Book One Chapter Twelve: Kai

Nick and his friends venture to the village of Libel to execute their plan: Gather rebels that wish to oppose Saja. They rescued a young man named Kai, who is a rebel. Will Kai join Nick's party?

Chapter Twelve Kai: We exited the church, I took the stake with me, just in case of another vampire attack. A jumble of shouts filled the air all of a sudden. The sound was coming from the town square. We saw a massive crowd, they were all gathering around a pedestal in the town square. Luna, the king, the queen and I walked to the crowd. What I saw made my heart sink; Someone was being executed.

A female vampire stood on top of a wooden platform that was a few feet off of the ground. She held a sword in one hand, and next to her, on his knees was a young man.

“This man has defied the vampires! He is a rebel! He must die!” The woman yelled.

A roar of approval and applause erupted from the audience. I glanced at Luna. We had found a rebel. I couldn't let this rebel die.

“How do we stop the execution? We need this rebel!” I said to Luna.

“Be direct, the young rebel is almost out of time!” Luna said.

Without thinking it through, I chose the direct way of stopping the execution.

“Stop!” I shouted.

The executioner looked my way, as did the young man who was going to be executed.

“Be gone mortal! Unless you wish to perish along with this man, this matter does not concern you.” The executioner said.

My eyes filled with hatred of that vampire, her and Saja, as well as pity for the young rebel. In a second her eyes fell on the young man she was going to execute.

“It didn’t work!” I said with dismay.

“Do you have any ideas?” Luna asked me.

I thought for a moment. I felt the weight of the stake in my hand. I had an idea. I had one shot at saving the rebel, it was a risky one. Risky for everyone. I took my stake and hurled it at the executioner.

“Catch!” I yelled cockily.

I smiled at my sly remark. The executer looked my way and saw the stake coming. It found its mark; right in the chest. She shrieked in pain and fell to the ground. The crowd around gasped collectively, the dispersed. Most of the crowd members were human, so I didn't think they wanted to stick around for fear of being killed. The rebel who was going to be executed ran to me through the crowd. He looked at me with big, grateful eyes.

“Thank you!” He shouted and hugged me.

This took me by surprise.

“Woah, okay, easy.” I said, prying the young man off of me.

The young man had brown hair, brown eyes, a pretty muscular build, and he was bigger than me. I decided to be cool.

“You’re welcome.” I said.

He nodded.

“My name is Kai.” He said.

“I’m Nick.” I said in return.

“We need you to join a bigger rebellion.” Luna said in a low voice.

“We are going to stop a very evil vampire named Saja from overthrowing the vampire royal family.” I explained.

“The vampire royal family is cruel to mortals.” Kai objected.

 

“Be that as it may, but Saja will have everyone killed except for anyone who surrenders. Even if you do survive you will be enslaved.” I said.

Kai pondered this for a moment.

“I’ll help you.” He agreed.

I turned to the king, the queen and Luna.

“Shall we return to your castle?” I asked.

“Yes, I think that is a good idea.” Luna said, looking to her parents.

“Yes, fine.” The king said.

“I suppose that it would be a good idea, a good way to welcome Kai here to our team.” The queen said.

We went back to Luna's castle and we brought Kai.

“Do you know anything about Saja’s plans?” I asked Kai.

He shook his head.

“No. I don't even know who Saja is.” Kai said.

“Nick.” Luna called.

“Excuse me.” I said to Kai.

I walked towards her voice. She was standing in the doorway. Of the room.

“I have something for you. Follow me.” Luna said.

I did as I was told, curiosity was brewing inside of me. Luna led me to a small room just down the hall of where I was with Kai. She entered the room and grabbed a vicious looking sword.

“It is yours. You will need something to help you kill the vampires.” Luna said.

She handed it to me and I examined it. It had a dim glow to it.

“It is enchanted. It will never dull itself. It also gives the wielder strength when he needs it most, and as you probably guessed it is made of silver, so it kills vampires.” Luna told me.

“Wow! Thanks!” Was all I could manage.

The sword did not weigh much, and it took very little strength to swing around. I thrusted at the air a few times, I could definitely fight with this. Luna handed me a scabbard and I sheathed the blade. I stuck to in my belt.

"Come, we must eat. I will get the others, you go ahead to the dining room." Luna told me.

She directed me down the hall to the familiar grand dining hall.

 

I sat down at the large stone table, the food was already set. The king and queen were already seated, and in a few minutes, Luna brought Kai to the table, and they both sat down. The king spoke up.

"I'd like to make a toast, to our newest rebel, Kai. Thank you for being brave, my boy." The king said.

He raised his glass, as did Kai. The queen, Luna and I did the same. Everyone at the table took a swig from their goblets. On our plates, we all had something that looked like chicken. I picked up a fork and tasted it. It tasted bitter and stale, yet it maintained a meaty flavor that filled you up really quickly.

"What is this called?" I asked the queen, gesturing to the meat on my plate.

The queen looked at me, confused.

"Surely you have tasted brocka? It is one of the most common meats on Ectoclis." The queen said, her head cocked.

