VA 2 - Blood Jewel (33 page)

I pulled her into my arms and held
her close to my heart as we grieved the potential loss of our
child. She didn’t speak again and neither did I as we sat
motionless on the couch.

I had no idea how long we stayed
that way, but it was long enough for Sebastian to search us out. He
lightly tapped on the opened door to the room where we sat and
said, “I wanted to check on you and see if you needed anything. I
brought you something to drink.”

Chansey sat up to take the drink
from him. “Thank you, Sebastian. That was very thoughtful of
you.”

“Would you like something to eat?”
he asked softly. “Avery has cooked some kind of pasta dish for you.
It smells wonderful.”

“I don’t think I can eat right
now,” she declined.

I stroked her shoulder. “Love, I
wish you would try to eat something. For the babies. You haven’t
had anything since early this morning and that’s been over twelve
hours,” I encouraged.

“I probably should at least try,”
She sighed.

We got up from the couch and
Sebastian asked, “Would you like to join the others in the dining
room or would you prefer I bring a tray to your room?”

I looked to Chansey for her answer
and she said, “I want to join everyone in the dining room. I need
to be with family right now.”

We walked the hall toward the
dining room and Chansey looked up at me. “Would you tell the family
what is happening? I want them to know, but I don’t think I can say
the words without completely losing it.”

I put my arm around her and pulled
her close to kiss her forehead. “Of course, I will.”

Sebastian stopped walking and
asked, “May I tell them about Ella first? It will make sense for
them to know where all of this is coming from.”

I looked at Chansey and she slowly
nodded. “I think it’s necessary for them to understand the history
behind Ella and me if they are going to understand what we suspect
about the babies.”

We sat at the dining room table
with the entire family staring at us, but Sol interrupted the
silence and said, “Join hands. We, the Coven of Landra, give our
humblest gratitude in recognition of the Blood Swan, Michelle, for
her selfless gift of sustenance.”

In unison, the family said, “Thank
you, Michelle, for your gift of The Life, which sustains our
existence and gives us strength to do the needed tasks before
us.”

After the Sacrament, everyone sat
in silence because they knew something was going on. Chansey’s eyes
were red and swollen, the tell-tale signs that she had cried for
the majority of the afternoon.

Finally, Sebastian spoke up, “Curry
and Chansey received some news this morning that they would like to
share with all of you, but there are some things you must hear
about my past if you are to understand what could possibly be going
on with Chansey’s pregnancy. It begins with me...and my Agápe,
Ella.”

There was silence and Sebastian
began to weave the tale of his life with Ella as the family
listened intently. When he concluded, he said, “Now, that brings us
to Chansey and her pregnancy.”

I heard my cue and I picked up with
explaining about Emelyn and then the news we received from Dr.
Knight. I saw the excitement on everyone’s faces until I began to
explain what we suspected about the babies.

Lairah set her goblet down and laid
her arms crisscrossed on the table as she leaned forward. “If these
babies are an Agápe and Fylgia, then that means the living child
will always be protected by Anteros through the Fylgia, so you
don’t really lose the Fylgia child. She will always be with your
Agápe child and protect her from harm. Maybe you could think of it
like this...She was never intended to be your child because she was
created by Anteros to be your daughter’s protector.”

Chansey and I looked at one
another. This was something only a parent could feel and I knew she
was too upset to answer Lairah. “I understand what you’re saying
and if it comes to pass then that is how we will have to look at
it, but right now that doesn’t help with the grief we feel. To us,
it’s like we’re losing a child, but we won’t know for sure until
these babies are born. I believe in my heart that they will come
during the eclipse in early January, but Chansey can’t see a human
doctor anymore. We’re going to need to find a vampire that was once
a doctor or Obstetrician to deliver the babies when the time
comes.”

“That’s a specific order to fill.
How are you going to find a vampire with those credentials?” Avery
asked.

“I’m going to start with searching
the Vampire Census Registry,” Sebastian said. “It’s voluntary so it
isn’t a complete list of all vampires because some think of the
registration as a tracking device, but it’s a good place to start
because it does list prior and current profession and skills. I’ll
start with the computerized records because we’d want someone with
current medical knowledge and I’ll work my way
backwards.”

Avery wrinkled her forehead in deep
concentration and said, “Obviously, Chansey is still human and it
would be much safer for her to deliver the babies in a hospital in
the event of an emergency. Twins are higher risk, so there’s a lot
that could happen. It wouldn’t be that difficult to pull off if her
physician was a supporter of the vampire community, like a Black
Swan or Blood Swan. They could alter records to reflect a normal
medical states and if there was a problem with any of the hospital
staff, Curry would simply persuade them to forget.
Voila!”

Sebastian appeared impressed with
Avery’s idea, as was I. “I think you have an idea there, Avery. All
Swans must be registered with a background check and all of those
records are computerized so they can be accessed from any where at
anytime. Sol, would you mind taking at look on your computer after
dinner?”

“Certainly, Sebastian,” he said as
he stared at Avery over his goblet.

“What about you, Avery?” Sebastian
asked. “Would you like to help Sol search through the records since
it was your idea?”

Avery turned to assess Sol
carefully before she answered, “I would love that, Sebastian. Thank
you for your kind offer.”

I saw a look exchanged between Sol
and Avery that resembled some sort of a challenge, so I knew there
still had been no truce formed between them, but that was their
problem. I had bigger things on my plate at the moment.

≈ ≈ ≈

Sol and Avery were in the office
for over an hour and I was becoming nervous about their lack of a
report, so I decided to check on their progress with the Swan
records. I knocked on Sol’s office door, but didn’t hear an
invitation to enter because it was soundproof, so I turned the knob
and found it to be locked.

