. ?"I leaned over the table and could not hold my fury from boiling to the surface, "What goes on in my marriage is none of your business Rob!"He look...d even more uncertain in the face of my wrath, "I love you mom and I promise I would make you happy."I had nothing to say for some lengthy moments until I took a swallow of the ice water sweating in the glass before me and demanded, "Take me home Rob. Now!" I reached down to find my purse and immediately stood.I strode through the dim lit tables. She wasn’t shy about plenty of nicks and scratches and cuts even - so long as they learned their lessons. Not one of these wounds was even remotely life threatening, but they did reinforce in her children the value of proper timing and plenty of practice. The seriousness with which the Sultana took this time with her children had been tested a few times. Most notably a sweeper had continued his chores in the practice arena even after the Sultana had announced session commencement. They. She didn't mind, she kind of like him. Not in a long term, going to themovies type of way, but she would defiantly hook up with him. She wouldhave done it sober, but this gave her an excuse for her friends, whofound the boy, Andrew, "boyish." She liked that in him though, thatawkward skinniness gave him a bit of charm. His unease around girls madeher feel comfortable. He was non-threatening. She liked his eyes, whichsquinted when he smiled, and his slightly long-for-a-boy hair was cutewhen it. My vampire instincts overcame me for once and I stopped to drink his blood. That was when a vicious blow caught my head and I fell senseless.My vampiric constitution brought me back to consciouscness after probably no more than three or four hours. I searched the village, finding only dead bodies among the half-burned ruins. I was thankful the flames had not spread to where I had been. I dug through a pile of bodies to where I had last seen T'shombe. He was dead of course. I wanted to take time.