Birth of Jaiden (15 page)

He didn’t think about
Jaiden or Isabella or even God, only about himself. Overcome by the
joy of the moment, he refused to see what was happening to
him.

“
Alex, do it!”

He heard Danielle’s voice
in the distance.

“
Danielle, take his
legs.”

Smoke rose into Alex’s
line of vision.

“
We have to get him into
the basement. It is the safest place,” Jeremiah told
Danielle.

“
Hurry, let’s get
him.”

Alex couldn’t speak. He
couldn’t tell them to stop. He wasn’t sure if it was because
he
could
not
speak or because he was so mesmerized by the rising sun. He
could feel them dragging him across the porch.

No, no, no
, he told himself. He wouldn’t
let them take from him what he had missed most all of those years.
Anger welled up inside him. How could they do that, knowing how
much it meant to him? How could they take away his
moment?

Alex had no idea how badly
he was injured. He had no idea what it could do if he stayed in the
sunlight much longer. Danielle, who was very strong, was at his
feet, but Jeremiah was mortal and old, which made him
weak.

Jeremiah held him
underneath each of his arms and attempted to drag Alex into the
house. Suddenly, to their surprise, Alex twisted violently and
landed face down on the wooden porch.

His legs had come free
from Danielle’s grip and he started to crawl back into the
sunlight.

Danielle screamed, “Get
him, Hurry!”

Jeremiah grabbed the back
of his coat and yanked back but his strength was nothing compared
to Alex’s. Jeremiah lost his grip and fell on his
backside.

Yes, yes
! Alex thought.
I am going to make
it
.
I am going to live
in the day
!

Common sense had
completely left him and they were dealing with a crazed
vampire.

Suddenly, his head was
forced down onto the porch and the rest of his body was flattened
against it too. Danielle had tackled him like a football player.
She sat atop his body and held his hair in her fist.

“
I’m sorry,
Alex.”

With that, she pulled his
head back and slammed it into the porch, face first, with her
incredible strength. It was not enough to knock him out but he was
stunned enough not to fight them momentarily, long enough for them
to get into position to try again.

Despite Alex’s vampire
strength and all of his kicking and struggling, they somehow
managed to drag him into the house and away from the deadly
penetration of the sunlight.

Once they had him in the
house, he continued to struggle, until blackness flooded his
vision. He could still hear their voices but he could not see
them.

No, no, no
, he tried to tell them.
I want to stay; I
want to see the sun
!

While they dragged him
down the stairs, he fought wildly, telling them with his thoughts
that he wanted to stay. Slowly, their voices began to fade until he
finally lost consciousness.

16

Isabella sat on the
overstuffed, brown leather sofa in Alex’s den. She watched a movie
on the huge fifty inch flat screen and sipped a cup of coffee.
Jaiden lay beside her, sleeping soundly.

She still couldn’t get
over the size of the television; it was like being at the movies.
Having the television on gave her some comfort; her home had always
been filled with children and the noise which accompanies them.
Alex’s house was so large and lonely with only herself and Jaiden
to occupy it.

Alex had left the night
before and, to her knowledge, had not returned. She had a feeling
that something was wrong. She knew she shouldn’t worry but she
couldn’t shake the feeling.

When the door bell rang,
she was startled out of Tolkien’s battle for middle earth and
spilled coffee all over the front of her blue tank top. Groaning,
she placed her mug on the end table and hurried to the
door.

Damion and Christopher
waited on the other side of the front door.

“
Hi, Isabella.” Damion
greeted her.

“
Hi, guys, Alex isn’t
here.”

Damion nodded. “We know,
which is exactly why we’re here. Can we come in?”

“
Sure.” Confused, she
moved aside so they could enter. Then, she led them into the den so
Jaiden wouldn’t be by herself for long.

While Damion and Chris
each sat down in a recliner, Isabella reclaimed her seat on the
couch beside Jaiden.

“
Is Alex ok?” she asked as
she pointed the remote at the TV and pushed mute.

Chris leaned forward in
his chair. “There was some kind of accident. We don’t know any
details, yet, but Danielle asked us to come over here and get the
truck.”

Isabella gasped. She had
known
something was
wrong. “You don’t know what happened?”

“
No.” Damion shook his
head. “We only know he is injured pretty badly and that he needs to
come home.”

“
Where is he?”

Damion answered quickly,
“He’s at Jeremiah’s house. Look, I don’t want to be rude but we are
just as curious as you are and we want to get over there so we can
find out what is going on.”

“
Oh. The keys are all on a
hook beside the garage door.” She pointed in the general direction
of the garage.

Christopher stood. “Thank
you, Isabella.”

She followed them to the door.
“No, thank
you
for letting me know. I had a feeling something was
wrong.”

Damion opened the door to
the garage. “Don’t worry, he will be home soon.”

Christopher followed him
into the garage and shut the door behind him.

Unable to return to her
movie, Isabella paced the floor. What could she do in the meantime?
She picked up Jaiden off the couch and carried her to the very last
room at the end of the hall.

For a long time, she stood
in front of the door to Alex’s room and debated if she should
enter. She wanted to get things ready for when he got home but she
didn’t want to invade his privacy, either.

She opened the door and
peeked in.

Well, what could it
hurt
? she
thought and tiptoed inside.

