Stephen walked to the living room and saw a very familiar face wearing a confused look. His eyebrows almost crossing in the middle of his frowning face as he looked at his hand with a pissed look, Darwin.
He looked back at him. Took a deep breath and clenched his fist but he just let it go. He threw himself on the couch and looked up to the ceiling and shut his eyes in frustration.
"What are you doing here?", Stephen threw his jacket on the hanger and took his shoes off still looking at the pissed off Darwin.
"Wish I could ask my self either", He returned a disgusting look at Stephen which he just shrugged off because of getting used with his attitude.
Hubert jumped like a squirrel on the stairs and looked around in awe.
"Is this your house Dada? It feels so good", He ran across the room and bumped into a porcelain vase. He looked at Stephen with a bobbed face and with both on his palms on his cheek.
"Sorry...", He pouted.
"It's ok. Things happen", Stephen just smiled at him like a father forgiving his little child for their unconscious mistakes.
"This is not my house Hubby, you know that I live in a big mansion in Arista", Darwin gave Hubert a wink and a smile.
"But I don't really understand why I keep coming back here", He added as he glared at Stephen with daggers.
"I don't understand either", Stephen returned with a frown and walked upstairs.
Hubert looked at them with a curious face. He tilted his head left to right as if checking both of them in the situation. His eyes suddenly went wide as he realized something.
"Dada, I feel something is weird with Dada Tep", He jumped to the couch and sat with his legs crossed beside Darwin.
"Since when did you start calling him that?", Darwin playfully pinched his ears with a smirk.
"I call big people dada always", Hubert gave him a pout.
"Ok. So what exactly do you feel?", Darwin drifted back to the subject as Hubert nodded at him.
"Back in the City of Red Sky, my home, father used to tell us about the story of an ancient entity that possessed a great psychic power, the Blue Hollow. For centuries, the Hollow incarnates himself in the bodies of the first son of the first son of the Lurk Bloodline, an ancient vampire hunter clan. The Lurks bowed down to the Hollow as their prime god because they believed that the entity give them superior strength and abilities that could par against vampires. Generations passed down and the Hollow grew so powerful that it served a huge threat against the great vampires of Valhr. With the endless feud against between vampires and hunters, the Hollow played a big role in taking the war to the upper hand of the Lurks. It took a century before the war stopped, most of your bloodline perished in the almost never ending battle between Valhr Vampires and Lurks. Only the noble families remained. The remaining families formed an alliance to win against the Lurks, until they give birth to an entity that goes beyond the grasp of any living creatures by infusing all five vampire blood strains , The Crimson Calamity", Hubert started gesturing his hands as projection of scenes started appearing around them.
"So there's someone before me?", Darwin flicked his left eyebrow at him.
"Yes. The first apex of all predators. The war rose up again, this time it became a one sided annihilation as the Crimson Calamity wiped the Lurks out of the face of Valhr. The Great Hollow and the Crimson Calamity went face to face in a single battle, but one should be a victor against the other to conclude the fray. The Hollow triumph over the Apex, but before he gave the final blow he released a curse that changed the course of nature all through eternity", Hubert continued.
"So that shit's really that powerful, huh?," Darwin asked.
"The Hollow imbued a chain between him and the Calamity, a will triggered curse that should be awaken once his hands touch his heart. A curse that could put him under his command and will follow everything that he say as long as it came as a strong will. The Calamity shall become the "Chain of the Hollow" as the curse wakes. But the Calamity didn't go down gentle either, so he dug his claws deep into the nape of the Hollow and compelled him to forget why and how the curse works. Until then, both of them fell down for nothing at all. The curse lives on through incarnations but until the truth be revealed, the Hollow wasn't able to figure out how to harness the true power of the Luna Moonfang curse", Hubert finished.
"Luna Moonfang, yes, I heard that thing from the oracle a few years ago", Darwin looked away biting his lips.
"A certain curse that could control a vampire", He added.
Hubert nodded at him and looked up to Stephen who's looking at them from the stairs. He walked down to the kitchen without saying a word and slid himself inside.
"I just felt like there's something different with him", Hubert whispered at Darwin with a bobbed face.
