https://youtu.be/r7YYAy1Q3Ek

 As evening came, I went out of the room after closing the door slowly, careful not to wake up Zaphira. I went down the hallway to find Zephyr and saw him standing at the entrance. I walked up to him and asked if I could run the patrol in the woods with him but he refused.

"But why?" I asked.

"I don't want you in my way." He exclaimed in an irritated tone and I frowned in annoyance.

 But before we could speak again, Lucas saw us arguing from a distance and came to us.

"You must look after her. Take her with you, Zephyr." He said after he got to know the reason for our little fight.

"Fine. Come with me and try to keep up." Zephyr told me in a displeased voice and scowled at Lucas, that Lucas pretended not to notice and walked away. 

I slowly smiled in victory as I saw Zephyr start walking into the forest, gesturing for me to follow.

In the forest, I saw a man carrying a dead bear and at that time, I was glad Zaphira stood back in my room, but I still wanted to know why the man did that.

"Why did you kill this poor bear?" I asked him and the man stopped walking to turn toward me.

"I didn't kill it. It was lying dead."

"Then, where are you taking him, now?" I asked again.

"Him?" The man raised his eyebrows and then continued, "Well, I make a living out of dead animals and such."

"Oh," I said, looking at the poor bear's face, all lifeless.

"Anyway, I'll be on my way." The man gave me a questioning stare and walked in the direction of the mansion, leaving me a bit confused.

"Don't give yourself away," Zephyr said, with a frown after the man left.

"What do you mean?" 

"I know Elves care much about animals but vampires aren't the same. We hunt animals too, to survive." He stated to which I stared at him, wide-eyed.

"That was Drake. He lives in the mansion and knows when something's wrong. He has a gift for that. I wouldn't be surprised if he found out already, that you're an Elf." He replied.

A gift. That word got me. Of all the years I thought I'm one of a kind but there were two other people like me. Rosario and Drake. I smiled to myself but then my smile turned into a grimace.

"Does that mean you don't like Zaphira?" I looked into his eyes.

"Huh? That's what you're worried about?"

"Answer me." I insisted.

"Why should I? It's not like she's my pet. Anyway, she is protective when it comes to you, I'll give her that", He said and glanced in the opposite direction and continued, "If you're dealing with a rabbit or a capybara." He said with a small chuckle.

"What?!" I scowled and hit him hard on his shoulder.

"I mean seriously, she's too soft for a wolf. I bet she can't hurt any vampire, let alone a whole coven." He declared as he walked away.

"That's because you haven't seen her fight." I stuck my tongue at him and he turned his face to me to see him roll his eyes.

 I slowly rolled my mouth into small pouts before following behind him. And after a few minutes of walking, I heard an unfamiliar voice calling out to me.

"Irina..."

I looked around but saw no one. But not too long after, the voice called my name again and I stopped walking.

"Zephyr, I think I heard someone calling my name," I told him.

"It's just your imagination." He replied swiftly and kept on walking but the next moment, the voice that called me, called again, but this time to Zephyr.

"It's fine, Zephyr. I just want to talk to her." The voice said.

"Fine, come Irina." Zephyr gestured to me to follow him which I did slowly. 

We walked to the other side of the hedge and the sight which waited for me was stunning. We stood in a rose garden similar to the other one near the mansion but bigger and more elegant, with a fountain in the centre. I breathed in the sweet fragrance and smiled.

As I observed the garden further, one of the roses turned towards me and called my name to which I moved back with a shriek, still staring at the big rose.

"Don't be afraid, Irina. I am Rosapast, a magical rose created by your mother, Zahara." The red rose said and swayed like it was bowing down to me. I froze and Zephyr also looked like he was caught off guard.

"You're Lady Zahara's daughter?!" He asked in great astonishment.

'I guess I have no other way now.' I thought and slowly sighed to myself before nodding.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He moved towards me a little and stopped there, staring at the rose.

"Why do you care?" I asked back, firmly.

"Well, I don't know much about her but I've heard the stories from Harold," Zephyr exclaimed with his eyes focused on me to which I stared back at him in confusion.

"Who is that?" I asked.

"Huh?" He looked at me closely and frowned before speaking again, "What do you mean? He's your-"

"No need to ask her something she doesn't know, Zephyr." Rosapast cut him off swiftly and we both gazed at her in surprise.

"Irina, What did Zahara tell you about her life before you?" She asked me and I thought back a little, still in a confused state.

"Well, she told me that she made a pact between the Elves and vampires and stayed with them for a while and soon, she returned to the Elves," I told her and shrugged a little.

"That's not entirely true, Irina," Rosapast said.

"What do you mean? Are you telling me that my mother lied to me?" I asked back with a glare.

"Never. She said that to protect you."

"From what?!" I clenched my fist and shouted at her as the roses swayed in the breeze.

