Chapter One Hundred Twenty-four

Anton rolled over, wondering why he was feeling cold in bed. He opened one eye only to find that Bryn wasn't in it. He sat up and looked around, wondering for a second before he remembered. Bryn had gone with John and the children to the San Francisco zoo. And since the zoo was only open during daylight hours, he couldn't accompany them.

Checking the clock, he noted that it was about two hours before sunset. Knowing that he wouldn't get any more sleep without his wife next to him, Anton got out of bed and started dressing. He was brushing his teeth when he heard Max start to cry. Spitting out the toothpaste, he went to Max's room. "What's wrong, Max?" He picked his son up. "You miss Mommy too?" After a quick diaper change, he started downstairs. "Come on, let's go get something to eat."

In the kitchen, Anton settled Max in his chair and offered him a bottle. Max drank a little but pushed it away. Anton could see a little flicker in his eyes. He then offered the baby a finger, which Max sunk his fangs into eagerly. "I should talk to Anne about getting smaller bags of blood for you," Anton mused. "You're not always going to be able to feed from my finger. But you can worry about that later."

In the quiet of the house, he listened to Max's suckling and Petunia's snuffling sounds as she chewed on her toy. The refrigerator running and the ticking of the clock seemed abnormally loud. It was many long minutes before Max finished feeding and yawned widely. Ruffling his hair, Anton offered the baby his bottle. Sated for the moment, Max pushed it away once more and lifted his arms to be picked up.

Walking to the fridge to store the bottle, Anton heard the garage door start to lift. A few minutes later, both Jolie and Chris came running down the long hallway. "We saw a baby monkey!"

"You did?" Anton smiled at the children, who were obviously excited. He picked up Max who immediately grunted, and waved his arms. Recognizing that he wanted down, He lowered Max and watched as his son crawled off, intent on exploring. "Tell me, what else did you see?" he asked as he heard John and Bryn coming up the hallway.

"Hippopotties!" Chris said, as if still in awe, opening his bag to pull out a gray stuffed hippopotamus with large ears. "They were swimming. Can we swim in your pool? We got floaties."

"Yeah and swimsuits," Jolie added. "Let's go put 'em on."

"Wait a minute!" John ordered, just as they were about to dash for the stairs. "Your uncle didn't say yes yet. And you have to wait for an adult to go with you, anyway."

Grinning, Bryn walked in to the kitchen and kissed Anton hello. "Well, Uncle? What do you say?"

"If you or John are willing to go with them," he said with a meaningful glance at the covered windows. "Then yes, they can go swimming. If that's okay with you, John."

"It's fine with me. Go ahead and get your suits," he told the kids. "Walk, don't run!"

The kids took off at a very fast-paced walk, hurrying around the corner.

"Hey Max," John said, kneeling down to pat him on his diapered butt.

"How was the zoo?" Anton asked.

Groaning, Bryn leaned against him and yawned. "I forgot how many people there are in that city during the day. Every place we went was jam packed. Lines for the bathroom, food, gift shop, exhibits. I wanted to clobber someone."

"It didn't help that the kids were always ten to fifteen steps ahead of us," John said, standing up. "I think I need to invest in some leashes."

"Hopefully we won't need those for a little while yet. Although Max gets around nicely as you can see." He grinned as Max stopped in front of the door, looking around when he heard his name. "Yeah, we're talking about you, Max." He looked back to the hallway when he heard running steps suddenly slow down to a very rapid walk.

Shaking his head, John walked around the island, reaching for the bag in Bryn's hand. She handed it over and he pulled out the sun visor he'd bought at the zoo. Everyone else laughed as he put in on and the plush giraffe glued to the visor bobbed its long neck.

"Let's go, Dad!" Chris said, impatiently, opening the door.

Anton's eyes widened as he saw the sunlight spill into the room. "Chris! No!" He was out of the range of the shaft of light, but Max wasn't. Going against 900 years of vampire instinct, Anton started towards the sun, intent on moving his son to safety.

All hell had broken loose. Bryn raced after him, not even seeing Max until it was too late. All she knew was that Anton was launching himself directly into certain death and she had to stop him. Grabbing his arm with inhuman strength, she shoved him aside, unwilling to let him risk himself, and scooped up Max at the very same second Chris closed the door. Gasping for breath, she dropped to her knees and loosened her grip on the baby, sure she was hurting him.

