Kings of Awakening Vampires and Purebloods (12 page)

As Sonia fell into a deep sleep, she began to dream of her and Albedo, both cheerfully smiling while lying in the grass. She started running and Albedo ran after her. The sky started crying as the rain poured down with no warning. Sonia felt as if a sinister presence was approaching her, she looked back to see Albedo laying on the floor and a man standing in front of him.
             

Sonia looked at the man in his unique eyes. His long w
hite hair reached his back. She

began to scream, unable to move in fear.

The man extended his right hand and said, “He belongs to us!”

Sonia woke up to find Angelione’s two hands on her shoulders trying to wake her up. She was screaming as if she had lost her mind.

“You’re having a nightmare,” said Angelione in perplexity, he had never seen her like this before. 

Sonia moved her eyes and looked around the room; slowly she started to gain her senses.

It took her a couple minutes for her to accept that it was all a dream. Aleister’s presences felt so real, as if he was actually inside of her mind. She felt as if reality had been twisted in her dream, her mind had felt as if it was being eaten by his wickedness. 

Angelione brought her something sweet to eat and some tea. A couple minutes went by and she started to feel like herself again.

Angelione stood by the window and watched the snow fall outside. It fell slowly as it hit the ground, quietly like dead flies. He saw Sonia’s reflection on the window while she was drinking her tea and eating her sweets. He thought nothing of her nightmare, or even what happened earlier with the old lady. Angelione had come to the conclusion that if she was too scared to talk about it now then so be it. He wasn’t the kind of man to push an answer out of someone. Even though what she knows might be crucial for their search, he had confidence that they would find another way.

Sonia drank her tea and started wondering, “Something is not right. When we met King Henry he seemed
unworried. Why would one of the High Kings be so calm when he knows one of the five Kings of Awakening is in his Kingdom?” She had made a conclusion that Aleister was one of them. Only they could bring this much fear to a person.

“I know what you’re thinking Sonia. Don’t,” said Angelione. He looked back at her to see that she was feeling like her old self. Good, that’s what he needed, his partner back. Sonia was useless to him looking like this; hunting down Aleister was no child’s game. Now Sonia looked less hesitant, he wondered what she had seen that was so terrifying.

              Sonia responded back to Angelione, “And why not?”

“You’re thinking that somehow Henry is connected to Aleister. We’re in foreign land, you must be careful.” 

They had worked with each other for so long they could just about read each other’s thoughts. But of course he knew Sonia wasn’t stupid. She wasn’t going to go around and spread rumors or anything like that.

He took a deep breath. “Then again, you’re always right.”

Working with Angelione always made her feel safe; they had formed a powerful bond of friendship. A bond of unspoken-friendship, the man hardly talked. Sonia practically had to force a word out of his mouth, but she knew when she needed him he always delivered. The two of them were like brother and sister. They would do anything to protect one-another.

  He came closer to her and she wiped the sweat off her face with a wet towel.

              “Did you also want to know about what happened earlier or about my nightmare?” asked Sonia.

Angelione shook his head, knowing she wasn’t feeling well enough to talk about it.

“I …I hope Albedo and the other’s are doing ok. If I know them they’re probably training. Except for Dante he can be a bit lazy sometimes when it comes to training. But Albedo is determined to get stronger, even without me.”

Angelione noticed that she always smiled when she mentioned his name and thought was she in love? The way her eyes sparkled, her cheeks turned red and a special smile appeared on her face, but only for Albedo.

Angelione tried to make her go back to sleep. “The tea that you drank will keep bad dreams away.”

Sonia gave him a look of laughter, “I’m not a child you know,” she said in a playing voice. She promised him she would try but instead stood by the window as soon as Angelione
left the room.

***             

Angelion
e
sat in the kitchen with his book and continued reading where he had left off.  All of the sudden there was a knock at the door. The knocking could not be any more aggravating. It was the sound of a man being arrested and a warrant being issued for him. Angelione quickly closed the book and got his sword ready.  He had a habit of standing to the side of the door before he answered. This was foreign land and he wanted to take no chances.

“Who is it?” he asked with a free voice.

Sonia quickly and quietly joined him in the small kitchen. Their eyes locked in understanding.

“Lord William wishes you two to join us, its urgent! “

Angelione and Sonia exchanged a glare. He opened the door and the guard explained it was better if they come along. Sonia made sure she brought her weapons with her. She hated this white robe they had given her, but it did keep her warmer.

                                                                             ***

           
 
Samue
l
and William stood in a corridor between a soup shop and a sword weapons shop bewildered. William covered his mouth in disgust. It smelled as if a dozen of eggs had been left out to rot for days. Now lying in front of them were rotting corpses, filled with bugs and maggots that were eating away at their dead flesh. The owner of the stores had decided to close up real early today. I mean it’s not every day a store owner wakes up and there’s a pile of bodies so close to his store. The guards were doing all they could do to keep the crowds behind William from getting closer to the corpses. They wanted to see what was going on. A woman cried in terror, who would do such a thing? The town’s people were fed up with the killing. Night after night people had been dying.

One of the men yelled out, “It’s that demon Aleister; he’s behind all the killing that’s been going on!” The people were getting impatient; this had been going on for far too long. The King’s warriors were useless. Only the nobles were kept safe at night in the rich district. The poor district was left to fend for themselves.

“Alright people, let us handle this,” said William as his men tried to ward off the crowds.

