𝓑𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭 𝓫𝔂 𝓑𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓭 ~✰ | 18+

Ch. IX [9] ♡

[ present day, United States ]

Cedric was awoken from his dreamless sleep by sudden growling and intense rustling at the back of his apartment.

"what the hell..."

he sniffed the air out of instinct, and his eyes narrowed.

"wolves..."

he decided to go into the woods behind the apartment and shut them up.

he bounded through trees, jumping from one's branches to another's. he followed the pungent smell of werewolf. as he approached, however, he smelled something other than wolves. he smelled other vampires, but they weren't living vampires. that was a shame.

Cedric observed the wolves tearing the two vampires apart viciously, enjoying their newly caught meal. he had never seen the vampires before; they were complete strangers, yet he felt it didn't have to end like that for them. he wouldn't normally find himself empathizing with beings that he had no attachment to, especially after Drake, but this was different somehow.

it was an entire pack of wolves. nine times out of ten, vampires would absolutely decimate wolves ... if the vampires were taking on 1-3 wolves at a time. an entire pack of them was a different story.

Cedric jumped around on the trees, avoiding detection whenever he could. he knew he'd be dead if he attracted the attention of the preoccupied, hungry wolves. in a grotto separate from the adult wolves, he found one juvenile wolf, growling lowly and sniffing at something. Cedric moved in closer to see a small being - a kid, perhaps 4 or 5 years old. it was anyone's guess as to why a child was out in the woods among a pack of hunting wolves. the wolf sniffed at the kid, seemingly confused, but it did not hurt the child. it didn't have the intention to do so. in fact, he was quite fascinated.

Cedric stepped closer, but he stepped on a twig, grabbing the wolf's attention. that was the time that the wolf became defensive, slowly approaching Cedric in an intimidating manner. Cedric hissed and bared his fangs as his eyes glowed a fiery orange. these behaviors made the wolf stand down and run away because he knew he was no match for a solo vampire.

Cedric turned towards the child-a little girl. strangely enough, she had a strong resemblance to the man and woman vampire he saw behind ripped to shreds by the wolves. the only logical conclusion is that the child had to be theirs. she was a vampire. it was an even sadder situation than Cedric could ever think of.

she was hidden away under the brush, meaning that they put her there to keep her out of the view of the wolves. Cedric bent down towards the girl as she looked up at him.

"I guess you're coming with me," he said. he scooped up the girl and headed back to his apartment.

Cedric had zero experience with young children; he hardly liked them. it took all that it had in him to not bite their squishy heads off when they cry loudly in public. it irked him so badly. however, this one was quite different simply because she was not a human. she wasn't even half human. to Cedric's knowledge, most people with vampire parents are at least half human. two vampires having a child was quite a rare occurrence.

the little girl sat on his sofa, looking around curiously. she glanced at him many times and smiled each time he met her gaze. she reached for him a few times, too. he didn't know how to interact with her at all. Cedric simply wasn't the type to make himself friendly to anyone, and he even thought the child would become afraid of him for not reacting to any of her movements at all, but she kept trying like nothing was wrong.

eventually, she began to whine and then cry. he expected it would happen at some point.

"you were doing so well. what do you want?"

he picked her up and inspected her, like he inspected car parts like he djd at his job as a mechanic. he guessed that she was just hungry. fetching a pint of blood from his fridge, he gave it to her and watched in awe as she drained it completely in a matter of seconds. afterwards, she was perfectly fine.

"what's your name?"

she said nothing. she looked like she was old enough to talk, but she didn't for some reason. maybe she was mute?

"hm... fine. I'll just give you a name then."