Kings of Awakening Vampires and Purebloods (23 page)

“It’s a trap,” the girl said unexpectedly.

Albedo felt it from the beginning. The ones running ahead of him stopped and waited for him.  “I’m going to do something you won’t like!” Albedo said to her. The ones in front of him had a chain in the shape of a lasso in their hands, swinging it in a circle waiting for Albedo. They threw it. At that same moment Albedo reached the edge of the roof and threw the girl very high in the air. The girl screamed in fear. Albedo’s body was free now. His agility was superb! He leaped forward so fast; he went right through the lassoed chains before they could capture him. 

When the power of the Elder reaches it full strength, the Pureblood maintaining this power was marked. Albedo’s markings
can now be seen.  His forearms were engraved with straight parallel lightning like beams, leading up to spherical shapes both on his palms and the backs of his hands.   The matching electricity colored spheres on his palms and the backs of his hands were connected to the fire lines in his wrists and fingers. The markings started to glow. 

“What is this?” Albedo wondered.
Master Jarvis never mentioned this to me
. It felt as if his hands became stronger. He was too fast for the two Xs to move out of the way. He came down faster than he himself could imagine. His punch went straight through their chest, leaving a gaping hole through their ribcage, finishing them before they realized what happened. The other two behind him came surprisingly, but not unexpectedly. Albedo turned around quickly. “Fire!” The massive fire coming out of his hands was enough to kill them. This time his fire was hotter and more massive. This time there were flare-like flames flaring from his hands. 
It must be the Elder’s doing
. He was told that using the Elder while using your ability would make it stronger.  His strength and speed had become three times more powerful.

“The girl!” He jumped backwards and caught her before she could fall and hit the roof.

He put her down gently, he knew she was terrified and the last thing he wanted to do was scare her even more and made his leave.

“Wait
, don’t leave. I haven’t even thanked you yet,” she said with a warm voice.

As Albedo truly looks at her, she was a beautiful young woman. She had curves like Sonia, beautiful lips with
light colored eyes, and long hair.
She’s beautiful
, he thought. He approached her, but rapidly as if he had something to say. “Aren’t you going to say don’t hurt me.”

She smiled and gave him her hand. He saw warmth and kindness on her face. He took off his mask and she could see the same on his face. “You’re different from the other vampires and Purebloods. Your kind and charming,” she said.

“And how do you figure that?” he asked.

“I don’t know, I guess you can say I can read people’s movements. When someone fights they do it with their feelings. I saw it from you. When the ones with the Xs fought you I saw rage and anger.”

              “You’re a weird human you know that,” said Albedo jokingly. He reached out his hand and put her on his back. It wasn’t safe to leave her out here by herself.

“Wait! I remember you. You’re that boy from the market.”

He had hoped she had forgotten that they already met, sort of. “Hmm, yea about that, sorry,” said Albedo.

She started to laugh, “What is your name, Pureblood?”

He was surprised that she wanted to know his name. “My name is Albedo.”

She and all humans hated vampires and Purebloods.  But there was something about Albedo that she liked; there was no room in her heart to hate him. His passion showed in his eyes when he was protecting her. She felt that almost everyone who met him would quickly fall in love with him. “My name is Natalia, that’s what my friends call me.”

He thought Natalia was beautiful. She was as beautiful as his beloved Sonia; but Sonia had the power to make his heart beat.

They got closer to her house. “Hey, is this it?” asked Albedo.

She smiled at him. “You’re different than anyone I’ve ever met. Vampires and Purebloods are hated by humans. They don’t see that there are a lot of good ones like you Albedo. Your heart is what makes you different from all of them.” Natalia was now home. She kissed him on the cheek and said goodnight. She quickly closed the door and went inside, leaving him dumbfounded.

He blushed. Albedo now understood why Sonia gave him the mask. She was right, only a Pureblood could fight and Pureblood. He knew that the king was aware of his presence. Maybe the King knew Albedo would put on the mask and fight. He started to think if he was the one who sent him the letter.  

