Blueblood 5: Exposed The Secrets about V5H Revealed - 4. Thanksgiving and Christmas

Okay, I've been obsessed lately, and this is a quick chapter.  Rushed?  Yes.  Pacing?  I don't know what that means.  One of you said it and it stuck.  I can't take you from the letter E to the letter M without touching each letter in between!  I did that.  Just quickly.  Now I'm working on the letter M!  Then some fun will happen...well...maybe not.  You'll see.  LOVE YOU GUYS!!!   

We spent time with Vlad and Gaius, but they also spent time with Nicolae, Helga, and their children. They were also family, but their family. We did show Vlad and Gaius more of Manhattan. Time Square was…well that was a busy part of Manhattan! All of Manhattan was busy, but here!? It was a bit much for them. I understood bustle more after seeing it the first time. We’d taken them before shopping and even to Central Park. Vlad and Gaius watched as the many cars that went by and the seemingly endless scores of people!

“All these people!” Gaius said. “I’d been to what I thought were big cities before, but this is just so much!”

“It takes some getting used to.” Colin nodded. “You should see it from below.” His eyebrows danced when he said that. “There’s a whole other world down below.”

“Below?” Vlad asked looking down at the sidewalk. “There’s more city below ground!?”

“He lived down there for…what was it…the early 1900s till the later part of 1980s? Sixty to seventy years.” I asked Colin.

“Thereabouts,” Colin admitted. “That’s why I came here. There are numbers of tunnels with trains and other things…it was the perfect place for a vampire during the day. I met George and Willie down there. Most all of the vampires in New York are down there now.”

“You try to help them, too?” Gaius asked.

“We try to.” Colin sadly admitted. “If they cooperate.” He looked at Vlad. “All the vampires I saw in Transylvania were like us. Were there vampires that didn’t or couldn’t speak?”

Vlad nodded. “There were. We had to kill them.”

Colin nodded. “We do that here as well. We call those wild vampires. A lot of times, it comes down to a judgment call…from me.” He sighed. “Some retain their ability to speak, but…we had one attack Mark. He could still speak but preyed on people. Those we kill as well. We don’t have a choice.”

Vlad nodded putting an understanding hand on Colin’s shoulder. “I know it is, believe me.” He looked at the ground. “I see I’m not the only ones that live in caves.”

The days then became…well, boring. We were used to a more frantic schedule. A couple of days doing nothing…you could see it in Colin. It took a while for him to not get restless. It was just a few days until Thanksgiving and we were having Thanksgiving here. Mom insisted on cooking and then Gabriella was volunteering to help and then Shelly and then…wait for it…Mark! He made killer pies! Okay, no one died from eating them, but they were sinfully delicious. Who knew? Our little apartment that I thought was a little too big…it did become crowded. We weren’t allowed to help but told we could clean up later. Yeah? So, Alex, Willie, Amir, Stan, Amasis, Wayne, Vlad, and Gaius were now in our apartment. It was crowded. When the doorbell rang, I was greeting Nicolae, Helga and their three children arrived. It was crowded. We had chairs, but…Amir, Amasis, Wayne…there were some who didn’t really get the whole holiday, yet. It wasn’t their holiday. Helga insisted on helping. Now there was a lot of chaos. The thing was…I couldn’t help smiling!

“What?” Colin asked grinning at me from his place beside me on the couch.

“This is great!” I waved at everyone. “They are all in one way or another…family!”

Colin grinned a little more. “You’re right, but we should have gone to Wentworth Manor.”

“It will be fine. We can do that for Christmas.” I smiled at him bringing him in for a quick kiss. “Relax.”

“Christmas! Yes! Rudolph!” Stan said happily having heard me mention Christmas.

“Who?” Gaius asked as he pulled Jan who cackled into his grandfather’s lap.

“Every year, he watches the same shows,” Colin explained mockingly sour. At least I think it was mocking.

“It’s a tradition!” I defended. “Does that bother you?” I asked challenging him to say it did bother him.

