19. Nightmare

My heart seemed to have stopped at that moment.

There he stood, right in front of me, with that pompous attitude acting like it was my privilege to have been able to stand witness to his feasting. He was like an omnipotent being, and I felt powerless against him even though I hadn’t even tried fighting back yet. His cold black eyes shot right straight through me, and even small gasps felt like a trigger for death. I didn’t even dare to blink. My mind was a total mess. I couldn’t seem to think straight anymore. I was struggling to face his intimidating presence.

He actually killed...everyone... They were all innocent defenceless people...and he ripped them of their lives just like that...?

I could gradually feel a surge of anger building up from within me. How could he kill all these people...? How dare he?! Just because he was a blue blood didn’t mean he had the right to disregard the lives of others.

He licked off the bit of blood at the corner of his lips, and threw a satisfied smirk at me. “I knew you would come. You are just so predictable. While waiting, I kept myself occupied.”

He shifted his eyes to the lives that he had destroyed, and I followed. The floor of dead people wasn’t bothering him like what it was doing to me. I felt sick to the stomach, not because of the stench of rotting flesh, but because he was actually proud of his awful actions.

Occupied? So killing was just something to do?

He seemed to apprehend the disgust I was feeling. “You have only yourself to blame. If you have arrived earlier, then maybe some of them might still be alive.”

“What...have you done...?” I muttered, struggling to find the strength to accept that this was reality. I felt a cool feeling against my flushed cheeks. I realised that I was crying.

“Apparently, they were having a party. Your aunt was pregnant, and she invited all these pathetic friends of hers to celebrate.” He spoke with so much scorn, like everyone whom he mentioned were trash.

Aunt Caroline was pregnant? Was that why she called in the first place?

“She wanted to tell you too...” He paused, enjoying my stunned expression. “But I spoilt it for her.”

“Where is she?! What have you done with her?!” I shrieked, fighting to control the overwhelming amount of tears raining down my face.

I thought that my outburst would have started a chain of explosions on him. But instead, nothing happened. Was I not aggressive enough? He took a step forward, crashing the lifeless arm that was in his way. The cracking sound of the broken bone startled me, making me more tensed up than I already was. But it didn’t bother him. He acted like he was stepping on some pebble.

It was no big deal.

I couldn’t move forward. I didn’t want any sort of contact with all those bodies. I staggered a few steps back. But my legs gave way, and I fell to the floor. In a fraction of a second, he had disappeared from sight and reappeared directly in front of me. He was so close to me all of a sudden, and I could capture the strong scent of blood that was still lingering around his lips. It made everything harder than it already was. My vampire instincts, the inner beast made me feel like I was lying on a bed of needles, and the only way to relieve myself of the torture was to quench the thirst with blood.

He bent down, and held my chin up by the edge with his long cold fingers, forcing me to look into those menacing eyes of his. There was not even a trace of reason or humanity in them. It was just pure threatening. The faint dark circles underneath those eyes make them seem more ghastly. I froze at his touch, and my pounding heart quickened along with the gasps that choked out through my quivering lips. I knew that he was enjoying my tear-stained face as the evil grin on his face got wider.

He tilted my head sideways, in the direction of the bedrooms. One of the doors was half opened, and through the gap, I saw Aunt Caroline lying on the ground. The phone next to her was hanging by the cord, swinging freely. From where I was, I could still hear a very soft and slow breathing from her...

She's still alive...

“Don’t worry. It’ll be her turn soon. I purposely left her for last, so that you can see the show for yourself.” He laughed darkly and flicked away my chin. “It’s a slight pity that I have to kill them now. If I knew beforehand that she was pregnant, I wouldn’t have made Night leave your side and got you here. I would have waited a few more months.” He slid his tongue hungrily across those blood-stained lips of his. “Newborn human blood had always been the freshest.”

“Night...?” I muttered, “You know...that he’s gone...?”

Did he plot this? Did we unknowingly become his pawns again?

“As long as he’s with the High Council, all his movements will be within my grasp. No one will be able to save you this time. You won’t be so lucky all the time...”

“You purposely lured him away? You purposely lured him away so that he won’t be with me...”

Realisation suddenly dawned over me. We had once again fallen for his scheming plans. He had planned this all along.

“You made Lex and the twins disappear so that he would go to the High Council?!” I exclaimed in disbelief. How could we not have realised that everything was a scam? Every step that we had taken was going according to his wishes...

