason,” Jasper agreed.
“Why don't you get one of the girls down here to look after the three children for a few hours,” Rory suggested after a moment. “They probably won't be as wary of a woman as a man.”
“We could really use your expertise,” Rowan added. “You were the one that was in the army when you were human and you know more about strategies then both of us put together.”
“I suppose I could get Melodie up here,” Jasper said thinking about it. “She's not to far way actually and could be here in a matter of hours.”
“We'll have to see how they react to Melodie before will agree to leave them. They have to trust that Melodie won't hurt them before I'll agree to leave them to go on this raid. As much as I want to be in on this raid I won't be leaving those children with anybody they don't trust as that would break their trust in us completely and we've just started to gain it as it is.”
“I agree,” Jasper said. “If we can wait another month or two when they trust us a little more it might be better for us.”
The twins nodded in reluctant acceptance because they knew very well that their parents were right.
Meghan stared at the strange, beautiful man with the reddish brown hair from where she stood peering around the doorway and despite what had happened to her she felt her heart beat a little faster.
She had absolutely no idea who the twins were with the reddish brown hair or what they were talking about because her new parents and the twins were talking so softly that she couldn't understand what they were saying at all. Meghan stared at the man with the reddish brown hair again and was pretty sure she at least had a crush on the one that was sitting across from Jasper.
“Rowan,” Jasper said.
“Yes, dad?” answered Rowan.
Meghan gasped softly for she now knew that they the gorgeous man sitting across from Jasper was named Rowan and she would be able to tell him apart from his twin whenever the two were together. Wait a minute Rowan had called Jasper, dad ,but how could that be a when they looked exactly the same age? Come to think of except for the red hair they looked just like Jasper at least in their face what Meghan couldn't see clearly from where she was hiding.
“Wait a minute we have a little visitor that is listening from the doorway,” Bella said finally hearing a heartbeat that was closer then it should be. “You can come out, Meghan,” Bella told the little girl, “We know you're there.”
Meghan came out looking ashamed of herself and wondering at the same time at how Bella had known it was her and not her sister Amber since they were twins after all. “How did you know I was standing there?” Meghan wasn't afraid that her new mom and dad would physically beat her for they had more then proved over the last month and a half that they were kind and loving. What she was afraid was disappointing a man and woman she loved a whole lot.
“We just know and don't you know it's very rude to listen in on a private conversation?” Jasper told her sternly.
“Sorry,” Meghan told everyone hanging her head in shame. “I just got up to get me a glass of water and I heard voices.”
“I get it, you were curious, just like all children would be,” Bella told her, “but that doesn't mean it wasn't very rude of you to try to listen to what we were talking about. It's very late you should be in bed.”
“Rowan,” Jasper questioned softly of his son as Rowan gazed instead at Meghan in fascination. Rowan shook his head as if trying to clear the cobwebs out of his brain wrenching his gaze away from Meghan wondering what was happening to him as he couldn't shake the feeling of being overly protective. Had he finally found his mate in this 13 year old girl, who had already been through hell? Rowan's inner demon growled at the thought of all that Meghan had been through and the human part of Rowan had trouble controlling his demon enough that he didn't leap out of the chair and go murder Sterling Cunningham right then and there.
Rowan would've been perfectly happy to torture Sterling Cunningham just on principle, now that he knew who was behind it, but it was different now that he was pretty sure that Meghan was his mate. He would now happily do it for the next year or two before he finally let the man die not only for being a despicable person who took pleasure out of the torture and rape of little children, but for being such a sick son of a bitch as well.
“Rowan, you okay?” asked Rory concerned.
“I'm fine,” Rowan said vigorously shaking his head, but he couldn't quit darting glances at Meghan and Jasper and Bella were both looking between him and Meghan in amusement, as well as understanding and he knew his parents had already figured out what had just happened although Rory appeared to still be in the dark.
“You need to go back to bed,” Bella told Meghan struggling to hide her amusement at the whole situation. “We'll be talking about your spying in the morning.”
“Yes, ma'am,” Meghan said hanging her head in shame even while she still kept darting glances at Rowan.
“Now, scat,” Bella told her, her voice caring and kind.
Meghan turned and headed back to where she was sleeping with her sister and the same room and bed.
“How long was she standing there and why didn't we notice?” asked Rory finding it amazing that the four of them had been so involved in their discussions that they hadn't at least heard her heart beating if nothing else.
“I just hope she didn't hear what we were discussing,” Rowan said looking at Meghan's disappearing back. “That's the last thing that a little girl needs to deal with.”
“She's hardly little, she is 13, after all and well on her way to being a grown up,” Bella told her son in amusement. “Before you know it she'll be 18.”
“What the hell is wrong with you earlier,” Rory said after a minute of silence. “It was like you were in a daze or something.”
“Rory,” Bella told her son the amusement clear in her tone, “That is exactly what happened.”
“What do you mean, mom?” asked Rory confusion.
“Meghan,” Rowan answered before his mother could, “she's my mate.”
Rory looked so flabbergasted that the other three vampires in the room laughed at his expression heartedly.
“Why do you think your brother looked so shocked?” asked Jasper amused at the Rory's reaction although he supposed he couldn't really blame his son either. “Rowan, must have felt like he had been a hit over the head with a sledgehammer.”
“That's one way of describing it,” Rowan said with the groan. “I wanted torture this guy before I found out Meghan was my mate, but now I want to do it for more personal reasons and make it last a lot longer.”
“Was she the one that I heard in my mind?” asked Rory curiously.
“Yes, Blane found out about us, just recently and after we had talked for a long time he admitted that Meghan has always had this kind of very weak telepathy that usually only works with members of her family,” Bella said.
“We told him that the more she grows the stronger her talent was going to become and when she is turned into a vampire she'll not only be able to read other's thoughts, but probably be a able to communicate with anyone that way. Even with those that don't have even the slightest touch of the gift.”
“How is Blane doing knowing that we are vampires?” asked Rory curiously.
“He was panicking just as anybody else would have learning that we were bloodsucking vampires,” Jasper said with humor lacing his voice, “but once I calmed him down with my talent and we talked about it he realized that we'd had plenty of chances to kill them if we had wanted to and that he and his sisters were safe with us.”
“Blane really is a very intelligent young man and that he is all really is something of a miracle considering all he has been through,” Bella said. “He realized almost immediately that we never would have interfered at all at that group home if all we were going to do was kill them as there are much easier ways to get ourselves meals.”
“Now that's the truth,” Jasper chuckled and the others joined him trying to keep it down as they didn't want to wake the three children.
Rowan for his part kept shooting longing looks at the bedroom where he knew his mate was probably sound asleep by now and had to retrain himself from actually going in there just to be with her and to watch her sleep. He knew it was gonna be very hard over the next few years to keep their relationship at the level of just friendship as she was only 13 after all.
Rory looked at his brother and then back at his parents and then he finally said clapping his brother on the back, “I'm even more glad then that I got that mental call as we never would've known about Rowan's mate otherwise.”
“That's true,” Bella admitted looking thoughtful.
“I know that now that Rowan has found his mate things are now going to change between us.”
“Yes, they will,” Rowan agreed, “but you will always be a big part of my life and maybe we can even travel together all three of us once Meghan is all grown up and a vampire of course. Until then though we need to capture these three men and torture them for as long as their bodies can take it and after that maybe we should travel for a few years while waiting for Meghan to finish growing up so that you don't do something you'll regret.”
“Those are some very good suggestions, Rory,” Jasper said approvingly. “I have heard that it is very hard to stay away from your mate if they are human—not that that happens to often—especially if they are still a child.”
“My situation has happened before?” asked Rowan in astonishment.
“I have heard of it happening only once before a long time ago and I'm not even sure if it's true or not as another vampire told me a few years before I met Bella.”
Jasper told them the story the same way that the older vampires had told him and by the time he was done Rowan looked a little bit more relaxed, although he knew he was still going to have trouble staying away from Meghan until she was old enough for some things, like becoming a vampire for instance, having them mark each other and also make love constantly for the next ten years or so.
“You are welcome to visit,” Bella told her son, “and you will be allowed to do certain activities with Meghan although I think it's a better idea that she doesn't discover that you are mates until she's at least 16, which is really when most human girls start dating.”
Rowan nodded as that was sensible. “I guess I'm just going to have to travel the world and come back for the Christmas holidays, although I don't think we will be celebrating Christmas like we normally do with three humans in the house and won't be for the next few years.”
“Well, it really depends on when Meghan and Amber find out we are vampires and that we have a large family,” Jasper pointed out logically. “We probably won't be doing our normal Christmas feast on Christmas Eve and New Year's though not until they're vampires anyway.”
“Have you thought about schooling?” asked Rory curiously. “Blane doesn't need as much I'm sure as the twins.”
“We thought we would homeschool them just like we did you,” Bella explained. “The group home they were in was also set up as a school, so they did have lessons during the school year for the last three years, although I'm sure they didn't enjoy those lessons as much as they will probably enjoy ours.”
“You see a place like that doesn't have the money for the children to take field trips,” Jasper explained what he and Bella had come up with. “We couldn't do that with you or any of your siblings because you grew to fast, not to mention we weren't sure if you could control your bloodlust around a lot of humans, but that won't be a problem with these three since they are human.”
“We thought we could take them places like New York and teach them about the history of Radio City Music Hall for example or the Twin Towers that were bombed and where they used to stand,” Bella explained. “Children will have a much easier time with the lessons, not to mention more fun if they get to see the sites for themselves and go to a show at Radio City Music Hall.”
“If we can make history fun then they will retain the information much better, although I know most schools, unless it's one of those posh upperclass ones, don't have the money to take the children on these kind of field trips.”
“But you do have the money,” Rory said understanding where his father was going with this.
“Precisely,” Jasper agreed with a wink. “We have already started their education just by taking them around to the sites in San Francisco and explaining the history behind each one, while letting them enjoy themselves at the same time. They haven't even realized that they've been learning anything at all as all they thought they were doing was having fun.”
“That's very devious, dad,” Rowan said admiringly.
“Thank you,” Jasper told his son with another wink.
“You realize that they probably won't remember the lessons when they are turned into vampires don't you?” Rory commented.
“We know,” Bella said, “but they will probably hang onto their love of history at the very least.”
“And also you don't lose any of the lessons that have been deeply ingrained. Like you don't lose your ability to spell or know proper grammar for instance. They might forget their specific lessons in history, but their love of history will likely remain and so will the other lessons we teach them just like Bella said. After all I have always loved history and I seem to remember liking it even when I was human, although the memory is very vague and out of focus.”
Both twins nodded Rowan rather absentmindedly as he kept sneaking glances at the door that Meghan had disappeared through as his parents and brother watched him in amusement.
“You do know that if you want to spend time with Meghan that you're going to have to take all three children at the same time on outings and such?” asked Bella.
“It would be worth it, just to spend some time with her,” Rowan said. “It's going to be hard enough having to wait five years for her to become a vampire, so the more time I can spend with her better as far as I am concerned.”
“I think you should start coming along with Bella and I when we take the three of them on outings so that they can begin to get to know and trust you as they're still rather weary around strangers and with good reason,” Jasper said, understanding his son's feelings completely as he could imagine how hard it was to be near your mate and not be able to do anything inappropriate because they were far to young. “It will also allow you to spend time with your mate.”
“That sounds good,” Rowan agreed.
“And what am I chopped liver?” Rory asked with a raised eyebrow only partly teasing. “I was the one that discovered them you know.”
“You were,” Rowan agreed, “and I'm more than thankful to you for it.”
“You can come along to if you want,” Bella suggested. “That way you can spend time with us and your brother.”
“Thanks, mom, I might just take you up on that,” Rory said.
“So what did you have planned for tomorrow?” asked Rowan looking at his watch. “Excuse me today since it's 5 AM.”
“Nothing really except some shopping,” Bella told her sons. “All three children have already grown enough just in the month and a half they've been with us that they need new clothes, pants in particular and that will probably take the rest of the day.”
“Maybe I'll come along,” Rowan mused thinking that any time he could spend with Meghan was a very good thing as far as he was concerned. “I could use a couple of new outfits to since I got blood all over one and it had to be gotten rid of since it is nearly impossible to get bloodstains out of your clothes even in this century.”
“You just want to spend time with Meghan,” Rory told his brother with a smirk.
“That's just a very nice side benefit,” Rowan said unperturbed by his twin's teasing, “as I really do need some new clothes, but I've been putting it off since really I'm not very fond of shopping as you well know.”
Jasper and Bella watched their sons argue good-naturedly in amusement, and then Jasper said, “I'm afraid you get your dislike of shopping from me since I never have liked to shop myself.”
Bella rolled her eyes in exasperation and said, “Believe me, I know. I have a very hard dragging you into a mall or really anywhere unless it's a music, electronics or bookstore.”
“All the men in the family are like that mom,” Rory said, “some more than others of course.”
“And not just in the family as men in general don't like to shop half as much as ladies do.”
“We'd better to go back the hotel and change clothes,” Rory said finally looking at his watch. “What time do you want us back in order to go shopping?”
“About 10:00 is fine,” Bella said. “Better make that 9:30 so we have time to introduce you to Amber and Blane.”
“Alright, see you in about 3 1/2 hours then,” Rowan said as he gave both his parents hugs and then his mother a kiss on the cheek.
“Well, that was certainly unexpected,” Bella said as soon as the twins were gone.
“I figured it was something like that actually,” Jasper disagreed. “After all why would Meghan be able to connect with Rory's mind when always before all she was able to do was connect with members of her immediate family?”
Bella thought about that and then said, “I suppose that makes sense, but why was she able to connect with Rory's mind and not Rowan's?”
“Well, Rory was a lot closer since he was just across the street literally,” Jasper pointed out logically, “and I'm sure her ability isn't able to reach very far since she is still so young and since Rowan and Rory are identical twins that means their brains probably work along a similar or even identical wavelength.”
“And since Meghan is Rowan's mate—” Bella said, “She was able to contact him because of the bond?”
“Exactly,” Jasper agreed.
“But how did she know that someone was there that would be able to hear her mental cry?” Bella said still amazed that Meghan had been able to reach out for to Rory like that when she shouldn't have even known that he was there.
“I have a theory about that,” Jasper admitted.
“What's your theory?” asked Bella curious as Jasper's theories were usually at least partially right, which knew came from his vast experience.
“Well, I think that Meghan has probably been trying to reach somebody since she and her siblings were put in that hellhole, but her talent was probably a lot weaker when she was 10 and 11 then it is now. Also if she connected with a human they would have thought they were imagining things and not paid any attention to her mental call as most humans do not believe in extraordinary powers, like telepathy.”
Bella thought about that and nodded as she figured that Jasper was more than likely right, because most humans did not believe in anything that they could not see or touch.
“You're more than likely correct,” Bella said. “You're right that most humans even if they heard her mental call would just shake it off as if it was their imaginations. It's a theory anyway, and a good one, but I suppose we'll never know for certain whether or not you are correct.”
“Now I suppose both of us should take showers and change clothes at least,” Jasper said looking down at his unwrinkled shirt and still clean pants. “The children should be up shortly and we don't want to be seen wearing the same clothes we had on yesterday as the twins will probably notice that little detail if we don't and since they don't know about us yet it is not a good idea to give them clues that we are not quite human.”
“Good idea,” Bella agreed rising from the couch and Jasper doing the same. Both of them headed into their bedroom so that they could take a shower before the three children arose.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

One month later the three children were comfortable enough with Jasper, Bella and their twin sons as Rory and Rowan had been with them almost constantly for the last few weeks. Meghan, especially was ecstatic that she could spend so much time with Rowan since she had a huge crush on him and had ever since she had first set eyes on him just four weeks ago. Rowan meanwhile had to treat Meghan as just a friend and not his future mate as he had been wanting to find his mate just as much as his twin for so long that when it actually happened it was almost impossible for him to treat Meghan normally. If there were one thing Whitlocks were though and that was stubborn to the core, which in this case was a good thing.
Speaking of his brother, the same thing had happened to Rory that had happened to him the minute he had met Amber and laid eyes on her for the first time for Rory had immediately been drawn to her, just as Rowan, himself had been to Meghan and he had to force himself to look away. Bella and Jasper had looked stunned this time instead of amused like when it had happened to him.
Both twins found out later that as far as their parents knew two sets of twins being mates had never happened before in the vampire world as the odds against it were absolutely astronomical. And yet it had.
In any case both vampire twins who had already been committed to making sure that the people paid for what they had done were even more committed than they had been before and their anger ran deeper then ever, which was understandable.
Finally the day came where they would enact their plan. Melodie had come to San Francisco as requested to watch over the three children about a week before so that Blane, Meghan and Amber would be comfortable with her presence and all three children had taken to her immediately.
It was midnight in all three children were fast asleep.
“I'll see you when you get back,” Melodie promised. “Go get them and I hope sincerely that those three men get what they really deserve for what they did to all those kids.”
“Oh, they will,” Rory assured his sister with a menacing gleam in his red eyes. “Rowan and I plan on torturing them for the next six months or so. We already have a place all picked out to do that where nobody will hear them if they scream and I guarantee they will be screaming so much that they will probably destroy their larynxes before we are done.”
“I'm looking forward to it,” Rowan said his expression grim. “I can forgive a great deal since I know that nobody is perfect, including us, but what they did to those children to me is absolutely unforgivable.”
“And I happen to agree with you,” Melodie said nodding in agreement. When she had found out what the four of them had been doing in San Francisco she had been very eager to help interrupting her own plans in order to help them out.
“Let's get going,” Rory said him, but the front door the other three following, “as the sooner we get our three targets the sooner we can start giving them what they deserve.”

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

“Who are you? What do you want?” Sterling Cunningham screamed at Rory and Rowan.
It was several hours later and they had managed to kidnap Cunningham just as he was coming out of his office. Rory and Rowan had knocked Cunningham's chauffeur unconscious and then used the chauffeur's hand with his fingerprints to open the limo's door for the door would not open without the fingerprints it was programmed to respond to. The cars of the future were much safer from vandals and car thefts then had been true in the 20th and early 21st century. After Rowan had the door open he found the switch for the hood and popped it and Rory had the security system disabled in just a few seconds. After the security system was disabled all that was left to do was wait and it had been two and a half hours later that the limo's phone rang and Rory answered trying to sound as if he had a cold.
It had only taken a minute for Cunningham to tell Rory that he was ready to be picked up and five minutes later he was in the car and Rowan made sure that he locked the back doors from the front so that Cunningham couldn't get out until they were at their destination for the back locks had been disabled by Rory.
“What do we want? Your life!” Rowan told him. “We found out that you are the main operator beyond the rape of children in this city and that you run your pornography ring out of St. Melton's group home.”
“Once we cut off your head and then bury you somewhere where nobody will find you well let's just say that without you the percentage of crime, especially pornography should take a sudden mysterious plunge.”
“Why would you care they're only orphans,” Cunningham said his voice filled with contempt.
“They're also human beings and children at that,” Rory roared even more furious then he had been.
“Children are innocent and deserve to be protected not exploited for something so sick,” Rowan added.
“I'll give you 15% of profits if you let me go,” Cunningham offered trembling in fear.
Both Rowan and Rowan shook their heads negatively and Rory said, “Sorry trying to bribe us is not going to save you. For being such a despicable person you deserve to pay,” Rory said smiling evilly at Cunningham making the man shiver even harder then before and scoot back a few inches until his back hit a wall.
“Of course, before we kill you, we're going to torture you for the next couple of months before we finally put you out of your misery,” Rowan added with an evil smirk.
“In fact your two cohorts should be joining in on the fun shortly,” Rory added. “Our parents should be picking the two of them up now.”
Cunningham gulped and wondered who these two were and how they had discovered his operation. The only cop that had discovered his operations luckily wasn't very honest and an infusion of 500,000 dollars every six months into Bradshaw's bank account had kept him very content and happy to look the other way. The 500,000 was a small price to pay for him to be able to indulge his secret passion and that was for little girls. His wife and his children of course, knew absolutely nothing about the fact that he had only married because it was expected and to keep up appearances, not because he loved his wife, although he did dote on his children. To the outside world, as well as his family, he was a philanthropist who gave millions of dollars every year to various charities and good causes, but to the criminal world he was just a very rich guy who had a taste for young girls and the money to back up his passion.
Now though it looked like all his secret crimes were coming home to roost and that fate or God or something unknown had decided that it was time he paid for his crimes and it didn't help that these two men were apparently completely honest and therefore wouldn't take any amount of money that he could offer.
“No!” Cunningham begged, rattling the chains that were attached to the wall, while the other end was attached to his wrists. There was no way for him to escape as the chains to the manacles were secured very well into the stone of the wall and there was no way he would be able to pry them loose. “Let me go!”
“Sorry,” Rory said, not sounding sorry at all.
“No can do,” Rowan added.
Both twins smirked and Cunningham knew at that moment that no matter how much he begged or pleaded he would not be leaving wherever they were alive and that he was in for a great deal of pain for at least the next 60 days and probably longer.
Cunningham looked around the dimly lit room and noticed that it had been set up as a very modern torture chamber with one of those medical beds with straps in the middle, and an array of instruments that would be very painful when applied to his flesh in neat rows on a nearby table.
Suddenly there was the sound of footsteps and it wasn't more then a few seconds later that Jasper and Bella appeared each carrying a man very easily. They both dumped their baggage beside Cunningham and made sure to secure their wrists in the additional two sets of manacles that were attached to the stone wall.
“We'll leave you two to do what you will with them,” Jasper said as he kicked one of the unconscious men in the side causing him to groan and wake up from the pain.
“Thanks, dad, mom,” Rowan said.
“You're more than welcome,” Bella told her son giving each one a kiss on the cheek.
“We need to get back to the children now, but make sure the two of you come and visit every couple of days as Meghan and Amber will miss you if you don't make an appearance occasionally.”
“We will,” Rowan promised, while Rory nodded.
“Make sure you give us all the details when you're done,” Bella said smiling evilly at the three men who were now awake and terrified
Bella was usually a nice and gentle person, but she also had a tough side as well and she hated to discover an injustice done, on children especially and so Bella could torture someone with unholy glee and pleasure and not feel the least bit guilty about it if she felt that the person deserved it. You would think someone as gentle as Bella wouldn't enjoy that type of thing, but she had an inner strength, and determination probably because she had been pretty poor before she had been bitten, by the vampire in 1930. If Jasper hadn't come along she would be dead and buried in a grave, well either that or a vampire on her her own having never met Jasper at all.
“We will,” Rowan promised smirking evilly at the three men whom were cowering against the back wall.
Jasper and Bella left and Rowan and Rory surveyed the three men for a moment.
“Who shall we start with?” asked Rory.
“It doesn't really matter to me although I think we should save Cunningham for last,” Rowan said, “since he is the main person behind that child pornography ring. Let him contemplate his fate for the next month or so.”
“An excellent idea,” Rory agreed and went over to unlock Bradshaw's chains. Collin Bradshaw struggled and screamed bloody murder, hitting Rory all over his chest and back trying to get loose to no avail.
“Let me go!” Bradshaw growled menacingly. “I'll make sure you two pay if you don't let us go.”
“How will you make us pay?” Rowan inquired calmly as he carried the man over to the medical table and strapped down his arms and legs. “You'll be dead and a corpse can't do anything.”
“Well, what shall we start with? Should we skin him first? Use the cattle prod? Or one of the spiked whips?” asked Rory.
“Why don't you use the cattle prod on his cock and balls while I start skinning him?” Rowan suggested with a wink at his twin.
“Fine with me,” Rory agreed with a smirk in the direction of the lieutenant who whimpered.
“Why are you doing this?” asked Bradshaw whimpering as he looked at all the torture devices that were laid out on the table in neat rows.
“Because you looked the other way when children were being abused,” Rory told him looking furious all over again. “You did nothing, while children who had no one to protect them were abused for sick people's pleasure. If there is anything that makes me and my whole family furious it's the exploitation of children and rape is one of the most evil of all, especially when done against a child.”
“Instead of trying to bring them down you took quite a bit of money from Cunningham and looked the other way while children were used, exploited and abused,” Rowan added. “It is often said that those who cannot help themselves will receive help from an unlikely source and we are that help. The children might never know how they were rescued, but they will be delivered and gotten into peoples hands that know how to help them recover from what was done to them, although the main perpetrators will never be discovered as we will bury your bodies out in the desert deep enough that even wild animals won't be able to get to you. Before then we plan on torturing you and your cohorts for at least the next six months for what you did to all those children, before sending your souls to hell where they belong.”
All three men whimpered at that as they could tell that the two people who held them captive were deadly serious in what they had said and that they would be tortured and in a great deal of pain for at least the next six months before they were finally allowed to die.
“Go ahead and scream as loud as you can for we are deep enough in this old mine that nobody is going to be able to hear you even if they passed directly by the hidden entrance on accident,” Rory added with a smirk.
“We chose this place on purpose so that we wouldn't be interrupted until we were done and I guarantee that if your bodies are ever discovered, which is very unlikely, will be unidentifiable,” Rowan added. “So, shall we begin?”
Rory nodded it and two of them began.
Rowan calmly began using his very sharp fingernails to start peeling the skin off one of the lieutenant's arms after he had of course, ripped off all his clothes until he was completely naked as the day he was born, while Rory took the cattle prod off the table and made sure it was working before applying it to Bradshaw's cock causing the man to scream even louder then he had been when Rowan had started cutting into his skin.
“Well that's certainly a promising start,” Rowan said with a smirk at Bradshaw, “but believe you, me we are just getting started as we are going to pay you back for every single time those children were abused, starved and neglected.”
Bradshaw started screaming again as the twins restarted what they had been doing just a couple of minutes before and it wasn't very long at all before all the skin on the lieutenant's arm was almost completely gone having been torn off in long strips while at the same time Rory had moved the cattle prod and was applying it to another part of the man's anatomy.
It wasn't very long at all before there was no more skin on Bradshaw's left arm and Rowan moved until he was in position at one of the man's legs and started doing the same thing.
“Why don't we try something different?” Rory suggested after awhile having gotten bored with playing with the cattle prod, which had been rewired to provide more oomph then normal.
“What do you suggest?” Rowan asked intrigued as he saw the devilish gleam in his twin's eyes.
“Well, I was thinking that we could heat up that poker, which shouldn't take very long since we took the time to build up that fire over in the corner, and once we do one of us could apply it to various parts of his body while the other pours acid over the skinned areas,” Rory suggested.
“Great ideas,” Rowan said enthusiastically.
“I certainly thought so,” Rory said with a certain malicious gleam in his red eyes.
“No! Please! Mercy!” Bradshaw begged sounding absolutely pathetic.
“No, sorry,” Rowan said not sounding particularly sorry at all. “You get what you have earned and you have definitely earned this, many times over for looking the other way while children were being used and abused. Children are our most precious resource and you did nothing to protect them even though you knew what was happening.”
“Also my brother has done a thorough investigation into your past and discovered that your subordinates at the police station will not look very hard into your disappearance considering that you are very disliked,” Rory said.
“Don't you mean hated, brother mine?” Rowan asked his brother with a raised eyebrow.
“I was trying to find a less disagreeable word,” Rory said with a shrug.
“Why? Even if he takes offense he isn't going to be alive long enough to try to do anything about it, now is he?” Rowan said.
“You're right,” Rory agreed with a smirk at their victim. “In any case nobody is going to be looking to hard into your disappearance when you don't show up for work tomorrow.”
“And as to all the money that you took from Cunningham it's already been transferred into an account for your victims,” Rowan added. “We left enough that your coworkers will know that you were receiving extra money from somewhere, but ¾ of it has already been transferred elsewhere.”
Bradshaw whimpered at that thinking of all that wonderful money that had been going into his account over the years. He had spent a bit and bought himself a small house in Italy, but a great deal of it still remained, although apparently not anymore.
Without another word the twins got restarted on torturing the man as after Rory had heated up the poker he applied it all over the man's chest sides and legs, while Rowan poured acid all over the skinned areas causing Bradshaw to scream even louder then before, while the other two men watched in horror at what was being done to their cohort in crime for they had no doubt that the same thing would be happening to them.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

The very next day the Whitlock twins emerged from the old mineshaft looking around in the bright sunlight. They had left their victims all chained against the wall and even if they screamed for hours nobody would hear them unless it was another vampire, of course. Both Rory and Rowan knew that they would have to feed their prisoners and also leave water well within reach as they didn't want their prisoners to die until they were ready for them too.
“Well, let's go get cleaned up and spend some time with Amber and Meghan,” Rowan suggested looking excited at seeing Meghan again, which Rory could hardly blame him for as he was just as excited at the thought of seeing Amber as Rowan was at seeing Meghan.
“Alright,” Rory agreed without arguing as he was also looking forward to seeing Amber. “We can continue our torture tonight since as vampires we don't need to sleep. Besides this will give the three of them time to contemplate the fate that awaits them and also recover a little and that, dear brother, is what is called psychological warfare.”
“I think we did a pretty good job on that cop, especially for the few hours we had,” Rowan said as the two of them sped towards the city on their own two feet.
“So who do you think we should start on next?” Rory asked. “Should we continue with the cop or start torturing that pornographer Pierce Gray instead?”
“I think we should give the cop time to recover a little so that he will last longer next time we torture him,” Rowan suggested. “We wouldn't want him to die on us for at least the next month or so and possibly the next 2 or 3 months, now would we? I think we should start on that pornographer next and then go back to Bradshaw.”
“We also need to feed our prisoners you know even if it's just burgers and sodas,” Rory reminded his twin. “We don't want them to starve to death before we're ready for them to die and human beings need food at regular intervals.”
“We'll pick up some fast food in town before we come back,” Rowan said knowing that Rory was correct and that humans needed to be fed at least once a day. Water especially was essential as a human could live off the fat in their bodies for a long period of time, but they definitely needed water because if they didn't get any it wouldn't be more then a week or so before their prisoners died of dehydration and thirst. The human body after all was made up of anywhere from 45 to 65 percent water, depending on body fat and other factors and that meant that it took a lot of water to keep a human going.
Both twins fell silent and it wasn't long before they were at the edge of town and from there they sped to their hotel room making sure they took the much less crowded back streets so that no human would see then moving at such an impossible speed, even if all they saw was a blur that could be brushed off as their imaginations.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

