The World After

Chapter 2 – Knowing

“Do you think that will work?” I turned my back to him so that he could unzip the dress, before sighing. I knew what Grayson was asking, I just didn’t know if it would or wouldn’t, and I didn’t want to lie to him. His lips grazed along my shoulder as I held the dress to my chest. I glanced back at him, and he smiled at me. “You don’t need to lie to me,” he told me, causing me to smile.

“I don’t know. I need to sit down…” I stopped and shook my head. His hands reached up and began to unpin my hair, letting his fingers run through the dark locks. “We all need to sit down and review everything. It’s a dangerous road we’ve embarked on, and I can’t help but feel it’s going to get a lot uglier.” I turned into his arms and looked at him. “It’s not just the demons I think we’re going to fight.”

“It’s the other beings as well, huh? Those that don’t want a ruler.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled me down to sit on his lap. “I noticed the words at the end of the ceremony. Many, many people won’t be happy with this outcome, even with the blessing of the God and Goddesses.” We both couldn’t fault people for their feelings. For a while, it had seemed those same higher entities had left us, letting us drown in our own problems. And then out of the blue, here they come, claiming that a few random people were chosen to lead everyone. Yes, there was no denying that was a slap in the face and one I fully understood because I think I would have viewed things the same way had that been me on the other end.

Granted, many didn’t give us time to explain what was going on or what our true purpose was. We were uniting everyone when we had all been divided for years. Again, a fault that was probably more mine than I wanted to admit, however, it had been brewing way before that; my incident was just the catalyst to set everything into motion. We were protecting as well; not just them, but our own way of living. If demons, and Demonio, really had the power, there would be no vampires, wolves, or witches left. Our blood wouldn’t be our blood anymore, but I feared that many didn’t understand the depths we were in or the control that was at our doorstep.

Not that I faulted them that, how would anyone know when nothing was ever explained? And nothing was ever said due to the fear we had of people losing their f*****g minds and worrying over nothing. So, yes, looking at it that way, I couldn’t, or wouldn’t, blame them. But that didn’t mean that I had to like it, because I didn’t!

“Are you going to be okay?” I turned my head and glanced at my mate, shrugging. Truthfully, of course. I was who I was and proud of it. I would dust myself off and get back to being the badass that I was. But now I had others to really protect. Not just a few other vampires. I had a family, a love, and quite a few to govern. No, this road wouldn’t be easy, and thinking about the other side that would be attacking us was something I never really thought of. And that was a huge fault on my head.

“I don’t have a choice. We have to make it okay, Grayson, we just have to. We have two babies to raise, to guide, to make sure they lead fairly and properly after we pass on.” Grayson rested his forehead against my arm, and I kissed the top of his head. “What is it?”

“The thought of after, the thought of losing you.” I chuckled and wrapped my arm around him.

“I will lose you before you lost me, Grayson, I hope you know that. I just know that this war won’t take us out yet, so we better plan accordingly.” He chuckled as he looked up at me.

“Isn’t that what we’ve been doing.”

“Yes,” I answered. “We just got to do it better, and faster, now.”

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“Mama?” I woke with a jerk, surprised to hear a voice in the middle of the night. The kids hardly woke up, even as babies. I turned my head to the doorway as I rubbed my eyes.

“What is it, Rayne?” I glanced over at Grayson who was still out and decided to get up. I didn’t want to wake him if I didn’t have to. Rayne met me halfway and his small arms were clutched around me, making my heart melt. I was going to treasure moments like this. I lifted him and walked into the living room, sitting down on the couch. “What woke you?”

“Pain.” I rubbed his back as I thought that over. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Not that we couldn’t feel pain, we could, but what kind of pain could have been so intense to wake him up?

“Okay Rayne, you need to give me a little more. Where’s the pain at? And do you still feel it?” His head nodded against my neck, and he drew back. His mouth opened and he pointed with his hand to his teeth and his gums. “Let me see.” The transition from human to vampire was harsh. It wasn’t a simple turn; bones broke, fangs grew and came out, almost as if in a teething stage all over again, and then your heart slowed way down. No vampire seemed to recall the brutal pain of their re-birth, however, when they need to feed and the thirst is strong, their fangs feel inflamed and it’s painful.

Rayne didn’t need to turn into a vampire, just like Rosemina didn’t, but they still were to shift for both a werewolf and a vampire, which meant that some pain was still going to come. I pulled his lips back and checked out his gum line, seeing the fangs there. So, if he had them, little though they were, why the pain? I had always fed both of the kids both milk and blood, most often together in fact, to give them what they needed, so he couldn’t be hungry. Then it clicked; his fangs need to elongate and pierce, something that any newbie vampire would do. He hadn’t had that as of yet.

“Make it stop, mama.”

“I will. But you need to work with me too, okay?” He nodded, his little eyes showing his discomfort. Rosemina took more to the wolf side so I wasn’t quite as sure that she would experience this as her brother did. “I’m going to tilt my head and along the side of my neck is a vein.”

“You mean the spot that’s covered up by dad’s mark?”

“On the other side, yes.” I ran my nail over the vein. “Do you hear the blood calling to you?”

“Yes, mama. It’s like a…a…song, a soft message…like a hum. I can feel the light passing of your blood through it.”

“Good. The pain you are feeling is because you need to experience your fangs coming out. I’ve always fed you the blood, however, this time, you need to do it. Get closer to the spot, breathe in the scent.” He did as I told him, and I smiled. “I know it’s odd, but now kiss the vein, just a little kiss, and nature will do the rest.” Once more, he did as I said and within the next moment, I felt his tiny fangs pierce the skin, drawing the blood out of the mark. I closed my eyes, my hands running over his back in a soothing motion. After another moment or two, he pulled back and wiped the blood from his mouth.

“It doesn’t hurt mama!”

“It shouldn’t. Every vampire has to go through that and has to experience the first real feed. I wasn’t sure you, or your sister, would have to do that.”

“You don’t remember yours?”

“Oh no, Rayne, that was far too long ago. Let’s you get back to bed, huh? I think you’re good for the night.” I lifted him back up and walked to his room, tucking him into bed. This journey with them was something new, something eye-opening, and something far different than what any of us knew. We know our world, our ordinary, our usual, but this was far from that. It reminded me that I need to talk to Grayson about Rosemina and see if even at this young of age, if she had a wolf or if he knew anything about it.

I crawled back into bed and curled on my side, looking at Grayson. He had rolled over on his side, his arm flung out on the bed, looking as if he was trying to find me and had stopped. I lifted his arm up and curled up next to him, smiling as I caught the soft growl of approval. Well, maybe Grayson was asleep, but Midnight was well aware of what was going on. I frowned as I thought about that actually.

Wolves were always alert, they always sensed things. Would it be possible to bring enough alphas together to potentially hunt out Demonio and to see what was going on? Where he was? How far into his creations he was? Sure, we had our spy who had given us plenty of information, but could we start this before it even got the chance to go to war? It would have to be something I bring up to Grayson. I paused in that thought and looked over at my mate. Okay, it was something I was going to have to bring up to Midnight.