CHAPTER 106: CHAPTER 106: BLOOD SUCKING BABY.

Elena was all smiles as she pushed two small strollers in front of her. Damien was on yet another one of his meetings outside the country, leaving her all alone again with the kids.

She didn’t mind it too much. After all, he had spent two full weeks with her before he returned back to work even after their little time in his office.

She flushed red at the memory. It lived fresh in her mind, every single detail perfectly matching up with each other.

Eden, the ever active one sprung out of the stroller, landing directly on her chest. Elena quickly wrapped her arms around him to prevent him from falling off.

"It seems he’s more of a clinger your highness." Luan, her personal maid said cheekily.

Elena let out a tired sigh. It was always Eden. Unlike other vampire babies, he had taken his first drink of blood the day he was born. As he grew, his blood intake subsided thereby increasing his unnatural desire for milk.

She didn’t mind at first. Her entire mind was fixed on giving her baby a good, happy childhood no matter how much it drained her. Damien had complained tirelessly about how much Eden sucked from her but Elena had always tried to reassure him.

When he asked the head midwife about it, she had said the same thing; give it ’time.’

Well news flash. Time was the one thing Damien didn’t have when it came to his wife.

The event that led to putting Eden primarily on manufactured baby milk happened a few days before Damien left...

~~~~~~~~

It had been just like any other day. A warm, sunny sunday afternoon. She had just returned from the Lutheran church that afternoon.

Damien was quite shocked when Elena told him her desire to baptize the twins and so was the rest of the elders. Nevertheless, Damien agreed despite the protests from his inner chamber.

"My wife desires to baptize our children and so shall it be."

He was an absolute monarch. Who could go against him?

Although he saw it as a pointless religion, given the fact that he was never baptized, he still agreed, supporting it every step of the way.

"Who knows? Maybe this ever hungry child would be cured of whatever is wrong with him."

"Damien!" Elena squealed, slapping him on the arm, pouting in annoyance.

After she had been bathed and pressed of the remains of childbirth in her stomach, she retired to the nursery where the kids were. Elena specifically made it Luna’s job to bathe them whenever she was too weak to do it. She would have loved to ask her dear husband but knew he couldn’t tell the difference between baby wash and a bar soap.

It had only been a few weeks since their birth but she had taken active participation in designing the twins’ room.

Purple, white with several bright colors adorned the walls. Their cribs were coated with foams in case they fell off when playing. Virtually everything in the room was made out of the best, most expensive material: cotton.

Edna was already fast asleep by the time she entered the nursery. She tiptoed to where they laid quietly so as not to disturb them. Every child had sensitive hearing...even the vampire babies.

When she got there, she hovered over their small bodies. Her heart quivered from the sight. They were so precious, so innocent.

But as she stood there despite being as quiet as ever, Eden’s eyes shot open.

Elena giggled as he stretched his tiny arms out indicating that he wanted to be carried. Elena picked him up, using one hand to support his bottom and the other his head.

She walked to where a small bed stood which she had made Damien install for those times when she would love to sleep with them.

Sitting on the couch, Eden’s tiny hand beat gently on her chest.

That was his ’i’m hungry’ gesture. The head maid had specifically warned her never to feed the kids if she was hungry. Especially Eden.

Elena looked down as his little hands pattered gently on her chest and his large, black eyes held her own.

How could a mother say no to her hungry child?

Ignoring all the warning signs, she took out one of her breasts, positioned her baby by using one arm to prop up his head before guiding the nipple to his mouth.

Eden latched his mouth onto the nipple, sucking hard.

Elena cradled Eden against her chest, rocking slowly, the way she had when he was newborn and still harmless. His little fist clenched around a loosened piece of her dress right below her heart.

The first pull was tender. Elena exhaled as she felt her energy literally leave her. She stroked his almost bald head, looking at her suckling child with endearment.

"I love you, I love you," she said gently. as though love alone could keep him gentle.

