Chapter 375: Future plans_Part 1
"I didn’t lock this..." He caressed his son’s feathered, smooth black wings as he spoke. "...because I don’t like you, Angel. I did it because I don’t want this to happen to you." He pointed to the drawing again. "You are special to your mama and me, you know. And we love you, son. Don’t ever let anyone tell you we don’t."
Angel looked into his father’s black eyes. This time, there was no anger nor hostility, but instead deep, innocent trust. "Papa..." he called softly as he moved to stand on unsteady feet and then wrapped his little arms around his father’s neck to hug him tightly.
Rohan smiled as he wrapped his strong arms around the small body pressed against him, lifting his eyes to his wife, who was watching them with a tearful smile. He opened his other arm and pulled her into the embrace, kissing her hair tenderly. "I love you," he whispered softly, causing her to press her nose into his neck and kiss his skin gently.
"I love you, too..." she whispered back.
The family of three held each other in that warm embrace for a while, until Angel broke the hug first to resume his feeding, for he was too hungry to let his meal go. He knew from experience that he would soon be taken back to Evenly, away from mama for many hours, where he would get so hungry. And for some reason, no matter how much milk he drank, it never seemed to be enough for him, as though his little body always craved more to keep up with the unusual strength and growth stirring inside him.
Rohan noticed it half an hour later, as Angel still didn’t want to stop nursing.
"Isa, I believe it’s time we start allowing him to eat food and put a stop to breast milk," Rohan suggested after studying his son, knowing from experience how one could get endlessly hungry at that stage. When he had been at that stage himself, locked away alone with nothing to feed on, hunger had driven him to eat insects and any crawling bug his sharp eyes had fallen on.
Though many vampires could survive on blood alone, only eating human food because they wanted to appear civilized, he was different. He needed food along with blood, which was why he could eat more than a meal meant for five people whenever food was present. As much as he could hold hunger at bay, he would never let food go to waste when it was before him.
It seemed Angel was turning out the same way.
Belle, on the other hand, felt a knot form in her chest at how fast everything was moving, Angel growing like this, already reaching a stage where he would soon no longer need her milk. Yet she could never starve him, even though she knew that once he stopped taking from her, she would have to deal with the trouble of full, tender breasts, as her body was still in the early stage of nursing. The baby was growing faster than her own body could adjust to or stop producing.
"Is there food to give him, so we can see if he would eat it now?" she asked, stroking Angel’s cheeks, which moved as he suckled hungrily.
"I’ll see what I can find in the kitchen." Rohan left the room, closing the door quietly behind him, and making his way to the Dawson kitchen.
It was while he was gone, and Belle was left in the silence of the room, admiring his drawings on the parchment beside her, with their perfect lines and shadows, that it dawned on her again about the report, and the fact that tomorrow was the day of the ball, where she would be giving that report, yet she was still clueless about what Rohan had written in it.
She would have to ask him tonight, as there would be no turning back once tomorrow came.
Rohan soon returned to the room with a bowl of rice porridge made with milk and sweetened with honey. Sitting down, he reached out to take Angel from his wife’s bosom. The boy refused at first to release it until Rohan gently pried his mouth away from the nipple and placed him on his thigh.
Angel began to fuss and move away so he could crawl back to his feeding, but Rohan used that very moment of protest, his mouth wide open, to slip in a spoon of porridge. Immediately, Angel stopped and tasted the sweet porridge on his tongue. He swallowed quickly before his eyes went to the bowl in fascination. Then he sat properly on his father’s lap and looked up at him expectantly, wanting more.
"Little rascal," Rohan muttered in amusement at the adorable eyes staring at him hungrily.
After taking three spoons, Angel became so eager and impatient that he almost knocked the bowl away in his rush for another mouthful.
Belle, who had thought he wouldn’t be able to finish the porridge or even like it, was stunned when the bowl was soon empty and Rohan was scraping the bottom to give him every last bit.
Angel licked his lips with satisfaction, his little tummy bulging under his nightshirt like that of a pregnant woman, before he gave a loud burp. He was so weakened by the hearty meal that he leaned back against Rohan for support, heavy with sleepiness and comfort.
"My God, he finished it. I didn’t know he was that hungry," Belle muttered, watching as their son slowly slipped away from his father’s arms and went to lay down on the bed weakly, like someone drunk who needed to collapse and rest. Immediately, he looked sleepy, glancing once at his mama and papa with heavy-lidded eyes before releasing a deep, contented sigh. A small smile played on his lips, only to slowly fade as his eyes closed in peaceful slumber.
"What a glutton, tsk. It’s time we start arranging proper meals along with blood for him, love," Rohan said as he set the empty bowl down on the stand and turned to his wife.
"It seems so," Belle agreed softly, her gaze lingering on their sleeping son on the other side of the bed. A quiet ache tugged at her heart as she wondered if he would still seek her out the way he always had, once he no longer needed her milk.
"Don’t look so creasterfallan, sweetheart. He will still want you, even if you don’t nurse him anymore, because he’s our son," Rohan assured her, his voice calm and assuring, as though reading the worry etched across her features.
Belle parted her lips to respond, but her eyes caught the parchment again, reminding her of the report she would submit tomorrow. And before she forgot once more, Belle spoke. "Tomorrow is the Aragonia annual ball, Rohan. I will be meeting the king to submit that report. What did you write in it?"
Rohan didn’t answer her immediately. Instead, he shifted closer and laid down on the bed, pulling her down with him, guiding her head gently to rest against his chest.
"What do you think I wrote there, my love?" he questioned softly, teasing her cheek with the brush of his nose and the warm tickle of his breath.
"I don’t know, I didn’t read it before my father took it from me." She turned her face slightly, her lips so close to his that they almost touched. Her hand began to rub his chest subconsciously, her voice dropping to a whisper. "What did you write?" she breathed against his lips.
Rohan didn’t hesitate as he told her plainly, "I gave them what they want to know. The truth. Weapons to kill vampires."
"What?!" Belle jerked back in surprise, her body stiffening, but he caught her and pulled her back into his arms, holding her firmly against him.
"Yes," he said steadily. "I gave them the true report."
"Why? What if they start a war, Rohan? You shouldn’t have given it to—"
Rohan silenced her words by pressing his lips to hers in a sudden kiss before pulling back, his eyes glowing with a dangerous certainty. "None of the two lands are worth saving. The human king knew what he risked when he sent you to spy. He has an empty brain if he dares start a war with the vampires. Meanwhile, the vampire king, tsk, it will do the world good if he loses his life in this conflict. Let them be at war with each other, Isa. It will be none of our business. We owe them nothing that should make us care about what happens to them."
"We owe them nothing, but we will be caught in it, Rohan! The weapon might not work on you, but what about Rav and Evenly?" Belle said worriedly, her voice trembling with the weight of her fear.
"Nothing will happen to them," Rohan said with a dark calmness. "If the humans of Aragonia decide to go to war against the vampires, then we will leave for the mountains and stay there together with Rav and Evenly. We can expand the cottage into a bigger building and make it our permanent home. You liked it there, didn’t you?"