It was true. When she’d spoken to Lucian, she’d felt intimidated. Almost less-than. He had that effect on people, she guessed. She hated to feel that way, she knew she was strong, so why should a person make her feel any different?
He sat up almost abruptly. “Lucian?” He sounded confused.
She cocked her head. “I know for a fact that i’m going to be recruited to train at your palace soon for some...unknown reason that I couldn’t get out of him.” She mumbled, as she studied the pattern of her comforter. She looked back up at the screen, “Do you know anything about that? About your palace collecting the Vampric students at Shylack? It’s strange. They could have recruited the Knights at the Vampric palace instead of the soldiers in training at my conservatory.” She questioned, he yawned.
She figured he would have opened up to her more. At least she didn’t have to flirt with him to get information, unlike Lucian. The thought of ever being romantic with Saytrix sickened her. Even if he weren’t her brother, he didn’t entice her. He was pretty. In fact, his beauty was overwhelming. The way the curls of his hair swirled like enchanted winds, how his eyes sparkled in an organized clamor, and the way his words sounded as if they were woven together in a relaxed tempo. But there was something off-putting about him, she thought.
He was quiet for a minute, until he spoke again. “I suppose it has something to do with the Undetermined.” He thought, as he raised his eyebrows. “Lucian rambles about it all the time.” He said to her. That struck something in Scarlett. “However, you should not get involved with my step-brother. Lucian is very dangerous.” He confessed, his brows her drawn together. “Trust me, I know.”
She nodded. “I see.”
The Undetermined. Something that they both could be. Maybe that was why Saytrix wanted nothing to do with her. He didn’t want to face the possible harsh reality of it all. “And,” He paused. His head turned left, and then right, and then back to the screen, when his voice had dropped an Octave. He sighed, “even if you are my sister, I would never want to be related to you. I am a royal. You are Vampiric. It's dangerous to be Undetermined. And I do not want either of us to get hurt.”
“I know,” Scarlett spoke, quietly. The silence was screaming between the two of them. All they did was look at one another. They didn’t need proof to see that they were related to one another. They both felt it, both knew it. It was like warmth and conformation to know that she had a family member. A biological family member. Scarlett felt it in her undead heart. Their lockets told the story. She just needed proof. Somehow, she knew it was out there. She loved Liveria, and she loved her step-parents, but it meant something important to her to know that she had a brother, who was related to her. She didn’t want to lose him, or any of her current family members, for that matter. Her family meant everything to her.
“I have an idea.” She was about to say something to him, when out of the blue, her door slammed open.
It revealed a bloody Liveria.
Scarlett widened her eyes in shock. She took her oracle and jammed it into her pocket, rushing over to Liveria in a quick-like fashion. Black Vampric blood soaked the ends of her hair, as tears screamed out of her eyes. She exclaimed in terror, “What happened?” Scarlett’s eyes bulged.
“Someone attacked mom!” She shrieked, as her body shook. Liveria cried into her sister shoulder as Scarlett held her tightly. “What do we do??!” Liveria shouted, her body feeling as if it were paralyzed. Her lips parted, her body felt numb, her eyes felt glossy, and her hands shook with despair and fear.
Scarlett was stagnant for a second.
The idea of something happening to her mother had forced tears out of her eyes. She barely cried.She didn’t have the time to. Time. What was time? Everything felt as if it were going in slow motion. Nothing felt real. Everything felt like it was being torn apart. Scarlett raced down the staircase. She was met with dimness. She saw that the torches had been torn to pieces and were in destroyed fragments as they littered the carpeted floor.
The house seemed dark, and quiet. Fear and death shouted out into the abyss.There, right beside the mess, was her mother. She was laid out on the floor. Her eyes half open. Her blood dripping in a pool around her dying body, dampening her blouse.
Death lingered in the room like the aura of perfumes would at a party. She kneeled, and gazed at her mother. Her eyes looked exactly like Liveria’s. Her mother’s blood-drenched rose hair. It felt surreal. Scarlett shook, her lips trembled. Her stepmother looked at her, and gave her a painful half-smile as her lips had twitched. Whatever bullet that shot her was illegal, if it caused her to die. To kill the Vampric, you needed a special type of substance. They were immortal.
There was an anger so livid, that flurried inside of her heart that made her fingers quaver, as she stroked the tear that fell down her cheek. Her stepmother took her in as an orphan, cared for her when she was sick, got her enrolled into one of the greatest conservatories, shaped her into a better person. And there she was, on the ground, blood leaking out from her body, about to die. Something was wrong. Her wounds wouldn’t close back up. Scarlett wanted to call someone, but as she tried to use her oracle, it had a low battery.
