Chapter Three:

Reacquainted

Ben and I ventured upstairs to the very top where Cal's room was located, the only room in the house that was sound-proofed against vampire hearing. As we entered, he quickly closed and locked the door before he collapsed to the ground.

I dropped down to his level and shook him with human force. "Ben. Ben! Are you okay? What's going on?"

Too weak to move… Pull me over there… He pictured the bed in his mind.

I nodded, scooped him up, and delicately placed him under the covers. "Are you sick? Tell me what I need to do to help you!"

Just let me rest for a minute, he asked.

I lied down on the bed beside my best friend and brother—in all definitions of the term but one—and felt his forehead. He was burning up, almost searing my skin. I hadn't had my hot cocoa today to help acclimate my body temperature which could have contributed to this but he was definitely ill.

An hour passed and he still hadn't woken up. I got up and went to leave, opening the door, but he stopped me.

Don't leave me alone. We still have to talk.

I shut and relocked my way out and returned to my place by his side. For that one second that I'd had the door open, I could feel Damon shooting questioning thoughts my way. Is everything okay? I don't want to break my promise. I told you I would never leave you again and I don't mean to.

Once again, I hoped for the ability to reciprocate my thoughts back to him. Yes, everything is okay. We're just talking. No secrets, whether he could hear me or not.

Lying down beside Ben for a second time, I waited for the poor, brotherly man of mine to recover. I didn't have to wait much longer for him to sit up and face me.

What did you see, Ben?

He tried to replay the image in his mind but something was preventing him, so he decided to describe it to me out loud instead. It was almost like he was in a trance. "Like a plague, it sweeps over mankind. The dawn arrives and still none can escape it. The great darkness. It's coming. Many will die in the coming days. Many will be lost and few will know of it. The great darkness." It was kind of creepy seeing him like that. This sort of thing had never happened to him before.

"I've seen that too. I had a dream about it the other night. An abysmal smog invading a mountainside… Chasing me." I thought about how I had abandoned Damon, not truly caring where he was as I ran for my life. The regret that filled me was unimaginable, even though it was just a dream.

He wrapped his arms around me comfortingly. "It's okay, Evie. It never happened so you have nothing to feel guilty about."

I patted his arm reassuringly and leaned up against the headboard. "What does it mean? What is the great darkness?" My feelings weren't important right now; we had things to do.

"I don't know but, to me, it doesn't sound like we're dealing with a 'what.'" He glanced down at my confused expression and continued. "I think we're dealing with a 'who.'"

"Could it be Alphaeus?" The Original was the only person of note that our group knew about.

"No, I think it's more than that. I don't know. I can't quite pinpoint what the spirits are talking about. All I know is that, whatever it is, it's big and it's coming."

I glanced down at my stomach. Someone was coming. What would happen to my baby?

"A baby?" Ben exclaimed in shock. "What baby?"

A smile adorned my face and I lifted my shirt, just high enough to show the tiny bulge where the fetus was growing.

How long have you been…?

"About a week," I replied aloud.

"A week?" he repeated more loudly. "Hold on… I'm a little confused. How can this happen?"

My mind wandered to the night that it happened, despite my efforts to describe what happened with words instead of images.

"If you don't mind, try to keep the gross factor down to a minimum, Mrs. Moretti." Ben wasn't about to let that one go. He sat back as I had and put his arms behind his head. "So, what you're telling me without telling me is that you did this?"

"Yup," I beamed. "Isn't it great?"

He stared down at me. "Would you mind telling me how? And please skip the gory details. I already filled my quota of weird and disgusting for today."

A blush pink color soaked into the surface layers of my cheeks. "Sorry." It's not like I can control it.

"Yes you can. Now, if you don't mind, could you please hurry? I'm getting impatient over here."

I'd say… "I don't know exactly how I did it, but Damon seems to think that when we… you know, I was somehow able to focus so much on it because of my emotions that my powers gave me what I wanted. I was so concentrated on that thought that it just happened. A few days later, I woke up and I got sick." The memory came rushing back and I didn't care to bridle it.

"What's the point of being a vampire if I still catch the flu?" I complained, falling hard on the bed beside my fiancé.

Damon propped himself up on his elbow and focused his eyes on my stomach. Without a word, he laid his head on my belly and sat perfectly still for a minute. A heartbeat.

My eyes blinked. "A heartbeat? What do you mean a heartbeat?"

"Shh! Listen." He let his mind absorb the sounds that he was hearing, allowing me to almost take a step into his shoes.

My brown eyes grew wide, matching the look on his face exactly. We both glanced at each other at the same exact time and smiles spread across our lips. "We're gonna have a baby!" We shouted, bouncing up and down on the bed like a couple of preteens.

"Huh."

