Kings of Awakening Vampires and Purebloods

by Arantes

  King Henry was stronger and faster. He kicked the one with the sword with a blow to its head. Philip thought the king had broken its skull with that powerful blow.

  “Is that really all that you have? I’m not even close to being warmed up,” said the King.

  The two assailants were down for the kill; the one with the chain grabbed the other one and escaped through the window. The guards quickly rushed in the room, about fifty of them.

  Philip went to tend to his king, but he looked fine. “My lord, are you all right?”

  Henry unexpectedly began to laugh. “I’m more than fine, I’m marvelous.” A smile crept upon his face.

  Philip was not happy about the lack of security. “How could you guards have allowed intruders to get inside the throne room?!” Philip ordered them to go after them through the window; the King raised his hand and said no.

  “Philip, I’m going to bed you handle this,” said the King.

  Philip looked to the guards and said, “The ones who came from Victor’s Kingdom tried to assassinate the King!”

  A warrant was quickly issued for Sonia and Angelione’s arrest.

  ***

  It’s not every day that a group of angry men with abilities and weapons surround you. Well in Sonia and Angelione’s life that would be a different story. They have been on missions before where they had been surrounded by hundreds of men. Now once again they found themselves in the same situation. King Henry’s military surrounded Sonia’s and Angelione’s inn.

  “By the order of the King, I am placing the two of you under arrest!” Shouted a man as he knocked on the door.

  “It’s the middle of the night what now,” said Sonia in frustration.

  Angelione closed his book and put it back inside his pocket. “It appears we’re being arrested,” said Angelione with no worries.

  Sonia looked at him in surprised. “Detained? What did we do?”

  The door burst opened, seven guards walked inside the room with swords. Sonia grabbed her chains, ready to fight. Angelione quickly put an arm in front of her.

  “Sonia no, we did nothing wrong, so there’s no need for us to fight.”

  She put away her chains. One of the men took the chains while one of the other guards apprehended Sonia and Angelione. It’s good that Angelione was the level headed one because if he wasn’t Sonia would have been dead a long time ago.

  William walked in. “I should have guessed the two of you were up to no good. You knew Aleister was creating chaos in our Kingdom, so you took advantage of that to get to our King.”

  Sonia and Angelione looked at each other in bewilderment.

  “We did what?” said Sonia. “What do you mean; we tried to assassinate King Henry!” She was furious at the accusation.

  “Playing the dumb game huh, don’t worry we have a special place for people like you,” said William with a smile. He was happy to lock them away.

  Sonia and Angelione were thrown in a triple-steel barred prison cell. Sonia was unable to comprehend what just happened. Their hands and feet were chained up, preventing any attempt of escaping. Now they sat in a cell wondering why they were there.

  “Just give me the word, Angelione, and we can escape. This isn’t like the Furness where they suppress our abilities and strength,” said Sonia. She remembered taking Vincent to the Furness, where his abilities were useless to him.

  Angelione only wanted to know where that bad order was coming from. “We can’t do anything irrational, let’s wait,” said Angelione.

  Wait for what? She wondered how he remained this calm after what just happened.

  Chapter 8

  The Excitaret Quad

  Tension between the kingdom’s people and William’s men was escalating. The killing had not stopped; in fact, it had gotten even worse. The people were panicking and feared they would be the next to die. William started losing more control of them. Soon they started a riot and now trying to find Aleister on their own. Now William stands in front of a crowd in the middle of the city, trying to bring them to their senses.

  “I’m warning you all, Aleister is a monster! You will all die if you go after him!” shouted William as he tries to calm the riot. William and his men cannot contain this many people. He knew what would happen if the king’s men got involved with his army. They would slowly kill the people; even William’s head would be taken.

  Samuel stood next to him, “Let them do as they please. If they want to find out the hard way, who are we to stop them?” said Samuel.

  “Because it’s our job to keep the people calm and safe,” said William. If I can’t contain them, the king will act.

  The people were no longer listening. “Everyone, grab your sword or any sharp tools that you have, we will hunt this monster down!” The crowd screamed in approval. “For too long we have been living in fear, fear of Aleister and the king! The time is now for us to stand and fight back!”

  “None of you know what you’re doing, get back to your houses and let us handle this!” What can a group of vampires do against a Pureblood, not just any Pureblood, Aleister? The riot was too much for William to control. He knew that he must quickly find Aleister to bring peace to his city.

  “Look at these fools; they don’t even know where to start. It’s a joke rally, a group of ants chasing after a snake,” said Samuel.

  We’re just as lost as they are. We ourselves don’t know where to start, thought William.

  “I’m starting to think the Black Reapers were our best chance of finding him,” said Samuel jokingly.

  “You know what they did, Samuel. King Victor planned all this, to murder our king.”

  ***

  As the prison guard fought with his eyes to keep them open, it was clear this was not his type of job. The temptation of sleeping was longing in his eyes. He got up, drank some water and walked around the room to keep himself from falling asleep. After a few minutes he found it was futile, so he sat back down. “No, I must stay awake. If they escape I’m a dead man.” He mumbles as he slowly closed his eyes.

