"What!!!! What do you mean by they want our baby!!!! Abhay how can you do this???" Pia asked suddenly shocked and alarmed.

Abhay: Relax Pia! I would not let them take our baby away ever!

Pia: But why do they need our baby?

Abhay: Because you are a look alike of Maithili and so only the child produced with your union with a vampire has the powers to defeat Maithili as her powers will have no effect on your child and a vampire father will give the baby power of his/her own to defeat her. I knew nothing about it Pia, trust me. Our superiors too have found this out only recently.

Pia: But how Abhay? If drinking my blood can make Maithili super strong, then why would my baby be immune to her powers?

Abhay: That's what Siddhartha and Maithili had thought Pia. But that does not hold true for Maithili. Yes, a normal vampire would have gained immense powers on drinking it's look-alike's blood. But as superiors recently told me; in order to gain extra powers, Maithili made the mistake of killing the dark witch who brought her back to life and so she has the witches' curse on her. In fact, had she drank your blood, instead of gaining powers, she would have lost all her powers and become a very weak vampire.

Pia: Then why don't the superiors just use me instead of my baby!

Abhay: Shh.. please Pia never say like that. I would never let that happen. Besides our clan too would never approve of making a human the dinner of a vampire deliberately. Our baby would be in no danger from Maithili, that's why they want to train our baby to fight her off and finish her. But they would never ever use you as a bait to kill Maithili, even though they do not mind losing you in our child's birth process! 

Abhay had said the last line in anger. But Pia was still worried for her baby more than herself and said: But I want to give our child a normal happy life Abhay!

Abhay: Don't worry about that! Our child will have a normal happy life Pia! That's why I have put the superiors off us telling them that I am ready to put their plan in action provided I find a white witch first. That should put them off for at least a year or two.

Pia: but what about after that?

Abhay: I am sorry Pia, but sooner or later we will have to prepare our chid for the war. Even if superiors don't take it away from us, but Maithili won't sit quiet. She is sure to come back and create havoc in our life sooner or later. And if Maithili is indeed behind those werewolves, then maybe she already knows about our baby.

Pia shivered at the thought and started crying. Abhay hugged her closely and said: No Pia. Don't cry please. It's not good for our baby. And I promise I won't let anyone or anything harm you or our baby. Trust me Pia.

Pia: of course I trust you Abhay. But does that mean that we really would have to train our baby to fight from a young age?

Abhay: I am afraid yes Pia. That's the price one has to pay for this dark life. But I will still try to give our child as normal and happy life as can. He/She does not have to train 24x7 Pia. And being half me, his/her brain will be extra sharp and will not have to spend much time in revising normal school education.

Abhay said the last line with a wink and a fake haughtiness and Pia could not help but laugh at his playfulness. She pulled his cute dimpled cheeks and cuddled closer to him to seek reassurance for her baby. She knew if she had her way, she would call out to Maithili and let her drink her blood to weaken her. But she knew that she can't even do that right now. Her baby needs her and even afterwards, she knew that Abhay will never be able to live without her and the idea of leaving her baby orphaned was not at all acceptable to her. And so she was helpless in this regard. She knew that her baby needed both parents to look after and to help him/her grow into a lovable, happy person.

She had a disturbed sleep but sleeping in Abhay's arms relaxed her a bit. They were awaken by Haseena urgently knocking on their doors early morning. Abhay quickly dressed him and asked her what the matter was and Haseena hurriedly replied: Abhay, you and Pia have to leave for US right now. We just got a call from the superiors that the werewolves are planning and attack again.

Abhay: But what about you and Dad mom?

Haseena: we are right now leaving for Kasauli to stay with superiors for now. But since they need your and Pia's baby, you need to keep fooling them that you are trying to find the white witch. Don't worry about us. We all will be able to manage the werewolves, but the werewolves will surely try to kill Pia and your baby. So just take her away right now. We have already bought your fresh tickets.

Abhay agreed and soon they headed out to the airport and within an hour their flight took off from Dehradun to Delhi from where they took the flight to New York.

