Chapter 28
Ali woke up suddenly and shook the man lying beside her. He was naked, and her mind went to the state of him for a minute before she had another contraction that ripped through her psyche.
“What’s the matter, Ali?”
“The baby, it’s coming.”
Cal shot up and had the strangest look on his face. “The baby.”
She grinned at his reaction and then her brow furrowed as she felt another wave of pain coming on. They hurt badly and she tried her best not to make a sound. Ali knew what came next and she just wanted to get through it.
“They are coming fast, so I really think that we should start towards the hospital.”
“You can’t go to the hospital, Ali. The baby is going to look different. It’s not safe.”
She hadn’t thought about it, but now she was really freaking out. Why had she thought that it was going to be like any other pregnancy and she was going to be able to have it like any other baby? She was a vampire, and she was having a shifter baby. It wasn’t like she could just stay there in the hospital in the daytime.
“Where do we go then?”
Ali was trying hard not to sound or look scared, but she was, so much so. It was all so new to Ali, and she had no idea what was going to happen next. All she knew for certain was that she didn’t want to do it alone.
“We will go to the elders. They will know what to do. This is how it is always done.”
She didn’t want to argue, but Ali wanted to know how much experience they had with vampires. Vampires didn’t have babies. This wasn’t something that had happened before, so Ali was nervous.
There was nowhere else to go though, so she followed him and tried to focus on her steps as a wave of pain moved through her. Cal could see she was having a hard time of it, so he stopped and picked her up in his arms. He practically ran with her, anxious about it all. This was the first of his line, and he wanted Ali to be okay. Bad things had been known to happen in labor.
The older women were already waiting for them. Someone had told them, or they had just known. It wasn’t the time for Cal to ask how; he was just grateful that someone with some experience could help.
“You need to go, Cal.”
“What? I’m not going anywhere.”
“It’s the way. Go to Michael. He has to talk to you.”
Cal backed out of the small tent that was set up, and he felt useless. Women were moving around Ali, and she made a pained sound for the first time that was rather loud. He wanted to race in, but he heard his name being called by a familiar voice.
“Come, Calum; we have to speak now that the baby will be here soon. You have a task ahead of you that you must go for now.”
Cal wasn’t listening, and Michael said his name louder.
“What, what is it I have to do?”
“The baby will be sick.”
That got Cal’s attention, and he wanted to know what the old man was talking about.
“Why didn’t you say something before?”
“Because I wasn’t sure, but now I am. I’ve seen many visions about it, and I know that they are going to come true. The baby is going to be part vampire because his mother is part vampire. It will need blood, very old blood, from a lead vampire, within the first twenty-four hours if you want the baby to live and the pack to retain their power.”
Calum was certainly listening now, and he didn’t know what to say. This was all news to him.
“You don’t think you could have told me that before I killed off the rest of the coven?”
Now Cal was worried, and he was searching his mind to think of where he could find another vampire like Trenton.
“It’s complicated, Cal. I didn’t know until they were all dead. It didn’t make sense to bring it up. It must be fresh, so now is the time for you to go. If this baby doesn’t get the blood, it will never be able to be in the sun. That’s a limitation that we don’t want, so it has to be done.”
