" Elenai?"

"Yes, my daughter. She's been gone all night. I know she and Todah have been thick as thieves lately."

"No, I haven't seen her, but if I do, I will send her home."

"Look." He seemed to be picking his words out of mountains of anguish and I saw tears in his eyes. "I know I told her not to see Todah, I know I have made it tough for them, but tell her, we love her. Please. We are her parents and if he truly loves her as he told me this morning he does, then we will accept him as our own."

He took the poi from me, shutting the door .

without another word.

I blew out a sigh and headed home. In the kitchen, Tem opened his mouth and I inclined my head toward the cellar.

"We have more trouble, baby. Come on."

"Trouble? Isn't the kapu finished once we bury the casket?"

"Not by a long shot."

"I don't have time for any more trouble, Div."

"You'd better make time, baby."

I heard their voices, Todah whispering, the girl crying and Tem bit his lip and I pushed open the heavy door that led to our family crypts and special, private sleeping places. I saw a thin trail of blood and the girl, wild-eyed and exhausted on a pile of b.l.o.o.d.y blankets. Her face was ashen, a grief-stricken Todah holding her in his tired arms.

Tem and I rushed to them.

"I'm going to get help." Tem ran back upstairs again.

"Make her feed," I told Todah whose uncomprehending gaze rested on my face.

"I can't. She's dying. I don't want to live without her, Jimmy, but she's lost so much blood. I had no idea...no idea..." His head tossed back and forth.

"Please, Todah, listen to me. She's lost blood because she gave birth."

"I didn't know. I found her down here...I felt .

her. I saw all the blood."

"She has vampire blood in her now because of your baby. He is healthy, he's alive and he needs both of you."

Elenai looked at me. "He's....alive?"

"Yes." I nodded emphatically. "Todah, if you love her, truly love her, you must let Elenai feed from you."

"She's afraid of being a vampire." His eyes moistened again. A rustle of fabrics and I recognized the smell. Blossom. It had been her scent on the baby's onesie, or what I thought was a onesie. And I knew in that moment she was some kind of ali'i, vampire ali'i and I wondered if she was in fact Lamia herself.

A new realization came over me...maybe Lamia emerged at certain cycles...had Blossom fought the urge to destroy and found instead the urge to protect?

It took her seconds to take complete control of the situation. "Pick the girl up and carry her to Todah's room," she commanded.

I did, with Blossom giving calm instructions to Tem, Kalani and Clancy for boiling water, fetching clean sheets and hot mint tea.

As Blossom and the others fussed over Todah and Elenai, Blossom sent me to take care of our guests. She must have sensed that a new batch was arriving. Clancy's mother, who had come to .

our wedding all the way from Australia and taken up with our eccentric friend Sebastian Fortune, arrived with a basket of chocolate chip cookies. She was dressed in a dainty floral dress. Sebastian was in his usual attire, his nightgown, only this one was an improvement on his usual. I recognized it as one of Tem's creations.

Behind them were the causes of my biggest concern, the guys Tem and I had shot p.o.r.n with. Our director Billy Flamingo and his boyfriend Luke, our rough, gruff camera guy Bull who had taken up an unlikely but apparently searing relationship with Kipe (say Kee-pay), the guy Billy was hoping to turn into the next hot bottom in gay p.o.r.n.

"Darling, fabulous house. Where did you find all those tikis? So Hollywood!" Billy air kissed me. I didn't want to tell him the tikis were the genuine article. The real deal. Hundreds of years old and protectors of our home.

Tem rushed to the door. "Todah is a new daddy!"

"You don't say!" Billy sounded shocked. "You mean he's been running around Waikiki giving no glove love? Silly boy!"

The men came inside, giving us hugs and expensive bottles of wine and Tem rushed into my arms. "She's going to be okay and the baby is getting better and better. He still has red eyes and .

the forked tongue, but all the teeth fell out so we can give him normal baby bottles now and oh...Div, they are the cutest couple!"

I kissed his nose. "Are you a little bit sad the baby isn't ours anymore?"

A momentary shadow crossed his face. "A little...but they're going to live with us and we'll be with him and...and...why are you smiling?"

"Your capacity for love constantly humbles me, Tem."

He stroked my cheek. "I think everyone's ready for some apricot margaritas."

"Coming right up." I gave his hot bottom a proprietorial stroke and he gave me a wink before hightailing it back to the kitchen.

I stopped by Todah's bedroom where his new mate was feeding on him.

"She's got the hang of it." I smiled as she suckled the greedy way Tem did when he first transformed into my partner for life.

Todah eased her away from his neck and Blossom leaned down, sealing the bites with her tongue.

"Get some rest you two. I'll be in to check on you later." She glanced at me. "We can tell Elenai's parents that the baby's eyes are red because of lack of oxygen at birth. The tongue...well, we can tell them it will get better. Todah and Elenai want to keep the family's secret, and protect the baby. You .

will call her parents now and invite them over for dinner."

"Yes, mother." I said it without thinking and without a trace of sarcasm.