“So shall we get started?” Rory said rubbing his hands gleefully together as he observed how the three men cowered on fear. Bradshaw couldn't really move much as he had several crushed toes and every time he moved his crushed bones sent a jolt of pain up his leg so bad that he nearly blacked out everytime.
Rory and Rowan had indeed brought food from town and watched as the three men ate their burgers and drank their bottled water and once they were done eating Rowan disposed of the wrappers burning them up in the campfire that was in the corner.
“Please, let me go!” Gray begged. “I'll pay you anything you want if you just let me go!”
“Sorry, no, can do,” Rory told him taking great pleasure in crushing any hope of any of the three men getting out their current situation alive.
“Trying to bribe us is not going to work as the two of us have plenty of money of our own,” Rowan added.
“Despite being rich though we still care about people, especially children,” Rory added.
“What are you, two?” screamed Bradshaw. “You certainly aren't human. A mere human could not crush my bones with their own strength without some kind of mechanical help.”
“You're right we aren't human,” Rowan said with a certain glee in his voice. “We have stonelike flesh and venom instead of blood, with red eyes. Can you guess what we are or are we going to have to tell you?”
“The only species who fit that description are fictional.”
“Well, as far most humans know they are the only intelligent species on this planet,” Rory pointed out, “which is not entirely true. You already know that we are not human and also there have been plenty of books and movies written about our species although they are, of course, way off base, since none of the authors that write about our kind have ever met any of us for if they had they would not have lived to write about it.”
“Are you telling me that you two are vampires?” asked Pierce Gray the disbelief obvious in his voice and in his face as well.
“Give the man a prize,” Rowan said his voice dripping sarcasm clapping in congratulations. “That is, of course, exactly what we are. We are, of course, nothing like the books and movies would have you believe as most of those are not only wildly inaccurate, but also very sanitized.”
“If humans truly discovered that vampires were real and what they were truly like, they would be running in a hundred different directions screaming in terror,” Rory said, with a malicious gleam in his eyes and an evil smirk on his lips.
“Now enough of this discussion,” Rowan said, “We only have a limited amount of time just until nine or so as our parents are expecting us at ten.”
“Yes, but we're going to come back the next night and the next for at least the next six months or so,” Rory reminded his twin.
“I really do wish we could spend 24 hours a day on this, but in a way it's a good thing that we can't as it gives our victims time to recover a little before we start again,” Rowan said with an absolutely evil smirk in the direction of the three prisoners, causing all three men to cringe in fear and also wet their underwear yet again, which both twins smelled quite distinctly thanks to their very refined sense of smell, which caused them both to grin at each other.
Without another word Rory took the keys to the manacles out of his pocket and then went to unlock Gray's handcuffs so that he could be put on the medical table and strapped down, so that the torture could begin.
Gray whimpered and tried to get away, but he was no match for Rory who had vampire strength and speed while Gray did not since he was only human.
Once Gray was strapped down on the table and totally naked Rowan asked, “So where do you want to begin?”
“Why don't we start with the thumbscrews,” Rory suggested with an evil smile. “If we screwed them on tight enough with their serrated edges they will not only shred the flesh, but the crush bone, which is after all their intended usage.”
“Great idea,” Rowan said enthusiastically as he went over to the table and picked up several different types of thumbscrews. One of the thumbscrews were quite small and meant to be placed on the fingers or the toes to crush the bones and the other was quite large which was meant to be placed over places like the leg or the knee to crush the bigger bones to splinters. They could, of course, us their own muscles to crush bones since human bones were not even half as durable as vampire ones, but in a way this was more fun for the flesh was shredded to pieces as well as crushing a human's bone so that the person was in twice the amount of pain then if Rory and Rowan used nothing but their own muscles to do the job.
Rory placed one of the thumbscrews on Gray's big toe and begin to turn the screw. The thumbscrew once it touched flesh immediately began to shred it and then a second later the twins heard the crunching of bone. Gray screamed so loudly as his bones were crushed and his flesh shredded that the sound echoed off the walls.
“What about using the acid next?” Rory suggested. “It should cause quite a lot of pain and do quite a bit of damage as well.”
“Great idea,” Rowan said looking enthused. “So where should we pour the acid first?”
“Why don't you just pour a couple of drops on his cock and then another couple on his balls?” Rory suggested smirking evilly looking directly into Gray's eyes making sure he knew that there would be no mercy for him or his cohorts. “I read somewhere that a man's cock has several thousand nerves and is very sensitive to sensation, and not just pleasure, but pain as well and while you do that I believe that I'll simply start to burn his toes with the lighter before I crush the bones into powder.”
Gray whimpered at that but knew that protesting would do him no good at all and he silently wished for death to come as swiftly as possible since he knew there was no way that he would make it out of his current situation alive.
Rory went over and got the lighter off the table as well as the acid and walked back over to where their victim was flat down on the table. Rory handed the acid to his brother who immediately unscrewed the lid and started to pour just a little bit on Gray's cock, causing the man to scream, whimper and beg him to stop. The sound of sizzling flesh was quite a delight to both Whitlock twins as was the smell of burnt skin.
Rory, for his part, very calmly activated the lighter and held it as close to the flesh of Gray's toes as he could and watched calmly as the skin started to blacken and smoke.
Gray struggled and tried to get his foot away from the flames but it was impossible for the straps of the table were holding down his legs and he could barely move them at all.
“No! Please! Just let me die! Please, don't continue this torture! I am truly sorry for all I have done!” Gray begged.
“It's too little,” Rory told the man.
“To late,” Rowan added finishing his twin's sentence.
“You took great pleasure in watching as sick and perverted adults paid a large fee to rape children anywhere from 2 to 18,” Rory said Rowan nodding in agreement. “You made a great deal of cash off this.”
“A fee that went directly into your several bank accounts,” Rowan added with an evil smile and Gray knew that the money was no longer his as just from that smile alone he knew that the vampire twins had confiscated it for their own purposes.
Gray knew he was done for and wished more at that moment then he ever had that he had followed his parents advice and gone into an honest line of work as he would be in his situation if he had, but becoming a pornographer had meant a great deal of money and that was all Gray treasured since his family had been quite poor while he was growing up, which he had loathed. Besides he had secretly sampled the merchandise himself occasionally and taken great pleasure in his victims screams and the begging for him to stop was music to his ears. Over the years he had made several million dollars off the rape of others, children especially, since that was at least eighty percent of his business as there were a lot of sick people in the world that enjoyed that kind of forbidden pleasure. The money had been stashed away in several banks to keep the cops, both state and federal off his back, but somehow Gray knew that the vampire twins had gotten into his accounts and that the money was now gone into their own.
“So what should we do next?” asked Rory as he continued to hold the lighter close to Gray's toes watching dispassionately as the skin turned black and the smell of burnt flesh permeated the air. Gray, of course, kept screaming his voice so high-pitched that the twins were actually surprised that he had not destroyed his vocal cords yet or at least lost his voice. “I'm letting you pick the next way we torture Gray here, since I picked the last.”
“Thanks,” Rowan said gratefully and went over the table to try to decide what device to use next.
“Why don't we cut off his cock a piece at a time and burn it right in front of him?” Rowan finally suggested. “It was after all his cock and the cocks of the other two that got them into this situation in the first place for if Cunningham and Bradshaw didn't have a taste for little girls and Gray for children in general...” Rowan began.
Which meant that he liked to rape both sexes, Rory knew, which was absolutely disgusting and perverted, in his opinion, so his brother did have a point about cutting off each man's manhood a piece at a time. There was nothing wrong with being bisexual and in fact several of his siblings were, but his brothers and sisters never went after a child or really anyone who wasn't of legal age, which was 18.
“Great idea,” Rory approved, enthusiastically. “We can do it for the other two as well just as soon as we start torturing them, or in Bradshaw's case again.”
“Yes it is a great idea just like you suggested to mom and dad a few hours ago,” Rowan agreed. “We can use the Judas Chair, afterward?” Rowan added after a moment. “We can swing a rope over the rafters, then tie his hands above his head and then put the chair underneath while we work on another one of our prisoners. Once we have the point inserted into Gray's anus it should start stretching the flesh of his orifice and at first just be very uncomfortable, but within a very short amount of time it should start tearing and ripping his muscles tissue and we can get started on torturing one of our other two prisoners, while we leave Gray to suffer from the device. One warning however is that if we leave the point in to long and allow it to tear muscle tissues the wounds are likely to turn septic and kill him much faster then we want.”
The Judas chair or Judas cradle as it was also known was a pyramid shaped device with the point inserted into either anus or the vagina, depending if the victim was male or female. The victim was then very slowly lowered by ropes and was tortured by intense pressure and stretching of the orifice, eventually succumbing to tears in muscle tissue that could turn septic and kill from infection, or simply being impaled.
It was a very long-lasting and painful type of torture and any victim could even be left alone to endure the torture overnight or in the daytime. Of course if the victim became unconscious he would simply have to be slapped awake so that the torture could resume being very, very painful as that was the purpose after all.
“I'm actually surprised we found a Judas cradle as it is a very ancient device created several hundred years ago, and most of them are in museums now. Before we start though, we need to make sure that the part that is inserted into his anus is absolutely clean and sanitized as we don't want him to die and if it is covered in germs or old blood then he will die of infection if nothing else. A lot of times in days past none of the torturers bothered to clean the cradle after each use, and their prisoners died of infection as I mentioned just a second ago and I know we don't want him to die quite yet.”
Rory who had done the research along with his brother knew precisely what the Judas cradle was intended for and agreed with his brother wholeheartedly that it would cause Pierce Gray even more pain then if they continue torturing him the old fashioned way.
“That is a very excellent idea,” Rory complimented his brother with an absolutely evil grin. “Shall we get it prepared for use?”
“Absolutely,” Rowan agreed eagerly and went over to where the cradle was sitting on the floor under the table, picking it up easily although to a human it would be very heavy, but to Rowan, who had vampire strength it felt as light as a feather.
It didn't take the twins more than a few minutes to clean and sanitize the Judas cradle and get it ready for service. Rowan made sure he paid particular attention to the part of the cradle that went into a man's anus as he did not want Gray to die on them to soon even though neither he or his brother minded the pornographer being in an intense amount of pain as that was what the torture was all about after all. If truth be known both Rory and Rowan relished their prisoners pain for after all if there was one thing that all the Whitlock family abhorred it the mistreatment of children and rape was one of the worst crimes ever invented, especially when it involved child and since no adult human was interested in helping the children out of their predicament it was up to the Whitlocks to do that and they all had a plan to get the other children free as well and their parents were already setting that part of it in motion.
Rory took the coil of rope that was on the table and threw it over the very high rafter on his first try. Of course, it helped that he had a attached a pair of manacles to one end in order to make the rope heavy enough to be thrown that high and so did his vampire strength.
“The rope is ready,” Rory told Rowan.
“Very well, let's get started on his cock and cut it off a piece at the time causing Gray as much pain as we possibly can along the way of course. We can take turns, and you can even go first if you like,” Rowan suggested.
Rory looked pleased since it had expected to go after Rowan since it had after all been his brother's idea and that usually meant that he would have gone first. Rory walked over to Gray who was strapped to the table and calmly inspected his fingernails, which looked perfectly ordinary, but weren't. A vampire's fingernails were very just like the rest of his body very tough and were able to cut through human skin like a very sharp knife through an ancient leather boot.
Rory finally stopped inspecting his fingernails and made the first cut of Gray's penis. As the Whitlock twins wanted to prolong the pain as long as possible for their prisoner all Rory cut off was the very tip, but even that caused Pierce Gray to scream bloody murder for a few seconds before blacking out.
“Well, I suppose we will have to wake him back up as we can't have him unconscious since he can't enjoy the pain that way,” said Rowan with an evil smile. “You know this is one of the rare times that I miss having dad's talent to wake someone up without even touching them as that would be a very useful talent to have in a situation like this.”
“It would,” Rory agreed. “You know why don't we use the acid on the part we just cut off and I'm sure that will wake him up nicely. After that we can put the tip of his penis in the ashtray we brought along from the hotel, since we knew we would be doing this eventually, and make sure Gray is watching as his manhood burns piece by piece.”
“One of us will probably have to hold his head so that he can't turn away,” Rowan said.
“We can take turns,” Rory said and Rowan nodded thinking it was a good idea.
“I'll go get the acid and the ashtray off the table,” Rowan volunteered and suited his actions to his words and went over to the table that was set up on one side of the room and brought back the acid and ashtray.
Rowan handed the bottle of acid to his brother and Rory took it eagerly and immediately poured just two drops onto the very area that he had just cut off. The area in question was still leaking blood, although it had slowed somewhat and as soon as Rory poured the acid onto that area it began to smoke and the smell of burned flesh permeated the air. As for Gray the acid had the effect that both twins had hoped and he awoke with a gasp and then began to scream as the pain signals his body was generating finally reached his unconscious brain.
“You know one good thing about acid is that it has also stop the bleeding so that he doesn't lose too much blood and while normally I wouldn't care if he died from blood loss we want him to live for a good long time,” Rory commented as soon as he saw Gray was awake.
Since it had been Rory that had cut off a part of Gray's cock, he was the one that placed that part in the ashtray and then used the lighter to burn it to ash in a matter of seconds with Gray being forced to watch all the while since Rowan was holding his head in position and he couldn't look away as much as it was clear he wanted to. In fact all he could do was whimper as he watched part of his manhood burn and he knew before his torturers were done his cock would be totally gone.
“So I'm next,” Rowan said finally as soon as the first part of Gray's penis had finished burning up in the ashtray, which didn't take more than a few seconds. Rowan came to stand on the other side of the medical table and said, “How much do you think he should lose this time? Just about as much as you to took or a little more? If we do just a little piece at a time we can make it last most of the day.”
“How about this much?” asked Rory holding his fingers just about a quarter of an inch apart.
“All right,” agreed Rowan not bothering to inspect his fingernails as Rory had, but instead just cutting around and around going deeper each time. Gray screamed doing the entire process as there were quite a few nerves in the the penis, which made it easy to be stimulated, but the downside to that was the fact that since it was so easy to stimulate with pleasant sensations it could also feel pain as well. It was the main reason that being kicked in the nuts hurt so much and was a good way for a woman to disable a male attacker long enough to get away.
“You know this really was a very good idea,” Rowan said as he finally had cut far enough into Gray's cock that he could just pull it free. “I mean think about it, a female kicking a man in his nuts in order to get away if they are being attacked is a good way to disable said attacker temporarily, since he'll be clutching his balls for at least a few seconds afterwards depending on how hard he was kicked, of course.”
“So if a woman's knee hits the groin it's extremely painful then actually cutting into the flesh and then ripping it off is even more so,” Rory said finishing his brother's thought.
“Exactly,” Rowan said with an evil grin at Gray picking up the acid bottle and pouring a couple of drops on the newly painful area. “The tip of the penis is where the glans are located and it is the part that is so sensitive to sensation, which is why having sex is always such a pleasure, since those sensations send signals to the brain.”
Gray screamed again and blacked out for the second time and they weren't even a quarter of the way done yet.
“It's my turn,” said Rory.
“Here let me wake him up for you,” Rowan said slapping Gray across the face hard enough that both twins heard bones cracking.
“Now, now,” Rory gently scolded Gray, “we can't have you unconscious as you won't be able to feel the pain if your not awake too.”
Once Rowan was sure that Gray was awake he picked up the ashtray and dropped his part of the penis into it and then took the lighter his brother handed him and lit it, watching as that part of Gray's cock burned to ash, while Rory held his head so that Gray was again forced to watch as part of his manhood burned.
“Those who misuse what they have been given deserve to lose it,” Rowan told Gray unsympathetically.
Gray started to struggle again and begin to struggle anew trying to get out of the straps that were holding him down, but was unsuccessful.
“Now, now,” Rowan chided mockingly, “you don't want to leave before we're done, now do you?”
Rory started cutting into Gray's penis and again Gray started to scream and struggle trying to get lose, but Rowan held him down, without being asked so that his brother could finish what he was doing.
Once Rory had cut just over halfway through a small portion of Gray's penis he used his vampire strength and ripped it the rest of the way off. Gray yelled bloody murder and blacked out again and Rowan without being asked handed Rory the bottle of acid and his brother took it pouring just a couple of drops on the portion of Gray's penis that was bleeding quite heavily from where it had just been cut into and then ripped off.
“Shhhhiiiiittttt, dddddaaaaaammmmmmnnnnn, fffffffffuuuuuuccccccckkkkkkk,” Gray screamed, blacking out yet again from the intense pain.
“Well, he sure does black out easily, doesn't he?” Rowan suggested to his brother who nodded.
“Yes, he certainly does,” Rory agreed slapping Gray awake. “He certainly doesn't seem to have much stamina for the pain that he delivered to others overs the years does he? How many children do you think he raped or let other people rape for a big fat fee of course?”
“I don't think we'll ever know the precise number, but quite a few,” Rowan said. “At least in the dozens and possibly in the hundreds.”
Rory took the ashtray and placed the nice big chunk of Gray's penis into he and then took the lighter that his twin brother handed him, pushing down on the mechanism so that the small flame appeared. Rory touched the flame to Gray's penis and Rowan held the human's head so he was forced to watch once again as part of his manhood burned to ash in just a few minutes. The stink of human flesh burning was quite disgusting, but Rory and Rowan simply held their breaths until the smell had dissipated to where it was not quite so overwhelming. Their three prisoners however, were not able to do that as a human couldn't hold their breaths for so long, without blacking out, while vampires didn't technically need to breathe.
“This is the fate that awaits all of you, for you have brought this on yourselves, for being so evil that you used children, innocent, children, for your own ends. Even if you had never gotten caught while you were still alive, you would have still had to face judgment for it after your death, even if that had been 50 or 100 years from now,” Rory said.
“All we're doing really is making you face that eternal judgement much earlier then you otherwise would have,” Rowan added.
All three men seemed resigned to their fate and whimpered and cried realizing in a moment of startling clarity in their hearts and not just their heads that they were never going to get out of their situation alive.
It was a paradigm shift for all three men in that moment. They all realized that they had wasted their lives and that their would be no second chances, not that any of them deserved a second chance considering how they had wasted their first.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

“So shall we hang Gray from the rafters and use the Judas cradle now?” Rowan asked several hours later when Gray's penis was nothing more than a memory and their was nothing left, but a gaping space where it had used to be.
“Yes, I believe it is time,” Rory agreed.
“Then let me under the straps holding him down,” Rowan said as he began undoing the restraining straps around Gray's legs and chest.
Rory nodded and picked up Gray slinging him over his shoulder ignoring his whimpers and screams of pain from his crushed bones and burned feet.
“I think we should start on Cunningham tomorrow as we don't really have time to get started today since Gray took so long,” Rowan suggested as he tied the rope with the manacles attached together wrapping them several times around Gray's wrists and then tied a beer knot, which was used by mountain climbers, which meant that that Gray would have no chance of getting loose. By the time Rowan was done Gray was hanging several inches in the air where his feet hung just above the ground, but were unable to touch it as Rowan had done his work well. Really that was half the point, which was to put all of Gray's weight on his arms therefore causing him even more pain by not allowing his feet to touch the floor, thereby relieving the pressure.
“I think he deserves to suffer even longer then the other two, for really they might have played a major role in the abuse of those children, but it was his money that really started it all. Sure Gray was a minor pornographer before Cunningham got involved, but thanks to all the cash that was channeled to him by Mr. I'm so Rich I Am Above The Law And Don't Care Who I Hurt So Long As I Get What I Want, he became what he is today and that is one of the most major distributors of that kind of shit in the city.”
“Alright,” Rory agreed without argument, knowing that Cunningham deserved to be tortured even more then the other two men since really he was the main player, while the other two were just kind of his sidekicks, still heavily involved, but not as much as Cunningham. “You're right.”
“Oh goody,” Rowan said rubbing his hands together with glee at the thought of what he could do to Cunningham. He could hardly wait for tomorrow.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

“So what did you do to prisoners today?” Bella asked eagerly as soon as she was sure that all three children were asleep.
It was now after 8 o'clock at night and Rory and Rowan had of course stayed for dinner just to be near Meghan and Amber, but had only watched the three children eat and not eaten themselves. The three children were now in bed though having been all pooped out from all they had been doing during the day and it didn't help that they were still a little underweight, although they were certainly doing better then they had been when they had been rescued from that group home. Group home indeed, you might as well call it what it was and that was an orphanage, but the name had been changed over a hundred years ago, probably because of politics more than any other reason. Anyway the three children still tired out quite easily and probably would for some time to come as years of malnutrition, neglect and abuse could not be erased overnight and the only thing that would help them now was plenty of food, sleep and time.
Rory and Rowan began to tell their parents precisely what they had done to Gray and how they had left him hanging several feet in the air with the point of the Judas cradle inserted into his anus causing the muscles to keep expanding and also considerable pain.
“We thought we'd leave him that way for a day or two and start torturing Cunningham next,” Rory said. “I'm really looking forward to having a go at Cunningham, as he was the one that started it all with his money and I'm better than everyone else attitude. The number of underage girls he must have raped over the years, must at least be in the dozens and likely more than that.”
“Well, he's certainly not better than anyone else anymore considering he's chained to a wall and can't move more than a few feet from it and now he pisses into a bucket in the corner,” Rowan snickered.
“Pretty soon we won't even be able to use the bucket since we plan on crushing the toes in his feet as well as his hands,” Rowan added with an evil smirk. “He'll just have to wet himself whenever he has to go, which to a man like him will be the final indignity and crush his ego.”
“We'll soon have Cunningham whimpering and crying like a baby begging for us to kill him, which we're not planning on doing for good long time,” Rory said.
“You'll have to be careful that you don't kill him before you're ready as humans really are very delicate or at least they are compared to us and they die easily,” Jasper told his sons with a proud glint in his eyes.
“We know, dad,” Rowan told his father quite seriously. “If you have any suggestions on what we can do to torture him without killing him we're open to ideas.”
“Not that we don't have plenty of our own,” Rory said smirking evilly and Rowan nodded vigorously in agreement.
“Well, you can pour molten metal or even boiling water on certain parts of your victims anatomy, which will be very, very painful,” Jasper suggested. “You don't need to use anything expensive like gold or silver, as lead will do and probably cause more damage since if it get's inside the body through a wound it will slowly start to poison your victim from the inside out as it flows through his bloodstream.”
“That's a great idea dad,” both twins told their father at the exact same time.
“Well, I do have a few more suggestions, because if you like that one, then you'll love this,” Jasper told his sons with an evil grin of his own.
“What?” asked Rowan sounding eager to hear what other ideas his father had.
“Well, we all know how Christ was crucified and nails were driven into the palms of his hands and also his feet to keep him on the cross so I really don't see why you two can't do the same thing and hammer nails into Cunningham's hands and feet as you are definitely strong enough to do that.”
“Great idea, Jasper,” Bella told her husband speaking for the first time in quite awhile as she had been content to just listen to her three boys talk about ways to torture their prisoner as she hadn't had anything to add until now that is.
“Thank you, love,” Jasper told his mate kissing her on the cheek.
“I also have a suggestion,” Bella told the three men.
“What's your suggestion, mom?” Rory said asking the obvious while Jasper and Rowan just listened.
“Well I'm sure you've all heard of boiling someone in oil?” All three men nodded waiting for Bella to continue. “Well I don't see why that can't be modified.”
“In what way?” Rowan asked now wondering what devilish idea his mother had to cause their three prisoners extreme pain.
“Well, it's kind like Jasper's idea of using molten metal, except for the fact that you take a dipper filled with oil or maybe tar that is hot enough to stick to your skin and practically burn your flesh off and if that oil or tar happens to land on an open wound I'm sure the pain will be at least a hundred time's worse or maybe it would he better to simply have a pot of boiling oil or tar and simply put one of their hands or feet in it, then hold there and watch them scream for mercy and that way the pain is prolonged.”
“That's a great idea mom,” Rory told his mother with a grin leaning over to give his mother a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Yes, it is a very excellent idea,” Jasper agreed while Rowan simply looked eager to go try it out, “but maybe you should try acid instead,” Jasper suggested. “The kind that eats through the flesh.”
“Great idea, dad,” Rory said. “We've already been using acid, but it isn't the kind that eats through the flesh, just causes a great deal of pain, so we are just going have to do our research and find out what kind of acid will eat through human flesh until nothing, but the bones of the hands and fingers remain.”
“Well, I suppose we had better get going if we want any time to try out any of your ideas tonight and in fact we should have been there already, but we wanted to spend time with Amber and Meghan,” Rowan said.
“I'll tell the girls not to expect you at all tomorrow if that's what you want,” Bella told her sons knowing how they would respond to that.
“No, don't do that,” Rory protested immediately shaking his head vehemently in denial, “just tell them we'll see them around lunchtime.”
“Alright, I'll do just that,” Bella agreed smirking at her sons reactions.
“You said that just to get a reaction out of us,” Rowan said suddenly understanding why his mother had said was she did.
“What can I say except that when I get a chance to tease you I take it since I rarely have the opportunity. It is easy to see that you've already grown very attached to Meghan and Amber and that attachment will only grow and deepen the more you are around them and vice versa, of course.”
“You had better get going if you want any time to torture you prisoners tonight,” Jasper told his sons. “We'll see you tomorrow around noon.”
The twins nodded knowing that their father was correct so they took his advice to heart and were out the door in just a few seconds and had disappeared down the street a few seconds after that.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Rory and Rowan entered the cave that they were using for a torture center both looking extremely excited since their parents had given them all kinds of wicked ideas.
The three prisoners whimpered as soon as they saw the vampire twins for they had actually dared hope that Rory and Rowan would not show up at all and they would have a few more hours of respite, although all three knew it was to much to hope for that they had been forgotten about entirely.
“Well, let's get started shall we?” Rory suggested as he placed several items that he and Rowan and taken the time to pick up down on the table.
Rowan headed over to where Cunningham was chained up, producing a key unlocking the chain and then picking the once overweight man up none too gently, enjoying how he struggled, somewhat weakly, and placing him on the table strapping him down.
“So how did you spend the night? Did you sleep well?” asked Rowan of Cunningham grinning down at the once fat man who had lost quite a bit of weight in the last few days, evilly.
Rowan wasn't offended when Cunningham didn't bother to answer and as a matter of fact he didn't really expect one.
“So how is Gray?” Rowan asked his brother who had been see if Gray was still alive and also pulling the rope so that Gray raised a little off the point of the Judas cradle and then releasing it so that Gray fell back onto the point of the cradle quite violently causing him to scream, whimper and cry in pain, begging the Whitlocks to just put him out of his misery.
“Oh he's alive as I'm sure you already know,” Rory said smirking evilly at the man that he had just caused a great deal of pain to. “He's not in very good shape physically, not that we really care about that, now do we?”
“Not in the least,” Rowan agreed. “Well Cunningham is ready to go so why don't we get started as we have even less time than normal thanks to the time we spent with our parents, Meghan and Amber. Not that I would trade any of the time we spent with them, but still we had better get started, since we need to be out of here at eleven o'clock tomorrow.”
“We can do a lot of damage in that amount of time,” Rory pointed out. “That gives us about 14 hours as it's only 9 o'clock and thanks to the fact that we don't need to to sleep we can use all those hours very productively.”
“True enough,” Rowan admitted grinning at his brother. “So where do you want to start?”
“Well, why don't we, start by doing dad's suggestion and that's hammering some nails through his hands and feet, then we'll see,” Rory suggested and Rowan nodded looking excited since he knew that particular torture would be extremely painful to their prisoner that he would more then likely black out before he and his brother were even halfway done, but then again they could also slap him awake as they had done in the past with their other two prisoners and that was kind of fun as well.
“I'll go get the nails and the two hammers,” Rowan said heading over to the table where he had placed those items a few minutes ago. “Here you go,” said Rowan coming back over to the table where Cunningham was strapped down and handed his brother a hammer and several nails.
“Thanks,” Rory said.
“You're welcome, but we had better get started don't you think?” asked Rowan.
“Absolutely,” Rory agreed.
Cunningham who had been quietly whimpering all this time tried his best to get out of the straps that were holding him down, but found it to be impossible as the straps were attached to the table very well and he had absolutely no hope of getting loose. Now if he had been a vampire, with supernatural strength it would have been different.
“Please! Spare me! I'll give you absolutely anything you want!” Cunningham begged pathetically still hoping to avoid the fate that awaited him. “I beg you!”
“Sorry! No can do!” Rory told Cunningham cheerfully, smirking down at their prisoner.
“Some thing's are more important than money, and that would still be true even if Rory and I didn't have plenty of our own,” Rowan added cheerfully.
“Even a vampire cannot go through life without cash and so we have invested from the time we were grown to now and that is quite a long time. Every single one of our investments makes money and so know we are not going to let you go, not even if you gave us your entire fortune, which will rightfully go to your wife and children, when you turn up dead,” Rory added. “We decided to let somebody find all three of your bodies so that in Cunningham's case their will be proof of death so that all his money can go to his family, since they have not done anything wrong and deserve to inherit.”
Cunningham whimpered at that and knew at that moment that there was nothing he could do to convince his tormentors to let him live and none of his money, which he had in a way used as a shield his whole life, was going to get him out of this, or at least not alive.
“Ready?” asked Rory placing the tip of the nail in the middle of Cunningham's palm.
“Ready!” Rowan said doing to same.
“On three, then. One!” Rory said.
“Two!” Rowan said next.
“Three!” Both twins said at the same time. As soon as the word left their mouths both twins used the heavy hammers to pound the nails down into Cunningham's flesh not using their full strength as they wanted to cause Cunningham as much pain as possible as they did it slowly.
“Shit! Fuck! Damn!” Cunningham swore up, down and sideways his voice extremely loud.
Rory and Rowan continued what they were doing and in just a few seconds the very sharp nails were more then halfway penetrated into the flesh and bones of Cunningham's hands
“You brought this on yourself you know and so did your two partners in crime,” Rowan told the man strapped to the table, pounding the hammed down on the nail head and causing Cunningham to scream.
“If you had never gotten into all the shady dealings that you have been a part of for the last 25 years...” Rory added also pounding down on the nail head with the hammer.
“...then you would never have met us at all,” Rory finished giving the nail another whack.
“If you had made your fortune honestly and not on the pain of others...” Rowan added doing the same thing as his brother had a second ago.
The nails were now mostly embedded into Cunningham's palms and another couple of good whacks would see the nail head in both palms go through the flesh on the other side.
“...children in particular...” Rory said.
“...as the mistreatment of children everywhere...” Rowan said.
“...make us the most furious...” Rory said.
“...since they can't protect themselves from society's predators...” Rowan added.
“...children should be loved, cared for and protected...” Rory said.
“...not taken advantage of...” said Rowan.
“...and taught right from wrong...” Rory added.
“...but apparently either your parents didn't do a very good job raising you...” Rowan smirked down at Cunningham enjoying he screams, whimpers and pleas for mercy.
“...or you deliberately threw their values... Rory said soaking up the emotions of fear, pain and anguish with pleasure.
“...back in their faces,” both twins said at the same time, using their heavy hammers to pound one more time on top of the nail heads causing Cunningham to squeal as the nails finally penetrated the flesh on the back of his hands.
“Should we do his feet next or try something else?” asked Rory looking at his brother.
“Why don't we try something else then we can pound the nails into his feet a little later,” Rowan responded.
“Very well then, what should we do next?” asked Rory.
Rowan thought about it and said, “Why don't we try using these hammers and breaking a few of his bones and do it as slowly so that he'll be in as much pain as possible?” Rowan suggested. “And yes, I know we can use our strength to crush his bones into powder but the hammer will be even more painful then doing it the way we normally do and take longer as well.”
“You do have a point,” Rory admitted. “Alright that is exactly what we'll do.”
“I think we should try skinning him first and then using the hammer,” Rowan suggested having just had a moment of inspiration. “If we skin the spots we're going to use the hammer it will be even more painful when we finally get around to pounding his bones into little bits.”
“Great idea, bro,” Rory said excitedly.
“I certainly think so,” Rowan said as the Whitlock twins smirked down at their prisoner with glee in their red eyes. All Cunningham could do after he heard of the twins plans was whimper, and struggle, trying to get out the leather straps that held him to the examining table since he knew that begging, pleading or trying to bribe them was not going to work.
“Sorry,” Rory said not sounding particularly sorry at all, “there's no escape for you as the leather bands holding your wrist and ankles are more than strong enough to prevent you from escaping even though they wouldn't hold a vampire for more than a few seconds. You are human through and therefore a weakling compared to us.”
“And an out of shape human at that, which makes you even weaker then a human that worked out in order to keep in shape,” Rowan added. “So shall we get started?”
“Yes,” Rory agreed and immediately started skinning the skin off of Cunningham's foot why Rowan started on his face.
It wasn't very long at all before half the skin was missing from Cunningham's face as well as all of the flesh from the top and bottom of both feet.
Cunningham who had been screaming bloody murder during all the time the twins had been removing flesh from his skeleton had stopped and was now only whimpering pitifully. It was clear that the man was in a great deal of pain, which suited both twins just fine and in fact they basked in it.
“Let's try the acid, pouring it over those skinned areas I'm sure that Cunningham will be screeching even louder than he ever has before and be in even more pain,” Rory suggested.
“That's genius,” Rowan complimented his brother.
“You've come up with some pretty good ideas too,” Rory time.
“We can discuss more ideas of how to torture these three even more later but right now let's get started as we only have a limited amount of time,” Rowan said and Rory nodded in agreement, went over the table to pick up a bottle of acid and brought it over to where his brother was standing.
Rory poured just a few drops onto the side of Cunningham's skinned face and both brothers watched in satisfaction as the acid burned the side of their prisoner's face and their prisoner screamed bloody murder, before blacking out.
“We do good work,” Rowan said as he slapped his brother on the back and in a brotherly gesture of affection.
“Yes, we do,” Rory agreed with his brother doing the same. “So, do you think we should wake him up?”
“Oh definitely,” Rowan said giving his brother a sly wink and a grin. “We only have a few more hours to play around with him before we've got to go get showers and meet the family so we might as well use them productively.”
“Yes, you're right, Rory agreed. “So, on three.… One…”
“...Two… “ said Rowan.
“Three!” both twins said together while using the hands to very violently and painfully slap Cunningham awake.
Once the twins were sure that their prisoner was conscious they started back at what they had been doing and it was with a regretful sight that both twins realized that it was time to quit for the night and go get showers and change clothes as they had less then an hour before they were to see the girls and they didn't want to be late.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

