Earlier that day

Jason

It looks normal. My home looks normal. I thought that it would be completely destroyed by Hunter at this point.

I leaned against a tree and took in my surroundings. I also mentally prepared myself for bumping into my father, and also Hayley. My main focus is to get Samuel, if that means fighting my father, and fighting Hayley as well as the housemates and council, so be it.

There were no guards outside. There were no animals on the farm on the far left side of the yard.

It might be a trap.

I sat down on the ground against the tree criss crossing my legs. I placed my two hands together, closed my eyes, and focused my breathing on locating Samuels scent.

It was a weak scent, meaning he was inside. Most likely in the prison we have down in the basement next to the execution room my father created.

I tried locating any other scents and those were faint as well.

The only scents that I couldn't locate were Hayley and my fathers.

"Okay." I breathed out. "That might be a good thing."

I stood up and slowly began walking towards the place I once called home.

As I entered, I was greeted by one of the little vampire girls who lived in my home.

"Hey Prince, what are you doing here? I haven't seen you in sooo long!" Isabella chirped.

"Shh." I placed my finger over her lip, and bent down so I could be equal to her height.

"I'm here on a secret mission." I said childishly. "You need to make sure no one knows I'm here, because if they do, the present that I have— I won't give it."

"Present?" She whispered.

I nodded my head and smiled.

"What is the present, Prince?"

"It's a secret."

"Is it something that all the children here would enjoy?"

"Yes, it is. Now don't tell anyone I'm here so you guys can get the presents okay?"

"Okay Prince, I'll keep your secret." She held out a fist to me.

We fist-bumped and I began walking further into the house.

I feel kinda bad about lying to her, but this is for her safety, and the safety of the innocent that are living here. Besides, she's only 4. 4 year olds have bad memory anyways.

Much to my surprise, no one was in the council room which leads to the basement. I began feeling a weird sensation run down my skin as I realized it can't be this easy to retrieve Samuel. There's something that has to go wrong, something has to pop up that would delay the rescue of Samuel.

I continued my path towards the basement, much to my surprise, the door to the basement was open.

And because of this, I was on guard. There was no way the basement door would be open because my father always keeps it locked.

With each step I took down into the basement, the more anxious and nervous I got. I was being careful, and I was aware of my surroundings, but these men my father works with are trained. I could be walking right into a trap and don't know it.

I even considered turning around at one point, but this is Samuel. The only person who I've grown up with that I can truly trust. I'd consider him to be the last of "us", because when this ends, I don't know if there will be "us".

I continued walking into the basement until I saw a shadow. I focused my consciousness and identified who the scent was.

"Samuel." I said softly.

His scent was the only scent I could detect, meaning there was no one in here.

"Samuel!" I said out loud.

I began to jog towards the cell he was in.

When I saw him, I was taken back by how awful he looked. His skin was gray, his body looked weaker than it was before, his eyes were yellow, red, and teary. There were cuts and even bruises on his skin that weren't healing.

"Samuel!" I shouted as I began pulling on the cell gate.

"J-jason." He coughed.

"Oh my gosh, Samuel I'm going to get you out of here. We can go meet Francis, and then he can heal you."

The cell gates were hard to open. Father made the cell gates this sturdy for a reason, he didn't want any vampires escaping, or any vampires breaking another vampire out.

"The-the key is-." He coughed "King melted it so I wouldn't escape."

Father melted the key?! No fucking way. That means he really didn't want Samuel to escape.

"I didn't drink blood for days Prince, I used the last bit of my energy to contact you. I am sorry I am useless to you, but you have to help me. I'm set to be executed soon. I'm not ready to die . Not without seeing my children."

"How Samuel, what can I do?! These floors are metal, it's not like I can dig through!" I started to panic.

"Contact my children."

I blinked multiple times, perplexed.

"How do you expect me to do that?"

"I can lend you the little bit of strength I do have." He whispered.

"Can't I just go find a person, and bring you some of their blood? Francis said he knows people who willingly give him blood."

