PART 15: Discussions and Heartbreak

Phoenix walked into Thierry's office slowly, holding Blake's hand. She could tell by the look in Thierry's face, that he wasn't happy. She smiled sweetly at him, hoping to lighten his disposition. "Yes, Thierry?" She asked innocently.

"Hannah has told me a very interesting fact." Thierry said leaning back in his chair and folding his arms. He looked at both Phoenix and Blake, like a father who a just caught his one of his kids making out on the couch. "She told me that you're pregnant."

"Did she?" Phoenix said looking at Hannah angrily. Hannah had the decency to look ashamed.

"What I want to know is," Thierry continued on, "how it happened.

Blake laughed. "Well, it started like this. Phoenix and I started kissing, we were standing up at first, and then I lead her over to the bed where I took of her-" he was stopped by Thierry.

"I know how happened, that way. But how did a vampire get a witch pregnant?"

Blake shrugged. "Beats the hell outta me. Maybe you should ask someone else. We weren't really thinking about the consequences at the time."

"Blake, shut up." Phoenix said covering her eyes with one of her hands. "I think you've said enough for the moment."

"I agree," Thierry added. "I'll get into contact with the other leaders of Circle Daybreak, they might know something more than we do. In the mean time, do you two think you can behave yourselves?"

Blake smiled wickedly. "What's the point? She's already pregnant; she can't get pregnant while she's pregnant. Therefore, we can do whatever we like."

Thierry shook his head, young people, he thought. "Fine then, do whatever the hell you want. Just try and keep it to yourself. We have young, innocent people living here. I wouldn't want them corrupted."

"Who's to say they're not already corrupted. Some of the people you've got working here are pretty corrupt, if you know what I mean. Look at Ash Redfern, he can be worse than I am." Blake said still smiling.

"Ash has a soulmate now, and she's not here. So his behaviour is not at question at the moment." Thierry started.

"But the moment Mary-Lynnette arrives Ash will be all over her like a fat man over a Christmas ham." Hannah commented.

Thierry couldn't keep the smiled from his face. "Well she isn't here at the moment, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Please just keep your adventure to yourselves."

"We will Thierry don't worry about us." Phoenix said pulling Blake out of the room.

"I try not to, but I can't help it." Thierry said watching them leave. When the door closed behind them he turned to Hannah. "A fat man over a Christmas ham? Where did that come from?" He smiled.

Hannah shrugged, "It was something my mother used to say sometimes. I thought it was appropriate for the situation." She walked over and sat on his lap. "Are you going to call the leaders?"

Thierry nodded. "Yes, as son as possible. There has to be a reason Phoenix is pregnant."

"She could just be pregnant because she's pregnant. There doesn't have to be some sort of prophecy involved." Hannah told him.

"No, there doesn't. But there usually is. I have to call the leaders now." Thierry said reaching for the phone.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Phoenix hit Blake on the arm and continued to hit him as they walked through the mansion. "Why did you have to make all those comments? You make us sound like sex fiends or something."

"Ouch!" Blake said, grabbing her arms and putting them behind her back so she couldn't hit him anymore. "I said it because it's partially true." He smiled and lowered his head to kiss her. The kiss went of for a while; neither of them paying any attention to the people that were passing them. It wasn't until about ten minutes later that they pulled apart at the sound of someone clearing their throat. They turned around to see Thorn and Star standing behind them.

Thorn had a huge grin on his face. "Don't you think you two should take that to a room?" He said putting his arm around Star. "There are small children around here who might think what you're doing is…I don't know… wrong or something. Not to mention the bigger children who might get some un-pure thoughts." He raised his eyebrows a few times.

Star smacked him of the arm. "Shut up, Thorn, god sometimes you can be a real child." She said seriously, but spoiled the effect by smiling.

"Oh come on, you know you think about it more than I do. You want me like you want chocolate." Thorn said pulling her into a kiss of his own.

Star pulled away laughing. "Are you feeling okay Phoenix? You looked pretty bad this morning."

"Thanks," she said wryly. "Yeah, I was just feeling a bit queasy. It's gone now."

"Do you know what it was?" Star asked, concerned for her new friend. She didn't want to loose a friend she had just found. Especially a friend she was now risking her life for, by betraying the Night World.

"No, but it's past now, must have just been something I ate." Phoenix said looking severely at Blake. "Don't worry about me," she said to the other two.

"She's pregnant!" Blake blurted out, proudly.

"Blake!" Phoenix wined. "I beginning to think you're worse at keeping secrets than Hannah is.

"What?" Blake asked innocently. "These people are my best friends. I can't keep something like this to myself. They deserve to know."

"Plus you're enormously proud of yourself." Thorn said guessing correctly.

"True," Blake said smiling proudly.

"Really!" Star asked excited. "You're pregnant? Oh my god! I'm going to be an aunt." She ran up and hugged Phoenix. "I'm so excited. I'll get Megan and we can organize a a baby shower for you, oh and we need to think of clothes for the baby, a room, we need to get a room and decorations to put up, little baby things, pretty colours, names, we need to think of names, oh there's just so much to think about."

The others looked at her in awe. No one knew that Star was able to talk that fast. Phoenix's eyes widened. "Wow, I forgot that I had to think about all of that." She was going into shock.

Star went up and pulled her away from Blake, taking her to where Megan was. "Don't worry about any of it. We'll take care of all of it, you won't have to do anything." Star didn't stop taking as they walked away from Thorn and Blake.

"Looks like you just lost your girlfriend." Thorn said putting his arm around Blake's shoulders. "But look at it this way, they're planning lots of things for you're baby. It's going to cost you a fortune."

"I can afford it." Blake said looking at his girlfriend walk away with Star, a girl who knew how to spend money like it was water.

"Come on, let's go. We can drink to the fact that you're going to be a father. Be proud of yourself." Thorn said smiling.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"You're pregnant!" Megan exclaimed. "Oh my god, that's great. And we have so much to plan. We need clothes, names and colours, we need to decide on what colour we want if it's a boy or a girl."

"I've already thought of that." Star said going to sit down on one of the couches. She had pulled a pen and some paper out of one of the drawers and started writing on it. "I think that the colours can wait until we know if it's a boy or a girl. Now with witches, we'll know that pretty soon. But until then I think we should go shopping for baby book names, and a crib, we don't need to know the sex to get that."

Through her speech Josh saw that he was going to get no attention, so he went to find the others. He really didn't need to listen to the gross facts of pregnancy.

"Hey, what if I don't want to do this right now?" Phoenix asked.

Megan and Star looked at her. "Do you?" Star asked.

"Yes I do." Phoenix grumbled. "I just want to make some of the decisions for myself."

"You will be able to. As soon as we get to the mall. Now, run and get Blake's credit card. As the father-to-be, he gets to pay for all of this stuff."

Phoenix smiled, maybe there was an advantage to being pregnant. She got to spend money, lots of it. "Let's go." She said getting up to find Blake and his credit card.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They went to the nearest mall to the mansion, which also happened to be the most expensive, and spent the next four hours doing all sorts of baby shopping. They spent a good deal of time in the clothes stores 'oh-ing' and 'ah-ing' at all the adorable baby clothes.

"I wanna have a baby." Star said, as she got all misty eyed from looking at all the clothes. She turned to Phoenix, "You're really lucky you know that? I would do anything for a baby."

"I want a baby too." Megan said. "They're so cute, and they smell so nice." Her eyes lit up. "And there is something I can do about it. Come on, I think it's time we went home now."

"Megan," Phoenix asked, looking at the strange glint in her eyes. "What are you thinking?"

"Don't worry Phoenix, I can handle this." Megan responded, getting all the bags and heading to the car.

"Do you know what she's going to do?" Phoenix asked Star softly.

Star smiled. "I have a pretty good idea. And I'm going to follow her example."

"What is it?" Phoenix asked hating to be out on the loop. "Tell me!" Phoenix yelled when Star said nothing. Both Star and Megan were acting very strange and Phoenix wanted to know what was going on.

"You're pregnant," Star started to explain. "We want a baby. Do the math."

Phoenix's eyes widened. "You can't get pregnant just because I am. Thorn and Josh might not want to have children. I don't think Blake is too happy about the situation." She said a bit sadly.

Star put her arm around Phoenix. "He is happy about this. Don't worry. As for Thorn and Josh, we'll change their minds on the situation. They'll see it our way, never fear."

"You guys, hurry up." Megan called from inside the car. She already had everything packed in the trunk neatly and the car started.

Star laughed. "We're coming. No need to rush."

Megan drove off as soon as they were seated in the car, and drove back to the mansion. They were lucky they weren't pulled over, at the speed Megan was driving at.

