Chapter 28: Chapter 28 MOTHER

“And they are supposed to be mothers, role models even.” Vincent teased.

It took Jade only a second before she mirrored the excitement the two women felt. Without knowing what it was all about she joined in the squealing and the jumping.

“There she goes.” Solara pointed out after Jade had joined the screaming duo.

“She was doomed from the start Solara.” Vincent patted his shoulder and feigned a tone of sympathy.

“Scarlet is still pregnant,” Stephan informed them.

“What do you mean?”

“While she was unconscious she kept growing. Her body wasn’t that big when she went under.” Stephan continued.

“I know better than to ask you how you noticed that.” Solara teased. “Should she be straining herself like that if her pregnancy is delicate?”

“You’re right.” Stephan interrupted the three by wrapping his arms around Scarlet and lifting her off her feet.

“Hey, where are you taking me.” She protested.

“Back to bed.”

“Party pooper.”

“You can be such a buzzkill at times Jeraldi.” Kayla shouted after them as he whisked Scarlet back to bed.

“Let’s try not to drop the baby until it’s ready.” Stephan tucked a reluctant Scarlet back into bed.

“I can’t stay confined in this bed until then.”

“Going with how long it took SJ, you will only be here for the next eight weeks so relax.”

“Ok then. Could you get me something to drink?” Scarlet gave up. She resigned herself to her fate. She may as well get reacquainted with her bed considering she was going to be there for a while.

“Coming right up.” Stephan began leaving the room then turned back, “Could we not tell SJ until we are sure.”

“You think that I’m not pregnant, don’t you?”

“It’s not that.”

“You think that I may lose it again.” Scarlet didn’t know why she said again but she had felt that she had lost it.

Stephan just didn’t want SJ’s hopes to be reignited only to be extinguished by Scarlet’s belly reducing in size and finally proving that she wasn’t pregnant.

“I won’t say anything.” She whispered, her joy stomped over.

“Thanks. I’m going to tell the rest of the guys the same thing.”

Stephan informed his confused family of the decision he had made. SJ was already burnt out and another roller coaster ride caused by his mother’s pregnancy wasn’t going to do him any good.

“Just give her plain human,” Kayla suggested. All Scarlet could take when she was pregnant with SJ was pure human blood and her neighbor and friend had paid for that preference.

“Ok.” He put the animal blood back into the fridge and opened the other compartment full of human blood.

“Why not tell SJ of the good news?” she asked.

“Because he is obsessive with everything that concerns his mother. I don’t want him to be disappointed if she ends up not being pregnant.”

“I understand that. But do you understand how hard it will be for everyone to keep that secret and how upset he would be when he finds out we have been hiding it from him?”

“I know how upset he will be. As you keep pointing it out Kayla SJ is the exact copy of me so I will handle it if he stumbles upon the truth.”

“Ok.” Kayla tapped her fingers over the kitchen top before leaving him.

In the room, Stephan helped Scarlet sip down her tall glass of blood, after which she fell asleep. He sat in the seat that Eric had made his the few days that Scarlet was unconscious. He watched her sleep as he thought about having a new baby. A baby that for three days they thought had bled out on their floor.

He loved the thought of the baby surviving but he knew he also had to think about the possibility that Scarlet’s body was just reacting to the supernatural effects of a pregnancy that once was.

When Scarlet woke up for the second time that day, SJ was still asleep. Stephan let her go kiss him goodnight but he never let her walk on her own. He cradled her to and from SJ’s room. And thankfully when he laid her back in the bed she immediately fell asleep. He lay next to her and he twiddled her hair in his pinkie finger.

Stephan watched her sleep keeping a close eye on her body. His eyes focused on the center of her body as if waiting and watching to see it move in some way. When Scarlet turned to her side he heard the squishy squashy sound of wet foam. He moved his legs to curve into her own, but he froze when he felt something wet followed by the metallic scent of blood.

Trying not to alarm her he moved her to the side as he assessed the blood that now covered half of her side of the bed. Slowly getting off the bed he called out to Solara and Kayla without opening his lips.

Kayla was there in a second but froze at the door when the scent of blood attacked her nostrils. “No-no-no. What kind of sick game is this?” She rushed over to Scarlet’s side and was relieved to find that she was still sleeping, and dreaming of the ocean.

“Let’s move her to our room. Kayla, grab some clothes that she can change in.” Solara carefully slipped his hands under Scarlet’s body and lifted her off the bed. He stayed still for a second to see if she was still bleeding out, and when he was satisfied she wasn’t he took her to their room.

He left Kayla to change her out of her soiled clothes and into clean ones and went back to help Stephan clean up the mess. He found Stephan staring at the blood, confused and worried.

“What the hell is happening Solara.”

“I don’t know, but I think we shouldn’t tell her.”

“I agree. Tomorrow she may wake up and her belly could have grown twice as big. But I am worried, Solara, she is still part human. The vampire side of her is living off her human blood and if she keeps on bleeding out like this there won’t be much of her left.” He pulled the soiled sheets from the bed.

“I know. I think we should call Nikki.”

“So that Scarlet can kill me, no thanks.”

“You need to think past her feelings for you and consider that she may have an answer to all of this.”

“What we need to do is burn these sheets and the mattress. I’ll send the twins out for a new one tomorrow.” Stephan was going to hold off calling Nikki for as long as he could.

“I’ll tell them once we haul this one out of here.” Solara flipped the mattress and saw how Scarlet’s blood had seeped through to the other side. “I suggest you make Scarlet drink more blood in the morning.”

“You think,” Stephan whispered as he stared at the blood on the mattress and that on the sheets bundled on the floor.

They carried the soiled beddings as well as clothes to the other end of the forest and set them on fire, careful not to start a forest fire.