In honor of Father’s Day and two vampire dads I happen to adore, I wanted to share a bit of a bonus story I wrote a while ago that I never got around to posting here because I’m old and forgetful. (A few of you may remember this from my previous blog.)

---

1999

As the sun breached the horizon and signaled the end of another night, Dominic and Jacob flopped down on their brand new king-size bed, marveling at the amount of space between them.

“Why the hell didn’t we do this sooner?” Jacob asked as he rolled over and buried his face in the most comfortable pillow ever made.

Dominic lifted his head and pulled his long, black hair over his shoulder to keep from lying on top of it. “Because vampires are supposed to sleep in coffins.”

“Fine. You go sleep in a coffin and I’ll stay right here.”

“I don’t think so.” Dominic swept Jacob into a crushing embrace and was just about to do more than that when they were interrupted by an impatient knock. The lovers sat up and straightened out their pajamas, making sure that all of their parts were presentable.

“Right on time,” Jacob muttered.

“At least he knocked,” Dominic pointed out. “Remember the last time?”

Jacob would not soon forget. Thanks to his quick thinking, another seven years would pass before Xan realized what the two of them were really up to when they were “wrestling” each other in bed. It would be the first of many accusations of mental scarring to come.

“Come in!” Jacob called out.

Xan burst through the basement door in his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pajamas and bolted down the steps far too fast for his fathers’ comfort. The seven-year-old ran over to the bed and dove between his two dads, his smiling face brighter than any sun.

“Hi Daddy. Hi Domi.”

“Good morning, goober.” Jacob kissed the child on top of his tiny blond head and then pretended to pull a quarter out of his ear. “Not the best place to keep money.”

“Cool!” Xan was mystified by the coin in the vampire’s hand. “How do you do that?”

“Magic,” Jacob replied proudly.

“Hey Daddy.”

“Hey what?”

“Becky says if you switch the B and the G in goober, it spells booger.”

Jacob tried hard not to smile. “Remind me to thank her for that.”

Xan flattened his hand on the bed, his small fingers smoothing over the thick black comforter. “I thought that vampires were supposed to sleep in coffins. Old Man O’Malley still has a coffin in his basement.”

“Mister,” Jacob corrected.

“Mister Old Man,” Xan amended, smirking adorably.

Jacob chuckled and shook his head. He didn’t have the heart to properly reprimand the boy for being a smartass.

“You’re right, Alexander,” Dominic said. “Vampires are supposed to sleep in coffins. It is a time-honored tradition.”

“You don’t like our bed, Xan?” Jacob asked. “Now you’ll have a lot more room to stretch out when you sleep with us.”

The little boy shrugged. “It’s okay, but the coffin was fun. I bet it’ll be a lot easier for you to wrestle in a bed, though.”

Dominic pressed a hand to his mouth to hide his grin. Jacob wasn’t so lucky.

“What’s so funny?” Xan wanted to know.

“You’ll find out when you’re older,” Jacob told him. He looked up and spotted Luca waiting on the basement steps. “Go eat your breakfast.”

“Okay.” Xan placed big, wet kisses on both his fathers’ cheeks. “Sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

Dominic ruffled his hair. “If they do, we’ll just bite them back.”

“You’re silly, Domi.”

“Don’t tell anyone.”

Xan hopped off the bed and darted up the stairs just as recklessly as he had come down. Luca waved at the couple and closed the door, leaving them to contemplate the bundle of wonder that was their son.

❤

Art by G.