Never Have A Vampire's Baby (5 page)

              The car filled with a thick silence. Kim felt like she was back in Herbert’s store. She stared at Suzanna, trying to gauge her reaction, but her best friend’s face was carefully blank.

              “So what did he say when you showed up?” Suzanna asked finally. “How did he react?”

              “Not positively at first,” Kim admitted. “He told me he’d been avoiding me because of the bond. He didn’t want to get involved in case it was purely lust-based. But eventually we both agreed to stop ignoring our impulses.” She paused. “Well, I guess I decided and then convinced him to.”

              The remark earned her another pointed look from Suzanna. “Hmm.”

              Kim waited for Suzanna to start speaking, but she looked reluctant to begin. “Are you going to expand on your “hmm”?”

              Suzanna laughed nervously. “I don’t know. I don’t want it to seem like I’m overly suspicious or trying to poke holes in this.”

              Kim turned her body toward Suzanna and stared at the side of her head. “Now you
have
to tell me.”

              Suzanna’s broad shoulders slumped as she sighed. “It’s just...normally, from what I understand, vampires are eager to get involved with humans. I don’t know if it’s a fetish, or if sex with us is really that different, but my cousin’s husband – Jeanette, the one who married that half-vampire-- has confirmed that it’s rare for vampires to not jump at the chance.”

              Kim frowned. “What are you saying?”

              “I’m just being overly cautious,” Suzanna said. “It seems like there’s more to Luke than he’s letting on.”

              Kim stared at her. “Do you think this is some kind of manipulation tactic? Like, he’s playing hard to get?”

              “Maybe,” Suzanna said. “Maybe he’s just gun-shy. Maybe there’s a whole other reason. I don’t know. I just know you should be careful.”

              Kim could feel a spark of anger in the pit of her stomach. “Maybe some vampires are just cautious, and they’re not all the same. Maybe they’re just people like us, with hidden complexities just like us.”

              Suzanna looked pained as Kim spoke. “I didn’t mean it like that, Kim. You know I’m not like Daisy, judgmental and bitchy. I just want you to be careful, because with a baby in the picture, things could get weird. Weird
er,
” she amended. “I’m sorry. I’ll shut up now.”

              Kim felt guilt smother the spark of anger inside her. “It’s okay. I think I’m just tired and annoyed. That guy at the auto shop didn’t seem to like Luke much, and I think his disdain rubbed me a little raw.”

              Suzanna relaxed in her seat. “That’s understandable.”

              Kim fell silent as they crossed the city line and headed for her apartment. She really didn’t think Suzanna was trying to be bossy or judgmental; even so, it felt strange for her best friend to be telling her to be cautious. When was she ever not cautious? Kim was known for always having backups, and backups for the backups, and a variation of one of the backups. She’d been that way since high school, after her prom date got forgot to get gas in his car and got them stranded in the desert and they had to camp out overnight. She’d been so angry that she refused to touch him again, even though his body would have warmed her. She hated unpreparedness, and she hated lack of foresight even more.

              “Want me to come in?” Suzanna asked she parked in front of Kim’s apartment. “I have a few minutes before I’m supposed to pick up my brother.”

              Kim shook her head. “I’m just going to go upstairs and take a nap. Thanks again, Suz.”

              Suzanna hesitated; it looked as though she were going to insist on coming in. Finally, she smiled and nodded, leaving Kim to watch her car pull out of the driveway and head around the corner.

              As she unlocked the door and eased into the living room, her eyes were pulled to a spot on her forearm.
What’s different?
She stood in her doorway, frozen, her mind turning over itself to figure out why her skin looked so different.

              The bruise,
she realized.
It’s gone.

              All at once, a wave of exhaustion settled into her bones, and all she could do was stagger to her bedroom as her eyelids started to droop. Kim knew she should be more alarmed, but she couldn’t be bothered to pursue the mystery of the vanishing blotch while her muscles were growing heavier by the second.
Maybe I imagined it,
she thought, though she immediately knew it wasn’t so – Luke himself had been the one to point it out to her.
Maybe I’m dreaming now. Maybe this whole thing is a dream.

