by C. L. Quinn
“Of course. Cherise called as soon as she left you. We care about you and know what a difficult time you’ll have raising this child.”
“Are you sure? I mean, I think I can do it quite well here in Boston. There’s a lot of support for single parents.”
“Single parents raising a vampire child?”
“Is that really going to be that much of an issue until she’s older?”
“Perhaps. The thing is, we’ve discovered that the children of this generation are more powerful than we were and they get their skills earlier. I think the worst part is the unpredictability. You will never know what she might do. In that, yes, I think it will be an issue. And you don’t have the ability to wipe memories to clean up any mess she might make. You see my point?”
Tamesine heard a long sigh and some movement. Sarah was pacing in her small apartment.
“I want to stay here, at least for a little while.”
“I do understand, you’ve made that city home. You can try it while she’s a baby, see how it goes, and come to us when you are either ready or hit a time when it is necessary. Cherise and I agree that you are a smart, headstrong woman and that you will choose the right course when the time comes. Sarah, we trust you and we know that, ultimately, you will do what is best for the child. So stay, enjoy, be a doctor, and let us know when I need to send the jet for you. Does that help?”
“It really does. You know how much I value your community, but I feel like I need to embrace my humanity and I feel like it’s the first lesson I’d like to teach my daughter someday.”
“Those are fair goals. She’ll be with us in the end anyway, you do know that?”
Tamesine felt as well as heard Sarah’s heart-stopping hesitation as she prepared to admit what she did not want to admit. Finally, she spoke.
“I know that. I assume that I’ll be welcomed back into the community as well.”
“Oh, darling, of course you will be.” Now Tamesine paused. “Sarah, you need to think about the future. You know what I mean by that.”
Another long pause from across the sea made Tamesine ache for the young human woman whose life was no longer her own to control.
“I know.”
That was all there was to say and Tamesine found herself nodding. No decisions had to be made now, there was plenty of time, but if Sarah wanted to remain a part of her daughter’s life for the coming years, she would have to convert and become vampire.
“I should let you go,” Sarah commented suddenly.
“Yes, I need to rest. Thank you for letting me know about your choices and situation. Again, anything you need, you know we are there.”
“I really do know that and it gives me great comfort. Goodnight, Tamesine.”
“Bonne nuit.”
Sarah slid her phone onto the tabletop in front of her sofa and lay her head back on one of the arms.
Okay, that was done.
The relationship with Leo was settled in that she wouldn’t have one now. Tamesine, and as such, the vampire community, was apprised and okay with her choice to try to raise the baby here in Boston. Nikolai had been told and was overjoyed. She was fairly sure that he would stay and help her. Thank God, too, because she would need help.
The only thing that remained was how to deal with Naji. This weekend, she would sit down with Nikolai and Naji, find out how their relationship was going and make a final choice.
This was not the life she’d built when she came here three months ago. It reminded her of when her parents left Xavier’s household. “I remember, mom, when you told me that life is what happens to you while you are making other plans.”
While that was true for most people, it was particularly true when an omnipotent universal force made those choices for you.
Aware that everything she thought and felt could be felt by the baby growing inside of her, Sarah quickly smoothed her fingers across her abdomen that was just beginning to swell.
“I wouldn’t wish you away, my sweetheart, for anything in this world, though, I promise.”
An overwhelming warmth began in her womb and moved throughout her body. Her daughter approved.
Saturdays were busy in the city. With bright sunlight moving through the streets, the air warm with a light breeze, the crowds followed that sunshine to the parks, several local festivals, and great restaurants.
Finally, looking forward to seeing the couple together for the first time, Sarah waited for Naji and Nikolai at a popular café on Liberty Wharf. Luxury yachts moved gently on the calm sea, elegantly serene in a loud frantic world. It felt good to be out of the apartment for something other than work.
“Ahhh!”
The scream broke her concentration as Sarah looked up to see Naji advancing on her quickly, a smiling Nikolai just behind her. Naji filled the space with her presence as she grabbed Sarah and hauled her from her seat to hug her. Sarah hugged back, so grateful to see her friend again after all the life-changing moments this past month.
Stepping back, Naji held Sarah at arm’s length, her coal dark eyes glittering. “It’s been too long, love.” Then her eyes shot to Nikolai and back to Sarah with a sly smile.
“Of course, I’ve been busy!”
“No details! But I’m happy for you. Here, sit beside me and tell me how you’ve been.” Sarah kept her eyes on Nikolai as he sat on the other side of the table. He looked happier than she could have imagined when she first saw him here in Boston weeks ago on that examination table in the E.R.
“I assume things are going well?” she asked, the question general to Naji, more focused to Nikolai. She had to know how close they were.
The answer came seconds later when Naji looked directly at Nikolai and he bowed his head. Love. Pure and simple, Naji was in love with Nikolai.
“It’s going well,” was all Naji said though.
Nikolai slid a hand across the table and underneath Naji’s. Their eyes locked.
Sarah looked back and forth between the two serious expressions. “You two are together, aren’t you? Really together, am I right?”
