She was gasping for breath like she used to after she had ran a marathon when she was a human, her heart racing as if so, too.
Suddenly, that nap wasn't the number one thing on her mind anymore.
Adrian, he had just marked her. His fangs had sunk into Isaline's soft skin, and just as that ecstasy took over, there was a sharp pain that started as well. She could open her mouth, but nothing came out, not words, not cries, not moans, nothing. Just as they occurred, Adrian moaned into her mouth, his hand creating a fist around a handful of hair, and towards the bottom of her belly she felt a lurch, a drop like one experienced when they went down a steep hill, or a dip on a rollercoaster.
She found her voice then as fear took over, fear that Adrian marking her had done something to her baby, and she screamed, louder than she ever had before, she fought against him, but he didn't pull away, and her stomach dropped again.
Giving up the fight, Isaline rested a hand on her stomach where she kept getting the feeling that was starting to terrify her, and when she did, she felt the skin bulge out, felt the outline of a little foot. She screamed even louder.
"Adrian, stop, my baby he's-"
"He's just kicking," Adrian spoke around a mouthful of blood and flesh, pulling away only to land another bite on the top of Isaline's left breast. It was like a remake of the first bite, and this time, Isa came, writhing against him as waves of something entirely stronger than an orgasm took over her entire being.
The baby didn't seem to like what was going on at all. Adrian's words didn't soothe Isaline, either, the asshole was drunk, he didn't know what he was saying! After two more bites placed on Isaline's inner wrist of her right hand, and another on her shoulder, Adrian pulled away. Isaline was spent, and trying to fight the blackness that was blurring the edges of her vision.
Finally, Isaline was able to crawl out of Adrian's grip, hysterical sobs falling from her lips as she landed on the ground on her hands knees, then scrambled to her feet. Before she could even reach the exit to their bedroom, Adrian's arms were wrapped around her, pulling her back against his chest as he sat down on the bed, "No, baby, you can't....don't run, alright?"
"My baby..." Isa sobbed, her heart pounding now because she was sure there was something wrong with her child.
"Our baby, is fine, Momma," Adrian cooed, resting his large still burning hand on her belly, right where she had felt that little foot press against her palm, "He's just kicking, got a little excited when I marked you. Nothing is wrong with him at all, he's perfectly fine, heart beat is normal, he was just a little... pumped as you would say. Go to sleep, Isaline."
"N...No," She panted, staring blankly across the room, "You can't keep forcing that sleep on me. You could have hurt him, Adrian," It was taking everything in her to continue to speak and not give in to the command the man who had turned her immortal, her creator had given to her.
Adrian seemed to have sobered up within seconds, "I would never do anything to hurt my child,"
Isaline had so many responses to that.
So many.
The main one being, If you never would hurt this child then why did you throw me, let me get burned? She didn't speak the bitter inquisition, having told herself that after all he had been doing to try and right that wrong, she wouldn't shove it back into his face, but Adrian heard it from her mind as if she had screamed it in his face.
"You're too rash, Adrian," Isa whispered after watching him flinch, "You can't just do something like mark me, not when I'm pregnant, four months in, and don't know how that will affect the baby!"
He didn't seem to understand what she was saying, "But I knew that the baby would be fine,"
"BUT I DIDN'T!" Isaline roared, jumping out of his arms, "Me! You know, his mother that you refuse to teach anything? Yeah, I didn't know. If he would have.... If that-you marking me- would have killed him, I would have killed you, and you think I'm playing but I'm not! You never think about how the things you do will affect me, Adrian!" She was still yelling, her voice loud, and cracking with how much emotion she was putting into what she was saying, "I came to terms with the fact that I would never have kids after being with you! NEVER! So now that you made it possible, now that I know that I'm just as fertile- if not more- than I was when I was human, I will do everything in me to protect each and every tiny little person that comes from this body, starting with this one.
You hurting me is one thing, but Adrian, if you ever do anything to hurt my kid, I will destroy you, do you understand me? I have no idea how, but I will find out, and I will hurt you. I love you with all my heart, but you hurting our kid? I'd kill anyone over that ."
Adrian was staring at Isaline with this wide, glazed look in his eyes, and when he saw the murderous look in his woman's eyes, he put his hands up in surrender as he continued with those long strides of his towards Isaline, "I understand, baby, I do, okay? I can't make serious decisions like this on my own, based on my emotions. I get it, but you? Murderous?" He was grinning bigger than any smile Isaline had ever witnessed. She was partially start struck.
"Sexiest thing I have ever witnessed in my life," He whispered against Isa's lips, nipping at her plump, bottom one as he wrapped his arms around her waist, "Peanut's fine, trust me, okay?"
