Birth of Jaiden (8 page)

They are right again and I
don’t have any choice in the matter,
he thought with resignation.

Your role in all this is more
important than rescuing Stewart
.

“
Danielle! Stay out of my
head!” Alex shouted. “I’m tired of not having any
privacy.”

“
I’m sorry, Alex.” Her voice was
softer than usual. “I just want you to understand what an important
part of everything you really are. Jaiden
needs
you. If something happens to you, she’s
doomed.”

“
If you two know so much,
why the hell
don’t you know
where Stewart is?”

“
Alex, don’t
curse.”

“
I’m sorry, Danielle, but look
at all the things that are happening to me. I’m a
little
stressed
out
.”

“
Alex, Damion and I are here
for
one
thing, and other than information directly about that, we
don’t know any more than you do.”

“
Then why do you know so much
about the
master plan
?”

No sooner than the words were
out of his mouth did he realize.
Could it be
? It hadn’t occurred to him while Danielle
had explained about Jaiden.
How could I have missed it?

Slowly, filled with rage,
he rose from the table. These were two of his closest friends and
they had deceived him. His silence told them more than words ever
could.

Damion and Danielle
understood.

“
No, Alex.” Danielle moved
to embrace him. He pushed her away. “It’s not what you
think.”

“
Isn’t it!”

Damion tried to calm him.
“Alex.”

He whirled to face Damion.
“Don’t! Don’t you tell me to calm down. You both lied, and
you,
” he pointed at Danielle, “are supposed to be an
angel.
You befriended me
only so I would listen to you when the time came. You’re
using
me! Jaiden and I
are the mission, right?”

Neither of them answered
him.

“
Tell me!” he
roared.

“
Alex, you don’t
understand.” Danielle was holding his arm and pleading. “I was sent
to watch over you and keep you safe, to be your guardian. You
weren’t even supposed to know me. Then, plans changed and I was
allowed to show myself to you. Even I didn’t know I would grow so
fond of you.”

“
Well then, why didn’t you
say something before?” His voice had become flat,
emotionless.

“
I wasn’t allowed to;
besides, don’t you think you’re more receptive than you would have
been if you had been told upfront?”

“
I am one of Gods children
and I would have taken the responsibility anyway.”

“
Alex, I wasn’t allowed to
reveal anything about it. Please, please, please forgive
me.”

Alex could not ignore the
urgency which coated her voice. Even though she wasn’t capable of
tears, he could still see them glistening in her eyes. He wanted to
stay angry, he wanted to scream and yell, to break things, but he
couldn’t.

“
What about you?” He
glared at Damion.

Damion shook his blond
head. “I have never lied; my mission is completely different. I
only know what Danielle tells me. You are one of the most honorable
men I know and I consider it a privilege to know you.”

“
I do as well,” Danielle
whispered.

The sincerity was clear in
their voices, but the deceit would take some time for him to
swallow.

“
I can’t be around you two
right now.”

He turned and left the
room, rushing hastily out the front door. Once he was outside, he
began to feel better. Inside, it felt as if the walls were closing
in on him. He had already started to forgive them, but he needed a
time out to squelch the evil which sometimes burned inside him. He
knew he was most at risk for doing things he didn’t want to do when
he was mad, although sometimes the ability to block out his
conscious and be a real vampire was a good thing.

He sat down on the bench
outside his front door. The open air felt good and helped him
meditate on his menagerie of thoughts before returning to the
dining room.

Upon his entrance, he
stated flatly, “I’m not angry. I just don’t want to talk about it
anymore.”

Danielle came to him and
attempted, once more, to embrace him. This time, he responded by
wrapping his arms around her.

“
Just think of it this
way, Alex, I found a great friend who needed me as much as I needed
him.”

Damion sighed. “I would
give you a hug too, but I’m not that kind of guy.” He smiled
wickedly.

9

Alex leaned against the
door frame and watched her.

After Damion and Danielle
had left, he had returned to the sitting room where he had found
Isabella examining the contents of his large library.

What if she’s thinking about
me
? He felt
incredibly tempted to tap into her thoughts.
If I do and she finds out,
she’ll never trust me. Then again, how would she know?

He tore his eyes away from
Isabella and glanced down. Jaiden snoozed on her pink blanket. His
gaze moved back to Isabella who randomly plucked books off the
shelves, opened them, and then replaced them.

I’ve got to know.
He closed his eyes
and welcomed the familiar feeling of dizziness into his
mind.

How will they get along without
me? Maybe I shouldn’t’ be away from them. Oh man, what am I getting
myself into
?

He watched her carefully
while she continued to leaf through the books and think about her
sisters and brothers.

But then there is Alex. He is
more amazing than this gigantic house he lives in, hardly seems
like a vampire at all. For him to just take a baby on as his
own…that’s…well, admirable
.

Alex couldn’t help himself; he
was excited.
She likes me
. He smiled, stopped reading her mind and decided to
actually talk to her.

“
So,” he said as he
entered the room, “you like books.”

“
Oh.” She turned to face
him. “You startled me.”

“
Sorry.”

