“Can’t believe we have two boys,” he gushed.
“Yeah. It’s nice to finally know so we can start getting stuff for them,” she nodded. “Apparently we may need to get a head start on that.”
“What makes you say that?” he questioned, a hint of concern in his eyes.
“The doctor told me they measure five and a half months, not four. And they are really crammed in there, so he thinks I’ll deliver early… And that’s early for them being five and a half months.”
Gabriel’s brow furrowed a bit, “But you’re only four months pregnent…”
“Yeah, that’s my point. The way he was making it sound was I was going to have them when I’m actually six months pregnant, so in just two months. It just doesn’t seem right to me,” Olivia frowned.
“That is weird… Let me call Kahlil. It’s evening time there so hopefully he’ll answer.”
Gabriel grabbed his cell phone and rang Kahlil. After a few seconds, the other side picked up. Gabriel told him everything she had just informed him of. The men were only on the phone for a few minutes before Gabriel hung up, an excited look on his face.
“What did he say?” she asked.
He tossed his phone on the desk before turning back to her, “He said that it is possible that during the time of conception, my cells still had traces of superhuman traits. So, they inherited some of the genes. Kahlil said it doesn’t mean they’ll have any lasting effects of it, but that it’s possible they will grow faster than average babies. Since it’s only a six weeks difference, it’s not like they’ll grow up insanely fast… just a little faster. So the doctor today probably was right. You could have them as soon as two months from now. Isn’t that exciting? We’ll have them even faster than we thought.”
There was a broad grin on his face, clearly giddy at the news that the babies would arrive soon. Olivia wanted to be excited too, and she was excited to meet the babies… but she wasn’t prepared to give birth yet. She thought she had at least four months left until she would have to worry about that, not two. She needed a bit more time to mentally prepare herself.
The best she could muster was a weak smile, “Well, then we definitely need to get ready for them,” she told him as she stood from his lap, “And they’ll need names eventually,” she teased.
Gabriel and Olivia were made for each other in every way, agreeing on everything—except names.
“Not my fault you don’t like Adalwulf,” he huffed.
“How is it you are named Gabriel, yet like traditional Germanic names?” she questioned him as she finally laid on the bed.
“I chose Gabriel for myself,” he told her, “It’s easy for people to say and spell.”
Gabriel shut the laptop and stood, “I don’t remember my real name,” he shrugged. “I’ve gone by Gabriel so long that I can’t even begin to guess what my actual name was.”
“That’s so sad,” she frowned, watching as he walked towards her. “You’ve never ran across a name and felt a connection to it?”
He shook his head as he laid next to her, “Can’t say I have.” He looked her over, “Are you feeling okay? You seem a little off.”
Olivia shrugged, “Yeah, I guess. Just a little stressed since they are coming so soon… I thought we had months to prepare. Not just eight weeks…”
Gabriel nodded, “I understand… We will get through it, though. I promise. And it’ll all be worth it,” he reminded her.
Olivia kissed him, trying to find comfort in his words. Things had moved so fast between them. It was a lot to take in. He was right, though. No matter how crazy things got, by the end of it, it would all be worth it.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Another month passed without incident. Around that time, Gabriel decided the bar scene was too rowdy to bring Olivia around as she entered late pregnancy. Once again, Matilda and him were in a routine of taking turns babysitting her. It was necessary for her protection, the nest being still torn about her presence. She felt like if they would just get to know her, then they wouldn’t have such a problem with her. But, Olivia supposed she was a little at fault for them not knowing her. Being afraid of them caused her to hardly mingle with them at all. Still, she wished they didn’t feel such animosity towards her. It wasn’t as though she had personally done anything to any of them.
It was Gabriel’s turn to spend the night with her. He had gotten Matilda and Ezekiel to hang around while he went out to get her some food. Once she ate and debated names with him for a little bit, they watched a movie together on his laptop and both of them drifted to sleep. They fell into a peaceful sleep, Gabriel holding her.
As they rested, the door to their room suddenly flew open and both of them jerked awake. Olivia hurried to cover herself, being in just her bra and underwear because of how hot she slept those days.
“What the fuck do you want?” Gabriel growled, protectively putting an arm around Olivia.
“Gabriel. It happened again,” a female vampire said to him. “Someone drained a human and just dumped them in the bar’s alley. Police were everywhere.”
“What?” he snapped, standing from the bed. He fumbled to put on his pants and darted from the room without a word. The vampire followed him. Olivia got out of the bed and pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Without thinking much of it, she walked out the door and stood at the railing, overlooking the floor of the plant.
Gabriel was already in the center of the plant. “Who did it?!” he screamed at the members of the nest.
The only response was silence. His eyes scanned the crowd.
“I am sick and tired of your selfish, childish behavior! Acting out like this isn’t going to get you anything but death. I’m going to figure out who did it, and you will be punished. What do you think is going to happen? Huh? That acting out like this is going to make me leave her? You all have a fucked up perception of love and relationships if you think dumb shit like this is going to drive me to do anything but put you out. You all try and say I’m weak for loving a human. You all are weak for letting something like that get to you. I don’t want to hear a word from any of you. Pack up and head out. We only have a few hours till sunrise. If any of you try and speak to me and you’re not telling me the name of the one who did this, I’ll fuck you up.”
