Lilith's Shadow Ch. 09

"I'd like to get a room please." The black robed figure stated, carrying the baby in her arms.

"Sure ma'am." The motel clerk leaned over the counter to get a look at the child that was inside the car seat. Smiling, she cooed, "What a beautiful baby. I bet he's just precious." He stated.

The woman who held the baby cleared her throat. The motel clerk looked at her, "I'm sorry Ma'am. Will that be cash or credit?"

"Cash."

"It's going to be fifty pounds a night."

"Alright." The lady set the child's car seat next to her and and dug into her purse.

Pulling out a wad of bills, she placed them on the counter. The man grabbed the money and counted it before opening the cash register and placing the money inside. "Thank you." He stated, his french accent precise. He went to a set of keys hanging on a chain on the wall. Grabbing a pair, he handed them to the lady. "Room 52." The woman took the keys and went to her room.

~~

The morning that Odilia woke up, ready for battle, I tried to get her once more to see reason and stay behind with the children. Again, she reminded me that she'd been given blessings and permission by the Council to come along. She also reminded me that considering the fact that our child was kidnapped by a female demon, it would be appropriate to have her along, since sh as a female vampire was all to familiar with the feminine whiles they would all encounter.

I sighed and asked her, "Do you know how far beyond this world we will have to travel to get to her world?"

She smiled, "No, but I'm all for it, anything to get my child back."

"I'm serious Odilia."

"So am I Stefan. It's one thing to take my soul but an entirely different matter for her to take my child. No one takes my child. Why did she do it anyway?"

I felt the anger and fear that came with her words. She was worried about whether or not Stefan Jr. was still alive. I sighed, "I don't know Odilia. I just know that he's there and not here. You know Lilith eats babies." As soon as I said this, I regretted it because Odilia turned eyes burning with hot fury upon me, "Come again?" She inquired, her tone becoming icy.

"Nothing, just forget I said it." I stated knowing that this would propel her into immediate action.

"Forget you said it? Stefan that damn demon or what ever the hell she is has our child and you know she likes to eat babies and you want me to forget it? Have you gone and bumped your head or something?"

Clearing my throat I said, "We will get him back Odilia."

I watched as she began to pace back and forth. When after two minutes of pacing, she glanced at me, her eyes were burning with so much wrath, even I became fearful. I guess a woman scorned had nothing on a woman who was determined to get her child back because when she whispered, "Oh yeah, we are going to get him back and may the gods help that demon when I get a-hold of her."

"You can't kill her, Odilia. She may take your soul if you try."

The room suddenly dropped temperature as these words emptied from her mouth, "Then so be it."

Odilia.

Two days later:

I wrapped my fingers around the full length licking stick and twirled it around in my hand until it spun so fast. Stopping the spinning, I lashed out at Raina with it and watched as her stick came up blocking, and throwing my stick back toward me. I grasped it tightly and stepped forward, thrusting the stick out. Again, raina blocked it, but as she did, she quickly moved her stick downward and hit me in the side. I growled in frustration. It seemed that Raina, as small as she was was very stealth and one heck of a warrior because I had yet to get her on the ground once since we'd been doing this for the last month.

I'd already trained some in Jiu Juitsu and Krav Manga, but now I added stick licking to the mix. Raina was my instructor. She seemed to be a better worrier than Stefan, Van and Lance combined. This was was made evident as I thrust my stick out, going for a hit to her chest and she pushed her stick up and blocked mine and then pushed my stick out of the way, throwing me off balance.

She then moved her stick lower to hit my ankles. The pain that went through them was like fire as I was sent sprawling on my back onto the floor. She held the stick out over my chest, preventing me from moving, "Concentrate, Odilia, you must concentrate, or every time you are attacked you will lose and one of these days it could be your life."

"I am concentrating." I stated, knowing that I wasn't. My mind was on the fact that tomorrow was to be our day of departure to Lilith's cove. The thing about this was we weren't going by plane, because you couldn't reach lilith's cove through this world. If I understood Stefan correctly, it was one of many spiritual places for the undead. There was this place called Tuonela, which in Finnish mythology was a resting place for the dead.

