The Billionaire’s Baby(50)

The woman stood straight, frowning deeply at Ellis as he sputtered nonsense in response, "Come with me and tell me what happened."

She whirled on a tiny heel and walked briskly off towards a closed door, swinging it open as Ellis trailed after her like a lost puppy.

Ellis hesitated for half a second to glance around the room as he entered, taking in the pale green paint and the small bed, covered with a thick green blanket decorated with tiny pink rosebuds. He supposed it must've been Nia's room. It smelled of her.

The woman gestured impatiently at the bed, which Ellis awkwardly dumped Nia onto.

"I told you to tell me what happened." Nana snapped.

"Well she came across me in the forest and I kindly promised to take her home," The vampire explained, abridging just slightly, "but then we were attacked, and Nia and I were taken hostage. Then we got out."

The woman blinked, eyebrows slowly lifting to her wispy hairline, "Uh-huh….I might need a bit more detail.

She turned to her granddaughter, feeling her forehead and checking her pulse while Ellis talked.

"Well, when we were originally captured Nia got stabbed, but she got healed so that shouldn't be it, but ever since right before we escaped she's been complaining that she hadn't felt good, but she was given a lot of medicine so that might be it." Ellis ticked facts off his fingers, struggling to remember them all. He’d spent a lot of that time unconscious after all.

Ellis had no idea how much he was rambling and how little sense he was making, but the old woman's confused face reflected that fact, and Ellis slowly stopped talking with a bewildered, "What?"

"Alright, what medicine?" The woman questioned, trying to sort through Ellis's speech.

"At the prison they gave us medicine to knock her out. The old guy said they weren't sure how much to give her so they might've overdosed her a bit." Ellis shrugged, glancing at Nia as she took a shuddering breath.

"Old guy? And how did she get healed?" Nana continued to press.

"Yeah, some old guy in the prison. The General who stabbed her promised to heal her so I would go along with them."

The woman stiffened visibly, eyes suddenly wary. "A General…?"

"Yeah, named George." Ellis said, thin lips pursing into a frown.

The woman's face was instantly close to Ellis's, "Where was she stabbed?" Her tone was frantic, eyes wide, and the vampire was instantly afraid.

"H-her stomach!" He cried, even more bewildered. She'd been healed hadn't she? So why was the old crazy lady so worried?

The woman yanked Nia's shirt up, much like George himself had done. Underneath, where she'd been stabbed, was a large and hideously black bruise.

"George was the one who destroyed Nia's village when she was a baby." The woman explained, gentle grandmotherly fingers softly prodding at the bruise, "And he is anything but a healer."

She shot Ellis a death glare, as though he was supposed to know this information, "He simply knows how to twist things that you see so that you think you're seeing something else. Kind of like an illusionist or a magician."

Ellis felt his heart drop to his stomach, "…what?"

"He was able to hide himself in Nia's village for years prior to the attack to gather information, he was never suspected, never noticed, even though he is a well-known and feared member of the Corsentilian army."

The woman fell silent, frowning, "Unfortunately, I can't tell how bad she was wounded because his spell is still working. It's probably infected, which would explain how ill she is now."

Ellis nodded, still silent, he hadn't really believed she was in any pain. It was his fault that she had passed out, after he'd bitten her, he'd taken any strength she had left.

Nana seemed to be thinking something similar as she brushed her fingers against the pinprick holes in Nia's neck, "You bit her very recently?"

Ellis nodded, looking away guiltily, "I didn't feed off of her too much..."

"You saved her life." Nana whispered sincerely, and at Ellis's confused stare she quickly continued, "Chances are good that Nia was dying when you fed from her."

The vampire's confusion didn't wane, wouldn't that make things even worse?

Nana sighed primly, as though she were speaking to a child, “When someone dies, their soul is released from the imprisonment of their mortal flesh.” She said quietly, tucking a red lock of hair behind Nia’s small ear.

"When that person is dying, their soul begins looking for an escape route from the body, causing what's called soul pressure to build up, when they pass on, their soul escapes." She paused to look at Ellis, "Do you know what makes you so special, Mister Vampire?"