Ember went silent for a while, staring back at Raverine. Ember internalized the fact that she is talking to a vampire but she couldn’t digest that fact yet. The thought of vampires coexisting with humans in the real human world makes her giggle like a weirdo. It’s absolutely funny to her. Everything is amusing to her as if her life has turned into a circus in one snap and creatures like Raverine are acting like clowns.All the blood, sweat, and years she spent in military training with Pox and her experience as a paramilitary reserved troop was almost a waste of human energy because surprise, surprise… the greatest enemy of this country is not merely a human possessed with Satan’s ideas to ruin humanity but vampires and their thirsts for freaking human blood like in the books. Vampires... that are human-looking creatures with poisonous fangs.Ember let out an amused chuckle before speaking, “So… What’s your plan, huh, Dracula? Boil us, our human bodies, until our flesh is soft enough
It has been so long since Raverine filled his house’s guest rooms with people. However, they are not people sleeping inside those rooms but Raverine's prey. Raverine’s morning worries awoke him at five. One of his worries is planning a feasible way to keep Ember safe from other predators – other vampires, especially the shadow vampires and Die Dark clan.Raverine grabbed his phone from his side table and surfed through the web regarding the incident that they caused at the vape shop located on Jolly Road. So far, so silent like the dead buried underneath that place. Should Raverine worry that his enemies are silent? He shouldn’t worry lest his enemies know that Raverine is the person behind that.Raverine stood away from his worries and prepped himself for another day of work at Scavenger’s Hut. So long that the people around him don’t suspect his actions, all is good. Raverine walked out of his room and grabbed the things he needs.“Hey, Alex…” Raverine voice commanded his A.I. assis
“Great service, everyone!” Raverine shouted, indicating that a day of work is about to end. Raverine then walked towards Hiro who is busy giving his last instructions to one of their waitresses. Raverine held Hiro’s shoulder and said, “Hiro, office please.”Hiro nodded and wrapped up his task before following Raverine to his office. Once done, Hiro opened Raverine’s office door and said, “What’s the matter, Sir?”Raverine was almost done grabbing the things he needs from his desk. “I need to take a leave tomorrow, Hiro. Please take care of the restaurant tomorrow and I want another great service like the service we did today,” Raverine instructed and finished cleaning his desk. “Call me if something bad happened around here.”Hiro gave him a reassuring smile. “Will do, Sir. Take care.”“Thank you. Take care as well.”Hiro left the office first then Raverine followed. Raverine walked past his sous’ chefs focus on scrubbing and fixing their stations. Before Raverine stepped out of the b
Raverine went inside after Diego’s scent is kilometers away from Raverine’s doorstep. Raverine extended his heightened senses to Ember’s room and heard her heart softly beating. That’s good, Raverine thought to himself. Then he averted his senses and focused on Pox’s condition. Pox is getting worse every minute but Raverine doesn’t give a damn if his treatments won’t work. All that Raverine could do is to carefully accomplish each step of his plan. Next on his list is to transfer all the blood bags to Vorkuta where his family’s old hideout place is still intact and alive. But before leaving, Raverine rushed to the kitchen and made a meal for Ember. He also injected another fluid into Pox to somehow calm his heartbeats. Once the meal is cooked, Raverine went inside Ember’s room and saw her sleeping comfortably. Raverine carefully chose a drug that could calm her and put her to sleep, drugs that have zero to low side effects. So far, Ember is still in good condition. As for the blood,
Vorkuta was Raverine’s birthplace. It is where his great-grandfather’s love for cooking began and their mastery was passed on from generation to generation. Vorkuta was a safe haven for vampires but when the World Alliance military troops discovered a hidden facility somewhere in Vorkuta and bombed the entire place, Raverine and his family fled to the other side of the world. They never came back, no vampire tried to go back to Vorkuta. However, there is something that Edmond Agustine couldn’t leave in Vorkuta unattended and must vouchsafe for young Raverine in the future. So, Edmond went back with young Raverine to teach him where their old mansion is. Raverine went to the port and waited for the captain to come down the cargo ship named before a former Roman emperor, Augustus. Because of Raverine’s father, he knew who to trust and where to find a few of them. “Oi! Son of Agustine!” The captain hollered as he walked down from the ship to the dock. “Captain Callops!” Raverine smirk
Two shadow vampires in their black cloaks walked towards his table, their heads lowered and masked with their own shadows. The silence was always deadly but never tickled their fear since they are used to hiding in the shadows and moving discreetly. “Skoteinó,” the first shadow vampire spoke, “There are no signs of Minly in all the places that she commonly visits and stays. Then the second vampire shadow added, “She was left at her apartment yesterday but as we tried to trace her scent, we couldn’t smell it.” Skoteinó tilted his head and gave them a dead look. “But you placed a tracker on her before you released her, right?” Skoteinó asked. Neither of the shadow vampires answered Skoteinó’s question and kept their heads down. Skoteinó hang his head down and groaned. He whispered, “You know that device that at least helps you track someone instead of sniffing like dogs?” Skoteinó lifted his head and swiftly threw his blade knife. His blade knife flew perfectly between their two he
