PART 16: Doubts

"She's at the cemetery," Blake said, a bit confused. "Why would she be at the cemetery?" He looked at Thierry, who also had a small frown on his face. From what Blake knew of Thierry, he wasn't one to be surprised. In any situation.

"She probably went to her parents graves." Thierry answered worried for Phoenix. "She only ever goes there when she has no where else to go. How did you find her so quickly?"

"She's my soulmate, we have a connection," Blake stood up and started for the door. He was going to find his soulmate and he was going to bring her back to him. Whether she liked it or not. He was going to explain to her that he did want children. He opened the door only to be stopped by two little bodies that were standing in the doorway. "What are you two doing here?" He asked his brother and sister.

"Nothing," the denied smiling sweetly, so they wouldn't get in trouble.

"Yeah right," Blake said. "I know you two better than that. What are you doing here?" Blake said folding his arms. As much as he loved his family, he really didn't have the time to be taking to them right now. He needed to go to Phoenix. An idea suddenly occurred to him. While Phoenix had been at his house she had spent a lot of time with the twins. He knew that she loved kids. Maybe if he brought the twins that would make her listen to him.

"Well," Nickolas started, knowing his brother was not in a good mood.

"Don't worry about it." Blake said interrupting them. He took each twin by the hand and led them out to the car. "We're going for a little trip," he told them, "and I want both of you to be good."

"Where are we going?" Brianna asked excited. She but her seatbelt on and leaned back in the chair, sticking her tongue out at her brother because she was in the front seat. Nickolas tried to reach out and hit her, but Blake's warning stopped him. Instead the twins just puled faces at eachother for the entire trip.

"We're going to get Phoenix," Blake answered his sister, paying attention to the road. He pulled up to the entrance of the cemetery a few minutes later, he drove a slow as he could. Blake always hated coming to these kinds of places, places of death. They reminded him of all the deaths caused by his own hand. Being with Phoenix made the faces of all his victims pop up into his mind and he felt guilty for maybe the third time in his life.

"I don't think we should go in there," Brianna said frowning at the headstones beyond the cemetery gates. "It's a bad place." Brianna rubbed her arms. Even for one s o young she was extremely sensitive to power. And the cemetery seemed to be soaking in it.

Blake pulled up into one of the empty spaces ad parked the car. His vampire sight was able to pick up Phoenix's form in the distance. "Come on," Blake said to his bother and sister, "we have to bring Phoenix back with us."

He walked through the gates, holding the twins hands. He could feel that they were frightened, but he couldn't stop to comfort them. He needed to get his soulmate back. Phoenix was standing in front of one of the larger headstones. He stopped behind her, not knowing what to say.

It didn't matter, Phoenix spoke first. "They were twenty-four and twenty- two when they were killed." Phoenix didn't even turn around to talk to him; instead, her gaze was focused on her parent's headstones. "Doesn't seem fair does it? I was only two; I never got to know them. Instead I was shipped from one relative to another until they thought I was old enough to look after myself." She turned around to face him and Blake was shocked. She didn't look upset, as he had expected, she looked angry, really angry. She smiled, sardonically at Blake and the twins. "Did you think the twins would make me go easier on you?"

Blake shrugged and said seriously, "I guess I did. But I wanted you to know that what I said before wasn't true. Not about us."

Phoenix laughed harshly and turned back to looking at the headstones. "Then I guess that makes everything okay doesn't it."

Brianna broke away from her brother and went up to take Phoenix's hand. "Why are you angry?" She asked in the innocent way of children. Brianna had no idea that it wasn't a good time to be around Phoenix, as she was about to explode.

Phoenix looked down into Brianna's eyes, and it seemed that her little smile drained away most of her anger. "Your brother said something that upset me." Was all she answered.

Brianna looked back at Blake, frowning at him. She looked very much like a disapproving mother who had caught her son doing something he knew he shouldn't be doing. "Blake says mean things all the time," she told Phoenix. "You just have to learn to ignore them, like I do."

