My Guardian

Together, they walked into the dining room and sat down in their normal chairs, but unlike before, there was a heaviness to the air.

Magnus eyed him. "Son, I believe you have a story to tell."

Adriel took a deep breath and stood. "I do, but first, Sebastian if you would. I delivered it this morning."

Sebastian stepped forward a look of reverence on his face. He handed Gavriel a linen wrapped object. With shaking hands, Gavriel accepted it and gently placed it on the table. He opened the folded cloth to reveal a large ornately decorated leather bound tome. "It is real; this is the Ambrosios Book of Life." He turned to Adriel, tears in his eyes. "Thank you for guarding it. I thought it was lost, destroyed at the hands of those too blinded by jealousy to see the true gift it is."

Gavriel opened the pages, and his eyes traveled from left to right before stopping. He inhaled sharply as tears flowed down his face unchecked. "Aylia. My mother's name was Aylia. After so many years, I had forgotten." He closed his eyes and leaned back.

Adriel began to shake beside her. "That is impossible; she is one of the earliest recorded family members. She is one of our Originators. For you to be her son, you would have to be..." She watched as her pragmatic mate inhaled sharply and then began to hyperventilate.

Beth wiped at her eyes. "Oh dear."

Eva rubbed her mate's back in gentle circles. "Easy now, just breathe."

Adriel just continued to choke on air and point at Gavriel who was watching him with a gentle smile on his face.

"What?" Eva asked. "What am I missing? Why is my mate having a meltdown?"

Gavriel rotated the book on the table so she could see. He pointed at the very top of the family tree. "That is my mother."

Eva's eyes traced generations of vampire names down the page until at the bottom she spotted her mate's. She swallowed. "How many years is that?"

"Over ten thousand," Gavriel replied.

Meryn hopped up out of her chair and looked at the page. She began to giggle. "Look at your tiny little nub."

Eva focused on what Meryn was pointing to. At the top of the page with no descendants listed under it like the others, the name Gavriel was drawn in script more magnificent than she had ever seen in any illuminated manuscript. It was a lonely branch at the top of the tree.

"You are my...my..." Adriel tried to take deeper breaths.

Gavriel winced. "Can we not count the greats?"

Adriel just nodded. "Of course."

Meryn bumped Beth. "You had a crush on your mate's super-great nephew or whatever."

Beth clapped both hands over her mouth, and Meryn giggled.

Eva chuckled. "Well, it makes sense if she was destined for Gavriel, doesn't it."

Beth lowered her hands. "When you say it like that it does."

Eva turned to her mate. "How are you doin'?"

"Better, doing better." Adriel still looked a bit wild eyed but he was breathing easier. He turned to Magnus. "If I had the book, and it had been missing for thousands of years, why did you tell the Founding and Noble families you verified his identity? How could you possibly have checked his claim when I had the Ambrosios Book of Life?"

"This is getting good," Meryn settled back in her seat and popped a spoonful of pudding in her mouth.

Magnus sat back. "Because Gavriel was able to recite the names of every Founding and Noble family member dating back to the creation of the books. I may not have had the Ambrosios book, but I had the others."

"Gods, what you must have seen." Adriel stared at Gavriel in wonder.

"Why did your family end up leaving the city? Eva said something about being kicked out," Gavriel asked.

"My great-great-great grandmother was human. From everything I have heard, interspecies matings were not as widely accepted then as they are now. She was forced from her home, but managed to take the one thing that proved who she was, as her name was recorded as being mated to an Ambrosios."

"I searched for thousands of years but could not find any trace of my family after the Great War." Gavriel traced the ink on the page.

"She was smart. She knew if she kept the name Ambrosios, she would never know a day's peace. So she changed her name and made it a tradition that every generation after her would change it. To anyone in the paranormal community, we were simply a young vampire family with no ties," Adriel explained. "After the Great War, the name Ambrosios became a target after being elevated by the council to royalty. Accidents happened, many of them and before anyone realized it, the last known Ambrosios was gone and the House extinct."

Gavriel's eyes flashed. "Do you have any idea who was responsible?"

Adriel shook his head. "I do not believe it was any one family, more than likely a group effort by those who felt slighted."

"After all we did trying to save as many lives as possible, that is how my family was repaid." Gavriel's face looked tired and sad.

"Look where it got them. It's not like any of them became royalty. I mean didn't we just drop kick a Founding Family member into the net?" Meryn asked, waving her spoon about.

Magnus paled. "You what?"

Beth spun in her chair. "Now Unky, he really deserved it."

Magnus covered his eyes with his hand. "Who?"

"Ivan DeLaFontaine," she said, closing one eye and leaning away from her uncle.

Magnus' hand came down on the table in a loud bang. "What! Why?"