For decades Highland Academy has trained soldiers to haunt the vampires that plague the City of Cresthill but when a grave mistake threatens their school and everything they've built, Eden - a huntress - is given a chance to save them. All she has...
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Chapter Seven
I've done it mother, I've brought unity to the division. Just like you wanted. My only wish is that you were here to see it. Sylver smiled weakly as he stared at the table of men.
There was still more to be done. But at least, for the most part, swords were no longer drawn. And in no time, they would step into tomorrow, where vampires and humans could coexist. No more inane fighting. No more divisions, just peace and unity for all beings.
Thankfully, they were highly favored in the vampire council and having it been their mother's wish for the longest time, they were given the gift of forging this alliance. And now all that was left was for the head of the council to implement it.
Restraining a smile, Sylver sat up in his seat and nodded. "Gentlemen, it has been a pleasure and I hope—"
"Sylvester!" Ròg barged in, declaring whatever Sylver had to say inferior as he edged closer and fell to his knees. "Sylver..." He panted, head bowed as if to avoid eye contact though eyes couldn't meet.
He was breathing heavily, pungent with the smell of blood and the look on his face. Gosh, it was enough to give anyone a worry induced heart attack, but Sylver hadn't the slightest idea.
Even with the brokenness in Ròg's voice as he said "Julius" In a breathy cry, Sylver still didn't fathom. After all, his brother was a pureblood, a vigorous creature too strong for even an army of mortals.
Ròg could not be serious, and for a confused moment Sylver thought Julian had put him up to it. But as he looked up and saw the man in question absent, Sylver's body went numb.
He waited, one feverish breath after another but the man was still no where to be found. There was only one thing Ròg could mean... but... but...
Disbelieve swamped his head in a ceaseless loop of noes. No, it couldn't be. No, not Julius. No, this had to be a sick joke. Of course, it was Julian they were talking about, any moment now he would appear, laughing hysterically at him.
But his heart was beginning to give up as each second stretched to the next and his brother wouldn't show. The fleeting denial passed as he looked down at Ròg and it registered.
Sylver opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out, so he swallowed hard, and tried again, managing to say one word. "Where?"
"I'll take you." Ròg was back on his feet zooming out the door with Sylver stalking.
Soon, Sylvester reached between stone cold walls that had seen tragedy like no other. The stark ally saddened him, it was no way for his brother to go out. All alone, surrounded by filth. A sickening despair blossomed within him at the mere sight of it.
This was all his fault. If only he wasn't chasing stupid dreams, if only he had deserted his morals and followed his brother, none of this would have happened. He knew one had to be cold to survive in this unforgiving world and yet so foolishly he allowed himself to feel. He loved only to hurt. Cared only to suffer. Tried only to fail and the penalty for his gullibility was too much.
Sylver couldn't even stand on his own two feet as the weight of his loss forced him to his knees, right before Julian's ashes. "Julius?" He whimpered, a memory of his brother's face fresh in his mind. The last smile he saw etched into his memory. So happy... so oblivious... so safe.
"Julian," he said, hearing the ghost of his brother's voice correct him. It was too much. He could take bullets, broken bones, being burnt alive over and over again but this... this pain he could not. "What... what am I without you?"
They had been together for lifetimes, yet forever wasn't enough. As the numbness passed, a wave of pain crashed so hard into him he could almost scream, but it seemed that even his voice had forsaken him.
He looked at where his brother once laid, feeling the ashes, anger and sadness at war within him. And Sylver couldn't fight it, after decades without fail, tears finally escaped his eyes in a silent cry.
"It should have been me." Sylver shut his eyes. "It should have been me."
This was why he was the least interested in living for eternity. It was no reward watching as everyone and everything he cared for eventually die, taking with them a little bit of him each time. Until eventually nothing was left but a shadow of a man that once was. He would know, having lived it before. He gave everything he had to Julian and now there was nothing left. No love, no light, no empathy... nothing.
A switch flicked, those gleaming eyes went dark as he rose to his feet. In that moment Sylver knew what this world had become and it was a life no longer worth living. But before he left, he was going to take everyone with him.
"Vos erit vindicatur," he said up to the black sky as the growing despair reached it's limit and his anger convulsed.
Sylvester glanced over his shoulder at Ròg. Under the moonlight, he gleamed pale and frail, blindsided yet more resilient than a man with two working pair of eyes. But nevertheless he was no match and Sylver would have started with him. Rip him apart, peel his very skin from his bones and hummed along to his screams. It was the least he deserved for being useless. A coward at best. He should have fought to the very end, died if that was what it took but no, he didn't... he couldn't. Not for a species he too, despised.
He might move like them, fight like them and live as them but he was never truly one of them, and Sylver hated himself for believing even for a fraction of a moment that a thing like Ròg would have tried.
All he wanted in that moment was to feel his pathetic heart beating in his hand. If only he didn't have vital information... if only.
He glanced at the other bodies. Dead humans. The hunters had left them to avoid being followed, reeking of so much blood would have made them easy to trail. Smart yet as always, cowardly. But it didn't matter, he was going to find them, one way or the other. It was only a matter of time.
