Chapter 98: Disappearing Vines
{Music recommendation: Nothing could keep me away by Kris Bower}
"The vampire Lord?" Maurice’s expression frowned at the mention of his sister being held in the Palace. He looked away from Caddel as his eyes wavered in slight apprehension, and all of a sudden he wanted to get out of bed, but when the pain in his abdomen struck him to his spine, his body stopped moving as he painfully clutched his bandaged abdomen, his expression twisting into one of agony as he clenched his teeths.
"Hey, relax." Caddel held his arm, wanting to pull him down so he could rest, since he had only just regained consciousness not too long ago, but then Maurice resisted as he spoke through gritted teeth.
"You don’t understand our situation," he shook his head. "if she’s in the Palace, they can kill her. I have to get her out of there, I have to...Ah!" The pain in his abdomen hit him ten times more when he made another crazy attempt to move, and this time around, he was left with no other choice but to lay back down with Caddel’s help, and his breathing were starting to come off short, whilst he took a deep breath to calm his uneasy nerves, his eyelids closing shut as if he lacked the strength to keep them open.
"Stress your body any further and it will only get worse," Caddel informed him, "not only did you incur burns, your body is badly malnourished, and if you don’t take it easy, you’re going to bring more harm to yourself." Looking at him in this condition only reminded Caddel of how he had found him. It was on a normal night when he and the rest of his henchmen were making another journey to the nearest village.
Since they all decided that they needed to be close with the Palace in order to figure out what was happening, they had passed the perpetual valley when someone suddenly stumbled from behind one of the trees, nastily covered in blood and terribly wounded.
"H-help me." He had uttered as he weakly dropped to his knees in front of them. He looked so dirty and covered in blood, and it was only after he brought him here and got him cleaned up was he able to make out the appearance of the young boy. With all the dirt and blood gone, he was actually a cute guy with delicate features, and he had quite a resemblance to his sister.
"Why do you think they’ll kill her?" Caddel questioned softly, but his eyes displayed inquisitive seriousness. He could still picture the image of Maurice’s sister in his head, and then the list and money he had found with her were proof of her plans to escape from the Palace, but he knew she had returned there because he spotted her on a horse with the vampire Lord himself - and from what he witnessed, she didn’t seem to show any signs of alarm.
"Why do you think they’ll kill her?" He asked again, and only after Maurice had taken his time to cool down and catch his breath, did he respond. "You won’t understand, it’s a long story and if she’s still alive, I have to get her out of there while I still can. I have to save her from that monster!" Caddel could see the hatred that flashed in the boy’s eyes, there was a hint of pain hidden beneath that hatred that burned in those honey-brown eyes, and Caddel came to the realization that convincing Maurice to join his crew wouldn’t be as difficult as he thought it’d be, as it appears they both had the same goal.
"Your sister won’t die, I can assure you of that." Caddel sounded resolute enough before he leaned forward. "But first, you need to focus on getting better if you want to have any chance of saving her. Going there in your condition, when you can barely walk, will be pointless and futile. If you want your revenge, then you’re going to have to get better, and stronger, cause we’re not dealing with an ordinary vampire here. If you want, I can help you, cause just like you, I also have scores to settle with the vampire Lord, and if you join me so we can take him down together, you’ll get your sister, and I’ll get the missing girls he’s abducted."
"Missing...girls?" Maurice’s eyes moved to Caddel who nodded his head soberly before leaning back. "We’ll talk more when you feel better, but I have to get going. The woman taking care of you is someone you can trust, so do abide by the things she tells you to do if you want to be up on your feet. I’ll leave you to rest now."