It was extremely silent in the car.
I did not dare to move, I did not dare to look at Calius as I sat awkwardly beside him. God, if it was possible, I would have not even breathed. Calius was actually drinking blood from a blood bag using a straw and that was kind of disgusting to me to be honest. It made me sick.
How many minutes had passed since I entered this stupid car?
I wanted to get out already to take some fresh air. I did not know what was waiting for me once we would reach our final destination but I wanted it to be over quickly. I wanted Frederick to be safe at last. I glanced at Calius and saw the way his eyes were sparkling at the view of the blood. He was sucking the straw like if it was the most precious thing ever.
"Are you thirsty, Luffy?" he asked me suddenly, taking me by surprise as he stopped drinking to look at me and I jumped slightly.
"Hmm no?" I replied with a frown but it seemed more like a question. He removed out a handkerchief and wiped his mouth.
"Is the blood a problem maybe?" He asked me then and I just stared at him, not knowing what to say. "I'm sorry, should I put it away?"
"No, it's just that-" I paused, rephrasing the words in my head, "It's just that I never thought that one day I would be in the presence of a vampire."
"Oh, I understand," he said, blinking his eyes rapidly, "I'm usually secretive about my true nature but you already know about the truth of this world so there was no point of hiding myself."
I simply nodded. He placed the empty blood bag away and took out another one. As naturally as ever, he thrust the straw into it and drank again. Was he really that thirsty? He was emptying blood bag after blood bag. Were all vampires like him? Why would Vance even adopt a vampire? What happened to Calius' parents? Were they vampires too?
I shook my head at myself. It was not time for me to question myself about Calius' origins. I had better things to take care of.
"Concerning Frederick, is he alright?" I asked the vampire. "Is Vance going to let him free as soon as I arrive or will I be able to see him before...well, before Vance does whatever he planned on doing with me?"
"Your cousin is alive and well," Calius replied and his answer relieved me a little bit, "Though, I can't tell you more about my dad's plan. He will discuss about it with you himself when you will see him."
He did not say anything after that and the silence came back in the car. I stared in front of me, my mind preoccupied with hundreds of thoughts. Was I going to see Calum there? If yes, he would have some explanations to do. I really couldn't understand what happened to him or why he changed side so suddenly.
Suddenly, the car started to shake as it now drove on rough ground and I wondered where we were going. I could not see outside clearly due to the fact that the windows were tinted but it seemed like we were going in the forest. Finally the car came to a stop and my heart started to race.
"We're here," Calius stated but I kind of already guessed it. He opened the door and got out without giving me further instructions. I debated whether or not to move before deciding to get out of the car. Like I guessed, we were in the middle of the forest but there was also a huge old mansion right in front of us. There did not seem to be neighbors nearby.
"At last," a voice captured my attention and when I glanced around, my eyes met with Nicolas' but I knew better. This was not my Nicolas.
After having heard so much about him, I was finally meeting with Nike. Needless to say, Nicolas and him were two perfect copies of each other. Though, there seemed to be some sort of arrogance in Nike's eyes, something that I did not see in Nicolas' anymore.
"I thought that you would never come," Nike continued, speaking directly to Calius but with his eyes still on me. I glared at him and a smirk made its way on his face, "Luffy, it's a pleasure for me to finally meet you," he said.
"I don't share the same feelings as you, Nike," I spat at him and he looked surprised.
"You know my name," he said but then he seemed to remember something. "Oh, yeah, Nicolas is your guardian, right? It's only logical that you know about me." He looked at Calius. "I'm going to take our guest to the master."
I was about to protest, as really I did not want to go with Nike as I had a feeling that I would end up struggling him but Calius spoke before I could.
"Let me come with you. You somehow always resolve to violence," the vampire said and he walked inside the mansion. Nike chuckled and mentioned for me to follow Calius' steps which I did without resistance.
I walked inside with Nike following close behind me and Calius up ahead. We passed through various corridors and I just wondered how big this house was. We encountered no one as we walked and really, the security here was not as high as I thought it would be. Finally, we stopped in front of a long wooden door and Calius pushed it opened, revealing a throne room, like literally, there was a throne at the very end of the room.
I was roughly pushed inside and I glared back at Nike who ordered me to advance. I decided to remain quiet in front of that brute and walked further in on my own. Though, I quickly realized that there was someone else in the room. His back was facing me as he looked at the throne but I knew instantly who it was.
"You fucker!" I shouted angrily as I went to attack that son of a bitch but I was not quick enough. Using his powers, he disappeared from my sight only to reappear behind my back but he was not going to get me again with this trick of his. I already predicted his move and got out of the way just in time to avoid his blow.
He chuckled and stepped away from me, a smirk coming on his face, "Luffy, what an unpleasant surprise. I thought that Shane and his little friends would have already taken care of you. Those idiots were no match for you, it seems."
"Cedric," I spat his name angrily, "I'm going to fucking kill you."
"Don't make me laugh," he provoked me and I was about to show him what I was capable of but Calius came to stand between us.
"No fighting," the vampire stated, "This is not what my dad has planned for both of you."
"Oh let them try to kill each other, I want to see a good fight," Nike encouraged us but Calius did not find the situation as funny as the guardian did.
"The first one to spill out blood will have to deal with me. Who wants to deal with me?" Calius asked Cedric and I but none of us replied. I had a feeling that the vampire was stronger than he looked like.
At that particular moment, the door of the throne room opened and someone new walked inside. I immediately felt the change in the air. My eyes fell on the new arrival and I took a step back on instinct. The dark power that he was giving off was scary. He was powerful, I was sure that everyone in the room could feel it. I did not need to have met him before to know who he was because the answer was pretty obvious.
