Soft morning light entered the plain, worn-out apartment. If I could call one-bedroom loft an apartment. The colour from the walls began to fade, leaving behind a dirty yellow. It was hard to tell where colour ended and mould began. Creaky carpets covered the floors until they met the cracked kitchen tiles. The only separate room was the small bathroom next to the kitchen.

Furniture was scarce: one brown sofa with pale worn-out edges, a narrow table with a metal chair, a rusty fridge and stow, and a couple of wooden cupboards.

The only new modern thing in the room was the sturdy queen-sized bed, covered with blankets and pillows. The hospital-type table was attached to the size, allowing the patient to eat on it without getting out. An IV pole stood over the bed; blue tubes surrounding it.

Lucia was awake. She sat in the bed, her laptop open on the table in front of her. She crossed her hands over her chest, above her very pregnant belly, and shot arrows at me.

When I first saw her, I envied the olive colour of her skin. Now, she looked too pale. As if someone turned saturation down. Her long dark hair was now thin and dry. So were her lips. And she was thin, too thin. Nothing of her curviness remained. Only the large, protruding belly. How accurate, I thought. The baby was eating her alive.

"Where the fuck have you been?" She spat, her big, brown eyes scanning me from head to toe, lingering on the leather jacket I didn't have on me when I left the apartment earlier tonight.

"At Dorian's." I took off my heels and walked barefoot to the fridge. "Are you cold?"

"Only always." She said. "It's 6AM. You left at 1AM."

"I stopped for a drink." I grunted while going through the contents of the fridge.

"You don't have that kind of money."

"We." I pulled the last remaining bag of blood from the fridge. "We don't have that kind of money."

"Did you talk to your father?"

I closed my eyes, unable to look at her. When I took her out of my brother's grabby arms, I promised she would be safe with me.

"They won't let me." I said through my teeth and walked to the sofa.

"What do you mean?" Lucia pushed herself slightly up and grunted. "Who won't let you? Lucien is on our side! And Libby should-"

"Dorian Darascu replaced me." I sipped the blood through a straw; the cold, watery substance tasted nothing like fresh blood.

Fucking hospital food.

"Excuse me?"

Lucia's teenage voice pissed me off. I usually tolerated it, but it proved too much tonight.

"You heard me."

"How can they replace you with Dorian?" Lucia raised her voice, and I didn't feel like reminding her she shouldn't get worked up. "He's not even part of your family."

I lifted the blood bag, "He's engaged to Libby."

"What the fuck?" She cursed. "Alright, alright. But he still could have let you talk to your dad. Did he? Where have you been? And whose jacket are you wearing?"

"Luce, will you stop acting like my mother?"

"Well, I might as well be your fucking mother, considering I'll die before you and I can do nothing but lie here while you go around and drink and have fun!"

My temples began to pound, "I wasn't-"

"I'm supposed to be out drinking and having fun!" Her voice quickly broke, her facade sliding like a veil, revealing that today was one of the bad days. "I'm fucking seventeen! You're supposed to take care of me, get the money and save me!"

I walked over and sat on the bed, forgetting the blood bag on the table.

"I'm sorry." I spread out my hand, inviting her.

Lucia pouted, her thin arms still crossed over her chest. Tears gathered in her eyes, both sad and angry.

"I knew Edmond wouldn't give me his vote, but I thought I'd only have to convince Libby and that would be it." I continued, trying to tell the truth despite the shame. "I wasn't counting on Dorian. I would have played it differently if I had known I'd run into Dorian."

Lucia's arms dropped from her chest, revealing more of the large stomach, "He didn't give you his vote."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, "No."

"What now?" Her voice changed again, this time dangling on the edge of crying. "We don't have any money, Odette! We're fucking broke! And Doctor Martin isn't going to help me if I can't pay, you know that!"

I closed my eyes, pain beating against my brain, "I'll deal with it. There are ways to get money, we don't need my family-"

"How?" She cut me off. "You can't make that kind of money. You don't have any skills, any. Fuck, I'm more useful than you and I'm a thirteen months pregnant minor!"

Shame and anger battled within me. And both wanted to blame something other than me for this entire mess.

"Luce." I said through my teeth. "I haven't had anything to eat in twenty four hours. You need to calm down a bit."

She pulled back instantly, her body shrinking in caution.

"Sorry." She breathed in deeply. "It's a bad day, I'm sorry."

I returned my hand to the bed and she took it. Her skin was clammy and cold, and she had no strength to squeeze me as tightly as she wanted to. Our eyes met, both pairs dim and watery, for different reasons.

