VA belongs to Richelle Mead.

Chapter 3

Rpov:

I gasped in pain as another contraction hit me.

I am getting tired of these waves of pain.

I slowly dragged myself onto the sand and I pushed myself farther up the cove, trying to ignore the sharp pain. Key word; trying. I sighed, relieved. Just as I remembered, there was a pool of water and was deep enough. It grew this past year. It's been a long ass time since I've been here.

I push away the memories that are threatening to resurface as I slowly go the bank of that small pond. My body is acting up and having bipolar reactions. I still have a tail, despite the pain I have that feels like my tail will rip into two and transfer into legs. Other than that, when I'm in underwater I can't breathe and I'm choking on it. Yet, I will like I need it as the scales on my body are drying up and I feel like I'm thirsty.

I let out a soft moan of relief as my tail slips into the water. Great, now I am officially balanced between sand and water. Literally.

Then I start to panic. What the hell is going to happen? In the situation I'm in, I'm half siren and half human. How am I giving birth? It's definitely going to be different.

If only Sydney got knocked up, I thought bitterly.

Yes, it was selfish of me to think that Sydney should've given before me with Adrian so she can experience the pain and later tell me, but right now, I don't care.

The hours pass by and the pain gets greater. I already knew that it was going to be painful; the stories I've heard from other sirens tell me that. But it was different from how the humans gave birth. Honestly, I think the humans have it better. I mean, they have drugs so they can't feel that much pain while we have our tails ripped out to give birth. And we have to do it alone or the person with you dies; whoever it is. Ironically, only our mates can help us, but they get killed in the process. Only few have survived, but nowadays, it's unheard of.

Our wrath is unpredictable and we can rip our mates apart, again, literally. They help out when we bite into them, getting their blood. In a way, it's like when humans have sex to speed up the due date so the baby can come already. But their other half doesn't get ripped to pieces and are too weak to escape due to the blood loss. A siren's birth is messy and violent. Not like the bullshit humans have when it's a beautiful birth and all that shit.

Why am I comparing humans and sirens? I suddenly wonder.

I wish Dimitri was here.

I stopped myself. Why? I didn't want to burden him with all of this. I already knew this wasn't going to work out, I mean, c'mon, I live in the fucking ocean.

I let a tear escape as another sharp pain hit, but I knew it had nothing to do with it.

We both had responsibilities in our own world, but this happened. I call it fate. I'm keeping this child and I will fight for her. I love this baby already. Again, I've heard stories and some have happened a few years back. Well, before I was born. Honestly, is just like a human's, except more violent.

When you cheat on your mate, it's not pretty. Obviously. If the siren ends up pregnant, even worse. The baby is killed once it's born. It's disgusting and horrifying. Ever since I've heard about it, I've been trying to get my father to make a law about it. He was reluctant. He said it's been going on for years, even before his grandfather was born. I rolled my eyes at that. He said he can't do anything about it. My ass. He's Triton and he's saying he doesn't have the power to stop it? He then argues that it's pretty much our culture.

I lost that argument.

Anyways, that's one of the reasons things have been so tense. Since my father isn't really against that 'policy', I'm afraid it will happen to my baby. But I'm not going down without a fight.

I closed my eyes shut as I screamed out.

The pain just got worse.

The pain in my tail just got unbearable.

I took deep breaths. It looks like my mind is done wandering because my baby just decided to come out.

"Argh!" I screamed again, my voice echoing throughout the cove.

I felt like my tail is splitting in two and through my watery eyes, I could see a faint pink in the water.

I gripped the sand and lurched forward, feeling the pains intensify.

The faint pink grew darker to a red color.

I couldn't see my tail anymore and thank god because I don't want to see what's happening.

I was like this for hours.

I want to die.

I want it to stop.

I whimpered and the pain finally lessoned. Just a little.

I groaned as it started back up again. Apparently that was just my tail.

I had the sudden urge to push.

I groaned and I grew confused.

Am I getting both of the pains; human and siren?

I scowled at the thought. Great, just great.

I screamed out again, for the millionth time and pushed.

I panted and the small waved that came over me felt relaxing.

Soon, the red tint in the water disappeared. The only thing red is my tail?

I tried to look closer, but I ended up closing my eyes and pushing.

I leaned back, panting. I could feel the sweat drip down my back and make my hair stick to my forehead.

I looked again.

