197Chapter Twenty Nine: Bright Star Perish
The plane ride had taken three hours to arrive back in Russia. They had taken a regular airport plane because Gage hadn't waited for the Volkoiv one to be readied when he had set out to find her. Estelle hadn't minded the other people, but now she wished it was just herself and Gage.
Halfway into the plane ride, she started getting sharp pains in her stomach. But Estelle couldn't hide the discomfort when she tried, because right next to her she saw Gage's body was sitting up straight, rigid, and he was looking down at her with piercing eyes.
"What?" She tried to sound nonchalant, but the next beat of pain made her gasp and put her hand over her stomach.
"You are in pain." Gage stated, but his calm voice didn't match his panicked look on his face.
"I just need to go to the bathroom. That's all." Gage let her scoot around him since she was sitting in the window seat, but immediately after she walked down the aisle to the bathroom, Gage was behind her. When Estelle reached the bathroom she had the not so crazy feeling that he would follow her in the small space, so she turned around to face him. "Don't you dare come in with me." She shut the door in Gage's face, and after a moment, sighed in relief when he made no move to open the door.
At least most of the people on the plane were sleeping now, but still some that were awake now trying not to look at Gage, or even Estelle now, because if his size didn't intimidate everyone in the airport, then it was the way Gage growled at them when he didn't think they were giving Estelle enough space to walk through the portal and into the plane. Growling at humans!
It was humid in the little bathroom, and being in there for an extended period of time was obviously not why they didn't install an air conditioner.
Estelle could hear Gage and someone else, muffled over the loud sound of being up in the air. Estelle heard clearly when he refused to sit down, and more loudly, growling that his 'wife' was sick. Estelle blushed. Gage had never called her his wife before. And now he was practically shouting it to everyone in the airplane.
Another wave of pain passed through Estelle, making her cringe and let out a voiced gasp. Before she could open her eyes to her sitting position on the toilet, Gage had jerked the plastic door open, bending the plastic lock like it was paper, and stepped in, not giving the flight attendant time to peek in as he shut the door and jammed the plastic back in place.
The bathroom was so small that Gage couldn't bend down to her level on the toilet, so he simply lifted Estelle and propped her on the fake marble sink.
"We can't be in here together. Airplane rule." Estelle moaned out, wanting to hide her pain-etched face from him, but her hair was in a loose side braid.
Gage soothed the bangs from her face. "Fuck the rules." His face didn't change, but Estelle had to let out a soft giggle, making one of the corners of Gage's lips turn up.
"Are you uncomfortable like this?" Gage asked her.
Back to the mirror in a tiny space, Gage's body blocking her in, giving her all the heated warmth she needed to help with the cold shudders she was starting to feel? "This feels like heaven." Estelle breathed out, looking up at him in content. Until she tried to block out another wave of pain. "Almost." She moaned.
Gage held her close, with one hand rubbing her stomach.
"Do you know what's wrong?" He was no longer trying to lighten the mood.
"I don't know for sure." Estelle was hesitating. This didn't feel like the past stomach aches. "At Volkoiv, I was getting some morning sickness."
Gage let out an exasperated breath, and put a hand over his face, tilting his head upward. Estelle had never told him, and he had left her while she was feeling pain and sickness from what he had given her.
"Do lycan females get morning sickness?" She was timid with the question, knowing at least the basics of his thinking.
"I don't know!" Estelle squirmed against him, and Gage snapped back into reality, holding her as she shook. "It's not just one species."
When the flight landed, the pains had dissipated, softer and softer as the time had gone by. And after the ride back to Volkoiv, Estelle found out that no lycan there knew about the pregnancy yet. Only Elena knew.
"So," Elena tip toed around the grand kitchen where Estelle sat, Elena's lips puckered like she didn't know what to say.
"I'm not mad at you." Estelle was chewing on some strawberries, not really hungry, but following Gage's "orders" that she needed to eat something. Estelle wasn't craving meat, like she had before she came back to Volkoiv, and she didn't know why that had changed.
"I should have never hid it from him."
"Well!" Elena clapped her hands together, the noise so foreign to the silence that it made Estelle jump from her seat. "Now that I'm off the hook, we have to start telling all the family!"
Estelle almost choked on the tea she was sipping. "You want to tell all of the lycans here? Now?"
Elena looked confused at first, but then after realization took in, she snorted. "Not that family. These are our clan, but we have a group that we can really call kin. They just," she walked her index and middle finger on the counter. "go as fast as they come now 'a days." Elena blew air up, making a strand of her hair dance. "Kind of like Gage. I feel like I'm the only one left who will stay here with Jamie and try to manage this massive 'city' of lycans!" She threw her hands up in the air.
