A figure clad in a black cloak silently walked through a forest path with a small sack on his back.
The mysterious figure walked up to a huge mountainous wall and knocked on it in a strange tone. The next second, the stone walls opened up revealing a secret path.
The black-cloaked figure quickly dashed in, and the stone walls closed up behind him, hiding any trace of his presence.
Matt removed the cloak and the mask from his face, breathing in the damp air. His hand tightened on the sack as he slowly walked in.
A few men clad in white robes gazed his way peculiarly. With his head lowered, he kept his presence low.
Soon, the pathway cleared up to a huge hallway lit by the natural sunlight from the volcano's opening above.
Looking up, he spotted a few curious white-clad figures looking down at him from different levels of the massive structure. The whole mountain was carved up into pathways and massive rooms. And this is where the world's vampires resided, away from the sun and away from the wolves' attention.
They lived like rats, eating the scraps of animals they could hunt.
"You're finally here. Did you bring him?" a mysterious voice echoed from deep within the volcano.
Matt quickly knelt down, placing the sack on the ground gently. "I've brought him here," he said.
A red-clad figure appeared before him like magic. His heart pounded loudly in his chest, perspiration started to roll down his face, yet still, he did not look up.
A pale hand gently reached for his dirty sack and untied it. "Hmm… he looks to be in good shape," the man whispered, picking the kid up.
"My lordship, I've made sure to keep him safe and healthy."
"Hmm, we'll see about that," the pale pair of hands pulled Elijah's small arm close and bit into it. The little boy woke up screaming in pain.
Matt gazed up in shock. A beautiful fake, similar to Nico's, gazed back at him with blood dripping down his face. The creature's pale blue eyes lit up in glee. "This is the purest blood I've ever tasted!"
As soon as he exclaimed this, thousands of white-clad vampires joined them in a hurry in the massive hall, murmuring amongst themselves.
Matt gazed around at the thousands of vampires that had suddenly surrounded them in shock. 'So many…'
"He is the one we have been waiting for so long!" the high lord carried Elijah in his arms like a precious treasure. "With him, our second collection is complete. Only three more are needed," the man shouted in excitement. The vampires all cheered, loud enough to make the whole mountain shake.
Matt knelt on the ground, frozen in shock. He had known that vampires hid out here, but he never knew the magnitude in numbers that had survived. All of the vampires here were half-vampires, but they were all of pure blood compared to him. They were the remnants of the vampire wars a few hundred years ago. All the purebloods had gone extinct; only a few halflings that were created by the original purebloods survived.
Even they did not possess the ability to create another vampire. But Matt and the others were of a different kind. They were natural-born vampires that carried a distant vampire gene in their bloodline, making them much weaker compared to these ancient monsters.
The Nico lookalike raised his arm. The whole room fell silent again. Smirking, the man walked up to a huge altar with a sole coffin on it. "Our prayers have been answered… we will soon be able to walk in the sun."
The leader pressed a few mechanisms on the ground, and the stone wall behind them opened up to reveal four pod-like structures, three of which were open.
One of them was closed, with a vague silhouette of a person inside. "The pureblood witch..." the man caressed the huge pod and then walked up to the second empty one. "The pureblood vampire..." the high lord placed Elijah into one of the pods.
The leaf-like pod closed up, and a viscous liquid filled it from inside, suspending the young boy in it. "Now all we need is a pure blood human and a pureblood werewolf," the Nico lookalike walked up to him with hurried steps. "You! Stand up."
Matt quickly scrambled to his feet, standing unsteadily on his weak legs. "Yes, my lord."
"Tell me, did the attack work? Did those bastards fall for my trap?" Grinning maliciously, the man gazed his way.
"The rogues and the hunters attacked at the same time, my lord. Some of them were captured, and they all gave out Nico's name."
"Yes!" the man jumped in glee. "And! And!!"
"The rogues were vague, but the hunters' words confirmed to the whole tribe that it was Nico who sent them. The pack now shuns the vampires. Alpha Dylan seemed to not believe this, though."
The man frowned deeply. "Why not? I made sure to point all of this to Nico. I planned everything meticulously. How can it fail? He must doubt Nico in his heart. No one can trust another person fully. Soon they will clash," the man mumbled hurriedly.
Matt did not say much. He had seen how Dylan and Nico acted around each other. Even though they looked like they were at odds with each other, they never gave up on each other. This man's plan to separate them would fail. He never said these thoughts. If he did so, he would not be able to assure his safety.
The man pranced around. "I need to make sure they clash. I want that Nico to reject him, and I want Dylan to finally go crazy. How else can we capture him? We need him! We need him…" He ran to the coffin and laid on it. "She needs his blood…"