Colin smiled kissing me again. “Of course not, it just adds to your charm.”

That’s when the doorbell rang again!!! I got up insisting everyone remain where they were and got the door.

“George!!” I greeted hugging the man. “John!!” I hugged Burke as well.

John looked at the crowd. “Colin invited us, but where do we sit?”

I pulled them both in. “You can be part of the holiday chaos! You’ve both family and have to be here! We’ll make room!”

I was really happy! This was new for me! There had just been Mom and me for a while after Dad died. Then Colin entered my life and then Gabriella joined us and from there grew to twenty plus!! Brothers were squabbling with their sister, conversations were going around and adding a hum of voices as at last the turkey came out and ham to be served at the table…or counter as we ran out of room at the table! Mark was finishing touches on his pies! He made ten! Various chocolate pies, apple, and pumpkin! Stan was trying not to bother him, but Mark just grinned at him and kept going egging Stan on bringing him into a conversation with him.

I couldn’t stop smiling at them all.

Colin did the tap of his spoon on his glass, stood and all conversations stopped. “My dear, dear friends.” He said standing, leaning over and kissed me, then turned to everyone. “My husband is about to burst! He sees what I do here. We came together as victims. We, thanks to an absolutely brilliant man fighting this.” He smiled at George. “We all owe you any life we have at all to you, George.” He grinned as George was shaking his head, but smiling as Burke was shaking George telling him yes. “George…my friend for decades…I love like…almost no other man…” he looked at me. “Except, of course, for you, Devon.” He shook his head. “Then again, I owe that to George, too. I never would have found you if not for what George did. None of you would have found the other if not for George.” Colin chuckled but got very serious. “George, I can’t tell you how much you mean to us…how much you mean to me.” Colin was now doing what no vampire could do if not on the serum, emotion in his voice and tears formed in his eyes. “We owe you…I owe you everything. Other than Willie, you were one of the first real friends I had. We’ve gone through a lot together. You and I are more than friends, even more than family if I can think of what that could be. I really do…love you…George.”

George was getting red in his eyes and I saw the moisture there, but he was shaking his head. “Thank you, but…I think we owe you, Colin.”

“Me? Why?” Colin asked genuinely surprised.

George got up and walked to Colin. “Even as a vampire, you faced every issue head-on. You didn’t cower as we did…” George bowed his head a little and added, “as I did. You traveled a thousand miles to come here…as a vampire! I don’t know very many that could do that. Alone! I was too afraid to step out at all. I would still be in that subway tunnel afraid to come out at all…until I had a cure. You never gave up! I’m good with science…you brought in the FBI, you took this to England and Romania!”

“I was shaking in my boots!” Colin confessed.

“But never let that stop you!” George said. “And in business!? We’re worth billions because of you!”

I rose from beside Colin taking his hand. “Suffice it to say…we all…” I waved at the others at the table, “owe everything…to both of you.”

Colin smiled as George and Colin hugged each other. There was applause! Right there at the table.

Colin turned to everyone again. “My point originally was this…we throw the word family around a lot. Yet, here, it’s true. Everyone here is here because you are our family.” He smiled more, but at what he was thinking. “Thanksgiving was started back in 1789, a day of thanksgiving and prayer was set aside by George Washington and in 1863 by Benjamin Franklin. Some of our newest members predate that.” He said looking at Burke, Vlad, Gaius and then Amasis. “I watched my husband and he was going to rupture something if we don’t just say it. This is the day we give thanks. I give thanks to each and every one of you. We are a family. I thank each of you. I love…” he looked at me and squeezed my hand. “We love each one of you.”

Mark stood up. “I propose a toast, using what we all have…a toast to everyone here. We are a family. To us. Thanking for the past that brought us together, for love that kept us together and for our future. Here’s to many more years.”

The merriment continued for hours! A lot of laughter and a lot of love.

It was only fair. One group cooked and the other cleaned up. It was as we were cleaning, Colin looked at me.

