Chapter 2 Keres Lucine

THIRD PERSON POV

"What is this place?" Imperia asked when she stands in front of a home. She waited for Miss Kingston to grab her things and lock the car door. After a heated debate between her volunteers, Miss Kingston finally made a decision to let Imperia stays with her until they find a way to keep this as a secret from the museum curator.

"This is my home. Why?" Imperia can't believe her ears when Miss Kingston went to the front door to unlock it. The vampire watches as the human opens the door for her to enter.

"I did read somewhere that vampires can't enter any home without a proper welcome. Normally I won't be so eager to let a stranger into my home, but what choice do I have?" Miss Kingston smiled. Imperia was reluctant, but she doesn't have any other choices. Miss Kingston is the only human she trusts, and even with all the wealth that was prepared for her, she can't simply do what she wants.

"I'm sorry for the mess. I haven't been home for a week because I need to get the exhibition ready on time for the opening." Miss Kingston closed the door behind her when Imperia strut in.

The vampire looks down at Miss Kingston when she reached out to the letters that are on the floor.

"Seem like I have a lot of things to do. Make yourself at home. If you need anything, just come and look for me," Miss Kingston smiled at the vampire and disappeared into her studies. Imperia look around the dirty home with troubling looks.

"I was never informed that humans like to live in their own filth. This home doesn't fit a royalty like me at all. But beggars can't be choosers after all." With a heavy heart, Imperia started to pick up any visible rubbish that scatters around the floor.

"I'm a queen, and I have to clean a despicable human's home just to make it liveable. Where is my dignity at this point?" Imperia sigh heavily. Usually, she would be cleaning the whole house with a simple snap of her fingers, but from the lack of nutritious food for over a century, she is just like any normal human being ... with sharp fangs.

It was when she enters the bathroom where she finds it revolting to use and had lost hope for humanity. When Miss Kingston walks out from her studies, she noticed that her living room ... for once ... seems liveable. She wanders into the rooms looking for the vampire when finally she heard noises coming from the bathroom.

"Queen Imperia?" Miss Kingston eyes widen when she found the queen actually cleaning the toilet bowl.

"What is it human?" the vampire asked while making a scrunching face.

"What are you doing in there?!" Miss Kingston asked.

"Do you really expect me; a dignified queen used a dirty toilet? Of course, right now, I am not as dignified as I was 2500 years ago with my hand's elbow deep in your toilet bowl. Honestly, what happened in here?" Miss Kingston blushed in a deep shade of red.

"Like I said, I haven't been home for a week. I'm sorry. Let me do it." Imperia finally stood up from the floor and gave the toilet brush to Miss Kingston. As she cleans her hands under the water tap, she looks at Miss Kingston through the mirror.

"You were looking for me, is it not? What were you about to say earlier?" The vampire asked. Miss Kingston finally flushed the toilet and looks up to the vampire. Her eyes widen yet again when she saw the vampire's reflection on the mirror.

"How ... Why ... How is that even possible?" Miss Kingston stuttered. Imperia was confused for a moment until she noticed that Miss Kingston is actually staring at the mirror.

"Mirrors back in the day were layered with silver. And as you know, silver is poison for my kind. I guess mirror at this time of age wasn't layered with silver anymore." Imperia looks at her own reflection and smile. Miss Kingston was taken aback when she saw the vampire's sharp fangs.

"What is it human?" Imperia turn around and face Miss Kingston.

"I just received a text from the museum curator about a new discovery not far from your burial site. They believed it to be related because of the same moon symbol that was on your sarcophagus." That little information piqued Imperia's interest even more.

"Do you have any picture proof of this find?" Miss Kingston whips her phone and shows the vampire the pictures that were sent to her by the curator. Imperia laugh.

"It seems like luck is on my favour. I know the owner of this sarcophagus. That spear that went through the sarcophagus and hit the corpse inside actually belongs to me. I guess my father thought that the only thing that will ease her spirit from seeking revenge would be a spear that was forged by yours truly." Miss Kingston was fascinated by this find. Imperia had a thought.

"Miss Kingston, did they manage to move the sarcophagus from its original place?" the vampire asked. Miss Kingston shakes her head no.

"The excavators tried to remove the sarcophagus and other artefacts from its place, but it seems impossible for them to do so. Why do you ask?" Imperia shrugs her shoulder.

"Knowing my father, he wouldn't let any grave robbers or 'excavators' if you would like to give them a different name disturb Keres's slumber," Miss Kingston froze in her place. Imperia raised her eyebrow when she saw the human reaction to the advisor's name.

