Forbidden Mate: Awakening

A pin drop could be heard.

The vampire remained quiet. This obviously boiled my father’s blood.

“Can’t you speak?!”

He remained in his ordeal, only returning the same death glare my father gave him.

“I’m coming, Sarah.” She barely heard me since she was so focused on the vampire. Guess she was also fascinated too.

I maneuvered my way to Adrian, feeling anxious and excited. I could see shock and recognition in his eyes. There was a connection between them that went beyond what I could guess. I wanted to know what had happened between them and how it would affect us now.

“Adrian…” I called to him, just a few people away from where he stood, but he didn’t look away from the vampire.

“Adrian…” I called again but he didn’t budge.

“If you won’t talk, then we’ll get the information out of you the hard way.” My father commanded and waved his hands to signal the men to take him away to be locked up. “Meeting dismissed!”

They held him roughly and as he was being dragged away, I could see the way he and Adrian stared at each other. I looked at my dad and suspected he saw that too. In panic, I rushed to Adrian’s side and stretched out my hand to shake him out of it.

He finally looked at me.

“Adrian… I’ve been calling you. Are you alright?”

He didn’t respond and went with the others. I felt the conflict within me. So many things could be running through his mind. Should I let him be or should I go after him?

“Lily…” Sarah called to me and I went back to meet her.

“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” I expressed my concern to her.

“He was so hot…” Sarah’s face was completely pink.

“Uhn?”

“That vampire.” She whispered to me.

I rolled my eyes and palmed my forehead.

•••••••••••

We had another meeting that evening. The air distilled with certainty and anticipation for what would come out of the vampire’s questioning.

He was dragged in, beaten and bruised badly. It was hard to recognise him and the allure in his appearance had completely disappeared.

My father, fueled by anger and impatience, spoke, “If you don’t want to be killed right on this spot and hung in the galleys for your kind to see, speak now! Tell me who you are, who sent you and what you were doing around our boarders.”

He remained quiet.

A man beside him lashed his back which brought his hands to the floor.

“Speak!”

He refused to and my father signalled again. He was lashed.

“Do you enjoy this as much as I do?”

He was lashed again.

“Speak now and spare yourself this torment.”

He refused to and was lashed again. The resilience and defiance on this vampire’s face made me scared. He seemed like all those types who went to war with us and laughed anytime they struck down our people. It frightened me. I wandered how Adrian could possibly know this type of vampire. He seemed ruthless, hateful and unforgiving. These were the ones my father used to train our grove to hate, as they hated us too.

He spat out blood, licked his lips then smiled to my father and gave a convulsed laugh.

“Beat me, punch me, tear me apart, kill me! I won’t say a single thing.” It was the first time I had heard his voice. It was the complete opposite of Adrian’s soft and calming voice. It was brass, and domineering.

My father, angered, stepped down and took the lash from the man doing the flogging. He started flogging the vampire profusely, one hard lash after the other. Suddenly, I sensed Adrian’s presence. I turned and saw him at a corner. As the vampire was being flogged, it affected him. One lash and a grunt from the vampire, and Adrian would bend over and hurl in pain.

Why was the vampire’s pain affecting him?

My father was already vexed to the core. He threw the lash away and brought out a long knife to the vampire’s throat. Everyone gasped.

“I will give you one last chance. State your purpose or die on this spot.”

“There’s only one thing…I’d say.” He coughed out blood as he spoke with a choked voice, “Your kind…your people…every single one of you here will die very soon. We’re just counting down the days, hours, the minutes, the seconds…you are not too far from your doom, pack hunter.”

The room became strangely quiet as the vampire’s words hung in the air. What he just said sent a shiver down my spine, making me feel like something terrible was really about to happen. The threat he just posed to our kind was clear, and I couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling inside me.

My heart raced as I looked at Adrian who desperately tried to hide from the gaze of the vampire. His face showed fear, knowing that any mistake could put him in immense danger. Upon hearing what the vampire said, he became still.

The vampire had a smug grin on his face, seemingly enjoying the fear he was causing us. His eyes sparkled with malice as he continued to tease us, “You’ll all die, and we will reign supreme like the elements would have it be! You’ll all die! Wiped out! You’ll all be wiped out!”

