Adrian moved his arm back a bit, gathering enough force to pierce the unaware Kylian's chest with a push forward.
All of the sudden, his expression changed and his eyes trembled. His lips parted to say something but he couldn't as he watched with wide eyes.
Reflected in his eyes was Kylian's body covered with large bees. But, one after the other, the bees fell to the ground and died.
'What could possibly be going on?' Adrian tried to think of a possible reason, but he found nothing.
Adrian large bees' bites were supposed to at first, paralyze the victim. Then after a couple of hours, if the victim didn't consume Adrian's blood, will die of dessication. This ability makes Adrian almost invincible. Just like Caius, the victim needs to consume his blood to be free from the effects of the ability.
This made Adrian terrifying and he was unchallenged. But now, what's happening is the complete opposite of what should be happening.
Soon, all the bees had fallen to the ground, dead, revealing Kylian, who was unscathed. He rose to his feet, his eyes blazing bloodshot.
Kylian's face took on an angry expression as he lunged at Adrian.
However, Adrian gritted and clenched his fists. His eyes flashed as he growled. "You're dying anyway."
Bang!
The ground shattered as he lunged at Kylian too.
Kylian was fast, and with the dark veins on, his speed seemed to undergo a boost.
But Adrian was faster, he's a born vampire afterall.
Bang!
The two collided. Their hands were locked in a tussle of strength.
Adrian growled revealing his fangs. 'He could match my strength too?!' He thought.
His eyes flashed with anger as he flung Kylian's body away.
The latter slammed his body on the wall and dropped to the ground.
Kylian growled, pain slightly visible in it, as he struggled to his feet. He could feel the pain again, just like when Hellsong was fighting him. Seems the dark veins aren't shutting out his pain anymore.
In an instant, Adrian was right before him.
Graaaa!
Adrian growled loudly as he plunged his fist at Kylian's head.
Bang!
Kylian smashed his head on the wall and fell back to the ground. Adrian didn't stop.
He grabbed Kylian's neck and flung him across the bloody living room again.
Kylian was brought to a halt by another side of the wall, an arm away from the plasma TV hung on the wall. The force with which he slammed at the wall unhinged a side of the TV, making it hang downward on one side.
Kylian winced and rose to his feet, again.
Adrian's figure flashed across the room and he appeared before Kylian within a second. His eyes flashed viciously as he plunged a wooden stake into Kylian abdomen.
Kylian yelled in agony and coughed up a mouthful of blood. The dark veins were simmering and it bulged on his head as he grimaced in pain.
"You feel the pain now, uh!" Adrian grinned with satisfaction as he watched Kylian grimace. His eyes flashed with complex emotions as he continued. "A two hundred and fifty years old vampire claiming to have saved my father before. That's outrageous, you know." Adrian twisted the wooden stake. Kylian roared out in excruciating pain. Adrian laughed and his eyes glinted thoughtfully. "Whatever these black veins are, it makes you powerful and also makes you weak, like a two-edged sword. Maybe it's the reason you have been alive all this while. I don't care tho."
Kylian could feel his stomach burn around the wooden stake Adrian impaled in him.
Adrian grinned with pleasure. "Wood alone is deadly to us, Vampires. It's probably one of the few things that's harmful to us. More harmful than even steel and silver." Adrian twisted the stake again. Kylian was even too weak to yell out his pain this time, his eyes only widened and he gasped with difficulty. Adrian continued talking. "Now think about how amplified its effectiveness will be when it's laced with vervain."
Adrian laughed again, his eyes glinting with rage as he growled. "Yell! Scream! I want to hear you scream in pain!"
He twisted the stake more and more. What he expected didn't come. Kylian's lips were sealed like a padlocked door. It seemed as though he couldn't feel the pain anymore.
There's a high level which a pain gets to that one won't feel anything, anymore. The person will be too weak to scream or groan. All the person will do is stare, probably till they die.
But is it the case for Kylian?
Pale red blood, tinged with dark spots, poured from Kylian's lips steadily as the gleam in his eyes reduced the more.
His abdomen gushed out a pool of blood that covered Adrian's hand as he kept on twisting the stake, expecting the painful scream from him. But none came.
Adrian's anger only rose more and more as he stared at Kylian's eyes, with his hand still clutching the stake.
He couldn't help but think. 'Even though his eyes were weak, the murderous intent oozing from his pores didn't reduce.'
A puzzled expression appeared on Adrian's face as he felt that something was wrong. This angered him even more.
Nothing has ever troubled him this much before.
'This is getting too much!' Adrian thought loudly in his mind. 'He insulted me. He snatched my mate from me. He gave me a sense of danger no one has ever given me in over a century. And now, he's confusing me. This is too much!'
Adrian's eyes blazed with anger as he pulled out the stake. The blazing in his eyes was overflowing as he raised the stake. 'I'll finish it!' he thought as he slashed downward at Kylian's heart.
"I'm ending it now!"
