Chapter 4 Four

Still slightly fuzzy from the high jump, I looked to either side nervously. The adjudicator walked to the back of the podium, returning with a small green bottle in her now gloved hands. She produced a small silver knife from nowhere and that's when I started to feel a little uneasy.

"Now I shall inscribe the mark of the higher court into his flesh by the silver knife, tip dipped in sacred waters."

"Take off your jacket," Jhan said.

'What!?' I thought.

Reluctantly, I took of my jacket and the long sleeve shirt I wore and the adjudicator stepped forward. She put the tip of the silver knife into the mysterious bottle and, when she brought it out, the tip of the knife glistened with the dim light from the chandeliers above.

She stepped closer to me. "This would hurt," She whispered to me with a smirk as she touched the knife on the skin of the area just above my left chest. I groaned slightly in pain, it felt like something was eating deeper and deeper away at my skin.

She was drawing a pattern and she dipped the tip of the knife into the bottle again and continued with whatever she was drawing on my skin.

The pain was becoming unbearable; I almost stepped away at a point but kept still under Jhan's glare. She stopped and I could feel my skin mending itself. She produced a mirror in front of me and I saw what looked like five converging lines tattooed onto my skin.

"Kaldar, of the clan of Jhan, is now officially the newest member of our society and shall now be treated like one of us." There was uproar of cheers and clapping from the crowd below.

A person, adjudicator, landed on the podium. She walked to a member of the higher court, a man seated at the right edge of the table. A low bow and whispered into his ears. His eyes widened and then glower up slightly.

The eyes of all the other members glowed up as well and then, as off on command, they all turned and looked at me. I looked at Jhan, whose eyes also gave the same whitish hue.

A member of the higher court, a woman who was seated in the middle raised her hand. Silence fell in the vast room.

"Jhan?" The woman said.

Jhan bowed lowly.

"There is something you omitted when you cleared out your youngest blood's actions."

My heart skipped a beat and I felt that sinking, void feeling in my chest.

She didn't wait for Jhan to say anything, "Your clan's newest member, Kaldar single handedly attacked and defeated four members of the Dallas clan, yes?"

A low hubbub filled the room but disappeared as quickly as it came.

"On the bases of self-defence great one," Jhan said, but I knew, we knew that that wasn't where she was driving at.

"And when attacked by one of the tyrants he was stabbed with a wooden stake but still went on in defeating two more of them showing little to no sign of weakness towards the stake that was embedded beside his neck, yes?"

"Yes." Answered Jhan again.

"You," She turned to me, "Are you a supreme?"

The question hit me like a stab to the heart.

"I-I..." I didn't know what to say.

"Very well then we shall have a more practical demonstration..."

The same cracking sound and before I could even move a muscle to react a force hit me and I felt myself falling off the podium. I hit the ground and I heard Tia shriek my name and I felt her cup my face in her hands.

I stood just in time to see the adjudicator, that whispered into the man's ears, land crushingly a distance in front of me.

The adjudicator seemed to slide across the ground at a very higher speed grabbing me harshly by the throat and easily thrusting me away. I flew through the air, slamming my back against the base of the high podium, crashing into it and feeling a number of bones and organs shatter inside me.

Gasping in pain, I staggered to my feet. She slid across the ground again, this time I was ready, so I ducked to the side and her fist broke into the wall behind me.

"St-stop," I said. I staggered a few places backwards but in a flash she grabbed me by the jacket, lifting me off and throwing me up into the air.

I heard the wind whiz past my ears as I ascended. I caught a glimpse of her red robe, and just for a moment everything seemed to slow down. I saw her form flipping over in the air but before I could react her boot collided with my mid-section and I was kicked back down. I crashed into the ground below, caving into the hard floor. Blood spurted out of mouth, something I thought I didn't have, and trailed down the side of my face.

I didn't even try to get up, I wasn't even sure my bones were still in a state to carry my weight. There was no one part of my body that wasn't aching.

I heard the clicking on metal boots against the ground. "Weak," She sneered and I immediately recognized her voice, she was the same adjudicator who had knocked me out.

