A Few Sips Ch. 09

A few weeks went by, in which Domino spent as much time with Alexandru as possible. Every day now was a tiny bit shorter, since they'd hit the peak daylight of July and she was looking forward to him being awake more often. She was feeling more tired, and was no longer meeting with Mr. Hughes or Samir until lunchtime or a little after. They didn't mention it, and neither did she, but they all knew that the baby was starting to finally make its presence known. The obstetrician that Mr. Hughes had brought in was able to let her hear the heart beat, and he'd done a trans-vaginal ultrasound that had allowed them both to see their first glimpses of the baby inside.

Domino had been a little shocked to see the forming skeleton complete with wings, but she should have known. Alexandru said that all vampires grew or were born with wings, and he had been more interested in the veins and arteries that were attached to her uterus through the placenta than anything. She knew why, but she didn't focus in on their conversation because she knew that her lover was going to worry enough for both of them. She needed to focus on keeping herself as healthy as she could for her baby.

It was a Thursday, just after dusk when Domino, who had been sitting at the table in the kitchenette, looked up from the puzzle she'd been putting together by herself to see Alexandru come out of the bedroom. Her face had lit into a smile and she'd pushed herself up from the table a little faster than she probably should have, and a sharp pain shot up her spine from her uterus and she gasped and put her hands down on the table's surface, sending puzzle pieces flying everywhere.

"Shit!" She groaned as she stayed bent over the table, her breath a little more rapid as she looked at the work she'd just ruined.

"Domino, what is, my little dove?" Alexandru's face was filled with worry as he rushed to her side, one hand on her back as the other cupped her cheek and made her look up at him.

"I screwed up my puzzle. I've been working on this all afternoon." She told him, a frown on her face, she was going to ignore the sting of tears that had filled her eyes.

"What did you feel?" He pressed, his frown letting her know he wasn't in the joking mood.

"Nothing, just...just it stung when I got up, like I pinched my sciatic nerve only, only it wasn't my sciatic nerve." She put a hand on her slightly rounded stomach and stood straight, whatever it had been, it was gone now.

"Let's go have Mr. Hughes call for the doctor." He grabbed her pole and put a hand on her waist to guide her out of the room.

"I'm just fine, Alex. It was just a pinch. It's fine now." Domino insisted as he walked with her down the hallway and then they were climbing the stairs to the first floor.

"I would rather a doctor told me that, Domino." He grumbled as he opened the door to the first floor.

"I'm not even four months along yet, Alexandru. You're going to set a record for world's most worrisome new father." She chuckled at him, though she knew he was probably right, she should probably make sure that the pinch was just that.

"I'll hang it proudly on the wall if I have to, to keep you safe, little dove." He said in a voice filled with concern and walked with her to the door of Mr. Hughes' office, knocking on it loudly.

"He may not be here, Faeron had an appointment this afternoon." Domino said quietly as they waited to see if the door would open.

"How is that going?" Alexandru generally did not want to hear about the wood elf that had taken up residence at Vorhees and begun working there.

"Fine so far. They've mostly been going over how Mr. Hughes runs things, payroll, making appointments, employee concerns and stuff. But he's had several appointments with clients. I guess they've went ok. Samir hasn't ripped his head off yet."

"It's still an option." Alexandru hissed under his breath as the door was pulled open in front of them. Mr. Hughes stood before them in one of his many, matching suits that looked like it had just been pressed seconds before they opened the door.

"Just once, Arc, I want to see you walking around in a Van Halen t-shirt and pajama pants." Domino sighed as she leaned on the door frame. The look of anguish that came to his face was comical and she found herself laughing as he ushered them into the room.

"You do not generally need my services at night, Domino. Is there something I can help you both with?" He asked, choosing to ignore her suggestion.

"Is this because you've got that English accent? You need to dress the part? You know you'd be sexy no matter what you wear." She pushed on, watching him frown and shake his head at her.

"Domino."

"She stood up and doubled over in pain. She says it's just a pinched nerve." Alexandru explained as he set her into a chair, her pole at her side.

Mr. Hughes frowned and picked up the phone on his desk without hesitation, "I'll call Dr. Trainor. He can examine her."

