Sylvie finally texted me to apologize for going MIA and promised to call in the morning after she caught up on all the sleep she'd missed tooling around with Colin. Although, the more appropriate word would be fooling around. Of course, I forgave her for making me worry, and since patience had never been one of my strengths, I didn't wait for her call.

"Hey, girlfriend. Are you on the subway yet?"

"Just finding my seat," Sylvie said with a grunt. "Boy it'll be nice when I don't have to ride the f'ing subway to work anymore."

"Oh, yeah. When's that happening?"

"Soonish. Um... I assume you and Vincent talked to Colin last night. He said he was going over there."

"Yeah, we talked. He told us you two are a couple again. I just want to say, before you break into all the reasons you're back together, I'm really happy for you, Sylvie. You two crazies were made for each other."

"That about sums up the relationship, doesn't it? But really, it's so much more than that. He gets me. Like you get me. You know what I mean?"

Hmm. Where have I heard that before? I smiled into the phone. "I totally know what you mean. So, what did you guys talk about? Anything you want to share with your best friend?"

"I couldn't possibly remember everything. Some was good and some was bad. We talked about him, mostly. He's been feeling really ostracized from his family, especially after Vincent threw him out of the domus. That was harsh."

Her comment had me wanting to defend Vincent, but I didn't think bringing up Colin's control issues around me would bode well for their rekindled relationship. "Vincent's decision was not taken lightly. Did Colin tell you why, by any chance?"

"Yes. He said Vincent was having fits of jealousy because Colin admitted he had feelings for you. I already knew about the feelings, by the way. I mean who wouldn't? You're a hot mama. Hah! I just made a pun. Fevers and baby. Hot mama. By the way, have you taken care of that little curse problem?"

"Not yet. Glade is mixing up the potion. She should have it finished any time." The last thing I wanted to do was rehash my rendezvous with Dmitry the dead asshole, so I circled back to her and Colin. "So, where will you and Colin go from here? Any sig plans for the near future?"

"The near future, no. We're just going back to the way we were, for now. Then we'll talk about the mountains we have to climb. Namely, his family. I know I'm not their favorite person."

"That isn't true, Sylvie. They like you as a person."

"They just don't want me as a relative. It's okay, Reese. I know, it's going to suck for a while. But I'm determined to bring them around. Once they see how happy Colin is, they won't be able to deny it."

"And you're okay giving up the option of being a hot mama? That's a big decision for a couple to make. Without even realizing it, one or both of you could start feeling resentful."

"We both understand the risks. And, again, there's plenty of time for resentment to set in. I'm only twenty-six for fuck's sake. I've got a solid fifteen years before my eggs dry up and fall out of my uterus."

I laughed at her borrowed joke. Sylvie's irreverent humor was one of the things I loved about her. "Okay, then. Sounds like we're back on for couple's nights. I've missed those."

"As long as Vincent keeps his fists to himself, I'm totally game."

"Oh, he'll behave. He has a son now. He needs to set a positive example for him."

"Yeah. How does that work, anyway? If gollums are raised to do battle, wouldn't a gollum father want to show his son how to punch someone's lights out?"

"I don't think it works that way. Everything is very structured. I haven't even learned it all myself."

"Well, you better start reading up, babe. Henry will be grown in no time."

"Don't remind me. The baby stage has it's challenges, but when the questions start rolling in, that'll be a whole new ballgame."

"No doubt. Hey, my stop is next. I'll call you tomorrow and we'll set up Valentino date night rewound. Bye, chica."

After the call with Sylvie, I couldn't stop smiling. Vincent stayed busy in his office while Henry and I watched Mulan. When he got bored, I decided to haul his swing out to the balcony. A summer storm had been brewing in the east, cooling the city. When he dozed off, I started in on a new book.

I was feeling downright domestic when trouble arrived in the form of Amelia, who brought Glade over with the antidote to my curse. To be honest, I hadn't given the curse much thought until Sylvie mentioned it. I felt perfectly fine, like I wasn't even carrying some evil form of magic. In fact, I almost wanted to tell Glade her services were not required and to forget the disgusting potion. Almost.