The adjudicator raised her boot up and slammed the force of it onto my face. I screamed as the pure silver of her boots singed away the skin of my face. She did it again and again and again, this time slamming the force unto my chest, until I was sure she had broken every bone in my chest. More and more blood flowed from my mouth and nose until I was almost gurgling on the thick liquid.

I saw Tia at a distance, there were two other red robed vampires were holding both her arms and preventing her from moving. The force of the adjudicator's boots slamming upon my chest knocked all the air I had managed to breathe in out of me, accompanied by the sound of crushing cement under me.

Pain was the only thing I felt all over. She stopped for a moment, before saying, "One last one..." And she raised her boot into the air but then very suddenly all the pain I was feeling disappeared along with everyone and everything in the room.

I saw Jhan standing over me. He looked at me with disdain.

"Jhan? What is this, why are they—"

"They want you to fight Kaldar. It's why I didn't tell them you area a Supreme, they always do this. It's like a test. They are trying to push you to your breaking point—to your limit."

"But, I can't. I can barely move... Help me Jhan, tell them to stop," I pleaded.

"Unfortunately there is nothing I can do for you now Kaldar, it's either you fight or you wallow in humiliation from this day onward..."

I saw the flash of a woman's face, dark skin, short hair and big eyes. I had seen this same face before. It brought along a buzz of energy that soon turned into a billowing energy in my chest that spread around my body, filling me with an unreal heat and power I didn't know I had.

Jhan disappeared from my vision and everything returned back to normal, the adjudicator's boots was still in the air and as she brought it down I flung my left hand into the air and grabbed her foot. A loud gasp filled the room and flung my hand, along with her body towards the base of the podium.

She hit with a thunderous sound, caving into the thousand year old concrete, and I felt the bones in my chest begin to snap back to place. I struggled to my feet.

The adjudicator was adjudicator was already on her feet and fast approaching me, a wild look of seething rage on her face, "HOW DARE YOU!!!" She bellowed and was about to send her fist into my face but then.

"STOP!"

The voice came from the woman on the higher court. The adjudicator stopped right in front of me, her fist just an inch from knocking me out cold. My vision was all kinds of wrong; blurry, doubled, distorted.

Blood dripped from my face and landed on the ground beneath me. I dropped to my knees and I felt someone—Tia—hold me from behind.

"Oh my. I'm so sorry. I'm so-sorry," Tia said over and over again. I wasn't sure if she was actually crying.

The whole room went silent. The only sound being that of my heavy gasping.

"Yes, Kaldar of my clan is a supreme," Jhan's voice was filled with so much pride and confidence.

An even louder gasp from the crowd and then a member of the higher court, a man that was seated at the right edge of the table stood up.

"Then he shall join our elite force of marshals immediately—"

"With all due respect great one, Kaldar is a member of my clan and is still very young, I shall decide what is best for him and which paths he shall take."

"Do you dare challenge the word of the higher court!?" The man bellowed, his booming voice filling the room. And just then, from where I knelt, dazed, on the ground, I noticed that he was completely bald.

The woman in the middle raised a hand into the air and the man didn't utter another word.

"Perhaps Kaldar is too young and needs proper training now. He is too much an amateur to be thrown among our elites," She said, "but, also perhaps, we shall be keeping a closer watch on you Jhan, and also on your Supreme, you have been tasked to train him and you prove obsolete in this task then I'm afraid we will have to take him from you."

She talked about me like as if I was some kind of weapon, their weapon, to be exploited to the advantages and to go but only their bidding. I had a life of my own, I should be choosing my own decisions but by the way she said it, it was like I had no choice. Like this was normal code of conduct that they have been doing for thousands of years, if you are a Supreme, it's either get on board or get out of the way.

Jhan nodded stiffly.

"It was nice meeting you Kaldar," She said, and from the state I was in, I could barely nod. Tia pulled me up and I rested a bulk of my weight, by one arm, on her shoulder.

Jhan was beside us in no time. I spotted Leya appear from a corner of the building—holding a partially blind Jereum with one hand and guiding him through the crowd of clans that were whispering, gossiping and staring wildly.

We were all here, my whole clan. We walked towards the entrance that we had come through and as I leapt away, my clan with me, I couldn't help but ponder on who that woman, whose image had flashed through my mind giving me zeal, was. My mother?