Chapter 5

"I- What- What do you mean, I scared you?" Sam asked, his eyes going wide in shock and confusion as he watched me.

"Any other man put in a position as you were, they would have fought for their wife and daughter, yes. Well, any man worth his salt would have. Had that been any other man, he would have died shortly after, but not you. I asked the nurses, and they said you'd been fighting with everything you had for three days after the fight. In 1808, where the medicine was nearly non-existent, and our methods crude, it was miraculous that you hadn't succumbed to your injuries moments after receiving them."

"Yes, I suppose you are correct." Sam hesitantly agreed with a nod; his eyes narrowed slightly in thought as he considered what I said.

"I suppose saying that you scared me wasn't the correct usage of words. It would be more accurate if I said that your will to live, and your will to continue to fight, was eerie and unheard of at that time. The fire I saw in you, I didn't wish to allow it to be extinguished, and that is why I changed you."

"Well, that and you didn't wish to continue a life of loneliness," Sam said with a grin, chuckling as I growled at him.

"If it was the loneliness I feared, there are scores of women I could have turned, should I have desired it. I did not want a woman to keep me company. I wanted a brother, an ally, a scoundrel such as I to roam about this earth alongside. I knew the moment I saw you that the two of us would be a force to be reckoned with, and that is why I turned you.”

"Almost two centuries later, and we are now the rulers of vampires, so I guess you were right.”

"Yes, I guess I was."

∞∞∞

14 years later... 2002

'This woman is the end of my bloodline? I can't say I'd honestly care if she were killed.' I thought as I watched the woman and her husband walking up the front steps to their house, turning off the car I was sitting in as I focused my hearing on the conversation going on inside of the home.

"Jennifer, we need to get rid of it. We can't afford a child!" The man said from what sounded like the living room, making me growl softly. 'Perhaps if you couldn't care for a child, you should have used one of the dozens, if not hundreds of options there are to stop such a thing from happening.’

"We can't, Robert! We can't blame the baby for our mistakes!" Jennifer responded with a sigh. I could hear her slamming down a dish on the countertop as she and Robert entered a heated debate that I'd much rather not have heard but had little choice.

I rolled my eyes and zoned out of their conversation, then dialed Sam's number instead, listening to the sound of the phone ringing as I waited. "She's pregnant, Ala- Sam."

"Isn't that a good thing? That's another person to continue the bloodline! Why do you sound so upset by that news?" Sam responded.

"Because the husband is trying to talk her into getting rid of it. From the sound of the discussion, he's winning the debate." I responded with a growl, shaking my head in disbelief.

"Oh, well, I suppose there isn't anything that we can do about it, is there? Damien, what are you doing? I can hear you getting out of the car."

"Making sure my bloodline does not end because of the incongruous nature of two rapacious humans," I said as I got out of the car, slamming the door closed a little harder than I meant to, causing all the windows to shatter instantaneously. "Perfect. That's just magnificent."

"I'll set an appointment to get that fixed," Sam responded with a sigh, then remained silent as he listened to me walking towards the house, waiting until I knocked on the door before saying anything more. "How are you going to make her keep it?"

"By using the only thing, these blood bags care about; money," I responded, listening as I heard Robert jogging down the stairs. I stopped myself from rolling my eyes when I heard him pushing the curtain to the side so that he could see who it was, shaking my head. "I'll call you later."

"Yes, very well."

"I'm not buying," Robert said as he opened the door, eying my suit curiously.

"I'm not selling; I'm offering. Can I come in?"

"You're offering what?"

'The only thing you care about,' I thought but stopped myself from saying that as I readjusted my tie, waiting for him to move to the side so that I could cross the threshold. "Your wife is pregnant, is she not?"

"How did you know? We just found out!" Robert gasped, narrowing his eyes at me before looking over his shoulder where Jennifer was coming into the room.

"Oh, well, hello," Jennifer said as her light blue eyes fell on my suit, making their way down until they met my shoes, then slowly made their way back until she met my eyes.

"You are pregnant, yes?" I said as I sat on the couch across from them, doing everything I could not to growl as I could quite literally see her undressing me with her eyes.

"I- Yes, what's it to you?"

"The reason you wish to get rid of the child is because of monetary issues, yes? Less the medical bills. How much do you need to carry the child to term?"

"Why do you care if that thing is born?" Robert sneered as he turned to look at Jennifer, who widened her eyes with a shrug. "I don't know, one hundred thousand!" He added with a laugh, then continued to laugh until he saw that I was not joining in with his merriment.

