Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) Read online

“I see,” said the doctor, still looking at Riley in concern. “Sore throat? Have you lost your voice dear?”

  “N… no,” Riley stammered.

  “Ok then my dear, can you tell me what symptoms you are experiencing?” the doctor asked.

  “Well,” said Riley, still struggling to speak coherently, “it started as a cold and stomach cramps. But it hasn’t really settled down. Now I just feel really fatigued and run down.”

  “And vomiting,” added Ari.

  “Hmm,” said the plump woman, looking at Riley with a touch of concern, “it’s been going around. I’ve seen a dozen students with the flu over the last few weeks. The hospital has even started a free flu vaccine campaign.”

  “So just bed rest then?” asked Riley.

  “That’s a good start,” said the doctor. “How long has it been going on for?”

  “About two weeks,” Riley replied.

  “Well,” said the doctor, “I can write you a script for some peptosil; it helps with the bile build up. Are you sexually active?”

  This question seemed to snap Riley from her reverie.

  “What’s that got to do with peptosil?” asked Riley, supress a small chuckle, until her hands flew to her mouth, as if this action might cause her to be sick.

  The doctor smiled indulgently at Riley, before explaining, “You’re a young girl vomiting; do I really need to connect the dots for you?”

  “Apparently so,” said Riley, still looking confused.

  Ari couldn’t help it; she laughed. She knew exactly what the doctor was getting at; she thought that Riley might be pregnant. Fortunately for Riley, vampires couldn’t have children; unfortunately this meant that she most defiantly did have a stomach bug.

  “Don’t worry that’s not an option,” said Ari.

  The doctor’s eyebrows rose at this comment and she said, “It never is.”

  “What’s not an option?” asked Riley, still oblivious to doctor’s meaning.

  “You being pregnant,” Ari responded, another small laugh escaping her mouth.

  At this Ari had turned to smile at Riley, expecting the girl to be grinning also. What she had not expected was for Riley to look horrified, her eyes wide in deep consideration.

  “Shit,” Riley said, looking from Ari and then to the doctor, as her face continued to become more and more ashen.

  “I think we should do a pregnancy test,” said the doctor, standing to leave. “I won’t be long.”

  The moment the door closed, Ari rounded on Riley.

  “What the hell?” she said. “You can’t be pregnant; didn’t Clyde tell you? Vamps can’t have children… it is impossible!”

  “Don’t you think I know that,” hissed Riley, her head in her hands.

  “But then why would you think that-”

  “-I’m late Ari,” Riley said quickly, drawing her hands away from her face so as to stare wide eyed at Ari.

  “Late for what? Oh, you mean, late… late!”

  “I just thought it was because I have been sick… but, oh Jesus, I think I’m going to be sick,” Riley mumbled, racing from her chair and reaching for the sink, which she promptly began throwing up into.

  “Riley,” said Ari, reaching over to rub her back and comfort her as best she could, “let’s just think about this logically. You and Clyde have been together for what… four months, at least?”

  Riley nodded, her face still bent low towards the sink.

  “And you haven’t um… cheated on him at all?” asked Ari, trying to keep her voice casual.

  Riley looked up at Ari in disbelief, before quickly returning her attention to the sink and vomiting loudly into it.

  “I’ll take that as a no. S you can’t be pregnant. Vampires can’t have children and if you had gotten pregnant before Clyde, then you would be showing well and truly by now.”

  “I didn’t have sex with anyone before Clyde,” said Riley, reaching for some paper towel, so as to wipe her face.

  “You mean right before you met Clyde, you weren’t seeing anyone?”

  “No,” said Riley, shaking her head, “I mean, Clyde was the first guy I slept with.”

  Ari’s mouth fell open in surprise, just as the door to the doctor’s suite opened and Dr Fishman walked in, carrying a small plastic box in her hand.

  “Alrighty my dear,” she said merrily, handing over the box to Riley, “if I could get you to just go to one of the toilets in the waiting area and follow the instruction inside, we should get a result in about a couple of minutes.”

  Unable to explain to doctor Fishman that it was physiologically impossible for Riley to be pregnant, Ari and Riley left the doctors room and made their way to the large disable bathroom outside, Riley holding the pregnancy test as if it were some sort of contagious entity.

  Riley stared up at the image of a wheelchair and then turned back to look at Ari, her face the colour of sour milk.

  “Can you come with me?” she asked, not making eye contact.

  Ari nodded dumbly and pushed the door open, uncertain why Riley seemed so nervous; hadn’t they just come to the conclusion that Riley could not be pregnant?

  Once they were inside, Ari slide the lock so that it said ‘occupied’ and Riley fumbled with the package, opening it and retrieving a small plastic strip.

  “Ok,” said Ari, spinning around to face the tiled wall, just as Riley moved for the toilet.

  Ari hummed tunelessly to herself, hoping to distract Riley from any embarrassment she might be feeling and trying to force away her own awkwardness.

