Kings of Awakening Vampires and Purebloods (37 page)

Ethan watched Albedo and his friends fight the zombies, he had never seen Purebloods fight before. They fought as one, telling each other when to move. “Fire,” he watched Albedo’s fire turning the zombies into ashes. He saw Dante freezing their bodies and Axil’s mighty punches
breaking them apart.   At that point he wanted to become part of the team, to fight like them. Dante slammed his hands on the ground; the ice ran through the ground like light in a dark hallway. The zombies’ legs froze from the ice and Axil used his fist to finish the job. One punch from his right hand and the zombies fell apart.

“There’s so many of them, someone must be controlling them,” said Axil.

They continued to break into Ethan’s house, but were cut down by Angelione’s sword. This was Angelione’s chance to find the Pureblood, while its ability was still active. He wanted to find whoever it was, hoping it’s not a Bloodhound. There were too many zombies trying to break in, he could not leave Sonia by herself to fight and protect at the same time.

As the fight continued, Ethan noticed a man standing from a far on top of a tree.
He didn’t think twice as he ran towards the woods.

              “Ethan where are you going?”Albedo followed after him.
Why
isn’t the Elder working properly
? He had tried to use the Elder’s light but it wasn’t responding to him.

“Should we go after them?” asked Axil.

“No, our job right now is to keep as many away from this house as possible,” said Dante. He and Axil wanted to join but stayed to protect the house.

***

“Etha
n
, stop, where are you going?” Albedo quickly caught up to him.

“Look ahead, there’s someone there.”

Albedo focused on the Elder and sensed everyone around him, but not the person he was looking for.
Now the Elder wants to work when I tell it to, but I can’t sense the enemy
.  He jumped up to the highest branch and he scanned the area, he could see a man from afar. “Great job, Ethan!”

              No one had ever praised Ethan before, he felt as if he was a part of the team.

They arrived closer to the man, where
he was standing on top of the highest tree. His body was covered by a long silver robe and a mask on his face to hide his identity. Albedo rushed to a nearby tree to get a better view. Ethan was impressed at how fast Albedo had managed to climb the tree. Ethan was also a Pureblood, but he had not trained his body to increase his strength or speed like Albedo.  

Albedo got up to the tree and from there he was just a few feet away from the enemy, standing on a different branch of the tree. “Who are you?” asked Albedo to the man with the mask.

“Whatever you want it to be.” His voice was not human, it sounded unorthodox.

“So tell me nameless, why are you doing this? Your crime is hurting innocent people!” said Albedo.

He started to laugh, “Innocent people? No one is innocent, Albedo.”

“How do you know my name?” asked Albedo.

“I heard him calling your name,” he replied pointing his finger at Ethan.

Albedo grabbed the small dagger behind his back pocket and charged at him. As Albedo charged at the man, he blocked it with his sword. This man was fast as he
was keeping up with Albedo’s speed.

The power of the Elder did not work on him
, just like it didn’t work on Aleister.  
Why isn’t the Elder working on him? Could he really be a Bloodhound
? Albedo had to use his vision for every step. His ability to sense wasn’t working.

“I would love to stay and fight with you, but I must be on my way,” said the man.

“You’re not going anywhere!” said Albedo.

The man
moved his head, Albedo followed. Albedo could see Ethan was surrounded by his zombies. “You coward!” said Albedo.  He had no choice but to leave the fight and help Ethan. Albedo jumped down to help, as he was in mid-air, he had another crazy idea. “Ethan, jump now!” With no hesitation Ethan jumped as high as he could. As Albedo was coming down, he released the red flames from both hands; the flame annihilated everything in sight. His fire had become almost as big as if he was using the Elder’s light. Nothing remained of the zombies. He looked at his hand and wondered when his flames got this strong.

“Albedo, are you alright? That was incredible,” said Ethan.

He looked back at Ethan with enthusiasm. “Well now the others can see that you’re innocent.”  

Angelione and Sonia went to check on Dante and Axil. The zombies were gone now.

“Are you guys alright? Where’s Albedo and Ethan?”

Albedo and Ethan came walking over the forest and explained what happened. Ethan quickly went to check on his ill mother.

“So now do you guys believe me? There’s another Pureblood here,” said Albedo.

“Did you use the power of the Elder to sense him?” asked Sonia.

Albedo
explained how his power of the Elder was on, but somehow unable to detect this man’s energy.

“So we are dealing with a Bloodhound,” said Angelione.
We must deal with this as swiftly as possible, this Bloodhound must not be allowed to manifest
!

“Hey Dante, are you all right?” asked
Axil.

“Of course I’m alright.
I just needed to release some emotions, that’s all.”

The sun was now long gone, they needed to regroup and start again in the morning.

Birth of a Bloodhound

            
 
“
I
have a few questions for you Frank. Can you tell me what happened to Michael’s mother?” asked Sonia.

The old man’s face turned white as snow.  “His mother was murdered by a vampire, it happened when he was a child. He doesn’t remember anything about her, how warm and beautiful she was.” He looked apprehensive. “I regret the day I told him what happened to her, now he’s obsessed with
killing vampires.”  

“So that explains why he hates our kind,” said Sonia.

“Why do you want to know about Michael?”

“We’re afraid he might do something irrational. He did say he wanted to rally the people and go after Ethan himself. I talked to one of the locals and apparently he’s very persuasive when it comes to the people,” said Angelione.

