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Lisa knew childrearing was no walk in the garden, but raising a dhampir was like running a marathon… in a hail storm. While you were nude. And on fire.
A year ago, she wasn’t able to imagine sitting in a messy room unbothered by clutter.
But here she was, sitting on the lounge in the playroom while surrounded by toys and books off the shelf. Adrian sat in the middle of the floor, doodling with wax crayons and much calmer than when he first awoke from his nap all energized and ready to cause chaos. She wasn’t going to risk disturbing the peace by beginning to clean up around him (and besides, Dracula could literally clean the mess with a snap of his fingers.
And so she took the moment to sit and rest. Honestly, if you had asked her what the future held even before she met Dracula, motherhood was never in the cards. She knew she was too independent and bold to ever be considered a ‘good wife’ for a man, so she never even entertained the possibility of being anything else besides a spinster.
But then she walked through a forest of skeletons and banged on the door of a magical castle, and charmed the vampire lord inside with the sass her mother always said would do her no good. And before long there was a ring on her finger and a baby in her arms, and she was surrounded by familial love she never thought possible.
She chuckled to herself, “Funny how these things turn out,” she said to herself as she looked up, only to find her son had shapeshifted into a wolf pup (not dissimilar from his favorite toy).
Lisa watched the little pup stroll around with a fond smile… until she noticed he was holding his jaws in a very peculiar way.
“Adrian,” she gasped, “What’s in your mouth?”
The pup looked at her with wide eyes, freezing in place momentarily. It was a moment that felt like an eternity for them both, but in the next second the wolf bolted off.
“ADRIAN!” she called after him, scrambling off the couch and taking off behind him. Though his legs were much smaller, he had four of them along with a headstart.
He turned sharp corners and up and down stairs with ease, while Lisa was left struggling to keep up as she shouted, “ADRIAN! Drop it! Drop it! ”
Suddenly, the hallway in front of them turned dark, shadows gathering into a void of black before taking shape as Dracula. The vampire’s cap billowed out, blocking each side as he opened his arms to catch his son.
The puppy instead leapt upwards to the side, bouncing off the wall and past the vampire.
Vlad turned and watched him race off in shock, in utter disbelief he was outmaneuvered by a one year old.
“Come on!” Lisa shouted as she ran past him, “No time to pause!”
Snapped out of his daze, Dracula quickly rejoined the chase. Taking the shape of a large black wolf, he passed his wife and began gaining on Adrian’s trail.
Adrian looked over his shoulder, taking more sudden turns as he realized he was close to being caught. In his haste he mistakenly ran into a dead end hall and before he could take a different route, his father shifted back into vampire form and grabbed him, “Got you!”
Adrian struggled in his father’s hold, growling and whining as Lisa (panting harder than hse ever had in her life) finally caught up.
“This child-” she paused to take in another gulp of air, “Is going to be the death of me.”
Dracula grumbled in agreement as he tried to gently pry his son’s mouth open, “ Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, so help me… ”
At last, Adrian spat the object onto the ground. A small moth which twitched helplessly in a puddle of drool.
Lisa couldn’t help but huff and exhausted laugh, “A moth,” she says, taking her shoe off and putting the poor thing out of its saliva-covered misery, “He made us chase him in circles for a little moth.”
“He still could have choked on it,” Dracula said as he stood, making a valiant effort to justify the frantic chase.
Adrian, for his part, seemed to have already forgotten about his defeat and was licking his father’s cheek happily.
“Adrian, we have plenty of teethers for you,” Dracula lightly scolded, “There is no need for you to-”
Adrian barked over him, wagging his tail.
“I don’t think he’s old enough for scoldings,” Lisa chuckles as she takes him, sputtering as he licks her mouth, “Redirection is the direction we take.”
“Fair enough,” he concedes with a sigh, “Let’s get this boy a frozen carrot before my hair turns gray.”
“Hey now, you can magic them away, what about me?” she playfully pouts.
“Don’t worry love,” he kissed her cheek, “I’ll make you some hair dye if I must.”
Lisa laughed. Truly, she had a very unusual family.
And she loved them with all her heart.