by Diana Graves
“You look disappointed,” said Alistair as they approached me.
“Who was that man waiting for the elevator?” I asked them.
“I didn’t see his face,” said Gabriel
Alistair said, “I wasn’t paying attention to him. How do you feel?”
I looked at the elevator for a moment longer before looking at the men in front of me. Gabe was in his usual white lab coat and black slacks but Alistair was wearing stressed jeans and a red t-shirt that looked soft to the touch and clung to his chest like a second skin. My eyes lingered for a moment on his chest before I realized I was staring.
“I’m fine. I feel really good actually, hungry as hell, but good.”
“You weren’t fed?” asked Gabriel. He turned to Alistair. “I assure you, Master. I gave the staff orders to deliver her breakfast, lunch and dinner, all vegan.”
“No,” I said. “They did. I ate the breakfast, declined the lunch and slept through dinner.”
“Of course,” said Alistair. “I’ll have them bring something down while we examine the little one, okay?”
“Sounds great. Can I make a request?” I asked with a wide grin. Alistair smiled down at me and I took that as a yes. “Can I get a grande, soymilk, double shot, caramel, hazelnut macchiato with some fresh fruit on the side? I haven’t had coffee in almost two whole days.” Addicted much?
“Very good,” he said quietly. He took his cell phone from his pocket and turned around to make the call while Gabriel ushered me back into my room.
Gabriel took Isobel from me and set her on the bed. Her arms and legs moved in a panic as he undressed her, but she didn’t cry. He took her diaper off and examined her ears, mouth, eyes and lady parts as I stood beside him. He listened to her heart beat and breathing.
“She seems in good working order, more human than barguest,” he said.
“How are baby barguests different from humans?”
“Besides the obvious difference in skin complexion, they aren’t human shaped.”
“What shape are they?”
“Well, I’ve only seen one in my lifetime. She-he-it was simply a mass with two holes, one for sustenance and one for excrement. The anatomy of a barguest is more or less a blank slate. They need inspiration to mimic. Infants don’t know any animals, so they can’t mimic one. Though, I’ve heard from others that they sometimes come out as whatever animal their mother was when she gave birth.”
“So, a barguest’s natural state of being is what, a lump?” I asked.
“No and yes. Most animals are made up of several different organs that do very specific tasks in order to keep a functioning unit, but barguests aren’t built like that. I’m surprised Damon hasn’t explained this to you.”
“I’ve never asked, actually. I just assumed his organs moved around at will or something.”
Gabriel put a fresh diaper on Isobel before wrapping her back up like a burrito. “They don’t. Barguests are one large organ, like a giant ameba, but the makeup of their tissue is highly complex. Every cell in their body has the potential to perform any task it’s told to: digest this food for energy, breathe fire, grow hair. If you cut them even in half, they’ll live, but they’ll be smaller for a time, of course.”
I didn’t like what Gabriel was saying. It made Damon seem less human and more alien. A giant ameba, really? So, when we make love he’s just forming a piece of himself into a…manly bit?
“They have no brain, no heart?” I asked.
“Quite the opposite. That’s what makes a barguest so intelligent and so hard to kill. Take Damon for example. Right now he’s in human form, meaning that every part of your complex body of bones and fleshy tissue, he’s mimicking exactly. However, if you got shot in the heart it would kill you. If he got shot in the heart, his body would discard the damaged cells and grow new ones in their place almost instantly. It means the brain in his head is one of his own design and the heart in his chest is his to control completely. That’s why barguests are calm creatures, not so easily excited.”
“That sounds better. You were weirding me out for a minute there.”
Gabe laughed loudly then and it started Isobel. She cried out and suddenly Alistair was there, holding her before I could react. He soothed her, rubbing her back and making soft whooshing sounds. He even took the time to set my coffee down on the counter with a small bowl of fruit salad. Talk about vampire fast reflexes.
“Wow,” I said under my breath.
“What’s so humorous?” Alistair asked Gabriel.
“Our Raina,” he said with laughter clinging to the edge of his words. “Damon weirds her out.”
“Why?” Alistair asked softly.
“He doesn’t—weird me out,” I said while I grabbed my coffee and picked out a piece of pineapple. “It was just how Gabriel described him, what he is. It just sounded too odd.”
“Many people see barguests as not human enough to have relations with them. They see such relationships as bestiality,” Gabe said as he took a seat on the bed. When I cringed at his words he continued, “Humans can’t breed with barguests, Raina. Not usually. Elves, fairies, witches, were-animals, hell even demons and angels can breed with humans, but not barguests, not and produce a viable offspring, not until now it would seem.”
“Well, fuck those people,” I said with a mouth full of blue berries. But my eyes fell to the floor in thought, disturbed thoughts.
I heard Alistair say, “So, she is healthy then?”
“Isobel seems very healthy. She had some blood taken for testing and her hearing was tested, yes?” he asked me.
“Yeah, around ten this morning they took her blood and tested her hearing,” I confirmed.
“Then it’s a waiting game now. I want you and the baby to stay at Bastion Fatal for a couple of days for observation. If her organs start failing, we need her here to see if we can do anything for her.”
