Safeword: Storm Clouds by Candace Blevins

who was crying beside the body of his mother. I finally got him to talk, and he said his mother and father and grandparents and sister and aunt had all been killed. There weren't many people left alive in the village, and no one was interested in taking the boy in. I was married at the time, to a vampire, and my husband and I raised him until he was an adult and then we gave him the funds to set up shop and make a living. We taught him everything he would need to know to be a blacksmith, and we moved to a new town and he moved into the town and set up shop and we lived outside of town, as we had to do back then to survive."
    Kendra let that sink in. Eric didn't speak so she kept going. "So, it is possible for a vampire to raise a child. I needed help when they were little since I'm down during the day, so I arranged for human help during the day. If you and I go forward with a long term relationship I would be very open to adoption. Or, if you wanted the child to have your DNA then we could arrange for a surrogate. But of course none of that helps with the fact that any daytime activities you participate in, I can't share them with you. There is no way around that."
    Eric finally spoke. "Why does this have to be so hard? I finally find someone that I think I could spend my life with, and she's not even fucking human. So spending my life with her doesn't mean growing old together, it means her watching me grow old and die." He paused, "You said you were married to a vampire? What happened? Did he get killed? Or do vampires divorce?"
    "Vampire marriages are not 'till death do us part'. When vampires marry they do so for a set amount of years. All assets are listed when they marry, and when something is purchased during the marriage it is agreed at the time of purchase who will get it when the marriage ends. Some marry for twenty years, some marry for fifty years, and some marry for the maximum time allowed, one hundred years. When the marriage contract ends a couple can either let it dissolve or they can form a new contract. If both parties want out of a contract before it is up then there is no problem. However, if only one party wants out of the contract then it goes to mediation and frequently the contract is enforced until the agreed upon end date. But most marriages end amicably with no hard feelings. That marriage lasted seventy years, we married for fifty years and then another twenty years before we agreed that we'd each grown and evolved in different ways and we were better off going our separate ways. I haven't seen him in a few centuries, but if I did we'd see each other as friends from long ago and not much more at this point."
    "So, even if I decided to be a vampire so you and I could be together forever, it's not likely we'd be together forever?"
    "I'm not aware of a vampire marriage that has lasted longer than about five hundred or so years. And even that is rare. And Eric, it is way too soon for you to be thinking about losing your humanity. We might date for a year or two and decide it's not going to work. I won't even consider turning you for two or three years, maybe longer." Kendra paused and then decided he needed more information about the human companion relationships. "If you want to have some kind of relationship with me but are afraid of throwing away your other options then we can formalize the human companion relationship Abbot spoke of the other night. That would mean you would be free to date other people. That's kind of the purpose of the way the human companion relationship is set up, it creates a bond between vampire and human without creating a situation where all of the long term issues between human and vampire cause problems. I have one more thing to tell you and then I will leave. I won't contact you, if you want to see me or talk to me you'll need to call me. "
    Kendra took another deep breath, as much to steady herself as for the air needed to talk. "I have had relationships with many