Future Mortality

Part 22/?

By Christine Hantzopulos

Sudden unease gripped Natalie as Dimitri answered the phone. There was something terribly wrong. Why hadn’t she noticed it before? She’d thought him just nervous at meeting his girlfriend’s parents, but now she realized it was much more than that. He was…afraid. The vague explanation of living with a ‘friend’ fell flat. He was visibly sweating as he said, “Well, I would, but they can’t right now. Maybe another time.” He was lying. To the person on the phone. To them. But why?

“What?!” Dimitri’s incredulity was real, his fear palpable. Her first instinct was to turn the key in the ignition and speed away, but at that moment, Dimitri held out the phone to her. “My friend…wants to talk to you,” he told her. She simply stared at him, and he added the words that would not allow her alarm to overpower her curiosity. “He knows you.”

She could feel her heart pounding as she said, “Hello?”

But the voice on the other end made the rapid flutter come to an abrupt halt.

“Hello, Natalie. It’s me. Steven.”

A voice she hadn’t heard in almost a year, but that had been indelibly imprinted on her memory. “No… this can’t be…” she whispered.

“It is, Nat. I’m alive. And I’m here. I can see you. You’re parked in front of the house, in the black Honda. Please. Come in, and I’ll explain everything.”

She could hear Niki screaming at her, but the words were lost in a blur. Steven? Alive? Before she could consciously make the decision to move, she was rushing from the car, banging at the front door of the house, then trying the knob only to find it had been open all along. A shaft of light preceeded her into the hallway, but even as her eyes struggled to adjust to the dark she could see a figure at the far end of the adjoining room.

“Steven?” she called, her voice breaking with emotion.

“Mom?!” Niki cried, frightened, coming to stand beside her.

“Nat. Niki. My God, I thought I would never see you again,” the figure in the shadows said, tears in his voice. Natalie stood frozen in disbelief as he stepped towards them, and she saw the pale version of the face she had known so well, a single blood tear falling down his cheek.

A blood tear.

“Steven, what..? How…? Is it…really you?”

He smiled at her then, shortening the distance between them as he placed cold hands on her arms. “Yes, baby. It’s me.”

“But…but how? Janette said she couldn’t…that it was too late…”

He shook his head. “She couldn’t. But an Elder could.”

Months of guilt and despair were suddenly swept away as the reality of what he was saying finally sank in. In relief she fell against him, hugging his familiar body to her, taking in the scent that had been consigned to memory, her cheek warmed even by the coldness that was now his skin. Even changed, he was still her Steven, the man she had loved, the father of her son, the husband whose death she had borne the responsibility for. He was a vampire, but he was alive, and the chill of his embrace that should have frightened her served only to assuage the guilt that had plagued her since his death. He wasn’t dead. Now he could live on, and…and…

His hands had come up to cup her face, and as she looked into his eyes another reality came crashing down. His blue eyes were devoid of the tell-tale amber glow, but filled with something that made her suddenly very uncomfortable. And as he brought his lips to hers, she pulled away, as gently as she could but with an intent that was obvious. “Steven, I can’t,” she said simply as he looked at her in confusion.

A new shame overwhelmed her as he looked sadly down at the quite apparent reason why things were not, could not be, as they had been before. “I’m sorry,” she said, stepping away to widen the few inches that were an expanse between them. “Steven, I…don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything,” he said gently. “I know you thought I was dead. It’s all right. We’re together now.”

“Mom,” Niki pleaded her, taking her arm. She was trembling.

“Niki, there’s no need to be afraid,” Steven told her. “It’s me. Daddy.”

Niki’s eyes were brimming over with tears. “Daddy, I’m glad you’re alive, and I’ve really, really missed you…But Mommy and I can’t stay here. It’s not safe…”

“Niki,” he pleaded, approaching her, but the girl only began to shake more violently, her eyes blazing amber.

“Stay away,” she begged, throwing her arms around her mother’s swollen waist, as if both seeking comfort and trying to shield her at once.