Vincent looked relieved as he greeted Glade in the foyer, and Amelia wore the same expression, so I wasn't about to argue with family. I plastered a smile on my face as I lifted Henry out of his swing and walked inside.

"Oh, my goodness. Look at that adorable boy." Glade stretched out her arms as she met me halfway, and Henry was snatched up like chicken wings at a super bowl party.

"Glade meet Henry, voracious eater and light of my life. Henry, this is Glade, brewer of potions that are sure to make me gag."

Glade chuckled as she peppered Henry's head with kisses. "I don't think it will taste that bad. I'm guessing the worst part will be the bull's blood, which can cause nausea to those uninitiated to blood drinking. Do you have antacids handy?"

"Blood? Yuk. I'm getting nauseous just thinking about it."

"We have antacids," Vincent said as he rubbed my back. "You're going to do fine. If you can destroy a necromancer, you can drink a little blood."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one drinking it."

"How about this? If there's any left, I'll drink it." His smile did nothing for me. Besides, Glade was already shaking her head.

"Reese has to drink it all herself. I worked hard to get the measurements exact based on her weight."

"Fine. I'll get the spell book, and we'll get this over with." Leaving me with a reassuring kiss on the forehead, Vincent disappeared down the hall while the rest of us gathered around the kitchen counter. I wanted to be near the sink in case the antacids didn't do the trick.

When Vincent returned with the book, Glade handed Henry over to a delighted Amelia, and once the proper spell was found, Glade uncorked the vial and passed it to me. I lifted it up to eye level, watching the silver and red liquids swirl together. I thought about asking Glade if the silver liquid was some non-poisonous form of mercury, but I figured the less I knew the better.

With my stomach clenching reflexively, I began reciting the spell. Of course, it was written in Latin, but I'd been impressing my domus family recently with my vocabulary in the ancient language. I hadn't expected much to happen during the reading phase, but maybe I should have.

The heat that surged through my body had my knees turning to rubber, and as soon as I reached the end of the spell, I was working hard not to freak out. My blood actually felt like it was boiling under my skin. Without pause, I tipped the vial to my lips and noticed the liquid had started to bubble, which probably meant it was going to burn going down. But there was no turning back now.

Pinching my nose between two fingers, I opened my mouth and poured the concoction directly down my throat, trying to avoid my tongue. I nearly choked when the scalding liquid hit my soft palate, but I endured the pain. I had suffered through worse.

As I set the vial down, I felt Vincent's arm come around my waist, and that's when I realized I was stumbling backwards. "Fuck, Reese. You're burning up." Guiding me to a chair, he called over his shoulder to Glade. "See if the book says anything about side effects."

"You didn't check for side effects?" Glade asked incredulously.

"Of course, I did. And there was no mention of it for that spell. But I didn't read the entire chapter."

The sound of pages flipping echoed faintly behind the ringing in my ears, and I felt a trickle of sweat at my temples. Neither were a good sign, and I prepared myself for the inevitable. Although, maybe if I just stayed put in this chair for a minute... I... would... be... o... kay...

~ ~ ~

I wasn't surprised when I woke up in a bathtub filled with cold water, but I felt a little unnerved by the numerous faces gazing down at me. They all looked like they were watching someone rise from the dead.

"Welcome back," said Wren as she brushed a gentle hand across my forehead. When had she arrived? "She's feeling much cooler." She looked past my head, speaking to someone behind me. But that couldn't be right. There was a wall behind me.

That's when I noticed a second pair of feet straddling mine at the opposite end of the tub, and the hairy knees sticking above the rim. I tilted my head backwards and met with a solid chin. Searching further, I found the eyes of my mate. They were almost their usual gray, but a trace of silver edged the outside, like the remnants of a storm was fading into the horizon. "Hello, husband."

"Hello, wife. How do you feel?"

His deep vibrato felt strong against my back, encouraging me to snuggle closer. "I feel like we should have remembered to put that do not disturb sign on the door." I grinned at him and heard a chuckle from someone in the audience.

