Lost Without You

~40~

I hadn't even noticed her, she was that fast, but as I walked inside the house Anaïs was in front of me, her arms wrapped around my waist, her ear pressed to my belly.

"I can't hear her." She said, sounding disappointed.

"Anäis, that's not very polite!" Lucas scolded the girl, but I did not mind.

"It's still too early for that, you'll have to wait a few more weeks..." I told her, stroking her beautiful, wayward hair.

"Anaïs, why don't you come over here to finish dressing up this poor doll, and let our guests come in?" Albert called, appearing in the doorway at the bottom of the corridor. "Nicole is waiting for you."

Anaïs giggled and letting go of me she pulled Lucas down by his scarf. "She's waiting for you, actually. She's been asking about you the whole day." She whispered a bit too loudly then hopped off, giggling again.

"Don't say anything." Lucas said as he helped me take my coat off, noticing my struggle to remain serious. "Behave."

"Of course." I said, taking my present for Anaïs from him and following Lia and Stoker into the sitting room.

It seemed that I would finally find out something about Lucas' love life, which was only fair; he knew everything about mine. I smiled to myself and he noticed.

"You can be... awfully annoying sometimes, you know?"

"Thanks." I said, giggling like Anaïs before.

There were two new people in the sitting room. A pretty, petite, blonde woman with a pixie hair style and a young, brown-haired girl.

While Albert introduced the older one to me as Céline, his girlfriend, Lia ran over to the girl and hugged her, surprising me. Do they know each other?

"I'm so glad to meet you Samara, it's... such an honour. Ever since I met Nicole's father, I keep stumbling across stories about you and I must admit, my daughter grew up listening to your legend." Céline said, making me feel... strange.

I still couldn't wrap my mind around this, my and Vlad's lives being recounted as a bedtime story for vampire children.

"It's nice to meet you too. I've heard a lot about you as well." I said, glancing at Lucas, not sure if I was allowed to say that.

He smiled and nodded, then kissed Céline on the cheek.

She pulled him into an embrace. "I missed you." She told him in a motherly way, making me remember that it was my fault that they haven't seen much of him lately.

They exchanged a few more phrases and once Céline was satisfied, seeing him looking well and happy, Lucas led me over to the sofa where Anaïs was playing with Lia and the tall and thin girl, Nicole.

I passed my present to Anaïs and while she unwrapped it, squealing with joy, Nicole looked shyly at us, her pale cheeks colouring slightly as her eyes met Lucas'.

"This is Nicole, Céline's daughter," Lucas introduced her, "and this is Samara..."

"I know, of course." Nicole said, pushing a stray strand of her long, perfectly straight hair behind her ear and smiling at me. "I've heard so much about you. From Bram, and Lia..."

"So you know each other already?" I asked her, sitting down next to them when Lucas vanished somewhere. Anaïs kissed me on the cheek thanking me for the dress then disappeared too, to try it on.

"Yes, we met at Bram's a few times..."

"Nicole studies in London, at my university, actually. She's in the first year." Lia interrupted her.