When she was comfortable again, I braced myself for an attack, and reached out to grab onto her breast gently.
“Hey—ow!” Elyssa whined, cringing away from my touch. “What was that for, Dmitri?!”
I frowned and shrugged. “Well, vampires rarely get sick, unless someone has bad blood. Seeing as how you’ve only been drinking our bottled blood, I know that you aren’t sick from blood, so the only other option is for you to be pregnant,” I told her.
I could hear the lack of enthusiasm in my voice and hoped that Elyssa wouldn’t catch onto it. She didn’t. In fact, her face froze in a mask of horror and she covered her mouth with her hands.
“What? Do you think you’re going to be sick again?” I asked, motioning to the toilet.
“Well,” she began, pausing to think. I held my breath, hoping she wasn’t about to say the very thing that was haunting my mind.
“Zeke and I had a very ugly conversation earlier. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t leave a queasy feeling in my stomach.”
For a moment, I allowed that. But to have uncontrollable vomiting even when sickened mentally was still wrong for one of us.
“This is horrible.”
I was confused. Shouldn’t she be happy that she’s carrying the child of her dead Mate? After all, that way she would always have a reminder of him in her life, and she could be happy about their time together. Unless…
“Elyssa, this baby is Reid’s, right?” I asked her quietly, accusingly. Her green eyes found mine and I suddenly realized the truth.
Suddenly what Elyssa told me in the days after Reid’s death really sunk in.
“I was in Zeke’s dungeons…”
“Did you sleep with Zeke?” I asked. This time there was some kind of emotion in my voice. But it most certainly wasn’t pleasant, and Elyssa caught on.
She flinched and refused to meet my eyes. I grabbed her chin harshly.
“Answer me!” I barked. Her eyes widened and for a second I might have believed that she was afraid of me.
“I did. It wasn’t anything we planned, and we both agree that it was a horrible mistake, never to be repeated…”
I shoved her away from me, unable to stand being in contact with her then.
“You slept with the worst person possible, mere days after you killed your Mate? What the fuck is wrong with you?” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “And him… I can’t believe… Never mind. That move was perfect representation of everything awful about my brother.”
“Don’t you think we’re beating ourselves up enough over it?!” Elyssa shouted. Her expression went from defense mode to anger in mere seconds. I wasn’t intimidated, though.
“Who the fuck cares how much grief you’ve given yourselves? It should never have happened!” I clutched her shoulders and shook her. “You deserve that guilt and so much more!”
Before she could defend herself, I continued. “You deserve even more if the baby you’re carrying isn’t Reid’s.”
Leaving it at that, I made myself invisible and walked away.
What were they thinking? Grief or not, they both should have known better…
Hell, what was I thinking? I thought. Having feelings for my dead brother’s Mate, who wasn’t my Mate, and on top of that, she was a person who made bad decisions?
“It’s no wonder Zeke is in love with her,” I said out loud.
Immediately I felt bad. I wasn’t the type of friend that automatically jumped on the judgmental train. I was the supportive one. The one who helped his friends through the impossible times, even when they were brought upon by their own stupidity.
I turned around to find Elyssa once more. She was in the same place I’d left her at, which made it easy on me.
Without making myself visible, I said, “By the way, vampire pregnancies only last three months.”
I then walked away.
Elyssa
Pregnant. I never would have thought that it would happen to me, even before my transformation into a vampire. That didn’t really decide anything though, since I knew that vampires were able to have families in the same way humans could.
But I’d never really given it much thought before the change, either.
I rubbed my belly slowly, trying to process it. Sitting in the quiet of the library I’d always visited with Reid was better than dealing with Dmitri’s disgusted glares.
“Reid,” I whispered, leaning back so that I was lying on the sofa, my hands rested on my abdomen.
I still felt queasy and weak from my earlier bouts of sickness, but it was beginning to fade as I relaxed more. It was hard to process that vampire pregnancies lasted only three short months. Most women had trouble getting their lives situated for a baby in a whole nine months, and I only had three.
