Chapter Three - Rosa
The toilet was pristinely white and fitted a heated seat and gold-gilded handle. Angelus liked his gold. The back of the toilet was either carved from marble or designed to look like it had been. The water that flowed through it was scented of lavender and had the slight bluish tinge of sanitization products. Yet, none of this mattered as Rosa leaned over it, puking her guts out.
Rosa had never felt like she was particularly glamorous–not even like a tragic heroine meeting her Prince Charming. She was just a homeless girl struggling to make it through college. But she had never felt less sexy than over the three weeks since it was confirmed that she was pregnant. She thought she might die before making it to the fifth week.
I never asked what to expect with Vampire pregnancies, she thought ruefully, washing her face at the marble bathroom sink. There were two jewels implanted in the golden tap handles: a ruby for hot water and a sapphire for cold. She rinsed out her mouth and brushed her teeth. For some reason, the minty flavor of toothpaste was one of the few things that actually helped calm her stomach.
She knew that morning sickness was to be expected, but she hadn't expected to be so exhausted that all she ever wanted to do was sleep. How did women survive this for nine months? One thing was for certain: she wasn't going to have any more kids after this!
Just the movement of walking to the bathroom door had her head spinning. Rosa leaned against the wall, gulping in deep breaths to try to calm her stomach. Nope. She dashed back to the toilet, heaving until a little bit of acid came up. There was literally nothing in her stomach left to vomit.
With a groan, Rosa lay on the heated tiles. If the floor wasn't so unforgiving and her breasts and back weren't already so sore, she would have just slept here.
"I'm going to die."
A moment later, the door opened, making her look up. Angelus' expression twisted in concern as he rushed to her side. Rosa struggled to sit up, but his hands pressed on her shoulders firmly, keeping her down.
"Your heartbeat is fine," he said, running his hands over her body. "Where does it hurt?"
Rosa repressed a gasp at his touch, heat building in her core. She dreamt of their attempts to conceive almost every night and she woke shaking, gasping, longing for his touch. She had to stop herself from moaning in dismay as his hands retreated. She had signed that contract to be his mistress, and yet he didn't seem very interested in taking her to bed since it was confirmed she was pregnant. Maybe that was because she was so sick with the pregnancy.
"What happened?" Angelus picked her up, cradling her on the way back into her bedroom. He tucked her into the king-sized canopy bed.
"Nothing, I just feel really sick today."
The Vampire King stroked her hair back from her face. Rosa leaned into his gentle touch.
"You said that you were dying."
He had heard that? Rosa felt her cheeks warm and shook her head. "I was being dramatic. It's because I feel like I'm going to puke whenever I sit up."
Angelus sighed in relief and his hand withdrew. "I see. The doctors and midwives that I've brought to see you all say that your pregnancy is normal. Are you sure these human medications don't work?"
He picked up the bottle of prescription anti-nausea pills that a doctor had given her. Rosa shook her head. Those awful things just made her feel worse whenever she tried to take one. "I haven't been able to do any studying in three days."
"You don't need to be done with your courses at a specific time."
"But I love learning. I feel so lazy just lying in bed all day." Rosa sighed. "Can you read my history book to me?"
"History? I don't need to read that to you. I lived it, Rosa. What I didn't witness myself I read about." Angelus settled in beside her, stretching his body next to hers over the blankets. "What do you want me to tell you?"
"Uh…" Rosa struggled to think with Angelus so close to her. What she wanted was for this feeling of sickness to go away so she could tackle the King to his back and spend the day making love. Yet, she wasn't about to risk vomiting all over him during sexy time. "How about yourself? When were you born?"
Angelus rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. His mouth drew thin and his brows pinched together, and Rosa wondered if it was because he didn't want to tell her or if he was struggling to remember. Eventually, he nodded, his expression clearing.
"Somewhere around 44 BC. I was born just a year or two after Julius Caesar was assassinated. My original name was Julius, in honor of him. The Master was very loyal."
"The Master?" Rosa pressed, rolling to her side and fluffing her pillow so she could see him better.
