The Vampire Queen's Resurrection

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE MONSTER

It wasn’t okay. In fact, it was far from okay. Well, not at the beginning. After Emir became a vampire, she fed him the Blood elixir to curb his hunger pangs which worked out wonderfully well. But it didn’t made Emir a strong vampire.

The vampire association was okay with that turn of event as the Blood elixir was really working for them. In short, everything was working out fine until she paid a visit to some distant human relative. The family atmosphere was so different from the one that she had that she missed the cordiality when she was back home.

“Hey, honey,” Emir greeted her as he returned from the labs. Aaliyah was still working as a scientist at the lab but was not very vested as she’d already invented two of the major pills she’d conceptualized. “What’s wrong?” he immediately asked upon catching her crestfallen expression.

“Nothing,” she instantly beamed at him, blinking away the sadness from her mind. How could she explain that gnawing desperate feeling of incompletion lately? The sense of something fundamental missing without the presence of a proper family. What killed her was that she would probably never have one.

“Oh come on! I know when you get that look on your face. See, it’s right there!” he commented approaching her for a kiss.

“I was thinking of a new drug,” she ventured haphazardly.

“Already?” Emir pulled back one from her a few inches. “Jeez, Al! You’re a genius, babe. Did I tell you that?” he asked dropping a resonating kiss on her temple.

She smiled. His attention made her all warm and mushy inside. Maybe he would understand? “I’m going to call it Life Elixir because it would bring people to life. Babies.”

His eyebrows c****d upwards in curiosity. “Babies? Human babies? You want to turn human babies into vampires?”

She laughed self-consciously, suddenly very nervous of her idea. She had that dark premonition that he wouldn’t like that nascent feeling which turned her nervous. Could she tell him that she was suddenly starting to miss the presence of a family, one that she would love unconditionally.

“No, I am trying a new elixir to fix the fact that vampires cannot procreate. You know, it’s not fair that we cannot have a proper family than anyone else. Anyone of the folklores do not have that prerogative ripped from them. I don’t know why…”

“Aaliyah, are you really willing to take the risk after Ezekiel?” Emir put in favorably. Aaliyah knew that the reason she’d been able to reproduce had been because she’d mated with a werewolf and his genes had been superior to her vampire ones.

Ezekiel Darhk was half-vampire and half-werewolf, but his double personality was conflicting so much that he was in constant pain. She’d tried everything to get her son better, so much that her mother’s persuasive instincts drove a wedge between them. It had been a desperate quest, which had only served to make Eze feel inadequate.

Moreover, the fact that Ezekiel had born malformed had created havoc in her world, and it had created wounds so deep that she wasn’t even sure she could overcome. Yet here she was still trying to make a family – still fighting against nature for her piece of heaven.

“Who risks nothing has nothing,” she stated in a voice so low that she wasn’t even sure he heard her.

That was then she started to give her full undivided attention into creating the Life elixir. Emir was quite vocal in his objection, and he warned her that she was going against nature. So, she was all alone in her quest. It took her longer, much longer than she’d anticipated.

She had to test on herself, and despite Emir’s grumblings, she knew that he was aware of her quest. She worked late in the lab at their apartment, a gift from Emir to stop her from staying at the office. The formula she applied at first was completely wrong. It made her so horny that she had to take a break from the research and seduce her very happy husband.

However, that was when things started to go downhill. When she tried the formula again after the first failure, she changed it so much that it completely put her off s*x. Which suited her as it gave her more time and energy to focus on her work.

So engrossed in her findings that she failed to notice the irreparable damage it was doing to her and Emir. He threw himself at work also, coming from office until wee hours in the morning, and even then Aaliyah remained in the labs.

It came to a point when they didn’t see each other for days. For weeks even.

The next time she did a pregnancy test, it was positive. She was over the moon and wished she could share the news with her husband. However, the distant between them had grown from a wedge into a precipice.

“Hey,” he greeted her two days later when she hovered around him in the living room hesitantly, trying to get the right words out. “Not working tonight?”

Although the answer was casual, it was clear that there was a world of reproach behind the question. She sighed. It was so difficult to get through him that she considered bailing again. She’d been stalling with the news for days, and it was heartbreaking that she didn’t have anyone to share her happiness with.

“Nope, actually. I am not.”

He looked at her then, from the newspapers he was reading, but there was no expression in his topaz eyes. The light had died from them, and she hated the fact that she’d brought this to him.

“Given up?” he again used that nonchalant tone which didn’t fool Aaliyah one bit.

“No, actually I haven’t. Ermmm… I haven’t given up. I might have succeeded,” she said in a small voice, placing the pregnancy test kit with two dot lines on the table as she announced the news.

He did a double take. “What?!!” he exclaimed loudly. His eyes darted to the kit like it was an offensive item, and her heart sank. Then they roamed over her belly, like he was trying to find concrete proof. “Y…you mean…? Y…you’re pregnant?”

