Prologue
Sulka's hands were trembling vigorously, the surge of deadly purple rushing up her bare and bloody arms. Her mouth was frothing with blood and more blood was gushing out of her deeply cut wounds, her eyelids were fluttering. Sulka's body was convulsing as if pulses of energy were running through her. Sammi, her sister, laid beside her, holding onto the gem Sulka had sacrificed her life for. Sammi had hardly any idea why a fortuneteller, Sulka, would want a gem. Before life slipped away from Sulka, she murmured something into Sammi's ears and peacefully closed her eyes.
Sammi was pressing hard against her wound which was cut to the stomach. They were both laying in the living room, on the bloody carpet. Whoever came `in must have thought that there was a miniature World War I/II happening. Everything was knocked over and the paintings on the wall were off their hooks. Sammi managed to killed some of the intruders and ward most of the injured ones away. She gasped for breath and with the other free hand, she clutched the bloody carpet, restraining and stifling her cry.
Sebastian was stunned as he stood at the crooked door, which had lost its hinges in the brutal fight. His clothes weren't torn and he was unharmed. He was Sammi's best friend but she never remembered how they met. Sebastian's long and thick dark hair matched his pale skin, scarred with marks of battle and triumph. He knelt down beside Sammi, who was weeping over her dying sister. Sebastian knew he had arrived too late. He bashfully hid his face behind his hands and raked his hair to brush it backwards. The intruders weren't strong but the mastermind behind all there clever ploys was stronger than any of them combined. There were two even red dots on Sulka's neck, next to all the scars and wounds, which showed a great deal of pain. "Bury her," Sebastian confidently said his fist by his sides. His blue eyes glinted in the light from the overhanging chandelier. It was apparently suffused with anger, revenge and hatred. Sammi cursed under her breath, supporting herself into a leaning position. "Look, Samantha, if she revives and recognize us, we might overpower Amula," Sebastian pointed out wisely. Amula was the step-aunt of Sulka, both attempting to lay their hands on the gem which was passed onto Sulka before her mother died. Sammi knew that the power of the gem was destructive, it was no ordinary gem. It wasn't perilous now that the key to destruction was the lock of fur from the Sapphire Dragon. The gem was bigger once, part of it was destroyed and lost in the ruins of the planet, where mythical creatures also lived. Now, it looked like a rough and useless rock which reflected light. But if combined with the lock of fur from the Sapphire Dragon, it wouldn't only reflect light, but destructive power of darkness. Sammi clenched her stomach and groaned. Her lips pursed, she tried to control her screams trying to break free from that mouth of hers. Part of her head was screaming for Sebastian's help but the rest of her head was suppressing her yelp for help as the expression on Sebastian's face told it all. Meckenzie wasn't back from the battlefield yet, leaving all of the responsibility to Sebastian. Meckenzie was Sammi's half-sister, they knew each other since they were a baby, both their parents knew each other very well.
"Hurry, Sebastian, before midnight," Sammi groaned, "we might still have a chance." Sebastian was standing speechless beside her, in a flash, looking down at her with those sharp blue eyes. Sammi could see that Sebastian couldn't leave her laying defenselessly on the floor, holding the gem. She wearily raised her bloodied hand and shoved the glistening gem into Sebastian's palm, "Listen, take it," she mouthed and the hand quickly returned to where it was, after waving a dismissive gesture. Sebastian slid upstairs to grab the key to the storage to get the spade when the thought of the number of lives sacrificed for the sacred gem made him shiver. The stench of blood filled the rooms upstairs. He brushed the golden key into his hand and hurried down. Fumbling for the correct angle to put the key into the slot, he heard a whimper coming from outside but he continued. Sammi must be in great pain.
Sebastian reached Sammi in a split second, clenching the shovel in his hands. Sammi's hands had dropped to her sides and her skin color was pasty.
There was half an hour on the clock until midnight and only one might be saved. He went to Sulka's side and sprawled her arm around his neck as they hurried outside to the back yard, the moon watching fiendishly. Her dead weight was heavy for a teenage boy but after trainings, Sebastian could still manage to handle it.
The intruders wouldn't return yet until they receive a notice about their assassins failing to kill Sulka, and retrieve the gem. The assassins were the Negeilas, for sure. They wish to rule every land and they had a powerful source and an immortal mastermind, Amula. Every one of them had a common enemy on this planet. It was the Negeilas.
A grave-like hole with some rope was dug up and Sebastian was wearing a thin T-shirt. He gingerly laid the lifeless body in the hole and with the last ounce of mustered strength, he covered up the hole hastily. Heaving heavily, he staggered to Sammi and felt for her pulse which he wasn't good at. Gone. He remembered the last words she muttered to him and it was nowhere near something significant. Sebastian had earlier shoved the gem into his muddy jeans pocket and when he reached for it, it was fortunately still there.
