1| The Birth.

 

Push! 

 

"The baby is almost here; you have to push harder!" The maiden helping Emily deliver her baby exclaimed.

 

"I’m trying!" Emily’s desperate cry pierced through the air. Summoning every ounce of strength within her, she pushed one last time, and the baby’s head emerged.

 

The midwife gently held the baby’s head with both hands and pulled the baby out with the utmost care.

 

"It’s a girl." The midwife rejoiced.

 

Emily was so weak, yet she stretched her hands forward to carry her baby. As the midwife was about to place the baby in Emily’s awaiting palms, an unexpected presence abruptly intervened, snatching the baby from the midwife's grasp.

 

Startled, both Emily and the midwife turned to look at who it was, and they both froze when they saw a devilish-looking pale man with fangs clutching the newborn in his arms. Surrounding him were five other creatures of his kind.

 

Emily was in total shock, but she managed to let out a short scream. "Please don’t hurt my baby."

 

The midwife tried to escape, but just as she opened the door, one of the devilish-looking creatures, Delia, moved at super speed, and the image of the midwife’s presence was followed by the demon piercing her fangs into her neck and draining her blood.

 

"I never thought I was going to get free food here." She smirked and wiped the remains of the blood from her mouth.

 

"Please, what do you want?" Emily cried as she tried to stand up, but she couldn’t. She was too weak.

 

"Where’s Jake Collymore?" One of the demons asked.

 

Jake Collymore was Emily’s legal husband. He was a human vampire hunter who had hunted down many vampires with his skills. He was a great threat to the vampire clan, and many vampires feared him. He was very strong and untouchable, as he was always protected with vampire repellent, and no vampire dared to go close to him.

 

Just as Emily was about to say something, the door barged open, and that was followed by Jake’s presence. He had sensed that something was wrong, which was why he came running. He was not paying attention to the floor, so he tripped on the midwife’s lifeless body, and what followed was devilish laughter from the devilish creatures.

 

 "Oh, welcome. The great Jake Collymore." Elijah, the one holding the baby, bowed mockingly, his tone full of sarcasm. "We have been expecting you."

 

Jake’s heart started beating hard against his ribcage when he realized the situation at hand.

 

"Please don’t hurt the baby. Whatever dispute you have, it is with me. I’ll do anything you want. Anything! Just don’t hurt my child. Please." He pleaded desperately.

 

A smirk touched Elijah’s lips. "You’ll do anything. But you can’t undo what you have done. You’ll pay for what you did to my family."

 

"What now, huh?" Delia scoffed. "You might be immune to our attack, but this little girl isn't."

 

"Please!" Emily begged. "I’ll do—"

 

Before she could complete her sentence, Elijah pierced the baby’s neck with his fangs, injecting his venom into her.

 

"Let’s see whether the great vampire hunter will kill his own child now that she’ll turn into a vampire." Elijah blurted, and devilish laughter filled the room. The devilish laughter was followed by silence after their disappearance.

 

"No!" Jake screamed as he dropped to the ground.

 

"My baby." Emily said, but it came out as a whisper. "My baby." She continued as he managed to get up from the birthing bed and crawl towards her child. Blood was dripping from the vessel through which she birthed the child, but she didn’t care about that or the excruciating pain she was feeling.

 

When she got to where she was lying on the floor, she held her in her arms and wept bitterly. "My baby, my baby, my baby."

 

She suddenly felt a presence before her, and she hoisted her head up to see Jake holding a wooden stake with tears streaming down his cheeks.

 

"Don’t come close to my baby. Stay away from us." She yelled as she jerked back.

 

"Emily, this child will turn into a monster. She’ll kill people just to feed herself. Is that what you want?" Jake cried.

 

"My little girl won’t turn into a monster." She cried. 

 

Before she could stop him, Jake quickly snatched the baby from Emily.

 

"You have to accept reality, Emily. We have to eliminate her." He muttered as he lifted his hand up to stab the baby in the heart, but his hand hung midair. He couldn’t bring himself to do it.

 

"Please," Emily begged.

 

With tears streaming down his cheeks, he went to his knees with the baby in his arms.

 

 "My baby." Emily cried, but it came out as a whisper; she was slowly losing consciousness. "My ba—" she trailed off and collapsed.

 

"Emily!" Jake yelled as he dropped the baby and rushed to save his wife.

 

"Emily, Emily, Emily." He called repeatedly as he lightly tapped her face to wake her up. But there was no response. He quickly placed his fingers on her neck to feel a pulse, and when he felt one, he let out a sigh of relief. She was alive.

 

Leaping to his feet, he quickly carried the baby and rushed to the basement. As a vampire hunter, he had a coffin purposely made for vampires, so he placed the baby inside the coffin and locked it.

 

He returned to the bedroom and carried Emily in his arms, rushing her to the hospital.

 

"Please save my wife." He cried for help as he ran inside the hospital with Emily in his arms.

 

The hospital attendants rushed to him with a stretcher and placed Emily on it before wheeling her to the emergency unit.

 

"What happened to her?" A doctor asked as he rushed to where they were and checked her pulse.

