Not A Pet story

Chapter Nineteen

While my unconscious body was fighting the rate of blood loss, several things happened. The first was that Jasper disappeared with a newborn and no one stopped him. Second, Xavier's car drove to the house at such speed that the brakes failed and he jumped out just before it hit the garage door. He appeared in the living room in an instant, his face filled with fear, already tearing at his wrist, and without a second's hesitation he pushed it to my lips. 

"Catherine. Catherine, please, no. don't die I forbid you to die." 

There was such fear in his voice, such hopelessness, which he had not felt since he was human. With the hand that didn't bleed, Xavier pressed the torn pieces of my skin to the stomach and waited with for the wounds to begin healing. He would never forgive himself for leaving me all alone. 

He cursed himself, cursed my damn principles and this whole situation. His face was still pale when several more cars stopped at the house, each vampires who got out of them pulled out a human from the back of the car and rushed to the living room. One by one they gave Xavier a donor to drink from while he was giving his blood to me. His face was getting pale and not even a third person helped him to stay on his feet. 

Edgar grabbed him by the shoulders and forcibly pulled him away from my body, even if it cost him a blow to the face. The other vampire took over the pressure on my stomach and did the same thing as Xavi, biting her wrist and bringing it to my lips. Slowly, my subconscious began to stir. Then a wave of pain shot through my body and then I took a greedy breath as I immediately sat up. It took a moment for the image to clear, but my eyes immediately fell on Xavier. Then I felt the skin on my stomach with my hands and looked around in panic. 

"Where? Where's my baby?!"

The three vampires were silent, avoiding my gaze. I crawled up to Xavier on all fours and grabbed his face with my bloody hands and forced him to look at me.

"Why are you never around when I need you the most?!" I felt my voice break as I said such painful words. I rested my forehead against his and closed my eyes, trying to control myself. 

"Forgive me." He muttered in a tone similar to mine. I don't know if I just needed his apology, or if it was the command that helped my body stop blaming him, but that emotion seemed to disappear. Sobbing, I collapsed into his arms and he hugged me tightly.

"We'll find them, he couldn't have run far."The woman muttered, sensually observing this small scene. 

With a wave of Xavi's hand, the vampires dragged their people away and left us alone. The smell of blood gnawed at my nose, but the smell right next to my nose, Xavier's smell, kind of overshadowed everything. He stroked my back with careful movements while I tried to comprehend what was happening at the moment.

<...>

Of the two of us, Xavier was many times morally stronger than me. Days passed and we received no news of Jasper's whereabouts. I began to repeat to myself that it was supposed to be this way and even better this way, although every time such a thought made the bottom of my stomach burn. I was already healed, fully recovered, just like him. I wandered around the house like a ghost, always ending up in the back yard and just standing there staring into the distance for hours. Most of the time, when Xavier found me like this, he wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and led me easily back to the room. Sometimes he would spend a few more hours standing by. I don't remember if we managed to talk at least once. I dreaded sleeping alone, so I would curl up next to him and let my thoughts float away, calling it sleep. 

"Catherine, I need to leave for a couple of days." Xavier finally said one day, looking up from his phone at me.

"Are you going to leave me alone again?" I asked in an emotionless voice, looking somewhere in the distance.

"No. I won't repeat that mistake again." He frowned, placing the phone on the table and squatting in front of me. "But I can't take you with me either." 

He took my hands and briefly brought them to his lips. He hasn't been like Xavier at all lately and it's been bugging me like crazy. 

"I want you to glamour me." I asked, caching his gase. 

"For what exactly?" 

"I want to forget the past months. I want to be the Catherine I was before I found out I was expecting. I want to be able to feel happy again." The more I spoke, the quieter my voice became. "I wish I could do the same for you. I don't recognize you." I added, looking at his face. 

A smile flashed across his face for a moment, but he immediately turned serious again. Bringing my palm to his face, he caressed my wrists some more, and then, sitting between my legs with his back to me, tilted his head back so that he could look from above at me.

"You know, I m alive for a terribly long time. And I haven't yet met anyone that I would want to make an effort for for as much as I want to make an effort for you." He admitted. 

"Master, just don't tell me that you've started feeling something for your pet." I grimmaced, looking at his eyes from above. 

"I don't know how to talk about it at all." He laughed briefly. 

"Then let me help you..." I started when his phone rang. Why does that machine always interrupts at such important moments? I handed it to Xavier from the table and he stood up from my lap before answering. As he listened to the voice on the phone, his face turned a little pale and he took a few steps further as if he didn't want me to hear. 

"And they are absolutely sure?" His sigh was heard.

I watched the vampire's face intently, he listened to the phone for a while before he put it in his pocket and came back to me. His gait alone made me shudder. 

"Did they find them?" 

The vampire nodded, but from the fact that he didn't have a big smile on his face I could tell it wasn't going to be good news. I didn't allow myself to think about the worst case scenario. 

"Now you will remain calm, and then I will ask you again if you still want me to glamour you." He spoke after a while. 

I nodded, putting my hands on my knees. 

"They found a wrecked car near the town from where you used to send me blood."

"Don't say it." I shook my head, putting my finger on his lips. 

Even though his command to stay calm was still working, I was physically afraid to hear the words he was about to say. 

"Help me forget, please." 

I could see that it was not easy for him either. And after all, he wanted that child more than I did. Well, at least he wanted it longer than I did. He nodded once more, and then, hiding his face in my ear, began to coo. His lullaby voice blew the fog into my mind and slowly all the oppressive emotions began to recede. He didn't tell me to forget, he told me to accept it, repeating what he'd probably heard me say before - it was meant to be and it would be better for everyone. He assured me that life would go on and nothing bad would happen again. As Xavier leaned back, I gave him a smile and pressed our lips together, still in a daze from his voice. I didn't forget, but it was all just a bad dream that didn't make me emotional anymore. The freedom that appeared in my chest was insanely longed for and I could finally breathe again. 

"Thank you."I muttered as I pulled away.

"And one more thing." He added now standing up. "From now on, I cancel your ban on leaving the territory of this house. If you want to go somewhere, you have to invite someone along. I will send some numbers later."

"That's something new." I managed to laugh. 

I was a bit sad when I saw him off, but he always comes back. When I got home, I found my phone and as soon as I received a message from him, I put every contact in my address book. You never know when you might need company. Xavier added their species to the names, so at least now I'll know who I'm dealing with.