New York

Abhay's first priority was to find the white witch. The only information he had about her was her name and age. Claudia Clark, age 81. That was all he knew about her.  And he set to seek her out with this information alone. He knew that he may not be able to know who she is, but she would definitely be able to recognize his scent and so he was placing his hopes on her reaction to him to identify her. He used People Search Engine and found that there were total 4 Claudia Clarks aged 75 in the New York State. One in Buffalo, One in Kingston, One in New York City and One in the sparsely populated Sherrill. He started his search for her from New York City. He searched out her contact details and found that she was living in an old age home and is occasionally visited by her son. He stalked her to see if he can find anything unusual in her, but he could not. Whole day he kept hovering around her institute to see if she can feel his presence, but she was too engrossed in her books to notice anything. Frustrated he returned back to his apartment where Pia was waiting for him. She sensed from Abhay's mood that he could not succeed in their mission. She decided to cheer him up and hugged him from behind. A small smile crept on Abhay's face at her touch. But his mind was still tensed. Pia tightened her embrace and rested her face on his back and said:

"Abhay, kya hua?"

Abhay replied with a sigh: Pia I could not make sure whether she was the one we are looking for or not. I kept hovering around her old age home but she was too engrossed in her books.

Pia: Don't worry Abhay! We have time. We will soon find her.

Abhay: How Pia? We need to find her as soon as possible so that we can find her descendant and convince her to help us. It's not an easy task and we hardly have 3 months with us. And I am not even sure if this lady is just pretending or did she actually not felt my presence.

Pia: But Abhay, you can read minds na?

Abhay: only if I am connected to that person emotionally or with blood else I need to be in physical touch with the person and my powers are unlikely to work on a witch.

Pia: Then we can go and meet her tomorrow, and then you can find out if she is the one we are looking for or not.

Abhay: How are we going to meet her Pia?

Pia: By acting as donators from India. We will make some donation to the old age home and request them to let us meet the elderly people there and spend some time with them. This way we will be able to find if she is the one we are looking for or not. I am sure, if we go and directly meet her, she is sure to show some reaction, if she can recognize you.

Abhay (feeling hopeful again): That does sound like a good plan.

Pia: It is Abhay! So, now stop worrying and take me out for dinner.

Pia started to move away to dress up but Abhay pulled her closer to himself, cupped her face and said: Pia, Thanks for coming in my life and being my biggest support. You truly are the light in my dark life.

Pia: And my life begins and ends with you Abhay. My life is there because you are there. And that's how spouses are meant to be Abhay; to be each others' support in not just good but bad times too and to guide each other during tough times.

"Really!!! And I thought people marry for completely different reasons!!" Abhay said while winking at Pia and pulling her closer.

" Naughty Abhay!!" she said while hitting at his chest. "Ab chalo mujhe aur baby ko bhook lagi hai. Let's go for dinner!" she pleaded.

Abhay: Can't we order food here? What will I do sitting in a restaurant?

"You can ogle at me having my dinner. Pretty women having food is a rare sight. You should not miss it!" Pia said while giggling and Abhay could not help but laugh with her.

They went out for dinner and then had a good night's sleep in each other's arms later in the night. Next morning they went to meet that old lady as planned. But she showed no reaction as they approached her. Pia and Abhay said hello to her and she smiled warmly at them. Pia told her that in their country it's a custom for people to seek blessing from their elders by touching their feet. She asked her permission to touch her feet, which the old lady granted without showing any strong reaction. Abhay tried to read her mind while touching her feet, but all she was thinking was: "wow, how respectful Indians are!"

Abhay and Pia returned back home later in the evening and Abhay crossed this Claudia Clark out from his list. He was sure this one was not the one they were looking for. Next day they proceeded to meet the next one on their list in Buffalo.

A week passed and Abhay had crossed out three Claudia Clarks. Now only one was left. And she had got be the one, else he did not know what he will do! They were going to meet the last Claudia Clark in their list next day and both Abhay and Pia were too tensed. Their only solace was each other's love and so tonight they made fierce passionate love to each other as they had no idea what tomorrow held for them. 

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