98: Silver

**In loving memory of Jayden Well**
I read it over and over again before leaning down and placing a bouquet of white lilies against the thick glass plate on which the bold message was engraved. This large plate of glass was placed in the city centre under a glass statue of a raven- a funny little thing to be made a statue of in a city plagued with death. I didn’t know Jayden Well for very long, but I did know him long enough to feel empty as I stared down at his name. Someone I knew, someone I just saw a few days ago… gone in an instant.
“Hey, you’re here all alone?” I turned my head only to be greeted by a familiar face belonging to Nathan, the young vampire who had helped Aaliyah, Felicity and me to get ready for the Vampire Council meeting that we had had so many moons ago.
“Hi,” I greeted back, “and yes, I kinda ditched my-”
“-boyfriends?”
I laughed. I suppose that was what they were, if we wanted to put it a little more colloquially.
“Yes. I ditched my boyfriends for the day. I don’t feel like being smothered today.”
Translation- I wanted to go around the city and look for Felicity. After our drinking incident, the five of us had decided to spend the rest of the festival gathering intel on David. However, no one really knew him well and the city of Tenebris was so large and so busy that we hadn’t been able to find Felicity so far.
Nathan chuckled and then stood next to me before casting his gaze to the rest of the memorials.
“Did you know any of them?” He asked.
“Jayden.”
Immediately I heard Nathan take in a sharp breath. I looked up at him and noticed that his lower lids were filled with unshed tears and his bottom lip quivered. I asked him what was wrong and immediately, he burst into tears. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, nonetheless, I grabbed him and wrapped him in my arms. I patted his back gently as he cried into my shoulder and once he had recovered, he pulled away and wiped at his face with the back of his hand.
“Jayden was *my* boyfriend… and I loved him and… and… now he’s gone and all for what? A fucking throne? The council is sick, treating you all like replaceable ‘things’. I never liked the nobles. Jayden, you, Felicity and Aaliyah were my only exceptions. But none of you deserve this.” He was seething now, and I could hear the bitterness in his voice. I couldn’t blame him at all. He just lost someone, and although I hadn’t known that he and Jayden were dating before, I could tell that they truly loved each other. And that only made me feel sadder. I’d be like Nathan at the end of all of this. I’d be mourning the loss of someone I truly loved. And then Nathan said the exact thing that I was thinking at that moment.
“I wish it could have been me. I wish I could have died in his place because after everything, he doesn’t deserve this pathetic glass memorial… he doesn’t deserve to be just another name forgotten…” and as he said this he bent down and moved Jayden’s glass memorial revealing an older, cracked one. This one was in memory of someone named Adrian Mariette.
“See? Replaceable things.”
And Adrian’s was not the only forgotten memorial. Rows and rows of old glass plates were slotted in neatly behind the new ones. An entire generation of noble vampires were now lost and forgotten. It just didn’t feel right.
“I’m going to tear this whole place down.” I said softly as anger and resentment took hold of me.
Nathan looked up at me, confused before asking what I meant.
“I’m going to tear down this statue and break all of these glass memorials. Those who died here need more respect than this pitiful, insincere statue of remembrance. They deserve to be burned into the council’s memories so that they know that their deaths are on them.”
“And so you shall, Phoenix.”
We stood in silence for a moment before I remembered that Nathan might know where Felicity was. And so, I asked him. Unfortunately, he had also not seen her as yet today.

“We’ve spent the past two days trying to find her around the city…”
“I’m sorry, the last time I saw her was with David.” He said.
And the moment Nathan mentioned his name, I just knew I had to ask him about David as well.
“What can you tell me about David?”
Nathan raised a brow before asking, “Do you want to dig up some dirt on poor ol’ David?”
I was about to protest and come up with some sort of excuse, but Nathan cut me off by placing his index finger up into the air to shush me.
“You’ve come to the right vampire,” he then paused, gazed around before smiling deeply and saying, “why don’t we talk over a good cup of blood infused coffee, my treat!”
I agreed with him but was surprised at his reaction. Nonetheless, when he offered me an arm of his I hooked onto it and followed him as we made our way to one of the coffee shops. It was emptier here than I anticipated and once Nathan and I had ordered ourselves some coffee, we were spoilt for choice regarding where we could sit. Eventually we chose a table near the open window, and I settled into the comfort of the soft seat below me.