“Not bad for a pitiful being. I’m astonished that you figured it out,” he said. But he didn’t seem impressed. His expression was plain smug and insulting. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. Let’s just say that I’m responsible for the entire disappearing act that had been occurring for the past months.”

“You were the culprit all along?!” I gasped in horror, “You made all the normal blood vampires disappear?! The High Council won’t let you off once they find out!”

“You don’t think that they know about it by now?” he sneered, not threatened at all, “They were eager to cleanse the vampire community as well. They are just in it for the glory. That’s why none of them dared to go against me.”

The High Council knew...? They were in cahoots with him all along? That was why they didn’t care about it in the first place. They probably even helped in making more vampires disappear. Night was right. Those blue bloods only cared about themselves. They weren’t reliable at all.

“Night won’t let you off!” I exclaimed.

“Night?”

He suddenly grabbed me by my neck, and slammed me against the wall. The sharp excruciating pain immediately scattered to my entire body and forced a scream out of me. I thought I heard something inside me cracked. He pinned me against the wall with my sneakers barely touching the floor. I noticed that his glare on me was consumed with dark anger. I tried to pull away his hand to free myself. But his grip was too strong and firm. He was unmovable.

“You must be tired of living to use Night against me,” he scowled murderously, baring those fangs at me. He was on the verge of tearing me apart with those teeth. But it took him only a second to change his mind as he retracted his fangs. He shut his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were back to the taunt and despise he originally had for me. I could tell that I wasn’t worth him getting all worked up.

“Night is my son. I know him better than anyone else. His weakness was that he actually cared about worthless trash like those normal blood vampires. That would be his downfall one of these days.”

“He’s not weak! He’s way better than you! He will never kill innocent people!”

He grinned darkly, showing off his sharp canines. “Innocent people? This is just lunch. It’s their honour to be killed by me. Normally, I show no interest in junk food. Besides, this is nothing compared to the number of lives Night had taken in his entire lifetime. Of course, until he had decided to give up the vampire’s natural way of living.”

“You’re wrong. He just chose an alternative. He made a choice.”

He narrowed his stone cold eyes on me all of a sudden, and I was taken aback. “He doesn’t need to. In the eyes of vampires, everything else is just herds of moving flesh born for the sake of our consumption. It has always been the survival of the fittest. He just has to accept this fact.”

Herds of moving flesh? How could anyone possibly say something like that...? This was what Night had been forced to live with all this while...

“You’re SICK!!!” I yelled.

He immediately tightened his grip around my neck, not letting me cross the line any further. I almost gagged.

“I’m sick?” he scoffed, “You aren’t any better, are you? You actually think that you can take away something that belongs to me? No vampire would ever think of something as ridiculous as that. Night’s mind had been poisoned by you long enough. It’s your doing that caused him to become so...protective and considerate for others.”

He groaned in disgust. His perspective of right and wrong was totally opposite from mine.

“And now he’s as predictable as you. I know that he will never bring you along with him to see the High Council because he won’t risk exposing you to the other blue bloods. He’s not someone who’s prone to taking risks. He had always been a careful person...until you came along and he started doing outrageous things. The problem is..., I just don’t understand the value that he sees in you. Don’t get me wrong though. Night is smart. But he has always been naive. And your ignorant thinking influenced him to think that he can do anything by himself.” He snorted. “How foolish.”

“He’s not naive. He can do many things better than you!”

“He will be able to do a lot more than me as long as he did as I tell him to.” He sighed, but he was still as smug as ever. I could feel him breathing down my neck as his voice changed into a whisper. “He has so much potential. I won’t let him waste it on you. You won’t be able to help him achieve anything. You will just waste his life away.”

“At least I gave him a chance to choose the kind of life that he wants to lead,” I rebuked, not wanting to give in to his intimidating prideful demeanour, “I didn’t force him to do whatever he doesn’t want to. At least I treat him like a person and not a tool.”

“You think you know everything. He’s a blue blood vampire. Don’t compare him with worthless lowlifes like yourself,” he snarled.

He released his grip on me suddenly, causing me to fall to my knees. I was able to breathe properly again even though my neck was pained from his grip. I needed to figure out a way to save both Aunt Caroline and myself from him. I had to. There was no way I could fight him head on. He was too strong. There must be a way for me to escape from his clutches and get help.

While he thought that I was still gasping for that little bit of freedom that he had given me, I took the opportunity to gather my scattered concentration and forced it on him, hoping that he would burst into flames and buy some time for me to get Aunt Caroline and escape. But to my dismay, nothing happened. It was like my exploding ability just vanished all of a sudden. There was not even a spark.