"Josh!" Megan yelled as soon as she got into the house. "Josh where are you?"

A few minutes later Josh, Blake and Thorn came running into the room.

"What's going on? What's wrong?" Josh asked frantically looking at the girls as if to determine if they were hurt.

Megan walked up to him and smiled coyly. "Nothing's wrong. I just really wanted to see you. Is there anything wrong with that." She ran the back of her hand over his cheek.

Josh frowned. "No, I guess there's nothing wrong with that. Are you feeling okay?" He asked. Her eyes seemed to be glowing and she had a strange smile on her face.

"I'm fine." Megan said sensually.

"What's going on with Megan?" Blake asked Phoenix, wrapping his arms around her waist and placing his hands lightly on her abdomen. Her could see that Megan was acting really weird and figure that something had happened while they had gone shopping.

"You'll find out," was all Phoenix would say.

He looked at his soulmate strangely, but decided to just see what happened for himself.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Josh asked his own soulmate. Megan only ever acted this way when she was something from him. His eyes widened in realisation. "I'm on to your came now babe, what do you want?"

"Why do I have to want something?" Megan asked softly, sweetly. "I just figure, we haven't really been able to spend that much time alone, I just figured we could remedy that."

If it were possible, Josh's eyes widened even more. "Yes I think we could." He grabbed her hand and dragged her up the stairs to the bedroom. "See you guys later." Josh called before he left their sight.

"What was that all about?" Blake asked by their behaviour.

Phoenix looked at him like he was an idiot. "Do I really need to answer that question?"

Blake rolled his eyes. "I know what they're doing, but what brought it about, that's what I want to know."

Star looked at him a bit angrily. "There doesn't really need to be a reason. Does there?" She said looking meaningfully at Thorn.

Thorn caught on really quick. "No there doesn't." He said picking up Star and throwing her over his shoulder. "Talk to you later." He told Phoenix and Blake. Using his vampire speed to get he and his soulmate up to their room.

Blake's eyes followed the path his friends had just taken, the turned his gaze to Phoenix. "Alright, I want to know exactly what happened when you guys were at the mall. There had to be some sort of weird conversation to bring this on."

Phoenix pulled away from Blake. "What makes you think that?" She eyes Blake warily and when he began to advance on her, she started to back away.

Blake kept advancing until Phoenix was up against the wall. "Because, my love, I know you and I know those girls. Now tell me what you said, otherwise I will have to take drastic measures." He told her, holding his hands at her sides where she was the most ticklish.

Phoenix's eyes widened and she tried to get away, at least that's what she told herself, but Blake's hands were too strong. "Alright, I'll tell you, but you have to promise you won't get mad."

Blake was wary now. "Why would I get mad?" He asked putting some distance between them, but making sire she wouldn't be able to get away. His thoughts were going along the lines of Phoenix telling Star and Megan something they had done in bed, and now they were trying it out.

"Well," Phoenix started hesitantly, "while we were shopping Megan and Star got all misty eyes, and started talking about how much they wanted to have a baby, and now-"

"Wait a minute," Blake interrupted holding up his hand. "Are you telling me that Star and Megan have taken my two best friends up there to get pregnant?"

Phoenix nodded. "Well, they really couldn't do it by themselves."

Blake put his head in his hands. "This is not good, this is really not good. I have to go and tell them." He said starting for the stairs.

"I think it's a bit late for that." Phoenix asked warily.

"But I have to tell them! They might not want children. God! No one wants children this young." Blake raved not realising what he had just said.

Phoenix went pale at his words. Because he was walking around the front foyer, he didn't see her walk away. In fact, it wasn't until about five minutes later that he realised she was gone.

"Phoenix?" He asked, looking around.

"She left about five minutes ago." A voice said from behind him.

Blake spun around to find some guy standing in one of the doorways. "Who the hell are you?" He asked harshly.

"James Rasmussen. A distant cousin." James answered walking further into the room. "You look a bit angry." He commented mildly.

"What the hell would you know about it?" Blake said beginning to leave the room. Another cousin, it really wasn't something he needed. He stopped suddenly when he remembered what James had said. He stormed back into the room and demanded. "What do you mean she left?"

"I mean, she left. About five minutes ago. You really aren't much of a soulmate if you didn't notice when she left." When Blake started walking away again, James called out. "You won't find her."

