The House of the RIsing Son (Coven Cove Book 5), page 1
CoveN COve
The House of the Rising Son
David Clark
1
“Just have a seat.”
Several sets of hands ushered me inside to the closest chair. I fought each of them away. Despite the room spinning, I felt I was more than capable to find my way to the chair on my own. I was wrong, and would have completely landed on the floor if Jen hadn’t caught me and moved me a few feet to the right to the chair that I never sat in as a child. It was one of those things that was nice to look at, but not something you sat on. A fact that made it a constant joke between my mother and father, but now I was sitting there, and the joke was on me. “How?”
The room was full of silent stares, but I felt a few struggling to withhold their sarcasm.
“If any one of you starts with the birds and the bees, I am throwing you in to the next state, and trust me I could do it.” I held up a hand, showing one of my newest tricks. There wasn’t just a glow. There were lines forming patterns and runes.
“I have heard of this before, and it is not that uncommon,” said Theodora. She strutted across the room and sat on the loveseat that was next to the chair I sat on. She crossed her legs elegantly and leaned as close as she could to me. “The father is human, correct?”
I gave her a ‘duh’ look, and then I shot a warning at the rest of the room before anyone clarified he was human at the time. Nathan was no longer a member of the human species and was well on his way to becoming a vampire.
“That’s a yes,” assumed Theodora.
“I’ve heard about it too, but I’ve never seen it before,” Marie said curiously. “It usually reversed, though. A human female carrying the child of a male vampire.”
“That’s true,” agreed Theodora. She leaned back away from me and then looked at Marie Norton. The glance had a shared understanding between the two women. It reminded me of the days sitting in Mrs. Saxon’s residence back in the coven, watching her and Jen or Mrs. Tenderschott carry on a conversation about me, but without me. Oh, to be back there. Those were simpler times.
“Everyone out,” ordered Marie. “Everyone but Theodora, Jen, and Larissa. Everyone else get out now!” I had never seen or heard her this forceful before. She walked around and ushered a few stragglers out. Apryl tried to linger just outside the door, but Marie put a stop to that, and gave her a little shove from behind to move her down the hall.
“Larissa, I want you to relax.”
That wasn’t going to happen. I guess Theodora didn’t know that I wasn’t a relaxing type. Especially not with the world exploding around me, witches and vampires assembled outside, and the love of my life upstairs becoming a monster. Yep, there were plenty of reasons to relax.
“Can you feel it?” Marie asked.
Jen Bolden stepped into the center of the room and nodded.
Theodora nodded as well.
“What?” I screamed at them all.
Marie Norton walked over and kneeled in front of me. She laid her hands on my legs and looked up into my eyes the way she had for years. The look on my mother’s face, or foster mother’s face, was one of concern. Seeing it just added to my own. She then moved her hands up and over my stomach. I flinched backwards when she yanked her hands away from me and gasped. “It’s there. I feel it. It has a pulse, but how?”
“Dhampir pregnancies have an accelerated gestation period. Some as short as a month,” said Theodora. “But this is not one of those.”
“Dhamp-what?” I asked. All I knew was that the word sounded both funny and terrifying at the same time.
Theodora leaned toward me again, and reached over with her long slender hands, taking mine in hers. “Forgive us Larissa. As strange as all this is for you to hear, it is also new to us. A Dhampir is what we call a child that comes from the union of a vampire and a human. No one knows why, at least not medically, but those pregnancies have a much shorter term. I have heard of ones as short as a month, and others a few months. I have never witnessed one personally, but…”
The three women exchanged looks again. I was beyond tired of this little unspoken language they had, and I leaned forward in my chair and allowed my head to drop into my hands. “But what?” I exclaimed. “Will someone tell me what is going on?”
“Larissa honey,” started Marie Norton. “The problem is this is a little different. In those, the woman is human, not the other way around. That is a crucial difference. When we become vampires, our bodies stop changing. We stop aging. We stop growing. We stop everything. And… well, our bodies can’t adapt to carry a child.”
Maybe it was the stress of the situation, or the bizarre situation with everything else going on around us playing in my mind, but my first thought wasn’t about what she had said and what it meant about my situation. My first thought was about the conversation I had had up on the rooftop one night, and I looked right at Jennifer Bolden and said, “Well, we have our answer.” The last word passed my lips at the same time as the realization of what that answer meant entered my brain. The answer converted into a question. “Wait! If my body can’t change. How can I give birth?”
“Yes,” started Marie. “This leads to a ton of questions, and I don’t have any answers,” she finished, looking around at the others.
“I could try to ask around, but I’m not even sure who to start with,” remarked Theodora. “It is possible this is a miracle of sorts.”
Right then another wave hit me, and I leaped out of the chair and ran across the parlor and back out to the front porch, where again I heaved nothing more than a few strings of yellow foam.
“Dry heaves are the worst,” Jen commented from behind me. I turned around and gave her the look from hell. She didn’t know the half of it. I remembered dry heaves from when I was sick as a child once. The feeling of the gagging, and the constant rolling and squeezing of your stomach as it tries to empty whatever contents it had left. This was worse, way worse. The squeezing was there, with an enormous cramping that followed, almost paralyzing. Then came the heaving that felt like my stomach was being ripped from my insides.
