As the mortals of Quintrealm said ‘By Aidan’ and such like, so did we use the name of the First One in the same manner.
Selene, the first vampire, the one to…to…I couldn’t find the story of her or our creation. But I knew her, feeling the threads of moonlight that tethered me to her.
Moonlight…
Sadness scorched my brain, joined by a pining for home, for my sister.
“Where are you?” I muttered at the same time as Past Me.
Was she dead? I couldn’t recall anything other than her kindness. Often there to run through the forests with me, my confidant, my everything. A better sibling than Lucius.
She’d been furious over my obsession with Aidan and had been determined to find what he’d apparently taken from me.
“I don’t believe you!” my voice boomed off to the side, carrying me back into the past before Lucius’s death.
Camilla and I in the forest, my fury crackling.
“You’ll see, brother,” she returned. “You’ll see.”
That version of me hated her for trying to separate me from Aidan. She loathed him from the moment he’d arrived in SeleneHaven. She knew he was bad news. She saw right through him, never welcoming him warmly like the rest of us, and made it known how much she disapproved of my relationship with him.
But where had she gone? What happened between this moment in the forest and the murder of our brother?
She must be dead, one of the many holes in the Heart of All that would never be filled.
Hold on. Couldn’t I see? Couldn’t I feel the loss of every vampire in there, their names eternal echoes, memorials to touch upon whenever I wanted? Like my dear Layla, so close to the surface from her recent death, along with all the others.
Closing my eyes, the scarlet glow of the Heart of All engulfed me, welcoming me in a warm hug tinged with sorrow, granting me the freedom to see and feel and search.
“Camilla Clarence,” I whispered, the red light rippling with the sound of my voice.
No response, no recollection. A good sign, filling me with a surge of relief. But I didn’t settle for it as confirmation, not with everything being so messy.
“I have a gift for you,” Aidan’s voice rolled through the throne room.
Past Me looked up, back in the throne room again. “Aidan?”
I didn’t remember this, my brain throbbing with confusion.
“A parting gift for my love.” Aidan’s laughter bounced off the walls, a burning sensation skimming across my skin.
I watched myself get to my feet, then became one with him to replay the memory, scratching at my arms. “Are you here?”
The answer hit me in a collision of memory and terror, sending me into a tailspin.
A ball of golden light shot past me, a spell left behind to activate in this moment.
Aidan’s gift tore through the permanent night skies of Selene Haven, lighting them up with burning, golden sunlight. Beamsof sunshine spilled into the throne room, one landing on me. My hands ignited, twin flames consuming my skin.
Screaming, I jumped back into the shade, sunlight skewering the throne room, pouring through the arched windows and chasing away most of the shadows.
I was in absolute agony, the fire threatening to spread across my body, I ran for my life as skin melted from bone, speeding through the beams fast enough to feel their sting but not ignite.
The Heart of All wailed in horror, the deaths of so many vampires not under shelter striking me in quick succession. Multiple ends breaking me down into a million pieces of sorrow, the survivors depending on me to figure this out before they followed.
As the flames reached the tops of my wrists, I crashed into the kitchens. Staff clung to the shadows, sobbing, bone dust piles smoking on the marble floor.
There were no thralls around.
