The Marcaba
Kylian didn't feel a thing when he heard what Heald said about the person who wanted to use Christa as a sacrifice. He just went numb. His dead heart stopped beating and he felt like he's drowning in water and the pressure is sucking out his life, slow, slow.
A Primordial vampire wanted to make use of Christa as a sacrifice.
A Primordial vampire?!
Those words alone sent shivers down his spine. Every obsession that the soulmate something brought on him all died down as he recounted the words.
A Primordial vampire!
"Why?" He whispered, the word barely heard.
"I can explain it all to you, if you would hear me out," Sarai said.
Kylian slowly shifted his gaze to hers. The blank expression on his face began to morph and soon became that of perplexity. "Tell me, Sarai."
"You were turned by a Skull vampire, do you know that?" Sarai lifted a brow.
"Yes." Kylian nodded. His eyes fluttered and bitterness shown in it as he added. "Even though I don't know his name."
It is such a pity that he didn't even know the name of the vampire that gave him this life. The life he has never for just a day enjoyed. The life of fear and terror.
It's such a pity.
What Kylian felt in his heart as he said those words could only be called excruciating pain. Not physical but a kind of pain that assaults the heart. The pain that if it's not resolved, it could be there for eternity. Definitely the most painful pain of all.
Sarai paused for a few seconds and bit her lower lips as she gazed at Kylian's perplexed self.
"Continue, Sarai." Kylian muttered.
Sarai sighed, and continued. "Do you know what happened to the Skulls vampires?"
"The wizard you took me to when I was dying talked about it. I heard all he said." Kylian reminisced, calmly. "The wizard said they are powerful and feared among other clans of Primordial vampires. But a foe who's one of the Tribunals had them cursed and annihilated them all."
Sarai smiled at this. Kylian already knowing this lessens the explanation here.
She casted Heald a glance before muttering. "Heald will tell you the rest."
Kylian shifted his gaze to Heald with a raised brow. The anxiety slowly growing in his heart, adding up to the perplexity he's feeling, created a pressure that threatened to break his heart and end his life.
Heald's eyes were grim as he began. "The Primordial vampire of the Tribunal clan that annihilated the Skulls was Akotal. But during his fight against the leader of the Skulls, the Lead Skull, he was burned in the face by the latter's dark flames. According to Caius, the dark flames kills the body, lessens the powers and diminishes the essense of a supernatural."
Heald paused for a second. His gaze shifted and he locked his eyes on Kylian's silver eyes. "To sustain his life and power, Akotal needs to perform a sacrifice that include the blood of a descendant of an ancient tribe, known as the Travellers of a Thousand Stars." Heald paused again. "Christa is one."
Kylian's eyes flashed as he asked, with a complex emotion. "So the one who wiped out the Skulls is the same as the one wants to use Christa as sacrifice now?"
"Yes." Mei Li said, for the first time since Kylian woke up.
Benzo just stayed in the shadow of a large root as the conversation went on between the others.
Kylian palmed his face as he muttered. "How are we supposed to defeat a Primordial vampire?"
Hector moved closer to Kylian, his face took on a reassuring smile. "There's a solution."
Kylian lifted his gaze to him. A hint of uncertainty flashed deep within his eyes as he asked. "And what is it?"
"For every three hundred years, Akotal renews the sacrifice. And when the time gets to the period Akotal does the sacrifice, he's at his weakest. So we have a chance." Sarai said. "Tonight, before Akotal cuts the girl and does the ritual, we will incapacitate him, rescue the girl and kill him."
Kylian cut his gaze to her. Self-pity was displayed on his face as he muttered. "I'm very sure you haven't seen a Primordial vampire fight before. I can't let you fight a Primordial Vampire and die because of me."
"We can do it, Eleodore!" Sarai yelled.
"Of course you can't. No, you can't do it. You are a witch, Sarai, and you are powerful but you wouldn't see a Primordial vampire move before you loose your head. Come to your senses, everybody. You can't do this."
"You can finally live, Kylian. With your mate with you, we can complete the process of the Oasis and close all the doors that should be closed and you'll live," Hector said.
Kylian said no word to reply. But the determined look on his face was enough to know what his thoughts were.
"So are you suggesting we leave your soulmate to die?" Heald frowned hard.
Kylian paused, his face held a solemn expression as he said, "Yes. You should leave her to me. I'll go there and save her."
"No. You are going there to die with her." Mei Li chuckled, dryly.
"I have always bore the load and the darkness of every ruin I left behind in the past. The pain and haunting it gives me alone can swallow a thousand people. I lived with it." Kylian sighed, sadly. "But you guys can't go to that vampire and commit suicide, because of me. I might not be able to bear the burden this time around."
"Before Akotal does the sacrifice and gets back to full strength, we stand a chance, Kylian you can't let us back out now!" Benzo strode out of the shadow he had stood since.
"She's my mate, I can die with her. But you guys have a life of your own. You can't do this for me." Kylian pursed his lips as he whispered. "I don't deserve it."
