The Forgotten Child-Twilight

Chapter 16 - Part 2

The Birth

I took Helena to another township where I presented her with a simple wedding ring, then we married and set up housekeeping. I wanted to buy Helena servants but she vehemently refused.

I don't know what I had been so worried about...we fit together like two missing pieces of a puzzle. Although I was a little temped to begin with, Helena was just the right amount of 'not' human for me to resist killing her.

Helena's body began to bloom in front of me, her bosom more ample while her waist slimmed, I couldn't resist her nor did I try. After two weeks she seemed like she was going back to her original self, although she never stopped my nightly assaults.

However, Helena stopped me a few weeks later, saying she was unwell. This went on for a few weeks more, with me beginning to wonder if she still wanted me. I knew Helena recognized the disappointment in my eyes one night. In answer, she simply took my stone hand and placed it on top of her belly. There was the slightest of swellings there.

"Is that even possible? No, it can't be!" I protested.

ooOoOoo

That night Helena told me about another slave caste of her people. She told me about a guard that had existed millennia ago on her ancient world... a guard that was immortal, with granite bodies that were sustained by the life essences of their prey. Helena's people, the "Minstrels" referred to that ancient guard as their "Shadow Brothers" since the two races were related, but vastly different.

Helena honestly didn't know how my kind got here, but it was obvious. Although my kind and her kind were not exactly the same, we were cut from the same material. That's why she was so unearthly beautiful, why she didn't smell like food...why her people also possessed certain powers.

Helena also reminded me that her kind only bears more of her same kind. No matter who fathered her child, it would be a "Minstrel" just like her.

ooOoOoo

Fifteen years rolled by and Helena barely changed. I was now working as a doctor's apprentice and would soon be working on my own. Helena had lost the first child after around four months.

Although we still made love, Helena came into her time again around six years later. I relished these times when Helena seemed to need me almost as much as I needed her. Soon, her belly began to rise again. She was so happy, even I felt happy but wary that I might loose Helena. I was insisting on some servants, but as always she refused them. She was afraid to have them because we were both just too different.

I came home one evening when Helena was in her fifth month, but she wasn't there. I combed the township and finally caught her scent near one of the sickhouses, there were many back then. I heard my name called and an elderly neighbor woman motioned for me. She beckoned me inside and I instantly followed Helena's scent to her sickbed. She'd had another miscarriage and was bitterly heartbroken over it. I picked Helena up as she sobbed into my granite chest, causing my own granite heart to break.

I rushed Helena home and nursed her back to health myself. Helena no longer seemed herself once she was healed, but I still worshipped the ground she walked upon. As time went by I just couldn't force myself upon her although my body ached for hers constantly.

ooOoOoo

Seven years sped by, they always go by fast for vampires, but they seemed long and drawn out without my nightly pleasures with my precious Helena.

Then suddenly, her time had come upon her again... I recognized the sweet perspiration, the change in her bosom and hips and I prayed that she would want me again. I prepared for bed that night, Helena already soundly in bed. I removed my clothes and reached for my dressing gown, when I felt Helena reach for me.

My hard body lay against hers as Helena confessed, "I'm sorry, but I just can't go without you any longer." She was mine again, and I was happy.

We made love constantly after that first night. Helena's love for me seemed to actually blossom and grow stronger as if that were possible. This time I did hire a peasant woman to help Helena around the house.

Helena conceived for the third time and her midsection seemed to grow bigger and bigger, yet we couldn't stop our nightly sessions, although I had to be extra gentle with her. But I loved being with her and I loved how I felt those nights when I was physically joined and united to her, when we were both one.

ooOoOoo

Nine months came and went, leaving me constantly worried about my beloved Helena. I stopped going to my office and seeing my patients, all I could think of was my darling wife.

It was a bit of a scandal; we'd lived here in this township for almost twenty years, young looking, but childless. If Helena hadn't grown so heavy with child, I would have spirited us away to another township, to begin again. But I was afraid to chance it with her past experience. The nights went by while I gently rubbed Helena's swollen belly and she'd sing to me as if she were an angel.

Finally after fourteen long months, Helena'a water broke and she felt the birthing pains. I knew what to expect, I'd been a doctor now for quite some time. But... when he was born.. he took my breath away, not that I needed to breath.

After lifting the infant from Helena's body, I carefully cleaned then swaddled him, and finally lay him in his mother's awaiting arms.

"Look at him!" Helena crooned, "I've never seen anything so beautiful," she continued as she held my golden-eyed gaze.

"He can't help but be beautiful with a mother like he has!" I gloated proudly as I kissed Helena.

Helena gazed at the child, almost as if she were in some type of communication with him.

"I've never seen eyes so dark, so blue," whispered Helena with tears in her green eyes, "but a lot of babies are born with eyes like this, then they usually change."

I knew very well the color of his eyes... the moment that he had been born and opened his dark midnight blue eyes staring at me curiously. I had recognized them right away, for I had gazed in disbelief when I recognized my own dark blue human eyes looking back at me.

- continued -