Chris starting sobbing.

Anton rushed to Bryn's side.

John and Jolie wandered closer, but still looked too shell-shocked to realize the danger.

Max, however, wasn't crying because he was hurt. He didn't have a single burn on him.

Anton looked at Max in amazement. Wordlessly, he held out his arms. When Bryn handed Max over, wordlessly, Anton started carefully looking him over. There was no sign of blisters, of burnt flesh, of singed hair. There wasn't even so much as a slight tan. Max looked up at him, puzzled at the attention being paid to him. Still too shocked to be able to speak, Anton pressed Max against his chest. It appeared that there was more humanity to Max than had been seen before.

Pressing a hand to the floor, Bryn let her head fall forward as she tried to catch her breath. She felt like she was going to throw up. Behind her, she could hear John trying to console Chris and Jolie, who were both afraid. Blinking, Bryn looked back at Anton and Max, and then sat up, wrapping her arms around both of them. "You idiot, Anton Mikhail. Don't you ever do something like that again."

Anton leaned against her, ignoring her chiding. Max was immune to sunlight. He was a vampire that was immune to sunlight, something almost as unheard of as a child being born to a vampire. Anton looked up to see Chris and Jolie huddled against John and staring at him with wide, frightened eyes. "I'm sorry," he said, swallowing. "I didn't mean to frighten them."

John nodded. "He's okay?"

"Yeah," Bryn said, a bit breathless.

"See, he's okay," John said to Chris, hugging the boy tightly. "You just need to be careful. You have to make sure it's clear before you open the door."

"He did," Jolie said. "He looked for Uncle Anton."

"That was good. But let's be safe and make sure the baby is out of the way, too, okay?"

Both kids nodded, Chris sniffling.

"Okay. Let's go out the front door and walk around." Standing up, John grabbed both kids' hands and headed for the foyer.

"Hold on a moment, John." Regaining some of his composure, Anton handed Max to Bryn as John and the children turned to look at him. Anton then came in front of Chris and knelt down to his level. "I'm sorry I scared you, Chris," he said simply. "You just need to be a little more careful around me and Max. You didn't do anything wrong, and I'm not mad at you. You understand that?" He smiled when Chris slowly nodded. "Good. Why don't you give me a hug. You too, Jolie." Both kids put their arms around his neck, and Anton squeezed them tight. "I'll explain later," he mouthed up to John before turning back to Chris and Jolie. "Now go outside and enjoy the pool."

Sitting cross-legged on the floor and cuddling Max close, despite his wriggling to get down, Bryn watched her brother and his family disappear out of sight. She looked back to Anton, torn between glaring at him and kissing him. On one hand, he was a devoted father who would risk his own life to save his son. On the other, he was a complete fool who had scared the hell out of her by risking being cooked to a fine ash powder. Taking a deep breath, she looked back down at Max and kissed him instead. Their little miracle was proving himself far more special than they'd ever imagined.

Perturbed, Max pushed away from her and reached towards the floor.

"I don't believe it," Anton said. He lowered himself to the floor next to Bryn. "If I hadn't have seen it...actually, I did see it and I don't quite believe it." He reached out and caressed his son's head. Max waved an arm, determined to wiggle out of Bryn's grasp. "All this time, he's been able to...he's safe from...it's incredible, Bryn. Just incredible."

Max babbled nonsense as Bryn set him down on the floor in front of them. He immediately crawled over to Petunia and sputtered when she licked his face.

"I don't believe it, either. I mean, what if the reaction is just delayed? What if we put him to bed tomorrow and he starts screaming during the day because his skin is burning? What if he gets horrible blisters when he's in his pajamas? Or maybe it's not external at all, maybe he's damaged on the inside and his organs start failing?" She looked up at him, eyes glistening. "What would we do then?"

Anton put his arms tight around her. She was right. Just because Max hadn't manifested damage the way he did didn't mean that his son was not hurt. "There's an easy way to find out." He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and hit the rapid dial.

It was only a moment before the female werewolf picked up. "Hello?"

"Hello Jess," Anton said, surprisingly calm.

"Hey, Anton. You're up early."

"Bryn just got back from the zoo with the kids. But there's something I need to know. Have you felt anything unusual in the last few minutes?"

"Um, no. Can you be more specific?"

"Nothing from Max?" Anton asked. "No pain, feeling of heat, or burning?"

