58 Hybrid Child

For a moment, Cedric barely breathed. His mind was exploding with thoughts. Viviene had left because she was trying to protect her man!

She had left Devin with Cedric because it was far safer for her son to be with Cedric than on the run with her and a vampire. That made so much sense!

Could it have been that Devin was a hybrid mix all this time, and that was why his growth had been so hampered?

Instantly, the image of the sweet little boy flooded into Cedric's mind.

Devin was two years old, and still only had a small number of vocabulary. He was also strangely attached to Talia, something Cedric could not explain.

"You look as if you know who I'm talking about." Vander narrowed his eyes. "Could this Viviane be someone you know?"

Andre smiled. "Viviane is Cedric's twin sister."

Cedric shot a look at Andre filled with rage. That was not something he wanted Vander to know just yet, but there was no retraction. They were just going to have to deal with the fact that this slime ball was Devin's uncle.

Vander sighed. "At least I am on the right track." He turned and glared at Cedric. "I need to find my brother Dimitri. He is my father's second son. He must return to Paradisio immediately."

"What does that have to do with us?"

"Since you are Vivien's brother, you can put me in touch with Dimitri."

Cedric sighed. "I've been trying to find my sister for over a year. You know just as much as I do, where they could be."

Vander narrowed his eyes. "I have only just started looking for Dimitri. If you have been looking for them for over a year, you know far more than I do, where they could possibly be, or at the very least, where they are NOT."

Cedric stood up, his eyes smoldering with rage.

"All this still does not explain why you attacked Talia."

Vander's lips curled up in a smile.

"You can't smell it, can you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Talia has a very faint and distorted scent of a royal vampire on her. She's been marked by someone within my lineage."

He sniffed appreciatively at her direction. "I can smell the royal vampire scent on her even from here."

From nearby, both Cecil and Andre turned their noses and sniffed at the woman lying supine on the bed. Aside from Cedric's undeniable werewolf mark on her, they could not smell anything else.

Vander turned back to Cedric.

"I wanted to talk to her to see if she knew anything about Dimitri but she was so feisty, that one. She tried to kill me with a book on vampires of all things." He laughed.

"I had no choice but to take her with me to see if I could get any information from her. Unfortunately, you three caught up to me before I could find out anything from her."

Cedric narrowed his eyes. As far as he knew the only one who had marked her was himself.

No wait.

Cedric shook his head. Devin had bit Talia the day he met her. It wasn't so much a mark as it was an instinctive reaching out to someone who would protect him.

"You have hurt her." Cedric threw back at Vander.

"She is not hurt, merely sleeping from the anesthesia I sent into her blood stream. She will wake up in the morning, her normal feisty self."

"I swear, if you hurt a strand of her hair—" Cedric growled.

Vander gave her a tender look. "Chill, Wolf. Talia is a delicious woman but I would never hurt her. She's been marked by a royal vampire, distorted and impure though he may be."

He suddenly looked up at Cedric. "Is it possible that Dimitri's child has marked her?"

Cedric said nothing. He turned back to look at Talia to hide the glint in his eyes.

"Oh ho! So that is what's going on. The young child, Dimitri's spawn, has marked the woman." Vander began chuckling softly to himself.

"A young child inadvertently marks a full-grown woman, not as a mate but as a mother, so he can find her with his nose. In that sense, she is still an unmarked female."

"I told you. I have marked her as my mate. Hands off or you will not have hands." Cedric warned, but Vander was already tuning out Cedric and muttering to himself.

"What is interesting to me is that you were unable to smell the child's marking on the female because he was using vampire marking scent, not werewolf." Vander chuckled. "That must mean he is more vampire internally than werewolf."

Cecil sneered. "What do you know? He turns into a wolf pup at will. I've never seen him turn into a blood bat."

"Oh does he now?" Vander's eyes widened and he gave a smile. "This boy is special. Very special. I have not seen a hybrid that powerful ever."

"What do you mean?" Andre raised his eyebrows.

Vander smiled. "Most hybrids don't even make it out of the womb alive. The ones who do take on the worst of both sides, resulting in a high rate of infant mortality."

He tilted this head in thought. "The boy is still very young though, no more than two at the most. He will not grow into his strength until he reaches puberty."

"He will be a werewolf." Cecil sniffed.

Vander shrugged. "The fact that he can shape-shift at this young age is something quite amazing, it doesn't matter what shape he shifts to. Internally however, he has the essence of a vampire. His bite is vampiric."

Vander sighed with gentleness. "What is his name?"

"His mother named him Devin." Cedric responded equally gently.

"Devin. A good strong name for my nephew."

"He is MY nephew!" Cedric snarled.

Andre sighed. "Relax Cedric. Nephews are, by their very nature, non-exclusive. They can have more than one uncle and more than one aunt."

"Is he…dark haired or blond?" Vander asked again.

"He is a bright blond child with amber eyes."

"A pity he does not look like Dimitri."

"He looks like Viviene." Cedric confirmed.

"May I see him?" Vander cast an imploring eye at Cedric.