Bonds of Blood [Lords of the Expanse] (Siren Publishing Classic) (26 page)

Shaking his head, he kissed her fingers lightly as he hugged her gently. “I’m not leaving you,” he said softly. “I promised I would be with you the whole time, and so I shall, my love.” Andries nipped at her fingers lightly. “We will just nap until our daughter arrives, or you could feed our son so that he has no reason to be so upset.”

“Or I can nap and just let little man feed from me while I get ready for our daughter to make her début?” She was really far more tired than she would tell him. “Will you help me, Andries?” She was conserving as much energy as she could so that when it was time to birth their daughter, she would have the energy.

Kissing her cheek, Andries helped the midwife get their son into place up at her breast. The woman left to start a bit of the clean up and would return off and on for the next few minutes, tidying up, and then would only return when it was time for their daughter. Pushing at Xandra’s top, he placed the babe near her nipple and cradled him as she adjusted slightly.

Xan’s eyes closed as she felt their son greedily latch onto her breast and she smiled. “Kinda like his daddy.” Little fists kneaded her breast in demand as the child fed. “You have to share your playthings now, Andries.” She grinned over at her husband and watched the look of wonder on his face. “Amazing, isn’t he?”

Moving a hand, he carefully ran a light finger down his son’s cheek. “Yes,” he said softly as he frowned slightly. “He seems so fragile,” he murmured as he wondered how the hell he was going to do this. He was now a father, and yet he hadn’t a clue what to do with the little life that was in his hands. He’d barely figured out how to be a husband and he already had to change gears. “I’m not sure I should admit this, but he terrifies me,” he whispered to Xandra as he rested his chin to her shoulder, still watching his son feeding.

Their son opened his eyes and looked at Andries as if trying to determine friend or foe. “He’s searching for who’s in the room so that his sister can be born, how strange.” Xandra told them all quietly with a frown before she shook her head and switched topics. “Just be who you are, Andries. Teach him to be as you are, strong, honest, a leader. A lover. A husband and the most perfect father.”

“I’ll try,” he said, softly stroking his finger down his son’s cheek again. “But perfect is not what I am, but what I am aiming for.” Even though he knew he’d never get there. He’d had a lousy father, not exactly the best example of what to do when Andries had a son. Even his mother hadn’t been as Xandra was, caring and so very giving. “I just hope he doesn’t grow to hate me.” As Andries had his own father. He hadn’t meant to say those words, but they’d been pulled free from that part he normally kept closed off and buried deep inside of him.

“He could never hate you, Andries,” Xan said as she turned to face him. “Never, Andries. No matter what, our son will never hate you.” She would give their family the love they needed to stay unified as one, to remain as a family should be, and not something that either of their families ever was.

Smiling faintly, he shrugged slightly. “I hope not, love,” he whispered softly to her even as he still wondered. He was a product of his father. Would it not stand to reason his son would hate his father as much as Andries hated his own? “It matters not, love,” he said softly. “I did not mean to intrude on your time with our son. Perhaps I should leave you alone for a time,” he murmured as he shut his emotions back into the box where they didn’t seem to want to stay but where they caused the smallest amount of damage to those around him.

“Don’t you dare leave us,” she said with a low growl. “When you walk out of here, you’re gonna have your son, so stop it.” She grinned as their son raised a little fist and hit his father’s cheek lightly, followed by the grin around her nipple as he paused only a moment in his suckling.

Stunned by the small fist hitting him, Andries didn’t even notice her words. “Why did he do that?” he asked in surprise, unable to hold the question back. He knew nothing about babies, and it was all the more obvious with his question and the confusion held in it.

“Just his way of telling you that he loves you already, Andries.” Xan closed her eyes and shifted slightly. “He’s finished eating, darling. If you wanna take him and burp him, you can.” She nuzzled the dark hair of their child and grinned. “So perfect, just like your daddy.”

Andries barely kept the snort of derision at her words from escaping as he gently took his son. Placing him carefully at his shoulder, Andries rubbed at the baby’s back under Xandra’s watchful eye. “Have you thought of names for our children?” he asked as he continued to rub at his firstborn’s back.

