Violet

I laid the child upon the ottoman and instructed the lady to feed her as I went to my reading chair and sent Seventh to purchase food for the humans that now lived in my residence.

I reclined leisurely in the soft chair, carefully watching her feed my adopted daughter.

I felt like I had adopted a hateful cat that provided my child with sustenance. If she showed a single sign of aggression towards my daughter, I would rip her apart.

The woman clearly hated me, and I thought she'd try and vent her anger on Violet. However, she was exceedingly gentle with little Violet.

I had thought that she might harm Violet as a way to rebel against me, but in the week that followed, I always came home to a happy Violet.

Every one of Violet's laughs or smiles warmed my heart of ice, making me feel less like an isolated and reviled Vampire, and more like a loved and accepted mother.

I eventually sent the principal of Symptote University a letter asking to use my vacation days I had accrued over the four hundred or so years I had been teaching at the university.

The principal responded with a meeting request so he could speak to me face-to-face as to why I was finally redeeming my seven hundred weeks of paid vacation time.

I complied, figuring It'd be over and done.

The principal was a seedy man. A man who put his savings ahead of his quality of life.

The man wore a dark tweed jacket that was a buffet line for clothes moths, half moon spectacles that sat low on his crooked nose, and dark pants that had seen far worse days than the clothes I had worn over a century ago.

"So, miss Midnight, why did you finally decide you'd use your vacation days?" The principal gazed out a window of the office as he spoke, resting his hands on the window sill.

"I've requested thy manner of addressing myself be Eilif." I responded, irked by his inability to remember my name.

"...I still haven't quite gotten used to your manner of speech." The principal remarked, turning from the window and facing me. "Very well, Eilif. Why have you decided you are going on vacation?"

"Thy nose needn't be in my business." I said sweetly, flashing him a cold smile. "My leave is personal in nature."

"Might I ask who it concerns?" The principal pressed, clearly invested in whatever it might be that caused me to need to use vacation days I hadn't used since I started working there.

"The entire House of Midnight. That is all information thou shalt receive." I got up, grabbed my replacement umbrella, and turned to leave, saying, "This matter shall come to light in coming years."

"Wait, how long will your leave be?" He called after me.

"I've half a head to simply use it all, however I shall use two hundred eighty-eight weeks. This matter is not one that shall resolve within a short time." I left the principal alone with his shock clearly evident on his face.

It was always fun to mess with people of a higher standing than one's self, in my opinion.

I arrived at my home in the middle of Violet's allocated nap time, so I used one of my many racial skills, Shade Step, passing through the shadows of my front porch and arriving silently in Violet's room.

Of course, not just any Vampire could follow in my footsteps and arrive in my mansion. I had set up thousands of wards that would activate if my mana signature or one of my servant's mana signatures weren't the ones trying to penetrate my walls.

Not to mention I had hundreds of thousands of traps and hindrances I could cause to spring up nearly anywhere in my home.

I walked over to Violet's gilded silver crib and smiled softly, seeing her beautiful and innocent sleeping face.

I stood above Violet, stock still, for nearly an hour before she awoke.

She held her little arms up, waiting for me to pick her up and hold her in my arms.

It occurred to me that her violet eyes weren't normal for a human, however I thought that she was a beautiful child regardless.

I couldn't stop a smile from coming to my face as I bent to pull her from her crib.

I didn't know Violet's exact age, but from what the woman I brought into my home said, she was about nine months old.

"Ma." Violet cooed, gathering a fist of the front of my dress.

"Thy statement is correct!" I giggled for the first time in centuries, gently tapping the tip of her nose. "I am thy mother!"

During my four years of absence, wild rumors flew around regarding why I decided to finally take vacation, and so much of it as well.

The general public behaved in a similar manner starving wolves did. They ate those rumors right up, spreading and proliferated them through the entire city of Continuity until not a soul hadn't heard of the 'Midnight House's Secret Business.'

I'd heard of the rumors through the half-Vampires I had planted everywhere throughout the city to be my eyes and ears.

On the morning of Violet's fourth birthday, I silently wondered what would happen if I revealed that she was my adoptive daughter and then tried to send her to school.

I figured she'd end up with a similar experience as I did, being a full Vampire and going to a public school.

I was isolated, bullied, and harassed, especially during my high school years.

I didn't want that for my daughter, and I wasn't about to let my daughter live through the same struggles I did.

And so I thought of a clever plan.