Page 54 of Guardian

It was as if I shrunk in size, my skin and body movements alien to me. He wrapped his fingers around my neck, my throat swallowing a cry as my eyes held in the tears that slowly burned. That ached to escape.

Like me.

“You!” His hold tightened. The numbing sensation electrified my body while the hairs on my nape rose, his face slowly blurring as he pressed deeper. Harder. Until it all grew dark. “You monster! You killed themall!”

I gasped for air as my eyes fluttered open, coughs immediately scratching my throat as I regained consciousness. I don’t know when I ended up in the bathroom or when the yellow liquid ruptured through my mouth. All I knew was that I had no energy left in me. No tears to cry.

Just the fiery push to not give up— even if an emptiness swallowed me whole.

ChapterEighteen

ALEK SEPHTIS

Katerina plagued my mind instead of the notebook’s whereabouts or the intruder that had made her unconscious. After the Ambrogios visitation ended, I rushed to her in need of confirming she was okay. That familiar desire embedded itself in me after she’d left Tristan’s’ brief meeting, igniting the turmoil I realized at the hospital, the warmth a flare.

Yet, I understood this wasn’t instinctive or unconscious. It was madness.

Her remains from the hospital lay in my bookcase alongside the log Noah had entrusted. The two were embedded within polar books, yet my hands gravitated toward where the teeth and fur hid. It was hers, a secret between us, and the thought further ignited this. . .

Absurdity.

One that prevailed as I dashed off to the forest with a more chipper step than I’d like to admit. Surely, it couldn’t be because I’d see her soon. Absolutely not.

The cemetery’s metal entrance swung along the traveling breeze, my body stilling as I paused near the mausoleum. A tall shadow inhabited the inner walls that didn’t belong to Katerina.

“What were you thinking, Mother?” said a brittle voice, “How could you abandon us yet forsake us with traces of your presence?”

An echo thundered against the walls, a book crashing on the ground and slipping onto the opening. My body froze as I studied the title.

The book was bound by thick dark leather, rigged yellow pages peeking through the fore-edge. It was one that bore scars upon its spine and case, detailing the years of use the sheets had endured. Although the letters were faded, they bore a phantom imprint I recognized.

The History of Vampires.

The scripture had once been known as the Vampire Encyclopedia, detailing the history of our species, the rise of the Regal Families, and the achievements our kind had attained since the beginning of time. In the mid-nineteenth century, the name was then altered to what we referred to now. Soon after, all editions published prior to the twentieth century were outlawed due to misinformation that was detailed within the text.

The History of Vampireswas comprised of three volumes:Vampirism and the First to Walk, Biographies of the Regal Seven,and theVampiric Achievements Throughout Time.It was the textbook that our kind studied, the teachings we were brought upon, and the understanding of the world vampires lived in.

The mystery behind the ban of past editions remained throughout the years. Eventually, such wonders had thinned, the curiosity a petal that had shriveled with passing time. Those who continued to question were seen as conspiracy theorists seeking to damage the Ministry for the benefit of the Human Bureau.

Although in recent years it was scarcely touched upon, our mother had consistently emphasized the importance of the illegal edition before her passing— one that she had possessed in secrecy for our education.

It holds the truth of it all; the truth they try so hard to conceal,she’d say.

An edition we had all collectively agreed on burning after our mother’s death. It was the one and only decision that we all had a say in. If discovered by the wrong hands, generations would be ruled as treasonous and sentenced to extinction.

I blocked the entrance, and Christopher turned to me. Although he remained composed with straight shoulders, his stare penetrated through me with a clenched expression. He was a statue that began to expose his thoughts.

The rush from the feeding still buzzed through my veins like a soft musical tone. It was a reverberation that yearned to be exercised and manipulated. If he pounced, I’d strike back. The terror that seeped through my bones at the thought was insufficient amongst the instinct.

“Where did you get that?”

“It was Mother’s.”

“We all witnessed the destruction of the book, the fire that encapsulated each page until it was ash on the ground.”

“We did.” Christopher’s gaze fell on mine, unwavering compared to Kaleb's. “But that wasn’t the true edition.”

All my fury concentrated in a simple question. “Why?”

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