Rohan had expected to find his wife still sleeping peacefully on the bed when he entered their room the next morning, as she always slept well into the afternoons whenever he fed her blood at night. To avoid killing any of the servants again, he had made sure the baby didn’t get hungry before he brought the blood to her.
She always took it without a word of protest, and immediately afterward, she would fall into a deep slumber. By the time she awoke, she would look radiant, with no memory of what she had done before falling asleep—which was a great relief for him. She had no idea she fed on blood.
He did not know what he would do if she ever remembered the maid she had unintentionally killed. The fact that she retained no memory of the event right before she fell asleep meant their child was protecting her from it—shielding her mind and taking the memories away.
Though he had read somewhere about some demons having the ability to take away memories from another person, something similar to compelling but not exactly the same, this one meant the memory was wiped away from one’s mind and heart entirely, whereas compelling only suppressed the memory and hid it away, like something forgotten but still present.
He did not have the demon memory-erasing powers, but from the looks of things, and how she woke up with no memory of anything tragic, it meant their child might actually possess such a power—a power to take away someone’s memories, erasing them completely.
A vampire’s compulsion hadn’t worked on her, but a demon’s erasure had.
And Rohan could not help but feel proud, knowing the little brat was already making an effort to protect its mother from heart-wrenching emotions and the regret of taking a life.
He had already known such attachment would build if the unborn baby was treated right—it would do anything and everything to protect her. And Rohan couldn’t help but find himself liking the idea of the child more than he had initially thought he would.
Now, she was sitting before the mirror at the vanity table, combing through her long strands of hair with a silver comb, a small smile playing on her lips as she sang softly to the baby. Every now and then, she paused to ask it something—speaking as though she were talking to someone visible and present in front of her, not just a little life growing silently inside her.
Rohan stopped to admire her, leaning his back against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest, making his presence unknown. A look of warmth rested on his face, and he smiled without even realizing he was smiling as he watched her.
For months, he had not seen his wife this healthy and glowing under the morning sun that streamed in through the glass French windows, where the thick drapes were drawn apart. Lately, the sun had begun to show more often in the land, as winter was slowly fading and giving way to summer.
Her skin glowed bright and ivory. Though she had gained a few more pounds and looked fuller in places, it added to the beauty he believed she already was. Her hair was curly and utterly gold, and the sunlight gleaming on them made it seem like real gold had been melted on her head, the strands falling to the floor beside the stool.
Everything about her, from her skin to her hair, looked so healthy and lush, he ached to touch her, to trace his fingers along the familiar curves of her body. He was still watching her when the comb suddenly slipped from her grip, and she bent over to reach for it. But having grown to the size where bending down was nearly impossible in her condition, she grimaced and clutched her waist with a soft sound of discomfort.
Rohan snapped out of his reverie of watching her and strode into the room in long strides. He reached her side and then picked up the comb for her while clicking his tongue to chide her, "Why are you doing this yourself when there are handmaids to help you dress?" He straightened up and stood behind her on the stool, where he looked at her through the mirror’s reflection with unimpressed eyes at the fact that she was dressing herself and trying to bend.
Pursing her lips and placing a subconscious hand against her stomach and caressing it, she said, "I would have called the handmaid to assist me if they didn’t look at me like I am insane for laughing and talking to my baby. Whenever I speak, I feel the baby move in response and tap at me with its legs. It makes me talk more. It’s a moment we bond, you know?"
"You’re forgetting something," she said, "and the baby is trying to remind me. You haven’t come to say hello to it this morning." She told him what their child wanted.
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