“
Yes, I do love
books.”

He joined her at the book
shelves. “They are a whole other world.”

“
I agree. They never fail
to take me away from a world I can’t stand and put me into someone
else’s life.”

Alex frowned. “Why can’t you
stand
this
world?

“
It doesn’t matter;
everyone has obstacles they have to overcome.”

He looked into her eyes.
“Yes, that’s very true.”

“
Alex?”

“
Yes.”

“
Why don’t you have any
photographs?”

He shrugged. “I never
really thought about it.”

“
It makes it feel less
like a home.” She raised her eyebrows. “You don’t even have any
picture albums. Everyone has pictures.”

“
Well, I don’t.” He turned
away.

“
I’m sorry, did I hit a
nerve?”

Clearly she was being sincere,
not hurtful, so he let it go.
She means well.
“It’s ok.”

“
I wasn’t trying
to…”

“
It’s ok,” he
repeated.

An awkward silence filled
in around them like a thick cloud.

He didn’t want to make her
any more uncomfortable, so he jerked his head toward the door.
“Let’s go pick out a room for you.”

She smiled. “Ok, that’s a
great idea.”

“
Good, let’s
go.”

Isabella gently picked
Jaiden up and cradled her in her arms. “She can sleep with me
tonight; we can set up the bassinet tomorrow.”

“
If that’s what you
want.”

Alex held out his arms so
Isabella could transfer Jaiden to him.Jaiden opened her pretty eyes
and looked up at him.

“
Hi,” he said softly to
her. In response, she opened her mouth and yawned.

“
You can have any room you
like, but there is one I want you to see. I think you will like
it.”

He led the way up the
curved staircase to the second level, then down an art laden
hallway.

“
So tell me about your
brothers and sisters. How did you come to be their only parent?” He
could see her begin to look uncomfortable.

“
My parents left when my
youngest brother was two. I was all they had, and there was no way
I was going to let the government separate us into foster
homes.”

“
How old were
you
?”

“
Fourteen.”

“
Wow, that’s
young.”

Alex was surprised she had
even been able to commit to something so big at the age of
fourteen, an age when most young girls were worried about makeup
and boys.

“
I’d rather not talk about
this right now; I’m worried enough about them.”

“
You do know you can use
the phone whenever you want.”

Isabella lowered her head.
“We don’t have a phone.”

Alex tried to hide his
shock. He could tell that she was embarrassed about admitting they
were so poor. He paused in the hallway and stared into her
eyes.

“
Tomorrow night, I can
take you to visit them. Would that help?”

“
Yes, I would feel so much
better knowing they are doing alright without me.”

He watched her eyes take
on their glitter again.

“
Here we are.” He flung
the door open with his free hand.

Isabella walked in and her
hand immediately went to her mouth. “Oh.” She turned in circle to
see all of it.

A queen sized bed with
champagne colored silk bedding stood against one wall, complete
with canopy. All of it was trimmed with white lace. On the other
side of the room, there was a large oak dressing table and
armoire.

“
Oh, Alex, this is
beautiful.”

He watched her as she
walked across the snow white carpeting to the window, whose
curtains matched the bed, and sat down on the window seat. She sat
there for a moment and stared out the window with her hand still
raised to her mouth.

“
Are you alright?” he
asked her.

“
Yes, it’s just that…this
room…” A tear escaped from the corner of her eye. “This room is
something I have dreamt of for my entire life.”

She moved her hand away
from her mouth and caressed the curtains.

“
So you like it,
then?”

“
I love it.”

He looked down at
Jaiden.

“
She likes it,” he
whispered to the baby.

Jaiden yawned again as if
she were bored with the whole ordeal. Isabella still examined the
room. The white walls were completely bare except for a large
floral painting beside the door to the adjoining
bathroom.

Alex followed her. Once
inside, he was again filled with pride as she ran her gaze over the
large walk-in shower with a glass wall in the shape of half an
octagon. Nestled at the base of the glass wall, there was a very
deep bathtub, complete with jets and a wide ledge scattered with
candles of various sizes.

Alex cleared his throat.
“There is a room straight across the hall that we can make into a
nursery; would you like to see that now too?”

“
Yes,” she managed to
say.

When he opened the door to
the room across the hall, they set their eyes on a room painted a
pale green with white accents.

“
We will have to take out
the bed to make enough room for the crib, but I think most
everything else can stay.”

“
Yes.”

“
Isabella, are you
alright?”

She snapped out of it with
some embarrassment. “I am so sorry; it’s just that I never thought
that I would be living in a place like this. It is so
beautiful.”

And now there is beauty to fill
it
.

“
Thank you. You know, I
decorated all of this.” He waved his free arm around.

She raised her eyebrows.
“Were these rooms designed for a particular person?”

He could hear the
curiosity dripping in her voice. “No. I only thought that one day I
may have a lady visitor and she would be happy in a feminine room.
And you, lucky lady, just so happen to be the first
one.”

“
Oh, I feel extra lucky,
then,” she said teasingly.

“
Well, you probably want
to get settled, and I have some things to do, so I am going to
leave you two, ok?”