Inerra, whose eyes I was now seeing from, watched through the tall black trees as the moon hung low in the sky. My mind was silent as I, too, studied the pack of rogues feasting on several animals. One in particular with short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes seemed to be in command, hands on his hips most of the time. He had a broad chest, was muscular. A pair of dark brows were knitted together as he sniffed the air. "What is he doing?"
The others glanced up from their meals. A black haired male licked his lips of blood. "He is still on his way, isn't he...?"
"He...he has chosen another direction!" the leader boomed. "Why is this? What has led him astray of his predicted path?"
Inerra slowly stood, darting his gaze over the trees. "Acera," he grumbled under his breath in suspicion. "What are you doing? Where are you going? Please don't tell me it's that human girl again."
Human girl? Me? Or someone else? When was this memory?
Inerra heaved a sigh, gaze lingering back on the group of around thirty rogues. The leader was both mystified and enraged. He turned to a brunette female and punched his hand through her chest before pulling out her dead heart. He then hauled her limp body against his and kissed her. I wanted to throw up my insides, but of course this wasn't my body. This was Inerra's.
Without warning, he took off, moving so fast I couldn't believe I was keeping up with every image blurring past. His eyes caught every instant, every object as if he were moving at snail's pace. A familiar scent shot up my nostrils, stirring the lust inside of me. Acera was near.
Eventually Inerra slowed outside a small village. Snow was beginning to fall, dusting the earth like icing sugar. He kept to the trees, eyes following the dark haired, cloaked pureblood. I watched with fascination and love squeezing at my heart. His amber eyes were lost and vulnerable. It reminded me of the time when Dremos told me Acera had once been so depressed he'd nearly killed himself. I shuddered.
The new King of Darkness lifted his eyes to the stars, murmuring something, and then slid his fingers between the bottom of a window and its ledge. He then, silently, lifted it up. No one was around. It seemed quite an old fashioned village and there were only around twenty houses together around a well. A few shops littered the grey bricked road and in the distance hills rolled into mountains peaked with snow. It was a truly beautiful place; a sanctuary.
Inerra waited, hand on the bark of a tree, eyes focussed on the dark room Acera had entered. He knew this house; knew who lived here. "Damn intervening human...she'll be the death of him...cursed female..." Inerra muttered in complaint. His nails dug into the bark. "Fuck it."
He appeared by the window of the two storey house with stone walls. He pressed his back to the outside wall, relying on his ears to pick up Acera's whereabouts in the house. A soft chill crept down my spine. Inerra closed his eyes and then, all of a sudden, we were watching from inside a darkened room.
Acera was perched on the side of a bed, pale fingertips skimming the temple of a girl with long bronze ringlets and rosy cheeks. My breath hitched. That was me, asleep, oblivious to the fact that Acera was touching me. A small smile lined his lips, eyes a warmer shade of orange. I must have been twelve. This startled me.
Five years ago. This moment occurred just five years ago.
I abruptly recognised everything. I'd lived here with my aunt Maggie until I was fifteen when I decided to live alone. The village was called Erland, not a very eventful place with a tiny school. But it had strong connections with British Intelligence, there was a base in the mountains where top agents would sometimes assemble.
Why hadn't I recognised it immediately? I'd lived here for years...
Acera pushed his fingers through the girl's hair and then leant in to plant a kiss on her forehead. I felt a tingle on my own skin there.
The scene changed again as Inerra's eyes opened, revealing that we were still stood outside. He quickly moved back to the trees as Acera took off, going goodness knows where. How couldn't Acera smell Inerra? How hadn't he sensed him? Was Inerra really that good?
We tracked Acera a little further up until we reached the end of a driveway that led up to a grand white mansion. The younger pureblood ran his hand through his hair, shaking it of snow. Inerra followed him at the side, undetected yet again. Acera's face was unaffected by the cold, remaining as purely pale as ever. His pink lips glistened after his tongue ran between them to rid the dryness.
Another shiver ran down my spine and I realised Inerra experienced exactly the same thing. The deep oak doors were pushed open by the orange-eyed beauty. Just as they closed, Inerra whipped round, snarling furiously.
Several of the rogues had tracked Acera just like us.
"The girl," Inerra muttered under his breath, wondering if they had visited her, too. He averted his attention back to the group strolling up to the mansion.
"The boss'll be proud of us after this," one of them snickered.
A female smirked. "Once we kill these six, I'll bang Acera's corpse senseless."
"How can he have senses if he's dead, idiot."
"Oh he'll feel everything."
Inerra walked out in front of them, scanning each of their faces as they slowly realised who he was. "Lovely Christmas Eve, isn't it?" he pondered softly. I could sense him grinning all catlike.
"No way!" the second female gasped, hands at her mouth.
"It's really him!"
"Are you here to kill Prince Acera as well?" a dark haired male queried, eyes wide.
The two at the back had started to retreat.
"Are you rogues?" Inerra asked quietly, lethally. Though he knew the answer. As they stammered a reply, he pushed the black sleeves of his cloak up to his elbows, revealing milky white arms and swirly black tattoos.
"Sort of...we deserted our homes just three days ago in search of Acera," a blonde haired male stated.
"Well, I'll congratulate you on finding him this quickly," Inerra praised monotonously. Before a smug smile could etch its way onto any of their features, Inerra struck. He moved like a liquid and faster than light. In a matter of seconds, six bodies lay around us. He glided over to the final whimpering one and picked him up by the throat.
"P...please don't kill me...please..."
"Listen to me carefully," Inerra ordered, voice harsh and yet soothing. "If you answer honestly, I will spare your existence, understood?"
He whimpered in consent.
"Did you, at any point tonight, visit the village of Erland? Did you go inside a house that Acera visited?" Inerra inquired.
