Dracula would soon find that having a pregnant wife was hard work. Milo mostly just laughed at him, curling into her side and nuzzling her tears away. Between cravings and having no energy, poor Lisa was confined to the castle for her safety, gripping about wanting to be back in the cottage where everything was only three steps away.

Milo had taken to being her maiden in waiting, getting anything she wanted, keeping her baths warm, fetching her books, and rubbing her feet. She'd fought them off as long as possible, wanting to do everything herself, but carrying twins was hard work. Milo had chuckled into her neck one day that she was turning into a true aristocrat, bossing him around as she'd done. Lisa had smacked him, huffing.

When the twins were there, Milo was also the one to deliver them, Dracula not trusting a human to deliver his children safely. One of the twins looked exactly like his father, with dark hair and red eyes, paler than a ghost. His brother, touched by his mother's humanity, was blonde with golden eyes, his skin a soft pink.

Adrian and Damian, she called them. Her boys. Dracula had held them both as Milo cleaned both the room and Lisa up, cooing at them whenever he caught them looking. After the long, bloody process, the twins were given to their mother to hold. Milo and Dracula helped hold their weight, her body tired and weak.

Milo assured them both of a full recovery, the birth flawless, and offered Lisa some tonics of his own to help speed the process along. Milo watched the couple, smiling gently at the new Princes of Darkness.

"The Sleeping Soldiers, one dark and one light, will be met by a scholar and a hunter, and together, they will save the Earth from damnation," Milo recited, getting both parents to look at him. Milo hummed, expression soft and gentle. His eyes, far away from the present, glowed a cold, icy blue. "My Sleeping Soldiers, you will do many great things in your lifetimes. You will always find each other, no matter how long you've been apart. Thrive, little ones."

With his prophecy spoken, he turned into a fox, all nine of his tails curling around the princes as he settled into Lisa's lap. Dracula, careful of how long his nails were getting, pet through his golden fur.

"You have spoken that once before," he remembered, articulating slowly. "To me when we were still young. You'd only three tails then, cooing about me siring the saviors of both sides of death. I did not know what you meant then and I still am still confused, but I... understand, now. Thank you, my friend, for allowing me this."

'You would have found her without me,' Milo huffed, sounding tired. He'd once told Dracula that after visions like that, his muscles turned to lead and his magic left him, making him vulnerable to anything. Dracula had sworn to protect him. 'Destiny brought you here, Vladimir. Love kept you in this place, and Fate has been waiting for this. It's not my doing, but the will of something greater.'

"You believe in something greater?" Lisa asked, exhausted.

'I know of something greater, but they are not the forgiving God everyone wants to believe in. They care not for us, only that the universe keeps spinning.' Milo snorted. 'Enough of that. We are both tired and drained. Vlad can watch the children while we rest.'

"Sleep, my love," Dracula agreed, kissing her head and taking their children, placing them in their cradles so he could help her lay properly. Milo curled into her neck, tails splayed in a fan over her. "I will watch the children and wake you if something is wrong."

'Damian is more vampiric than Adrian. If he is hungry, he will not shy from blood.'

"I will consider it. Sleep, Milo."

--~~--

Taking care of dhampirs was hard. Taking care of twins is harder. Mixing the two was a clusterfuck Milo had been gagging about for months. He helped, of course, for no one was better at causing mischief than 'Uncle' Milo.

It was Milo who had returned with a little white pup in his arms, the darker twin snickering into his hand behind Milo's legs.

"What do you have there?" Lisa asked, eyebrow raised. She noticed one of her children was missing from Milo's skirts and smirked at the pup in his hands. Dracula, looking up from the scroll he was studying, laughed.

"Is he stuck like that?" he asked, getting barking laughter from Milo.

"Yes! He's been trying to change back, so I couldn't show you, but I think he's just the cutest." He scratched Adrian's belly, chuckling when he stretched to give him more room before batting at him with his paws.

"Father," Damian called, moving forward, "does that mean I will be able to do this?"

"I am sure of it," Dracula assured, wandering over. "Perhaps, when you are older, we will hunt together. As a pack."

"As a coven," Milo corrected. "You have a coven, now. Aren't you excited, Vlad?"

"Not at the term, no," Dracula huffed. He watched Milo put his son down, smiling when he couldn't keep his paws under himself. He wrapped an arm around his wife's waist as she wandered closer, giggling at their child.

Milo shifted, making himself the same size as the wolf pup, and helped him stand properly. Damian sat on the floor, watching them for a moment, before closing his eyes and concentrating. Magic, ashen gray in color, sparked around him as his brows furrowed. Encouraged, by his father's praise, Damian let himself sink into the magic.

He was a little larger than his brother, the same ash gray of his magic, his eyes still a blood red that exposed him as 'other'. He also tried to walk, looking at ease and taking solid, confident steps, before he slipped on the tile and cracked his chin on the floor.

'That is what you get for trying to show your brother up,' Milo snorted, helping him stand up with his nose. He grew bigger, the size of a normal fox, and scruffed a still-collapsed Adrian, helping him get his feet under him.

It'd taken much practice, but the twins got the hang of it quickly and were barking and running around their parents happily in no time. Dracula, not wanting to be excluded, shifted into his monstrous wolf form, pitch black and standing at chest height on poor Lisa. She ran her fingers through his fur before standing aside so he could wrestle their children. Milo wandered over to her, shifting into a female form, and curling around her, smiling.

"They're beautiful," she hummed, watching the wolves with keen, golden eyes. They sharpened into pins, tracking them. "So happy. You could have this forever if you joined us."

"I could," she sighed, tilting her head. Milo settled there, brushing her lips over the pale skin. "But... I don't want to give up my humanity yet. I want to teach them first."

