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Chapter Eight
Raine moaned as she sat on the couch, gripping the cushions tight. She grinded her teeth together and wished someone would just kill her (again) and put her out of her misery because the pain was too overwhelming. She felt she was a woman that could handle a little pain, but as it came in ever increasing waves, she did not think she could withstand it for much longer.
She just wanted it to stop.
It was early morning and the cheery sun was brightly shinning through the front bay windows to her right. Raine had been up all night with her steadily increasing contractions before finally waking Tao and Havoc at sunup with her worries. Large dark sunglasses shielded her eyes at the moment because the morning sun shining in was bothering her eyes, and pissing her off.
It was not allowed to be a pleasant day when she was in so much pain.
Raine threw her head back to rest it on the back of the couch as her contraction passed, her grip loosening, and her muscles relaxing a bit as she panted for air. She took a deep breath and rubbed her swollen stomach. Tao walked into the room and placed a cool wet rag on Raine’s forehead, tending to her like the kind nurse she was.
“Did it pass?” she asked, lightly dabbing Raine’s head and brushing some of her sweaty hair away from her face.
“Yes,” she said still panting. “God, it hurts,” she whined.
“I told you to relax,” Tao said still dampening Raine’s forehead.
“I don’t think this is just false labor again, Tao,” Raine moaned, rolling her head from side to side as she breathed deeply.
“Raine,”
“No, no, this is more. This is bad. I can’t be in labor now, I’m not due until the end of next month,” she whined, close to tears.
“Calm down babe. Just breathe in and out with me ready?” she coached, taking a deep breath in herself. Raine groaned in frustration at Tao’s refusal to listen to her but took a deep breath anyways, Lamaze breathing along with Tao like a good girl.
As stupid as she had thought it would be the breathing really did help.
After letting out her breath however Raine continued on her rant.
“Has Malachi called you back yet? Does he know if Christian is okay?” she demanded.
“No Raine. What makes you think there is even something wrong with him? It’s early morning; he’s probably at home asleep right now,” Tao soothed, having called Malachi up on the phone barely past dawn at Raine’s instance. Raine wanted Malachi to go see Christian and make sure everything was okay. She knew something had happened last night even when no one else would believe her. The baby inside of her knew something was up. It had been struggling all night and not in what could be written off as normal pre-birth movements.
Raine could only pray that Christian was okay.
Last she had heard he had not been feeding because of his depression.
If anything had happened to him because of that she would never forgive herself.
It would be her fault.
“Urrr,” Raine moaned, holding her stomach again. “I just know something is not right, that something happened last night.”
“Raine, it is just hormones…”
“This is not just hormones Tao!” Raine shouted, knocking Tao’s hand away from her face.
“Raine, stay calm.”
“Fuck you; I need to go to the hospital.”
“Raine, if you would relax this would pass.”
“Like hell it will. Can’t you ease these away with a bit of your magical touch?” she growled, grabbing the damp rag from Tao and slapping it to her own forehead while tilting her head back again.
“I tried but your baby won’t let me. He or she fights me off every time I try something. If anything I was making it worse by agitating him or her.”
“I think he/she gets that a little more from me than his or her daddy.” Raine smiled despite herself, the rag still over her eyes.
“Ya’think?” Tao said, standing and walking away while shaking her head.
The baby really got it from Christian, not Raine.
It was true that Raine was a difficult person to get along with, and pregnant she was just down right ridiculously complicated, but it was because Christian was a Vampire -thus the baby a Dhampir- that made it so that Tao could not use her magic to sooth it anymore. The child was developed enough, with enough mental awareness at this point, that not only its aura fought her magic but now its consciousness too.
Raine did not fully grasp just how Vampire-like her child was. Simple acknowledging that it would be a Dhampir was not enough, Raine needed to understand that there was little difference between a Dhampir and a true Vampire.
“Just calm down,” Tao said soothingly as possible as she walked. “And don’t unintentionally, or intentionally, set anything on fire!” she called over her shoulder while walking into her kitchen, leaving Raine to cool herself with her damp rag and mutter and curse in frustration while breathing.
In the narrow kitchen sat Havoc at the table drinking his coffee, smiling.
“She’s almost cute when she gets like this,” he said, smirking before taking another sip of his coffee. Raine could be heard cursing from the living room. He remembered dating Raine, and dealing with her moodiness. They had gotten along because of their constant bickering somehow worked for them. The only thing that really kept them from being serious was that they loved each other too much like a brother and sister to be affectionate. They bickered like a brother and sister, and now they really were family.
“It has been a long six months,” Tao sighed falling heavily into her kitchen chair and resting her face in her small hands.
“Hey, it was your idea to let her stay, not mine,” he pointed out while still grinning.
“And you should have talked me out of it.”
“I learned long ago that it if futile to argue with you or any woman, I am always wrong,” he said leaning over the table, moving Tao’s hands away from her face, and kissing her gently. His long and thin, beaded braids slid over his shoulder and clinked against the tabletop.
“You're so sweet,” Tao said looking into his odd colored eyes and smiling back at him.
“Raine needed our help. We could not turn our backs on her.”
“I know,” Tao said quietly, her slanted eyes tired and stressed. “But I’m still blaming you for this,” she said flatly as she pulled his coffee from his hands and took a sip, hiding a smirk behind the mug.
Raine shouted again in pain from the living room and the sweet moment the two shared was shattered with a string of angry cursing. Havoc dropped his head and Tao shifted.
“It’s all you this time Havoc.” Tao smiled.
“To be continued,” he said, leaning over the table again, hair clinking, to kiss Tao softly before standing and heading towards the living room and Raine’s angry cussing.
Tao and Havoc felt that they had bitten off a little more then they could chew with Raine. At the time it seemed like the best plan: to bring her to their home, hide her, help her, protect her…but Raine’s mood swings and unanticipated complications had made the whole ordeal long and extremely memorable.
Something none of them were sorry they wouldn’t get the chance to repeat while Havoc assured Raine as often as he could that she owed them.
“Hey there,” he said as he sat down next to Raine, going the long way around the little glass coffee table to be on her right. A tear slid down her cheek from behind her dark sunglasses as she breathed deeply in short loud bursts. After a few seconds and her contraction passed she let out a long breath and looked at him as if just noticing he was there.
“You okay?” he asked softly, doing his best to show his compassion and empathy. The look on Raine’s face immediately made it clear to him that he had asked the wrong question.
“Do I fucking sense, sound, or look okay?” she growled at him.
“I’m sorry. It just seemed like a better thing to say than ‘pleasant morning’ is all,” he said with the nerve to smile a little. Raine disguised her sudden laugh with a deep intake of breath.
She appreciated Havoc’s humor.
Sometimes.
“This is a nightmare,” Raine sobbed.
“Funny, Tao was just saying the same thing in the kitchen about you as well,” Havoc said as though that was a comforting fact.
“Thank you, Havoc,” Tao called back sarcastically from the kitchen, causing Havoc’s dark face seem to glow as his full lips parted into his perfect white smile.
“Why won’t she let me go to the hospital?” Raine asked.
“It’s not that she won’t let you, babe, it’s just…she doesn’t want to risk moving you about if this, again, is just false labor. You went into to pre once, but false several times.”
“You’re treating me like someone that is doing this for attention or something,” Raine pouted.
“Oh, we do not think that.”
“Yet you still act like I’m the boy that cried wolf,” she snapped.
“Don’t you mean Werewolf?” Havoc teased and Raine’s glare was obvious despite the dark shades. “Raine,” he went on to say with a heavy sigh, giving up on the humor for the moment.
