SIX MONTHS LATER………

Bakura waited in the shadows. Marik held a staff watching people walk by him. Marik saw a woman adorned with gold jewelry. Marik whistled nonchalantly and threw a gold coin into the alleyway where Bakura hid himself. The blond boy approached the woman dressed in the finest white silk.
“Pardon me, but I think one of your coins has fallen out of your purse.”
The woman gasped. “Thank you, young man!” The woman turned towards the alley and saw her gold glittering in the sunlight.
Bakura grinned, his canines revealed. //The rich cannot live without their gold! If they lose one piece of it, they act as if that is all the riches they have in the world and that they are poor! I’ll show them….//
The woman bent down to the ground and Bakura clasped his hand over her mouth and dragged her to the shadows. Marik rushed to his friend and smiled. Bakura held his dagger to her throat and held his hand over her mouth.
“Stay quiet and I promise not to hurt you.”
The woman shivered as Marik stripped her of her gold earrings, her bracelets, and her gold necklaces. Marik removed his old earrings and placed her earrings in his ears.
“Hmm…they fit rather nicely! Thank you!” Marik took one of the silk scarves from the woman’s head.
The woman’s face was turning red from lack of oxygen.
Bakura growled in her ear. “Be sure to tell General Anubis that his prey sends his warmest regards!”
Bakura released her and dashed off with Marik down the alley. Marik grasped the jewelry tightly and jumped onto his black horse commanding, “GO!”. Bakura jumped on his white horse and growled. “RUN!”
Bakura chuckled as he lead Marik through the richest district of Cairo. “How did we do?”
Marik looked behind him to make sure they weren’t being followed. “I think we made enough to keep us fed for another moon!”
Bakura looked back and smiled. “Did we make any extra?”
Marik nodded. “We did!”
Bakura grinned and raised his fist in the air. “TO RAYNA!”
***************************
Bakura and Marik dismounted their horses. Two of Khalfani’s
women were waiting outside chattering nervously. When Bakura d8ismounted his horse, the women ran up to him.
“Bakura Itemri! You have to go upstairs quickly! Rayna is giving birth to her child!”
Bakura dashed into the house and ran up the stairs. In two rooms he heard women screaming in intense pleasure and the creaking of rotten, soiled beds. In the third room, a woman was crying and screaming in agony.
Bakura growled and opened the door. Rayna was on her back clutching her stomach in pain. The only person in the room was Khalfani standing over her, yelling at her at the top of his lungs.
“YOU BETTER NOT DIE ON ME, YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING SLUT! YOU’RE WORTH A LOT OF MONEY TO ME!”
Rayna’s back arched in pain as the crown of the baby’s head slightly appeared between her legs.
Bakura grabbed Khalfani by the collar and slammed him against the wall. “You bastard! Where is her midwife?”
A scream of pleasure came from the next room as the woman climaxed.
“She’s earning her keep at the moment, ‘Kura!”
Marik appeared in the room and saw Rayna on her back, the baby’s head slowly appearing.
Marik stood by Rayna’s bedside and took her hand gently and kissed it. //This could have been Amunet…….//
Rayna looked up at him, sweat covering her face, his eyes bloodshot and tired, her body convulsing from the pain of the birth, her breaths were sharp and uneven.
“Amunet…….”
Rayna’s eyes seeped rivers of tears onto her soiled, dirty mattress. “Please help me………help me give birth to my child…..”
Bakura growled at Khalfani. “I gave her money for a midwife!”
“She didn’t earn her keep! Besides, anything these women own is mine! That includes this bastard coming out of this slut’s womb!”
Bakura trembled with anger and threw the door open. He kicked Khalfani down the steps and slammed the door behind him.
Bakura kneeled beside Rayna as Marik put the stolen silk scarf under the woman. He didn’t want the baby to be born on a dirty mattress soiled with dried blood and semen stains.
Bakura stroked Rayna’s hair back. “I’m here, Rayna. It’s going to be ok.”
Rayna let out a gasp and a whimper of pain. “I’m scared, Bakura.”
Marik moved between her legs and held out his hand waiting to catch the child being forced.
“Don’t be afraid, Rayna. I’m here with you. Breathe.”
Rayna breathed deeply and screamed, gripping Bakura’s hand tightly.
“The head is almost out, Rayna,” Marik told her.
Rayna laid back on the mattress and turned her head to Bakura. “Bakura, make the pain stop…….,” she whispered.
