*
In the months to come, Alex spent her time alone, except for Gail and vampire women who had an interest in her pregnancy. She received all sorts of advice from those who'd had a child or two before they'd been turned, but so little of it applied to a pregnant vampire. They were surprised that her body was so warm. Themselves, they were only a few degrees above room temperature. They wished to feel the baby move and would place a palm on her abdomen, rub it and smile.
Regardless of popular mythology, vampires do have a heartbeat, and they do breathe, although both are reduced considerably because of superior metabolic efficiency. They are faster, stronger, and have greater endurance. They heal faster, can endure more pain, and suffer no use injuries. They don't have to workout to maintain physical conditioning. Alex learned, as she suspected, that the need for blood was not as food. "It is more like the need for water, a life necessity without nourishment. It allays the flu-like symptoms and excruciating pain," said Cosmina, who seemed to have an answer for every question. The symptoms, though they could be severe when first turned, tended to mellow through the years, and one could learned to manage blood intake and the agony of deprivation.
True to his word, Alu set up a monitoring program for hers and the baby's health. Daily blood pressure checks turned out to be a nuisance, and security guards shadowed her twenty-four hours a day, something that made Alex nervous and irritable. Alu seemed to be overreacting. And Alex wasn't convinced that it was all to ensure her health and safety. She also wondered about the angry voice she'd heard when she had first been in Alu's chamber, the voice of what he'd called a disturbed woman. The more she thought about it, Alex believed that the woman had wanted to see her. Why, she couldn't imagine.
Alex pushed back on all the medical attention. She and the baby were healthy and did not need it. A technician brought in a portable 3D ultrasound machine, which Alex permitted once. She saw her little girl sucking her thumb and felt that it was a violation of her baby's privacy, which she would not allow again. That night Alex had trouble sleeping with images of her little angel crowding it out. She couldn't quit smiling.
Once a week they drew blood, something Alex resisted at first but eventually allowed. They made a big deal of her having only one set of DNA, the same thing the Sinaia medical clinic told her. They asked if she'd ever heard of parthenogenesis. When she said no, they told her it was a form of asexual reproduction where the embryo develops from an unfertilized egg. This pleased her greatly because that meant her child may not have a father, at least not in this world. But Alex also felt that their interest in her child was excessive and quit letting them take blood.
Herself, Alex felt fine. She suffered no morning sickness, and her ever-enlarging abdomen felt a comfort. Her biggest problem was getting the right food in sufficient quantities. She was concerned about vitamin D for the baby. Cosmina helped with this by making frequent trips to the market. But mostly, Alex wished to be left alone, "alone with my baby," as she put it. At times the Cathedral was so quiet she could hear her own heartbeat. During the vampire night, when the Undead seemed like the dead, she'd listen for the baby's heartbeat and tuned herself to it. It was a rapid, steady ping going off inside her. She'd listen to it for hours and took special pleasure in any movement. At first, these felt like simple flutters, but as the months passed, Alex learned the difference between tiny arm and leg movements, and a shift in body position. Sometimes she felt a hiccup. Her bond with the baby became an obsession, and when she thought of Father Zosimos planning to take her baby from her, she'd feel a flash of rage and the baby would quake.
Among the permanent residents of the cavern, Alex met two children from America, a black boy, six, named William and a white girl, eight, named Jessica, who were both turned recently. They had the same mother but different fathers. They'd been in an orphanage when forcefully turned. After their caretaker got staked, they'd been brought to Romania and the cavern for safety's sake. They came to see Alex frequently, and she loved to talk to them.
Alex's one excursion outside the Cathedral came at Christmas. She knew her mother would worry, so she stepped out of the darkness and into the cold wind to use her cellphone. It was snowing, and although overcast, she was blinded by the sunlight. Across Prohova River Valley, she saw the white shape of snow-laden mountains. She'd never realized their beauty until now. How she missed the outside world.
Alex explained that she wouldn't make it home for Christmas, but assured her mother that everything was alright. She just had too much going on to break away. Her mother had been concerned. She'd tried to call but got no answer. Her voicemails had not been returned. Alex explained that her cellphone was malfunctioning and that she'd missed other calls also. Frequently, she was outside the service range. She could tell that her mother didn't believe her.
Alex thought of calling Jaklin. She got so far as calling up her cell number, but just couldn't push the button. If they were gone, she'd cry at their absence and worry about her home. If they were still in Sinaia, she'd worry about their safety. She turned off her cell phone and reluctantly squeezed back inside the cavern.
It was when returning that she accidentally came upon Cosmina in conversation with another vampire, the strangest Alex had ever seen. Alex hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but the whispering voices startled her, and she stayed back out of sight to honor their obvious desire to not be overheard. Alex's enhanced hearing still latched onto the raspy voices, and her mind couldn't help trying to make sense of what they were saying. Something about a scythe and problems on Millennium Road and a heated discussion of Alu's recent activities. Much of it she couldn't make out because it seemed to be in a foreign language. Suddenly, the whispering stopped, and Alex realized that they'd sensed her presence. She walked toward them, but the strange vampire seemed to flicker, then vanish into the darkness, as if she were an apparition.
"Alex? What are you doing here?" asked Cosmina, her voice still a whisper.
"Who was that?"
"You don't want to know. Were you eavesdropping?"
"No! Not intentionally. I've been outside calling my mother," she answered. It was the truth, but still, she felt guilty.
"What did you hear? Tell me. How much?"
"Little, really," she said. "Something about a scythe, but I could tell it was a private conversation and tried not to listen."
"Say nothing of what you did hear. And say nothing of the person I was talking to. I trust you, Alex. Believe me, you don't want to get involved."
"Then let's not mention it further," said Alex.
And they didn't mention it again, either of them, but Alex's mind wouldn't leave it alone, picking at the memory of the disjointed details of the conversation and extrapolating, collating. Even the foreign words seemed to linger in her memory for later translation. The dim, strobing image of the strange vampire wouldn't disappear either, and the longer it remained in her mind's eye, the more vivid it became. It seemed that a secret group of wayward vampires with unusual skills roamed the earth correcting Alu's wrongs. This was her first confirmation that everything Alu was involved in may not be for the good of all. And the strange looking vampire was a female, short-cropped black hair and large flashing eyes. Ephemerally beautiful. She shimmered in the pale light and seemed transparent. It was obvious that Cosmina was not the unquestioning follower of Alu she'd seemed. Alex remembered how confused Cosmina had been over Alu not knowing that Alex had dreamed of Millennium Road. Cosmina's secrecy was a shock, as was her seeming trust of Alex to not divulge what she'd seen and heard. This simple act of faith brought with it amplified respect and new admiration. But perhaps it's biggest impact on Alex was the confidence it gave to her own questioning of the world Alu had created. Now she realized that she should take nothing she saw on faith.