"You're looking well this morning." Alexandre hovered over me to give me a kiss, hand placed protectively on my abdomen.
"Funny, I feel like roadkill." I grumbled. I had been gaining weight swiftly, my body objecting at the extra weight I now carried in my stomach and breasts. I looked down at Alexandre's hand where he had begun to rub my stomach. "God, I even look like roadkill, all bloated and puffy." I complained, poking at my stomach.
"Never! And stop being so cruel to our son." Alexandre's voice took on a gentle croon. "Our son..." He said kissing my swollen belly. There was a solid kick from inside the rounded mound and Alexandre's eyes sparkled with delight. "Hello daddy's boy." Alexandre cooed. "Hello baby."
"Ok, enough talking to my waist, it's getting creepy now, and I'm getting a complex." I attempted to roll over and gave up after three tries. "Ok, I was wrong, I'm a turtle, stuck on its back." Alexandre chuckled as I threw myself over again complaining. "Damn, this kid is huge." Alexandre kissed my neck as he helped me sit up.
"Hmm, maybe he's not the problem." Alexandre teased.
"Oh no-you did not just go there." I growled and Alexandre laughed. I crossed my arms, plotting revenge.
"What are you thinking Carys?" Alexandre purred, running his lips along my neck and across my shoulder.
"Punishment." I answered.
"Hmm, that could be fun, like what?" He teased.
"Like no sex kind of punishment." I replied, he stilled and peeked around my shoulder.
"You wouldn't."
"Would."
"Well then I suppose I'll have to convince you otherwise." Alexandre murmured. His teeth grazed the back of my neck and I jolted. "Your spine was always your sweet spot." He purred, moving downward. I slapped at him. "As was..." He ran a hand up my inner thigh. I trembled.
"No fair using erogenous zones." I pouted. Alexandre chuckled again.
"Well how about this then?" He tilted my face and kissed me, tongue slipping inside my mouth to play as his hands wandered to touch, caress, tease. I panted, pulling away.
"You cheat." I murmured and Alexandre chuckled lightly.
"Mama! Papa!" Mina shouted down the stairs.
"Must be breakfast time." I groaned and Alexandre and I got up to attend to our daughter. "I'll do breakfast-you get Mina?" I asked and Alexandre nodded.
"I know those stairs are a bit rough on you now." Alexandre teased. I threw a pillow at him.
"See if I have any more children with you." I griped and Alexandre looked surprised.
"You think we might be able to?" He sounded excited as Mina once again yelled for us. I ran a hand through my hair.
"At this point? Who knows?" I sighed, then shrugged. "I'm just taking it one day at a time."
"Well you don't have to sound so excited about it." Alexandre remarked and I sighed again.
"I just get worried when we go into a situation blind like this." I sighed. Alexandre came around the bed and hugged me tightly, placing a hand on my stomach.
"I understand love. And Cornelius wasn't able to give you any insight?" Alexandre nuzzled my neck.
"No. He still thinks there's a possibility I may be ovulating, but the virus suppresses the symptoms in some way. For instance, suppressing the bleeding. But he also ran the concept of a fertility cycle by me, like a 'heat' period." I made a face "But he said without more testing, and possibly a biopsy he wouldn't be sure. I shot him down." I shrugged. Mina's calls became more insistent.
"Shall we go? Before our daughter decides to learn to cook for herself?" Alexandre chuckled, and escorted me from the room with a gentle hand on my lower back. As we reached the foyer, Alexandre dashed up the stairs to scoop a squealing Mina out of her crib, who wanted him to see something in the nursery once he had removed her from the crib. I was almost to the kitchen when there was a knock on the door. I groaned.
"Just use your key Rory! I hate waddling back and forth to the door." I groused. He had been showing up for 'breakfast' almost daily, despite having moved out nearly two months ago. The knocking persisted, which meant either Rory forgot his key, or it was someone else, so I turned for the door. I wondered if Alexandre had ordered something else for the new baby or Mina. "Coming!" I called as I groaned my way to the door, opening it without thought.
"I finally found you!" Gasped a man on the other side. I looked him up and down. He looked a little disheveled, stubble on his face, clothes a bit wrinkled. He would be reasonably ruggedly good looking if cleaned up a bit.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" I asked, wracking my brain. The man, however, was distracted by my stomach. The man's eyes bugged out.
"Oh my God, did I do that? If so, I'll take responsibility." The man stammered quickly, taking a step forward. I automatically backed up a step, but not before the wind blew his scent in the door at me.
"Carys love, who's at the door?" Alexandre called, walking down the stairs with Mina in his arms. Wordlessly, I swung the door wide and looked at Alexandre. He looked temporarily confused, until the wind blew the man's scent up the stairs to him. I saw his nostrils flare and understanding crossed his face.
"I thought we wiped his memory?" I murmured to Alexandre as we watched the man chat with our daughter across the kitchen table. More accurately, Mina was chattering at the man, who just looked stunned. He rubbed a hand down his face now and again in a nervous gesture I was quickly becoming familiar with. Alexandre was examining the man with his arms crossed, a look of careful control on his face.
"Sometimes, they recover what we try to hide. Where do you think vampire stories come from?" Alexandre responded under his breath.
"Less careful vampires." I scoffed. Alexandre turned his gaze to me.
"Well now you can count yourself among them." Alexandre remarked almost snappishly, then held up a hand before I could object. "Like I said, some recover their lost memories, or see through the delusion, even if it appeared to work the first time."
"Well, what do we do now?" I whispered and Alexandre's expression became grim.
"We really only have two choices. Welcome him into our little coven. Or kill him." Alexandre looked at me with disappointment and rage burning behind his eyes.
"Welcome him, as in..."
"Turn him, yes." Alexandre answered before I finished my question. I looked at the forest-smelling camper in horror.
"Great, so his choices are death, or death. But either way, his human life is over." I snapped, a little too loudly and Alexandre ran a hand over his own face. Mina turned to look at us, and the man followed her gaze.
"I don't like it any more than you, love." Alexandre replied softly, pulling me to his side.
"Mommy mad." Mina stated assuredly, the man's eyes flashed to us again fearfully.
"Let's just talk to the man first, see what he knows, and how he feels about his choices." Alexandre whispered next to my ear. I begrudgingly agreed. We settled into chairs around the table.
"So." Alexandre said, extending a hand. "Let's get the formalities out of the way. I'm Alexandre, this is my wife Carys, and our daughter Mina." The man reached for Alexandre's hand tentatively and shook it.
"August, uh, you can call me Auggie or Gus." The man ran a hand through his hair.
"Well August, how did you find us son?" Alexandre asked. Son? The guy looked at least ten years his senior, even though I knew how old Alexandre really was. It said something for the man's mental state that he glossed right over it.
"I put the pieces together. I mean, it took a while, because I only had parts of the memory at first. Little disjointed pieces that got me all hot and bothered." He tossed a look at Mina as if trying to see if she knew what the words meant. "But once my memory came back, it was all there." He licked his lips. "She said you were rich." He pointed to me. "You mentioned you lived nearby" August waved a hand at Alexandre. "So I just started checking the well-to-do houses around the National Forest. It was right under my nose goddamnit! I just didn't expect you to be flaunting the wealth so openly, given that you're not human. Are you?" The table fell silent.