"Don't you think it's a little quick to call in the big guns?" Domino asked, frustration in her voice as they made plans without her.

"Domino, the fetus inside of you is going to affect you differently than a regular human fetus. If we need to make adjustments in your treatment, we need to do them quickly and not wait until things get worse." Mr. Hughes paused as he spoke quickly to the person who picked up on the other end as he sat behind his desk and motioned for Alexandru to sit as well.

"It was just a little pinch." She shrugged, muttering to them as she sank back in her chair.

"I need access to your airplane." Alexandru said and Domino looked over at him confused.

"Why? You hate planes."

"I need to go to Belarus, maybe Latvia." He said, his eyes on his former employer and not on the girl beside him.

"It is at your disposal." Mr. Hughes nodded, he had just set the phone back down.

"Why? Where are you going?" Domino knew her voice was shaking, she didn't want him to leave for a long time, she needed him here, with her.

"I need to find Klaus."

"Your sire? Do you think he can help?" She asked and watched as he frowned at her.

"Klaus is your sire?" Mr. Hughes raised an eyebrow, Alexandru had not ever explained who had turned him.

"Yes."

"How long will you be gone?" Domino asked, worry in her voice, she did not like it when he left, she just didn't.

"I don't know. I have to find him."

"A week? Two?"

"I don't know." Alexandru said a little louder than he'd meant, and he knew it bothered her when her eyes filled with tears and she looked at him a little agonized.

"I'm scared, Alexandru." She sniffed, wiping her eyes as he stood up and picked her up and sat down in her chair with her in his lap, curled up in a ball with his arms around her.

"My little dove, I will come home to you. I need to find Klaus, to see if he can help you. I don't want to leave you, but I can't take you from here, and I will have a better chance of finding him than anyone else."

"When do you want to leave?" Mr. Hughes' voice was filled with sympathy as Domino looked over at him with a frown.

"Immediately." Alexandru replied and put a hand on Domino's forehead when she choked back a sob.

"I'll get it arranged." Mr. Hughes picked up the phone again and called who she could only assume was the pilot of the plane that would be taking her vampire lover from her. He spoke for a short time, and then was off the phone again and had stood up and started to walk around the desk.

"Are you going to wait for the doctor to see her? He should be here momentarily."

Alexandru lifted Domino off of his lap and set her on her feet so he could stand up. "I'll wait until the doctor has some news. Then I'll go."

The three of them made their way up to the second floor, to the room that Domino used during the day, and she was lifted onto the bed, with Alex beside her as they waited for the doctor. When he arrived, portable ultrasound in hand, he asked Domino several questions and then he scanned her abdomen for a while. He said very little and they had to wait while he looked at the images on the screen. Finally, he turned to them with a soft smile of understanding.

"There is no damage to the uterus. You have no free blood or other fluid in your abdomen. Getting up as quickly as you did may have inadvertently made the fetal wings poke you enough to cause the pain. I can't be certain, as there is no evidence of any trauma. I would suggest, however, that you limit your movement for the remainder of the pregnancy. You should also refrain from intercourse, Ms. Ashburn, until the baby has been delivered."

"So I'm stuck in bed for five and a half months? Wonderful." She frowned as she looked from the doctor to Alexandru.

"There is no chance of her actually going to full term, is there, Dr. Trainor?" Mr. Hughes asked.

The doctor shook his head, making his white hair shift back and forth on his head, Domino realized he must have been asleep when the call had been made requesting him to come here. She frowned, this probably wouldn't be the last time that he was sent to do so.

"I am hopeful to reach the six month mark, at least for the child's sake. I still do not know how healthy we will be able to keep you, Domino. I do not want to lie to you about your chances."

"One of our employees has suggested that we add erithropoietin to her medications, and that we start giving her platelets a little later in her pregnancy. I believe he has gathered information from a vampire who has been studying how to help girls like Domino."

The doctor thought about it for a moment before nodding, "If I could speak with him, it would help me make a decision to do it, though I can say right off the bat that neither would hurt her chances. Can you set up a time tomorrow for me to return and talk to him?"

Mr. Hughes nodded, jotting something down on a pad of paper that he pulled from the pocket of his suit. "Of course, I will let Faeron know that he will speak with you tomorrow, say 9 am?"

