Thanks to everyone who has made it to this point and especially to those that have taken the time to review. - Laurelin

3 hours later

“Josef? Wake up. We need to talk before Beth gets up.” Mick whispered from the doorway to the bedroom, hoping to wake Josef up without disturbing Beth, but he got no response.

Mick tried again. “The southeast Asian stock markets are crashing.” Strange, he thought, that always used to work before.

“The boat is sinking, Captain Joe! Mayday!” Mick pleaded in his most melodramatic, falsetto whisper. He waited for Josef to turn over and answer him, because the two of them needed to have a little talk before things between the three of them went any further. And he was really hoping to do that while Beth was still sleeping.

Before resorting to actually going over and shaking the vampire awake, he tried one more time. “Beth’s going to have sex with one of your freshies and she wants you to watch.”

Josef sat up and smiled at his friend, raising his eyebrows at the possibilities inherent in Mick’s statement. “Well, we wouldn’t want to miss that, now would we? Maybe someone should wake Beth up and inform her of the plan… or is that the secret you wanted to talk to me about?” The smile was the old Josef’s, only somehow more relaxed… more… content.

Mick sighed but had to laugh. “How long have you been awake, Josef?”

“Oh, since about the time you started walking up the stairs. You know, spending the next few hundred years living under the same roof as you has all sorts of possibilities.” Josef sat up and pulled on a robe from a nearby drawer, not the least bit embarrassed at his nudity, but thinking that he’d rather the staff not see him naked. He’d have to beat them off with a stick if that happened, he though happily to himself.

Mick knew he’d been the brunt of some inside joke, but he didn’t care. It was good to have his best friend back, even if his best friend had left… three… no four new bites on his fiancé. He was glad they’d had a good time together, that Beth had been able to undo two years of self-destruction. Beth’s heartbeat was slow and steady but strong, and her breathing even. She was even sleeping with the slight smile that she often had after a night of great sex.

They headed downstairs towards the kitchen, where a fresh pitcher of blood waited for the two vampires. Mick poured them each a tall glass while Josef gave instructions to the chef to prepare breakfast for Beth, and to not skimp on the protein or liquids. They headed to the living room and Josef sat down, looking quite relaxed on the leather sofa.

“It’s good to have you back, Josef. Did you and Beth have fun last night?” Mick asked innocently.

“What, are you jealous already Mick? You smelled the room upstairs I’m sure.” Josef was teasing him and Mick knew it. Of course he smelled the room. It smelled like sex and Beth, and her blood, three of the most intoxicating scents he could imagine, all swirled up into one.

“Of course I’m jealous, a little bit, but I’ll get over it soon. But seriously, Josef, you’re going to have save a little bit of her blood for me since we are sharing,” Mick chided him lightheartedly.

Josef looked thoughtful for a moment, and finally said, “I suppose that could be arranged, given that you are going to be her husband and all.”

Mick looked enthusiastic about that prospect. “How gentlemanly of you, Josef Kostan. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

After a short laugh, Josef replied, “I didn’t think I did either. But somehow being with Beth changed a lot of things about me, Mick.”

“Ditto.”

Both men exchanged knowing glances and were pleased that there was no honest jealousy between them to contend with. Being a vampire simply caused one to live by different rules, and when there was forever to contend with, monogamy was very, very rare.

“Josef, we should work out the details of the wedding and turning. At this rate, with both of us around and her libido, she’s going to need too many transfusions if we wait. I was thinking that we could hurry up the wedding and you could turn her, say, within the next week if that’s okay with you?” Mick asked like he was running through a checklist in his head.

“You know about her asking me to be the one to turn her?” Josef had guessed that there weren’t many secrets between Beth and Mick, but it was still such an odd concept that Mick would consent to such a thing.

“Of course I do. It was my idea,” Mick said as he flashed his trademark smile at Josef. “We wanted you to stay, and not feel like a ‘third wheel’, because you aren’t. If you turn her, there will always be a bond between you, one that is separate from the one I have with her, but somewhat equal. You’ll always have a claim on her, which I trust you not to abuse, as does Beth.”

“That’s very generous, Mick, really.” Josef paused, looking a little bit uncomfortable for a second before continuing. “Once I turn her, Mick, there’s no going back. You can’t change your mind. I tried hard to stay out of your relationship with her, Mick, I really did. I owed you that, and I wanted Beth to be happy more than anything, which I thought would be best done by stepping out of the way. But she seems happy with this relationship,” he pointed at himself and Mick in turn, “but I have to ask you, brother, is she doing this out of some sort of misguided guilt? Or is this is a passing infatuation, one that she will become… unhappy with in a few years?”

