"Cornelius, my very old friend, you need to cool down. This household works on consent, as Carys has said. If you want something you need to ask for it, and wait for the other party's agreement. We don't do this here." Alexandre's face was stern, and his voice was low and threatening. Cornelius growled and spun away from us, hands tangled in his hair. Alexandre pulled me to him and I clung to his arms as I watched Cornelius carefully for signs of danger. He suddenly dashed off down the hall and I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Are you alright?" Alexandre spoke against my back.
"Yes." I replied shortly.
"You're not having an anxiety attack." Alexandre observed.
"Yet." I sighed. "Mostly I think I feel sorry for him." Alexandre turned me around.
"Whatever for?" He demanded angrily.
"I'm not sure I can explain it properly, but it must be torture, trapped here with a couple like us. I used to be so jealous sometimes of what other people had that I..." I bit my lip.
"Carys, you've bitten through your lip again." Alexandre commented, wiping at the blood with his thumb. I brushed his hand away.
"Anyway, he has well over one thousand and five hundred years of envy built up and then he comes here to stay with us and we can't keep our hands off each other, even when I look like a blimp." I laughed lightly. Alexandre rubbed his thumb across my lip again to clear away the last of the blood and slowly ran his thumb along his own tongue before sighing. I shivered.
"To be honest, it's probably mostly my own fault anyway." Alexandre remarked, and I looked at him curiously. "I continue to offer him my blood as a 'booster' to the new virus, since his keeps battling it back, and he doesn't know why. I'm afraid that the past few weeks of keeping away from you have made me insanely... lustful." Alexandre's eyes sparkled. "That may have rubbed off on him..." I sighed and swatted him.
"Horny toad. You could have just asked. My hormones are wilder than...well I don't know what, but I can't keep myself under control much." I snorted.
"Yes, but I was feeling guilty." Alexandre responded.
"Guilty?" I asked "Why?"
"Because for a brief time, I thought my hormones were going to kill you." He said sadly, holding my swollen stomach, and I knew immediately he was talking about the damage the baby had done.
"Now Alexandre, you can't blame yourself for that!" He put a finger on my lips to shush me, but I brushed him off. "No, listen. If I hand't almost died, I'm confident it wouldn't have been nearly so bad. And she hasn't broken a rib in weeks!" I scolded.
"No, but..." He caressed a large bruise just under my ribcage pointedly. "And how much internal damage is there that you've been hiding? And Luc is the reason you almost died, so again, it is my fault." I grabbed his face.
"None. No. Listen to me. There is no internal damage right now. Yes, she's left a couple of bruises, but she's too big to swing a leg or arm much anymore, so these are mostly from her stretching, they'll be gone by evening." As if to prove my point, my stomach stretched weirdly to one side and the outline of a tiny foot could be seen. I grimaced and a fresh red mark appeared above the spot. I rubbed it, but Alexandre moved my hand.
"Did you see that? You could actually see the shape of her foot!" He exclaimed in awe, staring at the red mark that was slowly fading away, as if expecting it to happen again.
"Yeah, no, I felt it. Intimately." I replied. "She's a goddamn monster with supernatural strength." I griped and he looked at me with a look of wonder and love that made me want to melt. I crossed my arms over my chest. "I'd uh, like to shower, you know? It's a little chilly out here." Alexandre chuckled and opened the bathroom door for me.
I showered off, grateful for the hot water, and noticed Alexandre had left me some clean clothes on the back of the toilet when I got out. I sighed with gratitude. At least I didn't have to do a mad dash to the bedroom in a towel. After toweling off and dressing, I drifted from the bathroom, hair still wet, undecided on what to do. My feet carried me into the gardens and I thought I might as well visit Luc while I was outside.
"You shouldn't be out here with your hair still wet. It's still a little cool for that don't you think?" Cornelius' voice floated from the shadows.
"I just thought I might go talk with Luc for a while." I replied, offhand and kept walking.
"You really shouldn't be doing that, especially not alone." Cornelius stated, catching up with me. I sniffed cautiously. "Don't worry, I've calmed down." He told me wryly, catching the subtle movement.
"Mmm." I replied, then after a beat. "I do want to apologize."
"For what?" Cornelius sounded surprised. I sighed.
"I don't mean to seem like we're flaunting our relationship around in front of you. I've been the proverbial 'third wheel' before, though I know this situation is a little different. Still, I know what that feels like-being on the outside, looking in." I said softly. Cornelius stiffened.
"No, no, it's my fault. I let all this virus research go to my head. Quite literally, it seems. The more of Alexandre I sample, the more unfavorably biased I am towards seeking your attentions, so I find myself pursuing you relentlessly. Or at least that's my theory." Cornelius chuckled. "Not that that excuses me. I'm not used to being so gentle, or not just taking what I want. I have let my vampire side rule my life for so long..." He trailed off thoughtfully.
"Can I ask you a personal question?" I asked him. He raised an eyebrow.
"That depends, I may not want to answer." Cornelius replied.
"Fair enough. You can choose not to answer, if it makes you uncomfortable." I offered, pausing to face him. Cornelius shrugged.
"You can ask." He said.
"How did you become a vampire?" I asked immediately.
"I chose it." Cornelius replied and resumed walking towards the converted stables. Now I had a million more questions, but it seemed he had said all he wanted to on the subject. Cornelius unlocked the door and held it open for me. I entered to see Luc look wearily up at us from his place chained to the wall.
"What do you want?" He spat.
"I wanted to hear things from your perspective." I said quietly and lowered myself to the ground in front of him.
"You smell like him. It's sickening." He sniffed.
"You sorta do too. I find it quite nice actually." I retorted. His mouth hung open and I heard Cornelius whisper 'Fiery' from the shadows by the door.
"Brought your bodyguard I see." Luc sneered.
"Begrudging companion." I corrected. Cornelius chuckled and Luc tossed him a withering look reminiscent of Alexandre. "Ah, you share some of his expressions too." I sighed and Luc growled while Cornelius laughed even louder.
"If you're just here to mock me, you can leave." Luc said angrily.
"I'm not though. I want you to tell me why you hate Alexandre so much. From your point of view. Tell me what went wrong." I answered him quietly.
"What do you care?" He yelled, yanking his chains.
"Because I have a sister too. One I had to leave behind in terrible circumstances and the guilt eats me alive every day. I want to know if there is any way to fix a relationship so broken that you would rather kill the other than see them happy. I want to understand. I want to know if I can help. I want my daughter to know her Uncle, because she may never know her Aunt." I laid a hand on my round stomach. Luc sneered.
"That monstrous creature growing within you is no relation of mine." Luc's expression twisted as if the words tasted as bad as they sounded to me.
"Fine." I struggled to my feet.
"Where are you going?" Luc asked as I headed towards the door.
"Well, you don't seem interested in talking..." I answered and motioned Cornelius to open the door as Luc protested behind us. We shut the door on his screams of complaint. Cornelius looked at me carefully for a minute.
"You have an... interesting way of approaching our prisoner." He said with a chuckle.
"Mmf." I made the dismissive sound as I began walking back towards the house. "Like I said, I have a sister. She hates being ignored." Cornelius eyed me with speculation and amusement as he laughed. We walked silently for a while, he had his hands behind his back, but he stopped before we reached the doors of the house, and I did too.
"May I ask you a question now?" Cornelius asked quietly and I nodded my head.
"I may not answer though." I replied with sass and he chuckled in reply.
"Is consent truly all you ask?"