Twilight Requiem

His Condition

Ivan slowly opened his eyes, and then he gasped loudly. He sat up and started looking around. All he could see around him were trees; he was not in his room. Ivan frantically rubbed his eyes, and when he opened them, he immediately saw his hands, red and stained with blood.

He felt his heart leap out of his chest. He then looked down at his body; not only that is not wearing any shirt, but he was also covered in blood and dirt. Ivan tried to wipe them off him, but it was of no use.

He looked around, his eyes were wide with fear; fear of what he had done again.

“No… no… no… Not again,” he mumbled as he rubbed the dirt and blood off himself again.

Then he froze when he heard footsteps coming his way. He was contemplating whether he should confront or flee, and in the end, he chose to flee. He was about to take a step when a familiar voice spoke behind him.

“Ivan, stop,”

Ivan slowly turned around and saw Zander approaching. Ivan doesn’t know whether he should be more scared or relieved about his cousin. Then Ivan dropped to his knees.

“It happened again, Z,” he said, looking defeated and lost.

Zander sighed and walked over to his cousin. He crouched down next to him.

“Who did you attack this time?” he asked, and Ivan shook his head.

“I don’t know. I just woke up here, like this,”

Ivan answered.

“I thought you had this under control?”

“I thought so too. I haven’t had an episode for years,” Ivan answered his cousin’s question.

Zander sighed and shook his head.

“Ivan, you need help,” he said and stood up.

“It's time for your mother and the family to know about your situation,” Zander told him.

Ivan looked at him and shook his head.

“No,” he said, standing up.

Zander put his hand on Ivan’s shoulder.

“Ivan, what is happening to you is alarming. They need to know so that they can help you.”

Zander pressed, but Ivan swatted his hand on his shoulder and took a step back.

“I said no!” Ivan spat, and then his eyes turned red.

Zander frowned as he began to sense something had changed in his cousin.

“Ivan…” he began, taking a step closer.

Ivan took another step back. His eyes were now red as blood, his teeth grew sharp, like a feral vampire. Zander clenched his teeth as he saw his youngest cousin turn into a feral vampire.

He knew he needed to do something. He tried to reach out to him, but Ivan snarled and lunged at him. Zander was able to catch his wrists, and he tried to turn Ivan back to normal, but it was no use. Ivan continued to snarl and attack Zander, and that’s when he decided to contact the family through their mind link.

‘Everyone, I need help. Ivan needs help,’ he told them.

The first one to respond was Calie.

‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.

‘Something’s happening to him,’

After Zander said that, Ivan snarled at him, still trying to bite him and s***h his face. Then Calie appeared out of nowhere, followed by Camilla.

“What is happening to him?!” Calie frantically asked when she saw her son in that state.

“I will explain everything, just get him to stop attacking me!” Zander responded. He is already having a hard time holding his youngest cousin back. Zander started to worry and feel scared of Ivan since he had just grown stronger and more vicious than normal.

Calie tried to approach her son, reaching out to him with her hand, but Ivan turned to her, snarling.

“Sweetie,” she called, but Ivan let out an animalistic growl, and an unseen force sent his mother back.

“This is not good,” Camilla said.

Then her eyes turned red as she stepped forward. Ivan turned to her, but before he could snarl at her and send her back, Camilla waved her hand in front of Ivan’s face. Ivan went still and slowly calmed down. His eyes then rolled towards the back of his head, and he passed out.

Zander caught him as his body went limp. Cradling his unconscious body, Calie rushed to her son’s side. Calie then cupped Ivan’s face, worry and confusion etched on her face.

“What is happening to him?” she asked.

Camilla looked at Ivan, her hand touching his forehead to look through his memories. Zander and Calie looked at her, waiting for her to speak, but then Camilla frowned and took a step back.

“We should take him back to Creon, now,” she said.

Zander nodded, and then Camilla teleported all of them back to Creon’s clinic.

*******************************.

When Creon saw them appear in the middle of his office, he was surprised, especially when he saw the state Ivan was in. On the Queen’s order, he immediately checked on Ivan, doing every test he knew and could be done on his unconscious nephew.

