Pomegranate Seeds ➸ Alistair

ii

As Alistair wasn't one to break promises, he found himself once again within the Byron household only three months after his previous visit. As he typically went a decade or longer between visits, this was quite unusual.

"Mary gave birth to a healthy baby girl on April 13th," William said to him, beaming with pride. "Eloise Elizabeth."

"Congratulations," Alistair said, eying the dark shadows under William's eyes and feeling thankful that he himself had never had to parent a child.

"Thank you. She's beautiful, but she never stops crying. We brought in the physician, but he found no evidence of anything wrong," William said. "Could you-"

"I'm no doctor," Alistair interrupted, "but if I detect anything off in the babe, I will tell you."

"Thank you. Mary should be up with her shortly, Eloise was just waking from a nap when you arrived and needed feeding," William said.

Alistair said nothing, instead milling about the sitting room that looked almost identical to how it had three months ago; the only indication that the Byrons had welcomed a new member was the baby rattle that lay forgotten on an end table.

He could hear the mother and daughter from where he stood; Eloise was fussing, sounding close to tears, and he could hear Mary bouncing the girl as she burped her.

It was several more silent minutes, interrupted only by William's fruitless attempts at starting conversation, before Mary entered the room with the infant cradled in her arms.

"I'm so glad you came," Mary said over Eloise's crying, which was close to painful against Alistair's enhanced hearing. "We were worried you had forgotten."

"I promised," Alistair said, forcing a small smile as the baby's cries grew louder.

"Alistair said he'd check for anything ailing Eloise," William said.

"Oh, would you? The physician told us it's nothing to worry about, perfectly normal in some babies, but I fret over her so," Mary said. "Come take her, here."

Alistair was left with no choice but to oblige her, very mindful of how little strength it would take for him to break the child's fragile body.

"Support her head, like this," Mary instructed, but it was unneeded; he had held his sisters when they were but babes, and it wasn't something he had quite forgotten even after his turn into a vampire.

Eloise weighed nothing to him, squirming slightly against the cool of his arms. She stared up at him intently, eyes slightly unfocused, and slowly quieted as he continued to rock her.

"How did you manage that?" William asked, surprised.

Alistair didn't respond, his attention focused fully on the baby girl, who had clasped one pudgy hand around a button of his coat. "My coat is dirty, you know," he told her. She cooed, the other arm flopping out of her blankets to stretch.

"Is she well?" Mary asked anxiously, breaking Alistair out of his trance.

"She seems to be," he told the new parents. Indeed, Eloise's heartbeat and breathing was strong and he smelt no traces of illness in her blood.

"Thank the Lord," Mary said, hovering just before Alistair to look down on her firstborn child. "You are certain?"

"Yes," Alistair said, allowing Eloise to wrap a hand around his finger. "She is perfectly healthy."

"That is a relief," William said.

"I'll take her now," Mary said.

It had been close to three hundred years since Alistair had felt any sort of strong emotion outside of fear or boredom. But it took all of the self-restraint he possessed to not snarl as Mary moved to take her baby from his arms. It was as if his every instinct had come alive with one object: protect the infant.

Mary gently lifted Eloise from his grasp as Alistair stood absolutely still, reigning in his suddenly tumultuous instincts. Eloise started crying the moment she was in her mother's arms, and Alistair twitched towards her.

Somehow, this child, this infant, had a hold over him. Alistair didn't understand it, nor did he like it. So he acted as he always did when he was uncertain. He took his leave, and fled.

~~❀~~
Second chapter is here! I'll probably post once a day until we're through the first act, after which I'll slow down the updates a little to every few days. I hope you enjoyed, and please let me know what you think!