Cohen took Eona to the room beside Rouen's bedchamber as ordered by Austria, while Sin followed and waited for further instructions from the duke himself. He carefully lay the girl in the queen-sized bed before they watched her unmoving body, not knowing what to do next. They have no idea why she ended up unconscious or where the blood in her hands and neck came from because she didn't have any bitemarks visible. She doesn't even look like someone who has been attacked based on how serene she is sleeping at the moment. Using his ability, the blood on the hands and neck of Eona vanished like it had never been stained in the first place. Cohen frowned when he noticed something that the filigree lines on her neck are more visible this time and they seemed to have been multiplied. As if the seal itself is slowly etching itself to be whole.
"Is that a seal on her neck?"
"Is this the first time you have seen it?"
"Yes."
Cohen was left in his thoughts. What triggers it to still slowly appear even after being put to a halt by the vampire that was protecting Eona from the shadows?
Sin's brow furrowed as he tried to remember where he had seen a seal drawn in its entirety with the same filigree lines as the one on Eona's neck. He knew he had seen a seal like that before. Maybe not on a person's skin, but in a textbook he accidentally found when he was young. But having lived for too long, he just can't remember what it was for.
"Sin, I want you to enter her thoughts."
Sin stared at Cohen. Does he need to inform him that he is not capable of doing what he is asking him to do or shall he just try entering her thoughts again this time and see where it will take him? Maybe he should try doing the latter.
"Now?"
"Yes. That's the reason why I brought you here with me."
After contemplating for a few seconds, Sin found himself agreeing on what Cohen was asking him to do because he, too, had something he needed to find out. He knew Eona was different. He just can't tell how. Sin then pulled a chair and put it beside Eona's bed before he sat there comfortably. He then looked at Cohen who was standing not far away from them both, all playfulness gone from his face.
"If my aura changes from green to red, wound me using any means."
"Why?"
"That's the only way you can pull me out of danger," Sin said for the last time before his forest green eyes glistened like they were electric. A green aura engulfed his whole being and the same covered Eona's body.
This time, Sin was able to enter Eona's thoughts, though, in exchange for a headache he had never felt in his entire existence. He knew he was a trespasser and that someone was keeping him at bay, but he needed to do this. It was not an everyday thing that he could enter the girl's thoughts. He glanced around him. Everything is black. There wasn't even any sound he could hear. As if Eona's thoughts were empty. He walked forward. One step at a time. He could see but could see nothing. Does that even make sense?
"Is it normal for a human thought to be this… empty?" He thought to himself. He has been walking for quite some time and every direction he has taken is a dead end.
"Curious, are we?"
Sin whisked his head to the side, but instead of seeing who that voice came from, he was transported to another place. It is snowing heavily as the wind whistles. Everything was in ruins. The gardens, the forests. As if a war had just taken place. But what surrounds him isn't an after effect of a human being's war, more like an after effect when supernatural beings born with abilities that can reconstruct the natural structure of the earth fought with each other.
"Is this Eona's memory?"
"You could say it is. Though it's not exactly hers."
It was then when someone materialized not too far from him. It was a man he had never met. As the stranger stood there under the harsh winds silently, Sin could feel his commanding presence. Sin's eyes widened upon seeing the color of the stranger's eyes - they were a dark red. A Noble Blood. He was right all along. Someone had something to do with why Eona's thoughts were guarded and it must be this man in front of him.
"You were right aside from the first one," Aelvien said, pertaining to what Sin was currently thinking.
Sin's eyes glistened dangerously. He made sure his thoughts were sealed. He does that whenever he's invading someone's thoughts to be on the safe side. But how come this man can easily gain access to it?
"No need to be cautious, Silver Blood. I'm here to stop you from bleeding to death."
"What?"
Aelvien gestured his hand and there in front of him, Sin saw himself in the guestroom like he was watching it from another corner of the room he was in. His aura's color didn't change but blood trickled down his nose as well as his eyes.
"Your aura will change if you are in danger in someone else's thoughts. Am I right? But within this girl's thoughts, the normalcy you knew is distorted. The barrier I put inside this girl's mind is designed to kill those who persist in entering it without my permission. She has memories no one is allowed to know, even herself, because it will put her life at risk and I cannot allow that to happen."
"Does that mean you have given me the privilege to enter her thoughts?"
