Waking up between two naked men is...interesting.
Waking up between two naked men, while also being naked yourself and also knowing you just had sex with them both when you used to be an emotionally repressed wallflower....
I moaned, blushing hard and covering my face. Although I had to admit, this was the most comfortable I had been in years. Alexandre was as hot as a stove, but Cornelius had a slightly cooler temperature. Both men were wrapped around me protectively. I was on my back in between them, Cornelius had a hand below my ribcage, and my left hand had been twined with his while I slept, one of his legs was wrapped around mine. Alexandre was curved around me slightly, one arm cradling my head, which was on his shoulder, the other laid gently on my stomach as if feeling the baby move. I had had my right hand wrapped in his fingers, but my movements had woken both of them and I heard Alexandre chuckle.
"I think we broke your wife." Cornelius commented. I refused to look at them, still hiding my face behind my hands.
"Broke her in, such an inexperienced, shy little flower." Alexandre responded, kissing my temple. I elbowed him in the ribs.
"God I'm so embarrassed." I moaned and heard Alexandre chuckle again.
"Why?" Cornelius asked, clearly confused. I just waved vaguely at the three of us in the bed. "Because you had consensual sexual relations with two consenting adult males?" He asked, still confused.
"It's no use Cornelius, just give it up. I've tried so hard to break her of these ideas." Alexandre responded and I elbowed him again.
"This must be a generational thing. In my day, we threw parties for this." Cornelius shrugged. I squirmed.
"In your day, your myths revolved around this." I blurted, then clamped my mouth shut again, still covering my face with my hands.
"So fiery." Cornelius murmured against my ear, nibbling on the lobe. I swatted at him. Alexandre gripped one of my hands gently and pulled it from my face, kissing the knuckles before playing with the fingers as he leaned in to kiss my temple.
"Are you dissatisfied with us?" He teased "We could always try harder.." I blushed fiercely and he laughed. "Oh Carys, for someone who likes to tease about antiquated things, your antiquated religious ideals have really got to be the worst of all." I stiffened, he'd touched on a sore spot.
"This isn't based on religion!" I objected "You know how I feel about that!"
"Oh?" Alexandre asked curiously. "Then what is it based on?" I hesitated.
"It's based on morals and principals.." I stammered.
"Which are based on..." Alexandre said leadingly, but I refused to answer. He sighed and Cornelius chuckled from my other side.
"Damnit, alright, they're based on goddamn religious and societal expectation versus my own personal desires and drives. Are you happy now?" I blushed harder as Cornelius laughed. Alexandre tilted my face towards his.
"Exceedingly." He answered and kissed me gently, then more passionately. I melted into his embrace, but he broke the kiss with a chuckle. "I'm afraid, no matter how much I regret it, I cannot stay in bed all day, as there are some business matters to attend to." I groaned and clutched him tighter. He shot a look at Cornelius over my shoulder. "Behave yourself." He warned and extricated himself from my embrace.
"Stupid work." I muttered and Cornelius chuckled against my neck, tugging me against himself. One cool arm wrapped around my ribcage, while the other gently danced along my neck.
"Why don't you get some more sleep Carys?" Cornelius crooned. "It'll be good for you and the baby." His cool, sour raspberry tea scent enveloped me. My mind struggled against the suggestion as I watched Alexandre getting dressed. It was a nice view.
"I'm not tired." I complained, and I wasn't. Cornelius chuckled again.
"Sleep anyway," He remarked, stroking my cheek and I felt my eyes closing against my will.
"Nuh uh." I protested and the last thing I heard was Cornelius' gentle laugh and a softly murmured 'so fiery' against my skin.
I woke up to a perfectly silent house. I stretched, which startled the baby a bit, making her roll, and listened for signs of life, or afterlife I guess? I heard nothing. Not even clothing rustling or soft breathing or the sound of Alexandre's heartbeat which I knew so well. I sat up abruptly and the baby became more restless. A sense of foreboding stole over me. I slipped out of the bed and noticed a sheet of folded paper on the night stand
'Carys,
I'm sorry we had to do this this way. It was the only way we could think of to keep you out of it because I knew if I told you we had word that the Nurse's partner was headed our way, you would want to face him too..'
A snarl burst from my lips and I nearly tore the paper. Damn straight, I owed him a blood debt. Shaking, I tried to flatten the page to finish reading.
'...Cornelius and I have gone after him to take care of him. He won't bother us again. I need you to stay here. Carys, PLEASE. Cornelius and I have left you blood in the fridge. Ours and the bagged. Please use Cornelius' and mine sparingly so as not to advance the pregnancy unduly while we're away. I am hopeful we will be back in about a week or two, sooner if we catch him faster. I have left your new phone here, I will call you when we stop for the day. I am sorry Carys, please forgive me. I love you and our daughter so much, I couldn't put you in harm's way again. I hope you understand.
Love,
Eternally,
Alexandre & Cornelius
P.s. Since you love Dracula so much-what do you think about 'Mina' for the baby?'
Hands shaking with rage, fear and sadness, I screamed at the top of my voice and ripped the letter in two. Then I desperately smoothed it out and tried to fit it back together. What if something happened to him and this was the last letter I ever got from him? The baby kicked wildly at my outburst and I laid a hand on my stomach, tears running down my face.
"I'm sorry baby, I'm sorry..Mina..I think that may work." I sobbed and crumpled to the floor. I passed the rest of the night slowly. I took a long bath, soaking until the water got cold, watching my stomach move above the water like it was a foreign entity. I changed the bed sheets, the smell of floral and raspberry tea mixing with my own scent too much for me to bear. I floated through the library like a ghost in a maternity gown Alexandre had bought, picking up the copy of Dracula and turning it over and over in my hands. I could smell Alexandre's scent on it, and as I cracked the pages a small piece of paper fluttered to the floor.
'Eternally,
Alexandre'
It read, which made me break down even more. When had he done this?
Everywhere I went the phone went with me, silent and still, as if judging and watching me hatefully itself. I had begun to despise the thing by the time the sun rose. I was dozing in the bed between angry glares at it when it finally rang.
"Hello?" I asked desperately.
"Carys." Alexandre's relief was palpable.
"Alexandre!" I screeched, my emotions boiling over. "If you die, I'll kill you!" I was sobbing. I heard Cornelius' chuckle.
"Carys love, it's a phone, not a tin can, there's no reason to yell." Alexandre teased gently.
"How could you do this to me?" I wailed and heard Cornelius chuckle again.
"You might as well put her on speaker at this point." I heard him comment with amusement.
"You! Stay out of this! You Dracula-level hypnotist! Don't think I don't realize your part in all this! Seducing me, then lulling me to sleep! You sadist! See if I feed you any of my blood again!" I yelled. I heard Cornelius begin to object, but Alexandre shushed him.
"Now wait Carys, the seduction part-now that was really more your idea in the end. And I was the one who asked him to make you sleep. You never would have let me go otherwise-now would you?" He asked and I refused to answer. He chuckled.
"Not without me." I finally replied and he sighed.
"Exactly. And I couldn't take that risk again Carys." The pain in his voice nearly broke me. Tears began to run down my face.
"Please don't die." I whispered.
"Oh love, I have no intentions of doing that. That's why I brought Cornelius, you don't think he made it for over a thousand years by being stupid do you?" He chuckled.
"Well..." I commented and Alexandre laughed while I heard Cornelius exclaim 'excuse me!' in the background.
"How are you doing love?" Alexandre asked softly.
"I like the name." I said by way of answer.
"Mina." He murmured and I knew immediately my mind was made up. The way he said it made me wish it was my own.