Conclave (Hypernaturals 3)

What About Rachel?

"When I figured out I am pregnant and told her, it is damn near the first thing she said. Rachel seems like a straight arrow most of the time, but she loves me. She wants us to have this baby. She already started to fake up the adoption papers. Will be one hundred percent real. Untraceable. She is making another set of papers up for you too."

That made Jessica smile "Nice! Saves me a lot of trouble." Then Jessica's face clouded, easy for me to read, and I could tell for Helen too. "So, you'll be in New York. Our children won't grow up together." She said

"It's going to be messy and complicated my love, but they will. Rachel and I will spend time here, and I more than her, especially while we are figuring out what we are about to have."

"We are going to have babies!" Jessica said firmly

"I know that, love. You know what I mean. We need to be able to raise them. Know them. Bring them up correctly. Teach them. No matter what." Helen semi-chided.

I came back into the room, having delayed as long as I could, bearing the tea tray. I set the tray on the coffee table, within their reach. I injected my first comment "You know Helen, we have no idea they will be anything but good old human babies. Or half Vampire. Or boys with a woman's strength Or girls with male Vampire liabilities. Genetics are weird enough before you start dealing with Vampire genetics, and the way they are re-written. Ask mules about mixed up DNA."

I waggled a finger between them "Then you have in this particular case that, I am the sperm donor and/or lover depending upon if you have decided if you love me and my liabilities or not. Clearly, my male Vampire genetics are a bit off the beam. The only known male hypersensitive. Pheromones that cause ovulation. Now? Surprise!!! The first male Vampire that has viable sperm. All of that means what we are making inside each of you..." I cut off the frown on Helen's face at the 'we' "Yes, Helen. We. I was there. The babies are in you two, but I helped jump-start them. You: big bad Council bad-ass. Me: I am the father. Our child is going to know who I am. Deal with it. If you don't like it, you can leave her here. As I was saying our babies will be something completely unknown, and unknowable."

"I'm sure, given their mothers, that my looks will be over-ridden and they will be they will be very cute. Beautiful. Gorgeous." I added.

Helen looked at me from her seated position. She breathed in deeply. "It's worse than that."

I misunderstood, and unlike normal, not intentionally. "I did not mean to say any of that is bad. Only the great unknown. We are going where no Vampire has gone before, with the possible pre-history example as an exception." I replied

"That's not what she means," Jessica said, looking at Helen

I caught the scent then. "Oh."

"You call yourself hypersensitive." Helen chided me

"Actually, you called me that. And Jessica. I consider myself just a new age sensitive guy." I shot back.

"Since he got me pregnant, I have been having the same reaction to him," Jessica said

Helen laughed sharply "You can tell the difference how exactly, snuggle-bunny?"

Jessica took the ribbing good-naturedly "Before I got pregnant, I wanted to have sex with him all the time. It was fun and we were young and in love. There is now a new thing. Now I want to have sex with him in part because I want him close. Need him close. My body has a mind of its own on this topic. I kind of hate it. I hate feeling dependent on anyone for anything."

Helen made a good point. "You are wired to want a man by preference my dear. Think about how my poor Bi self feels right now. The epitome of Vampire Poly: I'm with Rachel, but I also want you and him. Him more than I should."

Jessica pushed back a bit on that."You protest too much, Helen: I have seen you two together in the very literal sense of 'together'. You may have a preference for the ladies, however much, but it's not as much as you say, girlfriend. Not where he's concerned anyway. Love is love, dear heart. How you got ME into your bed. I'm not wired that way either, but I gave in to YOUR desires, and you used me and put me away wet and newly Vampire."

Jessica loves her friend but she will call bullshit on her from time to time. Now that I thought about it, maybe that is why she is her friend. Something attracted Helen to the human Jessica all those years ago. I am sure that at least part of the attraction is that Jessica takes no guff from her.

Jessica's experiences with women reportedly are experimental in nature, not a driving need. Helen, Conclave hot tub parties plus a few sex clubs down the last century. Helen leans to the lady side of Bi.

Yet Helen is sitting here and her scent says she is interested in a repeat roll in the hay. Not only with Jessica, but also with me.

Vampire girls are not supposed to be affected by Vampire pheromones at all. My scents are the deluxe model. The next thing in the ongoing list of how I am weird in the Vampire world. With me as the father, there was no telling what our little buns in the oven are going to be like.

Jessica asked with more than a little sadness "I presume that Rachel would prefer you to not be with us?"

Helen looked at her nails on her hands as if they were suddenly interesting. "She said she would understand. Rachel is three-quarters of a millennium old. She has our species long-term view in most ways. She and I have been together, and we have been apart. The main point is that Rachel wants to be a parent to this baby as much as I. Maybe more, though that hardly seems possible now." Helen touched her flat abdomen again with such tenderness it did not seem like it is Helen over there. "As long as nothing threatens that, she said she could, I believe the phrase was 'Deal with It'. Rachel is not very Poly, for a Vampire. Not counting Conclaves, of course."

Helen looked over at me "What scares me is how much I want to slip into bed with you again. I am also having that odd feeling. That feeling of wanting you as close to me as I can get you. Let me not mince words. I want you inside me, but less because it is sexy and more because that is as close as I can get you. I smell you now, just you, pheromones turned off, and frankly, it is all I can think of. Sitting here and having a rational conversation is difficult."

She looked back that the place where there would soon be a visible baby bump and rubbed lightly. Her next words very quiet: "As Jessica said, I hate feeling this needy. This out of control of my body. This dependent. I have a good mind to get the hell out of here now while I still can."

I know from Jessica the scent of desire for sex, and the scent of desire for sex with the father of the child. They are different. The sex scent is pure, undiluted lust. It bypasses the brain. Went to the balls. The other scent settles in my chest, and squeezed my heart, with prickly tendrils that reached down to tickle my balls. Sex with the mother of your child is different. Better. Helen's scents are Helen flavored of course, but I still know which scents they are.

"Helen" I started, then held my hand's palm up and apart helplessly "I really am not sure what to say here. You smell .. Amazing. Pregnant Jessica flavor of amazing. I am uncomfortable with that for the usual human-think reasons that drove you away. It is worse now though because I like Rachel! I respect her. I would never do anything to come between you two. I like the idea of you two raising our baby. I think you will be amazing parents though at the same time I wish I could be there and always be involved. Always be part of my child's life." I heaved a heavy sigh. "If it makes you more comfortable, I'll sleep in the room over the garage while you are here. Keep temptation for both of us away."