One and a half years later

The doorbell rang. In any other house that would be a daily occurrence to signal a visiting neighbor, or perhaps a delivered package. But at the safe house it was terrifying.

We were expecting no visitors and definitely no packages. The noise woke our baby upstairs, who began crying, sending echoing screams all throughout the house. Vox peeked out the window.

“Oh no,” he muttered. “You’ll love who it is. I’ll go – um, deal with the screaming monster upstairs.” He was gone before I could protest.

Still quite confused, I went to open the door. On the other side stood Elubarin.

“Hey! It’s about time you visited.” I smiled and held the door open wider, inviting him in.

“Thank you,” he murmured, stepping in and looking at the house in awe. “This place is really nice. I would have visited earlier if I hadn’t gotten all tied up in wizardly work. But on that note, Earth is completely vampire-free.”

“That’s great! Can you do the same for Svartur?” I laughed and guided him into the living room.

Elubarin suddenly stopped short when he noticed a little boy calmly playing with a stuffed giraffe in the middle of the room.

“Oh, this is my little Peanut, Lincoln,” I said, gesturing at him. “Link, say hi to our visitor!”

“Eh ah!” he shrieked and clapped his hands, then stood up and wobbled over to grasp my leg.

“He’s a bit behind when it comes to talking, but he excels in everything else,” I explained, while scooping Link up and plopping a kiss on his tiny upturned nose. “I’m sure he’d love to see some magic.”

“Maybe tomorrow. I’m a bit tired at the moment.” Elubarin smiled weakly at Link, who laid his head against my neck, blissfully unaware of what just happened. “I was hoping to stay here for a while until news about the vampires dies down.”

“Of course! We have an extra room upstairs. Vox is up there too with… our other son,” I finished awkwardly. Elubarin probably wasn’t too comfortable to see how happily Vox and I got along.

He blinked and stared at me for a moment. “Two sons? You sure have been busy… What’s his name?”

“Elias. Elias Tyler Dunair.” I involuntarily smiled. “He was born two weeks ago.”

“Ah, well congratulations,” he said. Blinking, and slightly annoyed at his cold-hearted manner, I led him upstairs. We passed by Elias’ crib, where he was lying and peacefully watching us walk by. Vox was nowhere in sight.

“Well, here’s the guest room. Feel free to settle in.” We entered a smaller version of the master bedroom. Elubarin nodded and placed his wand on the bedside table. Since he seemed pretty quiet and detached lately, I said, “Ok, what’s wrong? You are unusually quiet today.”

“Nothing. I’m fine.” He shrugged and made a move towards the bed. Reconsidering, he turned around and added, “If you think I’m upset by you and Vox being in a relationship, I’m not. You guys deserve each other. I made my decision about love a long time ago.”

And with that, he politely asked me to leave so he could get some rest.

Vox knew to keep his distance while Elubarin was staying, and so he spent most of his time arranging food shipments with my dad or caring for Link and Elias with me. Elubarin confined himself to the guest bedroom, doing who knows what, and eventually life seemed to go back to normal.

One day Vox and I were in the living room. I held Elias in my arms while Vox entertained Link with a peg box.

He was repeating, “Till the last branch breaks, whatever lies beyond will be alright,” to Link, hoping that our baby would pick up its meaning soon.

“Sta-wee, mama!” Link shrieked and crawled away from Vox towards me.

He wanted a story. I smiled and shushed him because Elias was in the room and I didn’t want him to cry, but Elias remained calm. He didn’t seem to be particularly fussy. After handing him off to Vox, I crouched down and pulled Link into my arms.

“Alright, Link. Who do you want to hear about today? Grandpa and the werewolves? Daddy and the vampires?” I asked.

“No.” He pouted and thrust his chubby hand towards the staircase, which Elubarin had just finished descending. “Eee!”

“You want a story about Elubarin?” I said slowly. Vox gave Link a quizzical look as if he was unsure they were related.

Elubarin gave me a thoroughly confused look and said, “Am I interrupting something?”

“No, no, you’re fine. Link just wants to hear a story about you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “In that case, you can tell him about Illiana, Pan, and I, as that seems to be the most entertaining story there is. Tell it to him – vampires and all.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I asked, standing up as Elias started fussing. Vox and I re-exchanged kids and I took Elias to the kitchen for a feeding.

“It’s a good lesson about betrayal,” Elubarin shrugged. “I can tell it if you want.”

