Asteria’s eyes flew open, and she immediately noted that something was different. She sat up too quickly, and a pain shot through her head, something that shouldn’t happen. A glance around the unfamiliar room reminded her of where she was, and then she felt her abdomen. Empty.
On unsteady feet, she clambered across the room, grabbing a dressing gown as she went and flinging it on over her dress, which she noted seemed to be in shreds in the front. She hurried down the unfamiliar hallway, but the castle seemed too quiet, as if everyone was down in the bottom lairs, which is precisely where she headed.
The longer she walked, the more steady she became until she was practically flying. She remembered Hines giving her the shot to put her out so he could remove her baby from her womb. Her hands went there now and felt stitches beneath the robe. She wondered how long it would take for those to heal, but more importantly, what had become of her child.
Voices greeted her as she approached the basement. She stopped short, listening, trying to determine what they might be saying.
“We can’t kill it.” It was Venette, and Asteria grabbed ahold of the railing for fear she might pass out again at the mention of destroying her child.
“We have to!” Nelo practically shouted. “It is an abomination. It is not a Vampire.”
“It’s not even a baby,” Hines chimed in. “But I will certainly not be the one to end it, not without Asteria’s permission.”
“But what if it escapes?” Nelo was saying.
Asteria had heard enough. She flew down the last few steps, grabbing Nelo around the neck with one hand and squeezing until his eyes bulged. “You dare think to end my child before I even lay eyes on him?”
“Majesty… please…” he eked, clawing at her hand with both of his. “You do not understand.”
“I do not understand?” Outraged, Asteria threw him across the room, and he hit hard against the brick surround near the first of the cages that lined the basement. Nelo sat on the floor for a few moments before a groan even escaped his lips.
“Where is my child?” Asteria asked, wheeling on Hines.
“He… it… we had to secure him, my Queen. He’s just there.” He gestured toward the second cell.
Furious, Asteria approached the cage. Why anyone would see fit to cage a baby, she had no idea, but she assumed Hines hadn’t completely lost his mind and there must be something different about her child. Still, he was hers, born of a love that would never be again, and she needed to see him.
“Take care, Majesty,” Venette whispered behind her, but Asteria raised a hand to stop her and forced the cell open without use of a key.
Whimpers came from the darkest corner of the cell. With her night vision, Asteria could see an outline, the form of a crouching child in the corner, but something was certainly different. This was no baby. In fact, he looked to be the height of a two year old--at least. He was thin, however, and sat awkwardly with his knees bent to the sides, his elbows between them, his head down.
She slowly walked over to him, hearing the door to the cell close behind her. She wanted to chastise the others for fearing something so innocent, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away from him.
Dropping down, Asteria studied him better. He raised his bald head and met her eyes. His were black pools with minimal white and no delineation between iris and pupil. He was naked and blood red, and she assumed he simply hadn’t been cleaned up, but when she reached a hand out to touch his skin, she remembered there had been no blood, and it wasn’t a sticky substance that covered him; his skin just happened to be a crimson color.
At her touch, his head jerked around to study her hand. “Have no fear, darling. Mother is here.”
He opened his mouth, and Asteria was shocked to see a full set of teeth. But they didn’t resemble human teeth at all. Rather, rows of razor sharp fangs glinted in the dim light, jagged and of varying heights, and beyond it blackness.
A ripple of fear went through her as she pondered the possibility that Daunator was right. He did not appear to be a Vampire, but rather a demon. How could that be? None of it made sense to her, but then, neither did the idea that she was pregnant. If she and Perses had really become demonic Vampires by crossing back through hell, did that make her part demon now? Was that why her powers were stronger than before? And was it only the demon parts of them that could procreate?
The child continued to stare at her hand as she stroked his arm. “There, there, my sweet boy. Mother loves you.” She meant it. Despite the monster she was looking at, he was still hers, hers and Perses’s. How could she have any less love for him simply because he did not look like her?
The child’s head swiveled back around to look her in the eyes, and Asteria smiled warmly at the face of her own offspring. A wicked grin spread from one side of the child’s face to the other, and then, either outraged or overcome with an insatiable thirst, he launched himself at her, ripping open her robe and what was left of her gown with his sharp claws, knocking her backward as his mouth latched onto her breast.
Asteria shrieked in surprise and agony as his teeth bit into her flesh, but then he began to suckle. Sharp shooting pains pulsated throughout her chest, the places where his teeth had sunk into her stung as well, but something was happening, and when she glanced down at his face, she could see scarlet droplets around his lips.
“He’s nursing!” she proclaimed, looking over her shoulder at the other three who were all frozen in fear on the other side of the cage door. If she were able to cry, a tear would’ve slid down her face, but since she had none, all she could do was smile down at her child and rub his back as he drank. She would be thirsty again soon, and she hoped the three imbeciles behind her were capable of doing something about it, but for now, Asteria slid back against the wall, held her child, and let the idea of motherhood surround her with a sense of purpose and delight she’d never experienced before.
