Eyes Like Ice

My reflection in the full-length mirror of my walk-in closet was a picture of perfect elegance. The gown I was wearing was black, the bodice tight and the flowy skirt falling prettily to the floor. My black heels were almost completely hidden by the dark silk. The dress was strapless and low-cut, showing just the right amount of cleavage to keep it sexy instead of slutty. Sadly, the room's bright lighting didn't do my pale skin any justice, though I knew I would look all right once I left the large closet.

I had my long black hair pulled back in a neat bun, leaving my pale neck bare. I reached up and gently fingered the small, barely noticeable scars Spike had left on my neck about a month ago. I had allowed him to feed from me, assuring him that it wouldn't hurt the baby, though I had never factored in that it could hurt me. These little discolored dots were the result of this incomplete thought process. He had apologized repeatedly, swearing that he would never drink from me again, but I had coaxed him into continuing to take my blood. He was always very careful to bite me in the vicinity of the scar to avoid adding anymore of these small marks. Dominick did the same whenever he fed from me. I was glad that neither of them needed to feed very often. It tended to make me a bit dizzy whenever someone drank my blood now...

Dominick, dressed in a nice tux, appeared beside me suddenly. "Miss Lumberton is ready to go."

I sighed and turned, heading toward the door with Dominick trailing along behind me. "Why do I have to go to this thing, anyway? I'll just end up passing out or sitting down and doing nothing."

The male shrugged. "She always takes you to parties with her, doesn't she? People might get suspicious if they don't see you with her."

"True...Why is Mrs. Hanwell holding such a gathering on a Monday night, anyway?" Dominick froze at the mention of Mrs. Hanwell's name, and I stopped walking so I could turn to look at him. "What is wrong?"

"This is Mrs. Hanwell's party?" the Levellua said questioningly, looking at me with wide, pale blue eyes.

"Yes," I answered with a single nod.

He grinned suddenly, the smile being more like one of Riley's goofy grins than one of his own sexy smiles. "We met in her mansion, remember?"

A very, very faint smile reached my lips, but I knew that he saw it because of the way his grin broadened even further. "Of course. I almost killed you there."

He chuckled. "Good times, good times."

"Mm," I said, the slightest bit of happiness entering the confirmative sound.

Soon enough, we were downstairs, and Miss Lumberton, clad in an emerald-green dress, made us hurry to the limo we were to ride in. She was being accompanied by Dominick's master, Mister Gregory McMillan, and she seemed sompletely smitten with him. This was good news for Dominick and I, for she wouldn't try to separate us if she wanted to be with his master.

We arrived at Mrs. Hanwell's mansion, which appeared to have remained unchanged since our last visit, several minutes later. The limo door was opened for us, allowing us to slide out into the freezing cold night. The humans were using coats and whatnot to keep themselves warm, but Dominick and I had opted to come without such extra clothing.

I entered the house and immediately began feeling uneasy. The feeling wasn't strong, but still, it was there. I pushed it out of my mind, though, and slowly began to wander through the ballroom. It was filled with many formally-dressed men and women, both human and Levellua, but it wasn't exactly crowded due to the room's impressive size. The people were spread out to fill the expansive area instead of all packed together in one general place.

Dominick took my arm once we found ourselves separated from our masters, remaining as close to me as he possibly could. "We can go outside, if you want."

"No. I'll be fine in here," I told him, sighing. I led the way to a corner of the big room and turned, putting my back to the wall so I could look around at all of the people attending this party. Most of them seemed happy enough...

But then, my eyes met Mrs. Hanwell's, and I stiffened.

The thirty-year-old woman was small, short and incredibly thin, with pale blonde, shoulder-length hair and dark blue eyes. She may have been tiny, looking completely harmless in her long blue gown, but the look in her eyes was so...angry that it was almost frightening. That could mean only one thing...

She knew.

She knew that I had stolen from her family months ago. I didn't know how she knew, but she knew. Probably because of some security cameras or something. And the way she looked at me indicated that she more than likely wanted revenge. Yet almost as soon as her eyes locked with mine, she looked away, turning a fake smile to the older woman with whom she was conversing.

"What's wrong, Raven?" Dominick asked, his voice a hushed whisper. The pain in his tone was what made me realize that I had a hold of his hand, and I was on the verge of breaking it. I quickly released it.

"She knows," I said in an emotionless voice that was just as quiet as his had been. "She knows we were the ones who broke into her house."