The day he'd spoken to me, we'd been alone in the library, and I told Stefan that this was ludicrous chasing after a Finnish mythology, he only looked at me and said, "Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there, sweetness. You just have to look harder."

"If you think this Tuonela place exist, then I suppose you must think the greek God Hades exist as well."

Stefan exhaled, "Odilia..."

"What?" I inquired, irritated. I was so vexed at the idea that I wouldn't get to see tavis or Olivia for another two weeks because I had to go find my infant son. This was more stress and aggravation than I cared for at the moment.

"Calm down, we will find Stefan Jr. and we will make it back to see Tavis and Olivia."

I felt the shaking begin in my body. "Are you sure of this Stefan?"

Stefan sighed and grabbed my hand and said, "I am one hundred percent sure that we will. "I'd die myself before I let anyone hurt you or our child."

"Odilia Petty Gregoire, I can not do anything with you if you are not in your right frame of mind!" Raina's anger brought me out of my reverie. "I can concentrate just fine."

"You've been laying like this for the past five minutes just starring into space, now just get up and go find your husband. Talk to him about what ever's got you distracted."

I sighed as Raina allowed me the chance to get up. When she did, I cleared my throat, in a soft voice I whispered, "I'm sorry Raina."

She shrugged her shoulders, "Let's just hope when the time comes for you to battle you will be able to focus. Now, go find your husband."

Stefan:

I was still in the library, going over last minute details with Aggie, a four hundred year old Navigator also known as a Tracker. Enapay was the Shaman/ Medicine man, and Tooli the seer. I had mapped out our entire route. We'd go from where we resided in Greenfield Wisconsin to Onatario Canada and then from there to Greenland. From there we'd hit northern Europe and go on to Finland where Enapay would then access the Tuni River. From there he would go through Tuonela. The only problem is that should Enapay be discovered in Tuonela he would remain in a trance like state. The whole idea of going to Tuonela is to find out about Lilith and how to get to Lilith's Cove.

If he be discovered as an undead soul, he would become trapped into Tuonela and this is what we want to prevent. We were discussing what the finnish mythology stated about the Shaman's ability when the doors to the library opened and Odilia came in wearing her long hair braided back in a pony tail. There was a gold head band holding her hair back from her face. I suspected it was there more for decoration because no matter what Odilia wore, she always wanted to look femininely pretty. That's one of the things that drove me crazy about her.

There was never a time when she wasn't beautiful. I stared at the out fit

she wore and appreciated the beauty the sleek black outfit outlined. Her small breasts were taught and round inside the top. Her stomach had flattened back to it's normal state with the regular work out routine and her bottom had filled out a little bit more after her pregnancy. Sighing, I stared into dark chocolate brown eyes, that contrasted beautifully with her caramel colored skin. "Your lesson is over already?"

I glanced down at my watch. She'd only left the library an hour earlier and her session was supposed to last three because of us leaving tomorrow. "I was kicked out." As soon as she said this, I picked up on the fear radiating from her. Looking over at my team, I asked, "Do you guys understand what we are supposed to do?"

"Yes." They all nodded in agreement.

"That will be all then. Just prepare for departure tomorrow at 0700 hours."

After everyone left, I turned toward my wife, "Yes, honey bunches of oates."

She laughed, a twinkle in her eye, "If that wasn't the corniest thing I've ever heard..." Her laughter continued as my arms went around her and I smiled at having tickled her funny bone. "What's wrong Odilia?"

Finally her laughter died down and becoming serious, she put her hands at rest over my forearms. "I'm scared Stefan."

"Of what?"

She took a long sigh, and the fear she felt was heard in the shakiness in her voice. "I don't want to not be able to see my children again. I don't want to not be able to see you again, or not see Stefan Jr. grow up."

I closed my eyes at the heartache her physical form radiated. "Odilia, if you want to back out, you can always do so now."

"That's the thing baby, I was so sure I wanted to do it and so unafraid of what would happen, until now. I know that I still want to do it because as I said before, I don't take too kindly to having my child taken away from me, but I'm afraid that we won't make it back to Tavis and Olivia. Jill is their guardian if anything happens to us, but how will she support two let alone three kids? I don't want to miss out on experiencing the growth of my kids. They mean the world to me and although they know what you and I are, I don't think they fully understand the context of it. How can they when Tavis is four

and Olivia is Six?"