I then remembered that the queen and king did not know that I was from Earth, not Ectoclis. I decided not to tell them, it would save a lot of effort and time, besides, they will find out when the time is right.

"I wasn't brought up like the typical kid on Ectoclis." I said.

The queen shrugged and continued to eat her own brocka.

 

"So, Kai. Tell us a little about yourself." Said Luna.

Kai cleared his throat.

"Well, I was born and raised in Libel, I was taught to hate vampires, I was taught that they are evil, murderous creatures that deserve to die. I was taught to be careful, and to not trust others easily, but you people seem trustworthy. Speaking of which, could you tell me a little more about this 'Saja' character?" Asked Kai.

I nodded.

"Yes, I could tell you a few things about her. Saja is evil and murderous, and she is also clever. She wants to lead a rebellion against the royal family. We do not know the full extent of her plans, but we can safely assume that her bigger goals are far more sinister than killing a few royal vampires." I told kai.

 

Kai nodded.

"She sounds like she needs to die." Kai said bitterly.

"It is not that easy." Said the king, shaking his head.

Kai cocked his head to the right.

"And why is that? Does she not have any weakness that we can exploit?" Asked Kai.

The king, queen and Luna all looked to me. I began to tell of the only weakness of Saja's that I knew of.

"Well, Saja captured me a while ago, she wanted to know about the whereabouts of Tigiti, and who the Chosen One was. She kept me prisoner, and the only weakness of hers that I noticed was her arrogance." I told Kai.

 

 Kai's eyes went wide.

"Yes, if Saja has something sinister planned for Ectoclis, then she would want to eliminate Tigiti, and his Chosen One. If she does that, then no one will have the strength, courage, or morale to rise up against her." Kai said.

That made sense. Dread filled me upon hearing his words. Was it up to us to protect Tigiti and his Chosen One?

"Well, if we want to get ahead of Saja and stop her, we need to find out who the Chosen One is, and where Tigiti is." Said the queen.

I felt as if our task was hopeless.

"How do we do that?" I asked.

The queen shook her head.

"I don't know." She said.

I looked to the others to see if they had answers, but they just shrugged or shook their heads.

"How are we going to do this?" I asked.

I let my head fall into my hands as despair settled over me.

"I think we all need some sleep. Sleep does the mind good, we will talk again in the morning." Said the queen.

"Kai, you are welcome to any of the accommodations here." The queen added.

Kai nodded. He must have been exhausted. He went upstairs, as did I. I found my room and collapsed on the bed. I went to sleep as soon as I was able to.

 

That night I dreamed about vampires, not surprising, because I had spent the majority of my time among them, but these ones were different. Thankfully, none of these vampires were Saja. I dreamed I was running across the flat plains of Ectoclis. I hurled stakes at these different vampires, but they bounced of harmlessly. I used my sword and it didn’t scratch them. Luna and her parents came in to the fray. Luna ran up to one of them and enclosed its head in her fangs. It simply reached up and freed itself as easily as removing a dead branch from a tree. I looked at the king, thinking he would have a plan. His face was as panicked as mine was. I snapped awake in a flash. I was panicked. I had to know more. I had to know what my dream meant. I went down to the library, knowing that if I found an answer anywhere, I’d find it there. After all, in the days on old, all the secrets were in some ancient book, right? I went to the back most area. I looked on the shelves. I mostly found history books. I found something that interested me. The book was called Vampires Past and Present. I opened it and started to read.

 

Among all of the fearful creatures in this world the Kerulen is certainly the worst.

 

It has all of the normal vampire abilities. It has a few more such as flight.

 

It cannot be killed by a silver sword or stakes. The Kerulen is also paler than the normal vampires.

 

Only one has managed to kill a Kerulen. This man was known as Tigiti.

 

How he did this is unknown.

 

A Kerulen is made when two vampires, one pure and one impure have the ritual of Turlock preformed on them.

 

 

 

I put the book down. I searched the shelves for any clue as to what the ritual of Turlock was. I scoured the entire library but found nothing. I went upstairs to see that Luna and her parents were having breakfast.

“What is it?” asked the king, he must have been able to tell that I was edgy.

"What is the ritual of Turlock?" I asked.

Luna and her parents looked to each other.

"Why do you ask?" Asked the queen.

“I dreamed of vampires that cannot be killed by stakes or a silver sword last night.” I told them.

Luna looked fearful, her fear induced fear inside of me. She was going to say something I wouldn't like.

“They are called Kerulen.” I Added.

“They are created when two vampires, one pure and one impure have the ritual of Turlock preformed on them.” I went on.

 

When I mentioned the ritual of Turlock the king flinched.

“Do you know what the ritual of Turlock is?” I asked.

The king sighed.

“Yes. It is mainly used to create creatures such as Kerulen, but no one has performed it in centuries.” The king said.

“Why?” I asked.

The king added one last fact.

“Because you need an angel.” He concluded. I remembered when I asked why you didn’t see angels anymore and how the king looked as though there was more to it.

All this thinking, and explaining and new information was making me tired again.

"I'm tired, I'm going to go to back sleep." I said.

Luna laughed.

"But you just woke up." She said.

"I'm tired because of my nightmare last night." I explained.

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think :)