Chapter 37

Alina

I watched in horror as the thing sitting on the throne moved its head to look down at me. Just like in my dreams, this monster was made up of only flesh and bones, but his condition seemed far worse.
Maggots crawled out of the hollow spaces that were the eyes, staring out of a skeletal face. Muscles and skin hung loose on the exposed parts of his body. There was blood dripping onto the floor in a constant rhythm, and his clothes were drenched in it. But the most horrifying fact was the number of bodies that were scattered all around him. I tried and failed to keep the bile down my throat and ended up retching at the sight of half-rotten corpses of hundreds of men and women that lay scattered by the monster’s feet with their hollow chests. Their rib cage wastorn open like egg shells to expose their heartless bodies.
“Your assumptions are correct, my lovely granddaughter.” Aaron came to stand behind me, pulling my hair out of the way as I heaved up my dinner. “Tuhin eats the hearts of vampires to stay alive, but that won’t keep him alive for long. He’ll need a new body soon, and luckily, we’ll have you ready just in time. Your transition is about to be completed very soon now.”
“H-How?” I managed to ask even as my chest heaved and my mouth bitter from the taste of acid.
“Oh, you mean how Tuhin and I are connected or how is he alive?” Aaron asked cheerfully. “Well, since I’m in such a good mood, I’ll answer both.” He sat down in front of me with his legs crossed while the creature of muscle and bone continued to stare hauntingly at us out of its hollow eyes.
I sat up from my hunched position, leaning my back against a wall and keeping as much distance as I could between Aaron and me. I needed to know this. I needed to know what my connection was with this monster. Why was I chosen as a vessel? But most of all, I needed to contact Erick. He must be worried sick by now, and my mind was still covered with that thick fog that kept me from seeing our bond.
“You see,” Aaron began, “The Five Mages, the Fiostros or the Circle of Supreme as they were called, were the most powerful of all mages in the word. Till now, there has been no one to measure up to the level of their power. When everyone believed them dead after the division of the dimensions, their clan kept them alive by using spells that have been passed down generation to generation. Our clan stayed together for a long time, but intermixing of vampire blood into our clan slowly turned us into vampires until some of us could no longer use magic. Once we realized the fatality of the mixing, we kept one part of our clan strictly mage. We supported interbreeding if we had to, so that we were never short on mages. It was about a thousand years later that our ancestor opened his eyes again for the first time. He hungered for vampire heart, so we gave it to him. But those hearts weren’t strong enough to sustain him for longer periods of time. He was put back to sleep, and each time, he would desiccate a bit more due to the insufficiency of power. If this keeps up, it won’t be long until he’s truly dead. So we came up with the plan for a vessel. The thing is, vessels don’t last long after being bitten. They never made it to this stage. But you’re different, you made it.”
The way he eyed me made a shiver run down my spine. He was like a predator sizing up its prey. How ironic that I had always thought of Erick as the predator, yet he’s done nothing to make me believe that I was prey. “What about Emiel?” I asked. My breathing was almost back to normal now, but the cloud still lingered in my mind. It was still blocking me from making contact with Erick. “Did you force him to compel Erick?”
“Why yes! Of course, I did!” he answered gleefully. “We wanted your body darling, not your mind. The more we could break you, the easier it would’ve been to use you as a vessel. We hoped to weaken your soul, but you came out of the ordeal stronger than before, and our plan took a setback. Then we thought about letting you get attached to Erick before we killed him in front of your eyes. It was a brilliant plan really. That little drama you had on the cliff? That was all part of our plan. But somehow, that pathetic vampire survived again. That’s when I made an appearance and gave you our family necklace.” He pointed to the pendant on my neck that was emitting a soft glow. “You didn’t think it was just any necklace, did you? That necklace once belonged to Tuhin. It’s what guided his spirit to you and helped him inject his venom into your blood stream.”
My eyes widened in horror, and my hands instantly went to my neck to remove the abomination, but the next instant, a high volt of electricity shot down my arm and burned the skin right off my hand. I yelped, clutching my injured hand with my other one and watched it heal in front of my eyes. Provided it was slower than Erick’s level of healing. The necklace, however, now emitted a brighter glow and sparks of electricity danced around the surface of the sapphire.
“Ah! I forgot to tell you. You can’t take it off anymore, at least not until Tuhin takes it off of you.” Aaron clapped his hands together. “Now, where were we… Oh, Emiel? That poor boy.” Although he shook his head ruefully, there was no indication in his tone that he actually felt any remorse. “We took control of his brain a bit too soon. It caused permanent damage to his psyche. Now, he just acts like a spoiled little brat with no brains whatsoever.” He shrugged. “Oh well, we were thinking of disposing him off, anyway. Now, if the king doesn’t kill him, Erick sure will.”
I felt bile rise in my throat again and had to close my eyes and force it back down by sheer strength of will. Aaron wasn’t just using Emiel like a puppet. He damaged him permanently, and yet he feels nothing for the havoc he’s caused, much less for the lives he’d taken. He was a true psychopath, and the worst part was, he perfectly knew that.
“What’s in this for you?” I managed to ask even though my gut kept churning. “What do you get from helping him?”
“Take over the Dark Council, of course!” His smile widened. “The Dark Council holds authority over all eleven dimensions. If I can control the Dark Council, then not one but eleven worlds will come under my command.”
“The Dark Council is the protector of the dimensions! They won’t let you win so easily.” I defended while thinking about little Miaka and the twin Lycan cubs I met at my reception. If Tuhin comes after them... No! I couldn’t let that happen.
“Oh, poor child!” Aaron snorted. “You don’t know half the things the Dark Council does, but you don’t need to. Once Tuhin takes over your body, you’ll help me get rid of every single council member. But for now, don’t worry your pretty little brain anymore. After all, you only have a few hours to live.”
Once again, I tried to grab on to our mating bond to somehow let Erick know where I was. Although I myself had no clue, I’d seen the surroundings outside the temple. Erick might recognize it from somewhere. The closer I got to the end of my transition, the closerTuhin came to taking over my body, and I couldn’t let that happen, ever.

