“Umm… So you are a vampire and also my… aunt?” Kadyn asked somewhat uncomfortably.

After taking care of everything in Death Valley they teleported back to the Ceston Empire. What shocked Kadyn most was that his father could also teleport anywhere he wanted, as long as he knew the coordinates of that place. Though he said it was possible because of the shallow laws of this world. Whatever that meant. 

Anyway, that’s how they arrived back to the Ceston Empire, and they were sitting inside Kadyn’s shop.

“Yes.” Eddena winked at him, and then burst into a peal of laughter. He was so cute. Her little nephew. Though she didn’t tease further, when Sylvia glared at her, shrugging her shoulders resignedly. No fun. Her sister-in-law.

“So that bite mark on my neck was left by you?” Kadyn asked.

“Ah, yes,” Eddena said, as if recalling the time when she invited Kadyn into her house, for tea. “I wanted to check if you have a vampire bloodline.”

“And what did you find?”

“Nothing.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because,” Darius said, “you have a far stronger bloodline that destroyed the vampire bloodline.”

“I see,” Kadyn nodded. Then he eyed Eddena again. “Then why did you bite my mother?”

“Your mother?” Eddena looked at Sylvia, confused. “I never did.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Kadyn said. “I have seen the same mark that you left on my neck on my mother’s neck.”

“Ah, son,” Sylvia interrupted. Her face flushed. “It wasn’t Eddena. It was your father’s doing.”

“Ahh… what?” Kadyn and Elora were gobsmacked. The duo exchanged glances with each other. Unable to understand what she meant. That made Sylvia even more embarrassed. Redness deepened on her face.

“Actually,” Darius helped his wife, from this embarrassing situation, “I was trying to destroy my vampire bloodline, but I was still a vampire. So I needed blood to drink one way or another, or I would have lost control of myself. So Sylvia helped me as she didn’t want me to drink the blood of other people. Not especially women. She gets jealous of small things, you know.”

“What did you say?” Sylvia glared at him. Darius laughed embarrassedly, but said nothing. Sometimes, it was good to remain silent.

“Ah, I see,” Kadyn nodded. He wondered if Cecelia also needed to drink blood from time to time. But she never made it obvious to him. Maybe she was afraid that he and others would feel disgusted by the prospect of her drinking blood. 

Then something occurred to him, and he looked at his father. “You said I and Elora have powerful bloodlines that destroyed the inferior bloodline of vampires. But our bloodlines have come from you and mother, so why your vampire bloodline—”

“Actually,” interrupted Darius. “We have sealed our bloodline inside our souls. Basically, it was stored inside our bodies in inactive form. Your bloodline on the other hand was always free in your veins, though still inactive, but not sealed. It would never allow other bloodline to exist together. And before you ask, let me tell you: though we had sealed our bloodlines, our children could still inherit it from us.”

“What about your names,” Elora, who was silent all this time, spoke. “Why are you calling each other by different names?”

“Because they are… our real names,” Darius looked at his daughter, fondly. “Our names given by…our parents.” He looked pained when he talked about his parents. “Our names that were given to us before everything was snatched from us. Snatched from World Snatchers. Don’t you think it’s kind of ironic?”

“Honey,” Sylvia grasped his hand, looking worried.

“I’m fine,” Darius said, wiping the corner of his eye.

Kadyn and Elora also perceived the emotional change in their parents, so they stopped prodding any further. One day, they will know everything eventually. They just needed to wait for the right time. No rush.

At this moment Darius lifted his head and looked towards the window. “Aren’t you tired of hiding, child?”

Kadyn and others eyed towards the window and to their surprise, a shadow rushed into the room. A bird. Burning with white light. Eyeing each and everyone in the room. It was beautiful.

“Celestial Flame Sparrow. What a surprise,” Darius smiled.

“I—I was just cu—curious, sir. I don’t have any other intentions.”

“I know,” Darius said. “You are my son’s contracted beast companion. So I won’t doubt your intentions. It won’t do you any good, after all.”

‘How did he know about it?’ Kadyn thought, shocked. 

Darius didn’t explain, however. “You don’t need to be afraid of us, child. I have some relationship with your tribe.”

“Thank you, sir, for believing me,” the bird said as it sat on the windowsill.

“Come, sit together with us,” said Sylvia. “How did you end up in this world?”

Kadyn’s ears also stood up, as this damn bird never told him about it.

“It’s been about twenty years since I came to this world,” the bird sat on one of the couches, fire vanishing from its body and went on. “I failed my tribulation and fell into a rift. I thought I would die, but I arrived in this world. Due to the change of laws in two different worlds, I survived—but I lost my strength.”

Darius nodded. Then asked, “How is your tribe doing? Do you have any information about your tribe?”

“After the World…” it stopped, the bird looked at Darius and rearranged her words and proceeded. “After our enemy won the war a thousand years ago, my tribe went into hiding. Like many other races. Our Ancestor died in that battle.” 

“Old Sparrow died…” Darius sighed, looking sorrowful.

Sylvia tightened her grip on his hand and said, “We will avenge him. One day. Each and every one of them.”

Darius nodded and licked the blood at the corner of his lip before anyone could see it.

“D—did you know about our ancestor, sir?” asked the bird curiously. “But wasn’t it a thousand years—”

“There are many things beyond our understanding in this world, child,” Darius said. “It doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. Anyway, why are you still in this form? You must be already capable of transforming.”

“Ah, yes,” said the bird and started to change its shape.