Well, approximately three months. This baby was at least a few weeks into gestation.
Frowning, I clenched my fists against my stomach. I had no idea if the baby I was carrying was Reid’s or if it came from the hours I spent with Zeke… The encounter was only a few days after my last time with Reid, so it was entirely possible that it was his. But that would be the biggest insult to Reid’s memory that we’d committed since his death.
Before I could think too much on that train of thought, the doors to the library burst open. I jumped, nearly toppling over the edge of the couch in my startled state.
Peeking over the edge of the couch, I groaned when I saw Zeke storming into the library.
"When were you planning on telling me that you are with child?" he asked. His tone told me that he was in no mood for games today, but I folded my arms over my chest anyway, refusing to give in so easily after all that I had withstood from this monster of a man. "Tell me now, Elyssa!" he roared, grabbing me by my upper arms and yanking me into an upright position.
I gasped, surprised that he would get so rough with me so quickly, and bit down on my lip. "You're going to hurt me if you continue holding me like this, Ezekiel," I told him, hoping that my tone was as icy as could be.
Zeke laughed. "I don't give a damn what happens to you right now, woman."
"But I'm going to assume that you do care what happens to the child in my body!" I said, pulling myself free of his grip while he digested my words.
He glared at me and nodded once. "That I do," he whispered. The fury in his eyes was evident to me but he held himself back. He must have known that if he unleashed his anger on me, I wouldn't be the only one suffering from it.
"I only just figured it out a short while ago, Zeke," I said, rubbing my hands over my face. I was exhausted from being sick, and now I had to deal with a furious vampire. This was not my day.
"What kind of woman doesn't know her own body?" he sneered at me, pressing his hands against the back of the couch and leaning over me. I reclined so he wasn't so close, carefully managing to keep my balance.
"Perhaps the woman whose body has changed so much already in the past handful of weeks?" I spit back at him, baring my fangs at him angrily. He arched one eyebrow at me, as though daring me to take a snap at him. I was never one to stand down a dare, so I reached out and slapped him hard across the face.
"Why do you insist on hassling me when clearly I should be resting?!" I demanded, rolling myself off the couch so that I stood opposite him.
Zeke ignored my question. "Do you at least know whose it is?" he asked. Some of the anger had drained from his face, replaced by exhaustion. I softened at the sight, but tensed when I realized that I had to answer this question.
Biting down on my lip, I began thinking, trying to calculate when exactly it had happened. I couldn't come up with anything definite. "No," I whispered, turning my eyes down so I could glare at the carpet, my hands balled into fists at my sides.
"What?" Zeke asked, leaning closer to me over the edge of the back of the couch. His fingertips dug into the fabric of the couch, and I worried for a moment that his nails would tear through the plush fabric, creating ugly gaping holes in the beautiful red sofa
. "Well?" he asked impatiently, clenching his hands even harder. "Whose is it?"
I lifted my gaze from his hands to his face and frowned. "I'm... Not exactly sure," I murmured, crossing my arms over my chest in preparation for the onslaught that I was sure to receive.
"...You whore."
"Excuse me?!" I exploded, hissing at him fiercely. I climbed onto the couch and held his throat in my hands, pressing down slightly on his windpipe with both of my thumbs. My nails dug slightly into his skin, but Zeke didn't flinch once.
"Whore," he hissed, lifting his hands to grip my wrists, "whore," he repeated even lower, yanking my hands from his throat and leaning forward. "Whore," he finished, whispering directly into my ear. His cold breath gave me the chills, but other than that, I was incensed.
"Well, aren't we mature?" I said sarcastically, moving out of his range quickly.
He said nothing as he stared me down, sadness creeping into his eyes with each passing second. There was a part of me that longed for nothing more than to make that sadness go away, but the more stubborn side of me merely stared him down.
