As the two vampires laid beside each other, reading and enjoying one another’s presence, they could not help but wonder how to break the questions they have in their minds to one another. They did not want to spoil the tranquillity that was afforded by the environment. They had travelled to the very same place that the leader and the young vampire had duelled each other just days ago.

What are you thinking…?

Tonight was a moonless night and the denser clouds warned of an imminent stormy rain but that was not of a great concern to the two vampires. They could easily tug the books they had under their travelling clothes and make their way back swiftly.

Wendy was the first the initiate a conversation. She set down the book she had been reading and looked intently at the leader, hoping to catch her attention. Her effort was not in vain as Irene set down her own book. All her focus now was on the vice-leader who looked at her expectantly, a nervous grin on her face.

“What is it, Seungwan? Just spill it.” Irene goaded and called her vice-leader by the name that she had used when they first met. Seungwan, Irene remembered how pleasant the name had sounded on her ears the first time Wendy had revealed it to her. They were strangers back then and now they were… lifetime companions?  

“Well… this is kind of a… difficult thing to tell you or rather… persuade you to accept.” Wendy started uncertainly and observed the leader’s reactions intently.  

Irene narrowed her eyes. “Okay, I have prepared myself for the worst. Just say it.”

That only made Wendy more nervous and the vampire began to fidget with her own fingers and only realised it when the leader had place a hand over hers. Wendy froze in action.

“Say it, Seungwan. Say it.” Irene urged, squeezing the vice-leader’s hands in assurance.

Wendy braced herself as she updated “I have looked at Yeri’s silver collection.”

The vice-leader saw Irene’s body stiffened and her jaw tightened for a moment before she relaxed herself. “And…” Irene asked warily.

“It was rather impressive, we could use it.” Wendy flustered as she saw the leader’s face darken despite her warnings and continued to explain, “I know you hate silver with a passion but I’ve got a feeling that it is necessary for us to use it because…”

Wendy had not managed to complete her sentence before she was stopped when Irene had held a hand up and shut her eyes so tightly she looked almost in pain. The leader was once again fighting off the fear from the images that ran through her mind.

The silver noose that wrapped around her neck threateningly and the barbed cuffs and the chains that had incapacitated her mercilessly. That silver dagger which had been plunged into her countless of times while she was being confined helplessly. Above them all, she hated the molten silver liquid that she was immersed in, denying her any chances of recovering.  

When the leader opened her eyes again, it was ruby red and glowed so brilliantly in the night. She had failed to control her fears and had let it overtake her senses once more. The next moment was a blur for her as she registered the image of her vice-leader lunging towards her and caging her tightly in a steel-like embrace. Good. Hold me tighter, if not I might crumble apart. Those were the incoherent thoughts of the leader as she fell unconscious.

The leader knew she must still have been in the arms of her vice-leader when she had awakened.

“I’m sorry…” Wendy whispered, her lips were so close to the leader’s ears, it was almost touching. Like a lover’s gentle kiss. Guilt, Wendy had never felt more guilty in her life than to remind Irene of her worst nightmares. Nothing was as potent to their leader as the thought of having to personally deal with silver. This, Wendy had known a hundred years after they had become acquainted with each other.

In fact, it had been such a crude discovery that Wendy had been ashamed when she had learnt about Irene’s tragic tale. It was also perhaps the first and only time that Irene had ever shed tears as she spoke about it.

The tragic tale began with Irene revealing to Wendy that she had been part of The Valks, the good old times when she had been feared and respected, living a life that all vampires had looked up to. Yet, all that is well is not meant to last as Irene’s life avalanched into a never-ending nightmare during the Vampire Wars.

For being a direct descendant of the First Ones, Irene had been captured and tortured by the very people she believed to be her comrades. Never would she have thought that she would be betrayed so coldly and be left so vulnerable to the many sufferings that were to come for her. The torture by silver had broken her so badly that she had done the not-so-noble act of denying her origins. Irene had been too delirious with pain to do otherwise. She almost embraced her destruction by fi