Chapter Twelve - Valnoir
8 Months Later - Thursday
“I feel bloated and fat,” Lola says.
“You look beautiful to me,” I reassure her.
“Look at me, look at this. God, I hate this. And my back is sore, my lips are swollen, my —”
Pouring honey lotion on my hands, I massage her shoulders and back. “Does that feel better?” She leans back her head, tensing her neck muscles, then lets go. “Yeah, that feels good.”
I massage her back and make my way to the front, moisturizing her very pregnant belly. “Look away,” she tells me. “I am fat and ugly.”
Propping a pillow on the bed, I gently push her on her back. “You are sexy as fuck,” I tell her again. And it’s true. Pregnancy really suits her. Her tits have grown to twice their size, her ass bounces when she walks. And every time I look at her, I want to be inside her. Every. Fucking. Time.
Kneading her tender breasts softly with my hands, sucking on her nipples, I find it hard not to push myself inside her. The temptation takes over me and I am about to take off my pants when she pees on the bed.
“Jesus, run to the bathroom. You are peeing on the bed!”
She looks at me, confused. “I think my water just broke.”
Before we can figure out what’s really happening, there’s a contraction. She grabs my hair and pulls hard with all her might, screaming, “TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL!”
I go and get my mother and Lady Mary and ask them what to do. Lola is screaming her lungs out every 20 seconds.
“It’s too sunny outside,” Lady Mary says. “We can’t take her to the hospital.”
“We can just send her with one of the humans,” my mother suggests.
“She’s not going anywhere without me. We have had births here before, we are prepared,” I tell them.
“I’ll call the doula and the midwife,” Lady Mary says, and disappears with a whoosh.
“Come on, dear, let’s get you ready,” my mother says, helping Lola up. “Let’s get you comfortable.”
As time passes, things get more painful and Lola continues screaming at me. She holds my hand so tight I feel like my wrist is going to snap. The midwife arrives and the doula offers to take over for me, but Lola refuses to let me go. She is sweating like a sponge being squeezed, her breath is labored and the midwife is telling her to push.
“I can’t,” she pants. “I can’t do it.”
“Lola, listen to me. You are strong. You want this. You can do this,” I say.
“Push, now!” the midwife urges.
“Come on, my dear, you can do this,” my mother whispers at her side. “Push, honey.”
“Lola, PUSH!”
She screams like a siren and pushes, and the screams turn into cries as a baby is born.
“It’s a girl,” Victoria says, materializing out of nowhere with a clap.
“We have a girl! Oh, I am so happy,” Lady Mary says. “I am a grandmother.”
The midwife wraps the baby in a blanket and hands her to me, telling me how to hold her and everything. When I look at her, I see myself and Charlotte reflected in her. I go over to Lola to show her our daughter, but she’s already asleep.
“She’s not breathing,” the midwife says.
“Give me the baby, see to Lola,” Victoria says, rushing to my side and taking the baby. I sink my teeth into Lola’s wrist in a last-ditch effort to not lose her. I feel a faint pulse as I deliver the fatal bite to push her through death and bring her back on the other side.
The baby cries for her mother as everybody stands around the dead body in a stunned silence. I hold my breath, my eyes fixed on Lola’s chest, looking for any sign of life. There is none. Tears form in my eyes and they are about to pour our when she slowly opens her eyes.
“I’m thirsty,” she croaks hoarsely. “What’s going on?”
Victoria brings the baby to her. “You just delivered a baby, congratulations! And you died, but now you are back, so welcome to the undead.”
Lola looks at me, puzzled. “I’ll explain it later. You were dying or something, so I had to turn you. But now you are back, so it’s all cool.” She’s still dazed, but whether it’s the bite or the birth, I can’t tell. Either way, it is the perfect time to ask her something that I have been wanting to ask.
I pull out the box from my pocket, open it and kneel by her bedside. “You are seriously going to do this right here, right now?” Lola whines.
“Oh, shut up and just say yes already,” I say.
“Ask properly!”
“My dear Lola, love of my life, mother of my child and newly turned vampire companion, will you marry me and be my wife for an eternity in this world?”
“You’re pathetic,” she says. “Come here and kiss me. Yes! Yes! I have waited so long for you to ask this.”
“I love you.”
“Okay, okay, enough of the drama,” Victoria says. “What name have you decided on for the baby?”
We haven’t decided any name, because we didn’t know what we were expecting. We wanted a surprise. But the second I saw her, I knew what the perfect name for her was.
“Charlotte,” Lola and I say in unison. “Charlotte?” we repeat, looking at each other.
“You like the name too,” I say, gazing at Lola.
“Oh, it’s the perfect name, Valnoir!”
“Okay, now I want everyone to leave so I can have my wife and baby to myself for a while.”
“Just this once,” Victoria says. “I won’t let you keep my niece away from me again.”
“I won’t ask again,” I promise.
As the door closes behind Victoria, I realize I don’t just have a new member in my family, but a new family altogether. Everything has fallen into place like pieces in a puzzle.
*****
THE END