Chapter 6 ∣  Special

-Maverick

After dinner, I lie down on the couch in the living room, the T.V. playing in the background. Distractedly tossing a small ball up into the air and then letting it sail back down to my chest, right before catching it and repeating this action every few seconds.

What does Orion mean by my anger causing me to hurt someone I wish I hadn't? To be honest, there are far and few people who I care about as very little return the favor. I'll never do anything to the ones I love, I'll never lose control and kill them.

He's worried about nothing.

The ball falls back into my hands and I pause for a moment.

Then again, it is kind of nice to have someone who does worry about me, it makes me feel connected and pushes away all the hate for the ones who would so easily turn on me. Orion does care about me and my wellbeing and he's impartial to my father's actions and judgment. That's exactly why Orion and Cristela refuse to become part of a coven, as they are still part hunter, original hunters who can help keep the peace from the other side.

I let the ball fly up in the air once again, although this time a hand reaches out and snatches it in mid-air. Sitting up swiftly, my eyes lock with Cristela's, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

My lips part, about to speak to her when she shakes her head, nodding in the direction of the front door. It is still dark outside, what few lights that light up the outside homes is far and few, the true lights coming from the stars above.

She opens the door, holding the ball in her left hand as she ushers me out, closing the door behind us. Cristela's hair is pulled up and into a loose bun, wisps of hair flying free as the wind catches and tugs them, her eyes overlooking the few buildings.

Quickly tossing the ball, I fumble for a second, her movement is unexpected. She chuckles, walking to the far side of the porch and placing her hands against the railing, her eyes glancing back at me.

"Your father unjustly has passed judgment on you," her voice breaks the silence, my footsteps against the wood causes it to squeak every now and then on the loose boards. Moving to the railing, I hoist myself up, sitting on it and staring back at her.

"You should tell him that..." I sigh, knowing nothing can ever change his mind.

"It was never your fault, what happened to your mother," She states, the intrigue in her voice piques my interest. No one really explained about what led up to what had happened to my mother, only Orion had ever told me about how my mother made a name for herself in this world before my time.

"What happened?" I ask, rolling the ball between my hands, picking at the side of it.

Cristela appears thoughtful, her eyes reliving a long-lost story that has been buried in time, keeping our innocence intact. No one wants to pull us into the dark past, only the future that this treaty has made possible for all of us.

"Your mother wanted peace, just like Orion," she begins, lifting herself onto the railing next to me, taking the ball from my hands and bouncing it on the porch. I reach out and catch it, repeating the same action she had as we pass it back and forth. She continues her story, "She was and is an amazing woman. Evicka is so strong, just like her mother and father in both heart and physical strength. She went to the ends of the world to search for one of the very first purebloods."

"Erebus," a picture of Rook, technically Orion's uncle, causes me to stifle a laugh, but I don't let her see it.

She nods, "She did this all while carrying you," she pokes me in the arm and I meet her gaze, "Erebus told her not to use her blood magic as each time she did, you would siphon both her life force and the magic from within her. Orion was shot by a ranger and it was your mother that reconstructed his heart, his life hanging in the balance as he was already a vampire. Selflessly putting herself at risk to save a hunter, showed just how far she was willing to go for this peace to take place."

"She used her blood magic...what happened after?" It pains me, knowing her full potential had been pushed away and she was forced to not connect to the part of her that came so naturally. Here I am struggling to use and control it, but she had such fluidity, that she and it were one.

Will I ever have that type of control?

Cristela's voice grows quiet, pausing for just a moment, "The sun was coming up and a few pureblood coven leaders had arrived with their covens, taking a stand against two ranger siblings, Kadessa and Enock, the hunters that didn't want peace. Time was not on our side, the rising sun becoming a problem and forcing every vampire into the shadows of the trees. What surprised everyone, is when the hunters turned away from the rangers, guarding the tree line and protecting the very creatures they had been trained all their lives to kill."

"It was Zak, Rainier...and—Janie, who stood up to the rangers," Cristela appears in pain, the memory coming back vivid as ever.