Samuel began struggling to breathe. You can tell by the little whistle his body was producing every time he sucked in breath.

"No. King and his men will only be gone for a few hours, I predict they will be back by tonight. You have to contact my children."

We were arguing back and forth for a while about different ways we could get him out of here. However, he was persistent on his kids being the one to come rescue him. I gave up a few minutes later after realizing he was dead set on his kids coming.

"Fine." I groaned. "Show me."

I sat down on the floor crossing my legs.

"This will take a lot of energy, okay?"

"Whatever."

"Come closer, and hold my hand." I watched as he struggled to fit his hand through the crack of the cell.

I urgently scooted closer to him, and grabbed his hand because I couldn't bear to watch him struggle like that.

"I need you to focus your energy in the palm that I'm holding."

"Focus my energy."

"Yes Prince, it's very similar to you focusing your sense of breathing to detect a familiar scent."

I took a deep breath, and closed my eyes.

Focus my energy in my hand? That sounds a bit confusing.

"Focus." Samuel directed. "Clear your head of everything, and focus on your hand."

I took a deep breath as all the thoughts I had flowed out my head. I began focusing on the tension in my hand, and that's when I started feeling my body disconnect with the real world, as my weight slowly diminished.

My heart began beating rapidly until it dropped and when I opened my eyes, I was in a new world.

"Woah." I said aloud as I soaked in the environment.

It was warm outside. Very dissimilar to the weather that was in the town of Mayfield. I was surrounded by beautiful gigantic houses which were filled with life, unlike the houses in mayfield.

I saw children riding their bikes up and down the streets, some elders watering their plants and tending their yards, and some people walking their animals.

This doesn't seem real.

Go to that house in front of you, that's where my children live. Hurry- not much time left.

Samuels voice caused me to jump. I was not expecting to be able to hear his voice.

I listened to what he said and began walking toward the house. I tried to knock on the door, but instead, my hand went right through it. Confused, I put my other hand on the door and the same thing just happened.

"I guess I can just walk in." I shrugged to myself.

When I walked through the door, I was greeted by a muscular, dark-haired women. She stood at the door with what seems to be a stake gun in her hand and she was just glaring at me.

"State your name." She spat.

I held up a hand in defense. "Woah, woah calm down, I am not here to hurt you."

She cocked her gun, redirected the aim to my head and repeated, "State your name."

"Jason." I simply stated. "I am here on behalf of your father, Samuel."

Her eyes softened at the mention of his name as she called two more people.

"Nicolas, Charles, come down here right now!"

Not even long after, two incredibly huge men ran from two different directions. They were more muscular and larger than Samuel himself, but you can tell these were his kids. They looked almost exactly like him.

"What's wrong Mary?" They said when they reached her.

They all began whispering to each other, and while I attempted to focus on what they were saying I noticed a unique feature about them that I've never noticed in Rue.

One eye is glowing red—similar to a vampire—while their other eye is a regular brown color.

"What I suspect is true, isn't it?" The girl looked back towards me.

"If what you suspect is the return of Francis, then yes. But that's not what I'm here for." I said.

"That's not what I was referring to you idiot, our father, he's in trouble isn't he?" Mary placed her weapon in her pocket.

I nodded my head.

"I knew it." Nicolas moaned in clear irritation. "The King, he finally showed who he really was."

"So you know?" I asked them.

They all nodded their heads in sync.

"That man has wanted us dead since the day we were born." Charles said, his voice extremely deep. "The only reason we are alive now is because our father has made a deal with him, a very stupid deal."

"Yes— very stupid, but he did it for us, and mom." Mary sighed.

"Samuel— he's in a very bad situation right now, and I mean bad." I began explaining the events that pulled off since the day my father drained him of his power, and locked him up.

I told them how I'm camping out with Francis as of now, and how we are planning on attacking my father without injuring people, and destroying the town of mayfield. I also told them about Hunter and his demon side unlocking, and how there is a possibility that he could be raging against the town, although it's been very quiet.