“No,” she said firmly, standing -slowly with much heaving and pushing- and turning to him to shout again. “I tell you two that I need to go to the hospital and you don’t take me! You two claim to want nothing more than to help me but can’t bite the bullet and ruin your lovely Tuesday morning to take me to the goddamn hospital!” she shouted.
“Raine,” Havoc tried, remaining calm.
“Maybe this isn’t labor,” She shouted.
“Raine…”
“Maybe it’s cancer of the intestines and I’m dying,” she snarled melodramatically.
Havoc sighed and shook his head. They both knew Raine could not get any form of cancer along with most any other kind of illness and infection but she was being difficult, as usual, and though he hated admitting it, he did feel she had a point. If her contractions would not go away on their own, and the baby was not responding to Tao’s spells, maybe it really could be something more.
Raine stopped ranting and raving suddenly and it was abrupt enough to get Havoc to look up at her.
“Raine, babe, you okay?” he asked from his seat on the couch. Raine grabbed her stomach.
“I feel funny,” she said quietly as she felt herself sway as she stood.
“Maybe you should sit down,” Havoc urged as he leaned forward with an outstretched hand, hoping she would not need the help for fear that something was seriously wrong.
“Oh my god,” she gasped, her voice still quiet.
“What is it?” he asked, sounding unsure and a little helpless.
“Oh my god, I think…I think my water just broke,” she gasped looking down at the liquid that was running from under her skirt, down the insides of her legs, and forming a puddle under her bare feet on Havoc’s hardwood floor.
“Jesus’ rotting corpse…” Havoc said standing up suddenly, staring at the puddle as though stunned and scared of it.
“Havoc,” Raine said in outrage, them both talking in hushed tones for some reason. “Don’t just stand there looking like you’re afraid the puddle is gunna jump up and bite you, help me!” Raine demanded, holding a hand out to him. Havoc swallowed hard and nodded a little too quickly as he helped Raine walk back over to her seat on the couch.
“Tao! Tao get in here!” he shouted over his shoulder, his voice suddenly loud after all their soft speaking.
“What is it?” Tao asked, her hands covered in frothy soap, the sink able to be heard running in the distance. Apparently with their hushed tones and the running water, she had missed the new developments.
Walking slowly around the corner Tao saw Havoc kneeling in front of Raine.
“Her water just broke. I think maybe we really should take her to the hospital now,” he said with a slightly higher voice than usual while Raine squeezed his hand as she was hit by another contraction. Her contractions were not regular, coming anywhere from five to fifteen minutes apart.
“Maybe, ya’think?” Raine shouted through her clenched teeth.
“Oh!” Tao gasped setting the cup she had been washing down on the glass table, paying no mind to the soap that was dripping onto the floor as she shook out her wet hands. The floor was already a mess thanks to Raine. “I’m so sorry, Raine, if I had known-”
“Oh don’t you even think about apologizing to me right now, I am totally not in the fucking mood to hear it, Tao!” she shouted holding her other hand out to Tao so she and Havoc could help her up.
With a bit of heaving Raine was once again on her feet. Havoc went ahead and started the car while Tao helped Raine clean up a little and into her flip-flop sandals, then down the front steps towards the car.
It was a warm beautiful morning but Raine was too pissed and in pain to care that it was a nice day or that butterflies were fluttering around the butterfly bush below the front bay windows. She had her sunglasses in place over her eyes, a fresh long muumuu-like gown on, and flip-flops on her swollen feet.
Tao helped her down the front three steps, Raine taking them one at a time like a toddler, and she shuffled over to the car where she was then helped into the low passenger seat. Tao ran around the back end of the car and waited as Havoc got out -after having leapt in the car in his haste- and tilted forward his seat so she could climb in the back.
Once Tao was in and Havoc was back in his seat they were off.
Raine, Tao, and Havoc lived only about fifteen minutes from the hospital –Havoc was about to make it ten- and in that time Raine had two more contractions. Raine squeezed Havoc’s right hand and he did his best not to swerve as she crushed it. Her strength had increased greatly since becoming pregnant with a Dhampir, but she had a natural strength of her own that she could also tap, making her grip literally crushing as her nails bit into his skin.
“Ow, ow, Raine, could you please let go? You’re hurting me,” he begged, trying to keep his eyes on the road as Raine continued hold his hand like a bear trap.
“Don’t you dare talk to me about pain mister or I swear to god I will break your right hand!” Raine growled through her teeth.
“I think you already did,” he whimpered in a small voice higher than his natural, tears of pain leaking from the corners of his eyes as he tried to pull his hand away. Though Havoc was strong in his own right, being a Shapeshifter after all, Raine could still crush his bones into powder if she wanted to. She was actually showing great restraint not having done so yet.
“Come on, Raine, let go…here…I’ve got you,” Tao said soothingly, leaning over the seat between the two of them and pulling Raine free of her husband’s hand. “You can hold my hand, we need Havoc to drive,” she comforted as though talking to a child, holding Raine’s hand and patting it gently as Havoc shook out his own. He had lost feeling in his fingers and it was throbbing like blood was only now returning to his injuries.
About five minutes later they reached the emergency room entrance and unloading area. There Havoc got out of the car with the engine still running. He ran around to Raine’s door and opened it for her. He helped pull her up but it took a lot of work and his hand still hurt. His car was small, Raine’s stomach was huge, and getting in and out was an awkward feat for her. While Havoc was busy Tao moved to the driver’s seat and once the two were both out of the car, she drove off towards the parking lot.
Havoc walked Raine into the familiar Emergency Room and checked her in. Raine was given a wheelchair like the last time they had been there and she was carted off towards the delivery ward immediately, no waiting for her and this time, none for him. Havoc went along too because Raine had attached herself to his right hand again and nothing sort of the hand of God would get her to let go, and even that was debatable.
After an elevator ride and a bit of a walk they made it to the maternity ward. The hallway was painted differently than the rest of the hospital they had seen. While the other halls they had passed through were stark and white, the only color being the pale washed out green linoleum floors that matched the horrible green color of the work centers, check-ins, and desks that dotted along the hallways every now and then, this hall was much more pleasant even under the harsh florescent light. The walls were a pale pastel pink on the bottom half and white on the top to reach the white ceiling. The linoleum floors were a powder blue and on the walls every few feet were large painted animals done all in pastels. A giraffe, a flamingo, a blue elephant: all smiling and friendly soft.
It was cute, but neither Raine nor Havoc could appreciate it given how much pain they were both in at the moment.
They passed pregnant women taking slow walks while in hospital gowns and doctors and nurses moving here and there between rooms. There was an occasional scream from an expecting mother and they even heard one baby cry.
Havoc and Raine were steered into a room at the end of the hall, the one with the large teddy bear on the door, and the nurses helped Raine stand.
“Are you the father?” one nurse asked, no one saying a word to him since he passed through the swinging doors, all focusing on Raine, asking her questions about what kind of pain or pressure she was feeling on a scale of one to ten, how often, and then the stupid questions like “are you excited?” and “Do you want a boy or girl?”
“No, I am just her friend,” he answered watching the nurses as the prepared the pale blue room.
“Then I am going to have to ask you to leave. You can come back when we have her set up,” the nurse said pulling out hospital smocks from a cupboard under the bed and unfolding them with a snap of her wrists, revealing their massive size.
“I would but I can’t,” he said, wincing as Raine had another contraction and gripped his hand tighter as she was helped to stand.
“Why not?” the woman asked as she turned her attention away from Raine for a moment. Havoc indicated his bruising and crushed hand with just a nod of his head, not trusting his vice at that point to not squeak and whimper. “Oh,” she said with a very round mouth. “Come on dear,” the kind nurse urged as she walked over to that side of them. She grabbed Raine’s hand and tried to get her to let go but it just was not happening.