“Niki, it’s okay,” Nat told her, stroking her hair. “Honey, there’s no danger here. It’s just your nature reacting—“ She looked up at Steven helplessly. “She’s not used to you like this—she can’t help it—“

Steven looked at them both in frustration, trying to reach out to Niki only to see her shrink away and clutch more tightly at her mother. He withdrew his hand. “She got used to being around her father, didn’t she?” he asked, with more than a tinge of bitter accusation.

Natalie’s face burned crimson with her mortification. There really was no way to explain to Steven what had happened over the last few months, and how their lives had changed. No matter how much they had loved Steven, it was Nick who had become the center of their lives. Nothing, not even this miraculous return from the dead, could change that.

“He’s…mortal,” she managed to say, a totally inadequate response, but all she could muster.

“Yes he is, isn’t he?” Steven said darkly, making Natalie suddenly afraid.

“Steven…Niki’s right. We…should go.” Niki looked up at her, the fear in her eyes mirroring the sudden dread in Natalie’s heart.

The sound of Natalie’s phone ringing broke the awkward silence. She reached into her pocket, but before Natalie could flip it open, Steven’s hand was painfully clenched around her wrist. She cried out as the phone fell from her grasp into his other palm.

He looked at the Caller ID, eyes tinged with golden specks as he saw the name. “Nick,” he said in disgust, then threw the phone to the floor, smashing it.

“I guess you’re going to miss that call,” he growled as his fangs descended.

Niki screamed. With a strength she didn’t even know she had, she rushed against her step-father, knocking him momentarily off balance just long enough to make him lose his grip on her mother’s wrist. He bared his fangs at her like a wounded animal, with a rage that contorted his face into something barely recognizable. She backed away, as her mother pulled her into her arms, holding her tightly in a protective grasp.

“Stop it!”

Niki and Natalie turned as one to see Dimitri rush in, standing as a barrier between them and Steven. “You said you wouldn’t hurt them!” he shouted, “and you’re scaring them to death! Is that why you wanted to see them? To scare the hell out of them!?”

His words were more powerful than any weapon he could have possessed. Steven breathed deeply as his features returned to normal. “No,” he said remorsefully. Niki could almost see the father she had loved for twelve years, and the impulse to run to him grappled with the more potent instinct to stay away.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, as Niki’s own ring tone sounded. Afraid of a repeat of the last few moments, she hesitated, but Steven said, “Just give it to me. Don’t answer it. Just give it to me.”

She glanced at the screen as she handed it to him, to see “Daddy” boldly printed on the Caller ID. Steven looked at it and winced, a reaction that made her feel guilty despite her fear of him. It hurt him, she knew, to think that he had been replaced. But there was no denying what was in her heart, any more than what was in her mother’s.

He slipped the phone into his pocket this time, probably knowing his show of violence had frightened them. It rang four times and stopped, and Niki could only imagine the frantic voicemail that her father was leaving her. If only she’d gotten that phone with GPS, if only he could track them somehow…

Dimitri turned to them then, his face a mixture of pain and remorse. He was about to speak when Natalie cried out, clutching at her stomach. Her eyes were open wide in terror, and her face had gone white.

“Mommy?” she cried, holding her for support as she seemed about to fall.

“Oh my God,” Natalie gasped, panting rapidly as she rode out the pain.

“Natalie, you have to sit down—“ Steven said worriedly, but as he approached Niki shrieked,

“Stay away from her!” She looked at Dimitri. “Come, help me get her to the couch!” she ordered him, pushing aside her anger at him for a moment.

Dimitri did as he was told, and they helped her mother to the couch. Natalie lay down, closing her eyes as the pain subsided. “This isn’t good,” she breathed.

“She has to go to the hospital,” Niki told her step-father. “You’ve got to call an ambulance. She could be going into labor!”

“Is she that far along?” Steven asked, as if in his mind calculating how long it had taken her to get pregnant after his death.

