Stained By Sin

TWO

Nero stared at the white walls of the ballroom, memories of that tragic night creeping into his mind.

His people did a great job cleaning this room. Looking at it now, it was as if nothing had happened in it. No killings. No blood repainting the white walls red. No severed heads flying in all directions. The decorations in the room even made it feel homey. Peaceful.

Sadness and regret washed over him as his thoughts took him down the memory lane.

Even though his clan won the battle, did they even truly win? All the lives sacrificed just for the title of “King”… was it worth it?

Nero sighed as he paced down the room, letting his mind wander even more.

His peaceful time was interrupted when the ballroom doors were thrown open.

“Brother! Brother!” Nero looked at his sister, who was frantically calling out to him as if she was dying.

His calm demeanor was immediately shattered when he saw his sister’s tear-stained face. He crossed the ballroom in just a few steps, and was in front of his sister in a flash. He took in her rugged appearance, worried that she was injured.

“Ava, what’s wrong?” he asked, putting his hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her down.

“My mate…” she said, or rather, sobbed. It seemed like Nero’s attempts at calming her had the opposite effect.

Nero’s mind drew a blank for moment before the gears in his brain started working again. Did he hear his sister right? Her “mate”? What mate?

He narrowed his eyes at her, no longer caring that she was still bawling her eyes out like a kid.

“Your what?!” he asked, shaking his sister a little.

“My mate! He was abducted by the Crows!” she answered, as if her having a mate should be a common knowledge already.

Nero’s mind raced, trying to process the sudden dump of information. First, he found out his sister had taken a mate. In the next second, he was told that the said mate was abducted, and by their nemesis, no less! This was all too much for Nero. He needed to sit down.

Nero removed his hands from his sister’s shoulders, placing one hand on her arm to guide her towards a nearby chair. When Ava was already seated, he pulled another chair closer and sat there.

“Get a grip on yourself, then tell me exactly what happened,” he told Ava. He was trying to keep his cool, but his sister being like this was not helping.

Ava nodded. The way she tried to stifle her sobs made it obvious that she was still far from calming down. He needed her normal, though, if he wanted to understand the situation better.

He let her be for a couple more minutes, occasionally giving her shoulders light pats.

When Ava finally stopped crying, she looked at Nero, eyes filled with fear. “Brother, I recently got myself a mate,” she began, her voice trembling. “But just a while ago, he was abducted by one of the Crows… what will they do to him? Will they kill him?” Ava’s voice was steadily rising as she spoke, her nerves becoming more and more apparent.

“First things first. And who is this mate of yours? Is he from our clan?” He raised an eyebrow at Ava, telling her through his actions that he would not help her find this mate of hers unless she tells him everything.

Ava bowed her head in resignation, before slowly shaking it “no”.

“What clan does he belong to, then?” Nero asked, carefully maintaining the authoritative tone in his voice.

His sister was silent for a moment before she answered in a small voice. “Humans.”

For the second time this night, Nero’s brain had stopped working. Did he hear her right? Her mate was a human?

He could feel his fury starting to rise, but he kept it in. This was no time to be angry. Regardless of species, his sister’s mate was in trouble, and if he wanted to save his sister from eternal misery, he better do something about it.

Nero shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts.

“When did you mate with him? Why? Why wasn’t I informed about this? And how on earth did he get abducted? If he’s within our perimeter, no Crow would be able to get to him.” Nero knew he was bombarding his sister with a lot of questions, but he needed to get his answers. He needed to understand what on earth was happening all of a sudden.

Ava wiped the fresh tears that fell on her cheeks. She touched his hand -- which he forgot was resting on her arm -- and looked into his eyes. “We did the mating ritual this evening…” she whispered, trailing off as she saw his eyes blazed in fury.

Gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, he took a deep breath to calm himself. He needed to remain calm. He needed to remain calm. He repeated this mantra on his head, knowing that anger wouldn’t do them any good at the moment.

”How did you even manage to convince a human to mate with you? Did he know what you are?” he asked, his voice sounding as strained as he felt.

“He had no idea,” Ava replied, looking down as if she was ashamed of what she did.

“You tricked him?!” This time, Nero wasn’t able to control himself. He yelled the question at her, shocked that she would go that low just to mate with whoever that human was. Nero took his hand away from her arm, standing up and moving away from his little sister. He paced back and forth of the room, repeatedly pushing his hair away from his face. He was so frustrated… so disappointed. “Ava, are you forgetting the fact that we took over this castle just so we can protect the humans? And now you’re telling me you tricked one to mate with you? What on earth do you think you are doing?!”

Ava looked at him apologetically, her eyes gleaming with unshed tears. “Brother, I am so sorry… but trust me, I didn’t trick him. I would never do that.”

