CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico: Athenodora

Athenodora smirked smugly as she watched the latest attack. Concealed from the view of the attacking doctors by her brother's magic, she admired how her vampires didn't stop. Spells of fire made them rear back but the damage didn't reach them. Herpo, as much as she loathed him and the idea she'd had to rely on him, had outdone himself. Repeated spells would eventually wear down the protective shields, but by that time it would probably already be over.

And her prediction proved correct. Triumph burned inside her as the last wizard's throat was torn out, leaving it in a messy pool of blood on the ground.

She let the charms concealing her fade away and heard the whisper-soft sound of the footsteps of another vampire approaching her. The younger vampire stood a head shorter than her. Black hair slipped smooth over fine shoulders, eyelashes short and thick, features strong. The pearly-white teeth gleamed with venom, and the irises almost glowed they were such a vivid, bloodied red.

"Warlord Maria," Athenodora greeted her.

"My Queen," Maria said, smoothly. She paused, meeting the eyes of the older vampire with cautious respect. Athenodora bit back a smirk, both at the wariness and at the address. It had been some time since she'd been called a queen– she hadn't even realized that she'd missed it. "You were right, my Queen. Your... strange trinkets worked. We lost none of our own, and the attack squad of fifteen sorcerers were all neutralized– with great prejudice."

"Excellent." Athenodora purred, satisfaction curling inside her. "Oh this is excellent. Now it is confirmed that it works, we need to increase the size of the army."

"Do we have a plan, my Queen?" questioned Maria, warily.

"We do not. However, I do." Athenodora bared her teeth in a lethal smile, the curve of it nothing short of bloodthirsty. "Increase the army to triple its current size. I want a minimum of sixty newborns. Every time any soldiers are killed off, make more. Do not bite weak humans, I want real soldiers. Strong ones. I also want you to recruit other warlords of the South to assist in managing the army. The sorcerers have reached the South, and they will be systematically taking each and every army down– you can win over the warlords by promising them the same protection I gifted you.

"I want the strongest, the best– do not waste either of our time with ineffectual weaklings. If a warlord refuses an alliance, do not waste your time with them. They will be dead within days, therefore not our problem. And Maria?" Athenodora's eyes turned ice-cold as she stared across at the younger vampire. "Do not disappoint me. I gave you the pretty little trinkets that spared your life, and I can take them back. You will be dead next attack."

Maria had stiffened, looking like she could be carved from stone. "I will not disappoint you, my Queen."

"No. You will not." She agreed, before turning away, looking back over the newly created battleground, and the robed, bloodied bodies strewn over it.

She was so close now she could almost taste it, like bitter ashes on her tongue.

-

-

Forks, Washington: Bella Cullen

Edward moved restlessly around the Weber's study, where the three of us had sequestered away from a concerned Angela and her family as Qiang moved her wand over my stomach, muttering different spells I didn't recognise. I could see him flicking through one of the books that had been laying open on the desk, but most of my attention was concentrated on the foreign magic I could feel sinking into my stomach. It made me uneasy, despite my trust in the older woman.

"If I did not know better, I would say you were in your second trimester." Qiang said, finally. Her face was almost eerily blank. I closed my eyes for a short moment and exhaled, both hands finding the swell of my stomach.

"That matches what I was guessing." I muttered, opening my eyes and looking back up at her. Qiang's dark-painted lips were pressed in a thin line and her sharp eyes were purposefully blank as they met mine.

"You said you first noticed it on the 21st?" She asked, voice short, and I nodded. Her eyes narrowed in thought. "Assuming the foetus was conceived on October 6th, pregnancy stomach bumps usually become visible at around twelve to sixteen weeks. As it's your first pregnancy, I'd say it is likelier to have been closer to the sixteen-week equivalent then twelve. Comparing that to your stomach size now, I can only surmise that the growth of the foetus is increasing in speed. That means I cannot give you an accurate due date, but my best guess would be anywhere between the end of October to the first week of November. In two or three days, when I have more data about just how fast the speed of development is increasing, I'll be able to give you a more accurate estimate."

"Shit," I breathed, feeling my face pale. "That soon?" 

"Does that mean it's too far along to be removed?" Edward spoke up for the first time since we'd entered the study.

"The foetus is at the equivalent age for a human foetus that abortion is illegal unless there's a significant health risk to either mother or child." Qiang confirmed shortly.

"This surely qualifies as a significant health risk," Edward argued immediately.

"No." I said, flatly. Edward turned to me, eyes angry and frantic.

"Bella–"

"I'm not having an abortion, Edward." I interrupted him. "Surely you realised that? If I was going to get Qiang to remove the baby, then I would have gone to her the moment I realised I was pregnant in the first place!"

Edward was visibly horrified and equally as frantic. "This could kill you!" He exclaimed. "It's a monster! We have to get it out before it can hurt you!"