"Well, of course you'll have to carry yourself to term here in the castle, and when the baby is born and comes into his powers, we'll know whose child it is," Zeke said. He seemed uncaring, like the outcome meant absolutely nothing to him. However, I could see right through that.
Yet my insight into the softer side of Zeke didn't stop me from continuing to prod at him.
"Would you still be saying that if we didn't already know that I can’t leave this place?" I demanded, leaning forward on the edge of the back of the couch expectantly. His eyes followed my face and stared directly into my own for a moment while he said nothing. I arched my eyebrows at him, waiting for his answer.
"Of course I would, you silly little bitch," he breathed, shaking his head. "My, and here I was, beginning to think that you weren't stupid after all. How wrong I was," he chuckled, turning on his heel. As he began to walk away, I lunged over the back of the couch after him, grabbing his arm to pull him to a stop.
"You're foolish," Zeke said before I could demand a real answer out of him. "This baby is one with Lanistter blood. Of course I would demand that you stay. As the bearer of a Lanistter child, you are officially a part of this family now. Even if you wanted to leave, you would not be able to take the child anywhere without my permission." I gawked at him and he shrugged, ripping his arm free of my grasp.
"What are you saying, Zeke?"
He rolled his eyes and turned to face me. "I'm giving you something to think about. Now that you are the mother of a Lanistter, you are as much a part of this family as I am; as Reid was. You carry one of our children. Therefore you are under the control, so to speak, of the head of the family. You'll never believe who that is," he whispered conspiratorially, winking at me. He then rolled his eyes and turned away from me again.
"I refuse to let some stupid woman take away a member of my family. So even if Tywin hadn't found a way to prevent you from leaving – we still need to figure out why that is, by the way – I would have stopped you once I found out about," his voice trailed off and he turned to face me slowly.
The look on his face was difficult to identify, and I flinched away from him when he moved closer to me. "Once I found out about this child," he finished, his words barely breathed out. He set his palm against my stomach gently, sending warmth through my body, warmth that I didn't understand.
"Zeke," I said softly. He looked up at me and made a shushing noise before lowering himself to his knees.
I gasped when he pressed his ear to my stomach, winding his arms around me so that his hands were splayed out over the small of my back. My arms dangled awkwardly at my sides for a moment before I lifted them to set them gently on Zeke's head. I ran my fingertips through his short hair slowly, scratching his scalp gently with my fingernails. He hummed quietly and I smiled down at him, not that he could see.
Suddenly, he moved away from me, prying himself off me with a quick push against my hips. "Sorry," he said gruffly, rising to his feet once more.
I wanted to tell him it was okay, but suddenly I worried that this was all because of a mood swing, and I didn't want to ruin the small moment we had together.
"If this child is mine," he whispered, facing away from me, "then I want to be a part of his life. He doesn't have to know that I'm his father, he can believe it's your deceased Mate for all I care, but he will know me."
I laughed once, shaking my head. "Wouldn't he have known you either way, Zeke?" I teased lightly, darting past him toward the open doors so I could leave. "After all, you said that the child would not be going anywhere. That, my good sir, implies that you and your brothers would be getting to know him very well." I paused, blinking rapidly as I digested what I'd said. Then I glared at Zeke. "Look at you! Already getting me to call this baby a 'he'! I may have to throttle you, Ezekiel Lanistter!" I said, shaking my fist at him.
Zeke looked at me, startled by my sudden comic outburst, and then laughed, shaking his head. He walked toward me, still smiling – and such a lovely smile it was... I had to admit that his smiles made me weak in the knees.
He wound one arm loosely around my waist and ducked down to press a kiss to my temple. "In case you haven't noticed, fair Elyssa, there hasn't ever been a female born to our side of the family. There is one female in the American side, but that's from a whole different mother. I can guarantee you that your child will be male," he said to me, chuckling. "See you later. Don't forget to feed the newest Lanistter at least four times a day."