I blinked. "That's it? I am impossibly pregnant and all you have to say is 'huh?' What kind of messed up friend are you?"

He sat there, unmoving. His muscles froze and tensed along his bones, his mind flashing through all of the contemplations that he needed to work through. Most of it, if not all, centered on my baby and almost all of them were questions. Is it healthy? What does this mean? How did it really happen exactly? Is this even truly possible? Damon and Evie and a baby? What?! Wow. Hmm… Is it human?

"I think so," I commented. "She appears to be human. Damon heard a heartbeat."

"It's a she?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I just hate calling my baby an 'it.' Might as well pick a gender and make her seem more real." Sometimes it was hard for me to remember that I wasn't in a dream and everything around me was reality.

Ben continued to stare off at something on the other side of the room and commenced a rhythmic system of banging the back of his head against the headboard.

My ocular orbs were glued to my peculiar surrogate relative. What on earth are you doing?

"Thinking."

I poked him in the arm and accidentally shot a spark out of my finger and into the pores of his skin.

"Ow! What the hell?" His eyes widened. "Oh my holy mother of God. Did you just—? Are you a—?" Witch?

"Yupper." I gave him access to the memory of me levitating the lamp when Damon and I had first reconnected.

"Oh my holy Moses!" He hugged me close to him to the point where, if I was still human, I wouldn't have been able to breathe. "Since when?! How did that—?"

My thoughts answered his questions with images while I described it verbally. "During the turning ceremony, Cerebella had you incant some sort of ancient spell and made you forget. I don't really know the physics of it but, from what I've seen, I believe she had you copy and transfer a set of your powers to me while I was being converted. Normally, a witch loses her powers the moment she awakes from being turned. The Originals must have had a need of someone who could have both magic and vampire blood." Whatever their reasoning, I doubted we were going to find out any time soon.

Can you hear me when I'm not projecting my thoughts?

Yup.

"Weird," he remarked. "This is going to take some getting used to. That and the fact that you're able to carry me."

Sorry about that. Just trying to help.

He glanced down at my swollen belly, more noticeable now that he knew it was there, and grimaced. "Evie, you gotta be more careful now that you have more supernatural responsibilities."

I replayed Damon's little speech in my cerebral cortex. He stopped us from jumping and held my gaze. "Evie, you gotta be careful. We don't want something bad to happen because you can't control your powers. Now that we're going to have a baby, you have to be twice as careful. Some of your magic may have side effects we don't know about."

Ben shook his head frantically. "No, Evie. It's so much more than that. I've still been going to Grandma Rose's house every weekend and we've talked a lot about the rules of the universe, both physical and spiritual. Every spell used by a witch or warlock has its consequences and, while they're not always bad, they're rarely good. Next time you wish too deeply for something, you might just get it and you might not like what you find. So, promise me that you'll be more careful." His face was completely serious, somber almost.

"I promise. I'm sorry. I didn't know." If everything had a consequence, what would happen when the baby was born?

I don't know, Evie. I'm sorry. Please be aware that this might not end well.

I nodded. Somewhere in the back of my head, something more pressing was moved to the forefront: I was being rude again like I often was when I was human. I was too absorbed in my problems to consider that Ben had things about his life that I should have wanted to discuss. "How have you been? Not overdoing it I hope?" I felt his forehead again and checked for any damage.

Irritated by my babying, he shied away from my hand. "No, I'm fine."

Liar. I can read your thoughts, Fillmore.

Anastasia!

Fillmore!

He sighed, collapsing his body until it was parallel to the mattress once again. "It's been weird without having you here. Every time I looked into Cerebella's eyes as I checked up on her to make sure she was still inside, the thought that she was the reason you were gone kept coming back to me. I suppose it's my fault, too. I should have known something like that was going to happen and ingested some valerian. You'd think I would have learned that kind of stuff by then." I was supposed to help protect you.

I lowered myself down to his level and snuggled up against his side. "It's not your fault, Ben. I should have worried more about the coming danger than I did. Damon warned me but I didn't listen. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine." I smiled as I looked up at his face. "I missed you, too."

In a flash of contentment, he gave me a squeeze and sighed again with relief. At least I have an eye on you now. Next time you leave, I expect a written and verbal goodbye and an advanced notice. If you ever so much as think about leaving without telling me, I will find you, tie you up with the most painful substance I can find and throw you into the pond. Got it?

Got it, I beamed.

Good. Without any warning, he wrapped his arm around my neck and gave me the longest noogie I have ever had the displeasure of receiving from him.

"Hey! Quit it!"

"Not a chance!"

"BENJAMIN FILLMORE! GET YOUR LOUSY MITTS OUTTA MY HAIR!"

