Eternity is Only A Lifetime Away

The Training and The Prophecy

Aleka hit the stone floor, the dagger falling from her hand as she felt herself go limp. Her breath was coming in short, quick bursts and the sweat dripped from her forehead and arms. Her muscles were cramping and aching and her head pounded from the lack of water she’d been able to take in during the training session so far. Kaleb picked her up and folded his arms.

“You’re losing it Aleka.”

“If you gave me a break- “

“Sullivan won’t give you a break. You have to be able to keep going.” He sighed, handing her the bottle of icy water.

Aleka sighed and used her teeth to open the cap, necking as much of it as she could, but it hardly made a difference to her aching body.

“Fine, we’ll leave it there for now. You’ve done pretty alright today and Lilia reminded me not to totally kill you before we let you into the real battle.” Kaleb joked, hardly helping Aleka’s nerves as she duelled with the vampire.

She didn’t have the adrenaline rush from the night before. In fact, she felt ten times worse, ten times more tired and ten times closer to the grave. She couldn’t help Kaleb tidy up the training room or put the deadly weapons away on their shelves. She could barely lift the bottle to her dry lips. Aleka had never felt this drained in her eighteen years of life.

“Go on, get a bath and an early morning.” Kaleb said with a friendly smile, dismissing Aleka from the room.

Aleka held the bottle of water in tired hands as she made her way down the stony hall, the enchanted candles lighting her way as they lit up at her movement. The training room was in the basement of the castle; a large and terrifying place that Kaleb had told her was primarily used for storing their prisoners; Sullivan’s followers. The bloodstains on the floor and the stench of rotting corpses supported his statement. Aleka didn’t want to spend an unnecessary moment down there and her feet moved as fast as they could in her exhausted state to get her out of there. She tripped before she reached the stairs and the coarse stone ripped at her bare skin, spilling her blood. Aleka clutched her bleeding leg and watched in confusion, eyebrows furrowed, as her blood began to burn on the stone flooring.

She was positive that blood was not supposed to burn through stone.

Aleka forced herself back to her feet and up the winding staircase, using the handrail to guide her as she watched the blood trickle down her pale leg and to the stone beneath her.

...the library...

It was like some ethereal force had possessed Aleka. She found herself moving in the direction of the library without even realising she was doing so. She appeared to float rather than walk and her dilated pupils were a clear indication that other forces were at work here. The water bottle fell from her hand and the eighteen year old girl lost all strength, only able to move as the forces would allow her to.

The gigantic library towered high above her small frame and her feet continued to move at their own accord to a dark, dark corner of yet another gothic room that led off from the main collection of tomes of books that dated back centuries.

Her hands travelled along the wall of scrolls and parchments until everything stopped as her shaking hand rested on one set apart from the others. She pulled it out and opened it up, her eyes following the delicate calligraphy that spelt out what one could only presume was some form of prophecy or old legend.

The Vampire Lords have ruled this realm for generations and will continue to do so. The efforts of the warriors will be in vain until the arrival of two. When peace and vengeance are placed together at the final battle there is only room for one to triumph over the darkness. Only at the expense of a life for the curse of immortality can the liberation of this realm truly begin. A friend, a lover, a devil, must make his choice for the end of vengeance. The change, the death, the murder is the only way this war will cease.

“How did you get in here?” Aleka dropped the scroll and regained control of her physical form, only to turn around and see a solemn Tristan standing in the doorway.

“I-I don’t know.” She confessed, placing a cool hand to her now burning head.

Tristan moved his dark eyes from her and seemed to glide across the room to retrieve the scroll from the floor. He picked it up in icy hands as his eyes flickered over it before he returned it to its place on the shelf.

“You need not worry yourself with such trivial things.” He said, turning back to Aleka, his eyes falling on her still bleeding leg. His nostrils flared and his eyes shut momentarily.

“What is that?” Aleka inquired, pointing to the scroll.

“It’s an old prophecy. Written even before my time.” He paused to inhale the scent of her fresh blood. “It simply declares of your arrival.” He turned away and gripped the table, his knuckles turning even whiter with his immortal grip.

“And a death?” Aleka wasn’t stupid. She may not have understood it completely but the words “murder” and “death” were pretty clear to her.

“We think it means the death of Sullivan.” Tristan was clearly in pain, his face contorted into one of struggle.

“But what about the mention of vengeance and peace? Is that me? Darien? I mean what if-“ She was cut off mid-sentence by the tall vampire pulling her into him with one mighty strong arm. Her body was pressed up to his and she could feel how cold he was on her mortal skin as he looked down at her, with eyes that were suddenly unusually dark for him. She was caught up in him, too mesmerised to fight him off like she had been trained to do and her heart pounded as he leaned his head closer to her pale neck. He took in a deep breath and opened his closed eyes to look directly into hers.

“You need to bathe and tend to your wounds. You live in a castle of vampires now and your blood is simply delectable to smell.” He swallowed hard and released her roughly. She stepped back and looked at him, confused about what had just happened. “When I said that, I meant for you to go now!” He said, almost shouting it at her.

Aleka nodded and hastily left the room and the library, running as best as she could in her tired state, not even stopping when Lilia asked her how she was.