“How long are you and your guards going to say that? Every time it’s the same… excuses,” said one of the people. “When will you bring this monster to justice? How many of our children must die?” 

“We are doing the best we could to protect you,” said William with much calmness. 

One of the people mumbled, “To protect the nobles that is.”

This did not sit well with the guards. One of the guards grabbed the man who was mumbling and whipped him. The man’s face was cut. A child scream from the back of the crowd as the blood floated on the man’s face. The others were too scared to even think about helping.             

“We will not accept intolerance!” as the guard was ready to whip the man again, he felt someone grabbing his hand. As he looked back he saw Angelione with a hateful look. He was not pleased with an outsider interfering with his business. “What business do you have interfering outsider?”

              Before Angelione could start talking Sonia said, “If you want to whip someone how about me.”

“All right that’s enough. All of you people go back to your homes, there’s nothing here to see!” said William with an angry tone.

Angelione let go of the guard and the people started scattering. The man who was whipped was helped to his feet and some of the people promised to help him get cleaned up.              

As the people left the scene, Sonia caught a glimpse of the corpses a few feet away from her. The stench of burned bodies finally reached
her nose. She felt something moving inside of her stomach, it tasted like acid. Before Angelione could grab her in time the vomit had already left her mouth. He took his scarf and gave it to her to wipe her mouth clean. Angelione himself stared in disbelief as he looked at the bodies just a couple feet in front of him. All on top of one another, leaving the air smelling like blood. 

“So is this what happens when Aleister goes on a killing spree?” said Angelione with a repulsive tone.

Sonia turned her face the other way, vomit almost came up again. She took a deep breath before facing the pile of bodies. They walked closer to William and Samuel with the same look they had on their faces.

“Do you mind if we take a look at the bodies?” asked Angelione.

William gave them the go ahead to do it. Angelione covered his mouth and started

coughing. The smell had a way of scratching your throat. The victims’ bodies were sliced with swords perhaps, deep wounds too. Sonia bent down next to Angelione and they looked at each other.

“That old woman, she could have used her ability to see their memories and help us better, but now she’s dead,” said Angelione.
Even though that their dead I’m certain her ability would have still work on them
. He gave Samuel a faint look, as if saying killing her was unnecessary. He started to think,
why would Aleister do such a thing? Is it really in his nature
? The bodies had slashes all over them, not just their faces, their necks were bitten also. 

This is horrible
, thought Sonia.

“William, send all your men to search the city from head to toe,” ordered Angelione.

Their wounds were still pretty fresh. If Aleister is here then this was their chance to catch him.

William ordered his men to do so without hesitation. Sonia however had enough. She walked to the other side away from the smell.

Angelione now had enough also. As he getting up, Samuel put his hand on his shoulder unexpectedly. This man crept up on him out of the blue. He wasn’t startled at all. He had on those pairs of white gloves again.

With a smile Samuel said, “It's terrible what happened, but we all know by now what they’re capable of. To them, death is just another part of life that must be done with.”

Angelione stood up. “I suppose your right,” he said with no expression upon his face.

A few minutes passed by and one of the guards came from around the corner running, exhausted with excitement on his face. “We got him!” he shouted. He stopped and caught his breath. “Aleister sir, he’s been spotted over the bridge.”

William and Samuel exchange a look, “This is it! Our chance is now to catch him.”

Samuel and William went ahead. Angelione told them Sonia needed some time to get herself together. He had seen Sonia not even flinching or enthusiastic about the news.

“What’s on your mind Sonia?” he asked.

“Don’t you find it strange, Angelione? Aleister has just committed a massacre and now

they’re telling me he was spotted. Something is just not adding up.”

“Yes I do.” He fixed the glasses on his face.

“Angelione, since we been here, this place feels ominous. The citizens hate their king and his men, if they try to speak up they only get killed.”

He explained to her that their mission was to catch Aleister and not worry about the

citizens. “Nothing’s going to change if we just stand around. Let’s go.”

Running in the snow was going to be tricky for Sonia. It was something she was not used too. Her way of running was from jumping from roof to roof, much faster than the ground.

Angelione followed by her side, they jumped to the next house swiftly. They took extra precautions as not to slip.

“I can see the bridge!” said Sonia.

They made their way to join the others. The bridge had spanned from the east rich district to the west rich district. It was made of stone and steel. It has two stone towers that rise on each side. Spider webs of cables are strung from tower to tower and hold the roadbed. The snow had covered the bridge from top to bottom, leaving only footsteps for the eyes to see. William’s men were searching from head to toe, climbing the bridge to make sure they covered every angle. Sonia and Angelione landed on the other side; they walked to William and asked him if anything had changed.

“We must have just missed him, my men searched everywhere,” he said with a disappointed voice.

They all looked apprehensive. Now what? This was their only lead, now they had nothing. Was Aleister that smart? He had managed to put a search team - no a kingdom - in a stage of chaos. 

William rubbed his face. The man was tired. He closed his eyes and thought about going back to bed, lying next to his wife. But today was no time for that. He said, “I’m going to gather my men. I’ll see what our next move will be.”

Sonia was disappointed. She caught herself staring at the frozen lake. Angelione stood next to her with his arms crossed, thinking about their next move. Something about this scenery that gave Sonia the Goosebumps, it felt as if a bug was crawling on her skin. The water underneath the bridge was solid ice.