Episode 4: Melancholy

                  Sun sets, and the entire army was bound to return to Abberant. Mounted on a horse, I calmly lead the voyage. Down a valley, where clouds heads down to touch the earth and the greeneries kissing the last drop of sunshine. A simple gesture on my hand released thousands of silver arrows from the sky.

“Assassins!”

“Watch out!”

“Protect the Commander!”

                Dozens surrounded me in an instance, sheltering me from the flaming arrows. With no hesitation, I draw out the sword from my left and mercilessly slashed their throats. Only blank emotion was left all over my face and blood stained across. I fearlessly turned around as I gashed to death the last warrior on my side. And almost all of them stared at me incredulous, witnessing how I kill their comrades the way they kill their vampire preys.

“Sinandaya legion, charge!!!” I directed with my left hand raised, aiming at the werewolf army. In a blink, a cavalry of vampires with silver weapons raced down from the mountains. Killing every single werewolf their senses had detected apart from the spies and disguised vampires I’ve placed all over the entire army. A perfect ambush.

                 Those plead, cries and grouse… I’ll let them feel how dreadful a sudden attack is. I’ll give back the taste of both having the last breath and a surprise. Every drop of their blood will paint the pavement, and scream how honorable it is to kill a group of people. And return their dead bodies back to their hometown, I’ll watch how their forsaken ones come to grieve and mourn. That even if they scream and cry blood, nothing will come back. I’ll repay them a hundred times of pain and sorrow they’ve caused us.

“Spare no one. Not even a single breath nor a lone beg.” Clusters of words spill out of my lips as I keep a glacial response. The sun sank, and the last warrior standing stumbled down lifeless. Out crept a simper, this is just the beginning and the remaining days of the Abberant pack will be counted from this day.

“Send someone to inform that Alpha regarding this sudden ambush,” I ordered and three of the disguised assassins gushed out.

“Adira, the Alpha already have known who you are. Isn’t it a dangerous act for you to enter the pack again?” Mayari disclosed.

                    A smile slipped out while my eyes still stuck ahead to where the day ended and the road really was painted red. “There is this reason why the Alpha still hasn’t eradicated my presence in his territory. As long as I still got this reason, he cannot do harm to me.”

“It’s a good luck, then. We got your back, just call when you need us and we’ll emerge from shadows.” With that, no one was left except me. Everyone just dashed off and disappear. I held the horse’s lead line and rode away, only 3 kilometers remaining before I reach the Abberant pack’s mansion.

                 It was dark everywhere but the moonlight was there enough to let me see the road and directions ahead. My armor clothing was not even enough to combat the freezing zephyr at this moment, with tall lush trees and the sound of crickets started to fill in. Still my senses are wide awake when a sudden familiar feeling awakened my thirst. Shadows of a furry creature caught my gaze resulting for me to drop down and wait for it to show up.

“You’re really challenging me.” His voice finally echoed. I gave him a sly smile as I turned towards his direction and watch him shift back.

“You came.”

“What else? You’ll raise an attack the next day?”

“Have a good guess, Darling.”

                  My fangs revealed and I can feel how my eyes turned red aiming at his neck. This kind of response that his presence around me drives me uncontrollable. I’ve never felt this way before, just the moment our eyes had collided and it’s something that makes me hook on those ocean-like eyes.

“Mind if I ask for your name?” A question popped out my tongue as I drifted away and wiped away the blood smeared on my lips.

                  He looked at me with his signature tantalizing smile while his hand suddenly cupped my face. “Are you now interested in me?”

“Call it whatever you want. You have already known my name, isn’t it a little bit unfair not knowing yours?”

                    The Alpha leaned closer to me as he pulls my waist a centimeter away from him. At this moment, my mind protested. Yet here goes my heart racing and banging like I’m on a marathon. I lost control and my legs seems to collapse if ever he’d let go of his hands off me. It feels weak and as my head rises to meet his intimidating stare, all of my arrogance fades away.

“Diego Alfarro,” he muttered, drawing near my ears and clicked something behind me which I lately realized what it was. “You’re gorgeous behind this metal.”

                     I quickly grabbed the bronze mask on his hands but as soon as I touched the tip of it, he gripped it higher than I could reach. “I’ve been wondering what’s hiding behind this mask, and this is the closest thing I could do this time. So, let me admire how alluring this lady in front of me is.”

                      My lips shut sealed speechless when he initiated a kiss without any warning. And it does not last for only a second, I don’t understand how he commands even my body to respond to him. I just found myself countering his sudden attack under the moon’s brightest light, across the valley with the gloomy scenery and the freezing swift of the wind that seems to not bother this guy in front of me despite having no clothes on.

“What kind of enchantment are you doing this time?” I asked when he eventually parted, trying to get away and divert my attention. I should not fall for an Alfarro’s deceptive trap. He is an enemy from the start and will always be until the end.

“What enchantment? Just say you want more of it, you don’t need to deny when I’m the one whom you’re with.”

                      That smile again, that smile always erases the grudge I have long plotted in my heart. He turns the table every time he’s this close to me and that I can’t even hold my walls up. “W-Why are you doing this?” another question slipped out of my tongue that causes him to bend an inch away from my face with the grin not leaving his lips.

“I suppose you’re not that dumb to ask a question so shallow as that, Adira. Do I need to repeat it again?”

                       Right, he’s my mate. That someone who is my complete half. But unfortunately, he is an enemy at the same time. If I can rewrite destiny, can I inscribe that we do not belong to any clan without feuds and grudges? My eyes remained on his, that oceanic vibe I won’t get tired of. His eyes that keeps me so obsessed to him.

“Even if we are this close, I could not deny how many miles we’re far away from each other. Even though I recognize you as my mate, I do not know how to trust you. You bear a name, a clan that I have pledged to kill ruthlessly. In the end, we are bound to lead an army against each other on the battlefield—”

                       He blocked, smashing his lips on me and pushing my back against a tree. I was left dumbfounded as he spoke afore me, not keeping a distance more than an inch. “Just this time, can you forget who we are behind the shadows? Just the two of us, no feuds and grudges, ordinary creatures with no status nor responsibilities. Adira, who am I to you?”

                       My lips opened to utter a word, but closes again the moment I realized I couldn’t say anything. I can not answer him. Even if I forget those things, he is out of my reach. He is someone I could not grab, yet so close to where am I. My head gradually bend down but before I could totally fell, he cupped my face, returning my gaze back to him.

“I know you despise me that much. I just want to hear that you know and recognize who am I even if it’s only a lie. Even if it’s just a word coming out from you, I just want to hear you say it. Just to fill the questions that keeps on raging in my mind. Because you do not know how it hurts a lot to see you once again… but you no longer remember who am I to you.”

“D-Diego…” A flash of longing and melancholy, the emotions reflecting in his eyes hits me that much. There is something from him that I do not know, there is something between us more than being mates.