Chapter two

Teething and nightmares

The day started out as a quiet and peaceful morning in the Underworld that was until Shadow woke up screaming. Emily shot out of bed and walked over to her son who was still crying loudly in his cot at the other end of the room. Emily bent down to picked Shadow up and gently rocked him as she made her way back to the bed.

Shadow stopped crying half way towards reaching the bed and looked up at his mother with watery eyes and slightly wet cheeks. Emily smiled down at Shadow and sat on the edge of the bed. She gently dried Shadow's cheeks with one finger and sat Shadow up on her lap. Shadow yarned while rubbing his eyes a little before snuggling into his mother for a little comfort and gave little sobs and sniffs.

He woke up from yet another nightmare.

Emily comforted Shadow by gently rocking backwards and forwards on the bed and stroking his back softly. Shadow's sobs became nonexistent and were replaced with even breathing as he snuggled closer to his mother, gripping onto her nightdress.

"Its alright sweetie, no more bad dream." Emily softly whispered then added "Come on lets get you your bottle I bet you're hungry."

Emily got up off the bed and put Shadow down but away from the edge of the bed so she could put her white dressing gown on over her long pink nightdress. While she was doing this Shadow decided he would crawl towards the other side of the king size bed where his father would sleep. He almost made it to the edge of the bed but Emily quickly ran over to him and grabbed Shadow to prevent him from falling on the floor with a painful bang.

"That was a close call. Come on then lets get breakfast, daddy may even be in the dining room waiting for us." Emily said holding a struggling Shadow in her arms clearly wanting to be back on the bed.

"Shadow stop that I'm going to end up dropping you." Emily firmly said as she walked out of her and Collin's bedroom.

Shadow stopped his struggling and settled in his mother's arms, resting his head on Emily's shoulder and clutching and un-clutching the white dressing gown with one hand and using the other to suck his thumb.

As Emily walked down the hallways she was greeted by the nanny she hired to help look after Shadow when herself and Collin were too busy with their duties.

"Good morning my Lady, I hope you slept well." The nanny polity asked as she bowed in respect.

"Good morning Ruby, apart from the usual 2.30 feeding time for mister clingy over here I slept reasonably well." Emily replied happily with a smile.

Ruby was a well experienced nanny whom had helped Emily and Collin when Tanya was young. She was a dark orange cat with curly shoulder length copper coloured hair. She wore a plain dark blue long sleeved dress that flowed down below her knees. The dress had a shirt like collar look around the neck area with four buttons going down the front stopping at her chest area and it was slightly frilly at the bottom.

"Still waking up for night feeds. Well I'm sure it wont be long before he sleeps throughout the night after all he is nine and a half months old." Ruby said with a smile.

"Yes…I'm glad I bumped into you actually. I have the day to myself and I don't need your services to look after Shadow so you are free to do what ever you wish." Emily announced while bouncing Shadow up and down gently.

Shadow was starting to fuss and he was getting hungrier with every passing minute. He started to fidget in his mothers arms and moaning, getting louder with every sound that escaped his lips. His moaning became cries as his stomach started to hurt from being empty for to long.

"Thank you my Lady. I will see you tomorrow." Ruby slightly shouted over Shadow's cries.

Ruby left in one direction while Emily carried on towards the dining area still bouncing her son lightly to try to stop his crying. Emily made it to the dining room and was greeted by her husband. Collin got up from the table where he was working on some reports and walked up to his wife and son.

Collin was dressed in his dark blue jeans and his royal deep red robe with gold lining. He had on black leather boots that had short but blunt silver spikes around the rim of each boot, jeans tucked into his boots so the spikes could be seen.

"Good morning my love." Collin said then kissed Emily on her lips then looked at his son who was sobbing a little.

"Good morning Shadow." Collin said taking his son into his arms then gently rocking him.

"Morning. Shadow had another nightmare this morning." Emily announced as they walked to the table, taking their usual seats.

