Two lines.

I do not think you could ever understand how frightened those two lines made me, how shock went through all of my body and how denial settled in my mind. Because dhampir plus dhampir made you infertile, which is why I never bothered with birth control. Seeing as I have only slept with one man my whole life, and that man is a dhampir, it makes birth control unnecessary.

Or so you would think.

I had kind of settled with the idea of not having kids, and it did not bother me much either. I was not meant for being a mother. I was meant for being sent of in the battle field, fighting the undead, not raising a child.

But two lines. According to the package, two lines were positive. But clearly it was wrong. These tests were wrong all the time. Dhampir plus dhampir cannot get pregnant. This was some kind of joke, I decided, ready to throw the plastic stick in the trashcan just as the door to our apartment opened and then closed.

I heard Dimitri moving outside the bathroom door, presumably placing his duster on the hanger, getting himself a class of water. He had been down at the gym, keeping up with this not so busy schedule of court, which meant that we did not do much body guarding (except for me and the other guardians in Lissa's squad).

"Rose?" His voice was calm, a little worn out after working out. I would have been down there with him if he had not gone while I was still sleeping. "Where are you, honey?"

I cleared my throat. "In here."

What a weird scene he was about to enter. One we both had been sure that we would never need to experience. I leaned my back against the cold clinker as I sat on the bathroom carpet. I held the pregnancy-test in my right hand, still giving it a sceptical look.

"Rose", Dimitri chuckled a bit when he opened the bathroom door and took one step inside, but that was all he said. His face became blank. No, that's a lie. His face took the expression of confuse, the one directors want when they call "Give me … Confused!" to models.

"What's that?" Gaining the ability to speak again he looked at the test. He sounded nerveless, but you could see the gears in his brain spinning. He was preparing for every possible answer, expect mine.

"A, uh, pregnancy-test." I do not know why, but I blushed. Like I had been caught doing something wrong or something that I was not allowed to. As Dimitri opened his mouth to say something, God knows what, I hastily added; "It's positive."

I do not know why, but saying the words out loud made the whole thing seem more surreal than it already did. I swear I could feel my stomach do a back flick too.

Stunned again, Dimitri leaned against the bathroom wall he too. His brown eyes were clearly puzzled, and I waited for a response. I didn't care if it was confused, surprised or even an angry one – as long as I got one. His silence was unbearable.

He stood there. I guess his lips – those gorgeous lips, so soft to kiss – were hanging a little. But Dimitri was silent. Like dead-silent. I'm not even sure I heard him breath, which made my heart beat a little faster.

"Dimitri? Dimitri, say something." I begged, and I wasn't someone who usually begged. I placed the stick on the toilet seat and crawled to him, pulling him down to floor level. "Anything. Please."

He reluctantly bent down and slowly sat down on the cool floor beside me. He didn't look on me, which made me more frightened than anything else.

"I … I … How's that even possible? We're dhampirs." Dimitri, always the steady, calm anchor in our relationship, almost lost his control. He seized the package and a bit unsteady on the hand held the pregnancy test between his thumb and index finger.

If the situation had not been so severe I would have laughed. Dimitri Belikov, not hesitating when fighting a Strigoi, but now trembling while holding a pregnancy test.

"You sure you read it right?" He asked, eyeing the package thoroughly and glancing over at me every now and then.

"I've already done that", I sighed. "I'm the mastermind here, so naturally, it was the first thing I thought of." I gave him a faint smile as I got up, still to confused and shocked to do anything else.

"I've been feeling nauseous and I didn't get my period this month … I just figured that I've been stressed, but when I thought of it … I haven't." I was fumbling with words and had a hard time collecting my thoughts, something uncommon to me. "It's not the answer I expected or even wanted, but something's clearly wrong because-"

"Wanted? You wanted the test to be negative?" Dimitri's voice was faint, his features pressed together by confusion and a little anger, I guess. "You don't want the baby that has been given to us?"

Whoa, now I'm the confused one. One second, he is talking about how impossible this is (believe me, I know), and the second about the baby? What baby, even? Is it even alive? I mean … I can't be that pregnant right? Oh, stop it. I am not pregnant at all.

"There is no baby", I tried, a bit harsh.

"The test doesn't say so", Dimitri replied, he too getting up from the floor. He shoved the test right beneath my eyes, forcing me to see the two lines once more. I took the test from him, preventing him from doing so again.

"I have looked at it – okay? It's wrong. It happens." I tossed the test in the trashcan. "There is no baby, there will never be a baby. Ever. Forget about all of this."

I felt horrible, but sometimes you have to hurt someone else's feelings in order to make them understand.

I left the bathroom before Dimitri got the chance to reply.