"You've heard of her name before, am I right?" Miss Kingston nods her head. Imperia can't help but smile.

"What did your history tells about her?" Imperia was curious.

"In Greek, her name means 'Female Death Spirit'. She was a goddess who personified violent death and drawn to bloody deaths on the battlefield." Imperia chuckled.

"Keres Lucine was born a princess from an ancient kingdom. She was the only living member of the Lucine family, known in the underworld as one of the pureblood vampires. Of course, after my father 'killed' her, the Lucine family is no more." Imperia walk out from the bathroom with a thought.

"I wish to save my advisor from your kind. If they moved the spear by themselves, everyone in the vicinity would perish. I may look nothing but a normal vampire now, but when I forged that spear, I include a spell that will bind anyone who touches it. Only my bloodline can touch that spear." Miss Kingston knows where this is going.

"I will see what I can do." Whether Miss Kingston likes it or not, she has no choice but to follow what the vampire wants.

***

"I have been alive for such a long period. What your books have been telling you were just part of the history. I am a relic that doesn't change even after time goes by. I possessed knowledge that you humans don't even know existed." Imperia throw the book that Caleb has been reading to him when she's done looking at it.

"You can't kill vampires with any wooden stake. Every vampire has their own origin. It's rare, even for rogues to have the same ancestry unless they came from the same clan. You can only kill them with the wooden stake that was made from a tree that belongs to where they came from. That book you were reading has no real information about my kind whatsoever." Imperia confirmed it.

"What about holy water and blessed weapons? Will it be able to kill your kind?" Caleb asked. Miss Kingston, Evangeline and Daphne were worried that the vampire might be annoyed by Caleb's questions. Miss Kingston was giving Caleb the eye.

"Holy water will only burn the outer layer of my skin. Meanwhile, for blessed weapons, my regenerating cell will fix my wound if I have enough supply of blood. But for now, if you somehow possessed such weapon, you might be able to kill me. As much as I wish to feed on you humans, I have class. You all did save me from my own fate. I am not the type of person who betrayed others." Miss Kingston stops the car just outside the main tent where all excavators and archaeologists gather.

Imperia can't help but sniff the air surrounding her when they got out of the car. The vampire ignores Miss Kingston plea for her to stop walking towards the burial site without any authorisation from the person in charge of the site.

"Who are you? Where is your access pass? You are not allowed to be here without one." Before one of the guards even reaches out to stop the vampire, Imperia's eyes turned pitch-black. Both the guards froze in their place as they let the mysterious being walk past them. Miss Kingston and the rest of the volunteers were surprised that most of the excavators and archaeologists that were working on the site seem distraught or just simply out of their mind.

"Is that her doing?" Caleb asked the others when they followed the vampire's footstep towards the sarcophagus. He immediately reaches out for the camera and hits record. Imperia admired the sight which her spear had to pierce into the thick cover of the sarcophagus.

"Keres, can you hear me?" Imperia reached out to the spear and pulled it out easily. The humans were all surprised when the sarcophagus suddenly move on its own. Caleb moves slowly towards the sarcophagus and records everything. It was when Imperia moved the seal and pushed the top cover just to reveal a humanoid figure suddenly sitting up from its 'cage'.

"Keres, can you hear me?" Imperia asked once again. When the humanoid figure turns her head towards Imperia, the vampire take this chance to walk forward to remove the shroud that has been covering her for thousands of years. Gently, Imperia unwraps the humanoid figure just to greet nothing but skeletal remains of her advisor.

Caleb was shaking uncontrollably when he managed to capture a sight that only exists in horror movies. Miss Kingston and the rest of the volunteers were taking a few steps back from the sarcophagus.

"Keres, you look horrible. What did my father do to you?" Imperia asked as she continues.

"The former king baths me in holy water. Usually, I would be able to regenerate, but that spear was pierced into me and forbids me from doing so. Is that really you, my queen?" Imperia decided to use her last bit of energy to help Keres regenerate herself. Caleb was mesmerised by the process, and so does the rest.

"There she is." Imperia was this close to losing her consciousness when Evangeline suddenly presents her a clear bottle of human blood.

"Where did you get this, human?" Imperia asked before she takes the bottle and drinks half of it.

"I have a friend who works at the morgue." Imperia present the bottle to Keres to quench her throat.

"So you just walked up to your friend and asked for it?" Miss Kingston asked Evangeline, who gave her a toothy smile as her reply.

"Asked, illegally taking it without his consent, whatever you like to call it. That's the only source I can think of without the need to kill somebody. They're already dead after all." Daphne facepalms while Caleb and Miss Kingston can't believe that Evangeline decided to be that bold.