“It’s just a contraction,” Arthur informed me, like a twit. He helped situate my pillows so I could lean back.
“Shouldn’t the father be here?” the nurse asked as she put a few pulse monitors on my belly.
I laughed dryly at her, wincing. “He’s not exactly the showing up kind of person.”
“I’ll get the doctor,” the nurse said when she was halfway out the door.
The pain subsided and I focused on breathing evenly, coming out of it to find I was holding Arthur’s hand. He leaned in and kissed my sweaty forehead, but the moment was ruined because as if on cue, a highly potent scent of lilacs washed over me, and I almost barfed all over Balthazar when he appeared next to me.
“Am I late? Is she here?” he asked, looking around for the baby.
“You!” I shouted at him in a rage. “You weasel-faced giant-eared moron –owww– how dare you just show up at the last minute –owww!” I grabbed his hand to combat another contraction and squeezed it extra hard to make sure he knew how pissed off I was. When it passed, I slapped his arms several times in punishment while he tried to fend me off.
“I’m sorry, Lisbeth! I really did try to get here before now. Time moves differently in my homeland.” I continued my assault on his arms. “One hour there could mean a month here. And vice versa. It’s unpredictable.”
“Don’t you make excuses, you walking pheromone factory! You’ve been gone for months, you asshole! I’ve been by myself. I’ve been alone.” I broke out into a sob.
“I won’t leave you again,” he promised. “I swear, you won’t raise our baby alone.”
The doctor chose that moment to come in, just as another contraction hit me. Behind him was Benjamin and Alfred, who took a seat on the plastic couch opposite the bed.
“Lisbeth, how lovely to see you again,” the doctor said pleasantly, like I wasn’t in labor. I tried to smile at him through the pain, but it turned out more like a grimace. “Ah, your Incubus friend is here.” He nodded to Balthazar in respect.
“How long do you –oww– think I’ll be in labor? I kind of have things to –oww– do. The summit is this afternoon.”
He chuckled at me too, because I was just so super adorable in my pain. I will cut you as well. “Vampire labor is unpredictable. It’s not like human births, but vampire babies still come out at their own schedule. It could be an hour, it could be five hours.”
After his comforting words, the nurse helped me change into a hospital robe. With the five men in the room facing the other way for it, I realized all of them would be there when I had to start pushing.
“There are way too many men in this room,” I grumbled. The doctor wheeled in two metal stands with IV lines hanging off them, and the nurse brought in an electric cooler with blood which she plugged into the wall.
“For them,” the doctor explained, pointing to Benjamin and Alfred. As soon as my baby was born, I would need to feed to replenish my blood supply and repair my body, and it would require a lot more blood than I normally needed. As per the contract they’d signed, that would be the last time I was allowed to feed from them. There was also a clause about me potentially drinking too much, which could kill them.
The nurse hooked me up to some machines and studied the read-out for several minutes until declaring we still had a long way to go, which was confirmed by a pelvic check that I made the men turn away for.
Only one to five hours to go.
I was tired. I was starving. I was more excited at the prospect of a cheeseburger than seeing my baby for the first time. I jest. I would happily hold my daughter in my arms while eating a cheeseburger.
Funnily, even though I was in pain every few minutes, that wasn’t the worst part of it. No, the worst part was Marie, and every other vampire that barged in unannounced like I was simply knitting a blanket or cooking dinner, and all they had to tell me was that this had happened, and that needed my signature, as if this entire Order couldn’t function without my presence.
After I cut the nurse, doctor, and everyone else who strolled into this room, I was going to kill Othello for being kidnapped like a sap and sticking me with this crap job.
Balthazar dutifully mopped my forehead of sweat and planted a kiss on my clammy skin. “You’re doing good, sweetheart.”
“Madam Lisbeth,” Marie said from the doorway.
“I swear to god, get the hell out of here, Marie! If you interrupt us one more time, you’re fired!” I clawed at Balthazar’s hand to get through another contraction.
