Chapter 7

STEFANO When the vampires start to fly around me, I knew that this is the infamous Circle of Death that I've read about many times and dreaded happening. Only now, it's not a series of images from a book. I'm surrounded, with my chest growing increasingly tight, my breathing getting more and more ragged. The vampires' wings flap more aggressively. Their screeches hang in the air. I can almost feel them taunting me, counting down to the second where I fall flat and die out of suffocation. But I'm not about to let that happen. I force the fire in my hands to get bigger, and as I do so, memories from earlier in my life start to flash in my mind. "Vampires are killed by a stake to the heart, decapitation, and fire," my mentor, Professor Blossom, told me the first time I got past the gates of Scarlet Moon. "They are all around the premises of the Society, so one must not get out without permission, without help." "Why are they here around the school?" I remember asking then. "Because we have something they need, and they will not leave until they get it." "And what is it that they need?" He didn't answer. I had a feeling he didn't know either, or at the very least he wasn't sure. Either way, I didn't really expect him to tell me. However, it didn't matter to me back then. My thirteen-year-old self was confident, because I had discovered something long before I went to school. So I asked confidently, almost arrogantly, "A mage like me could just summon fire to kill vampires, right?" Professor Blossom shook his head. "No, because fire is forbidden magic." That was when my stomach sank, because the power I could summon even when I was a child was fire. To add insult to injury, he added, "Fire Wielders are dangerous. They are bad omens, a sign of darker times to come. We do not permit them to enter the Society." It became clear to me then that no one should know that I was a Fire-Wielder. During my school training, I had to hide it from everyone. I followed the rules like they all did, but it all came down to a point where I couldn't do it any longer. Some kind of hunger was awakening inside me. I felt it peak on my eighteenth birthday, filling me up and yearning for release. I escaped the premises a couple of times, getting more and more frequent every month, just so I can test my fire abilities. It's supposed to be a bad omen but it doesn't seem that way to me. It's supposed to be something forbidden and shameful, but every time I practiced summoning fire, I felt more powerful. I command it. It's mine. Fire is also the reason why I found Valeria. I was practicing in secret that day, but then I felt her presence. It's almost like the fire in my body was connected to her, and it's the force that drove me closer to her. But I never planned on showing her tonight on our way to the gates. I can see her by the gate, being blocked by a vampire. She's in grave danger, and I can't just sit here and let the vampires snuff out my flames and fail my mission, losing her in the process. So I take a deep breath and release all the fire I can muster. Bright orange flames shoot out of my palms, blasting the vampires that are closest to me. They all hiss and spit, trying to scratch me before getting incinerated. I aim my palms higher and torch the ones above, but most of them fly out of the circle and into the deeper part of the woods. Soon, all of them are gone. All except one. One that is bigger and taller than the rest. He lands in front of me, not afraid of the fire burning in my hands. In fact, he just smiles, his form flickering from a typical bat face into something more human. I blast fire at him, but to my horror, the flames just bounce off his body. "Don't worry," he whispers to me, his voice so deep it's almost like darkness itself can speak. "I let her get in. I didn't kill her. But you have to know what kind of creature you just saved." I don't say anything. I just send a pillar of fire at him but he dodges it and flies away, cackling into the night. * * * VALERIA "So I made it," I whisper to myself. Auric watches me with a smile, and I face him in fascination. "I'm here." "That's true." His smile widens, then his tone goes down to a whisper, "Oh gods, I love newbies." I find that quite weird, but I don't have time to ask when suddenly he gets up and sits next to me on the bed. I back off out of instinct, and he puts on a sympathetic expression. "It's alright," he whispers. "Who brought you here?" "Stefano Thayer," I answer automatically. Then I shake my head when the memories of my journey here come back to me. "Where is he? Did he make it back?" Auric doesn't answer for a long while, but for some reason his smile is still pretty much intact. "I'm sorry, Valeria." My heart sinks in my chest. I know it's only been a while and I don't know him very well, but Stefano saved my life. He also claimed that it was his duty to keep me alive. On top of all of that, he knows my mom. He knows my history more than I ever did. As selfish and cold as it may sound, I want to have him around. If I plan to stay at this place, I want to be around someone who already won my trust, and that's him. But now that he's gone, I don't know what to do. I feel alone and cold all over again, in need of answers and comfort for the fact that I already lost so much in so little time. I look at Auric to ask what happened and if Stefano has been taken or something, but I notice that he's staring at me intently with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Instantly, my pulse starts to race with nerves. Why is he staring at me like that? Is he planning to do something? "What's wrong?" I stammer. "Why are you—" The rest of my words get cut short when he suddenly reaches for my hand and smiles at me. "Don't worry, I'm your family now." With that, his form starts to shift. His skin bubbles like hot wax, and his features suddenly become blurred and unfocused. He gets up and his body begins to shrink, his hair turning dark and receding into his scalp until it reaches a different level. Then his eyes roll back into his skull, emerging a different color. Right under his melting skin, a new face starts to emerge. A face that I know well. A face that I love. A face I just lost hours ago. "Mom?" I croak out.