“Ow, ow, ow, ow!” Havoc gasped in the combine pressure of both Raine’s and the nurse’s grip.
“Come on…” the nurse grunted as she pulled.
After a few minutes she had freed Havoc and was on her way to getting Raine onto the delivery bed.
“Oh-dear,” she said, turning away from the slowly shuffling Raine to look at Havoc’s hand. “You should have one of the doctors look at that. She did a real number on your hand.”
“I’ll do that,” Havoc sighed as he walked out of the room cradling his crippled hand.
The nurses pulled the curtain around Raine and the bed area even though the door was closed. There was a large glass window on the wall beside the door and the nurses understood the need for privacy while helping Raine change, which Raine appreciated as much as she could anything at that moment. They helped her out of her clothes and into her hospital attire. The gown was huge, large enough to wrap even around her so very pregnant body twice. It hung open in the back but the nurses allowed her to wrap herself up like a soft taco for the moment.
They helped her up onto the bed and tried to get her comfortable, propping her up with pillows and giving her warm blankets to ease the pain in her stomach and lower body. Raine was amused for a few short moments with the power-bed that she could raise up and down with the controller that was lying on the mattress beside her. She had amused herself last time she was in the hospital with the bed too, until they took her clicker away and she couldn’t any longer.
After a few minutes the doctor walked in, the man that would deliver her baby.
A man would be delivering her baby?
Raine did not like that.
What would a man know about the pain she was going through?
“I am Doctor Schwartz and I will be helping you this lovely day,” he announced clapping his hands together and smiling down at Raine from the foot of her bed. Raine glared at him. She was disgusted by the way he acted so happy and cheerful while she was in so much obvious pain.
“Uh-uh…where is Dr. Stanton?” Raine demanded, remembering the doctor, the woman, who had treated her the last time she was there.
“You know Dr. Stanton?” Dr. Schwartz asked conversationally, opening the file a nurse handed him and glancing through the top page quickly. Before Raine could say anything Dr. Schwartz continued. “Dr. Stanton is not on duty today,” he said with a smile. “I will be the one overseeing this joyous little event. I understand from this file here that we are having our first baby today. Well congratulations to the new mother, or soon to be mother,” he laughed. Raine’s glare over her stomach only intensified.
“I hope you didn’t need the file to tell you I was having a baby today, doctor,” she retorted flatly, her young age obvious as her massive stomach so that it would seem ridiculous to assume she was having anything but her first child.
“You have wit; I like that,” he said, shaking a finger at her and looking amused while under her ferocious glare. That only served to piss Raine off further. The doctor got right down to business then with a smile on his face.
“First I will need to examine you and see how long we will have to wait to be a mom,” he explained, pulling on a pair of rubber gloves that a nurse handed him while taking the file from him.
Raine looked at the doctor with disgust. How could he be so perky when she was in so much pain? She found him most annoying. Even his male pattern baldness and his round glasses pissed her off for some reason. She just did not like him.
“Examine me how?” Raine asked while looking as best she could over her swollen stomach at the doctor as he sat at the end of her bed.
“I need to check to see how dilated you are. I understand from the nurses that your water broke, but that does not give us any real indication on how soon the delivery will be. This will be just like a pelvic exam,” he said while pulling her blankets up to reveal her bent legs. “Now I need you to relax and let your legs fall apart. I will just reach up and see how far you are. I will be done in less then a minute,” he said, easing her knees apart.
“Up where?” Raine demanded, watching as the doctor’s hand reached down between her bent legs.
“I am going to see how much you have dilated, that means I have to reach up into your birth canal and feel your cervix,” he explained. As his fingers touched her opening she jumped and snapped her legs shut. “Now calm down Miss, I won’t hurt you. I need you to relax and take a deep breath.”
“Fuck you, I don’t know you I am not about to let you reach up,” she paused to swat his hand away with hers as she attempted to hug her knees, “and touch me in any sort of way. You can go to hell,” she growled, her eyes unfriendly, partially because of the cheery sun that was beaming in through the window on her left. The nurses had taken her sunglasses away and had yet to close the window curtains like she had requested.
“Come now, I will have to touch you sooner or later when I deliver the baby, so why don’t you lay down like a good girl and let me check you out. I do this for a living so you have nothing down there that I do not see on a daily basis on all my patients. I promise, it won’t take more then a minute,” he assured as he eased her knees apart again.
Raine tried to think of anything but the man that was reaching up between her legs but it was difficult. When he touched her she reacted by kicking him in the jaw reflexively. She had this very problem with her gynecologist -who happened to be male- before she had switched to a woman. She supposed it all stemmed from when she was fourteen and the humiliating and intrusive exam she had to endure after claiming to have been raped. All the strangers looking at her, touching her, examining her, taking pictures, asking her questions. None believed her after all she went through; after all they made her bear. Raine knew somewhere deep in the back of her mind that this doctor was not like them and that he really was there to help her and cause her no harm, but she could not control her fear as her heart raced slightly and she attempted to hug her knees again.
Dr. Schwartz fell backwards off the bed and one of the nurses ran in to help him up.
“Are you alright?” she gasped, steadying him on his feet. Raine looked away guiltily; anger still there towards the doctor but much lessened now that she had kicked him in the face.
“Yes, yes I’m fine,” he said breathily. “Wow Miss Storm, you have a nice strong kick,” he said chuckling a little at his own expense as he straightened his glasses. Raine frowned her brow as she stared determinedly out the window.
Storm. So he knew her last name, knew who she was.
Havoc had given the hospital her real name apparently.
Did the doctor know she was wanted still by the police upstate?
Raine seriously hoped not.
If she got arrested just after giving birth she was gonna kill Havoc.
Dr. Schwartz flipped thought Raine’s file again and Raine refused to look at him as he did so. If her medical records had been forwarded to the hospital the last time she had been there for premature labor, then in that file there would be several things: the car accident when she was four, her broken arm at nine, her “supposed” rape at fourteen. Raine was not sure what Dr. Schwartz had hoped to find looking through the folder but with a nod he handed it back to the nurse.
“Miss Storm, would you be more comfortable if nurse Trudy here did the exam?” he asked and Raine did not look over at him as she hugged herself and stared out the window, nodding mutely only once. “Alright then,” the doctor said as he pulled his gloves off.
The female nurse that was in the room still had newly washed hands and was pulling on a pair of latex gloves.
Raine closed her eyes throughout the exam and tried to think of anything but the uncomfortable sensation of having a hand up inside of her. Dr. Schwartz stood out of the way, talking quietly to nurse Trudy as she did the exam and he took down some notes on Raine’s chart he held in his hands, her file ticked under his one arm.
“All right,” the nurse finally said snapping her glove off.
“That wasn’t so bad was it?” Dr. Schwartz asked, moving to Raine’s side. “You are six centimeters so you are just past the halfway mark. We have four more to go still though before we are ready to deliver the baby,” he explained and Raine felt exhausted.
Only six centimeters?
She wanted the baby out now.
“How long will that take?” she asked, her voice betraying her exhaustion and earning an epithetic smile from the doctor.
“It is different for every woman. You said the real noticeable contractions started last night, around three?” he asked without having to look down at the notes on her chart and Raine nodded. “It has been only eight hours. Six centimeters in eight hours is very unusual though not unheard of. You could be ready in three hours or less, or you could have been dilating for hours before you felt the contractions, in which case we could have a long weight before us,” he said and Raine groaned.
“Damn it,” she moaned.
