Let's set aside Margie and the child's fate for now and turn to our protagonist Lionel. Was he enduring unbearable agony, pleading with gods and ancestors for Margie's awakening? But to learn his side's story, we need to rewind a little bit (a little bit— to vampires' perspective).
In the late summer of 809 AD, as thunder roared across Vampire Island at dawn, the third-generation heir of House Barnett entered the world.
Seven nursemaids tended to the birth-bloodied prince, gently cleansing his fragile form. Though bearing the crimson eyes and fangs of any vampire newborn, the blood coursing through his veins and the amniotic-drenched wings on his back proclaimed unparalleled nobility—a union of elven royalty and vampire aristocracy.
Vampire King Barnett stood at the altar, leading elders in thanksgiving as they named the child Lionel—that was me.
