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"Up in the morning and out for school..."

"School Days" -- Chuck Berry

Having CD back in my bed was great. He was always ready for it when I was, which was most of the time, and he seemed to appreciate my new versatility below the waist. I’d missed my vampire lover. There was just something extra sexy about being bitten and fucked at the same time.

I’d thought there was interest on his part the first time we shook hands, way back on the first day I’d arrived to meet Star. Now he admitted I’d been right. Knowing that CD had always been into me gave me more respect for my gaydar.

On the family front, Roca and Racho were now amazingly old enough for kindergarten, and Vai had enrolled them in the local public school. I was willing to bet that Star spent a lot of time threatening them within inches of their lives if they showed off in front of the other kids. In those days, no one had heard of muggles, but at least Harry Potter needed a wand to do real damage; the twins did not. It wasn’t my place, but I had a couple of talks with them about proper conduct around normal Earth folks. Roca, always practical, got right to the heart of the matter.

"What do we do if someone teases us?" He was a big boy for his age, and I couldn’t really imagine another six-year-old bothering him. But of course, bullies don’t limit themselves to their own age group. I remembered being picked on myself, in school, and it was hard to ignore. Of course, by that time I’d been on Earth long enough I’d managed to forget that I wasn’t a normal kid.

"You’ll be strong and ignore it," I said, looking back into his black eyes.

"What?" said Racho. "You mean we can’t even say anything?" Talking was more Racho’s style, as action was Roca’s.

"Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to say something, depending on what it was."

"How about f - k off?" Roca suggested, somehow pronouncing the word almost acceptably by leaving out the middle letters.

I stifled a smile. "Umm... that wouldn’t be my first choice. How about ‘leave me alone’ or just yelling really loud?"

Racho shook his head. "Then people think you’re a crybaby."

I threw up my hands. "Just promise me you won’t do anything the other kids can’t do." That seemed safe.

"Well," Racho said, "on Bewitched, that little girl Tabitha can..."

"I don’t care what some kid on TV can do. I’m talking about real kids, in real life... and you know it!"

Roca sniggered; Racho giggled. I shook my head. Those two loved nothing better than causing an adult to lose his temper.

"We won’t cause trouble," Roca promised.

"Even if somebody really deserves it," Racho added.

God help us.

Lana and Mari were pissed that they would have to wait for next year to take the big yellow bus. Personally, I was worried about the county school system.

"You little snots already knew exactly what I was going to say, didn’t you?" I accused.

Two pairs of eyes rolled innocently for the ceiling.

"Even though you’ve been told not to read thoughts without asking?"

"We can’t help it," Roca said, pushing out his bottom lip.

"They’re so easy to read," explained Racho, looking to his brother for confirmation. Roca nodded.

I took a deep breath. "Read each other’s thoughts all you want, but stay out of other people’s heads. People like their privacy, especially Earth people who don’t even know that thought reading is possible."

Roca looked stubborn, his arms folded across his sturdy chest. "But we hear a lot of useful things that way. Why should we not do something we can do, just because others can’t?"

I sat down and held out my arms. Both twins floated up to perch on my knees. I hugged them. "The trick is, to do what you can without hurting anyone. Poking around in other people’s thoughts might hurt because they will have no idea you can do it and won’t guard their thinking, even if they could." I caught each twin’s eyes in turn. "Would you want me to know everything you’re thinking, right now?"

Their eyes went wide.

"I never look into your thoughts, boys." I assumed a stern expression. "But I will, if I find out you’ve been doing things you shouldn’t."

I didn’t think Roca’s eyes could get any wider, but they did.

"Do we understand each other?" I asked quietly.

I got two solemn nods in return.

For a moment, I considered my own childhood - not as carefree or joyous as the twins’ seemed to be. Yet by their age I had been taught many things they didn’t yet know, and was fully acquainted with manners and the need for restraint of my "gifts" around others. Surely it had been the same for Star. Why wasn’t he teaching the kids the things they needed to know to blend in on this, our new home world?

Then I had a thought about some other children. The twins had just been given their before-school physicals by Suria. I wondered if, while they were at her office, they’d seen anything of the two boys I’d spotted there, the ones that Ravin had been so quick to spirit away. I was just about to ask when:

"Sure, we’ve seen them," Racho volunteered, earning him a smack from Roca. "Um... I forgot," he said in a small voice.

I did my best to visualize a wall between me and the boys, not sure if that would work but not having any better ideas. "Tell me what you’ve seen," I said aloud.

"There are five of them," Roca said, "three boys and two girls. One is Suria’s son - his name is Raven - and then there’s a red-haired girl and one with hair like Daddy’s."

"One boy’s skin is really dark... darker than mine, and the other boy has hair that’s kinda... gray, I guess," Racho added.

Five of them? "Do you ever get to see the kids, talk to them?"

"She, Suria, introduced us to Raven, one time. Said he was her little boy the same way we belonged to Star... Daddy." Roca wrinkled his nose. "She made it sound like she got Raven in a box of Cracker Jack. Like we don’t know about sex."

Racho giggled. I shuddered. With their mind-reading talents, I’d bet the little brats knew about sex.

"But you’ve never met the other boys and girls?"

"Huh-uh. That Ravin guy is always around, and she tells him to take the kids and go away." Roca looked thoughtful. "The gray-haired kid looks at us, though. I think he’d like to play."

"But she won’t let him," Racho concluded.

I thought for a minute. "Maybe the next time you have to go there, you can try and talk with the kids." It couldn’t hurt.

"You mean mind-to-mind?" Racho said, sounding shocked.

"Boys, if I’m guessing right about the gray-haired boy, he’ll be able to talk back to you that way. Just remember to make it a conversation - not an invasion."

The boys nodded. "Okay. Can we go play now?"

I let them down and they bounced off outside.

Could the child with the gray hair - mixed strands of white and black - be the son of Star and the Count? Were CD’s genes strong enough to claim visible space in the child’s inheritance, when Vaira’s and even mine did not?

I wished there was a way to meet that boy, and the others as well. But I didn’t want to ask favors of Suria or risk the temper of the mercurial Ravin. Star could have easily asked to see them - he had to know more of their existence than I did - but I knew he didn’t pry into Suria’s affairs.

I supposed I’d have to let it be. But I couldn’t help wonder whose DNA had been used to create the other boy and the girls. And... were those innocent children safe with Suria and her strange husband?

Depending on the twins’ chance information seemed cowardly, but I could think of nothing else to do. Star trusted Suria completely, and I couldn’t convince him otherwise. God knows, I’d tried.