OffSpring | ✎

Chapter LXIX

Chapter Sixty-Nine | To Become Stronger
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The room falls into a comfortable silence, the feel of each other's presence bringing a sense of comfort to everyone, Kyri, Abel, and I being the only ones left within the space, Eileesha leaving to take over Abel's spot for security. I am not surprised when my mind strays away from the world. Abel's reassuring words of Maddie's well-being did little to keep the anxiousness from rising.

I knew in my heart that she was getting the best care she needed, the lost memories of the two rising: it was hard to miss the way Adrian's eyes would seek her out among the rest, even when he thought he could hide it, despite their bickering. He looked at her in a sort of short, mesmerizing way, and almost in disbelief that she stood before him — existing and breathing the same air as him.

It was a look I have become too familiar with.

"Little human?"

I lift my head from staring at the covers, finding Abel's sprawled-out figure on the couch, gazing at me.

"Yes?"

Broken away from my thoughts, I give him my full attention, propping my hand on my cheek with the twins beside me, fast asleep after being fed.

"How are you adjusting?" he asks me, sitting up.

I raise a brow. "To what?"

"Being a vampire."

Even as he says it, the word does not affect me as much as I thought it would, my mind finally accepting what I have become. I don't answer his question right away, pondering each word into the groves of my mind. Once again, I'm dragged to the floating memories that lived inside me, placing me back in the heat of the battle that partook outside the castle walls.

I revisit the way my limbs moved in a way I did not know they were cable of doing, speed and agility fueling my movements to take down Victoria, the quickness that took hold of my feet came to me naturally in my plan to destroy her and her allies.

The bloodlust that coursed through my veins awakened that beast, hungry to rip any threat to me or my children. I let my mind replay the act of ripping Victoria's head off, with her body bounded with the help of Delano, her life lied within my control. The way the flesh of her neck stretched until it couldn't anymore, each piece of skin disconnecting from her shoulders like wet paper until her head separated from the rest of her body, ringing a deep satisfaction through me, my nerves singing with contentment.

I would have preferred to use my teeth, but my hands worked just as fine. Subconsciously, I ran my tongue over the points of my fangs, refocusing my eyes on Abel who looked at me with raised brows.

"What is going on in that head of yours?" he chuckles.

"Thinking back to the fight with Victoria and those creatures," I admit, "but to answer your question, I'm adjusting quietly nicely."

"I'm still wondering how I was able to fight when I don't have a lick of fighting skills in my body."

Abel smiles, eyes twinkling, "Instincts. It comes naturally when you're trying not to end up dead."

My lips make a downward gesture, head tilting to the side, in agreement with his words. "That makes sense."

(a/n: you that face you make when you taste something you thought would be nasty then it turns out not to be after a few smacks of your lips and you're like hmn, that's what I tried to describe 😂😭)

"Which, by the way," he pushes himself up from the couch, eyes holding the look of astonishment as if he were reliving the moment himself. "you looked completely badäss out there, being that you were newly turned too — bonus points."