((TW: Blood, gore))

It was one of the most gruesome sights he had ever seen: the cutting, the blood everywhere, his daughter hissing at the light. He would never forget the sights, the sounds. If he could dream, they would haunt his nightmares. His wife was shrieking like a banshee, biting down with such force it convinced him she would break right through. He wanted to be sick. His head felt dizzy and his mind felt like it was on fire witnessing this.

Then the doctor suddenly handed him his little girl, wrapped in blankets, looking bloody but so beautiful. Her tiny fingers and toes reached out as she slowly squirmed less and less. She was the most perfect thing he had ever held, and for a moment, his mind was at peace. He held her carefully, supporting her head and making sure she was warm, keeping the blanket tightly wrapped. "Sibella..."

The peace was too brief, and he heard the doctor rip his son from her, too. Then suddenly his little angel was out of his arms, snatched away by the doctor with a command of 'turn her.' It was all happening so fast. His children—his wife—he felt so lost.

When Sibella was taken from him, it snapped him back to reality. Natalia screamed out, 'is he alive,' and terror settled into his chest. He had not seen the boy move! The doctor had not confirmed! How could this happen? He was torn between taking off after the doctor and turning his wife. However, there really was only one choice, as much as it hurt his heart.

Marcello knelt down and consumed as much of her blood as he could. It was everywhere, but not easily drinkable. However, he needed to fill himself with as much as he could so he could return it to her. Since it was already pre-tainted, he hoped it would easily flush through his system and back into her. He licked the blood pooling on her body before digging into some of her wounds.

He heart Natalia's screams, and it tore at his soul. He didn't want to hurt her. The pain she must be experiencing!

Suddenly, he could feel her blood coursing through him, giving him that rush of energy and satisfaction. He picked up the knife on the bed beside her and sliced down his wrist. A finger or palm would take too long, and his neck would be too awkward of an angle for her to easily drink. Gritting his teeth, he waited until he could see a strong gush of blood before pulling the knife out. He pressed his wound over her mouth. Trying hard to not look at her mangled body. When felt her lips touched to his wound and start to drink, then he closed his eyes. Praying to every god he could think of that she would turn.

Natalia had felt all her life force draining from her body, and she couldn't imagine how anyone came back from this. She'd asked he wait to change her if he could, but there was nothing he could do. Everything hurt terribly, but then she could feel him digging into her and inhaling her blood. She hoped she would forget the feeling of being ravaged alive by her husband when it was done. She knew he had to. He had no choice, but it was still horrifying; and she yowled like a dying animal. Then suddenly, there was blood pouring into her mouth. She felt like she was choking on it. It tasted foul.

She couldn't breathe. She choked on the liquid pouring into her mouth, stifling her. Despite more blood flowing in than out, it felt like her heart was slowing. Terror coursed through her. Her emerald eyes looked to his, which were tightly closed. And then... she felt nothing.

She wasn't breathing. Her heart stopped. There was no pain.

Her eyes wider than they'd ever been and grew as crimson as the blood surrounding them. Then her body contorted, pulling her away from his wrist. She shrieked as her body knit itself back together. It was as bad as the tearing apart had been. Her whole body felt like it was on fire, and she started vomiting blood. Sitting straight up, Natalia grabbed at her throat. She couldn't speak and clawed at her own skin, feeling like something was crawling all over her.

He watched as her whole body wove itself back together. It was like watching ripping in reverse and almost made him want to be sick again. Except that as her body wove itself together, he became lost for words. Even in her howling and shrieking of pain as bone, skin and organs wove themselves back together, she was becoming breathtaking.

She was her pre-pregnancy size, no longer gaunt and sickly, but like a goddess. Her figure more perfect than ever before. She, of course, had smears of blood over her healing wounds, but they were merely small tarnishes on a perfect body. Each imperfection upon her vanished before his eyes.

"It's okay Natalia, just keep drinking. Finish the transition. You've nearly turned." He pressed his wrist to her mouth once more, and she drank down as much as she could. Her heartbeat had stopped, which convinced him she had indeed turned, but he did not get his hopes up until her body had finished changing. With his other arm, he held her close and waited.

After a few more moments, she became completely still. There were no marks on her body. She did not twitch. Her chest did not rise. There was no heartbeat. She was... dead for all intents and purposes, but she looked up at him through long lashes, her green eyes glowing with a brilliance like no one had ever seen. Nothing hurt.

She slowly sat up and began to feel where she'd been sliced open only minutes before. She looked at Marcello. "Am I...? Is it...?" She saw the blood all around her and knew it had poured from her own body, but it looked so foreign. She had no feelings about it. Like she was hollow.

Rising to her feet, she did not feel tired or weak, and it was bizarre. She'd spent weeks, months feeling as though she was dying and now... she felt nothing. She breathed in out of habit but remembered it wasn't needed. This would take getting used to.

She sprinted to the decanter of blood across the room and downed the entire thing. It tasted amazing, not at all like blood had tasted before. It tasted sweet and satisfying like a rich red wine with dark chocolate. She licked the remnants from her lips and looked back at her husband. With blood still dripping from her now perfect body, she looked like a Phoenix who had risen from the ashes... perfect.

