"This is the most wonderful yet weirdest situation I've ever been in. A literal vampire baby is in my arms." Tatum said. "Does he drink blood?"

"No, just milk for a few months."

"He won't bite you, will he?"

Dani shrugged, glancing at Roman.

"Fangs don't descend straight away," he began. "We're like humans in that respect. He'll get baby teeth, but the fangs don't emerge until he starts pushing through his adult set. When he's ready to be weaned from milk, we will give him blood in a bottle. Sometimes a vampire will cut a wound, like on their arm, and let the baby suck on the skin."

Tatum's brows raised as she slowly nodded, curiosity and shock showing on her face.

Dani smiled, leaning on one side as she ran her fingers through the baby's hair. It was brown, so I guess Dante will be taking after his mother. Maybe. It wasn't wavy like mine or black like Roman's. Dante was long but still so tiny. He was now several hours old, and he'd met his rambunctious aunts, who were still running around the courtyard, as well as Rus, who I guess was like a grandfather, and Loren, who was an uncle. At this stage, there wasn't much point in adding the step part to their names. It was just confusing, and it's not like Dante was going to meet his other grandfathers. Florus was far better, and at least he cared enough to protect everyone here.

"You know, you never answered me earlier."

I turned and looked at Tatum.

"About what?"

"Life beyond right now. What's going to happen to me? I know all your secrets, and you've been a very bad boy, Jasper Madlock."

Dani grinned, and she probably wanted to say that Tatum had no idea how bad I was.

"I guess you'd need to speak with Giovanni about that."

"But I can't leave, right?"

"Do you want to, though?"

Tatum looked at me and shrugged. "Guess not. This is pretty nice. I could handle more cuddles."

She sighed and passed Dante back to Dani.

"Okay, so here's the deal. I'm not going to say anything, but I understand that you would have concerns that I could be lying to save myself, even though you promised I would be safe. I like you guys, and I'm not about to bring the cops to your door. The problem here is that all my stuff is at the hotel, I've got bookings all over the place, and I'm due to fly out in a week. I go back to work two days after I return. People are expecting me to be at the airport, and if I'm not there, then they're going to call the cops. You don't want them retracing my steps because it will lead them to a little baby goods store where I met up with an old coworker and his friend."

And the rest of it.

"If only it were that simple," Giovanni said as he turned into the room.

He settled on the lounge with Elena next to him. Dani placed Dante into his arms.

"Hello there, young man," he said. "I am your great-grandfather, Giovanni Fiorentino, but you can call me Papa. Very soon, we will have a naming ceremony for you and officially welcome you into this coven. Until then, Papa has to talk to your mother's dear friend."

His gaze rose to Tatum.

"Let me shine a harsh light on the situation. There is no doubt that Noah Jordan will watch everything in his world, and that includes you, long before you set foot in that shop today. You were friends with Danika and were known to him. He would have observed you from afar, like he did with my grandson, Danika, and Jasper. As you did not make any moves against him, he would have considered you on the exterior of what he deemed to be a problem. That would have changed the second you boarded a plane to this country."

"How would he know these things?"

Giovanni passed Dante to Elena, then reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a note.

"Roman's contact, Jimmy. He states that Noah has approached him and demanded servitude as punishment for assisting Roman. Firstly, Jimmy states that he'd like us to invade London and take down Noah as soon as possible."

Dani said nothing but grinned. I wondered how it was possible when it was not Giovanni's territory. The council would see it as an invasion of the worst kind and punish this coven for what they did, even if it was done without malice towards the Grey coven.

"He goes on to state that Noah demanded he look into a list of names, and yours was on it. He had no idea who any of the people were, and Noah was standing beside him, watching everything he did, so he couldn't hide any facts. Noah knows you came to this country, Tatum."

"And I guess he knows where you guys are, right?"

"Yeah, he does," I said.

Tatum groaned, rolling her head back against the lounge.

"He may do nothing," Giovanni began. "But only a fool would not think the worst of the situation and prepare for it. You can return to London if you want, but I would warn you against it. Noah is angry about what has happened. He's searching for anything to grasp onto, and if that means he does the worst, then he will do it. I know it seems odd that I would know so much about him, but you must remember that he is my grandson. I have always kept tabs on him, mostly because I was concerned he would regress into the vampiric side of his heritage. Then his father became a hunter, and our observations took us on a new path. I would suggest that you remain here, but as I said, you can leave if you want."

"What about Lucy?"

Giovanni looked at the list, nodding.

"There is a Lucy Donovan here."

Tatum looked at me with fear. There wasn't much I could do for Lucy, not when I couldn't return to London. I wanted to, though. Tatum's fear would be nothing compared to mine, though she would not know it.

Her gaze turned to Giovanni, who sighed.

"I will speak with the council regarding this statement of fact from Roman's contact. For now, leave it with me and focus on your path. What would you like to do?"

"Well, I guess I could cancel out of my plans and get my stuff from the hotel if someone takes me to town."

"I will ask Loren to assist you, if that is alright?"

"It's fine."

Giovanni nodded, rising from his seat.

"I will speak to the council and ask Loren to assist."

As Giovanni and Elena left the room, Tatum snuggled into Dani and looked at Dante.

"Bet you didn't think this was in your future. You know, I think Jas is the father."

"We're not going to find out. When we're ready, we'll have more, and at some point, they'll both have a kid running around this place or wherever it is that we end up. You know they're not going to let you go, right? You know too much."

Tatum shrugged, giving us an awkward smile.

"I am okay with this. It's weird, and I can understand you're looking for a little reassurance, but," she sighed heavily. "Look, it's like I'm at a crossroad. I've been thinking about changing jobs because it's just weird without you guys. It's not the same vibe, it's not fun, and I think even Lucy is looking for a new job. When you went missing, I wanted to cancel this holiday, but Lucy convinced me to keep it because she reassured me you would turn up and everything would go back to normal. But it didn't. Then Jas quit, and it was like the life had been sucked out of the place. I kept the booking because I thought it might revitalise me and I'd find whatever it was that was missing from my life. Which, I guess, I did. Who would have thought I would literally find what was missing from my life on my holiday? So, did I pass the test?"

"What test?" I asked.

"Well, clearly Giovanni needs to know he can trust me. Otherwise, he's not going to let me leave the estate. So, did I pass?"

Dani smiled, and Tatum chuckled.

"Yeah, I thought so. It's okay. You guys are here, you'll definitely need a babysitter for this little cutie, and everyone's been nice. Giovanni, Elena, Rus, Alexia. Roman's still super quiet, but he'll get there, right? The twins are cute and Loren's okay."

"Just okay?" Dani teased.

Tatum stared at her before blinking hard, stammering her words. "Oh, it's not like that."

"Well, he's single if you're interested, and we're happy to play matchmaker if you want."

Tatum shrugged her off but smiled as if she wanted it to happen. It would make Giovanni happy as it would create a connection to this family that Tatum wouldn't be in a hurry to break.