Eden and Edna were already in bed by the ti Damien returned. Luan ca to et him soon after he arrived to update him.
"Your highness." She bowed.
"Go on, Luan." Damien replied in a husky voice.
Luan hesitated at first. She didn’t know how to break such terrible news to the king when he already looked like he was having a bad hair day.
Damien quickly noticed her hesitation and turned to her. "Well? What do you have to say?"
"Uhm...er—actually—"
"Luan!"
"Yes your majesty!"
"I’m already in a bad mood. Don’t make it worse." Damien threatened.
Oh it’ll be worse alright.
Luan took a deep breath and lowered her head more. With all the energy and strength she could muster, she fell on her knees and wept.
"Prince...prince... prince Eden drew blood from princess Edna... now she’s unconscious!"
Damien stood as the words sunk into him like falling rocks.
"Wha..." he started in disbelief, half-laughing.
"What?"
"I deserve death your highness! Your servant is deeply ashad!"
Damien paid little or no attention to the shaking girl at his feet. Before he knew it, he was already in the twins’ room. In two long strides, he was a Edna’s bedside and instantly picked her up the mont he laid his eyes on her.
Shock mixed his confusion and anger painted him colorful as his eyes traced the glaring bite marks on the little girl’s arms, cheeks and neck.
"How could you...why would you..." Damien stuttered for the first ti ever. His emotional system didn’t know whether to get angry at his own child or to sympathize with him. He just stood there... blankly with Edna in his arms.
Without wasting any more ti, he sent for Xypherion.
"Get Xypherion." Damien said in a low growl.
"Your...your majesty. Th—the— royal physician is out in seclusion. It’s his one day every year to—"
"How can the royal physician not be in the palace?!" Damien bellowed at the young maids. They trembled, imdiately falling to their knees with their hands raised over their heads.
The king was beyond angry and didn’t know where or who to lash it out on, unlike his annoying stepbrother who was the epito of calmness.
"Then get Isolde damnit!"
"Y—y—y—yes my king!" they replied shakily before rising from the ground and scurrying out the door.
Under two minutes, Isolde barged into the room looking panicked. She shot one gaze at the little girl in his arms and imdiately got the ssage.
"Let’s get her to the royal healing bay. There’s no ti to waste."
Damien grabbed Isolde’s arm and together, Damien flew them out of the room in a blinding flash. By the ti they got to the royal healing bay, Edna was more paler than even a ghost.
Isolde placed her on the bed and hurried to one of the nurous cabinets that lined the walls. She picked out two large tumblers, attached thin, narrow rubber tubes to it and connected it with the girl’s arm through a needle.
Isolde flipped on a lever. Thick red-black liquid pumped from wild animals overti flowed through the narrow tubes, into the girl’s body.
Damien stood by the bed the whole ti, watching his daughter indirectly feed on animal blood. Nothing else was on his mind except his daughter’s revival and the demon of a child that almost sucked life out of his own sister.
The irony of the whole matter put him in a dilemma. He could neither cast Eden away nor whip the boy no matter how much his actions proved unmanageable. He was still his son...his blood. Nevertheless, he loved him as his child but this...this changed his entire view on that.
A tired, exasperated sigh escaped his full, dry lips. The whole day had started with a disaster and ended with another one. His wife was unconscious now his daughter and there was every possibility that he had birthed a bloodsucking maniac.
Damien shook his head. He knew he shouldn’t think that way towards his child but it was so hard not to!
A normal vampire baby should start feeding on blood a few decades after birth and not the other way round. With all I
his uncertainties, Damien knew one thing: no matter how he tried to overlook it, things would never be the sa in their family again...and he absolutely hated it.
Edna’s three consecutive jerks knocked him out of his thoughts.
"She’s waking up." Isolde whispered laying her hand on the girl’s stomach. Damien got up from his crouch and placed his hand on Edna’s head. His thumb brushed her forehead lightly and on the third attempt, her eyes slowly opened.
"Daddy? Granny Issy?" her small voice ca out in a shrill. A bout of cough seized the little girl. Isolde acted fast by making the little girl sit upright. By the ti she checked the tumbler, it was already drained of its content. Isolde removed the needle from her arm and bandaged the spot where it had been.
"Daddy!" Edna shrilled before throwing herself in her father’s arms. Damien’s large palms pald the back of her head while his other hand rubbed her back.
He squeezed her to himself, placing small kisses, lengthy on the side of her head from ti to ti.
"My love...you must have been so scared dear. Oh—"
Three droplets of tears rolled from her eyes to his shoulders. The feeling of her tears on his body made Damien hug his daughter tighter.
"My girl—"
"I was so scared daddy. It—the car—"
"Shhh shhhh. It’s ok, it’s ok. Daddy’s here alright? Everything is ok. Everything is fine."
Damien repeated reassuring words over and over again so much he lost count. Maybe because she was a carbon copy of her mother but seeing and hearing her loud sobs so close to his ear, he felt useless. Like once again, his unlucky fate managed to prove that he could never win.
