Trinity

Disclaimer/Author’s Notes: Yes, yes, I’ve made my piece with owning nothing save for a worn copy of “The Lost Boys”. Screw you, Goyer. Um, there’s a definite lack of naughty naked fun in this chapter because Zoe and sap kill my buzz, but this is, as the chapter title suggests, the beginning. Abigail and King still have a kinky relationship to explore plus my Muse finds five years as a vampire cabana boy too scintillating to ignore.

Abigail woke up several hours and several more orgasms later to find that King had stolen all the blankets in his sleep. He made a low snuffling noise and rolled towards her, his hand finding her stomach. She glared at him and then blinked sleepily at the rising sun in surprise. Surely they hadn’t slept through the evening and all of the night? Her stomach growled noisily.

Apparently they had. Marathon sex certainly took it out of a person. She thought about poking King awake and making him go fetch her some breakfast. For a guy who had taken so quickly to a leadership role, Abigail was amazed at how much he liked her ordering him around. She would definitely have to explore that little kink in detail later.

Another factoid she’d learned during the previous afternoon was that King couldn’t keep his mouth shut in bed any more than he could in battle. Obscene words were mixed casually with endearments as he had moved within her. Apparently she was a fucking goddess.

She could live with that.

Her eyes fell on the fresh bite mark on his neck and her mood darkened slightly. She couldn’t believe that she’d actually bitten him or that he’d reacted so strongly to it. It had been an instinctive thing at the time, as she’d stared at Danica’s mark, and that worried her. She had been hunting vampires for too long. She was starting to think like one. As for King, well, she had feared later that he would be disgusted by the act, despite his explosive initial response. She didn’t know whether she was relieved or worried about how fine he’d actually been about it. If she had been around vampires for too long, then King had bought the T-shirt and drawn a tacky picture on it already.

Thankfully they wouldn’t have to worry about vampires anymore. She and King would have plenty of time to rediscover their humanity. Abigail smiled and pretended that it wasn’t silly grin even though nobody could see it.

She was just about to either settle back down beside King or shove him off the bed—both good options—when she heard a faint knock on the door. Abigail’s spine straightened and she stared wide-eyed at the door. A slightly louder knock caused King to shift and wake up slowly. He blinked at Abigail for a few confused seconds before turning his sleepy eyes on the entrance. Abigail was still frozen as she debated whether to get dressed and hide or just accept that people were going to know that her partner was screwing her. She hadn’t decided yet when the person on the other side of King’s room apparently got tired of knocking.

“King?” Zoe’s voice floated hesitantly through the door. Then even more softly, “Abby?”

“Fuck me, that kid’s a genius,” King whispered.

“Give us a minute, Zoe!” Abigail shouted and then lowered her voice. “Or possibly she saw I wasn’t in my room and heard us when she came to see you.”

Abigail hurried out of bed and yanked on her clothes, throwing King’s pants and a shirt from the floor at him. He caught the shirt automatically as he registered her comment. A dull look of horror came over his face.

“We’re not going to have to give her the talk, are we?” King asked as he pulled his pants on.

As Abigail rolled her eyes she decided that she was going to have a button made that said “Shut up, King” on it. It would save her a lot of time.

With another quick look at King to make sure that he was decent Abigail went to the door and opened it to reveal the cherubic girl on the other side.

“Hi, Zoe,” Abigail said warmly, unable to let her embarrassment cloud the overwhelming joy she still felt at seeing the little girl alive.

“Hiya, squirt.” King had practically leaped out of bed before the door had opened, as though their absence from it would nullify what they’d done. He was now standing almost awkwardly in the middle of the room.

Zoe blinked her enormous eyes at the two last members of her “family” and suddenly hugged Abigail tightly, burying her face in the older woman’s stomach. Abigail held the girl to her and felt like a piece of shit. She looked over her shoulder to King and was only slightly comforted to see a similar look of guilt on his face.

“I’m so sorry that I didn’t read you your story last night, Zoe,” Abigail said into the thick brown hair that was all she could see of the girl. She paused and decided that she was going to be as honest as possible with her. “King and I needed some grown-up time together and accidentally fell asleep all day.”

King made a noise behind her that was a cross between a choke and a snort. Abigail was impressed but didn’t appreciate it.

“It’s all right, Abby.” Zoe finally lifted her face up and Abigail was stunned to see the excitement on her young face. “Mr. Caulder let me read to him and Mr. Patches taught me a new card game. Have you ever played Black Jack?”

“Hell, yeah. Did you win anything?” King asked, drawing closer to the women.

Abigail discretely kicked her partner and made a note to talk to the Southern computer specialist about what he was teaching Zoe.

Zoe bit her lip for a minute as she looked between a swearing King and Abigail. She pulled away from the other female’s arms and turned her eyes to the ground.

“Are you guys going to get married now?” Zoe asked quietly.

“What?” Abigail choked out and was echoed by King.

