Kings of Awakening Vampires and Purebloods (16 page)

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.

                                                               ***

            
 
Willia
m
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.

                                                               ***

    
            
 
The
y
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 d
ifferent 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. When 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 yo
u. 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 an
d 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.”

“And what purpose is that?” asked Sonia.

Samuel took the white glove off his right hand with his teeth. When the glove came off there was a symbol on the back of his hand. The symbol was in a form of a question mark. He saw the apprehension on Angelione’s face when he saw the mark on his hand. “From that look on your face I’m guessing you already know what this is.”

“Yes I do.”

“What is that mark?” asked Sonia.

“It’s... The mark of the Society,” said Angelione hesitantly. “Only their members are marked with their seal.” Angelione remembered when he and his master Dragan faced L and his entourage. He could never forget that mark.

“The Society?” said a baffled William.

“Since I’m going to dispose of all of you there’s no need for secrets,” said Samuel confidently. “You should feel honor, Angelione. It’s not every day you get to meet one of us.”

“By you being here is that an indication of your higher up is launching a takeover in Odeon?” asked Angelione.

“I was approached by one of their members who offered me
a job, thus the reason I left battle-arena. My job was simple. They wanted me to assassinate the King.”

William was shock, “Samuel…---“

“Quiet old fool! I’m speaking.” He continued, “But trying to kill a High King proved to be more difficult. I hired assassins to test his strength and I must say he’s as strong as they claimed him to be. Eventually I blended inside this kingdom and soon started planning my plan by becoming a member of the royal guards. After plotting and living here for a long time, I started swerving away from my true purpose and abandoned the Society. I wasn’t the type to hold loyalty to anyone. What I like to do is killing and it doesn’t matter who.”

“You’re sick,” said Sonia. Sh
e had now heard enough from him, Angelione too.

             As Angelione, Sonia, and Samuel were getting ready to square off, William looked back. He could hear the footsteps of someone entering the cave from behind him. The footsteps got louder and louder. Out of the shadow, two young men walked in, one had long white hair and blue and red eyes. The one next to him had short black hair, light blue eyes, and about the same height.

Sonia felt her heart being stabbed in fear, her hands trembling as she looked at Aleister. “A-LEISTER!” said Sonia.

              He responded, “IN THE FLESH.”

              William started to laugh, “So tell me, Samuel, is this another one of you clones?” said William as he approached the one with the white hair.

The fear was now coming back to Sonia, “Wait, William. Stop!” she shouted, but too late.

Aleister grabbed William by his neck, he took a short sword he had in his back, and pierced it into William’s abdomen. Blood spurted from his body. His men looked scared, but somehow they built the courage to charge at Aleister.

“No, Stand down!” yelled Sonia. “That’s the real Aleister! And if you try to fight him he will kill all of you!” She was still shaking in the presence of him; this was surely the real one and not a clone.