Phoenix smiled at her. "I do, do I? Well you're going to have to be the one to teach me, aren't you?" She turned back to face Blake. "But can I talk to your brother for a minute?"

Brianna nodded. "Take your time," she walked over to Nickolas and took his hand. "We'll just be over here." She said pointing a short distance away. "Be nice to her." She took her brother away, where they proceeded to play 'I spy with my little eye'.

Phoenix watched the twins walk away, smiling softly. "She acts older than she really is. You should stop her from doing that. She just a kid, and she should stay that way until she has to grow up."

"Can we please talk about this?" Blake pleaded.

"There's nothing to talk about." Phoenix said looking him directly in the eye. "I know you didn't mean what you said. But that doesn't change the fact that you were thinking about it. Is that what you were really thinking, or had some irrational part of your brain, taken over your body and influenced your words."

"I'm thinking it was the latter." Blake sighed. "I really don't know why I said those things. But it's not what I want. I want this child more than you could ever imagine." He walked up to Phoenix and wrapped his arms around her waist. He held her fast when she tried to pull away. "Nothing can make me take back my words, but I want you to know that I do want my child. And nothing in the world will take that away from me. Do you understand? If you run, I will find you. There is nowhere in the world where you can hide. You are my soulmate and you are carrying my child. You are mine."

Phoenix smiled slightly. "Possessive much?" She raised her eyebrows, "If I don't want to be found, no one can find me. It's something I learned when I had to hide from the Night World."

"I found you once, I can do it again." Blake said seriously.

Phoenix laughed and shook her head, but she didn't pull away from him. "I let you find me Blake. There are other places I can hide, places not in this dimension."

Blake's eyes widened. "Are you telling me you can get into other dimensions?"

Phoenix nodded. "It's always been easy for me."

Blake shook his head. "But that's impossible. Not even the most powerful witches in the world can do that. It's physically impossible. Not to mention dangerous. You don't know where you're going to end up. You could end up in some sort of hell dimension. Well, I'm putting a stop to that right now, you will not endanger my child."

"You can't tell me what to do." Phoenix said angrily pulling away from him. "You need to know that, Blake, if you insist on controlling me and being all possessive, then we are going to have serious problem."

Blake calmed his breathing. Phoenix telling him not to control her was like telling him not to breathe. It was in his nature to control, as all of his life he had been the one I control. He was the leader of his group, and they had been the ones to pick him as the leader. But looking at the look on Phoenix's face he knew that he was going to have to learn not to be so controlling and possessive. "Alright," he gritted out. "I'll learn to be less controlling."

Phoenix smiled. "There's a good boy."

"But you have to know that you need to be more careful. You're pregnant and have someone else to take care of. Never do something that might endanger our child." Blake said sternly. Then he softened. "I can't loose you Phoenix, I'll die if that happens."

"You won't loose me, Blake. I'm careful, I always have been and I always will be. Trust me, please." Phoenix said smiling at him. "I know that I have to be careful now. But I also know that you're here to take care of me." She frowned. "But not in a 'you do what I do' kind of way. I do need some space."

"I know you do, and I'll give you some space, but no too much space. I have to look after you, it's my right." Blake answered. He looked down into her eyes. "So I'm forgiven? No hard feelings?"

Phoenix nodded. "Just know that if you make one more mistake, you're going to pay for it, badly."

"I know," Blake said. "Lets go home. Come on you two!" Blake called to his brother and sister. "We're going back to the house."

Brianna came running over with her bother, a huge grin on her face. "Did you two make up?" She asked hopefully. But she already knew the answer to that question, as Blake had his arm around Phoenix's waist and her head on his shoulder.

"Everything's fine now." Blake told his sister smiling at her.

Brianna's grin got wider. "I'm glad," she ran up and gave both of them a huge hug, then ran off in the direction of the car, with Nickolas following closely behind her.

