Vulcan pushed Dimi forward. He was enjoying his cousins misery quite well. Dimi walked, more like was pushed, up to the front of the court room. He had dreaded this moment for as long as he could remember. In his mind he knew that there was no way out of this. His uncle looked down on him for a moment, then to the others. They all nodded in agreement. Finally his uncle looked back down at him with a disgusted look on his face "you've been running from us for some time now Dimitri. It was actually quite impressive. If only you didn't get caught. You know how this ends. I know how this ends. Everyone else knows how this ends." Dimitri had to buy himself some time. He didn't know why but he just needed to. "Actually I don't. I don't know why I'm here or why I've been hunted like a dog for so long.." His uncle rolled his eyes but believed him. He dug out a paper from a folder and proceed to read it out loud "you are here because you were born half mortal and half vampire. Your father, who is now deceased, is the only who committed the crime by having 2 children, a male and female, to a human. As you know, that is against the rules. Therefore, you, your sister, your mother and your father are all responsible for the crime. But only you are still alive so you are the criminal being put on trial. You are also being punished for running from the royal family. Is that clear?" Dimitri nodded "according to our rules, I have a chance to defend myself. If I can provide evidence that I'm not ,nor is my family, responsible, you have to let us go..." His uncle nodded "yes that is true. But the only way you could do that, was to have your parents or sister somehow appear. But they are not around anymore so... Let's just get to the sentence and get on with our lives.." He turned to Vulcan "Vulcan, you shall be the one who oversees, and duels out the punishment. The punishment will be death. And we'll have it the old fashioned way. Classic stake through the heart." Vulcan looked all to excited to kill his cousin "and what should I do with the girl father?" He said in an eerie voice. Dimitri's uncle thought for a moment "do whatever you like with her...she'll just die anyways.." Dimitri's heart stopped. Hearing that Alex would die all because of him and that there was no way he could get her out of this hell made him wish that he never met her. Vulcan snapped Dimitri out of his thoughts with a violent yank on his arm. Once again Dimitri was dragged out of the court room and down into the dungeon/ torture room. Vulcan had the guards restrain Dimitri to a chair in the center of the room "I'd love to kill you in a more fun and entertaining way but sadly father ordered this way. How original. But he won't be a problem for long.." Dimitri looked up at his cousin. What on earth was he talking about. Has he finally lost his mind. "What the hell are you blabbering about now?" Dimitri asked in a monotone voice. "Well you see cousin, you're father inherited the crown from our grandparents. After him, it would have been passed down to you. But since your father is dead, and you're wanted for crimes, it got passed down to my father. If I bump him off, then I get the crown and become ruler. " Vulcan laughed happily. He had lost his mind "so you're gonna kill me, then kill your father just to become ruled? That just might work. But what if you get caught?"Dimitri said, attempting to by more time. Vulcan picked up a wooden stake and twirled it around in his hands "oh I won't. You see I'm going to blame it on a rebellious group of servants." Vulcan started walking towards Dimitri raising the stake "but first I have to take care of you.." Vulcan was just about to pierce the stake into Dimitri's chest when a cold rush of wind blew out all the candles and the room was black. No one could see anything. What was going on? Just then, a single candle came back on and illuminated the room. Dimitri was untied from his chair and the stake was out of Vulcans hand and lay on the ground. Dimitri looked passed Vulcan and his eyes grew wide. Vulcan noticed too and turned his head. His face went pale in horror and shock "how the hell...but your...no this can't be.." Dimitri muttered a simple word that proved that they were both seeing the same thing "...father.." There stood Dimitri's father who just adjudged his suit and said calmly "Vulcan. Take me to see your father.."