After what felt like an eternity of crying and consolation, Edna finally stopped. Her small palms pressed lightly against her father’s shoulders and Damien took the hint that she wanted to co down. Even though he didn’t want to let her go, it was best she did what she wanted to do.
"Daddy?" Edna sniffed.
"Yes my princess."
"Where’s my brother?"
Damien froze. He couldn’t believe that that was the first question she’d utter. To so extent, he had expected she’d ask her mother’s whereabouts even preparing an excuse just in case.
"Eden is asleep." Isolde spoke when Damien took more than two seconds to respond. She knew if he delayed a second more, the girl would get suspicious.
"Huh? But...but how...? After what he—" tears ford in her eyes again.
Damien sat her down on the edge of the bed before squatting in front of her. Her yellow, armless dress draped over a pink tee spread out on the bed. Damien helped take off her socks. The mont his hand touched her skin, another wave of indecisive emotions hit him. She was still cold... so cold. Nevertheless, it was normal for any vampire to grow cold when drained of a large amount of blood. It usually took a so ti for the coldness to dissipate and heat to return to the body once such a person drink enough blood.
As he looked up at her classy eyes, the urge to hurt himself hit him harder than a boulder would a valley. This...this was what he tried to hard to avoid.
This sadness.
This stifling, unbearable, unimaginable yet familiar sadness that ca with hopelessness.
"You can go back to Eden when you’re all better ok?"
Edna said nothing for a while before she nodded. Unexpectedly, she placed her hand on her father’s that rested on her knee.
"I’m sorry I worried you so much daddy. You should go rest. You look so tired."
Damien bit his lip hard. This girl...
Overwheld with emotions again, he drew her in for another tight hug, enveloping her small body.
He has experienced emotional outbursts so much he was surprised by himself.
"Daddy will be fine once your fine mm?"
"Mm!" Edna humd, hugging him back.
The father and daughter stayed like that for a while when Isolde’s voice broke their union.
"I have to run so tests on her...your highness." Isolde said in a low voice. She hated to break them up but she herself was agitated. The second she heard the news, her legs quivered. Her mind went back to her husband’s dying face.
"No way was she going to let that happen again."
Though not her biological granddaughter, Isolde felt connected to her. The girl was way too brilliant and inquisitive for her age yet had the timidity of a puppy. She was always intrigued by her brilliance so she always wished to spend more ti with her.
Damien got up from his squatting position. He walked to where Isolde stood, nodding at her as she handed him a glass vial.
He took it to where Edna sat swinging her legs as she humd Beethoven’s 9th symphony.
"Darling, daddy needs you to drink this."
With a beaming smile, Edna took the small vial, studied it for a second then peered up at her father with her big blues.
"What is it daddy?"
"It’s energy drink. To make you stronger so you can play all day with Eden."
"Ok!"
Edna handed it over to her father who opened the vial. In two sma gulps, she took in the content.
"Hmmm! It’s so swee—" The little girl didn’t finish her sentence before she slumped over. Damien cut her head with his palm. He set her properly on the bed.
"You don’t deserve to have such a horrible mory. Let take the horrible ones while you take the beautiful, happy ones."
With that, Damien planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. He smiled down at her gently as he stood up.
"I’ll be right back."
The minute the door shut behind him, the smile faded as instantly as it appeared. Damien turned to the direction of the palace where the twins’ room window was still open.
"This ends now." he said, stressing on every word before he threw out his wings and vanished in a blinding flash.
Damien landed powerfully on the veranda of the room. His eyes scanned the surrounding as he walked carefully inside. A few steps in, he stood a few steps by the foot of Eden’s bed. The little boy was already awake and when Damien looked down, there was a small action figure between his legs.
He looked up.
"Daddy!" Eden squealed. Eden jumped down from the bed, ran to where Damien stood and began flailing his arms, indicating that he wants to be carried.
Damien stared blankly at him for a while. He rembered the ti he had sought his father’s attention for so along after his mother died. The thought of allowing his own son experience that surpassed the feeling of regret and disappointnt he felt towards him.
Without giving it another thought, he lifted the boy from his underarms and brought him to his face, allowing him to sit comfortably on his arm.
Eden bead at him, placing a small kiss on his father’s cheek. The face that looked back at him struck another round of "butterfly emotions" in him for the nth ti that night.
"Where’s my sister, daddy? I can’t rember seeing her when I woke up or anything at all."
Damien’s smile faltered a bit.
"You don’t rember anything that happened?"
Eden played with his mouth a little, his face contracting a bit as he thought.
"All I can rember is mommy calling us out for school."
Damien looked questioningly at him. Strange...strange indeed.
Co to think of it, whenever Eden managed to go wild and drink blood, he almost always fell asleep.
"Daddy? Daddy!" Eden scread, trying to call out to him.
Damien looked at him, forcing a smile.
I have to tell Lio about this. This was far from normal.
Damien thought of calling for a maid and instructing her to keep watch over Eden but he didn’t want to send another soul to Death.
He was almost at his wits end when a thought conjured itself in his mind.
"Perfect!" he muttered.
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