**Ch 340: Descendants

"Our Master wasn't his father!" exclaimed the woman as it was her last attempt to save him while I peeked between my fingers.

"Now hold off, Morbius." Vlad finally spoke as he was leaning up against the marble wall, seeming amused to watch them.

"You can't be serious!" Morbius growled nastily as the boy showed no fear or intimidation by him, unlike me.

"Let's hear her out, shall we?" Vlad suggested, and then he nodded for the woman to continue speaking.

The woman didn't stall to explain. "His mother was like a slave. Our Master was possessive of her. He killed his brother just to marry her, even though he had other wives and concubines. The Master was his uncle, not his father, so the boy's father is from a different Household, which his Uncle stole. Our Master didn't know he wasn't his child, or else, he would've killed the boy."

After hearing her out, Vlad went to Morbius and took the boy from him.

"Hmm," he hummed as he was deeply thinking while he stared at the mute boy. "If he lives, I sense a worthy follower even into his future descendants."

"That's if he lives." Morbius squeezed the boy's scrawny toothpick arm. "I could snap him in half."

"We can snap grown men and lions in half." Vlad chuckled.

Morbius squabbles in his complaint. "You keep picking the weak and puny ones for your Coven."

"Never mind what I do." Vlad waved his words off with a hand motion. "There is more than selecting only the mighty and bulky ones as you do, my friend. You must give them time to grow."

"You'll be wrong if he dies. I'd say just eat him." Morbius doubtingly grumbled as he desired to feed on the child while my body shook in wonderment about the boy's fate.

"Can you keep him alive?" Vlad chuckled at him before he asked the woman.

"Y-yes. With proper meals and nourishment. He'll grow nicely," the woman guaranteed with a slight stutter.

"I can provide that. Therefore it's settled. I'll take the boy and the woman for my Coven," Vlad finalized.

I heaved a gasp in relief before reprimanding Kai. "You jerk! I feel like my heart is going to break from my chest!"

"Can you guess who that boy is related to?" Kai chuckled before he asked me. Once I unwound myself, I began to study the boy, and I didn't miss the hair color on his head as it dawned on me.

"The boy is related to Ace!" I exclaimed excitedly. "You knew he wouldn't die!"

Kai laughed. "The boy is Ace's grandfather, so of course I knew, or else Ace wouldn't be here today. Now, can you guess who the woman is related to?"

I studied her closely as Vlad handed her back the child, and she hugged him. The woman's face was a gentle triangular oval shape. Then her light brown hair was long and wavy. Her caring round pale green eyes are what made me realize who she had to be related to.

"She's related to Rome!" I raved excitedly.

"She's his grandma," Kai verified.

I giggled at the irony of it, "She raised Ace's grandfather?"

"She did," Kai confirmed it.

"Rome gets his gentle side from her," I stated with a smile directed at her for the love that she had towards Ace's grandpa.

"Yes, she is a very nurturing vampiress," Kai said. "Her husband and Rome's dad are brutes, including Ace's dad and grandfather. Thinking more deeply about it, all of Vlad's male followers are fearsome."

"Though Ace is mellow like his grandpa," I remarked because he was very laid-back.

"He is." Kai couldn't disagree.

"I guess Vlad was right about him and his descendants being powerful," I noted.

Kai added. "Indeed, his first gift gives him the wisdom to find the strongest warriors for his Coven. Right now, he found Rose's grandpa, Ivan's grandpa, Jack's grandparents, Sharlene's grandpa, and Glenn's grandpa, who all stand before you."

I glanced over and realized Glenn's grandpa was the fourteen-year-old boy.

Going down the line, Morbius and Vlad freed them from their chain. Vlad was the one who picked up a piece of the chain link, and he put it inside the pocket of his garment while no one else seemed to notice. They were too enthralled by the actuality that they had been freed from their chains.

"Everyone join hands and hold on," Morbius advised before they all disappeared together.

"They left," I called out.

Kai replies as he slips a piece of rock into my hand. "Stay calm. You'll jump real fast to where they are."

"What am I holding?"

"It's a stone rock," Kai replied, and I felt its smooth texture against my palm.

With a sudden rush, my body zoomed forward as colors smudged together before my feet hit the hardened ground. I glanced around to notice that I was now in a large deep cave. Inside were many people all working together to make a suitable home. A handful of the young men and boys were working together at digging an underground fire pit to keep warmer.

You could tell who were Morbius's followers because they all had more muscles on them, whereas Vlad had seemed to pick teenage boys who were weaker or scrawny. A few of them had missing limbs. That's not to say they were all like that, because Vlad had a handful of youthful men who had muscles too.

The healthier young men and boys from both Covens were busy digging into the cave to make shelves and extra extended rooms. Meanwhile, the weaker men and boys, solely from Vlad's Coven, would sharpen tools with stones. Lastly, to say the least, the young women and girls did the feminine work such as sewing or sorting freshly picked crops into basins.

"Slaves, or the outcasts of the world, are what the Headmasters preferred when it came to choosing their followers," Kai elucidated as I observed.

"Makes sense."

Vlad showed the newcomers around, and he offered them new clothes. Meanwhile, Morbius took a seat by the fire that wasn't underground.

"While you were gone, we found more water pools to drink from or bathe in." Another woman informed Morbius as he relaxed his back on a sheet of stone.

"Mmm, just be careful not to wander too far when we aren't home," he advised with a hum to his tone as he seemed to be busy writing something down in a book.

"Of course, I shall attend to the fruits," she said, and Morbius nodded without glancing at her.

I watched as she walked outside the cave. She then wandered into this beautiful pasture that was filled with livestock and harvest for the humans to survive on until they would be turned. It was strange to see the sheep had naked colorful skin rather than wool. The goats were the ones that had a fluffy coat full of wool, and I saw a few men shearing them down.