He suddenly grinned tauntingly at me, and flung his arm at the furniture behind him. The couch immediately exploded into pieces and burst into flames. My eyes widened in horror. How did he...? That was supposed to be my ability...

“Night didn’t tell you? Your ability has no effect on me. I absorb them and use it as my own. I’m immune...and you can’t hurt me.” He flung his arm again, and the bodies piling on the floor exploded, with bits of the bones and flesh scattering to every corner of the house. “I’ve got to admit though. You’ve been given a good gift. It’s a pity you won’t be using it anymore...”

This was horrible! I was practically human in front of a strong vampire like himself. I couldn’t find the upper hand to fight against him. Desperate, I picked myself up from the floor and made a run for it. But he instantly grabbed me by my hair and slammed my forehead back to the same wall, causing a deeper indenture to form. Flakes of concrete and paint poured to the floor due to the impact.

He tilted my face towards him at the expense of straining my sore neck. He placed his face so near me that his cold eyes were the only image I could capture from the corner of my eye. His breath tickled the edges of my skin. I tried to pull away from him, but that made him tug my hair harder. He licked the corner of my lips, which I realised was bleeding. I grimaced.

“I know that you think I’m the bad guy here. But I’ve been kind to you for a very long time. You understand that you should have died the moment you set your eyes on Night. Everything you’ve enjoyed until now was my generosity.”

Generosity? What did he mean by that?

“You don’t really think Night and you would have the chance to even start, let alone make it this far, do you?” He laughed, and his laughter echoed against the walls. “I allowed that to happen. If I wanted to, you would have ceased to exist the moment you approached him. As a loving father, it’s only natural that I let him have his fun. If it’s not you, it would have been some other trash anyway.”

“Don’t think so highly of yourself,” I snapped, “You are nothing but a despicable vampire! You are a monster! You had better wish that I don’t make it out alive today. If not, I will reveal all your disgraceful acts. I’m sure the High Council isn’t the only one who can convict you.”

“You dare threaten me?” he snarled furiously, slamming my head against the wall again as punishment, “You can go ahead and tell the entire world about our little encounter today. No one can do anything about it.”

My mind was starting to spin uncontrollably, but I tried not to let it overwhelm me. I had to get out of this situation. He wasn’t going to let me off, but I couldn’t just wait for him to kill me. I tried to fight off his incredible strength again. It was still futile.

“You surprise me, Christabel. You don’t give a damn that I could crush you on the spot at all. Why do you even resist? You know you can’t win. Is that why Night is interested in you? ” His eyes suddenly turned to plain murderous. “Too bad..., I hate surprises like you.”

“What do you...plan to do...with me?” I muttered weakly, grasping onto my leftover consciousness.

“I believe that I once gave you the easy way out, Christabel. I got my vampires to give you a quick easy death with the werewolf’s strain. That way, you wouldn’t even notice that you had gone insane and died. But you chose not to receive my kindness. I heard that Luna tried to get rid of you too. Yet, you are still here, at the mercy of my clutches where I can manipulate you however I want to. You have been lucky, but your luck ends here.”

He jerked my head roughly to the burning furniture behind him, ignoring the fact that my neck was on the brink of breaking. He was seeking entertainment in my pain. The flames were spreading from the burning couch to the rest of the furniture and curtains, including the floor of bodies. It was widening its territory furiously, and the blazing heat was starting to reach us.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you die, at least not today. I’ll make sure someone notices the fire and saves you,” he smirked, “If you dare to pit yourself against me, you don’t deserve an easy death. I will ruin and destroy you. You have stood in my way long enough.”

He took in a deep breath, and his smug grin got wider and more frightening. He brought his lips next to my ear, wanting to make sure I took in every single word he said.

“I will make sure that you writhe in so much pain...and beg me...to kill you... I’m going to make your life...a living hell...”

I shuddered uncontrollably at his words. An unknown fear was building up inside me. He wasn’t going to kill me directly. But then, what was he planning to do? I thought that I knew the answer at the back of my mind already. I just didn’t want to go there.

“I should applaud your efforts for making it so far though. You have made me spent a substantial amount of time on you. Normally, I wouldn’t even spare a glance at normal bloods. Not many had been able to go against me for so long and yet still breathe the same air as me...”

“You won’t...get away with this. Night won’t...”

