Chapter 31 – Determination
Eve's POV
I sat with Claire in Amelie's "secret" room for what felt like hours before I heard a small tap at the door. Claire was sitting on the red sofa as I sat on the floor, so it was her that pressed the button to allow Myrnin inside.
I'd been expecting him, even when I'd said to Amelie that she could send anyone. I was glad that it was him that she sent, he was familiar, and I could honestly say that I trusted him.
"I hear you're in labour," was the first thing he said as he entered the room.
His reply was a frustrated mumble that sounded like, "Don't need to be reminded."
"Do you know anything about Sam, was he there?" I asked.
Myrnin looked from me to Claire sympathetically and shook his head. "From what I could see, he didn't turn up. However, let's think positive."
"What could possibly be positive, Myrnin?" Claire asked. "I always try to look on the bright side of life, I do, but here are the facts. I'm pregnant; actually, I'm in labour! The only way for me, Shane and the baby to survive is for a vampire, who could be anywhere in the world right now, to die. I can't see a bright side in any of this, it's all dark."
Neither Myrnin nor I could argue against her, so we decided to instead make a few jokes and try to get a smile on her face.
Amelie's POV
Once I had talked to Eve on the phone and sorted everything out with Myrnin, I made my way back to Morley. I knew I had been lucky to have been allowed to take the phone call in the first place, so now I needed to return and fight it out the way that we had both wished to for so many centuries.
"Amelie, how nice of you to return, I assume you have done all that you needed to do?"
"I have," I replied.
"Perfect! Then let's get down to business." He was suddenly behind me, a silver knife threateningly caressing my neck. I shivered as he whispered his next words in my ear, "You will die right here, right now."
Claire's POV
I tried to smile, I really did, but they were making it increasingly difficult for me. Not only was I soon to die, the jokes that they were making were ridiculous.
Myrnin's were things like, "I remember my mid-wife days; I considered myself quite the professional. Well, until I realised that too much blood made it tremendously hard to do my job." Way to make me feel better Myrnin!
Eve's were things like, "When this baby is born, I promise that I'll sit and watch as you change the nappies." I had scarcely considered the possibility that we would survive this, let alone the jobs that would have to be done if we did survive.
So I sat and stared at the two people who were trying to make my life better at this moment. They weren't doing a very good job, but I appreciated them trying.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" I asked Myrnin.
"Why, of course! You did hear my story of my days as a mid-wife, did you not?"
"How could I not," I mumbled back.
Any question I asked had a slim chance of getting a proper answer. Every doubt that I spoke aloud was brushed aside as they said what they always said, "You, Shane and the baby will survive."
But what if we didn't? They didn't seem to understand the situation I was in while at the same time understanding it fully. The only person that could make me feel better at this moment in time was Shane, and I would not take him away from Amelie at this unbearable time; every person counted.
Myrnin's POV
She was full of questions, dear Claire; questions that I could not answer without worrying her deeply.
The latest had been, "Do you have any idea what you're doing?" The honest answer to that question would be no, but I was one of the best improvisationalists on this planet – and the best creator of words considering that improvisationalist is not a word as there is no such thing as an improvisationalist (although if I said it in a casual sentence, many people would believe that it was – oh the modern day!). I couldn't answer her honestly without perturbing her, so I decided to bring up the topic of my mid-wife career once again.
Truth be told, I had not once had a career that involved so much blood, but if she believed that I hadn't ever dealt with this sort of thing before, then she would begin to have doubts – well, more than she already had.
I was starting to consider returning to Founder's Square and telling Amelie that it would be better if she sent an experienced doctor, or someone to that effect. However, I knew myself that the number of doctors that Morganville had were limited – if at all – and there was not a high enough number to find someone in the time that we had left.
The time that Claire had left.
I hated thinking of it, but she was right. Eve and I persevered in putting her many doubts to rest, although, it was obvious that we were in no way helping whatsoever. She knew that the chance of she and Shane surviving was much lower than them dying, we all knew it. Sam hadn't been anywhere in the hall before I left, and if he had hadn't been there then, chances were he wasn't there now.
Our only chance to ensure Claire and Shane's survival was just out of reach.
Michael's POV
The amount of people fighting had definitely decreased over the period of time that we had been in conflict. Bodies lay dead or injured on the floor wherever you looked, and it was beginning to make me feel uneasy.
