*Ch 252: A Vampire's Grief

One after another, the vampiresses took off with their offspring. I kept up with Mrs. Collin, and watched her and the main mothers of Kai's friends, collect the hiding vamp children. Beyond where my eyes could focus, vampires and vampiresses were detained. But a lot of them were frozen into stone.

Over the battling roars, "That's all we could find!" Jack's mother shouts.

"Take your offspring and go!" Mrs. Collin exhorted. "I'll be there!"

Mrs. Collin's vampiress friends were about to leave with their offspring. Until a few vampires swooped down from the sky, and blocked their pathway.

"Go!" screamed Mrs. Collin.

The mothers of Kai's friends and guardians scrambled away or scurried to avoid them. Each vampire missed them because they vanished in time. Adrenaline pounds away in my chest to witness the attack. Being like a ghost, there was nothing I could do but watch.

Mrs. Collin led Chester and Veronica to a half-collapsed pillar by a large outdoor imperial staircase leading to the palace. Darting in from the sky, an Alpha vampire ambushed Mrs. Collin and her offspring from behind. My heart pounds faster to witness that vampire snatching Mrs. Collin's wrist.

"Chester, leave with your sister!" she yelled to her son.

Baby Kai bawled as she rolled him out of her arms to the ground.

"Mommy!" Veronica cried, stretching out her arm toward her mother. But Chester kept his little sister at bay.

Mrs. Collin shouts in fright while she struggles to get free from the vampire, "Aah! Chester, go as your father has taught you!"

Being so little and brave, Chester was quick to bounce out of sight with his sister. Poor Kai was left behind at the stone step. The vampire twisted Mrs. Collin around to face him. Being feisty, she clawed his cheekbone before her fangs bit into his neck, but he laughed mockingly at her attempt to detain him. Likely, after birthing Kai, she was still too weak to fight.

"Once I get rid of your mate, I'll revive you from your slumber. Then you'll be mine forever," he taunts as she tried drinking him dry, but her attempt was futile.

Before Mrs. Collin comprehended what hit her, his fangs crushed into her neck bone! In a heap of agony, she released his neck. She cried out, bellowing.

It happened so quickly that her flawless smooth skin wrinkled yellow before it dried into a hideous brown. Every ounce of her blood was devoured, and her body stiffened into a dried-up mummified corpse in his grasp. Her skin was thinly petrified over her bones. She looked like what an archaeologist would find on an excavation site. Little would anyone know that she wasn't a corpse, but rather, she was detained from her immortality. Only receiving a droplet of blood from her mate or relative would awaken her.

Tears sting my eyelids as the vampire laid her on the ground before his awareness was drawn to baby Kai's crying. An evil smirk curled his lips before he went to approach him. I move swiftly and rest on my knees to be with Kai. My eyes stared up at the perilous vampire.

Suddenly, he hissed and was distracted toward the sky. It was like seeing an angel, but it wasn't an angel. Rather a winged Alpha vampire, hovered in the fiery atmosphere. Elegantly his wings feathered far and spread like buttermilk. He wore only linen pants and no shirt.

I watched as the wing vampire rolled his pupils in the back of his head. Only the whites of his eyes showed as the attacking vampire hissed in agony while he burned into stone.

Unexpectedly another vampire bounced in from out of nowhere. He too was shirtless and only wore linen pants. And his body was wounded in bloody claw marks. Those deep hazelnut eyes, diamond-square face, heavy cupid bow lips, ideal straight bridge nose, high masculine cheekbones, and defined jaw all showed his identity. My heart aches to see it was Mr. Collin. The despair on his face said it all. He collapsed on his knees and held Mrs. Collin's mummified face to his bare bleeding chest. Lost in grief, he wept, pouring tears from his eyelids.

"Gaston, your son!" the wing vampire shouts in the sky before another wing vampire throws himself at him attacking. They disappeared over the burning palace roof.

As Mr. Collin still wept, the battle was closing toward him, but he was too bleak in his sorrow from seeing his wife detained. Poor Kai was left alone, screaming uncontrollably.

I gazed down at him and tried touching his tiny curled fist. Even though my hand was nothing more than a ghost, I still attempted to soothe him.

"Kai, it's ok," I whispered whether he heard me, or not, I was determined to comfort him since his dad was gone in his grief for his mate.

"No matter what happened at this moment. I know for a sure fact that you, your family, and Coven remain strong to tell the tale of the great battles you all fought in," I whispered sweetly to him. Remarkably, his crying reduced into a whimpering coo. Those agate eyes blink apart as if he heard me. It couldn't be possible, but Kai was looking at me like he could. He clicked his lips together as the same wrist I held was moving like he felt my invisible trace.

One tear rolled to my cheekbone, and I smiled heartedly. Before I could say any more, Mr. Collin collected himself as the battle crossed on the palace grounds.

He picked Kai up and then placed him on his mother's bony chest. Carrying his wife and infant, Mr.Collin vanished right as a piece of fiery brimstone combusted onto the ground where they were.

Another teardrop dripped from my eyes as I got up. The bloody massacre and their battling chants vanished before me. My mind was traversing to my time frame.

Bright light filled my sight to the present. Here I still found my hand on the airbrushed painting of the infant. Was this painting of Kai and Mrs. Collin? I wasn't sure, but it was enough to trigger my time-gap gift. For whatever unknown logic, it's like I was meant to be there to comfort Kai because his dad couldn't from grief. Maybe being mates is why my invisible apparition from Kai's future was able to calm him. It wasn't a coincidence that he saw me. Surely, Kai did because he has proven to be the first one to communicate with me during my time-gap. Perhaps being too little is why he wasn't able to retain the memory that I was with him.