“What is it?” Arthur asked her before she could leave.
“Well, ummm…” She hesitated under my glare. “The Alphas have arrived.”
“The what?” I panted in confusion.
“The Lycans,” Arthur explained, squeezing my hand in his. “The summit is about to start.” Of course, I knew exactly what he was talking about, but my brain was addled with pain.
I whimpered, exhausted, and wishing this would all be over already. “I can’t miss the summit, Arthur. I can’t…” Everything inside me felt weak, defeated, vulnerable. Arthur knelt beside my bed and brushed the wet strands of my hair from my forehead. “I have to bring the Lycans back to our side. For him. For Knight. No one else can win them over, no one else cares like I do.”
“Then you only have one option,” he said, leaning in for one last kiss to my forehead.
“Push that baby out right now so we don’t keep them waiting?” I joked with a wince. He made a face like, sure that works for me.
It was time to focus. This baby was coming out right now whether she liked it or not, because I wasn’t going to miss the meeting that would change the fate of my world for anything. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, conjuring up the powers I had during the blood binge. It was difficult without the extra blood to support it, but I managed to connect with the baby inside me. I saw glimpses of her tiny body inside my womb and felt her coo to herself from the feeling of me connecting to her.
“Baby,” I said out loud, speaking to her directly. “It’s time to come out.” I felt her respond with a wiggle, and then the pain intensified, pushing me out of her energy and back into mine. It was safe to say that what I’d done had worked. Within minutes, I was standing on the cold tile with Arthur and Balthazar’s hands holding me upright, and the doctor kneeling in front of me.
Push. Push.
The more I pushed, the more my hunger grew. The smell of human blood flowing through Benjamin and Alfred’s veins started to override everything else.
“Focus, Lisbeth,” Arthur said as he gripped my hand. “Focus on the baby. Don’t let yourself go into a frenzy.” His words made me realize how close I was to it. My fangs dropped and I felt the tendrils of a frenzy begin to grab me.
The doctor slapped my thigh a few times because I’d stopped pushing. It wasn’t enough to hurt, but it brought me back to my task. “Push,” he ordered in a shout.
I pushed the blood hunger away with memories of the ultrasounds, her tiny little hands and feet that she liked to stick into her mouth. I held onto those moments when the pain rose in waves until there was nothing but my screams to keep me from going mad.
And then…
A different scream entered the room. A high-pitched wail came from beneath me, and the pressure subsided, making me weak at the knees. The doctor wrapped up what he held in his hands and handed it to the nurse. I couldn’t focus on that little lusty cry that got further and further away. I couldn’t even remember what I was doing or where I was.
“Hold her,” the man in front of me said. I felt two arms intertwine with mine until I couldn’t lift them. The man took a bag of blood out of a white cooler, stuck a straw in it, and held it to my lips. “Drink.” I recoiled from the smell. I didn’t want bagged blood. I wanted to drink from a human. He forced the straw past my lips and squeezed the bag enough so some of the blood entered my mouth. At the taste of it, I didn’t care that it was gross. I sucked on the straw until it made that annoying noi
se that meant the bag was empty. The man took the bag away and threw it in a bin. He turned back to me and inspected my eyes, then nodded to whoever was holding my arms. They loosened their grip enough to where I could move.
With the blood seeping into my system, I remembered the doctor and the two men holding my arms. Everything came back slowly, including the little cries I could still hear. I tried to get away so I could find her, but the doctor and the hands on my arms stopped me.
“You have to feed first,” he told me.
Alfred and Benjamin were standing next to the plastic couch, waiting for me to feed from them for the last time. The doctor took one last look at my eyes, and with another nod, Arthur and Balthazar let me go.
The doctor had explained to me along the way that a blood frenzy could happen from the loss of blood and the damage to my body, and I’d foolishly thought it wouldn’t happen to me. I was almost embarrassed, but the doctor’s face showed no judgments. He knew it could happen, and he had been prepared.