“Don’t worry about it too much my dear,” he said with his ever-present smile. “Now the nurses tell me that you have asked for a natural birth and that you don’t want an epidural,” he said and Raine nodded and moaned at the pressure that was building again and making her feel so uncomfortable. It was like horrible gas, cramps, and constipation all in one, but none of that at the same time. It was a sensation she had never felt before so could not describe properly, but that was reasonable given the fact she had never gone through childbirth before.
It was not that Raine wanted a natural childbirth; it was that the painkiller would not work on her. She would have given anything at that point to have her lower body numbed out, but that was just not in the cards for her apparently and Raine fought back a string of curses in her frustration.
“Okay, well we will have an anesthesiologist standing by if you change your mind alright?” he asked. Raine nodded again as she gripped the metal bars on the sides of her bed, another contraction starting, most of her concentration going towards her control so she did not make the windows explode of the bedding catch on fire.
Dr. Schwartz turned away from Raine and tugged at the collar of his shirt a little with his finger, loosening his tie just a bit with that gesture as a bead of sweat appeared on his forehead.
“Trudy, check the thermostat. It’s getting a little warm in here,” he said quietly to the nurse. Raine swallowed hard, trying to keep herself from turning the room into a sauna with her seeping magic.
Raine lay in her hospital bed trying to get comfortable but not succeeding.
She could either think of her pain, or the pain she was going to inflict on Christian when she saw him again. It was not hard to guess which she preferred to imagine.
She was no longer worried about whether or not he was alright because she knew, when she saw him again, he wouldn’t be.
Raine did miss him though.
She wanted him there with her as she gave birth to his child.
Tao had lied to Christian, assured him that she was dead. Raine could not understand how she managed. Having to lie to a brokenhearted man, telling him that his love was dead when she was really sleeping down the hall in her spare bedroom…it was unimaginable.
Raine cried.
Not from the pain from her contractions, but from missing Christian.
She went from anger to sadness so easily these days.
She thought about Christian and knew she needed to see him. She could not hide forever. She had to go to him and show him that she was alive. She needed to be held in his arms again, smelling his hair and taking in that sweet smell of vanilla and cream he himself seemed to emit. She needed to tell him that he was finally a daddy, just a few centuries later than he should have been.
After awhile Havoc and Tao came in wearing hospital scrubs, hairnets, and smiles on their faces. Havoc’s hair was too long to fit under one of the caps so his long cornrows were pulled back into a ponytail and tucked down the back of his green smock with a hairnet pointlessly pulled on.
“Hey, Raine, how are you?” Tao asked moving over to the right side of the bed. Havoc followed but stayed just out of arms reach on the left. His right hand was bandaged up in a cast because of her.
“Oh, I am just great. You?” she said as she whined in pain. A nurse walked over to her and began talking firmly to her. Not really yelling but scolding.
“I told you to stop pushing! You are not ready. Just relax and do your breathing!” she said moving over to a machine next to Havoc and turning it on.
“Have you ever had a baby?” Raine shouted.
“Well, no I-”
“Then shut the fuck up, you have no idea, no fucking idea!” Raine shouted, the end of her sentence shaking as she cried. Tao placed her hand on top of Raine’s and Raine became suddenly calmer and more relaxed even though her pain remained. Tao may have been unable to sooth the Dhampir within her or the pain it was causing Raine, but she could calm Raine still, even if just slightly.
The nurse rolled up Raine’s gown to cover only her large breasts while leaving her belly bare and lower body nude but covered by the blankets still. She attached a large Velcro belt around Raine’s now exposed stomach; it monitoring the baby’s heartbeat and Raine’s contractions. The belt hooked up to the machine that printed up on a long piece of paper a bunch of squiggly lines that meant something to the nurses and absolutely nothing to Raine or anyone else in the room with her.
“Are you excited about being a mom?” Tao asked dabbing Raine’s forehead with a damp rag handed to her by the nurse.
“Will everyone stop asking me that?” Raine grumbled.
“It is a legitimate question,” Havoc shrugged.
“No, Havoc, I resent being a mother and I look forward to being able to put my own shoes on again, alright?” Raine said swatting Tao's hand away.
“Grouch,” Tao said with a huff. Raine did not care. Yes she was excited to be a mother, but she was tired, hot, in pain, and annoyed at all the stupid questions that people kept repeating to her.
Time passed slowly.
There was nothing good on television, unless one thought that Passions was good, but Raine certainly did not think so yet was stuck watching it anyways as the afternoon waned and night approached slowly and heavily in the heat.
After ten hours Raine was past nine centimeters and exhausted.
It was time to start working on getting her baby out now that her body was ready but it was passed eight PM now and Raine was too tired to want to even think about childbirth anymore.
Tao and Havoc had to leave because there were too many people in the small room now that it was time for the delivery. With her baby coming just about a month early the doctor and nurses wanted to be careful. A normal Human baby would need a little extra care if not too premature, otherwise it would need a lot more, but Raine’s was not that early thankfully, but neither was it normal or Human. She did not know what to expect or what kind of special care would be needed once the baby was out of her and so did not argue with the doctor (for once) as he shooed the two out of the room.
Raine would have liked Tao to be in the room there with her, incase a Witch would be needed, but she could not think all that clearly at that point to request that her one friend say or come up with a legitimate excuse.
As Raine was having her feet strapped into the stirrups she thought off all the ways she was going to hurt Christian again. He had done this to her and she planed to make him pay.
Maybe breaking every bone in his hands and arms would be sufficient.
No, it was not enough.
But it was a start…
Dr. Schwartz came in for his final check and with Raine’s feet securely strapped into the restraints, or “stirrups,” she could not stop him from doing his exam.
“Well, Miss Storm, it looks like we are ready for the baby. You are fully dilated and the top of the baby’s head is just entering the birth canal,” he said as though proud, turning to talk to on of the head nurses. Raine was scooted down so that her butt was closer to the foot of the bed, her legs extremely bent, ready for her to start the pushing. She leaned back into her pillow that was brought down with her and felt a tear run down her cheek as she was for the hundredth time hit by a contraction, but this time, this one was worse then the others. It was stronger and further down in her stomach, it caused her scream out in pain. The pressure was unlike anything she had felt yet.
“Fuck, it hurts!” she cried. Dr. Schwartz moved to the end of the bed and positioned himself. Hands scrubbed, gloves and smock in place, mask and face shield being tied in place by a nurse standing behind him.
“Okay, Miss Storm, okay, I need you to push…ready? Just an easy pressure, like you are trying to go to the bathroom, that’s it,” he encouraged as he looked intently at Raine’s spread legs, not seeing her as a nude woman but as an unborn baby emerging for something that was not such a private part of her body. Raine screamed again and tried to move her feet but they were strapped down.
“Don’t scream, Miss Storm, use that energy to push.”
“Ahh! Stop calling me Miss Storm, I hate being called by my last name!” she shouted as she gripped the bed’s metal sidebars. The room began to shake a little and the nurses looked around. It may have just been the pain making her irritable but Raine did not want to be called “Miss Storm” right then. If she weren’t using every ounce of her control to not make things explode or shoot across the room she would have said more to the doctor on the matter, but as it was, things were vibrating off the table tops and falling to the floor from her less than contained energy.
“Is that an earthquake?” one nurse asked, not feeling the ground move or shake but seeing things quiver and fall to the floor.
“Okay then, Raine,” Dr. Schwartz said quickly, “I give you permission to push now,” he said looking up at her through his clear plastic faceguard that looked like a windshield. He knew Raine had been told she should push all throughout the day and he wanted to make it clear she was allowed now.
“I don’t need your fucking permission…” she growled as she pushed.