"No." The werewolf was starting to sound confused and worried. "What's going on."

"I'll have to explain later. Just call here the moment you feel something out of the ordinary." He waited for her to acknowledge his request before hanging up. "We have plenty of blood on hand, Bryn. We'll just have to watch and wait."

Bryn nodded, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "Maybe he should feed, just in case? It could speed up healing, right?"

"It should." But all the rules seemed to have flown out the window when it came to Max. Anton wasn't going to tell that to Bryn though. Biting down and wincing as his fangs lanced his fingertip, Anton offered it to Max. The boy sucked lightly on it before losing interest.

Sighing, Bryn cupped her hands over her face and nose, looking out around her fingers.

"Maybe we should call Anne? Make an appointment or something? And maybe we should give him a cool bath...or..." She shook her head, feeling frustrated and helpless. "God, I don't know what to do."

And Anton was feeling the same, although he was masking it better. "Let's call Anne and have her check him over. Jess said that he wasn't in any discomfort." He gently kissed her temple, keeping one eye on Max, who was happily mauling Petunia's ears. "Maybe you're right and something will happen. And maybe he's perfectly fine, and is immune to the sun..." The full implication of what he was saying finally hit him. "We can't let Lilith know, if he is."

"She may already have one in mine." They tended to forget that Vandala wasn't Anton's employee, but Lilith's. "You're right. We may not be able to keep this from her. And we may be jumping the gun any way."

Bryn stood up and walked over to the sink. Grabbing a glass from the cupboard above, she poured herself some water and drank it quickly, panting when it was gone. When she set the glass down, it clattered against the countertop. She braced her hands on the edge of the sink, still very shaky. Lilith's interference still wasn't registering in her mind. The only thing she could see, over and over again like a broken record, was her husband and son being flash cooked right before her.

Anton stood up and scooped Max up in his arms. He then walked over behind Bryn and put his arms around her. He gently kissed her cheek, trying to reassure her. "We're okay, Bryn. We're both her and we're okay."

Spinning around, she punched him hard in the arm before he could think to defend himself. "No thanks to you, you jerk! What good would you be to him if you were cooked to a crisp before you ever reached him? Huh? Did you even bother to think that I would've lost *both* of you thanks to that stupid stunt?" This time she shoved him. "No, you didn't, you idiot!"

Anton was surprised at her reaction. "What was I supposed to do, Bryn? Stand by and watch him die?" He caught one of the hands flailing against his chest by the wrist. "Don't ask me not to protect him. I would have done the same for you, Bryn."

"And you would have gotten yourself killed!" She wrenched her arm away from him, backing up a step only to bang in to the counter. "Am I completely inept? Did I lose the ability to react just because you're in the room? No! I'm absolutely capable of saving him, *and myself*, without getting hurt."

"And I'm supposed to stand by and do nothing?" Max was reaching for the floor, and put him down. He then stepped closer to her, framing her with his arms. "I won't do that, Bryn. If I have to give my existence to protect you or my children, then so be it."

She glared at him, using a horrible falsetto voice to mimic his words. "'So be it.' You'll be alone, Bryn. Go to hell, because I'm going to do whatever I want, Bryn. Kiss my big stubborn ass, Bryn!"

With that, she stepped over Max and stomped around the island towards the living room.

She didn't get far before he snagged her wrist again. Anton pulled her back against his body, grabbing her other wrist as well. Looking down at her, he had intended to tell her that she was being unfair, that he would have been able to react quickly enough to pull Max out of harm's way and only receive a slight scalding, something an extra unit of blood would fix with no problems. Instead he found himself kissing her, his tongue forcing its way between her teeth to caress hers.

Her first instinct was to bite his tongue...but she'd done that once before with disastrous results and she didn't want a repeat of that evening. Still she wasn't going to let him bully her so easily. Pulling at his grip on her wrists, she let out an angry (yet muffled) screech. She tried to back away from his mouth, but he followed her every move.

Anton let go of her hands suddenly, but didn't give her time to run away. Instead his hands went to her hips, pulling her tight against his body. All the time his tongue was exploring her mouth, seeking and tasting. His eyes were shut as he concentrated on the feel of her, his fingers sliding around to caress her ass through the denim of her jeans.