3 years, 3 month later

Amber and Rory

It was December 22, just three days before Christmas Eve and therefore it was Meghan's and Amber's 16th birthdays and on this day both Rory and Rowan had something special planned for their two mates.
Almost exactly 2 years ago the twins had discovered on their own that their new parents were vampires and that Rory and Rowan were really their sons and that Jasper and Bella had a very large family. Both girls had taken it in stride for like their older brother Blane the girls figured that if Jasper and Bella had wanted to harm them then they would be dead and also the fact that the Whitlocks never would have bothered to rescue them at all if they had intended to just drain them as there were much easier ways to get themselves fed.
Also they had discovered that Rory and Rowan were their mates and the Whitlocks had also explained exactly what that meant. Meghan and Amber had been thrilled for the Whitlock twins had spent multiple hours with them bringing them out of their shells, especially Amber who was much shyer then her younger sister. Meghan despite being the born second was definitely the dominant twin and had the attitude to prove it.
Also Jasper and Bella had told them sternly that nothing would be happening beyond spending time together with the rest of the family until they were 16, as that was when they would be allowed to officially start dating and then at 18 they would be turned into vampires along with their brother.
“Why can't we wait until we are 21?” Amber had asked innocently. “At least we would look old enough to do some things like drink that we can't at 18.” The Whitlock twins then explained that they were having a hard enough time controlling themselves around Amber and her sister and that waiting until they were 21 was almost impossible.
The Whitlock twins had taken turns explaining gently that once a vampire had found a mate it was nearly impossible to not turn that person or persons into vampires immediately, but since they had still been growing up and were very weary around strange men with reason to be, they'd had to wait, which was getting harder and harder, as the years passed and the closer they became to each other. “Resisting just turning you two into vampires in order to mate with you is getting harder and harder to not do. Waiting until you are eighteen is going to be hard enough as it is, but if we had to wait three more years it would take more resistance then either one of us has. The only way to accomplish it would be to travel and be away from you both for those three years and I'm sure that none of us want that.”
Meghan and Amber had protested vehemently against that idea immediately as not seeing Rory and Rowan every day would be torture for them, just as it would be for Rory and Rowan.
“Waiting until you are 21 might not be impossible but it would be far more painful emotionally anyway than it needed to be and my brother I are not about to try making love to you while you are still human as we could kill you without meaning to since as vampires Rory and are much, much stronger then you and Amber,” Rowan had then explained bluntly causing both Meghan and Amber to blush brilliant shades of red, although both looked pleased as they had fallen in love with the Whitlock twins as well and the longer they knew them the deeper that love became.
Meghan and Amber rarely left Rowan and Rory's sides and always seemed to be able to tell which twin was which even though the Whitlock twins were identical with the same reddish brown hair, height, facial features and body structures. They even had the same shoe size!
Meghan and Amber on the other hand were not identical, although they looked exactly alike except for their different colored eyes which was the only way to tell them apart at all, but once they were vampires that distinguishing feature would vanish and they would need to style their hair differently or wear different colored clothes in order for the rest of the family to be able to distinguish between them.
Of course their personalities were also similar in many ways, but also quite different and so the Whitlock family besides the Whitlock twins and Jasper and Bella would be able to tell them apart just from that and they wouldn't have to do anything else in order to be identified correctly.
When Blane had discovered that Rory and Rowan were his sisters destined husbands and mates he hadn't exactly been happy with the situation since he was very protective of his sisters with good reason, but as saw the two separate couples together and how Rory and Rowan were always so gentle and considerate with his sisters he started to change his mind.
Just a month before Meghan and Amber's 16th birthdays Blane had given his blessing to both Rory and Rowan and told them that he trusted that they would treat his sisters right, not that it would have mattered even if Blane hadn't for they still would have been mates regardless, but Blane's blessing still meant a lot to the Whitlock twins.
During the last three years the three children now teenagers had grown considerably and Blane was now almost as tall as Jasper, with short brownish blond hair and amber eyes, while the twins were just a little bit shorter, but still quite tall for women.
“Amber would you like to go on a walk with me?” asked Rory as he came into the den where his mate was sitting with some of his siblings and her sister.
“Of course, Rory,” Amber agreed eagerly getting up from the couch and immediately noticing that Rowan had just entered the den and was saying something similar to her twin.
“Amber, there is something I want to ask you,” Rory said as soon as he had led his mate outside away from the rest of the family.
“You can ask me anything you know that,” Amber said wondering what was going on. She and Rory had developed a much closer relationship over the last couple years just as Meghan and Rowan had.
“Then will you accept my promise ring?” asked Rory trying not to sound to hopeful.
“Your promise ring?” asked Amber in confusion.
“It is a very ancient custom in certain parts of the world,” Rory explained trying not to appear nervous. “It almost like a boyfriend giving their girl their class ring except in this case it has a much more serious intent.”
“What's the intent?” asked Amber intently hoping Rory meant what she thought he did.
“Well, with a promise ring it means that as soon as you turn 18 I ask you to marry me and once you accept my ring then that automatically means that you will accept my proposal of marriage when I do propose on your birthday in two years.”
Amber squealed happily, before kissing Rory passionately on the lips. “Of course, I accept your promise ring and I will accept your proposal of marriage to when you do ask me on my birthday in a couple of years,” Amber said.
At his mate's words Rory took off his Whitlock crest ring and handed it to Amber. Amber took it and tried it on, but it was much to big and so Rory produced a gold necklace so she could put it around her neck.
“I will keep this close to my heart for the next two years until you replace it with an engagement ring and then a wedding band,” Amber promised as she slipped the ring onto the necklace and then had Rory put it around her neck and close the clasp. “I love you, so much that it almost seems unreal.”
“I love you too and the more we get to know each other the more my love for you deepens,” Rory said putting an arm around her slender shoulders and hugging her into his side, gently so as not to hurt her, which Amber accepted with pleasure as there was nowhere else she would rather be.
“How would you like to go on our first official date tonight?” asked Rory.
“I'd love to,” Amber said as she leaned up and kiss his cheek. “You sure don't waste any time do you? After all mom and dad told us that we couldn't start officially dating until Meghan and I turned 16 and we just turned 16 today.”
“Well, Rowan and I have been planning this for quite sometime, since we knew when your birthdays were,” Rory told her, “and before you ask the last six months. In fact my brother should be asking your sister to wear his promise ring if he hasn't already done so and also to go on a date with him tonight just like I did with you.”
“So where will we be going?” asked Amber with a raised eyebrow.
“I thought I would take you to the opera since you seem to like it so much,” Rory said. “Of course, I plan on taking you out to dinner first and no protesting about that since you know I don't eat and normally you would be correct.”
“What do you mean normally I would be correct?” Amber asked. “You don't eat and pretty soon, in just a couple years neither will I.”
“Because this is our first official date I am willing to eat for you even if I have to throw it up later. You need to eat as many fine meals as possible before you are changed into a vampire on your 18th birthday. You need to sample as many foods as this world has to offer for the next couple of years before you can't eat without it tasting like shit and having to regurgitate it afterwards is even more gross and disgusting.”
Amber took a second absorb that and then she flung her arms around Rory's neck and hugged him tightly not caring in the least that his body was as hard as stone and also as cold as a block of ice for she had gotten quite used to it in the last few years and it was natural and comfortable to her now.
Sometimes she and Meghan wondered how they had gotten so lucky as to fall in with the Whitlocks and they had both finally decided not to question it as they were happier than they could remember being since their parents had died. Sure the Whitlocks were vampires, but they were also some of the most compassionate, caring and loving individuals that either of the girls had ever met and that really included her own parents. Of course, Amber realized she might just think that because at first she found herself infatuated with Rory but then fell in love with him as she got to know him.
“I suppose we had better get back inside,” Amber said reluctantly as she was very comfortable just sitting here with Rory beside her and his arm about her shoulders.
“Why?” asked Rory. “I'm perfectly comfortable right here, thanks.”
“We don't want the rest of the family to worry about us, my brother especially,” Amber pointed out.
“If Blane is worried about you he can come and find us,” Rory told his mate logically.
“I suppose you're right,” Amber said not at all reluctant to stay right here with Rory's arms around her shoulders and her head snuggled into his chest.
“I know I am,” Rory told her leaning down just enough to kiss the top of her head. “It won't be more than a couple years before you, your brother and sister are turned into vampires and when that happens you'll be able to feel strength of the mate bond that is already between us just like I can. When that happens Blane won't have any say in the matter and it won't matter whether or not he's your brother for the bond between mate takes precedence and is absolutely sacred, which he is aware of as a lot of people in the family have explained it to him. He might not like it, but that's just to bad as he has no right to interfere in your life or that of your sister's. If he did try to interfere between us or your sister and my brother then we would have every right to tear him apart and burn the pieces afterwards not that we would. Blane needs to understand though that he has no say in your lives at all, especially when you reach 18, which is considered grown up enough to make your own decisions in most parts of the civilized world. You can get married, join the army, sign a contract and do almost anything once you reach that age, except gamble, drink and get into clubs that serve alcohol ”
Amber considered that for a moment and then realized that what Rory said was nothing but the absolute truth as Blane had no right to interfere in her relationship with Rory or Meghan's relationship with Rowan. She loved her brother, she did and she knew that her twin did as well, but Blane could be a little...overprotective and she could hardly blame him for that either after what happened thanks to that group home. Still Rory was right that her brother had no right to interfere in her relationship with him. Rory after all, had spent multiple hours bringing her out of the shell, just as Rowan had done the same for Meghan and neither would have done that and spent so much time with them if they didn't truly care about bringing them back to what they had been before their parents deaths.
Amber remembered back a few years ago when she had been a mere shadow of her former self and very timid. She had always been much shyer, unlike her younger sister who was very outgoing. Her shyness though had gotten a hundred times worse once her parents had died and all three of them had been placed in that hellhole. At one point she wouldn't even let anybody touch her except her siblings. She didn't like to be even touched on the shoulder as that always made her shrink away from whoever was doing it, but Rory had spent months getting her to trust him and it wasn't really long at all before he was one of the few allowed to hug her or touch her in anyway. She still remembered all those old man who should have known better that had put their hands all over her prepubescent body and how they had to fondled her still budding breasts and then stuck their cocks into her private place. The first time it had happened she'd had absolutely no idea what was going on, but it was so clear that much older man who had to have been at least 40 was going to have his way with her and that he had some very evil desires and had the money in order to fulfill them. She had begged him to stop had pleaded and when all he did was squeeze one of her breasts roughly and then stuck his nasty tongue into her mouth she had been unable to protest farther. After that she had gone into kind of trance as the man rammed his penis into her vagina that wasn't ready for such things as he ran his filthy hands all over her ten year old body. After that first nasty experience she had drawn into herself and had not talked for months afterwards even to her brother and sister and that had gone on for nearly 3 years until she had been rescued by Jasper and Bella just a few years ago along with her brother and sister. Even after that though she didn't want anybody to touch her as she had been raped multiple times since she was ten years old. It had taken a long time for her to feel secure within her new family and for her to allow Bella or Jasper or even Rory to hug or even touch her arm without her shrinking away from them in an automatic reaction, but now she enjoyed, such things so long she knew the person and what they were like beforehand. It took her a long time to trust a stranger, especially men and nobody could really blame her for that, but everybody in the family always encouraged her and Jasper in particular protected her and her brother and sister fiercely because now they were his family.
Actually all the Whitlocks actually protected her and wouldn't let anybody come near her unless they were sure of their intentions, which Amber appreciated, although she knew that someday she was going to have to get up the courage to get out on her own even if it was just to go shopping by herself.
Amber tried not to think about that portion of her past to much for she she knew if did she would have a nightmares when she went to sleep tonight as she often did. The nightmares weren't as bad as they had been after she and her siblings had first been rescued from that horrible place, but she still did get them sometimes, although really not more often now then once or twice a month anymore. Whenever she did get one and she woke up panting, covered in sweat she always found Rory right there laying on the bed beside soothing her as best he could by speaking softly to her and running a hand over her cheek and through her hair tenderly. Rory's presence always helped tremendously to calm her down much faster then she knew she would have if he had not been there.
“You're right,” Amber admitted seeming to come out her rather morbid thoughts. “Blane doesn't have any right to interfere in our relationship, especially once we're 18 and I don't think he will because he knows how happy me and Meghan are with you and Rowan. He knows you treat us like Princesses and spoil us rotten so he really shouldn't object at all.”
“He more than likely won't,” Rory admitted, “although it's a possibility that his brotherly instincts will take over at some point, but if they do I'll simply let dad have a little talk with him that won't be pleasant and we probably won't have any problems after that.”
“Let's talk about something else,” Amber suggested.
“Alright,” Rory said agreeably. “What would you like to talk about?”
“Well, for one thing what's the name of this place you are taking me to for dinner and will Meghan and Rowan be joining us or going to some place different?”
“It's called the Maison Lameloise and it's supposed to be four stars and the place to go if you are on a date and want to impress a girl,” said Rory.
“I'm already impressed,” Amber told Rory leaning up just enough to give his cheek a kiss. “So there's no need to impress me anymore than you already have over the last few years.”
Rory chuckled at his mate's words and held Amber a little tighter. “Yes, I know we're not just getting to know each other like most other couples, but the food is supposed to be good and the romantic atmosphere topnotch. I plan on wining and dining you and no don't even check the ticket, for the price doesn't really matter. As for your other question no Rowan and Meghan will not be joining us as Rowan made other plans and we thought it was better if we did our dates separately, especially since this is the first official one.”
“Well, if going to a fancy French place we had better get back inside as I need at least a little time to get ready and so do you,” Amber said rising gracefully from where she had been sitting on the ground.
“I suppose,” Rory said as he reluctantly rose to stand beside his mate taking her small delicate hand in his.
“So do you have a reservation if you do what time do we need to be there?” asked Amber walking back towards the house, Rory beside her.
“Yes, I made a reservation and it's for 7 o'clock,” Rory said. “It's only 5 though, so that should give you plenty of time to get ready and for us to get there.”
“You need to get dressed too, although I know you'll be ready a lot sooner than I am simply because you can do everything at super vampire speed,” Amber told him causing both her and Rory to laugh as they entered the house still hand in hand.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Meghan and Rowan

Meghan and Rowan sat on the front porch of the house that the Whitlocks had bought outside of Richmond Virginia.
“It's so nice to be alone with you,” Meghan side as she and Rowan shared a rocking chair that was on the front porch
“We're not really alone, you know,” Rowan told Meghan with a grin perfectly happy as he held his mate in his arms, which was a pure pleasure that he was hoping to get to do often from now on.
“I know, but at least we have a little privacy as no one is going to bother us out here since the family knows we need sometime with just the two of us,” Meghan said.
“True enough,” Rowan said as he kissed the top of Meghan's head.
The two of them fell silent for awhile and finally Meghan said, “Why don't you tell me something about yourself, something that I don't already know.”
“Anything specific?” asked Rowan.
“No, you can just choose what to tell me, so long as it is something I haven't already learned about you in the just over three years we've known each other.”
Rowan was silent for awhile and Meghan knew he was trying to pick something to tell her, but finally he spoke his voice low, “Well, not many of my family know this about me but I am a very tactile person.”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Meghan.
“It just means that I get great pleasure out of touching someone or them touching me. For example, when mom hugs me that sensation makes me feel all warm and good inside, because I know that she truly loves me. I get great pleasure in the sensations that happen when somebody I care about touches me even if it's just on the shoulder or arm, but especially when you do.”
“So if I am understanding you right, your body is extra sensitive to sensation, which I take to mean that you can feel pleasure as well as pain when somebody touches you.”
“That's it exactly,” Rowan said proud of his mate for her intelligence. “I've always been a tactile person, very sensitive to the slightest touch although I do not acknowledge it when some human bumps into me on accident or on purpose for instance. I actually prefer that nobody touch me, except for my family though I know it happens sometimes if I am some place that is crowded or sometimes deliberately.”
Meghan growled lowly at that sounding almost like a vampire herself, but also acknowledging that she knew sometimes that happened, although if it was deliberate instead of accidental now that Rowan was hers those women were going to learn that her mate was off limits to everyone, but her. She didn't mind if one of the family touched him, since that was totally different from some strange woman trying to take what wasn't hers to begin with.
“Sh!” Rowan soothed. “It's okay, none of those women hold a candle to you and I'm definitely not going to be lured by their rather questionable charms.”
“I know that and I know that's bound to happen even after I am a vampire, but they are going to learn that you are mine even if I have to feed off them to get my point across.”
“I hope you don't doubt my loyalty to you and you alone,” Rowan said looking a little anxious so Meghan hastened to reassure him.
“No, I know you belong to me, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to get upset when some women tries to take you from me and I know very well it will happen, since I have been warned that it will on more than one occasion over the last three years.”
“Let's not worry about it right now as that is still over three years in the future,” Rowan told her holding her even closer to him.
The two of them fell silent for a few minutes and then Meghan asked, “What part of a woman's body do you enjoy touching the most?”
“Their hair,” Rowan answered immediately, but a little shyly since he had never mentioned this to another person, not even his twin. “I especially like a woman with really long hair as I just love running my hands through it. The sensations that brings,” Rowan closed his eyes as he remembered several women he had had had sex with in the past that had had really long gorgeous hair all the way to their butts and how it had felt like silk sliding through his fingers. “Most women won't grow their hair past the shoulder's in this century as it is just too much trouble and takes to much time to take care of, but back when I was born a lot of women wore their hair all the way down to their butts or at least halfway down their backs. Of course, that might have had to do with the fact that not as many women worked back then and just stayed at home to take care of the house and care for the children, so they had the time to take care of it.”
Meghan was silent for awhile and finally she came to a decision. “I tell you what,” Meghan began, “I'll grow my hair all the way down to my butt, but only if you promise to help me take care of it. You have to swear, that you will help me wash it, dry it, brush it, and style it. If you promise me these things I will be ecstatic to grow it that long, if only because I love you.”
“I swear,” Rowan promised absolutely thrilled that his mate was willing to do this for him even though he would never have asked it of her. “I will be perfectly thrilled and happy to help you do all these things and I'll even learn how to style it, however you want.”
“Just so you know I'm not one of those women that would leave their hair up for a week and wash it only once in all that time. It will be taken down and washed, throughly at least every other day if not every day and if you think that is too much trouble for you then I won't grow it that long,” Meghan warned him.
“No, it's really no trouble at all for me as I get great pleasure running my hands through your hair, which is like silk sliding through my fingers,” Rowan assured her quickly hugging her close to him and kissing her all over her face as a way to show his appreciation for what she was willing to do for him.
“Alright then, I'll quit getting it cut so frequently, although it will have to be trimmed every month or so in order to get rid of the dead ends and to keep it even at least until I'm a vampire when I know it won't grow anymore. I'm glad you told me about this now though as it will take at least six months to a year to grow that long and its just a good thing that its already a little bit past my shoulders and not any shorter because that means it doesn't have to grow out quite so much.”
“So if your are estimate is right it should be down to your butt, just a couple months before you are turned into a vampire,” Rowan said quickly calculating the time in his head.
“Which is why I'm glad we had this discussion now and not six months down the road as my hair never would have grown all the way down to my posterior in the time I had remaining as a human, so if you hadn't brought it up now I never would have been able to get it that length before I am changed as it takes a long time to grow out hair depending on how long you want it.”
“Thank you for wanting to do this for me,” Rowan said as he kissed the top of Meghan's head.
“It's not just for you,” Meghan told him, “although you're certainly a very large reason why I am willing, but it also has to do with the fact that Amber and I want the family to be able to tell us apart at a glance and not have to wait for us to speak. Amber and I know very well that the family still gets you and Rory mixed up occasionally and it doesn't help that your hair is exactly the same color and length and that you have a lot of the same gestures.”
Rowan snorted and said, “I know, Rory and I still get annoyed, at that, as you know, although both of us understand that it is very easy to get us mixed up.”
“Did you ever think about wearing different colors? You know you could wear blue and Rory could wear green or vice versa. Both colors would go very well with your auburn hair.”
“Rory and I decided a long time ago that neither one of us was going to get into that habit as then we would be stuck with wearing at least a little bit of that color, for the rest of our existences,” Rowan explained. “Both Rory and I as you know wear a lot of both colors, if only because they go well with our hair, but we also make sure to switch back and forth and never wear the same color twice in a couple of days, so the family doesn't get any ideas.”
“I see your point,” Meghan acknowledged. “I wouldn't want to be defined or forced to wear a single color all the time just so the family could tell me and Amber apart.”
“Be glad that you can still grow out your hair as that will be a way for the family to easily tell you and Amber apart. I very much doubt they will ever get the two of you confused like they still do me and Rory.”
“I wonder what they're going to do when you and I have children someday as it will be likely we will have at least one set of identical twins since both of us come from twins,” Meghan mused.
“No doubt they'll do the same thing to any twins we have that mom and dad to me and Rory in order to tell us a apart, until we were old enough to be able to identify ourselves, which happened fairly quickly.
“And what did our parents do to you and Rory so that you could be told apart?” asked Meghan.
Rowan told her and Meghan looked outraged for a moment, but did acknowledge that it was probably the only way to tell identical vampire twins apart since they grew so fast and tended to bust out of their clothes on a regular basis.
“It was only for a month or so that they had to do that and it's not like a little bit of lead-based paint is going to harm a vampire baby. Also it washed out easily when we had our baths, which was one of the reasons they thought it was a good solution. I thought it was a very good solution considering that we tore up our clothes at least once a week until we were completely grown at a year of age,” Rowan said.
“I suppose it was a decent solution and it isn't like a little paint is going to harm a vampire baby,” Meghan acknowledged as she and Rowan sat and watched as the sun begin to set. “I think it's time we went back inside I'm starving all of a sudden.”
“Well, it's no wonder as it is hours past lunchtime and we've been out here for quite a long time.”
“I've enjoyed it and we will definitely have to do it again sometime in the future, but right now I need to go get me something to eat.”
“I'll come with you and talk with you as you eat your dinner even though I can't join you,” Rowan offered.
“Please,” Meghan said get up off Rowan's lap.
“Your wish is my command, my lady,” Rowan told his mate gallantly as the to of them entered the house heading towards the kitchen for some food for Meghan.

Meghan, age 17

“Did you ever think about having children?” asked Rowan as he lay beside Meghan out on the grassy lawn as the two of them stared up at the stars. It was a clear night and it was only a little over six months before Meghan and her twin sister Amber would turn 18 and therefore be turned into vampires at last, along with their brother Blane. It was about bloody time! Rowan along with his twin brother had been wanting to bring the subject up for several years, but both had felt that Meghan and Amber were still too young to think about such things at the time, but now that they were almost of age Rowan felt that the time had come.
“No,” Meghan answered truthfully causing Rowan's long silent heart to plummet into his stomach, “or at least not until recently,” Meghan added after a moment.
“How recently?” asked Rowan not quite daring to hope it had been after they had discovered each other.
“It was about a year after I met you,” Meghan finally admitted. “I was 14 and I would often daydream about you and me getting married and having at least a dozen little ones. Not all at once of course, but over time. Really I tried my best not to daydream about you at all as I figured that you would never be interested in me because you were so much older. I mean you looked at least twenty or twenty-one and I was only 14. I knew very well I had at least a mild crush on you, even though I had really no experience with such things, I still knew or at least it wasn't to hard to figure out.”
“So does that mean you would like to have children with me someday?” asked Rowan, trying not to sound hopeful.
Meghan finally looked and from where she had been playing with a piece of grass, twirling it between her fingers and said, “I would love to have children with you someday. Not right away though, once I'm changed into a vampire as I would like a few decades was just you and me first. If I was human when I got married I would only have a certain number of years before I couldn't have children anymore, but since I'm going to be a vampire and you have that necklace it isn't like I'm going to ever get too old to have children so we can have 50 or so if we really wanted to.”
The last was said so causally that it took Rowan a minute to translate what she said and when he did he immediately began sputtering. Rowan wondered for a moment if Meghan was really serious, but then he saw the twinkle in her eyes and realized that he was being teased or at least he was about the number of children that they would eventually have. “I think 50 is a few too many,” Rowan finally managed to get out, although his voice came out sounding choked.
Meghan burst into laughter at that and giggled for quite some time. “You really thought I was serious, didn't you?”
“I did,” Rowan admitted ruefully feeling foolish for having fallen for it since he knew very well what his mate's sense of humor was like, “or at least I did until I saw the twinkle in your eyes.”
“Well, I was serious when I said that I would like children someday even if that's 20 or 30 years down the road for us, but I do think 50 is a few too many,” Meghan told him and the seriousness of her tone let Rowan know that this time she was not joking. “I wouldn't mind having 20 or so all spread out, of course, with at least a decade in-between each pregnancy.”
“So you aren't afraid that what happened to Julia could happen to you too?” asked Rowan finally which was a question he had been wanting to ask her for quite some time.
Meghan knew all about the necklace, and also what had nearly happened to Julia when she had been pregnant with her second batch of children, how one of the umbilical cords had gotten tangled around one of the the baby's feet, what could have happened if her adoptive father hadn't known what to do and how they could have lost Julia, the babies and her parents oldest son, Patrick.
Everybody had been frightened by the incident, with good reason and no one had had any children since, including Patrick and Julia, although they desperately wanted more. Of course no one else was mated either and she and her sister had been way to young to consider such things when they were told the story, but now...well, now they were not and it secretly thrilled Meghan to be able to give Rowan what he really wanted...someday.
Meghan could understand though that the fear of losing your mate was always there even if it was deeply buried and Patrick and Julia had decided to just not risk it again just in case the same thing happened and Meghan although she was also a little afraid thought that her father's suggestion was a good one and that was to wear the necklace for only three hours max instead of forgetting to take it off and make love for a day or two straight.
Meghan blushed in the darkness as she thought about making love with Rowan, but knew that was at least six months in the future. Oh sure they had made out, quite heavily and had since she was 16, but it was usually Rowan who stopped himself from going to far through sheer force of will as Meghan didn't have much willpower where her mate was concerned and usually got so lost in passion that she didn't realize that they were almost past the point of no return.
Meghan thought about Rowan's question for a few minutes and then replied as honestly as she could soon as she had sorted out my own feelings about it. “I'm not saying I'm not afraid since I'd have to have the brains of a slug to not be,” Meghan began. “Childbirth is still filled with bumps in the road, so to speak even if it is less dangerous today then it was two or three hundred years ago, but the thing is that you can't let fear control you for if you do then the human race would not be as numerous as it is. Sure humans die in childbirth every day, but usually there was something else wrong with them that causes that to happen, well either that or they are in poor health or not near hospital or at least have a midwife they can call. I know I'll be a vampire when we finally do decide to have children so I'm not afraid of dying due to normal human illness like an aneurysm in the brain. Yes, things can still happen, but just so long as we follow dad's advice the risk of something happening like it did to Julia are considerably lessened to where it's no more dangerous then say running into one of your kind that is looking to tear you apart for no other reason then they can.”
“Well good,” Rowan said trying not to shudder as Meghan said another vampire can tear you apart just because they can and that that was just as likely as dying doing childbirth, “because as much as losing you scares the holy hell out of me I still want children of my own, which would not be possible without that necklace since you are aware that vampires can't normally have children.”
“Yes, I know,” said Meghan leaning and kissing Rowan on the lips, which Rowan immediately responded to. Little sparks seemed to dance between their touched lips just like it always had from the minute they had kissed on the lips for the first time a year and a half ago. Meghan knew without having to be told that the sparks would only get much stronger once she and Rowan were truly mated and she sincerely hoped that it would always be that way since the sparks always gave her a feeling of completion as if some spot that she hadn't known was there had been filled. Of course, she had always felt like that around Rowan, every time they touched or just brushed against each other on accident, but when they had kissed for the first time that feeling had intensified a least a hundredfold, maybe even a thousand and when she was finally turned into a vampire Meghan knew that feeling would intensify exponentially, by at least 5000 if not more.
“I suppose we had better get inside as it is getting quite late and you need your sleep,” Rowan said reluctantly.
“It's also starting to get pretty chilly out, not that's surprising as late as it is,” Meghan added just as reluctantly.
“Yeah, we had better get you inside before you catch pneumonia or something and that is the last thing either of us need,” Rowan said. “I worry about you every time you catch a cold even though I know that colds are not deadly unless they turn into pneumonia of course.”
“You worry too much,” Meghan told him with a wink. “I know why you do since you can't get sick yourself, which is something I truly envy you for, but trust me every time I get a cold it might be a pain and it might take me awhile to get completely over it, but it isn't going to kill me, especially as young as I am. Now if I was older it would be more than possible.”
“I will still be ecstatic when I can finally turn you into a vampire six months from now because you will never have so much as a the sniffles again and that will relieve my mind of at least one of my major worries,” Rowan told her.
Rowan had learned over the years not to keep anything from his mate as she was more then strong enough personalitywise to take any kind of news no matter how bad and so he had started sharing everything with her. Well most everything... Rowan corrected himself.
“You should try to stop worrying so much,” Meghan scolded him playfully knowing that that wasn't really possible as mates just always worried about each other, especially when they were out of sight. One mate's demise would mean the demise of the other one, which was why mated couples worried so much.
“Not possible,” Rowan told her with a smirk knowing that she was just teasing him again and that she worried about him just as much as he did about her, even though she was much more vulnerable and much more easily hurt then he was.
“I know,” Meghan agreed with a sigh. “Why don't we get inside before my brother really does come looking for us as we been out here for several hours already and you know how Blane is.”
“Overprotective,” Rowan muttered under his breath.
“Yes, he is,” Meghan agreed, “but it's only because he loves me and it isn't like he really feels like you are going to hurt me, just like he feels he is slowly losing me and Amber by inches. He knows that once we turn 18 in just a few more months that he will no longer have any control over what we do and he's not liking it one bit, not that he's had much control over the last five years at all.”
“We'll he will just have to get used to the idea that the two of you are all grown up and very independent of him and really have been ever since you were rescued,” Rowan said
Meghan winced a little at that reminder but nodded in agreement anyway for Rowan was still right. “I think I'm going to take a hot shower as soon as I get inside and then maybe I'll have myself a little snack before I head up to bed as I am pretty tired.”
“Mind if I join you?” Rowan asked playfully knowing that Meghan didn't mind if he lay beside her with his arms wrapped around her even if he couldn't sleep.
“No, you know I don't mind,” Meghan told Rowan leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek. “I love you and I can't wait to be just like you so that I'll never have to sleep again while you just stay awake and watch me.”
“It won't be long now,” Rowan assured her, “just a few more months, before you are to go through your change is all.”
“Which will seem like an eternity,” Meghan said.
“The family will try it's best to keep you distracted and so will I,” Rowan promised her as the two if them entered the house hand in hand.
“Have a nice time?” asked Bella as soon as the two entered the den where she and Jasper and some of the rest of the family were watching a movie.
“Yes, mom,” Meghan assured her, “although all we did was lay out on the lawn talk and of course make out that's all.”
Meghan noticed Blane wince at her words and she gave him a glare to let him know that he better not say anything, especially considering she wasn't very far from being considered of legal adult age. Blane looked away still having trouble accepting that Rowan and Meghan were a mated couple and so were Amber and Rory, even after over five years. Meghan supposed that it wasn't totally his fault as what happened to them when they were just ten had made him scarily overprotective and he had yet to see that she and Amber were almost fully grown up and mostly over their fear of intimacy, which was thanks to Rowan and Rory of course.
“I believe I'm going to go take myself a shower and head to bed early. I'll see you all in the morning,” Meghan told everyone who was watching the movie.
Everyone in the room said good night as Meghan and Rowan disappeared upstairs towards their bedroom.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Meghan was just one week shy of her eighteenth birthday and she knew that Rowan was up to something, although what she hadn't a clue as he only seemed to talk about it after she was already in bed for the evening. Meghan sincerely hoped that Rowan was just making plans to propose as that was really the only reason she could think of to keep a secret from her. She knew that he had promised to propose on her eighteenth birthday, just like Rory had to her sister. Rowan had given her his Whitlock crest ring, which she wore around her neck on a gold chain that also held her own Whitlock crest, but since they were due to be changed the very day that they turned 18, perhaps Rowan was going to propose a few days early.
Rowan's crest ring that hung on the chain around her neck, never came off as it was one of her most treasured possessions and Meghan couldn't wait until Rowan actually proposed. Meghan knew, since she had read a lot of books on the subject that a lot of woman who went through what she did never trusted a man again and spent their days never taking any risks whatsoever, they never dated, a lot of them distanced themselves from their family, because they didn't want their pity and if they had any friends of either sex, they usually distanced themselves from them as well. A lot of times they became loners and if they maintained jobs at all they didn't work around other people and in fact a lot of them worked from home if at all possible.
A very small percentage got the proper help, somebody who knew to begin to heal what had happened to them or there were very few who were brave enough to get past what had been done to them on their own. Meghan knew in her heart the she and Amber and Blane had been extremely lucky to have fallen in the Whitlocks as because of them she and her siblings had mostly gotten past what had happened to them and she and her sister at least were able to fall truly in love and both sisters knew that they would just literally waste away without their mates. Meghan and Amber had had many late night discussions where they would have kind of a sleepover and share the same bed in one of their rooms. They would then would talk quietly, so that none of the vampires in the house would be able to hear what was said unless they were in the room with them or at least just outside the door.
Everyone was nice enough to leave them alone at these times as Meghan and Amber deserved a few girlish secrets so long as they didn't hurt the rest of the family.
“Meghan, how would you like to take a walk with me?” asked Rowan looking extremely relaxed.
Meghan looked up from where she had been sitting in one of the chairs in the den and calmly closed the book and got to her feet.
Over the last year Meghan and Amber had grown their hair differently for they knew that once they were vampires they would look exactly alike and they're different colored eyes would no longer allow people to tell them apart, so this was a solution that both of them had come up with. Most of the family that was around then at all frequently could tell them apart without the different styles or lengths of hair, but other people would not be able to. It had been decided between them that Meghan would keep her hair all the way down her back to just above her butt since it wouldn't matter how heavy her hair was once she was a vampire and as for Amber she had decided on shorter hair that fell just past her shoulders. The only reason that Meghan had agreed to grow her hair so long was that Rowan had offered to help brush it, style it and keep it tangle free without hurting her and since Rowan genuinely didn't seem to mind helping her take care of it Meghan didn't mind keeping it so long. In a way it was a partnership, but a very good and solid one.
Rowan had once told her that he got such extreme pleasure running his fingers through her very long, silky thick brown hair that he would be happy to help her keep it styled and brushed just so he could have that privilege just about every day.
Meghan for her part enjoyed Rowan running his fingers gently through her long hair as he brushed out all the tangles after she had taken a shower and shampooed it for long hair took quite a bit a work to keep healthy and look neat. Once Rowan was done brushing it, which took quite some time since he was trying to be gentle, he had learned how to put it in what was called a crown braid that made it look like a coronet on the top of her head. It was a very old fashioned hairstyle, not that Meghan cared about that in the least, as once it was pinned it would stay like that until it was taken down again in order to be washed.
Normally, Meghan was sure that most women who wore this style, not that there were too many nowadays, didn't take it down more often than once a week in order to wash it out thoroughly and then put it back up, but with Rowan's help Meghan was able to wash it every day and have him re-braid it after. Rowan had learned how to braid her hair with relative ease and it hadn't taken him very long at all to learn how to do all kinds braids for different styles in case Meghan wanted a change of hairstyle. The family had of course, teased him for learning how to braid a woman's hair as that was a female's job, but Rowan had taken it all in stride and told them, quite bluntly that Meghan was doing him a favor by agreeing to grow it so long and so the least he could do was help her take care of it as such long hair required a lot of work. She was his mate after all and he would be happy to help her in anyway she required of him and then added, don't tell me you wouldn't do the same when you find your own mates. That had shut up all the unmated couples, while the mated ones in the room at the time smirked for they agreed with Rowan and would do anything for their mates including brushing and styling their hair if they were asked to.
Rowan and Meghan walked outside hand in hand and Rowan tried to appear relaxed just as he always was when he was in his mate's presence, but the truth of the matter was, that he was very nervous as he was about to propose just like he had promised Meghan he would when they had first started dating almost 2 years ago now. He had been planning along with his twin to propose to their mates on the day of their 18th birthdays, but since that was the day they would be going through the change they had both decided to do it a few days earlier, with their parents blessings.
The family of course was aware of what was happening, as it was very hard to keep secrets in a vampire household, and Bella had told both Rowan and Rory not to be nervous as Meghan and Amber were crazily in love with them and that there was no way they would say no, but both Whitlock twins were nervous all the same.
“It's so gorgeous out here,” Meghan said as she gazed at the stars, which she had gained a new appreciation for in the last few years, but really it wasn't any wonder since going outside to stargaze was about the only way she and Rowan could be totally alone this close to the house, which was one of the downsides to living in a houseful of vampires with very acute hearing.
“Yes, it is,” Rowan agreed not gazing up at the sky all out into the forest that surrounded their home, but at his mate instead. He thought Meghan was the most gorgeous, sweetest, fiery, passionate, and compassionate person he had ever met. Of course, his opinion might just be a little suspect considering that all mated couples thought that there mates were the best, but Rowan supposed that was understandable.
“Meghan, I promised you that I would propose on your 18th birthday,” Rowan began trying not to sound as nervous as he felt. Why he was nervous didn't really make any sense as Meghan had enthusiastically promised to accept his marriage proposal when he did ask her on her 18th birthday and it wasn't as if she was going to change her mind and deep down Rowan knew that, not that it prevented his nervousness.
Meghan turned to look at him and saw that while she had been gazing at the star-studded sky Rowan had gone down on one knee and was holding out a blue velvet ring box with the lid open, “but since you'll be going through the change on the day you turn 18, I thought that now was the best time to ask you to marry me,” Rowan finished.
Meghan stared at Rowan her breath beginning to come faster and her heart speed up with excitement as she was very surprised even though she had half suspected that this was what Rowan had been up to for the last little while. Finally Meghan came out of her daze after what seemed eternity, but was merely a few seconds and said, “Yes, I'll be perfectly ecstatic to marry you and in fact I've been waiting for you propose for the last two years. I knew you were going to ask me and I know you originally said you would do it on my 18th birthday, but I figured that you would probably do it a few days earlier since all three of us are going to be going through our changes on the day Amber and I turn 18, which is the middle of next week.”
Rowan breathed easier at his mate's almost immediate response and got up off his knee and took the ring off the blue satin cushion in Tiffany ring box so that he could put it on Meghan's finger. The ring was gorgeous and not your typical diamond engagement ring and in fact it wasn't a diamond at all, but a gorgeous ruby ring that was about the size of a robin's egg and the color of fresh blood. The ruby was surrounded by little, brilliant blue sapphires all in a ring and just added to to cost of the ring since sapphires while not quite as expensive as rubies were still pretty highly priced.
“Yes, believe me, I am well aware of when you and Amber turn 18 as both Rory and I are counting down the days I promise you, which seem all the longer because we can't sleep like you can in order to wile away a few hours,” Rowan told her with a very roguish wink.
“Oh, Rowan, this is too much,” Meghan said as she gazed at the absolutely gorgeous ring. “This ring must've cost you a fortune as even I know that rubies are just about the most expensive stone around, except for diamonds and sapphires aren't exactly inexpensive either. A ruby of this color and clarity must've cost you thousands of dollars.”
“Don't worry about the money,” Rowan said waving away Meghan's concern. “It doesn't matter. You'll be wearing this ring for eternity after all, so it isn't as if you're only going to wear it a few times before you get rid of it. You're more than worth it and you know that money doesn't really matter to my family since we have more than we could ever spend. You deserve the best and Tiffany's has some of the most beautiful, high quality rubies I have ever seen and I don't need a jeweler's eye loupe to tell if the stone is flawed and I chose the sapphires to match your eyes, even though I know the color is not exact.”
“Thank you,” Meghan told him feeling truly humble and threw her arms around his neck and gave him a very passionate, heart-stopping kiss to show her appreciation. “I suppose I shouldn't have said anything, but it just kind of came out. You well know how I am when I think somebody spends too much money on something for me.”
Rowan snorted at that and agreed.
“It's just that you're to good to me,” Meghan said looking as if she was about to cry from pure happiness. “After what happened at that group home I always figured that no one would ever want me in any permanent way thinking that I had brought it upon myself, although how I could have done that when I was only ten at the time I don't know as I hadn't even began to notice boys yet.”
“A lot of humans would think that, maybe even some vampires,” Rowan acknowledged looking furious as he always did, when what had happened to his mate, before he had found her was mentioned. Rowan took Meghan into his arms and wiped the few tears that had begun to fall. “Humans have no time to really become understanding before they leave this world and really a lot of the human race in not equipped to be understanding or compassionate, but Meghan, what happened to you and Blane and Amber was not your fault, but the fault of those assholes, who didn't care what they did to a bunch of kids who had never done anything to them. Those people who did that to you are very sick Meghan not in body, but in mind and anybody who knows of your history and doesn't understand that doesn't deserve to be your friend or to know you at all. Rape really is one of the worst crimes out there as it is an attack on your body, but also your mind. Rape violates your sense of self, your sense of self-worth, self-esteem, and really your very psyche, so is it any wonder that a lot of rape victims kill themselves or at least become loners? And Meghan those bastards might have raped your preteen body, and they might have almost broken your spirit, but they didn't manage to do more than bend it. They definitely did not break you spirit no matter how hard they tried for if they had you would never have allowed any of the family to get close to you or allowed yourself to love them or me. You allowed yourself to love again and to be loved in return and that tells anybody who knows what happened to you how strong you are mentally, because you didn't let those bastards win.”
“You're right,” Meghan said. “I know you are as I read every book I could lay my hands on about how to deal with being sexually abused for so many years and they all tell you the same thing, as you know. Let's not think about it anymore and just enjoy being engaged and with our family, which I have been thankful every day since your parents rescued the three of us from that horrible place.”
“Alright, we had better head back inside now so that you can show the family the ring Rory and I designed. I'm sure they'll want to congratulate us.”
“I know they will,” Meghan agreed, glad for the change in subject. The two of them walked back to the house Meghan admiring the ring the whole way.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

