Everyone met up in the big living room. The black blinds were all covering the windows, shrouding the room in darkness if it hadn't been for the fire in the fireplace, and the few lamps scattered around the room. Soft armchairs and sofas were all placed in a half circle around the fire. Tec and Frej were already occupying one sofa, Frej lying with his head on Tec's thigh, a soft woollen blanket over him.

Dawid and I took the other sofa, while Kissy sat by the fire, her legs pulled up to her chest. Iwo opted for a chair.

None of us said anything for a long while, the only sound interrupting the silence was the cracking fire.

"I always wondered why I was the only deaf one," Dawid said then without looking away from the fire, the flames sparkling in his grey eyes. He looked over at Tec then, to read his lips.

"Anyone who aren't perfect don't get chosen," Tec muttered. "When I found you two on the bottom of that lake, your arms were intertwined. I couldn't just... Leave you."

Dawid nodded. His hand dumped down on the back of my neck, his fingers gently massaging my sore muscles.

"Thank you," Iwo murmured and his hands signing along with his words. "I don't know what... What I'd do without him." He looked up and met his identical twin's eyes. He signed something and Dawid smiled. He signed something back and Iwo snorted.

"He says, I couldn't live without the handsomer twin."

Kissy snorted softly. "He's totally right, you know."

Dawid looked triumphantly at his twin and Iwo just rolled his eyes.

"Frej?" I asked then, hesitantly.

"Mmh?" He didn't even open his eyes.

"What did you do to me?"

"I cleansed your body."

"Can everyone do that?"

He opened his eyes a little and peered over at me. "No. Xipe has taught me a lot."

"I told you he was powerful," Tec chimed in, his hand running up in Frej's hair. "Frej, being as old as he is, has had a lot of time to adapt. His affiliation with the gods and the powers that flows in him is extraordinary."

"And I regularly feed on Xipe," Frej murmured. "His blood is powerful. Our bond is strong and only grows stronger. The stronger it gets, the stronger I get. And so does he."

"Is that why everyone is against you two being together?" I asked.

Tec nodded. "The others don't like the thought of one like Frej being as powerful as them. But he is. Only difference is, he had a mortal life before this one, though it was short. Maybe that's why it's so easy for him to learn. Because he wasn't mortal for long enough to be set in mortal ways like you all."

Frej yawned and repositioned a bit, his cheek pressing against Tec's thigh. He was curled up completely and I couldn't help but notice how small he looked.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked.

Frej nodded without opening his eyes. "Yeah. It just exhausts me to do that. Atlas's hold on you was strong."

"I'd feed you but..." Tec looked over at me and shrugged a little. "I'm drained."

"I know," Frej whispered. "Just let me rest."

"Of course, Fakkel." Tec slowly moved his fingers around in Frej's hair, and Frej sighed contently, snuggling closer to his husband. Tec scooted down, so Frej's head was on his stomach, instead of his thigh. He balled his fist in Tec's loose t-shirt and sighed again.

"I knew Aura was different," Dawid said. I looked up at him and arched my brows. "You taste different."

My cheeks reddened. Kissy snorted loudly.

"What?" Dawid asked as everyone in the room broke out in a smile. "Oh, don't even pretend like you didn't know." He rolled his eyes.

"So it's official?" Kissy asked and giggled.

"I guess," I murmured, still looking baffled up at him. I cleared my throat and smiled. "Yeah, it's official."

"Cute," Frej murmured with a tired smile on his lips. One eye was peeking at us but it slid close again.

We sat in silence for a while, the cracking fire the only thing breaking that silence.

"What does this make us, Tec?" Iwo asked. "We weren't all chosen by Death. The majority of us weren't."

"Nothing has changed. You're all still mine. Doesn't matter if Death chose you or not. She was wrong when she didn't and every day you're alive, you prove her wrong."

Both Frej and I looked like we had been chewed up and spit out. We sat together in a small living room, watching TV, both having blankets draped around us, on opposite ends of the couch. As commercials slid over the screen I looked up at him.

"Are you and Tec okay?" I asked.

"Sure," Frej murmured.

"Did you know...?"

"I knew something was up when he made you, yes. I knew his sister and you reminded me of her. I thought maybe he had had an influence on Death in order to get to you."

I bit down on my lip and sighed deeply. "I don't understand why he didn't just tell me."

"Because Aura, you don't understand what this means."

I met Frej's gaze. "What does it mean?"

"You're not supposed to be here. Me? Doesn't matter as much, I was just a random mortal. But you? Xipe and the rest of the deities are not allowed to mess with their mortal bloodlines. There aren't many rules for them except; listen to Death and don't turn anyone in your bloodline."