Estelle had never met other 'family' members of Elena or Gage. She had met Jamie, but everyone here seemed so distant from each other, for such a large group of Specials. Maybe it was because she knew Gage more than anyone else here, and he was the one that felt so distant to everyone, wanted to be that way. And she could relate.
Estelle and Gage could be a family. He had told her that he was her family now, that he was her mate. And this child would be apart of a family too. Estelle vowed that. No matter how much she had resented lycans, she would bond with all of the Volkoiv lycans for her baby even if it killed her, so her child would always know he or she is loved and protected by an army of family.
Gage made her go with him as he drove down the slope where Volkoiv towered and into the village. He told her when they pulled into the drive way of a tall house that this was one of the medical lycans of Volkoiv, and Gage had entrusted him to look at Estelle.
Alban had one large room that looked just like a operating/doctor clinic. Half of the house was made that way.
Unfortunately Alban did not have ultra sound equipment, since there were just a few Volkoiv pregnancies per year and Estelle learned, ultra sounds weren't common with Specials. Estelle was disappointed, not as much as Alban who had wanted to know as much as possible about this unknown situation.
All he could do until the ultra sound could be brought there was feel her stomach and the position of the baby. Estelle laid down on the table with Gage nearby leaning against the wall with a focused stare on Alban's hands on Estelle's stomach.
Because of lycan's sense of hearing, close enough Alban could hear the faint heart beat near Estelle's stronger one. The last he could do was take a blood sample from her, and Estelle had never had a needle put into her ever. Like a lot of other Specials.
While he had looked and felt her stomach, Estelle found out Alban was originally from France and spoke perfect French. Every time he would ask her about her sickness or any symptoms, he would speak French to her, and she would respond, thinking he was trying to make her feel more relaxed, but Estelle could tell it was driving Gage mad until he interrupted and told Alban to speak English to Estelle. Why Gage hadn't learned any French for being a thousand year old ancient artifact, Estelle would never know.
When Estelle was pulling down the top over her stomach while Alban and Gage were talking in Russian, Estelle jumped when Gage got visibly angry and yelled. He grabbed a hold of her hand and dragged her out of the house and back to the car.
"What were you guys talking about?" Estelle asked, confused about his sudden mood change.
"He is going to test the blood sample. And move into the Castle to monitor the pregnancy." At Estelle's pensive stare, Gage sighed. "And he told me we can't have sex." At that Gage groaned.
Estelle was quiet for a moment, and then started to laugh. "That's why you were mad?" At Gage's glare, Estelle quieted again and shifted in the passenger's seat. "Too bad." She tugged on her bottom lip with her teeth, looking at Gage with hooded eyes. "I thought we could have a little fun for the first night back."
Gage had to look away from her and focus on driving so he wouldn't do anything stupid. At that Estelle pouted.
"We'll. . . see what happens tonight." Gage held the steering wheel with a steel grip, and Estelle half smiled, knowing they wouldn't follow the Doctor's orders.
Estelle was alone in the bedroom, waiting for Gage, but she knew he wouldn't be here for a while. He had business, and had refused to leave Estelle, but she made him go, knowing since Jamie had left on a mission.
The clock was ticking loudly, almost ten at night, and the pains in her stomach were starting to calm down. After she had gotten into the bedroom, they had started up again, not as bad as before on the plane. Now after an hour of dealing with the ache, Estelle felt drained. She had slipped into a short white night gown that was in the wooden dresser, and she was ready for sleep, having decided she couldn't wait for Gage.
Estelle woke up at midnight, alone in bed, her head numb from the raging pain in her abdomen.
She sat up and put her hands to her stomach. Even from being disoriented, she knew this wasn't any kind of sickness. Her insides felt like they were being torched. When Estelle pulled the covers to the side to get up, she gasped when she saw blood on the mattress. The hem of her dress was soaked.
Her knees wanted to buckle as she staggered to the bathroom and turned on the lights, the bright white interior coming alive and making Estelle close her eyes as she moaned.
It felt like she was in a trance, even though the pain was real it seemed reality had slipped away.
"Ahhhh." Estelle clenched her stomach and saw red, unable to stand anymore as she felt for the rim of the bathtub and sat on it. She lost her balance on the thin rim as her body slipped into the bathtub, laying there trying to catch her breath. She felt under her gown, and when she pulled her hand up, through hazy eyes, she saw dark red.
