• Bloodlines
    Chapter IV: A pain in the neck

    An eerie atmosphere surrounded Christian and Alice. It was dreadful to the fact that even your bones would shiver. The mist inside the mansion gates were thick, so thick that you can cut it with a knife. Christian had difficulties walking, he can barely see where he is going. Alice on the other hand walked without any problems at all.

    There was nothing to see there, maybe it was because you couldn't see at all. If only the mist would clear for them to have a better view of the place. Their footsteps resounded with every step of the way. Each step drawing them closer to a dreadful meeting.

    After a few minutes of walking along the vast, misty mansion grounds. The two have reached the main door. It was made from a durable kind of wood, but was furnished magnificently to reflect the owner's status in life. The door too, had the same aura on it. It had gargoyles for doorknobs, luckily enough they don't talk.

    There was a wide and scheming grin on Alice's face again. Christian stared at her with brows furrowed and eyes unamused. "Do you want me to open the door? Can't you do it yourself?" whined Christian, showing disapproval of the sudden pause in movement.

    "You're the one who needs to see my cousin. So you open the door" explained Alice, her annoyingly calm expression on her face again. Christian sneered and followed, as if he has any other choice. This girl can kill him if he doesn't follow.

    The door gave nothing... even a squeaking sound and he looked at the door's hinges. "The owner of this house is meticulously good at keeping the door well kept... but the yard is too foggy..." commented Christian as he stepped inside. Again, there was nothing much inside. He was starting to wonder if the place was really abandoned and this was all just a joke, but then again... he saw someone sitting on the stairs.

    "So you've come. I've been expecting you" greeted a boy younger than Alice but older than Christian. He wore a cloak with a hood that nearly covered half of his face. He looked somewhat... powerful and fearsome.

    Christian sensed that if ever he did something wrong to this person. He was sure that an apology isn't enough. "So you're the Duchess' younger cousin... kindly tell me what is my offense to you and I'll try if I can clear it up" said Christian, he was confident with his words or maybe just trying to sound cool to hide his fear.

    The boy laughed and he removed the hood. Christian saw his face, he didn't look that much fearsome now. He was just like any ordinary person, without a left eye. Bandages covered the part where his left eye was torn out. He then smiled just like how Alice smiles and answered him, "Haha, that was funny. No, I don't know you and Alice does not refer to me! I just passed by, haha. Just a little reminder dude! I think you're going up against Kyrie. AHAHAHA."

    The boy laughed his guts out as he passed through them and left through the main door, "Ahahahah! HAHAHAHAHA!"

    "What's the problem with that nutcase?" asked Christian as Alice continued up the stairs.

    "I believe that you're the nutcase in that scene earlier. Seriously, have a life for your own sake. You can't even tell if that was the person you're supposed to meet" lectured Alice without even looking at him if he was following, "Try escaping and I'll rip your brains out."

    "Sheesh, I'm not even trying. I can erase you anytime I want to but I just don't do it and you have my mother's saber with you" boasted Christian, as he followed Alice to a room.

    "Go ahead and pull that shitty piece of human weaponry and try to hit me with it. I bet you 1 million gold that you won't land a single hit on me" mocked Alice, hinting Christian that she already knows of that piece of weaponry hidden in his clothes.

    "Drats... is she a mind reader..." thought Christian to himself as Alice stopped in front of another door again. She mentioned him to come closer to the door and open it. Christian followed and opened it without even knocking.

    "Okay! I'm here! What's your problem with me so we can settle this out alrea..." Christian started to shiver like timbers as he was cut from his speech. A huge black panther was gritting it's teeth in front of him. The panther seems to have some ill will to Christian.

    "Sonnet! Stop that..." ordered a voice from inside the pitch black room, "Alice, why are you here and who is that host with you?"

    The room lit up with a flick of a finger and the panther turned around and transformed into a black cat. Christian hurriedly stepped back away from the room and Alice pulled him back in.

    "So this was the host you told me about. I'll leave you two here and go settle this stuff" Alice left as fast as she can, it was obvious that she does not want to have any connection with the place. So much that she doesn't even want to touch anything... this was the reason why she had Christian open the doors for her.

    The door closed shut as Alice left. Christian started to feel his life draining out every second he was in this girl's presence. The girl remained silent as she continued playing the piano. The panther earlier was now a cat sitting at her lap, but he wasn't worried about it anymore. He was more worried about the girl in front of her.

    "You're not from here. Am I right?" asked the girl, raising up a magnum handgun as she turned around to face Christian.

    Christian noticed the said handgun in her hand and replied, "When did she get that gun from me..."

    "You were there on that day right? When some kind of meteor fell down outside Hemia" started the girl as she slowly approached Christian, "You need to apologize to me... for leaving me to die out there."

    "What are you... wait..." Christian stared closely at the girl. She does have hair that greatly resembles that of Alice. Only difference is that she has light brown hair, her face does not show the same annoying calm expression of Alice's, she was of the same age as Christian and she seemed a bit tomboyish though she caught Christian's attention.

    "Tell me, what was that thing that fell from the sky?" she continued asking questions, trying to squeeze a decent answer from him. She leaned closer to him, threatening him with every glare.

    "Even if I tell you! You wouldn't believe me!" confessed Christian, a grim aura gripping over him just like a fiend. He was sweating madly as the girl pressed him to the wall with sheer mental pressure. "At least tell me you're name first so that I can reply in an orderly manner... just don't eat me..."

    "And now you ask my name? After refusing to give me a bite on your neck? After leaving me to dry outside in the sun? After nearly leaving me to die? Don't you even feel a slight urge to help someone in need? or was it because you hated vampires so much that you think you could just leave me out there? Thinking that, oh! she's just a vampire i can leave her to die out here!" yelled the girl at her, the cat returned to it's panther form and helped it's owner in torturing Christian.

    "Okay Okay, I was wrong but that doesn't remove the fact that I hate vampires!" answered Christian as he slid down from the wall to the ground, "You won't understand how much we hate your kind..."

    "What town did you come from and I'll see to it that those vampires are punished! But, I'll have you in court first for leaving me to die out there!" said the girl, backing off away from Christian as she waited for his reply.

    Christian stared at her... he was about to spill something that may either be just laughed at, "Hemia... three thousand years from now..."

    The words hit the girl hard. She tried not to laugh, for she knows that the handgun she got from him wasn't from that time. "My name is Kyrie... and you are?" said the girl, getting off from her current doings. This was something more of a hard to swallow truth and it was better if she learned more of it.

    Christian looked away from Kyrie. He wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do. To spill out the future of the world to the same ancestors of those who persecuted his people. He stood up and straightened himself, "Duchess Kyrie, my name is Christian Vendre."

    Night was about to end and daybreak was only a few hours from now. Kyrie resolved to keep this fact a secret because if any news were to break out about this. Then the future might be the same as what Christian would tell her. To think that a long held peace that existed since the very beginning of vampire history... would be broken a few hundred years from now by a reason yet to be known.