Chapter 35 – The Vulnerable.

The cry was like a sledgehammer, shattering the shell that was the illusion of sleep, brutally dragging Callie back to the land of the aware. She blinked, tiredly trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes, if any had formed at all, as the cries continued. It was still dark, everything around her drowned in a blanket of pitch blackness. She’d had, maybe an hour of sleep, if that. Callie called her magic to her, letting little arcs dance in the air around her, as she looked over at Stella, who was lying snuggled up against Felicia’s fox form. Both of whom were very much awake, Felicia giving her just as weary a look.

Callie leaned over and picked up Stella, cradling her gently in her arms as she gave her a quick sniff. Nope, it wasn’t that. Which meant that she must be hungry. That seemed to be the extent of it at the moment. Giving her a delicate kiss, and a few loving and reassuring whispers, she lifted Stella up and let her start feeding. She hadn’t even put her top back on from last time. It had just become easier not to at the moment.

Even when she was crying her heart out, wanting the attention of one of her parents, Stella looked so cute and adorable. And vulnerable and weak. She had chubby little cheeks and a heart melting smile, a mop of fiery orange hair, just like Felicia, a pair of cute fox ears poking out of them, and a bushy fox tail. She had given birth to a fox-girl. A bona-fide fox-girl. She shouldn’t have been surprised though. It wasn’t like any of them were exactly normal, given Uriah’s heritage, and that Felicia had taken on her and Uriah’s fox aspect when she’d become her familiar. Aspects that Felicia could now carry over into her human form, Felicia and Uriah looking like a pair of siblings when she chose to do so. It just looked so right on her.

Callie winced as Stella decided to bite down. While she hadn’t been born with any teeth, which was completely normal, the little vixen had been born with a pair of fangs. Small stubby ones that were only a few of millimetres in length, but fangs nevertheless. And she liked to use them. She had a little pattern of small dots now.

After a few minutes, Stella had decided that she’d had enough, biting some more, before giving a cute little burp. Callie lifted her up to her shoulder, gently rubbing her back. She’d learnt quickly that that was the best position, and avoided most messes.

“You done now, little one?” she asked quietly, Stella giving another burp that fortunately didn’t sound too long or wet.

Stella didn’t answer, and there was no surprise there. She was only a few weeks old after all. And Callie had been told, in no uncertain terms, that she was not to bond Stella. Ever. Sure, it might make parenting a bit easier, but it was not the kind of bond that a parent and child should ever have. She was too young to even accept on a conscious level, and it would be a form of control that would be that much worse than what her own parents had put her through. On all of that, she completely agreed. She wanted their daughter to have the level of freedom and independence that had been denied of her. To be able to make her own choice in life, and to hopefully love them back as they did her. Callie doubted that she’d ever forgive her parents for what they had done.

Callie kept Stella there till she seemed to doze off again, carefully bringing her down and cradling her in her arms again. She really was so cute. But Stella was also taking her toll. She hadn’t stopped feeling shattered since her birth, having not had a full night’s sleep at all. She was spending all of her time either minding the baby or trying to grow some more food as needed. She knew that it would only be for a short while, but so far, it hadn’t seemed to have improved any. She’d actually slept through the last two feedings with Julia, which she was embarrassed about, and hadn’t had nearly as much time with Uriah as she wanted to. He and Julia were spending a lot of time hunting and foraging, Julia actually not as bad as she had protested. She was a lot faster now than she gave herself credit for. Callie was missing just being able to be out there with them.

Giving Stella another light kiss, she laid her down with Felicia again, placing an edge of a blanket over her. They’d quickly discovered that Stella seemed to settle down much faster, and sleep for that little bit longer, when she was snuggled up with Felicia. A part of their shared fox natures she guessed. And Felicia didn’t seem to mind, though she was just as tired as Callie was, neither having achieved much at all. And probably missing the closeness of the others too.

‘I...’ there was a pause, Felicia looking at her with sleepy eyes. ‘I wonder if she’s getting everything she needs?’

‘Huh?’ Callie moved over to beside Felicia, giving her a gentle pat on the head. It wasn’t something that she often did. Felicia was a person after all. But they both probably needed it. ‘What would she be missing? This is how all parents do it, isn’t it?’

‘Stella... She isn’t a normal child.’

‘Mhmm.’ That she definitely wasn’t.

‘But... I don’t think that we’ve realised the full extent of it, Callie. The bond, it has meant that we’ve taken on aspects of each other. It got my fox nature from you, right? And it’s only been exemplified by Uriah’s bond. I make a cute fox-girl, right?’

‘Really hot fox-girl. You have no idea, Feli.’ She could feel herself blushing.

‘It goes further than that, Callie. Julia’s nature is overlapping on us, just like ours on hers. Your tastes have changed, Callie. You never used to enjoy your meat that way, even when we arrived, and we had little choice. Now though? Most definitely rare, and you clean off the plate. Other influences are there, but probably a lot more subtle. The bonds that we share, they are really powerful. That array, for you, it seems to be something well beyond what it was originally intended.’

There was far too much sense in what Felicia was saying, and the implications seemed pretty clear as well. ‘You think that all of this has overflowed onto Stella?’