"It's our child!" I argued, genuinely shocked by his words, his vehement statement. "Edward, it's our baby! How could you say that?"

"It's part vampire," he snarled.

"You're not a monster! Not all vampires are evil, just like not all humans are!" I snarled right back, even through the tears I could feel pricking at my eyes. "Damn it, I thought we'd finished with all this shit!"

"Vampires are murderers," Edward spat. "It's our nature! This– this thing," he gestured violently towards my midriff, "is a murderer, and it will kill you!"

He slammed the book he'd been looking over in front of me, open on the page of an inked illustration a naked, disemboweled woman, who was very dead, with an infant attached to the gaping wound of her midriff via what appeared to be an umbilical cord. I flinched away from the violent image, nausea rolling inside me, both my hands moving to my stomach, instinctively protective.

"What the fuck is that?"

"Ah," Qiang said, reaching out a slender hand with long, glossy purple nails to flip the book back closed. The cover of the book was cracked leather, the title stamped in gold leaf. "A bit of research on my part, after I got your message. I didn't realise I'd left it open."

"Seriously, what the hell, Qiang?" I demanded, a thrill of fear rushing through me. Qiang looked back at me, properly looked, for the first time since we'd walked in. Her face was grave, and her eyes tired.

"It's an old legend," She said, "from Greece, I believe. Of infants, conceived between young mortal maidens and beautiful, but ice-cold immortal monsters. The infant grows rapidly in the womb before tearing its way out of its mother, killing her and draining her of her blood for its first meal."

I could feel the blood drain from my face, leaving it cold and numb. "You think it's about vampires." I whispered.

"What I think is that the first recorded vampire was in Greece." Qiang said. "And that the similarities between that old legend, and the... infant you have conceived, cannot be denied."

"That– that doesn't mean my baby is evil," I argued, cradling my swollen stomach protectively. "That doesn't mean any of those hybrids were evil! They were just babies, for Merlin's sake, they wouldn't mean to kill their mothers– a newborn vampire faced with freshly spilled blood wouldn't be able to stop itself from draining even their closest loved one, let alone an actual newborn newborn!" I glared fiercely at first Qiang, and then Edward. I didn't even realise I was crying until I tasted the salt on my lips. "We can figure this out– we don't have to wait until inborn instincts and screwed up biology tells the baby to chew their way through the womb, you can deliver them first Qiang!" I said fiercely. "It will all be fine!"

"Bella," Edward reached a hand out towards me and I couldn't stop myself from flinching back. His expression was crushed, but cautious. "Breathe, Bella," he said, voice low and soothing. "In and out, breathe with me, love, in and out." I hadn't realised I was nearly hyperventilating in my panic and upset until he'd drawn attention to it. I concentrated on slowing my breathing back down and calming my racing heart. It helped when Edward started humming my lullaby. "Can I hug you, love?" He asked, after a few minutes. I hesitated, arms still both wrapped protectively around my stomach. "I won't touch it," he promised, and I trusted him not to lie to me, nodding at him.

He moved across the room in a flash of movement too fast for my eyes to track and pulled me into his arms. I gladly slumped into his cool embrace and took deep shuddering breaths, my face buried in the crook of his shoulder.

"You can't hurt my baby," I whispered, the words barely legible against the fabric of his shirt. He heard them anyway, because I could feel his shoulders hunch forward in defeat.

"I won't." He murmured, words sounding tortured. "I couldn't ever hurt you like that, Bella. But the... foetus; it could kill you– surely you must realise that!"

Some things are worth dying for, I thought but didn't say. Instead I told him the truth. "Our baby won't kill me. I have faith, Edward; I have faith in Qiang and Carlisle to keep me alive, in myself to stay alive, and in our child. I have faith that I'll survive this, Edward– and I need you to have faith in me."

"Your courage astounds me. It always has." He whispered. "But it terrifies me more."

-

We decided to set up a 'home base' of sorts at the Cullen's mansion in Forks, due to the mansion's size, location and, of course, all the hospital equipment already conveniently installed. Qiang had forbidden apparation travel, not that I could use my magic anyway, ordered me to limit my Portkey use and warned that floo travel would likely cause severe vomiting. That had just left driving, so when Qiang had transfigured poor Pastor Weber's desk into a hospital bed in order to perform a pelvic exam, I'd kicked Edward out, both for some privacy and so he could run over to the mansion to fetch a car for us.

I was relieved when he returned and Qiang finished the exam, happy to escape the hundreds of questions she had, especially accompanied as they had been by poking and prodding in places I really didn't want poked and prodded (not by my future step-mother, anyway), and making a strategic retreat into the privacy of the Volvo.

My short break, however, didn't last long– Charlie was already waiting for us at the Cullen's mansion. His cruiser was parked where the silver Volvo usually sat, on the days when the rain only drizzled lightly, and he was leaning up against it. 

