"And this one is a special gift for you Anna, it's from Tem."

She grabbed the box like an eager kid and I saw where Tem got his capacity for open, honest joy. She ripped off the ribbon, staring at the huge letter K on the lid.

"I think I smell chocolates." She threw open the lid. She was right. There were ten of them, all with the same letter K stamped on top. "I wondered what the K stands for? Maybe they're German chocolates?" She looked at me, but I had no clue.

"Well, how...nice." She seemed a little taken aback at first, but she bit into a chocolate, pa.s.sing the box to the old ladies.

"Don't mind if I do," one of them said.

"They're a bit chewy, but I'm starved." Anna reached across for a second one and I drifted back to the kitchen.

I watched Tem doing the work of five people and I made an executive decision. "Clancy, can you please watch the baby? If I am not back by noon, please bathe him."

"What do you mean, not back by noon? Where are you going?" Tem was near hysteria. I took his face in my one spare hand and kissed him. His skin was feverish and I knew he was on the verge of collapse. Between his mother's incessant barbs, the cooking and his worry over the baby, he couldn't cope with much more.

"Just trust me, darling. We're going to re-bury the funeral casket."

"And take the poi next door," he snapped. Then, "You're doing what with the casket?" His eyes were on the bubbling pot of sticky rice on the stove and I gave him one more kiss, leaving the house with my sister, who was carrying the casket we'd found our Beelzebub in just a few hours before in the dead of night.

Outside, I glanced at her. "Where did he say Hiroshi would meet us? And where has he been all this time?"

She shrugged. "He didn't say. He just said to meet him out here. He also said something weird. He asked where the baby was and said I should .

bring him."

And then I sensed a human presence. Hiroshi was in our backyard, coming from the side of our house. My skin p.r.i.c.kled in an unpleasant way. I was pretty certain he'd been in the cellar when I was down there. What had he been doing?

He wanted to get the baby alone and never got his chance. I put the poi down on the gra.s.s. I was going to need both hands, judging by the manic look in the little priest's eyes as he came out from behind a lemon tree. He was nervous and his gaze moved from my face to Kalani's.

"Did you bring the casket?"

She held it toward him.

"Not so fast." I put my hand over hers. "I have a question. What kind of kapu has been put on our house? And who put it there?"

Hiroshi opened and closed his mouth. One hand was behind his back. A weapon. I was certain of it. Before I could make a move, however, Tem came running out of the house, brandishing a big wooden spoon.

"Divine Thunder! I just picked up on your thoughts."

"Took you long enough, sweetheart." chuckled.

He thrashed his spoon in my face. "Don't you start with me!" Then he turned to Hiroshi. "What do you mean there's a kapu on my house? I don't .

have time for a kapu! I'm having twenty people to dinner and my oven isn't working!"

Hiroshi took a step back, producing a long piece of wood from behind his back. He brandished it over the top of his head in the cla.s.sic fighting style. The stick was an Escrima, a Filipino martial arts stick, except this one had been sharpened to a point at the end.

Kalani, Tem and I stood staring at it. It was unmistakably a stake. And, as every vampire knew, it was the only certain way to kill a vampire.

"Just bring me the baby, leave me the casket and we'll all be friends." Hiroshi's voice was high pitched with fear.

"You want to kill a little baby?" Tem was incredulous.

"He's already dead. I figured out he's a vampire. He needs to be buried. If I had any idea when I found him that he was a vampire, I would never have brought him here."

"You brought him here?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"I got him from...I won't say where. I knew something was wrong with him, and I figured you're rich and Tem would flip over him..."

"And you thought you'd make money off us?" Kalani sounded disgusted.

"You can afford it."

This was a side I had never seen on Hiroshi and it was not a side I liked. At all.

"Just bring the little b.a.s.t.a.r.d here and go back home to your gay Christmas party."

"You really despise us, don't you?" I was starting to worry about what he'd given the baby.

"I don't despise you..." he started to laugh. "We can all be friends. I just need to kill the beast."

Tem stepped forward before I could stop him. "You are not touching my child." Hiroshi hadn't seen this side of Tem, but I had seen this side of Tem.

"Child? He's a monster." Hiroshi spat the word out, swinging that Escrima over his head. He narrowly missed Tem because I lunged and s.n.a.t.c.hed him out of the way. Hiroshi made a bad mistake moving toward my sister. He never got to live to regret it.

"Oh that does it." Tem snapped his wooden spoon in two and got between Hiroshi and Kalani, thrusting the jagged edge of the spoon handle into Hiroshi's chest. It went right through his neat black clothes and into his heart.

