Chapter 20 - The new Home [2/5]

"Are they ghosts?" he cried over the noise of hell, without taking his hands off his ears. The howl was horrible! It was Arken who turned to him and replied, "This, my dear Vex, is the cries of souls that I have caught in the course of my eternity." He made a pleading gesture. "Come on. I'll show you."

Vex stared at him in disbelief. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to see it. The thought of Leysha finally drove him forward. He had to stand firm for her. Would she thank him if he made her a monster too? Perhaps he would rather leave her the sweet calm of death… But the idea of living an infinite life without her was too cruel.

Vex followed Arken and Maya over a red carpet. He led through a kind of nave with two side wings to a strange apparatus. Four demon statues held luminous stones between their claws. The left was red, the other three blue. In it, a mist-like substance swirled around.

"This," began Arken, when they had reached him, "are great soul-stones. This allows the souls of deceased people and animals to be caught and stored." He threw something at Vex that caught him reflexively. It was a blue crystal that snuggled perfectly into his fist.

"A little soul stone," Maya explained. "As a vampire, you should always carry one with you so that you can catch the souls of the people you kill."

With the help of these machines," Arken said again, "you can take the power of souls and use it to become a stronger vampire.«

Vex stared stunned at the stone in his hand. So he should not only kill innocent people in order to survive himself, but also condemn their souls to eternal captivity?

"Barbaric…" Sighing, Arken shook his head. "You should stop thinking like a man. This is barbaric!"

Vex stared at him. "Do you read my thoughts?" His heart sank into the depths. His eyes wandered to Maya, who looked at him mute. They had listened to everything.

Ridiculously, Arken waved. "I wouldn't call it reading. That sounds too intellectual. You're forcing your mindless outpourings on you."

Don't do that," Vex growled angrily. That wasn't good. Now he had to pay attention to what he was thinking.

"You can prevent me from doing that.

In helpless rage, Vex clenched his hands into fists and said nothing more. Hopefully, he endured it here long enough to learn enough to revive Leysha… which he shouldn't think about. But this cat was already out of the bag anyway.

"Well, I don't want to be like that."Arken raised his chin, and with a patronizing smile on his lips, he descended the steps to them. "We are now going to Kant, where I will introduce you to the children of the Apocalypse. They should be according to your taste.The vampire grinned as if he had made a particularly good joke. Vex raised his eyebrows. He wasn't so sure.

Together they set out. For this they used the transformation into bats, in which Arken and Maya helped him. It turned out to be surprisingly easy. The next time he had to get out of here quickly, it would be beneficial.

Kant was a village in the shadow of the mountain where Arken's castle was located. It lay beyond the wolf forest, which did not look as big from above as Vex remembered it to be. He fluttered behind the other two vampires. It seemed easy for them to glide through the air as bats, but he had difficulty keeping himself straight and properly coordinating the flaps of his wings. Although it was night and Vex had always thought the animals were blind, he could see an astonishing amount.

The moon illuminated the world for him as brightly as the sun had done in his time as a human being. Among them, the rugged mountain slopes moved just like that. The bat transformation had its advantages because it saved an entire day's journey, but he definitely still had to get used to it.

In the shade of the last trees they landed and regained their human form. Vex breathed a sigh of relief and waited for the numbness in his limbs to subside. On his own feet he felt much more comfortable than in the air.

By the time they reached the village, the sun was already rising and driving back the fog. He blinked. It was hard for him to see in the sunlight. In addition, it tingled unpleasantly on his free skin.

"Oh, I forgot you're a third-generation vampire.To Vex's

surprise, Arken took off his cloak and handed it to him. "Put it on. You're more out of the sun than I am."

A third-generation vampire? "Vex threw the cloak over his head and pulled the hood deep into his face. So it was much more pleasant.

"Arken is a second-generation vampire and has transformed you, so as his creature you are one step lower," Maya said. "You're more susceptible to sunlight, garlic, and all that disgusting god stuff. I became a vampire by a powerful spell, so I belong to the first generation."

A farmer came to meet them with his truck, presumably to use the first rays of sunlight of the day for field work. Disgruntled, he had tightened his eyebrows and stared at her.

"A glorious day, isn't it?" asked Arken, and Vex was startled to notice that the vampire was grinning. Was he not afraid that the farmer saw his sharp teeth and sounded the alarm? But the man just hummed something into his beard and turned away. Surprised, Vex looked after him.

"Don't be like that.« Arken snorted. »I had no creator who explained everything to me in detail. If I had been as stupid as you, I wouldn't have survived two nights at that time. "

"Don't be so hard on him, Arken. His soul is not as pitch-black as yours." Smiling, Maya grabbed her lover's hand. "People don't perceive us unless we consciously reveal ourselves to them as vampires," she told Vex.