“Let me show you how I honestly feel.” Baila whispered against Sean’s neck as she pressed her barely covered body even closer to his, her mouth hungrily spreading kisses over his neck as she pressed ever closer, Sean getting ever tenser. He felt her hand then move to his own as she grasped it and easily guided that hand toward her, sliding it inside of what little clothing she was covered by. She immediately took that hand in both of hers, continuing to kiss his neck as she guided his fingers to the overwhelming wetness between her legs. She continued her moaning and her kisses as her hips grinded against where she still held his hand tightly against her, Sean swallowing hard at the sheer intensity of her desire becoming that much more obvious upon that very intimate of contacts with her body.

She continued writhing against his hand, very nearly reaching her orgasm already as Sean at last gave into the intense need she had for him to fulfill that lust his blood had cursed her with. He finally did begin moving his fingers against and inside of her, to easily give her that pleasure she desired so fully. It only took mere moments of his touch for her to begin shaking even more uncontrollably and breathing heavily as her climax easily overtook her, finally curbing all those desires of hers at last. At least for that particular night.

When she finally collapsed in exhaustion next to him, once her trembling did eventually cease., Sean slowly, gently pulled his hand away from her and tried to quiet his soft sigh as he moved from the bed, leaving her contently smiling at last, wrapping her body around the pillow that he had slept upon that very day, and letting her eyes close happily, at last.

When the four returning from Marcus’ home were now less than half an hour from their arrival back at the farmhouse, was when Sean could bear to be silent no longer. He glanced back at the carriage where the two women rode inside, then finally turned back to his sire, who sat next to him at the reins once more.

“What was the point in that, really?” he finally asked with no further pretense.

“The point in what?” Haven responded with a lack of concern in his tone.

“The point in the damn orgy, Haven!” Sean returned with impatience for his blithe tone.

“At your age, I think you’d know that answer.” Haven couldn’t help teasing.

“Stop it, Haven. You know exactly what I’m talking about, and we are almost home, so I would really like a clear answer, before we get there, for once. Why did you take it upon yourself to drag me, us, into that situation, when you had to know damn well how Baila would take it.” Sean returned in the same harsh tone.

“Sean,” Haven finally began with a more serious tone at last, “You have to learn that this is part of your lives now. You need servants. The servants need fulfillment in order to keep the desires they now have from exposing all of our kind to the human world. If their desires go unchecked, it will only be a matter of time before those same desires force them to call very unwanted attention to all of us. It is simply a part of this existence now.” he repeated firmly, “Either you have to keep those desires in check yourself, which is of course what your servants truly want, or else you have to be willing to let them fill those needs with others who pose no threat to us. Though, seeing as we lead relatively solitary existences for most of our nights, finding those few others who can help to keep them in check without posing any threat at all to us, at the same time, will not always be easy.

“Meaning you have three choices:” Haven continued, “One, you feed constantly, so you can give your servants your blood constantly, and that in itself would lead to problems with safely keeping our existence a secret, for obvious reasons.” only a slight pause, “Two, you add yet another servant in order to allow them to fulfill their needs with each other. Though another servant means more donations of your own blood and another person with those desires, added to your own lives.” another sigh, “Or three, you realize that even if you do use your own bodies to fill the lust that they have, other than the one for blood, it is merely a duty taken upon yourselves to further guarantee all of us protection, and it does not change the feelings you have for the one who had previously been your only object of lust.” he then glanced up at Sean at last, “The best way to go is a combination of all three of those choices, honestly.”

“It’s just very difficult, Haven.” Sean finally said after another long moment.

“You see, now, why most of us are solitary creatures, which really have no others in our lives other than those servants. Even when both of the people involved is what we are, having the kind of relationships that you always used to believe was the true and right kind to have, and it’s just not possible in this new life of ours.”

Sean then looked up with a combination of shock and pain, “Are you saying that Claire and I shouldn’t be together, only three months after giving her eternity so we always would be?” he asked, appalled by the suggestion.

Haven just shook his head before responding, “I know very well of how deeply you love her. I’m not telling you to part with her. I know that would be futile, especially with the bond you now have to each other in place, as well.”

“Then what are you telling me?” Sean asked, still not sounding convinced.

“It’s not Claire that you have to part with.” Haven stated in his usual cryptic manner.

“Then who?” he asked, as he glanced back at the carriage behind them, sure that Haven couldn’t possibly mean Baila after the previous part of that same conversation.

“Not who, what.” Haven returned in the same quiet tone, keeping his pale eyes to the road ahead of them.

“Then what, Haven?” Sean asked, his impatience easily returning.