                                                                ***

Lo
u
did not look too pleased when Dante and Axil came into his office. The last thing he wanted to see was more Purebloods. After Vincent penetrated Inferno Lou had been on edge. He was constantly wondering how to keep vampires and Purebloods away. He thought about how useless the vampires guarding the gate were. One thing Lou did not understand was that these men were vampires and not Purebloods. He failed to understand that vampires could not fight a Pureblood, they’re merely too strong and too fast, not to mention they have abilities. He lit his cigar on the corner of his mouth and blew out smoke tunneling straight up to the ceiling. He had let the window open to allow the smoke to go outside instead of suffocating the room. On his desk, he had a drawing of his wife and children. There were papers lying all over the room, books stacked along the walls, and traces of his meals from the week.  It was clear he needed a major clean up. This of course did not sit well with Dante. He hated filth. He looked around and saw the dirty floor, dingy with tattered clothing. Lou appeared as though he hadn’t showered and shaved in a week, stench and three o’clock shadow to show for it. 

Lou, disgusted, tapped the ashes from his cigar steadily puffing the smoke and asked, “So tell me, did you catch those bastards?”

At that moment Dante decided he did not like this man. He took a chair from the corner and sat down. He stated sarcastically, “Well, since you asked…if you must know all the victims are safe.”

Axil stood by the door with his eyes closed and his arms wrapped around his chest as always, looking irritated and careless.

Lou was offended and slammed his fist on the table in rage.  He did not like their attitudinal approach. “I don’t care about those victims! What I want to know is how the hell the King can send the two of you? Both of you are merely children. Where are Sonia and Angelione?”

Dante titled his head as if to say, this mere mortal human dared to raise his voice in anger at a Pureblood.

Axil noticed Dante’s reaction as he opened his eyes and contributed to the some attention to the conversation.  He knew Dante wasn’t as level headed as he was. He responded, “Lou, they’re out on a mission, so you must deal with us.” He thought Lou was brave to raise his voice against them.

Dante asked,
“So tell me, Mr. Lou, have you ever chased a vampire or a Pureblood before?”

Lou looked
baffled. “What kind of question is that? That’s not my job that’s you people’s job.”

Something Dante hated was a human that was ill-mannered. Dante said, “Well if you don’t know then allow me to enlighten you. Catching a Pureblood that we don’t know the location of is a difficult task. I’m sorry that the King sent us ‘children’ to do a Black Reaper’s job.”

“Just make sure you get rid of him, and maybe this time they can stay out,” said Lou.

              Dante said, “Make sure that little girl and all the other victims get plenty of sleep and blood.” He said in a casual way, but of course he wanted to jump over the table and rip the guy’s head off.

“A few months ago it was Vincent, and now this X,” said Lou in frustration. He put the cigar back in his mouth and blew the smoke to the ceiling once again.
Lou wished Sonia, Angelione or any of the other Black Reapers were here instead. Lou hated these so called Black Reapers’ apprentices.

Dante hated the smell of the smoke;
the heaps of smoke always find its way to enter his nostrils. Axil gave Dante a nod saying it was time for them to go. They walked outside and started to wonder what their next move was going to be. King Victor had trusted them and now this was their chance to prove themselves.

“It must have taken a lot out of you not to kill him,” said Axil casually.

“Yes it did, I wanted to snap his neck off.”

It was times like this that Axil wished he had the power of the Elder to sense his opponents. They jumped from the ground to the roof and started their search.

***

           
 
Th
e
scream of a child yelling for help caught Albedo’s attention.
More of them
. He quickly focused and used the Elder for guidance. This one was close, a young girl maybe about the age of six. He could sense she was being surrounded, this time he counted thirty Xs thanks to the power of the Elder.

