Asha and I held Malek by both his hands as we led the frail looking elder to a table. It was rather wide as it seemed to be made for a group of people, but that did not bother at the moment. I was trying to figure out how to get a bit closer to this vampire elder.
Sousa followed behind us, completely silent, it was as if she could not wrap her head around what just happened, no matter how she looked at it now, I was way above her.
An elder of equal standing, for all intents and purposes her colleague, had just knelt in humility and pledged himself and an entire Coven of vampires to my cause.
It shook her, but she was not alone in that aspect, I was also shaken. I wanted Gus to take a look into her mind, but I was holding back on that decision for now. I'll get to Sousa eventually.
"Because of this commitment of ours, the whole of the Ausolon bloodline Coven would be uprooted from the red district. We have quite a significant amount of resources that we've accumulated over the years, so we can survive on our own for a while, but that's only for a while. And I have no idea how the other members of the council would take this decision of mine. I might get kicked off the council, which would sorely deplete the power I have." Malek explained as he drank a glass of blood.
"We're still finding a way to put out foot on the ground, but feeding wouldn't be a problem, neither would housing. I believe Kael would want to keep you close, and at this point your help is needed the most. Your family built the vampire civilization of the ancient times, I feel ashamed to be asking for your help barely minutes after your Ébó (oath) ceremony, but can you do the same. You would be unsealed soon enough, so I hope you can focus a bit on arranging the infrastructure of the blue district, and make it more like a home and less like a prison."
Asha asked as she placed a comforting hand on Malek's shoulder.
"That would not be a problem for me or my coven, as soon as we're 'free' from this seal we can get straight to putting a functioning community together for you."
After he finished speaking he had a coughing fit so intense he started shaking. Soon flecks of blood began to fall out of his mouth.
But that was not the end as it became a full blown coughing fit, with blood spilling out of his mouth in copious amount. His followers quickly gathered around him, but it seemed that no matter what they did, they couldn't stop it.
Malek was dying, and I knew why. His seal had gone into overdrive or something, but I knew enough about seals by now to know that a kill switch has just be triggered. The only way to save him was to break the seal, but I was hesitant.
If I break this seal here, right now, then everyone would know about my secret as a weaver. Though I can't be sure exactly how the council of light would react to this news, I was sure that I would bring their full force crashing down on me soon enough.
I was an abomination which ever way you looked at it, they would want to eliminate me as soon as possible, a vampire and a weaver, and not to forget a noble with practically endless resources in his hand.
I could take over the whole galaxy if I played my cards right. But an early exposure meant death, in more ways than one, and not just for me, but for the people I loved.
If I took a step back, I could preserve my secret for a while longer, grow stronger in secret for a while longer and catch my enemies of guard. After all, I've already received an oath of servitude from Malek, who stood as a representative for his entire family.
Him dying now was of no consequence, and I could tackle things long term with the help of the rest of the Ausolon bloodline vampires. But I made a promise, I had to keep it. I took a step forward, before I heard Asha's voice in my head.
[If you do this, most of the trouble we've been through to keep your abilities a secret would all be for nothing. You would put everything we've built in danger, including our child. You can't be sentimental about this decision. Think with your head, not with your heart.]
She was right, I knew she was right. But this decision was so hard for me to make, and every second I wasted, Malek drew closer and closer to death.
She was right about the fact that I had to play it safe, if not for anything, but for the sake of our child. After all, this was the reason why I was fighting so hard, I wanted to build a safe world for my child, a world where he or she wouldn't have to hide their head in shame or fear because of the blood that ran through their veins...….but will I bring my kid into a world where it's incapable for their own father to keep a promise. Too afraid to save a life because he was afraid of what might go wrong. I guess it was times like this that made Earth get sick.
Any decision I make today, would have consequences no matter what, it could branch out into thousands of alternate routes, altering and changing the future into numerous if not uncountable possibilities. It was good to follow your heart, but it was wise to be objective about every situation you find yourself in and think about it rationally.
But who says emotions aren't as important. Urgh, fuck it I'm doing this. I moved forward towards Malek, but I felt a hand on my wrist. It was Asha, and the look in her eyes was telling me, don't do this. But I smiled and tapped her hand a bit then said to her.
"Trust me."
"Always." She replied.
Then she let go and I moved closer to Malek, directly standing over the hunched over and dying vampire. I rolled up my sleeves, and lit my hands up with soul energy, my finger tips releasing a deep and dark blue glow as I grabbed onto Malek's wrist, the one with his seal. Then I turned to Asha and Asare, and said to them.
