Page 56 of Blood as Sweet as Roses

Paige

“One last push!” I shout.

Lily screams, and the rest of the newborn’s slippery body falls into my hands.

I’m wearing gloves I found in the first aid kit.

Lily is lying down on her back, on top of a pile of towels on the floor of the security room.

Her face is contorted in pain and drenched with sweat, tendrils of ash-blond hair sticking to her forehead.

Eli is wearing headphones, watching downloaded videos on Lily’s phone under the desk.

The wriggling infant squeals, letting out their first cry. It’s like music to my ears. Luckily, the emergency lights are enough to see by, although I would have preferred the bright overhead lights.

“She’s here, Lily!” I declare, checking the tiny body for any signs of injury she might have sustained in the birth canal. But it was a fast, uncomplicated labour. “She’s here and she’s healthy!”

“Thank goodness,” Lily sighs, surrendering down onto the drenched towels below her. She pants heavily, recovering from the effort of the past several hours.

I tie off the umbilical cord and snip it with my scissors.

They’re not perfectly sanitized, but I did my best under the circumstances.

I prepared a few warm, wet towels, which I use to clean off the little baby as best as I can.

She’s so impossibly tiny, her fragile body red and slick with fluid.

As carefully as I can, I wrap her in a dry towel and hand her to Lily.

Despite her exhaustion, the mother takes her baby tenderly in her arms. She gazes down at her with eyes full of love and wonder. “Hello, Winnie,” she whispers. “Welcome to the world, honey.”

I grab another pile of towels, preparing for the afterbirth.

“Congratulations, Lily,” I tell her. “I’m sorry your daughter had to come into the world like this.”

Lily smiles weakly. “Well, she’s probably going to have an eventful life. I guess there are worse ways to start it.” She looks around the room. “But I wish Renata could have been here. Isn’t Alin back yet?”

I’m anxious about that too. Once it became apparent that Lily wasn’t going to make it to a hospital in time, I insisted that Alin go down to find Renata and bring her up to see the birth of her daughter. But he hasn’t returned yet. That was over an hour ago.

“I’m…I’m sure he’ll be back with her soon,” I answer.

Lily frowns, but doesn’t respond. Her eyes go back to her new baby daughter, who she cuddles lovingly in her arms.

I deliver the afterbirth and check the placenta carefully to make sure nothing remained inside her.

“It seems ok, but you’ll need to get checked out by a real midwife or doctor,” I tell Lily, disposing of the waste in a separate bucket. I snap off my bloodied gloves and throw them on top.

I get her tidied up, removing the soiled towels from underneath her and replacing them with fresh ones, so her and Winnie have a place to rest. Eli fell asleep under the desk, so I slide the headphones off his tiny ears and carry him over to her so he can sleep beside her.

“Thank you so much, Paige,” Lily says. “I have no idea what I would have done without you.”

“Oh, it was nothing,” I reply, tucking a towel around Eli.

Although I can’t help feeling proud of myself.

I’ve imagined delivering babies as a nurse, sometime in the far future, but I never expected to be doing it under circumstances like this.

“I’m just happy that you’re both healthy.

And once the intruders are gone, we’ll have to get you both checked out to make sure you’re all right. ”

She looks anxiously at the digital clock on the desk. “There are still a few hours before dawn. What could be taking so long?”

“I have no idea,” I reply. I rise and go back over to the security desk. The monitors are crackling with static. For good measure, I turn the system off, and then back on. The monitors are dark, with an error message on every screen.

“The wifi must still be down,” I report. “But at least the monitors are on. Maybe it’s the emergency generator?”

“Wait a second,” Lily says. Despite her soreness and exhaustion, she sits up further, staring at the many cables snaking around the desk. “Paige, try to disconnect the ethernet cable and then plug it back in again. It’s under the desk.”

I crouch down and find where the cable is plugged into the wall. I pull it out, wait a moment, then plug it back in again. Lily and I both gasp in unison as the error messages disappear and the cameras come back on again.

“It works!” I sigh, sitting down at the monitors. I reach for my phone. “No wifi or cell service, though.”

“It must be the emergency systems coming online,” Lily says. “Maybe they’re magically blocking the wifi and cell signals from coming through.”

I look back up to the monitors, and see a flashing red screen. It’s off to the side, not one of the monitors I had been looking at before. I squint down at it. There’s a little movement in the center.

“It’s the water park!” I gasp, trying to make out the blurry figures on the screen. “It looks like they’re all gathered in the middle, in a circle.”

“Are they witches?” Lily asks. “They could be performing magic. That might be how they’re blocking the signal!”

“I don’t see any of our vampires there,” I say, surveying the water park cameras carefully. Then I see it. “There’s a broken window! They must have snuck in.”

“That’s not good,” Lily answers. “If they’re performing magic, they could be infiltrating the hotel’s security systems. Who knows what they might be able to do…”

Fear grips my chest. “I don’t think Crimson and the others know they’re there.”

“Try to call them again. Maybe the landlines at the front desk work?”

I put my headset back on, and try all of the phones that I can. They don’t even ring.

“Can we signal to them, somehow?” I ask. “Are there any windows on the holding floor?”

Lily shakes her head. “No, we’re totally blocked off.”

“There’s only one option, then,” I say, firmly. I take off my headset, and stand up from the desk chair.

“Paige, no,” Lily replies immediately, cradling Winnie closer to her chest. “You can’t go down there! It’s dangerous…”

“I can’t stay up here,” I answer. “Crimson needs to know where the witches are working. When the sun comes up, they could do their magic without the vampires even knowing!”

Lily bites her lip. Her eyes are wide and fearful, but she seems to know I’m right.

“Take a stake, and some silver from the drawer,” she says. “Find a vampire and tell them what’s happened, and then come right back, Paige!”

I nod, although I’m feeling a little shaky. “I…I don’t know what a stake will do, though. I’ve never fought a vampire before…”

Lily gives me a fierce look. “Paige, listen to me.” She takes a deep breath. “Renata didn’t stake Xavian Night. I did. He was distracted, and I jumped between him and Renata and I staked him.”

I gape at her. “You what? But I thought Crimson said it was…”

“Renata and Celine lied, in case anyone wanted to get revenge against me for ending Xavian,” she explains.

“But what I’m trying to say is that you can do this, Paige.

You’re incredible. You don’t need to be magical, or powerful, in order to be brave.

The vampires will underestimate you, but you have to use that to your advantage.

Just because they think you’re weak, doesn’t mean you have to believe that you are. ”

I take in her words, and a strange, new sense of strength washes over me.

I can do this. Over the past months, I’ve done things I never could have imagined. I’ve become someone that I’m really proud of.

I open the drawer and find several silver chains. I put them around my neck and wrists, and stuff them in my pockets. Finally, I take out a smooth wooden stake.

“I’ll be right back,” I tell Lily. “Try to get some rest, if you can.”

“Be careful down there, Paige,” Lily says.

My throat feels tight, but I manage to give her a nod, before I open the door to the security room.