Isa bit her lip, shaking her head roughly as she let her hand meet his cheek with a sharp slap that hurt her own hand, "Getting real tired of your bullshit, Adrian," She muttered as she watched his head whip violently to the side, "Real tired,"
He nodded, suddenly somber, even as he pressed his erection into her lower belly, "Which is why I marked you,"
"Is my baby okay?"
"Peanut's perfectly healthy, I told you."
He was trying to push her back towards the bed, but Isa was pushing him away from her even harder, a scowl forming on her lips, "Stop it,"
"Why?" He whispered back, nipping at her lips in that way that he knew Isaline loved, "I need you, baby."
"Well I don't want you, so leave me alone," Isaline barked, shoving him completely off of her and crossing her arms, "I'm doing this with you right now, Adrian. You're still half-drunk off your ass, and I'm kind of pissed,"
Those stone eyes were shining as he cocked his head to the side like a curios dog, "Because I marked you?"
Isa shook her head, resting a hand on her pregnant belly, "Because you didn't tell me about it, because you scared me."
Adrian let out a loud groan, running his hand down his face, "Well I didn't know what to do about that,"
"How about apologize?" Isa snapped, glaring at Adrian darkly, "That doesn't seem too far-fetched, doesn't it?"
He only shrugged, letting out a mumbled, "Kind of,"
"Fuck you,"
"That's what I'm trying to do, Isaline!" Adrian cried, raising his hands in defeat. It was pretty comical really, how wide those slate eyes were as he let out an exasperated scream before answering, "You tell me you'll be anything I want, but you're all bent up on me marking you, and being mad at me!"
Sounds pretty fucking selfish to me, Isa heard the thought pass through his mind, and blanched at what the man had said-well thought.
She lunged at him.
The two landed on the floor with a loud thud, Isaline sitting on Adrian's chest as she leaned forward, pressing her thumbs against the base of his throat as her fingers curled around his neck. At first, Adrian looked smug, unbothered, letting out a raspy, "Still as sexy as ever,"
When he started to cough, Isaline was the one smirking, watching in satisfaction as Adrian's face turned a very unattractive shade of red, and she heard him wheeze. She squeezed harder. Adrian started to gag, and Isaline looked into his eyes as she spoke in a completely severe voice,"Apologize,"
Adrian was shaking his head in negative, "I... I find it sexy when y-you....choke me. I see why you like it so much,"
Isa's face flamed at Adrian's words, and she let her grip on him go, her whole body overtaken by embarrassment. Even so, lust started to flow through her veins at the mere memory of the last time her and Adrian had almost taken things too far in the bedroom. With a sharp shake of her head, Isa spoke, "Adrian, all you have to do is say sorry, that's all I'm asking for!"
The look he gave her told her that he wasn't going.
Isaline promptly burst into tears, leaving Adrian reeling as she went from one extreme emotion to the next, while she crawled off of him, sitting on the ground and covering her face as she sobbed violently.
"Isa-"
"No!" She cut him off, "As much as I apologize to you for the simple shit I put you through, as much as I have to refrain from begging you on my knees to forgive me for the bullshit that I do, you can't say it this one time? You think I'm selfish?"
All she had been trying to do these past days was try to make this day easier for Adrian, to try and take care of him, make him feel better in at least the slightest way, just to ease the pain. She'd completely failed in her own eyes, but at least she tried, right? That's what counted!
Adrian was sitting on the floor next to her, frowning, then trying to pull her into his arms, but Isa fought against him, shaking her head as she wrapped her arms around herself, "Forget it," She muttered quietly, "I'm just being sensitive. I'm going to go do some stuff in the nursery, and then clean up downstairs, okay?"
"Isa, stay," Adrian said quietly, taking her hand in his, "Please,"
"I can't help you, Adrian," She sighed dejectedly, "I've tried, but I just can't do it, okay? I'm tired. I want to do something that I'm positive I can do right for once, okay?"
He let her go.
In the nursery, Isa just tidied up a little, making a list of the things she needed to get for the room in the next few months. After that, she went downstairs to face the aftermath of Adrian's power.
The room looked like a hurricane had swept through it, and had left nothing untouched. So, while Adrian sat upstairs doing whatever it was that he did on the fifth day of February, Isa cleaned up. It took her almost three hours to get the living room back to prior conditions.
The couches, those had to be thrown out, Isa did that with her power, sitting in the center of the floor after she cleared it of the debris that contained but was not limited to pieces of plaster from the ceiling and wall, shards of wood, glass from the photo frames that were once hanging on the wall in the next hallway, and pieces of fabric from the couch.