Collin moved Shadow so he was sitting up on his lap, then Collin moved his reports away from his son's reach.

"Another one, that's the tenth time this month. This is getting way out of hand." Collin replied as he looked down at Shadow with concern in his eyes.

"Don't worry dear he will grow out of it. Wont you sweetie." Emily said to her husband then caressed Shadow's cheek in which made him smile slightly.

"I just wish I knew what his nightmares were about, it's not like he witnesses anything bad or horrific." Collin replied then stopped Shadow from biting the table any further.

"I know it's a puzzle in its self, we could always consult with a psychic. If you like I could get one of our maids to call up your cousin Joey. It would be better to have a family member then a stranger, someone we could trust." Emily suggested in a serious tone.

When Emily finished her sentence two maids came in with their breakfast placing two bowels of warm blood and a spoon in front of Collin and Emily then a bottle of warm blood in Shadow's hands.

"Here you are my Lord and Lady, please enjoy." One of the maids announced then both left quietly.

Shadow was the first to indulge himself into his long awaited breakfast as the conversation continued.

"I have been waiting for an excuse to call him over. It would be nice to catch up with Joey. We used to be really close when we were growing up. I'll call him after breakfast then finish those reports." Collin agreed with his wife's suggestion.

Collin and Emily started on their breakfast, Collin held onto Shadow securely with one arm as you do when you have a young yet fidgety child on your lap when eating. Shadow was the first to finish so to kill the boredom he was biting the hell out of the bottle and creating small holes in the plastic and rubber teat.

Collin looked at what Shadow was doing to his bottle and frowned a little. Giving a heavy sigh he removed the horrifically damaged bottle out of Shadow's hand to prevent him from accidentally swallowing any stray pieces that may break off into his mouth.

To prevent his son from screaming and crying for the bottle back, Collin started to feed Shadow blood from his metal spoon. Collin went to take the spoon out of Shadow's mouth but couldn't due to Shadow biting down hard onto it.

"Shadow let go of daddy's spoon then you can have some more." Collin said in a semi serious tone.

Shadow bit down one last time then the spoon was realised from his mouth. Both Collin and Emily were shocked to see small holes in the spoon.

"I've never known any vampire's that could bit through hard solid objects, especially metal." Collin said looking at the holes going all the way through his spoon.

"Nether have I Collin. Those fangs of his are sharp, we will have to rid him of this biting habit. I wouldn't want him hurting someone." Emily slightly whispered in shock.

Shadow started to stretch out to grab back the spoon but Collin moved it far out of his reach. This caused Shadow to cry a little, he wanted something to bite.

"Baaaahhh!" Shadow cried out still trying to reach the spoon that was on the table out of his grasp.

"No Shadow you can't have it." Collin firmly stated trying to keep his son from falling off his lap.

Shadow squirmed and cried out even louder in hope it would get him what he desired at this moment in time.

"Shadow stop this now!" Collin shouted in slight fear of dropping Shadow onto the hard floor.

Shadow stopped is squirming but cried even harder with tears running freely down his cheeks. The tone of Collins voice scared Shadow a little and he reached out to his mother whom got up and took Shadow from his father.

"I'll taking him for his bath you just relax and call your cousin up ok dear." Emily softly said placing a gentle kiss upon Collin's lips before leaving the dining room.

While Collin called his cousin Joey up Emily walked quickly to the bedroom. She entered with a still crying Shadow and placed him in his cot then went into the inbuilt bathroom and started to run a bubble bath for Shadow.

Shadow immediately stopped crying and rubbed his eye's dry sniffing a couple of times as he did so. He looked at the bars of his cot and crawled closer to one and tried to bite it. With a move of his position he managed to bite down hard into the solid wood, causing deep holes as he bit in several different places repeatedly.

Emily finished running the bath and came out to grab Shadow. She stood in shock at the damage Shadow had caused to his cot. Shadow didn't just bite on the one wooden bars, he bit all the bars on one side of the cot and was in the middle of biting the last bar at the end when Emily picked him up.