  After a moment Riley flushed the toilet and said, “Ok, it’s safe to turn around… I hope.”

  Riley moved to the sink and gently placed the pregnancy test onto the vanity before washing her hands. Intrigued, Ari moved closer. She had never seen a pregnancy test before. It was a long thin plastic strip with a dark blue coloured section and then a light area where the test result would show up. Two strips told you that you were pregnant, one strip meant you weren’t.

  “So,” said Ari, trying to break the tension as the pair sat waiting, their eyes glued to the results section of the test, “there’s no need to be worried. You can’t possibly be-”

  But Ari’s words died in her throat when two pink strips shone back at her, and her mouth fell open in disbelief.

  “Oh Jesus,” said Riley, reaching tentatively for her stomach.

  “It must be a mistake,” said Ari, reaching for the packet instructions and reading them slowly. “It says here that there is a 1% chance that it could be a false positive. Only 1%... but it has to be a false positive. I don’t understand. What the hell is going on?”

  Riley didn’t answer her. Rather gripped the pregnancy test and made for the door. Slowly the pair made their way back to the doctor’s office. The smell of vomit had been replaced with a sickly sweet pine fresh cleaner, which made Riley wrinkle her nose when she walked inside.

  “The test?” asked the doctor, looking expectantly at Riley, who handed over the pregnancy test, still without speaking.

  “It could be a false positive though, right?” said Ari, trying to gauge the doctors reaction.

  Dr Fishman looked up at Ari, smiling indulgently as she said, “Not very likely. Though I think we should do an ultrasound, just to make sure. I’ll hold my congratulations until after we get those results back.”

  Ari wanted to argue with the doctor, but knew she couldn’t. Still, there was no way that Riley could be pregnant. The test had to be wrong. The ultrasound would have to show that Riley wasn’t pregnant.

  “We should do a blood test as well, but the ultrasound will be the fastest way to make sure that you are pregnant, and we can do it today. Depending on the conception date, it may be too early to see if you are pregnant though, so if that comes back as negative, we will do a blood test. How does that sound?”

  Riley nodded, still too dumbstruck to speak.

  After that Riley and Ari were directed to a small dark room, halfway down the ba
ck of the medical centre. When they got there, the doctor knocked on the door once and waited for a reply.

  “Hello Lynda,” said a woman, seated on a funny looking chair, in front of which was an ultrasound machine. “I was just packing up for the day. What have you got for me?”

  Ari felt her face flush and her heart race. How was this happening? Surely they were about to find out that this was all just a mistake, and Riley would be sent home on a strong course of antibiotics.

  “Oh Sybil,” said the doctor, leading Riley into the room, “I am glad I caught you. Would you mind doing an ultrasound for young Riley here? We just need to confirm pregnancy.”

  Sybil looked up at Riley and gestured for her to take a seat on the bench.

  “Ok, if you could just pull up your shirt so I can see your belly,” said the ultrasonographer.

  Slowly Riley reached down and pulled up her top. Ari squinted down at her stomach. It was very dark in the room, almost pitch black, but Ari thought, though she wasn’t certain, that it looked almost as if there were a small bump in Riley’s belly. Quickly Ari shook herself. No… that was impossible.

  “I’m just going to put some gel on you,” the ultrasonographer added, squirting a large amount of thick blue liquid on Riley’s exposed stomach.

  “Ahh!” screamed Riley, and Ari whipped her head around furiously, but not before throwing her hands up into the air, stopping time.

  Ari stared wide eyed around the room. Everyone was frozen, at least she thought everyone was; a small voice proved this not to be the case.

  “Sorry, it’s just cold,” said Riley, looking sheepishly at Ari.

  “Wait… what?” said Ari, looking at the ultrasonographer and then Dr Fishman, who were both completely motionless.

  “What’s going on?” asked Riley, her eyes darting backwards and forwards between the two frozen women. “Did you just stop time?”

  “That,” said Ari, standing dramatically and examining the two stationary women, wanting to make quite certain they were indeed frozen, “is a very good question. Why the hell haven’t you frozen?”

  “I don’t know,” said Riley, her face mirroring Ari’s confusion. “You have always been able to freeze me unless I am in animal form.”

  “Something strange is going on. Before you couldn’t shift and now my powers don’t work on you.”

  Before Ari had a chance to discuss this any further however, the ultrasonographer unfroze, saying, “Ok, I am just going to press down lightly on your stomach.”

  Riley held her breath as the small probe touched her skin. At the same time Ari’s eyes darted over to the monitor, trying to make sense of the strange shades of grey that were swimming in and out of focus. For a long time no one spoke, then the ultrasonographer smiled and reached for a button on the monitor. A very fast beating noise, which sounded faintly like the distant echo of a galloping horse, blasted out through the speakers.

  “That’s the baby’s heart beat,” said the woman, still smiling as she moved the monitor so that Riley could see it.

  “OH, MY, GOD!” Riley and Ari said together.