"If you two want some privacy, we can wait in the other room." Wren offered a friendly wink, and I felt Vincent nod behind me.

"Just give us a few minutes," he said.

"If you don't need me anymore, I'll just head home," Glade said softly. "I've got a long journey ahead of me."

"Thank you for all you've done, Glade." I attempted to reach out to her, but my arm felt like it was made of lead. "Just because I passed out is, in no way, an affront to your potion making skills."

She gave me a lovely smile that had an immediate soothing effect. "Even after a dosing of bull's blood, you still have your sense of humor. You found yourself a real jewel, Vincent. Take care, you two. I expect to be invited to Henry's first birthday party."

"I hope we can see each other before that," I told her. "Under more pleasant circumstances, of course."

"Based on your track record, I won't hold you to that."

When all the extra pairs of eyes left the room, Vincent's arms tightened around me. "I'm sorry, Reese. I didn't know you would have such a strong reaction."

"How could you know? Neither of us are experts on ancient spells. What does an evil necromancer care about side effects, anyway? It would probably be like a bad hangover for him."

I felt his chest rise and fall as he exhaled a long breath. "Once again, you had me losing my religion. If we don't find some semblance of normalcy soon, I'll be a nervous wreck of a husband."

"I doubt that very much, but I get the sentiment. It's how I feel every time you have to deal with a disturbance. I never know what kind of condition you'll be in when you come home."

"Those times are rare, and they'll be even more rare now that we've started a family. Most field battles will be left to the young, unmated gollums."

"When will you start showing Henry the ropes?"

"As soon as he can follow directions, which is around nine months. Gollums develop quicker than humans. But don't worry about raising a rambunctious child. The only proper place for practice is the rec room. The home is for rest and learning."

"Learning? As in home-schooling?"

"Of course. You know Griffin is home-schooled."

"Yes. But I guess I hadn't thought that far ahead. I hope I'll do okay with our son. I've never aspired to be a teacher."

Vincent leaned in and pressed a few soft pecks to my temple. "Well, you've schooled me, so I think you're on the right track.

After our bath, Vincent and I changed and joined Wren and Amelia in the kitchen. Henry had dozed off in his swing, which had been brought back inside, and the two of them were preparing an enormous Cobb salad. In fact, based on the amount of veggies strewn across the counter, I'd guess there was enough to feed the entire domus.

A moment later, Griffin and Jonathan arrived, and I was blessed with a suffocating hug from Griffin. Jonathan's was less crush, more comfort.

"We're all glad you're okay, Reese," he said. "I don't know what I'd do if either of my girls had gone through everything you've faced recently. You're a damned strong female."

Heat rose to my cheeks, but I knew it was only caused by embarrassment. "Thank you, Jonathan. I'm learning that it takes a damned strong female just to keep up with an infant's feeding schedule."

A huge grin broke across Jonathan's face, and he glanced over at Amelia as he nodded. "You got that right."

While I tried to decipher whether that was a weird exchange or not, Charleton and Lucy arrived. That only left Colin before the entire family would be present, and I started to wonder if all this hubbub was about my recent brush with death. It wasn't like it was my first. Was there something else going on?

I glanced at Vincent, who was standing beside my chair like a doting husband, and when he caught my curious gaze, he crouched down so I could speak to him. "Why is your entire family here? Is this some kind of party I didn't know about?"

"To be honest, I don't know either. Amelia said she wanted everyone here because she had an important matter to discuss with the domus."

"Colin is on his way," Amelia said as she started setting out plates and utensils. The hubbub continued for another ten minutes before Colin joined the festivities, and the first thing he did was get hugs from all the females and handshakes from all the males. It felt as if it was his homecoming, and a wave of sadness overcame me when I thought of the stupid living arrangements Vincent had imposed.

I wanted to remind him that Colin was happily distracted with Sylvie now, so the reason he was banned from his family home no longer existed... sort of. But this wasn't the time for that. Amelia had walked through the crowd to stand apart from everyone else.