I fed from Alfred first. My fangs sunk into his deep, chocolate skin, and with every sip, I felt less weary. The pain below my waist got duller but didn’t disappear before the doctor put his hand on my arm to stop me. Benjamin was next, and he hugged me with a smile before I sunk my teeth into his soft neck. Any pain I felt was gone long before the doctor stopped me again.
Alfred and Benjamin left after giving their farewells, and the doctor stayed to clean the room while I took the quickest shower ever down the hall and put on a simple black dress and jacket. Balthazar gripped my hand with a smile when I came out of the bathroom. The doctor had finished cleaning and was standing with Arthur next to an open door on the other side of the hallway. I could hear soft cries coming out of that room, and I almost let go of Balthazar’s hand in my haste to go through the doorway.
The nurse stood in the middle of the nursery room holding a little white bundle of blankets. The room had two cribs on one end, and a counter with a baby scale and changing station on the other. The blankets started to wiggle in the nurse’s arms, making fitful cries of frustration. I walked closer until the bundle of blankets revealed a tiny, pink head covered in black curls.
The nurse turned to me and smiled. “Meet your daughter, Lisbeth.”
Daughter. My daughter. She was finally here.
My daughter looked up at me and stopped fussing when she saw my face. I took her from the nurse and held her close to my chest. She was so warm and so tiny.
“Here,” the nurse said as she handed me a bottle full of blood. “Maybe you can get her to drink.” I pushed the bottle close to my baby’s face, causing her to start crying again. I tried several more times with the same result, and the nurse motioned for the doctor to come closer. “She should be feeding. She’s turning the bottle away.”
My natural response to the doctor bending over my baby’s head was to pull her closer to my body and move away from him. All of my fears came bubbling up, andI cast a worried glance at Balthazar and Arthur. My bi-pire baby wasn’t normal. Would they take her away from me? Would she be destroyed out of fear?
“We need to examine her, Lisbeth,” the doctor soothed, holding his hands out for my baby.
That’s when my daughter bit into my chest.
My initial cry of pain didn’t register in the doctor’s plan to take her from me until the blanket slipped and he saw her fang deep in my breast. From his reaction, you’d think I was holding a nuclear bomb instead of a baby.
“She’s… she’s drinking vampire blood,” the nurse exclaimed in horror.
“What is she?” The doctor was staying a safe distance away, in case the newborn baby decided to attack him.
Balthazar stepped in front of us, Arthur coming beside me to put a hand on my shoulder, both of them ready to protect us. “She’s my daughter,” Balthazar warned with a tone that made even me a little frightened. “I promise you, if you harm her, you won’t enjoy what I will do to you.”
“You had a child with an Incubus?” the doctor asked in disbelief and shock. “We thought she was Othello’s.” Fucking Christ, was everyone stupid?
My baby finished drinking, pulling away from my breast, and I caught the drop of blood on her lip and wiped it on the blanket, then hoisted her to my shoulder for a burp, which she provided obligingly.
“It seems bi-pires drink vampire blood. It doesn’t mean she’ll attack us. She’s a baby,” Arthur pointed out. I almost laughed that he’d also come up with the word bi-pire. It didn’t comfort the doctor and nurse, but they moved closer from the other side of the room, edging towards the unknown baby.
I looked down at her again and found her studying me. She had a little stubby nose and chubby cheeks. Her swollen eyes were open as wide as they could go. They were blue on the outside and purple on the inside, a perfect mix of her parents’ eye colors.
She was perfect.
“Madam Lisbeth,” Marie’s voice burst into the doorway.
I stopped myself from yelling at her so I wouldn’t startle the baby. “Yes?” I hissed in a whisper.
“The summit is starting.” She looked at the baby in my arms. “Congratulations, by the way.”
