The atmosphere in the van turned icy silent, with Theodore refusing to warrant Chaerin a response but somehow still abided with her request by default. It was a silence that stretched for several hours.
"Children." Drusilla whispered into Lukas' mind. "What kind of brats organized this mission? It did not even take into account the differences between you folks–I wouldn't be surprised if one or two individuals betrayed each other in the end."
Lukas didn't want to acknowledge the Sanguise ancestor's thoughts, but it was something that needed to be said.
'Even if Theodore does not care for the Vardokens–'
"Utterly reviles them." Drusilla offered.
'Fine. Even if Theodore absolutely hates the guts of Stacy and Alexei, he'll tolerate them because Lily's life is in their hands. We're not here because we're all friends, we're present because we all have separate goals that can be achieved by working together. That's enough to keep us from killing each other, okay?' Lukas said.
"You mean that this young man has simply not found a way yet to eliminate one of them. It's only absolutely necessary to keep one alive, and the other can be disposed of."
Lukas bristled at those words and then glanced discreetly at Alexei.
The Vampire could have been not here and Stacy would still be able to take care of Lily…
Lukas tried to clear his thoughts, assure himself that Theodore wasn't that completely insane and yet the possibility made his skin crawl.
"What are you looking at?" Alexei grunted and raised his brows. "You could be ogling at your girlfriend but you have your eyes all up on me."
Lukas sighed and looked back at Chaerin. She gave him an awkward smile and reached out to squeeze his hand.
"You doing good?"
"Mhmm, perfect." Lukas assured her and squeezed back.
Chaerin nodded. She didn't like the Vardokens that much, mostly because of Stacy alone–but she didn't hesitate to cut off Theodore from speaking too hostilely with them. Did she regret it? Not at all.
If there was anything that her parents had taught her…
Chaerin's eyes dimmed slightly. She thought back on her sister Chelsea and her heart pounded.
How was that girl doing back at Lux? Was she alright? Did she do anything crazy?
She had not a single clue and it gave her a headache.
"What about you, Chaerin? You don't look so good." Lukas asked.
"Ah… I'm fine." Chaerin said.
"You have that look on your face that says you're worried about someone." Alexei pointed out.
"Oh wait, is this about Chelsea?"
Chaerin blinked at Alexei being able to recognize it, slowly nodded and yet didn't want to elaborate to the group.
She had to keep secrets, even with someone she loved.
***
The mind was a funny thing–it could only handle so much dullness before it searched for something to appease its boredom.
After driving near constantly for the past few days since they left the city of Lux, Theodore also started to search for a break.
ƥαṇdα- ηθνε|·ƈθm "We'll… we'll take a stop here for now." Theodore said. "I need to check the van if it's in need of any repairs."
"Isn't that odd, you used to drive for nearly sixteen hours nonstop." Alexei muttered with a smirk. "Never once considered that until now."
"Do you have any problems? We can finally take some time off to fight if that is what you've been itching for all this time." Theodore said.
"No, thanks. I'm good–the sun is itchy." Alexei waved a hand idly.
"Very well."
Lukas was surprised that Alexei was more than willing to brush off what Theodore had said before, but it also seemed to show his maturity and willingness to work together. Maybe.
Either way, despite the fact that Theodore said that they'll be heading towards the City of Nyx–it was a great distance compared to the Veiled Forest and Imago Desert alike.
"I thought it was a little overkill when Serena and her maid gave us a stock for three months worth of blood, but it's actually quite far away huh?" Lukas glanced out the window.
"The great distance between each settlement shows how widespread the previous Vampire empire was." Theodore said.
"Finally willing to show us some history facts huh?" Lukas said. He didn't want to completely annoy the assassin, but it didn't mean that he'd act like a complete pushover either. "We were an empire?"
"There's a lot of traditional oral stories from Umbra, so even if we've lost a certain amount of history with books and records getting destroyed and such–the stories still remain." Theodore said. "There might be a bit of variations, but they're mostly believed to be accurate."
"I see." Lukas hummed slightly. "I didn't know that you were a story boy."
If he glanced at their other companions, they also seemed interested in hearing what Theodore had to say–because he was actually right about losing precious historical information in the past.
The war with the humans that occurred decades ago had culminated into precious books being destroyed around Lux City as far as the Vardokens knew.
And if they had asked Drusilla, even centuries into the past–humans were already a pain for the Vampires.
"If you insist on interrupting me, I won't bother speaking." Theodore grunted.
"Nono, go on and continue. Everyone would love to hear, right?"
"Yes." Chaerin agreed instantly.
"Sure." Alexei shrugged.
"Alright." Stacy said last.
"Story time, eh?" Rhea said, floating in the air. "It'd be pleasant to hear that."
"Well, there's not much–but in the past, our kind mostly existed as small groups and fought one another for resources, not too different from lycans that used to exist in tribes. You could almost say that we were the lesser races before, smaller in number and faced with enemies that were as strong or stronger than us."
"And what changed that?"
"When the humans came around, the Vampires were able to increase their manpower and had more available blood to feed on–increasing their own populations because of it."
"Did we also mix with them?"
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