Page 68 of His Atonement
"Uh, yeah. I mean seriously, I've been fortunate enough to photograph amazing things; things like the Sphinx, the Great Wall, glaciers and waterfalls, endangered species and natural anomalies. I've taken pictures of rockstars, actors, living legends and some of the most influential people of our time but this, man, this beats all of that.” I shake my head, and scratch behind Grace's ear. "If you allowed me to photograph your…other halves, your dual nature, it wouldn't be for anything other than the joy I'd get from doing it. To be able to immortalize something so magnificent, so beautiful and raw would be my opus, so to speak, and it would be for no one other than me and you. It would be an honor, quite frankly, a privilege to be the only one to ever do something like that and it would be my gift to you for accepting me the way you have."
Gracie purrs even louder as Allie rests her head on my shoulder. "I told them all of that too."
I smile so big.
I seriously fucking love my sister-cousin.
"My brothers and I have discussed this amongst ourselves and with the elders of our clan, and we are in total agreement on our decision.” Kai almost smiles. "We would like it very much if you photographed us, but not just as our other half. We would like photos of our families, the generations in both human and beast form, portraits of both sides of who we are."
"Yes!" I blurt, my gears turning already. "I can do that! I can do family photos as people then as your other half, married couples, kids and parents, generations, siblings. Fuck, as soon as the rest of my equipment comes I can set it up to do a whole clan shot both ways too. The possibilities are endless and it will be so fucking cool to have something so amazing for you, to be a part of that."
“Good." Kai nods. "How soon can you begin?"
"Yesterday!" Another idea pops into my head. "Would it be ok if I developed a few sets of every photo?" He frowns, as does every other man at the table but I flap my free hand. "I want to do one set for each family and one master album. So, for instance, Allie would get pictures of her and Andrej, the two of them with their girls, pictures of the five brothers, one with all your wives, one with everyone and the kids, then throw Karel and Hank in there somewhere. You know, your immediate and extended family, but then Henrich and Grace would have pictures of the two of them as well as copies of the rest and so on. There are so many family connections that there almost has to be multiple copies so you all get what you want."
Kai looks to Posey who is nodding like a damn bobble head. "I suppose that would be alright. I rather like the idea of having entire family photos in both our human and beast forms."
"Excellent!" I pump my fist then turn to Vok. "Wanna help?"
"Gods yes! You didn't even have to ask. What shall I do?" He leans forward, dimples popping next to his goatee, his excitement comparable to that of a little boy.
"This is a pretty big project so I'll definitely need help with set up and tear down, lighting, placement, scenery, all of it, really. Then you can give me a hand with development, and when I'm done I'll pass off the negatives and any digital images to you. Sound good?"
“Absolutely." He grins, showing little bits of his fangs. "This most definitely sounds good."
“Cool." I finally relax a little bit, but don't stop petting Grace. "I'll need to write out lists, family lists with all the shots I'm going to need in order to coordinate times, maybe even start a sign up sheet." This really is a huge project, but I am so excited. It'll be the final addition to Allie's album, the perfect way to capture what I want for her before I kick the bucket. This is amazing. Then a thought occurs to me. "You aren't a blood brother, are you?"
Vok grins, and throws an arm over Cora's shoulders. "I may not share their blood, but they are the brothers of my heart. Their family adopted me many years ago and so it has remained."
I lift a brow. "How many ismany years ago?"
"Well, let's see." Milos grins as he starts counting on his fingers. "If you carry the one, multiply by six, subtract thirty nine—" Casey elbows him and Milos laughs. "About three hundred years, give or take."
My eyes immediately pop out of their sockets. "You're how old?!"
"Just turned three hundred and thirty-nine on my last birthday.” He grins. "But I'm the baby and Vok's older still."
I look at him and he sighs. "Five hundred and nine." Then he smirks, and looks down the table. "Karel? Care to weigh in?"
"Seven twenty-nine,” he grunts.
"Jesus." I look around again then laser on Posey. "Don't tell me you're older than dirt too."
She giggles then honks. "Ninety-five, honey. Kai's robbing the cradle."
He frowns then presses a kiss to her temple, but I look down in my lap at Grace. "Older or younger than that?"
She nods her head upward once.
"Older then. By a lot or a little?"
"My Gracie is just over one hundred and thirty," Henrich says. "And I'm a middle child so I'll let you do the math."
I laugh and sigh. "So obviously you live a really long time. I'm guessing that is something shared between couples?"
Posey arches a brow and nods slowly. "How'd you guess?"
"It just makes sense.” I shrug. "If you marry a human I'd expect that to be the case, otherwise it seems pretty pointless."
