Chapter 40 — A Missing Piece
Vanessa’s POV:
“How in the hell am I pregnant?!” Vanessa’s voice screeched.
“Well, when two people love each other…” Aaron began.
“Oh, shut up I know that part! But he’s a vampire, I’m a…”
“Was the hunter awake when you did it?”
Vanessa nodded.
“That could be the loophole. We pure bloods can reproduce among each other, but because you’re now supernatural yourself…it could be possible.”
“We can’t tell Malik.”
Aaron furrowed his brows, “Why not?”
“Because I want this to just stay between us while things get sorted out. I’m not even telling Rylie. If anyone asks, I guess the venom just had a chemical reaction with my body rejecting it and now I’m doomed to get fat.”
“If Malik listens close enough, he’s going to hear it. But Vanessa, you’ve got to take care of yourself.”
“I will, I just…this isn’t the time to be talking about being pregnant. I still have to figure out Alec’s motive of biting me.”
“I may have a theory at this point.”
“Oh?”
“You were talking to him in a quiet and secluded area of the restaurant that night he posed as Malik, right? There’s a chance he may have heard the heartbeat and made an impulse decision to inject you. He was either trying to make the baby grow faster or kill it. I can’t be sure.”
“Kill my baby? Before I even knew I had one?”
“It’s just a theory V. I will keep this between us, but on one condition.”
Vanessa groaned, “What’s that?”
“You allow me to check on the health of you and the baby. If Alec was trying to kill it, something could be wrong. In the 60’s I got a medical degree out of boredom.”
Vanessa laughed, “You really are an old fart, aren’t you? ‘In the 60’s I got a medical degree because I was bored.’”
“Be nice! I look your age, don’t I?”
Vanessa squinted and scrunched her nose, “Maybe ten years older.”
“Do we have a deal?”
Vanessa held out her hand and Aaron clapped his into it and they exchanged a firm handshake.
Aaron brought her to his old medical office which looked like a house the next evening. He collected every medical gadget from the 60’s up until the modern day. He was a medical geek! He had the latest ultrasound machine and he looked over things. He furrowed his brows in frustration, “What’s wrong?” Vanessa asked as he pressed the camera further into her bare stomach.
Aaron shook his head with worry in his eyes, “I can’t see the baby.”
“What? Let me see!”
Aaron turned the monitor so she could get a better look and sure enough, all her organs were there but no baby. “I’m still sure you’re pregnant. I heard the heartbeat. Something inside you is there and alive.”
“What if it’s not a baby at all?”
Aaron rolled his eyes at that and looked at her, “What else would it be?”
Vanessa shrugged, “I don’t know.”
She grabbed a towel and wiped the clear goop off her stomach and pulled her shirt back down, “I know one thing for sure.”
Aaron wiped the goop off his camera and looked at her, “What?”
She hopped off the table and grabbed her jacket. “I’m going to pay Alec and Alfred a little visit.”
Aaron shot up out of the chair, “Oh you certainly are not.”
“Oh no, I think it’s time we had a little chat. I’m going to ask them what they know. If they knew I might have been pregnant, why Alec bit me, and what exactly are they hoping to gain from all this? If they want me to kill Malik so badly, between taking Byron and trying to do something to my baby if there is one truly there, I’d like to know how they’re going to persuade me at this point.”
“I’m not letting you go.” Aaron said as he blocked the door.
Vanessa shot him a death glare and it must have been scarier than she anticipated because he shifted a little, “Move.”
Aaron might have been intimidated by her look, but he didn’t budge. “I can’t let you put yourself in danger. What’s that going to do for your baby if you have one?”
“The worst thing that could’ve happened to my baby has already been done. I won’t let them hurt it. But as I said, if they want me to kill Malik so bad, they’re going to have to motivate me some other way.”
“What are you going to suggest? They offer you cupcakes, donuts, and hot dogs?”
“I’m going to persuade them to release Byron. I know he has little time left and lately I feel like a sitting duck. Malik and Rylie have this secrecy and now we do too. If I could just save one person right now, maybe it could be him.”
Aaron sighed and folded his arms across his broad chest, “How will you persuade them to let him go? That’s their only leverage. And if you’re delaying doing something that they want, they may not kill you, but they will hurt you, Vanessa. They already have. If you defy them any longer, Byron’s going to die.”
“So, what do I do? I don’t even have a functional weapon. Alfred gave me Katrina’s gun and it doesn’t work. From what Rylie told me, every hunter has to have their own gun.”
Aaron looked at her and rubbed his chin in thought, “From what I know about the hunter bloodline, a gun could be passed down from generation to generation. Vampires don’t just pull one out of their ass and bestow a new one anytime they’ve woken a hunter.”
“Then why isn’t Katrina’s gun working?”
“Do you have it with you?”
“No, I gave it to Rylie. She said she wanted to hold onto it.”
“Well, I need you to try and get it back from her.”
“Why? I trust her.”
“I trust her too, but knowing Malik was the one to kill Katrina, I have a theory of what might have happened and why it’s not working.”