She pushed until she was nearly doubled over and her face red from the effort, and the pain ebbed for a second and her body relaxed a bit. Raine fell backwards onto the bed panting but a few seconds later she was contracting again and pushing for a second time. She screamed through her clenched teeth but no one would give her a hand to hold. She had broken four bones in Havoc’s hand and was currently bending the metal sidebars of her bed like they were made of pliable wire.
The nurses were a little afraid of her, with the cursing, the things falling and vibrating all over the room, the fluctuating temperature, and the bending of the metal frame bed.
Raine thought they should be afraid because she was going to kill someone if the baby did not come out soon.
Raine worked on pushing as a senior nurse coached her on her breathing. Raine did not want to admit it, but the Lamaze did help. She supposed that once everything was over and done with she would apologize to Tao for forcing her to go to the classes. Maybe.
After what seemed like an eternity Doctor Schwartz announced: “And we can see the top of the head!”
“That’s it?” she demanded, expecting more for all the work she had already put into it. After all that pushing all she had was the top of the head? Not even the whole head? Not even the baby? “Fuck!” she shouted in frustration.
“Come-on, Raine, give yourself some credit…you have worked hard so far.”
“Yeah, I know I have worked hard, why do you think I’m pissed?” she shouted.
“Would you like to reach down and touch your baby’s head?” he offered and Raine blinked at the strangeness of the offer.
“What?” she asked, already feeling her body readying her for another wave of contractions and pushes.
“You are allowed to reach down and feel your baby’s head and hair if you like, we even have a mirror,” he offered.
“Ew, no mirror,” she said while leaning up slightly with the assistance of two reluctant looking nurses to be able to reach down and touch the sticky top of her baby’s head. Raine felt something tight and protective swell within her as she felt her baby’s hair.
It was really happening. She was really about to have her baby.
How could the reality of the situation not hit her until just then?
A tear falling down her face Raine tried to remain leaning up to feel her baby’s head more but the nurses pressed on the front of her shoulders to lay her back down.
“Isn’t that lovely?” the doctor asked, clearly smiling even though his mouth was covered by his green scrub-mask.
Raine nodded before screaming, a sudden pain erupting from down there.
“That is the ring of fire sweetheart, nothing to worry about. The fullest part of your baby’s head is coming and that will force your body to stretch a little farther than it wants to. It will be a burning sensation but…”
“Ahh! It is more than a burning sensation! Jesus!” she cried. She had momentarily been lost in maternal bliss and the pain had seemed to ebb when she had touched her yet born child’s hair…but the pain was now back in force.
“Just push for me Raine,” he said. “Now that the baby’s head is crowned I can help more while you push.”
It was after a few more pushes and several screams that Raine gasped at the relief that the pressure passed and the burning was far less severe. The head was out and Raine let out a moan of release. Her body was wet with sweat, as was her hair, and she just wanted to be done. She was so tired.
“The head is the largest part of the baby’s body, dear. It only gets easier from here on out once the shoulders are clear,” he coached while sounding reassuring, Raine not really paying attention as her body started to push again. She really had little control over it. She could assist it, but her body was very much doing what it wanted on its own.
Raine pushed and the doctor pulled gently while cradling the baby’s head in his large gloved hands. Slowly the shoulders and arms were freed.
Leaning back she panted.
“Come on Raine, just a few more good strong pushes and we will be done,” he said. Raine leaned forward again and pushed. She let out one more subdued scream through her teeth with her eyes yet again clenched tight before she felt a weight drop away from her and heard several nurses rush forward.
Raine panted and waited, a tension building within her, a horrible inaudible fear.
Moments passed but then she heard it, the cry of her baby. It was high-pitched and shaky. Her baby squealed and then cried rapidly and Raine felt the tension leave her body.
Her baby was crying and at that moment it was a wondrous sound bringing about so much relief. Raine fell back onto her pillows and she felt a weight on her stomach. She looked down to see the baby placed there as it screamed and its skinny little arms and legs flailed out and flexed in the baby’s indignation at being so violently ripped out of its quite sanctuary.
Raine reached down with her hands and just laid them on her tiny baby and sobbed in delight and relief. She was allowed to stay that way for a few moments before a nurse scooped up the baby and carried it away. Raine caught a glimpse of a pale gooey baby being carried over to a table to be wiped off a little, weighed, footprinted, and have a hospital tag placed on its tiny wrist. Raine panted and looked over to the viewing window barely seven feet from her, on the right wall. Tao and Havoc stood on the other side of the glass. Tao looked joyous, Havoc looked traumatized. Raine’s attention was snapped back to the room when she heard a nurse speak.
“He is 5 pounds 5 ounces,” she said holding out the blue blanket containing the baby to the doctor who was holding something massive and very bloody. Raine did not know it was her placenta and looked a little frightened before a nurse touched her shoulder and explained it to her. The doctor removed his gloves, turning them inside out as he peeled them off, and took the baby in his arms after pulling the blanket down over Raine so that she was covered. Clean up was for later, Raine was to enjoy her moment, her introduction.
Dr. Schwartz’s masks were gone so his cheery face could be clearly seen as he moved to the side of Raine’s bed and held out the little bundle of blue blankets. The baby was crying and wailing and Raine could not help but feel the need to hold it, and comfort it, and make it stop crying.
“Congratulations” he said with a grin as he passed the baby over into her arms. “It is a healthy baby boy!” he said merrily as Raine held her baby. “He is in tip-top shape for being born early. Very well developed and even a little large for twenty-seven weeks. Lungs, heart, everything seems fine, and he’s breathing just fine…if you can’t tell,” he laughed as the baby screamed. He would not tell Raine that they would have to take the baby for more tests to be sure in a moment. It would be wrong to kill the beautiful moment with any worries. “Still rather small,” he said and Raine looked up at him, “but healthy and alert,” he said stepping back.
“He didn’t feel all that small when he was coming out,” she said softly, joy overtaking her so that there was no shadow of her oh-so-recent anger and frustration as she grinned broadly down at her newborn son.
She was filled with such joy, such pride, that it was beyond words.
She glowed with motherly love and felt that all the pain was worth it now that she held her son in her arms.
She had not a trace of discernable anger left in her towards anyone. Not the doctor, not Tao, not Christian for knocking her up. She could not even remember what anger felt like right then.
Tao and Havoc walked over to her after a nurse let them into the room, one moving to each side like before. They shook hands with the doctor and thanked him before turning and cooing at the baby as he stopped crying, making the room much quieter and easier to bear. Somehow Raine had not been bothered by the crying like everyone else had.
“He is so beautiful!” Tao said lightly running the back of her finger down the baby’s cheek.
“He looks a little pink and wrinkly to me,” Havoc said, eyeing the baby a little.
“All newborns look like raisins, unless they are really chubby,” Tao said sternly, feeling Havoc was being insulting and insensitive. Raine just laughed. Her son did look a little wrinkly, but she knew that would not last.
“He is skinny, like his daddy,” she said, looking down at the baby with soft eyes. “He’s my little-pink-raisin-baby and I love him,” she said causing Havoc and Tao to laugh.
“That had to be the most disgusting thing I have ever had to watch in my life. I am going to have nightmares about this for years,” Havoc said smiling at the little boy.
“Aw, poor baby,” Raine said mocking Havoc. “You know, for someone that raises the dead I can’t imagine that you have not seen worse things.”
“Trust me, nothing can compare to this,” he assured with wide eyes and Tao giggled while bent over the baby.
Raine shook her head while laughing at Havoc and turned her attention to the baby, speaking softly to him.
“Hey there, you tried to kill me didn’t you?” she asked.