The tests have taken Creon half a day to finish, and as soon as he got the results, he went to see them.

“What did you find? What is wrong with my son?” Calie asked.

Creon opened his mouth to speak, but stopped and looked at Zander instead.

“What happened to him? I need the truth,” he asked.

Zander was hesitant to speak as it wasn’t his secret to tell. Camilla turned to Zander.

“Tell him what you know,” she told him.

Zander glanced at his grandmother and nodded. Then he looked at Creon again and started explaining. He started when he visited Ivan at school, and he saw him come back to his dorm room covered with blood. He also told him what they agreed on and then proceeded to what happened earlier.

After hearing everything Zander said, Creon went quiet.

“Creon, what is happening to my son? What are the results of the tests you did?” Calie fired her questions.

Creon then looked at her.

“All the tests came back normal.” He spoke.

“All the labs are normal, his heart, other body functions, all normal,”

“Then what is wrong with him?!”

Calie spat.

“I did one test that doesn’t really involve any medical stuff…”

Creon trailed, and then he looked intently at his youngest sibling.

“Ivan is mostly vampire,” he said, and they all looked at him, confused.

“What?”

“What does that even mean?”

They asked.

Creon let out a sigh and explained.

“You see, our family are hybrids. Grandma has the most balanced trait of both vampire and Lycan since her parents are both pure-blood vampires and Lycan. For us, her children, we leaned more towards our Lycan side since grandpa is a werewolf who is a descendant of the Lycan race.” Creon paused and looked at Zander.

“For our children, they are tribrids since we were mated to another species. My children, for example, their mother is a cheetah shifter, and Zander’s father is a Nephilim.”

Calie shot up from her seat.

“We already know that, Creon. What I want to know is why this is happening to my son, and an explanation about it!” she exclaimed.

Creon raised his hand.

“I am getting there, Caline. Calm down and get back to your seat,” he told her.

Camilla pulled her daughter back to her seat. As soon as Calie was seated, Creon continued.

“As I was saying, our children are considered tribrids. On Ivan’s situation, since his father is human, a weaker trait, the vampire in him took over that human side of him, making his vampire side superior to his Lycan side.” Creon explained.

“Then why is he having these episodes?” Zander asked.

Creon looked at him.

“Did you see him during these episodes, aside from today?” he asked back.

Zander shook his head.

“What I told you is the only thing I know. I have never seen him during an episode… but if you count what happened earlier when he attacked me, I guess,” he answered, and Creon nodded.

At that moment, Camilla was quiet as she replayed in her head the memories she gathered from Ivan. Then she straightened her back and looked at Creon.

“I saw it,” she blurted, and everyone looked at her.

“What do you mean, Mom?” Calie asked.

“Earlier, when we responded to Zander’s call, I looked into his memories as I have never seen any vampire in his state, well, feral ones excluded,” Camilla answered.

“Can you show us what you have seen, Mom?” Creon asked, and Camilla nodded.

Then she stood up, and her eyes turned red. She held her hand up, and then the memories she saw from Ivan were projected towards the empty white wall. They all sat there and watched the memories play out.

Calie gasped, her hands went to her face as she watched them. Zander, on the other hand, clenched his fists as he thought that he should have done something. Creon swallowed several times while watching how Ivan went on a rampage, killing animals and humans in cold blood.

After watching, they were all quiet. Then Creon cleared his throat and spoke.

“It wasn’t a simple outburst; it was a rampage.”

“Why did it happen to Ivan? Is there anything we can do about it?” Calie asked.

Creon crossed his arms over his chest.

“I don’t know, since this is the first time I have encountered like this, except for ferals. But I have a rough guess that emotions play a huge factor in what is happening to Ivan. What we need is to prevent another rampage from happening again, at least keep it under control, since finding a cure needs time to study his situation,” he responded.

“Do everything you can to at least keep this under control,” Camilla told him.

Calie got up from her seat and grabbed her brother’s arm.

“Creon, please… Help my son,” she pleads.

Creon looked at her and nodded, patting her hand.

“Don’t worry, sister, I will do everything to help Ivan,” he told her.

************************************.

“Ivan, are you listening?”