“She’s a month early!” Niki snapped. “But you see her! She’s in pain!”

His face seemed to soften for a moment, then harden again into an emotionless mask. “She’ll be all right, Niki. Just let her rest. I promise you—she won’t die. I’ll see to it myself.”

“Steven, please,” Dimitri entreatied him, looking back and forth from the vampire to the two woman who were here because of his deception. Niki just glared at him. It was all his fault. He had used her and broken her heart…for this. The twisted plan of a man who used to be her father.

Dimitri looked into her eyes helplessly, as if wishing she could hear his thoughts. But she just glowered at him, hating him as much as she had believed she loved him.

“Where is Richie?” Steven asked patiently, ignoring Dimitri’s pleas completely.

“He’s safe. Which is more than I can say for us,” Niki replied bitterly.

“It’s all right. We’ll all be together soon,” he replied ominously.

Niki just looked away so he wouldn’t see her fear, watching her mother’s face as she began to wince with the oncoming contraction.

It was too soon. Much too soon. And they were coming too quickly. How long ago had the first contraction rocked her? Three minutes? Four? And the next one was coming, it was coming fast…

“Ohhh!” she cried out, her eyes opening wide in terror. No. This couldn’t be happening. None of this could be happening…

She could hear Niki arguing with Steven to call an ambulance, but somehow knew it was in vain. He wouldn’t call for help. He would let her die here, let her baby die, to punish her for what she had done.

“I promise you—she won’t die. I’ll see to it myself.”

What did that mean?! What would he do to her? To her baby?

She began to pant, breathing as she had in the LaMaze classes, concentrating on Niki’s face, wishing she could hide her pain for her daughter’s sake, her mind racing more quickly than she could follow her own thoughts. But as she saw Nick’s face in his daughter’s, all she could consciously think of was the promise he had made her that he would not be able to keep, that this time he would be there…

Her eyes filled with tears, not for the excruciating pain or the horror of what was happening, but for the fact that she wanted him to be there so badly. Yet she called out to him only in her mind, knowing that if she spoke his name she would scream it at the top of her lungs. It would send Steven over the edge, and there would be nothing she could do to protect either of her daughters, the one who held her hand in absolute terror, or the one who was struggling to be born at the worst imaginable time.

She closed her eyes as it passed again, exhausted from the ordeal and wishing she would wake up to find that this was just another nightmare. Nick would be at her side and hold her in his arms just as he had that night he’d promised to be with her no matter what….

But as she opened her eyes, her reality was unchanged. Niki was looking down at her worriedly, as Dimitri hovered near them looking absolutely helpless. He hadn’t wanted to do this. She could see it in his face as clearly as the sense of betrayal in her daughter’s eyes. She could only wonder if it was true that Stavros was coming at dusk. If so, maybe she could hold on just long enough for the sun to set…

“Mommy, I don’t know what to do,” Niki whispered helplessly, her eyes red with tears.

“I’ll be okay,” she lied as reassuringly as she could. None of them would be okay. “Let me…speak to Steven alone.”

“No, I can’t,” she said protectively, the dhampir in her refusing to let down its guard.

“I won’t hurt her, Niki,” Steven reassured her.

Natalie looked at Dimitri. “Dimitri—just give us a couple of minutes alone. Please. Take Niki into the next room.”

It wouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes before the next contraction began. She wasn’t quite sure what she would say to Steven, but she struggled to believe that he really wouldn’t hurt either of them. It was the only thing that would help her to remain sane right now.

Reluctantly, Niki let Dimitri take her from the room, as Steven sat on the edge of the couch looking down at her.

“Steven, I know…this is…awkward…to say the least,” she began, knowing it was the understatement of the year. “But you have to believe me. I didn’t want to hurt you. I still don’t. When you…died,” she said, knowing it sounded ludicrous now, “it nearly destroyed us. I was an emotional mess, and terrified that whoever had killed you was going to come after Niki. When Nick offered to take us away…to keep us safe…what else could I do? And it was months before I could even think of letting him touch me, of feeling anything for him again. But…it was there. It was always there. I couldn’t deny it any more. No matter how much I loved you, I knew that I had never stopped loving him…I thought you were dead…I thought it was my fault…” She was rambling now, and her words had begun to mix with tears. She knew that nothing she could say could possibly ease his pain, and yet she needed to tell him, needed him to understand.