"That would be fine. If there is nothing else?" The doctor looked from Domino to Alexandru, and then back to Mr. Hughes.

"I think that's it, thank you, Dr. Trainor. I appreciate you coming so late in the evening." Domino tried to stand up when the doctor did, but Alexandru put a staying hand on her shoulder.

"You are welcome, Ms. Ashburn. Please try to get as much rest as you can." The older man stressed before excusing himself from the bedroom.

"I'll leave you two alone so that you can say goodbye. Domino, will you be sleeping in here tonight, or downstairs?" Mr. Hughes looked at them with trepidation, he knew that Domino was still unhappy about Alexandru leaving, and even more so now that she was going to be on bed rest.

"I guess up here. Can someone bring my things up tomorrow?" Domino sighed, frowning as she looked at the simply-furnished room she was in. She missed her things at home, but she was nowhere near ready to go back there, if she ever went back. Her apartment was still being paid for, but she hadn't really thought of what would happen when she was changed. It was a one bedroom, there was no place for a baby.

"I'll see to it. Goodnight." Mr. Hughes nodded at them both and left the room, closing the door silently behind him.

"I have to go, Domino. I promise I would not leave you unless I thought it was absolutely necessary."

"He might know how to save my life." She sighed, looking at her lover with eyes wide and full of sadness.

"He's done it before, he can do it again." Alexandru had to believe that.

"It could be weeks before you return." Domino clasped her fingers together over her stomach and stared at them now as she spoke.

"It could, but I am hoping that I can find him in less time than that. The closer I get, the more I will be able to sense where he is."

"That whole sire/spawn thing?"

Alexandru smiled softly and nodded, "Yes."

"You'll have to feed while you're away." She said in a whisper and knew he stiffened from his spot beside her on the bed.

"That is not something I can control, Domino." He grumbled, getting up from the bed and walking towards the window, looking out into the darkness of the night. He would have to feed before getting on the plane. And the plane itself was going to have to be made to keep out the light.

"I know. Just...just leave it at that, though. I know that sometimes, you feel the urge to-to have sex when you feed, and I don't want you to-." She stopped when he chuckled lightly and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You humans think that sex is something so very intimate when it means so very little in the life of someone like me." He said softly, shaking his head.

"Sex with me means nothing to you?" Domino felt her throat catch and she looked over at him in surprise, she hadn't thought that.

"Sex with you means EVERYTHING to me." Alexandru's voice boomed so loudly through the room that Domino was sure she felt the window reverberate and she tensed and her eyes instantly filled with crocodile sized tears.

He was facing her, his breath a little unsteady as he made his way back over to her side, "Domino, I love you. Yes, I enjoy fucking you, I want to fuck you right now, in fact. But I can't because my doing so has put a timer on your lifespan that I can't afford. I can't lose you, too."

His words made her sob and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he moved in to hold her, and she wept against his chest for several moments before he finally tilted his face over hers so that their mouths connected. His tongue was halfway down her throat when the door swung open hard, smashing, and probably busting into, the wall behind it. They both jumped, startled, and looked to see Samir breathing heavy, standing in the doorway with his eyes wide, glued to where they were embraced on the bed.

"I heard yelling." The young-looking blond man slowly straightened and began to look a little sheepish for barging in.

"Get out of this Goddamned room before I rip your fucking head off." Alexandru shouted, making Domino put a hand over her mouth to stifle the chuckle that wanted to come out as Samir bit his lower lip and slowly backed out of the room, yanking the door out of the wall and closing it as best he could against the door frame that wasn't quite where it had been a few moments ago.

"I suppose he's better than a guard dog." Alexandru muttered and Domino couldn't help but think that he might have been talking about Aidan.

"Samir is my friend, Alexandru. You should be happy he is looking out for me." She put her palms against his face and moved her lips up to plant kisses along his high cheekbones and long, handsome nose.

"Samir is attracted to you."

"You would think a block of wood was attracted to me."

"You may be right about that." He murmured and moved his mouth to cover hers again, he had to leave, but he hated saying goodbye to her.

