Chapter-11

-Previously in DiR-

"Take her away from me." I said to Victor.

"Even if you hadn't asked me, I would." He said before leaving with her.

He carried Karen as if she weighed nothing. I watched him disappear in the hall and sank back into the darkness of the room. It was darkness who knew me well. I should never come near to Karen. I could have killed her today because of my thirst. Curse me, I was vampire.

She was a fragile being. I had hurt her too much. I had to stay away from her. I couldn't let my control slip again. She considered me a friend and I had done this to her. She would never forgive me for this. And I didn't deserve her forgiveness.

I couldn't be a murderer. Again.

***

"You can't save people from themselves. You can only try to wake them up."-Karen Marie Moring.

Chapter-11

-Victor (yeah, you read it right)-

Karen was beautiful and in my arms, dying.

She weighed nothing to me. I wondered if she ate anything. Then again, I was a vampire and I was stronger than the rest of people. I would feel nothing of her weight even if she weighed thousand pounds.

Nate had been a monster. A real one. I thought he had some sense. He should have known not to keep himself starving for blood. Mother was always acting so careless when it came to Nathan. She believed he could take care of himself and he was an intelligent creature. Alas! He was nowhere near to intelligent. His act could have killed Karen and with her a chance of winning over the other civilisation.

I looked at her pale white face and panicked. She was dying. I needed to do something, quick. I didn't want her to die. Not because of some idiotic warfare but because of some connection I shared with her. She was a girl who could stand up to fight her own fights. She was someone who would try and never fail.

I laid her down on the bed and thought about helping her wake up. There was one way to save her. It was risky but I was sure it would save her no matter what wounds she had on her body. And this was the case of little blood lose and more fear. She fainted because of fear, I knew this. Many girls fainted while this blood feeding occurred.

Her eyes were closed as if she was in deep meditation. I raised my wrist to my mouth and then bit it. Thick blood poured out of the punctured wounds. I had fed some hours ago from a young girl. So, I had fresh blood running through my veins. I needed to get Karen drink my blood.

I touched the wrist to her mouth.

"Drink, Karen." I insisted.

The blood made way to her lips then into her mouth. It took her some minutes to respond to the blood. Her lips moved on my wrist. I moved nearer, stroking her hair on the forehead. Her pale face started to get back its usual color.

The place on the neck where Nathan had bitten her started healing. I exhaled loudly in relief. I never had saved anyone in my whole life. This was an experiment.

She opened her eyes. I removed my hand from her mouth. She coughed and spit.

"What did you give me?" She asked getting up on the bed.

"Ummm, a substance that is red in color and liquid in physical state." I said humorously.

"I'm not in a mood of solving riddles," She said glaring at me. "Where is Nate?"

She had given my stupid brother a very stupid nickname. I just had saved her life and she was asking about him who had nearly killed her some moments ago. Was she insane?

"I just gave you my precious blood and all you're asking about is my crazy monstrous brother!" I exclaimed over dramatically. "You should be ashamed."

She stared at me like I had spoken some foreign language which she couldn't understand.

"You what?" She asked.

"You drank my blood." I leaned on the wall behind me.

"Am I—I going to become a vampire?" She stammered.

I laughed at her innocence of the vampire theory.

"It doesn't go like that." I said smiling.

"Then how does it work?"

"If I tell you," I said. "I'd have to kill you."

She kept glaring at me.

"Calm down, tigress." I said. "You can only become a vampire if I kill you now as you have my blood running through your veins. It is such a small quantity so, don't worry."

"If I drink a vampire's blood and die, I will become a vampire!" She repeated. "I think I'll have a migraine attack."

Yeah, this was so much for her small brain to take. A human being could only become by two ways. One was magic which was very rare these days as powerful witches existed hardly. Second was to feed them vampire blood and then kill them. They would wake up as a new vampire, ready to hunt and kill and all the other stuff.

She got up on her feet and roamed back and forth in the room, clutching her head in her hands.