"I was born a slave. My younger sister was, too. Eventually, I won my freedom as a gladiator. I was turned into a Vampire almost immediately, so I tracked down my sister and her daughter who were sold when our Master ran out of money, and…" He shot her a brief look, shrugging. "I turned them into Vampires as well. Well, I waited until Lucilia was old enough to make her own choice."
Lucilia. His aide. Rosa nodded. She had seen similarities between the two of them. A hand rested upon her belly. "And will the baby be born human or Vampire?"
"Human, but with the strength and speed of a Vampire."
"How does a human become a Vampire?"
Angelus rolled to his side, his cold fingers grasping her wrist. He brought it to his nose and sniffed deeply, closing his eyes. Rosa's heart rate spiked. She had seen some of the human women who worked as servants exit a room with two small puncture marks in their necks. They always had a glazed, glowing look about them that made it look like they just had the greatest sex of their life. Rosa thought that allowing a Vampire to drink one’s blood must be an erotic experience.
She couldn't wait for Angelus to drink from her and see if her theory was true.
The King tucked her arm back under the blankets. "How to become a Vampire… It's a simple process, really."
Rosa nodded, prompting him to continue.
"First, you have to be near death. Doesn't matter what kills you. Car, gun, cancer, old age… Just as long as you're so close to death that the Vampire can smell it on you." He moved forward, pressing his nose into her neck. He inhaled deeply before kissing her. Rosa moaned, tangling her fingers in his hair. How someone so cold could build such heat inside of her, she didn't know. She loved it all the same. "Once that happens, all it takes is sharing blood. The Vampire drinks the human's blood, and the human drinks the Vampire's blood."
"Does it work if the human isn't close to death?"
Angelus retreated and shook his head. "In that case, Vampire blood is like a drug, enhancing human senses, but with narcotic-like effects: low inhibitions, wicked withdrawals."
He sat up and swung his legs off the bed. Rosa reached for him, not wanting him to leave her alone. She was so bored and having him close somehow helped to ease her sickness. Her fingers caught his wrist and he looked down with surprise at her hand.
"If you could choose now, would you still be a Vampire?"
"Yes." Angelus' voice had hardened, clearly stating that this conversation was over.
Rosa withdrew. "I'm sorry if you didn't want to talk about it."
"It's no problem, Rosa." And just like that, Angelus was back to being smooth and charming, like that moment of irritation had never happened.
It made Rosa shiver despite herself.
"How about you tell me a little about yourself now?" he continued, smiling at her. "You're still young, why don't you have a home? A family to take care of you? Why…?"
Rosa cautiously tested sitting. To her relief, her stomach stayed where it was, nausea at bay. "Why what?"
"Why would you agree to being a Vampire's mistress? There are plenty of people out there who consider my kind to be the spawn on Satan, so what makes you so desperate to agree to lie with one? To bear my child?" His hand rested on her stomach, making her insides do strange things.
"I'm not like that," she responded, not moving in case he retracted his hand again. "Vampires are people just like the rest of us."
Angelus tilted his head to one side. "What about your family?"
"My father died when I was a little girl and my mother died two years ago." She turned her face away. "I have no family left."
It was true. Her stepfather didn't count as family. Technically, the house and property that her mother had owned was hers, but she didn't dare try to claim it, not when her stepfather's threats were still hanging over her head. Her mother had supposedly committed suicide, yet she was a devoted Catholic woman and full of faith. She would never have taken her own life. When Rosa told her stepfather that she was going to prove it, he had laughed at her. Then he told her that if she didn't butt out, he would have her arrested for murder.
He was a cop. All he'd have to say was that she had confessed and that would be the end of it. She had chosen to run before he could do anything worse to her than just threaten her.
"There's nothing else?" Angelus pressed gently.
She shook her head. He had no authority over her stepfather, so it was better to just forget about it. "Do you think you'll ever want me to be a Vampire?"
The King looked shocked for a moment. He shook his head. "Now is not the time to discuss that, Rosa. You need your rest."
"I'm not tired."
He reached across her and handed her the TV’s remote control. "I have to go. I'll see you tonight."
Rosa frowned after him, disappointment rising in her. Well, that was her answer. He didn't want her to be a Vampire. He had chosen her to be his mistress because it meant he wouldn't have to keep her forever. A sigh escaped her lips. Oh, well. That was life, wasn't it?