I had looked for Sam everywhere as I battled it out with old vampires and then ran from them as another came to help kill me. There had been one time that I had played dead, and the vampire had actually fallen for the act. I had been more grateful in that moment than I had been in my entire life.
Well, that's not exactly true. The thing that I was most grateful for was Claire. I loved Eve all the same, but I never would have been with Eve had it not been for Claire's arrival to Morganville. Since that day, I had been able to confess that I was a ghost, ask Amelie – whom I had known as simply the Founder before Claire had shown up – to turn me into a vampire so that I could venture outside of the house, be cured from a vampire to a human, and then be both the Best Man and the Groom at Eve and I's – and Shane and Claire's – wedding.
The gratitude that I held toward Claire was what pushed me to keep fighting. Sam was my target, and when I saw my target, my aim never missed; not when I was this determined. To support my gratitude toward Claire was my hatred toward Sam. He had locked us in a Crypt for three days just to get back at Amelie as she witnessed all of the events helplessly inside of her possessed body.
And after all of this, he couldn't even be bothered to show up here today. Instead, he had sent his minion army to do his dirty work.
Not only was that guy a scumbag, he was a coward. And I would make sure that that was his downfall.
Claire's POV
It had been only half an hour since I went into labour, but it felt like it had been longer. I'd had my first contraction just several minutes ago, and I was beginning to wonder whether dying would be a better alternative to the pain that I was facing.
My second contraction was only two minutes later, and that one hadn't seemed as bad. With each contraction came more tolerance – if that was the word for it – but I repeated silently to myself that if Shane and I did survive, then afterward we would have a beautiful baby girl. If that happened, then it would be worth it.
Ten minutes later my third contraction came, and Eve once again kneeled down beside the sofa and took hold of my hand. "Are you sure you don't want me to call Shane?" she asked.
I shook my head rapidly and said, "Don't call him, please." However, after a while, my mind started to tell me that it was the right thing to do –but that was only a small fraction of my mind, and so the biggest part of me continued to say no every time she asked.
I had to stay strong mentally, no matter how weak I was physically.
Michael's POV
As I moved on my only thought was, "I just killed someone." They had pushed me to the ground with all of their weight and held a wooden stake up above their head.
To my surprise, "they" had been female. I had imagined a big and bulky man with eyes as black as coal, but that wasn't what I had gotten. She was one of the most beautiful vampires I had ever seen. Her golden blonde hair had been short and trimmed into her face, and before her eyes turned red, they had been a soft and silky brown.
With the stake in the air and the point aimed directly for my heart, I had panicked immensely. When her hand had begun to travel toward me, I had flipped out and rolled on my side. The stake – instead of hitting me – hit the floor, and the wooden point had split. I hadn't known whether she was an old vampire or a newly made one, but the odds seemed to have been in my favour as I grabbed the stake from her hand in her moment of surprise and lunged forward to pierce her skin, and finally pierce her heart.
It had taken scarcely ten seconds before she turned limp and fell to the floor. She had been newly made, yet she had been one of the strongest vampires that I had ever been up against.
I hadn't wanted to kill her, I hadn't wanted to kill anyone, but it had been her or me. If Claire and Shane didn't make it, it would just be Eve and I. I couldn't have let myself die just so that I could say I hadn't killed anyone today – I couldn't have done that to Eve.
Lost in my distracted thoughts, someone barged into me from my right. I quickly pulled myself to the present and turned before my head was chopped off.
To my surprise, yet again, it was Shane who had barged into me. "I'm sorry, bro. I'm trying to find Amelie."
"No worries. I'm surprised that you're still here."
"Why wouldn't I be?"
I inhaled quickly, realising that he didn't know about Claire.
"Michael, what's going on?"
I wanted to tell him, but something inside me told me that if Claire had wanted him to know, he would know. "So, why do you need to find Amelie?"
"Mike, if there's something I need to know about..."
But I couldn't not tell him; he was my best friend.
"Mikey..?"
"Claire's gone in to labour," I stated simply.
"No she's not, Amelie would have told me."
"I thought you knew, man. Myrnin told me that he was going down to help her. He said that he thought you'd been told. Shane, why do you need Amelie?"
"I saw Sam," was all he said before falling silent, then he just turned and walked away from me, most likely to the front door of the building.