Chapter Fourteen
Merle forced her mouth open then lifted one of her eye lids before he sighed.
"She's ascending."
Hershel stared at the elder Dixon brother for a moment then back at his ailing daughter.
Cold sweat had started to slick her skin, the normally sun-kissed tan an ashen gray color. Her muscles were locked with tension, the tendons in her throat straining as she fought the pain.
"What does she need?"
Merle stepped back with a sigh, while his brother hummed softly.
"Blood. If she doesn't feed during the transformation she'll die. If she doesn't feed after it she'll die."
He revealed and the elderly veterinarian felt his heart sink.
They were in the middle of the apocalypse! Where the hell-
A soft coo stopped his frantic thoughts and he turned back to his daughter only to gasp in shock.
Daryl knelt beside her, stroking her hair as she suckled from a wound in his wrist, soft infant-like sounds leaving her throat.
"I would've done it. You're still sick."
He whispered and the childe gave a wan smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Its fine. Beth and the others need you alive. With the amount of blood, she'll need, you'd a been dead before she was finished ascending.
"But won't that form a bond between you?"
He shrugged.
It would but it was fine. With Merle's bond wrapping itself around his heart like chains, Maggie's would be a soothing balm to his already battered soul. He didn't mind it as long as she didn't. A tiny smile quirked his lips.
Besides, unlike the Sire bond that Hershel thought was forming it was a stronger bond called the Matron's bond.
Formed only by an ascended vampire feeding on an unmated or Ill submissive. It had been created to give Perditae submissives another chance at children before they perished and had only been used formally three times since his birth. Its strength came in the form of a knowledge exchange between the two parties as well as possibilities for telepathic and empathic bonds.
His vision blurred as Maggie's memories bombarded him in tidal waves, her thoughts and feeling melding with his own.
He saw her as a young child sitting on her father's lap as she held baby Beth in her arms.
As a teen, learning to ride a horse under her mother's watchful eye.
A young adult grieving as her mother and brother took their final breaths.
She was his.
His memories flew through her mind just as fast and he mentally apologized as she whined under the pain of the Perditae's call and Merle's forced bond.
'D-Daryl?'
He let out a soft croon.
'I'm a Fanged One now?'
He sent back an affirmative feeling, shuddering as a he began to feel light-headed.
'It hurts.'
'I know. I'm sorry.'
His vision darkened for a moment and an alarmed feeling struck him.
'Are you okay?
'I'm fine.'
The fangs in his wrist pulled away of their own accord, their owners mind going foggy as fatigue hit it.
'Kay.'
He smiled and stroked her hair, straightening slowly. As he did so, the childe relaxed, settling into a peaceful sleep.
"Is she okay?" Hershel asked urgently and Daryl nodded with a slight smile.
"She's fine, just sleeping. Feeding tends to make fledglings sleepy and given her newly ascended status she is the equivalent of an infant."
The vet nodded, biting his lip slightly.
"Is there anything I should know?"
Merle took over the explanation as he helped Daryl settle into a nearby chair, his grey eyes dark with worry.
"Not really. She may experience a few personality changes, especially being so young in our years, but those are mostly limited to things like heightened emotions, increased appetite, and, obviously, the need for blood. Her temperature will be a bit lower, and her heartbeat may slow until it feels like she doesn't have one."
"Obviously." Hershel added dryly, holding his daughter's hand in his own. Merle shot him a wan smirk and he bit his lip.
"Have you heard anything back from His majesty."
Merle pursed his lips. "His majesty finally passed ten years ago. The factions started a civil war over the throne, of course. Pa, he wanted us to fight, wanted to claim the throne as one of His Highness' chief advisors but it wasn't allowed because of The Call. Last we heard, the war was going horribly for both sides, then a year ago everything went quiet. No one knows what happened but there's been radio silence in The Kingdom since. If there was outcome, we don't know it." He paused, sighing wearily.
"You're the first anything we've run into since then. Fangless, Fanged, or Ascended."
Hershel thought for a moment, raising an eyebrow as Merle placed his wrist in front of Daryl.
"Drink."
Daryl stared at him for a moment, expression unreadable, then lowered his gaze and obeyed.
He drank only for a few moments then pulled away, eyes half-lidded in exhaustion.
"She should wake soon." He murmured, standing. Then without another word to the two older men he slipped out of the room, leaving a heavy silence behind him.
"Is your daughter alright?"
Rick asked their host worriedly, flinching when the man's watery blue eyes shot him a dark glare.
"Those Dixon boys are helping her. When they're done, you and your people need to leave my farm."
"Hershel- "
"No! I told you that your people aren't supposed to have weapons on my property, then that man goes and kills my wife and my son. I'm sorry Rick, but your son will be healed by the end of the week. So, I need you all to leave when he is."
Rick sighed in frustration, feeling his patience reach the end of its rope. Since awakening in this hellish new world all he's been trying to do was keep everyone safe, keep them alive and yet all his efforts were thwarted continuously and thrown in his face.
Shane, Lori, Jenner, and now even Hershel, all of them were turning against him and he didn't know what to do.
Still, he tried one more time to convince the elderly farmer to let them stay.
"Please," He pleaded. "My wife is pregnant. We need your help."
Hershel froze and something dark flashed in his gaze, his lips beginning to form words that he never let leave his lips. Instead he turned and headed back inside.
"You need to be gone by the end of the week. That's my final word on the matter."
The farm was falling.
Storm colored eyes watched impassively as walkers swarmed the yard, their owner watching it all from the edge of the tree line. Maggie had awakened only hours earlier and he could feel her emotions bombarding their bond as she used her new strength and speed to save what was left of her family. His bond with Merle strained as well, his older brother only a few meters away taking down any walker in sight as he fought to protect his mate and her fledgling.
Rick and Shane were rounding people into Dale's RV, shooting and stabbing anything that got too close and while he knew he should be fighting…he couldn't force himself to.
Why should he?
The walkers couldn't kill him, not with Merle's bond wrapping around his heart like an iron band.
Rick was too busy trying to protect a woman he didn't love and a best friend that betrayed him.
And Merle…Merle refused to let him go. Merle had betrayed him by using the one bond that could advert the Perditae's call, the one bond that would deny his only chance at peace.
A walker brushed passed him and he stabbed it in the head passively, before walking over to Merle's truck.
The vehicles started to drive away and he watched them with blank, empty eyes, glancing up as Merle's hand landed on his shoulder.
"Time to go, Lil D."
He hummed, mounting Merle's bike then pulling off without further word to his brother. He would find a way to get out of this bond.
He had too, because even if The Call couldn't be answered, his sanity could be lost. And there was nothing he feared more than looking in the mirror and seeing his father's madness staring back.
TBC…