Chapter 135-The fail-safe plan

Chapter 135: 135-The fail-safe plan

"Aren’t you going to loop me in on what the play is here?" Katrina dropped next to Taratoya and asked.

"I already told you the plan," Taratoya lifted her upper body and shifted to lay on Katrina’s lap.

Katrina scoffed. What Taratoya had told her were surface level parts of the plan. The vampire hadn’t given her much of the tea concerning her plans, and that made her uneasy.

One, it made her feel as though Taratoya was pulling away from her and second, it was as though there was suddenly this invisible door between them that she wasn’t allowed to open because Taratoya was guarding against her.

Those two emotions twisted inside her like venomous snakes fighting for dominance on which one gets to kill her first. Either way, she was unsettled by the secrecy.

"Don’t you trust me anymore?"

Taratoya closed her eyes and got comfortable. She didn’t react immediately to the question because first, she found it ridiculous since the whole world could testify there was no one she trusted in the world other than her. Secondly, the taste of the feelings that the question provoked in her were bitter and uncomfortable to swallow.

"Do you feel that I don’t trust you?"

"You’re deflecting, Teetee. That is something you do when you don’t want to give a straightforward answer."

Taratoya opened her eyes and looked up at Katrina’s troubled face. Seeing how serious she was, she couldn’t help but feel for her.

"Fine, I’ll tell you. I’ll say it only once, so listen carefully," she said, Katrina smiled victoriously. "Remember when I told you that a life changing, nation altering conspiracy was brewing..."

"Yes, I remember."

"There are secret forces in the nation that are trying to groom Maisa Loven, aka Maisa Everheart, into the next queen of the vampire nation..."

"What?" Katrina barely let Taratoya finish before she reacted. Her eyes, looking down at the vampire on her lap, grew stern and sharp. "How can a redblood become the queen? Are you pulling my leg right now?"

Taratoya wished she were joking. But her research proved otherwise, and the truth she’d learnt was way scarier.

"Explain... help me understand how that is possible."

"To understand," Taratoya sat upright and continued. "I need to take you back to the time of the first mother, Zissa."

Katrina became completely attentive. When it came to the first female vampire, there were always layers of her life lost to history that popped up here and there. The whiteblood had an eventful life, that was for sure.

"After she and Vonvaki created more vampires, started the nation and wrote the laws that we still follow today. Zissa was worried that one day, vampires... her own creations might turn against her, and if the blood united, they might overpower her," she paused to let it sink in.

Katrina nodded, which was an indication for her to go on with the story as she wasn’t having trouble keeping up.

"So she created created a forbidden plant which she named "the flower of fate" or, in other words, "the True heart" which represents the human bearing the flower."

"What does this flower have to do with Maisa and her becoming queen?"

"The flower of fate was supposed to be a fail safe to undo all vampire existance..."

"What?" Katrina turned pale. Of all the things she’d picture the great mother creating, a doom device wasn’t one of them.

"But she soon realized that for the flower to work, it needed a heartbeat... she tried it on purebloods, but the flower undid their immortality and refused each body," she went on. "So, she got creative and tried it on a human, thereby creating the first redblood."

"Wait... the first redblood... was created as a test run for..." Katrina felt sick to the stomach, but Taratoya wasn’t done.

"The flower accepted the redblood and worked, so she wrote a name of a person from evert existing bloodline on the flower," Taratoya explained, her face darkening. "The vampires she chose were supposed to fuel the flower and trigger it to bloom. Once it bloomed, she could extract it and, with one crash, end her very creations."

Katrina felt like puking every drop of blood she had ever drunk since birth. The words Taratoya revealed tore the image she had of the great mother.

She couldn’t believe that Zissa had the heart to create something that evil. A flower that can end all vampires, she had no mercy.

"The flower of fate feeds on love. The closer the true heart is to her mates, the faster the flower can grow and bloom and put to use," Taratoya went on. "Since order remained from the start of Zissa’s reign to the end, the True Heart was never crowned. So Vonvaki destroyed the true heart."

"That’s good," Katrina breathed a sigh of relief, but then it dawned on her, Taratoya brought up the story and discovered this part of history that was clearly erased from public records.

Knowing Taratoya, the girl wouldn’t tell a tell for no reason. So she dropped her relief and prepared herself for heartbreak as she asked, "What does that have to do with Maisa?"

Taratoya glanced at the ceiling. Her eyes settled on the black and crimson candles brightly lighting the room. Her eyes were distant, as though she was gazing directly at the flower of fate.

"There are conditions to creating the flower of fate, Kat," she said, her voice lacking its usual confidence and playfulness. "One, you need a whiteblood to perform the ceremony. Second, you need a human born under the once in three centuries, red blood moon, and she has to be eighteen years old. Third, you need the plant itself, and lastly, you need targets to lock on each petal of the flower and great timing."

Katrina shifted in the chair. Her heart was beating loudly against her chest. Her skinned whitened paler than paper. ’That thing can be recreated.’

"The last red moon was eighteen years ago, Kat..."

Katrina felt the blood in her veins grow cold. ’No...’ her heart slammed against her ribcage.

"The human born under the red blood moon is... Maisa Everheart."

Katrina’s eyes rolled to the back of her head out of shock. In her eyes, the image of Maisa, innocent and quick to run to other vampire’s aid, played out. ’Who could know that behind such a kind heart laid such a cruel destiny.’

"She was turned with intention. The ceremony to activate the true heart was performed during the turning, and whoever did it knew everything as the way they did it is flawless," Taratoya nearly applauded.

If the true heart didn’t threaten her existence, she would’ve congratulated the mysterious enemy in the shadows for pulling it off without triggering any alarms or raising suspicion.

"How can you praise that monster right now?" Katrina was beyond the roofs with anger.

"That monster is brilliant, Kat..."

Katrina rose to her feet. She glared down at Taratoya. Her innocent evil was acceptable, but seeing her praise someone capable of recreating a monstrous existence like the true heart, it was a bit unethical, even by her standards.

"What do you mean, Teetee?" She was furious and needed Taratoya to take back her praise.

"He knew what he was doing," Taratoya held her stance. "Fate chose the right true heart holder, a vampire hunter to hold the mark that can end all vampires, and the mastermind picked the right triggers from every bloodline."

"?"

"Varitreya, the blood heir as a representation for the whitebloods. Addessa Challan for blackbloods, Lumi Ashbourne for bluebloods and Zolani for mixedbloods," she let out.

Katrina paled when she heard the names of the vampires meant to help the flower of fate blood. They were powerful and the future rulers of the nation. Putting Maisa in the middle was the same as crowning her the future queen of the vampire nation.

"Want to know the plot twist?" Taratoya asked her.

Katrina met her gaze, "What?"

"The more the flower blooms and the stronger Maisa’s elemental magic grows, the weaker her mates will be since..." she paused, inhaling deeply. "...they don’t just feed the true heart with their love but their immortality!"