"protect me and make sure no one interrupts." But to Gus I gave a very different order.
"His seal has a kill switch, and it has to have been triggered from a very close distance, go around the arena, find who flipped the switch, catch them, and if a fight breaks out, cripple them. But if you have no choice, kill them!"
Then I turned my gaze to his seal and sent my soul energy into it. And once again, a familiar sensation came calling, and I fell into the darkness, down, down, down.
....................................…..
....................................…..
GUS TERSOLON
TELEPATH
I sneaked away into the crowd of vampires that were rapidly gathering around Kael and the elder of the Ausolon bloodline Coven. I looked back just in time to see a massive crimson barrier spring up around the both of them, I could feel the heat from here, and to be honest it was nothing to laugh at.
Looks like Asare is pulling out all the stops today, he has not had many chances at protecting his lord, and it has been a thorn in his side for quite a while. At least this was a chance for him.
I try not to look into the mind of my allies, but sometimes it's hard resisting. Asare was enigma to me, I'm sure not many know this, or they know and just refuse to say anything about it, but Asare was not fully human.
His other half has enabled him to live for a very long time, he could be considered as Immortal as a vampire. He has experienced a lot of things, learnt a lot too, but still he wholeheartedly served Kael, I'm not that good with emotions, but I knew he loved Kael like he was his own son. So he was safe.
I shifted my attention back to my current mission, my abilities as a telepath were growing literally by the second, and with it my mental cultivation. Though I believe they were quite reliant on each other, I was already at the fourth ring of the open mind circle, and I've only been training for about a month.
Which made my telepathic ability really strong, according to Asare. Given enough time, I could become so strong my thoughts would become reality. But that was neither here no there, I had a killer to find.
Just looking at the face of every vampire here wouldn't help, the killer might be trying to escape, but that would only be just one option.
He might be someone known, so disappearing during this crisis would lead to questions he or she might not want to answer, but of course it would be stupid to write off such a scenario. So I had to keep my eyes peeled for any vampires trying to leave the arena.
But they could also be hiding within the crowd gathered around the barrier around Kael, it gave whoever did this an alibi, and it also made it easier for me to peek into their thoughts.
I weaved in between the crowd, listening and trying to get a feel for what they all were thinking. It was a rather jumbled mess taking in so much thoughts at once, and it gave me a very bad headache, but I had to push through, Kael was counting on me.
[TELEPATH SKILL 1: MIND READING HAS REACHED ADVANCED LEVEL 1 CONGRATULATIONS]
[MIND READING HAS AQUIRED A SUB SKILL, SEARCH.]
And just in the nick of time, the universe decided to bless me. The [SEARCH] sub skill let me narrow down on a particular thought, to find exactly what I was looking for in this sea of minds and differing thoughts. It should make this job of mine easier and faster. I tried using search, preferring to narrow it down to the words kill switch, or anything remotely resembling it.
Whether it was an expression or a joke, or a random thought I looked for it. I felt my mental energy spread across the entire arena, it was not wide enough, so I had to keep on moving to make sure it's area of influence touched every vampire in the arena.
This skill was really draining of my energy, and at this point I was really panting hard. Fifteen minutes in, and I have checked every vampire in the arena, this mental radar of mine did not register any such thoughts in conjunction with the kill switch in the seal.
This was frustrating, I've checked every body in this arena, and I couldn't find anything. Or maybe they already left, and if that was the case, it meant I failed. I really didn't like the sound of that. As if on cue the sirens hired began to sing a soulful kind of music that seemed the emphasize on how grim the situation was.
I watched as many of the vampires relaxed and the tension in their shoulders and backs melted away in the wave of melodic symphonies that caressed the atmosphere of the arena.
Mind control with music was very potent, especially when you don't notice it's happening, but to be honest those sirens in their coral studded dress, and silvery scaled skin looked really out or place in a party for vampires, they didn't belong.
And that's when it hit me like a sledge hammer, they didn't belong! The sirens were the only other beings I haven't checked with my telepathy. I felt my breath hitch, which was funny considering my heart did not beat, I've never heard it beat, not once.
Though that would probably be because I was born a blood child, for all intents and purposes, a full vampire, and considered very dead. I moved closer to the area allocated for the sirens to sing, but keeping my distance to not draw attention to myself.
And when I was close enough, I used search, and the net made of my mental energy lit up and shook as it registered similar thoughts from the mind of all nine of the sirens singing. I blinked my eyes, so it was not one suspect, it was nine!