“Organ failure?” I asked. I stepped closer to Isobel and Alistair. He was holding her so dearly and I had to embrace them both to be close to her. She was so small and helpless.
“I know it’s not easy to think about, Raina, but you should prepare yourself for her possible passing. Organ failure has consistently been the cause of death in the few barguest-human infants who’ve actually made it to delivery. Their organs are too barguest-like to function in a human body, and you get a heart that thinks it’s a lung or something equally terrible.”
“And you think that could happen to her?” My words were quiet because the idea of Isobel dying was too devastating. Her soft cherub face and tiny hands melted my heart so completely.
“She’ll be perfectly fine,” said Alistair with his lips against the top of her head.
“Master,” Gabriel began with caution in his voice. “You can’t be sure of that. We have to be prepared for the worst. I know Raina is special in a lot of ways, but we’re in uncharted territory.”
Alistair gave him such a look of contempt before he turned back to me. “She will not die, Raina. She’s strong, like her mother.” I knew his words were only good for comfort. I knew that he couldn’t possibly know for sure, but the certainty in his eyes was quite deceiving. They gave me a choice. I could ignore him and worry myself into madness or I could believe he spoke a known truth. The latter seemed better, healthier even. I hugged him and his shirt was indeed very soft.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Gabriel said. “I have other patients.” And with a shallow nod of his head he left us.
Alone, holding Alistair like that seemed wrong, so I put some space between us.
“You do know that your backside is bare to the world, right?” he asked. I shrugged because I didn’t care. Giving birth in front of four men stole what little modesty I had left. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“Ha ha,” I said sarcastically. “It’s not like I have anything to change into. I don’t remember what you did with my clothes after you undressed me.”
He closed the distance I made, still ho
lding Isobel, and gave me serious eyes. “I think that was my favorite part of last night, or maybe it was when you admitted to loving me.”
I laughed nervously and made a quick escape to my left. “I’m glad you find me entertaining, though technically I told you that I love you at seven-ish this morning when I was delirious and I said it to two other men as well, one of whom I clearly can’t stand and the other I’m actually quite madly in love with.”
Alistair smiled down at Isobel and set her on the bed before looking back up at me, still smiling. “I’d never try to steal you away from my friend, Raina. Just knowing that on some level you do love me is enough—Plus, I‘ll outlive him anyway,” he joked.
“Awe, bad form!” I laughed, because it was a joke, right? He didn’t really mean that.
“I can wait a couple of hundred years for you.” That made me blush. “Some people are worth the wait.” Okay, maybe he meant it. Frowny face.
A LONG DAY
NOT LONG AFTER Alistair left us, Charley and Michael came back. Michael walked into the room, giant bouquet of flowers first, so that his face and much of his body was hidden from view. The flowers were shades of pink, purple and yellow with a large, ‘IT’S A GIRL’ balloon tied to it. I took the flowers from him so that he could lavish Isobel with due praise while I tried to find a place for the flowers in the small room.
“The flowers were in better shape before your guards frisked us,” Michael said. I murmured an apology but he was smiling all the same.
“You were so out of it last night,” said Charley as he strode in after Michael. “Do you remember half the things you said?”
“Eh, what I do remember is bad enough. I’m not sure I want to know the extent of the bull shit that came out of my mouth,” I said.
“Oh, you weren’t that bad,” said Michael. He was holding Isobel, bouncing her in his arms ever so gently. “You told everybody how much you loved them, individually. ‘Katie, Katie, I love you so much. You’ve grown into a beautiful woman; kind and clever. You’re going to be a great aunt, man. I totally know it,’” he mocked me.
“No, what about that old lady? ‘You’re not married; you’re a disgrace to this family. No magic, no decency’,” Charley said in a fake shrill voice.
“Great Aunt Maggie or was it Bethany?” I asked with a grimace.
“Maggie, I guess,” Michael laughed. “Because you told her, ‘Mag, I fucking love you, but fuck off’,” he laughed.
Holy bananas. “I said that? No wonder she didn’t come back to see me today.” I rolled my eyes. Oh, I didn’t care anymore. I was tired of caring about what my family thought of me. “Thanks for the flowers, guys.”
Charley gestured to everything, “We were the only ones that brought you anything? I figured this place would look like a garden by now.”
“No, I guess no one thought of it.”
“Not even Damon?” asked Michael.
My brows pinched with concern, because I hadn’t seen or heard from him at all since he left soon after Isobel was born. I called him twice with the in-room phone and left him messages. In the first message, I asked him how the research was going, and how Thomas was doing. I asked him if they were coming over sometime today. The second time I called him was just moments before Michael and Charley walked through the door. Again, I had to leave a message. I told him that Gabriel wanted Isobel and me to stay another day and that I really wished he and the kid would come see me.
“He’s been too busy to call or come and see me just yet,” I said. But Michael and Charley looked at each other and their expression said that they didn’t like or believe that answer. They exchanged Isobel and Michael sat in a chair opposite the bed near where I was standing.
“Too busy to call?” asked Michael.
