Winter Legacy -29-

"I did not see this coming." Jack mumbled but couldn't wipe the smile from his face.

"You should have at lease called!" Agnes snapped. "Of all of the irresponsible things you've ever done Claus Winter..."

"He's a grown man Aggie, and what a beautiful woman Jaylee has become don't you think?"

"Jaylee, I thought better of you. Are you pregnant?"

Jack's everlasting grin made Jaylee smile as well. "I'm not pregnant Agnes."

"I just can't take this." Agnes breathed and got up.

"Agnes come back." Jack called. 

"Mom, we're not done talking."

"I am."

Jaylee sighed, "I'll go talk to her."

"Agnes..."

"No Jaylee. I have one son and I wasn't there for his wedding. I've never had the chance to be the mother of the bride, I have no idea what Erika is waiting on, and now I'll never be the mother of the groom. There weren't even any pictures. I thought better of both of you."

"We're sorry Agnes but I'm not about to stand here and make excuses for what we did. To be honest, Claus and I just couldn't wait anymore."

Agnes glowered at Jaylee, then stepped around the girl. "So, you made the decision as adults to go and get married without so much as a phone call to your family, but you don't want to be adults and have your own house. If it had been me that Claus spoke too, he would have known that we're going to extend our house, with out money, I would have told him that he couldn't move back in here, not after that."

Jaylee folded her arms, she realized that their discussion was going around with circles with Agnes throwing petty jeer after petty jeer, apparently the woman was just as stubborn and hard-headed as Erik had said. Jaylee had never given a second thought to Erik's and Agnes' failed marriage,  but she figured that Agnes' stubbornness could have been a factor. Jaylee could easily crush Claus with one hand, but she would respect him as her husband and submit to him as a wife should.

"Do you think Mom will ever come around?" Claus asked the next morning. 

Jaylee looked up from her computer game. "What choice does she have? She'll never admit it but she loves you too much to put you out on the street, even if it means having to put up with me."

"My mother doesn't just put up with you, she adores you."

"Huh, she has a strange way of showing it."

"Jaylee," Claus lowered his voice. "You can read her mind, you know how she feels about you."

"You're right, I can read her mind, but I haven't. I will respect your family's privacy, and yours."

Claus walked away from the table grumbling about not being shown the same respect of privacy from his family. 

Three months had passed and Claus had not been contacted. He spent his days putting together fragments of a sarcophagus. He hated the dirty work but he missed the thrill of solving the puzzles inside the tomes and meeting new and interesting people around base camp.   

Claus, Jaylee and Snowie moved upstairs, the area that was designated for a den was turned into a work area for Claus. He had put the artifacts he'd found on display, his most treasured piece was the sarcophagus.

Agnes had eventually come down from her high horse and accepted her son's hasty marriage, she even put up with him turning her new floor into a museum. Jaylee turned out to be a good help too, she kept the house cleaned although she couldn't cook to save her life, Agnes made it her duty to teach her daughter-in-law how to cook, she'd be damned if her son and future grand-children starved to death just because the woman of the house was useless in the kitchen.

The privacy situation was not fixed so quickly though. "Snow, do you not see us sitting here? Alone?" Claus questioned.

"Yeah you look lonely, so I'll just keep your company."

Jaylee laughed, "Don't encourage her." Claus snapped.

"Leave her alone Claus, come sit wit your brother a while, I was just going to rest anyway."

"What? Were you making out or something?" Snowie smirked at her brother as she plopped own beside them and cracked the book open.

"Why don't you go hang out with Taylor or Wassisname?"

"I only see him at school, Daddy doesn't want him around the house, something about boys and what they want." She rolled her eyes.

"Really? He was different with Frederick and Erika." Claus laughed. "I get it, you're his baby girl. It's like Mom and me. She wanted me to go out and have girlfriends and get laid until I finally did and then she complained about me being a man-whore. Then I got married and...well you know how that went." 

"It's not funny Claus."

"No, it's hilarious. You're my baby sister, I've got Pops' back on this one. I'll lose my foot up a dude's butt for you Snow."

"But can you wait for a guy to do it first? I mean, you are the most judgmental people I know."

Claus kissed his little sister on the head when he stood up. "I'll talk to Dad, but I want to talk to whoever you choose to date, so that I can let them know the foot thing before they break your heart."

