Solasta Academy: All Hallows Eve

Chapter Twenty Nine

As soon as Calia felt like her heart might stop, Malakai let go of her. She slumped to the ground as her neck throbbed from the twin puncture marks that he left. Her mind was a haze, but she managed to keep her eyes open and see the Vampire open the Book of the Damned to a different spell, but one she recognized immediately. "No," she hissed.

He ignored her as she noticed silver blood dripping down his chin. Her blood. Within seconds, Malakai was gripping her hair and forcing her wounded neck to smear on the Book. Calia felt her blood drip a few times onto the page before he decided it was enough and pulled her back where she lay on the marble floor. With one hand, she held onto her wound to stop the bleeding as she had nothing else to do but watch helplessly.

He held the book with both hands before it started burning. Well, the whole room felt like it was on fire. Malakai dropped the powerful book, and it landed on the ground at his feet. "Why do all of this to meet your Dad?" she questioned with tears. "He can't possibly be happy about his son reanimating his corpse."

"I am doing this because no one else had the balls to do it before," Malakai confessed.

Calia gazed up at him with a sneer. Even if her body screamed at her to go to sleep for days, she had to stay awake—she had to survive because there was no way some lowly Vampire like Malakai Riviera would be the one to kill her. "Who was he?" she asked again.

Without looking at her, he watched the Book move independently like a breathing person. It began to shake violently on the ground, and Calia scooted back in case it wanted to retaliate against her. As gray smoke enveloped them both, a man came into view. She tried to see who he was, but his back was turned to her. Behind Malakai stood a large portrait she had walked past every day, but she knew the stories of the man who was famous throughout the Kingdom of Ambrosia.

When the familiar man turned around, she gasped.

It couldn't be possible.

The man's long fair hair and emerald eyes were enough of a giveaway, but when he turned his lips into a smirk at the sight of Calia, it was clear he was real. Jax Collins stood a few feet away from her and Malakai, crossing his arms over his chest. "Well, if it isn't the great Calia Nox I longed to meet. Did you summon me?" She was too shocked to do anything, let alone speak. Not until a few seconds later did he finally turn toward Malakai and frown. "Who is this fucking Vampire?"

"He's your son," Calia answered.

Malakai moved closer to Jax and held his hand as if it were a normal greeting. She stayed silent as the human now-turned spirit froze at her words and never looked away from the young Vampire. Under better circumstances, the two could have met sooner. Jax barked out a laugh, and Calia shuddered. "Is this some kind of sick prank? I don't have a son."

"You do," Malakai whispered. "I'm Malakai. Last name is Riviera."

"I knew an Angie Riviera."

Malakai nodded. "That was her."

Was?

Jax furrowed his brows as he recalled his memories years before he died. After a few moments, he studied Malakai fully. The spirit of Jax wore simple black jeans and a T-shirt while his hair was styled back behind his ears. He was elegant, even if he was merely a human. It must be one of the reasons why his best friend, Elora, loved him so much. "Prove it."

"I was born in New Orleans East Hospital," Malakai confessed. "You were dead by then, so Angie never got the chance to tell you she was pregnant. It broke her heart."

"We were a fling," Jax answered.

Calia flinched. That was not a great start to this meeting, she thought. But Malakai only shrugged as he kept his eyes glued on his father, who had returned from Hazelthorn. "She knew that, of course. Angie never much cared about anyone's well-being besides hers. She died a couple of years ago all alone."