Flirting with Danger Bk 1

“That’s the truth.” I said, my eyelids getting heavy just thinking about sleeping. “Thanks Ivan.”
Night Kota, but I want you to know we haven’t and we won’t forget your birthday. he said. We promise.
“I love you guys.” I said, turning over and drifting to sleep.
***
I dreamt that I was at the Peter’s house, having a birthday party out in the back of their house on the covered porch. They’d made all kinds of food, and a beautiful cake, one that was much more appropriate than Louis’s. This one was a huge, beautiful deep blue rose that was green at the bottom, blending perfectly with the plate that had four leaves, making it look like a real rose.
“You’re here!” said Alister, rushing to me and hugging me tightly. “I’m so happy you made it.”
“I wouldn’t miss this for the world.” I said, squeezing him back and smiling as he let go.
“I’m glad.” he said, smiling hugely and kissing me on the cheek.
“My turn!” said a chipper voice and I turned to see Aubrey skipping towards me, a bright smile on her face and her arms open to me.
“Aubrey!” I said, opening my arms too. She hugged me and swung me around happily.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked when she let go.
“Right here.” said a voice and I turned to see Connelly standing in front of the back door, his parents and Vincent standing happily behind him.
My whole body relaxed in pure happiness as he walked up to me. I exhaled deeply as he wrapped his arms around me, surrounding me with the warmth of his body, not until now realizing just how much I’d really missed him. My hands ran up and down his back, pulling him closer to me as I breathed in his scent.
“I love you.” he sighed deeply, his voice growing rugged towards the end, showing the stress he’d been going through.
“I love you too.” I said softly in his ear. He leaned back and kissed me. And when he released me I blushed, seeing his entire family looking at us.
“Thank you, all of you, for this.” I said, coming and giving Amelia, Mathias, Vincent, and Ivan hugs since I still hadn’t given them one.
“Uh, where’s Mira?” I asked, looking around to see if I’d missed her.
“She’s serving her guard shift.” said Alister, glancing down. Everyone let a few seconds of silence pass, looking down or fidgeting with their fingers.
“So Kota, how has your birthday been so far?” asked Mathias, he and Amelia moving over to the large table and sitting down, everyone following after them. I sat in front of my cake, Connelly close beside me holding my hand, while Alister was on my other side.
“Oh, well it’s been great. I got some money, um, a snowboard and the stuff to go with it, and some jewelry. Kati took a beautiful picture of the mountains for me, she’s in photography in college, her boyfriend got me a ring, Louis got me concert tickets to see Nickelback tomorrow night, and Jack and Jason got me backstage passes.” I said, smiling when I finished. I looked over at Connelly and he smiled, kissing my hand.
“Wow, that’s sounds great.” said Aubrey. “And speaking of presents, can we start on ours? I can hardly stand waiting any longer.”
Amelia looked over at me and I said, “Of course.” Why would I say no to that?
“Me first!” Aubrey said quickly, jumping up and dashing into the house.
They all sat me down and made me close my eyes, Connelly’s hands over my eyes to make sure I didn’t peak. It was quiet for a minute, and then I heard rolling wheels. “Okay,” I heard Aubrey say, “You can open your eyes now.”
I opened my eyes and Amelia snapped a picture of my shocked face. Aubrey was standing in front of me, gesturing to a ton of clothes on a rolling clothesline. “This is every piece of clothing presently in mine and Mira’s designer clothesline.” she said, smiling proudly.
“You have a clothesline?” I said in surprise, getting up and walking toward her.
“It’s called ‘Inhuman Beauty’. We wanted something so obvious that no one would suspect it.” she said, smiling as she watched me look through the clothes.
They were beautiful, and just by looking at them I could tell that they were way too expensive for me to ever even dream of buying. I hugged her on the spot. “Thank you Aubrey. This is great. And tell Mira I said thank you too.” I said, releasing her.
“This isn’t from her.” she said, shaking her head slightly.
This caught me off guard, so all I could really say was, “Oh.”
“This is from her.” she said, stepping aside as Vincent rolled out a small cart filled with makeup on the first two levels and boxes on the bottom two. “This is our Cosmetics line, also called ‘Inhuman Beauty’”. Along with all the accessories we’ve designed.” She reached down and picked up one of the boxes, opening it to reveal that it was filled to the brim with almost every kind of jewelry imaginable. I gasped when I saw it and there was another flash from Amelia.
“Wow. It’s beautiful.” I said, looking at her as she returned the box to its place. “Please tell her thank you.” I said, surprised and touched that Mira would give such a gift, to me of all people.
“Okay, now it’s my turn!” said Alister, smiling as he jumped up and dashed into the house.
Connelly, who was suddenly standing beside me, pointed to the floor and said, “Sit down.” He smiled and I did too, sinking to the floor and getting excited about what was coming. He squatted down beside me and covered my eyes with his hands.
I waited a minute and then heard little claws clacking against the tile in the kitchen and then the porch as it neared. “Say hello to your present.” Alister said happily and Connelly’s hands pulled away to reveal a puppy that seemed extremely happy to see me.
“A puppy?” I said, smiling as it jumped on me and licked my face. “You got me a puppy?”
“Not just a puppy.” said Alister, stepping out onto the porch and walking towards me, a little black puppy I just now noticed following at his heels. He squatted down in front of me and petted the pups. “They’re from a colony of vampires, so our scent is very familiar to them. They’re very special dogs.” He looked me in the eye as he said this.
“Of course they are.” I said and picked my puppy up, him licking me on the nose. He was sable and his eyes were a rich amber color. He looked so sweet! Though so did the other little puppy that Alister was now holding. That one was pure black, but instead of amber eyes, he had wolfish yellow ones.
“What’re you going to name him?” asked Aubrey, bending down and petting the puppy.
“I don’t know. What’d you name that one? He’s yours right?” I asked, nodding to Alister.
“Yeah he’s mine, his name is Grizzly, but we call him Griz.” he smiled as he touched the puppy’s nose with his finger. “He was the roughest one of the bunch.”
“Ivan?” I asked, looking back at him and he raised his eyebrows in question. “Do you know if dogs give themselves names, or do they wait for someone to name them?” I wasn’t sure about this whole thing, but I didn’t want to give him a sucky name when he already had a better one. I mean, I wouldn’t like it if that happened to me.
“Well, like Griz, yours was the one to take the lead so they called him Sarge.” he said.
“That’ll work perfectly!” I said, turning back to the puppy and smiling. “Sarge.” I said, and he barked, jumping up at me and licking my face.