Chapter 36: Zach and Luke
Rashel screamed, her back convulsing in gasps and sobs. She was kneeling in a pile of watery blood, one hand grasping the car hard enough to leave a dent in the metal.
"We need something to put her on!" John forced himself to concentrate. There were no good options here, either she gave birth in the confined spaces of the car or out in the open. "See if we have-"
A ripping sound overpowered his voice as the backseat leather chairs fell gracefully to his side. Seizing them without question, he arranged them under Rashel which proved to be a difficult task considering how tightly locked her body had become.
"It's...too...early!" Rashel panted between sobs, "It's...too...early! I...can't...stop...it! Help...me.."
"Nothing going to happen, everything's alright, everything's just fin-"
"DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT'S JUST FINE!" She struggled to breathe properly, her face reddening from the effort, "Don't... you... d..."
"Rashel? Rashel, what's happening? Rashel!" Her eyes fluttered madly and terrible moans came from deep within her, "Rashel? Stay with me. Please, please stay with me."
Her unfocused eyes turned to him, and he understood why she was sobbing. Rashel could handle pain, but she couldn't handle being out of control.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Mary-Lynette's angry voice screamed out from the tiny phone in Ash's hand.
"Where is everyone? Why can't we get a hold of them?"
There was static as the phone was handed off and then Theirry's voice came out, strong but weary, "There was an ambush ready for us when we arrived and Hunter wasn't there. We just got back."
Ash conveyed the entire story to him in a matter of minutes, leaving nothing out. Theirry listened silently, the purr of an engine the only sound in the background.
Rashel, on the other hand, did not stay silent. She gasped and groaned, her body convulsing with wave after wave of spasms. To her credit, she stopped sobbing, her tear-stained face blank of any emotion but misery.
And then in a snap it broke. She screamed. Full blood-curdling screams that echoed in the trees. Theirry and Ash's voices drowned out until it was only Rashel and John staring at each other.
We can do anything together. He sent her the thought, opening his mind fully to hers, accepting her pain.
I can't...I can't do this...She whimpered, both in his mind and in reality. Her voice weak.
Yes, you can. Just push, please, push. She pushed, her teeth gritted with her hands clamped tightly in his. Long strained groans emitted from her lips, and then again until it continued repeatedly with noticeably shorter rests in between.
One more, please, one more, he begged when she seemed ready to give up. A new determined look flashing across her face, she pushes once more and there's a horrible bloody sound as the baby comes out.
Rashel deflated immediately, falling back against the torn-up leather.
John, who caught the bloody, pale infant in his arms, looked shocked. It wasn't crying and Ash, father of two, immediately assumed control, softly stroking the babies nose downwards.
In a second the air filled with a shrill cry and the babies limbs begin thrashing. Shell-shocked, John stared dumbly at the withering baby in his arms until bright headlights engulfed the majority of his vision.
"Move ou' the way," a small, English lady burst from Theirry's car and immediately began unloading medical equipment from her handbag. She was wearing a fuzzy pink dressing robe and her greying hair was still in curlers. She carefully examined the first baby, clamping and cutting off the umbilical cord and nestling it carefully against John's chest before bustling around Rashel.
"Wake up dearie, we need ya awake and alert. Up you get," She produced a syringe out of mid-air and was stabbing it in her arm before Rashel could protest.
"Where is he?" Rashel mumbled softly, her head lolling to the side as she looked around blindly.
"See him in a sec, won't ya dear? He's fine with his big, ol' handsome daddy. Right then, everything seems alrigh' with this little chap, you can start pushing whenever you're ready. Come on now dear." Theirry was ignored as he emerged from the car, and after several attempts to question a unresponsive John he gave up and began questioning the nurse about the birth.
"Biggest fear wou' be the cord comes ou' first. Usually we'd hav' a ultrasound. Ya sure picked a bloody place to have a baby, dearie. Careful now, piece o' cake this is, really, considering the first is a right killer. Easy now, dear, easy."
Rashel sat up, her eyes focused on the little body pressed tight against John's bare chest. Joy and determination burned in her eyes; she wanted this over so she could hold her beautiful children. Their beautiful children.
With considerably less screaming and blood, their second son was born.
Later at a hospital- with a vampire doctor of course- they found out which baby had been born first: Lucas Quinn, human, was born at around 5:40 in the morning and his brother Zachary Wes, lamia, was born at the break of dawn. Both babies opened their eyes and looked around with murky, but unmistakeably emerald green eyes.