Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
How ironic.
Carefully, so as not to wake her, I ease out from underneath Little Baby. Then I kneel at her side, watching as her breasts rise and fall with each of her soft breaths.
She’s truly here.
She’s truly mine.
I take a moment to really internalize what I have accomplished. And the most ironic thing is, I didn’t even do it on purpose.
When this thought manifests, I’m looking at my Little Baby’s body, and in this same moment it illuminates. Soft purple lights flows out of the once hidden, but now visible, markings that I used to make an offering to the Darkness back when she was my sacrifice, when a family and home of my own was just a dream. Something I felt was unattainable.
Little by little, each of the symbols that I carved on her begin to glow brighter until I can see them all. My name, Paul’s name, and the little pictures I drew of the family I thought I wanted. Me, and Paul, and Syrsee, and Ryet. We were all there inside the crude depiction of a house.
I wave my hand over her body and all those markings disappear.
Then I smile and start carving out a brand-new future.
I take my time because Little Baby doesn’t care. Wherever her mind is right now, it’s happy and content. She can’t feel the pain of my claw. She is living the dream.
I should probably wake her up and get her opinion on things.
But do I really care about what she wants?
Yes, in a sense. But only as it pertains to me. That’s all that matters. And there’s no way she can’t want me. There’s no possible way for her to deny me. Because she is me. Just like I am the Darkness. She is me.
We are two sides to the same coin. Yin and yang. Fire and water. Order and chaos.
I want a new little baby. A real baby. Offspring. And if I want it, then I shall have it.
I am, after all, the king.
I chuckle when that thought manifests inside my head. The king! This was always Paul’s goal. A vampire’s offspring is his kingdom and Paul has always fancied himself a king.
An offspring gives meaning to the blood lust. It forces it to make sense. For if you have a woman who needs this blood, and if you can put a seed inside her the way a human might, then it’s… natural. Good, and wholesome, and organic.
This baby is not a blood baby like Ryet.
It’s a seed baby like… well, like Little Baby herself. Was she not human once? She was. And now, with her help, I will have a true, and good, and wholesome, and organic lineage of my own.
Forget about being king, I will become God.
And once that happens, I won’t need Paul.
This makes me laugh. Not that I won’t need Paul, but that I ever thought I did. Because I’m inside Paul. I’m all over him. I’m inside Ryet, too, though to a much lesser extent.
If I wanted to be them, I could be them. I could open my eyes and see through their eyes the same way I saw through the eyes of Darkness.
But I don’t have time for that. I’m sure it’s a process. Equally as sure that there’d be a fight—especially from Paul. And I don’t want to tip the balance of things right now.
It’s all going too well.
It’s all going my way.
I lie down next to Little Baby, propping myself up on my elbow so I can look at all the new markings I just made on her body. Right in the middle of her stomach is a big circle and inside the circle is what will keep us together forever.
I name him Dark Baby after the both of us.
And then I smile, and lie back, and slip my arm underneath Little Baby so I can pull her close to me. When the figurative and literal long-held breath comes out of me, it brings a sense of wellbeing and peace. It brings relief.
Because finally, I know why I’m still here.
Not only that—I’m smiling wide as I gaze up at the dancing glow of purple light that flickers along the roots in the cave ceiling—I know where I’m going, and I know how to get there, as well as what will be waiting for me.
A family and place of my own.
Little Baby stirs underneath me, wriggling, like she wants to get free from the tight embrace I have her in. Reluctantly, I loosen my arms and lift my chest off her back so she can reposition.
She tries to get up, but I pull her back down, my words coming out in a low and soothing tone. “We’re not in a hurry, Little Baby. We have all the time in the world.”
She lets out a breath, only to quickly take in another one and hold it. She’s confused, and she has a right to be. Who knows what she remembers?