I listened as she went on about how part of her wished she would have thought about her decision before she made it and how she should have considered her kids before going out that night when she met me. I felt a brief tinge of anger at this statement but when she went from fearful to sad, I felt my own grief in my heart.

Clearing my throat, I interrupted her as she began talking about how she would not be able to walk in the daylight again because of being a vampire. It was almost as if she was getting the thought that being a vampire was more trouble that it was worth. "Odilia Gregiore."

"Yes?" She looked up at me with pain filled eyes.

"Do I make you happy?"

"Yes."

"Are your kids missing out on any more love than they would have had had you not became a vampire?" I began rubbing her arms, working to sooth away her sadness.

"No. I love my kids regardless."

"Are they being cared for and in the best of health?"

"Yes."

"Do they lack for anything?"

"Well, no, but my point is Stefan, they are human. We are not. They can see in the daylight at best, while we can only be seen at night. That's no life for them. It shouldn't be fair that they have to sacrifice their time for us."

"Love," I stated, trying to fix her worries. "If it's that important to you, we can get them a daytime nanny and they can do all things humans do or we can turn them."

As soon as I spoke those words, she exhaled sharply, keeping her aggravation in check,

"I don't want them to change unless they decide that, and it won't be for a while before I allow them to consider it because they are so young."

"The only difference between us and humans is that we age slower than they do."

"I thought vampires were immortal?"

"My kind aren't. As I said, we are protectors of the gates so our tribe are born with their souls in tact, however, we age very slowly, in such a way that it takes many, many years for us to reach old age and then die."

"So, I'm not immortal?" She inquired.

"No."

"So, does that mean I don't turn to dust like everyone else?"

"Unfortunately, that does happen if you are killed with a stake or sharp metal."

"Oh goody."She replied sarcastically.

I smiled at her, "I know. What a life to die for huh?"

"I don't get to live eternally? This suddenly makes no sense at all. Magic, super strength, everything that a normal vampire has except the immortality yay for us."

I laughed softly at her truthful but sarcastic words. "Odilia, beautifully, intelligent Odilia. Do you regret meeting me?" I inquired, already knowing the answer.

"Of course not." She stated, her brown eyes full of love. "It just seems that everything is so much more difficult than what it was before. Finances are easier but life adjustment to vampirism is something else."

"Perhaps that's true, my love, but the thing to remember is that you have as much time as you need to do what you need to do. Not like Humans who have about seventy to eighty years max. You can do and be anything you want for as long as you have breath in your body. At the moment, your children life span is shorter than yours. Even when they are your age, you still will look as if you are a sister or brother to them, not a mother. So, our tribe has its curses and it's gifts, but that's the price our ancestors decided to pay a long time ago, before any of us ever came into being."

"You guys have fables too?"

"Not fables, Genealogy."

"Wow." By now, her fear and sadness had been replaced with wonder and I know she was thinking on the history of our tribe. Since I didn't think it was a good idea to focus on something as extensive as our tribe, I cleared my throat and recommended that we go see our children.

~ ~

"Mommy, Daddy..." Tavis called out to us as we came through the front door. Although it had only taken us a minute tops to get to Jill's house, we were greeted by Jill who was pruning her garden. She'd taken Tavis and Olivia into the house and put on a movie for them. Jill was absolutely in love with anything green. She had what most people described a green thumb. She'd planted a flower garden in her front yard and had tons of plants that littered her house. Several different types of house plants. She had a wall that had an empty space high on top. There were blue and pink Hydrangea plants on this wall. They were beautifully flowered plants.

In four corners of the living room she had tropical plants placed symmetrical to one another. I welcomed the cool temperatures of the house as Olivia ran to me and threw her long thin arms around my neck while Tavis ran up to a smiling Stefan and threw his arms around him. I had to admit.

Although Tavis and Stefan looked nothing alike, Tavis had taken a deep affection toward Stefan. At four years old, Tavis knew all of the things most kids didn't learn until they hit Kindergarten or further beyond their grade. Stefan had seen an early interest of learning in him when they'd met and had immediately begin to cultivate that learning. This he'd begin with Latin. Although I tried to talk him out of it, he'd insisted that the best time for a child to learn was at his age and that he would do very well learning languages at his age.