He watched in awe as she took her first steps as a vampire. She still walked like a human, even breathed like one, but she guzzled the blood like she never had before. She now knew the glory that was blood, and she had not even tasted it fresh yet! He watched with rapt attention as she licked her lips like there was nothing that could compare. She looked like an angel of death, smeared in blood with some dripping down her mouth. She was smiling, and her eyes almost glowed. In a way, it scared him, what she had become. She was like him. Yet, she was the most exquisite creature his eyes had ever beheld.

"You are a vampire, my love. You survived. We all survived, I think," he breathed, simply taking her in as she adjusted to her new state of being. However, they did not have time to revel in this. The fear came flooding back. "Our children, Natalia! The doctor has our children! DOCTOR!" He called out at the top of his voice.

He had taken away his children. His strong little girl and his worryingly weak little boy. They both needed to see them, to hold them. He had only held her for a moment and had barely seen him at all.

Natalia, too, came to her senses and threw her dressing gown around her, paying no mind to the blood that would now stain in. She moved at a speed that honestly startled her. She wasn't yet accustomed to how fast this body could move. There were things falling off the walls in her wake as she practically flew to the doctor's quarters. He had both babies on his bed, looking them over, unwrapped.

"How are they?" She asked, fear in her eyes.

"The girl is amazing. She's strong..." he said, shaking his head.

"Dante?"

He cradled the tiny boy and placed him in her arms. "It's touch and go, but he's alive... for now..."

Instinctively, she slipped down the shoulder of the dressing gown and pressed him to her chest. Miraculously, there was still something in her breasts. It wasn't clear if it would continue, but what had been there before remained. The little boy suckled at her, and she petted his head lightly. "Shh... that's a good boy..." she gently whispered to him, and as he sucked, his little skin lost some of its pallid appearance, pinking up.

"I'll be damned..." the doctor gasped, amazed. "I don't think you'll be able to do that for very long. But if he can get everything he can from you... he's got a shot..."

Marcello could not keep up with his wife and simply followed her trail of destruction through the halls to the doctor's quarters. He found her standing in the doorway, their son suckling at her breast. He looked stronger, and he was moving and making some noise. She looked so natural in that position, gently cradling their son, his heir, to her breast and soothing him.

He made his own way over to Sibella. She had her mother's eyes and a tuft of a dark curl upon her forehead. As her arms went into the air, asking to be lifted, he obliged, gently picking her up and cradling her to his body. "My little Sibella, aren't you just gorgeous?" She laughed as he showered her with kisses. It was like music and instantly filled him with joy.

Looking at Natalia, he smiled in relief. They had pulled through as a family, so it seemed. If Dante could drink as much as he needed, he would turn out a healthy boy. He could be the heir he needed. "How is he? He looks better. And you look beautiful!" Marcello kissed his wife's pale cheek.

She had thought she would blush, but no color came to her cheeks. She still felt the emotion, but there was no heat. There was no heat anywhere. All at once, she realized she was cold, though she didn't feel cool.

The little child was sucking heartily from her, and he looked to be growing stronger by the moment. She looked over at the little girl in her husband's arms with sparkling green eyes. "Hello my Sibella..." she leaned over and kissed her forehead.

The doctor looked over at Dante's improving condition. "While most vampiric infants have a mix of blood and milk... generally, once a mother is turned, she produces nothing. Whether there's just enough left over for him to feed on, or if somehow her body turning with them inside her gave her the ability to produce for them... I can't be sure." He scratched his head. "Everything about this is one for the history books. So... you're literally writing the book on it. We have no experience with mothers truly turning as they carried. They might receive minor benefits, but none of have had this degree..."

"Hear that, Sibella, your mother is special! She's the first to do it all!" Sibella laughed as though the newborn understood. Marcello could not tell if actually understood or not, but it was lovely to see. He stood beside Natalia watching his young son drink, his tiny hands holding onto her breast. He wanted so badly to hold him, but he needed his sustenance to survive.

"I know it's not exactly your wish, Nat... I know you wanted to be human. To me though, this is the loveliest moment." He hoped she wasn't too disappointed at being turned so soon after childbirth, but she was still being a true mother to them. So far there was nothing she could not do that a regular mother could not.

"Well doctor, we'll be happy to sit and document everything for future generations. However, if you don't need to be with us right now, I would like to retire somewhere. Although we don't really have a usable bedroom right now." He wanted to have some alone time with his family. Even if the doctor needed to monitor them for whatever reason, he wanted a moment to just be themselves.

"I will send word to have one of the guest bedrooms made up for you both while we get some maids to clean your own room. We should have some cribs in the palace too. I will see that they are in your temporary room." With that, he left to make the arrangements, giving them some brief time as a family.

Marcello looked at Natalia expectantly. "How do you feel? With the changes? The turning? Our babies?"

"I feel great..." she responded honestly. "I don't hurt. Which is nice." She walked at a more leisurely pace as they carried the babies to one of the guest rooms, then handed him Dante, who had finished feeding while she went to clean herself up. There was unavoidable blood on the gown, but there was a spare ready in the guest room. She used the basin of water and cleaned all the blood off her body and put on the new gown before joining the three of them on the bed. She looked the two children over, a noticeable size difference between them. However, they both looked strong now.

"I'm not sad I didn't get to be a human mom to them..." she assured him. "I'm just happy I'm here to be a mom to them at all."