Bakura kissed her forehead. “I have nothing to give you, Rayna. I’m sorry.” He reached over and grabbed a cloth and dunked it into the bucket of cold water. Bakura wiped her face and she moaned weakly. “Why is this water here?”
Rayna’s eyes filled with more tears. “Khalfani was going to drown the baby in the bucket as soon as I finished giving birth.”
Bakura looked down at the cold watery grave that could have caused the death of the baby had it not been for his intervention. The water was ice-cold. The bucket was large enough to place the entire infant inside and let it smother and freeze in the cold water.
Marik saw one shoulder emerge and he gripped onto the baby’s body. “One more push, Rayna.”
Rayna squinted her eyes and grit her teeth, and gave one last scream of pain as her body expelled the rest of the child from her body. Marik quickly turned the child upside down and hooked one finger in to clear the airway. The baby let out a tiny cry as it took its first mortal breath.
Bakura took his dagger and held it to the candle burning in the room. He cut the umbilical cord with the sterile dagger. Bakura returned to Rayna’s face and kissed her cheek. He handed the cloth to Marik and Marik cleaned the blood off of the baby.
Marik took the white silk and wrapped the baby. Marik’s eyes gazed on the new life in his arms.
“I love you, Amunet,” he whispered.
Bakura held her hand as Rayna expelled the afterbirth with a quieter scream.
“I love you, Rayna,” Bakura whispered into her ear.
“I love you, Bakura Itemri,” she whispered. “How is my child?”
Marik handed Rayna the child. “It’s a girl.”
Rayna removed the sheer material covering her breasts and she placed the baby on her chest. The baby took the offered nipple into her mouth and began to suckle from her mother’s breast.
Bakura smiled at the baby and back at Rayna. “She’s as beautiful as you are,” he whispered.
Rayna turned to him, a worried expression on her face. “Bakura? Could you stay with me? Khalfani was staying with me, hoping you wouldn’t show. He wanted to drown my daughter when I was finished giving birth to her. What is to stop him from taking her while I sleep and slitting her throat?”
Bakura nodded. “I don’t want to leave you, Rayna. I’m staying right here! Ishtar, can you stay with her? I’m going to conduct a little business with Khalfani.”
Bakura grabbed the bag of gold jewelry and stood in front of Khalfani at the bar. The innkeeper was placing opium in a glass of wine.
“You had that and wouldn’t give Rayna any of it?”
“One whore’s pains is of no concern of mine. It’s her fault she decided to keep the child and thus she is responsible for her own pain!”
Bakura turned towards the women waiting for their customers. “You were going to murder the child upon its birth. Why?”
Khalfani gulped down his glass of wine. “As I said before, what these girls possess is mine. Since that child was born of Rayna’s body, that child also belongs to me. And I had ordered her to destroy the child before its birth. Since she didn’t listen to me and destroy it before birth, I saw it as my duty and my right to destroy that child upon drawing its first breath!”
The white-haired boy grabbed Khalfani by his collar again. “You planned on her giving birth today! That is how you were so prepared to kill that baby when it was born!”
Khalfani smiled. “That’s right! I caused her to go into labor. She fought me, but then again, many of the girls fight me here. What’s the matter, Bakura? Jealous?”
Bakura growled.
“All I had to do was stick it into her hard enough and she went into labor.”
“You son of a bitch!” Bakura clenched his fists and punched Khalfani in the jaw. Khalfani fell to the floor unconscious.
“You have no right to kill that child, and I will see to it that you do not!” Bakura growled and threw four gold neckla8ces at Khalfani’s unconscious. “That will more than make up for any money you lose from her this week. I am paying for an entire week to stay here with Rayna to help her with her child.”
Bakura climbed the stairs again and returned to the room. Marik made a tiny bed of blankets for the baby girl.
Bakura gave Marik a gold necklace with an eye in the middle. “Go sell that necklace. Buy the baby girl something nice to sleep in.”
Marik nodded and left.
Bakura sat next to Rayna and stroked her cheek gently. “He told me he forced himself into you.”
Rayna closed her eyes and nodded sadly. “Yes, Bakura. It wouldn’t have been the first time, though.”
Bakura gathered her into his arms. “My girl…..”
The baby closed its eyes and fell asleep. Bakura’s eyes widened at the tuft of white hair covering the child’s forehead.
“I’m going to stay with you, Rayna. I will not let Khalfani harm you or this baby.”
Rayna buried her face in Bakura’s shoulder crying. In the two rooms surrounding them, the women began screaming in fake passion.