His Butterfly

xxxv. enemy in time

Mariposa suddenly sits straight, her husband's arm falling from her shoulder as her eyes glaze over with the familiar color of dark topaz. The Cullens all turn their attention from the television, where a comedy movie plays, to the brunette. She sees Bella standing in front of a mirror with her shirt raised, showing her flat stomach. Her pale hand rests on top of it, much to the brunette's confusion. "Edward, what is it?" She whispers. "What's wrong with her?"

She can feel his worry and shock but he's quiet and so is Bella. "Edward." She mutters in a repeated manner as if trying to communicate with him.

As she repeats his name, Alice has a vision, a light gasp leaving her lips. The pixie blinks out of the vision and quickly calls Bella while Mariposa is still looking in Edward's eyes. Jasper gently places his hand on his wife's shoulder, knowing not to break her out of seeing Edward. The only person who can is Edward since he's her bonded.

"Bella, what's going on?" She can hear Carlisle ask.

"I don't know, I'm a little worried." Bella answers as she stares at her husband. "Can vampires go into shock?"

"Has Edward been harmed?" Carlisle glances over at Mariposa to see her in perfect condition except for the fact she's now quiet and not moving, only blinking.

"No. I know that it's impossible but I think that I'm pregnant." A whole mixture of reactions resonate throughout the living room and Carlisle has to place his finger on his lips to quiet them down. "Carlisle, I swear something just moved inside me."

Mariposa gasps as her bonded suddenly moves and the doctor is no longer talking to Bella. "Is this even possible?" Edward demands.

A small conversation between them happens before Carlisle hangs up, a frown on his face. "She's still in Edward's head?" He questions, hoping to distract his family of the events that just happened.

"Yeah." Jasper says softly as he stares at his wife who keeps talking under her breath.

"Stop it, Edward, you're scaring her. Cut it out. Stop. Damn it." Mariposa mutters, her hands squeezing the couch. She shuts her eyes close tightly before opening them again, her honey brown color back. "He shut me out. Last thing I saw and heard was him with the housekeeper, Kaure."

"What is he feeling?" Esme asks, obviously worrying about her son.

"He's angry and scared and disgusted." The brunette answers. A gasp leaves her as her eyes are once again coated with dark orange. "He let me back in. He's talking with Kaure."

"What's happening?" Carlisle asks.

"He's asking her what she knows about this. Legends she might have been told and how Bella can live through it. Huh, I guess learning Portuguese did come in handy." She adds, a small smile on her face before it disappears. There's a small pause as Kaure places her hand on Bella's stomach. "Death. Bella's way out if she goes with this pregnancy is death." Mariposa forces herself out of her bonded's eyes, not bearing to see and hear anymore. "Excuse me." She whispers, leaving the living room and stepping outside on the balcony, leaning on the railing as she exhales a breath.

No one comes outside to get her, rather letting her be in her thoughts, after all she is the one who has a one way bond with Edward, and is the one to know everything first. It's not possible. She thinks before a sarcastic chuckle mixed with a scoff leaves her. What am I talking about, of course it's possible, if it wasn't I wouldn't be here. But a human and vampire baby, Bella will die before she even gives birth. As she stands there and ponders about the past minutes and everything that just happened, her phone suddenly rings. She jumps a bit, startled but nonetheless pulls it out of her pocket, and answers it.

"Hello?" She says, staring out into the dark woods.

"Mariposa?" At the sound of Bella's voice, Mariposa stands straighter, looking over her shoulder almost paranoidly. "I need your help."

"Anything."

"I want to keep the baby."

A tense atmosphere surrounds the Cullen house as it seems everyone has divided themselves into different perspectives on what should be done with Bella's sudden pregnancy. Mariposa and Rosalie stand with Bella's decision on keeping the baby while Emmett and Jasper just hover over their mates. Alice and Sebastian stand against it, the pixie seer having her own opinion which is she doesn't want Bella to have the baby, hating the unknown since it blocks her visions. Her mate is with her as he hates seeing Alice extorting herself to just have one vision. Edward is just pissed at everyone and everything. He doesn't want his wife to die before they could have their forever together but Bella is stubborn, ignoring everything he pleads with her about aborting the baby. Esme and Carlisle stand on the sidelines, the two just wanting to help Bella as much as possible.

As for Matei and Bree, the two came home straight away when they were told the news. They didn't really have a say or an opinion in the matter, just stood with Esme and Carlisle. Matei and Mariposa are researching with the help of their books, just like the rest of the Cullens, but the only thing they've gotten to was an old story about how dhampir came to be. Apparently, according to Gina's book, Knowledge of the Supernatural, in the years before the Dark Ages, the dhampir were traditionally born through the union of a moroi and a human, creating a half-vampire, half-human hybrid. In modern times, dhampir are now born through the union of a moroi and another dhampir. That's all they got, the book held nothing more about what happened to the human with the pregnancy or anything else that could be helpful in the matter.

In such a short time, Bella was beginning to wither away. Her face has sunken in, her body losing its fat and her bones are beginning to poke out. Her hair lost its healthiness, now dull and limp. She has been struggling with keeping food down, most of it leaving her in an unhealthy way. But the one thing that worries them all, is how big her stomach has gotten with only a few days of discovering there's a life in her. Bella looks as if she were three months pregnant, not a few weeks. Her stomach is battered and bruised by how hard the baby tends to kick her, that's another fact that the family has realized, the baby does hold vampiric strength even at such a small phase.

They need more time but for once, time is their enemy. They need questions to be answered, for Bella to not die as she forces herself to carry the baby to term, for things to go right for once in their eternal lives. For once, time is their enemy, not their savior. Time, is indeed, a precious thing but in this case, it is not. And this time, it will not be as forgiving.