Forlot: Silver Woods - Book Fifteen

Chapter Twenty-Five

Silver and I were in Silver Woods and stood in front of an old gravestone with some of the earthly dirt piled up. This was the grave of Darius' sister. Silver gave me permission to touch the headstone, and I pushed some dust and a clump of dirt away and read what was on it.

From the information that I gathered, the young girl's name was Nova. She had been always a curious and kind girl who loved her family, especially her older brother, Darius. Her favorite animal was the blue whale because they are the biggest animals in the world, and she had a pet hedgehog.

I looked at my sister. "Please tell me that her hedgehog made it out alive," I said.

"It did," she reassured me. "The werewolves rescued him and have been taking excellent care of him."

I wiped sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand. "Poor Nova. Poor Nova and her family. They did not deserve any of this."

"No human should be bitten or have to die by the vampires, Sam. You will be happy to know that they have not been able to kill a single human in the past year. The werewolves and I have been keeping up our game and will continue to do so in the years to come." She rested a hand on the dirt and moved it left and right as if she were playing with the dirt. "We do not need another human to die tragically like she did."

"Silver?"

"Yes?"

"If what you are saying is true, that Darius murdered Nova, do you know why he did it? I mean, I know why, but why do it to his innocent sister? Why take her blood?"

My younger sister revealed to me another piece of the puzzle. She explained that yes, Darius and Nova were as close as siblings could be, possibly closer. It sadly came to an end when Darius read upon the vampires in Forlot. Like vampires, these vampires could transform a human into a vampire full of eternity with one bite. They chose which humans were worthy to live among them and which ones would perish.

From some persuading from the vampire council - yeah, there is a vampire council - he and his brothers were transformed into evil and selfish vampires. In return, they had to kill their dear sister, for the vampires believed that she had no place in this world. So Darius did the deed with no hesitation. He found her and sucked her blood dry. His next target would have been his own parents if they had not moved away from Forlot.

The only question that I had left was...why would Darius target me? If he truly was a vampire, why go after me? Unless he went at random.

"Darius and his brothers spied on you from when you were a toddler to now," Silver stated. They waited until you were older so Darius could turn you into a vampire."

A terrified gasp escaped from deep within my throat, and I pointed at myself. "He...he wanted me to be an evil vampire like him?"

"Unfortunately. He likes you a bit too much and also desired to get to me."

"So he was sort of using me."

"That was what I thought at first. You see...Darius and I made a deal. He would leave you as a human and vanish from your life if I did something for him." She moved her fingers that were holding the necklace, and the necklace made clicking sounds. "He wanted the necklace, Sam. But neither he nor the vampires nor the werewolves knew where it was. We had been searching for it for years, and yet a human who had no idea about the war until now finds it within a matter of seconds."

"The werewolves and vampires had trouble looking for it? Girl, it was not that hard. It was in a ditch that was not even deep, and a part of the jewel was sticking out of the ground. I found it by accident."

"Do you think that I am not grateful towards you? I would rather have you find it than a vampire. Thanks the stars that I was able to interfere in time before you allowed evil to have this."

"I would have not considered him giving the necklace if I knew all this stuff beforehand."

My sister uttered a heavy sigh. "I could not tell you any of this."

"What? Why not?"

I listened to her and discovered that it was part of the deal. If she told me anything that had to do with the war or related to it like Nova's death, Darius would bite me and turn me into the person that he desired me to be. That was why she scratched me and showed up unexpectedly at the hospital and Joan's house. Only she knew what Darius and his brothers were capable of.

"If what you say is true, Silver, if Darius is a true vampire, why did you intervene when I was about to give him the necklace? Can you not stand him and the vampires possessing the necklace?"

"That is one of the reasons. The other reason is because Darius would be cheating at the deal."

"How so?"

"I overheard him and his brothers late last night in Silver Woods. He was bragging about how he was planning to bite you even if I handed the necklace over to him and encouraging his brothers to do the same."

My breath caught in my throat, and I wrapped my thumb and fingers around my neck. Lorraine and Joan. They were in trouble.

Without saying anything, I ran as fast as I could to the school. I remembered which room number they were in and knew exactly where the classroom was. Silver was right behind me, and I shoved the door open. We peered into the room and spotted my friends.