She started a fire, and after sweeping up the glass from the shattered coffee table, she took a break, grabbing a large pillow from the guest room, and sitting on it, staring into the fire as she sipped on a cup of hot tea, letting her mind roam as she did so.
It took Isa to remember that she had been marked by the intoxicated vampire upstairs. With a quiet sigh, she ran her fingers over the two risen bite marks on the right side of her neck, just above her collar. They were seamless, perfect, unlike the ones on the left side of her neck, left there by Adrian after they went to James's club for the first time. She stared down at the second set of marks on her inner wrist, taking in what they looked like. Just two bite wounds, that's what they looked like, but Isaline thought they were beautiful, just like she thought the ones she gave Adrian were.
Those marks she'd put on his skin were something she'd never been more proud of doing, but unlike Adrian, she didn't have an ulterior motive. She marked him to show who he belonged to, he marked her so she couldn't leave
He had been drunk, but Isa felt there was some truth to his words, and he knew it too. She was sure it was Nicole and Leo who were telling Adrian she would get fed up and leave him one day, and she didn't not agree with them, but she already felt as if she could never leave this man, never not be with him, as much of a hassle as he was. Isa knew she couldn't leave the man alone after the first night, when he'd crept into her room through the window she opened for him, and he told her that he wasn't sleeping in a God damned guest room, and then he'd held her until she fell asleep.
She hadn't been in love with this man for long, but in the beginning, she had thought that she was in love with him. When the drama with him biting her came around, and she saw how he truly acted, that was when Isaline knew for sure that she didn't love him, and was almost one hundred percent sure that she would never, ever love him.
Huh.
That didn't last, but it was still a huge shocker that Adrian had loved her for over a year. Actions spoke louder than words, and Isaline would have never guessed that he had feelings for her until he told her. She knew he liked her, that he was attracted to her, but she thought that that was as far as anything would ever go with them.
He wouldn't let her say they were in a relationship for months, for fuck's sake!
As her drink slowly disappeared from the warm mug held between her two small hands, Isa let out a groan, pressing her hand to her stomach as she spoke to her unborn child, "Mommy's sorry for all that moving around and whatever you felt from your Daddy marking me, sweetheart,"
When she got up, Isa stared at the practically empty room, shook her head, and went on to clean the rest of the house.
By the time she finished, it was night time, and the house reeked of bleach, wood cleaners, and the spicy-sweet fragrance Adrian loved that reminded Isaline of the pumpkin spice candles her Nana used to burn when she was younger around the holidays.
Around ten forty five, she made her way upstairs to check on Adrian. He was sitting on the window seat on her side now, the picture of Ren she had taken, gripped in his hands. He spoke when he sensed her entering the room, "I didn't tell you that you could have this," He lifted the frame he was talking about before letting his hand flop back down into his lap.
Isa leaned against the door frame, resting her head against the wood as she spoke, crossing her arms, "That's because I didn't ask." She responded easily, "Are you sober now?"
"Nowhere close," Adrian muttered, thumping his head against the glass.
"Do you need anything?" Isa asked quietly, "To feed, food, anything?"
He didn't look at her as he responded, "I need you."
Isa was shaking her head gently, "I can't help you, Adrian. I've tried, I have, but I can't just come and try and help you, watch you do this to yourself-"
"Go," He cut her off harshly, his eyes hardening as he turned away from her. Isa obeyed him quietly, flinching when she heard him mutter, "The one fucking person who's supposed to help me-made to help me- and she can't even do that....fucking bullshit."
So she finished fixing the house back up, and then she starting hanging up the pictures of the beautiful little girl that she never got to meet. She put them in the living room, in the hallways between the pictures of Adrian and his family, and even the pictures of her and her family that Adrian had been the one to hang up, jealous she'd never gotten to meet the perfect little girl.
She tried not to think of Adrian and what he had said, but more of what she could do away from him, in this different area of the house than him, that could help him, because she didn't know what to do. He was sending too many mixed signals.
He wanted her there, near her, but he didn't want her anywhere near him.
He marked her, and told her she could never leave him, and then tells her to leave him alone. She didn't know what to do. He was erratic normally, but days like this, that Isa had no clue about until the day before, it was a little too much for her to handle.
Exhausted, Isaline grabbed a blanket from the same room she got the pillow from, and curled up in front of the fire place, letting the blazing flames hypnotize her into a restless sleep where she dreamed about how much she hadn't helped this broken man who couldn't even stand her presence now.
She'd never felt so guilty for failing someone so immensely.
Adrian Lew
He didn't get out of bed until around noon the next day, which was something he never did. When he rolled over, his love wasn't there, her side wasn't even warm, but made up. She didn't sleep with him, he already knew that, and that put a damper on his day to begin with.