“Congratulations you two,” Bella's exclaimed with a wide smile as soon as she saw the ring on Meghan's finger. “When are you two going to get married? And are you going to do it before or after Meghan becomes a vampire?”
“Slow down, mom,” Rowan told Bella the amusement as well as giddy happiness in his tone clear. “How can either of us answer your questions if you don't give us a chance too?”
Everybody else in the room chuckled for they all knew that Rowan was spot on about their mother or grandmother for when Bella really got going nobody could get a word in edgewise.
Bella's mouth snapped shut and she looked embarrassed for a few seconds.
“To answer your questions, mom,” Meghan said speaking for the first time, “we will get married after Amber and I are changed into vampires and if Rory ever finishes asking my sister to marry him just like Rowan did for me then it will probably be a double wedding ceremony.”
All the females in the room squealed at that looking happy for there was nothing they liked more than planning wedding ceremonies even if it was somebody else's and not their own.
“So you believe that you'll get married right after your newborn year?” asked Bella.
“Yes, that is right,” Meghan agreed.
“Well, if you don't get married until after your newborn year that gives us a whole year to plan the ceremony,” said Bella. “Are you sure that you two and Rory and Amber wouldn't like two separate ceremonies instead of just doing all four of you together?”
“I'll have to talk to my sister, of course, but we agreed years ago that if we ever did find boyfriends, and ended up engaged at around the same time that it would be a double ceremony. You have to remember we are twins, after all, even if we're fraternal, we are especially close and we've always done almost everything together and no that does not include sharing boyfriends, not that we ever had a chance to start dating thanks to our parents dying so suddenly.”
Just then Rory and Amber came back into the house as well from the back door and as soon as they entered the living room and Bella saw the ring on Amber's finger she ended up squealing again and going to hug her second soon-to-be daughter-in-law.
“Congratulations you two,” Bella said. “Two engagements on the same day!”
“Thank you, mom,” Rory said looking so happy that he was almost bouncing on the balls of his feet and Amber almost visibly glowed with happiness and joy beside him.
“So Meghan said that you will probably wait until after your newborn year is over in order to get married is that what you want?” asked Bella as soon as Rory had taken a seat with Amber on his lap.
“Yes,” Amber answered immediately. “If Meghan, Blane and I are going to be going through the change within the week we don't really have time to plan a wedding ceremony before we do, anyway and I don't want to do something rushed as it should be a day we'll remember for the rest of our centuries on this Earth. Besides, I, for one, would like to remember the day I married the man I love as clear as a bell and if we do it before I'm changed I might not or if I do it will be vague and cloudy, so it's just better to wait until our newborn year is over.”
“Meghan said that it would probably be a double ceremony, is that what you want?” asked Chloe entering the conversation for the first time.
“Yes,” Amber answered immediately her voice confident even as she cuddled her head into her fiance's shoulder. “Meghan and I agreed when we were about eight that if we ended up getting engaged to men we loved around the same time that it would be a double ceremony.”
“And that's exactly what I told them, sis,” Meghan agreed. “Also like you I know if we got married now before we are changed that I might not remember much of the happiest day of my life and I want to make sure I'll remember every single detail.”
“Do either of you boys have an objection to a double ceremony or do you want separate ones?” asked Bella looking at her two sons.
“Oh, so, now you ask us,” Rory said looking amused and Rowan grinned and chuckled. “For awhile there I thought we were just here to provide moral support and that our opinions didn't matter.”
Everybody in the room chuckled and Bella looked as if she was going to start apologizing for ignoring them when Rowan said, “To answer your question, no neither one of us mind if it's a double ceremony and in fact that would probably be better as I'm sure we will be traveling shortly after that. If we get married right before we start to travel it could kind of be a honeymoon trip for both of us.”
Bella finally realizing that she was being teased chuckled her good humor restored and said, “Very well, it will be a double wedding ceremony right after your newborn year is over. Just wait until I tell your father the news that you four got engaged when he wasn't here.”
“Where is dad, anyway?” asked Rory having just realized that Bella was a right and that Jasper was not in the house as his scent was very faint as if he had been gone for awhile.
“He'll be back,” Bella said. “He and Patrick just went to pick up his motorcycle which was in the shop for repairs. He kind of had an accident with a human also on a motorcycle. Jasper took his bike into the repair shop and wanted to know if it was salvageable and that was about a month ago. The people at the repair shop told him that it would cost a lot of money in order to repair it and that it would just be cheaper to buy a new one, but all of us know how fond he is of that motorcycle and so he decided to get it fixed instead of replacing it.”
“Boys and their toys,” some of the females in the room muttered
“Dad, should learn to be more careful,” Brianna commented after a moment.
“Yes, he really should, but at least he's a vampire and walked away even if his motorcycle was nearly destroyed and the human that ran into him because they weren't watching where they were going died on the spot and totally destroyed his bike as well. It took several of the family to clean up the wreckage and then bury the body. It will just be as if the human disappeared off the face of the Earth. Jasper was just lucky that it happened out on a back road where they're not very many people or we probably would have had to move in a hurry, for if anybody had seen what happened... Oh, well, there is no point dwelling on it as accidents happen sometimes.”
Suddenly they all heard the sounds of two vehicles pulling up and everybody rushed outside just in time to see Jasper park his motorcycle off to the side of the driveway and to see Patrick drive up in the car that Jasper had taken to the repair shop in order to pick up his bike.
Jasper had asked his oldest son to go along so that there would be somebody to drive the car back while he drove his motorcycle.
“Dad, dad guess what?” Amber squealed as she ran to her father giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“What?” asked Jasper but then stopped when he saw the engagement ring on his daughter's finger.
“So Rory finally got around to proposing did he?”
“Yeah and so did Rowan and we decided on a double wedding ceremony after our newborn year is over,” Meghan said coming over and showing off her own engagement me.
“Congratulation to all four of you,” Jasper said grinning from ear to ear at the thought of his children's marriage in the very near future. “I'm sorry I wasn't here when you originally told the family the news.”
“Don't worry about it, dad,” Amber said.
“Yeah, you're here now and that's all that really matters,” Meghan agreed.
“Well, I think this calls for a celebration!” Jasper said and everybody immediately knew what that meant.
The way the Whitlock family celebrating was not the way that most humans celebrated an engagement. There was no fancy dinner since they couldn't eat, well except for Meghan and Amber and Blane the three humans in the family, so what they did was all watch a movie together instead and just enjoy each others company laughing and joking the whole time. Usually whenever they watched a movie the all family that was staying in the house was not present, but in this case since it was a celebration everybody would join whether or not they were interested in the movie just so they could spend time together as a family.
There would also be glasses of that artificial blood mixed with champagne and they would toast the two engagements, just like normal human couples all over the world did. It had been discovered sometime ago, thanks to Bryon, that vampires could drink alcohol and that they didn't have to throw it up afterwards, which had surprised the hell out of the whole family including Jasper since he had never known that a vampire could actually drink. Shortly after Bryon had let the family in on what he had discovered years ago, Henry had thought that it would be a good idea to try mixing the blood with various alcoholic beverages and now the Whitlocks had various beverages all mixed with a small amount of blood.
There would of course be food for the three humans thrown in along the way, not that they would be able to eat for much longer considering they were going through change into vampires in just a week or so, but for now they would celebrate and just be happy for the two engaged couples.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Amber and Meghan, age 18

Meghan and Rowan

“Ready?” asked Rowan who was leaning over Meghan who laying on the bed in the room that had been hers and Rowan's for the last two years. It was just a week after both Meghan and Amber had gotten engaged and today was their 18th birthday. Today was the day they were going to start the transformation to become vampires, along with their brother. Neither Rory or Rowan had been joking when they had told the girls that they would be changed on the 18th birthday as they couldn't wait any longer and that was exactly what was happening, not that either Meghan or Amber had protested as they were more than ready to be with their mates as vampires.
It was now 8 o'clock at night and there had been an 18th birthday party for Meghan and Amber as the Whitlock twins had wanted them to have at least that much before they were changed.
“More than ready,” Meghan assured Rowan and her mate nodded looking resolute.
Meghan for her part tried to look confident that things would go well as she didn't want to make Rowan even more nervous then he already was—and yes she could sense how nervous he truly was even though he tried his best not to show it—but the fact was she was incredibly nervous and a little scared. It wasn't that she didn't trust Rowan with her heart, her soul and her body, but the process had been described to her, to all three of them actually, and she knew that she was in for a great deal of pain for the next 72 hours as that was when the transformation would be completed. It wasn't that she wasn't looking forward to being a vampire so she would finally be Rowan's equal it was that she wasn't looking forward to being in such a great amount of pain. Whoever looked forward to such a great amount of pain would have to be insane and should immediately be committed to a mental institution.
“I'll be over here,” Bryon said from where he was standing over in a corner in order to provide backup in case his brother started draining his mate instead of changing her for, like his father and his sister Angelina he was empathic and would be able to stop Rowan from draining his mate dry by sending him so much pain that he would have to release her.
“Thanks, Bryon, I appreciate this,” Rowan told his brother looking just a little nervous, which was understandable under the circumstances. Jasper had, of course, given his twin sons the same advice that he had given Bryon and Patrick when they had changed their own mates and that was to remind the savage, instinctual part of himself that to drain Meghan dry instead of changing her would mean his death as well.
“No problem, bro,” Bryon told his brother giving him a wink. “Why don't you get started and I'll be right over here watching you very closely just to make sure you don't drain Meghan dry.”
“Believe me, I don't mind that as that's the last thing I want to happen,” Rowan said.
“Perfectly understandable,” Bryon said as he'd had the same feelings as well when he was changing Scotty into a vampire quite a number of decades ago now. He hadn't wanted to kill Scotty on accident instead of changing him, just as much as Rowan didn't want to kill Meghan.
Rowan leaned down over Meghan's neck and bit her directly on her pulse point very gently making sure to only take a few gulps of her luscious blood while injecting as much of his venom as he could. Rowan was very astonished when the demon part of him that was his instincts wasn't urging him to drain her dry or trying to get out the cage that Rowan and had him imprisoned in made up of his very strong willpower, but that part of him just looked through the bars of his mental cage with a look of eager anticipation on his face.
Like I'm going to urge you to kill our mate, stupid? the demon answered of Rowan's silent question. Get on with it I am more than ready to make her mine, permanently and that can only happen once she's like us and unbreakable.
Rowan was absolutely flabbergasted that the demon within him wasn't going to urge him to kill Meghan, but he was also very grateful for it as well as that made it incredibly easier.
It didn't take very long at all for Rowan to finish his task as not only did he bite Meghan on the pulse point of her lovely, slim neck, but also on her wrists and ankles as well injecting as much venom as he possibly could into his mate each time so that the change would take place as fast as possible.
“You did a very good job,” Bryon told his brother coming over to put a hand on his brother's shoulder. “You didn't have any trouble at all as I would have immediately sensed that since I was watching your emotions very closely.”
“You're right, I didn't. It was the strangest thing,” Rowan said.
“In what way?” asked Bryon curiously when his brother did not continue.
“It was strange because the demon that all of us possess within ourselves, that is are our baser instincts and bloodlust always argue when we want to change some human into a vampire, but my demon didn't argue with me at all and knew that Meghan and I were mates. He told me that he wasn't about to kill her and that he was more then eager to complete the bond and that that wouldn't happen until after Meghan was like you and me.”
Bryon listened to his brother's explanation and thought that it was indeed strange, but then again Meghan and Amber had been living with their mates as well as those mates parents for over five years and so in that amount of time Rowan's demon would more than likely realize that if Meghan were to die the same would happen to Rowan and therefore to him.
“I wonder if the same thing happened to Rory?” Rowan added seemingly shaking himself out of his daze.
“It might have. Why don't I go ask him if it did while you stay here with Meghan? I'll tell dad about what happened to see what he thinks as well,” Bryon suggested
“That's a good idea,” Rowan agreed a little distracted as Meghan's screams of agony caused a pain to go through his chest and his silent heart, every time, although he know it was necessary in this case for this was the only way to transform someone into a vampire. “You can tell me what he said after Meghan's through with her transformation.”
“Alright,” Bryon agreed opening Rowan's door and leaving making sure he closed it behind him.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Amber and Rory

“You ready for this?” asked Rory asked Amber softly as he stood over his mate who lay on the bed naked except for a pair of underwear and bra. Rory was trying his best to not stare at his mate's exquisite, almost naked form although it was difficult to keep his eyes on just her face. He had never seen Amber almost completely naked before and it was wrecking his concentration just from the little accidental peek he'd had. His mate had grown from a shy abused teen into a gorgeous young woman with brown hair that hung just past her shoulders and was parted on either side and her eyes, which were hazel would soon be a bright newborn red. Rory would miss her hazel eyes, but knew there was no help for it. As for her body she was above average height for a woman, which was 6 feet and 1 half inches tall which wasn't much shorter then he, himself was since he was only 6'3'. Rory tried his best not to stare at his mate's body, her breasts in particular as he had always been a breast man unlike his twin brother who was more of a leg man and in that way they definitely differed. Amber's breasts were quite large although, not overly so, and fit the rest of her body perfectly. Rory was looking forward to licking and kissing and nipping every single inch of them just as soon as she was finished with her transformation and had her first meal as a vampire. If he had his way the rest of the family wouldn't see them, for at least the next six months or more and he knew that Rowan felt exactly the same way he did about Meghan.
“More than ready,” Amber assured Rory not knowing that she was repeating her twin sister's exact words of just minutes ago.
Amber, just like Meghan tried not to show that she was incredibly nervous and a little scared, not that that wasn't a natural reaction to being turned into a vampire since it was a very painful process. Amber and her two siblings had of course, known almost from the beginning that the change was coming, just as soon as she and her sister were 18 and now that day had come.
It wasn't that Amber wasn't looking forward to joining the Whitlock as official family since once she and her two siblings had the venom of the Whitlocks running through their veins they would be Whitlocks in truth and not just by adoption. She was apprehensive about the process itself of as was her sister Meghan but that was only natural as if you weren't apprehensive then you should be committed to an insane asylum!
Amber knew that she was nowhere near as brave or outgoing as her sister as she had always been the shyer of the two, despite being born first, but she was still going through with the process of becoming a vampire and everybody had assured her that that made her very brave indeed to be willing to go through the pain in order to be with the man she loved as an equal, so that the two of them would never have to be parted by death.
Jasper and Rory had often told her that she had just as much courage as her sister and brother and that she was just naturally more cautious about getting into situations that Meghan seemed to run headlong into without thinking of the consequences and that there was nothing wrong with that at all.
Despite her father's and mate's words Amber still didn't think of herself as very brave at all even if Jasper and Rory said she was. It was all a matter of how she perceived herself and how everybody else in the family saw her and intellectually she knew that the rest of the family saw her as brave, but it didn't mean that she believed for a second that Jasper and Rory or anybody else were correct in the fact that she was still just as brave as her siblings and that it was just a different kind of bravery.
“Whenever you are ready, son,” Jasper told Rory the amusement clear in his tone even though he could understand his son's reaction to seeing his mate almost totally naked for the first time, but Rory needed to get his concentration back on track so that he didn't make a huge mistake and kill his mate on accident.
“Right,” Rory said and would have been flushing in embarrassment for letting his attention wander at this particular moment in time if he could have.
“I love you,” Rory told Amber quite sincerely.
“And I love you,” Amber assured him leaning up in order to kiss him on the lips. “I'll see you on the other side.” I hope, she added silent
Rory seemed to steel himself and then leaned down biting directly into Amber's pulse point making sure to just to take a few gulps of her delicious blood while inserting as much of his venom as he could. Finally he raised his head and did the same to her wrist and ankles all without his father having to do anything, but watch him closely.
“You did an excellent job, son,” Jasper said clapping Rory on the shoulder as soon as he was done. “I didn't sense you struggling with yourself in order not to drain Amber dry.”
“That's because I didn't,” Rory told his father distractedly. “It was the strangest thing.”
“In what way was it strange?” asked Jasper with a raised eyebrow which told Rory to continue without him having to say anything.
“Well, I expected my inner demon to rear up and want to drain Amber dry and I expected to have to tell him that I wasn't about to do that since both of us would die if she did, but my demon seemed eager for me to change her into a vampire and didn't even struggle to escape so it could drain Amber of her blood. As I said it was the strangest thing.”
“I agree, that was strange,” Jasper said as he thought about what his son had told him. “Perhaps your inner demon knows that you and Amber are mates and that it would die if she did?” Jasper suggested after a moment. “Amber and her two siblings have been living with us for over five years now and you have spent multiple hours in her company, along with the rest of the family so maybe your inner demon does know that you and her are mates and so wasn't about to kill her?”
“I wonder if the same thing happened to, Rowan?” asked Rory still looking a little distracted as he listened to his mate's screams, which tore a hole in his heart every time she let loose with one even though he knew it was part of the process of changing into a vampire
“We'll have to ask him just as soon as both Amber and Meghan are finished with their changes since I doubt we could drag your brother away from his mate at this point even with a crowbar,” Jasper said the last few words jokingly and Rory laughed as he'd intended.
“No, definitely not,” Rory agreed, “just as you won't be able to drag me away from Amber until she wakes up as a vampire.”
“And that is of course, as it should be,” Jasper agreed. “Now, I'm going to go and bite Blane as he is the last and I'm sure he is anxious to go through the transformation himself. If we can hear Amber and Meghan scream than I know he can as well. It must be driving him absolutely insane to not be able to do anything about his sisters being in such pain.”
“I know you're right about that dad,” Rory said still sounding extremely distracted. “He loves his sisters so much, although not as much as Rowan as I do, but then we love them like a man is supposed to love a woman and Blane loves them as a brother, so it's a different kind of love.”
“Yes, it is indeed different,” Jasper agreed. “I love them too, but as a father, just as Bella loves them like a mother and your siblings like brothers and sisters. Now I had better be going and in three days we will have three newborns to deal with.”
“You don't really mind as much as you pretend to, dad,” Rory told his father. “You don't mind changing humans into vampires, especially if they are the mates of your children as you want them to be happy. Sure dealing with three newborns will be difficult just like it was when we had Scott's four siblings to deal with at the same time, but it will be worth it in the end and besides you just love it when your family gets a little bigger.”
Jasper fully admitted to himself that his son was right in what he had said. “You're right,” Jasper admitted. “Besides it isn't like I won't have a lot of help with the newborns now instead of doing it all by myself like I did in the Southern Wars before I met and changed your Uncle Peter.”
“Yes, exactly,” Rory told his father with a distracted smile. “You'll probably have so much help that you won't hardly have to do anything at all, except give advice.”
“That would be nice, but I'm not counting on it,” Jasper told his son before heading to the door and exiting so that he could go and change Blane so that all three would finish their transformations within minutes of each other.
“Don't be a pessimist, dad,” Rory called after his father as Jasper exited the room closing the door behind him
“Being a pessimist has kept me alive for all this time as it keeps me cautious,” Jasper told his son before disappearing towards Blane's bedroom.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Three days later Rory lay beside his mate on the bed and listened to her scream while gently holding her close to him, which seemed to somehow help.
Suddenly he was abruptly brought out of what he had been saying to Amber all this time when her heart began to beat even more rapidly and then suddenly stopped as did her screams, which also cut off midway, which meant that the transformation was now complete.
Suddenly Amber's newly brightly red eyes popped open and she was up and off the bed standing across the room at the strange drop dead gorgeous man, with auburn hair who had also gotten to his feet in one smooth motion.
“Who am I? Who are you? Where am I? Why is my throat burning so fiercely?”
“Whoah! I'll answer all your questions if you'll just slow down,” Rory said not daring to approach his mate quite yet as he didn't want to have any of his body parts removed thank you very much. It had already happened once many decades ago when another vampire had gotten the drop on him and if it hadn't been for his brother he probably would've lost that arm permanently, but that was a story for another time.
Amber's mouth snapped shut as she had been about to ask another question, but instead waited a little impatiently for this strange gorgeous vampire to answer her questions.
“First off my name is Rory Whitlock,” Rory began. “Your name is Amber Heathcote and you were adopted by my family along with your twin sister Meghan and your brother Blane.”
Amber nodded seeming to vaguely remember now that she and her two siblings were indeed adopted by the Whitlock family and because she was Rory's mate? That last thought she wasn't too sure about.
“As for what you are you agreed, along with your two siblings, that you would be changed into vampires on your 18th birthday and you just turned 18 three days ago.”
“Vampires aren't real,” Amber protested automatically, but then thought about how fast she had moved to where she was now standing on the other side of the room and the pain she had been in for what seemed like 100 or more years, but if Rory was being honest, it had only been three days. At first she had a hard time believing that as she had believed that she was dying as the pain had been so intense and all-consuming.
“Ye,s vampires are very real,” Rory told her calmly, “and not only am I one, so you are now. As to your last question the reason your throat is burning so badly is that you need blood and I can take you to where we are keeping some humans for you to drain if you'd care to follow me. Once you drain a few humans the burning of your throat ceases or at least it will until you are thirsty again.”
“Lead the way, all of my other questions can wait until I stop this intense burning my throat before I go insane.”
Rory winced in sympathy knowing that feeling all to well. “This way then,” Rory said gently opening the door and not allowing Amber to do it since she would definitely rip the door of its hinges or break anything she touched until she remembered to control her strength automatically without having to be constantly reminded. It wasn't that he couldn't replace the door and he was sure there would be a lot of crushed objects in the next year, but he wanted his door intact because if he had his way he and Amber were not going to be emerging from his room, the same room where she had done her transformation, for at least a year. He and his brother Rowan had been waiting a long time in order to complete the bond with their mates and also to fuck them senseless as most vampires either didn't discover their mates at all or they were already vampires, or humans who were already grown up and therefore could be turned into vampires almost immediately, but with Amber and her twin sister Meghan it had been different since they had only been 13 when they had been discovered and therefore way to young to be turned into vampires, much less make love to. It had been extremely hard waiting for over five years before the twins were old enough to to be turned into vampires, but finally that day had come and it was about bloody time for if the two of them had to wait any longer they probably would have exploded from sexual tension if nothing else.
As he had been thinking he had been leading Amber into the kitchen to where the door to the basement was located. In this particular house there was no old wine cellar for his family to use for the human prisoners so the basement had been cleaned out and was able to hold up to about 50 humans at one time although that was pushing it as it wasn't that big. The basement was paved in granite so at least the humans didn't have to sleep on the dirt floor, although the granite would be a very hard place to lay your head and try to sleep, even if only for a few days.
The Whitlocks had settled just Ohio less then a year after Amber and Meghan had been discovered in that orphanage and once the other children had been transferred to other places. The Melton's group home had been shut down and how the four Whitlocks had accomplished that was a story in itself.
What Jasper and Bella and their twin sons had done in order to alert the authorities to what was going was that once Rory and Rowan had gotten done torturing their three prisoners they had placed them where they were sure to be discovered in a very short amount of time along with a sealed letter that had certain information on it that would make it easier to trace what they had been doing for the last decade and a half. It had taken a few days for the cops to discover the bodies, find the letter, open said letter and make use of information, but once they had, there had been quite a bit of activity for a few days. Rowan had made sure that he had provided the honest cops with enough information that they could easily trace it to the group home and all four Whitlocks had stood across the street watching the action from the shadows without needing binoculars since their eyesight was so much better then a human's. The Melton's group home had been shut down and all the remaining children had been transferred to another orphanage temporarily until foster parents could be found for each of the children, but before that could happen the city, the mayor in particular was going out of it's way to provide counseling to try to help them get over what they had been through.
When the honest cops and the mayor who was known for having compassion for children in particular, especially since he had lost his daughter, had discovered what had been going on right under their noses for so long and that a cop, not to mention the city's native son and a philanthropist to boot, who gave millions of dollars a year to charity were two of the people involved, they were as angry as a whole herd of bulls that had had red flags flashed in front of their eyes. What had happened next was almost like an explosion, although not quite that bad of course. The police had come down on the orphanage like a hammer and the lady who ran it, Matilda Grover was in cuffs within just a few seconds and her computer records had been confiscated so that their computer expert could start going over them with a fine tooth comb, that would probably eventually lead to some other humans arrests as their had been quite few sick humans who had rented out the children there in order to rape them again and again.
Also Gray's apartment and porn studio were gone over with a fine tooth comb and it wasn't long before the cops had a client list off Gray's computer.
Who was behind the deaths of Sterling Cunningham, Colin Bradshaw and the pornographer Gray? Nobody knew for all four vampires had made sure that there were no fingerprints anywhere, whether real or electronically that could be tracked back to them even if that was possible since Jasper had been born in the late 1900's and Bella in the early twentieth century when computers hadn't been invented and way before the humans had the technology to scan fingerprints electronically, so there was little chance of them being discovered and even if the cops did somehow find out who was behind it who would believe it since Jasper and Bella would have been dead, their bodies rotting in their coffins centuries ago. As for Rory and Rowan, their fingerprints had never been recorded.
It was a mystery that not even the greatest detective could solve and although the mayor made an announcement about how what had been happening to those poor children he also said that while they were grateful for whoever's it was help they would have been better served to bring it to the police and that the mayor hoped they would do so in the future. No mention at all was made about the fact that all three bodies had been tortured extensively and that several body parts were missing from each as well as having a few of their limbs crushed into powder. The cops once they had seen the bodies had gotten quite literally sick and thrown up right there, but were luckily able to avoid contaminating the crime scene itself.
The letter itself had been printed on plain printer paper, in block letters and done by computer so there was no way to compare the handwriting.
The letter had explained why this had been done and what had been happening at Melton's group home for the last 15 years. The letter also suggested that they should check on the finances of one of their own Colin Bradshaw.
Rowan had even been nice enough to give the cops a list of deposits that had been made and into his account, which were easy to trace if someone knew what they were doing.
“Here we are,” Rory said finally leading Amber through the den to the door that led to the basement.
Amber tensed as she could hear the multiple human heartbeats and smell blood right on the other side and Rory kindly opened the door for her so that she wouldn't crush the doorknob when she tried to open it herself. Amber was gone from Rory's side instantly, down the stairs and into the basement having her teeth latched onto her first human all in a split second.
Rory observed her for a second and then joined his mate as he was also thirsty since he had not eaten in about a week and normally that wouldn't have been a problem as he could have either drunk some of that artificial blood or gone hunting, before Amber had began her change, except for the fact he and Amber had been spending every spare minute together, when she wasn't sleeping and even when she was Rory laid in the bed with her with his arms comfortably around her as it was getting harder and harder to be parted from her.
He and Rowan had waited for so long...
“That was absolutely delicious,” Amber said licking her lips as soon as she had finished draining her first human and dropped the woman to the floor.
“Is your throat still burning?” asked Rory.
“Yes,” Amber said not seeming at all startled when Rory spoke to her, which Rory was very grateful for.
“Then have yourself another,” Rory urged her, “and in fact take as many you need to fill full. Drink as many as you need to until your throat stops burning, once it does you should feel full and won't need anymore until it starts to burn again.”
“Please! Let us go!” begged one woman who was standing over in one corner of the basement.
“What have we ever done to you?” demanded another man.
“Well for one thing you are all criminals of one sort or another for if you had gone into an honest line of work you wouldn't be here as that is all my family feeds off,” Rory told all the humans in the cellar.
“Haven't you two already been down here just a few minutes ago, and picked quite a number of us off?” demanded another.
“No, we haven't, but both us do have twins so it had to be them,” Rory said even as he was picking another human to drain. Unlike his brother Bryon and his mate Scott who only drained males unless there was no other choice he didn't particularly care if his meal was male or female, just so long as they made the burning in his throat disappear.
That got all the remaining humans muttering, although it was, of course, too late for them, for even if they didn't die today they would sometime in the next two or three as there weren't enough humans in the cellar to last more than a few days with three new vampires in the house, plus him and his brother since neither of them intended to go hunting until their mates could.
Amber didn't respond but latched onto another human, this time a man, and had him drained dry in just a few minutes.
“There are two pairs of you that look exactly alike?” asked yet another human this time a female trying to appear unafraid, although she was as she knew her death was intimate, for if it didn't happen today, then it would tomorrow or the next.
“Yep,” Rory grinned nastily.
By the time Amber had drained another human she felt very full, also sloshy and the burning in her throat had finally disappeared completely.
Rory by this time had finished draining a couple of humans as well as he hadn't been as thirsty as Amber and he also wasn't a newborn like she was either, which made a difference.
“Done?” asked Rory.
“Yes, I'm stuffed,” Amber agreed. “And now that my throat isn't searing driving me crazy I remember a lot more then I did at first.”
“What do you remember?” asked Rory trying to keep his voice even as the two walked up the wooden set of stairs that led to the den, Rory making sure that he closed and locked the door behind him.
“Well,” said Amber suddenly looking a little shy. “If I'm remembering correctly we are mates, is that correct?”
“It is indeed,” Rory said grinning from ear to ear. “I so happy that you remember me.”
“I also feel this...” Amber paused trying to think of the correct word, “...pull?” Amber's voice became questioning, “towards you.”
“And you should, because I certainly feel one towards you and have since the moment we first set eyes on each other, over five years ago when you were just a girl of thirteen,” Rory said daring to reach out and take Amber's hand in his.
Amber accepted Rory's touch and in fact gave his hand a little squeeze causing Rory to wince since Amber had forgotten that she was much stronger then him and would be for the next year.
“Oh, I'm sorry,” Amber looking shamefaced. “I didn't mean to hurt with my strength. I seem to remember you telling me that I would be much stronger than you for the first year?”
“Yes, I did,” Rory agreed, “and it's perfectly all right as you're bound to make a few mistakes, especially doing your newborn year. I'm not really hurt, I promise.”
Rory showed her that he could still flex his fingers and close and open his hand with no pain at all and Amber relaxed after her mate's demonstration.
“I'm still sorry,” Amber said.
“It's alright,” Rory assured her again. “Now I have something of a question for you.”
“What's that?” asked Amber curiously.
“Would you like to go say hello to the rest of the family including your twin sister or just disappear back into our room?”
“You said I had a brother, right?” Rory nodded in confirmation. “Well, why didn't you mention him?”
“Because he hasn't quite finished his change as yet. Can't you hear his screaming, for I certainly can,” Rory asked her. “He'll be done any minute now though as he was bitten maybe half an hour or so after you and Meghan were.”
“Oh,” Amber said for she did indeed hear horrific screams coming from somewhere in the house, but that weren't close enough to be able to hear them at full volume. “You're right I do hear some screams like someone is being tortured by 1000 white-hot knives and then have their injuries dipped in acid.”
Rory quietly snickered at that and then said, “You're right, that is what it sounds like and that is what it feels like to or at least that what I've heard what transforming into a vampire is like. I'm just glad I never had to go through the transformation myself as I lost an arm once and that was painful enough and having it reattached only a little less so.”
“You'll have to tell me how you nearly lost an arm, but later,” Amber said. “Right now I'm just interested in saying hello to the family who, I do remember, most of them anyway and my memories seem pretty clear.”
“I have a theory as to why your memories are clearer then most newborn vampires,” Rory said as he led her towards the living room where the family that was staying at the house was waiting.
What's your theory?” asked Amber, curiously.
“My theory is that you lived with us for so long while you were human and had accepted that you were going to be changed just as soon as you turned eighteen that your memories of the family anyway are stronger and you are also much more coherent then most newborn vamps. It is just a theory though, although I bet you dad, will tell us that he thinks the same thing once he finds out that you remember much more than your average newborn vampire.”
“It's as good a theory as any,” Amber admitted.
“We can discuss it later if you like,” Rory said out loud while he thought, Much, much later if I have my way.
“Alright,” Amber agreed as the two of them entered the living room side-by-side where the family was waiting.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Half an hour later after Amber had spoken to the family and assured them that she was well she and Rory headed back up to their bedroom after saying goodbye. Amber had of course given her sister a gentle hug, which Meghan had returned gladly as she was happy to see that her sister was alright. Both Amber and Meghan had stayed around long enough chatting with the family to see Blane for a few minutes as soon as he had returned from his first feeding escorted by Jasper who had disappeared upstairs as soon as Blane's heart had sped up, which told everyone present that his transformation was nearly complete. After making sure their brother was doing okay Rory and Amber and Rowan and Meghan had disappeared upstairs and into their bedrooms closing their doors gently behind them.
“I've been looking forward to this for so long,” Amber said as she tried to remove her shirt, but ended up ripping it to shreds instead since she had forgotten that she was strong enough to do that now.
“So have I, and it has been so hard to resist just taking you,” Rory told Amber his sincerity obvious helping her to remove the rest of her clothes after tossing the shirt in the wastebasket since it was unsalvageable. “I love you so much,” Rory added as gently ran his hands that were now the same temperature as Amber's skin up-and-down her body as he gently removed the pants she was wearing as well as her underwear, until she was totally naked before him.
“And I love you,” Amber assured him not feeling at all self-conscious as Rory looked up and down her body and she could tell he was very aroused since she knew every single one of his reactions, because they had known each other for so long. “I think I fell in love with you from the minute our eyes met all those years ago, even if I didn't realize it at the time.”
Rory remembered what had happened in vivid detail, but then again how could he not considering that he did have an eidetic memory just like every single vampire ever changed and it didn't seem to matter that he had been born a vampire and not made into one.
It had been the strangest thing, Rory remembered. He had known that he and Rowan wouldn't be spending as much time together since his brother would want to spend as much time as possible with Meghan now that he had discovered they were mates. He had come along with Rowan to see their parents and for his brother to spend time with Meghan, even if Meghan had no clue what lay in her future. Just being near his mate was enough for Rowan, for the present anyway, although later he would want much more, but right now they were just getting to know each other.
Amber who had always been much shier and then her younger sister had stayed in the doorway for quite some time even as Meghan bounded it into the room and hugged Jasper and Bella and then sat down beside Rowan seeming to know the difference between him and his twin, which was strange all by itself.
Finally after a few minutes of hanging out by the doorway to the den Amber had gotten up the courage to approach and sat beside Jasper who had left a space for her on purpose. Even though Amber was now sitting beside Jasper she was still too shy to look directly at him or his twin and had buried her head into his father's side and Jasper had put a gentle arm around her still very thin shoulders, Rory remembered with an inner grin.
Bella had begun the official introductions since Amber had not met the Whitlock twins last night and neither had Meghan, officially anyway, even though she had seen them. “Amber, Meghan, Blane, I want you to meet Jasper's cousins, Rory and Rowan,” his mother had introduced and Rory remembered how Blane had shot Bella a look and how his mother had returned the look that Blane sent her way by raising her eyebrow, which seemed to promise that all his questions would be answered after his sisters were in bed.
From Meghan's expression she had known that he and Rowan were not Jasper's cousins but she had said nothing and Rory supposed she had overheard more of their conversation then any of them that had been in the room that night had initially guessed.
Bella had been introduced her sons to Meghan and Amber officially. “Rory, Rowan, this is Amber Meghan and Blane Heathcote who we adopted just recently.”
“It's nice to meet you,” Blane said being the first to speak after the official introduction was over and showing how brave he was by getting up from his spot to shake the twins hands even though he must've known that they were vampires as well.
Seeing her brother, who had been through just as much as she had, being so brave Meghan was not about to be outdone, Rory remembered with an inner chuckle. Meghan had gotten up from where she was sitting beside Rowan and officially introduced herself to them, even though Bella had just done that.
Amber, who had seemed very encouraged by her siblings bravery had also stood up and shyly introduced herself as well. That was when it happened and the mate bond connection had snapped into place in his very soul, Rory remembered with an inner grin that was downright goofy, so he was glad it was only in his mind. Amber had introduced himself to Rowan first and then had turned to him and their eyes had met as if by accident. The connection between them was immediate and even Amber looked as if she had been hit over the head with a sledgehammer.
He had recovered faster than Amber had and he, his brother and his parents had all exchanged silent looks of astonishment and Jasper had made it clear that they would be discussing this in-depth just as soon as all three children were asleep.
“How could you have realized it?” asked Rory logically answering his mate's statement of just a minute ago, pulling himself out of his memories, with effect. “You had no idea that vampires even existed at that point in your life and you didn't find out for a year and when you did you were busy trying to absorb the fact that vampires were real and learning all about the vampire world for the first year or so after you did discover why my family were different from normal ones. Trust me I know how hard it is to absorb the fact that something out of movies and books and legends are actually real and present in the world. It's a paradigm shift where all your perceptions are totally shifted from what you believe to be true and that takes awhile to accept.”
“You know it's kind of funny, in an ironic kind of way,” Amber began. “I was already halfway in love with you even before I knew about vampires for you after all had spend multiple hours to get me to come out of my shell. You were always there when I had a nightmare and I know I had plenty of those for the first couple of years.”
“Which is understandable,” Rory said. “I'm sure if I could sleep I'd have had nightmares to just from all that has happened in my life to me and my family and in fact every vampire that has regretted some of the things they have been forced to do I'm sure.”
“You're more than likely right,” Amber admitted, “but for now we have other things to occupy our attention.
“Indeed we do,” Rory agreed getting out of his clothes at vampire speed and taking his very naked mate into his arms and carrying her gently over to the bed placing her very tenderly on it.
Rory prepared himself to make love to her for the very first time and to also try to be as gentle as he possibly could be, so that Amber would never be afraid of him and would see that there was a good side to the giving of one's body to another person.
“I love you, I love you, I love,” Rory said softly over and over again even as he started to kiss and nip Amber gently all over her breasts, which what his favorite part of her anatomy
“I love you too,” Amber told him, panting a little, even as she twined her hands into Rory's long auburn hair.
Rory took his time to get the taste of his mate's skin and almost literally salivated as his Amber tasted absolutely delicious. Rory next took a deep sniff of his mate's arousal making sure to imprint it into his memory, so that he would never forget the first time he smelled the scent of his aroused mate.
Actually scratch that, both him and Amber had been aroused many a time back when Amber had still been human and they had both had trouble keeping their relationship from going to far, but they had somehow managed. To him anyway she smelled a little differently then she had back then and why that was he wasn't sure unless it had something to do with the fact that she was no longer human and therefore could not sweat or perhaps it had to do with the fact that she now had venom running in her veins instead of blood or possibly a combination of both.
He could think about that later though as his demon was demanding that he make love to her and being quite persistent about it. Rory who was hardly likely to object to doing so, began very gently starting kneading one of Amber's breasts with one hand while he continued to kiss her all up and down her midsection. Rory's free hand found its way into Amber pussy and almost immediately he found her G spot, which made her almost scream in pleasure and come off the bed completely for if Rory had not been holding her down she would have likely hit the ceiling.
“That feels so wonderful,” Amber stuttered her words as if struggling to get them past her lips.
“I'm glad,” Rory told her lifting his head just enough from where he was kissing the soft skin of her shoulder to respond, “but trust me I'm only getting started and it will be a long, long time before I let you leave this bed at all. Waiting until you were the proper age to make love to has been torture, but now that you are I intend to make up for lost time.”
“I won't object to that I swear to you, but I do need to feed every couple of days,” Amber reminded him, her voice husky and full of passion as her orgasm kept building and somehow she instinctively that it wouldn't be long at all before she went over the edge.
“Well, yes, there is that,” Rory admitted reluctantly. “We will get out of this bed so that you at least can feed because if there is one thing that both my parents drummed into all their children's and grandchildren's heads from the time we were able to understand was that a hungry vampire was an out-of-control vampire and that definitely is not good, especially in today's society. If we were in the 1950s when I was born we wouldn't have as much trouble getting rid of the evidence without being discovered if one of us did get out-of-control, but with all the cameras and people today it is just better if we make sure we feed frequently, so that we aren't found out by the human population. Other than that though…” Rory paused and Amber interjected her own words as she had been thinking along the same lines as Rory had as her mate tried to think about how to phrase what he wanted to say.
“Other than that I will be perfectly happy, ecstatic, and delirious to stay in bed with you for the next six months or so if that's what we want,” Amber finished Rory's thought. “I've been as anxious as you have to not only complete the mating bond that I remember you telling me about when I was human, but to have you all to myself for as long as possible as we always had some of the family around before, except when we went on a date or something.”
“Now that we've settled that,” Rory said grinning from ear to ear deliriously happy that Amber had thought of the same things he had and that she wanted to be alone with him for as long as they were able.
“Yes, now that we've settled that you're welcome to get back to what you were doing and then I'll be perfectly happy to do the same to you,” Amber said feeling very brave, but then she and Rory had known each other for quite a few years already and they had been friends as well as mates for all that time. He was the one after all, who had brought her out of her shell, and talked her through what had been done to her by those horrid, evil men and women, who had spent multiple hours in her presence and comforted her when she had a nightmare. She had known even before she knew anything about vampires and mate bonds that she and Rory did indeed have something special and she would gladly spend the rest of eternity by his side.
“I'm looking forward to that,” Rory assured her even as he got back to what he had been doing mere minutes ago and Amber immediately begin to whimper and wiggle underneath him again and the demon within Rory roared in satisfaction at the effect that he had on his mate.
Bite her! the demon within Rory roared. Bite her! Claim her, so that she knows she is ours and no one else's! Bite her! Mark her! We have been waiting for so long!
Your wait is now over and so is mine, Rory told his demon mentally even as he continued to do delicious things to Amber, causing her to make little purring, and mewling sounds that he had never heard from her before, and that drove him and the demon within him absolutely wild with desire. There were quite a few things that he had been absolutely dying to try for the last two or three years as he had had plenty of time to imagine what he would like to do to her once Amber was a vampire like him. He'd had multiple hours while Amber was sleeping to just imagine how he would claim her and make her roar his name before she came.
“Rory! Finish it! I need you inside me before I go insane from this pressure in my belly!” Amber called out almost screaming and digging her fingernails into Rory's shoulder blades leaving him with permanent crescent shaped marks, not that he cared about that and in fact, he would be very proud to wear the marks that Amber left on his skin.
Rory immediately complied with his mate's demand as he wasn't sure how much longer he could last either. He did know though that they would have to practice and practice some more to get better at making love as this was the very first time that they had been able to do it and so they were bound not to last very long at first. It wasn't that he had never had sex before, but fucking someone just to relieve yourself was totally different from making love to someone that you genuinely loved and wanted to please as much as yourself.
Before he had only had sex with humans and he always drained them afterwards because even if they had not been so injured because he forgot to watch his strength they would have known that he was not completely human just from the way that his cock leaked venom as that was not normal for a human man. He like all his siblings had always made sure to drain whoever they were fucking just so they wouldn't turn into a vampire when the venom got into their still human bodies.
Amber screamed as her orgasm exploded within her as Rory released his seed into her and she instinctively bit down on the side of Rory's neck and Rory for his part bit down as well, but on her left breast instead on his mate's neck like was normal for a large percentage of their kind.
“Wow! That was really something,” Amber panted as soon as she was sure that she could actually speak and the stinging from Rory's bite had stopped hurting.
“It will just keep getting better and better the more we practice,” Rory told her contented to lay curled up beside her with his arms around his mate's body hugging her close to him. “50 years from now you will be absolutely amazed when you check your memories of when we first started making love. You will see how deep our bond has become and how much better we have gotten at the art of lovemaking. Our bond will continue to deepen the longer we are together even if it's fully mature after 10 or 20 years depending on the strength of it and how many things the mated pair has in common.”
“I love you,” Amber said as she lay curled up and feeling very relaxed with her mate's arms around her holding her close.
“And I love you,” Rory assured her kissing the top of her head thankful that she was his and that finally she had gone through her transformation so that they could always be together. It had been so hard waiting for her to be the proper age to be turned, but he had done it even if it had been damn difficult, but now that she was a vampire like him well he and his demon were more content and happy then they had ever been.
“Ready for another round?” Rory asked finally after a few minutes of contented silence. “Or would you rather do something else?”
“I'm always ready,” Amber told him smiling at him kissing his nose. “I never knew what making love was really like for when I was human what those bastards did to me was not love, just sex and domination. All those bastards wanted was to prove that they could dominate someone who was weaker than themselves and since they were afraid to try with an adult, children were the only other option and the only ones really malleable enough, who wouldn't really know how to fight back.”
“I would never try to dominate you, I hope you know that,” Rory told her as he pulled her even closer to him in a gesture of comfort.
“I do,” Amber him placing a finger over his lips to get him to stop talking. “You have proved over and over again over the last five years that you would never try to control me and force me to do something that is against my conscience. I had to decide whether or not I would let those bastards continue to control me for the rest of my existence even when they are long dead. If I had denied what was between us just because I was too scared of the consequences then that would be letting those fuckers continue to control me and there was no way in hell that I was going to go the next 1000 years being afraid of my own shadow. I'll readily admit, that I am not as brave as my sister or brother, but I've come to realize that that does not make me a coward just that I am more of a thinker instead of being one to rush headlong into situations that could get me hurt, like Meghan.”
“Well, good,” Rory said his red eyes gleaming with pride. “I'm really proud of you for not letting those bastards control you because they would have just because you would have been imprisoned by your own fear, to afraid to form any kind of attachment to anyone outside your siblings.”
“I had to,” Amber answered simply. “I love you far too much to let you live out my normal lifespan and then kill yourself when I died of old age if nothing else. That was the only reason I had the courage to try to get past my fear.”
“I am deeply honored and humbled about what you have told me,” Rory said as he held his mate a little tighter than before thinking to himself that he didn't think he was worthy of all the effort. Amber had got past all that had happened to her, and for that he was glad that she had managed to get past her fear of physical intimacy.
“You were the only thing that I loved so much that I couldn't bear to be parted from you or for you to commit suicide when I was gone,” Amber told him as she very tenderly ran a hand through his auburn hair.
Rory closed his eyes at the tenderness of his mate's gesture and when he opened them again they were filled with love and gratefulness that she was here at his side and that she would never leave him just like he would never leave her. They would be together for as long as human life existed on this Earth.
“Now, I believe it's time that we get back to what we were doing,” Amber suggested smiling into her mate's eyes after another few minutes of contented silence.
“I'd be glad to,” Rory assured her with a grin that was just a little smug. “I will never get tired of having myself buried as deep in your body as I can go as it feels like home.”
“I feel exactly the same,” Amber assured him as she began peppering his face with kisses and licks. That little gesture from his mate was enough to get Rory moving and raised up on one arm and he began to make love to his mate for the second time. That, of course, was how they spent the next two days until it was time for Amber to feed again.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Rowan and Meghan

