Part 21 (1/2)

Willow was rendered speechless. The woman behind the counter smiled and went to ring in the purchase. I pulled out my card and paid for the bracelet as the man helped Willow put the bracelet on.

It looked beautiful on her. I took my receipt and kissed the top of her head.

”Make sure you don't throw away the case for it.” The man said directly at me.

”Uh, alright. Thank you.”

He smiled and nodded to us was we waved goodbye. I slipped the bracelet case in my pocket and laced my fingers with Willows as I took her hand.

When we got back to the bar the guys were coming out the back door. Jonathan and Daniel jumped into the back of the truck with their dad and Willow slid into the pa.s.senger seat.

The drive back to the house was quiet. Willow had her eyes closed and I'm pretty sure she fell asleep.

When we pulled up to the house Tristan came out to greet us with his arms full of firewood. I reached over and poked Willow in the side to wake her up.

”I was beginning to wonder if Willow threw you off a cliff, we were going to start placing bets.”

”Very funny.”

I jumped out of the truck then walked around to open Willows door for her. I took her hand then wrapped my arm around her waist to pull her out.

Willow slid down against my body as I lowered her to the ground which made my c.o.c.k spring to life again. I groaned because the grin on her face told me she knew exactly what she did to me and she didn't plan on taking care of the problem.

Evil little cupcake. I shook my head at her. I'd pay her back for that later without a doubt.

”Tobias, make yourself useful and brings some wood around back.”

I watched Tristan disappear around the house as I picked up an arm full of wood to follow.

”Hey, tweedle dee and tweedle dum! Move your a.s.ses.”

Micky laughed as his boys rolled their eyes and hopped out of the truck. I watched Willow take hold of Micky's arm and the two of them headed into the house. She blew me a kiss before she disappeared.

I walked around to the back of the house and dropped the wood on top of the pile that Tristan had already started.

Jasper was lying in a hammock that someone had set up and Colton and Jennica were on the back porch arguing about something. Tristan and Jeremy were putting together a pit while setting up lawn chairs.

Someone had already moved one of the yard couches from the back porch and set it by the pit so all the heavy lifting was done.

Once the pit was done Tristan and I began filling it with wood to get ready for the bonfire.

Micky came out of the house with Amelia on one arm and Willow on the other, you could tell he was truly enjoying himself. Today is the happiest I've seen him in a long time and I think bringing his sons home and making him feel like a part of a family again had a lot to do with it.

”After a long talk with Micky about how he used to take the boys camping in these woods all the time, we decided to skip the barbecue and roast hot dogs over the fire tonight instead.” Willow said with a smile on her face.

”And I'm going to teach these girls how to make a proper smore.”

I gave them the thumbs up then took a seat on the whicker couch. Willow came over and took a seat beside me. I wrapped my arm over her shoulder and she leaned against me after putting her feet up.

Tristan took a seat in one of the lawn chairs and Amelia took her place on his lap. One by one everyone came and sat around the pit, until finally Tristan threw a pine cone at Colton's head.

”Could use a little help over here.”

Colton held has hand out with his palm facing the sky than threw the fire ball that appeared at the pile of wood. Within seconds it was ablaze.

I kissed the top of Willows head as Micky started handing out sticks to cook hot dogs on.

The sky went dark fairly quickly, and it was so clear you could see nearly every star in the sky.

One of the best things about living so far away from towns and cities is that you didn't have to deal with the glare of lights that snuff out the brightness of stars.

Everyone had finished eating and Micky had gone on to teach everyone how to make a 'proper' smore. It was no different than the regular smore, except it contained a lot more chocolate than any one person should consume in one sitting.

The girls loved it, go figure. The guys brought out coolers full of beer and the part that surprised me the most was that Micky's boys were perfectly capable of keeping down food.

I pulled Daniel aside when I had the chance to try and find out a little more about what they had become.

”Well, it's kind of hard to explain. We aren't vampires, but we aren't quite wolves either. It's kind of a mix of both.”

”You're hybrids?”

”Yeah, I guess you could say that. We have the urge to feed on people and a craving for blood but we don't need to drink it to survive. It's more of just an annoying urge than anything. We survive perfectly fine on food.”

”And your abilities?”

”We can do everything a vampire can, and on the full moon we s.h.i.+ft into a wolf just like Tristan.”

”Do you lose control? We have to chain up Tristan or he ends up slaughtering a bunch of people. He has no control over it.”

”I honestly couldn't tell you. We don't remember anything from when we s.h.i.+ft. Alexander used to fly us out to a remote island that no one lives on and he'd pick us up the next day.”

”So it only affects you on the day of the full moon?”