Vox nodded his approval, probably because he was curious and wanted to hear the story himself. Meanwhile, Link had jumped on Vox’s back and clung to him while repeatedly giggling, “Daddy!”

“Shh, Link. Elubarin’s going to tell you a story,” Vox said.

Elubarin told the story while I fed Elias. Apparently it was a hit, for Link only interrupted twice: once to giggle at Pan’s antics, the other time to whisper “bad” when Elubarin told of finding his family murdered.

Vox took both children upstairs for a nap afterwards. Elubarin and I were left alone.

“I couldn’t help but overhear the quote you and Vox repeat to your boys,” Elubarin said. “May I ask why?”

“It’s to help them distinguish friends from enemies. If they somehow get in trouble with the vampires when Vox and I aren’t around, they can trust someone who knows the quote to help them – like you,” I explained.

“Of course. If they ever need me, I’m just a wave of the wand away.” He broke off as his phone started ringing. “Oh, excuse me – I need to take this,” he said as he brought the phone to his ear. Jumping the steps two at a time, he disappeared once more into the guest room.

Elubarin never left his room the rest of the day. The next morning I went in to check on him, and found the bedroom empty. The bed was made: sheets tucked in neatly, pillow fluffed. The only sign he had ever been here was a scrap of paper on the bedside table. I picked it up and read:

Karissa & Vox

Thank you for allowing me to share the safe house with you. It was wonderful to meet your children. I am sure the boys will grow up to be as kind and wonderful as you two are. Unfortunately, I was called away to the center of town by an urgent matter. Forgive me for teleporting away without thanking you properly; I hope you understand why I had to leave so soon.

Yours, Elubarin

Six months later

“Story, mama! Story!” Link squealed as I tried to stuff his arms in the sleeves of his sweater. Yanking free, he stuck his thumb in his mouth and ran over to Vox with one sleeve dangling free, who was having just as much luck putting a sweater on Elias.

“Lincoln,” I sighed. “We can’t go anywhere if you aren’t dressed.”

“But – but – I wanna heared Pan and Eee story again.” He turned around, his big emerald eyes filling with tears. The story was Link’s favorite now.

“I’ll tell it to you when we get there. Now come here.” I crossed my arms and tapped my foot (my mommy-means-business pose) and Link slowly came back to let me fix his sweater. I smiled and picked him up. “Thank you, Link. Do you know where we’re going?”

“Erf,” he mumbled, his thumb still in his mouth.

“Very good, Earth! This is where Pan and Elubarin lived,” I said. Vox stood up with Elias then, having finally conquered the art of sweater-putting-on. We gripped hands and I teleported away.

We landed near (thankfully not on) a road bordering the sea. Link and Elias were dead silent, slowly taking in everything in awe.

“Wahta!” Link finally shrieked and pointed his finger towards the ocean.

“You want to go play in the water, buddy?” Vox asked. Link bobbed his head furiously and stretched out towards his dad. Vox and I exchanged kids.

Vox hoisted Link onto his shoulder and ran down the bank towards a little beach of sorts. Their voices faded into the distance, but not before I heard Vox saying, “You think we’ll see any sharks?”

I sure hope not!

Elias and I followed at a slower pace. He was always so quiet for a baby of his age, but the unicorns assured us he was developing fine. That made me wonder if he was constantly under-stimulated? Or maybe over-stimulated?

Or perhaps it was just his personality to be quiet. Sometimes I didn’t even mind. It’s nice to have a child that doesn’t scream at everything.

There was a little public hut by the beach, so Elias and I camped out there while Vox and Link played in the tidal waves. I stroked my hand through Elias’ sandy curls. He definitely took after Vox more.

As I watched Link pour seawater down his dad’s back (and quietly snickered to myself), I remembered the real reason we were here: I wanted my boys to have the chance to get violet eyes. They had now been in two of the three planes, but the dream world was up to Matt. I could only hope he would help.

“Mama, I a seagull,” Link came dashing in, his arms widespread as if he was flying. I laughed and helped Elias down from the bed so he could play with his brother.

Vox panted as he slowly jogged up the steps into the hut. “Whew, I’m exhausted,” he groaned. “That kid is just a ball of energy.”

“Just you wait.” I winked at him. “In ten minutes they’ll be worn out and begging to go home.”

Well, my timing was a little off, but in the end they were pretty sleepy.