VA 2 - Blood Jewel (32 page)

“Chansey’s health is fine?” I
asked.

“Chansey is the picture of
health.”

“Do both of our babies look
healthy?” I asked.

“It appears as though they are,
other than the bizarre growth spurt and magical appearance of a
second baby. I am so sorry. I don’t know how to explain the
inconsistencies. Perhaps the ultrasound machine needs some
calibrating.”

Chansey was ecstatic about the
second baby, but she didn’t know about Fylgias. She smiled at me.
“I’m healthy and now I have two healthy babies. I couldn’t be
happier.”

“I believe everything is alright,
but I’m going to refer you to maternal-fetal specialist to be safe.
You can get dressed and Kayla will be in a minute to let you know
when your appointment will be.”

“Okay. Thank you, Dr.
Knight.”

She didn’t reply and she walked out
the door stunned.

We needed to talk about the
possibility of this second baby being a Fylgia, but this wasn’t the
place or time and I needed Sebastian’s permission to tell her about
Ella. His story wasn’t mine to tell.

≈ ≈ ≈

Chansey was so happy about the
second baby, but I couldn’t find the same joy. I tried to hide my
concern from her, but the bond we shared made it
impossible.

“Pull over,” she
ordered.

I looked over at her. “Are you
going to be sick?”

“No, but if you’re driving while
we talk, you look at the road and not at me. I want you to look at
me when we talk.”

I pulled to the shoulder of the
road because I knew better than to try to avoid this
conversation.

Tears filled her eyes and it broke
my heart. “Why are you not happy about the second baby?”

“It’s not that I’m unhappy about
the other baby. I’m just very concerned about what is happening. I
had hoped this was going to be a normal human pregnancy for us, but
that isn’t happening. These aren’t normal babies and I’m scared for
them. I’m scared for you. It’s my job to protect you and our
children, but I have no control over what’s happening to the three
of you.”

“You and I aren’t mundane, so it’s
a little unreasonable to think we would have normal human babies,
don’t you think?”

Hearing her expectations about our
children calmed my nerves a little, but I needed her to know what
was possibly happening, so the sooner I spoke with Sebastian, the
better.

She leaned over and kissed my
mouth. “Okay, I can tell you’re feeling better now, so get us home.
I can’t wait to tell everyone we having two babies instead of
one.”

She was so excited to share our
news about two babies that she forgot the others would be asleep
when we got back to the compound. I pulled back onto the road and
reminded her, “Are you going to wake sleeping vampires to tell them
about the second baby?”

“Oh, shoot,” she groaned. “I
forgot about that, so I guess I’ll have to wait until tonight.
That’s a real bummer.”

“You’ll have Avery to tell,” I
suggested. “Seems like the two of you are close.”

“We are close. It’s nice having
another human around, but I wish she wasn’t so frightened by Sol.
We know he isn’t going to do anything to her, but she can’t get
past whatever happened between them at Vincent’s.” She hesitated
and asked, “How much longer will Jenn and Avery be at the compound
with us?”

“I’m not sure. Jenn is doing
great, but she needs a little longer to be sure she doesn’t
relapse.” I debated if I should tell Chansey about Sol’s plan to
leave because of Avery and decided she had the right to know. “Sol
is going to leave the Savannah compound.”

“Why? He can’t leave. Savannah is
his to run.” She shook her head and added, “No. I’m sorry, but he’s
not doing that. We have babies on the way and judging by their
record growth, they’re not going to wait until April.”

“I think I know when they’ll be
born.”

“How could you know
that?”

Chansey’s birth during the eclipse
could have been a coincidence, but I doubted it and since it seems
that at least one of these babies was conceived during an eclipse,
it was predictable to expect them to be born during one. “I looked
to see when the next eclipse is predicted. It’s very slight, but
there will be a lunar in early January. Since the babies are
growing so rapidly, it seems likely that is when it will
happen.”

“January babies.”

“That’s my guess.”

“What are we going to do about
seeing the specialist?”

“I want the babies to be healthy,
but it feels like it’s too big of a risk. Dr. Knight wasn’t
handling what she found very well. This isn’t a natural pregnancy
and they’re going to find something unnatural about it. What do we
do when that happens?” She looked out the window and said, “I need
a vampire that delivered babies before he was turned,” she
laughed.

She was kidding when she said it,
but that is exactly what she needed. Why had I not thought of that
already? “You’re right. That’s a brilliant idea.”

I saw her in my peripheral vision
turn to stare at me. “I was kidding.”

“I know, but it is exactly what
you need. It might take a little digging, but I know we can find
one out there somewhere. It’s better than taking the risk with a
human doctor that will ask too many questions.”

I think reality was beginning to
set in for Chansey because I felt a twinge of fear take lead of her
emotions as she considered the possibility. “Do you think Sebastian
will know one?”

“I bet that if he doesn’t know
one, he can find one. He was once a council member on the board of
census.”

Chansey started laughing. “Say it
isn’t so. A census record is kept for vampires?”

I felt her mood shift to something
a little less stressed. “Yeah. Why is that so funny?”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s
because a census is such a mundane thing to do.”

“We did it before humans started
doing it,” I informed her. “They stole the idea from
us.”

“Is that so?” she laughed and it
was beautiful to hear after the stressful morning we
had.

We reached the drive to the
compound and I said, “It’s true, no joke,” as I pulled to the
keypad and entered the passcode.

I pulled through the opened gates
and Chansey said, “I’m not going to tell Avery right now. I want
everyone to know at the same time because I’m afraid Gia and Lairah
will be hurt if I tell Avery before them.”

“I think that is a wonderful idea,
but will you let me talk with Sebastian before the
announcement?”