Nikolai looked back into Sarah’s eyes. “We are. These weeks have shown us that we are a perfect match. We have found what many seek all their lives and never find. The perfect partner to share life with.”
Naji took Sarah’s hand. “He has made me believe in love. That I am worthy of it when I never thought that I was. I could never get beyond the lonely little girl who desperately wanted a hug and never got one because I was sure that I didn’t deserve it. He’s knocked all the cobwebs off memories and showed them for what they are. Other people’s failures, not mine. I love this man, Sarah. I am so grateful that you brought him into my life.”
Sarah surged out of her seat to hug Naji again, her eyes on Nikolai. He saw the question in them and nodded. All right, Naji would remain a part of their lives.
Pulling back, she slipped into her chair. “I am so happy for you both. Let’s have a great lunch, my treat, and then go back to my apartment. I have something I need to go over with you.”
“More surprises?”
“You have no idea. So, what would you like?”
Three hours later, Nikolai waited for the two women to pass him into Sarah’s apartment.
“I have some decadent ice cream if anyone would like to make a sundae.”
“Sarah, that lunch has already pushed me up another size. How am I gonna keep my man happy if I my hot ass keeps growing?”
“He’s not in love with you for your size 8 ass, Naj.”
Nikolai came up behind her and slid a hand over her bum. “Not for its size, no,” he commented.
“Ugh! I told you, no sex talk. Generally, and also specifically, because I am celibate now.”
“No, you’re not, I’m going to find you the perfect man since you found one for me,” Naji promised.
“That isn’t necessary. And now, I’m going to explain why. Nik, why don’t you get Naji a hot tea and some of that cake on the counter?”
He went into the kitchen to put the kettle on and prepare the dessert. Fifteen minutes later, he brought three cups of sweet tea and a slice of cake into the living room and placed it all on the table in front of the sofa.
Seated now on the sofa, relaxed at first, Sarah beside her, Naji suddenly found herself watching her companion’s faces. She was intuitive enough to notice that their behavior was different now, odd, maybe suspicious. “I know something is going on here. You are both acting strange. What is it? Sarah, you know I hate lies.”
“I do. Which is why Nikolai and I have something to tell you. It’s crazy, Naj, and you’ll have trouble believing what we tell you. But you have to trust us that it’s true, because I’m really going to need you in the future.”
“I’ll be here for you no matter what, love, you know that. Just because Nik and I are hooking up doesn’t mean that I abandon you. What’s going on? You two look so serious and it’s fucking scaring me.”
“There isn’t anything to be afraid of. It’s actually good news. Incredible news. But there’s a bit of a tale to tell before we get to that part.”
“Then begin the tale, damn’t!” Naji reached for the cake.
Sarah looked at Nikolai. “Do you want to start?”
“Da, I think that is the best place.” He turned to Naji.
“Please, keep an open mind and remember that the universe is a big place and that things happen in this world that are far beyond anything we can imagine. It is an incredibly complex place.”
He paused, looked to Sarah for support that this was indeed the right thing to do. She nodded. He turned back to Naji. “Okay, this is what happened to me one night in Siberia.”
Naji hadn’t moved in over half an hour, the cake she’d taken off the table still perched untouched on her lap. Her face expressionless, she sat stone still as her eyes moved from Sarah back to Nikolai now that Sarah was finished with her part of the story she’d just heard. All three sat wordless for several long minutes of deep breaths and long shocked stares.
Finally, Sarah broke the silence. “Naji. Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“You don’t want me to. Not yet.”
Nikolai slipped from his chair, knelt at Naji’s knees, and rested his arms down the sides of her thighs. “We need to talk about what we just revealed. Do you understand that all of it is completely true? We are not crazy?”
Naji rolled her eyes up to the white ceiling and noticed the shapes made by past water leaks in the stucco. What did they want her to say? She dropped her gaze back to Nikolai. This man she had fallen for was at her feet, begging for her to believe something entirely impossible.
Vampires? Really? People from thousands of years ago reviving? Possessing Nikolai’s body? And Sarah had lived with vampires since she was born? Now, she was pregnant with one of their children? It was impossible.
“Nik, I’ve fallen in love with you, and I’m in this with you until the end. For both of you. But this vampire story, the tales, the elaborate possession, it’s too weird for me.”
Her eyes moved to Sarah. “I loved you almost from that first morning we met in the bakery; you, desperate for that last cupcake, me, determined not to give it up, and how we recognized each other’s souls right away. I’ve trusted you like no one else in my life because I could see you. So, when two people who I love and want to spend my life with tell me a fantasy about things that I know cannot be true, and I can see that you both really believe it, then there is only one response.”
Shaking her head, Naji smiled. “I have to trust you, to have faith in you, because you are my family.”
Nikolai pulled Naji off the sofa into a tight embrace. He kissed her forehead several times before he let her wiggle free.
“That doesn’t mean that I don’t want proof. One of you is going to introduce me to one of these vampires.”
Sarah stood. “That is a deal. In a few weeks, I’ll introduce you to the one that is sleeping inside of me right now.”
“So you’re really pregnant?”
Nodding, Sarah pulled Naji’s hand to her belly and curved her long fingers over the expanding bubble.
