Nox

In the mystic realm, amidst an eerie fog, a large city could be seen with an ominous looking castle at the heart of it. The city was bustling with life as the citizens were carrying out various activities even though it was currently night.

Their pale skin, crimson pupils and their fangs said all that needed to be said, the citizens of this city were all vampires, carrying out their daily activities freely and humanlike that one would question the chances of them all being vampires.

Vampires were more active during the night than day, that would explain the unusual increase of activities in their nighttime as some could be seen in their various enterprise while the less privileged ones were selling common commodities and consumables.

And in the heart of this lively city was an exquisite looking castle with an ominous feel surrounding it, there weren't any building's close to it as no one was daring enough to build their house or mansion close to the castle of the vampire monarch.

Inside the castle which was as big as a small city, the sound of footsteps reverberated throughout the silent halls giving it an eerie feel even though the halls were adorned with lights and mana stones.

The maids and servants stopped all they were doing as soon as they saw the person approaching.

They all bowed in unison as he approached, his presence carrying an air of authority, his pale skin complementing his black slick shoulder length hair which was tied in a half ponytail.

His crimson eyes and malevolent smirk further enhanced his already sinister but attractive look.

"Welcome back master Aiden." They all said simultaneously.

Aiden waved his hands in a dismissive gesture as he made his way to the stairs.

He slid his hands across the walls as soon as he got to the hall of the upper level, he continued this action till he was already halfway across the hall, abruptly stopping and biting his thumb gently but hard enough to pierce his skin.

He dropped his blood in the mouth of a carved figure which had a striking resemblance to a bat but it had the face of a cat instead.

As soon as he did this, a small portal big enough to fit him appeared engulfing him and transporting him to a huge hall, where twelve vampires were seated at the edge, and vampires of high status or rather the squad leaders of the vampire knights were present.

Above them was a vampire seated on his throne, he crossed his legs and rested lazily on armrest of his throne, but the aura around him was overwhelming, much so that an ordinary vampire would pass out just being in his presence.

As Aiden appeared out of the portal, he offered a bow to the vampire monarch.

"Aiden ráu vlad, captain of the blood knights, greets his Majesty."

"Raise your head Aiden, have you completed the task I gave you." The vampire monarch questioned, his voice calm yet menacing.

" I have, my lord, unfortunately, ...ava is dead...."

As soon as those words left his mouth, a wave of killing intent flooded the entire room, suppressing everyone in the hall, it was so intense that even the elders found it hard to breathe.

"The culprit?" The vampire monarch asked his once calm tone now filled with rage as he gritted his teeth.

Aiden struggling to stay standing weakly muttered, " I.. I wasn't fully able t..to get any information I only know that... The humans were also involved."

The vampire monarch took a deep breath in and out, suppressing his killing intent that was surrounding the entire hall.

"And Amelia? Is she still not willing?"

"My lord, lady Amelia isn't ready to give up the young lord... Though he has started showing signs of transitioning it's still too early to take him." Aiden replied, his head down, not daring to meet the wrathful face of his lord.

" I..If I may my lord... I've also found the missing young lord, Nox, he's currently living in the earth realm with Amelia and young lord Adrian."

As soon as he said this an audible gasp was heard as the elders began murmuring amongst themselves.

The vampire Monarch's face lit up a bit, a hopeful expression could be seen on his face as he couldn't mask his joy from the news he got yet there was still a hint of sorrow on his face as he was still mourning his loss.

A royal vampire would always have a connection to the current vampire monarch, as long as they were blood related, their names were engraved on their souls from birth and the monarch alongside all Royals would be made aware of a new member in the family but for Nox it was different, as soon as he was born his powers and even bloodline were suppressed making it impossible to find him.

Damian, the current vampire monarch had three children who ran away from the family, the others remained but those Three had a rebellious attitude.

Damian didn't know if it was his missing son eldian who birthed nox or his mischievous and rebellious daughter ava who birthed him, both of them went missing and were unable to be tracked, at this point Damian was curious to know who the child parents were.

With a snap of his fingers the whole hall went silent, and he asked yet another question.

" Who are the parents of the child?"

Aiden stood, stunned, he couldn't bring himself to talk as he knew his next words would cost him something if the monarch was already pissed.

"Aiden, I asked you a question."

" Y..Yes my lord, the child's parents are ava and Elijah smith... Alpha to the crescent moon pack who rebelled against the wolf monarch."

All eyes turned from Aiden to Damian, who was currently muttering something underneath his breath, which they couldn't make out the words he spoke but every vampire in the hall knew he was cursing.

" Goddamn Son of a.... How dare he... How dare he take my baby girl away from me.. if he's still alive then he better prays I never find him, cause if I do, if I do.. I'll kill him, fuck.. that dog defiled my princess, my innocent and pure ava, just what words could a dog like that use to coax my little princess... "

Everyone in the hall had a face that said "are you kidding me" everyone knew that ava was anything but innocent, she was a bloody killing machine so the news of her death was very disturbing nevertheless since they heard about nox they all came to the conclusion that the only reason she died was because she was protecting her child.

