Sixteen
Abberline had called his People to the hospital, some infiltrating the hospital staff, they took their turns checking on the new born and steering prying eyes away from the room reserved for Saben Mariley Frost alone. "Your…professional opinion." Abberline murmured.
"It's hard to tell, My Lord. He has his mother's eyes." The silver haired woman replied biting her lip nervously.
Abberline nodded. "See what you can do, Scylla, that's all I ask."
"Of course."
Scylla du Coudray walked silently down the hall, back to her vigil over the child that could be his. Or not.
*
The private hospital room was badly lit, the blip of the heart monitor the only sound to accompany Saben's rasping breath. Her shrinking figure wrapped in highly starched bed clothes, pulled tight over her distended belly, her face was damp, pale, slowly being relieved of the blush of life.
Her eyelids suddenly fluttered, thin slits of brown seeking through the dim lights. She saw Tobias but her eyes moved to the darkness beyond him. "You've been here everyday?" Her voice was a dull rasp that sounded so unlike herself.
Tears flowed freely from Tobias' eyes. He nodded and squeezed her fingers against his lips.
"You have to let me go."
He shook his head, no.
Saben passed into an exhausted drug-induced sleep, she had been delirious, eyes fluttering as she had been wheeled from one room to the next, not knowing if she had safely delivered her baby, not having seen the baby but had only heard the phantoms of it's first squeals.
After they had tried to suffocate her with plastic masks, needles jabbing her veins, invading her insides with such crude indelicacy but she could not resist, as she was spread before them like a sacrifice.
Tobias pressed a hand to the side of her face, whispering softly by her ear. "We have a son, Sabe. He's beautiful-"
An uneasy breath wheezed passed her lips, Saben felt as if she were trapped in her own body, finely attuned to her organs that were slowly shutting down.
Tobias had been seated beside her for hours, holding onto her limp head, head bowed, too exhausted to whisper prayers. "You're her soul mate for Hecate's sake." He hissed, having deduced Night Lord Cebren's presence without having to ask.
The vampire stood at the farthest side of the room, as if afraid to go near the pallid figure in the bed. Veiled in shadows, his eyes glowed like twin stars in the night, he turned his intense stare to Tobias only momentarily.
"She's going to die." Tobias whispered.
The vampire didn't move but the invisible tied of energies that danced around him turned the shades of the room darker, the atmosphere a little colder. Tobias next breath was visible in a cloud of smoke.
"Do it." Tobias said.
The vampire's voice was bland. "You don't know what you're saying."
"If you loved her you would do it." He turned bright eyes toward him.
More silence.
The vampire could not deny with any true confidence that he loved the sickly girl lying on the bed. It was a dangerous thing to even think upon. It was true enough their souls were bound, a terrible cord that was choking them both even now and he could see her death clearly than she could.
"I-"
There was a sharp knock on the door slicing through the vampire's thoughts, cutting off his voice at a single word, Tobias rose from his seat and went to answer, he murmured to the person beyond the door and left the room closing the door behind him.
The vampire moved like liquid rippling out of the darkness, to sit in the chair beside Saben's bed. He slowly took hold of her cold, sweaty hand, and was struck by the cold grip of death slowly possessing her organs and the perverse thrill of contact.
"You stupid little girl," he said affectionately and touched her cheek.
Her eyelids fluttered open almost instantly as if he had commanded her to wake from her sleep and she whispered. "Abberline." Because you don't like to be called Cebren, the name your mother gave you in spite of a father who forced you upon her like a curse…
He lay his lips against the knuckles of one hand as her thoughts bombarded his mind. "You know what I have to do now, Saben Mariley Frost."
He bent down and lay his mouth upon her lips for a kiss. His mouth was soft whilst her mouth felt hard, the skin on her lips cracked and stiff, his tongue tasted her lip which had started to bleed.
Saben seemed to sigh as she disappeared in flight behind her closed lids, she was rushing toward a great and terrible darkness where stars emerged like pinpricks in fabric. Her lungs filled with too much air, her eyes wet with the rush of flying and then suddenly she was falling, she felt as if she had been flung through a narrow tunnel, it became harder and harder to breath, the battering pressure of the wind making her body clench in unimaginable pain until she had stopped breathing altogether.
She was dead, surely she was, and she was cast down speeding toward Elysium, left reaching toward a reflection of stars that were Abberline's eyes.