"But why?"

"Because you have his blood in your veins, Aura. He's too close to you. How can he take care of his duties when the closest thing he'll ever get to a child is here? Not to mention, he can't control you if it really comes down to it." Frej smiled a sad smile. "He truly cares about you though."

"I think it's pretty clear he cares about you too. A lot."

He snorted quietly. "Yeah. Everything has changed for me."

"How? He's still your husband."

"But he chose me. Not Death. Not anyone else but him. He chose me because he loved me. I always thought he... He was just smitten or something in the beginning. But it was love for him before we even met. That changes things."

"You loved him after a month though," I pointed out. "There's hardly a big gap between when he started loving you and when you fell for him."

The tips of his ears turned bright red and he smiled. "That's true. You being in his bloodline means something else too, you know."

"What?"

"We're family too." He smiled very brightly and patted my leg.

I hadn't even thought about that. I mean, everyone in this house felt like family but this made it official. I had actual living relatives, even if they were my great-times-a-billion uncles and aunts. I had family again.

I swallowed something. "Frej?" I needed to change the subject before I started bawling my eyes out.
"Yes?"

"What exactly can you do?"

"Most of my abilities are tied into cleansing. I'm good at that. Protection stuff. This house? It's protected by runes I painted. No one can enter without permission." He rolled his sleeves up, showing off the tattoos. "When I got these I didn't know they purified me. Purified my soul. Nothing would have happened if Xipe hadn't turned me and I hadn't died, and my soul would've slowly become tainted again. But with his blood in my veins, with him routinely feeding me... I stay purified and therefore I can do more than I should."

"That's... Amazing, Frej!" I sat up straight. "You're amazing."

His blush moved from his ears to his cheek and down his throat. "It's nothing..." he muttered under his breath.

"It's not nothing though. You inhaled some smoke that came out of my mouth, mate. That's so freaking awesome!"

"I uh... I can also summon fire. It's within me."

I stared at him, my eyes probably so wide they could roll out of my sockets any time. "What?"

"Yeah. Used to be really hard to control but uhm... I got the hang of it eventually."

"You're like a superhero!"

Frej laughed and shook his head at me. We both turned our attention back to the telly. Some hours later, Dawid joined us. He didn't even say anything, he just lifted me into his arms and sat down on the sofa with me on top of him. He arranged the blanket so it covered us both.

He smelled of the outside. He had probably just come back from hunting, his skin still cold from the night wind.

I snuggled closer as he put his arm around me.

"What are we watching?" he asked.

"We were watching this cheesy romance film, but now we're watching an action film," Frej said. "You want subtitles?"

"Please," Dawid murmured and smiled at the redhead.

Frej grabbed the remote off the little table next to him and looked down at it. I held my hand out, knowing he didn't have a single clue how to put on subtitles. He handed it over to me with a shrug and I found the English subs for Dawid.

"I want my man too," Frej whined and sat up. "Why is my man not here right now?"

"He and Iwo are doing something. But he said he'd come here in a while. Apparently his show is on in 20 minutes," Dawid said and started drawing circles on my back.

"Not fast enough," Frej said and rose from the couch, leaving me and Dawid alone.

"If I ever turn into such a needy mess, slap me," Dawid muttered.

I snorted and looked up at him. "I think it's cute."

Dawid rolled his eyes. "I'm not gonna be that for you."

"Did I ask you to? You're cute in your own little grumpy way," I mused and couldn't bite down a giggle when he shot me an unimpressed look.

"I'm not grumpy. I'm just not over the top like Frej either."

"You know I love you," I murmured and pushed myself further up to kiss him.

He clasped the sides of my face and stopped me. He then smiled so boyishly, my favourite smile of his, and allowed me to kiss him. He deepened it immediately and it left me breathless. His fingers got tangled in my hair as mine dug into his chest.

"Feed on me," he whispered.

He didn't have to say that more than once. I kissed him down his jaw and then his throat. I gently sank my fangs into his skin and he inhaled sharply, his fingers tightening in my hair. His blood heated me up from the inside. God, I had never tasted anything better.

A moan slipped out of his mouth and I lifted up. I tilted my head to the side, presenting him with the same offer.

"I can't," he panted.

I lifted up more so I could see him. "Why?"

"You still have Tec's blood in you. We have to wait, Angel," he murmured and kissed me.

"But... You've fed on Tec before..."

He nodded. "Yes. But now I'm feeding on you. Or I would be if you didn't have his blood in you. I don't wanna share my bond with anyone but you."

That... Was actually kind of sweet. It was like we were feeding-monogamous. Or we would be if I didn't get into trouble all the time.