Then the sharp bite came down. The pain was bright, shocking and exquisite making her wince in slight pain. A grimace shrouded her face. She looked down at Eden but found him sucking like he used to.

"Isn’t it too early to start growing teeth?" she murmured to herself gently.

Still, Elena clutched him closer instead of pushing him away. Milk and blood mingled in the baby’s mouth. She felt the shift inside her breast, the sudden greedy vacuum as he drank deeper but she waved it off as normal.

Warmth bled out of her in long, dizzy waves. Her arms grew heavy.

"You must be really hungry, my love," she murmured, voice slurring, " mama’s sorry she starved you. Mama’s here..."

Her head lolled. The hand that had been stroking his hair slipped down the side of the couch, hanging limp beside her. Darkness crept in from the corners of her vision like velvet curtains as she grew drowsier.

Eden shifted in her slackening grip. Tiny fingers dug into her nape with childish strength for purchase as he moved his mouth seeking the stronger source.

His lips sealed over her throat. The last thing Elena felt was a kiss of cold air on wet skin and the soft pop of his mouth on her reddened nipple.

Then a deep, lulling pull, like falling backward into a warm sea.

Damien on the other hand had been looking for her for nearly an hour. The palace was too quiet and something in his chest had been warring with him to check on her.

When he reached the nursery corridor he smelled it; blood.

He slammed the door open so hard the hinges fell apart.

The sight stopped his heart mid-beat.

Elena lay crumpled sideways across the couch, gown soaked dark red with her skin the color of candle wax. Eden was clamped to her throat like a predator twice his size, his cheeks working in frantic, ravenous swallows.

Tiny hands fisted in her hair, holding her still while he drank and drank and drank.

A part roar, part cry ripped out of him. He crossed the room in a blur, seized Eden by the back of his romper, and tore him away.

Blood sprayed in a bright arc. Eden shrieked, mouth gaping revealing fangs red and glistening as legs kicking furiously. Damien looked in horror at the elongated fangs that graced his mouth. He didn’t even have time to reason it out before he flung him into the crib with enough force to rattle the bars.

The baby landed hard, rolled and came up snarling.

Damien didn’t care. He dropped to his knees beside Elena.

"Elena." His voice cracked open, bellowing at her.

"Elena, darling, no—"

Her head hung at a broken angle, lips parted, eyes half-lidded and glassy. A thin ribbon of blood still trickled from the punctures, slower... slower...

He pressed shaking fingers to her neck and felt nothing but the ghost of a pulse.

Panic clawed up his spine.

"No, no, no. Stay with me! Elena!" He gathered her up; she was terrifyingly light, as if Eden had drained the very weight of her soul.

Her head fell against his shoulder, blood smearing across his collar, warm and accusing.

He ran out of the room like it was on fire. Without caring if anyone saw him, he threw out his wings, flapping them strongly till he landed in front of the infirmary. Xypherion was there.

He roared for the doctors before he even reached the infirmary doors, voice breaking on her name again and again like a prayer and a curse.

The nurses immediately helped her onto a stroller, rolling her into the building with precision and speed.

They cut her gown away, pressed gauze that soaked through instantly, driving needles of blood into her veins that had collapsed like crushed petals.

Damien stood over them wild-eyed, fists dripping with blood from where his own nails had cut crescents into his palms.

"Don’t you dare leave me," he snarled at her unconscious form, angry bouts of breath cutting tracks through the blood on his face. "Please..."

Hours later, when the bags were finally empty and her chest rose on its own again, he collapsed into the chair beside her bed and buried his face in his palms.

That very night after she had woken up, he made her swear that she would never, never let Eden feed from her again.

And every night after, when Eden’s furious, heartbroken wails reached her ears. Damien held Elena while she wept into his shirt, both of them knowing the cruelest truth of all: Their son had almost killed her because he loved her too much.

He knew how soft and yielding his wife was. Even with what had happened, she would still let him feed from her again despite her swearing. To stop this, he placed Eden in a separate room away from Edna.

His actions broke him but he knew there was no other way.

What if he drank his sister dry the way he had almost done to his own mother mindlessly?