My Vampire Baby

The Dark of the Morning

Nikki's POV

I wake to noises downstairs. Cicero and Nina are home. I crawl out of bed and find my night pants on the floor. Court had taken advantage of Nina being far away to have privacy during sex. Nina doesn't mean to mentally intrude she is just very entune with us and is drawn to us during emotional moments.

Downstairs I find Cicero alone.

"I sent Nina to her room to study." He answers my unspoken question. I wanted to see her. I sigh. When her father has spoken Nina does as she's told. I want ice cream so I search in the freezer.

"Would you like some ice cream." I ask.

"Oh yes that would be a pleasure." Cicero answers with a grin. I reach in the fridge for the bottle labeled For Nina Only. We both dish ourselves. I'm not squeamish, but I avoid watching him quirt blood on his. I've seen Nina put it in her drinks, but damn this is ice cream.

"Cicero may I ask you a personal question? I ask.

"Go ahead it depends on the question whether I will answer." He grins showing his fangs. I smirk. I have a deep respect for him. I don't fear him. Mainly because he would do nothing to make his favorite little girl cry.

"How did you become a vampire" I ask him bluntly. He sighs softly.

"Do you want the short or long version. Maybe like one of the stories of Anne Rice." He chuckles.

"Do you mean her books were about real vampires?" I ask bemused.

"Yes mostly with some name changes. Lestat always does like the notoriety. He's at rest again this time in the crypt in the New Orleans Coven Mansion."

"The long version definitely." I always wanted to know his history. He smirks and begins his story.

"I was born an aristocrats son. But I was an unneeded spare. I had four very healthy older brothers. The oldest was my father's heir, the second was my maternal grandfather's heir. The others had been sent away as pages to knights. I thought that was going to be my fate. One I was looking forward too. Time passed I was already thirteen. I had already discovered women. It wasn't hard when you were the Lord's son, even a landless one. He groans softly. One morning I was dragged out of bed. There was a priest there. My dreams of being a knight were dashed. I spent years in monasteries and later in a seminary. I became a priest. I did try to be a good one. At 25 I began at a poor parish. The villagers all came to church, but they still practiced many pagan beliefs. I turned a blind eye like past priests before me had. As soon as I realized they didn't know how to read or write I began to teach them. That's how I met Teresa. She was beautiful Nikki. Her and her mother lived on the edge of the village. They were from a long line of healers I was told. She had no father. She was conceived during a fertility festival. Her mother had been the May Queen. Those festivals were outlawed by the time I came there as a priest. But If mother and daughter needed anything it was provided by the village. They were often gifted things for using their healing knowledge.
The point of all this is I fell in love. I had thought I had had all the lust beat out of me. But she stirred those long buried urges and like fool I began an affair with her. It lasted for months. I knew I was breaking my vows but I didn't care. I have to tell you that was year The Malleus Maleficarum, the Hammer of Witches, began to circulate. I didn't take it serious. It was written by a rogue priest. This is before the witch hunts really began. I was gone when it touched my small village. I had been recalled for a reprimand. It had got back to the power that be that I was educating the people. It was easier for them to rule the ignorant. They didn't like what I had started. It wasn't much of a punishment that was handed down. I was told that if I didn't behave. I would never get a richer parish. Honestly I really had no desire to get mixed up in the church politics a more Prestigious placement would bring. I liked the simplicity of my small parish. And of course I would miss my lover.
By the time I returned the witch hunters were gone. My Teresa and her mother were dead. They had been hung as witches. She was pregnant. Even though they Tortured her she didn't give up my name as the father of her child. They decided it was Satan's offspring. It gave them another reason to murder her. The villagers were to frightened to defend them. They did give them a decent burial in the churchyard after the hunters had left. I cried as I blessed their graves. I never blamed the people. If they would defended them. They would have brought back more soldiers to kill them all. I think I lost my mind I went after the hunters. It had been a long time since I had handled a sword. I thought I could take on one soldier. I was wrong. When I caught up with them they beat me and left me for dead. That's when the vampire found me. He asked me if I wanted to live. I said yes. I wanted revenge. But I didn't know what Consequences I was to face. Once I woke the next night I set in search of the hunters again. Finding them camped in a forest near a road. I fell on them like the monster I had become. My maker Marcus found me a couple nights later. He taught me what he thought I needed to know. The only way I learned to hunt was to hunt the worst criminals." Cicero finishes his tale. He continues to eat his ice cream.
"You know you will have to let Nina go soon. She is supposed to be eighteen now. People will begin to notice she's not aging." He comments surprising me.

"I know." I answer.

"You could say she went to college over seas." He says.

"What about Dorian?" I ask.

"He should stay with you and your wife until he is ready to join our world." He answers.

"Have you talked to Nina about this?" I question.

"Yes and she understands. I will give you both a few days to say your temporary goodbyes. She will always check in on you and Dorian. She loves you both. I wish this could be different. This is just the way it has to be." He sighs.

Silently I get up and go upstairs. Crawling into bed I cuddle Courtney. Nina has been a lot things to me. Lover, friend, wife and weirdly enough a child-women I had to call my daughter. The time she has lived with us has been bittersweet and so short. Maybe it will be somewhat of a relief for Court. She has always had a love hate relationship with Nina. I hate our constant goodbyes. I close my eyes and try to sleep.