"Does she know what we are?" the boy asked, now seeming slightly alarmed.

"Of course she does, Dominick," I told him as I looked over at him. "Everyone here does. Why else would so many Levellua be allowed to let their real eye colors show in the company of so many humans?" It was a well-known fact that very few Levellua did as Dominick did, letting their strange eyes show constantly. Most had masters who hired people to cast spells that hid their abnormally-colored irises. Some even casted the spells themselves. As far as I knew, however, I was the only Levellua in the city who used colored contact lenses to hide the odd coloring of my eyes.

"Oh, yeah. I knew that," Dominick mumbled, glancing around the room. "What should we do?"

I shrugged. "Wait and see what she-" My legs gave on me at that point, forcing Dominick to catch me again. He had to do this rather often nowadays...

"Are you all-" Dominick was cut off by a worried sound from Mrs. Hanwell, who was already rushing over to me.

"Oh, no. Are you all right, dear?" she asked, feigning concern. Before I could even answer her, she said, "You should rest for a while. I'll have Liam take you to one of the guest rooms." Without giving me the chance to object, she snapped her fingers, and I was pulled away from Dominick rather roughly by an older male Levellua. I found myself slightly surprised by this, seeing as Mrs. Hanwell hadn't had a Levellua the last time I'd met her. What shocked me even more was that another snap of her fingers had an even more muscular male standing in front of Dominick, keeping him away from me. Both of these new Levellua had dark brown hair and lighter brown eyes, and they also had similar facial features, indicating that they were probably brothers.

I was suddenly picked up by the guy who had a hold of me, and because of all the chattering in the room, nobody even noticed that I was being carried out. The fact that Dominick was being restrained also went unnoticed. We were both pretty much doomed now, and all because everyone else was so freaking distracted...

I was carried into a large library-like room, where a brunette man was waiting for me in a big black chair behind an expensive-looking oak desk. He watched with cold blue eyes as I was lowered to the floor, stumbling slightly since I had yet to regain my full strength. The room's dim light flattered my pale skin more than the light of my closet had, but now was no time to think about such an unimportant thing.

"You stole from me. I want you to repay me," the man said simply. I quickly recognized him as Mrs. Hanwell's husband, Mister Shannon Kyle Hanwell.

"You should be talking to my master, then," I told him stoically. "I have nothing with which to pay you."

"That dress looks expensive," Mister Hanwell remarked pointedly. "And those shoes. I'm sure I could get quite a bit of money for you, too."

"You can't sell me. I already have a master."

"I'm sure she wouldn't mind parting with you if I allowed her to keep the money you stole for her."

"She wouldn't give me away."

"She might not have a problem with giving your baby up, though." He smiled wickedly at my sudden alarm, seeming amused as he watched a hand go to my stomach. "What's wrong? Have you figured out that I'm right?"

"How did you know?" I asked, unable to make my voice any louder than a whisper.

"About your pregnancy?" The bastard chuckled. "Your bright red Signum tends to attract attention, you know." A jolt of shock and fear ran through me at that. I had forgotten to hide the Signum...Half of it was showing because of this freaking low-cut dress...

I turned and started for the door, though I was forced to a stop when Liam stepped in front of me. With a snarl, I coldcocked the son of a bitch, only managing to hit him because he hadn't been expecting the pregnant teenager to get violent. As he collided with the floor, unconscious, I bolted out of the room. Mister Hanwell's amused, almost evil laughter followed me down the hall.

When I began to sprint down the stairs that led to the ballroom, I felt the odd sensation of wetness between my legs. After a moment of reflection, I realized that it wasn't just a strange feeling. My water had actually just broken.

This was sooo not a good time to be going into labor...

Dominick glanced away from the Levellua he seemed to have just knocked unconscious, his eyes widening at the slight look of panic on my pale face. All of the people that had been staring at him followed his gaze, slowly turning to look at me.

Just as I reached the bottom of the stairs, a horrible pain tore through my body, starting where the baby rested within me and spreading outward. It was such a tremendous, agonizing pain that I couldn't help but cry out. I leaned against the railing with a hand on my stomach, unable to stop cringing.

"Are you going to have the baby, Raven?" Miss Lumberton asked worriedly as she rushed to my side, having stopped calling me 'servant girl' a long time ago. At my nod, she took my arm and hurried me toward the door. Dominick and his master followed swiftly. "We need to get you home for this."