“What you have to part with is the idea you, and Claire, have always held about what is and is not acceptable; your ideas of what you always believed your marriage had to be, your ideas of what would normally weaken that marriage, and hurt one another. Because now, those ‘things’ that you always believed were wrong, adulterous, even: Those things are now among the only things that can keep the both of you safe, and together, forever, which is now, for once, what a marriage really is, for the two of you, anyway. It was never meant to last forever in the human world, since humans would never have forever anyway. And as hard as it is to accept, you have to realize that you and Claire are no longer human, and no longer going to be constrained to only a few decades of this marriage of souls. Your togetherness will now go way beyond what it was meant to in the human world, so now you have to part with at least some of those beliefs you held in that world, as it is no longer your own reality. And it never will be again, Sean.” he added sadly.

Another long pause in the conversation continued until the home came into sight, forcing Sean to speak once more, “It’s not going to be that easy to convince Claire of all of that, you know.” he told Haven sadly.

Though Haven seemed to now be distracted from Sean’s words as they neared the home. Sean’s eyes easily followed Haven’s as they first fell on the black and white painted stallion that now played about the barn’s yard with their other two horses. Haven’s eyes then moved to quickly look over the home, seeing that there were indeed three inhabitants now, even without going inside to actually lay his eyes upon any of the three.

“It may not be just up to you to convince her, after all.” Haven said absently as they pulled to a stop, where he then moved toward the home without another word.

“So, how upset are you?” was the first thing Claire could muster to say when Sean crawled into the bed next to her late that night, though it was still almost an hour until dawn, after what had been a more than awkward evening, for all parties involved.

“What?” he asked her as he allowed the tiniest smile and wrapped his arm gently around her shoulder, while pulling the cover up over both of them.

“I was asking how upset you were.” she stated firmly, though still quietly.

“Why would I be upset?” Sean stated as he gently kissed her forehead.

“Sean.”

“What? You mean about him?” he finally gave in.

“Obviously about him, Sean.”

“Well if I was upset about him, I would be more than a bit of a hypocrite, wouldn’t I?” he returned though still seemed to not be hiding any real antagonism behind his still gentle tone.

“That’s still not really an answer, Sean.” she returned quietly.

“Nothing to be upset about: I’m the one who told you to get a second servant, after all, aren’t I?” he returned.

“And you’re not upset about it being a man?” she just had to press, obviously plagued by more than a few feelings of guilt at having taken Ash into their home at all, herself.

“Why should it matter?” Sean said, his voice only slightly dropping as he pushed a few loose locks from his face.

“So you don’t even care that he is what he is?”

“That being an Indian or that being a beautiful man?” Sean just had to give into admitting to what she was truly asking.

“So you did notice that fact, I suppose.” she told him guiltily.

“I’m an artist. I always notice beauty.” he admitted quietly.

“And you’re not upset about that part of it, either?” she asked, finally looking up at him, as though trying to guess at whether or not he really was hiding his true feelings to save her any further guilt than she already felt for even taking a servant at all.

“I understand Claire. I really do.” he assured her.

“Understand?” she asked as she furrowed her brow.

“I think I’m actually glad.” he returned, his voice even showing the slightest bit of his own disbelief at his actual feelings on the matter.

“Glad? How could that make you glad?” she asked him, her confusion only deepening.

“Like I said, I understand.” he assured her with a smile.

“Understand what, Sean? What does that mean?”

He only sighed softly before attempting to explain his statements, “Baila told you that she tried to sleep with me, back before we even went to Marcus’ together, didn’t she?”

“Yes, but what does that have---”

“And then you came upstairs and made love with me. For the first time in months.”

“Well, yes, but---”

“I understand.”

“Sean!”

“I mean,” he started with a smile, “I mean, I see how you felt the need to do that that night, at that point in time.”

“What does that mean?”

“I mean, I get why you needed to be with me again, like that, after all that time. I understand. Now that he’s here, and he is going to love you, intensely, I really, really understand that need.” a slight sigh, “That need we now have, more than ever, to show each other that there really is a difference: A difference to how they feel about us, and a difference to whatever they might ever even do with us…a difference between that, and what you and I have always, and will always have: Honest and true love for each other. Forever.”

Claire was silent for a long moment before finally having to assure herself that she wasn’t already asleep and dreaming the entire conversation, “You’re actually happy about him being here?”

“Yes, because it gives us reasons to try again, reasons to continue to show each other what is really real, and admit that they are only one of the many new and strange necessities this life brings us. It gives us a reason to show each other that what we have is really the only love that is real, no matter what else they may think they feel for each of us.” he smiled and kissed her gently once more, “And I think I’m finding myself wanting to show you that, right now.” he teased as he flipped her onto her back and began kissing her passionately, fervently, just like he had back at the beginning of their now eternal, lives together.