  As he was about to fall asleep he heard a voice. “Are you sleeping on the job?!”

  He jumped back out of his chair, almost falling down on the hard floor. “No sir, sir no, sir I was just--.” He looked up and Samuel was in front of him. He had scared him half to death. He wanted this man dead.

  Samuel started to laugh and said, “I hope I didn’t scare you too much!”

  The prison guard bit his lips in anger. Samuels’s guffaws echoed in the large room, causing strangers to search for the source of the loud bursts of laughter. The prison guard had a look of hatred in his face. Samuel’s laughter finally came to an end and he said, “Let them go, the King has pardoned them.”

  This of course was a surprise to the prison guard. “I heard no such thing from the King, or the Warden.”

  As powerful as Samuel was, he had no say on freeing prisoners.

  The warden came in after Samuel. The prison guard saw the warden coming from the other room. He was a Strong Arm, much taller than Samuel.

  “It’s alright. The King gave his permission,”said the warden.

  The prison guard said, “But sir-.”

  “But nothing. Let them go now!’

  ***

  Angelione sat on his bed with his eyes closed; being in prison didn’t even bother him. He started to recall the crime scene with all the dead corpses. Samuel had unexpectedly put a hand on his shoulder as he was getting up. Angelione wasn’t bothered or pondering about that really, there was something familiar about the guy. There was something about him that he couldn’t put his finger on it. His face brought an unfamiliar but yet familiar feeling to him. Angelione and Sonia weren’t guilty, someone was gutting for them. They last Angelione wanted to do was something unpleasant and disturb the peace treaty Atnius had with Odeon under the world’s alliance agreement by the Six High Kings. He knew Sonia was a bit hot-headed at times and that she wasn’t going to sit there for another
day and do nothing. He needed more time to figure all this out.

  Sonia started hearing footsteps and wondered if she was going mad. The more she listened, the closer and louder it grew. A couple minutes ago she could have sworn she heard someone laugh. The laughter had given her goose bumps, it reminds her of someone she hates. Last night she slept great knowing Angelione was there with her. Although she wished she had some sweet. Angelione had made it clear to her not to do anything irrational, which bothered her. She was innocent and she wanted to leave as soon as possible. It was clear now that someone was framing them, taking opportunity of their arrival to march forward with their plan. Sonia had asked Angelione why they hadn’t taken any action. He simply responded it wasn’t yet time. It’s true that he was the leader of this team, but his methods were unorthodox to her. He had a habit of waiting until the last second to catch their prey, confronting their targets without even consulting her or her even knowing about it. She looked at him and wondered when they will get out of here. The footsteps got closer to her cell and she looked up to see someone standing there.

  “My my now, did I hear the two of you tried to assassinate King Henry?” said a man standing in front of the cell.

  Sonia and Angelione saw Samuel standing there. He always had that creepy smile on his face.

  “This is no way for a beautiful lady to be treated!” Samuel ordered the guards to double their food rations.

  “Why are you here, Samuel? Don’t you have a dog to follow?” said Angelione in an insulting tone.

  Samuel responded, “Well, I see you still have your sense of humor! I came here to help, but I see now that you don’t need my help.”

  Angelione continued to ignore him.

  “O my lady, what have they done to you? Someone as beautiful as you should not be treated this way,” said Samuel in love tone.

  Sonia wanted him to stop embarrassing himself; she wasn’t interested in the guy. “They accused us of trying to kill the king. King Henry is not a High King for any reason. The two of us can’t kill him even if we tried to.”

  Samuel said, “We’re going to get to the bottom of this. Hurry and free them now!”

  The prison guard wasted no time unlocking the cell. He removed their chains.

  Sonia and Angelione looked at each other baffled. Samuel explained to them the King has given them his pardon. The guard gave her their weapons back.

  “You can repay him by helping me find Aleister, and I think I might know where he is,” said Samuel.

  Angelione had his doubt about the King letting them go free. What’s going on? Has the King really pardoned us? Somehow, I highly doubt that.

  Even Sonia had her doubt as she looked at Angelione. He gave her a nod.

  The three fled, speeding through the frigid cold and thick heavy snow.

  ***

  William spotted Samuel with Sonia and Angelione running towards the woods. What’s going on? What have you done Samuel? He decided to follow them with some of his guards, quietly. As he followed closely but quietly, he continued to ponder. Has Samuel betrayed us? Why would he free the people who tried to kill his king? Was he that blinded by love for Sonia? I’m afraid for you Samuel; the king will not take this lightly.

  ***

  They arrived in the woods. Samuel headed to the big cave up ahead and made his way inside. Sonia and Angelione followed. Sonia used her fire to brighten their passage. They walked in the narrow path of the cave.

  “That’s enough Samuel, don’t you think you’ve done enough?” said Angelione.

  They had now reached a dead end. The darkness also came to an end. They peered up and there was a huge hole above illuminating some light. The bright moonlight crept into the cave as it would soon get brighter when the sun rises. The moon reflected its brightness upon them.

