Blessed by Night-Chapter 452: The Bestest Stepmom Ever

Luna woke up naturally at around three a.m.

She wasn’t the kind of woman prone to sleeping on the sofa in any capacity. For her to get proper beauty rest, she had to be freshly bathed and moisturized, in a bed, and in a room no warmer than 68 degrees.

Her routines were stringent. Even if she was undead, that was never going to change.

Luna blinked slowly and surveyed the room.

Everyone, without exception, was completely knocked out.

She looked down at the floor when she heard snoring.

Four children were lying on a hastily made pallet on the floor.

Their faces were smeared with cake and caramel. All of their little bellies were on the verge of popping out of their pajama shirts.

Luna smiled helplessly.

Breakfast, it seemed, was going to be very light for them in the morning. If not nonexistent.

Luna slowly slid out of Anna’s grasp and started to wipe the children’s faces off.

As soon as she finished cleaning off the kids, Luna noticed that her phone had received a new notification.

She picked up her phone and read a message from a number she didn’t recognize. There was also a missed call.

As soon as Luna read the notification, she stood up instantly and walked over to Celeste.

’Darling... darling, wake up. I need you to come with me.’

Celeste groaned slightly as she rolled over. She pulled her blanket higher over her face.

Luna poked her head underneath the covers with her.

’You have a patient.’

Celeste’s eyes slowly fluttered open again.

For a moment, Luna was even convinced that she saw her lover’s bright red irises glow.

-

"H-Holy fuck.."

Sato fell onto his butt as he saw an enormous creature approaching from the sky.

An albino-looking bat with white fur and glowing pink eyes flew towards them at breakneck speed.

The closer it got, the more the men realized just how large it was. It could have picked up a bus and crushed it between it’s toe beans.

When the creature landed, it was there for perhaps one second before it was replaced with not one but two incredibly beautiful women. One carrying another.

Celeste slid down from Luna’s arms, and together the two of them rushed over to the black haired girl wrapped in ill-fitting clothes.

Serana looked up at the two of them with an exhausted smile.

"Sorry... I didn’t know who else to call and I was trying really hard to keep things quiet." Serana knew there were some very big tempers in her house at the moment. Which was why she made the decision to call the most cool-headed people she had available.

"Honey, don’t apologize, but what are you even doing out here!? And why on earth are you naked and what happened to your hair!?"

"W-Which of those is the most important question to answer right now?"

"""WHAT HAPPENED HERE!?""" Sato, Luna, and Celeste were all on the exact same wavelength.

Serana rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Before all of that, would you mind taking a look at grandpa? He got hurt really bad..."

Celeste followed her direction towards the body of another man lying on the ground.

Kenji was already surrounded by a team of medical personnel gifted with healing abilities. There was some progress, but the scar tissue on his body wasn’t diminishing as quickly anymore, and he had yet to regain consciousness.

Celeste shot one last parting look at Serana before she walked over to the unconscious man with a duffel bag in hand.

Luna handed Serana a change of clothes that she brought from home.

She glared fiercely at the men and women who were just standing around with nothing to do and slowly they began to trickle back into the building.

Once they were gone, Serana finally remembered her powers and put up an illusion of a changing room.

"So, I, uh... I’m kinda not sure where to begin."

""The beginning!""

"Right, right, well I need you to remember when I tell you all this that you love me and I am also your daughter now."

Luna’s gaze softened. "...Obviously, I’m never going to forget that. You were like mine long before your mom and I tied the knot."

"...I snuck out of the house to beat up Grandma."

"Jesus, what the fuck, Serana!?"

Serana poked her head through the illusion. "You can’t get mad! We were just having a moment so you definitely can’t be mad!"

"The hell I can’t! Why on earth would you think it was okay for you to come out here and assault someone?! Let alone an old woman!"

"Because that bitch lied! Grandpa Kenji never told Mom she couldn’t come home, that was all her! She called my mom a whore, a-a foreigner hunter, and said that she had Uncle Sato as a replacement!"

"..." Luna’s brow crinkled.

She slowly turned to stare at Sato, who seemed to be in a state of permanent disbelief.

"I don’t... I don’t even know how I’m supposed to feel right now." Sato brought his hands to his head.

Luna honestly felt bad for him. It had to be difficult hearing that your mother was assaulted and that she slightly deserved it.

"So... you fought her and the end result was all of this?" Luna gestured to the ruined street around them.

"Uh.. n-not quite. I was about to break that bitch’s other leg when I got stabbed... it was the Prime Minister and his daughter."

"What?!" Sato abruptly put his hands down. "Why were they here?!"

"Fuck if I know... but the prime minister took your mom and by the way he was talking to your dad... it seemed like they knew each other pretty well."

"He kidnapped her??"

"Didn’t really seem like it..."

"Well, what did it seem like?!"

Serana had legitimately never felt more awkward in her life.

"Kind of like... they were in a very active affair... Gramps didn’t take it too well."

Sato started to open his mouth to contest.

"You can ask him when he wakes up if you don’t believe me." Serana defended.

Her uncle looked back and forth between his father and her. Judging by the look in his eyes, he wasn’t quite sure which way in the world was up at the moment. Serana couldn’t blame him.

Sato slowly backed away.

He left the two of them to be at his father’s side when he woke up. No doubt so that he could receive some needed answers.

Finally dressed, Serana stepped out of her illusion.

Luna noticed that she still seemed to be a bit wobbly.

She extended her arm to support the young woman as she took her first steps.

Finally, Luna couldn’t ignore the one glaring change to the version of her stepdaughter she’d always known.

"Your hair, it’s..."

Serana took a few locks of her black hair between her fingers. "Nothing a few boxes of dye can’t fix... It’s a small price to pay for coming back from the dead."

"You what?!" Luna was horrified.

"Yeah..." Serana smiled wryly. "I didn’t have any cover or a way to protect myself when that big firestorm went off, so... I was a charred corpse there for a minute."

"T-Then how are you-"

Serana’s cheeks turned red. "W-Well, when I got married I got this little mark that lets me share my husband’s life force... as long as he’s alive, I can’t really die. Cracked, huh?"

Luna thought that was very cracked indeed.

"Come on, Celeste needs to get a look at you and-"

Serana stood firm.

"I’ll be fine, but there’s something else I really need to tell you..." Serana whispered.

Luna instantly recognized Serana’s change in tone. She knew right away that she hadn’t heard the worst of the news yet. "...What is it?"

Serana swallowed.

"It’s about Malachi. I know what happened to his powers- the prime minister’s daughter has them."

Luna’s mind was instantly filled with white noise.

Her mind jumped back. To the night of the welcoming gala.

The air around her became bitterly cold. Her teeth and claws sharpened, prompting Serana to take a step back warily.

"That bitch..!!"