OffSpring | ✎

Chapter LI

Chapter Fifty-One | And So It Begins
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Queen Elizabeth left me alone to collect my thoughts, not after bidding her goodbyes to her grandchildren and shifting back into the role of vampire queen. I moved the twins to the bed to lay with me after they had woken up, after the little incident with Victoria, I don't let them sleep away from me unless I'm up and moving around.

I laid on my side in the middle of the king-sized bed, curling around them as they pulled and played with my hand, I leaned forward and placed a kiss on Adelia's cheek then another, Cassius struggled to roll on his side, his leg thrown over Adelia's waist. He let out a garbled giggle when she began to pull at his toes.

A smile curves at my lips, my heart expanding wider at their antics, they were mine and I wasn't going to let anyone take them from me; not after I gave my life to birth them into this realm. Someone knocking at the shifts my attention away from them to the door.

"Who is it?" I called out with Cassius tugging on my hair.

"Guess who?"

I can hear the smile in his voice as the knob turns in pops his head, face light with glee when his gaze lands on the twins. Abel opens the door wider to let himself in, shutting it behind me, and shuffles toward the bed. The twins turn their attention away from me to the new intruder, both wore identical expressions as they accessed him and who he was.

"They look so like Delano, right now, it's not even funny," he comments. "Especially him." 

He laughs to himself and moves around to my side, leaning over me in a hug, "Not only did I come to see these little creatures but I came to check up on you." he says, looking me over, "How are you, little human?"

I smile. "I'm good," I look over at Cassius and Adelia, "I'm really good."

He nods following my gaze before turning back to me, "Good because I had to ask after that ass-kicking you gave Victoria," he snorts, eyes glinting, "You just got yourself a new admirer."

I run my tongue over a fang, "Well," I pause, shrugging, "that was a long-awaited ass kicking if you ask me." I tell him, sighing, wanting to get her out of my mind.

Abel chuckles and perches himself at the end of the bed, his legs crossed over one another as he reaches and snags Adelia's foot, she yanks it away from him, staring him down with eyes like her father; observing with a lingering sense of intelligence that a regular newborn would not hold.

"How's. . .Maddie?" I ask, watching his facial expression.

A grimace slips across his face, "She's doing okay, Adrian has been by her side for the past few days tending to her needs." Abel looks towards me, "She is going to be okay." he says for my benefit.

I could only nod, each passing day Maddie seemed to grow weaker, the illness overtaking her cells and bringing her closer to the death I and Adrian seemed to fear; though Adrian didn't show it, he was more afraid than I was and that was saying something. There was nothing to help her, being in a dimension where creatures aren't prone to catching diseases, this world didn't have anything to stop or help with the process.

"Are you sure there's nothing else besides. ." I pause when he solemnly shakes his head.

"Other than drinking Adrian's blood— which she keeps refusing, there is nothing else we can do."

A familiar burning builds behind my eyes as I blink and look down at the bed cover before I look towards the twins who were already gazing at me with curious eyes, I sniffle and quickly direct my eyes someplace else so they wouldn't see the tears that took place within my eyes.