We both decided after that we should both go and get some sleep, but I was just far too restless. I couldn't stop worrying about Dante and if he had managed to get Seth or not. I still had no idea what it was we were up against, all I did know was that the humans feared our kind.. and it was all out of arrogance.
I turned over to face Tatiana and saw that she was fast asleep, and I envied her at that moment.. How could she sleep in a time like this? How is it that she could be so calm? I shuffled back and forth for a while after that, just in vain hopes that I would actually be able to sleep. Eventually I just gave up as I found it truly futile to even try, so I sat up and looked around the place. The gentle touch of moonlight reached around the edges of the cave and made it look truly breath taking. I rose to my feet and walked towards the mouth of the cave, I didn't feel any real danger so.. what could happen presides getting mauled by a stray badger or pecked at by an owl? The thought just amused me more than anything so I smiled to myself and carried on. The moment I reached the entrance however, I froze solid and scanned the environment. It was so quiet, all that could be heard was the rustling of the leaves in the trees and the snapping of branches when rabbits or some other woodland animal ran across them.
I pressed onwards and walked to the nearest tree, after all.. what better way to get a view of your surroundings than climbing a tree right? I placed both of my hands on the sides of the trunk, closed my eyes and sighed. After a moment or two I opened my eyes and jumped, which shot me a good six feet into the air, which was just high enough to reach the first couple of branches, I could have jumped to the top if I really wanted to but... where's the fun in that. I pulled myself up onto the branch so that I was perched, almost like a bird, upon it. Once fully balanced I jumped again so that I could grab one of the higher and more sturdy looking branches. I repeated these actions a few time until I reached the top. The view from the top was simply wonderful. The moon light gracefully dusted the surrounding area as if it was merely a painting from an artists imagination.. it was like nothing I had ever seen before. A brief glance over to the left showed just how close I was to home.. my family home. The castle seemed so different, it didn't give off the warm feeling it always did, instead, it felt more like a prison. No lights were on inside the castle which only heightened my fears that something had happened to them all, the sooner that Dante got back here, the better it would be.. and I would finally get my answer.
I dived from the tree and felt the cold breeze slice my skin like knives. It was feeling I had missed, feeling so free without troubles. Just before I hit the ground, I twisted in the air like a cat would do and landed on both feet with a 'Boom'.
“What are you doing!” Tatiana shouted behind me, resulting in making me jumping out of my skin
“I couldn't sleep so I thought..” I began to explain
“You thought you would alert every possible enemy in the area to our location! Get back in that cave and wait for Dante! You're such an idiot” I was taken back by her sudden outburst but I felt more angry rather than anything because I didn't appreciate being called an idiot. My hands curled into fists and I could feel my bloody boiling. I ran towards where she was stood and shoved her hard, she fell flat on her back and all I could do was laugh at her. Her face went scarlet from both anger and embarrassment and I smiled. I turned and began to walk away when I felt a hand on my shoulder, and before I had a chance to react, I was thrown to the side. I slid across the floor and went smack into the nearest tree, resulting in my back being clicked in three places.
“You need to grow up Victoria!” she screamed at me “You know you're no match for me anyway”
“Is that a threat?” I challenged “Because I sense a fight coming on here” she merely snorted at me and began to make her way back to the cave. I sharply rose to my feet and charged towards her at an impressive speed, tackling her to the ground. The force of the impact sent us both tumbling down the mouth of the cave and into its depths. As we tumbled we punched, scrammed and clawed at each other, even throwing in the occasional kick or two.
We reached the bottom where we were both sleeping not too long ago and began to really throw some punches. I hit her in the eyes, grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head backwards as I kneed her in the stomach and even rolled on top so that I could slam her arrogant and self centred head into the rocky floor. Of course, us being of equal strength.. she did the exact same thing to me. We continued fighting and screaming at each other that the other was weaker for some time until we both heard a cough that echoed through the cave
“Hope we aren't interrupting anything ladies..” we immediately stopped and looked directly at the mouth of the cave, there stood two dashing young men.. Dante and Seth. I pushed Tatiana off me and ran straight toward Dante, who held his arms out wide for me to jump into. I did just that and we both shared a very intimate kiss that I knew had embarrassed the other two. I pulled back from Dante and gazed into those Jade like eyes, they made me melt inside almost immediately. What I felt inside me at that moment was both reflected and amplified in his eyes. Seth coughed next to us and we pulled away from each other, a moment later I felt his hands intertwine with mine, something I had missed for so long.
