Chapter 159: The Vampire’s Insight

Words : 1446 Updated : Sep 19th, 2025

Chapter 159: The Vampire’s Insight DMITRI POV I slammed Viktor against the basement wall before he could attack the young witch. "Enough!" I roared, my teeth fully extended. "Can’t you see what’s really happening here?" Viktor snarled at me, his eyes glowing red with anger. "Stand aside, Dmitri! The Council’s orders are clear!" "The Council is wrong," I said, holding him pinned against the concrete. Around us, the other supernatural officials continued their pointless arguing while Elena prepared to steal the scholar’s memories. After eight hundred years of existence, I’d learned to spot the truly important times - and this was one of them. "You’re betraying your own kind!" Viktor spat. "I’m saving us all," I amended. "Because unlike you, I understand what we’re actually witnessing." I’d seen memory magic before. Plenty of times. Vampires had been using it for ages to make humans forget our existence. But what Elena was doing wasn’t normal memory magic. It was something far older and much more dangerous. "That’s not a memory spell," I said, looking at Elena’s growing void form. "That’s soul theft." Viktor stopped trying. "What?" "Elena isn’t just stealing the Guardian’s memories," I explained quickly. "She’s trying to steal her entire life. Her soul patterns, her life force, everything that makes her who she is." The witch - Sage - looked up from her magic casting with relief in her eyes. "Finally! Someone who understands!" But I wasn’t done with my discovery. Eight centuries of watching supernatural politics had taught me to spot patterns others missed. And the pattern here was frightening. "Viktor," I said quickly, "how long has Elena been planning this attack?" "What does that matter?" he snapped. "Because I’ve been alive long enough to know that dimensional magic doesn’t just appear overnight. Elena’s been planning for this for years, maybe decades." I let Viktor go and stepped toward the magical confusion in the center of the room. Lily was floating in dimensional energy, her body remembering connections her mind had lost. Caleb was desperately trying to reach her through their mate bond. And Elena was about to destroy it all. But something bothered me. Something I’d noticed the moment I arrived. "Prince Ash," I called to the Winter Fae. "When did your court first detect dimensional disturbances in this area?" The ice prince looked angry. "What relevance does that have?" "Answer me!" "Fine. Approximately three years ago. Small tears in reality that we assumed were natural events." "Councilor Raven," I turned to the witch representative. "When did your Circle first sense void magic in this region?" The witch looked serious. "About the same time. We thought it was just residual energy from old fights." My zombie heart would have been racing if it still beat. "And you, dragon shifter - when did your clan start feeling disturbances in the dimensional barriers?" "Three years past," the massive shifter growled. "But we assumed it was pack magic gone wrong." "Don’t you see?" I said to all of them. "Elena didn’t just decide to become a void monster yesterday. She’s been planning this for three years. Which means..." "Which means what?" Viktor demanded. I looked at Lily, still trying to remember who she was, and felt a chill that had nothing to do with my vampire nature. "It means Elena knew Lily would become a Guardian three years before it happened. She’s been planning to steal these specific powers from this specific person all along." Sage gasped. "But that’s impossible! Guardian powers can’t be predicted!" "Unless," I said slowly, pieces fitting together in my ancient mind, "Elena used to be a Guardian herself." The quiet that followed was deafening. Even Elena’s attack stopped as my words sank in. "That’s ridiculous," Viktor said, but his voice lacked force. "Is it?" I challenged. "Think about it. Elena knows exactly how Guardian skills work. She knows which memories to steal first to cause maximum pain. She even knows how to use void energy without it eating her completely." I stepped closer to Elena’s changed figure. "You were Lily’s boss, weren’t you? The Guardian who came before her. And when your time ended, you couldn’t bear to give up the power." Elena’s laugh was bitter and cold. "Clever vampire. But you’re still too late." "Maybe," I admitted. "But here’s what you didn’t count on - soul memory." "What’s soul memory?" Caleb asked desperately. I smiled grimly. "Something I learned about during my first century of life. You can steal memories, erase events, even break magical bonds. But you cannot destroy the patterns written into someone’s very soul." I pointed toward Lily and Caleb’s joined hands. "That mate bond isn’t just magical energy. It’s a soul pattern that recreates itself even when broken. And soul patterns carry information." "What kind of information?" Sage asked hopefully. "Everything," I said. "Every decision that soul has made, every connection it’s formed, every truth it’s discovered. Elena can steal Lily’s memories, but she can’t steal the soul patterns that made those memories in the first place." Elena’s form flickered with fear. "Impossible!" "Not impossible," I corrected. "Just very, very difficult to find. It takes specific conditions to unlock soul memory. Usually extreme emotional stress combined with a strong supernatural connection." I looked meaningfully at the mate bond glowing between Lily and Caleb. "Which is exactly what we have here." That’s when Elena made her frantic move, spinning toward Caleb with void energy crackling around her hands. But I was ready for her. "Not so fast," I said, appearing between them in a flash of vampire speed. "If you want to break that mate bond, you’ll have to go through me first." Elena’s attack hit me full force, void energy tearing through my old vampire constitution like acid. Pain burst through every nerve I possessed, but I held my ground. "Lily!" I shouted through the pain. "Access the soul memory now! While the mate bond is under attack!" "I don’t know how!" she cried back. "Feel for the patterns!" I gasped as Elena’s power continued burning through me. "The deepest truth about who you are! It’s there!" Lily closed her eyes, her face scrunched in focus. The Triple Moon Mark on her wrist started glowing brighter than ever before. But as she reached for her soul memory, something unexpected happened. The patterns she found weren’t just about her present life as Lily Carter. They were about all her past lives as Guardian. Including the life where she’d been Elena’s best friend. "Oh no," Lily whispered, her eyes flying open. "Elena... I remember now. I remember everything." Elena’s attack on me weakened as she heard those words. "That’s impossible. Those memories are from lifetimes ago!" "Soul memory transcends individual lifetimes," I said weakly, Elena’s void energy still eating away at my power. "And now Lily knows the truth about what you really are." Lily stood up straighter, power flowing around her like silver fire. "You’re not just a fallen Guardian, Elena. You’re my sister. We’ve been reincarnated together for ages, taking turns as Guardian and protector." Elena’s face crumpled with pain. "And every time, you left me behind when your Guardian term ended! Every time, I lost you!" "So this time," Lily said with growing understanding, "you decided to steal my power so we’d never have to be separated again." "I just wanted us to be together!" Elena cried. "I’m so tired of losing you over and over!" But as Elena’s emotional breakdown continued, I felt something frightening in her void energy. The sister bond between her and Lily wasn’t just about love. It was about a heavenly balance that had been broken. "Lily," I said urgently, "if Elena succeeds in stealing your Guardian powers..." "What?" Lily asked. I met her eyes with eight centuries of supernatural knowledge behind my look. "Then both of you will be stuck in the void forever. The universe doesn’t allow two Guardians to live simultaneously. If she takes your power while you’re still living, reality itself will tear apart." Elena froze as she realized what I’d said. "That can’t be true." "It is," I confirmed sadly. "Which means this isn’t just about saving Lily anymore. If we can’t stop Elena’s soul theft in the next few minutes, every dimension will fall into nothingness." The basement fell silent except for Elena’s rapid breathing. "How long do we have?" Sage whispered. I looked at the growing cracks in reality around us, where Elena’s void energy was starting to tear holes in the fabric of existence itself. "Minutes," I said. "Maybe less." That’s when the dimensional barriers around us began to shatter totally, and something even worse than Elena stepped through the cracks.

Chapter 159: The Vampire’s Insight

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