Children of the Goddesses (completed)

Hope

Lem’s POV

            “Are you sure?” 

            I nodded confidently while holding the King’s doubtful gaze. Silence hung in the air and I could smell his suspicion but in the end, my gamble paid off. No one feared death more than those in positions of power. 

            “Very well. Good work, Lem. How long do you need to detox the new female of whatever poison is left in her?” 

            “A month at the very least, Your Grace. I need some time to prepare the antidote and she would have to consume it during the next new moon. To be on the safe side, I would have to check her blood again a few days after the new moon.” I made sure to include as many details in my explanation as possible. The more intricate a lie was, the harder it would be to cover it up, and the same applied to unravelling it. 

            As expected, the King was satisfied with my explanation and gestured for me to leave. Everything was going according to plan and by the next new moon, I would have fully harnessed all of Lord Nyi’s powers and by then, I would have nothing to fear. It was ironic that the most powerful Royal, or rather the most powerful vampire to ever exist, had simply died at the Battle at Wallace Bay because his own mother had used a curse to suppress his abilities. It was even more ironic that the heir of Lord Nyi was equally helpless to access his true abilities because he had inherited the curse from his father, while I had managed to genetically engineer everything perfectly and during the next new moon, the spell that I had purchased from the auction house would help me to merge the last of those genetic material with my own. 

            Until then, this lie was the only thing that I could think of to keep Lailynn safe from the King. My spirits lifted as I thought of the feisty female vampire and I grabbed a bag of wild stag blood from my personal stash for her before heading back to the examination room. We have been giving her very little blood to keep her weak but after she had agreed to work with me this morning, I had secretly given her more animal blood to improve her condition. 

            “Hey,” she said a little nervously as she sat up on her bed. 

            Gently, I closed the door behind me and walked over to her to check on her injuries. “Are you feeling better today?” The gentleness in my voice shocked me but I dismissed it as showing goodwill to an ally. 

            “I still feel tired all the time,” she shrugged as she bit her lips nervously, and I instinctively knew that she was contemplating whether to ask a question that she wasn’t supposed to, like the girl who lived in my heart would always do. 

            “You can ask me anything,” I said softly as I handed her the bag of stag blood. “This is for you. It’s stag’s blood and it should help with healing. The sunny nectar and primrose solution that you were injected with at the auction house are almost out of your system now. You had just enough of a dosage to knock you out and wake you up, so there should be no long term damage, but we should still be cautious.” 

            “How long have I been here?” Her voice wobbled slightly as she eyed me cautiously, uncertainty overwhelming her aura. 

            “Three days,” I answered candidly. 

            “And what’s your name?” 

            “I can’t tell you that,” I said sternly. The last thing that I needed was to expose my identity to a stranger. Other than the King, no one knew who I really was, and to the world, the entire bio-research unit went up in flames on that night over two years ago. My knowledge was a weapon just as much as it was a liability and until I was powerful enough to take down anyone foolish enough to come after me, I had to keep my identity a secret. 

            “Fine,” she said nonchalantly. “I just thought, it’d be nice to put a name to your face. I mean I can’t keep thinking of you as that male vampire when you pop into my mind, right? I guess, I’ll call you Sir Mystery then.” 

            “You’ve been thinking about me?” Amusement and a strange warmth filled my heart even as the female in front of me turned bright red at my words. 

            “I was thinking about our alliance, that’s all,” she explained quickly, a little too quickly. “Anyway, you can keep the stag blood for yourself, Sir Mystery. I know it’s rare. I can smell that it isn’t a normal stag but the kind that are related to the mythical red deers, the ones with the healing touch and are able to resurrect the spirit. I don’t need it.” 

            “What do you mean you don’t need it?” 

            She started absentmindedly toying with her fingers before taking a deep breath and looking at me with utmost seriousness in her eyes. “Blood does nothing for me, at least not anymore. I don’t need it to live. I don’t know how but it just happened one day.” 

            To say that I was shocked would be an understatement and I struggled a little to regain my composure. No vampire in all the centuries of our research didn’t need blood to live, and even though I knew that her Sun chromosome was expressed in a way that was unknown to our world, it was still a shocking discovery for me. Anxiety filled the room and I realized that her mind must be racing with all sorts of negative thoughts due to my reaction. 

            “Well, that’s interesting and I will have to try and find an explanation for that in the lab later,” I mumbled as I put the bag of blood back into my ice box. “Since you don’t need blood to live, I assume you haven’t been drinking any of the blood that I gave you?” 

            “No I haven’t,” she said sheepishly. 

            “Do you want to eat or drink anything else? Human food? I know we don’t need it but it’s still nice to have something delicious on our taste buds.” 

            Her cheeks flushed again as she asked a question that left no doubt in my mind of her identity. “Do you have chocolate? I’m not picky, it could be a chocolate bar or a chocolate chip cookie. And do you think we could go outside for a short while for some fresh air? Just a few minutes? I think it would really help with my healing too! I know this sounds stupid but when I was a kid and wasn’t feeling too well, my best friend would always help me to sneak out into the open field beside base camp. We would lie under the starry sky and share a tiny chocolate bar, which he had stolen from his Dad. It’d just be enough for each of us to have one bite but it was enough to make everything better again.” 

            A thousand thoughts raced through my mind and in my mind’s eye, I could see the radiant smile on my sweetheart’s pale face as both of us savor the one bite we each had of our favorite chocolate while the night breeze caressed our faces. I was too young to know love but even then, my heart had no place for anyone but her and if she had wanted to have one of the stars from the heavens in her hands, I would have gone to the ends of the earth to get it for her. These escapes were some of our most treasured memories together and no one but the both of us knew about it. Not even Lovis was aware that we would dare to sneak out together when Laila was not feeling well. 

            “It’s ok if my request is too much. I think I’m fine anyway,” my sweetheart said, a tinge of disappointment marred her beautiful voice. 

            “No, I think it’s a great idea, but we need to be careful. The sun will rise in an hour, and we can’t let anyone see you outside of this room,” I said quickly as I blinked furiously to hold back my tears. I had no idea how this was possible but my sweetheart was alive and for the first time in two years, I felt hope burning in my heart. My sweetheart was alive after all and everything that I had prepared to avenge her, would now help me to protect her. The only imperfection in this perfect moment was how far apart we were from each other even though she was right in front of me. 

            Her heart remained pure through the years and I knew that parts of her must despise me for being a pawn of a self proclaimed King, who bought vampires to serve his own interests. I was like an endless abyss of darkness and she had only chosen to take a small step into the abyss because she probably believed that this was the only way for her to get back into the light. Yet, nothing could dampen the joy lifting me up to cloud nine at the realization that my Laila was somehow alive and right before my eyes. She was alive, and for me, nothing could be more important than that.