"Hahaha. What a fitting end for the Night Tribe's biggest disgrace." A burst of laughter echoed in the dark.
It was a moonless night in October. The sky was covered with countless heavy clouds. In an abandoned castle's hall lit up by flickering candlelights, a young woman's breathing became shallower and shallower. The wooden stave stabbed into her ribs was barely moving, making it apparent that she was teetering on the light between life and death.
The wounds on her body, especially on her chest and stomach, were like faucets spilling out red-purplish blood. Her body was so weak to the point she could not even lift even her eyelids.
The young woman was surrounded by her kind on all sides, jeering and laughing at her. She found it incredibly hard to breathe due to the thinning of the air around her.
"What a pitiful thing. Did you ever imagine yourself looking dying like this, Countess of Edevane? But Countess, the moment you announced it, you should have considered how angry the royals would be."
"Hah. You simply reaped what you sowed."
"Most beautiful lady of Estania? Sure. But it doesn't seem like you have a brain inside that pretty head of yours."
More sneering remarks were thrown at the woman lying motionlessly on the cold hard ground. Her hearing turned weaker in time. The hurtful voices gradually became unintelligible noises to her ears. However, even without hearing the words, Melissa knew what they were calling her.
The Empire's disgrace that refused to drink even a sip of a human's blood.
The treacherous noblewoman that deserved to die a thousand times for 'turning her back' on her fellows.'
A stupid vampirette that deserved to be disowned and abandoned by her family.
They kept saying that she did not deserve her title, her powers, and practically everything that she owned because she spoke in favor of humans. Because speaking in favor of humans was only something a traitor would do. As a betrayer, she should die and vanish from existence. Even if she atoned now, eternal sleep was still her only destination.
Remembering all these words, Melissa felt like her barely beating heart was being ripped apart.
"How… did things… end up this way…?"
Was it wrong to not hurt the innocent?
As death crept closer to the young woman lying on the cold hard floor, warm teardrops streamed down from her closed eyes. She began to wonder.
Was she wrong for not wanting to treat humans as livestock?
Was she really wrong for treating neutrality as the only way to not hurt those she loved?
Why were humans even that hated by her kind?
As more questions popped up in her tired mind, she became more clear-headed and indignant, and unwilling to accept her impending death.
The fact that she could not feel any regret in her heart meant that her beliefs were not wrong. Did she really deserve to be persecuted? A tiny voice within her said that she deserved none of this.
Unfortunately, regardless of her belief, her present state was now her reality. There was nothing else that she could do. The moment she rushed here like a fool because she wanted to save a human, her end was set in stone. It was simply her fault that she fell for their trap.
Now, her body's condition had gotten so worse that no doctor could save her. Maybe, vampire magic could. But which of them would cast the spell on her? No one.
Those currently near her wanted her death more than anyone else. In fact, even now that Melissa was on her last breath, they still wanted to inflict the greatest pain on her.
"Hey, Baroness Yolanda. Bring that thing out!"
The thing that came out was a human. For most vampires, humans were nothing more than food or object for amusement.
Melissa no longer had the strength to open her eyes, but her nose could still function. There was simply no way to mistake it. That sweet scent that could drive any vampire hungry for blood could only come from a human.
"Countess." Melissa's hearing was no longer good. But maybe because the owner of the voice was somebody precious to her, she still managed to hear it.
'…Brandel.'
"Melissa Edevane, can't you open your eyes anymore? Look at your wonderful pet. When we first dragged him here, we tempted him to side with us. But he doesn't want to betray you. Aren't you admirable for finding an amusing thing like him?"
Fragmented words only made their way into Melissa's ears, but that was enough for her to understand everything.
"Countess… I'm… sorry." A man's voice softly resounded after. The words that he said next were drowned out by the malicious laughter that reverberated.
An emotion that she never knew could be this strong and poisonous engulfed Melissa's entire being. It was fear. An unimaginable amount of fear. Before she knew it, adrenaline coursed through her blood and strength had returned to her weakened body. Melissa's eyes flew open and the first thing she saw through her blood-colored vision was the miserable look of a human male lying two meters from her.
Extreme terror mixed with anger showed on her face. "Noooo!"
Her bloody arms tried to reach the man, but the two-meter distance between them seemed to have become more than a thousand miles. Blood-colored tears could only run from her face as she watched several vampiric fangs sink onto the man's veins.
At that moment, the existence known as vampire, the specie that she belonged to, became the most abominable being in Melissa's eyes. The red liquid that trickled down from the gaps of the fangs and the human's skin became the most disgusting thing for her.
"Stop! I… I beg you! Don't! He'll die! Stop!!!" Her screams echoed loudly in between intermittent coughs.
But her pleading got her nothing but scornful looks from her fellows. Not few among them snickered as they relished in her misfortunate situation. Those who did not join in the 'feasting' held her in place by stepping on her or pulling on her hair. They spared no effort in stopping Melissa from her struggles. They wanted her to helplessly watch as inferior vampires created artificially drain the blood on Brandel's body.
"Uh-uh? Let's see if these vampire slaves will hear out an order from our noble countess." They taunted her.
"Noooo! Please! No!!!" How she wished that she could regrow her severed vampire wings, escape from her enemies, and fly away with him.
Sadly, reality was cruel.
In no time, the man whose blood got feasted on by seven female vampires died, looking no less than a dried-up mummy. It did not even take a minute. The injured and incapacitated human only managed to let out groans of pain before he took his last breath.
The countess weakly slumped on the ground with her lifeless eyes devoid of color aside from red. It took her almost a minute to register in her mind that the man had truly died.
Nobody stopped her when she crawled toward the dried-up corpse, dragging the complicated layered skirt part of her long red-black dress. The other vampires only laughed and jeered at her blood-covered self. Their laughter turned louder the more teardrops from her fell onto the concrete floor.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I hope this becomes a lesson to you all. This.. is always the end of a traitor." She did not know when a royal family member had come. But it was one of the princes, Prince Benedict, who stepped forward and looked down at her from above.
Melissa hugged the corpse before her before she turned her head towards her fellow vampires behind. Her entire body was aching. She looked worse than a beggar.
"I... won't forgive... you all..." Because her long brown hair almost covered her entire face, nobody saw her mouthing these words with hate-filled eyes.
It was already past midnight. No moon or stars could be seen above. The clouds remained heavy as if rainfall could happen at any given time.
All of a sudden, the castle in the middle of the forest shone brighter than the midday sun. It was so bright that people sleeping in villages and towns within a 10-mile radius woke up to check on it from their windows and doors. The burst of light accompanied by a loud explosion lasted merely ten seconds.
However, when it vanished, in the place where the castle once stood, only ruins caught in fire remained.