They weren't even shocked about Hunter's demon side unlocking, and they knew my father was evil and Francis was good? How were they aware of what my father did? Wouldn't they be subject to the mind erasing as well?

"Our father— we need to help him now, where are you guys at?" Charles' tone changed to a very concerned one.

"We are at the," I noticed my body started to fade away slowly, starting at the legs.

"We are at the old abandoned mansion in the town of mayfield, come to the basement, hurry!" I said hastily.

Luckily, I got everything I needed to say out, because now, I was back in reality.

I felt my heart and stomach drop again as I became conscious of my surroundings.

I breathed heavily in an attempt to catch my breath and looked towards Samuel.

"How long would it take for them to come?" I said , softly releasing his hand.

He began coughing fanatically. "Their home is not far from here, it's about 2 hours away, but due to their immense speed-."

He stopped talking.

"Samuel?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

His eyes were closed, and he looked to be stuck in the position he was laying in.

"Samuel?" I feared the worst.

"Samuel!" I began shaking his arm, then I put my hand over his nostril to see if he was breathing.

"Oh fuck." I let out a sigh of release as I realized he could be going through a temporary death.

He is being starved of blood, and since starvation isn't a way vampires could die, he would only temporarily die, then come back to life and have to live in this hell hole forever. This is why I want to get him out as soon as possible, with minimal damage.

"Hurry up you guys." I complained looking up towards the basement entrance.

—

"Dad!" A high pitched voice awoke me from my nap.

When I opened my eyes, I noticed Mary, Charles, and Nicolas running into the room with multiple weapons in their hands. Nicolas even had a couple of blood stains on his white shirt.

"Did you kill anyone?" I pointed to his shirt.

"We ran into some trouble, this place is heavily guarded on the outside now, and it's only what... 11:30 at night?"

"Heavily guarded at this time of night, when I was coming in no one was here?" I was shocked. Our home was never heavily guarded at this time of a night. Usually, our house was guarded during the day.

Maybe they fear Francis' return, so they need to stay aware.

"Dad, oh my god." A tear fell down Mary's red eye.

She placed her weapons in the back of her hands and began analyzing the bar handles.

"What type of metal is this?" She dragged a finger onto it, and rubbed her thumb against that finger.

"Whatever it is, it looks unnatural." Charles began examining the metal as well.

"You couldn't bend the rods, correct?" Charles looked back towards me.

I shook my head. "No, I couldn't."

Nicolas pushed Mary and Charles out the way and began feeling on the bars.

"It's hollow here." He said as his hands reached the bottom of the bar.

With ease, he began pulling each bar away from each other, and much to my surprise, it bent. It didn't even look like he tried.

"So this is some of the strength of a dhampir." I said to myself.

This puts into perspective how strong Rue could truly be in terms of physical strength.

"I'll carry him." Charles said as he went into the cell to grab his father who was in and out of consciousness.

"Jason, you are okay right?" Mary asked, helping me up.

"Yes."

I looked her in the eyes and quickly became intimidated by her presence. She was taller than me, she was more muscular than me, and because of this I felt small.

"Your eyes say otherwise." She stated. "It looks like you're going through a lot. Whatever it is, I promise you'll get through it."

She sent me a small smile before focusing her attention on the entrance of the basement.

I guess it's true when people say the eyes are the window to the soul. I feel like in a matter of seconds, just by looking me in the eye, she understood my struggle. She understood everything that was stressing me out, and how overwhelmed I was with it. Although it was weird, it made me feel good.

"Jason, are you ready for what's about to happen outside?" Nicolas warned. "I'm pretty sure we will be dealing with a whole lot of shit, so I hope you can fend for yourself."

"I- I can." I stuttered.

I went from feeling intimidated by Mary's presence, to being intimidated by all of them. We were going to have to fight our way out of here, and clearly, the three of them would focus their attention on protecting their father. I was on my own, for real this time.

I began feeling insecure because what if they start judging me for my strength. I am pretty strong, however, I'm not strong enough. I've realized that when I was told animal blood doesn't provide the proper nutrition and doesn't let me use my full vampiric powers, but I couldn't try human blood. It was against my morals. When they realize that, I probably won't hear or feel the end of it.