Raverine explained to Captain Callops why he disappeared all of a sudden and Captain Callops apologized that an intruder was able to get past the gates. Captain Callops promised to double the guards and increase the voltage of electric fences around the port so no one could sneak in again. Raverine was somehow reassured and went back home after making sure that the packages are safe in Vorkuta. The next time he comes back to the port, it will be him on the ship, sailing his way back home with her.Once Raverine reached his house, he heightened his senses to check Ember’s condition.‘She’s good,’ Raverine thought to himself and turn to Pox’s condition, ‘He is not good.’Raverine knew that giving Ember a dose of sleeping drugs could ruin her blood, especially since Ember is trying to fight the drug so he had to use an extra dose of sleeping drugs. Raverine went up to his room and slowly opened the door. He saw Ember sleeping peacefully. Raverine smirked and took off his jacket. Raverine
As quiet as the owl’s nest, all that Raverine can hear is the nightmares of his prey screeching in her dreaming world. With Diego bothering him any time, Minly reunited with the devils, and the tension between the scavengers and shadow vampires arising, Raverine had to finish his mess and muddy tracks as soon as possible.Raverine stopped walking when he smelled Ember’s sweat. Not again, Raverine thought when he can hear her exasperated groans once more from trying to do something so she could escape. Ember must’ve woken up yet again despite Raverine giving her a dose of a sleeping drug. Raverine rushed upstairs and halted on his doorstep.“Ember…” Raverine called out—his voice gentle but it still made Ember’s heart pound faster. Raverine extended his senses to Pox’s condition and he can hear his heart beating at a normal pace. Raverine sighed. “Pox is almost recovering. Would you like to see him?”Raverine didn’t open the door and waited for Ember to break the silence. The silence wa
Uncle Felix started the engine and drove out of the hospital’s parking lot. He adjusted the rear mirror until he could clearly see his niece tailing behind them driving Raverine’s black sedan car. Then he felt Raverine’s questions fuming out of his ears, Uncle Felix let out a chuckle when Raverine realized that he had been staring at him for almost a minute.“He was wounded when he rushed inside the hospital which was still under renovation, he thought that maybe he could steal and tried to scare the nightshift employees—tough boy. Then because I was a military doctor so they sent him to me, thinking I could handle him well without dying first. It was long ago, I am sure Skotieno has forgotten that I was his doctor for a week when he rested in the hospital.”“I am not sure about that,” Raverine said, “But I am certain that he has a good memory for remembering such things. He spent a week, he must’ve remembered you.”Uncle Felix smiled and resumed, “Anyway… He was badly beaten up that
“What happened in Vorkuta?” Ember asked again but Uncle couldn’t find the right words to utter and answer her right away. It was as if Uncle Felix had gone into a traumatic relapse. Ember already knew a little of what happened in that experiment in Vorkuta but what surprised her the most was her Uncle’s knowledge about it but they still chose to keep it a secret from her, so she played dumb this time to extract the story from her uncle.Uncle Felix removed his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and sat down. He began explaining, “I have grown to forget about this but I guess the past will always haunt those who witnessed it. Forgive me, I was taken back by a memory when I went inside the bombed facility where they experimented on smuggled babies.”Ember and Raverine looked at each other, and then Ember said, “What did you see Uncle?”“Well, everything was burnt to the ground but images were preserved. Bodies of infants are decapitated, dissected, and close-up shots of their veins
Another knock and finally the men outside of Uncle Felix’s office made their identity known. They said that they are the security guards of this hospital. Uncle Felix released the tension from his shoulders and so did everyone inide the office. The three of them—Ember, K, and Raverine calmed down and stood behind Uncle Felix. However, Raverine can still smell that badly hidden scent of a familiar kind from those men outside, he is sure of it. Uncle Felix signaled the three of them to move out of sight as he was about to open the door ajar.“Yes? How may I help you?” Uncle Felix asked with his usual work tone.“Doctor, sorry to disturb you but a skunk was spotted around the hospital…”“A skunk?” K murmured to herself in disbelief. Who reports such thing to the staff and residents here? A skunk, K was shaking her head in amusement.“Skunk, you say?”“Yes, Doctor. Just to notify you that he might come inside your office, so please do lock your windows and door while we secure the place.