Tao and Havoc laughed and then cooed some more when the baby yawned wide showing his soft gums and tiny pink tongue. He made a move to wipe his eyes but his motor skills were basically nonexistent and his hands did not move quite as well as he would have liked and he bonked himself in the nose instead. That seemed to surprise him and he blinked his eyes open for the first time.
Raine looked at him and he just looked right back. His glossy eyes were unfocused but he seemed to recognize her somehow, maybe just by her voice. His brow frowned in the sudden brightness of the world, even though the lights had been dimmed and the night was heavy outside the room’s window.
Raine smiled and observed her new son’s appearance.
Under the little blue hat that was askew and nearly falling off was a lot of fine soft black hair. It was still wet a little but it was slowly drying, sticking up funny in the portion that was not covered by the little hat still. His ears were pointed slightly -like his daddy’s were- and his eyes were as blue as his father’s. His eyes were the color and shape of his dad’s and Raine was happy about that. The exception was that they were a little slanted (up tilted at the outer corners) and the inner corners were narrow like hers were, But he did not look as Chinese as she did so Raine hoped he would not be victimized like she had been as a child for looking different.
Goodness knows he had enough things that would make him different from the other children as it was.
“He is so cute!” Tao said and the baby tilted his heavy head to try to focus on her: the other strange giant before him. “Look at all that hair!” she gushed, reaching over to run her finger tips over the hair so fine it was like downy feathers. “Aw, I want one,” she moaned letting him grab her finger with his tiny pale hand. Havoc looked at Tao and paled himself. Raine just laughed.
“You better watch out Havoc. Tao wants to make a daddy out of you,” she laughed as Tao tugged her finger joyfully and the baby pulled back towards himself in a tiny game of tug-a-war. He really was very alert for a newborn.
“Don’t be getting any ideas, Tao; I’m only nineteen years old…I’m not ready to be a dad,” he said looking down at the baby with sudden discomfort and unease.
Raine and Tao both giggled.
Havoc got up and said “girls” as though it somehow explained their behavior.
“Oh, he is so wonderful,” Tao said looking back down at the baby as Raine beamed. She was one proud mama. “What are you going to name him?” she asked finally freeing her finger from the boy’s grip; he immediately sticking his hand in his mouth and gnawed on it, easily fitting his whole fist in.
“Nathaniel,” Raine said looking down at her son.
“Nathaniel?” Tao repeated. Raine nodded, knowing by just looking at him that his name was Nathaniel. She had worried so much about naming the baby, naming him, and had thought she would worry about it once the baby, he, was born, but she knew now that there was nothing to worry about.
Her son’s name was Nathaniel.
It was not a question of options; Nathaniel was just what it was.
“It means “Gift of god” and that is what he is. Christian was never supposed to be able to have children. He’s Christian’s gift from God, like, as payment for all the pain and hell Christian has suffered through since his first baby was taken from him,” Raine said pulling Nathaniel’s hand from his mouth affectionately.
“First baby?” Tao asked, looking up at Raine in shock and Raine’s eyes widening. She had not shared that fact with anyone and she had let her own good mood let it slip out. “What do you mean by that, Raine? Was Christian a father before?” she asked, sounding shocked and even a little horrified.
Raine did not know how to explain it without trying to explain the whole reincarnation thing and White Rabbit, but figured she could mention the memory she had accidentally seen of Christian’s without too much drama being revealed.
“Yeah,” Raine said slowly, “first baby…though…it never really got that far,” she said heavily. She explained to Tao how she had first seen the memory in her sleep while touching Christian before then getting into the vision itself. “He had been married while alive. His young wife’s name had been Tatyana and she died the night he was brought over,” she said, eyes hollow as she looked down at her legs but not really seeing them, not wanting to feel anything while mentioning the horrible memory she had seen. “She died six months pregnant with their baby,” Raine said while holding onto Nathaniel tight.
“Oh my…I…I did not know that,” Tao said sounding horrified.
“I found out about it before I knew I was pregnant. I should have told Christian right away that I was pregnant, but I was scared. I was too scared to tell him and I knew how much joy it would have brought him to know, to know he was to be a father finally,” Raine said hollowly, Nathaniel’s eyes drooping as he fought to keep them open, sleep pulling at him apparently.
“Raine, don’t beat yourself up over this. You will make it right,” Tao assured and Raine breathed a snort as though she did not believe her. “No, really. You will be able to return to him someday and you two can be a family with Nathaniel here.”
“I want to be a family with him now though,” Raine cried, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Shh,” Tao said, leaning up and kissing Raine’s forehead. “Don’t cry,” she said, hugging Raine as best she could but pulling away when a nurse reentered the room.
“Do you, I mean, do you think Christian will like the name Nathaniel?” Raine asked softly.
“I think it is a beautiful name, and it’s perfect,” Tao said honestly.
Raine nodded and wiped away her tears with her free hand as Tao leaned over.
“Hello Nathaniel, welcome to the family,” she said. In response Nathaniel yawned and curled up closer to his mother’s chest, snuggling his face up to her breast and gripping her gown in his tiny, pale hand. “Well he looks excited doesn’t he?” Tao asked, straightening back up and laughing softly so as not to disturb the little boy’s slumber.
“He gets this from his father,” Raine said watching her son fall asleep peacefully in her arms. Christian did like to sleep, and could sleep through just about anything.
Tao stroked Nathaniel’s cheek one more time before kissing Raine on the forehead and bidding goodnight, walking out the door to join Havoc in the hall. Nurses came back into the room and gathered up Nathaniel from Raine, starting the long process of cleaning up.
Raine wanted nothing more than to sleep at that point, but she was covered in ick like she had exploded inside out. Her bed and gown needed changing and she needed a shower before she could sleep.
As exhausted and sore as she was, Raine would not take a second of it back as she watched a nurse carry her baby over to a cart and leave the room with him.
She was a mother now.
How badly had he been hurt?
Christian tried to blink his vision clear but could not. His eyes were open unlike he had first assumed but he could not see. Black shadows moved around in an almost equally as black scene like faint ghosts. It could not have been that it was simply dark. Only in the most pitch of blacks could he not see a touch of color let alone anything around him like people and their faces.
Panic gripped him at that point.
His body hurt, his mind hammered, his sight was nearly nonexistent.
What had happened?
He could not remember.
There was a heavy weight on his lower legs and he worried for a moment that he was paralyzed, unable to move them, but he was quickly able to recognize Wynter’s voice as the tiger spoke to him. Wynter was clearly, though he could not see it, laying across his legs, taking up much of the end of the bed. Christian wanted to speak to the tiger and assure him that he was alright but his throat was horse and dry. His voice was nowhere to be found.
Unable to think, unable to move his aching body, unable to remember what had happened to get him in such condition, Christian did the only thing he could, he moaned.
Augustus had been pacing in the room, Kevin was down the hall and in the bathroom washing up, and Marry was in the corner sitting on the floor silently. He did not believe in chairs and always sat on the floor. Evidence that Marry had been there for some time was the fact that things about in Christian’s room were now collected in groups of six. Six socks on the floor, a hairbrush, three hair ties, a comb, and a bottle of black nail polish clustered on the dresser, six rubber duckies in the corner. Marry was excessively Obsessive Compulsive like that, even compared to any other Vampire’s natural OCD. It was all just more evidence to the fact that Marry was legitimately insane and highly disturbed, again, even compared to most Vampires.
Upon hearing Christian moan Augustus moved to be at his side, Marry standing to join them at once.
“Chris? Chris? Can you hear me?” Augustus asked, sounding worried and relieved all at the same time. Christian only moaned again in response.