I looked down, feeling stupid in my bare butted gown for the first time. I didn’t want to talk about Damon like that, all suspicious and second guessing him. He loved me and he loved our daughter. If he wasn’t here then I was sure he had a good reason. A change in subject was in order. “So, how’s Drake?” I asked.
Michael frowned, but he answered me. “Don’t start this shit again, Raina. I don’t feel like being pissed off or hating myself. This is my afterlife or undead life or whatever the hell it is. I make my own choices, okay.”
“If you call making the choice to let other’s make all your choices a choice at all, fine. I’ll drop it.” I said.
“If you know a way for a legion vampire to change his nature, I’d love to hear it,” he said.
Charley patted his shoulder with his free hand. “Raina,” he said with a disapproving look. I did feel like a bully then.
“I’m sorry, Michael. Your choices scare me. I hate being scared. I’d rather be angry than scared, but I’m taking that out on you. You’re right, your life is yours and mine is mine and we each get to do what we want with what we have.”
“I forgive you,” he said with a cheesy smile that reminded me of human Michael. “And the name’s Mick.”
The clinic door opened just then and Damon walked through with Thomas running ahead of him wearing his Finn costume: white hat with ears, blue shirt, darker blue shorts, green backpack and big red sword. I laughed out loud. The world had been turned upside down, but Halloween stops for no man. Damon, however, wasn’t Finn’s yellow dog, as planned.
“Mom!” Thomas shouted as he ran with his arms wide open for a big pick-me-up and-twirl-me sort of hug, and I did just that. No human woman could have done that mere hours after childbirth.
When I set him down I looked back at Damon. He was holding a car seat and diaper bag in his arms, as well as my thick black jacket. He walked in a few paces and let everything fall from his arms. From the tilt of his head and the bend in his back, he looked fully exhausted.
“I’m so sorry, Raina. I’ve had an insane day,” he said with his head hanging down.
I stuck my tongue out at Charley and Michael before saying, “Why, what’s happened?”
“I haven’t slept yet, for one. I got home and took Katie to the library. We were there for hours and then we had a meeting with Fillips and some others about what’s going on and what needs to be done. Afterward we were on our way here when Katie reminded me that we had no baby supplies and she took me to several different stores for furniture, clothes, hygiene supplies, books and toys. We finished shopping two hours ago when Alistair called to tell me they wanted you to stay at the Bastion and well, you can’t. It took Fillips, Melvern and I to convince him that you’d be safest in Darkness. He finally agreed. Then I packed up our things and now I’m here,” he said in one longwinded explanation without pause for comments or questions until the end.
“Oh,” was the first thing out of my mouth.
“Safe?” asked Charley. “Why wouldn’t she be safe at Bastion Fatal? Last time I checked the master had a crush on her.”
“He doesn’t have a crush on me.”
“He does and you’re not safe here because Bastion Fatal is smack dab in the center of the crescent,” said Damon. “Darkness is thirty miles out of the region.”
“Will Orestes really not find me outside the region? That seems highly unlikely.”
“If Raphael is right that Orestes’s only weakness is that he still plays by the book, just minus the God’s part in it, then we might have a chance. The Hunt has some very strict rules. Its three fold, involving Priests, Hunters and Gods. The Priests receive a region that they then map out with blood. They have their own guidelines to follow for that. Then the Hunters are given a name and they hunt down that person within the region that’s been mapped out and not outside. When they find the person that belongs to that name, the God that declared The Hunt descends from the heavens to confirm the kill and then the hunter butchers them, taking heads and putting the rest of the body parts in running water to keep them from being recognized or reassembled in the case of demigods.”
Reassembled? “I see,” I said, but Charley and Michael were looking from Da
mon to me with confusion plain on their faces. “So, once he realizes that he killed the wrong Raina, he’ll know it’s me but he won’t be able to kill me because I’ll be hiding in Darkness for the rest of my life?”
“I chose Darkness because your mom is getting married there in two days. Your family is staying there for the wedding anyway. Also, it’s a familiar place, secluded and heavily guarded. Fillips can easily station some of her men up there as back up just in case. You don’t have to stay there, though. You just can’t enter the region, not until we figure out how to kill Orestes. Trivia made him heartier than the average human.”
“In what way?”
“The book Katie found didn’t say anything about Orestes in particular. However, it did mention that the hunters involved in The Hunt are given certain gifts by the gods for their service. Among these gifts are immortality, advanced healing, heightened senses, and their skin cannot be punctured by any earthly mineral or burnt by any flame. Physically, they’re virtually indestructible.”
“Oh shit, Raina,” Michael said under his breath.
“Oh shit is right. But, this might be why the hunters refuse to break the rules. If they do then they lose these gifts, and become ordinary men,” said Damon.
“Isn’t going against the will of the gods considered breaking the rules?” I asked.
“No, the gods called The Hunt. Strictly speaking, they aren’t supposed to cancel it, but gods do what they want. Orestes is acting in accordance with his job description.”
“Great.”
“Why is there someone after you?” Charley asked. “What did you do?”
“Mom’s special,” said Thomas. “She has special blood and at first the gods were angry about it, but they changed their minds. But the people they asked to kill her don’t want to stop and the gods don’t care.” So much complexity boiled down and made simple by the mind of a child.