I vowed to talk to Pierce about it later when he came back. Still amused, I put the papers back down and set back on my original task.
The towering bookshelves were neatly organized by fiction and nonfiction. I strode down the nonfiction aisle, overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge surrounding me. At least Adriel kept his library organized, otherwise I would have been totally lost.
History, science, politics, self-care…Ah! There we go.
The baby section stood out because of its bright colors, white and pastels. There was a healthy selection of books and I didn’t know where to start. It was almost dizzying.
Too many damn books…
I closed my eyes and picked one out at random, just to have the choice over and done with. I sank down to the hardwood floor with a sigh and began to read. The book was quite recent, and the spine was untouched - this must have been one of the books Adriel ordered specifically for my sake. I smiled at the thought.
Skimming through the pages, I realized that much of the information was stuff I already knew. That made me feel better about my constant low-level anxiety about being a new parent. At least I wassomewhatprepared for the whole experience. But there were a lot of things I didn’t know, either, and one could never be too prepared for something like this.
I was never as big of a reader as Caleb, who read for fun, but I didn’t vehemently dislike it or anything. Maybe having access to such a magnificent library would make me a more inclined reader.
After a while, I felt myself growing bored of the baby books. My mind began to wander. I placed the book neatly back - because Adriel was the type of uptight man to scold me if I didn’t replace things in the perfect order I’d found them in - and glanced up and down the shelf, searching for something more compelling to spend my time on.
Then, a single book stood out to me - one with a black spine and red and white text, which looked strangely out of place in the baby book section. Curious, I pulled it out to find the most bizarre book I’d ever seen - and that was before I even read the title.
“Vampiric Offspring: The Complete Guide?” I muttered out loud. “Weird.”
I sat back down on the floor, crossing my legs as best I could with my swollen belly and balancing the book on my knee. Instantly I knew the book would take more of my attention to comprehend, because it was written in an older style of english.
Still,I thought,this is probably more relevant to me than any of the other human baby books…
I began reading and fell into a daze of concentration, soaking up as much of the information as I could.
Half-vampire fetuses grow at the same rate as human fetuses for a total gestation of nine months. The host should experience no unusual symptoms until the third and final trimester, in which the host will begin to crave the taste of human blood.
My stomach flipped. I re-read the sentence multiple times to make sure I was seeing it correctly, but there was no doubt about it.
In the upcoming months, I’d want to drink blood, just like vampire.
The initial idea made me feel sick. Eating meat cooked rare was hard enough for me, but this? I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t drink the blood of another human.
But the thought nagged at my mind. My hands drifted to my belly, where my child was growing fast. Soon my baby would want - no,needblood - just like a pure vampire. Could I deny that to my child just because of my own personal feelings?
Not wanting to think about this any longer, I let out a heavy sigh and pushed the thoughts from my mind. There would be time for that later.
In any case, there was still plenty for me to read. With some hesitation, I dove back in until I came across a section labelledDhampirs and Magicks.
“Huh.”
Unlike normal vampires or humans, dhampirs possess the innate ability to manipulate the ability we call the ‘fog.’ This characteristic is similar to those of an Elder vampire, making it extremely powerful. However, dhampirs must learn to control their mind-manipulation of humans properly. Many fall prey to the trap of leaning too much in one direction - either their vampire parent or human host.
“What does that mean?” I furrowed my brow in concentration and kept reading.
Due to the circumstances of which they are often born, many dhampirs grow up in contact with only one parent; therefore, this causes them to be predisposed to “taking sides.” A dhampir leaning towards a human parent will often drink no blood whatsoever, which eventually leads to sickness and death.
My eyes widened at the horrible idea.
On the other hand, dhampirs leaning towards the vampire parent might disregard human life too carelessly. They do not learn to control the fog, and thus feed negligently. This results in humans becoming suspicious of the dhampir at best, for the trail of bodies in their wake. Eventually, the humans wisen to the fact that the dhampir is not entirely human, and kill them.
I shut the book and shuddered, not bothering to put it back into place as I walked away from the shelves. I could apologize to Adriel later, but right now I wanted to get out here and away from the dark thoughts.
No matter what, I had to protect my baby.
Regardless, at least I’d learned the information I wanted to confirm - that dhampirswereable to control the fog, which meant that as soon as my baby was born, Pierce and the others would be safe.