He wasted no time running in her direction. As he jumped to the next building he felt dizzy for a moment. He had remembered about his master’s lesson, that the Elder drains a lot of your energy. He needed blood. He knew he had to find the girl quickly now, without the Elder he would not be able to fight thirty of them.  He arrived at the scene just in time. The girl was being surrounded on the hill. He remembered this place. He used to come here after school to clear his mind.  He looked down a couple feet from him and saw them by the pond.  He jumped down with a punch on one of the Xs.
He looked back at the little girl and she looked frightened.

“Stay back there, and don’t come any closer.”

She seemed petrified and confused at the same time. He took the two daggers from his back pocket. Six attacked him. Albedo dodged and killed two of them. Still he felt his energy level had been drained. The power of the Elder was a great advantage but it had its flaws. One behind him came with a strike. Albedo ducked and killed him. As usual it disappeared.

Albedo spun and killed three at the same
time. One came in front of him and he blocked his punch and kicked him. But, unexpectedly one hit him from behind. I
mpossible I didn’t sense him
. He fell to the ground; he got up quickly and blocked one who came down with his knee. That power that he used earlier, he wished he could activate it now. Thanks to that mysterious light from in his hands, his strength had become stronger, his speed faster, but now it was gone and he had no idea on how to bring it back. Albedo had a bigger problem. The Elder was beginning to wear off. He looked at the Xs getting closer to him and Albedo could feel his head spinning. The power of the Elder was now gone and it had drained a lot of his energy.
What’s happening? Did I use it too much
? His vision was dim, his speed and strength had been diminished. 

The Xs started punching Albedo and he wasn’t blocking many of them. He ducked but not low enough, he leaped but not high enough.   He was very weak and desperately needed blood.  An X punched
him and its hand grazed his head. While he was ducking the punch he executed a quick jab to the X, but it wasn’t very effective.  The X grabbed his hand and threw him down the hill to the river’s edge.  Albedo knew even without the Elder, he could’ve easily defeated this guy, but the Elder had left him feeble.  He had failed to comprehend that he needed blood. Even during his training on his own he hadn’t drunk blood. All the Xs jumped on him at the same time. The power of the Elder could not help. He thought about using fire, but it was too late and his fire wasn’t even that strong without the help of the Elder anyway. They grabbed his hands and pinned him to the ground. Two started kicking him on his ribs, his head and neck. Albedo started coughing up blood. He felt an adrenalin rush as the forces of the hits connected with his ribs. Not even the training gear he was wearing was strong enough to withstand this amount of hits. He was actually lucky he was wearing it; it had managed to reduce the pain for him a bit. Albedo felt his limbs going numb as his heart started to beat faster. He felt as if he could sense each individual cell and blood vessel bruising within him. He saw the masked face of his attackers as though he was viewing it through a telescope; sensations he had never felt before. Not even Gregory could inflect this much pain. Compared to a Pureblood, Gregory and his gangs were mere children. There were at least fifteen on him now, moving was not an option. Albedo tried hard to escape but he was now piled under them. Albedo looked up at the red moon, suffocating and crushed, and the sight of the red moon started to diminish and fade from view as they pummeled on top of him one by one.

              The light started disappearing and he closed his eyes.  He wondered if this was the end for him. He had only been a Black Reaper for a few hours. If this was the end then he was ready to accept it. He thought about the good he did today, saving Natalia. His parents, he regretted never really talking to them about what’s going on.  As he was thinking, he heard two people talking and he wondered if it was his imagination. He felt a chill, was this death? Maybe they stabbed him. His feet were getting colder. As he breathed he could see his breath, it was uncommon for it to be cold this time of year. Soon Albedo felt a shock wave.  What was strong enough to cause this powerful shock? The ground trembled a little. He felt someone grab the back of his robe and pull him out of the pile of Xs.  He was still weak and a bit woozy. Albedo looked at the pile of Xs, but it was only a pile of ice now. He wondered if that shock wave he felt earlier had killed them.