“Well, you had sex and Mommy said that it’s better to have sex with somebody if you’re going to get married.” Zoe paused. “Except that Mommy wasn’t going to marry Uncle Dex unless he asked her real good.”

“So no talk then,” King muttered and then quickly jumped out of striking distance.

Abigail ignored him and slowly slid to her knees in front of the girl. She took Zoe’s small hands in her own.

“We’re not going to get married, Zoe, but King and I are going to be spending more time together.” Abigail found herself looking back to King for confirmation.

“That’s right, knee-high. We’re a thang now.” King hesitated only briefly before setting his hands on Abigail’s shoulders and grinning down at Zoe.

Abigail released Zoe’s hands to touch one of King’s larger ones. She looked up briefly and was warmed by the confidence on his face.

“Is that going to be okay, sweetie?” Abigail brushed the hair out of Zoe’s eyes and was once again stunned at the intensity of her feelings for the girl.

Zoe nodded slowly and then threw herself again at Abigail. “Are you still going to have time to read to me?”

“Of course I am.” Abigail closed her eyes briefly, wondering at the sudden pain in her chest.

“Then I think that it’s great!” Zoe smiled shyly up at King over Abigail’s shoulder. “Is it okay if Abby reads to me in here, King?”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way, kiddo. I need a bedtime story too.”

Zoe face could have lit up Los Angeles during a power outage before another thought apparently crossed her overactive brain. She frowned slightly.

“Can Mr. Caulder listen sometimes? I think that he likes the Oz stories too.”

Abigail blinked. It seemed like Zoe was much closer to the new Nightstalkers than she or King were.

“That would be fine, Zoe. Why don’t you go and see if Mr. Patches is making breakfast yet? King and I will be down in a minute.”

With another crushing hug and a surprisingly chirpy “okay” Zoe raced out of the room to the kitchen. Abigail slowly stood up and watched her go, feeling a maelstrom of emotions swirling around in her as she noted how small the girl was.

“What’s up, Abby?” King placed a hand on her shoulder once again. “Breakfast won’t wait forever.”

He leaned forward, whispering conspiratorially in her ear, “Unless you want to practice marriage again?”

She turned and looked critically King for few minutes. “What the hell are we doing?”

He masked the hurt quickly but she could still see it for a naked agonizing moment. “Well, I could tell you, but I think that Vogue described it better in their last issue.”

Abigail inwardly cursed herself and reached out for King in a rare moment of open affection. “No, not us. What are we doing with Zoe?”

“What do you mean?” Relief mixed with surprise in order to kill King’s automatic sarcastic response.

“It’s wrong to keep her here. This life is too dangerous for a little girl, even with the vampires gone. We should take her away, somewhere…”

“Safe?” King finished. He grabbed Abigail’s shoulders and stared intensely into her eyes. “You’re Whistler’s daughter, Abigail, and shocking as it may sound, lots of people want me dead. There is no safe with us. With the vampires gone, there are still hordes of hairy werewolves and shit-faced demons that want a piece of the Nightstalker pie. She’d be safer with the fucking Crypts than us.”

“So what should I do? I’m supposed to take care of her. Sommer wanted me to take care of her.” Abigail fiercely pulled away from King and wrapped her arms around her body. She wanted to do just the opposite and throw herself into his arms like Zoe had done earlier, but she was already being uncomfortably vulnerable with him.

“So we do.” King paused and then put his arms around Abigail, setting his chin on her shoulder. It was awkward for both of them but King pushed on stubbornly. “She’s still safest here, with the other Nightstalkers to protect her. We’ll amp up the defenses and make sure we’re fucking Dracula-proof from now on.”

“You sure you’re up for that?” Abigail leaned against his strong body, enjoying the intimacy for all that it felt strange and unnatural.

“For keeping Dracula out? Yeah, I think I can handle it from now on.”

“No.” Abigail turned around in King’s arms. “Are you up to taking care of Zoe? It’s not going to be like it was before. We’re her only family now, King. She needs us.”

King swallowed hard and Abigail could see the uncertainty on his face. She could only imagine that it was matched on her own.

“I guess I have to be.” King shrugged. “I mean, she’s not the little Korean boy I always wanted to adopt but I can adjust.”

Abigail laughed despite herself and kissed her partner hard before wiggling out of his tightening embrace.

“I’m going to breakfast,” she said over her shoulder as she stood at the door.

“I was going to name him Long Duk Dong.”

“That’s not Korean and you didn’t come up with it, you girl!”

“I’ll have you know that “Sixteen Candle” is a movie for the teenager in all of us, Abigail!”

Abigail laughed again, feeling a strange weight being lifted off of her chest that she hadn’t know was there. She drew close to King once more and allowed herself to rest her head on his chest like the little girl she most certainly wasn’t.

“We’re going to be okay,” she said softly, wonderingly.

“Of course, Abby.” King looked down at her earnestly. “My horoscope told me that after having the worst week of my life I would have the best. The stars don’t lie.”

She almost said that she liked him but managed to bite it back.

They had all the time in the world for that emotional stuff.

Now it was time for breakfast.