The Moon of Artemis

Why Was He Really Back?

Although the humans' ruthless hunt for the witches started to take more attention in the human world, an alarming amount of warmbloods started to go missing. The numbers were starting to not add up, from what my regents informed me of. I soon found out that this anomaly was only the beginning of the end of me.

The duke was back. His vampire clan was the reason for the abnormal amount of humans disappearing. There was soon to be a greater disruption—than just the effect on the humans—in Loire, France. In contrast to our clan, the Duke's clan was killing humans for sport. I like to think that my parents would never allow such atrocity in the DeLaurent clan. Despite my desperate hopes that he would never return as long as I continued to reside in Loire, it would appear that my silent desires were expectedly futile. My parents seemed oddly frightened at the fact that the duke had returned. Contrary to when the duke departed from us, my parents were jubilant in his presence, since he saved my father's life. Something had happened—something I needed to know but yet I didn't.

In the coming weeks to which Duke Azrael resided in Loire, he often visited our compound. One dreadful night, I overheard the Duke and my father in the library, in a fit of a heated argument. I discovered something I wish I hadn't. The duke was back for one reason. For me. He still hadn't given up in all these years. He was still pining over my hand in marriage, even after I countlessly rejected him. And seeing as I was no longer human, he felt that his efforts shall not be in vain—for he wanted me for all of eternity. And that, I would not accept.

As I continue to reluctantly listen, I also came to learn that the reason that my parents had guarded me over so unbearably all these years was because they knew of the Duke's intentions. That was what the duke wanted in exchange for after he saved my father's life. I could hardly believe the words I was witnessing to come out of their mouths. I could tell how tense my father was by the wavering and quiver in his voice. He didn't want to lose his daughter to a man with hardly any moral compass. It would appear that any words my father uttered was only to assuage the Duke, so as he did not decide to do anything drastic.

As I had been promised to the duke in return for siring my father, the deal was that he would come back to take me one day. And so he has. It finally made sense. All the vampires my parents sired, the fortification of the estate, the hovering and suffocation of all their rues—it all made sense. They were trying to protect me from the duke, and themselves as well. At least that's what my mind was screaming at me to put together.

The next day I confronted my father about this debacle and he made little to no efforts to deny my accusations. At that moment, I was devastated. It wasn't my parents' fault that this was happening. They didn't know that that's what the duke wanted in return after he saved my father's life. For that reason, I know he specifically chose not to declare what he wanted in return until after he sired my father. Father accepted the Duke's ambiguous offer, but it wasn't until three years later to where I found out that this decision my father had made would have cost me my life.

My father was devastated as well. He loved me dearly and he knew that the duke was not the good man he appeared to be. My father knew that now. I had no time to feel betrayed by my family at this point. I needed to find a way out of this. There was no way in this existence I was going to let my parents' efforts be in vain. Not to mention I would quite literally hate my life if I had to spend the rest of it with the Duke.