Kings of Awakening Vampires and Purebloods (34 page)

The young man chopping the wood said, “Are you just going to stand there and stare at me all day?”

Albedo looked away and apologized. The young man walked into the house and closed the door.

“C’mon we have to keep moving. I can see the town, it’s over there,” said Sonia.

Albedo could not shake off the look he had given him, a look of hatred and sadness. Sonia noticed it had bothered him. She always wondered why he felt the need to make people happy; she figured that was just in his nature.
 

They made it to the town, which was small and quiet. The town appeared to be disserted, like everyone had just up and vanished.  All doors and windows on the streets were closed, and the windows were boarded, and the grass was overgrown. There was an eerie silence but, they could feel the town’s people watching them through the windows, whispering. “That’s them; they’re here to hunt the vampires that have been terrorizing our town.” The people did not like the idea of more bloodsuckers in their town, but knew they had no choice. What can a bunch of humans do against a vampire or a Pureblood, whichever one they’re dealing with?

Most of the blood-rain was gone; it had reached all the way to north Inferno.

             
They walked on the old road.

“Let’s go see the head of the town, I believe his name is Frank,” said Angelione.

The head of the town was a man named Frank. He was old and had been their leader for as long they could remember.

As Albedo looked around, this pla
ce had little security, unlike south Inferno.

“Am I the only one who thinks this place is creepy?” asked Dante.

Axil put his hand on Dante’s shoulder, “You’re not scared are you? If you want to go back home, we’re not going to judge you.”

Dante stuck out his chest in defiance and raised his voice, “I have no fear, I was just curious that’s all!”

              They made it to the house. The maid welcomed them inside the house, where she had food and drink prepared for their arrival. “You’ve been on a long journey, go eat and rest for a little while, Frank will be with you in a short time.”

The smell of the food caught their nostrils. Dante and Albedo wasted no time, “Let’s dig in!”

“As creepy as this town is, the food is very delicious!” exclaimed Dante.

“You’re right about that,” said Albedo.

Frank’s house was the biggest and the least creepy one in the town. The inside was very elegant. The walls were made with bricks covered in a coat of white paint. Everything was well organized.

The maid came back and said, “Frank would like to meet with you now.”  She was a commendable
woman, and spoke politely.

They headed in a room to see Frank; there he sat on a black old chair. He sat at the head of a long table with candles on it. There were bookshelves on each side of the walls, and a fireplace behind Frank.

“Thank you for coming all the way here, we are grateful.”

Standing next to him was his son Michael who also reminded Albedo of Axil; enigmatic and quiet most of the times.

“This is my son, Michael.” Frank was getting old, and Michael was in line to take his place.

“Thank you for having us. What’s been going on? What’s with this zombies coming back from the dead?” asked Sonia.

“It’s obvious. Ethan and his mother are behind it,” said Michael quickly with his arms crossed.

“Ethan?” asked Angelione.

“He lives in the woods with his mother. They must be vampires or Purebloods like you, they’re hiding it from the rest of us. They’re the ones who have been killing our innocent people.”

They could tell from the way Michael spoke that he had a deep hatred for vampires and Purebloods.

Frank wasn’t happy with Michael’s answer, “Now now my son, you don’t have any evidence, so don’t go accusing them.”

Albedo was beginning to understand a little about Ethan, the boy he’d come across in the woods.

“It’s true that there is a monster amongst us, killing our innocent children. Just because Ethan lives in the woods doesn’t mean that he’s a vampire. Remember son, a good leader always thinks carefully,” said Frank.

Michael hated being lectured by his father, he hated the way he operated things. “Why are we still talking about this? We know who they are, so let’s go after them!”

“No,” said Albedo impatiently. “Ethan is not the one responsible for all this.”

Michael looked angry that an outsider was
interfering with their affairs. But something Michael failed to understand is that Inferno belongs to the king. “And how would you know?”

“Because I know,” said Albedo with an adamant face.

Angelione put a hand over Albedo’s shoulder, his job was to watch and keep quiet. But of course Sonia knew that was impossible. Albedo was not going to stand there and not say what was on his mind. You can tell him not to but he will do it. It was as if the words had gone into his ears and disintegrated before reaching his brain.

“I don’t know why we have to bring his
majesty’s dogs into our affair. What business do they have with us?” asked Michael, with a disrespectful tone in his voice.

At that point Dante and Axil wanted to jump over the table and take his head off.

“That’s enough, son! I am the head of this town,” said Frank, wanting to keep his son calm. His son was naïve by raising his voice to a Pureblood, not a vampire. A Pureblood could make you suffer five times harder. Any human would rather have run into a bloodthirsty vampire instead of a bloodthirsty Pureblood.

What a disrespectful child
, thought Sonia.
It’s a good thing we’re the good guys, because he would have been dead by now.

Michael apologized from his father’s request and stormed out the room. They knew of course his apology had no sympathy in it.  Now that he was gone they could get back on their investigation.

“In your report, you said people spotted the dead coming back to life, is that right?” asked Angelione.

“Yes, some of the town’s people said they’ve seen corpses coming to life. My men and I have never seen it. The people have, not just once, but many times,” said Frank.

“Like zombies?” asked Axil.

Dante laughed, “There’s no such thing as zombies. They must be seeing something else.”

Angelione and Sonia had been on enough missions to understand that almost any kind of strange thing is possible.

“So we’re not just dealing with any kind of vampire, but a Pureblood,” said Sonia. “Is it possible
to go look at the grave?”

“Well of course,
I don’t see why not. But why don’t you get some rest first? You’ve been on a long journey,” said Frank. He knew they had been on a long journey and needed some rest.