“Can you speak?” Marry asked and Christian said nothing so they assumed the answer was no. Kevin walked into the room slowly with confusion written across his face as he looked to the two Vampires.
“What’s going on?” he asked, his dark short hair still wet, his long white-blond bangs combed out and tucked behind his left ear of safekeeping. He had been able to hear the Vampires talk to Christian, but was unaware yet that Christian has awoken.
“Christian’s awake,” Marry answered as he straightened and stepped back a little.
“Really? Is he alright?” Kevin asked dropping the towel he had been using to dry his hair and rush over to join the Vampires in those three steps to the bed in Christian’s small bedroom that was now positively cramped.
“That remains to be seen,” Augustus said quietly, shinning a penlight in Christian’s left eye as he held it open with his thumb on the top lid. Christian’s pupil reacted, contracting to the bright light, but it otherwise did not show any sign of sight. His gaze did not follow the light or his finger as Augustus moved them past.
“He blind?” Kevin asked, sounding worried, surprised.
“Healing, but yes, his sight is still apparently gone,” Augustus said heavily as though Christian was not listening to every word they said though unable to respond verbally to any of it. Christian was left there, blind and mute but not deaf, panic eating away at him.
“Here Chris,” Augustus said, lifting a glass of water from the little bedside table. “Drink this,” he said, “for your throat.”
Christian could not sit up on his own so Marry propped him up a little as Augustus poured a little of the water down Christian’s slightly parted mouth. Christian coughed and groaned but compulsively swallowed.
“Urrr,” he moaned, closing his unfocused eyes and turning his head away so as not to have more water pored into his mouth.
He looked in pain.
Kevin moved up closer to the bed, putting one knee on the end of it.
“Hey fag,” he said quietly, leaning around Wynter to smile down at the Vampire weakly.
Christian was quiet for a moment with his eyes closed as he swallowed a few times, pain clear across his face each time he did so before he licked his dry pale lips.
“Homophobe,” Christian muttered his voice raw and quiet.
Augustus and Marry both smiled, happy to hear their Christian awake and alert and acting like himself.
“I think he’ll be alright,” Kevin smiled, leaning back a bit and patting Wynter on top of his large head, the tiger just as relieved as the rest in the room.
“How are you feeling, kiddo?” Augustus asked, setting the glass down and sitting on the edge of the narrow bed.
“Fantastic,” Christian answered dryly, clearly being sarcastic. “What happened? Why am I blind?” he asked his voice so raw that it actually broke several times while trying to speak, his tone of voice never changing though despite him being serious then.
“You have been unconscious since early this morning when we brought you home,” Kevin explained.
“That still does not tell me what happened,” Christian said with his eyes closed.
“You and Marcus fought,” Marry said, looking as though he was struggling with himself not to reach out and brush some hair away from Christian’s forehead. A harsh look of warning by Augustus from across the bed was enough to get Marry to back off a little from Christian and to not even try it.
“Then why am I not dead?” Christian asked, testing his body by trying to wiggle his fingers and toes slightly. They did, but stiffly. He was not paralyzed. That was good news.
“Because you won the fight,” Marry said happily.
“And I came away looking like this?” Christian asked, opening his blind eyes while wiggling his fingers more, trying to wake up his dead hands.
“Marcus is a little worse for wear,” Kevin said while patting Wynter on the head still, the tiger bumping his head against Kevin’s chest, looking for a little attention.
“I find that hard to imagine,” Christian mumbled closing his eyes with a sigh.
“Well, you crushed his skull,” Augustus said, pride seeping out of him slightly.
“Did I really?” Christian asked, sounding skeptical.
“I feel like a shmuck for not having videotaped it,” Kevin teased.
“They wouldn’t have shown up on film anyways,” Marry laughed.
“We did not expect you to be awake so soon. We thought you would sleep for at least a day,” Augustus said, talking over the other two, “given how hurt you were and all.”
“I feel funny.”
“In what way?” Augustus asked, caught off guard by Christian’s sudden and odd confession.
“I am not sure. Something just feels, different tonight…it is what woke me I believe,” Christian said vaguely.
Marry, Augustus, and Kevin looked at each other, not sure what Christian meant, no one in that room aware that Christian had a brand-new baby fledgling.
“Um, Chris,” Kevin tried but when he reached out to touch him Christian flipped out, and though he had very little ability to move about, he was able to jump and gasp.
“Jesus Christ! I cannot see! Do not just reach out and touch me like that!” Christian panted, looking around wildly with his unclear eyes. Augustus and Marry chuckled and Kevin looked apologetic.
“Sorry Chris. I was not thinking.”
Christian lied back slightly, clearly calming himself though looking very much on edge at that point, his body shaking.
“Why can I not see?” he asked again.
“You were really hurt,” Kevin started but Christian interrupted him impatiently.
“I have gathered that much already thank you.”
“Chris,” Augustus warned with nothing but Christian’s name. He did not feel, despite how Christian felt right then, that he had any right to get snippy with any of them.
Christian pouted, though it lost some of its effectiveness if he could not cross his arms in his huff.
“Your aura was in shreds,” Marry continued softly for Kevin. “You’re clearly healing that first, leaving your body to fend for itself until you have enough energy to then deal with your physical wounds.”
“So I will be blind…”
“Until you have fed a few times,” Augustus finished. “That is why I have called for Jacob to come up here.”
Christian moaned and dropped his head back into his pillows, talking to the ceiling at that point.
“Gus, I really do not want to be fed by one of your pet Humans…”
“Would you rather go out and hunt in the condition you are in now, Chris? Blind?” Augustus asked harshly, cutting Christian off abruptly before digressing a little. “Raise your arm,” he demanded, knowing that Christian could barely shift his body, let alone lift his arm.
“Damn you, Augustus,” Christian said darkly.
“Our master beat you to it,” Augustus retorted childishly, turning and walking out of the room, presumably to fetch the Human Jacob.
“Damn it,” Christian cursed quietly.
“We are all relieved to see you awake, Chris,” Marry said, trying to get things back into conversation.
“Oh, I bet you are.”
“Chris, stop,” Kevin scolded, though his words hardly held the command that Augustus’ did. They were effective in shutting Christian up at least.
“Wynter was worried about you,” Marry offered and Christian then smiled.
“That does not surprise me,” he said, feeling the tiger perk up at being finally mentioned. He belly crawled up Christian a little so he was laying parallel atop of Christian, his head resting on Christian’s stomach.
“Zdrast-voo-tyah little boy,” Christian said directly to the tiger, a little more energy now that he was more awake to communicate with only his mind. Wynter said hello back and confessed to have been very worried, and to have been taking care of the “boys” –meaning Augustus, Kevin, and Marry- and the apartment while he was “out.” Christian smiled and thanked the young tiger, the rest of the room missing the whole conversation.
Christian leaned his head back down a little after talking the Wynter; his body drained and sluggish feeling.
“How do you feel?” Marry asked.
“I do not know, how do I look?” he asked dismissively.
“I hope you don’t feel as bad as you, umph,” Kevin started to say before Marry elbowed him quickly in the stomach to shut him up.
“What?” Christian asked, looking around blindly at the ceiling.
“Nothing. You are looking much better Chris,” Marry said with a fake smile Christian could not even see.
“You are lying to me,” Christian accused.
“Would I ever?” Marry asked, his outrage overpowered by too much forced innocents.
“Yes,” Kevin and Christian answered flatly at the same time. Marry looked a little wounded.
“What is wrong with how I look?” Christian asked, turning towards the direction of Kevin’s voice. Marry glared at Kevin but crossed his arms in a “you tell him then” gesture.
