ESCAPING THE MANSION

Dominic's encounter with King Alaric left him shattered. Now he felt the need to desperately prove to King Alaric that he was right, Adira was up to something. But he couldn't do that, not now that King Alaric had warned him to keep his distance from her. 

However, he still had one last plan, to expose whatever Adira was up to. He furiously walked over to Aurora's room, the leader of the day walkers in the conclave, who also happened to be deeply in love with Dominic. 

Day walkers were vampires who could walk in the sun like any human, with the help of the daylight ring. As the leader of the day walkers, Aurora's rank was among one of the highest ranks in the conclave, right next to Dominic's. 

Aurora had just gotten dressed in her room, while the night walkers were preparing to go to sleep, her day as a daywalker was just beginning. Suddenly, Dominic barged into her room. He was furious, breathing heavily like he was about to explode. "I need you to search the library!" He demanded.

"What is wrong?" Aurora took a few steps closer, about to touch him. "Stay back!!" He yelled. Shocked, she stood back, just staring at him. This wasn't surprising behavior for Dominic, he had always treated her like that. 

"Dominic, I am tired of you treating me like sh*t, I am not some toy that you can just use anything you like. I can not do this right now, if you do not respect me, I think you should leave." She gestured to the door.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He lowered the tone of his voice. "Please, you are the only one I can trust with this."

"Fine.." She folded her hands on her chest. "What is it?"

"I need you to search the library, discreetly. It's where Adira hangs most times. If she's up to something, it will be there and I need your help to prove it?" 

"Wait, why can't you just do that yourself?" 

"I am next in command after King Alaric, I can't be doing this.…" He lied, the truth was King Alaric had forbidden him from going down that path.

"Dominic, I don't know…" Uncertainty vivid in her face. Dominic walked closer with a bright smile on his face, held her waist and pulled her to his body. While staring into her brown eyes, he leaned in and kissed her deeply on the lips.

"So will you help me?" He asked, after the kiss. He had knocked off any doubt Aurora had in her head with that kiss. "Fine… I'll check the library, and see if I can find anything."

********

After King Alaric left Adira's room, she quickly tugged off her nightgown, put on a blue hoodie with black skinny jeans. She then jumped back on her bed, and yanked out a yellow ticket from underneath her pillow.

It was a ticket for a bus that would be leaving town at noon, a time where more than half the conclave would be asleep, with only a few day walkers on patrol.

The tickets were the reason she had left the mansion the previous night, to buy them, so she could escape this hell hole she had been forced to live in since birth. 

She walked over to her closet, opened it, and took out the small box from the top shelf. She opened it. Inside were a few bundles of dollars.

They were all the money she had stolen from the conclave for the day she would finally escape, and that was today. She took them all, deep them in her pocket, and kept the box back in the closet.

Hastily she headed for the door, but her eyes caught something moving in the forest, through her window. She walked back to the window, squinted her eyes, looking over the fence that marked the compound of the mansion, deep into the forest. 

There, amidst the woods stood a strange black-looking creature, standing on its two hind legs, staring back at her. At first, she thought it was a bear, but as she looked closer, she realized it was no bear, it looked more like a giant wolf.

This further confused her. In all the books she had studied in the mansion's library, she knew for a fact that wolves don't live in that forest, neither should they be able to stand on their two hind legs. Which left only one possibility. It was a werewolf!

That would be crazy. This was vampire territory, the mansion was their headquarters. No werewolf would be crazy enough to dare come this close! "What are you?" Instantly it fled deeper into the woods, almost as if it had heard her.

"Oh well, if you were a werewolf. It's good you ran away." She turned around, walked out of her room, heading straight for the mansion's library. Walking through the long hallways of the mansion, other members of the conclave that saw her stared at her with disgust.

This wasn't new to her, being the only dhampir in the conclave and the first in hundreds of years, they hated her, she was an outcast. This made her life in the mansion way harder, and was what fostered the idea of escaping.

Seeing the doorway to the library, she felt closer to freedom. So close that she couldn't hold her excitement, she rushed to the doorway, bumping into Aurora who was on her way out. "I am so sorry, I didn't see you.." Adira apologized.

Aurora glared at her with hatred in her eyes. "You should watch where you are going, little pariah!" 

Pariah, that was what they called her. Despite a human mother and a vampire father, dhampirs are just as weak and fragile as a regular human until their awakening.

"I said I'm sorry…"

"Why are you in such a rush?"

"Me… I just want to study!" She replied nervously. Aurora glared at her, she could sense something was fishy. "Wait, why were you even in the library?" Adira added.

Aurora was carrying out the request of Dominic to search the library, but she couldn't tell Adira that. Of course she could walk away without answering Adira's questions, but that would just raise more red flags. "What do you do in a library?" She turned the question against her.

"To read books, I know. But you or anyone in the conclave never come here, so what changed?"

"I came here to look for an important book, leave it at that Adira!"

"And did you find it? You know I could help you find it if you didn't, I practically live here-"

"No, I don't need your help!" She yelled, cutting her short and walked away.

Adira could sense something was up, but she cared more about escaping the mansion than finding out what was wrong. She proceeded into the library, walking back to the last shelf.

What they all had no idea about was that there was a secret passageway leading out of the mansion behind the last book shelf. It was meant as an escape route when the mansion was being built, despite Aurora searching the library, she didn't find it.

Adira had stumbled upon it three years back, after she had gone through all the books in the library. Since then, she has constantly used it to escape the mansion into town. Today, it was going to serve as her escape route to permanently leave the mansion.

She pushed a brick on the wall, and the last bookshelf moved, revealing a dark passageway behind it. Swiftly she ran through it, and soon she found herself in the forest. Now she could almost taste her freedom.

Eventually, she made her way into town, then to the bus station, which was now just across the street from her. She stood there along with other people behind her, waiting for the traffic light to signify go.

Suddenly, someone pushed her from the back, and she staggered into the road, in front of a minivan that was fast approaching. "Look out!!!" A man yelled, quickly ran over, put his left arm over Adira, then stretched forth his right hand to the minivan.

The minivan was too close to stop. The driver swayed the steering, trying to avoid them, but it only turned the car to its side as it hit the man's hand, stopping it instantly. It was like it had hit an immovable force.

In shock, Adira turned to look at his face. It was the same man she had seen in her dreams. She turned back to look at the part of the car which he held, and it was severely damaged. Like it had hit another car, or a brick wall.

He was no human, that Adira was certain of. It would be impossible for the average human to hold a speeding car with their bare hands. She quickly glanced through his fingers and there were no daylight rings.

That meant he was no vampire, for a vampire could not walk in the sun without their daylight ring. Then what was he? She wondered, while still clustered in his arms, staring up at his big brown eyes. "What are you?" She muttered. "For me to tell you that, we would need to get out of here…"