chapter 75

ARIELLA.

When Viel returned, I was already back in my room. Darius returned to sleeping, although he said that it would take a while before he went back into a deep slumber. It turns out vampires could do that naturally, being practically immortal that they are. But because of that, Viel never noticed that Darius had already woken up.

"David has been gone for a few days now. He must be having a hard time looking for my mate," I told Viel when he served me my dinner that evening. He cooked me some beef and potatoes but I didn't know what kind of dish they were.

"I suppose you're not complaining that he's still not here?" Viel quipped. "The Vampire King has a lot on his plate right now. From what I heard, Master Lawrence had run away from him, saying that he no longer wanted to live with him. He must be looking for him too on top of all the other things that needed to be done."

"Ha! Maybe he's not a very good older brother to his siblings."

"He's just very busy. And usually, it was their mother that took care of the two kids. But now that she's gone, responsibility fell on the Vampire King's lap. I heard that Master Lawrence wanted to live with the witch called Blaire. And so both of them left the Vampire King."

That made me happy. "Oh really? I hope that he never finds them anymore."

Viel gave me a stern look. "I know that you're biased against us, but since you're going to live with us from now on, maybe open your mind a little, Ma'am. The Vampire King told me to tolerate you, but I won't allow disrespect coming from your mouth."

"You’re nuts, aren’t you? I didn’t want to be here and you still want me to respect you.”

“I’m saying, we could find common ground, Ma’am. And I don’t care if you hate us but learn how to respect our king. Otherwise—”

“And what are you going to do, choke me again with your snake hands? Go on. Kill me. Let's see what David is going to say to that." I glared at him.

He was now glaring at me too. Viel didn't want to drop his gaze because that would mean that he lost, but I was ready to fight him again so he gave up. He surrendered because he knew that messing with me too much would also get him in trouble. "Enjoy these days to the fullest, Ma'am, because I assure you, as soon as the Vampire King returns here, you won't be able to smile even in your head."

I didn't finish my meal because I was mad. I stayed inside my room, but I got bored so I decided to visit Darius again. He was sleeping as always, but then his eyes opened when I got near to him. "You are pretty bold, coming up here again, Ariella."

"What, you're going to hurt me too?"

"I wouldn't do that to Celeste's daughter."

"Yeah. That's what I thought too. Anyway, I heard that your younger brother Lawrence ran away from your twin brother, so David might be gone for a while. This is my chance to escape, Darius! Are you still not going to help me?"

"But how?" he replied as he brushed his hair with his own hands. "Do you know a way out of here? I thought you knew that only the vampires could get out of here."

"Then let's break the curse! We could do that, right?

"Century-old curses don't break, Ariella. Unless you tear down this castle, you're not going to get out of here anytime soon."

"So I can get out of here if I destroy this castle?"

"Yes, but how are you going to do that? We can't even destroy this place using our powers."

I got a little mad again because he made it sound like there was no really a way out of here for someone like me. "This sucks, you know. Now is the perfect time to escape and I'm just here wasting my time."

But Darius wasn't even listening to me. He was like talking more to himself than to me. "So Lawrence ran away. He must've been scared, now that our parents are gone. I might look for him too if David doesn't find him soon."

"You were just chill when you learned that your parents died, but you're worried about your younger brother."

He nodded. "My parents were evil, so I stopped caring about them many, many years ago. But my younger brothers are still innocent so they still need guidance from us."

"Now that you mention it, how does that work?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, your ages. You have been living for centuries, right? But then your younger brothers are still kids? Okay, let's say their appearances don't change since they're vampires, but won't they mature mentally as time goes by?"

"How is that possible?" Darius asked me. "When they have the brains of a young child forever. They will remain child-like all their lives because of their brains."

"Oh, that does make sense. So you're stuck at your body age. Then your brothers will be forever children. I don't know if that's good or bad."

"It's both. But actually, they can grow up and age too. David and I were teens too when we became vampires and we just grew up."

"Huh? How is that possible?" I asked, confused again with their lore.

"If one becomes a vampire by getting infected with our venom, then if the venom gets removed from our bodies, aging resumes in us. We do it to young vampires who need to grow up a little so they can hunt more efficiently. But of course, there's a limit to how long you can grow. I think the maximum is seven years."

"What? You could do that? But how?"

"Through you," Darius said simply. I got worried that he might have loose screws in his head too.

"Through me?"

"Yes, through you, or the Moon Goddess herself. Didn't you know? Your tears can cleanse anything. If a vampire like me drinks your tears, the venom inside of me gets cleansed and we become humans. After all, being a vampire started as a curse just like lycanthropy. We then reinfect ourselves to return as vampires."

I was almost speechless. I knew about how the first werewolves were just cursed creatures created by the Gods but vampires too? And my tears could turn them into humans? "This is... amazing."

"Yeah, I agree. Didn't you know about that? But I guess you weren't told about the Moon Goddess' power because you were not a vampire like us. But in the old days, we revered the Moon Goddess for that very reason. Our ancestors wanted to cleanse every vampire so that no one has to live as one."

"And now? Do you no longer aspire for that to happen?" I asked curiously because that sounded so good. Imagine if every vampire became an ordinary human.

"Not anymore. Too much hatred and resentment toward humans made my kind lose interest in becoming humans. Plus, some of us were greedy. They didn't want to lose their immortality or their abilities. They would rather live off human blood forever than become humans themselves."

"That is... crazy." I wanted to curse but opted not to as Darius might find it disrespectful.

"Now you know why we wanted you in our midst. Not only because your offspring with vampire blood will have the power to destroy this world, but also because we wanted you to be on our side so that anyone who doesn't want to live as a vampire anymore could turn themselves into humans. But werewolves took you for themselves, and here we are. It has come to this because the werewolves had been selfish for centuries."

"I see..." That was the only phrase that I could say because I was so overwhelmed by what I found out. I literally could change this world. I think Viel was right. I was biased the whole time.