Erick

“Think, Emiel! There has to be something!” I pleaded. Right at this moment, if I had to beg Emiel for any useful information on how to get to Alina, I’ll do it. Pride would never stand in my way when it came to my mate. Alina was my heart.
Emiel woke up about half an hour ago, and I’d given him enough time to rest before coming to interrogate him further. I didn’t know how Alina got so much out of him, but there was one thing I knew for sure. My rage stood in the way of the truth, and I wouldn’t let it control my actions any further. If we had any hope at all of saving Alina, we had to work together. The only plus point was that Emiel seemed just as eager to help. The royal soldiers searched the entire Cain clan estate but came out empty handed. It was like the entire clan had disappeared from the face of the Earth without a trace. All of their known relatives had been traced down as well. Still, we came up with nothing. Their relation with the clan had long since deteriorated.
“If I knew anything, I would have already told you!” Emiel sounded just as frustrated as he paced around inside the cell.
I growled deep in my throat, and my hands tightened on the bars hard enough to dent them. All possible resources at our disposal have already been utilised. No stone was left unturned, and all known relatives have been questioned. No… On second thought, there was one person we have missed.
“Allen!” I turned to face Kendrick, who was standing in the shadows ready to pounce at the first sign of aggression from Emiel.
“Allen is Sheena’s husband.” Kendrick caught on instantly.
“So by default, Allen became a part of the Cain clan.” I looked towards Emiel. “I’ll gather what I can from him. It’s possible Allen’s sickness has also affected his memory, but it’s also possible Sheena told him something. In the meantime, try to remember anything significant from the possessions.”
I walked out of the dungeons and heading to my room so I can teleport to Allen’s hospital room without interruptions.
“Is it safe to trust anything he says?” Kendrick asked the million-dollar question.
I had the same doubts, but…”Alina asked me to give him another chance. Well, I was giving it to him, and I hope for her sake that Alina wasn’t wrong in her judgement.”
Upon reaching my room, I closed the doors shut and stood next to my bed. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on remembering the exact details of Allen’s hospital room. It wasn’t hard for the details were imprinted on my mind. When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in the middle of the hospital cabin. Allen was looking at me wide-eyed through his spectacles as a book hung from his one arm.
“Erick?” he asked, surprise evident in his voice. “What are you doing here? Where’s Alina?”
“I needed to speak to you urgently,” I said, trying my hardest not to disclose too much about Alina’s situation. It would adversely affect his health if he found out Alina has been taken by Aaron.
“What do you need to talk about?” Allen removed his glasses and placed the book on the side table as I came to stand next to his bed. He somehow knew this was an emergency.
“We had reports that an Ancient is waking up,” I told him the truth. For him to help, he needed to know the minor details. “Do you know anything about it? Did Sheena ever tell you—”
“Sheena died because of it!” The raw anger in his voice stunned me to silence for Allen was the most imperturbable person I’ve ever known.
“Allen,” I began, treading ever so carefully, “if you know something, then please tell me. I need to know if there is any hope of defeating an Ancient.”
“The night...” Allen took a shaky breath, his heart rate spiking on the monitor. “The night of the accident… we were at the Cain clan manor. Sheena was unexpectedly invited to the manor after years. She was so happy to be there.” He took another shaky breath as his eyes watered. “Alina was supposed to come with us that day, but she denied. The Cain’s got angry that Alina wasn’t with us.”
“Then? What happened after that, Allen?” I urged gently, placing a hand on his shoulders. “Allen, I need to know.”
He shook his head and wiped at his eyes with unsteady hands. “I don’t know. I wasn’t allowed to go into the room with her, but after about an hour, Sheena came running out of the room all pale and frightened. She kept repeating that we had to get home before it was too late. I didn’t understand what she was trying to tell me, but it was on our way back home that we got hit by that truck. I’m sure that it wasn’t an accident. It was a planned murder.”
“But why would they want to murder both of you? You didn’t even go inside the room!”
“That’s exactly why I’m still alive. They were after Sheena, and they didn’t care if they had to kill their kin to get her to keep quiet.” Although his hands trembled, his spine was set in steel. “Before Sheena died, she told me that an Ancient will rise in a hailstorm of blood and flesh. I didn’t know what that meant, not until now. Now I know for sure that Sheena was murdered.” He turned to me at that instant, taking my hand in his as he pleaded. “Please don’t let it hurt Alina, Erick. Please keep my baby safe.”
“I will,” I answered past the ice in my throat. “But you need to tell me if there is anything else you remember from that night.” What Aaron told me was shocking but not helpful in any way. I needed more, and I needed it fast.
“Yes, there was something else she said before she died.” His forehead wrinkled. He was clearly having trouble remembering. “It was something about a blade.”
That was it! That was just what I needed. “Come on, Allen! You have to remember. Tell me its name.”
Allen concentrated for a long time and by each passing second, my hope faded bit by bit. No! I had to hold on. I had to get her back. I wouldn’t be able to live without Alina, not without turning into a monster.
“I remember!” Allen’s voice cut through my thoughts with sudden clarity. Hope bubbled in my chest once again.
“Tell me.” I urged, holding on to his hand.
“The Arctic Blade,” he said.