"Oh Bella," he said, a look of almost total despair on his face as Edward helped me step out of the Volvo. I scowled and batted my husband's hands away.

"I'm pregnant, not invalid!" I snapped.

"Bella's PREGNANT!?" This much louder exclamation came from within the house. A second later, Emmett practically fell out of one of the second floor windows, though he managed to twist gracefully in the air and land feet-first on the wet ground below. Rosalie emerged gracefully from the front door a heart beat later, with not a hair out of place despite my strong suspicion she'd likely pushed Emmett out that window.

"How do you get into these situations, Bella?" My father was groaning, running both his hands through his hair.

"Why does everyone keep asking that?" I demanded sulkily. Baby nudged my bladder in a way that could almost be construed as affectionate, or consoling. It could also be construed as 'oh holy fuck I need to pee now now NOW!'

The last bit I may have said out loud, because cold vampire arms were whisking me away to the closest bathroom, where I didn't bother with any sort of grace or attempted modesty, instead yanking the skirt of the white sundress up above my hips and sitting down heavily on the porcelain throne. It was only after the nearly unbearable pressure on my bladder had decreased dramatically that I took in my savior.

It was not who I was expecting.

"Er, Rosalie?" I asked tentatively, wondering if I should be testing to see if the vampire with me was an imposter. Belatedly I remembered Edward's Gift, which was the best lie detector in existence, seeing as it could pick up lies before people even made them up, alerting him to their intention to conceal the truth before they could even concoct a falsehood. So I was pretty sure it really was Rosalie, unbelievable as that sounded. I just had to figure out why she was acting like she'd just been replaced by someone that had no idea how Rosalie had acted towards me, even after she'd thawed out somewhat looking after Luna and Bree.

Rosalie smiled softly at me, which made me blink several times and wonder if I'd stepped into some sort of twilight zone. "Here, let me help you to the couch," she said, in her sweet, chiming voice. I thought about protesting– I was tired and my limbs felt weak, but not to the point where I needed help. Still, Rosalie was being nice to me, I wanted this to last as long as possible.

I washed my hands in a bit of a daze then let the blonde vampire wrap a careful arm around my waist and walk with me to the lounge room. It was empty, but blankets and pillows had been laid across one of the couches, and a big steel mixing-bowl had been placed on the coffee table– for the vomiting, was my guess.

"Where are the others?" I asked as I sat down, privately relieved to take the weight off my ankles. A suspicious look down at them made me think they looked a little swollen.

"In the study," Rosalie answered. "Edward is on conference call with Alice and Carlisle. Charlie just made him put it on loud speaker so he and Qiang can hear both parts of the conversation. Carlisle is still in Alaska with Esme, Bree and Fred, but he's going to talk with the Denalis about all of them moving here."

"All of them moving? As in the Denalis too?" I asked, both concerned and skeptical. "That's a big thing, temporary as the move would be with the, er, short gestation period Qiang predicted."

I didn't even want the Denalis here anyway.

"That's actually where Alice comes in." Rosalie said calmly. "She suggested it." My heart started beating a bit too quickly as the sudden realization struck me, and the palms of my hands were damp with sweat as I dug my nails into them.

"Alice and Jasper aren't with the others," I stated more then asked, feeling sick at the thought of them being so... vulnerable. Peter and Charlotte had warned us that there were a lot of upset vampires out there– and I wasn't sure if the Auror hit squads would stop before destroying the two of them. I hadn't talked to Hermione yet, hadn't heard all the updates on the whole letting some vampires live scenario if they are 'vegetarians' or have taken a Vow.

"They were following a lead from Peter," Rosalie explained, "there are a number of people going missing in Mexico."

"I don't understand," I frowned.

"The type of people going missing, both their physical builds and their occupations, and the areas they're missing from– it's a pattern that both Peter and Jasper recognized." Rosalie said, her jaw tensing slightly in stress. "Maria, it seems, is determined not to go down without a fight. And with the Volturi gone, apparently she isn't trying to hide anymore."

"So you think she's biting innocent people to make an army of newborns to fight the Aurors?" I asked, stricken at the thought. I clearly remembered Jasper telling us his story, about the wars in the South, the newborn armies and his creator, Maria. "All those innocent people," I breathed in horror. "And it's my fault they're being killed or Turned, because I'm the one who–"

"No, it's not your fault," Rosalie interrupted me, her words strong and firm.  "Vampires, in general, are monsters, and they've been allowed to run unchecked for far too long. You're saving lives, Bella. It may not seem like it in the short term, but if in ten years time the only vampires left are those under Vows, imagine all the lives spared as humans are no longer hunted by us."

"Every war has casualties." I said, the words as hollow as I felt. Rosalie's hand touched my cheek, the comforting gesture feather-light but oddly still soothing.

"Unfortunately, that's true." She said, soft and sad. "People will die- vampires, witches and wizards, and the innocents who have no part in this. But it will make the world a better place."