Chapter 212-The waking (2)

Chapter 212: 212-The waking (2)

THUMP!

The heartbeat echoed through the chamber, trembling through the ancient stone beneath Freya’s feet. She stumbled backward. The entrance had sealed shut.

The symbols carved into the door awakened, glowing with the same blood-red light spreading across the coffin. Silver lines snaked through the walls, linking each symbol until the chamber resembled an enormous ritual circle.

Freya slammed her hands against the door. "Open it!" her voice sounded pitifully small beneath the oppressive silence.

She struck the stone again. "Lord Vonvaki! The door..."

"I know. I have eyes."

Vonvaki kept his attention on the coffin. His expression was unlike anything she had seen before. He looked happy. Not amused or knowing, as he usually did, but raw and almost painfully vulnerable like a man at the end of a journey so long he had forgotten how to hope for anything else.

Freya swallowed. "Is this supposed to happen?"

"Yes."

"Then why does it feel like the entire chamber is going to collapse?"

"Because it might," He answered without a care in the world.

Freya stared at him in horror. It eluded him how he can be so calm while saying that. Did he not care whether he lived or died?

A faint smile touched his lips. "Relax, little hybrid. If it collapses, I will make certain you are not crushed beneath it."

"That isn’t reassuring!" She said but her voice lacked trust in his words.

"How ungrateful. I am offering you protection."

"You dragged me into a sealed chamber, told me the creature inside needed my blood, and now the walls are glowing! What part of this is supposed to make me feel protected?"

"The part where you are still alive."

Before she could respond, another heartbeat thundered through the chamber.

THUMP!

Red light flared beneath the coffin lid. Freya’s knees buckled. The suffocating pressure was no longer pressing against her from outside. It drew toward the coffin, gathering like invisible threads pulled to a single point. Somehow, Freya could feel every one of them brushing her skin, slipping beneath it, and curling around her bones.

Heat spread through her veins. She clutched her chest. "What is happening to me?"

Vonvaki’s smile faded. "Can you feel it?"

"Something is moving inside my body!"

"Not inside your body." He approached her. "Your blood is responding to her."

"My blood?"

"You are a hybrid, Freya. You carry two natures in one body, making your blood particularly valuable."

She shook her head. "Whatever you think my blood can do, I don’t want any part of it."

"That is unfortunate," Vaki responded. It was funny that Freya thought she had a choice in the matter. He stopped before her. "Because Zissa has been waiting a very long time."

Freya’s back struck the sealed door. "Please. You said I would live."

"And you will."

"Then why does it feel like something is trying to pull my blood out of me?"

Vonvaki’s eyes shifted toward the coffin. "Because she is hungry," He said with utmost softness.

The lid moved. A thin scrape rang through the chamber. The coffin lifted a fraction revealing darkness so complete that even the red light seemed reluctant to enter. The silver chains overhead snapped taut and rattled violently.

Vonvaki went still. For a thousand years, he had guarded that coffin and watched over the remnants of a woman who had once possessed a body, a voice, and a place in the world. He had endured the silence, accepted fragments when he wanted the whole, and watched her borrow another person’s flesh to reach the living world.

Now that the coffin was opening, his hands trembled. "Zissa..."

The name escaped him like a prayer he’d had for a long time being fulfilled. A faint red glow appeared beneath the lid. Another heartbeat sounded, deeper than the others and the silver chains began to break.

CLINK!

One chain fell from the ceiling before another followed. Freya covered her ears as the crashes reverberated through the chamber. The air grew warmer. Blood surged through her veins, and sharp pain pierced her wrist.

"Aargh!" She cried out.

A thin line of crimson appeared across her skin. A drop rose from the wound and hung in the air before drifting toward the coffin.

"No!"

She grabbed her wrist, but more droplets rose, gathering into a stream that flowed toward the opening coffin.

Freya screamed. "Stop it! Make it stop!"

Vonvaki watched with reverence. For a moment, he looked ready to catch the droplets but his fingers curled into fists at his sides.

This was not his moment. It belonged to Zissa.

The blood reached the coffin and vanished into the darkness. A deathly silence followed the moment.

