F.T.A. Failure to Appear

Chapter Two

Chapter Two
Course of Action
Grace Cullen-Swan

After reviving Charlie and getting him to see my point on the matter, I managed to convince him to let me go hunt for myself and collect blood for the baby.

I did not, however, ask him if I could use some of his huge fishing thermoses. That might be a nasty shock later.

After sufficiently gorging myself on enough blood to avoid having to feed for another few weeks, I set about on my task to keep both Bella and the baby strong.

I quickly found a mountain lion and pounced, taking it down with a quick snap of its neck. I made a small slit in its jugular with my teeth before quickly lining a thermos up with the blood flow to collect as much as possible. As I sat there watching the slow flow of blood, my mind couldn't help but wander.

I was afraid to tell Charlie just how horrendous the stories of hybrids I had heard were. Neither of the mothers survived in the two stories I had heard, and while I thought they were myths, I now had to treat them as absolute fact. I had to think of something, both of those women had been impregnated by Joham, a vampire 'scientist' that reminded me a lot of Dr. Frankenstein. His stories were so grizzly and fanciful that I didn't know what to really believe.

Joham and I met a century ago. He had seen me treating a woman who had fallen and scrapped up her hands on a street corner and had approached me to ask how I could stand her blood. After explaining, he was quite interested in my diet and the prospect of using it to stand his 'experiments' easier. I asked him what kind of science he was interested in, and immediately wished I hadn't have asked. He told me about all of the attempted 'mating experiments' that had ended in disaster from his lack of control before he had succeeded and managed to father two hybrids.

Then, I thought he was an absolute lunatic for having such conviction in a hallucination. Surely he just enjoyed human companionship like the Denali sisters. Surely the women were expecting from another man, a human. Surely this vampire was just delusional.

But now, I couldn't help but curse myself for not believing the stories. I wish I had believed him and told Carlisle and our boys about it and warned them. I wish I would've talked with Edward about it the moment I found out he and Bella were dating. I felt the weight of this situation resting on my shoulders with no idea what to do.

I knew Joham had said both of his 'host' were very weak by the end of the pregnancy due to the 'fetus' taking all vital nutrients. He never cared for the mothers, and treated the babies as objects. So, maybe that just meant I had to cater to both mom and baby. Blood for the baby so it didn't take all of Bella's, and good food and nutrients for Bella to keep her strong enough to carry the baby. That was the idea, however twisted and desperate it might be, but I had to follow through with it.

I wished I could contact Joham somehow to pick his brain about all of this. Or, better yet, one of his children to learn from them what exactly they need and what their mothers might have needed. I only ever met him that one time, by pure circumstance, so how could I possibly track him or his supernatural children down? I needed time. Time I didn't have.

By the time I ran out of daydreams, the mountain lion had been drained and provided several large thermoses full of blood. After disposing of all of the carcasses, I made my way back to the house and stored the thermoses in the back part of the fridge to keep them out of sight.

I climbed the stairs to the bathroom, glad my leg was finally healed, and stripped before showering all of the dirt and mud off of my body and out of my hair. Knowing Bella was asleep, I wrapped a towel around myself and crossed the short hall to mine and Charlie's bedroom.