I ask, "Who was Janie? I don't ever remember meeting her..."

"Janie—was a hunter, Zak's beloved. Enock murdered his love. Those three hunters risked everything to stop this and bring peace...one paying the ultimate price," Cristela speaks calmly, but I hear the slight dip in her voice. I didn't know Zak had his beloved ripped away from him, for so long he'd been on his own, his very close companion, was Rainier. I understand his pain and the coldness that slowly crept into his heart, to judge me so quickly, afraid that I might kill someone precious to another being, just like what a power-hungry killer had already done to him.

"Anyways!" Cristela jumps off the railing, leaving me right there.

"What abou-" I'm about to ask how I fit into all of this, but she cuts me off, shaking her head and leaping over the railing, taking the ball with her. I swing my legs over the railing, jumping off and running after her as she heads toward the far edge of the small town.

"I told you too much," she sighs, "but, I'm glad I did, you needed to understand this."

Something tells me, there is much more that led up to this all-out fight and I might never get the chance to know exactly what happened. If so many hunters had been killed, what about the vampires? Had their numbers been reduced?

Instead, Cristela throws the ball at me and I catch it and ask her, "Why aren't you afraid of me?"

It takes her slightly off guard, but she sits down on the grass, crossing her legs and glancing up at the sky. I tilt my head to the side, afraid I might have said something I shouldn't have, after all, I don't really know much of her past, only Orion's. Walking over to her, she motions for me to sit down across from her.

"I'm not afraid of you or any other pureblood for that matter," her bright smile causes my heart to skip a beat at how confident she is, no fear in her eyes.

"Why though?" I can't help but keep prying.

She breathes out slowly, saying, "Locaine saved my life. You see, most hunters, if not all of them, if they are bitten by a pureblood vampire, they will turn into what they should have originally been born as, a vampire. Though, there are very rare cases, where they die, just like when a mortal is bitten. I've only seen a handful of mortals able to turn, that's why we keep you away from feeding on them, don't want to have deaths on your conscious, it'll eat you from the inside out with guilt."

"Why did he save you?" I'm surprised, back in his day, when my grandfather was King, he didn't take too kindly to hunters or humans for that matter. He'd never turn anyone, so it had to have been my grandmother that had changed him.

"Your mother has a kind heart and knows how to influence your grandfather. It was in his interest, saving me, showing that even after Orion had captured your mother and kil-" she stops abruptly, the sound of footsteps in the distance is growing closer.

"What? What did Orion do?" I ask hastily...was she going to say kill?

What did he do that my grandfather forgave him for? How would he ever forgive a hunter if Orion did, in fact, take a life...?

It is Orion's form that comes close to us, and Cristela just whispers, "You're special, Maverick. One day, you will rule this world and you'll be able to make a difference...I just know it."

"Cris?" Orion closes the gap, glancing from the two of us. She playfully throws the ball at him, and he catches it, arching a brow.

"We were just playing and having a chat," she replies.

"Oh, a chat about what?" Orion is the one intrigued now, searching her eyes.

She rises to her feet, shrugging him off saying, "Oh, this and that, mostly about how Evicka saved you from certain death."

Orion stands still, unsure how to feel about Cristela showing his past for me to absorb.

"He's curious, maybe you should satisfy his curiosity," she winks at him, turning toward the house and walking back, holding her upper arms close to her body as the cool wind turns even colder. Fall is slowly fading away, the October month gone and November right around the corner.

Orion and I are silent, his eyes lifting from the ground and then locking with mine, "Are you that curious, Maverick? Would you really like to know what happened?"

"Yes," I breathe out.

Orion tosses the ball into my hands, turning on his heels and heading off in a brisk walk toward the driveway, bypassing the car and heading for the large expanse of forest. I jog after him yelling, "Hey! I thought you were going to tell me?"

"Oh, I could do that," Orion glances over his shoulder and I know he is about to take off running and I quickly follow behind him, "but it'll be much more impacting if I show you."

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The Rogue Pureblood Vampire by K. A. Young.

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