Page 58 of Three Bites

It was amazing to swim like a fish and twirl around Theo, sharing playful touches as we let ourselves have fun. But the main point of the program was the photo session. Matthias has captured a few photos with his phone but he couldn’t keep a candle to a professional underwater photographer Theo hired.

“I think this is enough people gawking at me for one day but I want you to have the whole experience,” Theo said once we were taking a breather out of the water.

What he meant by that turned out to be not only the photographer but a whole team of people. I was put in waterproof makeup, my hair was decorated with a pearly crown and colorful strings of beads, my body dabbled with a shimmering powder. The plain top I was made to wear was turned into a sea-themed work of art. Add to that a gauzy fabric glinting with tiny gems that was attached to my wrists and I was ready.

For the photos, I had to dive in without the oxygen and hold my breath. It was nerve-wracking but above all, absolutely exhilarating. I felt like a real creature of legend, a beautiful mermaid who didn’t need to bring sailors to their doom with her voice when her beauty was enough for anyone to be entranced.I was the princess of the sea. The fabric floated behind me with shimmering silver and my long hair spread in a halo around my face, the rays of light dancing on my body.

I was beautiful.

And the professional photos told the story of my ethereal beauty, letting me remember this day forever.

But my favorite photo was the one captured by Matthias when I surfaced from the tank and pulled Theo down to catch his lips in a kiss.

Chapter Twenty-eight

After I talked with Esther the first day she was in the Russet Mansion, three things became known to me:

Esther was up to 15 siblings and quite a lot of cousins.

She was indeed supporting them with all the money she could send.

She had not seen her family in three years.

I was speechless for a good thirty seconds after I learned that.

“You are going to see them now,” I said the moment I could speak. “A week of paid vacation. That will be your start of working for us.”

Esther protested but I insisted and now that the mouse shifter was back I could see from the wide smile on her face that it was a good decision.

When I asked about her trip Esther immediately pulled out her phone and showed me hundreds of photos and videos. Therewere so many kids of different ages. So many kids. My head would explode if I had to deal with as much shrieking as I heard in the videos. I could do a few kids, but so many? Ugh.

But Esther looked radiant among the horde of munchkins and that gave me an idea.

“What do people in the supernatural community do with their kids?” I mused to Matthias while I observed his training routine. He tried to coax me to exercise along with him, or even learn martial arts, but I was enjoying being able to laze around and not spend hours upon hours doing manual labor.

“Obviously, we eat them,” Matthias rolled his eyes.

“No, I mean, are there, like, supernatural kindergartens?” I asked, poking his knee with my foot as he did reps with barbells.

“Most of the supernatural communities keep to themselves so not really. The ones that have social structures, like werewolves with their packs, often have a ‘it takes a village to raise a kid’ mentality so they may have a designed minder to keep watch while the kids play, but the communities are usually too small to have what could be considered a proper kindergarten. And the less social supernatural creatures usually care for the kids alone until their offspring have enough of a handle on their abilities to not reveal themselves in front of a nanny,” Matthias said. He was training without a t-shirt and the sight was very distracting but I made myself pay attention to the words.

“That must be hard,” I mused.

“It is. And a pain in the ass for our organization because when one of the Sanguine from the less social group decides to have kids we lose an agent for a few years,” Matthias grumbled.

After that conversation, I spoke on the topic with Theo and Tristan as well and I had a brilliant idea. Sure, Esther could work for us and do menial labor like cleaning and cooking but what if she become a proper member of the Sanguine? An asset to theorganization, with a very specific set of skills like every other member I met or have heard about.

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