“It…doesn’t matter now,” he told her. “I don’t blame you. If Stavros had told you I was alive this never would have happened.”

“Why didn’t he?” she asked desperately, though in her heart she knew. Once Stavros had seen her and Nick together he had known that things were as they were meant to be. That whatever had prompted him to bring Steven back from apparent death, he had created a situation in which someone would have to suffer. Stavros had seen what was in her heart, and she couldn’t fault his decision.

“It doesn’t matter now,” he repeated, in an almost soothing tone. Too soothing. Too calm. What was he planning to do?

“Steven, I need to go to a hospital,” she told him, even as she felt the baby moving within her.

“I can’t do that, Nat,” he said regretfully. “You’re going to have to wait until nightfall, when I can go out. I promise then that we’ll go away somewhere, just us and the kids, and I’ll get you to a hospital—“

“Wait, what do you mean, just us and the kids?” she asked in sudden panic. “Steven, Richie isn’t even here. And I can’t just—“

“We’ll get him here before nightfall,” he promised her.

He seemed suddenly so irrational to her that she was afraid to state the obvious. “Steven, I’m pregnant with—someone else’s baby,” she said delicately, afraid at this point to say Nick’s name. She remembered the look in his eyes when he had acknowledged Nick’s mortality, and suddenly was terrified at the thought that Nick might try to actually confront him himself.

Steven placed his hand on her belly affectionately, something that seemed so natural to him and to her suddenly so perverse. “Nat, I raised Niki as my own, and I love her. What makes you think I can’t raise this baby too?”

She was stupified. She couldn’t tell him plainly that she didn’t want him to raise this baby, that she already had a husband and this child already had a father. She tried another tack. “Steven, I don’t think this labor will last until nightfall. And I can’t deliver without a doctor.”

“You are a doctor. You just need to tell me and Niki what to do.”

She wanted to ask him if he was crazy, but the contraction took her breath. It wouldn’t have done any good anyway.

Dimitri pulled Niki into the kitchen and she glared at him accusingly.

“You used me,” she said in a hushed voice, her eyes filling with tears. “You lied to me, just to get me and my mother here. I trusted you. Even my dad trusted you! Now my mom could die—“

“I didn’t lie to you, Niki!” he said, holding her hands tightly in his. “Please, believe me. I had to lead you here, or he threatened he would kill me!”

She wanted to believe him. She wanted to ask him more, but she knew that in the next room a vampire would easily hear their conversation. She looked around the kitchen quickly, spotting a newspaper and a pen. She wrote quickly on the paper, Is your father really coming tonight? He nodded vigorously and held his finger to his lips as if to remind her not to react verbally. He took the pen from her hand and wrote, Steven doesn’t know. My father said play along to stall for time, so he doesn’t kill us. He’ll be here by night.

Niki looked at him and nodded, then took the pen to black out what they had written. Ripping the paper might alert Steven. She kept crossing out the words even after they had been completely covered, until Dimitri lay his hand on hers to stop her. She looked up at him cautiously, knowing the hurt was still in her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “But you have to believe me. My whole reason for coming here was to meet you. And that I can’t be sorry for.” He lifted his hand to her cheek, his hand so warm. Her heart fluttered as he gingerly brought his lips to hers. She let him kiss her, needing to feel the truth in his touch. Was she being foolish? Was he deceiving her again?

He looked into her eyes as he separated from her and said, “I love you, Niki. And I won’t let anything happen to you or your mom. I swear to you.”

She didn’t care anymore if he was lying. She needed to believe him. And as she fell against him and began to cry softly in his arms, she knew that this was real. It had to be.