"Fine, one hundred thousand. Jennifer, you will take prenatal vitamins, and you will not miss a single doctor's visit." I said as I stood, then raised an eyebrow as I looked down into their gawking faces.

"You-You're seriously going to pay us a hundred thousand, just to have the baby? Why?" Jennifer gasped after a few moments of silence, trying to blink away her surprise as she continued to gawk up at me.

"Does it matter why? You will receive more money than you've ever had at once to birth the child you are already pregnant with. You will not have to pay a single medical bill, and if you need anything that will make your pregnancy easier, I will provide it. Is there anything you need, Jennifer?"

"I- Um- We don't have any food?" Jennifer stumbled out as she stood, crossing her arms over her chest, chewing on her lip as she watched me.

I nodded, pulled out my wallet, took any cash I had, and handed it to her. "That's four hundred, and more than enough to resupply your house with months' worth of rations. I will draw up a contract, and the two of you will sign it."

"What if we don't?" Robert asked, then flinched as I turned around to glare at him, looking down at my feet until he felt my stare leaving him.

"If you break the contract or do anything I expressly forbid while pregnant," I replied as I walked towards the front door, looking back and forth between the couple for a long few moments, making sure they both felt my soul-burning glare before saying anything more. "There will be consequences," I continued, then walked out of the front door, dialing Sam's number as I walked back towards my car.

"Hmm, let me guess, they want fifty thousand?" Sam asked as he answered the call with a laugh.

"Sure, fifty thousand times two, the greedy scum."

"One hundred thousand just to bring a child to term? Jesus. I'll get the money together. Anything we need to get them?"

"I just gave her everything I had in my wallet to get groceries, but from the stench of his breath, I have the feeling that he will spend it on spirits instead. Send a guard to escort her to the grocery store and make sure she gets prenatal vitamins. Send the father to rehab. The best one money can buy while staying nearby."

"I fully understand why you're doing this, Lucifer, as Jennifer is the only one remaining of your bloodline, and that child will be the only one to keep you from turning recreant. I know this, but why don't you just take the child once it's born?" Sam asked after a few moments of silence.

"Take the child? And do what, Alastair? Raise the thing? There isn't a chance in hell that I'm going to raise a child." I challenged as I drove towards the office, chuckling as what Sam was suggesting was more than slightly ludicrous.

"The only way to guarantee that the child will be safe is to take it. That man drinks like a fish out of water, so rehab isn't the worst idea, but think about it. They already hunted down every other member of your bloodline."

"If you think you're telling me something that I didn't already know, you'd be sorely mistaken. I do not know why this is so hard for you to understand, Alastair, but I am not raising a bastard child. I'd rather have absolutely nothing to do with it if I'm being honest."

"Yes, yes, we all know how much the vampire king loathes children. I am only saying that child is quite literally your lifeline."

"A lifeline that I will protect by any means necessary, but I will not raise the disgusting thing. For the record, Alastair, I do not loathe children. You know I wanted kids, and though I know that I cannot have any, I still want kids. So, it is not children that I loathe. It is children raised with no manners that I cannot stand." I said as I pulled into my reserved parking spot, then walked through the lobby of my building, ending the call as I stepped onto the executive elevator.

"Why are you so against raising the child, though?" Sam asked me the moment the elevator doors opened, snorting in amusement as I rolled my eyes and pushed past him to walk into my office.

"I get what you're saying, Alastair, but the child deserves to be raised by its biological parents. Yes, they are worthless scum, but Jennifer has some semblance of a maternal instinct, that much I could tell. I do not know how strong it is, but the moment I walked into the house, she instinctually protected her stomach, and by extension, the child." I said as I sat behind my desk, thumbing through the files waiting for me.

"You think she will do as you say and take care of the child?" Sam asked as he sat across from me and took a few of the files to browse through.

"I have to believe that, yes. I told them that they would have to sign a contract, a decision of which I now regret." I said as I leaned back in my chair, shaking my head with a sigh as I looked across the desk to Sam, who was watching me curiously. "The contract should be enough to force Jennifer into taking the utmost care in her pregnancy, but on the other hand, it leaves a paper trail that the child may grow up to follow. If the child follows the paper trail and sees that it leads back to me, he or she may find out about us."

"That's assuming that the child is smart enough to follow the paper trail, but in any case, it shouldn't matter. When we burn these identities, I will make sure that the contract and any traces of it are destroyed as well. Don't worry, Lucifer; I will cover our tracks. The child will not find out about us, or your hand in their birth, no matter what."