Shadow protested at this and squirmed in his mothers hold, crying out to be put back in his cot so he could finish what he started. Emily ignored her son's behaviour and walked into the bathroom. She closed the door and put Shadow down onto the bathroom floor. Shadow crawled towards the bath tub then just sat next to it looking around for other items to bite.

"Shadow, what am I going to do with you? I wonder if you're teething." Emily sighed loudly then walked to her son.

She kneeled down and bravely felt his gums avoiding his extremely sharp fangs. Emily gasped at what she felt, Shadows gums felt like they were on fire and bumpy. Indeed he was teething.

"So that's why all of a sudden you've decided to bite everything in your sight." Emily whispered with a loving smile.

She picked Shadow up and took his cream coloured all in one pyjamas and his nappy off, then placed Shadow in the warm bath gently. Emily disposed of the wet nappy into the bin and sat on the edge of the bath to supervise her son.

"Baa baa!" Shadow said in his baby language as he splashed the water, creating more bubbles in the process.

"Careful you are splashing mummy." Emily laughed out putting her arms up as a shield from the water.

Shadow loved his bath times especially when bubbles are concerned. He was going crazy laughing with joy forgetting all about his teething problem as he splashed and blew at the bubbles in his hands.

After a little play time Emily started to wash Shadow down, cleaning his fur and muzzle. This was the part of bath time Shadow didn't enjoy so much, he tried to move out of his mother's reach but to his dislike Emily grabbed Shadow gentle and held him in place.

"Come on sweetie the less you struggle the quicker I will be done cleaning you up." Emily softly stated almost falling in the bath.

After a few minutes of struggling and being splashed at, Emily finally managed to get Shadow squeaky clean and smelling lovely. She let Shadow play with the bubbles for a little longer while she prepared the changing area with a clean nappy, his brush and some soft clothes to wear.

"It's time to get out now Shadow." Emily announced picking her soaking wet son out of the bath using a warm towel then wrapping it around him.

Emily walked to the changing table and laid Shadow on it. She rubbed him dry then proceeded with putting on a clean nappy. Shadow watched the whole process holding his aqua green brush in his hands that will be used to brush his fur down.

The nappy was finally on and secure ensuring no leeks will happen during the time it was on him. Shadow sat up and was about to put the brush into his mouth when Emily took it.

"I don't think so Shadow. Be a good boy and let mummy brush you." Emily asked starting to brush Shadow.

Of course like always Shadow fussed over being brushed and wouldn't stay still that was until Emily started on his little tuff of white chest fur. Shadow giggled at the ticklish feeling and his giggles soon grew into laughing fits.

"Has someone developed a ticklish spot. Tickle, tickle." Emily asked then tickled her son even more.

The moment came to an end as Emily finished brushing. She handed the brush back to her son whom tried to mimic what his mother did with it. This caused Emily to smile lovingly as she dressed him in his clothes.

Emily took the brush away and placed it back on the table, she picked Shadow up, pulled the plug to the bath out to drain the unwanted water then left the bathroom. Emily placed Shadow on the bedroom floor and gave him his blocks to play with while she got herself dressed for the day.

After 10 minutes Emily was dressed in a sparkling lilac silk dress that flowed to her ankles and a white fitted cardigan buttoned up with four large buttons. She had her white slipper boots on since she had a rare lazy day and her hair was tide up in a high pony-tail. She approached her son who was playing with his blocks, building towers with them.

"That's very good Shadow. Lets put them away and take them with us to the lounge shall we." Emily said then started to pack the blocks away in the small basket they came in.

"Baa!" Shadow went as he dropped different coloured blocks into the basket.

The blocks were away in the basket Emily held in one hand and Shadow was in his mothers arms playing with her tied up hair gentle as they made their way to the lounge. Before they reached the lounge Emily bumped into her husband, they shared a meaningful kiss in the hallway.

