Divergence: The Vampire Queen

Sleeping Beauty

The next morning, she didn't wake. The next afternoon, she didn't wake. The next evening... she didn't wake.

The children were still very much alive, tossing and turning, kicking and punching and causing bruises on her stomach. There was no way she wasn't in pain, but still... she didn't wake. She was pale, paler than she had ever been, looking like the life was simply draining from her, and when the doctor came to check on her, he instructed Marcello, "she needs to drink. If you can get her to drink, even in her sleep, she needs to."

It was fairly clear the life was slipping from her, but he couldn't bring himself to say that to the prince. "I'll see what else I have... anything that might bring her around..." He told him, exiting the room to rummage through his medical supplies once more. He'd combed them and the records again and again and had come up empty thus far.

Marcello had been pacing the room so frantically, he'd worn down the carpet. How had this happened? Of course, he remembered Natalia crying uncontrollably, being so angry he feared she might say the words 'burn her,' but then she had settled! She'd fallen asleep, and he had not moved from her side for many hours. However, when she did not wake, he began the task or attempting to rouse her.

They'd shaken her, pried her eyes open, bathed her, sat her up, splashed her with cold water, offered her food and drink and blood... but nothing worked. Over that time, she had grown paler and more gaunt as the children drained more and more of her life away. He wasn't even sure if they were strong enough to survive if she died. He could lose them, all three of them, and that reality sent a chill into his heart.

He sank down beside her, cradling her hand, and praying if there was any deity that would take his pleas, she'd pull through. For the first time in hours, he looked away from her to reach for the blood he had in the room. He poured some into the glass and delicately lifted it to her lips. Parting her lips, he tipped the liquid ever so slightly, praying she would drink it down rather than choke it up.

He knew the doctor was protecting his feelings by not telling him she was on death's door. As tears streamed down his face, he clung to his one hope: that this situation was unique. Perhaps what was happening now was so unique, so uncharted, that she would pull through.

He simply held her fragile, dying hand, stroking the back of it with the pad of his thumb as he tried his hardest to force blood down her throat. Her life might depend on his ability to do so. Both the twins' lives could still depend on his ability to do so. "Oh, Nat, if you can hear me. You're really scaring me now. We always said we would make it together, and now you've gone and napped on me," he chuckled bitterly, but it was a hollow joke. "Please, just come back Natalia..."

She swallowed some of the blood but sputtered, choking on some as well. For a moment, the coughing and choking made her seem more alive.

Then the doctor returned with something else in his hand, a vial of what looked like blood, but it was almost black. "I don't know if this will help or hurt, but if we don't try something, we might lose all three of them." There was no longer any point in mincing words.

He uncorked the vial, and as Marcello held it open, poured the contents into her mouth. She coughed, but he held her mouth closed so she would have to swallow it.

"That is a vial of blood from generations ago when a royal female was turned. Only a few vials were saved and not put back into her. It has pure royal blood with pure vampiric power. It will either turn her or save her." As he removed his hand from under her chin, he placed it reassuringly on Marcello's shoulder. "Now we wait."

He could only hope it didn't compromise the children, but they couldn't live if their host died. So their best chance to survive was to make her survive. "It may take a while to see a change." He squeezed the shoulder his hand rested upon. "Call me if you need to, and keep trying to get her to drink. It's the best thing for her... and them." Then he walked to the door and closed it behind him.