"No. You are only in the gateway and you are still alive because my presence alters the barrier a bit. You should be aware that you are only able to be here at this point because I am here to meet you."
Sin fell silent. He really wanted to know who this man was but he needed to know what occurred in the greenhouse first. "What happened to Eona?"
"In the greenhouse?"
"Yes."
"Her emotions were unstable, making her see something she should not have seen," Aelvien paused. "More of like, she went to see a past and experienced it for the second time."
Sin frowned. "Can a human being do that?"
"She is an exemption. I only put her to sleep as a precaution."
Sin's brow furrowed. "Precaution from what?"
"Something that you are not yet allowed to know."
Sin was silent as he gathered his thoughts. There was something big surrounding Eona's existence and this man in front of him was certainly in the middle of it.
"And the seal?"
Aelvien stared at Sin openly. He was the one who was guarding Eona's memories and her thoughts, thus he knew this wasn't the first time Sin tried to enter it to look for answers. He was also intrigued, so he decided to meet him here. Sin's power isn't that of the norm even though he was a Silver-born vampire. Aelvien could tell that. He felt it the first time Sin tried to invade Eona's thoughts. And there's still a chance for it to grow stronger with the right guidance. Upon meeting the Silver Blood, he now knew who had sired his family head. It was Figlia Adair. One of the Nobles who were cast away from Elysia - a traitor whom he has yet to find along with the others.
Aelvien started to disappear from Sin's view slowly, like a smoke starting to blend in with the wind. "Silver Blood, the seal cannot be allowed to appear completely on her skin..... Remember that."
Sin gained his consciousness right after that conversation he had. For the first few seconds, he was completely out of it, so he composed himself before raising his hands towards his face and felt the blood that was now trickling down his face from his nose and eyes. He really is bleeding.
"How long has it been?"
"Half an hour."
Sin frowned before he stood. Half an hour? He's been at the gateway of Eona's thoughts for that long? But he felt like it had only been minutes. And who was it he saw back there? He said he was wrong when he thought he was a Noble. But are there any vampires born with red eyes aside from them? Sin glanced down on Eona, who was still sleeping soundly. His thoughts regarding that being he saw were in disarray until he came to a realization.
"Shit!" He whispered.
It wasn't a Noble that was protecting Eona from the shadows. It was a vampire who stood above all Nobles, a Royal. They really are wrong with regards to what they know about their existence. The Purebloods did not disappear after the Blood War. They have just hidden themselves from everyone. What if the country they live in wasn't wiped out from the map like what they read in the records hidden in their archives? What if someone from their race who has the ability to conceal its existence has hidden it from everyone's view?
"Did you find out what happened?"
Sin stared at Cohen while his thoughts came back to what that man he met at the gateway of Eona's thoughts said. "The seal cannot be allowed to appear completely on her skin. It will endanger her life and those around her. Do not tell anyone what transpired here. Remember that."
"No," he answered vaguely.
The man he met said Eona saw something she should not see. That she went to the past and experienced it for the second time. But he did not explain further, so Sin was left with more questions in his mind than the answers he was able to get. Sin knew he never found the answers he needed, but he sure had learned something from that meeting. Eona, whose existence can drive his friend Rouen crazy, is not an ordinary human because in the shadows she is being guarded by a being far stronger than the rest of them. He is a vampire who belongs to a race of vampires which they thought had perished after all this time.
***
Rouen could literally hear Eona's steady rhythm of breathing while she was asleep because she was resting in the room next to his courtesy to his mother. No one knew what happened when he left her in the greenhouse garden and everyone wondered what made Eona scream horrifyingly before she lost consciousness. At first they suspected that someone had trespassed inside the palace, but the sentinels did not find any trace. He could not help but think of what happened to him when he was five. When he saw something as if it was reality. Did it also happen to Eona somehow? It came to his knowledge that Sin tried to enter her thoughts as per Cohen's instructions, but his friend remained tight-lipped. He thought he must have failed again in knowing what was inside Eona's mind, but he could feel Sin knew something. He just chose not to say anything.
Guilt made itself known to him. It started to eat him from the inside as it gnawed its way out. His mother was right. He should never have left her alone. For a human being, one as clueless as her, their world is such a very dangerous place. He did not want to associate himself with Eona. In fact, he really doesn't associate himself with any women outside his family - supernaturals or naturals alike. But the other part of him is craving to be with her, as if he knew something the normal him doesn't. He sighed and brushed back his hair with his fingers as he leaned his back on the window pane, his arm resting on his knee while his other foot was resting on the marbled floor. He could not think straight about Eona being around. She brought an unwanted hurricane of emotions that crashed into him like a violent wave on the shore from the minute they met and he didn't know what to do with it. He remembered the words of his grandfather Aureus when he visited him.