"All I can think about is you, two feet away from Edmond and unable to kill him." She admitted, her voice quieting.

Pain shot through me like a bullet; quick, and strong, and ending in numbness. I'd kill Edmond if I thought I wouldn't be killing myself, Lucia and everyone I've ever met in the process.

"Are you hungry?" I asked, "I'll go to the store and get you something."

"You need blood. Call your dealer." She said, surprising me. "I can live on eggs."

I raised my eyebrow, "Doctor Martin said your best chance was red meat."

Her gaze fell to her belly, "I should have known a Zaleria would have expensive taste."

Lucia went through polar stages for almost thirteen months now, ever since she found out she was pregnant with a vampire. First, she hated the baby and blamed it for everything bad that happened in her life. Then, she said the baby wasn't to blame.

It wasn't the baby's fault. It was Edmond.

Edmond kidnapped underage immigrants, promised wealth, happiness, thrill, and killed them.

"I met someone." I said, anger awakening within me once again. "A vampire hunter."

Sorrow disappeared from Lucia's eyes, replaced by curiosity.

"Where?" She leaned in again, now eager to hear the story, "How do you know?"

"The symbol." I glanced at her computer. "He had a black card in his wallet with the symbol you found."

Lucia squinted, "And how did you learn the contents of his wallet?"

I raised my eyebrow, "Do you want to know?"

"Ugh, no." She shivered, making me chuckle. "Wait, a vampire hunter was in the Lion's Den?"

"Exactly." I said. "And he hates Dorian Darascu."

Lucia's jaw tensed, "Do you think he... knows?"

"I'm not sure." I got up, the rumble in my stomach making me reach for the blood bag. "But I'll see him again, and then I can convince him to help me take Dorian down. Once Dorian leaves, Libby will have to sit on the Council-"

I stopped, noticing Lucia's gaze. Her shoulders slumped again and the corners of her lips dragged down in defeat.

"I don't have that kind of time." She said, force returning to her voice. "Doctor Martin said I can't wait until labour. I'll need to give birth in two months. Odette, the longer we wait, the lesser are my chances of survival."

In desperation, I slid onto the floor, blood bag in hand.

"I'm trying."

"Try harder!" She hit the sides of the bed with her fists. "Beg Dorian if you have to, I don't care! He's our only chance!"

"Dorian hates me." I closed my eyes, exhaustion taking over at the speed of the rising sun.

"And whose fault is that?" Lucia asked. "It's not mine, but I'm the one who's going to die because of it!"

"What do you want me to do?" I snapped, eyes opening wide and fixating on her.

She didn't flinch, "Apologize for whatever shitty thing you did to Dorian and fix this!"

The words undid me. Tears welled up in my eyes, angry and desperate.

Two years.

Two years of hiding a teenage human pregnant with a vampire baby in my apartment.

Two years of spending every penny I had on bribing the only vampire doctor greedy and brave enough to help us.

Two years of working double shifts, drinking shitty hospital blood, and giving up every ounce of comfort.

The day I chose to save Lucia from inevitable death, my life collapsed.

No, I didn't regret it. Edmond would have killed her and the baby. She was a threat to our entire community, our world. Vampire human babies didn't exist. None. If something like this came to light right after some of the vampires expressed their desire to come out of their coffins, there wouldn't be a civil war – there'd be a world war.

And I had to run into Dorian. The one man I swore I'd never beg for anything.

"He's the one who needs to apologize to me." I said, just to remind myself I still had some pride left in me.

"Beggars can't be choosers." Lucia said.

The entire night replayed in my head. How stupid could I be? Why did I have to let my anger get the better of me? I knew Dorian would stand in my way, but I had to provoke him. I couldn't forgive the bastard, I needed to take him down.

"I pissed him off." I admitted, feeling so terribly ashamed of myself. "And I almost fucked a vampire hunter in the bathroom."

"That's really awesome, Odette." Lucia's head dropped on the pillow. "Thanks, really."

"I'm sorry." I sighed, closing my eyes again, trying to swallow my pride. "Dorian wouldn't let me talk to my father."

The next sentence burned in my throat, and my entire body curled up around it, trying to keep it from leaving my mouth.

"But I could beg him for money."

"Thank you." Lucia exhaled. "Money's all we need for now."

"I have to sleep." I dragged myself to the sofa. "The sun is beginning to affect me."

"I'll look up the hunter you mentioned. What's his name?"

My head dropped on my pillow, followed by a couple of stray tears.

"Jax."

"Jax what?"

"I don't know."

"Next time you try to seduce a man for information, you could learn his surname."

Exhaustion took over and the rest of what she said faded away.