Ambrosia (Nectar Trilogy, Book 2) (22 page)

Tristan was there. He was lifting her up.

“Hey?”

“Hurts so bad, Tristan,” she cried, “I ate and then I slept all day and now I feel so sick. My stomach hurts. I puked.” She dissolved into whimpers as pain gripped her whole midsection and squeezed it in an invisible vice. This was like the time after that banquet when she was about to get her period but this pain was about ten times fiercer.

He got into bed with her and held her close but she was in so much pain she couldn’t get into a tight enough ball.

She cried out, “I’m f-f-freezing. More blankets?”

Tristan got out of bed and left and returned with another blanket. He got in and pulled her over to him but then looked down at the bed, “What the fuck?”

He pulled the blankets back. She was about to ask why he’d take the blankets away when she was so damn cold but then she looked down and saw what he saw. The sheets were covered in blood.

He lifted her nightie a little. Between her legs was coated in blood.

She choked on a sob, “Oh my God…”

Tristan roared out this horrible gut-wrenching sound and her eyes darted from the blood up toward his face and that’s when she saw the look of absolute anguish fade and the shadow moved across until his face was grey. His eyes went black. His fangs snapped out and they were fucking huge.

Tristan’s freezing cold hand came to her chest and pushed her back onto the bed and his head descended toward the blood and Kyla heard a crash and a bunch of shouting. And then everything went dark. She passed out.

She heard voices as she waded into consciousness. She felt an emptiness she’d never felt before. The emptiness wanted to swallow her whole.

She saw Adrian’s face, Lyle’s face, and then she saw black because she let the emptiness have her.

~~~

“Kyla?” It was her father.

“Daddy?” She felt like she was little again. She opened her eyes and realized she wasn’t little. She realized where she was. She was in that cottage, in that bedroom, and she was in a fresh nightgown and in the sleigh bed.

Blood. So much blood.

Tristan!

She bolted upright. But Tristan wasn’t there. Her father was there. Claudio was there. Adrian was there. Adrian sat on the edge of the bed, Claudio stood by the door. Her father was in a chair sitting beside the bed.

“Tristan!” she yelled.

“Tristan’s locked down,” Adrian said.

“Locked down? Like… like Celia?”

“For your protection initially, and now ours as well. We’ll be releasing him as soon as is feasible. We’re still trying to talk him down.”

“Down from what?”

“In his words?  From turning this place into a bloodbath,” Adrian replied and didn’t crack a smile.

Kyla rubbed her eyes. Her stomach cramped up. She winced.

Lyle passed her a glass of water. She took a sip.

“You’re dehydrated, drink all of it,” Adrian said and put a thermometer in her ear and took a reading while Kyla drank. He looked at it, looked at Claudio, and gave a nod and then Claudio opened the door. Two women in orange scrubs rushed in. Adrian and Lyle rose.

Lyle kissed her on the forehead, “I’ll come see you tomorrow.”

“Wait, where
is
Tristan. What’s going on?’

Adrian stopped at the door. Lyle and Claudio left.

“You’re going to have a rough night so these are nurses who will help you through it as the rest of that medication runs its course. Tomorrow we’ll talk and we’ll take you to see Tristan. You’ll likely still be bleeding so he won’t be released until you stop.”

“Huh?”

Adrian said, “Claudio is medicated so that he won’t attack you. I’m glad to see it’s working. Myself and Lyle are unaffected because we’re your father and grandfather. It’s helpful that mother nature protected you that way.”

“What’s going on? What medication?”

“You’re in the midst of a medication-induced abortion. Couldn’t be helped. We weren’t ready but Tristan didn’t listen to reason. As it’s a supernatural pregnancy it’ll be rough for you. I’m sorry about that. But you’ll survive it.”

And then he left.

Her stomached spasmed and as she doubled over in pain the two nurses moved in and one said, “Let’s get you to the bathroom.”

Kyla was sure she felt her heart shatter into about a million pieces.

~~~

The next morning, one of the nurses tipped a medicine cup toward her mouth with clear liquid, telling her that it was the last of the medication and that she needed to take it. She feebly tried to fight her off but two more women in orange scrubs came in and held her down while one forced the medication into her and then they continued to hold her down while the first nurse did a pelvic exam that felt a little too much like rape, during which she took samples on swabs.  They finally left and she finally fell asleep.

