Chapter 10: The Fall

"Felix's wedding was different…"

"Why? Because you were distracted by the bride?"

I tensed, with my weapon, and my legs shifted to an attacking stance. I was about to say there weren't the same amount of people.

"One death, two deaths does it really matter? What makes one person's life different from another when you have to choose?" He had been ready for my argument.

"We had a choice whether to end theirs or not."

"Fate brought them to us; Felix brought himself to be involved with us. They all choose themselves whether they would deal with the most dangerous clan in the state."

"They didn't know who or what we were,"

"Not everyone knows every danger."

I glared at him, he knows what I meant. I moved forward, my blade still out, the rain was dripping down the sharp steel weapon. Another flash of the storm and the growl of a louder thunder.

"What are you going to do? Kill me? See you aren't very different from us. You are a vampire."

I stopped from moving to him; I was close to another edge. If I looked down, I could have seen the street below, covered in the human vehicles and various city people.

"You hurt Rachel, hurt her bad. She loves you, can't you see that?"

I turned my left leg backwards, so I stood on my side to Rolfus.

"I'll give you a choice, either join us, come back to family and be the vampire you are. Or I'll have to kill you. Our family can't live knowing you are out there, all alone. Rachel won't live in despair and depression if you are dead, she will mostly kill herself unfortunately."

He was going to kill me. How did I miss that one?

"You want me dead."

"I don't want you dead, just would you rather if I killed you or someone else?"

I'd rather if I didn't die at all. Did Cruz want to die as well? A heretical thought strung in my head. No one wanted to die.

But it was part of the life cycle. As a vampire, we shortened it for our victims, the humans. Most humans thought they were at the top of the food chain – those were the survivors in this cruel world. We hunted them down, we nourished on their pain. Like how they ate cows and chickens.

We were shadow of a creation, an abomination to peace and serenity. The world feared us as a myth. Vampires and blood, it was who we were.

But I was different. The deaths of humans wailed inside my head, their screaming a live nightmare. I choose not to kill, I vowed the day I changed into a monster.

I was a vampire knight, one with honour, a code to live for. And a promise to die for. No more humans would die by my hand for the purpose of food and pleasure.

The back of my heels were held out in the air. The drop behind me. A large wind threatened to blow me away, but I held on, a little whole longer.

Rolfus knew what I was going to do. "Lucius!" He hissed. I smiled back at my father.

I let go, and backwards down the skyscraper I fell. Rolfus wouldn't be fast enough to catch me, and he wouldn't risk the chance that someone would see him flying so close to the building. The lights sirened past me and my cloak ripped in the rush of air. It was too dark for anyone to see the shadowy figure falling, but they would see my landing. In the middle of the street, surrounded by humans.

The ground grew larger. I closed my eyes. I would rather die than break my promise.

"Please come back."

End of the first book: The Renegade