She yawned and shook her head. “Nope, you get to name him.” She touched their son’s hand before letting her hand fall. “Our daughter I want to name Andria because that’s what she told me her name was.” She wondered how long it would be before Andries clued in that it was a play on his name that their daughter settled on. “This one, however, says it’s his father’s right to name him.”

Throwing her a small glare, he sighed as his son belched loudly in his ear. “I know nothing of naming a child, Xandra,” he told her honestly as he adjusted his son to cradle him in his arms. Looking down into the wide-eyed gaze, Andries shook his head. “I have no idea what to name you,” he whispered to the boy.

Xandra grinned and shook her head. “You know what you want to name him Andries. Even he knows what you want to name him,” she muttered sleepily as she ran a hand slowly over her belly, “Rest, Andria. You will come into the world soon, sweetheart, I promise.”

Staring down at his son, who just stared back with interest in his eyes, Andries sighed softly. “You could give me a hint,” he murmured to the little boy. Stroking his fingers down the soft cheek, he just sat for the longest time enjoying the quiet with his son. “Dalek,” he said suddenly into the silence. “For the brother I barely knew before he was gone,” he whispered to his son.

For a moment Andries went quiet as he thought of his brother. A younger man that had been born after Andries had gone through puberty, through the training that removed all traces of emotion from the males of the Vampire species. Dalek had been a young child, laughter still fell from his lips when he didn’t think his father was listening, a joy that spilled from the very core of the young man who hadn’t lived long enough to be sent into the rigorous training that all Vampire males went through. Once more Andries opened his eyes and looked down into the too-perfect face of his son. “Dalek is the perfect name for you my son.”

Xan grinned and continued to run her hand over her belly, and their daughter, who seemed perfectly content to finally stretch out alone inside of her belly. A yawn struck and then the small pains began. “I’m beginning to have pains again, Andries,” she whispered but kept her eyes closed. “I will wake when they are worse.” And that quickly she slipped off into sleep.

Looking to her for a moment, Andries reached over to gently brush her hair back, his fingers stroking lightly over her cheek. “She’s a good person,” he murmured softly. “She’s kind, generous, and so giving, much too good for the likes of me,” he said, looking back to his son. “She is the best woman you will ever meet and, I will say this only once, if you make her cry, we will be having words.”

The baby in his arms just bobbed his head and adjusted himself in his father’s arms, watching his mother and waiting for his sister to come along.

The midwife came back. “My lord, they are asking to see you and your son downstairs.”

Sighing, Andries nodded and stood, reaching over to stroke Xandra’s hair back. “Stay with her if you will,” he said quietly, lightly touching his wife’s lips. “She said that she was feeling the first of the birthing pains, but she told me they were very mild.” Looking to the woman, he eyed her carefully. “I will be right back,” he told her and then left the room to go down and show his son off to the throngs there.

As soon as the lord was gone, the midwife pulled out a comms device. “She birthed the son, but the daughter is still there.” She listened and then said, “Yes, sir. I understand, sir.” She closed it off and looked down at the sleeping lady. “Soon, my lady.” She sneered. “Soon you will be able to free our world.”

Entering the grand room below, Andries waited as all that were there turned toward him. Introducing his son, he moved around the room for a short while and then, something causing the small hairs on the back of his neck to raise, he excused himself and headed back up the stairs. Pausing at the top of the stairs, he looked around and waved over two of his guards. Ordering them to follow, he had them outside of the master suite’s doors and told them that they were not to allow anyone in or out unless he told them otherwise. At their nods he went inside and, pausing at the cribs they’d brought into their rooms, he laid his son down. “How is she doing?” he asked the midwife as his boy slid into a light sleep.

“She still hasn’t stirred, my lord,” the woman said and dropped her gaze to the ground. Head bowed and hands pressed together before her, she waited. “Maybe we should go to the hospital, my lord. It could be the birth was simply too much for her?” She knew the lady wouldn’t wake for the second child to be born. She had seen to that. The second child would die, and its body would hopefully impart some of the keys to their future while the mother would give the rest.