"Of course, his eyes turn blue sometimes and a dreadful feeling just crept into my nerves like an electricity. Like he was some kind of a threat", Darwin replied.
"That's it. He's the Hollow and you are the his chain?", Hubert gave him a weird look.
Darwin tilt his head and took a short peak at Stephen drinking a glass of milk and a cookie on his left hand.
"It's actually no surprise. Yeah, somehow I woke something inside him when I tried pulling his heart out. That's when he start luring me like a dumb lion and saying things that insanely made me follow", Darwin just threw his hands in the air and rolled his eyes.
Hubert tapped his chin and looked up thinking about something. He tilt his head and took a peak at Stephen inside the kitchen.
"Aren't you surprised by that revelation?", Hubert asked him once again.
"I've heard about the Luna Moonfang curse back when I was just a raging new born vampire and I just shrugged it off and never thought of it again. It was until I met this guy that I realized how messed up this thing is. And for the record, it was me who triggered the curse out of all the vampires in the land", Darwin gave him a frown.
"Looks like history repeats itself", Hubert played the pillow beside them.
"I tried killing him many times but it always end up getting myself killed instead", Darwin returned with a shrug on his shoulder.
"So I just let him live his messed up life and try not to cross path with him in any ways possible", He added.
Hubert nodded at his words and jumped out of the couch and ran around like horse.
"You cannot kill the Hollow, it's the nature's way of restoring the prophecy of an ancient feud that never lasts. Remember that the beacon of your bloodline wiped the true purpose of the Luna Moonfang or the "Chain of the Hollow" thingy so that's a two plus two in both parties", He playfully countered without looking at him.
"Well that's too bad, because It will truly be a fucked up century having to deal with an ancient archenemy", Darwin dusted his shirt off and pulled himself up.
Darwin took the stairs and walked straight to the room a few doors away from Stephen. Hubert followed hi like a puppy.
"Your house looks so small Dada", He frowned at him from his back.
"I told you this isn't my house. Something just draw me back here everytime I try running away", He took his shirt off and threw it out of the window. His shirt burned at the touch of the force field. He looked at him with a nod.
"See? Everything related to me cannot pass through that hell of a shield. In simpler terms, I'm locked down here", Darwin explained.
"He's really the Hollow. And without knowing, he wanted you not to leave his side so natural instances happen like you, being drawn here even if you don't want to and a force field that rose up suddenly and locked you here", Hubert replied.
"So nature favoured him and not me?", Darwin frowned at him.
"Somehow, he's a spirit remember? A spirit that possesses a great amount of psychic powers. Vampires are considered an abomination of the natural world so it's actually not a surprise at all", Hubert snapped his fingers.
"But my bloodline was able to compel him so it's fair then", Darwin leaned on the wall next to him.
"Only the blood of five Valhr families, note", Hubert wrapped himself in the mattress and popped his little head out.
Darwin looked away with his usual expression. A part of him wanted to just snap Stephen's neck and end it all at once but after all the attempts it seemed like it takes quite a work to do.
"How does it feel being the chain of the Hollow?", Hubert teased with a small snicker.
"It sucks. Just know. Feels like it nerfed me of my greatest abilities", Darwin looked at him with a mocking face.
"What do you have now then? Wait. Fear plus indirect compulsion and advanced cloaking. That's two so you still have three more to achieve. Three lives to take", Hubert winked at him from the sheets.
"Yes. Two out of five. Long way to go", Darwin replied.
"Don't worry you are still the Blood Winter, The Apex of all Predators and the Waver of Death so you still on top of everything. And I'm here to stand by you", Hubert came over and gave Darwin a hug.
A loud explosion suddenly shook them of their short moments as gunshots fired from the other side of the walls. They both looked at each other and cracked open the door with Hubert riding on Darwin's back like a kid that he is.
Stephen stood up in the middle surrounded by five faces with five different weapons and with his hands in the air. He looked at them intently and with a furious look.
"Where's Brandon?", He asked almost hissing at them.
"Your friend committed treason and now under detention back in the institute", One of the five guys replies with a taunting expression. He wore a black leather coat and a black inner shirt. His black jeans strapped with different types of guns and knives ended up with an ankle boots. His overall look defines a dignified agent of an elite hunting organization.
