by Marian Tee
“Domenico said it wouldn’t be right to form an alliance with one who could turn into a vampire…and that’s what Luka fears he’d be if he can’t have you in his life.”
“But he stayed away from me for so long…”
“He trained. There is a way to control the instinct to turn, but it’s not something everyone can do. The price is too high.”
There was so much to take in that my head was whirling. But one thing remained clear, and I asked anxiously, “Luka? Where is he now?”
“He’s at the Brethren, awaiting sentence.”
~~~
Old fears haunted me as I ran towards the Brethren. Déjà vu, I thought as a shiver went up my spine, and the feeling intensified when I found the doors locked against me once more. I pounded on it. “I’m here for the trial of Luka Georgiades!” I called out.
No one answered.
I pounded harder. “Please.” I fell to the ground when after so many heavy knocks my knuckles were all bruised, no one still came. “Please open the door. Let me save him. I love him---”
Slowly, the doors creaked open.
Tears still trailing down my cheeks, I pushed myself up and crossed the threshold. There was still no one around, but somehow the once-locked doors had opened. I followed the sound of restless murmurs from the crowd until I found myself in the Brethren’s vastest courtyard. Here was the entire army of Brethren, their faces bleak as they gazed ahead.
When I followed their gaze, I cried out, never thinking I would see such a sight.
Luka was unkempt and dressed in the last pair of clothes I had seen him in – the night he came to my home to ask me to marry him. His eyes were wild and feral, his nails had sharpened into claws, his hands cuffed behind him.
Beside him were Stefan, Riyu, and even Domenico Moretti himself, all of their faces harsh and cold as they listened to the monotonic review of Luka’s case.
“Knowledge of every Brethren hideout is only possessed by an official and unless evidence is brought forth to prove that Luka has not betrayed his race, his involvement will be assumed as based on the principle of worst circumstances of our law.”
The judge continued, “Punishment for this crime may be anything between a life sentence in the dungeons or death.”
“No,” I whispered. “No, no, NO!”
I ran towards the platform, pushing myself against the crowd, not caring who I hurt or stepped on in my determination to reach Luka. He couldn’t die. I wouldn’t let him die, not like this, never like this. “Luka!” I screamed, my gaze on his wild countenance as I forced my way through.
Even though his friends’ heads snapped towards me, Luka’s expression didn’t change.
Finally making my way to the platform, I worried for a moment how I could get up before I felt myself being lifted easily and landing on my feet. When I looked up, I saw the legendary Domenico Moretti, a slight smile softening his harshly handsome face.
“Caylie Sonora?”
I nodded, eyes still on Luka, my heart breaking the longer I stared at him and what I had turned him into.
“You’re here to save Luka?”
I forced myself to look away from Luka and found Domenico smiling even though his narrowed gaze was hooded, reminding me of Luka at his most urbane…and at his most manipulative.
I nodded. “I am. I…” Tears stung my eyes when I realized how I was almost late in saving Luka – how I could still be late. “I love him.”
“Then go,” he said gently and stepped away, leaving my path to Luka free.
Luka was down on his knees when I reached him, chained and cuffed like some rabid animal. My poor beautiful Luka! I started to cry, unable to help it, hating myself for being so blind. He didn’t deserve to be treated like this! Even if he had turned into a vampire, he didn’t deserve this!
I went to stand in front of him. “Luka?”
He snarled at me, fangs flashing out. The crowd reacted. Many screamed in fear, others shouted for Luka to be killed. The Brethren army immediately moved to control them, their stances clearly saying where their loyalties lay. They would die first before letting anyone get to Luka Georgiades.
Ignoring the frantic beat of my heart, I went closer and knelt in front of him. “Luka, it’s me.”
His nostrils flared. I thought it was out of recognition until I saw the red rims around his eyes darken. He broke through his restrains and in a second, he started to circle me, uncaring of anything but making me his prey.