It was several weeks later and Rowan brought up a subject with his mate that he had been meaning to ever since she was changed, but they had been rather distracted. Rowan chuckled mentally at that and thought, If you meant distracted because they had been fucking each other senseless almost constantly and had only taken breaks in order to feed, then they had indeed been distracted.
“Meghan, I've been meaning to ask you something,” Rowan began as a two them lay in post coital bliss.
“What's that?” asked Meghan sounding so contented that she actually looked sleepy.
“Well,” Rowan began trying to figure out how to broach the subject. “You did have a weak form of telepathy when you were human and now that you are a vampire that talent should have been considerably upgraded…” Rowan left the question hanging hoping that Meghan would finish his thought.
“And you're wondering why I haven't mentioned it at all,” Meghan finished her mate's thought.
“That's part of it certainly,” Rowan, “although I know we've both been rather…distracted.”
“Is that your word for the fact that we've been fucking each other senseless in-between feedings for both of us for the last couple of weeks,” Meghan chuckled and Rowan was glad that his mate's sense of humor was still intact after the rather painful transformation of a couple of weeks ago.
Meghan sobered and then she said, “Yes, I still do have that talent. I remember doing the transformation that I was about to go insane because I could hear all these voices in my head and I realized that it was the family's thoughts as well as the humans that had been kidnapped and put down in the cellar I was hearing and so I somehow turned it off, although I'm not sure how I accomplished that.”
“Do you think you can turn it back on?” asked Rowan trying not to let on how much this news astonished him.
“I don't know,” Meghan said honestly. “I haven't really tried and the truth of it is that I've been a little afraid to as I know I'll hear everybody's mental voices in my head again.”
“Meghan, this is a very useful talent,” Rowan told his mate as he gently rubbed circles on her arm. “I mean if you can turn it on and off then you can use it only when you need or want to and you don't have to listen to everybody thoughts all the time.
“I don't know,” Meghan said looking apprehensive. “The thoughts I heard doing my change, were not ones I really needed to know, if you know what I mean. Also it wasn't just that I don't need to hear about everybody's sex life or what they did to the human, it's also the fact that there was so many all at the same time that it about me insane. Also some of the humans thoughts were just plain evil, while others were desperate and yet others were dwelling on the fact that they were about to die and wondering how they had gotten into this situation.”
“Maybe dad, can teach you how to filter and only hear who's thoughts you want to,” Rowan suggested. “Think of it like tuning a radio, where you only want to listen to one specific station.”
“I never thought about it like that,” said Meghan looking a little relieved as her mate's suggestion was very logical.
“We won't really know if you still have your telepathy if you don't try to turn it on, again just like a radio,” Rowan said.
“Alright, I'll give it a shot,” Meghan said closing her eyes and Rowan almost immediately sensed that she was mentally very far away, even if her physical self was right there in the bed they shared.
“Oh, it hurts,” Meghan said her voice filled with such pain that all Rowan wanted to do was hold her close to him and make all the bad things go away, but he knew that he could really help her in this case. “All those voices, piling on top of each other. There must be at least a hundred of them all trying to tell me something at the same time.”
“Shh! I'm here,” Rowan soothed, pulling her closer to him and is soon as this skin was touching hers, Meghan let out of gasp that was pure relief.
“I'm not sure exactly what you did, but the minute you touched me the mental voices became more manageable. Oh, they are still there, but they're no longer each shouting their thoughts at me all at the same time. What did you do?” asked Meghan.
Rowan looked astonished at Meghan's words and said, “I have no idea. As far as I know I'm just your plain ordinary vampire with no extra talents other then what is normal for our kind.”
“You've never been plain anything,” Meghan told him quite sincerely as she tenderly threaded the fingers of one hand through his shoulder length, auburn hair. “You've always been very special, or you have to me at least.”
“Thank you,” Rowan told her giving her a very heartfelt kiss in thanks for the compliment.
“You're welcome,” Meghan told him returning the kiss quite enthusiastically.
“We should probably discuss this with at least dad and probably mom as well,” Rowan gently suggested hoping that Meghan wouldn't raise any objections to the idea because he really was totally out of his depth in this instance. “I'm sincerely hoping that dad can help you be able to tune out the thoughts you don't want to hear, but keep your telepathy active looking for trouble or things that could reveal us for what we are.”
“I hope he can, or I won't be using it much,” Meghan said shuddering as she remembered the few minutes of intense pain that she had just experienced from the at least a dozen different thought patterns each piling on top of each other. “If we can't find some way to install some sort of control like the tuning knob of a radio, as that was a good analogy as any, then I will keep it turned off as I don't want to experience the pain of so many voices in my head all at once. Just imagine what it would be like if we were in the middle of a busy mall or somewhere there were a lot more people then there are in this house,” Meghan added after thinking about it for a moment, “if I was in such pain with just a dozen or so strong voices and about a hundred weaker ones in my head imagine what it would be like with hundreds or even thousands.”
“You do have a very good point,” Rowan admitted. “For one thing we have no idea how far your talent reaches as it might just be a few feet or up to 5 or 10 miles,” Rowan commented.
“I doubt very much it reaches that far,” Meghan said giving Rowan a kiss on the lips. “I think it's probably something that might reach a mile at most. Have you ever heard of another vampire who has a talent like mine?” asked Meghan suddenly.
Rowan wasn't startled when his mate changed subject as Meghan was kind of like his mother and could change the subject of whatever they were discussing quite suddenly.
“I've heard of a family known as the Cullens and they are like my sisters Alanna, and Merry and my brother Gav in the fact that they drink animal blood. The reason I mentioned them is the fact that I heard that the leader's oldest son, who's name is Edward I believe, can hear the thoughts of others, but from what I've heard his talent works a little bit differently than yours as that he can't turn it off like you can.”
Meghan shuddered, not being able to imagine having to hear anybody's thoughts all the time as their were some things you just didn't need to know about your family. “I can't imagine always having to hear the thoughts of others.”
“Well, I think that Edward's talent only works within a few feet of where he is,” said Rowan.
“For all we know mine only works within a few feet,” Meghan said.
“No, if you could only hear people thoughts that were just five or six feet from you, you never would have been able to hear the rest of the family that are in this house at the moment as not all of them were within that short range of you and in fact quite a few of them were downstairs watching a movie and the rest were outside playing volleyball at the time you were going through your change. If you really heard everybody that was in the house two weeks ago then you never would've heard the ones outside or the ones down on the first floor either. The only ones you would have heard would have been the ones on this floor in the rooms on either side of this one and maybe the one directly across the hall.”
The room that he and Meghan shared was on the fourth floor and therefore they were right under the attic, but it also meant they were way to high up for Meghan's talent to extend only a few feet for if her talent was that short range she never would have heard anyone, except him and maybe a couple of other people, who were on this floor when Meghan was going through her change.
The house that the Whitlocks had bought after Meghan, Amber and Blane had come to live with them was not as big as some of the ones they had owned over the years, but it did have four floors and that didn't include the attic or the basement.
There were 20 decent sized bedrooms, along with several bathrooms, a living room, den, kitchen, dining room, a study for Jasper, a library and a room that the Whitlocks had turned into a game room for the playing of all sorts of games, whether board, games, cards or ones that used electricity like the old fashioned pinball machine that was set up in one corner.
“You're right,” Meghan conceded. “Maybe we should go talk to dad after I feed, of course, as I'm getting pretty thirsty.”
“Yes, I could use some blood as well,” Rowan agreed. “Why don't we get dressed, so we can do that?”
“Will you help me on with my clothes?” requested Meghan a little shyly as she was pretty independent and didn't like being unable to dress herself, but last time she had tried she had torn her favorite pants into nothing but scraps of fabric as she had forgotten to watch her strength. “I don't want to rip anymore of my nice clothes like I did with my pants the first time I tried to take them off without help.”
“I'd be glad to,” Rowan assured her giving her a kiss on the nose. “I've been helping you so far every time you had to get dressed, in order to go down to the basement to feed so I would be perfectly happy to keep helping you and you don't even really have to ask as I consider it a pure pleasure to help you with that task since I get to touch every inch of your body during the process.”
Meghan would have blushed if she had been able to, but instead she just radiated embarrassment, which she was glad that Rowan couldn't feel since he didn't have Jasper's empathic talent. The things that Rowan often said just came out so sincerely and naturally that Meghan could not doubt even for an instant that he truly meant them.
“You sure are good for a girl's ego,” Meghan told him playfully.
“I have meant every single compliment I have ever given you,” Rowan told her seriously and Meghan knew that he was being very sincere.
“I know,” Meghan told him as she kissed his cheek. “Why do you think I told you that you're good for my ego? If I didn't know you meant what you said then you wouldn't be good for my ego, now would you?”
“No,” Rowan conceded, “I suppose I wouldn't be. I know that some females would take a compliment even if it wasn't sincere and let it stroke their ego, but you have never been like that and only accept sincere and heartfelt compliments.”
“In other words I'm not as shallow as at least 75% of the women in the world,” Meghan said, lifting he arms straight up so that Rowan could pull the shirt she had chosen over her head and arms.
“Definitely not,” Rowan agreed as he had let Meghan pick out her own clothes, but he was actually responsible for taking them off the hangers and helping Meghan to put them on so that they wouldn't get ripped to shreds.
“There, all done,” Rowan said finally as he had had Meghan sit on the edge of the bed just a minute ago so that he could pull her comfortable sweat pants over her long legs and after that was done, had her stand back up so that he could pull them over her butt and up to her waist. “Just let me brush your hair and get all the tangles out, since thanks to all our recent sexual activity it is quite a mess.”
Meghan chuckled at that. “I'm not in the least surprised. I hope you know that I would never have grown it so long if you hadn't volunteered to help me take care of it for hair this long requires quite a bit of care and time.”
Meghan's hair hung all the way down her back and was extremely thick and had plenty of body and volume.
“I know it and if you don't remember I told you when you were still human that I like woman with really long hair. However you made the decision on your own to grow it this long, but only after I promised that I would help you wash it, dry it, brush it and style it.”
“I remember that now that you mentioned it,” Meghan said her newborn red eyes going distant for a moment as she remembered that conversation she had had with Rowan. “It's very cloudy and vague, but I do remember. I was fifteen? Or was it sixteen? When Amber and I decided that since we really were going to be identical when we were changed that it would be a good idea to be able to tell us apart once we were as when we were human our only distinguishing feature was our different colored eyes.”
“You were sixteen, almost seventeen as you only had about two months before your joint birthdays when you made that decision,” Rowan said.
“Well, I knew it couldn't have been last minute decision as it takes time to grow hair as long as mine is and in fact I would guess at least six months to a year, while only getting it trimmed every month or so to get rid of dead ends and to keep it even,” Meghan said.
“About that yes,” Rowan agreed as he remembered that time very clearly and how thrilled he had been that Meghan had decided to grow her hair so long mainly for him and all because he had told her that he was a sucker for a woman with extremely long hair. It wasn't that he wouldn't have still loved Meghan even if she had decided to keep her hair shorter, but knowing that she had decided to grow it long just because he liked a woman with long hair told Rowan how much his mate loved him and wanted to do something because it would make him happy and it had, extremely happy. There was just something erotic about running his hands through hair that hung halfway down a woman's back. In the past whenever he needed to relieve his sexual tension he had always tried to find some random women that he could fuck with hair that hung at least past the shoulders, which was before Meghan had come into his life, of course.
Rowan had discovered over the years that he was a very tactile person, in other words he got great pleasure from touching people, whether it was just an accidental brush on the arm or a hug from one of the family. This was, especially true when it came to touching a woman's soft skin, but especially a female's hair. Most females had hair that felt like silk sliding through his fingers and just touching it gave him a shot to his cock. The longer the hair the more of a charge his cock got and when he had explained this rather shyly to an almost seventeen year old Meghan she had said that she would grow her hair all the way down her back to just above her butt for him so long as he helped her take care of it, which he had immediately agreed to genuinely meaning it. Ever since then Rowan had watched in pleasure as Meghan's hair had grown like a well watered weed and by the time six months had passed it was almost halfway down her back and at the year mark, which really had only been two and a half months ago it had finally reached it's destination to just half an inch above her butt. Rowan had gotten a lot of pleasure watching it grow inch by inch and running his hands through it as often as he could manage, which not only gave him pleasure, but Meghan as well who genuinely enjoyed the sensations that Rowan created within her every time he found some excuse to run a hand through her fast growing hair. It helped, of course, that Meghan's hair had already been just below her shoulders when she had agreed to grow it longer and therefore it hadn't taken nearly as long to grow it so long as it would have if it had been cut shorter.
“Well, why don't we head downstairs and talk to dad so that maybe he can help you control your talent and also figure out why the second I touched you your telepathy dimmed down to the point that you weren't feeling so overwhelmed with the multiple voices in your head.”
“Alright, as I know this is important,” Meghan agreed letting Rowan open the door for her so that she didn't crush the doorknob on accident.
“It is,” Rowan agreed, “and if this wasn't so important you wouldn't be able to drag me out of bed with a crane.”
“I certainly agree with that statement,” Meghan chuckled taking Rowan's hand in hers, remembering to be gentle so she didn't hurt her mate on accident.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