Angelione wanted to get started, the sooner the mission was done with the better.

“Good idea, we’re all stiff from this journey,” said Dante.

Angelione had no choice as they all agreed they needed to sleep.

***

Angelion
e
and Sonia were asleep now. Axil, Dante and Albedo were up, not able to fall asleep. They slept in a room together, which consisted of three beds and no windows. The room was burning hot, so much so Dante had to freeze part of the wall to match the hot temperature. He froze just enough of the wall not to make the room too cold. A candle was on the table illuminating the room, which Dante hated. The guy was so used to electricity that the very sight of a candle insulted him. Axil and Albedo however had no problem with it.

              “Do you guys believe what they’re telling us?” asked Dante.
Something is just isn’t right here
.

“Just remember what Angelione and Sonia said, anything is possible when it comes to Purebloods,” said Axil.

“What do you think Albedo? You’ve been very quiet ever since you and Michael had the disagreement.”

Albedo looked distracted.
I could use my Elder to see if I can sense any evil from Ethan, if he is indeed what Michael claim he is
. At mid-pondering he heard Dante asking him if he was paying attention. “I don’t really know what to think of all this. I do know one thing, Michael is jumping to conclusions too fast,” said Albedo.  

“You did seem pretty obstinate defending Ethan like that, someone you don’t know.”

Albedo had remembered when he first felt Dante’s and Axil’s energy. How he had felt no evil from them. The Elder somehow had the ability to see into a person’s heart. But by no means did he use the Elder on Ethan, he just knew. Why didn’t master Jarvis tell him about the Elder’s ability to enable you to see the darkness in someone’s heart? Why didn’t he tell him about the lighting in his hand when the Elder started becoming more powerful? Did Jarvis intend for him to find out on his own?

“I think Michael was right about one thing, Ethan is different than anybody else in this town. A
vampire doesn’t need the Elder to recognize each other, but as far as the person bringing corpses back to life, I don’t know,” said Axil.

“A vampire? What about the corpses coming back to life? A vampire can’t do that,” said Dante.

“At this point we don’t know what we’re dealing with. I guess only time will tell us,” said Axil.

Dante looked into Albedo’s bed but he was gone. “Where did he go?”

“He left when you weren’t looking.”

“Well it looks like it’s just the two of us like always.” Dante had a smile on his face. “We used to dream of the day we get to go on a real mission,” said Dante as he reminisced.

“Yes, I remember.”

***

Dant
e
and Axil have been friends for a long time now, they’d been training together since then. They had grown to like and respect each other as they formed a powerful bond of brotherhood. They could remember the day when Angelione had them running up the mountain and had to be back by sunset or they would fail his test. The sun was getting ready to set and while heading back to the city they had stumbled up on a gang of vampires in the woods plotting to attack the castle. Dante and Axil had listened patiently and wondered how to tackle this situation. Axil had suggested they go and tell Angelione, but Dante was fixed on taking them down himself. Someone plotting to attack the castle was something he could not over look. These men had swords and daggers around their waist. They sat in the middle of the forest plotting which way would be best to enter.

“Dante are you stupid or crazy, we’ve been training all day and have no more strength left.” Axil was right, for this test Angelione had not given them any blood supplies.

“C’mon Axil we can take them. With your strength and my ability this will be easy,” said Dante.

One of the men must of heard them talking and pointed out that they were being watch. There were
at least twenty of them. They attacked Dante and Axil. Dante quickly froze one of them. But Dante was weak from training all-day and was weak. Axil tried to help but he himself was too weak. They pinned Dante and Axil to the ground and were ready to kill them. Axil and Dante locked eyes and thought this was the end. Dante’s eyes read forgive me and Axil’s eyes read I do. Earlier that day they had talked about being on their first mission together. Their dream was to become a Black Reaper one day, not apprentices forever. Now this was the end for them. Two men held Dante’s hands and the third had an axe in his hand, he swung it towards Dante’s head and Axil screamed to help his friend.

The man with the axe felt an arrow pierce the back of his neck, killing him instantly. At that moment the king’s guards surrounded them and attacked. Axil saw a man jump down from a tree and slice the two that was holding him.
He then ran towards Dante fast and killed the two that was holding him with his giant sword.

“Master Angelione!
” said Dante.

The fight didn’t last too long.
These bandits were no trouble for the king’s men to handle. Angelione was disappointed; he had been watching them all along.

“But Master, they were planning an attack
on the capital!” said Dante.

Angelione explained to him they had known about the attack, one of the bandits was a spy working for them. These bandits were low-level vampires who thought they might have stood a chance against an army of vampires and Purebloods. Ultimately he failed Dante and Axil for not making the right decision. They should have came to find him and told him instead of acting on their own. Axil had felt the reason Angelione was upset was because they could have gotten themselves killed. What if this was a mission and they chose not to follow his orders? What if he wasn’t secretly watching them? They had learned a great lesson that day.

***

Albed
o
left and climbed to the top of the roof. He lay down and before he knew it he was asleep. A couple hours passed and he woke up.
Why do I like sleeping outside so much
, he thought. He got up and stretched his arms and yawned and headed for bed. As he was about to make his way down from the roof, he sensed something. 
What was that?! The Elder just activated on its own
. He felt something odd coming from the forest. He concentrated on the Elder and felt a strong presence coming from the woods. He jumped to the next house and so on. The more he could prove to them Ethan was innocent then the better. Albedo got closer to the woods and there he could see a light coming from the forest. The light was small, but just enough for him to see. He ran pass Ethan’s house. It was nighttime and he couldn’t see clearly, but the light was guiding his way.