Domino couldn't sleep all day while the great big vampire slumbered away peacefully beside her on the large bed, no matter how comfortable she felt nestled up against him. Shi had been in and out throughout the day, offering her food and making sure she was constantly infused with the blood that was supposed to help keep her alive. A few hours after lunch, a doctor had arrived and Mr. Hughes had had her taken into a room on the second floor, a simple, scarcely decorated bedroom, and she'd allowed herself to be examined. Apparently, this doctor had already talked to the obstetrician that she'd seen while in Duluth with Anya. He spoke at length with Mr. Hughes about her treatment, and then using the equipment that he had brought with him, he had inserted a PICC line, a central line to the heart threaded through a peripheral vein. The procedure had been pretty painless, as he'd used local anesthetic, and she was happy that she wouldn't have to be given countless repeated IVs. He assured her that, if necessary, she could go a year with a PICC line.
It didn't make her feel very sexy, having tubes sticking out of her skin, but if this kept her human long enough to have her baby, then far be it for her to complain about the inconvenience of having plastic attached to her for a while. She was sure that the contraption would end up bothering Alexandru way more than it bothered her, but Domino figured that he would get over that quickly, he was very attracted to her, and he let her know it with his body well into the early morning hours. She'd almost been grateful when his body had forced him to sleep with the rising of the sun. Almost.
Mr. Hughes had told her that, in general, the first floor of the mansion was used for clientele, so it would be better for her to stay in the room he'd had her seen in, or in the basement, where, besides several bedrooms, was a large living space complete with television, pool table, and a small kitchenette that was well stocked. He'd given her leave to go outside, though the IV pole that she had to lug with her everywhere she went made that a little more difficult. He had asked her to remain somewhat near the house, not to go swimming in the lake in the back, and not to try to explore the other buildings or areas of the mansion.
"There are a great many nonhumans here right now, and most of them are very dominant when they see a human female. I do not want you to accidentally find yourself in a situation you can't quite get out of." He had said by way of warning, and she'd just looked at him with wide eyes and nodded.
Domino almost wished she hadn't told her workplace she was taking a vacation, by dinner time, she was bored stiff and would have liked to wile away for a few hours on her computer doing something mundane and focused. Instead, she found herself in the kitchenette, a chicken breast in a pan on the stove, sizzling as it cooked. She hadn't had too much morning sickness with her pregnancy, just a few trips to the bathroom here and there early in the day, but now, the smell of the meat cooking on the stovetop made her stomach turn and Domino was trying to stand a good distance from the pan as she used tongs to turn it from side to side to cook it evenly.
She was holding a dishtowel in front of her face and trying to cook the meat still when she heard a deep chuckle behind her and turned to see a man of an average height, maybe 5'11" or so, standing facing her, his hands folded in front of him and a friendly smile on his face as he watched her cooking so awkwardly. She lowered the towel and gave him a sheepish smile and then nodded to the chicken.
"I don't know why, but the smell of it is just killing me right now." She told him, feeling a blush creep up her neck as he took a step forward and took the tongs from her, his scent hit her and it made another part of her body stir just a little, which she blamed on Alexandru for keeping her so aroused the night before and that morning.
"I'm Samir. Mr. Hughes sent me down to check on you since I wasn't busy. The smell of meat doesn't just affect pregnant girls, you know. I've seen plenty of people gag over it throughout the years. For me, lamb is the worst, or maybe venison. Yeah, venison does me in pretty good." He gave her a wide open grin and Domino felt a little lost in his handsome face, it was the face of that guy that you loved in college who dated the sorority president and played soccer or something, his hair was blond, his jaw was not soft at all, but it was very nicely shaped. Definitely hot popular guy, but the kind that was secretly smart, also, and maybe kind of liked the more nerdy girls.
Domino gulped down a rush of desire, Alexandru would be up soon and he was not prone to being ok with her getting turned on by other men. Her vampire was a little of the jealous variety.