“So you are telling me that you, Meghan can turn your telepathy on and off at will,” Jasper began his voice calm and his face relaxed, although the excitement in his eyes was easy to read.
Rowan and Meghan had found both their parents alone in the living room, and the scene they had encountered had shown very clearly how much Jasper and Bella truly, deeply and equivocally loved each other.
It had been such a charming scene that even Rowan was touched for a moment. Rowan had always known that his parents deeply cared for and loved each other, and the scene had and Meghan had walked into had proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Jasper and Bella had been laying on the couch curled together, with his mom mostly laying on his dad's chest and Jasper had been holding her tenderly with one arm while he had been holding a book up to his eyes with the other quietly reading out loud to his wife. That had been intimate enough, but what had really touched both him and Meghan was the fact that Jasper was so absorbed in reading to his wife that he probably didn't even realize the fact that the arm that was holding her close to him was also absentmindedly stroking up and down her back causing Bella to give an unconscious purr every minute or so and snuggle even closer.
Rowan and all his siblings had always known that his parents loved each other, you didn't have 21 children if you did not, but if any had doubted even the slightest bit here was unequivocal proof right in front of him. Rowan had wished more at that moment that he had had a camera so that he could take a picture to show to the rest of family but unfortunately he just had his eidetic memory and he knew that even if he or Meghan tried to describe the scene his siblings wouldn't understand what he meant, without the picture.
“Yes, that is correct,” Meghan said. “Rowan convinced me to try to turn my telepathy back on once he discovered that I had somehow turned it off as if I had flipped a switch in my brain while I was going through my transformation. I'm not exactly sure how I did it, especially since I was in so much pain from Rowan's venom that was racing through my body, I just knew that if I didn't do something that I would wake up insane as all the thoughts of the family were just to much for me to deal with. Also somehow when Rowan touched me when I was having trouble dealing with all the voices of everybody that was in the house, he somehow muted them to a more manageable level and I'm not exactly sure how he did it since he doesn't have any extra talents that I know of.”
“No, he does not,” Jasper agreed looking thoughtful as did Bella who was sitting beside Jasper on the couch. “I should have thought about the fact that you would hear the voices of the family that was present as you and your siblings went through your transformations, especially since we already knew that you were telepathic and that that telepathy would be upgraded as you changed. I should have sent most of the family away until after we had gotten a handle on your talent even if that was five years from now.”
“It's okay,” Meghan's assured Jasper. “I don't really blame you at all considering that Rowan and I didn't think about it either, even though, I at least should have since I've lived with that talent all my life, but then again I've never been able to connect with anyone, except those I'm especially close, which in the last five years have included Rowan and you two as well as my siblings.”
“Still I should've thought of it,” Jasper said mentally kicking himself.
“Dad, even you can't think of everything as you are neither omniscient or omnipotent. I know I would have thought differently if Meghan hadn't come through the transformation whole and relatively unscathed, but she did, thank heavens,” Rowan told his father.
“Let's not place blame,” Bella suggested, gently. “None of us thought of it, so let's leave the past in the past and not carry guilt around, especially for something that didn't happen. There is no reason to think of what ifs since that tends to be counterproductive.”
“You are of course right,” Jasper said giving his mate a kiss on the cheek. “I don't know what I would do if you weren't here to stop me from feeling guilty about things that cannot be helped or changed.”
“You would wallow in guilt is what you would do,” Bella told her mate fondly. “Luckily I am here to put things into the proper perspective.”
“And give me a kick in the ass,” Jasper added so dryly that it made everyone laugh.
“So do you think you can teach me to control my talent,” Meghan asked as soon as she was sure that Jasper and Bella were not going to speak again.
“All I can do is try,” Jasper said. “Your talent seems to work differently from other telepaths that I have encountered before as none of their talents worked exactly like yours. In fact I have only encountered three other telepaths in all my centuries on this Earth and one had to be in direct line of sight of the subject in order to get anything and the other one couldn't sense anything past ten or twelve feet, but did not have to be looking directly at the person. The third is Aro Volturi and his talent is tactile telepathy, in other words he actually has to touch someone in order to get someone's thoughts. Really, Aro's talent is not precisely telepathy—or at least not telepathy as humans define the term—as he can read all your memories with a single touch. Your talent however is already much stronger then theirs—well all except for Aro's, but the difference is you don't need to be touching someone in order to read their thoughts—and also you can turn yours on and off at will, which means that you won't have to hear the thoughts of others unless you want to. Now the question is are you just a receptive telepath, which means you can pick up the thoughts of others or are you also a projective telepath, which means you can send your thoughts to other people.”
“I don't know if I'm both receptive and projective or if I am just able to receive thoughts,” Meghan said. “I am assuming from your words though, that you want to test it.”
“I do, if you all willing,” Jasper said.
“Yes,” Meghan said looking at Rowan who nodded. “I really do need to get his talent of mine under conscious control and as Rowan pointed out when we were talking about informing you of what we had discovered it could come in useful to warn the family of danger or just if somebody is as evil as I believe them to be and for me anyway that will make my conscious rest easier if I know for certain that the humans I feed off of deserve to die.”
“Now there is an application for your talent and I had not thought of,” Jasper said looking proud.
“We can work out those details later,” Rowan suggested, “but for now you have any ideas of how to get Meghan's talent under control so that she can actually use it?”
“Well, your idea of thinking about it like a radio is a good one,” Jasper said. “We can work from that concept and see if it works and if it doesn't we will just have to come up with another idea.”
“We also need to figure out why when Rowan touched her bare skin he was able to mute the voices in her head to a manageable level,” Bella said.
“Are you willing to go ahead and give it a try?” Jasper asked Meghan and she nodded.
“Now is as good a time as any since the four of us are the only ones here right now, well except for Amber and Rory and Blane, oh and the humans down in the basement. I can't believe I forgot about them.”
“Understandable, since you have a lot on your mind right now,” Jasper suggested.
“And since Rory and Amber are three floors above us hopefully I won't since them like I would if they were on the same floor we were. I'm sure I don't really need to see their thoughts right now,” Meghan said making a face. “I know what they are doing, but there's a difference in knowing something intellectually and seeing it for yourself or in my case seeing their thoughts.”
“I wouldn't count on that,” Jasper said gently, “as from what you told me you seem to be able to sense somebody's thoughts from quite a long way, away, since you said that you had a quite a few thought patterns coming at you all at once, which means that you sensed all of the family in the house and also those directly outside, and also the humans in the basement, which is a considerable distance really, especially for a new talent that hasn't had time to mature yet.”
“So you think that once Meghan's talent has the chance to really develop that she'll be able to sense things from even farther away?” asked Rowan knowing exactly what his father was getting at.
“That remains to be seen,” Jasper said. “I really have no idea how Meghan's talent will develop as I have never encountered such a powerful telepath, but then we all knew that she would turn out to be powerful considering that she had telepathy while she was still human even if it was much weaker.”
“So how do you want to start?” asked Meghan ready to get started as the sooner she got her talent under control the better.
“Well, first off,” Jasper began thinking about it, “turn your talent on. After you do that I want you to think of a filter, except instead of your ordinary filter it is one for your brain instead.”
“What will this accomplish?” asked Meghan curiously.
“Well, for one thing I want to see if you can mute the voices on your own without Rowan touching any portion of your exposed skin as he will not always be with you and even if he is there is no guarantees that you will not be separated for whatever reason.”
“Alright,” Meghan finally agreed seeing the sense of what her dad was saying. Meghan closed her eyes and seemed to concentrate for just a second and suddenly her hands flew to her temples rubbing little circles on them as she winced in pain as she was suddenly bombarded by the thoughts of everybody in the room as well as Rory, Amber and Blane who were upstairs on the fourth floor and the fifty or so humans that were down in the basement.
“Now try your best to tune what you hear like the knob of a radio like Rowan suggested,” Jasper said his tone soothing. Jasper also used his empathic ability to send out relaxing and soothing emotions so that Meghan would relax. Jasper thought that being able to relax would help his daughter as she was bound to get more accomplished if she wasn't as tense as a coiled spring. Being tense would make this little test much harder than it really had to be as being relaxed, Jasper had found over the centuries made it easier to control a vampire's abilities especially if they had any special ones. “Think of every person thoughts as a separate radio channel and that each one has its own unique radio frequency. Focus on just one of those channels at a time and tell us what that person is thinking if you can.”
Meghan tried her best to do as dad suggested and tried to filter out every voice in the room, except for one. She started with the love of her existence since she knew him so well and suddenly she had done it and she had found Rowan's thoughts without even having to open her eyes. Rowan and her had always had a special mental connection from the second they had met when she was 13 and at the time she had figured it was just because she felt immediately closer to him from the first time that they had set eyes on each other then she ever had with anyone else including her own brother and sister or even her parents, all of whom she loved deeply. Later when she found out about vampires and mate bonds she figured it was because she and Rowan were soulmates two halves of the same soul and that was what made her able to read his thoughts so easily as well as communicate with him silently even when she had been human. To an extent this included Rory, Rowan's twin brother, although her connection to Rory was much, much weaker than her one to Rowan. Meghan had always thought that the reason she was able to connect with Rory at all was because he was the identical twin of her mate and therefore their mental capabilities were similar if not quite identical.
“You've done it?” Rowan asked Meghan knowing immediately when Meghan had accomplished what his father had suggested as he had been watching his mate very closely and saw the pain leave her gorgeous face and how she stopped unconsciously rubbing her temples trying to sooth the pain of hearing so many thoughts all at the same time.
Meghan opened her eyes and stared into Rowan's eyes able to read what was there as easily as she could read his mind. What Meghan had seen in Rowan's mind was so humbling Meghan had discovered what she had really already known and that was that Rowan's love for her went so deep that it penetrated his entire being and Meghan knew that kind of love would cause him to stand in front of a raging rhinoceros in order to protect her from danger even if she wouldn't really be hurt by it.
“Tell us what you saw,” Jasper suggested gently breaking the intense moment between Meghan and Rowan. Meghan would have blushed deeply if she had still been able to for what she had in Rowan's mind was so profound and private that she didn't really want to tell two people she considered her parents what she had seen.
Meghan took a deep breath and then looked directly at Jasper and Bella and said, “What I saw was a love that runs so deeply that he would put himself and unnecessary danger in order to protect me and while I knew that intellectually before it's still a very humbling experience to actually see it. As for what he was thinking,” Meghan lowered her head embarrassed and said, “He was thinking about how he would like to get me alone, but knew that learning to control my telepathy was important and if you want to know anymore than that then you will have to learn to mind read yourself for I'm certainly not going to repeat what else Rowan was thinking.”
The other three vampires in the room chuckled including Rowan who didn't look it all embarrassed for his thoughts about his mate as really it was only natural that he be thinking about what he would like to do to Meghan once they were alone and he had always had a very vivid imagination.
“I take it that Rowan's thoughts were rather dirty?” Bella said and the look on Meghan's face was enough to confirm that without her having to say a word.
“I don't believe that either Bella or I need to know the specifics of what our son was thinking,” Jasper said with humor lacing in his voice.
“Yes, I'm sure we can guess without too much trouble seeing as everyone in this family has similar thoughts on occasion, especially those that on mated. It is perfectly natural to think that way about the person that you love. If Rowan wasn't having improper thoughts about you running in his head then I would wonder if the two of you were really mated to each other,” Bella said.
Rowan nodded vigorously and said, “Trust me when I say that I always have low thoughts about you and have since the day we met, which is one of the reasons it was so hard to control myself around you, especially as you got older. When we first met it wasn't too hard to control my rather unruly libido around you as all I had to do was think of the fact that you were not only a 13 year old child you had also just escaped from a situation where you were constantly abused. As you got older though and we got to know each other and you also began to finally get past what happened to you it got harder and harder to control myself so that by the time you were about 16, I had a very hard time not just taking you and making you mine.”
“It's a good thing you have a very strong will,” Jasper told his son dryly.
“Which I inherited from you,” Rowan told his father with a grin not at all offended.
“Anyway, let's get back to the subject at hand,” Jasper suggested and the other three nodded. “Now, Meghan why don't you tell us why you decided to try to tune into Rowan's thoughts first instead of mine or Bella's?”
“Well, the reason I decided to try to read Rowan's thoughts first was because of the fact that we have always been exceptionally close and you know why that is so I won't bother to repeat it,” Meghan began. “Even as a human I had no trouble reading his thoughts when I was looking directly at him, when the only other people I had been able to read at all before was my twin sister my brother and my parents.”
“So you thought that familiarity would make it easier to read someone's thoughts. In other words you were familiar with the way Rowan thought and what they sounded like and so that made it easier to get a connection,” Jasper guessed.
“Yes,” Meghan agreed with a nod. “I figured since we had had such a strong connection when I was still human even if it didn't extend very far that it would be easier to kind of tune in to his thoughts then to either of yours.”
“That was very logical thinking,” Jasper praised his daughter and Meghan looked proud at her dad's words. “Now that we know you're able to kind of tune in to just one person, why don't you try to tune into my thoughts next?”
“Alright,” Meghan agreed after thinking about it.
“After we have established that you can tune into the thoughts of people you know we'll go out amongst the humans and test it on some random stranger, after your newborn year is over, of course, and you have decent control of your bloodlust.”
“Why don't we just bring to one of the humans up here down in the cellar?” Rowan suggested after a moment. “Meghan can try to establish a connection with whoever we pick and even if she doesn't succeed we can always drain that person afterwards.”
“That is an excellent idea, son,” Jasper approved sending Rowan his pride.
“I have a question,” Bella commented after a moment.
“What's your question?” asked Jasper looking sideways at his mate's face.
“Well, Meghan said she could hear the humans that are in the cellar thoughts I was wondering if she could tell what they were thinking.
“I have no idea as I couldn't actually discern individual thoughts since I had so many pop into my head all at once. I did discern their fear though as I'm sure they know that they will die sometime in the next week or two and there was nowhere else that the fear could be coming from.”
“So, you just don't read a persons thoughts but you also see images and sense emotions as well,” Jasper mused
“Is that really all that strange?” asked Rowan with a raised eyebrow in his father's direction.
“Yes, for the two telepaths I knew could only see the thoughts in a person's mind and neither one could see images or sense emotions like Meghan can, well except for Aro.”
“It seems to me that the talent Meghan has is just a little bit broader in scope,” Bella suggested after a moment. “It's still all one talent, but she can just do more with her then the two telepaths you knew years ago could. We have to remember that Meghan did have a weakened form of telepathy when she was still human and when she was changed to a vampire that talent got upgraded, so perhaps she had some sort of latent abilities that got activated when she was went through her transformation.”
“Not to mention the human race has evolved a great deal since you found out about those two telepaths decades ago and although the humans still don't like acknowledge that they can have strange powers that doesn't make it untrue,” Rowan added.
“You are, of course, correct,” Jasper told his son. “We hear reports all the time of people who supposedly have some sort of strange powers, whether telepathy or the ability to lift objects without using their hands I believe they call it telekinetic, or the ability to see the future just like Josiah can. There are dozens more, but there is no reason to list them all here as that would take to long and really there is no point to it.”
“I feel sorry for the humans that have strange powers,” Meghan told the other three vampires in the room. “For you know a lot of times they get dragged off or arrested by the government so they can be experimented on. I admit it isn't as bad here in the States as it is some of those communist countries, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen even if our government doesn't like to acknowledge that it does those things since we supposedly have free will. You hear stories all the time about people just disappearing and a lot of times no reason is given. Not all of those times is just because a human has been shown to have some sort of abnormal ability, but a lot of times it is.”
“Humans fear what they do not understand,” Bella said as if she was quoting something.
“People disappearing usually only happens if they have done something to catch the government's attention,” Jasper pointed out, “but we have gotten off track.”
“So we have,” Meghan agreed, “let's get back to it.”
“I'll right,” Jasper agreed, “but I'm sure you know that you won't be able to learn to fine tune your ability all in one day as that will take time and quite possibly decades to learn the full extent of it and have it under your full control. You have made a very good start on it today and we will try a couple more things before you can get back to what you were doing and then sometime next week maybe we can have another session.”
“I know it will take time to learn all about my ability and all I can do with it,” Meghan said. “I'm just glad I can turn it off when I want to as I don't need to hear people's thoughts most of the time since most of them have very dirty minds, even teenagers or maybe I should say, especially teenagers.”
All three vampires in the room chuckled at that and agreed wholeheartedly as they definitely had dirty minds when they were thinking about sex and making love to their mates and the human race was hardly any different.
“I'll try to keep my relatively relatively pure for this little test,” Jasper promised.
“Thanks,” Meghan told Jasper gratefully, “as I really don't need to see your thoughts where they involve mom as I know very well what mated couples think about almost a hundred percent of the time. Not that there's anything wrong with that,” Meghan hastily added, “as my thoughts about Rowan are hardly as pure as a new driven snow just as his aren't pure about me, I just don't want to see it that's all as I don't need those kinds of images in my head, unless it's Rowan's, of course.” Meghan gave her mate a shy glance and Rowan leaned over and kissed her very tenderly on the forehead knowing that they would be experimenting with Meghan's talent for quite some time and he had a feeling it was going to be fun to try it out in certain ways, like when they were making love, although he knew that they wouldn't be able to do that for a few years.
“You can do it,” Rowan encouraged his mate and Meghan nodded sat up a little straighter at Rowan's words, closing her eyes again and turning back on her telepathic talent.
Meghan's face scrunched up in pain again and she started rubbing her temples unconsciously as all the people within the house, both human and vampire thoughts started to bombard her mind. Finally after what seemed like an eternity to the other three people in the room who didn't like to see somebody they loved in such pain relaxed when Meghan's face lost that squinched pained look and she finally opened her eyes again. “You were thinking that you were very proud of me for wanting to get my talent under my conscious control and that I was doing extremely well for a newborn and you think that is because I knew about it over five years beforehand and therefore had time to get used to the idea and also absorb the fact that vampires were real and not just fantasy.”
“That's exactly right,” Jasper told her looking extremely proud of her progress, which made Meghan feel all good and warm inside as she knew that Jasper only gave compliments when he truly meant them and not just to stroke somebody's ego. “Let's just try one more thing and then we'll quit for today,” Jasper added after a moment. “You really have made excellent progress and considering you're only two weeks into this life and this is the very first session that really is quite astonishing.”
“It probably helps that I have this talent all my life and therefore I do know at least a little bit about how it works,” Meghan suggested.
“That's a possibility I hadn't thought of,” Jasper said, “but you're right and maybe that made a difference. Now what I want you to try next is a little bit different than what we've been doing as we now know that you can tune in individual thoughts of at least the people you know well anyway...”
“Which is painful for every time I have tried my talent I am bombarded with the thoughts of everybody in this house and it always takes me a few minutes to sort them out enough to get the thoughts of the individual I want.”
“I am hoping the more you practice the easier it will become and I'm also hoping that you have the ability to shield, so that you don't have so many thoughts coming at you all at once.”
“Perhaps that's Rowan's talent and the reason we never knew about it before is it only works because he and Meghan have a mental connection,” Bella suggested after a moment.
“That's a possibility,” Jasper agreed.
“The only problem with that hypnosis,” Rowan yelled at his parents, “is that I won't always be with her, like if she wants to go shop or something on her own or with some of the women in the family and what if she needs her talent when she does? Meghan would never be able to turn on her ability in a mall or shopping center full of human and be able to sort out every single thought or if she could it would take forever to sort out all the humans thought patterns and by the time she finally did that there could be some sort of danger already upon her. I admit that isn't too likely, but she needs to be able to use her ability to its fullest and know instantly when somebody is trouble, so that the situation can be dealt with right then and before that person causes that trouble.”
“Meghan is still a very young vampire,” Jasper pointed out to his son gently not getting at all upset at Rowan's words or his tone of voice for he knew that his son was just concerned about his mate, which was as it should be. “The more she works with it, the stronger it will become and she'll probably be able to sort out thoughts faster the more she uses it. Really it's like exercising a muscle until it's as strong as you can possibly make it and the same goes for the muscles of the brain.”
“Dad, is right, Rowan,” Meghan told her mate as she took his hand and gently began rubbing circles on the back of it in an almost unconscious gesture in order to calm him down. “I am still very new to this life and my talent is still developing. I remember when we all discussed this possibility about how my talent would probably get stronger after I was changed so we must give it time.”
“Alright,” Rowan acknowledged calming down considerably at Meghan's soothing tone. “I'm sorry I yelled at everyone, but the thought of Meghan in the slightest danger when I'm not there to protect her scares the holy crap out of me. Yes, I'm aware that almost nothing can hurt one of us, but what if she runs across another vampire that wants to cause her harm and she's on her own?” Rowan shuddered in real fear as he thought about that possibility. “It's isn't to likely I admit, since most vampire's don't have the money we do, but still it is a possibility and we are all aware that most vampires don't have our family's sense of right and wrong and are little more then animals, with just a thin veneer of civilization. Rory and I have run across vampires in the past that see nothing wrong with attacking a human in broad daylight even if there are 100 people close enough to see what was happening.”
“I've encountered vampires like that too,” Jasper told his son calmly accepting Rowan's apology with a nod, “and those kind of vampires are so wild and uncontrollable that they don't usually last long, especially in today's society as somebody comes and finishes them off before humans can find out about us, whether it is the Volturi or just another vampire that does the deed. Now Meghan what I want you to try next is to create a shield in your mind to block out everybody's thoughts even when you're talent is activated.”
“Why?” asked Meghan wondering where her father was going with this.
“Well,” Jasper said not really minding explaining what he had mind. “I was thinking that if you could create a shield to block out everybody's thoughts that we could then work to poke a tiny hole in that shield so that you could read one person at a time instead of dozens or more. I was thinking that if you could do this you would be able to be around thousands of human at one time and still have your talent active.”
Meghan thought about that then nodded as what Jasper was saying made complete sense. “I'll try.”
“Why don't you think about that barrier like a curtain,” Rowan suggested after a moment. “Think of a curtain closing in your mind, like the kind you find in the theater whenever we go to see a play. Think of how heavy those curtains are and how they block out most sounds of what's happening backstage, until they are lifted and the play begins.”
Meghan's face lit up at Rowan's suggestion as it really was a very good idea and it should be easy for her to implement since she was very familiar with the curtains they had blocking the stage from view before a play started.
Meghan closed her eyes and the others were completely silent as they didn't want to interrupt her concentration.
“I think I've got it,” Meghan said her voice dreamy and distant, which made it was clear she was still concentrating on the task she had been given. “I see a picture of a long red velvet curtain in my mind that blocks out sounds almost completely.”
“If you are sure you have it, turn your talent on,” Jasper instructed her quietly, “and tell me when you have completed that task.”
Meghan went silent again and it was only a few seconds later that she said, “Done I have turned on my telepathy.”
“Are you sure you have turned on your ability?” Jasper asked his tone quiet and soothing.
“Yes, I am sure,” Meghan said, “turning on my telepathy is like flipping on a mental light switch. I've turned my talent on and off so many times now that it takes no effect on my part whatsoever, to activate or deactivate it.”
“Very well then,” Jasper continued, “now that you are sure you have your talent active, I want you to slowly think of a small pinprick hole in your curtain.”
Meghan was silent again for a long moment and it was clear that she was concentrating on creating just a very small hole in her shield. “Done,” Meghan said finally.
“Do you hear anything through that small hole?” asked Jasper.
“I sense something,” Meghan said finally, “but it isn't very distinct.”
Jasper looked pleased, but calmly kept giving Meghan instructions. “Enlarge the hole just a little bit and once that is done tell me what you hear.”
Meghan was silent for another couple of minutes and finally she said, “I have enlarged the hole to where it is just now big enough for me to stick my little finger through.”
“And what do you hear through that hole?” ask Jasper.
“The voices in this room are more distinct and I can understand what you three are thinking, but I cannot hear anybody else in the house.”
“Good,” Jasper said pleased. “Now, I want you to deactivate your talent and take down your curtain. When you do that I want you to open your eyes to let us know that you have done so.”
Meghan did as ordered and it wasn't more than a minute later, that she opened her eyes and the other three vampires and the room could see that they were almost completely black from thirst. Meghan blinked a couple of times and said, “My throat is burning pretty badly, which is strange as Rowan and I just fed before we came to see you.”
“I am not in the least surprised,” Jasper said, “as what you have been doing takes a lot of mental energy. The more you practice, the easier it will became and the less energy both mental and physical it will take. Probably in about a decade or maybe a little more or less you will be able to use your talent without using a lot of your own energy because it will be a matter of rote. Now why don't you go feed as we don't want you leaving the house and going into town to attack someone just because you are so thirsty.”
“Alright,” Meghan said as she got up from where she was sitting while Rowan did you same. “Thank you, dad, I feel as if I have a better handle on my talent now even though I know I still have a long way to go.”
“You're more than welcome, daughter,” Jasper told her as he also rose to his feet and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “You did very well and in fact much better than I expected you to for a first session. We'll continue this one day next week, say Saturday as that will give you a little bit over a week to recover. Make sure you keep practicing what you learned so that in a very short amount of time it will become much easier and we also need to work on the fact of you closing your eyes, but I understand that the first few times that just makes it easier to get a mental image in your head without getting nervous because everyone is staring at you.”
“Now that I know I can do it, I should be up to do it with my eyes open,” Meghan said looking a little embarrassed that Jasper had guess the reason she had closed eyes in the first place. “I'll make sure to practice that, but it shouldn't be too hard to do with my eyes open now since I have the mental image already in my mind and it isn't like I'm going to forget it since I do have a perfect memory now just like every other vampire.”
“Very well, go and get yourself some dinner,” Jasper told her patting her affectionately on the shoulder. “I'll see you at 9 AM Saturday morning and if you have any questions before then you know where to find me.”
“Yes, sir,” Meghan told him with a mock salute and a grin.
“Get out of here, scamp,” Jasper mock growled at Meghan taking a playful swipe at her, which Meghan avoided with no trouble laughing all the while knowing that Jasper was only teasing her.
“I love you, dad,” Meghan told him quite seriously coming close enough to kiss his cheek and give him a gentle hug. “You've been my father for quite a few years now and I love you for how you've always taken care of me and my siblings.”
“I love you too, Meghan,” Jasper told her genuinely touched. “And I love Blane and Amber too.”
“I know it and so do they,” Meghan said also giving Bella a kiss on the cheek before taking Rowan by the hand and heading out the door of Jasper's study to go get herself some dinner.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Amber and Rory

Jasper called Amber and Rory into his study two weeks later as Jasper had learned that Amber also had a talent as a human and that was telekinesis, the ability to make objects fly into the air. Meghan had remembered a couple of incidents when their parents were still alive, where Amber had somehow caused several objects across a room, without using her hands, but it only happened when she was extremely emotionally upset.
It had even happened a few times at the group home, although Blane and Meghan had both worked with her to help her control it for it they knew that if certain people in authority found out about it they would probably want to sell her to some foreign power and make a ton of money in the process as people like Matilda Grover and Pierce Gray saw nothing wrong with selling a child into what would be virtual slavery.
“You wanted to see us, dad?” asked Rory as he and Amber entered their father study.
“Yes I did,” Jasper said. “Why don't you to take seats.”
“What's this about?” asked Amber looking a little worried.
Bella hastened to reassure her daughter. “It's nothing bad, it's just that Meghan discovered that she has a very strong telepathic talent that is much stronger then when she was she was human, but all of us expected that turning her into a vampire would give that talent an enormous boost. The reason we called you in here though is that Meghan also remembered that you used to be able to make objects fly across the room by themselves when you were extremely upset and that it only happened maybe five times when you were human.”
“So you believe that Amber is telekinetic and that her talent was pretty weak as a human as it only appeared when she was extremely emotionally upset, but now that she's a vampire that talent should be much stronger, is that right?” asked Rory.
“That's exactly right,” Jasper confirmed. “Do you want to give it a try? You don't have to you know, but it might come in useful someday so you need to develop it as much as you can.”
“I had forgotten I used to be able to do that, but only when I was extremely, emotionally upset. I'll be happy to give it a try and as you're right it would be a useful talent to have.”
“According to your siblings they helped you to control it by not getting upset like that for they knew that you would probably be sold like some kind of object if anybody discovered what you could do since you were in that group home that was being used for rather unscrupulous purposes.”
“That's certainly the truth,” Amber admitted. “I vaguely remember Blane and Meghan telling me that I must learn to control my emotions before me being able to move objects without using my hands got seen by somebody like the lady that ran the place, sorry don't remember her name.”
“That's okay, she doesn't deserve to be remembered,” Bella told her with a wink.
“Why don't we move this outside?” Jasper suggested. “Your talent I'm sure can be pretty destructive if we're not careful, so let's go somewhere the destruction won't matter.
“Okay,” Rory agreed after looking at Amber who nodded in agreement too.
The four of them moved out of doors and Jasper brought several small objects along that he wanted Amber to try to lift using her mind alone.
“Okay, Amber, I want you to stand there,” said Jasper pointing to a spot far enough away from the house that it was unlikely to be damaged if there was an accident, “and I'm going to place several objects 10 feet from you on the ground and I want you to try to lift it using just your mind without moving any closer.”
Amber stood on the spot that Jasper had indicated and stared at the several objects that were sitting on the ground 10 feet from where she was. All the objects were small and light enough that she should have no trouble lifting any of them with her mind alone. The objects in question were of various things from Jasper's study, like a paperweight from his desk, a pen that he used to write with, several books of various thicknesses, light stuff that should not be any trouble to lift with her mind alone. Amber should be able to do these objects without any trouble, and when she could Jasper would gradually increase the size and weight of the object until she was lifting something like the couch in the den. Really, this telekinetic talent was like a muscle, that needed to be exercised as often as possible in order to gain strength to lift heavier and heavier objects. The mind really was an amazing organ that most humans didn't believe could do ever more amazing feats as the human race developed or if they did and they actually saw such a display of something like telekinesis that person was ostracized and ridiculed for being different.
“Okay, Amber, I want you to concentrate as hard as you can about lifting the pen first. Concentrate on the pen alone and nothing else,” Jasper instructed calmly. “You have to believe that you can lift that pen using nothing, but your mind, if you do not believe that you can do it then you will automatically fail. Belief has a lot to do with at succeeding at anything you try, but that is, especially true for something like this. Remember the objects that you made fly about a room whenever you were extremely emotionally upset and if you could do that as a human it should be much easier as a vampire.”
Amber nodded, for she did remember at least a couple of occasions when she had made several objects fly around the room, without the use of her hands. She didn't remember what had caused such an emotional reaction only the results.
Amber concentrated on the pen, with all her mind and thought, I can do this. I can make the pen float.
“Try pointing a finger at it,” Jasper suggested after a minute of no results. “Imagine the telekinetic energy leaving your finger and surrounding the pen making it float. Feel the power well up inside you, it's like a nice warm glow,” Jasper instructed sending Amber some confidence.
Amber did as Jasper instructed and pointed her finger at the ink pen that lay on the ground just 10 feet in front of her and slowly concentrated on it and as she did so she felt the warm glow that her dad had mentioned and concentrated on channeling it through her chest and down her arm to her extended finger. Slowly the pen rose from the ground and hoovered there for just a second before dropping back into the grass.
“Congratulations, I'm so proud of you,” Rory, who had been watching told her as he came over and gave her a very passionate kiss.
“Yes, you have made tremendous progress in just an hour,” Jasper said checking his watch. “I really didn't expect very many results today as I know this kind of thing takes lots and lots of practice. It's like building up your arm muscles when you lift heavy objects on a regular basis.”
“It was you telling me to look for that warm feeling in my chest that did it for me,” Amber told her father giving him a kiss on the cheek. “How did you know to tell me that?”
Jasper who looked a little embarrassed. “I've actually trained a telekinetic power before when I was part of Maria's army back during the southern wars,” Jasper explained. “It was a man, who's name was Daniel. His talent wasn't half as strong as yours and in fact it was very weak and he couldn't really do more then lift something as light as that pen. Of course, his talent likely didn't show up when he was human either, which does make a difference, trust me. Not all vampires have strong or useful talents, some are almost useless except in specific situations.”
“Whatever happened to, this man Daniel?” asked Amber not sure she wanted to know the answer considering what Jasper had told her about his creator, Maria, who was a psychopath just like those three nomads had been all those years ago.
“I was forced to cull him after his newborn year since his talent really wasn't very useful. I was still following Maria's orders back then and it wasn't until about five years later, that I managed to escape with Peter and Charlotte's help.”
“You know that woman really needs to be found and put down like a dog,” Rory commented looking and sounding extremely vicious and Jasper knew that it was all on his behalf, which touched him deeply.
“Yes, well, it will happen someday, but in the meantime let's not discuss her, as she brings up too many bad memories,” Jasper said. “Are you ready to continue, Amber?”
“Yes,” Amber said looking determined.
“Very well then, I want you to try to lift the pen again, but hold it in the air for as long as possible,” Jasper instructed.
Amber did as instructed and the pen rose several feet into the air until it was about the middle of her chest. Amber began to feel and look strained and it was clear that even lifting something as light as a pen was taking a lot of energy.
“Stop there,” Jasper said. “Now hold it in that position for as long as you can. If you can hold it there for five minutes, then we will have accomplished enough for one day and afterwards you need to go feed as I can see that your eyes are already mostly black. Lifting that pen has taken a lot out of you, which isn't really surprising.”
“Will it always be this difficult?” asked Amber looking strained.
“No, the more you practice the easy it will become. If you practice for a few minutes every day it won't be long before you can lift that pen like it weighs nothing at all and then we can proceed to larger and heavier objects. I won't be surprised if in a year or so, you'll be able the lift something as heavy as say the couch in the den, or the desk in my study. Both objects are extremely heavy and must weigh at least 30 or 40 pounds apiece or in the case of my desk probably at least 100.”
“You really believe that I'll be out the lift that 100 pounds desk with my mind alone?” asked Amber in astonishment.
“I really believe that you will be able to lift that desk with ease with a bit of practice,” Jasper told his daughter, his voice confident. “Actually I'll be very surprised if you can't lift at least 500 pounds with your mind in a few years once you strengthen the muscles of the brain that controls your talent. It will take work, lots of work, and you'll feel drained every time you're talent expands and you start lifting heavier and heavier objects. In fact, we'll need to watch that very closely and make sure you don't overdo it. I'm sure you'll always have to hunt afterwards. Eventually you should be able to lift any object you wish to and hold it as long as you want and not feel too drained afterwards.”
“It is a worthy goal to try for,” Rory suggested a little tentatively as he did want to push Amber into doing something if she didn't want to.
“It is,” Amber agreed as she let the pen drop as the five minutes had passed. “I think if I practice for say half an hour every day...”
“Then it will only be a matter of a few weeks at most until you can hold that pen in the air for an hour at a time and then we can move on to progressively larger and heavier objects, like I said before.”
Bella who had been watching silently all this time said, “You had better go feed now as your eyes are as black as pitch and I'm sure your throat is burning fiercely.”
“It is,” Amber agreed feeling as if her throat was on fire. “In fact it feels as if I have a eaten in at least a week, even though I just ate a few hours ago.”
“Really, that is to be expected,” Bella told her with a smile. “You are an exercising a new talent and using energy in the process and you have to replace that energy somehow and in our a case that's always blood.”
“Go eat, and I'll see you tomorrow at the same time,” Jasper ordered his daughter gently. “Rory, why don't you escort your mate inside and down to the basement?”
“I'd be happy to,” Rory said.
“After you do that, you are free to do whatever you want afterwards,” Bella added with a smirk after looking at Jasper who nodded. Both Jasper and Bella knew that Rory and Amber would sequester themselves in their room and be fucking each other silly until it was time for another training session, not that there was anything wrong with that.
“I'm very proud of how you are doing,” Jasper told Amber giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You, Meghan, and Blane are doing very well considering that you're still newborns.”
“Yes, but we've also known about vampires for over five years now and that probably helps,” Amber said.
“I know it did, as every newborn that's been turned in the last few decades has done better than the ones that didn't know what was happening to them during the southern wars. It seems to help if the people know that vampires are real and that they are about to become what they thought were only myths. Even if they only know for a few hours beforehand it still seems to help a great deal in how they adjust to the life of a vampire. Now, go and eat and that's an order,” Jasper told her with a wink to let her know that he was serious about her eating, but that he hadn't meant any offense.
“Yes, sir,” Amber said giving Jasper a mock salute causing them all to laugh and then Rory escorted, his mate into the house heading immediately for the basement, where the humans were being kept for the three newborns in the house to feed off of.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Meghan and Rowan

“So, let's get started, shall we?” Jasper suggested as he, Bella, Meghan, and Rowan sat in his study, ready for another session of Meghan practicing with telepathic talent.
“Yes,” Meghan agreed, looking ready and eager to go.
“Alright, then,” Jasper said, “I want you to bring up your mental curtain, create a hole a little bit larger than what you did at the session last week and then turn on your talent.
Meghan closed her eyes just like she had at the first session and started to slowly do as her dad suggested. It was easier this week and that had to be because she had been practicing a whole lot in between lovemaking sessions with the love of her existence.
“Alright, I have brought up my curtain, made the hole a little bit larger than it was last week. The hole is now about an inch and a half around and I have turned on my talent.
“Who do you sense in this house with your talent on and the larger hole in your curtain?” asked Jasper.
“Everybody in this room,” Meghan said.
Jasper nodded as that was to be expected. “Who else?”
Meghan was silent for a few minutes but finally she said, “I sense Bryon and Scott in the den,” Meghan paused and would have been as red as a cherry if she could have been, “making out rather heavily on the couch.”
Everybody coughed at that, but nobody really looked surprised since Scotty and Bryon were mates after all.
“Anyone else?” asked Jasper of his daughter calmly.
“No, the den seems to be as far as I can sense with my talent at this strength.”
“And that's fine,” Jasper assured her. “The den is just down a short hallway from my study, which is why you can sense Bryon and Scott. Now, I want you to widen the hole just a little and see if you can sense farther then you can with your talent at its current strength.
Meghan did as Jasper requested and as she widened the hole yet again she started to be able to read peoples thoughts even farther away than she had been able to previously.
“I can now sense Merry, Chloe and Josiah in the living room,” Meghan said. “Merry is thinking that she would like to find a mate of her own, but she doesn't know if that will ever happen although she is still hoping with all her might that it will someday as she is tired of being alone. Chloe and Josiah are thinking about each other and how the would like to be alone, with none of the family around to bother them, but also about how much they enjoy spending time with the family.”
“The living room is about 500, maybe 600 feet from my study,” Jasper said. “Did sensing Merry's, Josiah's and Chloe's thoughts cause you any pain? I didn't sense you in any pain and believe me I was watching, closely.”
“No,” Meghan said after thinking about it for a moment. “Having this filter, so that I'm not sensing 100 different thought patterns at once seems to help tremendously. I could still hear the chatter of all your thoughts running in the background so to speak, but they weren't distinct because I wasn't concentrating on them.”
“Good,” Jasper said looking beyond pleased. “That's what I was hoping would happen. Now, we are going to try something a little different than what we were doing just a minute ago.”
“What are you going to have, Meghan try?” asked Rowan speaking for the first time since they had into his father's study. The concern in Rowan's expression and body language was obvious to everybody in the room.
“Actually I was going to have you try something,” Jasper explained.
Rowan relaxed at his father's words and nodded. “What do you want me to try?”
“Well, you were able to mute Meghan's thoughts before she learned how to filter so I want you to see if you can send her your thoughts and if she can receive them without you touching each other as that would kind of defeat the purpose. Right now I'll allow for you to sit side-by-side since this is kind of a new experiment, but eventually I hope you can send each other your thoughts from different rooms within the house.”
Both Rowan and Meghan nodded as what Jasper said was true, Rowan had been able to kind of mute all the thoughts that had been coming at Meghan all at once to a more bearable level before she had learned how to filter.
It was clear that Rowan was concentrating very hard on sending his thoughts to Meghan even though he didn't bother to close his eyes like his mate had the first time she had tried to get control of her talent.
Can you hear me, love? Can you hear the thoughts I am sending to you? Or is dad barking up the wrong tree and we actually have to be touching in order for this to work?
Meghan who had been concentrating on reading Rowan's thoughts while filtering everybody else in the house including Jasper and Bella laughed at that last thought.
“What did Rowan think?” asked Bella curiously
“His exact thoughts were, Can you hear me, love? Can you hear the thoughts I am sending to you? Or is dad barking up the wrong tree and we have to be touching in order for this to work?”
Everybody but Jasper laughed at that and Jasper just mock glared at his son who grinned back not looking the least bit sorry for his thoughts.
“Jasper, do you have a theory as to why Rowan is suddenly showing a talent when he never did before?” asked Bella.
“Well,” Jasper said thinking about it, “it's possible that Rowan always had a talent, but it was always passive and he needed somebody with telepathic abilities in order to make use of it or to even know it was there. There really aren't that many telepaths around as I've only met three and I've heard about one more so he had no way of knowing about his ability until Meghan came into our lives. My other theory is that Rowan can only communicate with Meghan because of the mate bond, which activated any quiescent talent that he had. It might also have to do with the fact that both come from twins and twins tend to have special abilities and bonds. I suspect that we'll never know for certain why Rowan can communicate silently with Meghan, although we might want to test and see if he can telepathically communicate with anybody else in the family, like Rory for example since he is Rowan's identical twin.”
“You know I never thought about it before, but Rory and I have always been able to sense each other's feelings and emotions and when one of us is hurt the other usually feels that as well depending on distance,” Rowan said entering the conversation.
“When have either one of you been hurt?” asked Bella looking concerned.
“Just once,” Rowan said, “and it wasn't me, but Rory. The two of us ran across some vampire female nomads who wanted us to join their coven and when we told them we were already part of a coven a couple of them got kind of aggressive.”
Actually that was an understatement, but Rowan didn't say how both he and Rory had nearly been torn apart and their pieces burned. “These nomads were looking for new recruits and since we were on our own they figured we were available, and when we disabused them of that notion they didn't take it too well. If I hadn't been there Rory would have at least probably permanently lost his arm.”
“Where were you when this happened?” asked Jasper, “and another question is are those nomads still around the cause trouble or did you manage to tear them apart and burn the pieces afterwards?”
“To answer both your questions, we were in the wilds of South America,” Rowan answered, “and no they're no longer around to cause trouble since between the two of us we managed to corner them and tear them apart. We of course built a bonfire and burned the pieces afterwards because we knew that we would have them after us for eternity if we didn't. Actually come to think of it those nomads didn't seem all that civilized if you know what I mean.”
“Why are we just hearing about this now when this apparently happened a long time ago?” asked Bella glaring at her son.
“Because, Rory and I decided that we weren't going to tell you and just cause you to worry more than you already do,” Rowan told his mother bluntly. “It happened more than a century ago and you wouldn't have found out about it now if not for the fact that I was trying to answer dad's question.”
Bella looked offended then had to acknowledge that her son was correct and that she would have worried even more then she did already.
“So you say that you and Rory have always had kind of a bond where you can sense each others feelings over a limited distance?”
“That is correct,” Rowan told his father. “So do you have any theories on why Rory and I have always known where the other is even if we are not within sight of each other.”
“Well, it could have something to do with the fact that you two are identical twins since identical twins come from the same egg that just split into two during fertilization and therefore a lot of time share an almost mythical and physical bond or it could be that you and Rory just got a very small percentage of my talent and it only works with each other or in a different way entirely or it could be a combination of the two. There's really no way to know for certain,” Jasper theorized.
“So maybe I've always had this talent and the mate bond Meghan and I share just strengthened it,” Rowan said. “Come to think of it Meghan has always been able to communicate with me pretty easily telepathically even as a human, and it never occurred to me to wonder why that was.”
The four of them kept discussing the theories for a few minutes before Jasper told Rowan and Meghan that he would see them next week for another session. “You should be very proud of yourselves for all the progress you've made in such a short period of time.”
“Thanks, dad,” both Rowan and Meghan said at the same time.
“We'll see you next week,” Meghan added give both Jasper and Bella kisses on the cheek before she and Rowan left Jasper's study hand in hand.

