The Vampires #1: Alaric and Faina

Chapter 9 (Faina): Inhuman Screams

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

My parents kept shooting me glances as they drove me to their home after the doctors had released me from the hospital with a long list of do's and don'ts. I was in the back seat, looking out the window, but I could feel their concern coming at me.

"The room where Alaric will be detained is ready," my mother said delicately, her tone careful, controlled.

Careful.

Controlled.

Sometimes, I missed those days when I was a volatile young vampire, when my emotions were raging inside and I was ruled by them to some extent, as all of us were. It was the duality of our natures, human versus vampire, and those out-of-control impulses would be just below the surface until we Calmed with the first feeding.

And release.

That brought forth the vampire and cooled our confused, heated blood. In many ways, I envied Aullana her unpredictable and uncontrollable ways, missed those days when I would have responded with fire instead of ice.

"Faina?" my mother was prompting me gently.

"Yes?"

"Did you hear me?"

"About Alaric's detention center? Yes."

She wanted more, I realized, wanted to draw me out from this shell I'd pulled myself into, but I had no desire to emerge. I knew she and my father were looking at one another, not certain how to proceed with their heartbroken daughter who was pregnant with miracle twins and wanted nothing to do with their father...but had no choice for the babies' wellbeing.

"His room is right across from yours. Your father, knowing more about the subject than I, thought it best to have him in a room they could get him to quickly so he could be locked down should he become unmanageable sooner than expected."

Make an effort, Faina. They're worried.

"That's probably wise," I said, but even that tiny effort exhausted me and I sighed, irritated with myself for letting a man who no longer deserved me bring my spirits so low.

The feed and release Alaric and I had shared had always been beautiful, poignant, tender. Closing my eyes, I could feel the sensations he'd built in me, the exquisite care he'd taken with my body as he'd loved me thoroughly. He was always that way after a feeding; the times that were just for fun and not connected with a feeding were harder, rougher, more playful and spontaneous. But following a feed, Alaric always worshipped me as if I were made of glass and he'd move inside me while looking into my eyes.

I drink you in and you become the very blood in my veins.

And now, another woman's blood was flowing through his veins.

Had he said those words to her? What had he whispered in her ear as he moved inside of her?

As a result of his cheating, we were now reduced to a feed only, a business transaction of sorts. I would allow him to feed, and in return, he would provide the protein that the babies needed to survive. But there would be no release, no moment where it felt as if we'd become one through our bond. This was no longer about the love between a vampire and his blood bride, but a proceeding that was strictly about the babies.

The babies.

A miracle of multiples.

And though I was still becoming used to the idea, my heart swelled when I thought of this incredible gift that I carried. Two tiny lives that filled me with wonder and hope...and despair. Alaric and I had often talked about the day we had a child and the many ways a baby would enhance our love, our lives.