De La Pole

Without hesitation, Aiden's eyes turn black and several bright red veins begin to appear around his iris, now covering the whites of his eyes.

With a quick gust of air that Nova doesn't notice, he is standing a centimeter away from her body.

Nova opens her mouth in shock for a short moment and widens her eyes. Her body shivers as she notices Aiden glaring at her angrily.

He is taller than her and his head is slightly lowered so that he can see her. Nova's pulse is getting faster by the minute, and in a little while, it was difficult for her to breathe normally.

Aiden brings his face close to hers and whispers into her ear, which is all red from the cold night breeze. "Never give up on your life so easily…"

As Aiden pulls away from her, her eyes meet his and she watches in confusion as his body pulls away from her along with his gaze.

He didn't say anything else, only one sentence came out of his lips. Nova now watches as Aiden runs his fingers through his hair and heads after Kalen and the unknown girl into the old house.

Nova gently touches her cold ear and inhales. Her breathing is stable again in a small moment, which cannot be said about her thoughts.

However, these are interrupted by Kalen, who peeks out of the old door and speaks to her with a worried tone in his voice.

"Just…ignore him. I had no idea that he would come back, that's why I didn't think it was important to mention him. I'll take care of it, I promise."

Nova takes a breath and heads towards him. "Thank you. Best to ignore him for now, we don't need any more trouble. We need to make sure we get Rosalie and Faye back."

Kalen nods and smiles at her.

The two then walk together into a room that is lit only by the orange light that comes from the fireplace, Nova notices the girl tossing a few dry logs into the fireplace and uses a long rake to move the logs closer to the fire.

In the room, there are two dark red sofas and one wooden table in the middle, on which lie some old and dirty papers and a few candles.

She also notices tall, dark wooden bookcases around her, with several thick books sitting proudly in them. Most of them have torn covers and browned pages are sticking out of their corners.

Kalen and Nova step inside through a smaller arch that connects the long corridor and the room where the girl is.

Aiden is sitting on the edge of the couch with his arms crossed over his chest. He glances at Nova, who is nervously standing next to the other boy.

Aiden bites his lip and turns his head to the other girl who sits down on the other couch right across from him.

Nova sits down next to Aiden with Kalen right next to her.

"You might as well start by telling us who the hell you are." Aiden breaks the silence with an angry voice.

The girl tightens her long ponytail and smiles. "First I wanna know what you guys know about the founding families."

"I asked you a question. It's polite to answer!"

Aiden's body is tense, his eyes piercing the unknown girl who spoke only in riddles. However, Nova notices his reactions and his look, which radiate pure impatience and malice.

In an instant, she places her hand on his, which rests on his thigh.

"You brought us here because you said we could trust you. You seem to know our names. It's only fair that you finally tell us yours. I don't think it needs to be a secret, right?" Nova says calmly.

Aiden shows no reaction to what she said. His eyes subtly look at her small hand gently touching his left hand. Nobody gave him such an innocent feeling in years and he almost forgot how it felt.

He notices the warm feeling spreading across his chest and with a quick breath he immediately gets rid of it. He blinks a few times and ignores the girl next to him, at least that's what he tells himself.

"I like her, she's very persuasive." the girl says, pointing at Nova, who quickly pulls her hand away from Aiden.

"Okay then. I may not look it but I'm from one of the founding families that ever gave birth to a witch. Lucille Everett."

Kalen shakes his head in confusion, refusing to believe what she just heard. "Wait. The founding families died out almost 600 years ago, there's no way any of their descendants would survive the massacre."

But Lucille is not surprised by their reaction, so she slowly takes off her light brown coat and reveals her skin, which is covered with runes of all different shapes and colors.

However, black, light blue, and white are the most prevalent. All colors are already faded and it was difficult to see all their details.

"What is all this?" Nova says, staring at her arms with a surprised expression.

"I was born on the 14th of September 1395. I was exactly 25 years old when I witnessed what Rosemary was capable of. With the help of the coven of witches in New Rowley, I used all my power to cast upon myself all these runes that the witches used in their rituals. I stopped the aging process to fulfill a promise I intend to keep."

The three of them looked at each other with puzzled expressions and then back at Lucille, who was running her fingers down her arms and tracing some of the faded runes.

"Wait wait wait are you telling me you're-"

"616 years old? Unfortunately, I have to agree, it won't be long before these horrible runes will disappear and so will I. But that's not the point here. It's about why you're here." Lucille speaks before he could finish his sentence.

Nova pauses when she realizes what Lucille meant by all that.

The runes aren't just fading because they've been on her arms for so long, they're fading because the energy that was powering them is almost gone.

Kalen is holding his chin and with his closed eyes, he keeps repeating the new information in his head. Aiden didn't even flinch when the girl mentioned what was happening to her.

If it meant that fewer witches will be in Warborne, Aiden was happy.

"Why would you put yourself through something like that? Why would anyone want this from you? That's so cruel." Nova says, unable to take her eyes off the faded runes.

"A witch has to keep a balance around her. We are a tool and we can't allow something like Selene to live among humans and that's why I did the only thing I could at that moment. When Selene died, Rosemary spent years trying to figure out how to revive her, but she suspected that it would take her centuries, so she cast the same runes on herself as mine, but she drew her energy from the dead witches that she sacrificed. They are still buried not far from here."

"So that's how Faye met Rosemary when she first turned. She never told us her birth name, but now it all makes sense." Kalen finally understands, all these years he always had questions and now, he feels like he has a chance to get answers.

"Rosemary has slowly helped turn more and more people into vampires over the years, creating something of a coven of her own. But it wasn't just manipulated witches but vampires and a few people who believed that Selene was the one who brought peace to the world." Lucille says putting her coat back on.

"Why did she start all this now? Couldn't she have found a way to bring Selene back a long time ago?" Nova asks.

"That's what most people thought, and Rosemary had no trouble sacrificing a few more witches, or a few vampires, but the only thing she lacked was the presence of dream walkers, who as we all know no longer live among us."

Aiden turns his head to Nova, who can already tell by the tone of her voice that this comment is directed at her. Images of her weird blood appear before her eyes. The blood spilling onto the shiny floor and how Aiden couldn't even breathe when it touched his lips.

Nova stares blankly at the dark floor and the room fell silent for a moment. However, this is broken after a few seconds by Kalen, who changes the subject with a serious tone in his voice.

"Lucille, you mentioned that you know about the ashes. As I understand it, she was referring to the first vampire Selene ever created, is that right?"

Lucille nods her head and exhales. "It wasn't just one vampire who could claim to be the very first."

"The only thing known about Selene is that she created a vampire that tear up her throat and then her blood was drained from her." Aiden corrects her confidently.

A small disappointed smile appears on Lucille's face. "I wish it was only one."

"What do you mean by that?" Nova asks nervously.

"Selene didn't just create one vampire. It was a cruel and painful experiment that gave birth to a total of four vampires. But they weren't ordinary citizens or someone who had been manipulated by Rosemary. The De la Pole family had a total of five children and one of them lacked their pure royal blood. The youngest one named Selene. Originally from the Caswell family, a family of dream walkers."