I stood there for a moment, digesting Zeke's thoughts that the baby inside me would undoubtedly be a boy. It was hard to doubt the certainty in his voice, and yet I longed for him to be wrong. It wasn't that I wanted a girl, but I truly wanted Zeke to be wrong.
"The bastard."
Then his words hit me. Four times a day. It was logical, I knew; the baby needed nourishment after all. "But four times a day? He couldn't have meant that I need to feed it human food, either, though I'm sure that can tide us over for snacks..." I groaned, tears pricking my eyes.
I didn't want to feed four times a day! Drinking blood, while it sated the burning in my throat and made me stronger, still felt disgusting.
I could only imagine that feeding from a human would feel much worse. But at the same time, the thought appealed to me on some level, and my stomach growled at me.
"Fuck," I groaned, smacking my forehead with my hand. "I guess I have to head to the kitchen for a bottle or two of blood... I should also eat while I'm there. Now, what sounds good?"
Zeke
I stared at her in awe. Somehow, this human, who had previously been my victim, was catching me by surprised in the most pleasant of ways.
We’d been spending time together, as usual, when I thought that I should probably tell her about the situation with Elyssa. We were strolling through the garden – Roxann was delighted by my idea to have a picnic outside – on our way back to the castle, when I took her hand.
“Roxann,” I began, sighing. My opening wasn’t the best or brightest, and her look of dread made me feel awful. “I have something to tell you.”
The woman nodded, and I could see her mentally preparing herself for whatever news I was about to spring on her. “Okay,” she whispered.
Inhaling deeply, I held her hand even tighter, afraid she would try to run off. I could easily catch her, of course, but if she ran, it probably would break my heart…
Wow, I thought. Zeke the killer going soft over a human… never thought I’d see the day.
“Well, see, here’s the thing,” I said, exhaling slowly. “Elyssa is pregnant. We don’t exactly know if the baby is her with her Mate or… If it’s mine,” I finished in a small voice, actually ashamed to have to tell this wonderful woman that I may have been having a baby with my dead brother’s Mate.
I knew it wasn’t the ideal thing for a woman to hear, especially on a nice cozy stroll home from our picnic, but I
also knew that she needed to know. That I needed to be honest with her if I had any hope of having a real relationship with her.
Roxann’s face was impossible to read, and I braced myself for the worst. When she slowly disentangled her hand from mine, I was prepared to give up. However, she wound her arms around my shoulders and hugged me tight.
“You poor thing,” she whispered, rubbing my back. “As if the death of your brother wasn’t enough… You made a mistake while you were grieving and ended up with something that you may not be able to get over. I’m so sorry for the problems going on in your life.”
I froze. A mistake?
How could I ever think that being with Elyssa was a mistake?
I didn’t. There was no way in hell that being with Elyssa in any way shape or form could be a mistake.
But I couldn’t tell Roxann that without explaining it all, and if I explained everything to her, then she may not want to be with me, because of all the baggage that apparently came with being with me.
“Yes, it’s been a very difficult time since Reid died,” I said, settling for a half-truth. It had been a hard time since his passing, but then, I’d wanted to be with Elyssa in that way since before his passing, so it wasn’t as though I wasn’t in my right mind.
Plus, the way she’d moaned my name… I tore myself off that trail of thought before I could give myself too good of an image and ruin the date with Roxann.
“I’m glad you understand,” I said quietly, pulling away from her.
“You’ve been so understanding this whole time.” I leaned forward slowly and touched my lips to hers tenderly. There was nothing sweeter than a first kiss.
Even a first kiss with the only remaining family member of a well-known vampire hunting family.
I wondered if she really knew that. I realized I was thinking too much during the kiss and pulled away, grimacing. Roxann’s face flushed red.
“I’m sorry, did I do something wrong?” she asked. I could practically feel her embarrassment in the air between us. I laughed softly. “No, you’re fine. I just… I’ve been hiding something from you since our last conversation. It’s nothing bad, but it’s something I feel that you should know.”
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