Her hands went to his chest to push him away...but she only shoved for a moment or two before giving up and curling her fingers in his shirt instead. She wanted to hit him, knock some sense into him. And she also wanted to squeeze him tight, kiss him everywhere, to let him know just how much she loved him. Letting out a whimper of defeat, she leaned in to his touch, his kisses, finally kissing him in return.

His hips began a slow, shallow thrusting motion against hers. One of Anton's hands stroked up her spine to cradle the back of her skull. He leaned forward then, still kissing her deeply. He wasn't about to let her go, and he'd do his damnedest to make sure she knew he was still alive.

She slid her hands up to grip his collar, dragging him closer. His deep kisses always drove her crazy, and she might have let him continue all night. But they had guests and there was no telling just when they'd decide to return to the house. She wasn't interested in giving her brother or his kids a free peep show.

Shoving her hands against him, she pulled away from his mouth, and then clapped a hand over his lips when he tried to kiss her again. "That's enough. I'm still mad at you, and this isn't the place for this."

He blinked at her, surprised and confused. She hadn't told him no before. For a moment, he considered diving against her and taking her anyway. But she was right. This wasn't the place for it. Not with Max here and the kids about to come back anytime. Instead he grabbed her hand and pulled it from his mouth so he could lean forward and whisper in her ear. "This isn't over," he declared as he released her.

She hadn't expected him to actually stop. For a moment or two she couldn't help feeling offended. But since she was feeling rather contrary anyway, she brushed it off and stepped past him to pick up Max. Holding him in front of her like a shield, she walked in to the pantry. "What do you want for dinner? I should get it started soon."

Breathing heavily, Anton tried to rein in his body's reactions. He had told Bryn the first night they met that he respected when someone told him no. He just hadn't expected her to say it then. "Um, what do we have?" he asked, trying to get his mind off of how her body had been pressed against his. "Or would you rather I ordered pizza?"

"Pizza would be good." She turned back to face him and leaned against the door frame. Feeling small and vulnerable, she said, "I didn't really want you to stop. I wanted you to hear me. You scared the hell out of me when you...when you ran towards the sunlight like that. And I don't feel like you understand that. I know you want to protect Max. But I want to keep both of you safe."

His shoulders slumped a bit as he forced himself to relax. "I'm sorry, Bryn. I didn't mean to frighten you." He walked over to her and leaned his forehead against hers, one arm going around her waist. Carefully he pulled her close, careful not to squish Max. "All I could think about was making sure he was safe. I didn't think of the danger to myself. Or how it would affect you." He kissed her cheek lightly. "Forgive me?"

She nodded, pressing her forehead against his shoulder. "I'm sorry I acted like a bitch. I just don't know what I'd do without you. I don't like even thinking about it."

"Don't then," he said, kissing her cheek again. "I have no intentions of going anywhere, my dear." Anton's hand stroked up and down her side. "What do you say that we order the pizza, leave a note for John and the kids, put Max down for a nap, and spend a little quality time together?"

She nodded, wrapping her free arm around him and squeezing. "I was thinking of taking a bath or a shower. Do either of those sound good?"

"A bath sounds good since we can't go swimming until sundown." Anton bent down and kissed her mouth gently. "I'll order the pizza and put Max down if you want to go get the bath started."

"I can put him to bed," she said, lifting the baby a little higher. "Um, you can order whatever you want. The kids will pretty much eat anything but anchovies. I was always the picky one."

Pushing up on her toes to kiss him one more time, she turned and headed for the stairs.

Anton smiled at her, watching her disappear into the hallway. He then turned to the phone and dialed the pizza parlor. Fortunately, he had arranged for an account, so he wouldn't have to wait for the delivery boy to pay him. He placed an order for a Hawaiian pizza and a pepperoni and mushroom one, scribbling a note for John at the same time. Once everything was set, Anton started up the stairs to join Bryn.

She was still in Max's room when he found her, watching the baby as he played with his crib toys. He didn't seem likely to go back to sleep, even if it was still early. Hopefully he'd be able to settle down.

Glancing back at the doorway, where Anton was standing, she said, "You really think he's okay?"

Anton nodded. "Jess will call if she senses anything out of the ordinary. He's not fussing, and he's showing no signs of any burns. But if you like, we can stay here and watch over him instead." Anton held out his hand to her, offering. She could either pull him into the room with her, or follow him to their bedroom.

She looked down as Max rolled on to his back and kicked his feet in the air, babbling gleefully. Leaning over the railing, she gave him a small kiss and