“Sorry to break up this.. moment, but I understand that I have not met the young lady that stares at me with such curiosity” he strode across the room and grabbed her hand “Apologies, my name is Seth Leonte” he bent forward and lightly grazed her hand with his lips before placing a soft kiss upon it.
I'm not sure what Tatiana made of him, but she remained silent for a while after, colour rose to her cheeks so I knew that she liked him in some manor, but that was probably due to some of the memories that had split between us. Seth on the other hand was completely oblivious to all of this, he just remained his usual patient, kind and considerate self. He took her to the side and they began talking about things, mainly how she felt about being the doppelgänger child and being a twin.
“Think we should leave them to it?” Dante Whispered in my ear and I turned to face him, his eyes glistening and his face displayed that usual cocky grin that I used to hate but now adore. I nodded in reply and he swung his one arm around me to lead me away. I closed my eyes and just took in the feel of his touch, it felt like a millennia since it was just us.. no war, no prophecy, no fighting and no duties. When I opened my eyes, I noticed he was now stood in front of me, smiling.
“What?” I asked him whilst trying not to giggle
“You, you're more beautiful than I remember.. if that is even possible”
“Well, I know I've changed Physically a lot and..” I was cut shortly by a hot and passionate kiss from him, in reaction I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around his neck to which he pulled my up and swung us both around which resulted in both of us pulling away to laugh.
We took a small stroll through the forest after that, just catching up on details such as how she was now existing outside of my head and not even a remote threat as predicted by the elders. We gathered that the moment I began to show kindness towards her, rather than seeing her as a threat, was the moment that everything had changed. The others didn't predict that my mother would meet the 'Key' so soon, that my grandfather would forbid it, that my father would die and my mother would give me up.. they predicted the exact opposite.. strange. One thing that Dante told me was that my family had now gone into hiding and that the castle was no over run with nut jobs who claimed that they had stopped the prophecy by pushing out the Vampires. One thing they didn't understand was that I was ready for a fight, I needed to save my family and stop this war once and for all.
“What are you thinking about my love?” Dante asked
“That we need to prepare. We are going to fight”
“Vicki, that's suicide!” he exclaimed.
“No, it's not. I'm stronger than ever before, so is Tatiana. We have the strength to end this once and for all, I will fight now”
We ran back to the mouth of the cave, where Seth and Tatiana were having a nice and bubbly chat, but the moment they both spotted us, there expressions quickly changed.
“What's wrong?” Seth asked us
“We're going to fight” I said calmly, looking over at Tatiana, I saw the darkened expression once more. She liked this idea more than I did, and I knew she was more than willing to play it out. I smiled at her and she smiled in return “We are going to take those humans by surprise. You can't invade the royal families stronghold and not expect a little fight, am I right?”
“Well you know I'm in regardless” Tats said
“I'm in too” Seth joined with a bold grin on his face.
“I won't allow you to go through this alone, so count me in” Dante added. We decided to attack in the dead of night when it was at its darkest. We wouldn't need weapons thanks to our superhuman abilities, but we would need a lot more training and sparring just before.
“Well, who wants to spar?” Asked Tats, looking directly at me
“Well we still haven't settled that fight earlier dear sister” I mocked with a smile
“We'll leave you two girls at it, Seth.. ready?”
I dived at Tatiana with the same amount of force from earlier, tackling her to the ground and immediately trying to punch her in the face. She rolled from under me and swiped her leg at my crouching legs which resulted in me falling flat on my face. Climbing onto my back, I sensed she thought she had won. Cocking my legs up at angle, I managed to kick her in the back which made her tilt slightly back, giving me the opportunity to roll us both so that I was now on top. She gasped at the sudden tilt in advantage and looked genuinely shocked. I rose my arm up to take a swing at her but she used her spare arm that wasn't trapped under her to defend herself. The tattoos on our arms once again began to light up.
“What the hell is going on!?” Tats exclaimed
“I have no idea” I screamed back. They were not just glowing but burning us both, so quickly, I jumped back and moved away from her. We stared at each other for a moment or two before shuffling closer to each other “Do it again” I whispered
“Are you crazy!?”
“No, trust me on this.. try it again” looking just as nervous as I was feeling, we both preceded to move closer to each other and press our arms together. The tattoos glowed once more but this time, it did not burn, instead I felt this warmth radiating throughout my body “Can you feel that? That warmth?”
“No” she said “I feel a nice coolness radiating through me” We looked at each other and began to laugh.