"We...we did not. We started to follow him outside the mountains where...British Intelligence are located..."
How the hell did he know about British Intelligence whereabouts?
"One last question. Who do you work for?" Inerra pressed, grip loosening on the male's throat.
His mouth opened, but a different voice came out. "Why, he works for me, Inerra."
As we whipped round, the scene changed into an empty white space stretching forever. I could feel myself frowning, but Inerra's body had tensed up. A vampire with reddish purple hair and liquid golden eyes stood less than five metres away. He wore a red cloak and had black markings over his skin, much like Inerra. His face was unresponsive, revealing nothing.
All of a sudden, a force tugged me from Inerra's perspective and I appeared next to Inerra, standing on my own two feet. The vampire slid his golden eyes to me, face emotionless. "Hello, Charlie Rose. We're in the present time now. And that means I am in Inerra's head. Who would have thought that the great, notorious Inerra could have someone more powerful than him?"
"How are you here?" Inerra growled.
I glanced at the Prince of Darkness, finding a mask of grim seriousness over his face. Clearly these two had met before. And clearly they weren't fans of one another.
"I am Violem, one of the first vampires to walk the Earth. I have no restrictions," he said as if it was obvious.
"Well I've never heard of you," I hissed, aware that Inerra was suddenly helpless against a vampire older than him. In fact, his eyes shifted uneasily for a moment. I'd never seen him...afraid before.
The golden-eyed vampire cocked his brow. "Oh, you will have. I have many names. Satan. Inflictor. The Purest."
I gulped. I'd heard of them before. The Purest had been king once, ruling not only vampires but humans and every other species alike. He might as well have been god.
He pulled the red hood over his reddish purple hair and started to turn. "I suggest you return to your dearest Acera before I tear down the Darkness Palace. Then you must run. It's what you do best, Charlie, isn't it?"
Inerra grabbed me before I could process his words.
"Was that real?" I fired the instant the memory ended.
Inerra was at the window, scanning the trees with his expert eyesight. "Shit," he muttered, retreating back. The walls started to shake.
"Inerra!" I demanded.
He stared at me, a look of sheer panic plastered over his features. "We need to go. They're going to tear this place apart."
"Who?" I fired, gripping Acera's hands tighter in my own.
"Violem. He's got an entire rogue army," Inerra said breathlessly. He started to laugh, running his hands through his hair. "Man, he's good. He's been working right under my nose."
"I hardly think this is funny," I snapped, heart racing now.
"You're right, this is dangerous. We're probably going to die in the next few minutes."
"Don't you have your own army? You've been recruiting!" I reminded desperately.
"Firstly, it's ten times smaller than this one. And secondly, they're on the other side of the world!" Inerra roared at me, humour switching to terror.
"What do we do?" I breathed.
Inerra turned his back to me, looking back out to the window. I didn't want to see the oncoming threat. I confessed myself afraid.
"We have a chance if we can get to the other side of the forest. I have vehicles there," he explained, calm once more. I preferred this side of him much more than the freaked out Inerra.
"Let's go then," I decided. "Why wait?"
He opened his mouth, turning a fraction to say something when his eyes darted to my left. The pair of hands I was holding squeezed back.
"Charlie?" he rasped.
I whipped round, heart lodged in my throat. A pair of tired amber eyes lit up the instant my eyes locked with his. "Acera!" I cried, burying my face in his neck. The entire room now shook.
His fingers moved to my hair as he sat up. He held me to his chest for a second, inhaling my scent. "How am I...still here?" he asked in a murmur.
"Inerra..." I started to explain, but then there was a thud.
We both looked round to find the blue eyed pureblood lying on the ground, motionless.
I leapt from Acera's arms to give Inerra a forceful shake. "Inerra!" I screamed, moving him harder now. My hand smacked across his face. "Wake up!"
"Charlie, what's going on?" Acera called. My eyes filled with distressed tears.
Acera sped to the window, orange globes widening to their extent. "Who the hell...?"
"It's Violem. The Purest. He's got a rogue army. We need to get to the other side of the forest. Inerra said. He saved your life, Acera. We need to take him and go!" I shouted hoarsely.
"What?" Acera spat. "Inerra would never..."
"He loves you, Acera. He's your older brother. He's protected you your entire life. And we need to go," I said so fiercely it didn't sound like me.
His lips parted, eyes falling onto Inerra. For a long minute, he refused to accept this. But when he looked back to me and found the tears spilling from my eyes and the earnest in my gaze, he gave a nod. "I'll interrogate him later."
He crouched down on the other side of Inerra and pushed his arms beneath him, about to lift him up when I took his face in my hands. His amber eyes focussed on mine.
"I'm sorry it all has to be like this. I want nothing more than to be with you in some exotic country having buffets every day and waking up in your arms," I promised. I pressed my forehead to his. "I love you, Acera."
His arms slid from beneath Inerra to wrap around me. His mouth crashed down on mine, filling me with the love response I needed. My fingers raked through his hair, tongue gaining access into his mouth.
"I love you, Charlie Rose," he murmured, stealing more kisses.
He nuzzled my neck, breathing uneven for a moment before I pulled back. "We have to go."
He cupped the side of my face, eyes sincere before nodding in agreement. Acera hauled Inerra up bridal style. I tried not to find this amusing, but a smile slipped over my features.
"This isn't the time to laugh, Charlie," he teased. "Clamber aboard."
My eyes widened. "What?"
He turned round, showing me his bare back. "Get on. I'm only making one trip."
Both of us at the same time? Was that even possible? I quickly scampered over to grab his shirt and red cloak before hopping up to wrap my arms around his neck and legs around his front. He held Inerra just above my legs. I pressed my lips to his ear. "I love you."
And then the room merged into a forest.