“…but due to extenuating circumstances, the Brethren has decided to extend leniency and shall turn him over to the care of the Lyccan council.”
“HE’S GETTING AWAY!”
“THEY’RE LETTING HIM KILL AGAIN!”
“KILL HIM!” A large part of the crowd had transformed into an angry senseless mob and they started to push their way towards the platform, fury making them immune to the strength of the Brethren army.
“Take the judge away,” Domenico told Stefan and Riyu and they nodded curtly, appearing at the judge’s side in a burst of Caro speed and leading him away to a safe place.
Domenico scanned the crowd, tall and strong, his stance fearless, his gaze calculating. I was beginning to understand why Luka had so much respect for him. “It will take the crowd about seven minutes to break through the barrier. Your army would do their best to keep the crowd away, but it will be against their own code to hurt the crowd. Can you reach him in six minutes?”
“I thought I had seven,” I muttered without taking my gaze away from Luka.
“We might need a minute to fight the crowd ourselves.”
I didn’t waste any more seconds talking to Domenico. “Luka?” He snarled so ferociously in response I almost jumped. “Luka, it’s me, Caylie.”
“Caylie,” he purred. “Sweet Caylie, you’ll be delicious to drink dry.”
I swallowed. “Try to remember me, Luka.”
“I do remember your scent. It’s sweet like no other and that’s why I must take you.” And in a blink he held me in his grasp, one hand around his neck while another pulled my head back by the hair. He inhaled my scent deeply and shivered, fangs glistening.
“Luka, I’m your most precious bauble. Don’t you remember?” I tried not to cry at the absence of recognition in his eyes, which hadn’t even the smallest trace of amethyst in it.
He ran one sharp nail against my cheek and it started to bleed. He licked it clean, smacking his lips afterwards. “Sweet like I always imagined,” he whispered.
“Luka, I love you.”
“I love you, too.” But the words were empty, his gaze only expressing hunger for my blood and nothing else.
A roar came out from the crowd and in the corner of my eye, I saw the panic-driven Caros breaking through the army and running towards us.
“Caylie, do something now!” It was Domenico’s last command before he turned wolf, claws flashing out and trying to push back the crowd.
“Kill him! He killed my daughter!” Too late I realized that grief was driving these Caros to murder.
Luka snarled, his feral eyes darting every corner as he took in the angry mob that was closing about us.
“No!” I threw myself over Luka when someone suddenly lifted a heavy rock in the air, ready to smash Luka’s head with it. The Caro tried to stop the downward swing of his arms when he saw me in the way, but it was a little too late as well and it hit the side of my temple.
Pain exploded at the back of my skull but I managed to pull myself up so I could look into Luka’s eyes. “Luka?” I whispered. “Are you okay?”
He didn’t answer, his red-rimmed eyes more feral now, yet somewhere in it there was terror, too.
I could hear more jaws snapping, swords clashing, but still some grief-stricken Caros managed to get us, trying to pull me off Luka but I held on to him with all my might.
“Please,” I sobbed, doing my best not to let go. “Please, please, don’t hurt him.”
“VAMPIRE LOVER! KILL HER, TOO
!”
The words acted like a trigger, channeling their fury to me. I should be scared, but I wasn’t. All I could feel was gladness.
“Luka, please, if you understand me just a little, please save yourself.” It was the last words I could whisper to him before the crowd dragged me off him. I screamed, struggling against their hold, doing my best to keep sight of Luka.
I got pushed down, stomped upon, and scratched, but I only cried harder when I could no longer see Luka.
“CAYLIE!”
I thought I heard Luka calling for me. As I closed my eyes, I missed the way Luka, seemingly bursting with a thousand Caros’ strength, was frantically throwing everyone away in search for me.
“CAYLIE!”
Strong arms tenderly lifted me up. I forced my eyes to open and found myself gazing at Luka. His face was ravaged with fear, scratches all over his skin, but it was the most beautiful sight. And then I saw it---
“Luka? Your eyes,” I whispered.