Amber and Rory – Meghan and Rowan

20 years later

Rory and Amber along with Rowan and Meghan had all decided that they were ready to have children. The two mated couples spent a great deal of time together and even traveled together quite a bit. The four of them of them had been discussing the idea of children for months now and both couples had decided together that if they wanted to have children they wanted to have them at the same time so they would grow up together. If they were successful the children would only be about three hours apart since each couple would wear the necklace for that amount of time as had been decreed by Jasper after what had happened to Julia and since he was head of their family they all obeyed his orders without question.
When Jasper and Bella had learned that both Rory and Amber and Rowan and Meghan were ready to be parents both had been ecstatic as they had been afraid that their would be no more grandchildren for them after what had almost happened to Patrick and Julia.
Meghan's talent had continued to expand for about a decade and she could do several things with her mind that other people human or vampire only dream about. For one thing Meghan could talk telepathically with her mate and somehow Rowan heard her even though he had never been telepathic himself or at least had never known he was. Actually, Meghan could talk silently with everyone in the family, although it took more effect than it did with Rowan and Jasper believed it was because of the mate bond between them. What was really amazing though was the fact that any of the family could answer her back even though none of them were telepathic themselves.
Also Meghan had learned that she could use her mind to give someone a blow mentally and it had just as much effect that knocking them out physically with a punch would. The only difference in this case was the recipient's mind felt bruised instead of their body, which was perfectly understandable since it was a punch just a mental one.
“You sure the four of you are ready?” asked Jasper seriously for as much as he wanted more grandchildren he didn't want them if the couples in question weren't ready to be parents.
“Yes, dad,” all four of them answered at the same time.
“All four of us have discussed this for months now,” Amber told her father. “You know how the four of us like to travel together a lot of the time and so all of us have been discussing the idea children for quite some time.”
Amber had grown a great deal more self-confident in the last 20 years and that was mostly thanks to her mate Rory along with her twin sister and her mate who were always encouraging her.
Before she had been changed Amber had grown her hair to several inches past her shoulders so it was much shorter then Meghan's, but still long enough to style, however, she liked it. The length of Meghan's and Amber's hair was the only way to tell them apart because otherwise they looked completely identical, just like Rory and Rowan did. When they had been human the only way to tell the two apart was their different eye color as Meghan had had bluish gray eyes and Amber's had been hazel, but since both their eyes were now completely red just like any other vampire that drank human blood some other solution had had to be found so that it would be easier to tell the two of them apart. Luckily, Meghan had had plenty of time to grow her hair to just an inch above her butt since she had been only 16 nearly 17 when Rowan had told her that he liked long hair as he loved running his hand through it. Rowan and Meghan had discovered they were mates and of course Amber and Rory had discovered the same thing at around the same time. Meghan and Amber had been just 13 at the time.
Jasper surveyed their expressions for a moment and then checked their emotions and when he saw that they were indeed serious he nodded and smiled a little as he was looking forward to having more grandchildren. “Very well your mother brought the necklace just like you requested, but you must remember that each one of you must only wear it for three hours apiece, no more than that. You must promise me that you will obey the three hour rule or you will not get the necklace as I do not want what happened to you what happened to Patrick and Julia. Do I have your words? All four of you? You will swear to me and your mother now that you will follow this rule or you will not get the necklace.”
“Yes, dad,” Rowan said speaking for the first time, “I solemnly give you my word that we will only use the necklace for three hours and no more and then remove it.”
The other three repeated Rowan's words exactly and Jasper nodded. “Alright then, you have given me you're solemn words and I had better not find out that you have broken them or you will answer to me.”
“We know that something could still happen that is unexpected,” Bella added speaking for the first time since the four of them had entered Jasper study at the house in New Zealand, “but if you do as your father has instructed something bad happening is considerably lessened. Childbirth is still something of a risk even in this century, and we are not exempt from things like what happened before. The thing is that we won't have a doctor do a c-section even if that was possible for one of us.”
“The good side to all of this though is most risk that humans have when they give birth don't mean anything to us so we won't have to worry about most of what can happen during a human pregnancy and birth. We don't have to worry about the mother dying due to a heart attack or an aneurysm, or the baby or babies being stillborn or dying from being born to soon or a dozen other things.”
“We know that, dad,” Rory told his father.
“Also it is very likely that at least one couple will have twins if not both considering that both of sets of you are twins, which ups the odds considerably,” Bella added. “I'll be very surprised if there isn't at least one set of twins when the babies are born.”
All four vampires looked at each other as they had not considered that particular thing before, but their mother was correct that twins were the most likely considering that Rory and Rowan were identical twins, while Amber and Meghan were fraternal, but looked exactly alike except for their different colored eyes, when they were human.
“Now that we have that settled which couple wants the necklace first?” asked Bella as she produced the crescent moon necklace from her pocket.
“We decided that my brother and Amber could go first,” Rowan finally said. “We discussed this to, just so there wouldn't be any argument when the time came over who got the necklace first.”
“Next time we decide to have children a decade or so from now the order will be reversed and Rowan and I will get the necklace first that time,” Meghan said.
“Cooperation,” Jasper said with a proud gleam in his eyes. “It is good to see that you're not squabbling over this.”
“No, the four of us have had plenty of time to work out any of the kinks,” Meghan said.
“Not that there were very many,” said Amber.
“Here is the necklace,” Bella said handing the crescent moon necklace to Rowan and Meghan. “We will see you in three hours and believe me we will be timing you, so not a minute more or Jasper and I will be knocking on your bedroom door and I know you don't want that.”
“No, definitely not,” Rory and Amber said together both looking extremely embarrassed.
“We'll make sure that we set the alarm clock so that it goes off in three hours just in case we get distracted,” promised Amber.
“You two had better get going as we'll start timing you in two minutes,” Jasper said, “which should give you enough time to set the alarm clock for three hours.”
Rory and Amber nodded and took the necklace from Bella's hand and were out the door and upstairs at vampire speed.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Almost precisely 3 hours later just as Jasper and Bella were just going to go upstairs to knock on Rory's and Amber's bedroom door when the aforementioned couple came downstairs and it was very apparent that Amber was indeed pregnant as she was already showing considerably.
“You're right on time,” Jasper said just as the stopwatch he had been using went off as he had set it just in case he got distracted.
“Man, you really weren't joking about timing us were you?” asked Rory with good humor as he handed the necklace to his brother and Meghan who immediately disappeared upstairs.
Jasper made sure that he reset his stopwatch before he answered his son. “No I wasn't joking in the least. You know I never do when it comes to the protection and health of my family so I was as serious as a human heart attack. There will absolutely be no unnecessary chances taken, and although we all know that pregnancy can still be dangerous, that danger has been lessened to 10 percent or less with the way we are doing it. The problem before as you all know was leaving the necklace on for way too long. Actually I am very surprised that nothing happened when Bella was having all 21 of our children considering that she carried eight babies one time and six another.”
“I know dad,” said Rory sobering patting Amber's stomach tenderly. “I don't think Amber is pregnant with more than twins or possibly triplets, but I don't think they'll be more then four if that.”
“I believe you're right,” Jasper said as he examined Amber's stomach minutely causing Amber to radiate embarrassment. “Amber is a little smaller at this stage then Bella was when she was carrying quadruplets, but then again Amber's taller then Bella which would account for the difference. By the way, congratulations you two I am looking forward to being a grandfather again.”
“And me a grandmother,” Bella added who had been silent all this time. “In fact I'll be a grandmother twice over since two of my daughters have decided they wanted to get pregnant at the same time.”
“Just don't expect to be a grandma from either of the four of us after this for a decade as that was the amount of time the four of us decided to take between each pregnancy,” Rory told his mother as he came over to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Taking a decade gives us time to watch our children grow and to also do whatever we want to for a few years before we decide to have and raise anymore,” Amber added.
“So how many children do you two and want, altogether?” asked Bella.
“Well...” Amber said looking at Rory. “We haven't decided on an exact number as of yet, but if this pregnancy goes well then I am willing to get pregnant again, ten years down the road, of course, and after that we'll have to see because I have no idea if that second pregnancy will go okay.”
“I think it is good that you have decided to spread them out with a decade between each one,” Jasper told Amber and Rory. “It gives you time to watch your children grow and also time for Amber's body to recover completely from her first pregnancy.”
“I'm glad you approve, but I really need some food now as I am absolutely starving,” Amber said
“I'm not in the least surprised,” Bela said patting Amber's stomach. “So is it your throat burning or is your stomach growling?”
“My stomach, why?” asked Amber.
“Because that means you are hungry for actual human food, now if your throat was burning you would need blood instead of food.
“Oh,” said Amber understanding what Bella was getting at.
“So would you like me to fix you something quick to eat?” asked Bella. “Jasper and I made sure to stock the fridge and the pantry, before you all got here.”
“That would be very nice of you,” said Amber gratefully.
“I don't mind,” Bella told Amber and Rory.
Bella got up from where she was sitting and headed into the kitchen in order to fix her daughter a quick meal while the other remained where they were and continued talking.
“Did you ever think that it's perhaps a good idea for one of the family to take some college courses and become a midwife just so that we can start to anticipate most problems?” asked Amber.
Jasper looked stunned as the idea of one the family becoming a midwife had never occurred to him.
“That is such an excellent idea,” Bella said as she disappeared into the kitchen that was right off the living room looking as if she had been hit over the head with a sledgehammer. “I don't believe the idea never occurred to any of us.”
“I'm not,” Rory said, “and you should realize why the idea never occurred to any of the family if you think about it.”
“Because vampires don't usually go to college even to take just a few classes,” Amber answered the question before anyone else could. “The only one to do that in this family has been Rowan, but then again he is the only one that has been interested.”
“We'll have to ask among the women of the family and see if any of them are willing to go to a college somewhere to become a midwife and before you ask a man would be looked at as awfully strange if he wanted to become something that is usually woman only, even in this century,” Bella said from the kitchen at normal volume knowing that they others would be able to hear her thanks to a vampire's advanced hearing. “Personally I think it would be very useful to have somebody who has the training and the skills to look after whoever is pregnant at the time as you can only learn so much from books after all.”
“I think maybe Alanna, Alisa or Meredith have the personality best suited to become a midwife,” Jasper said finally going through the list of his daughters and their personality traits in his head. “All three are caring, and patient, which is really a requirement for a midwife as they can't afford to lose their cool in an emergency situation. Also their control of their bloodlust is excellent, which is a must.”
“And none of them are mated either, which is also a plus,” Bella pointed out from the kitchen where the sound of the pantry door being opened could be heard. “I doubt they would agree to take any midwifery courses if they were as they wouldn't want to be separated from their mates by classes all day.”
“That's a good thought and you are right as I certainly wouldn't want to be separated from you if you decided to take a few college courses, although I would certainly be able to bear it better then they would since we've been mated for so long,” Jasper told his gorgeous wife.
The four of them continued to talk and the time passed quickly and it didn't seem long at all before Meghan and Rowan were coming down the stairs just as Jasper's stopwatch went off with a buzzing sound.
By that time Bella had prepared a simple and quick meal and Amber had eaten Rowan and Meghan came back downstairs.
“Man you sure do know how to cut it down to the wire, don't you, bro?” Rory teased his twin.
“And you don't?” Rowan asked his brother with a raised eyebrow so happy that he refused to take offense at his brother's ribbing.
While Rowan was responding to his brother's teasing Meghan handed over the necklace to Bella who took it and put it back in her pocket in order to return it to the safe deposit box at the bank in Philadelphia.
“Would you like something to eat?” asked Bella. “I made Amber something an hour ago and there's a lot of leftovers as I made sure there was plenty.”
“Sure, for the first time in 20 years my stomach is growling sounding like a whole pack of hungry lions.”
Everybody in the room chuckled at that and Bella patted Meghan's stomach just as she had done to Amber when she and Rory had first come downstairs.
“So how many babies do you think I'm carrying?” asked Meghan as she cradled her stomach with both arms protectively.
“Well, you look exactly the same size as Amber so either three or four would be my guess,” Jasper estimated.
“If both of us going to be having quadruplets, I would consider that pretty amazing considering the odds against such an event occurring,” said Amber.
“Not to mention our mates only wore the necklace for three hours apiece so if we each do have quadruplets that's pretty amazing since Amber and Meghan each wore the necklace for such a short amount of time,” Rory added.
“Well,” Bella chuckled, “in my opinion this family has always been amazing as we've faced danger again and again and come out relatively unscathed each time.”
“So how many children do you and Meghan want, altogether?” Bella asked her son the same question she had asked the other couple as soon as she came back from the kitchen with a plate of food.
“That has yet to be determined,” Meghan answered for both her and Rowan.
Bella rolled her eyes at them as she watched them eat. “Rory and Amber told me to same thing a couple of hours ago. You would think you would be able to give me an exact number.”
“Sorry mom, but we can't really give you an answer,” Rowan told his mother grinning sympathetically.
“And why not?” Bella demanded looking just a little annoyed.
“Because of the fact that we're not going to tell you that we're willing to have anymore children at this early stage until we see if this pregnancy goes well, for both of us. If it goes alright and the same thing doesn't happen to either one of our mates like it did to Julia then we're both willing to have more a decade down the road,” Rory explained, calmly.
“We all know that you love children and that you want as many grandchildren as possible, but we're going to go about this cautiously as you know very well what would happen me if we had to kill Meghan just because the pregnancy went wrong and we couldn't do anything about it,” Rowan explained his tone calm, although shuddering little as he thought about anything happening to his mate.
“The same thing that would happen to me if Amber had to be killed,” Rory at taking his mate's hand in his. “What nearly happened to Julia and Patrick left a very large impact on this family and made us stop treating each pregnancy with such a casual attitude as it reminded us that things can still go horribly wrong and even if what happened wasn't fatal and turned out all right in the end, that doesn't mean that next time something happened, it wouldn't be much worse and possibly fatal.”
“I think that is a very sensible approach to take,” Jasper said speaking for the first time in quite awhile, although he had been listening to the conversation.
Bella calmed down as she thought the two couples were right to be cautious so that the same thing that happened to Julia didn't happen to them, or possibly something worse.
“Alright, I understand that we all need to be more cautious in the future as we don't want the same thing to happen to the four of you that nearly happened to Julia. Personally, I think it was a fluke, but it did remind us that pregnancy, especially since it is very unconventional for a vampire to be pregnant in the first place, can still be very dangerous with a number of pitfalls,” Bella said.
“Exactly,” both couples said at the same time causing both Jasper and Bella to chuckle.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Just a few days shy of 3 months later both Amber and Meghan went into labor within minutes of each other, which was pretty amazing considering that their pregnancies were three hours apart.
“I think the thing to do here is have Meghan and Amber in the same room so that we can help deliver the babies at the same time,” Jasper said and the Whitlock twins nodded at the same time and carried their respective mates upstairs to the largest room in the house which was Jasper's and Bella, since it was the master.
“I want you to follow instructions to the letter,” Jasper told his sons. “No arguing as we don't have time for that.”
“Yes, dad,” Rory and Rowan agreed immediately knowing that their dad only had the best interest of their mates at heart.
“Very well then I want you to to stand at the bottom of the bed and watch as each child emerges from your mates wombs. You're not to do anything until they are fully out, but then you are to make sure that you catch them if they look as if they are going to slide off the bed. After you do that you will take them into the bathroom and give them their first baths making sure that you wash off all the blood and venom. There should also be eight preheated bottles bottles of that artificial blood waiting on the counter of the bathroom and you are to feed them, before you pass them off to one of your siblings downstairs. Make sure that you keep the babies separated, because it is possible we'll have at least one set of identical twins and we don't want to get the two of them mixed up.”
Rowan and Rory listened to their father's instructions and nodded.
“Very well then, get into position,” Jasper said and the twins nodded as they came to stand at the foot of the king sized bed than waited for the firstborn baby to emerge from their mates birth canals.
Bella had come back as Jasper the had been instructing their sons on what to do with a whole load of white towels and she handed have twin half instructing them to put one of them underneath where the babies would emerge from their mate's birth canals.
At their father's nod, both Rory and Rowan urged their mates to push down and kept encouraging them all the while not even noticing when Jasper disappeared from the bedroom in order to go down to the basement to get two humans for Meghan and Amber to drain each time they gave birth. Jasper knew that would be his main job until after all the babies were born and he sincerely didn't mind. Not many of his other children were here in the house as most of them were off traveling or doing their own things and in fact the only one of his children that was here at present were, Angelina, Meredith, Blane, Alisa, Gabriel, Trevor, Troy, Gavin, Chloe and her mate Josiah. All of them had appeared over the last couple of weeks and Josiah had told everyone that the pregnancies and the births should go fine, which had relieved everyone's mind considerably, although they knew that Josiah's talent wasn't perfect, but unless something really unexpected happened nothing should go wrong.
Jasper came back up on the basement dragging two humans not really caring if they got all bruised and cut as they wouldn't be alive for very long after all.
“We'll take over dad,” Troy offered. “I'm sure they need your expertise upstairs.”
“Thanks,” Jasper said gratefully as he headed upstairs dragging the two unconscious humans behind him.
“You're welcome,” Troy called after his father as Jasper disappeared up the first flight of stairs.
“Well, let's get busy as Meghan and Amber will need plenty of humans to feed off,” Troy told his siblings that were present. “We need to bring at least six or seven more humans up from the basement since both Meghan and Amber are pregnant and it could be triplets or quadruplets.
“Man, aren't you the taskmaster,” Angel, or Angelina if you prefer teased her older brother.
“Yes, but there aren't very many of us here right now,” Troy told Angel with a wink, “So both couples can use all the help they can get.”
Josiah, Gabriel and Troy all headed down to the basement leaving the other's in the den in order to bring up six humans from from the 50 or so that were already down there.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

“Here you go, dad,” Troy said dragging the two humans into the room and dropping them into a corner not really caring about whether he broke several of their bones or not since they would soon be very dead.
“Thanks, Troy,” Jasper told his son. “And thanks to the two of you too,” Jasper added when he saw Gabe and Josiah also drop two humans apiece on the other side of the room.
“You're welcome, is there anything else we can do?” asked Josiah who was a pretty amiable fellow most of the time, although he was certainly no pushover either.
“Well, one of you can wait in the doorway as I believe one of these babies is just about to be born,” Jasper said as he observed his two daughters closely. “The others can go back downstairs and one of us will call you if we need something.”
Meghan looked closer to giving birth then Amber did, so unless something unexpected happened Meghan's son or daughter would be the first to be born.
While Jasper had been talking Rory and Rowan had been standing at the end of the king size bed urging their mates to push and finally 10 minutes after both young women had gone into labor the first child to be born in this new generation was a son that came from Meghan's birth canal sliding out as slick as you pleased with absolutely no trouble. Rowan who was standing by the end of the bed made sure that he caught his son before he could hit the floor and wrapped him in the towel that was waiting after using his teeth to bite through the umbilical cord that was attached to the baby's navel.
“I'll take over,” Jasper said over the baby's crying, “while you go give my grandson his first bath and bottle.”
Rowan nodded and headed into the attached bathroom.
Bella without even being asked went over to pick up one of the humans that lay crumpled and unconscious on the floor and presented the vein in the neck to Meghan for her to bite down on, but then they had been through this same thing multiple times by now so of course everybody knew what to do.
Meghan did so and it didn't take very long to drain the unconscious man at all and Meghan gave a satisfied sigh and said, “Thanks. I feel much better now.”
“You're more than welcome,” Bella assured her as she lifted the body with ease and went to put it out in the hallway so that it wasn't taking up space in the room.
Jasper took his son's place at the end of the bed and started doing the job that what Rowan had been doing and that was urging Meghan to push so that her next son or daughter could be born.
“Push, my love! Push!” Rory urged Amber. “Meghan's first child has already been born.”
“I'm doing the best I can,” Amber panted pushing down as hard as she could, which was just enough for the baby to a emerge from Amber's birth canal.
“It's a girl!” Rory proclaimed before he did just as Rowan had and used his teeth to bite through the umbilical cord.
Rowan who was just emerging from the bathroom with his now clean and fed son looked up at his brother and grinned before heading over the doorway to hand Chloe the baby.
“My isn't he a handsome devil,” Chloe cooed to her baby nephew. “I do believe I see the beginnings of reddish-brown hair the exact same shade as yours and Rory's.” The baby boy stared at Chloe looking into her eyes not seeming at all afraid of this strange woman who was much bigger then he was.
Rory emerged from the bathroom with his clean and quiet daughter who had just been fed and handed her to Chloe who was waiting. “Why don't you head back downstairs and send somebody else up,” Rory suggested to his sister gently. “I believe you've done your duty and you can't hold another baby in any case unless you grow a third arm that is.” Rory added the last part of the statement with a grin looking so happy that Chloe was surprised he wasn't jumping up and down in excitement.
While Rory had been busy talking to Chloe, Rowan had retaken his place at the end of the bed while Jasper had moved aside obligingly and picked up one of the unconscious humans and handed her to Amber to feed off of all without saying a word.
Bella also moved aside without a word when Rory came to take his place at the end of the bed on the side that Amber lay.
“Push! Amber you can do it, love,” Rory urged his mate. “You have given us a beautiful daughter to love, but now we need to see if her sibling is a boy or girl.”
While Rory was doing that Rowan was also urging Meghan to push down as well so that they could see if they had a second son or a first daughter.
It didn't take long at all for both Meghan and Amber to give birth to their second children and in fact it was pretty amazing that both babies emerged from their mothers birth canals almost at the exact same instant.
Rowan and Rory were both watching in anticipation as both babies slid out of their mothers wombs at the same instant and immediately started crying and screaming as neither had like being expelled from their nice, warm, safe haven.
“Both are boys!” Bella exclaimed obviously thrilled as she picked them both up after Rory and Rowan had bitten through the umbilical cords attached to a placentas that were still in their mothers bodies and headed into the bathroom so that she could give them their first baths and feed them from the bottles that were waiting so that Rory and Rowan could stay with their mates.
“Make sure you don't get them mixed up,” Jasper told his mate in a normal tone of voice knowing that Bella would be able to hear him from where she was in the bathroom.
“That's not going to be possible,” Bella called from the bathroom as anybody heard the water running. “The one that came from Meghan's womb has red hair just like the firstborn and the one that came from Amber has the beginnings of her brown hair, with blond highlights.
“Ah,” Jasper said. “That does make it easier to tell them apart.”
“I'd say so,” Rowan said taking his attention off Meghan for just a second. “We are going to have to keep the two redheaded boys of mine separated though so that we don't get the two mixed up.”
“We'll simply do the same thing that we did with you and your brother,” Jasper told his son with a shrug. “It's the only way I know of that we'll be a able to keep the two of them separate and not get them mixed up unless we can find another way. If vampire babies didn't bust out of their clothes so fast, putting them in different colors would've been perfect.”
Conversation stopped as Meghan and Amber continued to pant and continued to push down so that another baby or babies could be born.
Both Amber and Meghan stomachs were now much flatter although it was clear that they were still very pregnant and everybody thought that they still looked much too big for just a single baby, unless that baby was enormous.
“Come on, Amber,” Rory told his mate. “You can do it!”
“I'm certainly trying,” Amber panted even as she continued to have contraction that were only minutes apart now.
“You can do it, Meghan,” Rowan encouraged his mate.
It went like this for the next 10 minute with both Rowan and Rory encouraging their mates and telling them to push and finally it was Amber who gave birth first to another boy this time, which started to emerge from her birth canal head first, but kept sliding back into it as the baby boy refused to be delivered.
“One more hard push should do it,” Rory urged his mate.
Amber did as she was ordered and pushed as hard as she could and finally the baby boy's head emerged all the way out of her birth canal and so did his shoulders and once the shoulders were delivered the rest of him followed immediately.
“We have a second son, love and he is just as handsome as his brother with the beginnings of my auburn hair instead of brown,” Rory told his mate immediately taking the baby boy into the bathroom after biting through the umbilical cord that it attached him to his mother to do what he had done with his daughter.
When Rory disappeared into the bathroom Jasper immediately took his son's place and continued to encourage his daughter so that the last baby could be born.
Meanwhile Meghan had also been working hard and Rowan was there urging her on. Meghan, suddenly pushed down as hard as she possibly could and the head of the baby began to emerge from her birth canal and once the head was out in the open air it didn't take long at all for the rest of the baby to be delivered.
“We have another son, love and it looks like he also got my auburn hair, although he looks more like you then me, in the face anyway,” Rowan said as he made sure that the baby didn't slide off the bed by catching him just as he emerged all the way from his wife's body.
“Just one more to go,” Meghan panted as she calmly bit down on another human's neck that Bella presented her as Rowan took their son into the bathroom. As soon as Meghan finished draining the man she dropped the corpse to the floor and felt the fresh blood flow through her body renewing her energy and making her feel like she could get this last baby out of her womb.
It was not more then ten minutes later when both Amber and Meghan both delivered their final children, Amber's was first, another girl and Meghan's emerged only two minutes later and it was a boy.
“Alright, you two push down one final time and expel the afterbirths,” Jasper told his two daughters gently and calmly.
Meghan and Amber did as ordered and it didn't take more than another couple of minutes for the two young women to expel the two placentas each, which meant that both of them had had two sets of twins each and once that was done everybody breathed sighs of relief that nothing out of the ordinary had happened during the birthing and that Josiah had been right.
“Here you go, love,” Rowan said offering his mate another human to drain so that the fresh blood would heal up any damage that had been done internally.
Rory, of course, did the same thing and took the final unconscious, but breathing human and did the same thing by offering Amber the pulse point of the neck of a rather large man who looked healthier then a lot of their meals did, which only made sense since the humans they fed off of were bums, whores and criminals of one sort or another.
“That's much better,” both Amber and Meghan side at the same time and after a moment Meghan added, “I need a shower.”
“And so do I,” Amber agreed. “Giving birth isn't exactly a walk in the park even if we can get out of bed within just a few minutes where a human would have to stay in bed and sleep after going through that ordeal, since it is hard work.”
“Why don't you to get your showers and we'll wait for you downstairs,” Jasper suggested. “By the way, thank you for my eight beautiful grandchildren.”
“You're more than welcome, dad,” Amber told the father and Meghan nodded.
“Yes, thank you,” Bella said as she kissed both her daughters on their cheeks and gave them hugs while she also hugged her twin sons.
“You're very welcome, mom,” Rory and Rowan said together returning their mother's hugs. “We didn't do it just for you, but you're welcome all the same.”
“I know you didn't do it for me or for your father, but that doesn't mean we aren't grateful to have eight more grandchildren to help raise.”
“Having three sets of identical twins is absolutely astounding,” Jasper said looking genuinely shocked. “I don't know what the odds against that happening, but I know that they are astronomical and that you both had two sets of twins is only a little less so.”
“You did expect at least one set of twins,” Rowan pointed out to his father. “Is it really all that much of a stretch to have four sets of twins? Especially considering that Rory and me are twins and so are Meghan and Amber?”
“That's why I'm not quite as surprised at the four sets of twins as I am that three sets of them are identical,” Jasper told his sons with a wink as he took his youngest grandchildren downstairs, Bella following.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Meghan and Amber both came downstairs with their mates following directly behind looking much more relaxed then they had doing the whole birthing process, not that any of the family present could blame Rowan and Rory for being tense before considering what had happened to Julia. Any of the family from now on that decided they wanted children was going to be tense during the birthing process as a vampire could never forget anything even if they really wanted to. It was true the Josiah helped take some of that apprehensiveness away thanks to his talent to see the future, but not all of it since things could still go wrong.
“So, names for all six of these handsome devils and the two gorgeous females,” Gabriel joked.
Everybody laughed at that and Rory and Rowan sat in two of the chairs and their mates climbed into their laps and once everybody was comfortable Meghan began.
“Very well then, the oldest… Meghan paused and Chloe took that to mean that she was supposed to present the oldest to the rest of the family. Chloe rose from her place beside the mate and carried over the baby boy that had been born first out of Meghan's womb.
“Here is your firstborn son,” Chloe told Meghan carrying the boy over to his mother.
Meghan took him and cuddled him close then said, “We decided to name the firstborn, Damian Arthur.”
Everybody nodded thinking that was a very good name for the newest baby vampire born to the Whitlock family.
“And the second?” asked Bella looking eager to hear the name of her second grandson
“Brandt Hans,” Rowan told his mother.
Trevor brought over the second born baby and everybody looked at the two that had been presented so far and thought that they looked identical down to their red, brown hair and facial structure.
“Identical,” everybody in the room said at the same time.
“We're really going to have to do something to keep the two separate so that we can tell them apart at least until they develop their own personalities,” Angel added.
“We'll simply do what we did with Rory and Rowan and of course Charlotte's and Peter's quadruplets,” Bella told everyone. “Unless a better way to be found that is the best solution. You know that we tried putting them in different colors, but vampire children grow so fast that they burst out of their clothes on a regular basis, so that it just didn't work very well. It was just a good thing that we decided to do both and dress them in different colors and paint a stripe on their backs with different color paints so that they could be told apart.”
“Luckily that particular stage doesn't last very long just a few weeks,” Chloe said, who had seen her share of vampire babies growing at a much faster face then normal human ones.
“Yes, that is fortunate,” Bella agreed.
“Now as for the third born,” Meghan said as soon as she wish that everybody was going to remain silent, “Rowan and I decided on Nicolas Robert.”
“And for the youngest, we decided on Xavier Morgan,” Rowan added.
“Again identical,” Trev said looking between the third son he was holding and the fourth that lay quietly in his father's arms.
“The only difference is that they look more like Meghan in the face anyway while the other two look exactly like Rory and Rowan when they were children,” Gabriel said looking at the twins that looked so much like his brother's when they had been babies that it was uncanny.
“Did anybody ever think that once the two that look like Rory and Rowan are grown it'll be like having quadruplets around, since they'll look the same age?” asked Trevor.
“The family might know differently, but if anybody who knows Rory and Rowan see these two they will be mistaken for them and will not be able to tell the difference at least until they talk,” Meredith added.
“You're absolutely right, Trev,” Bella told her son. “Damien and Brandt do look exactly like their father and it will almost be like having quadruplets once they grow up that is and Merry you are also right in the fact that nobody who knows them will be able to tell the difference at least at first glance.”
“You know I'm really surprised that they all four got the Rowan's auburn hair considering the fact that that would mean Meghan has to have the genes for that color as well since brown is the most dominant color after black and only requires one gene while red requires two,” Chloe who had done the research said.
“I think one of our grandfathers had red hair, although I don't remember which one,” Meghan offered. “It wasn't precisely auburn, more of a strawberry blonde.”
“I remember the same thing,” Amber offered and Blane nodded, not speaking as he was gently cuddling one of his nieces talking to her softly.
“Well, if you two are remembering that your grandfather had strawberry blond hair that would explain why all four of your sons got Rowan's color, but the thing is it is very unusual all the children to get that color, since brown is dominant,” Chloe said.
“You just have to think of brown hair mixed with red,” Bella told her daughter, “because that is exactly what it takes to get auburn. Now if it was a pure red then I would really wonder where that came from, but since it's more of a copper I don't,” said Bella with a shrug.
“Now let's get back to discussing the names but Amber's and Rory's children,” Jasper suggested after a moment.
“It's about time,” Rory said who had been watching the discussion looking a tad impatient.
Amber put her hand on Rory's arm and he calmed down immediately as the gentle touch of his mate had always soothed him like nothing else ever had. Rory knew that he could be very impatient, much more inpatient and his twin brother, who seemed to have the patience of a saint most of the time.
“Rory and I decided to name our firstborns which was a girl Rebekah, spelled R, E, B, E, K, A, H. The middle name is Ruth,” Amber said.
Rebekah who was being held by her Uncle Blane and looked a lot like Rory in the face anyway, except hat she had the beginnings of Amber's brown hair and so did her sister.
“That's so pretty,” Blane said speaking for the first time since his sister and their mates had come downstairs. Blane had never really gotten over the fact that both his sisters were now married and in fact had been married in a double ceremony 20 years ago as neither couple had wanted to wait any longer than necessary.
Blane had argued with his sisters asking why they wanted to get married and it took Meghan to point out that they would be living in sin or at least they would by the humans definition because being mates was considered being married in the vampire world and while that wouldn't bother her or Amber at all they knew it would bother him.
Blane had really never gotten over the fact that both his sisters were already technically married in the vampire way or at least that they were in a very committed deep, everlasting relationship, even though no sex had taken place until after they were changed at 18. Part of the problem was that Blane wanted to protect his sisters from anything that would hurt them thanks to what had happened in that group home they had been taken to after their parents deaths.
It had been Amber's turn to point out that he was their brother, not their keeper and that he really didn't have any say in the matter. He could disapprove all he wanted, but once they were 18 they could do what they wanted with or without his permission.
Meghan had told him in no uncertain terms that if their own brother tried to keep them separated from Rory and Rowan who they loved very deeply and completely then Blane would no longer be their brother for they would disown him and he would no longer be welcome anywhere near them.
Taking that sort of action would hurt them deeply since the three of them had been through so much together and he was their flesh and blood, Amber had told him, but they would do it because if their own brother tried to come between the two men they loved, whether or not they were vampires and just because he was being extremely overprotective, then he, Blane, didn't deserve to be their brother if he couldn't see that they were happier with Rory and Rowan in their lives then without them.
Finally Amber and Meghan had told him together that you being so overprotective and trying to keep us away from our mates is hurting us more then those bastards ever did and at that last and final statement Blane had finally seen that he was going to lose his sisters if he didn't stop being so controlling. Meghan and Amber had been spot on when they told him that he had no right to control their lives and no right to decide if they could or could not get married or tell them that they couldn't make love with their mates. Blane had no right to control anybody's actions, but his own.
“Now as to the second born who was a boy,” Rory began, “Amber and I decided on Matthias Fabian.
“Now there's an old-fashioned name,” Angelina commented. “I don't believe either one is used very much anymore.”
“So we can just call him Matt and no one will ever know unless they ask,” Amber pointed out. Matt was still a very common name and probably always would be.
“Very true,” Bella said, “so what did you name my second grandson that was born third?”
“Cameron Harold,” Rory supplied and everybody nodded thinking that was a very good name.
“And for the second girl, the last to be born?” asked Jasper.
“Dinah Charis,” said Amber, “and Rory and decided to spell that D, I, N, A, H.”
“It's pretty obvious that your twin daughters are absolutely identical, just like Rowan and Meghan's four children,” Gabriel said, “and to have three sets of identical twins and one set of fraternal is absolutely astounding, considering the fact that scientist still haven't discovered why a woman can have identical twins, triplets or even quadruplets without the use of fertility drugs as they are still considered something of an aberration in certain parts of the world and a genetic fluke to most of the rest. Scientists have found absolutely no scientific reason why some couples have identical twins, although fraternal twins are not considered a genetic fluke as that just means that some women release more than one and egg to be fertilized.”
“You seem to know an awful lot about it,” Chloe teased her older brother.
“Research,” Gabriel told his younger sister with a superior look. “Since so many twins and triplets seem to be born into this family I did research to try to figure out why and yes I know that it's partly the necklace of Artemis, but even that doesn't explain how you get identical twins, triplets, or quadruplets instead of two, three or four separate babies with two, three or four separate placentas. Even if they share the same placenta and amniotic sack why don't they have different features and would therefore be considered fraternal. I do need something to do with my time after all since I, unlike certain people in this family am not mated and therefore have plenty of time on my hands to do whatever I want.”
“We have indeed been blessed,” Jasper commented as he held one of his grandsons in his arms.
“Before this discussion goes any farther Josiah and I have an announcement,” Chloe began standing up her mate doing the same.
“You have the floor,” Jasper told his daughter and son-in-law.
“We have decided,” Josiah said taking over the announcement from his mate. “That it is time for us to start a family.”
Everybody sat there for a few seconds stunned into silence, for they had not expected the announcement of another one of the family being ready to get pregnant and have children.
“This is absolutely wonderful,” Bella said looking extremely happy at the thought of more grandchildren.
“Josiah and I have discussed this on and off over the last year,” Chloe told her father before he could ask them if she was sure she was ready.
Jasper had been extremely protective of Chloe ever since she was nearly raped by those two male nomads quite a long time ago, but one didn't forget things like that, especially if one had an eidetic memory. Once Josiah had come into their live though Chloe's whole attitude had changed and she was much happier than she had been since the incident so long ago.
“I have also checked the future quite extensively by thinking about every kind of decision I can that would affect her pregnancy in some way and checked the consequences,” Josiah added. “I'm trying to make this as safe for Chloe as I can, although I realize that I cannot foresee everything.”
“What did you see?” asked Jasper as he stared at Josiah intently.
“I saw,” Josiah answered honestly, “that if Chloe only wears the necklace for an hour that she should have twins and that the birth will go fine. I cannot see whether or not we will have two boys, two girls or one of each or whether they will be fraternal or identical, not at this stage anyway.”
“Once Chloe's actually pregnant you might be able to tell,” Troy suggested.
“I had already planned to check the future just as soon as she was just to see if I could tell the sex of the twins,” Josiah confirmed with a slow, easy smile, that made his already handsome face even handsomer, if that was possible. Josiah's smile oozed sensuality and made all the unmated women in the family that were there at the moment sigh, wishing that Josiah was theirs. There was just something about him that made women everywhere want to be with him and willing to almost anything to get the privilege. Even after women found out he was already taken didn't stop a lot of them from trying.
Josiah, was a very handsome man with very curly, black hair that was relatively short and only reached the nape of his neck, while one lock fell over his forehead giving him an extremely dashing look that seemed to make women everywhere want to cuddle up to him and his rather boyish face certainly didn't help. Chloe had had to chase more then one women away from him in the four and a half decades they had been mated and some of them had been very persistent as Josiah's boyish face and charm seemed to attract women like bees to honey. It was true that all vampires had the problem of woman chasing after them, but usually that was only when a vampire turned on the charm in order to lure their pray somewhere in order to drain them. On very rare occasions some human would not seem to sense that they were dangerous, whether that was because they were drunk, on drugs or just because they didn't have that sense that most humans did that told them that their target was extremely dangerous and to not approach. Josiah though, thanks to his dashing good looks and boyish charm seemed to short circuit a woman's brain without half trying with just a smile and a few words as his very faint Australian accent seemed to drive women to want to be around him. In that way Josiah was a lot like his father-in-law, as Jasper's faint southern accent seemed to drive women wild and although he didn't didn't have Josiah's boyish charm he still often had women swarming around him and could lure a woman somewhere in order to drain their blood with absolutely no trouble, without even having to turn up the charm. Why so many woman fell for a man with an accent was a mystery, but they did in droves, not that it really mattered in the slightest.
“I think Chloe only wearing the necklace for an hour is a good idea,” Bella commented. “Chloe out of all the children of this family is small and slight and in fact she's even shorter than me, which would make carrying any pregnancy more difficult, especially with multiples.”
“Alright,” Jasper finally said knowing that Josiah was telling the truth and he couldn't really prevent Chloe from having children if she wanted to any case since he was a woman grown, even if he had been a bit overprotective of her since she had nearly been raped all those decades ago. Besides Jasper had to admit that his son-in-law loved his daughter just as he loved Bella or that any of his children loved their mates and would never put her into unnecessary danger, especially if he had already seen what that danger was.
“Well, it looks like we'll be getting two more grandchildren then we expected,” Bella chuckled, looking ecstatic as she took the necklace out of her pocket and handed it to Chloe. Bella had been keeping the necklace very close to her so that she could return it to the safety deposit box at first opportunity, now she was glad that she had not had a chance to do that yet.
“Just let me go get my stopwatch out of my bedroom so that you can be timed,” Jasper said. “That's how we're going to do it from now on as it is going to be timed every time one of my children wants to start a family of their own, just so that nobody forgets to remove the necklace after the appropriate amount of time. I want to lessen the chances as much as I can of what happened to Julia happening to anyone else if it all possible.”
“Or something worse happening, something that isn't so easily fixable,” Bella added.
“We understand, dad,” all the children present answered knowing that both their parents were just being extremely cautious and with good reason.
“After all, what happened to Julia left an impact on all of us or at least it did on the ones that were part of the family at the time,” Trevor said, “and were actually here for the birth.”
Jasper nodded and headed upstairs in order to get his stopwatch and when he came back down he showed Chloe and Joshua that he had already set it and the couple took that to mean that it was time for them to proceed and so immediately headed upstairs holding hands.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

“You know, I'm glad that dad stopped us from tearing Josiah apart when he first appeared,” Rowan commented from where he sat with Meghan on his lap in one of the chairs, as he watched Chloe and Josiah disappear upstairs.
“Why would you want to do that?” asked Meghan looking into the Rowan's face.
Everybody else that was in the room was listening and since the babies had just been fed everybody figured they had time to listen to the retelling of the first meeting of Josiah and Chloe.
“Well, it was the way he first appeared,” Rowan explained. “Ever since Chloe was nearly raped by those two male nomads, while the female watched all the family has been extremely protective of her and we do tend to overreact whenever we perceive some kind of threat to her. It began like this...”

