The Vampires #1: Alaric and Faina

Chapter 8 (Alaric): In Front Of Witnesses

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

My eyes flew to Faina when the doctors mentioned they had another piece of critical information concerning the health of the babies. Heads were going to roll if they couldn't learn to be less abrupt and to approach her with caution and gentleness -- not their damn bluntness -- because we were not yet aware of how the twins could affect Faina's health. While Faina would be most concerned about the babies, even more important to me than the two tiny lives she carried was my bride.

The twins had already changed her blood twice. The fact that they made her feel dizzy and nauseated and had caused her to pass out for more than an hour concerned me beyond anything. Vampires didn't have issues like that, and I wasn't fond of the unknown, especially if Faina's health could be at risk.

"What is it?" my wife asked, her voice calm, her beautiful face composed. But I knew my bride and she'd given away her fear when she slowly slid her hand to her belly. She was protecting them, and my mission was now to protect all three of them.

"When the baby -- or in your case the babies -- settle in, the connection between the mother, the father and the babies is critical," a doctor explained. "Just like there are changes happening in the mother, there are changes happening in the father simultaneously -- and they're triggered in the father by the first taste of the improved blood. The father begins producing a protein that is critical for the babies' growth and the protein is released into the mother's blood when he feeds, starting just as the babies settle in."

"My blood didn't improve, though," Faina said. "It soured. Will that make a difference?"

"We believe, but will have to confirm with a blood test, that your blood souring triggered the same response in Mr. Archambeau that the blood improving would in all other fathers."

At that moment, my bride's parents walked into the room, and everyone immediately stood to attention, murmurs of Lord Bellamy, Lady Bellamy filling the room. Ignoring the greetings, her parents came straight to their daughter's side. Aullana had moved to my side and whispered sweetly under her breath, "My father wants your head."

"Continue, please," Faina told the doctor after she'd informed her parents that she'd fill them in shortly.

"If the blood test confirms that the protein is present in his blood, then Mr. Archambeau will need to transfer that protein to the twins."

The doctor was looking decidedly uncomfortable.

"How do I do that?" I asked so Faina didn't have to. I knew the answer.

The poor man was starting to sweat. "You will have to feed once a day to inject the protein into Mrs. Archambeau's blood."

"There's no other way?" her father asked. "Certainly, in all our history, a pregnant bride has lost her husband -- say due to having his head cut off or something equally horrible -- and they found another way?"

"We don't know of any instance where a pregnant bride has lost her husband. Due to our resilience as vampires..."

"But suppose someone found a way to kill a husband? What are the options? Another receveur, then?" her father kept persisting in that chillingly cold way he had.

"Lord Bellamy," the doctor said, "there are no other options. The protein created in the father is specifically made for his own babies and is produced to meet his babies' needs. It's not a matter of swapping out one receveur for another. Your daughter's babies need what is being produced in Mr. Archambeau and no one else."

"And if they don't receive the father's protein?" Faina asked, but her tone told me that she already knew the answer.

"We don't know with one hundred percent certainty, but given the unstable nature of the first eight weeks, and the father's production of the protein beginning at eight weeks, we think that could very well be the reason that vampire pregnancies never fail once the babies settle in. The babies need that protein to thrive. We don't know why it isn't produced from the start; our research into it has never been able to provide an answer."