The child was born in early autumn, but his hair spoke of winter frost and was as soft as kitten fur.
His skin was pale linen, too, so that together, there could be no doubt of the vampire heritage in him. To his overjoyed parents, however, the paleness only served to clarify who he was not what: they had known for some time that he would be a dhampir and were prepared for it; however, the baby now lying in Charlotte's arms was, to them, nothing short of a miracle.
His hands, as the new mother curled them around her own, she found to be the same shape as Mayerling's wide yet graceful ones, already imparted with some of the soft yet penetrating touch that would permeate his actions in just over five years.
His mouth and jaw structure were Mayerling's too: that hard set perplexity intermingled with the surprising warmth of a smile and made her break into a smile as well. (That the child didn't yet possess the fangs Mayerling had insisted he later would pleased Charlotte to no end, as this meant she could nurse it for a few months.)
His nose, however, was Charlotte's long, slender one, and his eyes were hers through and through, including their more feminine width and pale brown color. (Both parents gasped when he opened these, as the color was nearly gold and as there was so much more of it than in human eyes: adding to their son's dazzling effect.)
He seemed to blink at them for a second, then began wailing. Charlotte took his soft little body and rocked him, and the child soon stopped and began rooting. After making sure he had found her breast, she looked up at Mayerling. "What should we name him, Mayerling?"
If Mayerling had been able to cry, tears of joy would have been streaming down his face at seeing the woman he loved holding his son.
"Dmitri…" he whispered, surprising himself as he had been too caught up in the image to really hear the question. He had given his grandfather's name, a good man as far as vampires of his day and age went whom the passing years had killed instead of a vampire hunter.
He smiled at the baby before applying the name again, this time with more confidence. "Dmitri. Let's name him Dmitri."