~*~*~*~

After Domino ate lunch the next day, a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup that Samir had prepared for her when she'd gotten up, she sat on a chaise lounge that had been brought into her bedroom looking out the window while Shi and Samir brought her things in, unpacked them, and then started pilfering furniture and decorations from other areas of the spa to make her room look more lived in. She appreciated the effort even though she knew that it would never feel quite right with Alexandru gone. She'd never thought that she was the brooding because her boyfriend is gone type, but apparently, she was very much that type.

Mr. Hughes showed up in her doorway at 1 pm, like he had been doing the last few weeks since the first time she'd heard him sing, and without a word, he lifted her up into his arms and carried her and her pole up staircases until they were seated on the roof, her laying on her side on the massive comfortable mattress under the stone dome, and him sitting erect at the side. She had told him that hearing him sing made her happy, and she had begged for him to continue doing so. He had. Each day, they had walked in the woods, when she was able, and now it seemed he would bring her up here, and he would sing the songs of the angels to her.

There was always that pause at the start. He never just sang her any song, but the songs that he heard from the skies above them. Mr. Hughes had seemed hesitant at first about the whole thing, but she knew now that it helped him, it helped him to sing in his own voice, to be that angel that he had been for who knew how long, forever? They might have kicked him out, but he was still one of them, despite his descent from grace. So she listened with open ears, and most of the time, she would just close her eyes and let the melodious sound fill her senses. Never would she fall asleep, though he often accused her of it. It was magical to hear him, an honor that she knew had possibly never befallen another human being.

"I would like to ask a favor of you, Domino." He said later, when he had finally stopped singing. She had still been basking in it and slowly opened her eyes to look at him.

"I don't know what I can do while lying in a bed all day, but what do you need?" She asked.

The smile he gave her was so filled with mischief that Domino turned red, he was such a dirty dirty dirty minded man, no wonder he owned a sex spa. "Get your mind OUT of the gutter, Arc. I cannot believe you."

"I have an appointment I cannot change, and Faeron has an appointment at three this afternoon with a client. I need someone to watch him."

"You mean you need a babysitter?"

"Yes, for a wood elf, while he fucks someone. Can you do it for me?"

"So I'm like, an employee now?"

"Let's call it a contract employee. It comes with free room and board."

"I get that anyway, wait-," He was smiling at her again, "Alexandru is paying you for me to stay here. Oh, that's evil."

"He's rich as Croesus. He can afford it."

"I imagine you have little need of the money." Domino laughed.

Mr. Hughes raised an eyebrow at her, "You'd be surprised what the money raised here at Vorhees has been used to help accomplish around the world. We give to a wide variety of human charities and organizations."

"That's considerate, considering if humans knew about all of you, they would be pretty damn scared." Domino said honestly, she knew humans had faults, and fear was a huge one.

"Undoubtedly. But we contribute all the same. Samir will come and get you around 2:45 pm. He'll be in the room with you, but not where he can see Faeron. He can't watch." Mr. Hughes didn't have to explain to her why.

"So I just go in a room and watch him have sex with someone? And they see me?"

"No, you'll be in an adjoining room. They will see a mirror on their side, and you will be able to see what they do."

"Oh, ok."

"Elves, even dark ones like the wood elves, can be quite sexually provocative, Domino. But they can also be very cruel. He has not shown that here, even when in a position of dominance, and I've come to believe that his quest is real, but I want someone else's eyes on him for now, trust is hard earned towards their species. They have broken it more times than I can count." He told her.

"If I do this for you, can you do something for me?" She asked with a sparkle of mischief in her eye.

"What?" He sounded worried as to what she would request, which only meant that he knew her too well.

"I want you to come to dinner tonight, Samir and Shi are coming up, and we're going to eat take out Chinese and watch movies." She watched him frown and stand up, he never socialized in groups.

"Domino."

"Dude. Please." She groaned and watched him press his lips together for a moment before he finally, hesitantly nodded his head yes.

"What are you watching this time?"

"The Never-ending Story. And don't even bother trying to tell me that there is no such thing as a luck dragon, because I will not listen to your heresy." She said so matter of factly that he could just look at her with abject horror before he nodded again and moved to pick her up to take her back downstairs.