‘Yes.’ Felicia nodded. It was always cute, seeing her do such a human thing while in fox form. ‘Magic is a living thing. I’m not saying this just to be wishful, but I do think, as a result, that she really is a child of all of us. And those fangs of her, that you are so intimately aware of...’

‘Damphir.’ She was familiar with the term.

‘On some level, yes. Our little fox-girl is, at least in part, vampiric.’

‘I...’ It was Callie’s term to pause, emotions raging within her. ‘I don’t know if I want that for her.’

‘It isn’t our choice, Callie. She is what she is, the consequences of our choices already formed. Do you regret this union between us all?’

‘No. Never. I’d make the same choices again.’ She loved them all too much.

‘Then you have to accept that this may well be her. I could be wrong, of course.’

Callie lay down, wrapping her body around Felicia’s, staring at the fox and her child. Their child she guessed. She could already see Julia’s expression.

‘No, you’re not wrong,’ she finally sent back. It made sense, and something inside her was telling her that that was indeed the case. Stella was part vampire. Vulphir perhaps? It wasn’t a real word, but it fit, and she liked it. ‘So, you think that blood will help settle her down?’

‘Perhaps? Well, actually, yes, I do.’ There was certainty in Felicia’s voice.

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‘Whose? Or What’s?’

‘Not yours. It’s too potent. Have you seen how happy it makes Julia?’

Callie all but snorted. Yes, yes she had. All the time.

‘I was thinking maybe a few drops of Uri’s?’ Felicia continued. ‘I know Julia can’t drink it, but Stella shares his nature, and it’s safer than what else we have lying around at the moment. See how that works, and take it from there? If it helps, then we will have to wean her off it and on to something else once it becomes practical. Much like you’re going to have to do with the milk as well in, what, half a year or so?’

‘Yeah...’ Callie sighed. Being a parent was hard. But damn it all, she was going to do a better job than her own parents ever did. And she wasn’t alone. ‘We’ll give it a try when she next wants a feed. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to wake up Uri.’ Giving them both a smile, she closed her eyes, and let sleep hungrily take her back.

---

“Oh, that is so awesome. You’re like me too.”

Callie wasn’t sure if the smile was ever going to vanish off Julia’s face, Stella held gently in her arms, fast asleep, with a contented smile on her face.

“Don’t you dare drop her,” she growled, half playful, half serious, tiredness still reigning.

Julia just laughed. “You know that I’ve done this before. I have nephews and nieces, and they’re a million times more fragile than Stella.”

“And you’re multitudes stronger than you were before too,” Uriah interjected.

Julia just gave them a pout, and went back to fawning over the baby. It was, probably, the first time that Callie had relinquished her for so long to Julia, which was rather selfish of her all things considered. Julia was as much her parent as she was, and Julia’s love for the child was easy to see and feel. For all that she had said about not being able to have her own, she did now, in a way, and she was more than adoring her. And it was making Callie happy.

Stella had been more than happy to drink the blood, and it had ended up being more than a few drops, Uriah having held Stella oh so gently as she’d sucked on the cut. Callie had been more than a little worried, still terrified that it might poison her or something, even though she knew, deep within her, that that was what her daughter needed. Having had her fill there, Stella had made enough noise till Callie had fed her as well, and then promptly fallen asleep again, snuggled up in Felicia’s fur. She’d slept well, for a solid four hours, the combination of milk and blood doing its magic, the longest that she ever had, Callie grateful for the respite. They’d repeated it again when she woke, after dealing with the resulting smelly mess, and now the sleeping Stella was in Julia’s arms.

“How fast do you think she’ll grow?”

Callie looked at Julia in surprise. She’d hadn’t given it any thought. “Normally?” she answered with a shrug.

“You do realise that nine months is the norm for pregnancy, and Stella decided that she’d had enough at six. No wonder you were so exhausted back then. And she came out far more progressed than any baby that I’ve ever seen.”

“Then I guess it’ll be something that we’ll discover along the way.” She really didn’t have any other answers. “She’s not an adult till she’s eighteen though, no matter how fast her growth.”

“At the least,” Uriah agreed with a tone of certainty.

“Aww. You’re no fun,” Julia joked, as she gently teased one of Stella’s ears. “But I agree,” she added seriously. “That, though, is a long way off.”

“Time that will quickly pass for us, I think you’ll find.” Felicia shifted into her human form, with fox features present, leaning into Julia, as she looked at Stella. “Soon she’ll spend a lot more time awake without crying and just wanting food, and then crawling and walking. She’s gonna be a handful I think.”

“We’re going to need some way of keeping track of where she is!” Callie said with a measure of panic. Yes, no bonds, but in this place, she could easily get lost if she wandered. When she got to that stage.

Julia shrugged. “Just enchant something on her that you can sense. Should be easy enough, should it not? We’ve been making some progress after all.”

That was true. Not a huge amount, with Stella’s arrival, but if she was going to start sleeping like she just had, or even even longer, then they’d have more time on their hands where they weren’t feeling shattered. She needed to study the rift array some more too, though that wasn’t a priority at the moment.

“I guess,” Callie admitted with a sigh.

“And it’ll be all four of us. Together.” Uriah gave her hair a ruffle, Callie leaning into him. Yes, it would be. And she was glad for that.

“So,” Julia started, a cheeky and seductive grin on her face. “When are you getting those adorable fox features?”

“The same time you do,” she responded back, her grin very much the same.