Are you kidding me? My legs were there, like actually there, but the thing is that they were covered in red scales from my tail. All of this is confusing. It's going completely against what I know.

I push those thoughts away.

I need to concentrate. And with that, I began pushing again.

Finally, my baby was born.

I opened my eyes and looked down, wiping away the tears and brushing my hair back.

I smiled and the past hours of pain slipped my mind. I ignored the pain as I leaned down and gently picked up my baby in my arms. I started crying again, but out of joy as the baby's cries filled the cove. I laughed gently and I started to breast feed my baby. I winced at the feeling, but I pushed it outside. They say that mother instinct comes naturally and I would have to agree with them.

I lay against the sand after my baby is done and I rested my baby on my chest, directly over my heart.

I ignored the reoccurring pain in my tail. It was a slight pain, nothing compared to earlier. It caused me to start bleeding again, but I didn't care. My 'legs' formed together again and when the water cleared, all I saw was my tail again.

My child fell asleep and after today's events, so did I.

Cpov:

I paced in our room. It was a bit hard to go back as the explosion was closer and the guards were too, but we made it.

"Chris, go to sleep. I'll wake you up if I find something out or hear anything, okay?" Sydney tried.

I shook my head. "I need to know if she's alive." I argued, eyeing the door.

"I'll break your arms off if you leave this house, do you understand Christian Ozera?" she demanded, glaring at me.

I huffed and nodded.

That girl is sweet, but she's a siren. They turn demonic when angry. It's a scary thing. I've seen it happen with Rose a few times, especially when her parents tried to come in her room.

I continued to pace through the night and I was the one who convinced Sydney to sleep.

By the time sun rose, we still haven't heard a thing.

I knew these things take at least a day, but Rose's birth isn't exactly a normal one.

I sat down in the table alone in the kitchen. Its noon and no sign of Rose still.

The explosions have stopped a few hours before sunrise.

After Rose comes back, we'll figure out what's happening.

I hear the door open and I perk up, despite knowing that deep down I know it wasn't Rose.

I was right. Sydney comes in, along with Adrian.

He grins when he sees me.

"It's been a while, Ivashkov," I muttered, grinning at him tiredly.

"Sure has Ozera." He examines my face. "Time surely has done you," he struggles for a word. "Good." He finally says.

I rolled my eyes."I haven't slept, dumbass."

"Oh, that makes more sense," he says cheerily and sits down across from me. "So, why are you up?"

"Rose is out giving birth on shore and she hasn't come back," I said bluntly.

He stares at me, in shock. "She's out there, right now?" he asks.

I nod and I suddenly get worried. "Why?"

He groans and mutters something under his breath.

"Adrian, what's wrong?" Sydney asks urgently.

"First, tell me everything." he says, looking at us seriously.

I then proceed to tell him everything since she came back.

"Do you know what could happen?" I ask, after telling him what happened when Rose was choking down here.

"She's going to experience both pains," he grimaces.

I swore and I automatically start pacing.

"It's going to be longer than a Siren's birth," he starts and I relax a little.

"What about the explosions?" Sydney asks.

"What explosions?" Adrian demands.

"Well, when I went to get you, I swam a little near to where the explosion took place last night," she said, glancing at me.

I nod and gesture for her to continue.

"Well, it turns out that those explosions came from the humans."
My jaw dropped. It can't be a coincidence. They were exactly on point.

"I haven't heard about this," he mutters. "He wasn't said anything," he said under his breath.

I knew who he was.

"I haven't heard about this," he repeats. "And we haven't exactly been around since we got married," he said, smiling slightly at Sydney.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, turning to her.

She shrugged. "I missed it here so I came back for a while."

I nod and I turn back to the situation. "Tell me if you hear anything."

He nods. "I'll bring it up."

He then stops. "Where did Rose give birth?" he asks slowly.

"At some cove," I answer. I did not like where this was heading.

He swore and stood up.

"What?" Sydney asks.

"She's close to civilization. Ever since Rose got back, he would go there sometimes. He's stopped now, but sometimes fishermen go there and a ship went out recently," he said and started to pace.

We slowly connected the dots.

Rose giving birth in a cave, that ship going out, the explosives.

That ship was the cause of the explosives.

"Do you think someone other than them know about us?" I whisper.

Adrian nods gravely. "And they're obviously not peaceful."

Please review! Who do you think is behind these explosives?