All of the sudden, Adrian's hand halted midway, still in the air. His eyes widened in disbelief. The stake in his hand dropped off his grip. A strained gasp escaped his lips as blood spurted outta it.
Slowly, his wide eyes lowered, down, to his chest area.
A hand was stuck in his chest, in his heart area.
He could feel the sharp claws on the hand, an inch from his heart. A simple clutch and his heart will be destroyed. But the hand didn't move any further.
Adrian's eyes lifted back up, and met with Kylian's weak, almost closing eyes.
His lips parted and even more blood spurted from his lips.
"Kylian?!"
An alarmed voice called from the front door.
Kylian, so weak that he could barely gasp, shifted his head to look at the door.
Then he saw. Even though all he saw were all blurry, he could tell that it's Heald.
Heald stood by the door, wide eyed, with Benzo and Mei Li flanking him, their eyes wide too, as they gazed around at the dead bodies and red blood that littered the house.
A slight, weak grin tugged at Kylian's lips as he muttered. "Y- you, you are alive?"
He pulled his hand from Adrian's chest. Then two collapsed to the ground at once.
Heald's eyes widened in shock as he saw this. Mei Li and Benzo weren't left out either as they stared in disbelief.
Just then, someone rushed past them.
"Adrian! Adrian!! Adrian!!"
Bellerin was panic-stricken as he squatted beside Adrian and lifted his head to his laps. His eyes widened when it saw the open gash at Adrian's heart.
'His heart is crushed?!' His lips trembled as he thought of what that meant. Death.
"Brother! Brother!! Please!!!" He screamed, tears gathering in the corner of his eyes already. The two giant vampires with him, glared death at Kylian and were on the verge of pouncing for revenge.
But the glares from Benzo, whose hands conjured flames playfully and Heald whose claws and fangs were already drawn, made them hesitate.
The tension lingered more, as Bellerin clutched Adrian's body in fright.
But then, a calm voice said. "He isn't dead yet. He (Kylian) only pierced his chest, he didn't crush the heart."
Bellerin snapped his gaze to the person. It's Mei Li. Her face was calm unlike Bellerin whose face was the clear definition of fear. Not fear of death or danger, but fear of loss.
Bellerin glared at Mei Li for a while before lowering his gaze back to Adrian. He gritted his teeth as he glanced at the two vampires. "Let's leave."
The two hefted Adrian by the shoulder.
Swoosh! Swoosh!!
They sped along with the breeze, melting from the place immediately.
Heald retracted his claws and fangs and turned to Kylian.
He knelt before him. His eyes glinted with pain as he held Kylian's right hand with his two hands, and clutched it.
Benzo sighed and his face took on a pity look as he turned to Mei Li. "What do we do now?"
Mei Li's face had a complex emotion as she gazed at Kylian's body.
The weak dark veins, the dark eyes, the dark claws, the dark fangs, and finally, the wound on his abdomen, caused by the stake.
Her eyes flashed with doubt as she parted her lips to talk. But another voice talked from the front door.
"We take him of course."
Their faces turned to the door to see Sarai and a strange man, a vampire.
"Thank God." Mei Li sighed in relief. "I was going to say that we should finish him off, and end his suffering."
"No, we can't do that." The vampire beside Sarai, Hector said, then he added. "I'm Hector."
Sarai sauntered over the dead beasts' bodies on the ground and stopped before Heald whose hands still clenched Kylian's.
Her gaze held surprise and kinda disappointment as she gazed at Kylian's dark veins. She turned back to Hector. "He isn't dead, is he?"
"No. But we need to get him out of here. He really needs to be taken good care of." Hector had a serious expression on.
Sarai's eyes twitched and she turned to face Hector completely. "That mean he's not dying?"
Hector gritted as he said, "but he needs to get back to the Marcaba. Now!"
**********
Meanwhile,
A few minutes after Sarai and the others took Kylian away, headed for the Marcaba, a figure wrapped in a green cloak appeared.
Aro.
His green eyes were calm as he trotted over the dead bodies, which were yet to be cleaned because the sweepers aren't here yet.
He stopped by the wall on which the plasma TV was, barely hanging on.
His green eyes lowered to the ground and he found it.
A wooden stake, wreathed in blood.
Aro bent down and took the stake. He brought it closer to his eyes and scrutinized it. He could see the black spots in the blood coating the skate tip.
He dropped the stake to the ground and his eyes landed on the floor just beside the wall, a few centimeters from the barely hanging TV.
Blood. A pool of it.
Aro bent down to it. Then he saw it, vividly. The dark spots.
Aro stood up and inhaled the air.
The legendary hunter could still feel the heavy murderous intent of the owner of the blood, despite the pain and death that clouded his existence.
"It's him. The Skull." Aro muttered as he realized. His eyes glinted with puzzlement as he gazed around the house again.
Several emotions passed through his eyes in milliseconds, as he inspected the place for over a minute.
Then he sighed. His right hand clutched the hilt of his weapon, Mount Destroyer, in its sword form, sheathed to his belt.
Then, with a puff of green smoke, aro vanished into thin air.
**********