"Thank you all for being here," she began. "And thank you Reese and Vincent for letting me use your home. I know the timing stinks, and I'll be out of your hair soon. But I couldn't keep this news to myself any longer. Actually, Jonathan is the only other one who knows."

She held out her hand, and Jonathan happily joined her. They were both glowing like a couple of newlyweds, and I found myself smiling as I watched them exchange an infatuated glance. "Well, I suppose there's no sense dragging it on," she said, barely containing an impish grin. "Jonathan and I are expecting a child."

The first whoop came from Griffin, who jumped and fist-pumped the air, nearly hitting Colin in the jaw. Both Wren and Lucy already had tears in their eyes, and Charleton was beaming like a proud grandfather. I tilted my head up to catch Vincent's eye, but he was busy congratulating Jonathan with a hearty handshake and several powerful back slaps. It was hard to tell whether they were friends or sparring partners.

Based on the ecstatic expression on Amelia's face, I had to believe this was something she wanted. Although she had talked about her desire to get back on the battlefield, I also knew she wished she'd given Jonathan another child. As for Jonathan, he was clearly on cloud nine. Whatever the two of them did to rekindle the flame, it went over like gangbusters. And I couldn't help thinking of another perk to the baby news. Now, maybe Colin wouldn't catch so much shit for taking a human as a mate. A damned amazing human, I might add.

After the big announcement, and the curse removal that nearly had me flatlining, I slept for six hours, broken up only by the needs of a hungry gollum. By the next day, I was feeling pretty good, and I quickly discovered there was more than one hungry gollum in the house when Vincent asked if I wanted to visit the rec room. Of course, I said yes.

I knew he liked to get into character, with him the subduer and me the submitter, but I needed to get something off my chest before we left the apartment and slipped into our roles.

"Vincent, I want to talk about Colin and Sylvie."

"Now?" He glanced up from the bed where he was arranging a collection of ropes. He'd chosen ones in varying shades of gray and blue.

"Yes. It's been bugging me, and I don't want to go into the rec room until I get it settled."

He lifted his gaze to meet mine, nodding when he realized I was serious. "Very well. I don't want you distracted during our session."

"Thank you. I'd like to express my concern about Colin being ostracized from the domus."

Vincent's eyes immediately darkened, but I didn't let it deter me. He would listen to what I had to say and decide whether he wanted to argue with the voice of reason.

"Now that Colin is back to his happy place with Sylvie, my guess is his life will start to make sense again. He'll be more inclined to follow domus protocol, and he'll be in better control of his responses. You have to admit that your own outlook has improved since you and I met. You went from being the city's most notorious playboy, to a devoted husband and father. What I'm saying is, I'd like you to give Colin a chance to prove himself and let him move back into his apartment."

While Vincent mulled over my proposal, I slipped out of my clothes and into a kimono, leaving only my bra and panties on. I knew he liked it when I went all-in. Of course, the timing of my switch was intentional, and just as I suspected, his gaze flicked to me as he rolled the ropes inside a canvas carrier. He knew I'd done it on purpose.

"You're a naughty little minx," he purred as he walked to the closet and pulled a silk tie off his tie rack. Then, taking slow, deliberate steps toward me, he dragged the tie across the palm of his hand. Bringing himself to his full height, he stood over me, making sure I knew how impressive he was. "How could I refuse such a well-executed request?"

"So, you'll let Colin return to the penthouse?"

Vincent's eyes swirled to a deeper gray, and he forced me to look at them as he let the silence grow. He wanted me to know he didn't like being put on the spot. He was the magister, and he made decisions based on the health of the domus. But he wasn't the only one with pull anymore. As the high magister's mate, I was afforded a say in domus decisions, something I was pleasantly surprised to learn when he was named high magister, and something he was clearly still struggling with.

"Yes," he said finally. "And now, I have a request for you." He held the tie up to my mouth and pulled it across my lips, delivering a shiver than had my entire body buzzing. I knew what he had in mind, but he needed to ask first. "Let me gag that naughty mouth of yours."