"Did you managed to get a hold of Joey?" Emily asked as she was given a long yet loving hug.

"I did he is on his way and should be here soon and I also managed to finish my reports so I have a few hours going spare." Collin replied still hugging his wife and son.

"That's good and I know why Shadow keeps biting everything…he's teething already and he needs a new cot. He has destroyed the wooden bars to the point of being unfixable." Emily announced as they walked to the lounge.

"Is that so. Teething already, well it is to be expected since he was born with his fangs but I never would of thought it would happen this early though. As for his cot I'll get someone to order a new one." Collin replied now holding the basket of blocks since Shadow refused to go to his daddy.

They reached the lounge and Shadow was put on the rug with his blocks and both Emily and Collin sat with him trying to teach him to talk.

"Shadow can you say mama?" Emily softly asked in which she got a smile from Shadow

"Baa!" Shadow said holding up a yellow block passing it to his mummy.

Emily took the block and followed Shadow's pointed finger and placed the block on the small tower.

"Ok Shadow try saying dada, Can you say dada?" Collin asked next getting the same reply but was passed an orange block to put on the tower instead of yellow.

"I don't think his interested in talking at the moment Collin." Emily sighed putting another block onto the tower that was slowly getting taller.

"Maybe…thank you Shadow." Collin agreed then thanked his son for the red block to put on the tower.

Just as Collin put the block on the tower a maid rushed in with an announcement.

"My Lord and Lady I've just got word that Joey has arrived and will be with you very shortly." The maid said as she bowed her head.

"Thank you for telling us. You can go back to your duties now." Collin thanked the maid then dismissed her.

Collin and Emily got up as Joey approached the lounge entrance with a suitcase in his hand. Joey walked a little towards Collin and Emily whom also walked to meet Joey.

Joey was an ash grey hedgehog with his quills spiking upwards and black tips at the end of each quill. He was wearing a plain dark purple shirt and black jeans with a studded belt. He had black trainers with dark blue streaks on the sides. His eyes were a glistering sky blue colour making him look young and innocent.

"Joey it's so good to see you, it has been far too long." Collin said pulling Joey into a friendly hug who returned.

"Hello Joey you are looking well." Emily greeted politely with a warm smile.

"Yes hello it is always good to see you both and I'm doing great." Joey replied now no longer in a hug.

As the adults greeted one another Shadow watched from the rug he sat on with a block in his mouth, biting away at it. Shadow then removed the block and dropped it on the floor. He tried to get up wanting to meet this new person who has taken his parents attention away from him but fell on his bottom. He repeated this a few time with the same result.

He stood up again and this time got his balance. Taking small yet slow steps and wobbling a little he managed to toddle over to them with a look of determination and concentration in his eyes.

"Baa baa!" He shouted holding his arms up to be picked up by his mother as he reached by her side.

The three looked in Shadow's direction and all were shocked and happy to see him taking his very first steps.

"Shadow sweetie you're walking. Oh my god you are walking, well done Shadow." Emily happily said with a smile picking her son up when he approached her side. She gave Shadow a loving hug congratulating him.

"That's my boy." Collin said taking Shadow into his embrace and giving him a kiss on the forehead.

"Well done Shadow, I'm glad I was here to witness this." Joey praised with a friendly smile.

Shadow stared at Joey with a curious look unsure of this new hedgehog. He has never met him before or at least he doesn't remember ever meeting him. Joey smiled at Shadow softly then his expression changed as a vision appeared in his mind. Collin knew his cousin saw something, he has seen that look in his eyes so many times before.

"What did you see Joey?" Collin whispered slightly causing Joey to come back into reality and look at his overlord cousin.

"Nothing bad I hope." Emily added also noticing the sudden change in Joey's eyes

"It was…nothing. Can I hold him?" Joey asked with a smile.