It had been a horrible night with pain in her belly, with so much blood she thought she’d die, and with so much pain in her soul she didn’t think she’d ever feel the warmth of daylight again even if she was a foot away from the sun itself. It was the night that took years to end.

Tristan had fertilized her egg and obviously, during that short and vague conversation with Adrian about Kyla’s food demanded that they not abort it and then
Granddaddy
had done it anyway by drugging her. And then when she started to bleed out, Tristan had gone crazy grey hulk on her and they’d locked him down.

Adrian came in with a breakfast tray.

She glared at him.

“Good morning. Feeling okay?”

She narrowed her eyes, “What do you think?”

He sat on the edge of the bed and put the tray on the nightstand.

“I think you’ll feel better soon.”

“Where’s Tristan? What’s happening?”

“He’s still locked down.”

“Tell me. Tell me everything that happened.”

“Well, he lost it and then we had him daggered. We almost lost you. Thankfully, that was avoided. I think you’ll be glad things worked as they did once you look back on this.”

She said nothing in response.

“You should eat.”

“Need to feed me more drugs?”

“No. Not today.” He smirked.

“Go fuck yourself!” she spat.

He got to his feet, “When you stop bleeding, let me know. If you haven’t said anything in three days, we’ll have another exam done so don’t waste your efforts hiding it.”

“When can I see him?” Kyla asked.

“When you’ve stopped bleeding.”

“But…”

“And don’t think about lying about the fact that you’ve stopped bleeding when you haven’t. You’ll put yourself at risk if you do, so we’ll have a pelvic exam done to confirm it.”

“So what do I do in the meantime?”

“You don’t need to stay in your room. You can even enjoy the meadow around the cottage. You’re a good distance from the other buildings so you’re safe here. We have several nurses and orderlies here to watch you.” He winked, “I need to go.”

“How are you locking Tristan down?”

“It hasn’t been easy. He was very unruly. He’s particularly unruly due to that nectar infusion. It’s astounding how strong he is and he broke through several locks until we found a solution. I’ve lost a lot of men, actually. I think he’d benefit from at least a full regular cycle before getting you pregnant again, maybe two. Maybe next ovulation he’ll actually listen to reason. I need to go see to some things. If you need anything, ask one of your nurses for me and I’ll come straight away. Your father is here to see you.”

Before getting me pregnant again
echoed in her mind.

“I don’t wanna see anyone. You do know you’ve murdered your great grandchild, don’t you?” Kyla spat acidly, regretting the words as soon as they came out of her mouth because saying them aloud would mean she had to face what’d happened.

Adrian looked like he was choosing his words carefully. “That wasn’t done lightly, believe me. But there is much to be done before we go down that road. Tristan wouldn’t listen to my recommendations for keeping you safe while you were fertile and this was the consequence. It had to be this way. Your father is leaving for Monaco today. He’s in the hall so I’ll let him in now so you can say goodbye.” He flashed her a big smile and excitedly left.

“Asshole,” she mumbled and heard him laugh from the other side of the door and say, “She definitely
is
a spitfire. Gets it from my side.”

The door opened and Lyle was standing there.

“May I come in?”

She shrugged, suspecting he was asking as a courtesy but had every intention of coming in regardless of her response.

“I just wanted to say goodbye. For now. I need to get home. Are you feeling alright?”

“No. Not at all. But what does that matter to you? Adrian drugged me and killed my unborn child, your grandchild, but I’m good. Yeah, whatever.”

“I
am
sorry, Ky.”

“All for the cause, right?” she snickered and shifted so that her back was to him.

He rounded the bed and sat on the side she was facing, “I hope that in time you’ll come to understand how important you are, that you and I can build a friendship.”

She snickered again.

He leaned over and kissed her forehead, “I’m not who I was. I can’t relate to those human emotions but I have recollections that tell me that as far as human relationships go, you meant an awful lot to me. I feel affection for you. I’m proud to be your father, to have helped bring you into this world. For what that’s worth. Be well, Kyla. See you on the other side.”

The other side? What, when she was forced to be a vampire? When they were done all their pre-turning experiments on her?

“Wait. Do I have brothers or sisters?” she asked.