“How about we take off Monday?” Colin began as he helped put more dishes in the washer. It was our second load. We had a lot to eat! There were a lot of pots, pans and other things used to make what we ate. “I checked with the gentleman we rented from last time, but he’s booked up for the next few months. I was thinking we could go somewhere else.” He smiled at me. “Just you and me…alone?”

I smiled as I put something else in the washer. “You know I’d go anywhere with you, Colin.”

Colin chuckled. “Yes, I do, but you suggest what you want. We’ll do it.”

“I don’t care,” I said bringing him in for a kiss, gentle, but hopefully felt with as much love as I had for Colin. “As long as you’re there.”

“I will be.” He assured me giving me an embrace, close letting me know how important I was to him, which I had no doubt.

It was advised that everyone take this time to…reconnect with each other as Colin and I were going to do. Vlad and Gaius were staying in New York, for now, to continue bonding Nicolae’s wife and family with Vlad. This time, Colin included me with the picking and choosing as went through possibilities in our room on the computer. Winter was here, so we had to go to the tropics.

Colin grinned as he chose an isolated area with a beach. What we loved. No one around and just us. “And no talk about vampires.” Colin cautioned.

I slid my arms around him from behind as he sat at the computer. My hands went over his chest as I kissed his neck. “A warm tropical island and a naked you.”

Colin groaned as what I was doing was sending sensations through him. “What you do to me.” He said in a near whisper. “We can’t have the warm tropics yet, but…” he suddenly got up pulling me to him. “Naked. We can do!” He grinned as he quickly pulled my sweater off and tackled me, right there on the floor.

In the next hour, we somehow made it to the bed for one of those wham whir, thank you, sir…sex moments. I chuckled as we were breathing hard as we both finished, enjoying that wonderful moment in an afterglow. Rolling so he was on top again, my hands came to those familiar places on Colin running fingers through his chest hair and I felt his hands on my places. “My GOD! I do so love you!!”

He laughed. “Yes! I know you do! You know I love you!”

I kissed him as my fingers went through his hair. “Not one doubt about that,” I said confidently kissing him again.

Yes, everyone did take time for themselves…to see other families. Wayne and Amasis went to Scotland to see Wayne’s daughter and his son-in-law and grandchildren. Shelly took Amir to where her sister lived to visit with her. Chuck went to visit his parents. He was one of the last one in our group without anyone. Was it by choice? Those people were rare, but…he was attractive and still young.

Colin and I did fly to the Caribbean and did stay for two weeks. Shedding clothes when we got there. Putting them on when supply runs were done, made love many, many times and then returned to Manhattan. Spent a few days there and then flew everyone to Charleston. Vlad had Jan’s hand as we walked into the house. Jan was taking a real liking to what was going to be his new grandpa. He walked into our home at Wentworth Manor and did what everyone did, the slow circle at the cross-point downstairs.

Helga had Nicolae’s hand and almost whispered. “Ce bunic!”

We didn’t use the translators much now, so Vlad smiled at my puzzled face. “Such grandeur.” He translated. “She’s right. I would still be in Romania if I had this there.”

Now our home was being decorated for Christmas. Once again, the house was full of noise! I loved it! Once again, we had to explain the meanings of things to those that didn’t know, which I did a lot by showing them my holiday traditions. We had a Christmas party and invited Mitch, David, Sasha, and Alik. Mitch could meet Vlad, Gaius and the rest and see what his wonderful outcome he had helped us do. Sasha and David knew what they were as Mitch said he never lied to them or kept things from them, but was just stared for a few minutes to see if they could see what our new friends were.

The New Year began and now…Colin, George and I made plans at our home, Colin with his Death Wish Coffee and George and me with our Lattes.

“So, you have a list of names,” Colin said to George. “You think they’ll come?”

George gave a shrugging nod. “Unless they have conflicts schedule-wise.” He did shrug then. “We’re basically offering a free vacation…a working vacation, but yes. They will come.”

“We need to plan how this is going to go.” Colin sighed. “I don’t want any unnecessary risks.”

George nodded. “Me, either.”