She smiled. "And bring me an apricot margarita. A strong one."

"Jimmy." Todah's voice was weak.

"Are you okay?" I perched gingerly on the edge of the bed.

"Yes. I am very happy. I am in shock, but very happy." He looked down at the baby nursing on Elenai's breast. "When will he need blood?"

"Not until his vampire teeth are in. Until then, mother's milk is perfect."

"Jimmy...can you please tell Tem, I'm changing the baby's name to Akua."

I felt such love for my young brother in law. Akua. The Hawaiian word for G.o.dly. He was naming his baby G.o.dly Thunder.

"Akua Temeura Thunder." Todah smiled, then snuggled closer to his woman and closed his eyes.

I got up quietly.

"Oh...one more thing."

"Yes, Todah?"

"That priest was in here...Jimmy...it was horrible. He found our family coffins...our sleeping places. He was convinced there were stolen antiquities here. He said he found a casket. An ancient casket buried outside. He ran out .

there, I didn't have time to warn you. I didn't want to leave Elenai."

"It's okay little brah, I promise.'

"He...he said it had a baby skeleton in it and he wanted to take it to the Bishop Museum to have it evaluated."

"He's dead. You don't need to worry about him anymore."

In the kitchen, I found Tem madder than a cut snake. "Jimmy Thunder! Why isn't my mother wearing the gift I gave her? I went to a lot of work making that top!"

"What top? I thought you gave her chocolates."

"Chocolates?" His eyes bugged out. "Not the ones with the letter K on them?"

"Is there a problem?"

"They were for Kalani and Clancy. They have been so anxious to try them."

A blast of female laughter from the living room and Tem closed his eyes.

"What...er...what's in the chocolates, Tem?"

"They're female v.i.a.g.r.a."

"Maybe it won't be so bad." Who was I kidding? In the living room, we found that that both boxes of chocolates that had been under the tree were empty.

"Do you mean to tell me that baby belongs to Todah?" Tem's mother was incredulous. "I knew it! I knew he looked like Tem when he was born.

Did I mention that Tem was ugly, I mean ugly when he was born?"

Tem fumed silently.

"Are you sure those chocolates work?" I asked him. "Isn't it supposed to make her nice?"

"No. Just h.o.r.n.y. How many did they have each?"

I had no idea.

"They're supposed to have only two in twenty four hours." Tem tossed out the empty boxes and got started with the first course. Everybody was getting along very well. Our dining room table looked festive and everybody wore their party hats after pulling Christmas crackers and finding paper crowns inside them. Tem of course, wore his tiara.

Kalani and Clancy must have gotten at least a few chocolates, since they were unusually amorous with each other at the table.

"No, darling. They've had about a keg of champagne each," Tem whispered.

His mother put on the top he had given her- finally-and it was very pretty, but I realized the real reason he wanted her to wear it. Tem had sewn a subliminal message into the fabric that only vampire eyes could read. My son was born beautiful.

Right across her t.i.ts.

The vampires among us laughed and laughed .

and our first family Christmas was one Tem and I would not forget in a hurry. His food was perfect, the champagne and wine flowed and the women at the table were all over the men, gay, straight or married, they didn't care.

Tem's hot-to-trot Aunties Rita and Sandy disappeared before dessert with Bull and Kipe and Tem's mother kept squirming in her seat.

"G.o.d, I'm so h.o.r.n.y, the doork.n.o.bs are starting to look good," she announced, making Billy Flamingo laugh so hard wine came up through his nose.

The biggest shock was Clancy and Kalani lamenting that they hadn't eaten one piece of candy.

"There's a box in your room," Tem told them. "I hid them from the crazy ladies."

"Then let's get this casket buried and get our lovin' on," Clancy declared.

"Yeah, I wanna have a party in Jimmy's pants." Tem was glancing at my crotch.

"Don't say that," I nuzzled his neck. "Or we'll never leave this house."

"I'm coming with you. Come on Yi, Jin." Blossom sighed. "We're going to travel the slow way."

If flying was the slow way, I was kinda looking forward to learning about her idea of the fast way.

Tem put Moontime to work guarding the house .

until we came back. Until the kapu was no longer a threat to our family, the cat was still under house arrest. He sulked in the kitchen window, watching us take off.

"We'll make it up to him," I a.s.sured Tem as we flew beside Kalani and Clancy, who were a.s.sisting Blossom and her cohorts. As we came close to the area of land where Kalani had seen a disturbance earlier in the day, I could smell guava and ginger and night blooming jasmine on the vine. We landed with soft thuds and everybody looked around. There were signs of other holes having been started.

In one corner was the pitiful skeleton of the baby the priest had heartlessly tossed aside. Any remnants I had of guilt or sorrow for his pa.s.sing were gone.

I put the tine baby bones back in the casket, Tem at my side. Blossom looked more upset than I have ever seen her.

"This is a burial ground. Very, very old. The bones of the dead are sacred. The bones of our people have been tampered with for too long."