"Kylian, this is not just about you." Mei Li began. "If Akotal does the sacrifice successfully today night and gets back to full strength, he'll wipe out Caius and his coven, he'll kill you and finally, he will come for us because we helped you. So we are not coming just because of you, we are also coming for ourselves."
"Seems you guys aren't putting into consideration the fact that if we fight this Primordial vampire, his clan will surely come for us. Fighting one means we are fighting a whole family of an ancient clan of vampires. It means we are fighting the very beginning of vampire hood." Kylian said.
Everyone went silent at this. That's a truth they are still trying to leave for now.
Fight a Primordial and face the Primordials. It's as simple as that.
However,
"No, they won't. Caius got it covered. He has the mark of the Tribunals and they would know that he can't do such a thing. So a cover story will take care of it," Heald said.
"Then, if you are going to kill Akotal, you go one way and I will go the other way. You can't risk your lives to follow me in there." Kylian muttered.
"That is not possible, we will all go in there with you." Benzo sighed. His face was serious as he shifted his gaze between everyone. "Guys, this dude is not in his best moment now, he's shaken. So I don't believe and won't take whatever he says to heart. We need to support him, not just with our powers. He needs our support, emotionally. We need to give our best."
Silence descended.
Kylian shrugged and leaned off the root he rested on before. His face was solemn as he said. "Everybody just forget about it. I'll go for her. It's either I save her or I die with her."
The tension in the atmosphere grew as Kylian said this.
However,
Sarai was the first to step forward. Her face held a grim countenance and her was pushed forth. "I will go there with you and bring your mate back. And with her with you, you will live."
Heald followed. "I'm in too. No matter what."
Mei Li moved to Sarai's side, indicating she stands with her.
Benzo moved closer too.
Hector moved closer too.
Kylian shifted his gaze between the five supernaturals. His eyes shown with complicated light.
"You have survived for eight hundred years despite all odds. You will survive this too." Benzo said and nodded reassuringly.
Kylian gazed down and went deep into his thoughts for almost five minutes. The emotions in his eyes changing constantly for the whole time, as he ruminated in silence.
Then after five minutes. He lifted his gaze.
His eyes shown with resolve as he asked. "Where is he?"
*******
Sunset.
In the middle of nowhere.
Silence.
No crickets were creaking and no frog made any sound.
Just silence.
However,
Up the street, incessant banging sounds that disturbed the night's silence erupted in the scarsely lit slum. Glittering eyes could be seen from the little windows that were around the walls of the old building.
The building was alone in the entirety of the streets. The other buildings were desolate, dilapidated and empty.
It's more like an inhabited place.
There was a puff of green smoke. The air blew strongly and the smoke cleared off to reveal a figure wrapped in an emerald cloak.
A pair of green eyes gazed around, from under the cloak as the figure turned.
Lo and behold, it's Aro.
"Here I am, the one that has lived." Aro muttered to tye empty space.
Like the air had ears, it began to distort and soon the empty space became a huge building.
Aro founded himself in the middle. Above him was a dome and around him were concrete walls on which magic circles and countless runes were chiselled.
In the middle of the dome room was an altar.
Aro faced it, squarely as he began to say to someone that's not even in sight.
"I am confused."
His words echoed back to him at first and the silence was all he got.
But soon, foot steps began to resonate around the place.
"Aro, the mystical hunter."
Aro sighed as he heard, but he didn't turn as he began to say.
"I'm confused." Aro repeated.
"And why would the immortal hunter be confused?"
"You tell me." Aro turned to face the person. Wrapped in a black cloak and a black hoodie that veiled the face so much so that if one looked at the face, all one would see is darkness.
Aro's green eyes glinted with perplexity as he called. "El que ha vivido! (The one that has lived!) I need guidance."
'The one that has lived' moved closer to the altar, his feets making no sound as he inched closer with his covered right hand clutching his staff tight. "You need no guidance now. The time for guidance has passed."
"What do you mean?" Aro asked, the emerald hoodie he wore, concealed the deep frown on his face.
"Of course, you know not what is going on between the lion and the snake, you only jumped into their midst," 'The one that has lived' said.
"Uh?!" Aro was surprised. What does he mean by that?
"The lion was in his hole when the snake slittered in. The snake spitted to the lion's eyes and blinded him. But the snake knew, even with the lion blinded, all it's still going to take the lion to kill him is to gore his skin off with its powerful paw." 'The one that has lived' paused, turned to Aro as he completed his words. "So the snake called along a tiger, fed him with lies and made him help him kill the lion and took it's skull."
Aro eyes glimmered bright green under his cloak as he felt the shock of his life. "A- Akotal tricked me."
"Yes, he did. He had the Skulls cursed, turned them into mindless and bloodlusty creatures. The curse made them less powerful but they are not weak enough so he brought you in because you would be of great… help."
"I never knew."
"You didn't stop to think about it, did you?" 'The one that has lived' asked. There was a thick tension in his echoing voice as he announced. "And you will be punished for it!"
**********