Midnight Surrender-Chapter 77 Goodbye (AVOT)

The journey to reach Lysander was grueling for Rhain. He had been taken far from town by the hunters, and by the time he recognized familiar landmarks, several more hours had elapsed.

Hunger gnawed at him again, and he briefly paused to feed before resuming his desperate journey. With each passing minute, his heart raced erratically, fear mounting over Daisy’s fate. He berated himself repeatedly for bringing her into a life fraught with peril. If it hadn’t been for him, she might have been safe.

Arriving at Lysander’s residence, Rhain dismounted, his bones mostly healed, though his fingers remained missing. He half-expected Lysander to sense his presence and emerge, but all remained quiet. Panic surged within him; the only explanation could be that Lysander had prepared the ritual and now sought Roy’s body from Tiberius.

But perhaps he left Daisy behind. His senses at the moment weren’t of much help, and Tiberius residence was vast. His first hurdle would be bypassing any security measures to rescue Daisy.

Rhain stepped inside the opulent home, meeting no resistance—no guards or barriers. He still couldn’t sense Daisy, so he began a frantic search that revealed nothing, with servants who recognized him looking at his disheveled state with confusion.

Cursing under his breath, Rhain sprinted back to his horse and raced toward Tiberius’s residence. Upon arriving, the security personnel informed him that Tiberius had taken some guards and headed to Rhain’s home.

His home? Perhaps Tiberius was searching for him.

"Has Lysander been here?" Rhain questioned, his voice tinged with urgency.

"No," came the reply.

Doubt gnawing at him, Rhain entered the residence to verify if his brother Roy’s body remained in its coffin. It did. A wave of relief washed over him, temporarily dispelling the growing dread. Daisy was still alive; he had a chance to save her.

The sudden relief almost made him lightheaded, or perhaps it was the accumulated strain and physical agony that now took its toll. He realized that Lysander would sense any attempt to destroy Roy’s body as his maker, and that could be a strategy to lure him here.

Gazing down at his brother’s corpse, Rhain’s eyes fixed on the stake embedded in Roy’s chest. Crafted by hunters and engraved with their marks, it served as a haunting reminder of who had reduced his brother to this state.

Pulling out the stake would momentarily restart Roy’s heart before leading to his irreversible death. During that brief window, the ritual could sustain him with the life force from the vessel. And in that fragile interval, Lysander might arrive to stop Rhain and replace the stake, preserving Roy’s lifeless form again.

Rhain grabbed the stake, his hold tightening as he only had one hand to use. He leveraged the strength of his entire body to wrench it free. The moment it was out, Roy’s chest heaved upward and his eyes shot open, a gasp coming from his lips.

"Roy?"

Roy’s hand instinctively moved to his chest, touching the spot now oozing fresh blood as his body momentarily came back to life. Confused, his questioning eyes met Rhain’s.

Dropping to his knees beside the coffin, Rhain’s eyes burned upon seeing his brothers eyes again. "Roy." He breathed slowly reaching to touch his face.

Roy seemed to be in agony in that moment, his hand tightening on his chest. "I am.. I am sorry." Rhain choked on the words.

A slow recognition dawned in Roy’s eyes, but instead of panic, there was calm acceptance. He gave Rhain a slow, understanding nod and what seemed to be a consoling smile in his eyes.

Rhain’s emotional defenses shattered, and tears cascaded down his face like a torrential downpour. Vignettes of memories spent with his brother rushed through his mind like a montage of life’s fleeting moments. A lump the size of a boulder formed in his throat, his tears a woeful testament to the overwhelming agony that gripped his soul.

He held Roy’s hand, witnessing life swiftly ebb away from him—a grim repetition of the farewells he had offered to both his parents.

The indescribable ache of those previous losses had left him swearing never to endure such sorrow again, yet here he was. The agony was no less devastating, but Rhain was compelled to stay, to offer his presence as the last comfort in his brother’s waning moments.

Now panic settled in his brother’s eyes as the last breaths seemed to leave his body. He trembled and Rhain held his hand tightly, then slowly he stilled again, tears of his own spilling as his eyes remained wide open.