“It’s a girl.”
“And the father is a vampire who died six thousand years ago?”
“Uh huh,” Sarah mumbled through relief and joy. Naji had taken this better than she was afraid that she would. Did she fully believe everything that they told her? No. But she believed that they believed it and it would give them time to prove that they were not certifiably insane. Love could overcome a lot of barriers.
“Naj, thank you for taking the leap of faith. I promise you, this is the most bizarre thing you’ll ever be told and it is one hundred percent true.”
“Okay. You know, I’m going to walk into that fog with you knowing that you both have my back. But I’m gonna keep my eyes wide open!”
Laughing, Nikolai came back from the kitchen with a bottle of wine. “This is a celebration. We have much to look forward to in the years ahead. We are a team now, the three of us, and we take care of each other.”
“The four of us,” Sarah commented, hands on her belly.
“Ah, yes, four of us. Dinner, tonight, on me, the restaurant of your choice.”
“Nik, you can’t afford that. Let me take you guys out.”
“I will find work soon. For now, I have a savings account that needs to be deflated some. Dress in your pretty clothes ladies. Sarah, we will be back to pick you up in two hours.”
Giving Naji and Nikolai a hug, Sarah closed the door behind them and wandered into the living room to pick up the cups and saucers from her table.
“So, we’re doing this. We have a support team, and everyone is read in. Yeah.” She looked down at the saucer with Naji’s uneaten dessert. “Yeah, it’s going to be a piece of cake.”
Shaking her head, she placed the saucer in the sink.
Piece of cake? No. Life never was.
Thirteen
FIVE MONTHS LATER
Cooler air pushed in off the water as Sarah watched the seagulls. Her belly was enormous now, and she mostly just used it for an armrest. She was starving again, though, as she had been for the past five months.
Nikolai carried a cooler to the water’s edge and sat beside her on the rustic bench.
“Oh, thank God. I’ve been eyeing those seagulls and if you hadn’t gotten here soon, it might have become a bloodbath.”
“As if you could kill a seagull. You’d wrap it up and take it home to feed it, maybe.”
“Gimme,” she hissed, as he pulled a thick sandwich from the plastic box.
“Crezia is going to eat me out of house when she gets here, isn’t she?” Nikolai complained with a grin as he watched Sarah devour the sandwich. It wasn’t pretty.
Between bites, Sarah glanced up at him. “She’s going to be a normal kid. I think. Tamesine said that the big thing we need to watch for when she gets a little older is manifestation of her talent. All of the other kids have shown some of their ability by age two. Of course, this child is the progeny of an ancient vampire and no one really knows what to expect.”
“When are they all coming?”
“Next week. Cherise will be here in two days to assess the day of birth. She says she can tell us exactly when the baby will come.”
“Remarkable.”
“When’s Naji getting here?”
“She’s held up. An important buyer arrived just before she was getting ready to leave and she couldn’t pass him off to a lower associate, so she’s working him. We need the commission.”
“I’m sorry, Nik. I can get back to work soon. A Shoazan heals very quickly following childbirth.”
“No, we’re fine. The apartment is just a little grander than I expected. Who knew people paid that kind of money just to rent space in a building?”
“Naji. The girl has impeccable taste and lavish expectations. I love our place, though. Huge master bedroom for you two, a separat
e suite for me and Zia. A balcony so we can watch the sunrise. Italian tile throughout. It’s almost as elegant as Xavier’s apartment in Paris.”
“As long as my women are pleased.” He sighed as he bit into a sandwich before Sarah ate them all. “It is a pretty evening. I’m kind of exhausted.”
“That new display at the museum?”
“Da. Everything weighs a ton. Literally. And I have no budget for staff, so I get to figure out how to move four tons of Egyptian stone into the main exhibition room. It will be a magnificent display once it is done.”
“Do you miss being out on the dig yourself?”
“Sometimes. But I’d miss being here with my girls more, so it’s worth the trade-off.”
“I couldn’t have done this without you, Nik.”
“You never would have had to. I cannot wait to hold Mies’s daughter in my arms. Do you think she will recognize me?”
“I know that she will. Cherise can actually let you communicate with her.”
“That is what I wait for. Sometimes, I am sad because I know how overjoyed he would be to know that you are having his daughter. I wish that I could speak to him again. Even on the spiritual plane.”
“I do too. We’ve tried, though, and our triad of first blood women can’t find him up there. The dead must go to a different place.”
Sarah stopped speaking suddenly, her eyes misting, her belly moving. “Dead. I hate that word. When I think of it in relation to Mies, I can’t let myself imagine that he is just gone. That he isn’t out there somewhere above the clouds watching us.”
“Sarah, he may be. We can’t know these things.”
She was silent again.
“It’s all right, okay?”
“I know. I just kind of believe that if he was still somewhere, he might be able to communicate with us. That’s why I think he’s just really gone this time. For always.”
The only thing that he could do was hold her, so he set the cooler on the ground and pulled her close. The belly did keep them from getting too near, but she sought comfort from him and they sat on the bench as the night air cooled even more and the pink left the sky.