Freya’s breathing came in panicked gasps. The bleeding had stopped, but her wrist burned and her legs trembled. "What did you do to me?"

Vonvaki did not answer her. His eyes remained fixed on the coffin. The red light dimmed. The silver symbols flickered as though the ritual had failed and then a pale hand appeared beneath the lid.

Freya forgot to breathe as slender fingers curled over the coffin’s edge, gripping the ancient stone hard enough to leave faint marks. A second hand emerged, and the lid rose higher.

Vonvaki stepped forward, then stopped, rigid with anticipation. "Zissa," he whispered.

A long silence followed and then a voice drifted from the coffin.

"Vonvi..."

The single word shattered him. For an instant, the ancient vampire looked less like a creature who had manipulated kingdoms and more like someone who had spent a thousand years listening for a voice he feared he would never hear again.

"I’m here," His answer came almost desperately. "I’m right here, Z."

The pale fingers tightened around the coffin’s edge. "How long..." the voice faltered, weak and rough from a thousand years of silence.

"Too long," Vonvaki answered. "Far too long."

The lid shifted again. White hair spilled over the edge, followed by a face hidden in shadow. Red light illuminated closed eyes, a motionless mouth and skin unchanged for a thousand years.

Freya stared, trembling. She was looking at the Mother of Vampires; the being whose blood had birthed an entire race, whose name had become legend, and whose existence had been reduced to fragments of history and whispered tales.

She had expected something monstrous. However, the figure looked almost human and that frightened Freya more. Whatever lay beneath that delicate appearance had made an ancient vampire wait a thousand years.

The figure’s fingers shifted. "Blood..." the whisper was barely audible.

Vonvaki turned toward Freya. She pressed herself against the sealed door. "No. Please, no more."

He studied her briefly, then looked back to the coffin. "She needs more time. Her body has been dormant too long."

The woman inside did not respond. Slowly, one eye opened. It was pure, colorless white, without pupil or iris. The moment it opened, every flame in the chamber went out. Darkness swallowed them.

"Urghh!" Freya screamed.

A heartbeat later, the coffin erupted with red light. The symbols burned brighter, and the remaining chains shattered, raining silver fragments onto the floor. The sealed door groaned as a deep crack spread across the stone.

Vonvaki did not look away. He stood before the coffin, tears gathering in his eyes as the woman he had mourned for a thousand years lifted her head.

"Welcome back," he whispered.

The woman blinked once. Her gaze passed over the broken chains and glowing symbols before settling on the trembling hybrid by the door.

Freya froze. She wanted to be anywhere else. She couldn’t handle the mountain grounding pressure coming from those white eyes.

The white eye fixed on her, laying bare her heartbeat, her blood, and the two natures struggling within her. Then the woman’s lips parted. "Hybrid..."

Freya’s blood turned to ice. The Mother of Vampires raised one hand. "Come here."

The command was quiet, but it did not need to be louder. Freya’s feet moved before she could stop them. One step after another.

She dug her heels into the stone, but her body continued forward as though an invisible hand dragged her toward the coffin.

"Lord Vonvaki!" she cried. "Please!"

Vonvaki watched her approach with his expression unreadable. For a thousand years, he had waited for Zissa to return. He would not allow fear to ruin this moment.

Freya reached the foot of the coffin and collapsed to her knees. Her hands struck the stone as she struggled beneath the weight of the woman’s presence.

The Mother of Vampires leaned forward. White hair slid over her shoulders. "Your blood," she whispered. "Give it to me."

Freya’s lips parted but no words came. Zissa tilted her head, listening beyond the chamber. Her expression changed. The hunger in her eyes dimmed, replaced by recognition.

"Wait..."

Vonvaki’s smile vanished. "What is it, Zissa?"

Zissa did not rush to answer. Her gaze shifted from Freya to the ancient symbols then to the sealed door. Something stirred behind her white eyes, it was distant that had reached her across a thousand years of silence.

At last, she spoke. "The flower of fate..." Her fingers tightened around the coffin’s edge. "In the week of hearts. What a perfect time to wake again."

Vonvaki went still and far away, within the vampire kingdom, Maisa Loven suddenly felt a cold finger trace the inside of her chest.