"Salve Tavis, Quam es vos?"

"Egos sum teres Papa."

"Papa es teres." I saw the light that lit up in Stefan's face as he spoke Latin to Tavis. You could see the pride he exuded at having taught Tavis some of his native language. Tavis laughed at the twinkle in his eyes and asked him how did he do. Stefan sighed and spoke to him some more in Latin and the way that he did it made Tavis's already bright face light up more at his approval. I smiled at this, my heart swelling with even more love as I watched Tavis and Stefan interact with one another.

I was grateful for the relationship they had with one another. Tavis was a tall kid for his age with long lanky arms and a deep maple wood complexion. He had dark Afro kinky hair that was cut low and then brushed over every morning to give it a wavy look. He had dark black opal colored eyes and a beautiful bone structure that he'd gotten from his biological father.

"Mommy!" I heard Olivia state. I turned my head to focus on mini me. That's right, Olivia, was a miniature version of her mother. She had two long curly pigtails that rested at her chin with knockers around the rubber-bands Jill had used to keep her hair in place. A long bang had been flattened against the side of her face, hiding one of two opal colored eyes.

Her expression looked annoyed that she'd been telling me something I hadn't even paid attention to. I took this time to study her. Her ginger skin was smooth and scar free. She wasn't the type of child who went around crawling around on her hands and knees and climbing trees. She hated getting dirty, liked her clothes looking neat and accessorized; and she loved having her nails painted, all ten toes and fingers. Today, the outfit she wore commanded blue fingernail polish and she was asking me what I thought of the nail polish. "I think you look absolutely stunning."

"Do I look like you mommy?"

I smiled, "You sure do, Liv."

My compliment was rewarded with a smile, "Thank you mommy."

I laughed and hugged her close to me. "You're welcome baby. So, I heard that you got a new doll house for Christmas."

"I did. I got a doll house, some clothes, a pair of shoes, a bike and a helmet and I even got new press on nails."

"Press on nails?" My gaze wondered to Jill. I knew that she was the only one who could have done that, since I didn't wear press ons. It was Jill who favored press ons.

"Yeah. Do you want to see?" I was pulled upstairs toward the bedroom that Olivia shared with Tavis.

The room was done in a mixture of leafy green and cream. It was perfect since those were neutral in color. I saw two made up oak bunks side by side with a closet on each side of the room. On one closet door was a full length mirror. I knew that this was Olivia's closet. She pulled the door open and began taking everything out at once. As she did so, I was impressed with everything she pulled out. There was stuff she hadn't mentioned like an easy bake oven, a tea set and her entire wardrobe was brand new. I got the feeling that this was more of Stefan's doing than Jill's. After listening and seeing all that she'd gotten for Christmas, we went back downstairs to where Tavis, Jill and Stefan were playing a memory game with flash cards. Putting Olivia down, I walked with her to the table and we both found us a seat.

We stayed at Jill's until it was time for them to go to bed. Once they crawled into bed and each of us tucked in a child, Tavis stated as we sat there just looking at them, "I want to go home."

I leaned down and placed a kiss on his forehead, "You will."

"When?" Olivia inquired, joining in the conversation.

"When we are able to come and get you we will." Stefan stated.

"When, we've been here a long time."

"When we are able to, we will come and get you, but we can't say when." I re enforced Stefan's words.

"I want to go home." Tavis stated, his eyes beginning to fill with sleep.

"We want you to come home but now isn't a good time."

"How come we didn't get to see the baby?"

I looked over at Stefan, at a loss for words.

"Junior was sleeping, so we left him with the nanny."

"We have a nanny?" She inquired, her eyes bright.

Stefan cleared his throat, attempting to make this lie seem the truth, "Yes."

"What's her name?" She tested.

"Well, um her name..." He stuttered to think of one.

"April." I supplied.

"April?"

"Yes."

"Does this mean we can go out in the daylight and I can go back to school now?"

Stefan sighed, "Yes, if that's what you want just remember that mommy and daddy can't pick you up from school and so Mildred..."