“Yep,” she infused enthusiasm in her response, hugging herself to protect from his incoming verbal attack. “I am kind of pregnant.”

He folded his newspaper, more crumbled it before throwing it over the couch. “What do you mean kind of pregnant? You went to a doctor? Is something wrong with you already? Is the b…,” he stopped, his eyes popping out in horror. “Is the baby fine?”

“Yah, yah,” she said with her hands waving in an appeasing gesture. “Nothing like that. I went to Dr. Waverley two days ago and she carried out some tests. It’s too early for a sonography yet, butt she assures me that everything seems normal.”

There was a moment of silence for so long that she had to shift from one foot to another in awkwardness. He blinked at her in surprise, his eyes fixed on her belly and his Adam apple bobbing up and down before he let out a cry.

“Al! God, you’re crazy!” he exclaimed in a astounded voice. “I mean, this is crazy! I’ve already given up on having kids when I made the choice of becoming a vampire. But this! This is huge!”

“I know,” she said stealthily, her head and eyes moving frantically as she was still trying to gauge his reaction. “Good huge or bad huge?”

He huffed a loud breath. “I…I don’t know. Well, for one, I never thought you would succeed. I mean, shielding from the sun and controlling blood hormones were already stretching a little too far. But you making a baby without the normal female reproducing system. I mean you don’t even have your periods…”

“Right,” she agreed heartedly. “Want to see how I fixed this?”

Emir’s puzzled expression finally cleared to a more normal one. “Sure,” he said, and they both went to the labs, pouring over the details of how she concocted the detour. It was a relief to see Emir so invested after he’d clearly stayed away from the whole thing in the past.

“Aaliyah Royal, you are a true genius! Seriously!” he complimented roughly.

She basked in his compliment unsure of his reaction. To be honest, she would have preferred his enthusiasm about the baby instead of the experiment.

“This could revolutionize everything! The future of vampires! My God! You are a true queen. Come here!”

She went willing into his arms, with a smile on her face. “You really think this will work out? That we will finally be happy?”

A shadow crossed his eyes then. “Oh, Al baby,” he sighed wearily. “You don’t need a family to be happy. You know the reason why I was so pissed off? Because you were really adamant about the fact that a child would make you complete. I wasn’t enough for you. If you feel that way, then I have bad news for you honey. Nothing is ever going to make you content. There is no final happiness.”

She blinked back at him. “What do you mean? Are you telling me you don’t want this child? That you don’t think this baby will complete us?”

“No, no! I am definitely not saying that. Of course, I am over the moon about the baby. It’s a gift that I reneged on early on. But you were so obsessed about the whole thing…”

“I know! I know,” Aaliyah was ready to admit anything as long as she didn’t lose her husband. The positive thing was that emir wasn’t against the baby, but only against the fact that she was once again breaching laws she had implemented herself.

Needless to say that the vampire association weren’t very happy about the pregnancy news, and they called her to another meeting to challenge her. The ungrateful people! After everything she’d done for them.

“Queen Aaliyah. What happens if the child turns out malformed as your first one? How would it feel to know that you have created another child who hates you? One who lives in constant pain?”

“Well, this child wouldn’t. The only reason why Ezekiel turned out malformed and in agony was because his father is from another species. The pain came from the fact that he was conflicting between his dual nature. This baby…,” she replied with a protective hand over her belly. “…has both parents as vampires. So, there’s no way in hell that history will repeat itself.”

Clegane pointed an accusing finger at her. “You’ve been doing what you think is good all this time. I think we need to stop this dictatorial thing and have consultation committees about what you plan to do.”

“Dad,” she reprimanded softly. She was losing her touch. Being pregnant tended to soften her disposition. “I know what I’m doing.” She was pretty confident in her answer. It didn’t matter anyway – she was finally getting to be a mother. She was going to have a child.

“Well, if you are that confident, then I’m sure you will find no objection in taking a pledge right now?”

“A pledge?” she repeated dubiously. “What kind of pledge?”

“If this new vampire baby of yours comes out malformed, do you take a pledge to end her life yourself? Do you solemnly promise to end the suffering of another innocent which you’re going to create for your selfish desires?”

It would never happen. After three centuries of miseries, her time had come to shine. So, she took the pledge without hesitation. “I, Aaliyah Stoneheart, swear to put an end to my baby’s life if she’s born malformed.”

With a jerk, her eyes opened, and she had trouble coming back to reality. It took her a long time to remember that she’d died and been resurrected. And was now again back to square one. Carrying a baby who would probably be born a monster.

“What’s wrong?” Emir asked bursting into the room as she must have made a sound. “Aaliyah, what’s wrong? Is it the baby?”

Her eyes flew to his in horror. “I remember. I remember everything.”