“There is no need,” he told her quietly as he looked to her and knew that she was what was setting off his instincts. “Guards!” he called out and then looked to the men that came in. “If one of you would see the lady to a room and ensure that she does not leave or harm herself, and if the other could go downstairs to get the good Doctor Sheffer please.”

“He can’t help her,” the woman snarled and jerked at the hands holding her still. “No one can.” A triumphant smile formed on her lips. “You should have sent her to the Alliance Council when they asked you to, my lord.” She was beyond caring because she knew before accepting the assignment what her fate was.

Holding his hand up to the guard, Andries stalked to the woman and took her by her throat, pushing her back to the wall. “You should know,” he said in a low voice as he lifted her up to his eye level, “my gift is dark and deadly, my lady,” he leaned in closer. “You don’t have to say a word. Your blood will tell me all I need to know,” he said and then, wrenching up her arm, he sank his teeth into her vein as he tightened his hold around her throat and drank, letting the blood swirl around his mouth and down his throat as he pulled what he needed from her mind via the link to the blood. He drank until she was too weak to even keep kicking at him and let her fall, uncaring for the wounds still leaking blood or the bruises at her throat. “Take her,” he ordered as he picked through her pockets and found the counteragent to what Xandra had been given. “Where the hell’s the doctor?” he yelled, moving to his wife.

“Right here, my lord,” Doctor Sheffer said and frowned. “What’s wrong with the Lady Xandra?” he asked as he moved to her quickly and dropped to the bed beside her to check her vitals. “My lord, what has happened to her?” he asked as he looked up with fear in his eyes. “The babe is struggling.” He laid a hand over her belly and frowned. “My lord.” He wet his lips. “I need to pull the baby from your wife.” He didn’t know what was happening but knew he didn’t have time to find out. “My lord, I need to cut the child from her or neither of them will survive.” The doctor was more than a little nervous, and when the small boy began to scream his frustration, he frowned. It was almost as if he understood what the doctor was saying.

“That woman gave her something and this is the antidote according to her.” Andries held out the vial with writings that made no sense to him, but he wasn’t of the medical profession. “Do whatever you have to do, Doctor, but they had both better survive whatever it might be,” he warned softly. Turning, he picked up his son before returning to the bed and sitting at Xandra’s side. Lifting her hand, he kissed her fingers as he rocked Dalek and began to pray that she didn’t leave him. She couldn’t leave him. He would not survive it if she did.

There was no time for the doctor to make his choice, so he nodded and pulled off his outer coat. Cleaning his hands well, he snapped on gloves, and with a special silver blade, he opened the Lady Xandra’s stomach to pull the child free. Laying her on the bedside at her mother’s side, he cleaned her quickly before sealing the wound on the lady’s stomach. “The child didn’t receive the poison. Her body wouldn’t absorb it.” He took the vial and, still not even sparing a glance for the lord, poured it down Xandra’s throat and prayed she would wake.

“Your daughter needs you, my lord,” he whispered as he sat on the opposite side of Xandra, holding her hand and praying as only an ancient healer could. “We will know soon enough if your wife will survive.”

Taking Xandra’s hand with his, he stroked his fingers over his daughter’s cheek. “Hello, Andria,” he murmured softly to his daughter. “And yes, I know all about the twist on my name that your mother thinks you’ve pulled over on me, but we will let her think I don’t know. It shall be our little secret.”

The little girl in question smiled up adoringly at her father and kicked her legs. It wasn’t long lived, however, because she was soon wiggling and snorting as she looked for her mother, for the heat she offered, and for the food she would provide.

Xandra felt more than heard her child and whispered, “Andries?” God, she hurt. She hadn’t even had her daughter and her whole…“Andries, I can’t feel Andria in me.” Her voice was less than a whisper of sound even when she felt as if she were screaming.

Dr. Sheffer looked to Xandra. “Calm yourself, my lady. She is lying at your side between you and your husband and son.” He touched her forehead with the back of his hand. “I had to do what was once called a caesarean section by the ancient Earthlings. It was the only way to get your daughter out before the poison touched her.” He bowed. “She’s perfect, my lady.” He grinned. “And hungry, from the looks of her. I will leave you to your husband for the explanations.” With that, the wise old man bowed. “My lord, they are perfect. Treasure and protect them.”