Blessed by Night

When Camille Saint opened her eyes, she found her favorite face in the world staring back at her.

A young man with eyes capable of lighting up the dark room where she resided, along with a handsome face and long grey dreadlocks that she could play with as if they were ropes!

"Ada!"

"Shhh..." Malachi whispered as he pulled the young girl out of her crib.

It was barely 6am when he snuck into the apartment of his baby sister to retrieve his only child from her accidental two day staycation.

It should be noted that Malachi was not an irresponsible parent who would ever want to leave his children alone for that long.

However, he had forgotten that his wives were superhuman, with supersized emotions and needs.

Namely, Nadine and Luna.

One was a vampire at almost 500 years of age who was kinkier than the back section of a Spencer's.

The other, was also a vampire who had just as much of a libido in addition to having recently had a child.

She needed to feel the love and validation that came from physical intimacy after going without it for so long, just so that she could see herself as beautiful again.

They would need more than a few hours to properly celebrate their long awaited reunion.

"Bu?"

"D-Don't worry about these marks on my neck, they just mean that your moms and I love each other and we're getting along great."

"Bu!"

"Yea, this is why you were left with your aunties for so long, I'm sorry. But to make up for that, we're gonna go on a special daddy-daughter adventure right now."

Using the skills he got from his mother and Sei, he fed and changed Cami in the dark before exiting just as quietly as he came in.

The only trace to prove he'd even been here was the note he left to thank Aubrey for all of the time she'd spent babysitting.

As he stepped into the hall with his daughter, he ran into the unlikely pairing of two old men.

His father in law, Ali, and the man who was something like his grandfather, Rowan.

The two men had cups of coffee in their hands from the common cafe, and they looked to be having a deep discussion about something.

However, as soon as they saw Mal with his daughter in his arms, they quickly brought their conversation to a halt.

"Well, well. Seems like you aren't wasting any time making up for your absence, are ya?"

"Go easy on him, Al." Rowan laughed. "We can't exactly blame the kid for being kidnapped by someone he probably couldn't even hope to go up against."

"I can blame him for whatever I want. He made my baby girl cry."

"Fair enough."

Mal smiled wryly despite the intense glare of his father in law.

"I've apologized to Bianca and the girls more than you can imagine already. And you can believe me, I don't plan on leaving my family again anytime soon. Isn't that right, munchkin?"

"Pa!"

Both old men seemed to be rather powerless against Camille's cuteness and Ali finally showed signs of relenting from his oppressive onslaught.

"So where are you two going so early then?" He muttered gruffly.

"I been away a long time. I wanted to go get a better look at the outside and spend some time with the newest girl in my life while I'm at it."

"Sure you aren't just making yourself scarce to avoid the oldest girl in your life?" Rowan chuckled.

Immediately, Mal knew that the old man was talking about Melanie and he became noticeably tense.

"A-Anyway… you old men enjoy your morning and we'll be on our way."

Mal hurriedly began to move away from the old men despite their laughter traveling through the corridor.

"That boy tense!"

"No reason to avoid her, Mal! She doesn't even remember you!"

Malachi ignored the both of them and just kept watching, paying no real attention to either the sounds of their laughter or the confused noises that his daughter kept making.

-

After Malachi came back into the world, for the first time in over a year there was a bit of sunlight that could be seen peaking over the horizon.

It wasn't much, but day by day Nyx had to slowly expose the inhabitants of this world to sunlight instead of bringing it back immediately and risking blinding everyone.

But hopefully, the sun would fully return to these lands in around a week or so.

And he hoped, his mother with it.

"Hey munchkin?"

"Ada?"

"Does it seem like your grandmother has been avoiding me since I came back? I figured she would be all over me by now… and trying to get me all over her."

*Raspberry noises*

"I dunno… I can just sense her discomfort with me since I came back. She barely even touched me."

Malachi held out his baby as he sat on top of the roof of his former college building.

"Wait a minute… is there a reason why you aren't speaking? I know you can say actual words."

"Abu…"

"What do you mean language is hard for you with your new body? You're like a one of a kind nightmare-vampire. Shouldn't you be a prodigy at little things like that?"

"Bu!"

"You're right, I'm sorry. Parents shouldn't place unnecessary expectations on their kids."

Malachi gave Cami a small kiss on the cheek as he floated down from the building and set foot on his ruined campus.

He wasn't sure why he ended up here of all places, but there was a somewhat undeniable allure that had brought him here.

Perhaps it was because this place was the last one where he had felt truly normal that he was drawn to it so inexplicably.

It wasn't like he could exactly take his baby to a nursery now that the world had ended, could he?

As he walked along the campus filled with shattered concrete and tossed cars, his mind accidentally reverted to his past spent with Melanie, and he remembered the unpleasantness waiting for him at home.

Apparently, his ex woke up from her coma about two months before the world ended.

However, she claimed that she had amnesia and didn't remember anything after her first year of high school.

Which just so happened to be long before Mal ever met her.

In addition, the mark of cain that he gave to her when he still had Michael's powers seemed to have... mutated.

He didn't really know all of the specifics but apparently she had some of the powers that were similar yet different from that of a blessed.

Coincidentally, one of the members at the base found her protecting her mother after the world ended, fighting off a horde of-

"Uggghhh..."

Malachi looked over his shoulder at the decaying being that was crawling out of it's car.

In the new world, nightmares are divided into five classes.

Gargoyle - Usually inactive, do not move unless alerted by something and no bigger than a semi truck. Can be killed by a small team of five specially trained soldiers.

Baphomet- The most common and easiest to come across. They are the only ones who seem to display some sort of intelligence as they delight in ambushes that they shouldn't be able to pull off with their large bodies. 10-20 soldiers are typically required to bring one down.

Banshee - Typically a very large and very loud arial monster. They fly around from place to place gobbling up whatever they can like a heartbroken girl at a frat party and announcing their findings to others under them. They are usually around the size of a two story house. Attempting to kill one with anything less than 50 men is suicide.

Manticore - Amalgamations of different mythological creatures formed onto single monstrous bodies. In their usual form they are around the height of a cell phone tower, but they can shrink if needed and are exceedingly smart. Not to be approached under any circumstances.

Phantasmal- Enormous creatures that are quite frankly capable of destroying the whole world within two nights if they felt like it. We have no countermeasures for them, and even the weapons made from other nightmares do not seem to bother them much.

We can only assume that they require an abysmal amount of rest to move such large bodies and thus spend most time asleep. If you come across one, it is best to just pray they do not feel like bothering you.

Based on the fact that they seem to appear wherever they want randomly, it is assumed they also posses the ability to shrink, or even take on different forms.

What Mal was seeing now was a creature on the lowest of the chart, so low that it wasn't even worth being on there.

An organic creature taken over by the higher nightmares and stripped of it's ego, will, and sanity.

It's only purpose is to alert whatever parasited it to the sighting of fresh food to the hive mind, and it can have a place swarmed within minutes.

Basically, a zombie.

BOOOOMM!

Mal exploded the creature with little more than a thought and looked at the young girl in his arms with an exhausted expression.

"What are the chances... that he didn't tell his boss we were around here?"

"Ada..."

*Rumble*

"...I hate when you're right."