"Your mother stayed with the vampires because she fell in love with Harold, the oldest vampire. They held each other to their hearts but soon they had a child.", She said in a low voice and then continued, "The child turned out to be half-vampire and half-Elven. It mostly fed on Zahara's blood and she became weaker day by day. So Harold had to kill the child. And he sent Zahara back to the Elven kingdom, knowing it'll be dangerous for her to stay anymore. There, she met your father, Mediveh. And now, she has you and your sister." She explained to me that I moved back, trying hard to breathe from the sudden shock.

 'No, it can't be true.' I told myself as I sat on a nearby boulder and covered my face with my hands. Zephyr came by my side, placing a hand on my shoulder and I looked at him.

"Tell me this isn't happening, Zephyr. Tell me she's lying."

"Irina..." He started and shook his head slowly.  I nodded back with a faint smile and stood up as I didn't have the strength to stay there any longer.

 "I need to be alone. Don't follow me." I said, nearly in tears and walked out of the garden.

I was in the forest again and there was total silence except for the birds chirping and owls hooting. I sat on the ground and broke into tears when I was completely alone. 

'No. Mother's not a liar. She always tells me the truth.' I thought.

 'She said it to protect you.' Those words rang in my head and I cried onto my palms to take in everything that I just heard.

But all of a sudden, I heard someone from behind and I quickly wiped away my tears and sat up straight.

"I thought I told you not to follow me, Zephyr," I spoke, irritated. 

But due to the response being nothing and just silence, I stood up in a stance and looked around in observation. And as I was doing so, someone grabbed me from behind and threw me onto a nearby tree so hard that I hit my head and fell.

I tried to take my dagger from my cloth only to realize that I left it back in the mansion.

"Ugh." I groaned in frustration as I turned to face the culprit.

"So you're the one the boss wants, huh?. Why would he care about a girl like you? You're just a brat." The man whose voice I heard came in front of me and I realized that he was the same man who tried to hurt me when I ran away from Zephyr.

 His blazing bloodshot eyes didn't allude to his sanity as he took out his sword and swung at me. I ducked away from it and cried out as the blade grazed my cheek.

"The look of pain on your face suits you, brat. I'm going to give you a long and painful death." The man exclaimed as he swung his sword at me again. 

I tried to dodge desperately but his movements were faster than mine. The blade cut my arm and before I knew it, the ground was soaked with my blood. I started feeling dizzy and my body felt heavy but still managed to duck away from his next attack.

"I'm getting tired of you. I guess I'll put you out of your misery." He declared with a twisted smile and cut me deeply from my shoulder to my chest that I screamed out in pain. 

A severe splash of blood spurted from my body and my vision started to go black. I crumbled to the ground as he got hold of me and dug his sharp fangs onto my neck, starting to suck my blood.

I saw Zephyr moving towards us as my vision continued to fade. To his sudden arrival, the man was taken aback that he dropped me onto the ground. The two were standing face to face and started to close on each other. 

The man was fighting off Zephyr's diversions and tried to duck around him to reach me but Zephyr was much quicker and blocked his moves whenever he tried. Then, Zephyr launched a backhanded blow on the man's chest and he crashed onto a rock wall above my head.

That didn't stop the man at all that he stood up again with a hand supporting his chest and sprang at me. But before he could hurt me further, Zephyr was in front of me in a quick flash and he threw the man away from me.

 The man backed away, his face rigid in pain. He glared at me with his eyes full of hatred and then disappeared into the deeper part of the forest. I slowly leaned against a tree and tried to sit as Zephyr came beside me and knelt.

"This is why I told you to be careful," He gave me a small grin as he lifted me and spoke further, "Should I at least kill you to put you out of your misery?" He asked with a crooked smile and I began to whimper, grabbing his arm to stay steady.

"No, I can't die... I have to save my mother...my sister...everyone..." I said weakly.

"Very well then." He replied and slowly closed his eyes.

Then he slowly opened his eyes to me only to show me that his eyes had turned red as he looked at me.

"Zephyr...What are you..." I began, raising my eyebrows weakly.

"You don't have much time to be choosing options, you're dying." He claimed and without waisting further, he pierced his fangs into my neck.

"Agh!"

As he sucked deeper, the spot where the man had bitten me, began to heat up. However, all the pain inside my body instantly disappears and it didn't hurt me anymore, on the contrary. I surrendered everything to Zephyr inside his arms since I was too weak to retract from his actions. 

After a while, he parted his lips away from my neck and looked like he was in a state of agony. It seemed as if he sucked out all the pain in my body that I tried to stretch my hand towards him.

"Zephyr?" 

But before I could reach out to him, my body felt numb and I couldn't move. He wiped his lips, wet from my blood, with his hand. 

"It'll take some time to heal." He exclaimed as he started walking, carrying me in both of his arms.

I realized at that time, that I only felt safe being held by him. And after some time, the world around me faded away.