It felt as if she spent years reaching toward them, the cord that lead out from within herself, anchoring her in the nothingness and then her eyes opened, greeted by the crystal edges of a new old world.
"I'm alive?" Whispered in wonderment. Had it all been a dream? Her words sounded as if they had been voice by a stranger.
She saw Abberline, sullen and silent at the back of the room and Tobias was beside her, mystified. She reached a hand that felt as delicate as glass to her stomach, she felt no swell of pregnancy: just flat skin that was cold beneath her fingers.
Her eyes could focus with perfect and startling clarity, she could smell the tears before they materialised on Tobias' face, she could perfectly sense the salt and sweat of grief.
Things were different. The world had changed but she couldn't place how. "What have you done?" She whispered.
"We couldn't do anything else." Tobias replied reaching for her but she evaded his touch. Her eyes were set on Abberline's face, the unhappy tightness about his mouth, the coldness of his eyes. Eyes that she had dreamed about when falling to the underworld.
There was no sense of apology in him as there had been in Tobias, just the simmering and unspoken anger that burnt her from where she lay. She was sensitive to him like a newborn, her gums hurt, her body picking up pace as she began to stir from the bed.
"Get out of here." Abberline said softly and Tobias could not protest as he saw the light of the vampire ignite in Saben's eyes.
"What have you done?" She repeated.
"It was the only thing left to save you. You died." Abberline said gently. She knew it was true but didn't know what to say, still wondering if she were in heaven or hell. "Things will be different now. They'll never be the same again. You will feel more acutely-"
She closed her eyes and knew that instant what had befallen her. "I never wanted to be like you." She said softly, calmly, though panic dashed through her making her body sing with tension.
He approached her cautiously and perched on the edge of the bed, slowly reaching for her hand. She drew her hand away before their skin could touch. "You selfish son of a bitch."
He shrugged and the next instant he had hold of her, one hand in her hair, pulling her head back, he slipped a finger into her mouth to gently prod at her gums. His eyes inspecting her eyes for signs of rot. He knew not everyone was suited to take the Blood, not everyone could survive it.
"We will have to leave this place tonight." He said.
"No, what about Lark?"
Abberline shook his head, no.
Rage built so easily inside of Saben, it was as if the most base and simplest emotions could be summoned in an instant. She was so convinced by the emotion, possessed by it she felt the painful extensions of her canines, like a virgin being breached. She lunged forward, Abberline's blood filled her mouth.
*
Saben stepped up to the glass and peered at the wrinkled and pruned baby flesh beyond. In the distance without a sound the child slept so soft and peaceful she felt her heart expand. Lark. Her baby. She knew it was hers without having to ask or read the bracelet wrapped around his wrist.
She pressed her hand to the glass and the baby began to stir as if he knew she was there.
A silver haired nurse walked past her and opened the door a crack to check inside. The smell of new babies, of old blood and disinfectant wafted toward her senses and her eyelids fluttered and she was swaying on the current of the heady perfume. She was overwhelmed, leaning on the glass to help her stay on her feet.
Then she heard it, the fast ticking of Lark's heart suddenly pounding in her own throat, the scent of his new flesh and heat of his blood stirring an alien desire in her. Her stomach cramped. Her insides were taken over by a terrible emptiness and hunger. The babies were joined in a chorus of crying now but not Lark. Not Lark.
"Are you all right?" The nurse appeared at her shoulder, grasping her arm to help her stand but Saben couldn't bare it, she pushed the woman hard.
Trembling, and afraid of her own self she knew she had to get out or she'd do something much worse. Her eyes bright, her mouth a gash of blood and sharp teeth. She ran. Fast and crawling and however she could move to get away and save her son's life.
*
Tobias held the baby as if he were the most delicate creature on the earth. The weight of his limbs, the warmth of his body was new and incredible to the witch. The baby gurgled and stared up at him with eyes as brown as his mother's but the rest was Tobias, unmistakable.
He was taking the baby to his mother, they would be united as a family, such were his tender feelings as he swung open the door and the insides were dark. The stench of copper blood was almost overpowering and the baby began to struggle and cry in his arms.
Tobias found the vampire on the far side of the room, alive but bleeding heavily from the throat, his mouth working in paroxysm, unable to speak yet, unable to move. Saben was gone. The starch bed linen was stretched across the floor and the words "His Name Is Lark" scrawled in blood.