A tear nearly made its way out and tumbled down his cheek but when he heard the clatter of horse hooves, he froze. He jerked his head back to see Meckenzie with Daniel. Mekenzie's beautiful and loose blonde hair swayed slightly as she walked in her boots, twisting a blade in her hands. Her top wasn't as fastidiously tidied as her boots but clatters already filled the room, the heels colliding with the concrete floor. Daniel had thick golden hair and had eyes as beautiful and majestic as a cat's. He was burlier and better built-up than Sebastian and the charming flush on his face never seemed to fade, even though Sebastian had it as well. Sebastian inevitably threw Daniel an envy stare without noticing it but Daniel just absently looked away. This is surely a hell of a time to think about it, Sammi is in trouble and obviously I ought to help, he thought again. Meckenzie was covered in grime and blood, on top of her figure-hugging shirt-like dress. Her serene expression had turned into a face of apprehension once she saw Sammi's lifeless body, head in front of Sebastian's knees.
"What on earth were you doing once you arrived? How could you just let her die in front of your eyes? You still don't acknowledge that she is just a feeble pipsqueak, she is the youngest here!" Meckenzie demanded as she skidded across the floor down to Sammi's side. Tears stung behind Meckenzie's clear green eyes with shades of blue. Sebastian's guilty was overflowing but he couldn't help. He didn't choose to help Sammi in the first place, but on the contrast, he might have just unleashed something that could fight back. Could vampire-dragons rise similarly to a normal vampire? Would people they loved or cared for be erased from their minds? Sebastian must have dug up the grave pretty hastily, there was still ten minutes left until midnight on the clock. Sebastian looked innocently into Meckenzie's glittering eyes, immune to any screaming or yelling of Meckenzie's high pitched voice. Meckenzie unexpectedly, didn't do either, instead, a faint smile on her face appeared as her red polished fingernail plunged into Sammi's wrist, "She has a pulse, guys, how on earth are you helping just simply standing there, help out," she blabbered with apparent joy, but she knew that the smile wouldn't last. She had a truck load of questions to ask Sebastian. The chest of Sammi was rising and falling faintly, but rapidly, despite the placid look she had, it was sort of grotesque, as Daniel carried her into the room under the sheets.
Meckenzie crossed her arms across her chest and cleared her throat to catch attention, "So, Sebastian, where is Sulka and what exactly happened?"
Meckenzie's arms were by her sides and her cheeks were fuming, about to say something. "So… we only need to wait until midnight," Sebatian added to his speech, feeling guiltier for not helping Sammi after retelling the story. Meckenzie snorted, "Right, I still don't believe you, Sebastian, why would you even allow that vampire to take a sip of Sulka's blood, as if you don't know the consequences."
"Hey! Hey, look, I wasn't there yet so stop pushing the guilt onto me, OK? I am feeling as if my conscience had been rolled in earthworms and dragged across the Dead Sea, so I really hope that you could understand. I get that somehow you don't seem to favor me, not even as a friend, but see, I didn't want that to happen. All I know is that the commander of the troop bit the vampire and drained its blood while tearing the throat. Those vicious creatures tried to lunge after Sulka to drain her blood too as they acknowledged the consequences since they learned how to be a vampire, but Sulka ran off to the woods along with the gem, and when she came back she was coughing up blood. She was smart enough to not let the troop get to her. Sammi defended Sulka and the gem but it was like trying to stop a tornado from ripping through the city with a sheet of paper. Just- Don't you get the picture? I was just here five minutes before Sulka came back and I just deduced what happened as I saw the corpse of the vampire laying in the front yard. So I buried her and as I have said twice before, wait until midnight."
"Enough, heard twice already, enough," Meckenzie imprudently interrupted. "And of course you buried her, Sebastian, now we only have five minutes or less to wait for the monster, the one you chose over Sammi's life, to clamber out of its own grave and start shredding us up and masticating us as it first dinner as a vampire-dragon," Kenzie said, adding what seemed like a tone of sarcasm to her sentence. "It is still going to be Sulka, no matter what she transforms to, what difference does it makes anyways? Don't tell me you don't care for her," Sebastian shrugged, leaning on the wall with his hands in his pocket, as Daniel came out of the room brushing his hair back with a few rakes.
"Sebastian, you did not just said that and meant that. I am so going to- oh, hi, Daniel, how was Sammi?" Kenzie asked immediately, her raging expression softening. "Hey, dude, I didn't mean to eavesdrop on you guys, but as a matter of fact, the midnight bell is going to toll in less than a minute," Daniel remark, twisting his wrist to indicate what he was talking about as his loosen turned and twisted the way his wrist did.
"Man, that means eavesdropping," Sebastian muttered under his breath but expecting everyone to listen.
"Sebastian, if you are that paranoid, leave this room immediately and don't come back," Meckenzie said.
"Fine, sorry," Sebastian said, without looking up.
"The bell is going to be tolled anytime now," Daniel said care freely.
As if it was its cue to chime, the church bell tolled.
Their head instantly tilted to look out the window with the curtains half-drawn. The church was over one of the hills and the distance was at least five miles away from their house. Despite the distance, the chiming was still audible.
"Now all we have to do is to get small daggers just to stand by for any sudden sieges," Daniel said, ignoring what Meckenzie and Sebastian's little conversation between them, "and I think that just then, when Sebastian chose Sulka's life over Sammi's, it is just what he thought was right and it was a split second's decision, not an easy one." He was actually defending Sebastian. Daniel then threw a 'let's-do-this' stare to Sebastian and Kenzie as he nodded towards the front door, with a cobbled path leading to the back yard, now coated with red.
Sebastian faked a smile and got a dagger from something similar to a holster and followed Daniel.