"Such a soft mother," she cooed, tightening her hold on the Queen of Vampires. "It's your choice."

"You've been asking me about it a lot lately," she noticed, lifting her hand so she could run her fingers through curly, golden hair. "Something on your mind?"

"The marching of time," Milo sighed, burying her face into Lisa's shoulder. "I have never seen Vladimir love like this. I want him to keep it. Should you take the immortality, there would be no end to the love you share."

"But I'm stubborn, you're saying?" Lisa chuckled, feeling Milo's laughter through her spine.

"Something of the sort, yes."

"I... want to live like this a little longer," she admitted. "With you and the boys. With Dracula. Most would find that sentence mad."

"I do not," she hummed, planting a soft kiss on her shoulder before she refocused on the pups playing with their father. "Vladimir is softer with you than I have ever seen him. I have known him for nearly eight centuries, and you are the only one he will let gripe about the wine cellar that's never used."

"He can't get drunk and most of that wine is worth more than the castle!" she huffed, throwing her hands up and jostling Milo off her back. It was an old argument about what the space could be used for instead of wine, but Dracula had chuckled and pulled her close, kissing her to quiet her words.

"Indeed," Milo snorted, grinning. She turned back to the wolves, the pups all tired out and resting against their father's flank. "Get them back into human shapes, Vladimir, and I'll make lunch. How about that?" The twins perked up at the mention of food, making their mother laugh.

"Common, you three. Up you get and back to yourselves. Can't eat food with no thumbs."

--~~--

"Uncle?"

Lazy, golden eyes peeked open, narrowing in on the darker twin before they closed and he stretched out on the bench he'd taken up. The bench had a pillow for him and sat in front of one of the only open windows in the castle, letting the naked man lay face-down, soaking in the sun.

"What has your heart, Moonlight?"

Damian wandered closer, cautious of the sunlight. While he wouldn't suddenly combust, the burning was something he could do without.

"Uncle, what will happen to the two of us, when we start whatever journey you're leading us towards?"

Golden eyes opened again, taking in the oldest of the twins. He seemed unsure of his place there, shifting with his hands behind his back. His lips thinned before he brushed his fangs against his bottom lip. They were longer than his brother's, Damian much closer to his vampiric side than Adrian.

"D... come here, boy," Milo called, motioning with his hands. A chair floated to them, letting it settle in front of him, and closing the curtain with a swirl of golden magic. Damian sat heavily into the chair, putting his hands in his lap and fidgeting. "Tell me what troubles your head, boy, so your heart will still."

His father's cool demeanor failed him then, lip wobbling and eyes watering.

"What..." Damian started after a moment, watching his uncle before he sighed. "What if Adrian walks into the sun where I cannot follow?" Softening, Milo closed his eyes and relaxed.

"Ah, I know what troubles your head," he claimed. "You are afraid of losing your brother to the words I spoke your birth. You may also remember, I remind both of you that even if you separate, you will find each other again. Fear not, the shadow that this casts on you. Your brother has been named Sunlight, but there is no light without darkness, so his moonlight is not far behind. You are not lesser than your brother, nor does he feel that way. You are equals."

"I know Adrian loves me," he bit, frustrated. "I never said he didn't!"

"Then why are you here, Moonlight? Why did you come to me questioning your place beside him? Go, speak to Adrian. He is the root of this, so ask him what he thinks of your thoughts. You better get there before I do, so you can explain before I send him on a hunt for you."

"You wouldn't!"

"I would. Run, pup, before I meet you there." Damian vanished, his outline left in red from where he sat in the chair. Opening the curtains again with a thought, Milo lounged again, sighing. He hoped little Adrian would help his brother get his head on straight. There is no light without the shadow, but the reverse is also true.

"What a bland world we'd live in without sunlight and shade."

--~~--

"Auntie," Adrian called, making Milo turn. She'd been outside in the garden, showing Adrian the plants his mother's books taught him about. Damian was hiding in the shade, sitting on a bench and reading a history book his father had given him. Another book, one about spellcasting, sat by his thigh.

Milo gave him a hum, letting him know she'd heard.

"Do you want to know what D told me the other day?" Curious, Milo turned to the younger of the twins. "He said that you're a type of fae and can't lie!"

"I said he was a Kitsune! A Yokai. Do ever pay attention when I talk to you?"

"And!" Adrian blazed on, grinning from ear to ear. "He said that if I ask you a question, you gotta say the truth! SO!" Adrian's smile turned wolfish. "Are you, mother, and father fucking?"

"Adrian!" Damian gasped.

"What? You want to know too!"

"Do you really want to know?" Milo asked, snorting.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"The answer is-"

Milo's mouth was covered by a pale hand, the subtle hissing of burning flesh giving away who it was that stopped her.

"Don't say anything!" Damian pleaded with a whine. "I don't wanna know!"

"But I wanna!" Adrian insisted pushing his brother's hand away, dragging him to the shade. "You can leave if you don't want to know!"

"Why, so you can tell me later?" Damian snarled, snapping his fangs playfully at his brother. "Gross!" He dragged the both of them away, snorting as the twins set off with roaring laughter.

"So, tell me," Dracula chuckled, amused, as he appeared from the shadows cast by the towers, "can you speak lies, fae?"

"I've lied to you before," Milo hummed, standing and shifting into his male guise. "I've told you you were the best lay of my life."

"There's another warming your bed? What a whore you've become," Dracula laughed, smiling as Milo curled into him, arms going around his neck.

"The best lay of my life belongs to your wife," Milo snickered. "She knows just how to curl her fingers and that tongue is divine."

"Listen, you!" Dracula growled, low and playful. Milo squealed, taking off and starting a chase of his own.