“So, if everything happens faster, how long will this morning sickness last?” I asked, hoping to hear it would only be minutes, but then I heaved again in front of the large audience still gathered in front of the house.
Marie reached down and helped me gather myself, and then walked me back into the house with a supportive arm around my shoulders. We didn’t stop at the parlor, and I let her guide me down the hallway to the kitchen where most of our new house guests were. A bit of dread set in. Was she wanting to make some grand announcement to everyone? I wasn’t ready for this yet, not that most hadn’t already heard Theodora’s announcement on the porch earlier.
Amy pounced on me and grabbed me around my waist as soon as I entered the door. “Larissa, are you okay?” She squeezed me firmly, and I stroked her hair.
“I’m fine.”
“You sure?” she asked, looking at me with her big blue eyes.
I nodded while I smiled and tried to be more convincing than I felt.
“I want to do a test,” Marie said as she approached me with a glass of water in her hand. Apryl and Brad stared at the glass like the Wicked Witch of the West, fearful of melting. “Take a sip.”
“What?” I asked in disbelief. “I’ve been dry heaving, and you want me to drink this?”
“Yes, I want to see something.” She handed it to me.
“No thank you.” I put the glass down on the table. “Are you trying to get me to vomit even more?”
“Larissa, trust me on this.” Marie reached down and picked up the glass and gave me that look that only parents seem to have mastered. The type that told you they would not take no for an answer and would stand there until the end of time until you finally did what they wanted. For most, that wouldn’t last more than a few minutes or maybe an hour at the most, if the parents were persistent. We were immortal, so that timeframe would be a little different.
I had done this a few times before. Some as an experiment when I was, I guess, what you would call–younger. Another when I made the mistake of swallowing after I brushed my teeth to freshen my breath. Just a few drops of water in my stomach caused a tossing and turning unlike anything I had ever felt, and then it rolled back up faster than the speed of sound, bringing up blood and anything else that might have been in there. I braced myself and took the glass, while looking at Marie for confirmation.
“Go on,” she urged.
I tipped my head back, but stopped. My stomach was already turning. Either it was another dry heave coming or the anticipation of what was about to happen. To be on the safe side, I moved close to the backdoor. Pamela moved out of my way.
“What’s going on?” asked Jack from the door.
“Larissa is about to spew,” announced Apryl.
I didn’t even bother with a dirty look or any comment. She was right. I was about to spew, but there had to be a point to this, or Marie wouldn’t make such a request. I knew she wouldn’t ask me anything that would be dangerous. She basically gave her own life to protect me. It was that trust that allowed me to raise the glass to my lips. It took a little more than that to tip it far enough for a few drops to pass over them.
Maybe it was curiosity. Maybe it was a lapse in judgment, but I did it. First a drop, then a second, and then what I guess most would consider a sip passed over my lips and into my mouth.
My lips clamped shut instinctively, and Pamela moved away even further from the back door.
“She’s about blow!” Apryl warned, and everyone scattered.
It was cool and moist. A feeling of comfort flowed over and around my tongue on its way through my mouth, and a quenching of a thirst, that I didn’t know I had, exploded when it hit my throat. That was it. After that, the feeling disappeared, and I braced myself for the rolling. My hands grabbed at my stomach, ready to hang on, but the loud gurgling I expected wasn’t there. It was silent, really silent. It hadn’t been that silent in almost a day. Then, amidst a room full of gasps and horrified looks, I took another sip, and after another uneventful reaction, I drank the entire glass, and then sat it down on the table.
2
After my little make-the-water-disappear-without-it coming-back-up trick, I left everyone down in the kitchen to examine the glass and prove to themselves it was just an ordinary glass. I wish it were as simple as a trick or magic, but I actually drank that water, and it tasted good. It was as simple as that. I wish what was upstairs was that simple as well, but it wasn’t. Nathan wasn’t just asleep, taking a nap, or playing some cruel joke on me. He was going through hell, no matter how peaceful he looked, laying there in my bed.
I went in and sat on one side of the bed. Jennifer Bolden sat on the other side. Her look answered the question I had. There had been no change, at least not outwardly. Changes were going on inside, and I felt it when I reached down and interlaced my fingers with his. He was cold, even to me. Gone was the warmth I so enjoyed feeling. Rough, almost paper-like, tissue had replaced the soft and supple feeling of his skin. This was temporary, but disturbing all the same. The light pulsation of fluid moving through his fingers was gone as well. They were now nothing but just gray fleshy protrusions off of his hand that laid limp between mine. I prayed to feel them move. Even a little flinch, or a stroke of one of his fingers against the side of mine like he did so often. It was a comforting sensation when he did it. Now, I wanted to be the one to give him the same comfort, so even though he felt lifeless, I kept on holding his hand with one hand while the other either stroked the back of the one I held, or I stroked his hair. I wanted him to know I was there. I needed him to know I was waiting for him when he finally wakes up.
