Chapter 10

Baby Shower

"What in the world are you doing here?" Béla said, laughing and hugging, trying to embrace all three of her visiting sisters; Elaine, Dawn and Annalisa. 'You're really here! On Earth! I'm so excited... '

"Well," Elaine said, electing herself as 'spokesperson' for her little group, "we were practicing our teleportation abilities. The Praetor makes us practice every day. Sometimes, since we are the most advanced trio, we're allowed to pick our own exercises."

"Yeah," Annalisa chirped. "The Praetor told us about your baby, so we just ... um..."

"Popped in!" Elaine finished the sentence for her.

Béla was so excited. She closed her eyes and mind-linked with all three of them. 'Wow! You bratty little sisters are getting really, really good at this stuff! You've all gotten way ahead of what I can do! A red ball? Really! Now you know what I mean when I call you 'lizard-breath!' How much weight did you lose on that trip?'

Jake sat in a chair, watching the three naked vampires practically dancing around the room with his wife. He gently rocked the baby's cradle with his foot and listened to their giggles and outbreaks of hilarity, unable to hear their silent chatter.

"Let me introduce you to 'the baby'," Béla said, dramatically. She waltzed across the room, trying her best to simply walk across the room without dancing, she was so happy.

"The baby?" Elaine asked out loud. "Then the Praetor was right – you haven't named it – her, I mean?"

Béla gently reached down and picked up her infant, who had been quietly watching the four of them with great interest.

"No, I haven't," Béla confessed, sounding a little sad. "Her little mind is shielded, and she won't talk to me..."

"Well," Dawn said, "She is only a baby – maybe she doesn't know how to 'unshield', yet."

"You don't think it's odd that an ability has to be unlearned?" Annalisa asked. "Melinda's baby wasn't half-vampire half-human like yours, but..."

"Melinda's baby?" Béla asked. "Nobody ever told me she had a baby..." 'Damn! That bitch beat me again!'

" ... at least, he could talk mind-to-mind," Annalisa finished her sentence to a room heavy with silence.

Elaine sighed, privately thinking, 'if you'd visited, mind-walking back to New Eden to see me... ' then walked over and hugged Béla and her baby. "Your baby is the one who matters to us," she said quietly. 'Please let us end this strange affliction that has affected the two of us. I love you. Let's not fight anymore ... not everything one of us does is the fault of the other... '

"As soon as the Praetor has collected enough data," Dawn spoke into the silence, attempting to lighten the mood, "we're going to attempt our first time-walk."

"Time-walk?" Béla asked. "Tanya – a friend of mine – a human ... she's obsessed with the idea that her daughter, Katie, could time-walk. She grieves constantly because of her disappearance several months ago. Even I couldn't budge her mind from her illusions."

All her sisters began talking at once: "Katie disappeared?" "Several months ago?" "The most recent data we have on her is only two weeks old!" "What happened to her?"

'Everyone be quiet! Please!'

"Alright, Elaine," Béla said, picking one sister at random, "you go first. Let me see what you know."

Image of the 'Exploits of Katie Kelly – Time-Walker' – Katie and Beth rescuing Tanya from the slaver's ship – Katie and Béla rescuing Jake Hedron from beneath the rubble of what was once Albuquerque – Image of Katie pulling Beth out of the nuclear blast that destroyed the city, thus saving her life...

"Wait! Stop!" Béla cried. "None of that ever happened! Only Tanya thinks that any of that happened! How did that get into the Praetor's history?"

"The most recent one was transmitted from your Praetor two weeks ago," Elaine said, not understanding why her sister would lie to her.

Béla looked over at her other two sisters. They were both nodding, agreeing with Elaine.

'Praetor, please explain!' Béla demanded in her mind.

"A temporal error," Dawn explained, listening to the Praetor's explanation. "An error in time!"

"How is that even possible?" Béla wanted to know.

"Well, according to the Praetor," Elaine said, "our Praetor, Beth died in the explosion that destroyed the Earth City. I was there. I should know. Then Katie time-walked back and pulled her out. She changed history! The Praetor, your Praetor, reported the anomaly. It is recorded in history – our history."