bloodline || TO [2]

08

"Andie?"Ezekiel called out as he headed straight for her room.

She turned when the door opened and sat up on the bed.

"Hey,"she gasped. "How is she?"

"She'll be okay. Her uncle's in town to take care of her and bring her in,"he answered.

"How's Davina? How are things?"

"I couldn't find her. The French Quarter looked rough, like a storm came-"

"Zeke, Davina's gone... They completed the ritual,"she said.

"What?"he frowned.

"They completed the Harvest... The Reaping didn't work. Davina and the girls never came back."

Ezekiel sat down on the edge of her bed and buried his face in the palms of his hands.

He had hoped there was another way. Surely every ritual had a loophole to it... She was just a teenager.

"Marcel went on a rampage. He was breaking things here and there." She wrapped her arm around his shoulder and rubbed it, giving him comfort and warmth.

"He's grieving,"Ezekiel said. "Let him."

He let out a heavy sigh.

Andrea grabbed his hand and placed it on her bump just as little Aster gave her a little kick. His lips curled into a wide smile and he knelt down on the floor, facing her stomach.

All his problems disappeared - it was just him and his little girl.

"Don't get excited yet, little one. There's still time,"he whispered.

"She can't wait to meet you,"Andrea said.

"Read to her. I read somewhere that says it'll help her recognise your voice." She moved off the bed and grabbed the bedtime story of Red Riding Hood.

"No... I wanna tell her about our family." He pulled her back to the bed and sat her down.

He sat on the floor, his face near her bump as he began a story of the first vampires created by magic and held together by a family vow.

"Once upon a time, there were eight siblings. One died by the hands of werewolves and another was taken by the plague... One fine day, a mother was tired of losing her children. She turned them into immortals who could never die, including the father."

"My father called us, your Uncle Nik and I, abominations. He hated what we had become and he hunted us all while our mother sought out ways to cease our existence... The five siblings only had each other. One was a mummy's boy,"Ezekiel laughed and shook his head.

"You would've loved your Uncle Kol. He's a wild one, the young three always were - Aunt Bex, Uncle Kol and I. He's lying in a coffin with a dagger. He always wanted something different... His own peace. He never felt like he belonged in the family."

"He always had me, and I him. Aunt Bex, Uncle Nik, Uncle Elijah and I ran from our father and swore to each other one thing... That we would always and forever have each other's back."

"And they will have yours, my Aster, even if they never always had mine,"he promised.

Andrea watched him with awe of the love he carried for their child before she was even born into the world.

He was already a father.

"That will definitely be my promise."

They turned around to see Elijah standing in the doorway with a warm smile on his face.