Birth of Jaiden (5 page)

As he walked, he tried to
console himself with the notion that his victim had been a killer
and would have killed him if he was mortal. It didn’t make him feel
better; an eye for an eye just wasn’t going to clear his
conscience. It was not the person that caused him to kill; it was
his blood lust, something he could only deny for short periods of
time. His own personal vendetta to kill only bad guys didn’t always
work; he did have accidents.

Out of the silence of the
night, a shrill scream tore through his head. Pain like he had
never felt before struck like lightning bolts through his head. He
screamed too. His head felt like it was going to explode. Both his
hands flew to his head and he fell to the ground. Water splashed
all around him as he went down face first.

“
AAAAHHH, Damn it, damn
it!”

Alex rolled over onto his
back and lay there in the flooded street clutching his aching head
until it began to clear enough for him to think. He started to get
to his feet again, but before he could even ask himself what had
happened, it hit again.

The short repetitive
shriek sent jolts of pain throughout his entire body; he seized
over and over again and cried right along with it.

“
Lord…God, make it
stop.”

He whimpered over and over
again.

The noise gradually
subsided but he could still hear its echo in the back of his
mind.

“
What
was
that?” he asked out loud.

He was hearing the crying
in his head, not with his ears, which meant it was coming from out
of earshot, even for him.

Wait
, Alex thought,
how could I hear that if my
mind was closed? What in the world is going on
?

“
Oh no!”

It got louder again. Not
able to take anymore, Alex closed his eyes, took a deep breath and
embraced the noise inside his head. Then, with superhuman speed, he
flew through the streets and alleyways for several blocks until he
came to where the noise was coming from.

The rain still poured down
and the cement was flooded with inches of water. Alex focused on
the horrible shrieking and followed the echoing sound waves. He was
led into an alley, and finally, his brain connected with the
sound.

Baby!

His eyes moved quickly
around the alley. The crying continued but he could not see its
source yet. On either side of him, there were large brick apartment
buildings, and two brown city dumpsters took up some space at the
opposite entrance to the alley.

Alex focused on the
dumpsters and started into that direction. As he walked forward,
the shrieking became louder and louder. Alex had no idea what to
do; he knew what was in that dumpster…he knew it, and yet, he
continued to move forward.

While he cautiously crept
toward the dumpsters, he thought,
What am I going to do when I find it? Just
leave it there? Eat it?
Most vampires would like a tasty snack like that
but he didn’t do that kind of thing.

No…he didn’t know what he was
going to do but that crying was like some kind of tractor beam. He
could not tear himself away; he
had
to see it.

When reached the dumpster,
he paused before he viciously flipped open the lid, stepped up on
the side, and leaned over to see in. There was indeed a
baby.

Alex’s breath caught when
he laid his eyes upon the unclothed baby girl that couldn’t have
been more than a day or two old, lying among all kinds of trash.
There was no choice; he reached in, took hold of her with both
hands and lifted her out.

The moment he cradled her
in his arms, her crying seemed to diminish into short rapid
breaths. She had been screaming for so long that she could barely
breathe, and her little body was beet red from the top of her head
to the tip of her toes. He jumped down from the dumpster with the
agility of a cat and took a good look at her.

Alex could not believe
what he saw.

No, no it couldn’t be!
His mind began to
reel. That child had a full head of red hair, and even with all the
crying she had done, she managed to open her eyes…her black
eyes.

“
Danielle!” Alex shouted
her name; he shouted it like he never had before. “Danielle! I need
you!”

Why doesn’t she come? She is
always around, but when I really need her, she isn’t.
Impatiently, he
shouted again, “Come on, Danielle!”

Then, from out of nowhere,
she walked into the alley. Her dark hair was plastered to her
body.

“
What
is
this?” he demanded.

5

“
This is the answer to
your prayers, Alex.” Danielle gazed at the crying baby in Alex’s
arms.

“
What?”
She must be a crazy angel,
Alex
thought.

“
Didn’t you ask for
something to live for?”

“
Danielle, you know
exactly
who this baby looks
like.” He couldn’t stop his voice from trembling.

“
Alex, you must calm down;
this is what the Lord wants and you claim to be one of his
servants…so you must do what he asks.”

“
Has he forgotten that I am
a
vampire
? Danielle, how am I supposed to take care of a human
child?”

“
That will come in time;
right now, we need to get this baby warm before she freezes to
death.”

“
Where are we taking
her?”

“
Home.”

“
My home?” Alex was quite sure
that he sounded like an idiot but he was also sure he was entitled
to sound like an idiot.
I can’t believe this is
happening
.

“
Yes, and we can talk
about it more in the car. Let’s go!”

He dangled the
hyperventilating baby in front of him with outstretched arms and
then passed her to Danielle. “Hold her.”

Danielle hugged the baby
to her chest to protect her from the persistent rain.

While Danielle held her,
Alex quickly checked the inside of his jacket to make sure it was
dry. Then, he took it off and wrapped it around the baby. Danielle
handed over the bundled up baby. Alex reluctantly took her in his
arms.