Ivan pulled out his thoughts and looked at his uncle Creon. He was back in his clinic for another check-up. It has been decades since he was first diagnosed with his vampire rampage syndrome, a condition that was still classified as idiopathic or of unknown cause.

He could still remember the first time he woke up in his uncle’s clinic after an episode, and even after so many years, and in the present day, there is still no cure, just a serum to keep it under control.

“Sorry, Uncle. I was thinking about the mission,”

Ivan said, and Creon let out a sigh of defeat.

“I understand, but for now, focus on your check-up.”

Creon said, and Ivan nodded.

“Okay, so the tests all came back normal, which is good. Your ECG was good, and your EEG also shows good brain activity. Now, tell me… how are you since the last check-up? Were there any slip-ups?”

Creon spoke.

“Uncle, I have been taking the serum religiously. Since the last time I beat the crap out of Alpha Zeke, I have never had an episode. The animals and people around me are safe,” Ivan answered.

Creon looked at him intently and asked.

“Are you sure? There wasn’t any instance that you feel like you wanted to… well, kill?”

Ivan snorted.

“If you are asking me if I still hold a grudge against my mom’s mate, that doesn’t go away just like that. I tolerate him for my mother and brother’s sake. So far, I don’t have the voice in my head to chop off his head, just punch his annoyingly handsome face,” he replied.

Creon shook his head.

“I guess, taking part in the Elites helped?” he asked him, and Ivan nodded.

“I think so too. I mean, being part of the Elites has given me legitimate reason to kill, and it really helped,”

Creon smiled.

“So, joining the Elites is a good move.”

“Great, you mean,” Ivan chimed in.

Creon chuckled, and then he took a deep breath before looking at Ivan again.

“Since you are going on a mission, I will be giving you extra doses of the serum aside from your monthly supply, just in case,” he said, placing a medium-sized and a small-sized leather box on the table.

“Uncle, I am fine,” Ivan told him.

Creon heaved a deep breath and looked at his nephew intently.

“You are now because you are taking the serum. What I want for you is not to take those serums and have a cure instead, but unfortunately, I still cannot come up with a cure. For everyone’s peace of mind, take them,” he said, pushing the boxes towards Ivan, who was looking at his uncle, noticing the frustration etched on his face. Ivan let out a sigh.

“Don’t beat yourself up because of my condition, Uncle. You have helped me enough, and I am really grateful for it,” he told him.

Creon frowned and pushed the boxes towards Ivan.

“If you want me to feel better, take the damn extra serum,” he said.

Ivan smiled and nodded.

“Fine,” he replied, taking the boxes.

Then he stood up.

“I will be going now. I still need to prepare.”

Ivan said, and Creon nodded.

“Call me if anything happens or if you feel a little different,” Creon spoke, and then Ivan smirked.

“Want me to tell you when my heart skipped a beat when I met my mate, too?” he joked, and Creon snorted.

“You better tell the family group chat,” he said, and Ivan chuckled.

Then he bid his uncle goodbye and left his clinic.

Ivan heaved a deep breath the moment he got out of the hospital building.

“Time to get ready,” he said to himself.

Then he teleported himself into his room in the castle.

Since he joined the Elites, he left Tasmania, his mother with her new family, and went back to Stone Castle.

In his room, Ivan started gathering clothes from his closet and threw them onto his bed. He then folded them and placed them into the luggage. He placed every necessary personal thing that he would be needing for the trip into his luggage, and when he was zipping it up, his phone started ringing.

He walked over to the nightstand where his phone was and saw Zack’s name flashing on the screen. He answered the call and put it on speaker.

“Zack,”

‘Commander, I called to inform you that everything is in order for the mission. We will be flying out tomorrow, on a commercial flight.

Ivan heard Zack say through the phone.

“That’s good. I am also getting my stuff ready,” he replied, putting his luggage by his door.

“By the way,” he paused, looking towards the boxes of serums that his uncle had given him.

“Did you pack all the new guns?” he asked, taking the boxes and packing them into his backpack.

‘We did. Everything is in order, and Kelly is printing out our tickets as we speak,’ Zack replied.

Ivan nodded and replied.

“That’s good. I’ll see you all at the airport then,”