Mick leaned back on the couch and stretched out, setting his empty glass on the table. “I’m hardly good at predicting the future, but I think as long as we continue to do what she tells us to do, there won’t be any problem. Just trust me on this, Josef. Don’t get in her way when there’s something she wants badly. And she wants this badly. She’s going to get it one way or another, and I know I’m only happy when she’s happy.”

“Maybe that’s what I’ve been doing wrong all these years with women…” Josef joked.

“So I was thinking that the wedding should be soon, maybe in two or three days. That gives us enough time to get the details together, before she gets too anemic, and you can turn her by the end of the week.”

“That soon? Beth had initially said a month or two.”

“Yeah, well, between the two of us sharing her bed, I think it needs to be sooner. She’s already had to have several transfusions this year on my account, and at least one on yours, and it’s hard enough trying to keep from making love to her more than once or twice a week, and believe me, Josef, she wants it a lot more often than that. Now that you’re back, and still getting to know each other again, I think the blood loss is going to be a major issue. But after you turn her…. not so much.”

“Point taken. I can’t wait for another week or two to go by before being with her again, Mick. Not having sex for two years was about the longest drought I’ve ever had, and I think you can appreciate that it didn’t agree with me.” Josef sighed and closed his eyes, imagining again what it would be like to feel Beth’s fangs pierce his skin, for her to drink from him as his blood made her strong. “Yeah, I agree.”

“Good,” Mick nodded. “So, um… I’ve never had this kind of domestic arrangement. How does it work? Do we make a schedule? Do we draw straws for her every night? Throw darts maybe?”

Josef looked thoughtful. “Honestly, Mick, I’ve had my share of sex with more than two people at a time, but I’ve never had anything approaching long term with it. So I guess for now, let’s just see how things go… you’re welcome to join us whenever you want to, as long as it’s okay with Beth of course, and hopefully I can join in whenever the mood strikes me, which is oh… every fourteen seconds or so. You can have her for the wedding night, since I know you’re old-fashioned about that, then once she’s a vampire we’ll let her set us up on a schedule. Goodness knows I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side. She knows where I dump the bodies.”

They both smiled like they used to, comfortable in each other’s friendship. It was like Josef had never left, in some ways. Finishing his glass of blood, Josef’s pressed a button on the underside of the table and young woman appeared with the pitcher and gave them a refill. As she left, Josef asked Mick where they’d planned on having the wedding.

“Beth wants to go to Vegas and get married there. She doesn’t have any family left, and neither do either of us, obviously,” Mick said, looking amused with himself.

Nodding his approval, Josef said, “Good. I’ll arrange for you two to have the penthouse at the Venetian for a few days, or maybe Julius will let you stay in his private suite at the Caesar’s, then we’ll come back here.” Mick couldn’t help but roll his eyes as Josef continued, “I want to turn her in more familiar circumstances, with freshies she knows, and excellent security. She shouldn’t be around humans except to feed for the first few weeks, and Vegas has just a few too many of those. Speaking of which, are you two going to do the drive-through wedding or do something a little more formal?”

“Not the drive-through, as amusing as that sounds, but I think we’ll just have a justice of the peace. I’m sure we can get one of those somewhere in Vegas.” Mick said. “By the way, Josef, I was hoping that you would be my best man. After all, I wouldn’t tolerate anyone less than my best man sleeping with my wife for centuries at a time.”

“I’d be honored.” Josef looked thoughtful, and serious in the ensuing silence.

“You okay, Josef?” Mick asked, hoping that Beth’s repair of his psyche was still holding.

“Mick. There isn’t a good way to say this. But thank you. Thank you for coming after me in Ireland. Thank you for letting me be a part of Beth’s life, and yours. You didn’t have to do all of that, you know. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had just left me Katherine. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d asked me not to see Beth. But I wanted you to know that I’m grateful to still be as alive, well, as alive as I was before, and more importantly, I’m grateful to you for being willing to allow me to be with the woman that is, by all rights, yours exclusively.”

“You’re welcome, brother,” Mick said, sincerely.

Josef stood and looked towards the large staircase that led up to his bedroom. “Beth better have a long-sleeved, high necked wedding gown. Let’s go see if she wants company in the shower,” he said with an evil grin on his face before dashing up the stairs at vampire speed, Mick only a heartbeat behind him.