Baraion stood at the door staring at Airaj as if he was going to kill him. A mere human defeated him after conspiring with another human, a human whom he despised with all his heart, his cold-blooded heart. He paid Airaj when he didn't have to. If it had been the olden times that his father told him about, he would have bitten this human and torn him limb from limb. But now vampires were judged the same as a human. In the eyes of the law all were the same, be it a human, a werewolf, or a vampire.
He would be tried as a murderer and given a death sentence. He knew he would not regret killing Airaj but he had something to prove to Talindra. He had to win against her at all costs in every aspect of life. Unknowingly, he had his fangs out. He was biting his lower lip so hard that his fangs were inside his lips, and he started bleeding. Gaylia placed her hand over his shoulder and broke his chain of thoughts.
"Don't worry we will have another chance," said Gaylia. She tried to assure him, but her thoughts were different, "that human was smarter than all of us. She did what vampires can't do, a mere human. I doubt we will ever get a second chance. He is going to be one of our elders but acts like a foolish human. I hope elder Dracul teaches him everything carefully."
Baraion turned toward Gaylia with a jerk. "Be careful! You know I can hear your thoughts. Your thoughts say one thing and your mouth the other," said Baraion through gritted teeth.
"Sorry, sir. I didn't mean to…" she lowered her head and ran away from there trying hard not to think anymore. She knew Baraion could hear thoughts. When he was younger, he would go crazy as he heard every single thought of every being he would come across. But as he grew, he was trained to tune out people he didn't want to hear. In anger, however, it was hard for him to control his ability and he could hear whatever everyone was thinking.
"How dare she call me a foolish human? I am no human. I once associated myself with a human but no more, not ever," he clenched his fists. In a fit, he took off his tie and dumped it in a dumpster after tearing it into pieces. With a flaring nose and bloodshot eyes, he moved toward his cabin.
The door of the office flung open. He had to stop the door with his mind as it was coming back at him. He entered and didn't even bother to see if the door closed all the way, he just ran to his fridge and took a bottle of blood, and poured the chilled blood into his throat. The cold blood calmed him down. The blood was designed in their labs. That was one of the things VRIK's medical department worked on, providing food for Vampires and Lycans without harming any living beings. He could taste the difference.
The world his father knew and now he knew were completely different. At first, all the creatures had to hide but now everyone was in the open, living together, living harmoniously after the 'Clan-War' brought the creatures out in the open for humans to see. It was the humans that stopped that war with advances in medical science and technology.
His father had a big vault of human blood in their house. Many humans donated blood, rather than gave their blood for vampire consumption as it paid a lot of money. It was considered a real feast. Only the richer Vampires were able to afford human blood. It was a delicacy and highly expensive.
Vampires were only allowed to drink the blood of animals or lab-manufactured blood. If they were found to be feeding on humans, the punishment was death. Not only the law of the land but the law of elders also judged them. Bounty hunters were hired to bring such vampires to justice.
When he was a child, he too wanted to be a bounty hunter, he wanted to punish criminals. His childhood image would be ashamed as he was thinking about committing those crimes. He wanted to rip Airaj apart and drink his blood. He wanted to suck him dry and throw his bloodless body to a Lycan to feast on his meat. As a future elder, he wanted to punish Drayke too.
He was angry at Drayke. Humans were sticking with each other. They all had unity, but the vampires were divided. They kept gossiping about each other. In ancient times, vampires were superior but now werewolves were at the top of the food chain and vampires and humans were fighting each other to be in the second position. In VRIK, humans won and vampires were at the bottom of the food chain. He hated that.
A tiny girl defeated him. The girl who broke his heart defeated him. A foolish human defeated him. If she defeated him, how could she be a fool? He was the fool who didn't see her coming. She wiped the floor with him, and he could do nothing, he hated that. He was hiding in his cabin when she would be celebrating out in the world. Maybe she has hundreds of boyfriends and she was celebrating with one of them.
She was away from Dainava for ages, and no one would tell him about her. Drelduin and Edhelriel would sometimes talk about her but would stop talking when they would see her. And now she was coming back. He will have to work with her all the time remembering how she shattered his heart, how she ran away from him.
He knew his father would be angry at him. He was the elder of the vampires but slowly Baraion was taking up all of his duties. He was teaching Baraion all of the vampire's ways and he was a fast learner. He heard all the stories of how they used to keep wolves as their slaves and humans as their pets. But technology and science changed everything. Evolution too played an important role. Vampires slowly started losing their power, but Lycans still could change their form and were agile and strong.
The weapons made humans far superior to everyone. The medicinal superiority of humans levels the playing field. But masterstroke was played by Lycans, they bought every piece of land that had silver in them. The moment they had all the silver, vampires fell apart. Now, they had to work for Lycans, they had to work under wolves and humans, which was humiliating.