              Then, as she thought of Luke’s soft lips on hers:
Please don’t let it be a dream.

              Evan was asleep when Kim walked into the bedroom, and Daisy was already putting on her shoes to leave. Her carrot-orange hair was in a frizzy ponytail, and she kept tugging on it as she dressed. She whispered a goodbye, saying she would be back in the morning, and explaining that she had an appointment across town, apologizing for not being able to stay longer.

              Don’t be sorry,
Kim thought.
I need the silence.

              She thought she would have trouble sleeping when she got underneath her covers – that the bruise would rise to the front of her mind--but as soon as she turned on her side, her thoughts trailed away and faded into silence, too.

Chapter Four

When Kim abruptly opened her eyes, sunlight was glinting through the slightly open blinds.
How long did I sleep?
She looked at her bedside clock and read
6:12
in blocky red letters.

              Twelve hours, holy crap. What woke me up?

              Kim sat up and looked over at Evan’s crib. He was gone.

              She experienced a few seconds of immobilizing panic before she remembered that Daisy had her own key, and that yesterday she said she’d be back in the morning to pick Evan up and take him out to their vacation home by the Desert Park. Kim took a few deep breaths as her stomach unknotted itself.

              Why didn’t he wake me to feed him?

              Then she remembered that she’d placed a bottle next to him before lying down. He could feed himself now, and was even on the way to being potty trained. She’d never stop marveling at how fast a human-vampire hybrid could grow; she was thankful, but also a little sad, because he wouldn’t be a baby for much longer.
Thank goodness. I’m losing my marbles as it is. Toddlers have to be easier than babies, right?

              A hard knock on the door split the silence, and Kim realized that it had been what woke her up.
Who’s visiting this early?
She reached for a robe and belted it around her, a thin veneer of anger emerging from her drowsiness. The knock came again, and the anger intensified. “Keep your pants on!” she snapped. “I’m coming.”

              Kim was too confused to say anything when she opened the door to find Luke standing on the doormat. Then the events of the previous day came flooding back, and she felt a smile bloom across her features. Luke smiled in return, and Kim’s heart did a giddy flip in her chest.

              “What are you doing here?” she asked breathlessly. “Not that I’m not happy to see you,” she said, stepping back to let him in.

              He didn’t say anything at first; Kim watched Luke as he turned in a slow circle, grey eyes scanning her spartan living room and stopping briefly on objects here and there. She was suddenly very aware that she hadn’t done any cleaning in three days. She looked at her bookshelf with its disorganized texts, her television with its inch-thick layer of dust, and the frayed rug that spread over most of the living room floor.
I wish I could afford a maid. Or a better apartment.

              Luke finally turned back to her, an easy smile softening his expression. “You’ve been to Italy?” he asked, gesturing toward a photo of her and Suzanna in front of an old villa in Genoa.

              Kim nodded. “In college. Suzanna and I did a semester abroad.”

              “Did you like it?”


              Kim laughed. “Of course. Who doesn’t like Italy?” She paused. “Why do you ask?”

              “I have family there,” he said casually.

             
Family?
Kim tried to imagine a vampire family reunion. Would they have a punch bowl filled with blood? Would they hunt animals together instead of race in potato sacks?

              Luke seemed to know her train of thought. “We don’t get together and perform rituals or anything,” he said with a wry smile. “It’s very tame. No fistfights, either.”

              Kim blushed and put her hands over her face. “I’m sorry.”

              When Luke spoke again, there was no sarcasm. “It’s okay. I know you probably don’t meet a lot of vampires in your spare time.” He moved toward her and pulled her hands from her face; Kim’s skin tingled even when he pulled his own hands back. “I brought you something.”