It seemed like he took pleasure in the fear that filled the room.

My father, with a strong desire to protect our pack, took charge. He questioned the vampire, “What are you planning to do? What are your people planning to do?!”

The vampire laughed mockingly at him, “No matter how much you try to avoid it, it is eminent. We have the key to your destruction.”

What? What key? What did he mean by that?

At that moment, my father’s face hardened, showing the weight of his responsibility. He made a firm decision. He threw the blade away and announced, “For treason of infiltrating our lands, spying on us, withholding information from us and defying our kind to our face, this abominable aborigine will be sentenced to death as our customs will have it! He will be executed first thing tomorrow, and my decision is final!”

The room fell silent, the weight of my father’s verdict hanging heavily in the air. It reminded us of the harsh reality we were facing. Our lives, our existence, were in serious danger, and my father believed that quick and decisive action was necessary to protect our pack.

My father and mother entered into their room leaving us to take in what had just occured in front of our eyes.

As the guards led the vampire away, his smirk never faded. It sent chills down my spine, seeing how he continued to laugh at all of us, mocking our ignorance of the huge scale plan his people were planning against us. I felt we were like pawns in a much larger game, and the stakes were higher than ever before.

Fear gripped my heart as I thought about the vampire’s chilling words. Could they be true? Were we really on the edge of extinction? The weight of that knowledge threatened to overwhelm me, but I refused to let despair take over. We had to fight back. We had to find a way to survive.

As the vampire vanished from sight, the room was filled with a heavy silence. People talked as they left the room slowly.

I turned to look at Adrian. He was gone, again.

Why did I feel so eery about all this?

As uncertainty loomed, I couldn’t help but wonder what the future had in store for us.

••••••••••••

That night, I was pacing in the hallway, thinking about what happened earlier when I saw a figure pass a few meters from me into the other hallway.

Alert, I quickly followed behind to see who it was. From behind, it looked like Adrian. When he paused, sensing a presence behind him, he looked back and I quickly hid behind a wall. I peeped very carefully and saw it was Adrian.

Where was he going to so late? Was he going to see…the vampire?

As Adrian went into the darkness to meet the vampire before his execution, I couldn’t help but feel curious and worried, so I decided to quietly follow him.

Every step I took made my heart beat faster, and I could feel the adrenaline rushing through me. The prison the vampire was in was underground and Adrian had to go through a separate tunnel to reach the cell. The guards were outside the cell room so Adrian entered through a hole fit for a human on the wall. The cell was very small but the room was wide and filled with rocks and statues.

I hid behind a rock at a distance, watching as Adrian approached the vampire.

They spoke in hushed tones, keeping their conversation a secret but I was able to hear some things.

“Adrian, Adrian, Adrian…. how long has it been? 5, 6, 8 months?”

“Ethan, what are you doing here?” Was that his name? Ethan?

There was a tense atmosphere, and I could tell that they had a history that weighed heavily on both of them.

“I’m surprised you even still remember my name. I should be the one asking you what you’re doing hiding in the midst of these animals.”

“They’re not animals…”

“Oh, now you defend them? What have you turned into, Adrian? You’re hiding your pride so they won’t kill you because you’re on the run from judgement? How much longer do you think you can hide? With your wig and fake scent?” His words came out like venom.

“I am not hiding…”

“Then what are you doing? Tell me…you couldn’t look me in the eyes back there…isn’t that hiding? From your truth?”

“If my father sent you here or the general, tell them I’m never coming back.”

He laughed, “You’ve been on the run for so long. If we wanted to catch you, we would’ve a long time ago.. it’s not always about you, Adrian. You’re not so special as you think. We have our sights on greater heights now, greater than getting a stray cat back to his litter box.”

“What are you guys planning to do?”

“That’s not for a runaway to know.. you’ve clearly shown which side you’re on now.”

“I’m a vampire before anything else, Ethan. You can’t accuse me of taking sides with them.”

“Then free me. Now. Let me carry out the remainder of my mission. Show your allegiance and secure your redemption.”

What? What did he want to do?