“Yes he’s very influential.”

***

            
 
Michae
l
had failed to convince his father to go after Ethan. After failing to do so, he left and went into the town in hopes of rallying the people for hunting. He was in the center of the town with a crowd around him with swords, torches, and rakes. “We all know what happened last night! Ethan used one of those many abilities that he has and tried to kill the other Purebloods and his Mother! For years, we’ve known he was a bloodthirsty beast! How long are we going to let him get away with killing us? I say tonight we take action!”

The crowd shouted, “Yeah!”

“Tonight we finish this and hunt down this animal!”

They began to chant loudly, “Mi-ch
ael! Mi-chael! Mi-chael!”

***

            
 
Albed
o
had convinced Ethan to come out with him, Dante and Axil went along. Ethan had never had a friend before, although he always imagined what it would feel like to have one. Having physical friends felt much better than imaginary ones. He started smiling and being happy more since meeting them. The passed by the market and Albedo and the others wondered what was going on as they heard the loud noise. Axil saw a man from a far, running towards the woods with a torch in his hand. They could see the small specks of fire, like torches in the distance throughout the forest.

“Something’s not right,” Axil grabbed one the men. “I’m not going to ask you twice, what’s going on.”

The man looked as if he wanted to piss on himself. He was so afraid of Axil that ultimately his fear took over and he said, “They’re going to burn down the old house.”

“They wouldn’t,” said a surprised Albedo.

They all looked at Ethan and he began to run towards the woods where the people were.

***

            
 
Michae
l
and the others had made it before Albedo could arrive to Ethan’s house. He stood outside with the crowd ready to burn down the house.

“Tonight, we’re taking back our lives!
We’ll burn down the house and this forest!” The crowd went rowdy with approval.

Michael walked in the house with a torch on his hand. Once inside, he saw Ethan’s mother. He walked in her room and there she stared into his eyes, he looked back with hatred.

Before he could drop the torch, she held out a hand to him and said with a smile, “My son.”

Michael dropped the torch as he was startled by her words. “Your son?”
Why did she say my son? What’s going on!
The house quickly caught on fire. Michael looked at her to see that she still had her hand out to him and that smile on her face.

***

            
 
Soni
a
and Angelione saw the procession of people as they could hear the loud noises. The maid came in and told them what was going on. They quickly made their way to the woods.

“Michael is taking things too far,” said Sonia. From a far they could see the flame, spreading to the forest.

***

Th
e
people outside ran when Albedo and his team got there. Michael was outside in front of the house with a dark smile on his face. The house lit up in flames.

“Where are you going you cowards? I thought this was what we came here for!”

Ethan rushed towards Michael and hit him in the face in anger. “What have you done? My mother was inside!”

Albedo despised that look on Michael’s face and wanted to kill
him.
Oh no
, thought Albedo. He could feel it again, that urge to kill rushed in his veins. It was that same feeling with the bear and at the restaurant. If it wasn’t for Strong Arm he might have had actually killed someone. The power of the Elder was bursting out of him, ready to give him the strength he needed to kill.
This desire is strong, is this master Jarvis warned me about?
The sound of Dante using his ability to try to sustain the fire awakened Albedo’s stage of madness. He could feel his heart and eyes pulsating as the bead of sweat ran down his face.
This urge is so strong; this is the killer-lust
? Albedo looked at Michael and said, “Leave before I kill you.”

              Michael saw a look he had never seen before. He ran away from Albedo as fast as he could. As fast as Dante’s ice was evaporating the flames, Albedo saw it wasn’t fast enough. Ethan wanted to rush inside the house and get his mom out of there, but the flame was just too much. Albedo however wasted no time running inside the house.

“Wait stop! It’s too dangerous!” said Axil.

When Albedo looked back he could see Sonia and Angelione arriving, but he was already inside of the house.

“What is he thinking?” said Sonia.  The forest fire was spreading fast. Sonia made her way to go after him. Angelione pulled her back.

              “Sonia no, you might be able to use fire but that doesn’t mean it can’t hurt you.”

Sonia in shock by Michael’s action started to explain to Angelione, “I forgot to mention to him that his hands that emit the fire act as the wick of a candle and remain un-harmed but the rest of his body and flesh acts as the waxy part of the candle that will melt and destroy easily.”

“Sonia, how could you have forgotten to tell him something this vital about the Crimson Flame?”

***

A
s
Albedo made his way through the burning house, the flames around him were severe. The dryness made it hard to breathe. He moved out the way quickly, as he saw part of the ceiling falling down. The smoke made it hard to see and a big part of the ceiling fell on him. He was pinned to the ground by the giant slab of roof that had fallen on him.  His face was burnt by the charred edges of the falling wood. He screamed in agony. He started to wonder how this fire could burn him but the one that he uses doesn’t. Did his body somehow protect him from his own flame? This was the only logical explanation he could think of. He remembered Aleister’s White Crimson Flame burned him, but his was hotter so it makes sense. This red flame was the same one that he uses, so why does it burn so much. He removed the debris from the burning ceiling from his chest and made his way to the bedroom, where Ethan’s mother is located.   His body had third degree burns. His skin was peeling and red with puss as the flames reached him, his flesh exposed as the fire ripped through his skin. It hurt so badly. He got to Ethan’s mother, but half of her body was burned.