  Chapter 4- Baby Bump

  Neither Ari nor Riley spoke when Chris came to pick them up after finishing at the medical centre. Chris tried for a while to make small talk, but when it became clear that Ari and Riley had nothing to say, the trio drove in silence back to the Pasteur Institute. Though Ari wanted desperately to talk about discovering that Riley was pregnant, she knew that it was up to Riley to announce this, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to break the news to Chris. The fact that Riley and Ari had meet with Natalie was completely lost from thought.

  When the car finally pulled up at the Pasteur Institute parking lot, Riley raced from the car and moved to Omega halls.

  “Hey,” said Ari, scrambling to catch up with Riley, Chris hot on her trails. “Where are you going?”

  “Can I… is it ok if I get Clyde to meet me in your dorm room?” Riley asked.

  “What?” said Ari, “Yea, sure. No problems.”

  Ari watched as Riley quickly called Clyde, saying that she needed to talk to him. When the trio were finally at the entrance to Omega Halls, Riley moved up the stairs and walked into Ari’s room.

  “What happened?” asked Chris, pulling Ari by the arm before she could follow Riley inside. “You guys are acting like she has the plague. She hasn’t caught some incurable bug from Clyde has she? Some sort of blood-sucking parasite?”

  Ari smiled nervously and said, “Not exactly,” before racing after Riley.

  Ari had just swung her door closed and was about to ask how Riley was, when her door burst open. Clyde stood in the doorway, took one look at Riley and swept to her side.

  “What is it?” he asked, “You sounded worried on the phone. Say something? Did something happen at the doctors? Are you alright?”

  Riley laughed manically at this and then rummaged through her bag. Slowly she pulled out a small black and white snap shot that the ultrasonographer had given her and handed it to him. Clyde took the image and looked down at it in confusion.

  “What’s this?” he asked, squinting as he tried to make out the image.

  “That’s our child,” said Riley, reaching tentatively for her stomach before adding, “our un-born child… I’m thirteen weeks pregnant.”

  Clyde stared open mouthed at Riley. He was not blinking or breathing, simply looking at her in sheer shock.

  “Now it’s your turn to say something,” said Riley.

  “I, I thought you said, said you were a virgin,” he said, stuttering almost incoherently.

  Riley’s face flushed before it hardened, and Ari wished that she could evaporate from the room.

  “What the hell?” Riley said, standing abruptly. “I was a virgin.”

  “Ok,” said Clyde, trying to keep his voice calm. “Then explain to me how you are pregnant. Waeres have children… you can have children with humans, other waeres, hell, whoever you want, but not vampires. Vampires don’t have babies. We’re dead Riley! So I don’t see how you can be pregnant, unless you were with someone before me. Or, unless… have you been with someone else since-”

  “-how can you even say that?” snapped Riley.

  “How else do you explain it? Immaculate conception?” snarled Clyde. “Vampires can NOT have children.”

  “Don’t ask me to explain it,” she said, and though she still looked angry, her eyes were watering, as if she were about to cry. “I didn’t ask for this… I just know that this morning everything was fine; I was in love with a vampire and now… now I find out that I am pregnant. How about you tell me how this can be happening? Because you are the father.”

  At these words Clyde’s face softened. He was looking at her stomach, his expression a mixture of hopefulness and doubt.

  “So you’re saying that you haven’t been with anyone since?” Clyde asked, his voice still disbelieving.

  “If you ask me that one more time I’m going to-” Riley started to say, but Clyde quickly cut her off.

  “-ok, I get it. I’m sorry. It’s just, I have never heard of…” Clyde said, faltering as he tried to make sense of his thoughts, “I know of no vampire who has fathered or mothered a child. I thought it was impossible.”

  “Wait a minute,” said Ari, now striding across her room, a sudden brainwave hitting her, “maybe Lea knows what’s going on. She acted very strange when we asked her to have a look at you, and, and I think she might have known more than she let on.”

  Without waiting for Clyde or Riley to speak, Ari reached for her phone and sent Lea a text. She didn’t say why she wanted to see her, simply that Ari needed her to come to her room as soon as possible.

  As the trio waited for Lea to arrive, Ari, Clyde and Riley shared a few very tense minutes. Clyde was staring unblinkingly at Riley’s stomach, while Riley tried valiantly to cover her belly from sight. Finally when there were a few knocks on the door, Ari rushed to her feet.

  “Thanks for c
oming Lea,” she said, holding the door open.

  “Two emergencies in one day; should I be worried or…” Lea started to say, until her eyes locked on Riley and she froze in the middle of the room. “What’s going on?”

  “You tell us,” said Ari. “Riley just had an ultrasound and she’s thirteen weeks pregnant. My powers aren’t working on her and she can’t shift into animal form. I know that you know what this is all about. I saw the way you reacted this morning. You saw something didn’t you? What aren’t you telling us?”

  “Wait… what? What do you mean? Since when can’t you shift into animal form?” said Clyde, looking at Riley in concern, before glaring at Ari and adding “And… and why can’t you freeze her?”