“So he can be thinking about a
doctor for us?”

“Yes,” I said as I tried to
convince myself that that was my reasoning so Chansey wouldn’t see
through my deception.

28
Fear Of The Unknown

The minute Sebastian was up; I was
knocking on his door.

I heard him from the other side of
the door, “You may enter, Curry.”

He saw the flustered look on my
face and immediately asked, “What has happened? Is Chansey and the
baby alright?”

“May I speak with you in the
office?” I asked.

“Of course,” he replied as he got
up from the bed.

We entered the office and Sebastian
shut the soundproof door behind him. “What’s wrong,
Curry?”

“As you know, Chansey had a
doctor’s appointment this morning and Dr. Knight found some unusual
things about her pregnancy. The growth is very rapid, but I wasn’t
surprised by that considering the way I can see changes in
Chansey’s body from one day to the next. The shocker was that the
doctor found a second baby that wasn’t there when she had her
ultrasound a month ago.”

Sebastian reached for his face and
ran his hand across the stubble on his chin, but said
nothing.

“Could this second baby be a
Fylgia?” I asked.

“I suppose it’s possible, which
would explain its sudden appearance, but we know this isn’t a
regular human pregnancy. Perhaps the second baby was there a month
ago and its growth was delayed and now it’s catching up with its
twin. Maybe it’s possible that they weren’t conceived at the same
time and that explains the sudden appearance, but it doesn’t
explain why they are the same size now.” Sebastian shrugged and
said, “Who knows? Anything is possible.

I wanted to hear that it wasn’t a
possibility, but that wasn’t the case. “If one of the babies is a
Fylgia, then that means the other is a girl and she is an Agápe.” I
slammed my fist on the desk and caved it in. “I won’t hand my
daughter over to a vampire. That’s not the life I want for
her.”

“Curry, we don’t know anything for
certain,” he reassured. “You could have two beautiful, healthy
babies with neither of them being an Agápe or a Fylgia.”

“I need to tell Chansey about your
Fylgia theory. I have to prepare her.” I ran my hands through my
hair. “She has to know that one could be an Agápe and we could lose
the other one so it isn’t so devastating if it happens.”

“My theory doesn’t hold much water
if you don’t tell her about Ella, so I’m guessing you asked me in
here so you could get my consent to tell Chansey about my
Agápe.”

“I am. I would never ask if I
didn’t feel it was necessary,” I pleaded.

“You may tell Chansey about Ella,”
he consented. “I think I may tell the others as well.”

That wasn’t necessary. “You don’t
have to do that. Chansey will keep your secret.”

“I’ve been thinking about it for a
while and I’ve decided that I don’t want to keep Ella a secret any
longer. I want to talk about her. I want to share her with my
family. I think it will help me to heal from the pain of losing
her.”

“I think you’re right,” I agreed.
“You’ll be glad you did it.”

“I think so, too.” He nodded and
his face became solemn. “I don’t envy what you are about to
do.”

God, it was going to be terrible.
“I know. Chansey is so happy about this second baby and she isn’t
going to take this news well, but I don’t feel like I have a
choice. I’m obligated to tell her.”

“You’re right. You don’t have a
choice.”

“Chansey said something in passing
and I think it’s worth a try. Do you know of a vampire that would
have been a doctor or Obstetrician prior to being turned? We think
we would like to pursue that avenue because Dr. Knight wants
Chansey to see a specialist about the pregnancy because of her
bizarre findings. We don’t think that’s a good idea. They wouldn’t
be able to treat any complications, so it’s just asking for
trouble.”

“I agree. She can no longer see a
human doctor. Let me check with the council and I’ll see what I can
come up with.”

I left that office with the deepest
sinking feeling in my gut. I was about to give my wife the most
devastating news she would ever receive and I wasn’t sure how I was
going to do it.

I walked into our quarters and she
was in her sitting room that she now referred to as the nursery.
Who knew a pregnancy would end up being the reason for that nagging
suspicion I had about her needing her own room within our
quarters?

“What are you doing?” I asked from
where I stood in the doorway.

“I’m thinking about how to make
two cribs work in here. How are we going to decorate? We don’t know
if we have boys, girls or one of each.”

“We need to talk, Chansey. I have
something I need to tell you.”

She stood with her hands on her
hips and she refused to look at me. She felt something horrible
coming. “I don’t know why I’m asking you about decorating the
nursery. I need Lairah and Gia to help me make these decisions.”
She walked over to the built in cabinets. “I think I’ll put fabric
lined baskets on these shelves to hold the diapers and
supplies.”

I sat on the couch and patted the
cushion next to me. “Love, come sit with me. We have something we
have to discuss and it can’t be avoided.”

She looked at me like she rather
run from the room, but she hesitantly walked over and sat next to
me. Before I uttered a word, she had tears welling in her
eyes.

“I’m going to start from the
beginning because that’s all I know to do.”

I started by telling her about
Sebastian and Ella’s Agápe relationship. She stared at me with wide
eyes as I explained about Ella’s twin that died at birth and her
lifetime of reappearances through Ella’s dreams with the occasional
corporeal appearance. I explained Sebastian’s Fylgia theory to her
and I didn’t have to point out the similarities between her and
Ella, but I could clearly see in her eyes that our babies had not
entered into that equation in her mind.

“There is no easy way to say this,
Love.” She stared at me with wide eyes and my heart felt like
someone was squeezing it as I uttered the words, “I think our
babies could be an Agápe and a Fylgia.”

She shook her head. “No, that can’t
be true because that would mean one of our babies will...” Die. She
couldn’t force herself to say the word.