Rhain could no longer look and after what seemed like forever he suddenly heard his brother’s voice. "Be... ha-ppy," Roy managed to utter.

Shocked Rhain looked at him again, his skin taking on a pallid, ashy hue as his muscles visibly atrophied.

"I will," he cried. "I hope you find peace brother." Rhain whispered, just as his brother drew a final, shuddering breath. Roy’s body went limp, his eyes still, yet unfocused. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

As Rhain’s tears continued to flow, he tenderly closed Roy’s eyes. Almost like an autumn leaf withering away, his brother’s form began to decay. It contracted and shriveled until nothing remained but a fine dust.

A cavernous void opened within Rhain, a chilling emptiness where his brother’s existence used to be. Each granule of dust seemed to take a piece of his soul with it, leaving him both hollow and painfully aware of the irrevocable reality: Roy was truly gone, and a part of him had vanished forever.

Confused, Rhain looked around. Lysander had not appeared to stop him. What was going on?

Wiping away his tears and momentarily suppressing his grief, Rhain remounted his horse and galloped back to his residence. As he approached, he sensed that something was horribly wrong.

Drawing his weapons, he had barely dismounted and stepped onto his property when a hunter descended from the fortress walls, launching an attack. Rhain parried, using his heightened state—fueled both by recent feeding and the raw anguish from his loss—to overpower the assailant.

Tearing through anyone who dared confront him, Rhain made his way into the fortress. His wolves, now healed, joined him, snapping and lunging at the enemy. But Rhain came to an abrupt halt when Daisy’s scream pierced the air.

His head whipped around, his wolves forming a protective circle around him as he sprinted in the direction of the sound. Frantically scanning the chaotic battlefield, he searched for Daisy among the chaos.

Then his eyes locked on a man, pulling her away from the scene.

Fighting his way through the throng of enemies, Rhain pursued them out of the gates. Once outside, the man, sensing Rhain’s approach, pivoted to face him with Daisy in his grasp and a knife pressing against her neck.

"Don’t move, Vampire," the man warned.

It was Slaine.

Rhain froze, his eyes narrowing at the knife that had already drawn a bead of blood from Daisy’s skin.

In a blur of motion, a sudden gust of wind swept through the area, and the next instant, a wooden stake pierced Slaine’s throat. The man’s body slumped to the ground, revealing Lysander standing ominously behind him.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Daisy broke free and ran into Rhain’s arms. He held her tightly, his gaze shifting between Lysander and Slaine’s lifeless form on the ground.

"Was that him?" Lysander inquired.

Rhain nodded not having expected Lysander here.

"Good. Then that is settled," Lysander announced, casually stepping over Slaine’s body and approaching them. "Your friend was concerned, but I knew you were still alive."

Rhain’s brow furrowed in a skeptical expression, his eyes glaring at Lysander with an intensity fueled by pure loathing. So this had been Lysander’s elaborate scheme. And having been taken by hunters, there was no way Lysander would have been able to sense him and find his location as his maker. That was one of the things hunters could do. Cover their trails very well.

"We still have..." Lysander’s words trailed off as Rhain swiftly turned his attention back to the scene behind them.

Slaine’s body was twitching, shifting almost imperceptibly at first. Rhain squinted, trying to confirm what his eyes were suggesting. Sure enough, Slaine’s body continued to move, rising from the ground in an eerie fashion.

The sound of bones and muscles cracking filled the air, as if Slaine’s very form was reconfiguring itself. Astoundingly, he stood upright, stake still lodged grotesquely in his throat.

Fully awake now, his eyes found theirs. Rhain was in disbelief. So this was Slaine’s hidden ability?

With unsettling nonchalance, Slaine reached up and yanked the stake out of his neck. His eyes, a frigid shade of blue, flickered briefly, and the intricate tattoos that adorned his arms glowed momentarily. Tossing the stake aside with casual disdain, Slaine’s gaze locked onto Lysander.

A slow, chilling smirk stretched across his lips.