"Fair enough. Where are you going."

"Didn't you just see my wife go into our room?" Claus sat on Snowie's lap and wrapped his arms around her neck and head, hugging her to his chest. "You're still innocent, that's a good sign."

"Mmmmph miiii!!!" 

Later, Jaylee took Snowie driving. "I hope Daddy gets me my own car, I never want to be seen in this thing."

"I can understand why."

"Jay, was your Dad overprotective of you when you were a teenager?"

"No, they ditched me in China when I was your age." Jaylee had heard the entire conversation that Snowie had with her big brother earlier, but she decided to humor the girl. "Why?"

"There's this guy, and I really like him, I mean I reallllllyyyy like him. I mean, I like him a lot, do you know what I'm saying Jaylee?"

Jaylee knew what she meant and blushed a little, thankfully it was dark out. She looked at Snowie and saw the little girl with the pig tails and big gray eyes, but it was obvious that Snowie's aging parents and older siblings didn't have time to talk to the girl about sex.

"Trust me, waiting to show him how much you like him will be worth it. Don't rush into anything honey."

Snowie stopped at a stop sign and gave Jaylee a long look. "You waited until you married Claus?"

Jaylee nearly laughed, "No. I didn't even wait until I found Claus again, I mean, he rejected me so many times and I wasn't even sure I would come back to Sunset Valley. His name was Li Sung, he got in, busted a nut and he was through with me, nevermind it being my first time, or even the fact that I'm a human being. And then there was Chung Su Wong, and Harper Jackson." Jaylee shrugged. "And then there was Claus and I learnt the difference between sex and love making."

"Please don't start telling me about you and Claus," Snowie shuddered, not wanting an image of her naked brother in her head. 

Jaylee chuckled at the girl's naivety. Eventually Snowie would lose all of her childish innocence but Jaylee hoped that the girl would wait until she was ready. 

"Jay, thanks for having this conversation with me. My parents are busy being old and Erika is hardly ever around anymore." Snowie smiled weakly, "I'm glad you came home with Claus, I love having you around."

Jaylee's heart melted, a single tear trickled down her cheek.

When they got back home, Jaylee and Snowie hung out a bit longer, then Jaylee sent her sister-in-law to bed and found her stash of plasma juice. She gulped the juice down greedily, nearly whimpering. She and Claus had yet to actually sit down and talk about her being a vampire, she didn't know how much longer she could survive off plasma juice but she wasn't sure how Claus would feel about her feeding off him. 

Jyalee had never fed off a human until she moved away from home, and even then it was just her messing around with other young vampires. In their community, human blood, especially straight from the source, was like cocaine and Jaylee was hooked. She could control herself, but every now and again she would have to rob a blood bank.

Jaylee released an exasperated breath then went upstairs, changed and climbed into bed and snuggled up against Claus.

It had been a while since the pair last sparred, but Claus managed to convince his wife to go a round with him the next morning. 

"Tahiya called me last night." He said as the two bowed.

"So you're heading back to Egypt?"

"Yeah, I want to check the tome again, I'm pretty sure I just overlooked a switch or something. Are you going to come with me?"

Jaylee aimed a lazy high kick and punch at Claus, he easily dodged them and aimed a kick of his own at Jaylee's ribs, she brushed his leg aside and took a step back, raising her fists to her chest in a guarded position. "No, I don't think my skin can take anymore of that intense heat."

"So I'm going on my own then?"

"Yes, that way you'll hurry home." She gave him seductive look, Jaylee took his distraction as an opportunity to grab his arm and flip him.  

Claus stood up and brushed himself off.

"What are you two doing? That's not sexy." Jack chuckled. He clicked on the radio. "Daughter-in-law, dance with me."

"So..." Jack said as he gyrated his hips and rocked in time with Jaylee. "Maybe if you have a baby he'll stay around a bit longer."

"I see what you're trying to do Jack and we're not ready for a kid yet."

"Get pregnant, please, for me and Agnes. Our son is always gone and our baby isn't our baby anymore, we need an infant."

"Go adopt then."

"Jaylee you're crazy, I'm close to finally having none of my own children to take care of, we want a grandchild so when we're tired of it we can give it back to its parents."

Jaylee laughed so hard her sides hurt, she found Jack...adorable, so much so that she actually considered getting pregnant.