I glanced back to where Mister Hanwell was watching me from the top of the stairs. "But what about him?" I asked softly, continuing to be dragged along by my master. My words went unnoticed, and soon, I was in the limo again.

The whole ride back to Miss Lumberton's mansion was fine. I didn't feel anymore pain or anything. Dominick had used his cell phone to call Spike, Riley, and my doctor as soon as we were in the limo, so I knew that I would be surrounded by all the right people while I gave birth to my baby. An image of my mother flashed through my mind, but I quickly pushed it away, knowing that I couldn't have her come even if I really wanted her to. She was three states away from me now, so there was no way she could possibly get here in time.

The limo was soon in front of my master's residence, and I was swiftly helped out of the vehicle. Getting to the door was easy, but almost as soon as I stepped into the mansion, another wave of pain hit me, this one worse than the first one had been. I let out a shriek and clutched my stomach, almost clawing at it as tears filled my normally ice-like eyes.

Dominick had me in his arms in a heartbeat, his steps quick as he walked toward the stairs. "Her room or what?" he asked my master even as he began to ascend the stairs.

Miss Lumberton's expression grew even more worried when I began to whimper, tears now flowing freely from my eyes. "Yes. Her room."

Dominick transported me to my room, gently laying me down on the bed when he got there. The amount of worry that showed in his expression was almost frightening as he looked at my tears and my wide, fearful eyes. "Raven," he breathed, lightly laying a hand over one of mine.

A few minutes later, just as I began to pant, my lovely Levellua doctor rushed into the room, followed by Spike, Riley, Dominick's master, and Miss Lumberton. The doctor was a slightly older man, hints of gray mingling with the black of his short hair. His almost white eyes grew very, very concerned when he saw me.

He dropped a big black bag on the floor beside my bed and just gazed down at me for a moment. He took in the sight of my tears, my fingers weakly clawing at my belly, my chest rising and falling rapidly as I breathed...His eyes lingered on mine when he reached them, and he seemed pained by the sight of them, wide, afraid, and slowly emptying...

Spike shoved the man to the side, unable to be as courteous as he usually was because of his growing panic. "Raven? Raven? Are you all right?" he asked, though he knew I wouldn't respond.

I let out another scream as the doctor lifted me up slightly, unzipping the back of my dress carefully. Dominick was the one who caught his wrist, snarling. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"We have to get her out of this dress," the medical expert stated, unperturbed by the other male's ferocity. "It's just getting in the way now."

Dominick glared at him for a moment longer, then released his wrist, allowing him to remove my dress. My underwear was the next thing to go, followed by my shoes. I wasn't wearing a bra to begin with, so there was nothing to deal with there.

From across the room, Riley watched me scream again, fear, shock, and worry all mixing together to form his current wide-eyed expression. Tears filled his eyes when I began to sob, my pitiful whimpers resuming as well. Spike was already crying by now, right along with Dominick. Both of them had already figured out how this was probably going to end.

I barely noticed Riley moving to stand with Spike and Dominick beside the bed. I barely noticed anything, really. All that I could fully comprehend was the intense pain I was feeling, the utter agony that had a hold of every part of my body and just wouldn't let go...

"Can you push?" I heard the doctor ask right as I saw Riley beginning to cry along with the vampire and the Levellua. I couldn't answer the question, now able to do nothing but scream because of the pain. The doctor cursed, then pulled something out of his bag. A moment later, the man was preparing to insert one hell of a needle into my arm.

Miss Lumberton, who I now realized was trembling and looking genuinely concerned and frightened, all because of me, let out a cry at the sight of the needle. "What are you doing?!" Mister McMillan had to grab her arms to keep her from rushing over to the doctor and possibly injuring him.

"Helping her," the older Levellua replied solemnly, letting the needle slip right into my vein. Something was injected into my bloodstream, and an odd calm was soon rushing over me. The pain was going away...I could breathe again...I felt fine now...

But then, my body stiffened, my eyes widening even further as I fought to take another shaky breath. Breathing was so much harder now...Why? Why weren't my lungs working?!

I was suffocating now. I couldn't breathe...couldn't talk...couldn't do anything...

Until I managed one word.

"Love..."

It got me started.

My voice weak and soft, but easy to hear in the room's silence, I finally said, "I love you, too." Whether I was talking to all of them or just one of them, they would never know, for at that moment, the rest of my breath escaped me, and my wide eyes grew lifeless as my body went completely still.

Those had been my last words.