A black-haired woman grimaced as she held her swollen stomach with both hands. The humans around her gave her a wide berth, cold glares plentiful amongst those hostile eyes.

Normally, the woman wouldn't give a rat's shit about how these inferior humans thought of her, but she couldn't help but worry a bit. The lord of this town had promised her a safe refuge until she gave birth, and his oath had been trustworthy, but she was still worried.

This was, after all, her third and final year of gestation. It'd been a long and painful process, but now, she just wanted to get this damn thing out of her already. 

She hurried her steps, giving wide berth to the drunk and rowdy adventurers that walked brazenly on the streets. Her status as an honored guest of the mayor wouldn't protect her from those who couldn't even tell the difference between a rat and a tiger.

Upon reaching her home, she swiftly entered and locked the door. Heaving a sigh of relief, she sat her heavy ass down on the hard couch, her eyes traveling once more down to her swollen stomach. She wasn't sure how to feel about this, to be honest. Anxiety, anticipation, a bit of regret, and even joy mixed together to form a strange sentiment.

She'd always considered and carried herself as an independent woman, and those who would claim otherwise had all been turned into corpses a long time ago. Still, she couldn't help but wished that damnable bastard would at least take responsibility.

Sighing in annoyance, she idly rubbed her stomach. Feeling a weak but painful kick coming from within her, she grimaced. She knew very well she was almost due, and she knew the filthy manlings wouldn't hesitate to attack at her weakest, with no allies in sight.

Getting up, she summoned a black book with a skull as a cover out of her Spacial Storage and resigned herself to having to risk injuring her baby by using magic.

When she'd gotten pregnant, her dear mother had told her all the tips and tricks for vampire gestation. No magic, no poisonous blood, and no getting hit. More or less what she already knew, but it was still helpful.

Now, however, she was forced to break the first rule. Sighing, she called upon her vast magic reserves and got to work.

By nightfall, dozens of invisible and intangible barriers surrounded her home, acting as silent protectors for herself and her unborn child. 

Laying on her bed, the woman tried her best to regulate her erratic breathing. She was sweating profusely and also deadly tired, having had to manage three things at once while casting those complicated spells: Not alerting the humans, actually casting the spells, and also not damaging her baby.

Then, she felt something bleeding from between her legs. She froze for a second before her many, many years of experience came to rescue her. She immediately activated an already-prepared spell, causing a small, dark circle of complicated runes to appear on the ground next to her.

After a couple of seconds of, shadows burst out of the circle, forming into a humanoid figure after gathering together. The shadow bowed deeply, red eyes glowing in the dark room.

The woman owns red eyes stared back, unabashed and unafraid of the strange creature. With a mental tug, she brought the shadow next to her and had it help her.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Hours later, the woman was gritting her teeth, eyes wide as saucers as she pushed with all her might. The shadow puppet stood next to her, it's dark limbs carefully helping her extract the damned baby from her. 

The woman was used to pain. Thrived in it, even, as all of her kin did. However, this kind of pain was simply on another level. Even losing her head wasn't as bad as this.

She suppressed another scream as yet another painful contraction tore through her body. She could feel the mana of hundreds of peasant-class humans standing around her home, and although she couldn't tell what they were doing, based on the fact that the shields had already activated, she could make an educated guess.

She'd teach those filthy humans a lesson they'd never forget... later.

Finally, twenty minutes of the worst pain imaginable later, she finally felt the damned baby get out. The shadow puppet's nimble limb's carefully held the blood-covered baby as it took its first breath. A moment later, shrill screams came out from the little thing.

The exhausted woman grimaced from the sound. She immediately cast several regeneration spells on herself, immediately feeling better. Looking down at her now flat stomach, she was secretly happy for this painful pregnancy to be finally over.

With trembling arms, she took back her baby from the shadow puppet, she observed it with great curiosity.

Although its father was a filthy bastard, his genes were quite good, and her own were obviously superb. Indeed, although it looked like a potato now, the crying baby was still beautiful.

'My little girl...' The woman thought, her old and cynical heart feeling overwhelmed. She hugged the little baby tight, bringing its face next to her neck.

She felt little pain when two underdeveloped but still plenty sharp fangs sunk into her neck. The feeling of blood flowing out of her, though, was a bit strange. Usually, it was she who did the sucking, not others. Except maybe the father of her baby, but he did a... different... kind of sucking.

She didn't feel like thinking about it, so instead, she concentrated on the shadow puppet, ordering it to stand guard at the door, and to make sure the filthy and rowdy manlings didn't actually break her barrier. 

Still, even if they did, she could simply smite them now. However, feeling the warm potato happily stealing away her blood, she decided that those filthy manlings could receive their punishment later.

After a couple of minutes, the baby let go of her neck, burping grossly afterward. The woman grimaced at all the dried blood that now stained both herself and her baby, but a quick cleaning spell solved that particular problem. Picking up a towel she'd prepared beforehand, she wrapped the potato up, looking into its blood-red eyes as they slowly closed.

The woman now hesitated. She knew very little how to bring up a baby, her own memories very, very faint about this particular stage of her own childhood. Still, it would probably be best to let the baby get its sleep.

Her kind didn't need sleep, per se, but perhaps she did. After all, her father wasn't exactly her kin... far from it, actually. It was a miracle her baby looked so beautiful, and not an abomination.

She examined her very own potato with various spells, determining her magic to be both stable, and very much plentiful. That was to be expected, though, considering her lineage.

Her smile slowly vanished as she turned away from her baby. Casting a silencing spell on the room, she marched out to the door where her puppet waited. She mercilessly banished it and smashed the door open.

Half an hour later, she returned. Her clothes and body were just as perfect as before, but her belly was definitely much fuller than it had before. She licked her lips, enjoying the aftertaste of noble blood.

A broken promise was not something she would tolerate. The mayor learned that the hard way.

Tip-toeing over to her baby, she watched its peaceful sleeping face. Her motherly instincts were definitely roused, as she wanted to pinch those pinchable cheeks, but she restrained herself.

She settled on the hard couch, legs finally able to swing over one another, and summoned her dark book once again. Instead of using it for casting, though, she simply read it this time.

Next morning, she'd have to leave before the other filthy manlings once again found her out. She was less vulnerable now, but with her little man-puppet gone, she'd lost yet another safe haven.

She mused over her next destination, eventually settling for doing as she always had. To simply go where the wind took her. 

Vampires were known to be nomadic, after all.