Chapter 152: 152-The blood moon
"I think I heard a wolf howl on the other end of the line," Jarel turned to Regina.
"Isn’t Luan at the hacienda in Felor? Forget other vampires pure or low-born, how can there be a werewolf in Felor?"
Jarel forced himself to slow his breathing. Panic would cloud his judgment, anger would make him reckless and he needed a clear mind if he was going to find a way out of this mess.
He closed his eyes for a moment, drawing in a slow breath before letting it out. ’Think!’
There had to be something they were missing. Luan had just been about to tell him where Maisa was when a distant howl tore through the silence.
Jarel’s eyes snapped open. The sound was low and guttural, carrying an unfamiliar weight that seemed to vibrate through the walls.
Jarel’s expression changed. He didn’t speak for a long moment. His mind immediately went to Felor.
Felor was isolated from the rest of the human and vampire nations. Its borders were heavily guarded, its entrances tightly controlled, and access was restricted to those who had explicit permission to enter.
Nothing was supposed to get in unnoticed. Not a vampire, a person, an unknown animal or even a fly. So how had he heard a howl?
Jarel slowly turned toward the window. His instincts prickled. That sound hadn’t come from outside the mansion. It had come from somewhere far beyond it, maybe in it’s woods.
"How..." Regina whispered.
Jarel raised a hand, silencing her. He listened to the voice inside him. He was close to getting his finger on what was going on.
The silence that followed was somehow worse than the howl sound that he had heard through the call.
His gaze hardened. Felor wasn’t supposed to have wolves, at least, none that could produce a howl like that and if something had entered the sealed territory without permission, there was only one question that mattered.
What had crossed into Felor?
Jarel’s fingers tightened around the report still in his hand.
For the first time since Regina had brought him Maisa’s name, the mystery surrounding her blood was no longer the only thing troubling him.
Something was happening in Felor and whatever had just howled might already be inside the village. He got worried, the princess and other high profile heirs were in Felor, it would be bad if something happened to them.
Just then, a strange crimson glow spilled through the window and washed over Jarel’s face.
He stopped mid-step. Slowly, he turned toward the window. The light wasn’t coming from the palace. It was coming from above.
Jarel lifted his gaze toward the night sky, and the moment he saw it, the warmth drained from his body.
The moon had turned red, not a faint tint or the pale reflection of ordinary moonlight. The entire moon hung in the sky like a blood-soaked orb, its crimson glow spreading across the darkness and bathing the palace grounds in an eerie, unnatural light.
Jarel’s blood ran cold as his pupils narrowed. "No..." the word barely escaped his lips.
His mind raced through every possibility, but there was only one name that surfaced. One name buried deep in the oldest vampire records, the one name that had not been spoken lightly for generations.
Jarel’s face hardened. "Vaki..."
"What is going on?" Regina’s voice pulled Jarel from his thoughts.
She had followed his gaze toward the window, and the moment she saw the crimson moon hanging in the sky, her expression changed.
The eerie red light spilled across the room, turning everything it touched an unsettling shade of crimson.
Jarel said nothing. His mind was already somewhere else. The blood moon couldn’t be ignored, not when it had appeared alongside that strange howl or when the sound had come from a place that was supposed to be completely sealed off and certainly not when the first name that had come to his mind was Vaki.
Whatever was happening, it wasn’t something he could afford to investigate from behind a desk.
"I must take my leave," Jarel finally said.
Regina blinked. "What?"
"I have other matters to attend to."
He was already moving toward the door. His usual composed demeanor remained intact, but the urgency in his steps betrayed him.
Jarel didn’t stop to explain himself, didn’t offer Regina any further instructions, and didn’t even glance back at the report lying on his desk.
Regina stared after him in bewilderment. "Jarel?"
He didn’t answer her as the door closed behind him. Regina remained standing by the window, her eyes returning to the blood moon.
What could possibly be important enough to make the queen’s High Advisor abandon an investigation in the middle of a crisis?
They had infected students whose lives were slipping away by the hour. They had no antidote, no idea how Maisa’s blood had become so dangerous and their only lead was missing.
Yet Jarel had walked away as though something far more urgent had suddenly emerged.
Regina frowned. She couldn’t help wondering what he knew that she didn’t. Whatever had frightened him enough to leave the queen’s work unfinished, she suspected it had something to do with that moon.
And judging by the look on his face before he left... It wasn’t something the vampire nation could afford to take lightly.
The crimson light of the blood moon spilled across the infirmary, slipping through the windows and bathing the sick students in an eerie red glow.
For nights, their bodies had been ravaged by the poison in Maisa’s blood.
Their faces had been pale and strained, their brows constantly furrowed in pain as the poison coursed through their veins. Some lay motionless beneath the sheets, barely conscious, while others struggled to draw each breath.
But the moment the blood moonlight touched them, something changed. The oppressive atmosphere inside the infirmary seemed to shift.
The students’ tense bodies slowly relaxed, their clenched fingers loosened and their labored breathing gradually steadied. Even the deep lines of pain etched across their faces began to disappear.
Then, something extraordinary happened. A faint red mist began seeping from their skin.
It started as little wisps around their arms and necks before growing thicker, curling upward like smoke escaping from their bodies.
The poison was leaving them. The crimson mist continued to ooze from their pores, carrying away whatever had been corrupting their blood.
One by one, the students’ bodies were cleansed. Their feverish skin cooled, their strained breathing eased and the unnatural darkness beneath their veins faded.
For the first time since they had consumed Maisa’s blood, their bodies were no longer fighting an invisible battle they were slowly losing.
The blood moon was drawing the poison out and as the final traces of red mist drifted into the air, the students sank into a peaceful sleep.
For the first time in many nights, their faces were free of pain. The physicians and attendants watching from nearby could only stare in stunned silence.
They had been preparing themselves to watch the students die. Instead, under the light of the blood moon, the poison was disappearing as though it had never belonged in their bodies to begin with.
Regina released a long, shaky breath. Relief washed over her as she watched the last traces of red mist disappear from the students’ bodies.
After hours of helplessly watching their conditions deteriorate, seeing them finally resting peacefully felt almost unreal.
They were alive and more importantly, the poison was gone. A faint smile touched Regina’s lips. "This is a miracle..." she immediately reached for her blood mirror.
There was only one person she needed to tell, Jarel so that he’d stop worrying. She activated the mirror and waited for his image to appear.
Instead, the surface of the blood mirror rippled before an eerie, emotionless voice emerged from within.
"Connection unavailable. The recipient’s blood mirror is currently switched off."
Regina’s smile disappeared. "Switched off?"
She stared at the mirror in disbelief. The crimson surface remained perfectly still.
She tried again and the same message greeted her. Jarel’s blood mirror was off. Regina slowly lowered her hand. That was strange. Very strange.
In all the years she had known Jarel, she couldn’t remember a single time when his blood mirror had been unreachable.
Day or night, regardless of where he was or how busy he happened to be, there had always been a way to reach him.
He never switched it off, not without a reason and he had certainly never done so in the middle of an ongoing crisis.
Regina’s brows drew together. Her relief began to give way to unease. She glanced toward the window, where the crimson glow of the blood moon still flooded the infirmary.
The howl, the blood moon, Jarel’s sudden departure and now his blood mirror was unreachable. It was one strange event after another.
Regina’s fingers tightened around the blood mirror. "What exactly are you up to, Jarel?"