The longer he just lay in bed, the more his mind focused on his sweet Ren, and how if he hadn't wanted to take Leo out, she would still be alive. He would have gotten to see her grow up. It was weird, she would be almost six years older than his mate, but he didn't care, and he knew Adrianna wouldn't have either. Some nights, he dreamed of her, dreams where he got to see her all grown up, dreams where she was a teenager, where he got to teach her how to drive, and where she got to meet his mate, and love her as he did.
He hated thoughts like that, what-ifs, as his mother called them, so he got out of bed, heading to the bathroom, and popping a handful of pain medication to alleviate the huge headache he got every year the day after her death date before going to find Isaline.
He had a lot of apologizing to do.
He didn't remember much from the day prior, but he did remember her following him out into the field, he remembered yelling at her, for what he couldn't remember, and he remembered her choking him, quite vividly. He remembered how hard he had gotten, seeing her so mad, but he didn't remember why she was mad to begin with.
This is why he hadn't wanted her to know about Ren yet. He could have just taken off for a few days until he got himself under control, then he'd come home, and tell his sweet Isaline everything that had happened. That was not his mother's place to tell when he had told her why he wanted to wait.
Annaleigh Lew was probing in his mind now, he could feel her trying to get past the block he had put up so he wouldn't have to deal with her meddling ass.
Rubbing at his bare chest, Adrian went down the steps at his inhuman pace, following the slow heartbeats that belonged to his future wife and his child.
He wasn't expecting to find the pregnant Isaline curled up in the fetal position on the floor in front of a dying fire. When he squatted down next to her, he didn't wake her up right away.
Adrian had to take a minute, admire the beauty lying in front of him.
Her brown nose was tinged pink as if she had been crying, her eyes swollen, and even in her slumber, she'd hiccup every once in a while. Adrian sighed, sitting next to his mate, ready to wait until she woke up by herself, which she usually did around one or two in the afternoon on the weekends. Ever since she had been pregnant, she slept more than anything else, skipping out on meals, on feeding from him, but the weekends were hers. She had to wake up at four o'clock in the morning on weekdays, so he never woke her on the weekends unless he absolutely had to. His baby needed her sleep.
It took everything in him not to wake her up, ask her why she was crying. He was sure he was the cause, and the fact that he would have to ask her what he had done made him feel more shamed than he ever had before.
"I've got to get my shit together,"
He couldn't do the shit he had done alone now that he had her, that much was obvious.
Adrian was admiring the pregnant woman sleeping on the ground next to him when he caught something that had him frowning in confusion.
She was carrying his scent, not only on her body, but in it as well.
Taking the collar of his shirt that she was wearing, Adrian leaned forward, pulling the fabric down, and cursing darkly when he saw the raised, shining skin on the right side of her neck, right above her collar bone.
"Fuck,"
His long limbs pulled him up as he paced the large living room he finally took a look at. It was completely empty, spotless, and there were pictures of his baby girl up, pictures he had made sure to take down before he let Isaline into his house for the first time.
What the fuck had she done?
Don't get mad, you do not know what the fuck happened, He chanted to himself as he walked around the house. His studio door was still locked.
Good.
And Adrianna's door was still locked.
Thank.
God.
She started to groan and stretch, slowly waking up in that adorable way she did, and as she did so, Adrian sat on Adrianna's bed, locked in her room, listening as Isa grunted as her bones popped, seconds before she called his name, "Adrian?"
He didn't move, didn't respond, running his fingers over the soft, too soft from age, pink quilt his mother had made for his little girl. It was the only pink thing in the room, everything else was a happy green color, which Ren had told him she wanted for his room when she was three and a half. The two of them had picked out everything in the room.
Ren had wanted a little vanity that was made of Rosewood, and Adrian had made it with his own hands he hated building things, but he did so for his sweet angel, and he made sure that it was perfect.
Those fucking liquid indicators of weakness started to fall from his eyes as he remembered all the times he had tucked the thirty pound body of his sweet little Adrianna into the very bed he was sitting on, all the times she had hugged him and told him he loved her the most, that he was the best Daddy ever and she'd never had a better one.
A sob slipped out, and damn it, Isaline heard it.
He listened as she called his name again, then flew up the stairs, to the last room down the hallway he told her not to go to, following his scent to the door, "Adrian, are you okay?"
"I-I'm fine, sweetheart," He soothed her from the other side of the door.
"Come out, baby," She sounded so hurt, but so was he, and it just physically wasn't possible.
"I....I can't,"
She sighed, and Adrian heard a thump against the door before she spoke again, "What can I do to help?"
"Nothing,"
And that's when she started to cry.
A piece of shit didn't deserve something as amazing as her, and that had never been made more known to him than that in that moment.