Avery was with Sol behind a locked
door. That was not a good sign. I began to bang my hand against the
door as hard as I could and Sol swung it open, looking at me like I
was crazy. “What?”

“The door was locked,” I said
questioningly, careful to not accuse him of anything as I scanned
the room for Avery.

“So?” he casually
asked.

I saw that Avery was safe and sound
and I knew I looked stupid. “I knew that Avery was in there with
you and I jumped to conclusions when I found the door to be locked.
I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “No problem. I must
have locked it out of habit,”

“Any luck so far?” I asked, hoping
to hear some good news.

“Not yet, but I didn’t know the
name of Chansey’s doctor, so I haven’t tried him yet. We could get
lucky.” Sol strolled back to sit in his chair behind the desk and
Avery took her position behind him as onlooker. It was good to see
that they could at least stand to be in the same room with one
another. That was a change.

“Chansey’s doctor is a her,” I
corrected. “Michaela Knight.”

Sol keyed in her name. “Michaela
Knight. Here she is and she’s a real looker.”

“You’re kidding me,” I said, as I
walked around the desk to look at the photo on her profile. “Wow!
It is her. I can’t believe it.”

“Damn! I can’t believe this. Take
a look at the profile below her,” Sebastian said.

I
looked one row down at the black and white photo staring back at
me. Anna Knowles. Blood Swan Service dates: March 1963- September
1965. Current Status: Black Swan.
Oh, shit!
It was
Chansey’s grandmother.

I looked at Sol and he said, “I
told you that old lady knew something. Do you think Chansey
knows?”

I shook my head. “No way. She would
have told me if she did.”

“Are you going to tell her?” Sol
asked.

“Are you kidding me? Sharing this
super bond extraordinaire with her leaves me no choice. I have to
tell her.”

I looked up and saw her standing in
the doorway. “He can’t keep anything from me, Solomon. What’s going
on?”

Sol leaned back in his office chair
amused and rubbed his hand across his chin. “Wow, that bond thing
between the two of you is some kind of wicked.”

Chansey didn’t take her eyes from
mine. “What did you find?”

“We lucked out. Dr. Knight is a
Black Swan.”

“That’s good news, but we both
know that isn’t what I’m feeling from you.”

“Sol, I think it’s time for us to
go,” Avery suggested.

Sol? Since when did Avery call him
that?

Sol smiled his cocky smile the way
only he could do it. “No way, this is just about to get
interesting.”

Chansey turned on him and gave him
the look. Sol put his hands up and said, “Okay. we’re going. You
didn’t have to do the eyes. Save those for Curry.”

When they were out the door, I
said, “Don’t get upset. You have to think about the
babies.”

“I’m fine, but I won’t be for much
longer if you don’t tell me what has happened,” she
warned.

“Come around here and I’ll show
you,” I told her. I pulled the chair out and said, “Sit. I don’t
want you to fall out when you see this.

She sat and looked at the profiles
in front of her. “Yes, that is Dr. Knight.”

“Look at the next profile,” I
directed.

“What the heh? That’s Granna,” she
whispered as she stared at the screen. “My Granna wasn’t just a
Black Swan, she was a Blood Swan. That’s why she was saying those
things to us on our wedding night. She knows what you are and she
was trying to tell us she knew.”

“Before we were married, she
always had these all knowing little looks and grins for me. I think
she knew all along,” I laughed.

“I don’t know if I should be
shocked or thrilled. I never pegged my grandmother for a Black
Swan. No, excuse me...make that a Blood Swan. I wonder if
Granddaddy is in on it.”

“I don’t see Grady being a vampire
sympathist,” I laughed.

“No, I don’t think so either. I
think this a secret that little Anna Knowles has kept from
everyone. Do I say anything to her? She’s still an active Black
Swan.”

I leaned over and kissed the top of
her beautiful, dark hair. “That’s up to you, Love.”

“Incredible! She knows I’m having
a vampire’s baby and she hasn’t said a word about it. I don’t even
know what to think about that.”

“This is a good thing. We don’t
have to hide our life from her. You have a family member you can
share these things with now. Doesn’t that make you happy? It makes
me happy.”

“It does, but I don’t think I can
talk to Granna about this over the phone. I need to see her in
person to discuss this and I won’t be going to Pascagoula anytime
soon because of this unpredictable pregnancy. I guess it will have
to wait until after the babies are born, even if I’m dying to
know.”

“Can you believe how we lucked out
with Dr. Knight?”

“I know. How lucky are we? I bet
it will make her feel better when she finds out that she didn’t
make some kind of medical error. She was more than a little rattled
by her discovery this morning. I’m going to call and make an
appointment with her for my next checkup so we can discuss a plan
for delivering these babies.”

29
Making A Plan

It had been a month since we saw
Dr. Knight and Chansey had an appointment for a checkup with her
this morning. We planned on addressing the Black Swan issue
immediately because we didn’t want her to freak out when she saw
the growth of the babies from the previous month. An ultrasound
wasn’t necessary to confirm how rapidly the babies were growing
because anyone could see it from one day to the next.

I woke before Chansey, as I always
did, and decided to give her the extra hour of sleep she needed.
The rapid growth of the babies was taxing for her body and caused
her to often be tired, but she glowed at the same time because
pregnancy agreed with her.

I looked at her and did that thing
I loved to do-watch her sleep. During her sleep, her gown had
shifted above her swollen belly and I propped my head on palm with
my elbow pressed into the mattress and watched the bumping game the
babies were playing inside her tummy.