The entire main part of
his bedroom appeared untouched. His gorgeous bed was made and
didn’t even have a wrinkle on the burgundy comforter. All of his
dressers were free of clutter, without even a hint of dust. It was
as if no one occupied the room at all.

After a few moments of staring
at the bedroom furniture, she realized there wasn’t much she
could
do. She didn’t even
know what his condition was.

She decided to explore and
opened the closet door. His closet was absolutely, for sure, the
most perfectly organized closet she had ever seen. The next door
she opened was the bathroom. It was a man’s bathroom, all black
tile and chrome fixtures. The shower stall was not even a stall,
just a lot of faucets and a big shower head dropped from the
ceiling. All you had to do to take a shower would be to walk around
the gigantic blocks of frosted glass that looked like ice
cubes.

The last door in the room
was locked.

“
Hmmm.”

She tried again. At first,
she wondered why it was locked; then, the obvious reason that Alex
was a vampire and would probably have lots of things to hide
occurred to her. It made her curious as to what was behind the
door, though, although that wasn’t strange because most people
would want to know what was behind a locked door.

Isabella gave up on
finding anything to do for him. She felt like an intruder so she
and Jaiden went back to the sofa and her movie.

It was impossible for her to
concentrate on the movie. She knew it wasn’t going to get any
better, either. Obviously, she didn’t know Alex that well, but in
the short time she
had
known him, she had felt sort of tied to him…in a way.
Especially after what he had done for her family; no one had ever
helped her and asked nothing in return.

He had even left a credit
card on the table with instructions to call the doctor for
Charlotte and make her an appointment and call for a car to take
her to and from the doctor’s office. She was going to be forever
grateful and wished there was something she could do for
him.

The soft, electric glow of
the television was all that lit the room. Jaiden, who Isabella had
placed beside her on the sofa, was no longer sleeping soundly. She
had begun to whimper and thrash around a bit.

Isabella picked her up and
cuddled Jaiden to her chest, assuming she was only having a bad
dream. She rocked her slowly.

Jaiden wouldn’t have it;
she continued to fuss and whimper. Suddenly, her eyes sprung open
and she began to cry loudly, almost full out screaming.

“
It’s ok, it’s ok.
Shhh.”

The lights began to
flicker and, with a flash, the dark room was lit with a blinding
light.

In awe, Isabella gasped.
“Jaiden!”

Every light in the room
was on and Jaiden had become quiet.

“
Well, little one,
apparently, you don’t like the dark, huh?”

Jaiden answered by closing
her eyes and sticking her tongue out. Isabella smiled and kept
rocking her.

“
Well...It has started
already,” Isabella mumbled quietly.

17

He could hear the ocean.
He could smell the salt of the sea. When he opened his eyes, he
realized he could also see the ocean. A full moon perched high in
the clear, starlit sky. He watched the black waves crash against
the sandy shore, creating white foam, which made its way up the
beach and dampened his bare feet.

He wore loose white pants,
rolled up to mid-calf, exposing his abnormally white legs, and a
white button up shirt. The cool, crisp breeze blew the seagulls’
voices gently through the air. Then, the wind blew in another
voice.

“
Alex, Alex, where are
you?”

It sounded like Isabella.
He quickly turned a circle, scanned the dark beach and called, “I’m
here.”

A white figure came into
the moonlight and strode down the sandy beach in his direction. It
was Isabella. Her golden hair fell loose and flowing down her back
like a glowing golden waterfall. He desperately wanted to run his
fingers through it. As she moved closer, he could see that she was
wearing a strapless white gown which exposed just enough. The
embroidered bodice was tight until it met the waist where it flared
out into a billowing bell of satin and lace. It was a wedding
gown.

When she saw him, she
grabbed the skirt of her dress with both hands, exposing her bare
feet and legs, and began to jog toward him.

“
Where have you been? I’ve
been looking everywhere for you, but it’s so dark out here, I
couldn’t see a thing.”

She arrived in front of
him and stopped merely an inch away. So close that he could feel
the breath from between her luscious, pink lips. She surprised him
by wrapping her arms around his neck. Then, she stood on her tippy
toes and pressed her body against his.

Alex could smell the
sweetness of her skin, the sweetness of her blood. Her neck was
exposed to him, open and waiting for him to taste.

He was totally confused.
Had they gotten married? When had it happened?

But then again, he was
there with her. They were in each other’s arms and, apparently, in
love so he didn’t care what had happened.

Suddenly, she pulled away
and put one soft hand on each of his cheeks.

“
Alex, I was so scared
that I had lost you,” she whispered.

“
You will never lose me,
Isabella,” he whispered back to her.

She moved forward once
again and wound her arms around his neck like before, only this
time, her lips met his. Their kiss was beautiful and wanting. Alex
felt the urgency between the two of them. He could feel her heart
beating against his chest as she moved her entire body up against
his.

He felt her teeth nip his
ear and her breath as she spoke. “I want to be with you forever,
Alex.”

She moved away from him so
that she could look him in the eyes. She ran her right hand down
the length of her delicious neck and brushed her flowing locks
aside, exposing her precious, pale skin.

Stunned, he did not utter
a word. He had sworn he would never make another vampire. God would
not be pleased if he did. Yet, how could he live a life after she
was gone? He had thought he would never have to make this
decision.

“
Please, Alex.”

“
I can’t, I can’t do
it.”