Maybe I was dreaming. Maybe. But I could have sworn I saw one of his eyes turned violet while another remained red-rimmed.
Chapter Seventeen
“Are you ready to go to the courtroom?” Catherine asked quietly, her face pale but her gaze resolute as she finished helping me change into the spare of clothes she had brought with her, a white high-collared dress that I knew my mother had deliberately selected to highlight my innocence.
My mom was not a former army’s wife for nothing.
“I’m ready when you guys are.” My injuries would have been severe for a human but not for Caro standards. Just one bag of blood transfused to my system and I was starting to heal, although my head still ached and I kept dreaming of being dragged away from Luka while an angry mob killed him.
“I’m proud of you, sweetheart,” William murmured as he carried me to a waiting wheelchair.
Tears pricked my eyes, and I flushed at the way he and Catherine were gazing at me.
The stares were inevitable the moment we left the spare bedroom the Brethren had lent to us. It was embarrassing, being a Caro and having to be wheeled but there was no escaping it. The knee I had injured during the ambush had been broken again, and so it was taking longer to heal this time.
The courtroom was quiet when my father pushed the doors open so Catherine could wheel me in. Heads swiveled towards our direction before many of them just as quickly looked away. I knew then who had hurt Luka and me.
Our courtroom was fashioned after gladiator arenas, but the rows of seats surrounding the procedural court below were ornately decorated, their gilded armrests and padded cushions resembling seats in Austrian opera theaters more than the bare assembly benches in Rome.
I kept my head bowed as my parents wheeled me to the front, unable to move my chair myself since the crushed bones in my hands hadn’t fully healed as well.
Catherine rolled me down the side plank before parking my chair within one of the inner seating areas, its curtains hiding me from prying eyes while I still maintained a perfect view of the proceedings.
The same judge who granted leniency to Luka was back in his seat, and he had just finished reciting the newest information to be added in the review of Luka’s case. “For our first witness, let the Invisa Julianna speak.”
It was the Invisa who reviewed my case, and it was my first time to hear her name. She threw the hood of her robe back as she came to the podium, and everyone in the courtroom gasped, marveling at her ethereal-like beauty. I fell back, stunned when I saw Julianna possessing the same amethyst eyes that Luka had.
And one of them was red-rimmed, the mark of a half-vampire.
“My name is Julianna and I descend from the line of Prince Kairos, the fallen twin. For centuries, our line had kept secret our half-vampire lineage, fearing condemnation and the worst that fears fed by paranoia and evil could bring. Over two decades ago, some of our beloved kin had been stolen, never to be found again. We searched them to no avail, and the only thing we had learned was that a Sceleri with a battalion of Vidange to command had wanted to use our women to give birth to an army of half-vampires.”
“It was then we decided to join forces with the Brethren for together we may have hope of finding our lost kin. Luka Georgiades is one of us, born to Maria Anglovski, adopted by the late Kristoff and Eleonor Georgiades. To have our genes is a curse and a blessing. A half-vampire’s strength is twice that of the strongest Caros, but such power requires sacrifice. We must turn fully into a vampire…”
Her gaze found mine.
“…and then we must find it in ourselves to turn back. Once we have completed this cycle, there is no longer any possibility for us to turn unless we make the choice to lose our souls once more.”
I waited for her to speak more about the other part of the legend, of how being around the one you love could turn you vampire if it was unrequited, of how a vampire could be born from so many kinds of seeds of self-destruction.
But she did not.
The Invisa pulled her hood back up, curtsying to the judge before walking away at a steady pace.
“To defend himself against accusations of treason, we call forth Luka Georgiades.”
The collective gasp from the crowd was deafening, almost laughable if not for the memories of having many Caros from the same crowd trying to hurt Luka. The crowd gasped again when Luka walked out one of the tunneled entryways of the procedural court, and this time I inhaled sharply with them.
