miracles - eric northman

chapter twenty-five

| TWENTY-FIVE |
A NEW DAWN

Eira was laughing.

It was some joke that one of her relatives had said while the whole family sat at the long wooden table for dinner. Her mother sat across from her and her beloved grandmother sat to both of their sides at the head of the table.

There was a clinking of glass and everyone started to hush. All eyes turned to her grandmother, Velma, who was staring at Eira with such a proud, happy smile.

"I'd like to make a toast to my cherished granddaughter," Velma raised her glass and all the others did as well which made Eira blush a bit at all the attention. She looked at her mother across the table and her mother gave her a little wink. "My granddaughter...who has killed her first vampire."

There were cheers and shouts from everyone at the table and Eira smiled. As everyone started to drink from their glass, Eira raised hers and said, "And there will be many more to come."

Velma hid a secret smile as she drank from her glass. But Eira could tell she was smiling from the way her eyes crinkled which made Eira feel quite proud. There were more cheers and hollers after Eira spoke and Eira looked at her mother again to find her smiling proudly with encouragement.

Of course, they would be. She didn't know why she was so worried that they wouldn't. After all, killing vampires was what she was born to do...and she would do it again.

_____

Eira was a senior in college and she didn't really like to go to parties. But, of course, there was always one that could convince her to do anything. A boy in her coven that she'd known since they were kids. A boy with curly brown hair and bright blue eyes.

His name was Ethan.

They came to this party to try to find a vampire. Often, vampires found it easy to feed on drunk college girls so they expected at least one to be here. It was where they found the one she killed months ago.

Currently, they were dancing under the flashing lights as they waited for her to get that feeling of intuition (where goosebumps formed) that a vampire was around. But she couldn't focus. They were dancing and she was lost in lights and bright eyes.

They had always just been friends. A team, really, as they worked together to kill her first vampire. He'd used magic to paralyze vampire and then she'd burned him into ash.

But she didn't care about vampires right now. What she cared about was pulling him a little closer and kissing him, wondering what his lips would taste like on hers.

So she did.

She pulled him close and pressed her lips to his. And he did not pull away. He deepened the kiss as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her a little bit closer. As they kissed, they consumed. From that point on, they were no longer friends but lovers.

Ethan and Eira. Together at last. She knew her family would be thrilled. There was a number of occasions where her mother would tease her about Ethan and Eira would blush a deep red as her heartbeat thundered in her chest.