"They're like the energizer bunny aren't they?" Phoenix said watching the twins in amazement. It was like they never ran out of energy. Every time Phoenix saw them, they were doing some sort of running around.

"They get that from me," Blake said suggestively.

Phoenix laughed and elbowed him in the stomach. "Come on, hot shot. We need to get these kids home, before they drop from exhaustion." Phoenix pulled away from him and ran after the twins, laughing the whole way.

The ride home was filled with laughter. Phoenix having forgiven Blake entirely and the twins were happy, as usual. Blake looked over at Phoenix; she was the love of his life. And he meant what he said to her before. He would do his best to control the primitive vampire inside of him.

The twins ran into the house as soon as the car had stopped, but Blake stopped Phoenix from getting to of the car, by putting a hand on her shoulder. "What?" Phoenix asked, looking at him in confusion.

"There's something I have to tell you," Blake said, pulling her closer to him.

"What is it?"

"I love you." Blake said smiling at her. She smiled back at him, and he pulled her even closer. The kiss that followed was the most passionate Phoenix had ever felt. It was like he was putting his all into just one kiss.

"Wow," Phoenix said when the kiss had ended. "What was that for?" She asked, a bit breathless.

"No reason," Blake said innocently getting out of the car. He smiled roguishly at her as he went around her side and opened the door for her. He kissed her again when she was standing at the dor of the car.

"See! There you go again. What's with it?" Phoenix asked, now getting confused.

"Can't a vampire kiss his soulmate when he wants to?" Blake asked kissing her again. He could keep the huge grin off his face. He had his soulmate back and was happier than he had ever been in his life. "Let's go up to our room." He whispered softly in her ear.

Phoenix's eyes widened as she finally caught on. "But what about the twins?" She asked, letting Blake take her hand and start to lead them to their room.

"They know how to keep themselves entertained." Blake answered, starting o move faster down the halls. He ignored the looks he was getting from other people, and the numerous questions that were being thrown his way. He was almost stopped by Thierry however.

"Phoenix!" Thierry called out.

"Not now, Thierry." Blake called out. "We'll talk to you later." He disappeared around one of the doors that lead to their room.

"Blake!" Phoenix admonished. "We could have at least answered his question."

"We could have, but right now we have more important things to be doing." They finally reached their bedroom, and Blake pulled her inside, closing and locking the door behind him. "Now I have you right where I want you."

"Do you?" Phoenix said, backing away from him, towards the bed.

"Of course." Blake said. "I'm a control freak of a vampire. And I always get what I want." Blake answered following her to the bed.

"Well, this is one of the time you're right." Phoenix said, holding out her arms. Blake went into them quite willingly. And for the next few hours they were happily occupied.

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

"So everything's okay now?" Star asked Phoenix later that week over dinner.

Phoenix smiled, knowing her face was practically glowing. She looked over at Blake adoringly, who was engrossed in conversation with Thorn. "Of course everything's okay. I wouldn't be here if it weren't." She looked at Star and Megan. "What about you two?"

Megan blushed a little. "Everything's good. I had to tell Josh after what my plan was. He was angry at first, but he was always the one that would talk about our future. He was actually happy that I wanted it."

"What about Thorn?" Phoenix asked Star.

Star looked down at her plate. "He was pissed when I told him, and wouldn't talk to me for a little while. But then I guess he thought about you and Blake, and realised that kids wouldn't be such a bad thing. He's gone out and bought all these baby name books and already talking about how we're going to decorate the nursery. He's really excited." She too looked over at Thorn adoringly, and as if feeling her gaze her turned to her and returned the look.

"So I take it we're probably going to become one big happy family." Phoenix said laughing, and Star and Megan joined her, with Blake, Thorn and Josh looking on in confusion.

Do you think I should continue and finish the story with the children being born, or should I just leave it here? I'll go with what the majority want.