He slammed my head against the wall, harder than the previous time. “I told you not to use Night against me,” he growled.

I could feel the trickling of blood from my forehead, and my consciousness was starting to give way. As I struggled not to lose myself into a coma, I noticed that he was scrutinising me with those dark eyes that were the embodiment of evil.

He took out a small vial from his pocket and waved it back and forth in front of my eyes. The colourless liquid inside followed his movement. The liquid was kept in by a red rubber stopper that seemed tightly fitted at the mouth of the vial.

“Curious? This is an anti-venom that had been developed by the funding of the High Council. This small amount of liquid is the reason why the normal bloods have been disappearing. They were our guinea pigs to try out how successful we were with creating the anti-venom.”

“Guinea pigs?!” I exclaimed in horror, “What exactly have you done to all those vampires who have disappeared?!”

“The anti-venom in this vial has the ability to destroy the vampire venom that changed those pathetic humans into vampires. Your kind should never have had the privilege to enjoy the extraordinary gifts that have been bestowed upon vampires. Of course, this is still in the experimental stage, which explains the amount of tests we have been carrying out. But soon, all those contaminating the vampire society will be gone.”

For a moment there, he was lost in his own world, speaking with so much ambition. His eagerness to preserve a world where only blue bloods existed was obvious.

“All those exotic ingredients and scientific knowledge that goes into making something so small and yet so powerful...,” he sighed in awe, “Only vampires have the ability to do something like that.”

Exotic ingredients...? I didn’t know how or why, but I was suddenly experiencing an epiphany. As irrelevant and crazy as it might seem, I simply threw in everything I knew that seemed exotic to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if the phoenix tears that Deleon had tried to obtain were for him. Both of them were in the same league. Something that could cause temporary immunity to death was definitely exotic. And then..., there was the bunch of elves, including Violet, which she had told us about. Elves were definitely exotic. Their longevity and magical abilities made them more special than many others.

“The phoenix tears..., the elves...,” I muttered, “Please don’t tell me those were your doing too...”

“Hmm..., you know about those too? You really know too much for your own good,” he frowned, “Those were necessary, especially the elves. We’ve managed to extract the gene in them that caused longevity and hasten the ageing process to fit that of a normal human. Hastening is easier than stretching a limited lifespan. That was the most efficient way for the anti-venom to counter the regenerative ability that prevents unnecessary ageing in vampires. The phoenix tears ensures that the normal blood changes back into a human so that the contents of the anti-venom would not be too overwhelming for those weaklings to endure.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier if you just kill them?” I retorted, “Killing should be your forte. Why bother making sure that they change back to humans?”

“Of course I don’t care if they really change back to humans or not. But the High Council does. This isn’t just about vampires. It’s a show for the rest of the world to see, a portrayal of a vampire’s power and magnanimity. In the eyes of those ignorant low-lives, we will be doing a good deed by offering to change back those who had become vampires once the anti-venom has succeeded. Needless to say, there are quicker methods to get rid of those worthless normal bloods than research on an anti-venom, but violence is never the long term solution.” He snorted. “Even I get tired of killing sometimes. With this little thing, there won’t even be normal bloods to begin with. The previous concoction of the anti-venom, which was tested on those vampires that belonged to Night, failed due to too little of the phoenix tears.”

“Lex? And the twins?” I exclaimed in horror, “What happened to them?!”

“They changed back to human for about eight hours... And then disintegrated into a pool of blood,” he shrugged since it was of no concern to him, “Regardless, this was an improvement from the previous tests. The first time we ever tried this thing out, that worthless piece of crap just exploded from within. The proportion of contents inside this vial had been adjusted to eliminate the disintegrating problem, even though it had not been tested yet.”

His taunting grin suddenly widened, revealing his sharp canines again. Uneasiness overwhelmed me. I knew exactly how this was going to end.

“Guess what? You are going to test it out for me.”

I gasped in horror. He was planning to change me back into a human?! In addition, his unstable anti-venom would possibly turn me into a pool of blood after several hours later. In a state of panic, I struggled to break free from his grip again. But it was expected that he was still too strong for me.

“LET GO OF ME!!” I screamed, trying to fight off his strength that was pinning me against the wall. He didn’t even budge.

He plucked off the rubber stopper from the vial with his teeth. He poured the contents into his mouth without swallowing it and threw the vial away. Without hesitation, he ripped off the fabric around my shoulder area and tore through my flesh. His sharp fangs sank into my neck, forcing pain into my body.

