A several months had gone by since the conflict that took. Things were becoming dire but even then that didn't stop the midwife from running down the hall with a bucket of water. She turned into the room where Makala was. The vampire had dumped the entire bed in her sweat, she was laying in a pond of it.
She was in severe pain, none of her pregnancies were still painful or difficult. She looked at Faye, tears in her eyes, holding her hand.
"I don't know if I'm going to make this," she managed to get out. Faye's eyes became wide, not knowing how to process that information. She shook her head and held onto Makala tighter.
Slam!
The bucket of water slammed onto the floor, the wet towel quickly draped over the vampire's forehead.
"Push!"
She tore open when the head appeared, her scream like nothing Faye had ever heard before. The blood spilled and her head slammed onto the pillow. The mid wife pulled the baby out, using her own teeth to cut the umbilical cord.
Faye took the baby quickly. "Take care of my wife, get my wife!" She yelled. The midwife rushed to Makala to tend to her, to stop the blood.
Faye didn't want to see this. She didn't want to see her wife pass. She couldn't, she couldn't do she rushed out the room, holding the baby in the hall way, her tears falling onto the head of the newborn.
She didn't know what to do, she didn't know what to think. She held the baby tightly, her entire body shaking. She couldn't lose Makala. She couldn't lose her everything.
The midwife worked quickly. She pressed thick towels against the worst tears. She packed those raw places with herbs that stung and burned, clotting blood thick and fast.
She poured steaming water over Makala's belly, washing away sweat and fluids. The vampire's groan was weak, ragged, more a sigh against the pillow. The midwife poured tincture onto cloth scraps and pressed them against Makala's lips until the liquid seeped inside. Her fingers flew, stitching rents shut with practiced precision.
Faye didn't know how long she was outside but the midwife came out and gave a small smile. The priestess rushed into the room to be by Makala.
"You know," Faye said to Makala. "If you gone, I'd have made a contract to bring you back," she admitted.
"Don't say that," Makala whispered back, her hair matted to her head.
Faye leaned in for a kiss.
"This is the last child," Makala said.
Faye nodded. Her wife had been telling her that since the last child. She looked down at her newborn daughter sleeping in her arms. The pink infant wrapped in a blanket.
"What do you want to name her?" The midwife asked.
"MIRACLE!" Both women said at the same time, laughing when they said it together.
Mara walked down the hall of Hacate University, walking to her office when her nose twitched. She could also smell the Alpha near by. Sure enough, Sous was in her office waiting.
The vampire closed the door and smiled at Sous. "How'd you get through security?" She asked.
Sous smiled. "Magae," she said smiling.
Mara sat down at her desk. Behind her, thick volumes filled shelves that stretched to the ceiling, the scent of old paper mingling with Sous's clear, sharp Alpha musk.
Mara leaned back in her worn leather chair, its creak a familiar comfort. She traced the grain of her oak desk with a fingertip, cool and smooth beneath her touch. Through the tall window, grey autumn light spilled onto scattered papers, casting light that danced as clouds shifted outside.
The loudness of the university, distant footsteps, muffled voices through walls, all a blur as Sous stood before her.
"Why are you here?"
"Do you know what's happening with Apex?"
"Of course," Mara acknowledged. "Land by land, Nadia is already preparing. How's Kara?"
"Good, do you mind writing a reference letter so my kids can stay at Hacate until this is over?" Sous asked.
"Wars can last decades, Sous," Mara told her.
"I know and I want my children safe," she said.
Mara stood up and walked to her window. "What about that wolf that's with that Alpha, the leader of Apex." She turned to Sous who seemed confused.
"Who-"
"Tania. How could you give her your daughter, turn her against you," Mara stepped to Sous.
"She's not-"
"She will, Sous." The vampire paused. "Tania is lost as well, claiming to have found Hacate, breaking threads of the Groken tree, alerting the threaders. Everyone lost their mind!" She glared at Sous. "Yes, I can write a letter."
A small smile of came over the Alpha's face as she bowed. Knowing her children would be safe within the walls of Hacate meant the world to her. They didn't have much ability for magic, if at all, but they could learn some things that could be beneficial.
Silence thickened in the office. Sous's scent shifted, sharpened pine needles and ozone, an Alpha's acknowledgment. She pressed her palm flat against the cool oak panel beside Mara's overflowing bookshelf.
The wood darkened beneath her touch, fibers reacting to the surge of condensed power gathering unseen. Mara watched, unblinking, as the air itself began to shimmer like heat rising off desert stone.
Dust caught in the nascent vortex danced wildly, refracting the weak grey light into sudden, fleeting sparks. Sous's outline wavered, became translucent, the solidity of her form dissolving like ink in swiftly flowing water.
There was no gust of wind, only the profound vacuum left by sudden absence. Where she had stood, a faint, warm ozone scent lingered briefly before being swallowed by the encompassing smell of aged parchment and leather-bound tomes.
"Wow," she said. "She teleported...never seen that...oh wait, yeah, I have," she told herself as she walked to her drawer to pull out a bag of cookies. She placed a chocolate chip in her mouth. The crumbs falling to the floor as she continued to look out the window.