“
Let’s go,” he muttered
and headed in the direction that would take them back to his
car.

Without speaking and
finally caring about the rain, they moved at a speed faster than
human. About halfway to the car, the baby started to scream
again.

Alex didn’t even bother
trying to hide the growl that escaped from his throat.

“
What’s wrong with her
now
?” he asked and helplessly looked at Danielle.

“
She is probably
hungry.”

“
So what do we
do?”

As Danielle started to
chuckle, her brown eyes glistened.

“
Don’t laugh; the last
time I took care of a baby, the only thing they ate came out of
their mother.”

“
Yes, yes, I know,” she
managed to say between chuckles. “Don’t worry; we’ll just have to
stop at the store.”

They picked up the pace
and arrived at the car in no time. Alex felt relief wash over him.
He handed the screeching baby to Danielle, who quickly slipped into
the passenger seat, and then got behind the wheel and started the
engine. “What store?”

“
Any store
,” she said
impatiently.

Alex sped to the closest
grocery store, pulled into the parking lot, and killed the
engine.

“
Are you coming in?” he
asked when she didn’t look like she was going to move.

“
We can’t take her in
screaming like this.”

“
Well,
I
don’t know what to buy. You
go.”

“
No,
you
go; get bottles and formula; it should all
be in the same section.”

Going into the store by himself
to buy things for an infant was the last thing he wanted to do. He
began to plead with her. “
Please
come in with me.”

She raised her voice,
which stunned Alex. “Alex! Get in there and get the stuff so that
we can feed this baby!”

“
All right, all right,” he
muttered while he slowly got out of the car and shut the door with
more force than necessary. Surprisingly, the window didn’t shatter.
As he walked through the parking lot to the entrance, he could
still hear the crying baby.

Damn it.

He sloshed his way through
the aisles of the store and read the signs which hung from the
ceiling. Finally, one told him the baby stuff was in isle
six.

“
Oh no,” he whispered as
he gazed around the shelves of isle six. Who knew there were so
many different kinds of formula and bottles? Carefully, he read the
labels until he found a formula that said it was most like breast
milk. The bottles were easier; he chose a couple that simply stated
0-3.

There were more diapers on the
wall of isle six than he could imagine anyone would ever
need.
Which
ones, which ones
. “Ah, newborn!” He grabbed the largest package he could
find and made his way to the checkout counter.

Alex put the stuff on the
counter in front of a cute brunette woman who wore a red apron. She
eyed his items and asked, “Late night emergency?”

Then she started to slowly
ring up the formula.

“
Um, yeah.”
Ya think
.

She finished bagging his
items and handed him the bag. He snatched it from her hands,
managed a quick and unfriendly “thank you”, and left the store as
quickly as he could manage without scaring people.

Water splashed up as he
ran to the car and jumped in.

“
I got it!” He held up the
bag with triumph. “So how do we do it?”

He opened the bag and took
out the can of formula, then tore off the lid. Once it was open, he
stared down in disbelief.

“
It’s
powder,
Danielle, how is she supposed to
drink this?”

Danielle was trying to
comfort the baby and rocked her back and forth. She explained, “You
mix it with water.”

“
We don’t have any
water.”

“
Let’s
go,
then.”

He peeled out of the
parking lot, spraying water up in a wave when he turned the car
toward the freeway, and drove like a mad man all the way home. All
he could think of the entire way was what could silence the
screaming child.

Bite her.

He pulled into the
driveway, parked right in front of the doors, and without even
helping Danielle, he bolted out of the car and into the
house.

When Danielle finally made
it into the house, he handed her a bottle full of
formula.

She carried the baby into
the den and sat on the sofa. The first attempt at giving the bottle
to the baby failed. She turned her little head away while she
screamed and waved her arms around. Apparently, she was trying to
emphasize what she wanted to say.

“
What’s wrong with her?”
Alex asked, as he collapsed onto the chair across from
them.

“
She doesn’t know how,”
Danielle said softly. Patiently, she worked with her until the baby
figured it out. When it happened, she latched on for dear
life.

Alex leaned back in the
chair and sighed with relief; it was finally quiet. After a couple
of minutes, Alex took the small lap blanket from the chair by the
door and gently handed it to Danielle, who wrapped it around the
baby.

Alex broke the silence. “I
don’t know what’s going on here, but as you can tell, I’m not
really cut out for this.”

Danielle glared at
Alex.

“
What?”

“
Alexander, you were
destined to find this baby; it’s part of a larger plan; you and
this child were meant to be together.”

“
But
I’m
a vampire, and
that,”
he pointed at the bundle in her arms, “is
a human baby; how can this possibly work?”

“
Listen to me closely: You
will raise this child like you are meant to. This little girl is a
very important part of the fate of the human world. You are going
to be her teacher and her father. You are going to protect
her.”

“
This is completely
insane.”

“
No, this is what you
wanted. It seems crazy now but you will adjust.”

“
I will
adjust
, are you kidding me?”

Danielle only shook her
head.

“
Why does that baby look
just like my daughter?” Anger welled up inside of him as he thought
of how cruel this joke was.