Flashback

Rowan's POV

It was a very cloudy day in the year of 2232. It had been the middle of November and an extremely cold one at that, and the Whitlocks had been living in Alaska at time. Not all of them had been living in the house that was outside Nome Alaska, just Jasper and Bella and Chloe really, although the others of the family came by and visited them frequently. The house outside of Nome was fairly large, although not large enough to hold the entire family it was certainly big enough to hold half a dozen of the Whitlocks at a time, without them feeling crowded. At present their were 10 Whitlocks who had taken up semipermanent residence and had decided to stay for a few months before they were on their way. The ones present besides Jasper, Bella and Chloe, of course, was Troy, Rowan and Rory, Lindsay and Trey, Brianna and Gerik. Since three of those couples was mated the house still didn't feel overcrowded since mated couples, of course, shared a bedroom.
All the people in the house tried to spend as much time together as they could since they didn't see each other very often and as for Jasper and Bella they were just happy to have a full house, as Bella in particular missed her children when they weren't around, even if she knew that she couldn't smother them and that she had to let them go and do their own things.
It was the strangest thing as Rowan had just happened to glance out one of the front windows to see a strange vampire trudging up the front pathway with just a backpack over his shoulder and his clothes while not precisely in rags, were showing their wear and age as they had been darned so many times that their couldn't have been much of the original material left.
“Dad! Mom! We have company coming up the front walk!” Rowan called into the den where his parents and the rest of the family were watching a movie and spending time together a a family.
Jasper sprung into action immediately and the rest of the family as well. One of the family shut off the TV and if then they all assembled on the front porch in order to greet their completely unexpected guest.
The vampire stranger looked up and everybody immediately noticed that he didn't look it all apprehensive at being greeted by such a large contingent of unknown vampires, who could rip him apart in seconds if they were so inclined since he was alone.
None of the rest of the family noticed that Chloe was staring at the handsome stranger as if unable to pull her eyes away.
When the stranger had gotten within 10 feet he said in a normal tone of voice, “My name is Josiah Knight and I have tracked you down because I have something rather urgent to discuss with you.”
Jasper studied the stranger's emotion, but all he could sense was that this Josiah Knight was telling the truth and so he nodded.
“Very well then, why don't we all go inside and you can tell all of us why you have come,” Jasper said.
All the other members of the family except for Bella and Chloe looked like they couldn't decide whether that was a good idea not, but their father's word was law and so they all obligingly trudged back inside.
“Just let me give you a warning, and it is the only one you will get. If you mean to cause trouble then you will not leave here alive,” Jasper said his tone menacing.
Josiah nodded looking only a little frightened, which shocked Jasper no end since the scars on his arms and wrists and the one on his neck was very obvious and most vampires that didn't really know him were scared of his numerous scars if nothing else. To see so many scars on one of vampire kind scared other vampires half to death and for good reason. The only way for a vampire to get so many obvious imperfections was if they had seen a lot of fighting for a vampire's skin was impenetrable to any normal human made weapon and the only thing that could cause so many scars was another vampire's teeth and fingernails.
Every vampire alive today was terrified of a vampire with so many scars, even if it was only instinctively. The first time that most vampires saw him all they wanted to do was run the other way, and yet this Josiah had not been scared of his scars at all and that deeply troubled Jasper for it was not a normal reaction when a vampire met him for the first time.
“I swear on my on my honor as a Knight that I have not come here to cause you and your family any trouble,” Josiah swore doing a particular gesture of putting his open right palm over his heart while closing the other hand into a fist and pounding it once, twice and then a third time over the hand that was on top of where his heart would have been beating if he had not been a vampire.
“That gesture means that I can no longer break my word to you for the ghost of my ancestors will come back to haunt me and whether this is true or not I do not know, as I have never dared to break my word once given. I just know that is what they swore to do to any Knight that broke their word using that gesture once given. No Knight gives their word lightly or to anybody they do not trust.”
“How can you trust us?” asked Trevor. “You don't know us.”
“That is part of the story I have to tell you,” Josiah said as he got comfortable in one of the chairs in the living room which was used for receiving visitors even though as vampires they got very few since normally they didn't mix much with other people and this house was way off the beaten tack.
“Can I get you something to drink before we get started?” asked Bella politely curious about this stranger and although she really didn't think he meant any harm she would follow Jasper's lead until he to was for you never know.
“You have fresh blood?” asked Josiah in surprise.
“Well, it isn't precisely fresh,” Bella said politely. “It's the artificial blood that the human scientists created to help replace the blood of a badly injured patient, when they don't have their blood type.”
“I've heard of it, but I've never tried any as I didn't see what the point was when there was plenty of humans around for whenever I was thirsty.”
“Our family is so large that we thought it was a good idea to get our hands on the recipe,” Bella explained. “We also learned not much later that once it has a chance to build up in your system you stop glimmering in the sun so that we can go out even in the brightest sunlight and not have to worry about our skin sparkling giving us away to the humans. All of us drink a thermos of it once a week and still do a great deal of hunting.”
Josiah looked genuinely astonished at Bella's explanation and the other Whitlocks took that to mean that, although Josiah had heard of the artificial blood he did not know about that particular effect which wasn't surprising since he had never actually tried it.
“Sure, I'll try a glass,” Josiah said, “so long as it's not too much trouble.”
Bella nodded. “No it isn't too much trouble as some of the family made up a couple of gallons fresh just yesterday. Anybody else want a glass of it while I'm in the kitchen?” Bella add looking at her family.
Everybody nodded and Bella took herself off to the kitchen in order to get the requested drinks.
Once Bella had returned and passed out the glasses of artificial blood to everyone Josiah began his story.
“The reason I tracked you down is because your daughter Chloe and I are mates.”
The reaction that Josiah's words got was immediate and all the males in the family were on their feet and looked ready to tear this strange vampire apart, while the females were calmer, except for Chloe who looked as if she had just been hit over the head with a 3 ton bus.
The only male that was not acting as if he wanted to tear Josiah apart was Jasper, but even he radiated anger out of his very pores.
“Sit down everyone!” Bella barked and every single one of her children looked mutinous.
Jasper glared at all of them until all the males who had stood up so fast sat back down not wanting both their parents wrath to fall upon them.
“I hope you going to explain that,” Jasper told him his voice back to being a menacing growl, “and it had better be a very good explanation if you want to get out of here in one piece.”
“As I said my name is Josiah Knight and the reason I tracked you down is because your daughter and I are mated. The reason I know this is I have the ability to see the future,” Josiah explained.
“You have the ability to see the future?” asked Trey looking flabbergasted.
“I do,” Josiah said.
“If you knew that my and daughter was your mate why did you not show up before now?” asked Bella.
“I'm not very old, really or at least not as old as any of you,” Josiah explained. “I was born in Queensland Australia in the year of 2084 and I had just turned 25 when I was bitten. At the time I had absolutely no idea what was happening to me and why I was suddenly in incredible pain. By the time the pain finally passed I woke to find my creator leaning over me. Growing up I was just like any other boy really, I did well in school, I had plenty of friends that I hung out with in my free time, and I got into minor trouble with those same friends occasionally. The only difference between me and them seemed to be that I somehow always knew when something bad was going to happen, especially if it was to somebody I was close to. It was more of a sixth sense and not precisely seeing the future, although occasionally I did get flashes of scenes that at the time would make no sense, but when they actually happened, some times weeks later, I realized that I had seen ahead of time what was going to occur. I would often have dreams when I was sleeping that I will remembered quite vividly after I was awake, when most dreams you forget almost as soon as you are fully conscious. At the time I just thought I had a better memory than 99% of the human race, but later the events I dreamed about would take place. I started reading the paper and spending less time with my numerous friends and my parents thought that there was something wrong with me as I was only 15. What 15 year old wants stay inside reading the paper to check up on world events, when he could be outside playing? They questioned me about it and I just said that I was interested in some of the stories in the paper, but I never told them that I thought I was seeing the future because I knew that my mother, especially would want to have me committed to a mental institution as she didn't believe in fantasy and wouldn't even allow her children read any books in that category, not that I didn't figure out how to get around the rule.
“Once I woke up as a vampire with my creator standing over me he told me that I was now under his control and that he had been watching me for sometime and knew that I had kind of sixth sense about future events at least locally. He was hoping that that my talent would expand when I was changed into a vampire. I got to my feet, taking him completely by surprise, charged him and demanded what right he'd had to take me away from my family, my job, and my fiancé. I was absolutely incoherent with grief thinking about my brother and several sisters that I had left behind and how devastated they would be, but also about my fiancé as we had supposed to have been married in just a month's time. At the time I wasn't thinking very clearly and my creator wasn't much of a fighter, so not realizing what I was doing I tore him limb from limb.
“I didn't know back then that you were supposed to burn the pieces so the vampire can't reassemble as I was a newborn after all and I had reacted on instinct. All I knew was that I had to get away, so I ran, and then when I came across a human totally by accident I killed him without a second thought because my throat was burning so bad and it was then I found out exactly what I had become.
“My creator, who's name was Samuel Wilcox, it turned out that he wasn't such a bad guy when he tracked me down several months later. He apologized for what he had done to me, but also told me that it could not be changed and that he had been so excited when he learned of my talent as he was something of a scientist that liked to discover humans that had more senses then five and then turn them into vampires so that their talent would become much stronger so that he could figure out how they worked.
“I was still a newborn, although I was several months old, I still got angry quite easily and all I wanted to do was tear him apart again for ruining my life. Samuel seeming to know of my feelings of anger offered to tell me all about the world I had fallen into, if I let him try to determine how my talent operated. He was so pathetic, that I agreed to do it as I was just as curious as he was as to how my talent worked and how it had gotten much stronger after I was a vampire, which Samuel told me was quite normal.
“I won't bore you with the details but we traveled together for a long time and eventually became as close as father and son. It's only been in the last 60 years that we separated and went different ways, although we do keep in contact as best we can.
“That still doesn't explain why you think that you and my sister are mate's, Rory said having calmed down considerably.
“I was just getting to that part,” Josiah said, calmly having finished his glass of blood, which really hadn't been to bad, but no where near as good as fresh from a human, but still not bad, “but I had to give you a little bit of my back history in order for you to understand where I'm going with this and why I know me and Chloe were meant to be together for the rest of our time on this Earth.
“One day just 10 years ago long after me and Samuel had gone our separate ways I was simply wandering from place to place, catching meals whenever I got hungry in the bad section of whatever city I was in, when I had a very strong vision of me and very beautiful girl with blondish brown hair and red eyes, so I knew she was a vampire like me, but the vision disappeared just as fast as it had come. I was so frustrated because I really wanted to know more about this girl whom I didn't even know the name of not realizing at the time that we were mates, but even though I tried to get another vision of her, which sometimes works and sometimes does not nothing would come.
“It was several weeks later when I was in the midst of traveling from one place to another that I had another vision this time of her with several other people. It was in that vision that I learned her name. After that visions started coming closer together, just about every other day, actually. Every time I had one it showed me a little piece of her future life and eventually I realized the other people always around her were her family. It took awhile but I finally learned that your last name was Whitlock, which helped me locate you. I thought it was very strange that all of you looked alike as I know that vampires can't have children and yet you looked so similar to each other that you had to be related. It was in a vision about three years ago that I finally realized with stunning clarity that Chloe and I were mates because I saw a vision of the two of us cuddled up together surrounded by her family. After that vision they started to come more rapidly and ever since I have been seeing little pieces of the life we will have together.”
“He's telling the truth,” Jasper who had been watching Josiah's emotions very closely told his family.
“There is one way to prove it without a doubt,” Troy pointed out logically.
“How?” asked Josiah who had no idea what they were talking about.
“Well, if you're creator Samuel did not tell you the way to discover for sure if someone is your mate is to touch that person and if sparks leap from your joined hands you are definitely meant to be together. Sure, there are other signs, like you can start to feel very protective of a person, but that might just mean that you care about them not and would protect them from danger not that you are mates,” Rory explained and Josiah nodded as he absorbed Rory's words as it was something he had not known.
“I don't doubt that you and Chloe are mates as why would you have had a vision of Chloe at all if you weren't meant to be together,” Bella commented logically. “Your visions would have had no reason to show you her in the first place it there wasn't some purpose behind them.”
“Well, Chloe want to give it a try?” Jasper gently asked his daughter. “You don't have to if you don't want to.” Jasper was not at all astonished when Chloe nodded eagerly and stood up from where she had been sitting immediately, for he had seen how his daughter had been staring at their visitor as if unable to wrench her eyes away and that right there was one of the signs of the mate bond.
Josiah also rose to his feet at the same time and the two of them met in the middle of the room and touched their palms together. Immediately blue sparks started dancing along their skin confirming to the rest of the family that Chloe and Josiah were indeed mates.
“Welcome to the family,” Jasper told Josiah as soon as he saw the sparks that leapt between his daughter's and the visitor's touching palms.
“Thank you...” was all Josiah managed to get out for Chloe squealed like a little girl and flung her arms around his neck and kissed him quite seriously. Sparks leaped from their connected lips the second they touched and the rest of the Whitlocks knew in that instant that Josiah was here to stay, so they might as well get used to his presence. Beside their sister was happier then they had seen her since she was nearly raped all those decades ago now and for that reason alone they would welcome Josiah into their family. Besides Josiah's ability to see the future would almost certainly come in handy more than once in the next few centuries
“I do have one question for you,” Jasper added as soon as Chloe had released the kiss with Josiah.
“What's your question?” asked Josiah.
“How did you find us as we do move around frequently just like all vampires do,” Jasper said.
“It wasn't easy,” Josiah admitted holding Chloe's hand not looking as if he ever wanted to let go, which none of the family could really blame him for, since they felt the same way about their own mates.
As for Chloe she looked so happy and content that it was like she had done a complete 180 from what her previous attitude had been.
“What I did was watch my visions for any indication as to where you were located at that particular moment in time. You know recognizable buildings, street signs, something unique enough that it was easily identifiable. Finally just a couple of weeks ago I saw a sign that said Alaska and it was easier to locate you once I was actually in the state that you were located in.”
“How does seeing the future work?” asked Lindsey speaking for the first time since Josiah had arrived.
“Well, all I have to do in order to use to get a specific vision to show up is to think about a particular person. I have visions of different futures running through my head almost constantly, but most of it's very minor stuff. Like for example I see you're going to insist on giving me money and that you won't take no for an answer. If I want to see something specific I have to actually think about it like if I want to know what danger is going to be when Chloe and I travel for example I just have to think about Chloe and me traveling and let my visions do the rest. Most of the time I can avoid a specific situation just by not being where I'm expected at a certain time or changing directions like if I decided to go Timbuktu and I see of vision of danger that could cause me to make a different decision, like heading to Mongolia for example, which would of course change my fate.”
“So your talent is based on decisions made,” Jasper said with a particular gleam in his eyes.
“Exactly,” Josiah agreed.
“So you could tell us if the family was in any danger?” asked Bella.
“If I saw it yes, I would warn you as I wouldn't want any of you to be put in a situation if it could be avoided, but the one thing you must understand is that I can't watch out for a hundred or more different visions going in every direction possible at one time or details will begin to slip through the cracks if I try and I'll miss something just because I'm trying to keep my attention on say a dozen different futures all at once. Every person's future has multiple paths depending on the decisions you make and even if I kept my eye on just one of those paths for each of the family things would still be missed just because nobody can keep an eye on a hundred different futures at once.”
“You could check periodically for danger to the family,” Trey suggested.
“That's a very good suggestion son,” Jasper told Trey. “Could you do that, check periodically? Like say every week or so on each member of the family?”
“Yes, sir,” Josiah agreed. “I never thought of doing it like that and that would mean that I wouldn't have to watch 100 different futures all it once.”
“That's very thoughtful of you,” Jasper told Josiah, “but on second thought we are not going to have you constantly use your talent that way on your talent to necessarily warn us of danger because I don't want the family to start to depend on it. All this family has survived for centuries without it and if we started to depend on your talent too warn us of danger then we would stop being vigilant for that danger ourselves and that could get one of us killed. I taught every single member of my family how to fight and how to watch out for danger just because the world we live in is dangerous, if not from humans then from other vampires. By the way call me Jasper as we will be spending a lot of time together over the centuries and I don't feel like being sirred to death and the same goes for every member of this family.”
“You know it's possible that once I get to know all of you all I will automatically tune in when one of you is in danger,” Josiah said looking pleased to be told to refer to Jasper by his first name since he knew it was quite an honor. “It's happened before with my creator, Samuel.”
“If it does then, of course, I want you to warn us so that we can prepare for it, but I do believe that you have other things to think about besides watching out for danger to the family.” Jasper smirked at his daughter and Josiah and Chloe both looked mightily embarrassed.
“Come on, Josiah, let's go up to my room where we can talk, privately.” Chloe glanced back at her family and saw all of them smirking at her and for some reason their knowing attitudes didn't bother her as much as it would have just a couple of hours ago and Chloe knew that she could probably thank the presence of Josiah for that.
Josiah willingly followed Chloe up the stairs and it wasn't long at all before the other vampires in the house heard a door opening and closing.

End Flashback

“So that is how Chloe and Josiah met,” Rowan finished his tale just as Jasper stopwatch went of.
“That's some story,” Amber said from where she was sitting in Rory's lap with her head on his shoulder.
“It's true though,” Rory told his mate. “Most of the people in this room were there, although not all of them, of course, including you and Meghan and Blane as you hadn't even been born yet.”
“I didn't say I doubted it was true,” Amber protested. “It's just that all of you must have so many stories that you could tell that are true even though they would sound rather fantastic to anyone outside the family.”
Before Rory had a chance to respond Josiah and Chloe came downstairs hand-in-hand and it was clear that Chloe was indeed very pregnant. Her pregnancy showed more on her body then it would on somebody like Meghan or Amber who were much taller.
“Here is the necklace, mom,” Chloe said handing over the crescent moon necklace that allowed even a vampire to get pregnant.
Bella took the necklace from her daughter's hand and put it back in her pocket. “Congratulations you two.”
“Thank you,” Josiah said looking so happy that he was almost glowing as was Chloe.
“So can you tell the sex of the twins and whether they are identical or fraternal now?” asked Trey.
Josiah's eyes went distant, for a few seconds, which told everyone that he was checking the future and when they cleared again he said, “They will be fraternal twins both girls and one will have my black hair and the other will have Bella's brown.”
“Oh, two granddaughters to spoil instead of grandsons for a change,” Bella exclaimed looking ecstatic as she had always thought that there were to few girls born into this family. The Whitlocks seemed to have way more boys than they did girls as there were at least twice as many males born as females.
“I will admit that the Whitlock family does seem to run more to boys then it does to girls,” Jasper commented looking around. “There is nothing wrong with that mind you, but I would love to have a few more granddaughters, somewhere down the road.”
“You know I've been wondering if our family is just generically more inclined to produce boys then girls,” Alanna commented. “I'm mean there was only 6 girls that were originally born into this family out of 21 which is a very small percentage really. Also even after some of the family found mates of their own and started having children they had more boys then girl's, so I would say we Whitlocks just seem more predisposed to having boys.”
“So what? Does it really matter?” asked Rory. “There's no scientific evidence to suggest that anybody's bloodline is predisposed towards one sex or the other, although I am willing to admit that some humans tend to have all of one sex whether boys or girls. Of course, most humans only have one or two offspring and then the odds aren't so great to have just boys or girls it's only when a human has five or six or more that it goes against genetics to have all of the same sex.”
“So Chloe, Josiah, are you to going to want anymore children any time in the near future or can I put this necklace back in the safety deposit box in Philadelphia?” Bella asked the two.
The two vampires in question looked at each other and a silent message seemed to pass between them and then Josiah said, “Yes, we would like some more children, but not until after these grown as I know they will be quite a handful growing up.”
“You're already seeing their futures?” asked Bella in amazement.
“Yes,” Josiah confirmed, “and I'm not even really having to concentrate like I do sometimes when I'm looking for something specific. Of course, being able to see the future, Chloe and I can prevent a lot of their antics, if we wanted to that is. Most of it is just minor mischief and really doesn't cause any permanent harm like humans finding out about us, so I don't see why we should try to prevent it as they should enjoy their childhood, but also learn that there are consequences for every action.”
“I never realized that your talent could be used for things like stopping children's mischief before it starts,” Angel commented. “Being able to see the future sure would come in handy when I have children of my own someday, even though I know that is far in the future considering I haven't even discovered my own mate. Who knows if I ever will?”
Suddenly the eight newborn children started to cry all in once and everybody knew that it was time to feed them again.
“I'll go to the kitchen and get the bottles of prepared,” Bella said.
“Let me help you mom,” Meghan said and Amber followed the two without saying a word.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

One month later

Chloe looked way more pregnant at this stage then any of the other women in the family had, but then again Chloe was only 5 feet tall and therefore the shortest one of the Whitlock family.
“Have you and Josiah discussed names yet?” Bella asked her daughter as the two of them sat on Chloe and Josiah's bed just having a little girl talk.
“Yes we decided on Deborah Anna for the one with black hair and Hana Camille for the one with brown.”
“Those are so gorgeous! Although it's also kind of weird to be able to name your children before they're even born,” Bella mused. “If Josiah couldn't see the future we would have no way of knowing whether you would be having boys or girls or one of each.”
“That's true. Both Josiah and I really like the names and Deborah and Hana are in honor of his long dead sisters,” Chloe agreed with a smile as she thought of her mate who she knew if she ever lost him it would destroy her just as surely as that near rape attack decades ago almost had. She had felt so helpless all those years ago when that nomad James had grabbed her and said that nobody would care if he raped her and then he would give her to his friend Laurent to do the same. Chloe had always known that she was the shortest and weakest of her family at least vampire wise, although she was still more then a match for the strongest human known, but she had still been taught how to handle herself. James had prevented her though from protecting herself by pinning her arms behind her back and although she had struggled she had been unable to get free, but then again James had been big and burly and she was anything but. Even in the vampire world different body sizes and muscles types meant that you had different strengths and weaknesses. She was a lot like her mother in being small and slight, her muscles and bones were shaped the same and so was the rest of her body. In fact, the only difference between her and her mother was that she was 3 inches shorter and her hair color was different. After she had been attacked and nearly raped she knew that her all whole attitude and personality had changed, but she had been unable to get back to the way she had been as she had just kept thinking about the fact that she had been unable to defend herself despite what her father and several of her brothers had taught her, but also she just wasn't very naturally aggressive like some of her family and that might've had just a little bit to do with it. She sure had learned her lesson though and would never again allow herself in such a situation again if she could prevent it.
After Josiah had come into her life decades later her whole attitude had done a 180 and Josiah had talked to her about the attack after she had told him about it and tried to reassure her that it was not her fault and that those three nomads had been psychopaths and should have been killed years ago, before they were even changed into vampires in the first place. James and his two companions hadn't cared about who they hurt so long as they had gotten what they wanted and intellectually Chloe had known that, although she had never thought about it that way and had always dwelled on the fact that she had failed to throw them off or defend herself and that those bastards had broken her confidence in her own abilities to take care of herself. Josiah had made her see that those bastards hadn't managed to quite break her spirit, only bent it out of shape for awhile. Chloe knew that all of the family had tried to tell her the same thing over the decades after it had happened, but she had not seemed to absorb the words or perhaps she was just not ready to forgive herself for being so easily held prisoner. Josiah though had somehow managed to get through her defenses in a very short amount of time and had managed to get her to see that she had tried her best to get away and that she had managed to call for help and that she should be proud of herself for that.
After Josiah had talked to her Chloe had for some reason let the words actually penetrate her conscious when she had been unable to let herself to do that when her family had told her the same thing and some of the guilt that she had been feeling for so long finally dissipated.
“That's nice that you named your daughters after his two dead sisters,” said Bella, “and what's even more amazing was that Josiah remembered his sisters names.”
“Well, when Josiah suggested the names I immediately said yes as I just couldn't say no after he told me those had been the names of his two sisters. Besides they really are gorgeous names and so I made sure that Josiah knew that I really liked both of them and that to name our two daughters that would be okay with me. Josiah may have picked out the first names, but I got to choose the middle ones, so we both had a part in naming our two daughters that will be here sometime in the two months.”
“I am so proud of you, Chloe,” Bella told her after a few minutes of silence between the two.
“For what?” asked Chloe looking surprised at her mother's words.
“For finally forgiving yourself for not being able to fight back against those nomads who were much stronger then you. For a long time your father and I feared that you would never get your confidence in your own abilities back. What happened with those nomads was a very unusual situation and your father and I have a regretted on numerous times ever letting those bastards into the house.”
“How are were two supposed to know that they would cause trouble?” asked Chloe looking thoughtful. “I know dad has a very powerful talent and it does help tremendously to know if someone's telling the truth or lying, but that doesn't mean he can prevent every little thing that would harm one of his family. I don't blame either of you for what happened so long ago and I never did. If anything I blamed myself for not being able to get away. Once Josiah came into my life though, he made me see that it was not my fault that those nomads were psychopaths who should have been buried in graves somewhere and never changed into vampires in the first place. He made me understand that just because we are vampires does not mean that we have to be bullies, or rapist, which is essentially what those three nomads were, even the female. Victoria might not have participated in the actual attack, but she didn't try to prevent it and just stood back and let it happen laughing about it all the while and that's just not bullying it's pure sadism. Why I let Josiah's words affect me when most of the family had told me basically the same thing on multiple occasions, I don't know, but for some reason his words, just made more sense than anybody else's.”
“It probably has a lot to do with the bond you share,” Bella suggested, smiling knowingly. Josiah had been so good for her daughter that she kept blessing the day that he had arrived on their doorstep. Chloe had changed almost overnight from someone afraid of her own shadow, back into the strong confident woman she had been before the attack and near rape and it was all thanks to her son-in-law. “Jasper was able to cheer me up when I killed a child long before any of you were even thought of much less born and I don't think any words would have worked if they had come from say your Aunt Charlotte or Uncle Peter and not from Jasper. Somehow Jasper was able to talk me out of my funk and convince me that it wasn't really my fault and that sometimes accidents happened whether you wanted them to or not. I was still a very new vampire at the time I killed that child, but that didn't mean I didn't feel extremely guilty about it and still do even today, though I don't dwell on it.”
“I would certainly have felt guilty if I had ever killed a child,” Chloe admitted after a moment. “I also know from the stories you have told all of us that life was very different back then that you and dad traveled a lot and didn't settle anywhere for more than a few months at a time, so an accident was bound to happen at some point or at least the odds were that it would.”
“Yes, we did do a lot of traveling for the first 20 or so years after our mating,” Bella admitted. “Part of that was Jasper was still looking over his shoulder for an attack from his creator, that bitch Maria. He couldn't seem to stop looking over his shoulder, not that I can really blame him because from all I know of his creator none of it is nice or very complementary.”
“So what made you guys decide to finally settle down in one place for more than a year?” asked Chloe.
“Jasper was determined to give me the life he felt I deserved and that didn't include living out in the woods like we were doing for my newborn year. I suppose I did mention to him a few times that I missed taking hot showers, whenever we stayed somewhere for awhile. I never got a hot shower growing up considering that the the house I grew up in had was one of those tubs that took forever to fill and empty and by the time you did finish filling it the water was mostly cold.
“I suppose I got spoiled when we would stop somewhere for a year where hot water was always available for a bath or shower, which to me anyway was absolutely heaven and I became addicted to having the water as hot as it would go pouring over my skin. Jasper took that to mean that I would like to settle down somewhere for more then a year at a time before we would be moving on. Really it didn't matter to me what we did so long as we were together. We could have continued living out in the wild for example, living out of a single backpack each and I would have been content with just that as I've never been one of those women that need very many possession in order to be at least content with my lot in life and I suppose at least part of the reason I feel that way is because of the way I grew up, without much.”
Mother and daughter continued to talk for awhile as they styled each other's hair and painted each others finger and toenails.

~~~Rory and Rowan~~~

Six weeks later, Chloe finally went into labor and almost all the family was there for the event and thought it was about damn time, because Chloe was two weeks overdue for a vampire pregnancy, but then again all the other woman in the family tended to have multiples and more than a single baby tended to come notoriously early, so that more than likely had something to do with it. It was only Josiah's relaxed demeanor that allowed the family to not worry about Chloe anymore then was normal. Ever since what had happened with Julia the family tended to worry about each new pregnancy although with Josiah being able to see the future that eliminated a lot of the Whitlocks apprehensiveness.
The Whitlocks that were present for the birth of girl twins talked quietly and listened for the voices of their family upstairs, which was very easy thanks to vampire hearing and also because, their parents Josiah an Chloe were only one floor up.
“Push, Chloe! Push!” the family downstairs heard and it wasn't more then a few minutes later that all the Whitlocks heard the cry of a baby causing everyone waiting in the living room to relax a little as that meant that their was only one more to go.
“Come on love, you can do! A couple more pushes and we should have our second daughter.” the family heard Josiah's calm voice.
Their were several grunts and a few groans, but it wasn't more then five minutes later that the family heard the cry of the second baby girl causing them to relax.
“Here, honey,” they heard Josiah's gentle voice and everybody assumed that Josiah had just given Chloe a human to drain, so that she could recover from the birth.
“Thanks, darling,” Chloe said and the love in her voice was more then obvious to every vampire waiting in the living room downstairs.
Jasper and and Bella appeared just then each carrying one of their granddaughters, and they were immediately hit with a barrage, “How is Chloe? Is she alright?” from every member of the family that was currently sitting in the living room either on various pieces of furniture or on the floor.
“Chloe is just fine,” Bella assured her family with a smile that relieved everybody's worries causing them to relax completely. “She and Josiah should be down in just a few minutes after Chloe takes a shower and changes clothes.”
“As soon as they are here, we will go about introducing these two beautiful baby girls formally to the rest of you even though we all already know their names, thanks to Josiah being able to see the future,” Jasper said with a wide smile as he kissed the baby he was holding on the forehead.
“Prejudiced much, dad?” Bryon suggested with a grin at his father.
“Of course, I am,” Jasper said immediately surprising everyone in the room that their father didn't bother to deny it. “What grandfather would deny the fact that he has 13 beautiful, intelligent, accomplished grandchildren and ten more to help raise? I would have to be a dumb as a whole bag of stones to deny that I am indeed prejudiced where my family is concerned.”
“Well, when you put it that way I guess you have a right to be prejudiced,” Bryon said and the others nodded in agreement.
Chloe and Josiah came downstairs just then looking very happy and relaxed and each one took one of their daughters from the arms of their grandparents.
“Now that we are here, let me formally introduce you to my family,” Josiah began. “This.” Josiah held up a baby girl with the beginnings of her father's black curly hair, “is Deborah Anna Knight. Deborah, this is your family and they will always look after you and protect you from those that would hurt you.”
“Hello, Deborah!” the whole family greeted the beautiful baby girl at the same time.
“And this is Hana Camille Knight,” Chloe announced holding up another baby girl with her grandmother's dark brown hair. “Hana, this is your family and they will always look after you and protect you from those that would hurt you.”
“Hello, Hana!” The entire family called out once again.
“As tokens of welcome into the family I, Jasper Whitlock, head of the family present to you the Whitlock crest.”
Jasper opened one of the jewelry boxes that he had taken out of his pocket and inside was a beautiful necklace made of platinum that was just like the one all the females in the family wore. “You're parents will keep these safe for you and once you are grown they will give them to you. Wear them with pride always and know that your family loves you and that they have a long and proud history.”
The two baby girls reached out for the necklace, but Jasper quickly moved it out of their reach chuckling closing the lid of the Tiffany's box
“Also know that the Knights have an even longer history and have been around since before the crusades,” Josiah added for his part kissing both his daughters on the forehead.
“Can I hold one of them, now that the ceremony is over?” Julia requested and the look of longing on her face was almost heartbreaking to see. All her children were long since grown and even though she and Patrick would have liked to have more neither of them wanted to take the risk. In that respect she was a lot like Bella as Julia had always loved children and spent as much time with her younger nieces and nephews when she had been human as possible. She had loved holding them, playing with them, bandaging their hurts, whether it was just a skinned knee or something more serious.
“Of course,” Chloe agreed handing over Hana to her sister-in-law.
Chloe watched as as Julia cuddled her daughter and thought that Julia and Patrick should have more children. If they could just get over their fear of Julia dying during the birth then they could have another 10 or 20 little ones. Maybe she and Josiah could talk to them or better yet have her mate check the future to see if talking to both Julia and Patrick would do any good.
Chloe knew that Julia and Patrick definitely would like to have a few more children, but they were letting their fear of losing Julia doing the birth stop them from doing that and Chloe was going to do her best to fix it for them. She would first ask Josiah to check the future and see what he saw and then after that trying to come up with a plan. Josiah would tell her not to interfere and that it was none of her business, but Chloe loved Patrick and Julia and she knew that they would thank her if she was successful in convincing them that their was nothing to fear. Perhaps her mate would agree to check the future to see if the pregnancy and birth went well and that might just be enough to get the two to try again. Of course, it not might not either so she would have to plan carefully and the first stop was convincing Josiah to interfere in the first place.
Chloe for her part was up to the challenge.