Thirteen years earlier....
"It's a boy your grace!...Just as you hoped.." whispered the attendant lifting the infant by his left hand and slapping the baby's backside with his right hand. "Wwwwaaahh! wwwaaahh!" was the immediate response from the infant. The attendant cleared the infant's air passage and settled him on his mother's chest while attending to the afterbirth.
The father was outside the birth room but he heard the attendant's whisper. Being a natural born vampire, his hearing was enhanced.
The door to the birth room was locked tightly to keep the scent of blood escaping. Extra precaution was taken by spraying bleach around the outside perimeter of the room, windows and door to neutralise the scent if some escaped.
Not that the father can't control his thirst but he just didn't want to take chances.
The birth was difficult as expected. But alot of humans have married vampires and had children. Vampires who loved the mothers of their children and who found ways to both keep their partners safe as well as give birth to healthy children.
Preparations were made so that this birth would be successful and the mother and child would be safe and healthy.
The attendant cleaned the mother and cut off the umbilical cord from the infant. Another attendant carefully wiped down the birthing room and everything that's in it with sanitiser. The infant was swiped with sanitary towels then swaddled in a blanket while the mother was cleaned and dressed in a clean dressing gown. Every thing was as it possibly could to help the father not to endanger his new family.
Finally, the door opened and the father came into the room and stood next to the bed. He gazed down at his infant son and wife. The wife gave him a drowsy tired smile and showed him the baby.
The father's throat bobbed, swallowing convulsively. His throat was itchy and dry as if he had ran a long way and making it difficult to swallow. After struggling to swallow a couple of times, he realised that he can control his itchy achy throat if he breathed through his mouth.
Bending down, he kissed his wife on the lips, taking his time to show his appreciation. Then he stretched his arms and picked up the infant, holding him next to his heart.
His heart was full, his throat closed up and moisture gathered on the edges of his eyes and spilled down his cheeks unchecked.
It was a rough three months or more specifically twelve weeks to be exact. Natural born vampires take that long to fully develop in their mother's womb.
While pregnant, the mother's dietary requirements change to mostly raw meat and blood. Gallons of blood.
Sometimes the human mother's body is not compatible with the dietary requirements of raw meat and blood. In these instances, the foetus and mother sometimes die of starvation if the foetus is weak. Most times, the baby survives while the mother dies.
With a thankful heart, the father pressed his lips to his infant son's brow. His wife and child could have died. Thank the powers that be that his wife's body was compatible with the dietary changes and she was able to eat raw meat and drink plenty of blood. She positively thrived on that diet. People not knowing her to be human would have thought her a natural born vampire.
'Wwwwaaahh! Wwwaaahh!" wailed the infant. Again. The father looked down on his infant son, surprised. An aluminium canister with a metal teat was placed in the infant's mouth by the attendant. The wailing immediately ceased and suckling noises were heard.
A chair was pushed behind the father's legs and he was gently pushed down onto it. Gently, the baby was held in his right arm, elbows curving back around the baby's body to securely cradle the infant.
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A month with their baby was not enough for the mother. Human children would be still a month old. Not able to support their neck, sit, eat or focus on anything.
Vampires with their excelerated growth take only a month to reach natural growth equivalent to three years in human children. Each vampire child reaches physical maturity by the age of seven human years.
Physically the little boy looks like a three year old. He talks, walks, eats human food as well as drink blood. But in reality, he is only a month old.
Sitting the little boy on his little chair, both the father and mother gazed upon their child. Kneeling in front of him so they would be at least eye level with him.
The father cleared his throat a few times while the mother's eyes filled with tears. "Don't quaar momma. Don't quaar" comforted the little boy, wiping his mother's tears with his little hands.
Wrapping her arms around her little boy, the mother hugged him tightly and kissed his forehead. The father then took him from his mother and also kissed him on the forehead, hugged him gently and resat him on his little chair.
Besides the father and mother, sat the father's valet cum security guard cum chauffeur and the mother's maid cum companion cum chaperone. At the father's left sat the male vampire and at the mother's right sat the female human.
Fiercely loyal to each of their charges, the vampire valet and the human maid stuck to their charges for the last six months. Forsaking both their families and clans to be with their charges. All four of them have been declared dead by their families and clans and were being actively searched for in order to make an example of them.
After the terrible wars that had ravaged the land and taken a huge toll on all the species, the leaders of each species came together and entered an agreement signed in their own blood and each swore a blood oath to uphold the peace. Each swore to strictly keep within their own species to maintain the peace. Henceforth peacewas made by the ancestors between the human mundane world and the supernatural twilight worlds.
Blood oaths were sacred agreements that the parties had to cut themselves and mix their blood together then take oath and sip from the mixture. This oath bounded the parties throughout the generations.
Even though the father and mother were not the first couple to fall in love and marry, their families and clans were the leading families and clans and can trace their ancestry back to the original oath takers for their respective species.
Wives and husbands were carefully chosen for the sons and daughters of these families and clans. No random man or woman could chance a relationship with any of their marriageable offsprings. Every marriage is contracted upon the birth of the child and the child is groomed into the role of wife or husband.
Bloodline, wealth, education and health is taken into account when deciding a husband or a wife. If the desired bloodline is found to have children then the family is carefully looked at to see if there is wealth. If there's wealth then the schools the children will be educated in is considered and if the schools were acceptable then finally the health of the children are considered.
No weakling is ever chosen as the robustness and the breeding ability is also considered meticulously. With these rigid requirements in place since the beginning, all families and clans in both the human and twilight worlds have heirs and spares to step in and assume the roles if the heirs were not able to.
With both the father and mother already contracted to marry their chosen partners when they came of age, their chance meeting and falling in love was truly star crossed. They do not stand a chance of a life with each other at all. Of their fate, the father and mother knew it and have accepted it. Their only concern now is to safeguard and hide the result of their star crossed love until he came of age.