She took in Hernando's disheveled appearance. Tousled hair from the youngest cousins jumping on his back and wrestling with him made him the hit of the party up to and including when one of the twins dropped a half-full dish of Aunt Martha's homemade cranberry jelly into his lap. Hernando took it all in stride and flung some mashed potatoes at Peter's nose, adding a further note of hilarity to the family meal.
Olivia hated to admit it, but she was grateful for her cousins' antics. At least her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents had welcomed her BloodDark guests with open arms and laid back manners. Her relatives were fascinated to learn more of their ways and world, and they had no trouble treating Hernando and the others like family.
Family. I'm so excited about going back to BloodDark in a few weeks... Shouldn't I be sad at leaving Earth? Shouldn't I hate leaving my family?
"Forgive your parents, child. They have suffered the most from your absence." Valori's words penetrated the darkness of the car and brought Olivia's thoughts back to the present. "It's difficult for parents to watch their children grow up, but it has been even more difficult for your parents because they could not see you growing up while you were separated from them. They've lost a part of your childhood to BloodDark. Is it any wonder they resent it and all it stands for?"
Valori's words pierced Olivia's soul like a sword. She hadn't considered how BloodDark to her parents didn't just represent an alien world, an alien culture, but a thing which had taken—and continued to take—their only child away from them. Tears pooled in the corner of her eyes. How insensitive she'd acted to their suffering. She sniffed in a vain attempt to hold the waterworks back.
"You want us to turn around?" Hernando took her hands in his and gazed into her misty eyes. "It's not too late. We can return after the winter holidays and take you with us to BloodDark then."
"No, Annara and I have plans to work on while touring with you this month, and I promised Valori to show her all the latest dress styles and fashions." Olivia straightened in her seat and put on her brave face. "Besides, I've never been to Times Square for the New Year's Eve celebrations. I don't want to miss seeing you drop the big crystal ball at midnight."
"It's a great honor, I'm told." Hernando grinned and squeezed her hands. "You will call your parents once we're on the plane, right?"
"I will." She laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes with a sigh. Who knew I'd ever feel so safe and loved beside someone other than my mom and dad?
"You have children, don't you, Valori?" Annara asked her seat mate. Olivia realized how different her two friends were and how they didn't know very much about each other. This trip might enlighten them both to how the different castes of BloodDark lived. "I ask because you seem to know so much about children. To me they're noisy little interruptions in adults' conversations."
Valori shook her head. "No, I never was allowed the joy of having my own family. My partner died young, and I didn't take another lover. I helped to raise my mistress's children, however."
Annara slunk back against the seat. "You took care of Pure Blood brats?" Her dark brown eyes flashed suspicion. "I would have murdered their offspring in their sleep if given the opportunity."
Valori nodded. "Many would, but I found them to be like any child—human, Quadsang, Overseer or Pure Blood—if not perhaps more delicate in constitution. Of the five babies my mistress gave birth to, only two survived childhood after they had the necessary... transfusions."
"You mean our blood." Annara snorted. "The decadent bloodsuckers are a generation away from being wiped out if we refuse them our precious life force. I, for one, think it's time we let the bloodsuckers go the way of Earth's dinosaurs."
"What do you know of Earth's dinosaurs, Annara?" Hernando raised a mocking eyebrow. "You weren't abducted long, long ago, were you?"
Annara smirked. "Very funny. I was quite young when I was taken from Earth with my mother, but I knew about dinosaurs then and from what I've been reading of Earth history. Olivia has sent me literature of all kinds."
He tilted his head and considered his fellow warrior. "Oh?"
Olivia winked at her friend. She had become a regular at the local used bookstore searching for titles Annara had requested. "Annara is a voracious reader as my mother would say. All sorts of topics in history, politics, warfare and tactics... Not so much on contemporary subjects. Those I send to you, Mr. Ambassador."
"I like to keep up with things—especially the sports." He laughed. "Amazing how easy it is to talk to strangers when you begin the conversation with, 'How about those Yankees?' or similar words."
"Empty-minded chatter." Annara waved a hand in dismissal. "Our world needs places of higher education, and Olivia's father's textbooks are quite enlightening. We have much to learn from the Earthers."
"I think we're called Earthlings or Terrans," Olivia pointed out. "Either way, our history is your history, humanity's history. 'There are many good lessons to be learned from the past,' my dad always says. He should know since he's studied and taught it for years."
Hernando looked thoughtful. "Olivia, would your father consider helping to establish a history faculty on BloodDark?"
"Uh..." The thought of her father traveling through the Portal to live amid the strangeness of that world left her speechless for a few moments. "I think he'd be happy to help you from Earth, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to do more than visit BloodDark, perhaps. Dad's getting too far
