Part 4 — I rescued a vampire cub at night, but when its lord extended his hand to me, everyone in the hotel fell silent

“Then you will use my power,” I told Draven.

My voice was trembling, but I was no longer crying.

Selena picked up the moon-shaped clasp from the floor. Its edges had become hot, although it did not burn her hand.

“This is not only a key,” she said. “It is a witness. A witness of the old oath.”

“Can I bring Mateo back?”

“If Kassian opens the door, perhaps no one will be able to bring him back.”

Draven struck the wall with his fist. The stone cracked, but he did not turn his eyes toward me.

“I allowed Kassian to remain beside me for so long.”

“Do not punish yourself now. We must find my son.”

“The hunters’ tunnel is on the northern slope.”

“Then let us go.”

Just then all the bells of the palace rang at once. From far away came the cries of vampires and the sound of a heavy door falling.

Kassian had opened the lower gate of the city.

Draven turned toward the members of the council.

“Whoever comes with me takes up a weapon. Whoever serves Kassian, let him come out now.”

Four vampires rose from their places. Three remained with their heads bowed.

Kassian’s advocate, the old Neron, removed his ring.

“I no longer represent him,” he said. “He has broken the law of his own blood.”

Draven only nodded.

No one celebrated. Everyone understood that we no longer had time.

When we entered the northern tunnel, bones creaked under our feet. Smoke marks left by the hunters could be seen on the walls. The clasp in my hand pulsed like a heartbeat and pointed in the same direction every time.

“How do you hear this?” Draven asked me.

“I do not know. It is as though Mateo is calling me.”

“He is waiting for you.”

“Did you protect Iker in the same way?”

Draven was silent for several seconds.

“Iker is my sister’s son. His parents were killed by Kassian when he raised a rebellion to break the line of succession. I could not reach him in time then. That is why I am afraid that I will not reach Mateo in time either.”

“This time you are not alone.”

He looked at me.

“You can still leave.”

“You promised me that men would never touch us again. And I promise you that this time I will be beside you.”

At the end of the tunnel an underground temple appeared. In the middle stood a door of black stone. In front of it stood Kassian, holding Mateo in one hand and raising a bloody cup high with the other.

“One more step and the boy dies!” he shouted.

Mateo’s eyes were full of tears, but he did not make a sound.

“Mother, do not come closer,” he said. “He wants to frighten you.”

Kassian looked at him in astonishment.

“A five-year-old child and already so clever?”

“He is my son,” I answered.

Kassian looked toward the clasp.

“Give me the key and I will let both of you go.”

“You have already deceived humans, vampires, and your own brother. Why should I believe you?”

“Because you have no other choice.”

Draven stepped forward.

“Kassian, this is over.”

“No. It will be over when I make you lose your son before your eyes.”

Mateo was my son, but Kassian did not know that on the night when I saved a vampire cub, something had changed in my blood. Draven’s oath had not simply been words. The touch of his hand awakened the guardian’s mark in me.

I took the clasp in my hand.

The door lit up.

Kassian placed a knife against Mateo’s throat, but Draven spread a shadow across the ground. Kassian’s shadow clung to his legs and restrained his movement.

“Now!” Selena shouted.

I ran toward the door, placed the clasp in the middle of the stone, and said with all my strength:

“The guardian does not give away his blood.”

The stone door opened, but power did not come out of it. On the contrary, it snatched the bloody cup from Kassian’s hand, and black fire wrapped around him.

“You were not the door, but the lock!” he shouted.

The leader of the hunters rushed into the temple. In his hand he held the same black ring.

“Continue the ritual!” he ordered Kassian.

Kassian screamed, but at that very moment an old recorded voice from the glass tablet sounded throughout the temple. It was Kassian’s own voice, saying years earlier: “Mariana’s descendant must remain alive. Until the door is opened, do not kill the woman.”

The leader of the hunters froze.

Kassian raised his head.

“Destroy that recording!”

“You yourself said those words,” Draven told him.

There was no regret toward his brother in his voice.

Only truth.

The leader of the hunters lowered his weapon. Neron took the tablet of law from him and read aloud that the blood oath received from the human tribe placed all hunters against Kassian.

Kassian stepped back.

“You cannot judge me!”

“No,” I told him. “Your own voice has already pronounced judgment on your words.”

Draven bound the shadows. Kassian fell to his knees, while the leader of the hunters was led away in handcuffs. No one applauded. Even victory tasted of exhaustion.

Mateo ran toward me.

I hugged him and kissed his hair.

“Were you afraid?”

“Yes,” he told me. “But I knew you would come.”

“I will always come.”

Draven stood several steps away from us. Iker was at his feet, alive and already wrapped in Selena’s white bandage.

“You can leave,” Draven told me. “Now there is no danger anymore.”

“And you?”

“I will rebuild this city from the beginning.”

“Then we will stay here too, until we have a home.”

The darkness in his eyes became peaceful for the first time.

That same week Kassian lost his power. Neron admitted all the agreements before the council, the hunters’ rings were burned, and the people of Xochitlan had to reconsider the old lies about the existence of vampires. I did not go to court for revenge. I only gave testimony and told them what Kassian had done.

Draven stood together with me.

When everything was over, we returned to the small room they had given us in the eastern wing of the palace. There was no broken window there anymore, nor a damp blanket, nor the moaning of a feverish child. They made a wooden bed for Mateo. On the wall he drew three figures with his own hand: me, himself, and little winged Iker.

My old green robe hung on a chair. I took the moon-shaped clasp from its breast pocket and hung it above the bed.

Three months later the first snow came.

I began working in the city’s healing house. Mateo went to school, and in the evenings he forced Draven to learn to read. Draven, who had ruled for centuries, memorized letters from a five-year-old child.

One evening Mateo asked me:

“Mother, are we still fugitives?”

“No.”

“Then who are we?”

I looked at the snow through the window.

“We are those who do not leave one another.”

Several weeks later a letter came from Kassian. He had sent it from the stone wall of the prison.

“You and I can rule the kingdom together. Mateo will have a better future. Just come and listen to me.”

Draven took the letter in his hand.

“Do you want me to burn it?”

“No.”

“Do you want us to send an answer?”

“Yes.”

I wrote one sentence:

“I am not returning to a place where my son is used as a price.”

Draven folded the letter and handed it to Neron.

The next morning I found my old green robe washed and mended. There was a new, strong stitch on its pocket. I put on the robe, took Mateo’s hand, and went out into the snowy courtyard.

The moon-shaped clasp swayed lightly in the wind.

This time its cold voice was no longer the voice of escape.

It hung on the door of the house.

And for the first time in my life, I ran nowhere.