The sun hadn’t pierced the horizon yet when I approached the elegant door. Something was off. Her door hung open with golden hinges intact, but an alluring smell pulled me in.
“Mom?” I called, pushing open the door.
Plunk. My foot fell into a water puddle. I sighed and walked across the dark room to the standing light. Each step I took, I could hear the water splashing under my boots. I flicked on the light.
Then I screamed. The floor was coated in fresh, wet blood, dragged across the room by my footprints. A few of the lamps were shattered on the floor and the black chair I’d sat in was torn to shreds.
And lying on the couch was the body of Lady Alexandra Dane, the oldest living Sera.
Now lost to history.
I stared, dumbstruck and numb. I couldn’t feel my body as I fell to my knees before my mother’s pale, lacerated body, tears falling into her blood. I felt the darkness inside me stirring, pushing at my guard.
My sorrow and hate poured out as my eyes and hands burned with the Shift. Claws stretched from my fingertips and I clenched them into the couch’s edge.
“He’ll pay,” I hissed, not recognizing my own voice as it seared with my rage, “Pancar will die by my hands.”
The darkness leaded out of me and writhed across all the surfaces in the room like veins through a body. My hatred seethed and I could feel the blood boiling inside my body. All around me, the blood swirled and migrated toward me, my amulet glowing red in the light.
“Raven!” screamed someone from the door frame. I lashed out, turned to the voice and sending the darkness at him. My mouth ached as I watched the shadows curl around him and squeeze him, pulling him to the floor. I stood and walked over to him, my mother’s blood rising up around me like tentacles.
“Who are you,” I hissed, “how do I know you’re not the one who killed my mother?!”
He looked frightened and confused. “Raven, it’s me, Arrakis! Don’t you recognize me? You told me to meet you here once I got the book!” His eyes shifted to the book that’ he’d dropped as the darkness had seized him.
A small amount of my rationality returned, and I picked up the book, Mythic Relics. I dropped him, my memory flooding black. Suddenly, the blood fell back to the floor and the shadows retreated to the walls. “Arrakis, I’m so sorry,” I whispered as I dropped to the floor, my consciousness slipping away.
* * *
In the darkness, a man stood there, wearing the exact same amulet I wore. He beckoned to me, holding out his hand. I hesitated, then decided to just go with him. I walked cautiously over to him, my steps echoing in the emptiness. As I took his hand, the darkness shifted into a castle, then zoomed in on a forest near it. The man disappeared, and I was alone. I wandered the cluttered trees, trying to find the man again.
“Kain, you’ve gone too far! This world isn’t meant for us!” Someone lectured nearby. I crouched down and stalked into a bush near a clearing.
“Arman, this world is empty; unpopulated. We could create a new civilization! That spell I found – for extended life – we could use it and live here, where no one would find us!” fought Kain, the man whose hand I had taken to get here. His shaggy black hair rustled in the wind as his green eyes shimmered with passion.
“We can’t afford the risk, though. What if another mage gets curious and discovers the Second Realm like we have? What if the spell goes wrong? What then?”
Kain smirked. “Then we’ll deal with that when the time comes. If you are too afraid, Arman Narvel, then I’ll send you back to the Third Realm. I can complete the ritual on my own.”
“Kain, you are a Narvel too! My family raised you!”
“No, Arman. Your family did give me a home, but I raised myself – no, the night raised me; it taught me magic. I am a Sera, a son of the night. Leave, Arman. I do not wish to see you again. I will raise a new type of human; ones who live for eternity. They will be raised by the night as I have been.” Kain gazed sternly at Arman.
“Fine then, Kain. Live your fantasy, but your new race will fall. No matter what I or my descendants may do, they will hunt your people down and kill them. I swear that on my very life.” Light billowed from him and everything returned to darkness.
“You understand now, don’t you, Raven? I am the reason Pancar hates you; I betrayed his ancestor, Arman. I promised to stay by him, and that he and I would share the glory if we ever found the Second Realm. It’s my fault your mother – my granddaughter – is dead.” Kain spoke from behind me, his mouth at the height of my ears.
“There is no reason for you to blame yourself, Kain. You only sought to complete a task, and you did what you had to to complete it. There’s nothing to be ashamed of; I would have done the same.” I told him, staring into his forest green eyes. “You’re Kain, the First, aren’t you?”
He smiled. “Yes, I am. I am also called the Maker, sometimes even the Original. And you, my dear Raven, are my great-granddaughter, as well as the last of my line.”
A piece of information clicked in my head. “Have you ever heard the Sera Prophecy?”
He smirked. “It was I who wrote it, the day I created the vampire curse. You are asking about the mention of ‘the Original’ in it, and yes I believe it refers to me. But if I were to tell you how it works that I have returned, then the prophecy will never come to pass,” he gazed at me heavily, “you must find my sword before Pancar does. The blade is the only thing that can end the curse forever. It was the very blade I took my life with in order to live forever, and if he finds a way to destroy my soul using it, then all of the vampires will die. You must protect our people.”
I nodded. “I will not fail you, Kain. I will see this through to the end.” He smiled and his body became transparent.
“It seems you’re waking, Raven. We will have to speak again another time. Arrakis holds the first clue to the sword; you hold another. Take care,” he told me as he faded completely, the darkness all-consuming around me.