Luka had always been dazzling to look at, but this time he was…magnificent. There wasn’t a single cut on his skin. He was impeccably dressed; no one who was unaware of what happened earlier would ever guess that he had turned vampire and had almost been made a victim of a mob killing.
I didn’t know if I wanted to look at him or not, but I did know my heart hurt when he chose not to, instead looking directly at the crowd as he addressed the assembly of Caros waiting for him to speak with bated breath.
“My name is Luka Georgiades and I am the Knight Patron of the Brethren Army.”
My eyes flew to William in shock, but he did not appear surprised like almost the entire race of Caros was. The Knight Patron served as liaison between the Army and the Morteia, a secret position never to be revealed unless in dire consequences, a position that could only be earned if the Caro had proven eligible to join the Morteia but had chosen not to.
“I stand in charge for treason for which I was first unable to defend myself against. I beg your pardon for this.” Luka bowed deeply, his courtesy making many of the Caros cringe.
When he straightened, the polite smile had disappeared from his lips. A red rim had also encircled his left eye, and it was our first time to see Luka as the half-vampire he had always been.
“But now I ask for the court’s consent to present my case.”
The judge nodded. “Consent granted.”
The silence that followed was so thick it would not have been an exaggeration for our heightened hearing to distinguish even the footfall of tiny ants. Instead of speaking, Luka simply took out something from his pocket and dropped it. Sapphire beads clattered to the ground, breaking the silence that enveloped the courtroom.
Oh God of Caros, how could it be?
A scuffle erupted from the crowd, followed by several shouts and the sound of a man being subdued. In moments, Brethren guards had brought to court a panicky and sniveling Jeff Kirk, who was thrown to the ground in front Luka.
“This individual has betrayed our race to vampires. He had given my betrothed---”
My head spun at what he had called me.
“---Caylie Sonora a sapphire bracelet in which a tracker had been implanted, which was then used to determine the location of our hideout. Evidence found in his lodging by the Brethren guards has established his involvement with the Screamless Massacres.”
Violent rumblings rose from the crowd and I tensed, wondering if I was about to face an unreasonable mob of Caros once again.
Luka raised his hand. “Bu
t we will not condemn him like he had condemned our kin. We will not violate the laws that the Brethren stands for the way he has violated them. We will prove to the world that we are far from the base creatures that vampires are by giving this man a fair trial. And when he is proven guilty, we will hand him to our reviewers for sentencing.”
Luka raised his gaze to the crowd, proud and challenging, waiting for anyone to speak against him.
“We will avenge our dead. We, the Brethren, will not rest until we avenge the innocent lives that have been taken from us. But we will not make the same mistakes again. We will not blame the blameless and hurt the weak. But we will be relentless against those who deserve our enmity.”
The red rim around his eye burned bright, like a bloody sun we found ourselves drawn to.
In a hard voice that rung clearly of command, Luka said in a hard voice, “We are the brightest children of the Night, and forever we must shine.”
The applause was inevitable and I would have clapped as hard as everyone did if my hands had healed properly for it. But all I could do was sob. A shadow fell over me and without looking up, I said shakily, “Luka.”
I sensed Luka crouching down before slowly tucking my hair behind my ears and gently tipping my chin up so our eyes could meet.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?” I whispered when all he did was stare at me.
“Because I don’t know what to say,” he said rawly. “What you did…” His fingers clenched and unclenched. “Caylie, I love you. I have always loved you. And for all the times that I caused you pain, know that it was always to keep you safe and happy.” He swallowed, and seeing Luka so nervous was heartbreaking. “Y-you believe me, don’t you?”
“Yes.” I cried harder as I said the words and I bent down to kiss his lips, my tears mingling once again with our kiss. “Yes, yes, yes.”
~~~
That night, I lied in Luka’s arms, the rules of Caro courtship allowing us to share one bed once we had set the date for our union. It was quite far off, but that was only a technicality and a chance to let us enjoy ourselves.