  “We know you led us here to kill us,” said Sonia.

  Samuel had an evil smile on his face. “Forgive me for deceiving you, milady.”

  “Did you really think we believed you? You freed us yourself; the King had nothing to do with it. In actual fact, he would love nothing but our heads,” said Sonia.

  Samuel had thought they were stupid, but he quickly found out they were much smarter than he thought. He laughed. “Do you hear that? It’s that fool William and his men entering the cave. I made it obvious to him I freed you, just like a brainless mouse he followed us.”

  William and his men walked in and quickly blocked the entrance.

  “Samuel, what’s the meaning of this?” asked William.

  Samuel laughed, “You old fool! Open your eyes and see the truth for yourself!”

  “Samuel what are you talking about? You went behind my back and freed these criminals. Do you know what would’ve happened if King Henry knew of this?” asked William.

  Angelione looked at William as if he was a fool. “William, Aleister is not the killer, Samuel is. He’s wanted in three different lands for murder.” Angelione took the picture from his pocket that he ripped from the book and passed it to William.

  Sonia said, “Wait Angelione. If you had such crucial evidence why did you wait so long to use it?” She was right. If Angelione had showed William this picture before he left the library, they would have ended this chase.

  Angelione said, “It just would not be as much fun…”

  She truly hated working with this guy sometimes. No wonder he was so calm when they were being arrested. He had the picture all along. She’s going to kill him when this is all done; he made her sleep in that disgusting place of a prison.

  William examined the picture; it was a man resembling Samuel. He had long white hair instead of his short black hair and the glasses on his face as always. William started to read the article. “Samuel Fluster, a notorious serial killer, wanted throughout different lands for the countless lives he took. He is known for cutting his prey after he kills them and biting their necks. He possesses the ability to create clones of anyone he sees to trick his opponent.” William was now in shock. Samuel was like a son to him. Did we really allow a criminal like him to trick us? We had such crucial evidence at our library and yet we fail to see it. He looked at Samuel with sacredness and surprise and said, “Samuel, tell me this isn’t true, tell me this is just a misunderstanding.”

  “You old fool.” Samuel tightened his right hand and brought it closer to his face. He had an adamant look upon his face. “I enjoy drinking the blood-rain, but there’s nothing like vampires’ blood. It’s fresher and warmer.”

  The very thought of this man piercing his fang into anyone disgusted Sonia.

  William’s men were waiting for his order, but the word wasn’t coming out.

  “I have never tasted humans’ blood, and I hear they are delightful!”

  And you never will, Sonia thought about Albedo and all the people he loved.

  Samuel continued, “I wanted to stop killing and at one point I thought I could stay here

  and start a new life, but the urge to kill never leaves you! The very thought of slashing

  my sword through someone’s flesh excites me, to watch their eyes as they lose hope! It’s… splendid!”

  “William, that’s enough!” said Angelione as he watched William still unable to comprehend. “I know he was like a son to you, but you have to accept reality now.”

  William put his hand to his head. “Deep down I think I knew it was him, but I was too blind to accept the truth. So Aleister is not even here, this was all Samuel’s twisted work?”

  “Yes,” said Sonia. “But you’re wrong about one thing; the real Aleister is here in the city. The Aleister the old woman saw was the real one. Samuel killed her because of her ability, fear of getting caught. The Aleister that grabbed me at the mansion was real. The one Angelione fought was just another clone of Samuel’s ability to copy. His clones may look like the original, but they don’t appear to be as strong,” concluded Sonia.

  Samuel listened patiently and said, “Bravo my lady, smart and beautiful. W
hen Angelione told me of his ability to track this residue, I had to act quickly. So I had the two of you framed. I sneaked inside the castle, which was very easy to do considering I work there. Then I created two clones in the resemblance of the two of you and attempted to assassinate the King.” He looked at Sonia in admiration. “It’s a shame Sonia; we could have had something special, but now that you know my true identity, I must eliminate you all. Don’t take it personally.” And besides, I swerved away from my true purpose a long time ago.

  Sonia really had no interest in the guy, so why does he still think so.

  Samuel started to create clones of himself, a good fifteen of them. The cave was already small and now it looks miniature with this much amount of people. Samuels’s clones all looked, act, and move the same.

  Sonia grabbed her daggers. “I’m warning you Samuel, give up quietly! We have fought more powerful Purebloods than you. This will not end well.”

  “Samuel,” said Angelione, “you may not remember me but I know who you are. I wasn’t sure at first until I saw your wanted picture. Back then you had long white hair but I can never forget that smile on your face.”

  Samuel looked baffled. “And exactly where have we met?”

  “It was a long time ago when I was given permission by the King and a certain queen to shut down battle-arena. An illegal underground tournament organized by syndicates to finance their crimes.”

  Samuel smiled, “I hated that dump of a place, so I should thank you in a way. But it’s all irrelevant to me now.” So he was the one who… I knew his name sounded familiar. “After I kill you all, I will finally fulfill my higher purpose.”