Carpathian 17 - Dark Celebration

makeshift stage.
    Falcon wrapped his arm around Sara's shoulders and put one hand over her stomach where their unborn child rested. "You are an incredible woman. How did you put this all together? The children are so happy and look at them up there. They're all little performers."
    Mikhail nodded his head. "It was a fantastic performance, Sara, I had no idea. You must have put in so much time preparing them." He looked around him at the faces of his people, all smiling, the worn, grim faces of his warriors relaxed and happy, most of them saluting the children with a thunderous applause.
    "Didn't they do a wonderful job?" Sara was beaming for her children. "What did you think of Josef's rendition of a rap Christmas carol? He really worked hard on that number.
    And Skyler sang beautifully. I was shocked when I heard her voice for the first time. Paul and Ginny did a great dance performance, and of course no one plays the piano the way Antonietta does. I'm just so happy about all of this."
    "And having the Dark Troubadours sing for everyone went over big," Falcon added. "I think our guests were very happy with the show."
    "In all honesty, Sara, I never expected anything near this production," Mikhail admitted.
    "When did you have time to put it all together? I knew you were practicing with the children, and even the teens, but this really was a far larger performance than I ever imagined."
    "It was fun, Mikhail. And the children really needed to feel a part of the event. I don't want them to feel different. Any of them. It's important that the adults see them and acknowledge their accomplishments."
    "Don't they do that?" The smile faded from his face. They didn't do that. As important as the children were to them, as treasured and as precious, the rest of the Carpathian community saw to their health and safety, but not necessarily anything more. It hadn't always been like that.
    "Not just their parents," Sara said. "Carpathian males have struggled alone for so long without families they've forgotten what it is like to have them. Their life is war, not home, not wife and children. There is education, not just books, but teaching them the ways of the Carpathians, how to shapeshift, safeguards and even battle. Who does that? We've never established that. The children are so few and no one thinks to bring them together like this where they can all get to know one another, become friends and have adults accept them."
    Mikhail remembered his own youth, the warriors stopping to give him a word of advice here and there, a gem caller taking him into the caverns to show him how it was done, others working with him on shapeshifting and even battle tactics. Sara was right.
    "I will give what you say some thought, Sara," he said. "It makes sense. The children look happier than I have ever seen them. I had a brief visit with Joie's mother, Mrs. Sanders, and she mentioned that you hand-sewed those costumes. I would have provided help had you asked."
    "I had help. Corinne sews as well. And we wanted to sew by hand rather than the Carpathian way in order to show my girls and boys how it can be done. Falcon and I try to integrate the two worlds as much as possible. Colby De La Cruz told me she and Rafael do the same thing for Paul and Ginny."
    Mikhail took Raven's hand and brought it to his mouth, teeth scraping gently back and forth over her knuckles. "There seems to be many things I haven't considered. We've learned a lot from your party, Raven. Several of our people do have to incorporate the human ways along with the Carpathian ways. As more of our warriors find mates among human women, it will happen with more frequency. It's best if we learn how to integrate human and Carpathian families now."
    He drew her away from the others over toward the tall Christmas tree. Several people had made ornaments to hang on it, bringing them to Slavica from all around the village. He leaned over to brush the corner of his lifemate's mouth with a kiss. "Look around you, Raven. You did this. It is the first time in centuries I have seen so many Carpathians gathered in one place with our neighbors. The children are laughing and running around, all excited, and the men are relaxed. Well," he amended, "alert as they should be, but so much more relaxed than I have seen them." His gaze went to Lucian. "Look at him, Raven. That man has spent his entire life in battle, yet now, he is at peace."
    Raven's answering smile was gentle and filled with