He raised his arms and sat up with a hint of a smile hiding behind the corners of his lips. "Alright, grouchy pants. Calm your hormones down and let's get a move on before Damon comes up here and murders me for wrongful abduction." He hopped down from the bed and left the room, knowing that I would be only seconds behind him.

Exasperated, I did just that—after fixing my now extremely messy hair—and returned with Ben to the sitting room.

Damon took one look at my still somewhat messed up hairdo and Ben's rumpled clothes and assumed the worst. You wouldn't!

I was determined to prove him right. I crossed the room, wrapped my arms tightly around his strong but slender neck, and pressed my lips to his. Even with our audience watching our every move, I held nothing back.

Okay, I get it, he commented in defeat. You really wouldn't. He placed his hand gently around the side of my neck, his thumb gliding back and forth across my cheek.

When we pulled away, I whispered softly enough that not even Cal could hear me. "And don't you forget it." As I peered around the room, the expressions were the same and yet varying. All complexions contained levels of disgust but the levels and the reasons behind the faces were different. Ben was revolted at the thought of me and him "in bed" together. The mere mention of the twinkling of the idea made him want to vomit, and understandably, too. Cal was shocked that we would really do that right there in front of everybody, primarily and most importantly him. In a way, it kind of hurt his feelings. Ian was absolutely appalled as he thought of me as a part of his family. He was still kind of hoping that I thought boys were "icky." At the same time, their brainwaves spurted out the word "baby" a few times. Damon must have told the other two while I was out of sight.

My husband's arm coiled around me like a boa constrictor. "If you'll excuse us, Evie has to get some rest."

"But I'm not tired."

Our eyes met and his seemed to insist even more so than his words. "Evie, you have to sleep. We've been traveling all day and you need plenty of rest or you'll hurt the baby." Plus, you were nodding off earlier. You can't fool me.

Of course. I'd hurt the baby, the sweet child that he would die without. "Fine. For her sake, I'll go to sleep, but I'm warning you. If you guys talk about important stuff while I'm out of the room, I will personally drag you all the way to New York City and hang you from the top of the Empire State Building by your big toes." With those words, I made my gradual ascent up the stairs and eventually out of sight.

"It's a girl?" asked Cal inquisitively. Isn't it a bit soon to tell?

Ben was happy to clarify for me. "She hates calling the baby an 'it' and decided that, when referring to the baby, she would call her a 'she' instead."

My brother-in-law blinked a few times as if that would help the words sink into his brain better. "Ah huh." Nope. Still don't get it. Must be a pregnant woman thing.

As Damon came running after me, Ian remarked, "You two behave yourselves." I kind of wanted to turn back so I could slap him for the spiteful quip. He had no right poking into my personal business even if it was all for the sake of a pointless joke.

Instead, I continued across the hallway that was still within the others' fields of view and entered Damon's bedroom.

I hadn't been in there since the day we first kissed. Nothing had changed whatsoever. Every candle and bottle of scotch was placed in exactly the same way as before. No one had entered and the smell of apples filled the room from the last time the candles were lit. It was as if the room had been locked in a sort of time bubble where it was eleven o'clock at night on that day in March forever, unchanging.

As if by habit, I flung myself onto the bed and took in a deep breath before I let it out slowly and stared up at the ceiling. I was soon joined by my husband who was determined on gaining my full attention. But I didn't want to play his silly games right now. Someone else was on my mind and all I wanted to do was sleep and dream about a time when that face was all I used to see. Not just yet, though.

Damon made a few more attempts, kissing my neck and tracing the length of my arm with his nimble fingertips. Whatever he did, it didn't work on me. No matter how much I wanted to give in, there was something I needed to do that this would get in the way of. Of course, that didn't mean that it didn't take some effort to avoid falling for his advances.

Once I was more than positive that he was asleep, I tiptoed out of bed and raced down the hall, down the stairs, and out the front door at top speed into the midnight air. Not even Damon could catch me. Thanks to the ceremony Alphaeus had felt inclined to perform, I was three times better at everything than normal vampires were. I was faster, quieter, more flexible, stronger, and I had a better hold on my hunger—but that part was more due to the help of the special enchantment boost that Ben cast over my daylight ring. Either way, I was able to make it out of the house without alerting anyone that I had left.

My destination was reached within seconds. The moment that I touched the edge of the yard, I slowed down to a human's walking speed and climbed up the delicate maple tree at the side of the house. It had never been meant for climbing and the trunk was hardly thicker than my thigh but I was able to reach the top to the second floor window without any hassle. I knew I couldn't go inside the house without a human's permission, so I didn't even bother trying to open it. I had long since lost the right to gain entry. If I made an effort to step through, I would only get pushed back by the invisible force field that obstructed all vampires from entering and it would make the smallest part that was left of my humanity shrivel up and die.