After cussing to his heart content he assigned Aiden another task, " bring Nox to me, I want to see him... Though It's a bit sad that he has the blood of a filthy wolf in him as well, but I'll decide what to do to him when I see him myself... That's if he proves his Worth, ....take Cassie with you, she'll bring Nox, you just focus on keeping Amelia away or if possible you can bring Adrian too."

"B..But my lord.. isn't taking a knight captain to bring him here too much? Much more Cassie at that, she'll likely kill him or severely injure him.." Aiden was quick to voice out his thoughts.

Cassie the captain of the crimson fang knight order was known to be a mad woman, she often defies orders given by anyone except the monarch but even with the monarch she would sometimes ignore the order of the monarch or just reject it if she can't do it.

Cassie was also infamous for going berserk whenever she encountered the lycan race, she lost her only sister to the wolves and she who was of a ducal family was too weak to protect her sister, since then she'd held a deep hatred for the lycans, the monarch asking her to excurt Nox who's also of the wolf bloodline was like asking for his grandchild to get a free beating, not to mention Cassie never even liked ava.

" So? Would there even be a need for her to resort to violence? She just needs to bring him here." Damian said indifferently with a shrug, one would question if this was the same person who had been smiling a while back upon hearing the news that his unknown grandson had been found.

Aiden sighed, he'd initially planned on observing nox for a while but since it had come to this he had no choice but to let the cat out of the bag.

" That child nox isn't ordinary, although he's yet to awaken, the possibilities of that happening are slim, his mana has been sealed, at this point he's no different from a regular human...."

Damian upon hearing this, understood why he couldn't find Nox despite how much he'd searched, as for the reason the child's mana was sealed he had a few guesses but he couldn't fully understand, still he decided to hear what Aiden had to say.

Aiden was the son of Damian's brother, while not the Monarch's son he was still a ráu vlad and his pride could be considered huge above normal standards, he'd rarely acknowledged someone or focused on others as he deemed them far too low and unworthy of his attention. But when he did acknowledge someone then it meant that person was one with extraordinary talent.

Since he'd acknowledged nox then it meant nox abilities far exceeded that of a normal child.

".... But the child I saw was by no means normal, even I concealed my presence that only someone of Amelia's caliber could sense me, but surprisingly he was the first to notice me even before Amelia could, and his eyes, those eyes weren't the eyes of a child... It was more like that of an assassin who had spent years honing his skills." Aiden finished.

The elders and the captains present all had a surprised look on their faces, never in their long life had they seen the prideful Aiden speak well of anyone, much less a kid.

But Damian's face was still as indifferent as ever but a slight smile, barely visible was present on his indifferent expression.

" This is so unlike you Aiden, I never thought I'd see the day you'd actually acknowledged someone, and a child at that." Damian mocked while toying around with a wave of mana around his index finger.

" While I understand what you mean, looks alone won't cut it, people tend to make mistakes a lot, how certain are you that it wasn't just a speculation on your side?"

"As someone who's been deeply invested in assassinations and have met a lot of experienced assassin's, I would be able to recognize one just by looking at them, however that child didn't panic nor did he make any sudden movements, he calmly studied his surroundings but his gaze never left my position, he was waiting for an opportunity to run, since he knew he couldn't win a battle against me." Aiden calmly explained, the more he said the more Damian's intrest in nox increased.

" When he sensed me, he didn't panic, no it was more like he was expecting it, that left me to think that the people involved in Ava's death were still after him... Or from the very beginning he was always the target." Aiden told, his expression darkned and his voice grim as he mentioned those last words.

Damian's expression had once again returned to it's wrathful state, he wanted Aiden to investigate further on this but decided to keep silent as the possibility of having a spy in amongst them was not impossible. He made a mental note to investigate further on this incident.

" So... I don't think you should send Cassie with me to retrieve him, if he was really the person I saw that day, then there was no way he'd just follow us without resisting." Aiden finished, hoping that the monarch would change his decision.

As soon as he said this a voice came from one of the edges of the room, a woman who looked no older than a twenty years old human, rested her back on the Piller behind her, her arms were folded and her short crimson hair made her look like someone who'd grown up in a tough surrounding but that wasn't the case as it was quite the opposite.

" What the fuck's wrong Aiden, you've got a problem with me going on a mission with you? " She spat in an annoyed tone glaring daggers at Aiden.

However Aiden facial expression didn't seem to change as he wasn't offended in the slightest by this remark, " don't quote me wrong Cassie, I worry for the poor soul who you'd be dragging back here, knowing you there's no way you'll bring him back unscathed. "

" This bastard... You really think I can't excurt a child without harming him? The fuck do you take me for."

The corner of Aiden's lips twitched slightly, as he burst out " you goddamn bitch, do you think I'd be worried if it was any other child, knowing you, you won't even hesitate to harm him if he poses just a little bit of threat to you, you barbaric fool!"

Now both of them were glaring daggers at each other, if the monarch wasn't currently in their presence both of them would have been on each other's throat by now.

A deep voice interrupted their little dispute as Damian suddenly spoke " I will not be changing my decision, both of you will go to the earth realm and that's final... I have a meeting to attend to with the other monarchs, I trust you won't make me wait long." He said, turning his attention to Cassie and Aiden.

Not waiting for their reply he created a portal with his dark mana, leaving the rest of the elders and the captains as he went through.