"I'm Domino." She told him simply, stepping back from the smell in the kitchenette and watching as he took to cooking the meat himself.
"Do you want me to season this at all?" Samir asked over his shoulder as he pulled open a cabinet door and started looking through it.
"Sure," Domino said, shrugging her shoulders despite the fact that he couldn't see it as his back was to her, "I usually buy the pre-seasoned packs because I'm a lazy cook, so I don't really know what I'm doing with a plain piece of meat." That sounded dirty, she was sure of it.
"You should have Alexandru cook for you. I've heard that he is actually a really good chef." Bottles and bottles were being pulled out onto the counter and she watched as he poured in a little of this and a touch of that to the sizzling chicken.
"Really? That's weird. He doesn't eat regular food, does he?"
Samir shook his head, "No, but he cooks, I guess. Some of the girls-some of the other employees here have talked about it."
She heard the pause, but didn't linger on it, Alexandru had to eat somehow, and even if he had fucked other women at this spa, she didn't care. He had worked here, it had been his job to please women. Domino was sure that he had left them all very very pleased.
"So you're an employee, too?" She asked, the smell was starting to change to a more fragrant odor and Domino found herself taking a slow step forward so that she could see what he was doing, her stomach growled as she did.
"I am. I've been here a little over a year now, I think. I can't remember. It's a good place for people like myself. A safe place." He eyed her sideways for a moment as he worked on the food he was making.
"This isn't a four star pantry, what in the world did you do to my chicken?" She asked, chuckling, the meat had been torn to pieces and he'd added all sort of ingredients to it, making it completely unrecognizable to what she'd been doing just a short time ago.
"I'm making what is probably going to be a very poor excuse for a fatteh djaj." He smiled, stirring the contents of the pan.
"A what?"
"Fatteh djaj. The last place I lived was Syria, I dabbled a little in the local cuisine. A girlfriend of mine liked to cook for me, too." He winked at her.
Domino nodded softly, no wonder he'd mentioned feeling safe here, what with all that had been happening in Syria the last few years. It was a little odd, though, when she thought about it. He was a caucasian blond, with super intense blue eyes named 'Samir.' She was sure that there was a story there, but she obviously didn't know this man anywhere near well enough to ask. He was a non-human, too, but she couldn't tell in what way. He looked totally 'normal' to her eyes. He was awake during the day, so she could cross vampire off the list. She also didn't think he was a werewolf, they had a tendency to growl and rumble laughter from low in their throats, and he wasn't doing any of that.
"The cheese isn't right and I don't have all the right herbs, but this shouldn't taste terrible. At least I don't think your baby will be too mad." He pulled a container of milk out of the fridge and poured two glasses and set them aside.
"You know I'm pregnant?" She asked, eyes wide.
Samir nodded at her, "News like that travels fast through Vorhees. Deep down, we're all a bunch of gossips here."
Domino chuckled now, she could just imagine this man standing over a water cooler somewhere talking it up with other non-humans. The picture in her mind was ridiculous. She sat down at the small table in the room as he pulled down a package of minute rice from the cabinet and yoghurt from the fridge and continued cooking.
"What are people saying about me?" She asked nervously.
"Oh, nothing terrible. I promise. They all know Alexandru, and everyone is happy that he is happy. They're worried for you, and for Alexandru if something should happen to you, but they're also proud of you." He didn't look back at her as he spoke, his hands were whipping stuff up left and right on the small counter and cookstove in front of him.
"Proud of me? For getting knocked up by a vampire?" Domino furrowed a brow at him and heard him chuckle.
"For standing your ground and doing everything you can to save the life of a non-human. These days life...seems so expendable. It's nice to see that you, as a human, are willing to risk so very much for one of our kind." The rice was steaming now and he was switching to whisking the yoghurt with who knew what in a saucepan. She hadn't even realized that there was enough in the kitchenette to do this sort of thing.