Everyone was frozen as Gabriel laid into all of them, practically foaming at the mouth.
“I said pack up!” he bellowed.
They all then began to scramble, packing up their belongings.
As Gabriel headed for the stairs, a young female vampire approached him and touched his arm. His eyes slid to her, holding hatred in his gaze. When she spoke, he picked her up by the neck and threw her clear across the floor. The girl crashed into a column before falling to the floor. Even from where Olivia was standing, she could hear the woman groan in pain. Olivia was wide-eyed, never seeing Gabriel treat a member of the nest like that in person. However, she could understand why Gabriel was so angry. She couldn’t believe they would act so very childish, so soon after their recent mishap. And why did it upset the nest so much that they were together?
Gabriel walked up the stairs, noticing her standing there and hesitated for a moment before moving to her.
“I’m sorry you saw all that,” he mumbled, kissing her head.
“We have to leave right now?” she asked, looking to him.
He sighed, “Yeah, baby, we do. I’m sorry. I’m going to get a handle on them or else next time I’m just going to put them all down like dogs. Except for the ones I know who wouldn’t do that.”
Gabriel moved to the room, immediately starting to throw everything into their bags. Olivia helped by packing her clothes and their toiletries. After a couple of minutes, a couple of other vampires came into the room and started to break apart their bed and hauled it out for them. Within half an hour, the entire warehouse was barren. Olivia could tell that this was a routine everyone there, except her, was well accustomed to. She walked next to Gabriel as he carried the last of the
ir belongings to their van. They had started to collect furniture and toys for the twins, but luckily all of it was still in the boxes so it all fit in the van.
Olivia got into the passenger seat, buckling in and relaxing into her seat.
“At least this is a lot more comfortable than your bike,” she smiled at him.
She knew he was in a sour mood because of having to move again, so she was trying to stay positive for both of their sakes.
“Climate control, radio, reclining seats… it’s like a palace in here.”
The man cracked a smile at her comment, looking over to her and holding her hand. “Thank you,” he breathed to her. “I’m going to make this right for us one day, I swear to you.”
“I believe you,” she smiled at him.
He took off, following behind the others as they made their way to the highway. It was already one in the morning, so they only had four hours to travel before they would need to get somewhere safe.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
They spent the first night in a warehouse at the state’s border, unable to go further because of dawn approaching. The next night, they once again headed on the road, that time traveling much further, going states and states away. They needed to get distance because of the police investigation. With how sloppy the vampire had been, it had been state-wide news. Their destination was a sizeable warehouse, not as big as the last one they had lived in, but it would do. Once again, Gabriel and Olivia set up in the office of the warehouse, except that time it was on the ground floor.
Tension was high in the nest. Gabriel and many of the others were pissed about the reckless killing of humans, while the others were still pissed about Olivia’s presence. She tried to stay out of it all, not wanting to make anything worse. Instead, she focused on getting ready for the babies.
Matilda taught Olivia how to crochet, which occupied quite a bit of her time. Matilda had knitted and crocheted the boys several items, the woman being just as excited as Gabriel for the babies to arrive. Olivia was enormous and miserable but surprisingly less stressed than she had been before. She was just excited to meet their sons. And part of her hoped that them getting there would bring peace to the nest. Surely the others wouldn’t want to hurt two innocent babies once they had met them. Gabriel, on the other hand, remained on edge. He was pissed about them putting his family in jeopardy like that, and feared they would do it again.
Everyone settled well into their new home it seemed, and they all found a routine once again. Each night either Gabriel would guide them to a local bar, or Matilda and Ezekiel would. For the first few nights, things were calm but still tense. Gabriel started to relax again once the nest started proving to him they weren’t going to drain another human. Olivia actually liked their new location, the building being a little more modern and nicer; her only complaint was that they didn’t have their own bathroom which made it annoying when she had to get up a million times during the day to use the bathroom. But, above all, things were simmering down and returning to normal. At least, so they thought.
The nest was out for the night and it was Matilda’s turn to watch over Olivia. The two girls spent the whole night putting together furniture for the babies and finishing up some of the blankets they had been working on for them. Olivia fell asleep early, even though she had been trying to stay up to see Gabriel when he got home. But of course, she woke up shortly after falling asleep, needing to use the bathroom. Matilda had left the room, probably to spend time with Ezekiel.
She sleepily made her way to the bathroom. Once she was done using the restroom, she then washed her hands.
When Olivia went to leave, a young female approached her, “So, what’s it like shacking up with the boss?” she asked her boldly.
Olivia raised a brow at her, “Excuse me?”
“Oh, come on. We’re all dying to know. He’s all dreamy and mysterious, and so sexy. It’s crazy to me that with so many beautiful and strong vampires to pick from, Gabriel chooses a fleshy, weak human to fuck.”
Olivia just blinked at the woman, completely caught off guard by her aggressively rude comment. She tried to avoid her, not wanting to talk about her sex life with Gabriel to a vampire she didn’t even know the name of.