"When is Tec's blood out of my system?" I asked, getting real impatient with this. I wanted to feel Dawid again.

Dawid chuckled and kissed the side of my throat. "Not fast enough." His breath was warm against my skin, and I wanted him to do it.

It hurt a tiny bit right when the teeth punctured my skin, but then this rush of warmth blanketed me, when he had fed on me. I wanted to feel that right now.

He kissed me right where my pulse was beating, making me almost physically ache for him.

"Dawid," I breathed. I grabbed his shoulders and gently tried to push him down a bit, but he just chuckled and kissed me harder.

"You're so sweet," he murmured against my skin. "I want to feed on you so bad."

For someone who didn't like intimacy, he sure knew how to rile a girl up. And then the door opened and both Frej and Tec stumbled over the threshold.

"You guys alright?" Dawid asked as if we hadn't just been all over each other, mosquito style.

"Fakkel just got tired," Tec said softly and helped Frej back to the sofa.

Frej looked very pale. Even his lips were almost blue.

"I'm cold," he whispered, as Tec sat down on the free end of the sofa while keeping Frej in his arms.

I handed Tec the blanket and he pulled it over Frej.

"Has he fed?" Dawid asked.

"Yeah," Tec replied courtly and pulled Frej closer. He pressed the redhead to his chest as he tried to heat him up.

"Has he fed on human blood?"

"Dawid, I'm a million years old. I've been with this man for 800 of those. I know how to take care of him!" Tec snapped back and Frej whimpered. "I'm sorry," Tec murmured softly and kissed his husband's forehead.

"We can leave..." I said and was about to push myself up.

"No, Aura... Please don't." Tec met my gaze. "I'm just on edge. I wanna hang out with you. I'll behave."

I settled back on Dawid, but it felt awkward. Dawid was tense under me and Frej was wheezing instead of breathing normally.

He had seemed alright a minute ago. He had been really tired but not almost blue.

After a while, Tec caught me still observing Frej who looked like he was sleeping. "It tires him out and he needs to rest. He needs to purify his soul again. That's why he's so exhausted. He's using all of his energy on becoming pure again."

"What does it mean? Pure?" I asked hesitantly.

Tec looked down at Frej and gently ran his hand through his hair. "Frej is... He's special. Not just to me but... To..." He sighed deeply. "It's complicated and hard to explain. But mortals and your kind are tainted in a way. It's holding you back from using all your powers. It's like a block that lifts a bit when the circle is formed and you cross over to the night. That same block has been lifted entirely from Frej because of the circumstances of his death. Because the rituals he went through before he was burned. Even though the gods he was sacrificed to weren't real, the rituals were. And because the symbols on his body form the real symbols of purity, he continues to be pure. You're the purest right after crossing over."

He smiled at Frej as he opened his and looked up at Tec.

"Frej continues to be pure because of the symbols and because he feeds on me. If someone continues to feed on a deity of Death they get one step closer to Death herself, since she was the one who granted us eternal life after death. We're the purest beings there are. And Frej is just one step away from becoming one of us. Only thing that would truly make him like me is... Being related to me."

I bit down on my lip and Dawid gently clenched his arms around me.

"So... What exactly does that mean for me?"

"Since you took your own life the way you did... You didn't sacrifice yourself for Death. You just wanted peace. You did bear Death's mark on your shoulder. You are purer than for example Dawid. Maybe you're even as pure as Frej. Only time will tell."

"That's why Teo has been trying to take Aura out of the equation. With two beings being so strong... No one could ever challenge you if they wanted to."

"No. Not to mention, you, your brother and Kissy are all very old beings too. You're strong in your age, strong in your experiences. I reckon it scares the other deities. They've feared me for a long time, but with Aura in my brood now? I could be invincible if I decided to teach Aura."

"Which... You are," I murmured. "We're always hunting together."

"Yes. But it's not just to teach you. I enjoy your company."

"Oh," I breathed.

"Xipe," Frej whispered.

"Yes, lover?" Tec said endlessly softly. 

Kissy was right. When they were good, they were the best, Frej and Tec.

"I'm hungry..."

"Okay, let's feed you then." Tec looked up at Dawid and me. "Do you mind if we do it here? I'd rather not move him again."

"No, go ahead," I said and Dawid nodded.

Frej pulled on Tec's arm and sank his teeth into his husband's skin. Tec winced but then relaxed. This was definitely intimate for them, but they chose to share that with Dawid and me. Generally just Frej allowing himself to be in this state in front of us, was probably really hard for him. I know I'd want to just hide away until I was feeling better. Which was wrong. These people were the only people I had. My family. I should be as trusting as Frej.