"You, vampires, call your other half beloved. Us, werewolves, call ours demi lune and humans refer to them as twin flames. Each race may have a different way of recognizing them, but aren't we all pertaining to soul mates? We meet them when we least expected it and they will bring a hurricane of emotions with them - emotions which we as their other half will have a hard time comprehending. We fall and we let ourselves fall deeper, not knowing how deep. We hurt and we keep ourselves hurting if it means they will be happy in return. We grow up selfish yet they will have the ability to make us give up everything we have for them. It doesn't have to be the physical sparks that will make you recognize her, it has to be the fact that you feel at home with her presence. She brings complete disorder and confusion yet you still embrace her with open arms."
"Eona literally brought chaos into my life and took me out of my solitude."
His grandfather smiled fondly. "Isn't that a good thing?"
"How is that a good thing?"
"She made you feel, didn't she? Something you haven't felt before… "
A smile etched its way into his lips. "Yeah, she did…" He whispered.
Rouen closed his eyes. Not to sleep but to rest for a while, because sleep is something he's not capable of doing. He tried not to think even though he was awake. It has been his way of resting ever since he was young. He only opened his eyes when he heard the French doors in the room beside his opened and from where he was sitting, he could see Eona walking out on the veranda, uncaring if the wind that embraced her the moment she went out of her room is chilly. What does she think she is doing? She'll get sick if she stays outside in the middle of the night.
She looked so serene under the moonlight. Her white-blonde hair, which was in disarray from sleeping for a few hours, didn't make her any less beautiful as it danced along with the wind and her violet eyes glistened every now and then. Eona looked down on the city not far below the palace with a soft smile drawn across her pink lips. Her mind obviously was wandering far beyond what her eyes could see.
He watched her silently and stayed like that for a while. The attachment he's feeling towards her just won't keep his heart rest and the emotions he feels only build up every minute. The invisible thread that entangled them together seemed to have been pulling him towards her and the more he saw her, the more he wanted to be selfish and monopolize her. To think she's not even his beloved. Did he do something unforgivable for fate to be playing with him this way? When he saw her shiver from the wind, he went down the window pane, pulled his coat from the chair and went towards Eona, who felt his presence even before he spoke.
"Who told you to come out here in the middle of the night? The wind is chilly at this hour and you might end up sick."
Eona glanced at Rouen, who placed his coat over her shoulders without a word. She held it tight, close to her body. He could be caring in an instant and rude the next, but Eona did not voice her thoughts out loud. She'll just enjoy this moment that he is being kind to her. Who knows? He might be back to how he usually acts when the sun rises.
"Thank you," she whispered as she held on to his coat for warmth.
"How are you?"
Eona stared at him. He somehow looked guilty. "I'm fine…" Well, at least she can tell she is, though she can't really remember what happened after Rouen left her in the garden.
She was not sure whether she'd address him formally or just call him by his name without sounding rude. They are, after all, both students of Hillcrest Academy though they belong to different departments. On the other hand, he is born a prince and she is only a normal human being.
"You can call me Rouen."
"Can I, really?"
Rouen nodded as he rested his arm on the marble balustrade. He leaned as he looked down on the city grounds. With his ability as a vampire, he could see clearly the things that appear to be a blur for Eona from that distance. The city is bustling with life because of the upcoming festival. "Yes. And I'd like to apologize for the way I acted back in the greenhouse. I know and I'm aware that I was rude back there."
She remained silent. What was she supposed to answer? Was she supposed to forgive him? She knew Rouen had his own reasons as to why he acted that way and she had her own reasons for feeling what she felt. If she put everything into consideration, both of them would be held accountable. She couldn't say she forgave him and she couldn't ask for forgiveness. She can't say what he did is alright because it really is not. She inhaled. She breathes in the air where scents of different flowers linger. It was really refreshing.
"What was it like to be born a vampire?"
Rouen sat on the balustrade. Ready to answer every question she has in store. "What do you want to know?"
Eona shrugged. "Anything? Right now, I'm a glass waiting to be filled with information this world holds."