"Vance," I whispered and I froze when his eyes fell on me.
He was not how I imagined him to be. He seemed pretty young but I knew that he was actually an old man. Just like Calius, he was dressed in a suit but instead of wearing a blouse, he had a black shirt inside. He had a long scar at the side of his cheek and his eyes seemed familiar but I could not remember where I saw them.
In a fraction of second, Vance was standing in front of me. I tried to back away from him but he grabbed me by my chin, examining my face.
"What a beautiful specimen," he commented and I slapped his hand away. He let out a laugh and he walked pass me to go to the throne where he elegantly sat down. He crossed one leg on the other and hummed in satisfaction. "Calius, you may go. Thank you for helping me out," Vance told his son who then sighed.
"I'm going to check on Alex," the vampire declared before leaving the throne room, leaving me alone with those three monsters.
"Where is my cousin?" I asked Vance right away. I did not want to waste my time talking about petty things.
"You will see him when the right time will come," was his reply but I was not buying that answer.
"You said that you were going to free him if I accept to come here," I reminded him. "I want to see him now and then you are going to let him go."
"Oh, dear, don't be in such a hurry," he told me casually and I gritted my teeth, feeling suddenly angry. "We have more important business to talk about right now."
"I don't fucking care!" I snapped at him and he was surprised. "I did not come here to talk about business. You can do whatever you want with me but let Frederick go!"
"Hey, watch your tone," Nike warned, stepping forward. "You don't seem to realize who you are talking to. If you don't want me to cut your tongue off, keep your words in check."
"Touch me and I swear I won't hesitate to kill you," I promised him and Vance laughed, clapping his hands in amusement.
"Amazing," he said, looking at me, "You are just as I imagined, simply perfect. Though, putting your cousin subject aside, I'm sure that you must want to know more about the event of tonight so let's talk about this."
"What event?" I asked him in confusion and he smiled maliciously at me.
"Tonight, we'll free the master of all masters," he admitted, "Tonight, on the land where many people lost theirs lives, we'll awake him, the most powerful being of all."
Tonight.
My eyes widened at the thought. I knew that Vance wanted to free the original but I did not expect it to happen so soon, I did not expect it to be tonight. Things were definitely going too fast. I did not even have time to process one thing that another thing was happening. I did not prepare myself at all for this.
"Hey, King, I did everything that you wanted, now it's your turn to respect the part of the deal," Cedric said suddenly, "Give me the powers that I was promised." I looked at him with a frown on my face and he snickered at me, "Too bad for you, Luffy, you will have to give me all of your powers."
"What do you mean?" I asked him, definitely not liking the situation, and it was Vance who replied.
"Cedric here wants to take your place," he informed me, "He wants the powers of all the replicas. That's why he accepted to join us. I agreed to give him your powers if he would just do everything that I wanted."
"You were so dumb," Cedric laughed at me as the shock took over me, "I was a pretty good actor, don't you think? You who wanted to save me from the Vins, you did not even realize that I was already working for them. Our fight at the Eiffel Tower was all planned. I wanted Shane to kill you but too bad, you succeeded to survive. Though, you were so easy to manipulate...you are just like the first replica that I met. It was so easy for me to play with him. Your friends came just a little bit too late and they couldn't save him from me."
"You killed the first replica," I realized and he laughed once again.
"Of course, I did and that was so fun," he said and I clenched my fists. A proud smile on his face, he continued, "Enough with the talking now. I want my powers."
"As you wish, Cedric," Vance said, an evil look in the eyes, "Nike, please, give the gentleman what he wants."
That was bad, so bad. I did not expect them to kill me as soon as I arrived here. I did not even know that my powers could be transferred to Cedric. The original said himself that if I ended up getting killed, another human replica would be born to replace me. Then, how was Vance going to give my powers to Cedric?
I looked at Nike as he advanced towards me, ready to attack. I immediately got on guard and prepared myself to fight back. I was not going to let myself get killed so easily. The guardian was close but then, at the last minute, he smirked and suddenly changed direction to appear behind Cedric.
Him and I both did not expect it when Nike suddenly buried his hand into his back to snatch his heart out. My eyes widened in horror and I watched the blood pour out of Cedric's chest. Nike laughed and threw the replica's heart on the ground like if it was nothing. Cedric's body soon fell down, his eyes still wide opened, even though, he was no longer alive.
"Why?" I whispered in disbelief at the sight of Cedric's lifeless body, "Why kill him?" God, I wanted Cedric to die but I did not expect Vance to kill him himself, not if he was their ally.
"Because I had to," Vance replied with a bored expression on his face, "Cedric was really useful but near the end, he started becoming annoying and he did a lot of things that I did not approve of, like the fact that he tried to get you killed. Without informing me, he let himself get captured by your friends. That idiot was a fool who only wanted power but really, I was using him from the very start. I knew that I was going to kill him because you are the only one who can hold the entire energy of the real King of darkness."
I did not get the chance to reply to Vance as unexpectedly pain started to flow through my entire body. Something was suddenly growing inside of me and I felt my powers being amplified. I immediately knew what was happening to me; Cedric's powers were coming to me and damn, it never hurt so much before.
So I screamed.
"It hurts! It hurts!" I shouted, falling to my knees. I felt weak even though I was only getting more powers. There was way too much.
"Nike, take him to a cell and chain him properly. I wouldn't want him to use his new powers to escape me," I heard Vance say and I could not do anything to stop Nike as he dragged me away.
***
The chapter is dedicated to NightNao. Thanks for the votes. It's really appreciated :)
I hope that you all like this chapter. Don't forget to vote and to comment. Sorry about the mistakes.
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