North American Vampire Council & Past Calling (Hypernaturals 12 & 13)

Baby Logistics

Denise had gone and retrieved some tissue for Angel and then snuggled back in. It was oddly cold on that side of my body while she was gone.

"Tell us the plan. Logistics." Jessica said.

"Well. Angel cycles, right?" Vera said.

"Sure. Astral. Fertile period a lot longer than a baseline human, but otherwise the same thing. A human woman enters menopause with all sorts of eggs still in the ovaries. In a human, they are 'old' but Astral and Siren women have inherited or evolved part of the same Vampire mechanisms that allow genetic information to stay more correctly updated. Having a child at age 60 for an Astral is less risky in terms of birth defects than a human woman who is thirty. From what Mom and I have been able to glean from the Ninovan history, in any case, and Angel is pure Ninovan."

"And she is not even 60. She is an Astral kid." Vera noted with a hint of pride.

"I have to be careful. When Vera is having a male guest over, such as Kevin, if I am in a fertile moment I need to not be engaging in risky activities." Angel said. "Condoms at the very least. It's like I am living Morgan's human life, except she was IUD plus Condoms. No babies. No STD's."

"By that my wife means that that vast majority of the time, I get all the boy, and she watches." Vera said.

"That sounds familiar." Helen poked over at Rachel.

"It is, and it isn't" Angel defended Rachel. "Rachel is naturally a one-at-a-time lady. I'm not that. I have to love my loves. Here, tonight, in this bed, I was not shy about getting my love from anyone, now was I? Not counting Morgan. That's different. I like Kevin: I don't love him. I'll have sex with him from time to time, but he is an Astral: He knows I am not as into as Vera, so he focuses on Vera. Simple. Sometimes I am in the mood. Most of the time I am not. I'd rather be making love here. Or with just my Vera."

"So: tell us if this is right, Jessica, but we figure it this way. We set our timing off Angel. When we know she is going to be fertile, we back off some time from there, and we both take a hit of some pheromones from Adrian. We have a lovely evening after that. We ovulate, and the catalyst hormone thing makes Angel's body more receptive to getting pregnant. Then, using Morgan and Adrian's senses, we time it. When the window opens, we lock ourselves away and bang Adrian silly. Lots of protein and milk for him to recover, then back into bed he goes. Maybe some of those pills old guys take to get going. We drain him over and over. Without mercy. Make that first night on Nightwing with Jessica into a partial effort. Nice try: Too bad you weren't a Vampire with ladies that know how to recharge your body. 24 hours of lost time in the sack. Back and forth. All of the donations headed to the right place. No oral except for jump-starting the jumping. Then back to where it matters."

"After sex, we roll onto our backs like turtles, trying to get everything where it does the most good. Maybe some gravity boots to hang upside-down. The swimmers need to get all the way up into the Fallopian tubes to find their target. We make it easy for them to storm the ovum castle." Angel added.

"After we are out of the fertile window, we release what is left of Adrian back into the wild. He won't be pollinating any flowers for a while after that. We wait and see if we caught. One or the other of us may catch. However that works, lather, rinse, repeat until we both are preggers. If one gets going one time, the next time the one that didn't catch gets all the good stuff." Vera said.

"You need to drink his blood, Vera. You are a Vampire." Jessica said. "Angel doesn't, but you do. You may be sort of an oddball Vampire Chickie, with fangs but no real blood lust, but you are not the Morgan, get knocked up because you are cycling type. You need the blood to trigger ovum receptivity. It does no good to be hanging upside down or whatever if the Ovum is closed for business. You have the fangs: You need to use them." Jessica reminded her.

"Oh. Yeah. I forget these are not just here for fun in the sack." Vera said, rubbing her teeth in a reminder of her fang-age.

"You are going to be having a good day." Denise teased me.

"Yes and no. Sex for the express purpose of having babies is weird. It turns fun into duty somehow." I said.

"Well, when my time comes, you are going to be doing your duty exactly like that. I mean 36 hours of all-out banging. No. 48. Just to be safe." Denise said.

"The fertility window is usually 24 hours or less." Jessica said.

"Safety margin." Denise said.

"He can scent when you are fertile. You do not need margin." Jessica told her.

"No: you don't need margin. I need 48 hours of all-out mindless banging. Less duty, more nookie." Denise said.

"She has you there, Jessica. Denise is right. That is how you do it. 72 hours for me though." Morgan updated the time frame.

I was going to say something but decided to stay out of it. If it keeps escalating, it will be no time at all before we are at a week. In my currently stupid life, I can't even imagine losing an entire week. Even when we are off doing our relationship maintenance, one week a year just with each other together things, it is understood I have to work now. Do Council stuff. I keep it at an absolute minimum, but if I did not keep up, I would drown when I got back. I don't even have that one week a year time started with Denise yet. Once she marries us, that is five weeks a year of time spent in various places doing the important work of being with each other, one on one, but ... Wow.

On the other hand, I spend most of my days with Denise anyway. The one I have to work hardest on to get time with is Helen. Morgan and Denise are at the office. Jessica is at the Fertility clinic. Helen and I may be on Council together but we are on mostly different activities, and a lot of the common things we can deal with over the phone, via messaging, or our super-encrypted email system.

All of which hovered in my head as I thought about how to carve out time not for sex but for two new kids. Something is going to have to give.