 

"Childbirth." Was all Jake could utter. He was out of breath.

 

"Oh sh*t!" The doctor exclaimed "It’s the 21st century; why did she have a home birth? And where’s the baby?"

 

"Doctor, please just save her." Jake pleaded.

 

The doctor was right; she shouldn’t have had a home birth. If he had brought her to the hospital, this wouldn’t have happened.

 

"Please excuse us." The doctor said this as he pulled the cubicle curtain closed.

 

Jake raked his fingers through his hair in frustration as he started pacing up and down, hoping and wishing that his wife would survive.

 

The night passed in a whirlwind, and with a lot of effort from the doctors and nurses, they were able to revive Emily. But she wasn’t allowed to go home immediately; she was kept under the hospital’s care.

 

Jake had to return home to clean up the mess he left there. On getting home, he dug a 6-foot grave and buried the body of the midwife before going down to the basement to check on his daughter.

 

As he was about to open the coffin, he felt a presence behind him, then he quickly tightened his grip around the knife in his hand and spun around, ready to attack whoever it was.

 

"It’s me." Emily quickly said, and a frown creased his forehead.

 

"What are you doing here?" He asked. "Why aren’t you at the hospital?"

 

"I knew you came back home, and I wasn’t at ease. So, I escaped." She said with a faint voice as she inched closer to him. "Please don’t hurt our baby."

 

"I wouldn’t. I can’t." He sucked in a sharp breath. "We’ll keep her. And we’ll teach her the ways of humans. We’ll make sure she never kills, and the only blood she’ll be allowed to feed on is that of animals. I’ll protect her with my life, as she is my blood." He paused for a few seconds before he continued. "I swear on my life, I will hunt down every single one of them that did this."

 

"Promise?" Emily asked.

 

"I promise." He pressed his lips together as he stared at the pitiful figure of his wife. "Let’s take you back to the hospital. You look too weak."

 

"I am okay." She said and flicked her gaze at the coffin. "She’s in there, right?"

 

"Yes." Jake nodded as he turned to look at the coffin. "I came down here to feed her." He returned his gaze to Emily. "But first, you need to leave. I don’t want to do that in your presence. I need to take you back to the hospital."

 

"Do it." She said. "Please."

 

"Are you sure?" He asked, and she nodded.

 

Flicking his gaze at the coffin, he went on his knees and opened it. The baby’s skin was pale, and he knew that if he didn’t feed her then, she was going to die.

 

He quickly cut himself with the knife in his hand and trickled his blood over the baby’s mouth. As she drank the blood, he watched as her skin slowly brightened and her eyes changed to Red.

 

After a few seconds, a pair of fangs abruptly emerged from her gums, and she tried to fly out of the coffin, but Jake quickly sealed it shut.

 

"So, are we going to keep her in that coffin forever?" Emily asked. 

 

"No, definitely not." He said, as he leapt to his feet and turned to look at her. "I’ll go and see Seraphina; I’ll solicit her help to prepare a charm that will help suppress her powers and make her immune to sunlight." He assured her.

 

Seraphina Trevils was a powerful witch who had always helped Jake when hunting vampires.

 

Emily suddenly started crying, overwhelmed by the series of events that had been happening.

 

Blowing out a sharp breath, Jake inched closer to her and held her in his arms.

 

"Everything is going to be okay." He said, as he patted her back.

 

"I want us to name her Angel." She said in between sobs.

 

"Angel it is then. Our little Angel."

 

…

 

Jake visited Seraphina Trevils the following morning to ask her to prepare a charm for Angel, as he had promised his wife.

 

"To whom do I owe this visit?" Seraphina asked. 

 

"I need your help." He told her.

 

"Which of the vampires do you want to hunt down this time around?" Seraphina asked.

 

She thought what he wanted was the usual spell he used to request whenever he wanted to hunt down a high-ranking vampire.

 

He pinched his nose. "It’s not about that."

 

She raised a brow. "Then what is it about?"

 

"I told you my wife was pregnant, right?" He asked. 

 

She nodded. "Yes."

 

"She gave birth to a baby girl," he told her.

 

"That’s good news." She said and tipped her head to the side. "Why do you seem worried?"

 

"Elijah and his gang turned her at birth." He said, and a frown creased her forehead.

 

"I am sorry about that." She pressed her lips together. "What do you want me to do for you?"

 

"I would like you to prepare a charm for her. The one that will suppress her powers and make her immune to sunlight."

 

"Consider it done." She told him and dashed out of the room. She returned a few minutes later, holding a ring.

 

"Put this ring on her. She must be with it at all times. This will be able to protect her from sunlight and suppress her powers. With this, she will be able to live like a normal human. But she still needs blood to survive." Seraphina explained as she handed him the ring.

 

When he returned home, he explained everything to Emily, and she was delighted.

 

Angel's fingers were too slender to accommodate the ring's size, prompting them to transform it into a necklace by threading it onto a chain. With that, Angel was given the freedom to bask in the warm embrace of sunlight without getting burned alive like a typical vampire would.