MY JAW clenched when I heard a human’s footsteps. I could hear her panting while struggling to catch up to me. I shook my head in dismay. It was another Seeker.
More than a decade of following Erasmus to different parts of the world had made me encounter countless of Seekers. They were the humans who knew about the Vampires’ existence, humans whose dreams were to be like us so they were constantly searching for Vampires. But I had never turned any of them. The Seekers knew nothing of what the Vampires were going through. I was not that cruel to pass them the curse of living for eternity.
For the countless time, I felt like someone just stabbed me in the chest as I remembered Levana. I had tried coming back to her many times. But Sullivan surrounded Calhoun with Vampire Knights who were older and stronger than me. For two years, I had fought with other Vampires and had risked my life over and over only to see her again.
But I stopped when I heard that Levana married Sullivan. I was devastated. That urged me to accept Erasmus’ offer and leave Calhoun together with him.
Erasmus became my mentor. He taught me how to live as a Vampire. He was a Caitiff, a lone Vampire who did not belong to any Clan or Organization. He was also neutral when it came to Vampires. He refused to side with anybody. He was the one who confirmed Sullivan’s identity. As it turned out, that bastard was a real Prince. Sullivan was the son of a Primus, one of the oldest Vampires in the world. He was a member of the Council, too.
Through Erasmus, I discovered about Acantha and Xenos and my connection with them. Levana and I turned out to be Acantha and Xenos’ doppelgangers. Levana was the carbon copy of Acantha, a Vampire who came from a Clan of Vampires and Sorceress. Her mother was a Sorceress while her father was a Vampire. Levana married her admirer Sullivan a thousand years ago to strengthen her Clan’s power and influence.
Acantha and Sullivan’s relationship went well in the beginning, especially since Sullivan was madly in love with his wife. But everything had changed the day Acantha met Xenos, a Black Swan member. They were the humans who support the Vampire community.
Xenos was working as a Knight in Illinois when he saw Acantha. For the first time, Acantha who was over a hundred years old at that time, fell in love with the thirty-seven-year-old Xenos. The two had a forbidden relationship. One day, they decided to elope. They went to another country, far from Illinois. Acantha turned Xenos into a Vampire to make sure that they would live together for eternity.
Her betrayal enraged Sullivan along with his Clan. With their Knights, they hunted the run-away couple. Sullivan found them in the Northern part of Asia and killed them. But what he did caused a war to break out between Acantha and Sullivan’s Clan.
Ramona, Acantha’s mother, was the strongest and the most powerful Sorceress in their clan. She used a dark spell to bring her only child back to life and she succeeded. But Acantha went crazy when she found out that her mother no longer had the capacity to revive Xenos, too. She became a Rogue Vampire and revealed her true nature to humans. She ruthlessly killed innocent Vampires and humans.
Because of the chaos brought by Acantha and the wars between Sullivan and her Clan, the Council was created. Every Primus or Ruler of every Clan became its members. The Council had formed the laws which every Vampire should oblige. The ones who would fail to comply would be severely punished. The laws had forced the two Clans to stop fighting each other but their animosity towards one another remained.
Out of Ramona’s fear that her daughter might be punished, she created another spell. From Acantha’s memories of Xenos, she created a new Xenos who was a human. They named it Killian, he was Xenos’ first doppelganger. His looks, his built, his voice, and everything about him were all identical to Xenos. Killian was created to continue Acantha and Xenos’ love story. And should they die, they would be born again as human doppelgangers to keep reliving their love story.
Ramona made that possible. It was according to her daughter’s wishes.
Acantha and Killian lived happily, but Sullivan discovered about their existence and the spell. His Clan used many Sorceresses to reverse the spell. That’s why even if Acantha and Xenos’ doppelgangers get reborn, even if they were destined to fall in love with each other over and over again, they were also destined to be separated by death. The two of them would never be able to be together for a long time. That was Sullivan’s way of avenging.
Acantha and Killian’s relationship only lasted for almost two years. Killian died after he was attacked by a werewolf one day. Acantha then chose to kill herself with a hope of being with Killian in another life.
The pleasure of finding each other, loving each other, and choosing each other had its price. In their case, it was their death.
For the past years, the tragedy of Acantha and Xenos’ story went on. Every time their doppelgangers die, after three hundred years, they would be reborn. In Levana’s case, her illness was what separated us. And then Sullivan came in the picture. Now I knew I was the person he was referring to when he told me about the man that he loathed the most. Because I was Xenos’ doppelganger. All his doppelgangers kept becoming Sullivan’s enemy. Sullivan turned me into a Vampire to avenge, to take me away from Levana, to hurt me, and to fight me since it was against the black veil to kill mortals.
Because even if so many centuries had passed, that bastard refused to move on.
Erasmus was right. Sullivan was no longer contented in watching from the sideline as the doppelgangers love and die that’s why he decided to make a move against them.