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 becomeGod.
And once that happens, I won’tneedPaul.
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 tobethem, 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?
“Where am I?”
Oh, just the sound and timbre of her voice is enough to fill me with happiness. “You’re in love, Little Baby.”
It’s me who’s in love, so I’m projecting, but I’m the king of kings and master of everything. I am God, and so what I feel is what everyone feels. Her love for me is absolute. There is no other way for her to exist.
She holds her breath again. I can tell because when it comes out, it’s a puff on my arm, which delights me—to have someone I love so close I can feel the life inside them when it comes out.
“I mean,” Little Baby attempts to clarify, “where, in… location, am I?”
“Oh!” I chuckle. While I was daydreaming, I seem to have moved us out of the cave and into a hotel room. “We’re in a bed, Little Baby.”
This time her breath is quick and rushed, but I still like the feeling. “I can see that we’re in a bed, but where in the world is this bed located?” All these words come out through gritted teeth, which delights me.
