-16-

"Jay, what are you doing in Snowie's room?" Claus asked.

"I figured it's the one place you wouldn't look for me."

"Well you figured wrong. Come on, we're going to talk tonight whether you like it or not."

Claus hoised Jaylee onto his shoulder, she was surprisingly light. "Put me down right now Claus Winter, I don't want to talk. I'm sick of everyone telling me to be strong and that things are going to get better. They're not, they still hurt and they'll keep on hurting because every year I'll lose somebody!" Jaylee kicked and screamed like a bad little child. She even tried digging her nails into her husband's back, but he didn't so much as grunt.

Claus flung Jaylee onto the bed and hopped up himself. "That's the way life is Jay, people die, but then people are born as well. Dying is what people do, it's nature's way of stopping overpopulation. And people have been telling you to get over it because whether you like it or not you'll have to, life isn't going to stop because you're sad."

Jaylee released a heavy breath. "I went to see Mother yesterday and she's already moved on. Daddy hasn't been dead that long, she should at least wait a year."

"Jay, your mother is hundreds of years old, you have no idea how many human mates she's had, how many times she's had shake off her sadness and move on. You know, I used to think that Jamie was just heartless and cold, but now that I've gotten to know her, I understand."

"I don't ever want to lose you Claus, you're my world and when you die my world is going to end."

Claus smiled. "Why is your world going to end Jay?"

"Because of the pain. It'll just hurt too bad. You're going to die and so will Erika and then I'll be all alone."

Claus continued to smile at his wife. "Jaylee, have you met our children? It's pretty obvious that they're not human. I'll die, Erika will die and so will Maranda and Denver. But you have three pieces of me left, three children who will share in your pain. But you'll have to be strong for them, you will be strong for them, you won't fall apart. You'll understand death and you'll be able to help them through it." Claus stretched his legs and looked up at the ceiling. "By then we'll have grandchildren, and they'll probably be vampires too. You'll be far from lonely. You'll get to see our generations go on and on for a long time."

There was along silence, then Jaylee managed a small smile. "Claus, I love you."

"I love you too Jay."

Meanwhile downstairs, Snowie and Agnes were on nursery duty. They were doing a pretty good job of caring for the kids while their father tried to get their mother out of her depression. Snowie was especially proud of herself, she was not afraid to hold her nephew, but then he was bigger and stronger than his sisters. He couldn't even sit up yet and Cupid had already begun reaching for and grabbing onto things, and Snowie had learnt the hard way to keep her ponytail out of his way because once he had a grip, it would be hell to get Cupid off.

With Jack gone, Agnes busied herself cleaning the house and cooking meals. The house was never clean enough for her, she always found something that needed to be polished or scrubbed. One morning when she went into the kitchen she was not at all pleased to find that the dishwasher was broken, no worries, she did most of the mechanical things around the house, not having Erik around made Agnes rather handy, and when she married Jack her wielding a wrench was one of his biggest turn-ons. 

On this particular morning though, something went wrong. Agnes was about to tighten a loose bolt when a surge of electricity ran through the dishwasher and up Agnes' arm. When her body went numb she was able to open her fingers and release the wrench. Shaken, Agnes backed away from the dishwasher but was horrified to see that a fire had started.

The old woman's screams brought Snowie and Egypt to the kitchen. Snowie immediately grabbed the fire extinguisher and began spraying the flames. 

"What the hell Mom?" Snowie shouted once the fire was out.

"I don't know, this never happened before!"

Snowie ran her fingers through her hair, the dishwasher was destroyed and the counter was charred but the damage could have been a lot worse. "Are you okay Mom?"

"A bit shaken but I'll get over it."

"Egypt, are you alright?" Jaylee said when she came downstairs, Snowie had told her and Claus about the fire and they shared her relief. 

"I'm okay. Momma...Grandma could have died today."

"But she didn't and we should all be glad for that." Jaylee patted her daughter's knee.

"Momma, are you going back upstairs now?"

Jaylee sighed and pulled Egypt closer to her. "No, I'm sorry about the past couple weeks, I've just been so sad. Daddy cheered me up though, he reminded me that I have you and Sahara and Cupid. I'm your mother, I have to be strong for you and in turn you'll keep me strong. You will be there for me when I need you, right Egypt?"

"Of course Momma."

Jaylee stood and pulled Egypt into a hug, "That's my big girl." Jaylee held her daughter to her for a long time, enjoying Egypt's warm body against hers, how long would it be before the child's body became as cold as her own? Or would it happen at all?

Egypt ran outside to the tree house and Jaylee went to find something to do. She couldn't help but think that the dishwasher had been rigged. She had seen Agnes fix it a few times before, in fact, Jaylee was convinced that Agnes could fix anything. 

"No Jay," She said to herself, "The dishwasher was old, it's time we got a new one." But the side of Jaylee who accepted the truth screamed at her that Vita was after her and the woman would stop at nothing to destroy her. Vita had taken two of the men she loved the most in the world, and perhaps the dishwasher was rigged for Claus. Jaylee weighed her options, she could either stop and allow vampires to remain hidden forever, or she could be a bad ass bitch like revenge and get Vita before she could strike again.