“When did you get back from the bar? Is everyone back?” she asked, walking from the bathroom towards the floor.
“Oh no. Most of the nest is still at the bar. Just a few of us headed back early. Slipped away without Gabriel even noticing. He was too busy nuzzled in the neck of some human,” she smiled sweetly to Olivia.
Her eyes widened at her words. “What?” she gasped.
Gabriel was feeding on another human? They had agreed long, long ago that she was the only human he would feed on. Olivia wasn’t sure if the girl was lying or not.
The female vampire tilted her head to the side, “That doesn’t upset you, does it? How do you expect him to stay our strong, fearless leader when he can only take sips from your neck?”
The vampire let out a bitter giggle, “You really don’t know how vampires work, do you?”
Olivia’s stomach churned, bile rising in her throat. She tried to tell herself that it was fine. He did need to stay strong, and he really wasn’t able to drink much from her because of her needing her own blood to support the twins. Still, the thought made her heart hurt. Olivia knew how pleasurable it was to get fed from. And ever since she entered her ‘third trimester’, they hadn’t really had sex. They would fool around, but that was the extent of it. She hadn’t been able to help it, she felt disgusting with how large she was no matter how much Gabriel tried to assure her she was beautiful. What if he gave into the urges feeding gave? He wouldn’t do that to her… He would never do that to her. Her mind was spinning.
She tried to shake the girl’s words away. “Good night,” she told the lady, moving to walk back to her room.
In a blur, she was in front of her. “Where are you going? We just started talking!” The vampire shoved her back, making Olivia stumble but she caught herself.
Olivia’s heart was racing then. Was this girl going to try and hurt her? Before she could do anything, a few more vampires emerged from the shadows. The only one she recognized was Ethel.
Her eyes widened, “Matilda?!” she called through the warehouse.
In the distance, a door opened and Matilda and Ezekiel emerged from their room. When they tried to move to get to her, another small crowd of vampires swarmed around them and held them in place. They both wore panicked expressions, struggling against the vampires to try and get free.
“Leave her alone!” Matilda yelled as she managed to get an arm free from one of the vampires.
“Everything is going to be just fine once we restore the order,” Ethel grinned to them.
Her cold eyes slid to Olivia. “I should have done this when I had the chance. You’re far too big of a distraction for Gabriel, and once those babies arrive, they will only make it worse. So with all that being said, I hope you don’t take this too personally, Olivia. It’s only business.”
With a snap of Ethel’s fingers, two vampires grabbed Olivia from behind. A fear like no other stormed through Olivia, tears instantly bubbling from her eyes.
“Please don’t do this. Please. They need me. They didn’t do anything wrong to anyone,” Olivia wept to Ethel, referring to the twins.
“This isn’t going to restore balance, Ethel!” Ezekiel snarled from across the room, “It’s only going to make him kill every last one of you. Maybe all of us. You can’t kill his children and expect him to respond with anything but violence.”
“And what is my reaction meant to be when he murdered my brother? And why do they get to have children but none of us do? Ezekiel, you’re thousands of years older than him. Do you really think it’s fair that you and Matilda have waited just as long and he gets his way just because he decided to fuck a human?”
At first, the couple remained silent, looking between one another before Matilda looked back to him.
“We choose not to be envious because we want to rejoice in the lives she is creating with him. Do you realize how evil you are? You’re willing to kill a mother and two unborn lives just because you’re bitter and jealous.”
“I’ve heard enough!” Ethel snapped.
Olivia was sobbing uncontrollably, wishing so badly she was strong enough to fight back. She couldn’t even take on one of them when she wasn’t pregnant, let alone the four that surrounded her. She was completely at their mercy.
The door to the building flew open, with Gabriel and several others rushing in. His eyes first fell on Matilda and Ezekiel, who were still struggling to get free from the vampires that had them. It only took him a fraction of a second to find Olivia and the others.
“No!” he screamed, running towards them.
“Do it now! NOW!” Ethel demanded.
One of the vampires that held Olivia dipped their heads and clipped her jugular. A breath escaped her lips as blood began to pour rapidly down her front. Her body went into shock instantaneously, the twins kicking and moving around in a frenzy. They let her drop to the ground, all hurrying away from the scene. Olivia collapsed to the floor, her eyes wide and dilated as she bled out. Gabriel was over her as soon as the vampires dropped her, tears rushing down his face.
“No, no, no…” he breathed, hands shaking as he looked at her.
He was in such a panic, he didn’t know what to do at first. Olivia was unresponsive, eyes fixed in one direction.
Gabriel looked back to see the vampires that had come back with him fighting the others to get them away from Matilda and Ezekiel. Taking a deep breath, he looked back to the horrific scene of his lover bleeding out before his eyes. He needed to act quickly. Olivia only had minutes remaining before all of the blood was drained from her. Taking off his leather jacket and throwing it to the side, he raised his wrist to his mouth. Sinking his fangs into his own wrist, he quickly lowered it to Olivia’s lips. His other hand pushed her head to lay flat on the floor.
A New World: A Vampire's Obsession: Book 3 Page 6