The Billionaire’s Baby(51)

Ellis shook his head, mute and staring at pallid face of the limp redhead on the bed. Was this lady just old and crazy or was there any actual sense behind her words?

"A vampire has no soul.” She grinned, nodding as though this was the best news of the day, “So, when you bit her, and took her blood into your own body, you took pieces of her soul with you, easing the soul pressure within her body.”

The pale man frowned at her, eyes narrowed, “So I helped?” He asked uncertainly.

“The vampire's empty heart is the perfect place for another's soul to reside. Temporarily of course, eventually her soul will seek to return to its home. The difference between when you normally feed from someone and when you fed from Nia is that you didn't drink enough of her blood to completely take her soul away, she still has much of it within her own body. It will call the remnants of itself back home when she has healed enough." Nana sighed, patting the pale hand of her granddaughter.

Ellis, however, was still bewildered. He had pieces of Nia's soul in him? He'd saved her? This was absurd and stupid, none of it made any sense.

"So what does this mean?" He asked.

"It means that you two can't be too far apart from one another for a while. If you were take Nia's soul too far away it could possibly kill her." The old woman replied, not looking at him.

"So now I'm stuck here?!" The vampire snapped, aggravated.

It'd been the plan to drop her off and leave. So much for that one.

"I have another question." Nana continued, trying to regain Ellis's wandering attention, "How did you two escape? George is not one to be careless."

"The old guy." Ellis mumbled, dropping his heavy feeling head in his hands, still trying to understand the whole soul-stealing situation. He supposed, while the sun was out, he wasn’t going to get far anyways.

"What'd this gentleman do?” Nana asked, curiosity in her gravelly voice.

"He had a tunnel out of the prison that he let us use while he stayed and protected it or whatever." His tone was flippant but his gratitude to Dag was very deep.

The old woman scoffed, "He just happened to have a tunnel and gave it away to you two while he stayed there and died?"

Ellis, who had never really thought about it, nodded slowly, brow furrowing, "I guess that is a little strange…"

"It is much more than strange.” Nana corrected, “Do you know anything else about him?"

"His name was Dag." Ellis said with a shrug, "That's all I know."

Nana blinked, gears in her head practically audible as they began to rapidly spin, "Dag?"

Ellis nodded, groaning, "Did he attack Nia's village too?"

Nana shook her head slowly, face almost as pale as Nia's own sickly pallor, "Dag was the name of Nia's father…."





Chapter Six





"I can't believe Dag was alive this whole time…" Nana whispered softly, gaze dropping to her unconscious granddaughter – the only remnant of her son-in-law left.

"What happened to Nia's village?" Ellis asked, thin-lipped frown demanding immediate answers.

The old woman stayed silent for a moment, tenderly fingering a red sprig of hair before brushing it back off of Nia's forehead, damp with rain and feverish sweat, "I need to get her out of these wet clothes."

Ellis's frown twisted into a pitiful pout, "You didn't answer-"

"Kellen!" Nana yelled abruptly in a shockingly loud voice, successfully cutting off the increasingly agitated Ellis, "Get Mister Vampire here something dry to wear, please!

A boy who Ellis had not noticed before suddenly poked his head around the corner with a lackluster, "Fine."

"Go on. Kellen's room is next door, it'll be fine if you're only that far for a little bit. I'll let you in as soon as I'm finished taking care of Nia." Nana said simply.

Ellis slowly stood, giving the limp girl a quick glance before trudging sullenly after the stranger named Kellen. He didn’t want to leave Nia, however the old bat of a woman was as stubborn as Nia, and as scary as the fiery red head too. He didn't want to make her mad at him. If Nia could make plants go crazy, after all, who knew what Nana was capable of?

Kellen led the vampire silently to the room adjacent to Nia's, shoving open the door and stepping inside the small room, letting the door slam in Ellis's face. Right on his pale nose to be exact. He huffed, pushing it open and into other boy's back roughly. Kellen glared over his shoulder at Ellis with icy eyes carved out of dingy gray, and pointed at a small, misshaped wardrobe barely wide enough to fit more than a few shirts in.

"I don't need to change!" Ellis huffed, puffing up his chest and eyeing the scrawny boy in front of him, "my massive muscles wouldn't fit into your tiny shirts anyways!"