Nero shook his head in confusion. “Tell me, then. If you did not trick him and he had no idea what you are, how did you manage to complete the ritual? It’s not like you just needed him to sign something. You both needed to drink each other’s blood!”

Ava stood up, her arms outstretched in front of her, her hands grasping at the air in front of her. She looked like she was trying to catch him, but was too afraid to touch him.

“I swear in the name of the Ivory, there was no trickery involved in our mating. This may sound ridiculous, and I know I was too impulsive, but this mating was not planned.”

“Then explain! Explain it to me, right now,” Nero demanded, glaring at her sister.

“It’s just… we met quite a few months back. I was wandering outside the forest and met him at an abandoned factory. I was interested in him so I approached him and… we decided to meet a couple more times… and some time after that, I just felt so comfortable with him. So at peace.” Ava smiled a bit, as if talking about her experiences with the human was enough to bring back this peaceful feeling she mentioned.

“So what? That doesn’t mean you have to mate with him. I feel comfortable around a lot of people in our clan, but you don’t see me mating with any one of them.”

“I know, I know. And that’s why I said I was too impulsive,” Ava admitted, looking down at her hands, which were now clasped in front of her.

“What happened then?” Nero asked, growing more and more impatient. He needed to know what her sister did. He needed to know she was telling the truth, and that she did not force this guy to be her mate.

“Then, this evening… we met around the edge of our perimeter. We were talking and having fun with each other and... things just grew more intense from there. Next thing I knew, I was already initiating the ritual with him.” Nero tripped on his own foot at his sister’s story. The “intense” thing she was talking about could be anything, but judging by the way Ava’s face turned all shades of red, it could only mean that it was that thing.

Nero cleared his throat to break the awkward silence that followed his sister’s words. It was his fault, anyway, for asking too many questions. The awkwardness effectively removed the anger in his system, though.

“Fine, you just happened to suddenly bite his neck and drink his blood. But how did you manage to get him to drink yours?” Nero asked again, knowing full well he would regret his own words.

“I don’t know. Honest. I bit my own wrist so my blood would come out, then offered it to him. I didn’t know why he accepted it and drank it. I was surprised, too, when he did that.”

Nero studied his sister’s face intently, his hearing focused on the sound of her heart. If she was lying about anything, he would know. But there was nothing to indicate that she was being untruthful. She was really telling the truth.

Relieved -- from knowing that his sister did not force the human into their mating, or because the awkward discussion was finally over, he wasn’t sure -- Nero went back to the chair he pulled earlier, and sat down. Now that he knew his sister brought no harm to a human, he needed to face the next problem. Rescuing her mate.

“Why did the human ran away again?” he asked, not sure if she already told him about it.

“He realized that I was a vampire. He got scared and ran.”

Nero just wanted to laugh. If he wasn’t related to Ava, he would definitely hurt himself laughing from the absurdity of this situation. Her sister, mating without even thinking about it. Her mate, drinking her blood without a second thought. And then running away from her right after.

Instead, he just shook his head and wiped his face with his hand in resignation.

He was curious about the human’s initial reaction when he finally realized that he had just exchanged blood with Ava. However, Nero knew that if he wanted to save himself from any more awkwardness with his sister, he should never dare ask her about it.

Instead, he asked, “He knows you two are mated?”

Ava nodded.

“Does he know what it means to be a vampire’s mate?”

Ava shook her head. “He ran off before I got a chance to explain. And then he got captured by a Crow. I chased after their scent, but I lost them.”

“It’s a good thing you did,” Nero sighed. “Even if you did manage to track them, you would only end up as another hostage for them. You aren’t skilled enough in fighting. You will lose against a Crow in a heartbeat.”

Ava remained silent. If she was offended by his statement, he had no clue. He just told her the truth. She needed to know that she wouldn’t stand a chance. It would eliminate any thoughts in her mind to  follow her mate by herself.

She might be a princess, but she’s a pampered princess. Nero, being the king of the vampires, did his best to make sure his sister would only know comfort. He thought that, when the time comes that she would mate with someone, it would be a vampire that was well-versed with sword and battle. But, no. She just had to mate with a human, and probably a very weak one as well.

Nero sighed again. He needed to start planning now. He knew exactly why the Crows abducted Ava’s mate. They would use the human against his clan.

He wouldn’t let them.

“Ava, go get some rest. I will meet with our fighters to plan how we are going to retrieve your mate, and I will need you there so you can describe to us our target. Meet us at the war room.” Nero gave his sister a stern stare, expecting her to follow him without question.

Knowing that she couldn’t argue with her brother, she nodded and left.