Hiroshi grabbed at it with both hands, but fell to the ground, still clutching the spoon in his chest, a look of surprise on his dead face.

"Geez, hon, and that was your best spoon." I kissed Tem whose pale face glistened with sweat.

"Humph. I know it...but I guess that's the end .

of the kapu, huh?" Tem dropped the other end of the spoon and stared down into the face of our family odaisan. "And to think I liked him."

We'd all liked him.

"What do we do with him now?" Kalani asked.

A sound of banshees and I knew that Blossom was near. How she managed to get around, appearing and disappearing was anybody's guess. But suddenly there she was an apparition in red, surrounded by her two Janu.

It took her a second to take in the scene. "And you killed the priest because...?" "He wanted to kill our baby. Your G.o.dson."

Tem looked at her.

Blossom blinked. Once, twice...tears coming into her eyes. "You're going to let me be his vampire G.o.dmother?"

"He's a storm demon." Tem grinned at her.

"Wait a second, how do you know it's a boy?" I asked.

"He called my baby a monster. And my stove doesn't work." Tem glanced at me now, ready to fall apart.

"I'll fix your stove, baby." I put my arms around him, feeling him tremble. I think it was the first time he'd killed and not enjoyed it a second of it. My new vampire was growing up fast.

Blossom laughed. She seemed a lot better than the last time I saw her. "I was the one who had the .

baby brought to you."

"You mean he's your baby?" Now I'd heard everything.

"Well, I am glad you think I can create miracles, Jimmy-San...but I am afraid, in spite of my girlish figure, I am way beyond child bearing years."

"Not by much," Yi whispered, giving her an adoring look. Sheesh.

"Jin and I brought you the bottles and stuff." Yi looked pleased with himself.

"Why all the subterfuge?" I was p.i.s.sed now. All this time Blossom knew we had the kid. "Yeah, and why did the priest tell us he found the baby?" Tem asked.

Blossom raised her hand. "The mother called me asking for help. She was alone and very scared and she didn't want her parents to know."

"Is she a friend of yours?" Tem asked.

"No...not really. She's a friend of Todah's."

"Todah? Tem and I said in unison.

"He's been missing all morning," I added.

Blossom shrugged. "I can't help you there. "She called me..."

"What's her name?" Tem asked.

"I forget. Wait...Ellen, Ella... Elenai...yes, that's it. Elenai."

"Our next door neighbor's daughter's name is Elenai." Tem looked at me. "You think it could be her?"

"I'll soon find out when I take them their poi."

"She thought the baby was dead. The priest called me and I told him to bring the baby to you. I knew it had to be a vampire baby, especially when he told me it was struck by lightning and was turning into a demon. He was frantic, terrified. He wanted to kill it."

She stared down at the body still holding the wooden spoon stuck in its heart.

"A vampire baby," I mused. "There's only one I know of who could have fathered this kid."

"Todah," Tem and I said in unison again.

"But I thought he couldn't father a baby for the first year?" Tem was getting hysterical again.

"Only if he's in love...and he did tell us he met someone he thought was a keeper. I didn't bank on him falling in love, darling."

"But he said he wasn't in love!"

"He had Nonita in the house." I stroked Tem's back. "He was confused and feeling guilty for sleeping with her."

"What does that little witch have that makes the men in my family go nuts?" Tem was p.i.s.sed now.

"Nothing, my love. We don't go nuts for her. That's why she couldn't stand being in our house anymore."

Tem relaxed a little bit and Blossom took charge.

"Yi, Jin, dispose of the priest's body and the .

evidence. This casket needs to be returned to the burial ground from which it was stolen."

"I'll do that, I think I found the place." Kalani reached out a hand for it.

"No," I insisted. "Tem and I will do that after dinner. It's better to do it under cover of darkness."

"I agree." Blossom nodded and stepped back as the Janudragged the priest down our backyard, toward the big mountain standing guard over our house.

"You knew about the casket?" I asked her.

She pointed to it. "Not until now. I recognize it. It is sennit. An ancient weave. I would say it belonged to a member of the royal family and somebody stole it. Now let me meet the new addition. G.o.dmother eh...I suppose you know Tem, this means I'm going to need a wonderful new dress for his baptismal fire..."

Chapter Eleven.

went next door the Huang family and the Ihusband, Joseph came to the door, a distracted look on his face.

"Merry Christmas, Joseph!"

"Have you seen Elenai?"