"Your Nate is fine, if that's what you're worried about." I made a face.

I had made sure to call the guards after taking Karen out of Nathan's room. Mother and guards would be taking care of him. He had to be strangled. He could be dangerous for Karen's life. Now I couldn't trust him around her. Well, see who is speaking.

I myself was a slave of bloodlust. I fed direct from the vein. I didn't like the blood supplied from the blood firm.

I would travel to the other world and hypnotize people and they, being fragile minded always offered me their necks without asking twice. It was a feeling never close to the fake blood (I had a suspicion mother mixed some water with blood in the glass). The blood direct from the vein was fresh and energising. Nathan would know. Because Karen's blood was magical, it called for every vampire.

The first time Karen had entered through the ninth portal, I had acted like a hungry man to her. It wasn't totally my fault. I had been starving for entire day and when I smelled her blood, I couldn't stop myself from scaring her.

"Is he sick?" She asked.

"You don't have any transmittable diseases, right?" I asked sarcastically.

She punched my shoulder and I acted as if it would have hurt me a lot.

"I mean, why was he acting strange?" She asked seriously. "Don't keep on joking with me."

"My brother is an idiot. He wasn't drinking blood properly from his glass these days and he refuses to drink from any other girl around here." I said. "He thinks it would 'hurt' them."

I made air quotes around the word hurt and yawned.

"Why would he do so?"

"Maybe he thinks it's a doing of the bravest person." I said.

She sat down on the bed, thinking hard about something.

"What is little head thinking about?" I asked.

"It is not little." She said angrily. "I got good marks in school. Besides, have you ever been to a school?"

I had been to school, when I was younger.

"Yeah," I answered, getting out of the room. "If you need something, call the nearest guard."

I saw her shoulders relaxing a bit.

***

When I went to the hall, I was surprised to the commotion there. Guards were walking up and down and mother was looking furious.

She looked magnificent as ever, no more than a young girl in her twenties. But she was my mother. She had the burden of this vampire society because Nathan was of no use. There were creases on her forehead, her eyes were narrowed.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Your brother wants to see Valerie." Mother said is distaste.

"Is he bringing Kate to life again?" I joked.

Mother glared at me with cold anger. I knew she could get angry when I said anything about her 'dearest' son. And I, being so cool and egoistic, enjoyed every bit of the anger. I wonder if she ever defended me in front of Nathan like this.

"Why don't you tell him that Valerie is dead and cannot be brought back to life?" I asked, changing the subject. "Let me guess, you haven't told him yet, huh?"

"I don't know how to tell him that." She said honestly.

Valerie was the most powerful witch of our time and of all the times. She was the one who had predicted the great slumber of Nathan and downfall of Escoffier mansion. She was always hundred percent right in her prophecies. But she was dead. Gone. She wasn't a vampire to live such a long life.

"Do you remember, she used to have a daughter?" Mother asked me.

Valerie had a beautiful daughter but she was sent to the other world in her teens by Valerie herself. She didn't want her daughter to remain in the ruins with her. She had accepted her destiny but she had seen a bright future for her daughter.

"Yeah, her daughter had me interested for long." I smirked.

Mother threw me an I-will-kill-and-bury-you-with-your-jokes glare. I shut my mouth and looked at her like an obedient son.

"Her daughter was sent," She said the same thing I just had thought. Oh! Mother could read minds. "The same bloodline is still there, Victor."

"I know." I breathed.

I know the secret we were hiding from Karen.

It wasn't a coincidence she had found the portal. The portal opened only when a person who had magical blood running in their veins wanted to open it.

That's how a girl named Ruth had opened the portal by mistake one year ago. And she never left. She was destined to become a slave and she did.

Karen was destined for something else.

She is the descendent of the most powerful witch ever lived on this earth. Valerie should have known her daughter was safe but the upcoming generations of her weren't.

A/N HEY THERE *waving*

Such a small but prominent chapter from Victor's POV.