"Not surprised. You people like putting on something to someone who had done nothing at all", Stephen gave them a teasing smirk.
"Where is he? We'll bring him back ourselves and if it takes fighting and killing you along with it we'll gladly dip our hands with your blood", The same guy rebutted.
Darwin looking from the hall realized that one of the people is missing.
"There he is", A female voice broke off from their back. The woman with the same outfit with the guy who talked to Stephen grabbed Darwin by his neck and dragged him along the hall and smashed him open to the floor.
The other members looked at her with confusion then to the thing that she just smashed to the ground. She looked at it herself and found out that he actually dragged a pillow and not Darwin.
"Pesky humans", a whisper crawled in the air like a ghost. The main door slammed open and Darwin walked in with Hubert on his back. Their eyes glowing red and gold in fury as they wore a malicious and intimidating smiles.
"Damn you!", The woman attacked again with a speed that could be match to a normal vampire. But Darwin is something she'll never expect.
"Too slow", Time slowed down at Darwin's stance. His movement so fast that in a split second he managed to knuckled her down to the ground and without messing his hair. He looked down to her as if she's kind of a vermin that grew courage.
"You truly messed with the wrong creatures", He hissed as he launched a deathly stomp on the woman's head. But she flickered out and appeared on his back.
"No. You messed with us", He gave a surprisingly vigorous kick on Darwin's back sending him flying forwards. But another laugh broke off from behind her.
"It's getting really easy playing with your", Darwin whispered on her back and returned three times the vigour of her attack with a bone disintegrating kick which sent her flying back to her team. The damage is so hard blood dripped on her mouth and eyes.
"Let's take this outside to add some fun", Hubert in his alter state threw his hands up and a magic circle appeared on top of everyone. Everyone in the room was sucked up by a vortex and transported into an open field.
Darwin, Stephen and Hubert stood with their battle stance a few meters away from the group of hunters that only Stephen knows.
"Hey! Do you know these guys?", Darwin snapped at Stephen on his side.
"Of course, very well", Stephen looked at him then to the group of people standing across them.
"Black Pentagram, the Elite Circle of the Colossal Lightkeepers. I used to be one of them", he added.
"Impressive, that's why you are not as squishy as I thought", Hubert gave him a wink and smile of compliment.
"Enough talk", Bruce, one of the Black Pentagram, the Moonlight Slayer said.
Each Black Pentagram vertex possesses great gifts that makes them special above any Lightkeepers in the institute. Kristina Wan, the Ruby Fury, possesses super strength that could par against a vampire. Jessica Martin, the Mimicry, possesses an ability that could copy and transform into someone that she could touch from appearance, personality and even abilities. Justine Martin, the Shadow Chameleon, possesses an invisibility gift that makes him one of the best assassins in the circle. Erikson Park, the Jack of Cards, possesses a great psychokinetic powers that could make him move any objects using his mind, the one who replaced the position of Stephen Stern, the Azure Serpent, possesses and ability that is still unknown.
And there's Bruce Adams, the center of the vertices, the Marquee of Gifts and the Lion of Angels, possesses a gift that could harness of gifts that his circle has. Which made him the great master of the Black Pentagram.
"By the name of the Council and the keepers of justice, I declare you Stephen Stern, traitor of human side and a fugitive subject for a mass hunt down. Your head shall worth loots and bounty in the black market and your existence be considered null and an abomination", Bruce declared as he extended his arms and a pair of wings appeared on his back.
"I shall have the first blood", Kristine hissed at the signal of an assault. He leaped an launched towards Darwin's group with a taunting smile.
"Try me", Darwin's eyes turned blood red and an overwhelming fear filled the atmosphere as his usual vibe. He pulled his wings off and gave them and intimidating smile.
"Rule number 1: Do not talk demise in front of the Harbringer of Death", Hubert smiled as his eyes turned gold. He threw both his arms and casted the Death Preying spell.
"Well then, I already spit the Colossal out of my life. So it should be fun playing with its little toy", He took a step back and took his stance with nothing but his fist and his spirit as a weapon.