Collin passed his son over to Joey and amazingly Shadow didn't protest like he usually would when passed to anyone that he didn't know well. Joey and Shadow looked in each others eyes for a moment then Joey gave the same cloudy look he did earlier, he was having another vision.

Collin and Emily started to become concerned and fear ran through both of their bodies for a split second. Joey's vision ended but you could see worry in his eye's.

"I…I'm sorry about this I can't control when a vision decides to appear to me, wish I could though it would make my life a lot easier." Joey said still holding Shadow in his arms who was refusing to leave.

"He has taken quite a shine to you Joey." Emily said in a happy tone then added "so what did you see?"

Joey stiffened up a little as the vision played over again in his head, this however didn't go unnoticed.

"What was it Joey? If it has anything to do with my son, I and my wife have the right to know." Collin seriously stated reaching to take Shadow from his cousin's arms.

Shadow looked at his father with a smile but showed no sign of wanting to move from Joey infact Shadow decided to rest his head on Joey's shoulder. Collin saw how content his son had became and decided better then to upset Shadow by moving him. It was either leave him or upset him and put up with an hours long crying fit.

"Shadow is gifted with a unique gift of darkness but at the moment it mostly lays dormant waiting to be realised. When it is free he will be capable of so much destruction if not controlled. What I saw was what he would be capable of doing, he would be able to kill and inflect pain without even lifting a finger." Joey explained in a serious tone pausing a little before continuing.

"There is another side to this gift that isn't bad and with total control he would be able to use his gift for a greater cause, for example saving someone from falling off a dangerous height by creating and manipulating darkness around him to suspend the person in the air and moving them to safety." Joey finished in a more upbeat tone as he gave an example to explain what he meant.

Collin and Emily listened very carefully to what Joey had to say. They both went through a mixture of feelings and emotions, shock being the first, then fear, then worry before finally ending with concern for their sons future.

"Does this gift of darkness have anything to do with his resent nightmares?" Emily questioned in an almost whisper.

"It might, I'm not 100% sure but I sort of have a theory. I might need to spend some time with Shadow to see if what I suspect is correct." Joey truthfully replied with a hint of excitement.

"Ok sure if it helps to figure out why he has these nightmares then do what you must but first what is this theory of yours?" Collin asked trying to figure out what his cousin might be getting at.

"Dream invading, he may be invading other people's dreams and it could be linked with his gift of darkness. In order to know for sure I need to spend time with him, then hopefully maybe everything will become much clearer." Joey answered passing a now sleeping Shadow to Collin.

"Dream invading…the first ever overlord had that gift, I remember learning that in my history lessons. The question is who's dreams is he invading unwillingly?" Collin said then asked in wonder as he gently rocked his sleeping son.

"That I can't answer I'm afraid, I guess it's something we will never know but I could describe what the dreams are about and what is scaring him so much." Joey answered then added "we would have to wait until he has another nightmare though."

"I was afraid you were going to say something on those lines Joey, if it helps he usually has them between 4.30am and 7.20am." Emily stated looking at her sleeping son in her husbands arms then added "and on rare occasions during his nap time in the day but that only happened the once."

"A big help thanks…so how is Tanya doing?" Joey thanked then changed the subject.

"She is doing fine, she's staying at a friend's house for the weekend and will be back Monday evening." Emily replied thankful for the subject change.

Joey nodded with a smile as his question was answered.

"Why don't I show you to your room so you can get settled in." Emily said and was about to walk off with Joey when Collin stopped her.

"I'll do it my love, I have to go for this damn meeting with the cancel now and since his room is on the way to the throne room why not kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes." Collin said passing Shadow to his wife and guiding Joey to his temp room.

Emily smiled and watched them leave, she proceeded to the sofa and laid Shadow on it then tidied away the blocks. She noticed the half bitten one and rolled her eyes as she put that one on the table.

"Might as well let him have that one to bite on, just until I get him proper teething toys." Emily said to herself as she continued to tidy up.

