Free Pigalle Palace by Niyah Moore Page B

stomach. I did, too. What we had created was something like a miracle.
    â€œWhat am I going to do with you, Onyx?”
    â€œLove me forever.”
    â€œI think I can fall in love with you in one day.” She kissed me.
    â€œAre you sure you’re not in love already? You kiss me like you love me.”
    I rubbed her stomach again and imagined my son growing inside her.
    â€œI am in love with you.”
    I hummed, “Mmm-hmm, I knew it. I love you, too.”
    â€œWhy are you so sweet to me?”
    â€œMother raised this knucklehead the best she could.”
    â€œShe raised an excellent knucklehead. Thank her for me.”
    â€œYou can thank her yourself.”
    â€œSo what are you going to tell the family?” A hint of agony replaced her happiness. “I hope it’s as easy as you’re making it seem.”
    â€œThere is a certain way to approach my parents about certain things. Have you ever known love like this?”
    â€œI’ve only been in love once and it was with my high school sweetheart. We were engaged. I told him that I was half-blooded because I didn’t want to hide any secrets from him. One night, I was walking home from bartending and I was attacked and bitten by a vampire. He would’ve killed me if he hadn’t been scared off by the police officer. I transformed in the hospital. The sun coming through the window burned my skin and that’s how I knew. I found out later that my fiancé sent the vampire to kill me.”
    â€œOne of your parents was a human?”
    â€œYes, my mother. Maybe that’s why this happened?”
    â€œWhy do you think that?”
    â€œBecause we both were born to human women.”
    â€œCould be..I won’t hurt you, Soleil. Those days are long gone. I’m going to show you a whole new definition of love.”
    She rubbed the scarred side of my face. “You want to tell me how that scar got there now?”
    I was ready to tell her. I took a deep breath and replied, “I have one memory from when I was about eleven years old. I was playing outside of the house and some men came. They were looking for my birth mother and father. One of them grabbed me by the neck to make my parents come outside. He held the knife to my face and cut me. My mother came outside and begged them not to kill me. He flung me to the ground and I watched them kill her and then my father. My godparents appeared like out of nowhere, killed the men, and saved me and my siblings…”
    Soleil continued to caress my face with tears in her eyes.“I hope our son looks just like you.”
    I ran my fingers through her curly mane. “He will.”
    She giggled. “You’re supposed to say that he will look like me.”
    â€œWhy would I lie to you?”
    She laughed and I laughed with her to ease the sad mood.
    â€œOur child will be beautiful no matter what because he is ours,” I said. “Now, give me a kiss.
    Â Â *  *  *  
    Soleil had been sick the past few mornings after she broke the news to me. She didn’t feel well enough to try to hunt animals to feed on, so I told her we would get a thermal of donated blood from the club.
    When we arrived at the club, Mother and Father were already there. When I saw them, nervousness swirled inside of me. I wanted to be the one to tell them what we had done, but I could tell by the look on Mother’s face that she had already known.
    As soon as my mother took one look at Soleil, her large eyes amplified as if she’d seen a ghost.
    â€œDo you want me to go grab a thermal?” Soleil asked nervously.
    Mother’s eyes nearly came out of her head. She shot up quickly from her seat and swiftly levitated before us. Father was right behind her.
    â€œMother… Father,” I said calmly.
    Mother examined Soleil from her hair to her manicured fingernails. Soleil’s skin was glowing as if she were alive. Entranced by her