"What?" Blake asked. He had figured that she had just gone up to their room, it looked like he was wrong.

"If Phoenix doesn't want to be found then she won't be. She can cloak her form so no one knows where she is. And at the moment I'm guessing she doesn't want to be found."

"Why do you say that?" Blake asked. Why would Phoenix, not want to be found, he thought, what happened?

"Maybe you should think back on what you said before she left. That's where you'll find you answer." James said walking out the door.

Blake watched James go and decided that his cousin was a smart ass. He turned and looked at the wall where Phoenix had been standing before she took off. He thought back on what he said and his eyes almost immediately. 'No one wants children this young' the words kept going over and over in his mind. "I'm such and idiot," he said banging his head against the wall.

He turned around and ran up the stairs, he knew that she wasn't in their room, but he had to check anyway. "Phoenix," he called throwing open the door.

She wasn't there.

He ran to the swimming pool, the gym and rec. room that were near it.

She wasn't there.

He checked the basement, first floor, second floor, third floor, fourth floor and finally the attic. He checked every possible room she could be in.

She wasn't anywhere.

"I told you, you wouldn't find her." James said, once again from behind him.

Blake was currently on his knees in the attic. His heart was tormented as the same line kept running through his mind 'No one wants children at this age.' "Where did she go?" He demanded of James.

James shrugged. "Only she knows the answer to that question. And I don't think she'll be telling you any time soon."

"But I didn't mean it!" Blake cried. "She has to know I didn't mean it. Phoenix!" He yelled both verbally and telepathically. "Where are you!"

Everyone in the house heard Blake's tormented shout, and they all began to make their way to the attic.

"What's going on?" Thea asked James softly. She could feel the pain radiating off of Blake in waves. It made her fell so sad for him.

"Blake said something about not wanting children, Phoenix was standing right in front of him." James answered back just as softly, not wanting his voice to go above a whisper. Thanks to Hannah, the whole house knew that Phoenix was pregnant.

"Someone's in trouble." Ash said in a singsong voice.

Thea elbowed him in the stomach. "Shut up, Ash," she said softly.

Horn and Star came running into the room, Star still putting on her shirt. "What's going on here? Why the hell is Blake on the floor?"

Blake raised his head when he heard his name. His face was streaked with tears and his eyes were tormented. "Thorn?" He croaked.

Thorn was shocked; in all the years he had known Blake he had never seen him so torn up about something. "Blake, what's going on?"

Blake stood up and stumbled over to Thorn. She's gone, Phoenix is gone. I need to find her, you have to help me." Blake scrambled to get past all the people that had congregated in the attic. He was forced to stop, however, when one of the people in front of his wouldn't move. He looked up to see who it was, Thierry. "Move," he shoved him, "I need to find Phoenix."

"You won't find her." Thierry stated softly.

"Yes I will," Blake said determined. "She's my soulmate, we have a connection. I will find her."

Thierry took Blake by the shoulder. "Come to my office, we'll talk about it there." Thierry led Blake to his office, with Thorn, Star, Josh and Megan following. Blake didn't offer any resistance. When they were in the office, Thierry put Blake in one of the chairs, then went to sit in his own.

"Why are we wasting time here? I need to find Phoenix."

"Blake," Thierry started, "like I said before, you won't find her."

"How come he won't fine her?" Thorn interrupted softly.

"Phoenix is a powerful witch. We've always known that. Despite the fact she's half human, Phoenix has more power than some full-bred witches. Due to that, she has always been good at cloaking her presence from others. Even the most skilled of telepaths and trackers have been unable to find her. She's the best." Thierry stated.

"But I'm her soulmate," Blake argued. "Shouldn't be able to find her?"

Thierry shrugged. "You may be able to, but I doubt it. Try focusing on the part she occupies in your mind, then use that to try and see where she is."

Blake closed his eyes, and shut out everything around him. His focused on his breathing, and the place in his mind where he kept everything about Phoenix. Immediately he was filled with happiness and light. She was everything to him, and her could feel that he had hurt her so much by what he said and he wanted to make that better. He wanted to make her come back to him.

He immersed himself in everything that was Phoenix, trying to find out where she may have gone. Almost at once he could feel himself being drawn into her essence, and he could see where she was. His eyes flew open and he jumped out of his chair.

"Where is she?" Thierry asked, knowing that he has the answer.