Ember didn’t bother asking what was happening inside Raverine’s head or the texts he’d been receiving before they left the cabin. After Raverine has a phone call from his restaurant employee or maybe someone else he doesn’t want Ember to know, he looks more like a criminal now than before their first encounter. His aura emitted an ominous feeling that changed the atmosphere between him and Ember. Raverone’s iced cold eyes melted to reveal his burning lust to kill. Ember looked away, she can’t tiptoe around him so she’ll act like Raverine’s sudden shift of mood is nothing but a child’s tantrum.K was the first to leave the cabin and drive back to their hometown. K said she will inform Uncle Felix first about their plans then she’ll go back to their must-be anxious Mother. The December family and their close-knit community are oblivious yet of the situation that Ember has put them and the supernatural presence of vampires that surrounds them. Who knows, Ember surmised, that more of thes
“Raver? Are you nuts? What’s going on? Why did you leave Hiro and your team here all by themselves, working their asses and having to face Calil’s nuisance.”Raverine was too stunned to speak. He pressed the bridge of his nose and tightened his hold on his phone. All he could do was groan over the phone, frustration flooded his mind and there was no way of getting it all out immediately. Why, out of the blue, would Calil visit the restaurant—Raverine mumbled to himself—Calil has never been the one to publicize his hate toward his enemies, not even toward Raverine. Throughout his existence, that double-faced son of the Devil will never reveal his dark side to the public to keep his hands clean. Raverine knew something was wrong with Calil’s actions. Diego scoffed and went on to blame Raverine for what happened to his management and the restaurant. Although the after-effect of Calil’s actions has yet to spur the mass media and vampires of all kinds, Diego is worried about the next time
“Let’s reel back from the start,” K said, crossed her arms, and leaned back on the couch.The rustle of leaves blown by the wind outside the cabin gently laid to silence. The cabin turned into a vacuum for a little while, waiting for something to happen. Raverine ducked his head and rubbed his nape. Ember was the first to move and utter a word.“Before this web of tail-chasing and mask-hunting events, our department was bombarded with cases of missing persons and smuggling. You know that K, right?”K gave a subtle nod. “That’s why I told you that the smuggling cases weren’t transacted through the city, but it could be somewhere in the desert mountains.”“Yeah,” Ember continued, “Most of these cases went cold and if we look closely, there’s a similar pattern in demographics and location in these cases. I wanted to resolve it properly so I weaved all the pieces of information from these cold cases which even led me back to the illegal smuggling cases I handled. Eventually, I picked up t
Ember rushed to meet K from the gate and prepared herself to dodge K’s attack in case K threw a fit at her and blew her with a punch in the stomach—she would think she deserved half of the pain though. K is leaning against her dark blue motorbike while chewing something. A celery? Ember questioned in her mind. It is indeed a celery that K has been chewing to calm her. K’s brows have never been buried into her glabella and her arms are tightly crossed beneath her chest. K approached Ember and spit the celery before Ember could come closer to her.Both of the sisters greeted each other with a tight hug. K patted Ember’s back and pulled her out of the embrace to get a better look at her face. Ember heaved out a sigh of relief.“I thought I could call you ‘sister’, but it’s better to use the ‘little sister’ once more. How careless were you, this time?” K began to berate Ember. “I would’ve understood if you got into a bloody fight but to drag the family into your mess. Ember, I taught you
Nightmares, thunder, and rain. In my sleep, all that is happening is occurring in a fast motion—the past, the present, and even the future move in a blur. There’s no story to follow in this dream of mine, it’s not a nightmare either. All I can see is the red and blue lights flashing before my eyes and the long noise of police sirens wrecking my eardrums. The incoherent, indistinct words whispered to me as I asked around the people in my dreams. My eyes opened abruptly. I awoke, not because of the dream I had that I could vividly feel and remember, but at the sound of breathing—soft and warm. His skin brushed against my skin. He is cold, awfully cold that his body will soon start crystallizing. Raverine huffed, then buried his forehead in my shoulder.“You are so warm,” he mumbled and snuggled his body closer to me.His feet were dangling on the other side of the sofa and his upper body managed to steal a good space, pushing me to sink deep into the cushion.“Get the fuck off of me,” I
I woke up and felt hungry when I smelled good food wafting around the place. I rubbed my face and caught a glimpse of Raverine’s back from the kitchen. He’s wearing an apron, probably making the breakfast that’s why the place smells like an expensive diner. I let out a low sigh and sit up straight on the couch, my eyes are still half-open.“Hey, morning,” Raverine greeted without turning around to face me.“Yeah, morning,” I replied, my voice is a little groggy.I yawned and stretched my body muscles before fixing my hair and opening my eyes completely. Once I was wide awake, a lot of papers scattered atop the small table stunned me. I grabbed a few of them and scanned their content. Most of the documents are the profiles of influential people and government officials. One document caught my attention and it’s the profile data of a presidential candidate this year. So, this person must be one of them, the vampires of Die Dark Clan. I heard Raverine coming towards me, so I placed the d