"Let's head out." Nicolas said.

One by one, they each ran out of the room at great speed. I took in the overwhelming environment of the basement, then soon followed after them.

It was easy exiting my home as no one was there. But where most of the police officials, and soldiers were at, was outside of my home.

"Charles—We three will distract these guys, what I need you to do is track Francis' scent since you're the best at that." Nicolas ordered. "Track his scent, relay the message of his location to us, and once we take some people down, we will follow you."

"Okay Nicolas." Charles agreed.

I noticed his red eyes started glowing even lighter after breathing in hard. After a few seconds, he sprinted in the direction I came from—west.

I noted how ordered the three of them were for siblings. The dynamic of these three, and the fact that they are all Dhampirs, must mean when they work as a team they are probably unstoppable.

A shiver went down my spine, bringing back my nervousness.

"Nicolas." Mary said keeping guard of the soldiers pointing stakes at us. "I will get this group over here, Jason you get the one to your right, and Nicolas since you're in the middle, you will get those men."

"Yes." Nicolas said. He looked at me then told me. "Stay safe Jason."

I looked to my right to notice 7 men. Luckily, they all were wearing headgear to protect their heads, so I couldn't identify who they were removing any personal connection that could prevent me from going for the kill.

"Move in." Mary muttered loud enough for us to hear.

I watched carefully as Nicolas and Mary smoothly ran in and started effortlessly dodging the stakes that were being thrown at them. I watched Mary jump high in the air, then down on top of the most vulnerable soldier, using his body as a shield as well as a weapon. She then began using her gun and shooting stakes at each of the guards that were surrounding her with ease.

I then turned my attention towards Nicolas after hearing a few screams from his direction. He was going insane with the soldiers. With his bare hands, he tore off a soldier's head, and like a bullet, threw it at some other vampire soldier, which decapitated his head, killing him. I gaped my mouth open in awe, and fear as I never saw another vampire exhibit strength like that before. It was incredible.

Now it's my turn to fight.

I looked back towards the vampire soldiers who were standing in a circle, just staring at me. I guess they didn't attack me sooner because they are unsure of what to do with me. I am the King's son, and I presume that they don't want to cause injury to me.

"Noel, what are we going to do?" I heard one of the soldiers ask.

"This is our Prince, I fear that we can't cause injury to him." The guy responded.

"But he caused injury to some of our people and worked with the enemy. He's a traitor at this point."

"But there were no orders from the King that said to eliminate him."

"Aw fuck that shit." Another voice piped up. "If King is not going to kill this man-." He cocked his gun.

"I will."

The guy sprinted towards me, and grabbed my neck. I began struggling to escape his grasp but he was too strong. I've gotten weaker. I couldn't rely on my strength to fight this guy, I have to use my wits.

I elbowed this guy hard in the ribs in an attempt to release his grip, but it didn't work. In a panicked state, I looked for a sharpened stick on the ground, and when I found one, I pulled our bodies toward it.

I took my shoe off for some mobility in my feet, grabbed the stick with my toes, and stabbed the man in his heart. I felt his body disintegrate behind me. I leaned against a tree and began catching my breath.

"This is not going to be good, I haven't eaten in hours." I placed my hand over my stomach.

The 6 other vampires began charging at me, but with the strength I had, instead of fighting, I was only dodging them. I transformed to my vampire state to help with my mobility, and only that. I looked to Nicolas and Mary for help, but they were too busy fighting their own battle to help me.

"Oh my god." I groaned.

Things were about to go south for me until all 6 of the vampires coming for me dropped in an instant. For some reason, they all turned into ash, and I have no clue why.

That is until I noticed Charles from my peripheral, staring at me in disappointment.

I ran towards him, but avoided eye contact with him.

"Jason, how are you the Prince, but can't fight off 6 vampires on your own." He said, dismayed.

"I didn't eat in hours. I feel weak." I looked at the ground and began playing with the dirt under my