**Ch 363: Sorry Little One

"Progress is progress," Ace encouraged him, but then Darlene entered the room with another wine bottle of fresh blood. She took the empty bottle from Kai and traded it for him to take the full bottle. "Perhaps I spoke too soon," Ace chuckled as Kai gave him a narrow look. He knew Kai was trying to gain some control over his craving for blood, so he could support Victoria during her labor. As of tonight, Victoria was already nearing five months along in her pregnancy. Time was slowly running out on him, Kai reckoned to himself. 

"You think." In a hushed voice, sarcasm rolled from Kai's tongue, and Ace softly chuckled. 

Then he peeked below at his baby to see he was still asleep while the timer on his swing had run out, but it was all good since the baby stayed asleep, so Ace relaxed into the cushion. 

"Where's Rose?" Kai wondered since this was the first time he hadn't seen her near the baby. After she's had him, she hasn't once left him. 

"She's out hunting with the vampiresses," Ace replied nonchalantly. 

"They shouldn't be venturing off too far from the territories. It's getting unsafe out there." Kai furrowed his eyebrows at the thought they were somewhere out there without them to keep watch over them for their safety. 

"Your father already granted the vampiresses permission to hunt anywhere in our territories," Ace replied as he smirked.

"Hmm, and what about the rest of us?" Kai hummed whenever he asked him. 

"Any male over twenty is on their own," Ace smirked as he glanced at his book. He heard Kai huffing in his frustration since his father wouldn't let him kill anywhere he pleased, even though he did that anyway. 

Since there was only silence between them, Kai pulled out his phone from his pocket. "How's the project coming along?" he texted Victoria to see what she was up to. He noticed it was already 11:30 at night, and she still wasn't home.

Within two minutes, Kai felt his phone buzzing on his lap. 

"I'm still not done. There is a lot I need to catch up on," Victoria had texted him. Kai started to type on the keyboard. "Don't stress about it. You have time to get it done." He sent a response to her.

"I know," Victoria replied through her text. 

"How are you feeling?" Kai asked to check on her since it felt like she wasn't herself. 

"I'm a little tired. Once Jack returns from his walk, I'll probably start cleaning up, depending on where I am at," Victoria informed him in the message.

"Keep in touch," Kai texted a reply, and then she was quick to give him a simply plain answer that she would.

Ace glanced at his hand and saw him set his phone on top of his leg as he asked. "Is Victoria still at the museum?" "Yes. She's still working," Kai answered, and Ace nodded. 

Before he could talk again, Rome pounced into the living room, and he exclaimed rather excitedly. "Why are you guys in here when we should be going out to Evan's beach house!" 

"Waa!" 

Ace furrowed his eyebrows when a hoarse raucous cry started to wail from the baby. 

"Oops, I didn't know he was here sleeping," Rome sheepishly chuckled as Ace leaned over to him to try giving him his pacifier, but he rejected it by faintly moving his head, and his mouth remained gaped like an O. 

"Thanks, Rome, now you made my job harder." Ace annoyingly groaned, but before he could unclip the swing's belt to pick him up, Rome flopped a seat on the floor to be with the baby.

"Awe, did I scare the little baby?" Rome crooned as he tried tickling the baby from underneath his tiny chin, but that didn't work because he only cried harder. 

Kai chuckled at his failed attempt to make the infant smile while Ace refuted. "Dude, he's only a newborn. He doesn't respond to tickling yet." 

Rome asked when the baby waved his fist back and forth against his suckling mouth as he snorted and sniffed until he cried again. "What does that mean?" 

He knew little to nothing about newborns. Nevertheless, he loved babies and kids, though he had a better experience with the older babies and kids to say the least. 

"He wants to nurse," Ace responded after he saw the hand motion that the baby was making with his curled hand. Rome looked down at his shirt and then at Sharlene because she had now entered the room to hear him say. "Sorry little one, I'm fresh out of boobies, but I do see a nice pair that just came in." 

Hearing him quite clearly, Sharlene blocked her breasts with her arms as she exclaimed. "Don't look at me like I'm a walking milk jug! Mine aren't ready yet! Eyes on my face, Rome!" 

Ace, Kai, and Rome could only laugh harder from hearing her remark, especially with that last part. Out of the three of them, Rome was the only one who peeked into her cleavage that hung out of her pink button-down long-sleeved shirt since the buttons were unclasped far enough to see some skin into her chest. Although Rome laughed more at her reaction that she used her arms to shield her goodies. "There's no point in covering up now. The image has already been engraved in my memory," he teased her, and everyone's laughter increased as Sharlene beamed bright red. She giggled as she grabbed her fluffy pink sweater from the chair she had sat on earlier. "You're such a pervert, Rome." 

As she throws on her fluffy sweater from over her pregnant belly, Rome jokes."You still love me!" 

"Aren't you lucky, or I'd have to detain you," Sharlene teased, giggling. "Have any of you heard from Jack?" she asked them. 

"No, why?" Kai questioned her since he figured she should know he was with Victoria. "Remember, he went with my wife to the museum." 

"I knew that, but I texted him around eleven, but I haven't heard back from him." Sharlene clarified what she meant. 

Ace concluded as he picked his phone up to text Jack. "There's probably some kind of interference with the service. I'll text him to call you." 

"That would be great if you would. Anyhow, I'll be going to Evan's party," Sharlene notified them before she walked out the doorless exit.