This was the second time I had been bitten by a vampire. Even though vampire blood wasn’t of great interest to vampires, he didn’t let any of the blood gushing out go to waste. He was indulging himself in it, like all those humans that he had fed on had done nothing to curb his thirst. But unlike the first time, there was a cold heavy feeling spreading, significantly covering up the acidic vampire venom that had entered my body once again. The anti-venom had crept into me through the wound that he had created. It felt like every part of me that the anti-venom was in contact with froze almost immediately. I couldn’t feel anymore. The numbing sensation was so strong that it was starting to hurt, and pain was relentlessly pouring out from within the numbness.

The excruciating pain wasn’t like the vampire venom that I had experienced before.

It was worst.

My entire body felt like it was being contorted. It felt like my bones, my every nerve and muscle was being broken into pieces while forcefully twisting it. Torture was elevated to the highest level. Then, when the pain reached its threshold, it turned back into numbness, as though vampire healing was doing its job. But that wasn’t the end of it. Just when I thought that the worst was over, the entire process started again.

The cycle just went on and on. There didn’t seem to be an end to it.

I couldn’t remember much amidst the agony. But I could constantly hear screaming occupying my ears. It took a while before I realised that I was the one screaming. My mind repeatedly blacked out from the insufferable pain.

My consciousness was broken into bits and pieces, and nothing was clear anymore.

The first thing I realised after the first few cycles of torture were over was that he was no longer feeding on my blood. I searched for his presence, but everything was a blurred sight. And then, with a few weak gasps, the torture took over and I blacked out again.

The next moment I could make sense of myself, I was leaned against the wall. I thought that I was dead like everyone else. I didn’t believe him when he said that he wasn’t going to take my life today. He couldn’t be trusted. But that thought was immediately erased when the pain once again poured on me like raining knives.

Time was an oblivion factor when I was enclosed in nothing but suffering. I didn’t know how long it took for me to realise that the frequency of the cycles was lessening, and that there was more numbness than ever. I laid on the floor, waiting for the next cycle to be inflicted on me. But he appeared right before me again, his black eyes glistering with satisfaction. This time round, he was holding someone else in his arms. He was still unsatisfied by the amount of blood he had drank. Blood was dripping down from his lips onto her lacy clothing. Her eyes were closed, but there was distress on her expression. She let out a soft weak moan as he brought his fangs closer to her.

Aunt...Caroline...

I tried to move...or at least let out a sound. But nothing was working. I couldn’t even breath properly anymore, let alone stop him. I didn’t know if I was still breathing or not...

I was forced to watch, as he devoured her like a hungry beast. How I wished that the next cycle of pain would consume me now, and save me from watching helplessly as he fed on her blood. He was more aggressive than when he injected the anti-venom into me, perhaps because she was important. Amidst the torture, I was surprised that I could still feel anguish. I should have done something. I was the only one who could have found a way to save everyone. But I was rendered useless in the end.

As he drank her blood furiously like a savage beast, his hands ripped her body apart like shredding paper, allowing more blood to gush out everywhere. The thick red liquid splattered all over the place like badly splashed paint, and her flesh and bones joined the rest of the bodies as fuel for the raging fire.

She was dismembered into pieces...alive...

I was overwhelmed by the next cycle of pain again, and everything else became a blank. When I was brought back to reality, I could feel the scorching heat approaching me. I could vaguely see the sea of redness angrily engulfing everything. I could feel the wetness on my cheeks caused by the non-stop pouring of tears from my eyes.

But Aunt Caroline wasn’t there anymore. And he was gone too.

...Gone...

I tried to think, but my mind was working slowly, recovering from the tormenting rounds it had been put through. I tried to make sense of whatever I was feeling and seeing, but I suddenly couldn’t understand a single thing.

The sea of red came towards me like a tsunami, preparing to drown me in its burning flames. Should I be afraid? Should I be running? Should I respond? I didn’t know...

I didn’t know anything anymore...

I waited. I waited for something to happen, for something to start making sense. And then, there was a bright white light that appeared in front of me. It kept me away from the blazing redness. It was...protecting me...?

The last thing I remembered, before everything became dark, was a pair of silver liquid eyes staring at me...

And then, amidst the darkness, there was a familiar velvet voice calling out to my name...

To be continued...

Author's Note: If you are wondering, this is the scene in the prologue. Killer chapter. I'm 80% dead... 20% trying to revive myself...