He gave her a sad smile and shook his head and then the door closed. He was gone. She shook her head.  She didn’t know if that head shake of his was sympathy or a ‘no’.

The emptiness didn’t feel bigger for the loss of Lyle Spencer, rather Lyle Kelly.  All she felt the loss of right now was the loss of Tristan. She couldn’t let herself feel the other loss she was suffering from. She didn’t know how she’d
ever
let herself feel that loss. It’d only been a few hours from conception to death for a tiny bundle of cells but that bundle of cells would’ve been a product of their love. Would’ve become a person. She pushed those thoughts away.

She reached out to Tristan in her head, in her heart, and she didn’t know what she wanted him to feel but she hoped he would feel her, that he’d know that she was thinking about him.

She didn’t think much time had passed when she heard the door open again. She turned over and was face to face with Tristan’s mother.

Holy shit.

The woman stood at her beside.

“Up. Get dressed. We’re taking a walk.” She clapped her hands in a “chop chop” manner. Her face then went sour and she muttered, “Smells like despair in here,” with disgust. She left.

Kyla didn’t feel like she had a whole lot of choice in the matter so she got up and saw that all their dirty clothes had been laundered and folded and were in a pile on top of the dresser beside the Puma duffle bag. She went to the bathroom with a pair of yoga pants, underwear, socks, and her thin cotton hoodie. It covered below her butt, thankfully, and would hopefully camouflage the ginormous overnight pad she was wearing.

Her stomach felt raw. She was bleeding pretty heavily when she went to the bathroom. She changed the pad, put in a tampon as well, and then washed up and put her hair up in a half ponytail, half bun and brushed her teeth. She could barely handle looking in the mirror, though. At a quick glance of herself all she could think about was him. Where did they have him? Was he himself?

She found Tristan’s mother near the front door. The woman was tall, taller than Kyla and beautiful. Her face was unlined, although she looked to be in her early to mid forties, and she was elegant and graceful. Clearly Tristan got his movie-star looks honestly. She was wearing riding clothes and riding boots.

“Kyla,” she held out a gloved hand and removed it and then reached for Kyla’s hand. Kyla shook it.

“Taryn Walker. Shall we?” She opened the front door and gestured for Kyla to go ahead.

The sun felt hot on her skin but inside she felt cold and empty.

“Are we going to see Tristan?” Kyla asked, finally, as it looked like they were heading toward the main house.

“No. Just a stroll.”

“Have you seen him? How is he?”

“I haven’t today yet but I saw him yesterday. He’s…agitated.”

“Is he himself?”

“Yes. More himself than ever,” she got an evil gleam in her eye.

Kyla didn’t know what that meant but she shuddered inwardly.

“Does Tristan speak of me?” Taryn asked.

“No. I’ve asked but he doesn’t say much.”

“Our relationship is complex.”

They were passing a corner on the stone path that led from the front of the cottage to where it forked. The path Taryn chose headed in the opposite direction of the main house and went back towards the back of cottage.

“Why is it that you wanted to talk to me?” Kyla asked.

“I’m very intrigued by you. I suspect you’re a lot like I was, before I was turned.”

“Really?”

“Tristan wants to do the right thing for you but he also needs to do the right thing for everyone,” she said.

Kyla wasn’t sure what she was getting at.

“My relationship with my son has been strained since I was turned. We were very close before that. Tristan’s father was murdered while I was pregnant with him and I gave him all the nurturing and love I had. We were one another’s world, my son and I. Things changed after I became vampire. He and I have diverging opinions on a lot of issues including where
you
are concerned and that has already made a tense situation even worse.”

“Oh?”

Taryn stopped and faced Kyla.

“Tristan needs to follow the path that has been planned. I hope you’ll do whatever you can to help with that. He’s being unreasonable. You need to work on Tristan. He needs to follow the path. He needs to be very wary of Claudio. Claudio isn’t ready to give up the throne so he needs to be watched. Tristan needs to sire as many children as possible and get as strong as possible as quick as possible so that he can claim that throne. When he turns you, you’ll have a lot of responsibility and I can help you with that so I want you to be very open to my instruction. He’ll be extremely receptive to your recommendations, you’ll be extremely receptive to mine. Do you understand? And get over your anger at Adrian. You and Tristan need him right now.”