Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“Oh, that’s Sylvan—the Head of the High Council,” Kat whispered to Celia. “He’s the guy to see if you’re trying to get out of your Claiming Period.”
Celia whispered a “thank you!” and the table grew quiet as Sylvan began to speak.
“Hello and Happy Thanksgiving,” he said, smiling at everyone around the table. “I’m so glad all of you could be here today as we partake in this feast and celebrate the Earth holiday we all love so much. I’d like to thank my lovely wife Sophia and her sister Olivia and their kin, Lauren for cooking all this delicious food.”
He nodded at three women sitting around the table—two of them looked like twins, though they had different colored hair and eyes, Celia thought. The third had lovely brown skin and striking amber eyes. She was sitting beside a warrior who looked to be Scourge—he had gray skin and red-on-black eyes. The sight gave Celia a start—she’d thought that all the Scourge were dead now! But this one seemed perfectly civilized.
“Hey—I helped too!” a burly Beast Kindred with black hair and golden eyes protested.
“That’s right,” the blonde-haired woman who looked like a twin said. “Baird did the turkey. He’s come a long way since he made me fruit cocktail and tuna fish pizza during our Claiming Period!”
Everyone around the table laughed, Kat included.
“It’s traditional for a Kindred warrior to cook for his woman during their Claiming Period,” she murmured to Celia. “Only Baird didn’t know much about ‘Earth food’ so he dumped all kinds of disgusting things on a pizza and tried to feed it to Liv.”
Celia laughed and made a face at the thought of tuna and fruit cocktail pizza. But mainly she thought it was nice that all the people sitting at the table seemed to know and support each other. It was also nice that the men were willing to help with the cooking. As far as she knew, Peter didn’t even know how to turn on the stove—but of course he didn’t have to, since he’d had private chefs his whole life.
“I’d also like to thank Kat for organizing all of this and for decorating,” Sylvan said, nodding at Kat, who nodded back with a smile. “I know she’s going to do an amazing job of decorating the Mother Ship for another upcoming Earth holiday—Christmas,” he went on. “And speaking of that, I’m going to need some warriors to volunteer to dress up as the Earth semi-deity, ‘Santa Clause’ and take turns sitting by the Christmas tree we’re going to be decorating near the Sacred Grove.”
“What does the job entail?” one of the other Kindred warriors asked.
“Just wearing a red suit trimmed with fur and letting children and brides sit on your lap for pictures,” Sylvan said. “They will tell you what they wish as a present for Christmas and you will agree that they can have it if they’ve been ‘nice’ and not ‘naughty’ this past solar year.”
“I don’t like the idea of my bride sitting on another male’s lap and asking him for presents!” another warrior growled. “She ought to sit on my lap and ask! I’ll give her anything she wants, but I don’t want her asking other males.”
“No, no—asking for presents isn’t really the point of this ritual,” Sylvan said, frowning. “Many Earth brides like the opportunity to take a picture with Santa—it’s a memory they can save and cherish. Whoever plays Santa will not molest your bride in any way—I promise.”
“Well, I still don’t like it,” the warrior muttered. “You’d better not let any Unmated warriors play the part.”
“Mated warriors will be considered first,” Sylvan said. “But if you’re interested, please come see me after we finish our feast.”
“Wow, they really don’t know much about Christmas, do they?” Celia whispered to Kat, who shook her head and smiled.
“Or Hanukah or Kwanza for that matter. We’d like to bring the spirit of the season to the whole Mother Ship if we can.”
“For now, I’d like to say that on this day of giving thanks, I am thankful for all of you.” Sylvan went on, raising his wine glass. “Years ago, before we Kindred came to Earth, I had my brother Baird and my two second brothers Deep and Lock, but we were all lonely.” He nodded at various warriors sitting around the table. “Then we instituted the Bride Draft and began to Dream-Share with the lovely females of Earth. When we found our brides, the loneliness left us forever and I’m so thankful for that.” He smiled down at a brown-haired woman with green eyes who looked back at him with love. “I’m especially thankful for my lovely mate, Sophia,” he murmured. “And I thank the Goddess for bringing us together.”
There were tears in Celia’s eyes when the big Blood Kindred sat back down. He seemed to really love and care about his family and friends and they clearly felt the same for him and each other. She couldn’t help comparing it with Peter’s family and the way they were always sniping at each other and talking about silly, vapid things like how much their latest Channel handbag cost.