“She’s not Othello’s,” I told her, putting my baby against my shoulder.
Marie smiled at me. “I know.”
I thanked the doctor and nurse, and Balthazar gave them warning looks with a protective hand on my back. “Down, boy,” I warned him when we left the clinic wing.
“They’re all going to react that way. You might need us to threaten everyone’s lives again,” Arthur pointed out.
“I won’t let them hurt her,” Balthazar promised. I held her closer to me and felt her tiny warm breath on my chest.
“You’re mistaken,” I told them as we walked down the hall. “If anyone hurts her, they won’t have to worry about either of you. I’ll kill them before their next breath leaves their lungs.” I adjusted my baby in my arms and squared my shoulders, giving Arthur a smile. The warmth that built in my chest at the sight of his face gave me hope. Hope that maybe someday the pain of losing Knight wouldn’t overwhelm my every thought, and I’d find a way to live again. I wasn’t sure how Arthur fit into that, or how I felt about him, but maybe it would work itself out with time. Especially if there was more kissing involved.
“Let’s form the Lycan alliance, gentlemen.” They followed me down the hallway until we reached the bigger drawing-room.
I stopped suddenly. Something was invading my nose, and I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but my body certainly knew it was worth alerting me. I shook it off and kept walking.
The closer I got to the bigger drawing-room, the more alarms were going off in my head. Balthazar took the baby from my hands when we got to the doors, and Arthur opened them for me.
The hunter green room was filled to the brim with vampires and Lycans. The scents of both canceled themselves out in my senses so that I barely smelled anyone in the room, but I still felt that something was off. It was clear that I was late when everyone turned to me and stopped talking.
I saw James, Sara, and Drake in the corner of my eye, and Sara waved to me, then pointed to somewhere in the crowd. She was gesturing to the group of Alphas standing in the area surrounding the half circle desk. I recognized Alexander and Jesse from their ranks.
Castilla came up to me and kissed me on both cheeks, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the group of Alphas. “Felicitaciones,” Castilla said. “Congratulations on your little niña. I’m so sorry we had to pull you away from her so soon.”
“It’s fine,” I said in auto-response. Jesse waved to me and motioned behind him.
Someone came from deep in the group of Alphas, and they all parted to let him pass.
My heart stopped when I saw a face emerge among them that I thought was lost to me forever, and the truth of the moment came crashing down on me like an atomic bomb, destroying my reality in one fell swoop.
Knight was alive.
War of the Chos
en
Born Vampire, Book three
NSFW Edition
Prologue
There’s an experience I was certain would never happen to me. When I was a child, I never fantasized about it. I never even dreamed about it. It was something I had put from my mind, stored away, to never be thought or spoken of. I was content with that, except having ignored it as a possibility made the actuality that much more unsettling when that moment finally arrived.
It came in the ruins of Čachtice Castle, a castle in Slovakia, no longer the nation of Transylvania. The structure was crumbling around me, every tower and wall suffering from age and the constant battering of the elements. Over time, it had become a tourist attraction, with humans constantly in and out of the ruins. There were none around just then, all gone home for the evening as the sun started to set.
Staring at the ancient castle walls, I could feel something stir inside me, a memory that I couldn’t quite catch hold of. Something about the way the stones looked, or the beautiful, rare plants it was known for, though I wasn’t sure how I knew about them. The memory was old. I focused more on it, and I realized the castle in my memory wasn’t crumbling in ruins. I’d been here before, but when? I had a perfect vampiric memory. The broken whispers confused me.
“This way,” Clara said. She stood in front of me, smiling, her purple eyes the same as mine. It was still jarring, even though I’d been staring at them for over an hour as we’d trekked up to the castle on foot from the nearby town.
“Sorry,” I apologized, and continued following her up a crumbling staircase that led to the only tower still standing. Though most of the walls were intact, one side of the circular room was missing a good portion, casting a fading ray of sunlight across the floor.
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 34