LIRA: Book I

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX: Future Enemies

It was the start of their semestral break. Most of the students went home to spend their two-week break from school. Lira decided to stay in the academy since her aunt said she needed to visit a place that was called Kingdom of Elfiro to make some official elven business. Wherever that was. Ian also said he would be going back to his place and might be returning a few months late at the academy but he made a promise to send Lira words about his whereabouts. Yumi would be staying as well, saying that she wanted to avoid Lavinia and her possible colorful vengeance the latter might bestow upon her poor and helpless self. Mari decided to stay then, since her best friends would be staying behind and they might get lonely without her.

Miss Amara took the opportunity to discuss with Lira about the current on goings with the secret uprising and the illicit activities of the evil vampires and their current marionettes holding seats in the government. They were in the green office and Miss Amara had gathered some of the slayers, including Matt. Matt was surprised to find her. He was more astounded to know Lira was a Dayanghirang who housed the deity his clan had sworn their loyalty. He began calling her 'My Lady' to which she threatened she would never speak with him again if he called her my lady one more time.

"The joined forces of the slayers under my leadership and Philip's personal Enforcers have already destroyed the camp of newly turned Crazed vampires. We were able to secure some documents. Apparently, there are other camps as well, scattered around Northernland and Middleland. Southernland remained safe.

There had already been movements in some parts of Middleland; with the help of some people in the Government, they had built walls around certain cities, made up of the lower castes, and used the people as their workers and slaves. Some... some were used as blood suppliers—they harvest people's blood. We suspect they are targeting the lower caste community now since their defenses are low. But soon they will be targeting the higher castes community as well, especially those who are in opposition with the current administration," Ms. Amara said.

Lira was appalled to hear such things. How monstrous they were! Those beasts! How could they do this? And some humans aided them. But she was relieved upon hearing that Southernland remained safe. She was worried about Claire and her parents. She even sent Claire an e-mail that morning telling her to be safe and all, hoping Claire would read it soon. "How could some of our people join their cause?"

"We have suspicions that a powerful vampire lord used compulsion to manipulate the president to do the vampire's biddings. That vampire lord might be using the Government to cover for their dirty tasks. That remained a theory until now since the only ones who can use such powerful compulsion are Lazarus and Magnus, both asleep in their tomb.

Others were driven because of fear. The majority were offered rewards for their betrayal to the human kind. The vampires who attacked the humans were merely trying to get Philip's attention about some of the nobles' actions. Those noble lords created a separate vampire council that they called the Dark Court. Philip thinks they are preparing the land for Lazarus. Once he has risen, he will complete what they had started and they might possibly wage war with the other vampire kingdom. We are still trying to investigate who the members of the Dark Court are, since they remained in the shadows and the ones who do their dirty works are the commoner vampires."

"What can we do now Miss Amara?" Lira asked. She wasn't sure if she was indeed ready to fight the vampires. Her dilemma lies with the fact that her boyfriend was a vampire, and a prince to top it all! Was she going to have to fight Nicholas as well? Were the slayers and Miss Amara expecting her to fight the entire Dark Court?

"For now, I want you to keep yourself safe. They are still unaware of your existence. We want to keep it that way. As for the slayers, we will continue to disassemble every camp they built and later we will try to free the trapped people from the walled cities."