Through the window, I could see her. My Aunt Fauna had just gotten ready to go to sleep and she was sitting in bed, reading another gooey, romance novel—her favorite. Ian entered the room and crawled in next to her under the covers. They really were cute together and I was glad that she had found someone after all this time that deserved her. Ian was a nice guy and he cared about her and me as if we were his family. With no one else left of his relatives, we were all he had.

"Fauna," he said before he kissed her cheek. "You've been reading for an hour. Why don't you put it away and let's go to sleep."

"I can't! Lila just told Billy about her secret identity! It's getting really good," she complained.

He continued to persuade her with kisses.

I could hear her heartbeat speeding up. "Okay, okay! Let me just finish this chapter."

Soon, the two of them were asleep. Their dreamlands were open to me like watching a movie in my mind. I closed my eyes and sat back against the thin trunk, letting Aunt Fauna take me through her dreams.

She began with a ridiculous opening, standing on top of the hula-hoop-sized world like those really freaky pictures I used to see in kindergarten with the different races of cartoon children holding hands in a circle. Then she popped into a more realistic place and I almost couldn't bear the sight of it.

Fauna was cooking dinner—obviously, this was the surreal aspect of her dream because she hardly ever cooked—and I entered the room behind her.

"Hey, Aunt Fauna," I called to her as I took a seat around the counter in the center of the kitchen and took a noodle from the strainer of spaghetti in front of me. "Guess what!"

"You decided high school was boring and you quit?"

I chuckled. "I wish, but no. Tara and I scored tickets to the amusement park off the radio to see my favorite band in concert. Ben, Tara, and I are going this weekend. Is that okay?"

She gently stirred the pasta sauce and set the spoon down beside the pot. "Sounds fine to me." She sat down across from me and snuck a noodle that she quickly slurped down her throat. "Wait, I'm supposed to be the responsible, overprotective guardian. Don't do drugs, stay in school, don't party too hard, and try not to kiss every boy that you meet or you'll end up pregnant and alone for the rest of your life." She grinned. "How did I do?"

I waved a noodle in her face and giggled. "Nice job. I almost believed you this time."

This was a memory. I was in the middle of my freshman year at Wolfcrest High, before Tara was dating Charlie and Ben had Molly, when it was just the three of us and things were simple. Those were the good old days.

Tears rushed to my eyes and overwhelmed me as I sat on the limb of that midget of a maple. For the first time in a while, I felt the pain of death in my once beating heart. I understood how fleeting life was and how one moment you could be human and enjoying a simple batch of over cooked spaghetti with your aunt and the next you were dead without ever being able to see her again. Even if I could step inside, I wasn't allowed to speak to her or let her see me. The whole town thought I was dead and we had to keep it that way for my protection. One day, they would all be gone and I would be seventeen still while their successors pointed and hid from me for fear that I was an immortal, harmful thing that they needed to be rid of. It was safer for me to just stay dead.

Arms wrapped around me and I opened my eyes to find myself embraced by the man I loved as we stood on the grass below. "Evie, it's okay. It's alright. Everything is alright."

I pushed him away and hugged my arms close to me. "No it's not, Damon. It's never going to be okay. I can't even talk to my own flesh and blood because I don't age. What does it matter anyway? It's not like she will know just by looking at me. It's hardly even been half a year. Why can't I see her? It's not fair." My sobs were even more uncontrollable than before. (I imagine much of this was due to an imbalance of hormones, heightened by my vampire genes. That's something that the Moretti boys would say.) These didn't seem like my words.

Against my will, he brought me closer to him and held my head under his chin. "Sometimes life is just give and take. We can't have good things without a little bad mixed in every once in a while. Nothing is ever perfect, as much as we hope it to be otherwise." Once the tears stopped falling, he stepped back and took my hand. "Let's get you back in bed."

I nodded and sprinted back to Moretti Manor with him alongside me. He hated the fact that I was "overdoing it" but it was a necessary action he was going to have to get over. We got into bed and I cuddled close into his side for fear that I would lose it again. I couldn't risk another hormonal water explosion. The next time that happened, I'd probably fill the room with tears like they did in the movie Alice in Wonderland.

"You shouldn't have gone, Evie. It's not safe for you to be out there in the open. What if something had happened to you before I could get to you?" Damon twisted his fingers through my hair as he spoke.

"Then I would have probably died and we wouldn't be having this conversation." I looked up at him, smiled, and closed my eyes. "Now go to sleep. We'll have plenty of time to talk in the morning."

Sure… I love you, Mrs. Moretti.

"I love you, too," I breathed into his chest. Between him and a handful of friends, I had very few people in my life left to love, kind of like Ian, and a huge chunk of those feelings encompassed themselves around Damon. You would think that I had been sad because I was lonely, but I had all of the people I could ever need.