Carefully, I wrapped my hands around the warmth of the mug and stared into the light red liquid within it. It smelled heavenly like a delicious mixture of warm copper and freshly ground coffee beans and after blowing on it a few times, I took a gulp. I’d never had blood-infused coffee before, but I wished I’d found this treasure of a beverage sooner.
“It’s good, right?” Nathan said after wiping his lips with the back of his palm.
I nodded in response and then set my mug down on the table again before looking up at him expectantly.
“Right, David Trest. I never really liked the guy. He’s always so quiet and mysterious. But it’s his eyes that really make me shiver, like he’s hiding something beneath them. Anyway, besides his devilish presence, there’s something else that doesn’t quite sit right with me. A few years ago, when I first came to Tenebris I saw him sitting in one of the bars conversing with someone. They were hidden well, far away in one of the booths and it looked as though the person he spoke to was a secret lover of his. They’d kiss and laugh and hold hands and… other things-”
“Who was this woman?” I asked.
Nathan held up his index finger again, before saying, “I’m getting there. Of course, I was new in town and I didn’t know everyone that well so I had no idea who that woman was… until I saw her announce something official at the palace. Meera… he was with Meera.”
The both of us fell into a sense of silence, me processing the information I had just received and him trying to give me space to react.
“You said this was years ago? Surely they’re not together still?”
Nathan sighed before saying, “Unfortunately, they are. Just before the council announced the games a friend of mine caught a glimpse of them both together. I’ve tried to tell Felicity to stay away from him… but she just won’t listen. Anyone who fraternizes with the Vampire council is suspicious, especially if the person that they are fraternizing with is Meera.”
And I agreed with him. But why then did he save Xavier and Liam? That’s when I realised that of the two of them, Liam was still not safe. Perhaps Meera didn’t intend for me to die in the final celestial round. Perhaps she meant for me to get through with Liam and Xavier… only she hadn’t thought that I would try to disqualify them myself. But there was still something that I didn’t quite understand- why did the celestial point toward him?
“Phoenix? Everything okay?” Nathan asked as he snapped his fingers in front of my face a few times.
“Yes… is there anything else you know about David? Anything at all?”
Nathan fell silent a moment and placed his finger against the side of his chin, tapping it softly as he thought. It took him a good while before his eyes brightened with realisation.
“I do have something else. But… it’s just a rumour amongst the people I work with. We have dressed and groomed the most well-known nobles and so somewhere someone heard one of them say that they saw David injecting himself with some sort of silverish liquid. Of course, my first thought was drugs. You can get custom-made vampire drugs if you know exactly where to look.”
“And do you know where to look?” I asked.
He winked before giving me a nod. I had to say, I was quite curious about this alleged “rumour”. I could feel in my bones that there was something else going on.
“Tomorrow I will take you around town and maybe we can figure it out together.”
“Tomorrow?” I questioned.
Nathan nodded before pointing to something behind me. I turned my head and was surprised to see Demetri entering the shop with a large smile plastered on his face.
“I don’t feel like third-wheeling.” Nathan said with a chuckle.
“Where should I meet you?” I asked turning back towards him.
“Same place that you found me today, at midday.” He then stood up from his seat before nodding at me slightly and then walking toward the exit.
“Who was that?” Demetri asked as he eventually sat in front of me with a normal cup of coffee.
“A friend of mine that I met a while ago. His name is Nathan. He actually had some good information on David.”
He leaned into his seat and sipped at his coffee before asking, “What information?”
I leaned in as I spoke. “Well, for one, it seems he and Meera are actually lovers-”
“What!” Demetri yelled loud enough for the entire coffee shop to turn towards us. Already they had their attention on us because of our wolfy smell, and now Demetri had given them another reason to stare at us like we were some sort of other-worldly beings.
“Sorry…” Demetri muttered, now leaning closer towards me too.
“But that’s not the only thing I found out. Apparently, he’s been injecting himself with some kind of silverish drug and-”
‘Silverish drug?” Demetri interrupted with an uncharacteristically serious look on his face.
“Yeah, why, do you know something?”
Instead of answering my question, Demetri asked whether he could join Nathan and I tomorrow. Disturbed and alarmed by the look on his face, I agreed. It was unlike Demetri to be so serious and so it begged the question, what was the silver drug?
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Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending my love and Merry Christmas!!💝🎁🎄