Love of a Raven

Chapter 46: Live On For All

Despite the fact I have Damian with me, the evening was rather peaceful. There was a fresh breeze blowing but it was hardly noticeable. I heard the soft songs of crickets chirping and the rustling of tree leaves. Overall, a perfect night for mourning.

If it was any other day, Damian would shout and throw tantrums if I didn't talk to him. So seeing him respect this sacred time of mine was deeply appreciated. We sat there in complete silence without any rush to speak as I continued to mourn. It was only past midnight when Damian finally decided to break the silence.

"How long are you going to keep grieving?" Damian asks in a soft tone. It sounded almost as though he were speaking to a wounded animal.

". . . I lost everything, Damian. I have nothing left to live for." I confess in a hollow tone. I could even hear how lifeless my voice sounded. At this point, was there any reason to live anymore?

"Don't say that. What about your prince? I thought you wanted to find him? What happened to that?" Damian reminds me of which I scoffed.

With a roll of my eyes, I lift my head from Luka's gravestone and turn to glare at Damian. "I killed my entire family! How can I face him when I am worse than his own brother?! He would never accept someone like me! No one in their right mind would!"

"And I thought I was the one with all the theatrics. Though, you are right by all accounts. No one sane would want to be with a murderer but you won't know unless you try. Wasn't that the reason you studied so hard to learn magic and even defied me in the first place?" Damian reminds me.

Where is he going with this? I thought to myself as I squint my eyes slightly. "Why are you bringing up Alexandru?"

"To bring you back to life, so to speak. I figured mentioning that vampire would spark something inside you again." Damian openly admits without any restraints. Whether that is shameless or admirable is yet to be decided. I wager the former. "That reminds me, did you see the gift Luka left for you?"

"What gift?" I ask, confusion evident in my voice.

"The one he left for you which you never touched. Do you want to see what it was? I think it's the perfect birthday gift for you." Damian responds as he holds out a fairly large envelope. I could see it was opened and only Damian could be the culprit.

Nevertheless, I took the envelope from him and tentatively held it in my hands. It was light as air. Almost as if there was nothing else inside. Still, I carefully pulled the seal flap up and peeled inside. There was one small photograph—or rather, portraiture as I fished it out. A gasp escaped me the moment I laid eyes on who was in the portraiture.

The first thing I noticed were those dark eyes staring blankly at me. I can almost visualize it as if his cerulean eyes were right in front of me. Although the portraiture didn't capture all of Alexandru's essence, it helped tremendously to see him outside of my memories. Almost surreal to believe that I have physical evidence of Alexandru's existence in my hands. How did Luka ever manage to find this? Surely, discovering this portraiture was no easy feat to accomplish when I had struggled for about two centuries in simply locating Alexandru.

"Surprised?" Damian questions as though he was able to read my mind. I nodded my head since I was quite literally speechless. "I have to praise your late brother for this treasure. You might be the only person to have a photograph of the future King of the Vampires and if you're wondering how he got his hands on this, I recommend reading the back side."

Turning the delicate portraiture, I released a soft chuckle from seeing Luka's scribble of a handwriting. Scrawled on the upper half of the photograph was a date and a small note that read: