The Vampires #1: Alaric and Faina

Chapter 5 (Faina): Seething With Rage

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

After I'd had the ultrasound yesterday, the doctor had me taken by patient transport -- more like a well-appointed limousine, if I'm being honest -- to the mother and baby hospital where all vampires gave birth. There, an untold number of doctors descended on me, as well as all of the Council members and numerous historians and researchers. There were consultations, endless questions, examinations, and, very late in the day, three older specialists who'd flown in from California had joined the cast of thousands and it all began again. They'd examined me and began consulting with all of the other doctors. Every so often, another doctor would pop his head in and ask me some other questions.

Had I had any symptoms prior to yesterday?

Was I aware my blood had soured?

Had I consumed any alcohol in the past eight weeks?

Were there any changes in my body that I'd ignored?

When was my last period?

Had I felt any different in the last eight weeks?

And all the while, I kept waiting for my phone to ring, but not once did Alaric try to call. I kept tossing glances at Aullana, and she'd give me an almost imperceptible shake of her head each and every time. My parents sat beside her and not once did I see them reach for their phones, which meant Alaric hadn't tried to call them, either.

My husband hadn't tried to call me -- even knowing that I had been taken to the doctor. If I'd been unaware of our crumbling bond before, I was painfully aware of it now. Unless someone in my family had called him, he didn't know my news nor did he know I'd been taken to the hospital.

Nor had he tried to find out how I was.

Very well, Alaric. We'll dissolve our bond and I'll raise the children myself if you can't be bothered to even find out what's going on with someone you claimed to love so deeply. 

Maybe he wouldn't want the children I was going to have; maybe he'd only recognize the children he'd have with Daylin. That was fine. I could be both mother and father to them until I found someone else with whom I could share a bond. But the thought of that exhausted me.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss Alaric's strength and presence at this time. He'd always stood between the world and me, had always been my first line of defense, had always been there to lend me his incredible strength if mine ever failed me.

Now it wasn't my strength that had failed me but Alaric.

However, even if my husband didn't know what was going on, apparently every doctor in the world did.

I'd had more ultrasounds than I could count while they took meticulous measurements of the babies over and over again. They drew more blood, palpated my abdomen, took my temperature, and then, just because they hadn't gotten enough, they drew even more blood. By the end of the day, I was beginning to sympathize with lab rats.

Finally, late that night, the doctors suggested I try to get some rest -- despite the extraordinary, exciting news! -- and they left me alone with my family. Three rollaway beds had been brought into my room and we all lay down and tried to sleep.

After an hour of fidgeting, my mother got up and came over to my bed.

"It's hard to sleep, isn't it, darling?" she whispered, pressing her hand to my cheek.

"My mind won't stop," I whispered back.

Her fingers smoothed my eyebrows, over and over, a soothing gesture from when we were children. "You know, it'll all work out, Faina," she said softly.