When she was done, Emily sat next to Shadow and lightly stroked his head as he slept peacefully. Emily suddenly felt sleepy herself and gently closed her eyelids.

About an hour passed by and Emily shot up from her slumber to a hysterical ear piecing scream. She looked over to Shadow who was screaming and crying in his sleep. Emily picked her son up into her arms and rocked him but it didn't seem to calm him down or wake him up for that matter.

Joey heard the commotion as he was walking in the corridor on his way to the lounge and rushed over there quicker, only to see a panicked Emily and a frightened yet still asleep Shadow. Joey made his presence known to Emily who looked a little scared for her son.

"He has never done this before. He always wakes up when a nightmare happens, always." Emily said with worry in her eyes as her son continued to cry in his sleep.

"Pass Shadow to me, at least we will know what he's dreaming of." Joey ordered in a reassuring kind of way.

Emily obeyed and handed Shadow carefully over to Joey. Shadow kept crying and squirming as if trying to get away from something or someone. Joey sat on the sofa and singled Emily to sit next to him, which she did.

"Ok Just so you know I've only done this a few times but it has been recently. I can give you an insight on what's happening by keeping a hold of you but as soon as I let you go you will come back into reality. Right here goes nothing..." Joey explained taking in a deep breath.

Total concentration was seen on Joeys face as he willed himself and Emily to see what Shadow was seeing in his dream or rather someone else's dream, if Joey's theory was correct.

The room around them both disappeared as the vision took place. Emily gasped in surprise at the unknown experience and feelings of being numb and lightness of weight but for Joey this feeling was nothing new. Shadow's dream played out in both of their minds and what they saw was a complete shocker.

The place they saw was a dark and dreary woods with a thick fog covering the ground. The trees were bare of their leaves and it was very silent save for the whimpering of an infant in the distance.

Both Emily and Joey willed themselves to move towards the noise only to discover it was Shadow making those noises and he wasn't along. Whoever this person was knew Shadow was somehow invading his dream.

"Wake up from my dream child, here is no place for a infant. Hush now little one there is no need to cry I will not hurt you." A deep masculine yet gentle voice was heard from a dark coloured wolf.

"What I would like to know is how you managed to invade my dream or nightmare as it were?" The wolf said then frowned as the scene started to disappear.

"We both seem to be waking up but I have a feeling I will see you again." The wolf announced before everything went pitch black.

Joey and Emily came back into reality and Shadow was slowly waking up. Shadow snuggled into the one who was holding onto him which was Joey and started to sob a little. The two adults were silent for a few moments just letting the events soak into their minds.

"At least we know that Shadow can invade the dreams of others and since he is very young he can not control it. He will forget how to do this when he grows up but he will re-discover dream invading later on, where he will have better control. So much so he will only need to think of someone then it will happen naturally." Joey announced to his cousins wife as he comforted Shadow with a cuddle.

"I hope he forgets sooner rather then later, I don't like the way it scares him so much and I don't want him to see anything drastic at such a young age, it could cause him problems in later life." Emily replied in a concerned tone as she looked at her sobbing son.

"If it makes you feel better it wont be long before he does and I'm always a phone call away if you ever need me. I would gladly drop anything I'm doing to help a member of the family." Joey happily announced with a warm smile.

"Thank you Joey, your help is very much appreciated but we wouldn't want you to put anything important on hold." Emily replied as she took her son whom held out his arms to her.

"It wouldn't be any problem and nothing's more important to me then my family." Joey stated handing Shadow over.

Emily smiled at Joey as she took Shadow into her arms. She cuddled her son until she felt his fangs on her shoulder. She frowned and lifted Shadow into the air so she could see him.

"First things first we need to sort out this teething problem." Emily announced looking at her innocently smiling son.

(There we have it another chap up and so soon after posting the first. Managed to have more time on my hands and I'll go through the next one I have then post it when i'm done. so stay tuned because it wont take too long.)