All that comforted me was knowing at this moment he wasn’t aware of what was going on. He already felt the worst of it, at least until he woke up. When it happens, you feel yourself die slowly, one part at a time. The pain of each adding on to the next, flooding your consciousness with nothing but an agony that pushes out any chance of seeing your life flash before your eyes. There is no room for thoughts of loved ones that may miss you, or ones you know you will miss. There is no time for thoughts of regret. The only flash you see is when the light disappeared and the blackness takes hold, and then it’s all gone.
I don’t really remember anything of when I was out. If it felt like I was sleeping, I don’t know. I just wasn’t there, and then I woke up with no sense of how much time had passed. Had it been minutes, hours, or days? I didn’t know. I didn’t care. What I felt was a was an insatiable burning deep inside and Marie ran me out the backdoor to the woods behind our house to help me take care of it.
“You know, Gwen would just die if she knew you were pregnant with his child,” remarked Jen.
I looked up in shock and quickly held a finger over my lips, urging her to keep it quiet.
She looked back at Nathan. “He can’t hear us.”
She was right, and I knew it, but that didn’t make talking about him or things like that in front of him any less weirder. My mind told me he was still there, and I rubbed his hand as an apology for being so callous. Then I smirked.
“You know I’m right.”
“Yes, you are,” I admitted, not taking my eyes off of Nathan this time. “I didn’t think you thought about things like that. Apryl? Yes. You? No.”
“I would be lying if I didn’t say that prima donna witch didn’t get on my nerves more than a few times. I am sure she is sitting up in the coven enjoying the fact that everyone but the witches were exiled.”
“Probably buddy-ing up to Mrs. Saxon…” then a question hit me, and I turned to look right at Jen. “Jen, she is still in charge of the coven, right? Please tell me she is.”
“Yes, why do you ask?”
My shoulders slouched. “They threatened to take it from her before because of me, and now all this. It kind of proved all the points Mrs. Wintercrest tried to make back in those trials.” My voice trailed off as I imagined them removing her.
“Stop!” ordered Jen. “None of this is your fault. Not a single thing… and, if you really think about it, Rebecca kicking all of us out probably helped her standing with the council. That Mrs. Wintercrest was there with a few others just before Rebecca told us to leave.”
“Maybe,” I said, unsure if I really believed her or not.
“Demius and Mrs. Tenderschott tried to talk her out of it, but she refused to even listen to them. The council members that were there agreed with her actions. I wouldn’t be too worried.”
“Okay,” I said, but I still wasn’t sure. I could see Mrs. Saxon being so upset over Nathan that she threw everyone out, but I could also see her being forced to by the council. Either was plausible. Which was the truth? Only Mrs. Saxon would know. I knew her well enough to know she would put up a strong showing either way. If it was all her, I couldn’t blame her. A shudder went through my body when I thought of what I had cost her, and it had nothing to do about my suspicions about the coven. Nathan was her everything, thus the unwritten rules, which I had broken every single one I knew about, and probably several I hadn’t heard of yet. There was something extra vile about that thought. Could it be? I had only found out I was pregnant a few hours ago. Was I already seeing things differently?
“Don’t do that to yourself.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. I see that look on your face, and I know what’s running through your head. Now stop it.” She leaned across the bed and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Focus on what is in front of you right now. Don’t worry about the past. Nathan will need you, and well… you need to stay calm for your little one.”
My free hand reached up and instinctively rubbed my stomach. I could have sworn it felt different. A little bigger. Was it even possible? In just a few hours?
“You know, I’ve been giving your situation a little thought. I think it’s his fault.” She nodded her head in Nathan’s direction.
There was no way she was that naïve. She was older than me, at least physically, and she was married. She was the one that offered to have the conversation about the birds and the bees with me. I gave her my best ‘duh’ look back.
“No, I mean about how it happened.”
Again, I gave the same reaction. There was no other suitable response.
“Not like that,” she corrected. “Everything they were talking about downstairs involved a human female, which makes sense. Her body can make the adjustments to carry a child to term, and ours can’t, but we are missing one factor about you and Nathan. You’re a witch and his mother is one too. Who’s to say Nathan doesn’t have a little in him that manifested this way? It’s a big unknown in the equation we can’t ignore.”
“Can it do that?” I asked, and then spouted out another question. “Oh, you don’t think…”
“What? I don’t think maybe Rebecca lied to everyone, including Nathan, to protect him?” Jen shrugged her shoulders and scrunched her face up. “Anything’s possible. She is a very private woman when it comes to her husband, and as you know better than ever, very protective of her son.”
Looking back at things, she was right to be protective, and the idea Jen had just floated was possible, but not all that probable. Magic had a way of making itself known. If Nathan had anything in him, it would have, should have, come out by now, even accidentally. A random thought that triggered something to happen–like throwing an annoying classmate in the pool. An event that still brought a smirk to my face. Even something simple, like something magically materialized out of thin air. Anything at all. Maybe it had. I had only known Nathan for a relatively short time. Even by human standards, it had only been just a few months.
