The Flaws In Everything

22 - Ashes And Liberation

Chapter 22 - 'Ashes And Liberation'

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Tenebris was bricking it.

Not only had he let his kindred die and be reborn as some form of a half Vampyr, but he had managed to turn her whole life on it's head, call her his possession in front of a crowd (which after seeing her face, he had hated to do) and kill her damned sister, all on the same night. It was not the best of first impressions that he had made. Not at all.

He had no idea what he was doing in this pathetic mortal coven, but he knew that he had to put up a front for his time there, and the 'cleansing' of the town was the only decent distraction he could think of to give him enough time to fix his relic. And to think about what to do with his kindred, who may now be some form of hybrid Vampyr fledgling, the only one of her kind.

He truly had no idea of the capabilities of the girl. Would she be driven to the blood lust if he did not sedate her with some form of blood? Was she now immortal? Had she stopped aging? Or was the Vampyr in her bloodline too weak to dominate completely? Usually he could sense an immortal presence, and what radiated from her aura was decidedly mortal. Regardless, they were in unknown territory, and he despised being blindsighted, especially when so much was at stake.

There was one thing for certain though. Something in her had changed, aestheticlly at least. Everyone had noticed it, he could tell. It was in the way she stood a little taller, the way her petite frame had sculpted to become slightly more toned and tanned, stronger. Even Castiel had noticed, and Tenebris couldn't help but narrow his eyes as his general stared at her a little too long, mapping out the renewal in every feature of her face and body.

Her lashes were darker and longer, almost imperceptibly so, but enough to make her crystallised eyes pop like sapphires. Her button nose was a little straighter, her lips a little plumper and redder, whilst the blemishes that had previously littered her tired face had all but vanished.

Tenebris was sure that if he tested her he would discover her senses to be sharper, her body to be stronger, her reactions to be faster. But more than anything, it was the augmented glow that encapsulated her, something so lithe and beautiful that it was almost as if everyone else could see a hint of the kindred bond he already saw in her before. It was something he saw in fragments of many Vampyrs, and it suited her well.

The real question though, was the subject of the guardianship. He wasn't certain, but the god of night had a strong inkling that the panicked version of a demonic baptism they performed yesterday was one of the tests, since it had clearly unlocked her Vampyr side. In some form at least.

This meant that a guardian should have awoken, but so far they had had no news, and so the King had sent Kloris back to his realm to see if, somehow, a guardian had been summoned there. After all, there was no rule book on how the prophecy was revealed, at least not until Atticus could free Tenebris' fellow goddess and sister, Tempest, from her bindings. The ones of his very own creation.

After families were reunited, the King swiftly finished the meeting with a few more words, schooling a chilled expression of indifference. He tried not to look at Lyre in the middle of the congregation, not wanting to see the stormy look in her eyes that he had most likely caused. He couldn't wait to be out of sight of the majority of the pitiful excuses of mortals that surrounded him, and so he did not linger on his words.

Giving a final command, already bored by the mortals he had summoned he commanded, "Leave."

Immediately, they had.

The King was tempted to tell his kindred to wait, but something inside him told him to let her go. She needed time, and he had to respect that. He didn't even attempt to visit her mind, as much as the power that thrummed beneath his veins urged him to.