Page 20 of Rescued By the Vexed Vampire

Drake nodded, cradling the baby gently in his arms as I dialed the station. I explained the situation, but there wasn’t much they could do at the moment. Social services wouldn’t be available until the next day, and in the meantime, someone had to take care of Lily. That someone was apparently going to be me and Drake.

After calling on Gran and getting her advice (which mostly consisted of her cooing over the baby and telling me to stock up on formula), we bundled Lily up and headed back to my apartment. The streets were quiet, the lamp posts casting orbs of golden light along the square.

Back at my apartment, I laid a blanket out on the couch and set Lily down while Drake headed out to the store to pick up everything we’d need for the night—formula, diapers, bottles,and anything else that might come in handy when caring for a baby. I watched as Lily wriggled in her sleep, her tiny hands curling and uncurling as she let out a soft sigh.

My heart ached as I sat, staring down at this tiny, innocent life. Who would leave a baby like this? What kind of person could walk away from something so precious? I didn’t understand it. I didn’t think I ever could.

Drake returned a short while later, bags in hand, and we spent the next hour fumbling our way through feeding Lily, changing her diaper, and trying to figure out how to make her comfortable. It was a learning experience for both of us—neither of us had ever taken care of a baby before, and our fumbling made it obvious.

But despite the chaos, there was something...comforting about it. Something that felt right. Like this was exactly where we were meant to be.

As the night wore on, and Lily finally settled into a peaceful sleep, I found myself sitting on the couch with her cradled in my arms, her soft breaths warm against my chest.

Drake sat beside me, his arm resting on the back of the couch as he watched us with a look I couldn’t quite place.

I glanced up at him, my heart swelling with something I couldn’t quite name. “What do you think is going to happen to her?”

Drake shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out.”

I looked down at Lily, brushing a lock of soft hair away from her face. She was so small, so vulnerable. And yet, as I held her, I felt a strange sense of peace wash over me. For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t thinking about the future, abouthow to undo the curse that had been placed on me, or even about how to get back into heaven.

Right now, in this moment, with Lily in my arms and Drake by my side, everything felt... perfect.

Maybe this was what life was supposed to be about. Not grand gestures or eternal quests for redemption. But the small, quiet moments. The moments of connection, of love, of finding family in the most unexpected places.

I looked up at Drake again, and for the first time, I realized that I was falling for him. For both of them. This tiny, unexpected life in my arms, and the man sitting beside me, who had somehow become the one thing I hadn’t seen coming.

“Drake,” I whispered, my voice soft. “I think I’m falling in love.”

He didn’t respond right away, but when he did, his voice was just as soft, just as sure.

“Me too.”

Chapter Eight

Drake

What the hell was happening to me?

I was sitting on Bethany’s couch in the middle of the night with a sleeping baby in my arms and a fallen angel dozing at my side. This wasn’t just unusual—it was surreal. I’d seen a lot in my long, complicated existence, but nothing quite like this.

Lily had woken up, her tiny cries shattering the stillness of the apartment, and I’d automatically picked her up, bouncing her gently until she settled against my chest. Bethany, exhausted from the day and everything that had happened, was fast asleep next to me, her head resting against the arm of the couch. She looked peaceful, her bent halo sitting on the coffee table, and I couldn’t help but smile at the sight.

As Lily continued to fuss quietly, I went in search of the bottle of formula that Bethany had prepared earlier. After taking it from the fridge, I returned to sitting on the couch. I positioned the bottle and hesitated, taking a moment to wonder if I was holding it correctly. It wasn’t as if I’d ever done this before, but Lily’s tiny mouth latched on almost instinctively, and she began to drink.

The apartment was silent except for her soft sucking noises and Bethany’s gentle breathing. The smoky scent of the extinguished candles lingered in the air, mingling with the faintly sweet smell of Lily’s baby lotion. It was such a simple, quiet moment, yet it held more weight than anything I’d experienced in centuries.

I looked down at Lily’s small face, her little hand resting against my fingers, and something inside me broke open. A flood of emotions that I had long since locked away, or perhaps forgotten, came rushing back. Regret. Longing. And—of all things—joy. Real, bone-deep joy.

And then I realized I was crying.

It was absurd. I hadn’t cried in over two hundred years, not even when I thought I’d lost all that was left of my humanity. But now, here I was, with tears streaming down my face, dripping onto Lily’s tiny fingers. She cooed softly, as if sensing my turmoil, and I couldn’t help but smile through the tears.

“I’m a mess,” I whispered, my voice barely audible in the quiet apartment.

I looked over at Bethany, her face soft and relaxed in sleep, and I knew then, with a certainty that shook me to my core, that I loved her. I loved everything about her—her determination, her kindness, her humor, her imperfections that made her who shewas. And somehow, she had become the most important person in my world.

Nothing meant anything to me anymore but this—right now—Taking care of these two people. I didn’t care about power or wealth, not anymore. I cared about them—about Bethany and Lily. And the thought of being a father, of creating a life with Bethany, was more appealing than any amount of power or immortality could ever be.

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