Chapter 188: 188-Ruthless reclaiming (2)
"Your Highness!"
Addessa’s scream tore through the courtyard in sheer panic.
Varitreya lay motionless in her arms, her beautiful face drained of color. The princess’s long silver-white hair spilled across Addessa’s arm, and her chest rose so faintly that, for one terrifying moment, Addessa couldn’t tell whether she was breathing.
"Vari, wake up!" she shook her gently but the princess didn’t respond. "Damn it, don’t you dare do this to me!"
She wasn’t prepared to be the first warden to lose a royal on duty.
Addessa pressed two fingers against Varitreya’s neck, searching for a pulse. She found one, weak but present, and released a breath that shuddered through her chest.
The princess was still alive and that should have been enough to comfort her, but another wave of pressure swept across the courtyard before she could gather herself.
Addessa’s breath caught. Her knees nearly gave way and the sensation was unlike any injury she had ever suffered.
There was no pain in the ordinary sense, no wound to close or broken bone to mend. Instead, something invisible was pulling at her from within, draining a part of her that she had always believed could never be taken away. Her immortality.
She looked down at her hands. The skin had become thinner, and the veins beneath it stood out more prominently. The fingers that had once been strong enough to crush stone trembled as she struggled to keep Varitreya upright.
"No... what the he..."
Addessa raised a shaking hand to her hair. More strands had turned silver. She stared at them in disbelief before looking toward the flower hovering above Maisa’s head.
"What are you doing to us?"
The flower offered no answer. Its five luminous petals continued to rotate slowly, releasing ripples of power that rolled through the courtyard like invisible waves.
Wherever the light passed, vampires faltered. Some collapsed immediately. Others remained standing for a few seconds longer, their expressions twisting as the years they had accumulated began slipping away.
The young were growing weak, the old were growing older and those whose lifespans had already dwindled to their final centuries were beginning to look as though death had reached out and touched them.
Addessa tightened her arms around Varitreya. She had spent her entire life fighting to survive. She had endured her mother’s cruelty, buried the grief of losing her brother, and learned to turn her anger into a weapon because she had never possessed the luxury of being weak but none of that mattered now.
The princess she was meant to protect was unconscious in her arms, and Addessa could do nothing to protect her.
"Maisa!" she shouted, raising her head. "Whatever you’re doing, stop it!"
Maisa didn’t move. She remained beside Evelyn’s stretcher, her gaze fixed on her aunt’s lifeless face.
The flower above her head glowed brighter with every passing moment, its light spilling over the white stone walls and turning the entire courtyard into a place that seemed to exist outside the natural order of the world.
Addessa’s heart twisted. Maisa wasn’t attacking them deliberately and that was what frightened her most.
The redblood wasn’t even looking at them. She was lost in her grief, and the power consuming the courtyard was growing stronger without her knowledge or permission.
"Maisa, listen to me!"
Addessa tried to rise, but her legs buckled. She fell to one knee, catching herself with her free hand. A sharp gasp escaped her as another wave of exhaustion swept through her body, her vision blurred and for the first time in centuries, she felt genuinely afraid of dying.
Not because she wanted to live forever but because Varitreya was still in her arms, and she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her alone.
"Please," Addessa whispered, her voice breaking. "Not her. Take anything else, but not her."
The flower pulsed harder. Addessa’s shoulders sagged and across the courtyard, another scream rang out.
"Lumi!"
Zolani had managed to drag Lumi several steps away from the tower entrance before the blueblood’s legs gave out. She caught her around the waist, but the sudden weight nearly brought them both to the ground.
Lumi clutched Zolani’s arm. "What is... happening to me?" her words came out unevenly.
The sharpness that usually animated her expression had faded. Her face was pale, and her eyelids drooped as if she had been awake for days.
Zolani tried to smile. "I’d love to tell you but I’m having a little trouble keeping my eyes open."
"That’s not funny," Lumi scolded, her voice growing weaker and weaker.
"I wasn’t joking."
There was no teasing in Zolani’s voice. She looked at her own hands. Fine lines had appeared across her knuckles, and a strange weakness had settled into her limbs. She could feel her lifespan slipping away in tiny, relentless increments.
She could recognize danger, the sensation of her body approaching its limits and she could recognize that Lumi was getting worse.
"Stay with me," Zolani murmured, tightening her grip. "Come on, nerd. You still owe me an explanation for that ridiculous argument earlier."
Lumi managed a weak glare. "If I survive this, I’m going to hit you."
"Good. That means you have plans for the future so don’t fall," Zolani encouraged her.
"I hate you," Lumi managed, barely keeping up with her own thoughts.
"I know, nerd," Zolani tried to take another step. Her knees buckled.
The two vampires crashed against the stone wall, barely managing to keep themselves from falling completely. Lumi’s head dropped against Zolani’s shoulder, and her breathing grew shallow.
"Lumi?" Zolani called, the blueblood didn’t answer. She couldn’t. "Hey," she shook her gently. "Lumi, look at me."
The blueblood’s eyes fluttered open, but she seemed unable to focus.
Zolani’s smile disappeared. She could feel fear the way she once had, her hands were trembling, her throat felt tight, and she desperately wanted to cry despite having no strength left to weep.
She pressed her forehead against Lumi’s. "Don’t you dare leave me here alone."
Her strength abandoned her, too. The two vampires slid down the wall and collapsed together.
Regina Clark had seen many extraordinary things during her career. She had examined blood samples that changed color beneath moonlight, studied poisons capable of incapacitating entire bloodlines, and witnessed ancient magic that powerful vampires had spent centuries attempting to understand but nothing had prepared her for this.
She knelt beside an unconscious guard, pressing two fingers against his neck. His pulse was faint, and his skin had become unnaturally cold.
She checked another vampire and then another. All of them were alive but the results were horrifying.
Their bodies showed signs of rapid aging, yet their injuries did not correspond to any known curse, poison, or magical attack. It was as though their bodies had been forced to surrender years of life in a matter of minutes.
Regina looked up at the flower. Her mind raced through everything she had ever learned about the five bloodlines.
Each color of vampire blood represented a distinct branch of vampire existence, with its own magical properties, strengths, and limitations. The bloodlines had fought wars over their differences. They had built kingdoms, destroyed enemies, and guarded their secrets for generations.
Yet the flower above Maisa contained all five colors and not as separate forces fighting for dominance, but as parts of a single, unified power.
A power that recognized no distinction between the bloodlines it was destroying. Regina’s fingers tightened around her tablet.
’The true heart!’ the words surfaced in her mind with dreadful clarity.
"How did this even happen?"