Gage snapped the cell phone shut as he was leaving the car, not bothering to shut the door on the way inside and up to his bedroom. A lycan in Volkoiv had called Gage and told him he smelled blood coming from the bedroom as they had passed by, and Gage's heart stopped beating.
Elena was in the room, in the door of the bathroom and was standing there, her face looked like she was speechless.
"What?" Gage yelled, striding over to her in fear, just as he took in the metallic smell of blood and saw the bed, smeared with blood.
He pushed her out of the way, and stopped short, catching his breath as he saw Estelle in the bathtub. A pool of blood surrounding her.
She looked like an angel with her blond hair surrounding her in a white satin gown. An ethereal scene that the blood poisoned and made into reality.
"Go!" Gage boomed at Elena, who had regained her balance, still shocked. "Get Alban!"
Gage shut the bathroom door behind him and immediately went to Estelle. Her heart was beating, Gage could hear as he put one hand at the back of her neck and the other on her waist and pulled her out of the blood and into his arms.
"Gage?" Estelle breathed out, her voice raspy and weak.
"Shhhh. I'm here baby." He sat on the toilet and smoothed the hair from her face. Her eyes were bright green, peeking out from her drooped lids, and Gage knew she didn't know what was happening either.
"My stomach hurts." She rasped, her blood stained fingers itching to touch her stomach. Gage kissed her jaw, trying to calm her as Estelle's breathing started to hitch."Don't move." He whispered at the side of her face, holding her body to his for warmth as she started convulsing and shivering.
Gage glanced at the tub, seeing all the blood. But something else caught his attention, and Gage paled, his moving hands on her hair and back stopping cold.
Estelle lay in bed, sleeping. The servants had changed the bedding so Gage could lay her down to rest. Gage had found her two hours ago, but the feeling of emptiness hadn't left him since. Alban had confirmed it.
Estelle had miscarried.
Something almost unheard of to Specials. Gage had saw the small lump in the bathtub, but tried to deny it.
Elena still lingered after coming up from where they had set up Alban. She had been the one to take the child down because Gage didn't think he could control himself if he saw it again.
"You should go downstairs and see your baby." Elena said quietly to Gage in the adjoining sitting room. "Before it's too late."
Gage shook his head. For the first time a lump in his throat made him unable to talk. He held his head in his hands, the same position he had been in since laying Estelle down.
"It's a girl you know." Elena said, tears choking her as she pictured the baby again, making Gage groan. "She looks like you and you won't even see her!"
"Stop." Gage tried to sound deadly, but he was being choked from sadness too. He didn't want to know anything about the child, but hearing it was a girl and took on his features already tore him up inside. He could feel the wetness in his eyes, so foreign, but he didn't care anymore. "I did this to her. I did this to our child. There's never been a mixed Special." His rough voice had turned, unrecognizable.
"You don't know that." Elena accused, tears flowing. She left, and Gage didn't blame her. The air in this room was thick enough to cut.
He finally got up and let his legs lead him to the door, but not before he stopped to kiss Estelle's cheek and rest his forehead against hers. Maybe he was trying to get support from her even though she was sleeping, but he needed to go see the child and see what they had created together.
He walked into Alban's room, and saw him behind the makeshift work desk, surprised to see Gage enter. Gage acted like he didn't see him, standing tall and hard faced as he walked to the first thing he saw and knew what it was. The white cloth stained with some red held the baby. Gage looked down and saw the face. His teeth clenched so hard together he knew he could beak his jaw easily in that position. Already, the baby had a small head of little black hairsBut is had pale but porcelain skin, like Estelle. Gage covered his mouth and shadowed the head with the cloth, realizing his hand hand the table in a death grip and he released.
"Gage."
Hearing Alban's voice, he walked to the door, not wanting to show the other lycan his emotions he felt were going to bubble over, never letting any other besides Estelle see him other than hard.
"Elena told me you think it because the baby it mixed, but it's not."
Gage stopped dead in his tracks, turning to face Alban with deadly eyes. "What do you mean." He felt like the lycan has waiting to tell him something, and Gage felt sick to his stomach.
"When I entered the bedroom, there was another smell mixed with the blood. I had to be sure so I tested Estelle's blood." Alban looked deadly, knowing the reaction that was going to follow the early commander of Volkoiv.
"Estelle was poisoned, with the SN poison infircide." Alban held his throat, uncomfortable. "It's obvious someone wanted her to lose the baby."
Alban waited, Gage motionless, void black eyes gleaming. And when they turned blue and the loud sound of ripping clothes filled the air, Alban made a quick exit, knowing when to leave. A brutal snarl echoed in the Castle as everyone exited the hallways.