“Well, you will definitely have some new scars,” Kevin answered lightly, hoping that Christian would not care and thus not press since he had so many already.
“Really? Just some scars to worry about?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Kevin said uncomfortably.
“Then why can I sense so much unease in your voice?” he asked.
“Way to go, Wolfboy,” Marry snapped at Kevin.
“Fuck you, Whitey,” Kevin snapped back. “He would find out eventually when he got his sight back,” Kevin argued.
“Except we cannot use mirrors dumb-ass!”
“So you would not have told him?” Kevin demanded in outrage.
“Would not have told me what?” Christian asked, sounding very panicked, not knowing what they were talking about other than his looks and some scars.
Was he permanently disfigured?
Christian’s stomach clenched.
There was supposed to be very little one can do to a Vampire to permanently damage them short of Silver and Holy Items. Sometimes injuries were bad enough that they took long enough to heal that scaring still occurred when injured with none Holy or Silver objects, but that was unusual.
Christian was unusual though.
He was nervous now.
Had he been hurt enough to cause permanent scars?
How bad were they if Kevin and Marry were making such a big deal about them given how many nasty ones he had already?
“Oh, Chris, let’s worry about vanity later,” Marry said dismissively but Christian would not be diverted.
“What do you mean? Has something happened to my face?” Christian asked, feeling more than a little uneasy. He was vain; he would be the first to admit it. It was true he had never even seen his own reflection, ever, and never seen a photograph either (since mirrors and photography did not work with Vampires,) but he had been painted a few times before and he rather liked his appearance, and after more than four centuries, he was rather attached to it.
“It is not as bad as Marry is making it out to be,” Kevin assured.
“Easy for you to say, wolf, you do not have as good of eyesight as me.” Marry quipped but Kevin ignored him even though Christian did not, he looked upset still.
“They are only two little scars. Nothing to worry about.”
“But they are on my face?” Christian asked.
“Yes,” Kevin said sadly, knowing it was hard to get used to scars on one’s face.
“How bad are they Marry?” Christian asked, turning to Marry for the answer.
Marry sighed loudly and would not look at Christian.
“Not that bad.”
“Honestly?”
“My word. I am just,” Marry sighed, and redirected his thought. “Too pretty of a face to scar up,” Marry said sounding sad, looking down at Christian’s face with soft eyes.
“They are small, and clean.” Kevin said, getting Christian to turn the direction of his voice.
“Where are they?” Christian asked, trying to lift his left hand to feel his own face but was struggling.
“Incoming,” Kevin warned before grabbing Christian’s wrist. Christian only jumped a little but appreciated the warning and allowed Kevin to guide his hand up to where the scars were, lightly running Christian’s middle finger over them.
“There are two, one running horizontally on each cheekbone to ear, from when Marcus has slashed at you,” Kevin explained, letting Christian feel each side of his face slowly. The narrow scars were on the sides of his face, rather than the front, so they could easily be overlooked while looking at him face on. That fact helped ease some tension out of Christian’s chest. From the side they could be seen, from just below the outer corner of his eye to his ear on each side, but his hair would be able to hang down and cover most of them.
“You think it looks horrible, Marry?” Christian asked as Kevin let go of Christian’s hand and it slowly fell to rest on his chest, Christian unable to hold it up on his own.
“Of all the scars you have gotten you have always been able to keep your face free of them,” he said quietly.
“My having two little scars on my cheeks make you sad, Marry?” Christian asked.
“Maybe,” Marry said, his voice little and pouting.
“I think they look fine,” Kevin said, flipping his long pale bangs out of the way so that Marry could see the scars that ran along his temple and surrounded his left eye in a sort of half-moon. They were not as neat and clean as Christian were, not like the scar Raine had over her left eye all narrow and pale, his were rough, jagged, and a little pink still. They were claw marks, left over from the fight at Gabriel’s manor when a Witch able to Shapeshift had tried to claw his eyes out while fighting him. Kevin was taking Marry’s reaction to two much more attractive looking scars on Christian’s face as a personal insult. He did not like the fact that he now had a scarred face, but he was dealing with it in stride. Marry was making him bitter and proud of his scars at the same time, just to spite the Vampire.
“Scars build character,” Augustus said as he entered the room as though he had been a part of the conversation the whole time, a young man to his back. Christian was blind but knew the man was there, he could sense his presence. The man was blond-haired and pale, a little mousy. He was taller than Christian though, and a little heavier (though there were few that weren’t heavier than Christian) but he had a stronger bone structure, so he looked thin while his shoulders held the promise of an athlete if he ever worked out and gained a little muscle.
“Christian must have a lot of character,” Marry said flatly, clearly pouting still but Kevin able to laugh at that, Christian smiling.
“How can you be so old and have so few scars?” Kevin asked Augustus as he brushed his hair out of his face, tucking it behind his ear again and partially covering his scars.
“Christian makes a good body shield,” Augustus said flatly and Christian just nodded, knowing Augustus was pulling his chain but also knew the truth in that statement despite the teasing.
“So who is this?” Kevin asked, looking over at the only Human in the room. He was not friends with Augustus, but he was being friendly for Christian’s sake. Marry and him had agreed to that months ago to be civilized for Christian’s sake and were now not quite friends but able to behave and get along on some level or another. Kevin hated Marry for what he had done to Lissa, and he hated Augustus for what he said about Raine, but Marianus at least had his moments where Kevin did not want to hit him. Augustus, from all Kevin had seen, had few redeeming qualities.
Augustus looked over at Kevin in his typically arrogant and condescending manner and narrowed his eyes at the Werewolf.
“This is Jacob. He has offered to help Christian,” he said, the Human to his back silent like a well-trained dog waiting for a command from his master.
“Augustus, really, I would much prefer…”
“You can’t hunt right now Christian, look at you.”
“I’m not sure he can,” Kevin pointed out but was ignored.
“At least bring me someone kicking and screaming like you have before. I cannot just sit cozy with someone I do not even know and feed,” Christian said.
“I could scream if you would like me to,” Jacob offered, his voice soft and helpful from behind Augustus. Something about his eagerness to be fed from was unnerving. Maybe he was just trying to be helpful, but under all that was a person that desired to have his flesh bitten. Kevin, nor Christian, could understand that.
Christian closed his eyes and shook his head.
“Nyet, that is not the same,” he said softly before growing frustrated again. “Damn it, Augustus!”
“We will leave you two to figure out the finer details, but you must feed Christian. The longer you do not the more of this damage will be permanent,” Augustus warned, turning and leaving the cramped room. Kevin looked at Marry and Marry just shrugged nodding for Kevin to follow.
“Come-on, Wynter,” Kevin said quietly as they moved around the end of the bed. The tiger jumped down and followed, all passing closely to Jacob. The door closed with a thump and Christian was left alone in the room with the Human.
“No hanky-panky now you two,” Marry called through the door and the sound of Kevin hitting him followed dully.
Christian sighed as Jacob stood awkwardly.
It was why Christian hated “easy meals,” they were never easy and the discomfort was felt on more than just his side.
Sorry if that chapter was “icky” but hey, I never shy away from the gross, gritty details of reality…even though I write fiction. lol
You got what you asked for, the baby is HERE. Don't start bitching at me about when Christian or Raine will "get back together" or I will get grumpy. Celebrate Nathaniel's birthday, please.
I’m sorry that it has been a whole month since my last update...things have been, um, not good at the moment.
I need to get working on this book again, and my website, so I will have more to post since I have but 13 chapters written.
I hope to get lots of yummy reviews for this exceedingly LONG chapter.
Chapter 09 is even longer, sorry to say.
Raine