"It's not all about roses and galaxies, gem. We may have been born with a lengthened life, but we can die. There are ways to kill us and vampire hunters mostly know them all. We are known better as beings with semi-immortal life. No supernatural actually has an immortal life, contrary to what you naturals believe. The worst part of being a vampire is that we depend on blood to live. We can go on for days without drinking blood, but that will only worsen our thirst, which means the risk of us killing the first human we see is higher."
"What about you and the sun?"
"First Bloods, Silver and Golden borns have a higher tolerance to the sunlight so we can go out walking under the sun during the day to such degree. It also applies to the Gentry. But those who are below us, New Bloods and Lepers, fear the sunlight because they will surely burn. That is in your world. Aceldama has less risk. It is where we reside after all, so those who can stand the heat freely go out during the daylight."
Rouen told her everything about their life, the pros and cons, the beautiful and the ugly, even the good and the bad. He did not try to sugarcoat his words. He tried to be as genuine as he could while using words that wouldn't make Eona cower in fear. Eona listened, silently taking in everything he said. Her eyes held so much interest. At one time, she even found herself sitting on the balustrade beside him, who promised not to let her fall down.
"Will you turn me into one of you?"
Rouen was dumbfounded. "What?" Her life is so important that he never thought of doing such a thing. He didn't want to bring her into a world where she would depend on blood to live. "No."
"Why?"
"Because by then, you'll stop aging."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"How is that a good thing? You get to watch your loved ones die and you will have to depend on blood to live."
"What does blood taste like?"
He grimaced. Where on earth is she digging her questions from? "Sweet and filling," he sarcastically answered, hoping she'd stop asking, but her eyes only glistened in curiosity. "Shit!" He thought.
"Oh, like cakes?"
"No, like blood," he dead-panned.
She frowned and then went silent for a while. "Then promise me you'd turn me into one someday. When I'm older."
"You'd be better off living your days as you are. This life will not bring you happiness as much as the life you have right now."
"What if I'm about to die?"
"I won't let that happen."
"But I will die, Rouen."
"So am I, precious. Same thing."
Eona laughed. She could see he was bothered when she mentioned her dying. He was not able to hide it well behind his indifferent answer.
"Would you like to see the city grounds tomorrow?"
"Will you be coming with me?"
"Yes."
Rouen didn't know that she and the sun weren't exactly friends. But who knows? The rules of this place might also apply to her. She just has to see that tomorrow.
"Okay."
Rouen didn't know how long they had been talking with each other. He found it easy to talk to her. That is what he felt at that moment. On a few occasions, Eona threw him questions that he found almost hard to answer and at times, she would just stay silent. Her attention fully focused on him as he talked. When he felt her rest her head on his shoulders, Rouen glanced down at the girl beside him. She's asleep. With the most peaceful heartbeat he had ever heard. He smiled softly as he tucked a few strands of her hair behind her ear.
"You're not supposed to fall asleep beside a vampire who can drink your blood dry."
After contemplating, he carried her back to her room and lay her carefully on the bed. With a small smile, he touched her cheek using the back of his forefinger. He decided to let her into his life and he never felt any regret at all, because he enjoyed the time he spent with her, even if it was just for a while.
"Sleep soundly. I'll show you the city tomorrow as promised."
***
Kaien walked towards his office in Hillcrest while different thoughts occupied his mind after he arrived from the headquarters of their association. The appearance of Lepers in the city is making them busy unlike before and they have already assembled all the hunters available. They can not avoid their responsibilities as hunters any longer because human lives are already put on the line. Someone is behind the sudden appearance of Lepers in the world of the living and they needed to know who it was the soonest possible time, because if they will not be able to stop the killings, the Alliance will surely grab the chance to make everyone know about the existence of beings who dwell in the night which they as hunters cannot allow because it will destroy the fragile balance established in between supernaturals and naturals.
Upon entering his office, he was greeted by an unknown and unexpected visitor who was sitting calmly on one of the guest chairs in his office's receiving area. As if he had been there waiting for him to arrive. With one glance at the color of his eyes, he knew he was not one of those vampires he was working with. He suddenly raised his guard. He may have been working with vampires, but he didn't know this one. He pulled out his guns from their holsters beneath his coat and pointed them towards the intruder, but before he could speak, before he could ask him anything, a gun was suddenly pointed at his head from his right while a sword's blade was held towards his neck from his left. As if the ones who held those weapons suddenly just appeared beside him from nowhere.