              Luke fished in his pocket and pulled out a set of keys, grinning triumphantly when Kim looked at him in astonishment.

              “He let you pick it up?”

              Luke’s smile faltered a little. “Well. I kind of...had to persuade him.” His eyes widened at the look of alarm on her face, and he rushed to explain. “Nothing violent! It wasn’t even technically illegal.”

              “
Technically?”
Kim squeaked. Her stomach started to knot together again.

              “I just...used a little of my influence,” Luke said hesitantly. “That light magic we vampires have. I convinced him this car was actually mine...and that I’d already paid for it.” He seemed to be withering under Kim’s glare. “All vampires do it. It’s harmless, as long as the humans don’t get hurt.”

              He looked so unsure of himself that the anger that had been mounting immediately receded. “It’s okay,” she said finally. Kim held her hand out for the keys. “I guess I have some stuff to get used to if we’re going to make this work. Sit down, will you?”

              Luke took a seat on the couch, still looking around. The top button on his black dress shirt was undone, revealing a stretch of pale, creamy skin that Kim knew was as smooth as it looked. He took his hands out of his crisply pressed jean pockets.  “Where’s the baby?”

              Kim sat next to him feeling incredibly under-dressed. “With Daisy, my sister-in-law.”

              Luke looked surprised. “She’s looking after him by herself?”

              “Well, not exactly. She runs a daycare, and she has two assistants. Her daycare has a few vampire children, so I knew she could handle them.”

              “I hope she can,” Luke said darkly. “Baby vampires can be a handful, even little ones. They don’t know how to control their influence magic, so they can get into trouble – making their caretakers give them things they’re not supposed to have, convincing them to let them out of the house…” He trailed off, apparently too overwhelmed by the remaining possibilities to continue listing.

              A sliver of unease threaded its way through Kim’s brain. “She’s been looking after vampire babies for a few years now,” she said. “Do you think that’s enough?”

              Luke frowned. “Probably. I mean, it’s really likely – I guess I’m just being a little cautious because….”

              “Because it’s your child,” Kim finished for him. She moved toward him on the couch, not stopping until their legs were touching. It would have seemed overly-intimate with anyone else, but their bond seemed to be quickly making all affectionate acts feel like second nature.

              Luke’s eyes were shining, and his voice was slightly unsteady when he spoke. “Yeah,” he said. “Wow. I have a kid.” He turned to her and slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her close enough that she could feel his breath on her ear. “
We
have a kid.”

              Kim smiled, but there was something stirring in the back of her mind that wouldn’t let her fully accept her fuzzy new reality. It was lurking behind her thoughts, persistent but always just out of reach, like a gnat buzzing around a kitchen. It took her a full minute to realize the problem: Suzanna’s words were rolling around her head, knocking into all of her good, warm feelings.

             
Most vampires jump at the chance to get involved with humans.

             
But what if that was just a stereotype? Kim resisted putting stock in stereotypes, and the act had definitely made her life better, for the most part. She had a diverse group of friends, an eclectic taste in food and music, and more than a handful of memorable stories that never failed to keep people hanging on her every word. Part of the practice was her trademark stubbornness, and the other had come from her upbringing.

              Though both of her parents worked all their lives, Kim and her family had remained solidly lower class. Kim herself had barely reached the middle class bracket, and a lifetime of being treated like she was going to end up barefoot, pregnant, and without a high school diploma had instilled a need to constantly throw a middle finger toward anyone’s expectations and break every single mold they tried to place around her.
Mama didn’t raise a fool,
she thought.

              But her stubbornness had undoubtedly landed her in a few spots of trouble. Her first visit to New York saw her $200 poorer the first night, because she refused to take the main streets to her friend’s house; she rushed into a relationship that predictably ended in heartbreak for her and a night in a jail cell for him; and, most tellingly, she’d gotten pregnant from a one-night stand because she’d forgone a condom, refusing to believe the rumors of “super fertile” vampires, even when it appeared on a National Geographic Special.