Kaien knew with just one wrong move, he'd be dead. Had he been staying inside the confines of his office for so long that he didn't notice those two beside him, or even the other ones inside the room for that matter, beside the one sitting in the guest chairs?
"Lower your guns, hunter." Siegrain, who was then standing by the bookshelves, said. His sapphire blue eyes glistened with a warning. "And you two, didn't I tell you to stay calm? Withdraw your weapons."
Archer pulled away from Kaien without a word before he slipped his sword back into its case while Lancer put his gun back on the holster attached on his thigh. "He pointed his gun towards the Monarch, can you blame us?"
Kaien was stunned. Did he just say… Monarch? He stared at the man sitting calmly in one of the guest chairs. He did not try to conceal the color of his eyes, which were a dark red, and that gave away the fact that he is one of the Purebloods whose existence can only now be found in records of the past. But for one of them to be addressing him as the Monarch… Is he really the one who kept the balance of life back in the Golden Age a thousand years back? The one who went missing during the Blood War? He doesn't look threatening. In fact, he looked like he wouldn't hurt a thing.
Someone chuckled and Kaien's eyes lingered on the one who was sitting effortlessly on the window pane. A man with silver hair and golden eyes.
"Werewolf," he thought. He just knew that he was one, but then somehow he wasn't.
"Do not let yourself be misled by the way he looks," the werewolf said, as if he had been reading his thoughts. "Aelvien is, after all, someone who has executed those under his protection because his responsibility requires him to do so. He would kill anyone as long as he needed to."
Kaien wanted to ignore what the werewolf said but he somehow knew his words held the truth in them. For these two beings to be together inside a room like it was normal, are they the ones Eona mentioned to him before? Then what are they doing in his office when he is sure they know that, right now, the girl is in Aceldama?
"Saber, why didn't you move?" Blaze asked when he focused his attention on Saber who was silently looking over the gardens outside through the window.
Saber subtly gave Blaze a glance before he went back to looking outside. "He would have been dead on the ground if he really posed a threat even if I did not move an inch from where I am standing. Am I right, Siegrain?"
Siegrain sighed. He really should not have allowed them to accompany him and his master when Aelvien decided to meet Kaien Cross - the man Eona trusted to tell about their existence. Saber's reason was to see where Eona transferred, while Archer and Lancer came together with them out of curiosity. And Blaze? He came with them for the reason that he cannot allow Aelvien to use his power if ever the need arises, because he knew that his friend's life force was still unstable even after sleeping for such a long time. With Kaien's caliber as a vampire hunter, they knew he could pose a threat to them alone if he ever ended up their enemy.
"We did not come here to kill or be killed. We came here to talk. Can you please all behave?"
Blaze just grinned while Saber, Archer and Lancer stayed in their chosen part of the room without saying a single word. But Siegrain knew they would always be ready to fight if ever something went wrong. He understands them. They are beings who have been discarded after being used like tools for the gain of the organization who experimented on them out of their own free will, who made them the way they are right now - humans, but at the same time, they are not. It was Aelvien who took them without question under his wing, thus it was only natural for them to protect him out of their instinct. And no matter what Siegrain says, even if those three consider him worthy of their respect, they will surely disregard his words if ever Aelvien's life is put in danger.
"Who are you people?" Kaien asked when he finally gained back his composure.
"Those three are Saber, Archer and Lancer. Modified human beings who are now working with us under my command. My name is Siegrain and I work for him," he gestured at the Pureblood vampire, "Aelvien Xerl Landegrei, the Monarch, who is friends with him, Blaze Genithike Knightly, the Werewolf Supreme."
Kaien blinked. Hoping that he is just dreaming. Hoping that these people were kidding. Hoping that he had misheard what he said. But what was in front of him did not change. And the seriousness etched on their faces says they aren't saying things to make fun of him. They introduced themselves to him directly to make him understand. Siegrain. He knew that name. He had read about him in different books when he was still in training. Nobody seemed to have their interest focused on him, unlike he does, so he must have been the only one in the association who knew that he was a human being capable of killing a few purebloods before the Blood War. And to see him face to face a thousand years later seemed to have been unrealistic, but here he is in the flesh.
"Shall we discuss the reason as to why we are here?"
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