              Luke cocked his head, some of his black hair spilling over one eye. “Hey. Are you okay? You seem distracted.” He held out a hand and made to touch her forehead, but stopped a few inches away from her skin. Kim shivered even though he hadn’t touched her, feeling as though he’d run a fingernail down her spine.

              “Your aura feels a little upset,” he said.

              Kim’s mouth dropped open. “You can read my moods? That’s not fair!”
And it’s a little intrusive.

              Luke chuckled. “You can read mine, too, with practice.” He paused, looking at her carefully. “But that’s for later. What’s bothering you? Is it about me?”

              Kim hesitated.
I don’t want to upset
him
, especially if this is just me and Suzanna being jumpy. He can’t read my mind, can he?

             
She decided to lie. “Remember that bruise I got yesterday?”


              Luke nodded, looking slightly confused.

              Kim pushed the sleeve of her robe up and showed him her forearm. “It disappeared. After only a couple of hours.”

              Luke’s eyes widened so quickly Kim thought they would pop out of his head. “What the
fuck?”             
He seized her arm and brought it close to his face, eyes scanning her skin for any trace of the blemish.

              Wow,
she thought nervously.
That’s not the reaction I expected.

             
“You didn’t put anything on it?” He demanded. “Creams, lotions, a heating pad? Anything?”

              “No,” Kim said. She pulled her arm back, regarding him warily. “I don’t get why you’re so freaked out. This is just a side effect of the bond, right?”

              Luke pressed his lips together tightly. “Probably,” he allowed. “But it’s still weird. Just like the strength of the bond itself. Neither of these things happen before at least one bite.”

              Luke’s face was painted with worry. Kim wasn’t sure if she was happy lying; it certainly threw him off the scent of what had really been bothering her, but now she was worried about two things.

              She forced herself to smile. “We’ll chalk it up to a mystery. I’m sure it’s not a big deal.”

              Luke bit his lip. “I don’t know. Maybe it was fluke this time. Maybe it just looked worse than it actually was. Maybe it won’t-- where are you going?”

              Kim had stood and began to walk toward her kitchen. “Those are a lot of maybes. Let’s do an experiment, shall we?”

             
She pulled open her cutlery drawer and took out a steak knife. She heard Luke’s footsteps move into the kitchen at the same time the blade bit into the skin of her forearm.

              “
Kim!”

             
Luke’s blinding speed wasn’t fast enough to stop her. Kim had made one quick slice on top of her arm in the time it took him to cross her kitchen. She watched the blood well up in the space of the four-inch cut, forming a neat line for a moment before slowly oozing toward her elbow.

              “Why?” Luke asked angrily. He grabbed a roll of paper towels and tore some off, holding them to her cut a little harder than was necessary. Kim was surprised to see that he was livid – his hands shook somewhat as he pressed the paper towels to her skin, meaning a few drops splashed to the floor. She was even more surprised to find that she could
feel
his anger on him, like a heat wave rolling off his body.
That must be his aura,
she realized.
I
can
read it.

              “I think it’s going to be okay,” Kim said slowly. “It’s not that deep. Besides, now we can see how fast it heals.” She looked at him closely. “You know. Like an experiment.”

              Luke’s nostrils were flaring, and he was looking away from her. He didn’t respond.

             
Damn it.
“Luke, I’m sorry. I guess I’m impulsive sometimes.” She pressed her hand on top of his and fought to make eye contact. “I’m going to be fine, though. I’m sorry if I freaked you out.”

              His silence started to chip at her confidence, but instead of feeling fear, she started to feel anger, too. “Talk to me. Answer me. Don’t act like a fucking baby, okay? I already have one of those.”

              Luke finally raised his gaze to hers. “I know you’re going to be fine. I’m a vampire, Kim. You spill blood around me it’s going to get uncomfortable. I’m sorry that I don’t have time to explain this, but I’m focusing pretty hard on not shoving my tongue into that wound.”