Chapter 65: Crimson vein, The unveiled secrets
Luca picked the call, his brows furrowing as static crackled through the poor Virenkai network.
A few broken syllables of his mother’s voice slipped through, haunting and unclear, before the line went dead, leaving behind only silence heavy enough to choke the room.
His jaw clenched, eyes darkening, Damn this place.
"Let’s go in," he said, his voice low but steady. He tightened his grip on Alessia’s trembling hand.
Her eyes reflected fear, wide and luminous like a doe caught in a hunter’s snare.
"Why would your mother call now?" Alessia whispered, unease threading her tone.
Luca leaned closer, pressing a gentle kiss to the crown of her head, the warmth of his lips brushing against her skin like a fleeting vow.
"Don’t worry, amore. We’ll be fine." His voice held a quiet conviction, the kind only men with blood on their hands and love in their hearts could carry. "Nothing will happen to you, not while I breathe. I will protect you with all of me and till my last dying breath."
The words sank into Alessia’s heart like molten fire.
She threw her arms around him, desperate to anchor herself in his promise, in the strength of the man who had become her everything.
Their lips hovered a heartbeat away from a kiss electric, trembling, desperate when Ryan’s voice broke the fragile bubble.
"Sir," Ryan said, head bowed, guilt painting his tone. "Forgive me for interrupting."
Luca frown narrowing his eyes, frustration flaring in his gaze, but his voice remained cold, commanding. "You may speak."
Ryan swallowed. "When are we leaving with your mother to Morano City?"
Luca released Alessia’s waist reluctantly, his thumb brushing across her palm before he turned toward the looming hall. "I’ll ask her now." His voice carried steel, but Alessia heard the faint tremor beneath it, the tremor of a son caught between duty and doubt.
Together, they entered.....
******
Lauretta Morano sat poised like a queen in exile, her figure cloaked in elegance, her smile unsettlingly bright. "Oh, yes, my son," she said smoothly, gesturing to a chair. "Have a seat."
The smile twisted Alessia’s stomach into knots.
Lauretta Morano doesn’t smile...
Not like this, Not without a purpose. The air felt hot and heavier, charged with something Alessia couldn’t name it.
Though the air conditioner hummed cool air into the room, she felt herself burning from within, heat crawling up her skin until sweat dampened her brow.
She pressed her hand against her chest, gasping quietly, whispering words meant only for her mind...
"You look so strange, so wrong, so unlike yourself"....
But the words escaped her lips instead, loud, sharp, echoing.
Every head turned toward her.
The Virenkai guards, standing like statues along the chamber walls, shifted their gazes.
Luca’s mother tilted her head, smile still carved across her lips.
Luca stiffened at her side, his entire body coiling with protective tension.
Alessia froze. "Did I just say that aloud"? She thought within herself.
*****
Meanwhile, in Morano, Princess Elowen stood before the gates, her fists clenched.
Fredo’s refusal still stung. "You cannot enter, Princess," he had said firmly. "Luca and Alessia are not here."
She had waited and recheck for hours, still checked, and hoped.
Still, there was no sign of them.
Her father’s warning replayed in her head like a curse "you are chasing shadows. You will come back with nothing, allow the Morano’s fight for themselves".....
Tears threatened, but she held them back with stubborn pride. "Should I go back home? Would Donato even want me if I failed him?" Her chest ached at the thought. I don’t want to be a failure, Not to him"..
She turned toward her lodge, her steps heavy, her heart heavier.
Princess Elowen lingered at the gates of Morano, her heart restless, her eyes burning with a desperate longing.
She wanted to step into their world to see Luca and Alessia, to know if the stories she had been told of them were truth or painted illusions and to know about Donato’s well-being... Every fiber of her being urged her to follow, but Virenkai’s walls and her father’s warnings kept her anchored in hesitation.
But Inside, the air of Morano’s mansion carried the weight of history, of secrets sealed in blood and ink.
Lauren moved like a shadow, slipping past the hall where portraits of Morano patriarchs stood like silent judges.
His steps were calculated, his breaths shallow.
He had been waiting for this moment, Luca’s absence was the perfect veil.
"The Morano documents... contracts, maps, sealed letters with the crimson family crest".
He reached out with trembling fingers, snatched them, and quickly folded the parchments down to a smaller size, slipping them into his inner pocket.
His chest swelled with triumph and fear all at once.
His phone buzzed again in his palm. A call.... He lifted it to his ear, and her voice came through, sharp and sweet like poisoned honey.
"That’s my boy," his mother purred, the thrill in her voice unrestrained. "Keep it safe. Act dumb until they return to Morano again. I love you, son."
Lauren’s lips twitched into a smile that never reached his eyes.
"Yes, Mother," he whispered back.
He ended the call and lingered for a heartbeat, the words echoing in his head.... "Act dumb. As if it were that easy when his pulse hammered like war drums".....
He slid the phone into his pocket, but his fingers didn’t rest.
Almost by instinct, they moved across the screen, dialing a number burned into his memor, "The Atlans". The enemies who promised him more than the Moranos ever could.
His thumb hovered, breath shallow, heart trembling with the taste of treachery.
But before he could lift the phone to his ear, movement stirred in the corner of his vision.
Heavy boots against marble, Shadows stretching.
He froze.
Fredo rhe Morano guard captain, his scarred face carved in stone, flanked by two of the familia guards.
Their eyes swept the corridor, sharp, unyielding.
And now, they were walking straight toward him.
Lauren’s stomach dropped. Goosebumps prickled along his skin as though ice water coursed through his veins.
His legs wanted to run, but the marble floor held him captive.
His throat tightened as he shoved the phone deeper into his pocket, praying the half-dialed number would go unnoticed.
Fredo’s gaze locked on him, hard and questioning.
The guards behind him narrowed their eyes, suspicion simmering in silence.
Lauren swallowed hard, forcing a smile that tasted of ash. "Evening... I was just wandering," he murmured, voice cracking with a strain he couldn’t disguise.
But inside, his mind screamed. One wrong move, and I’m finished.
*****
Back in Virenkai, Lauretta’s voice pierced the silence. "Alessia, you look so tired. Irene prepare the visitor’s room for my sweet daughter-in-law." Her smile widened, stretching unnaturally.
Alessia’s pulse quickened.
The title, Daughter-in-law— rolled off Lauretta’s tongue like honey laced with poison.
"No," Alessia answered, her voice firmer than she expected. "I want Luca by my side forever and always." She forced a small smile, masking the storm inside. "For now... thank you, ma."
Lauretta chuckled lightly, but her eyes glittered with something cold.
"Mother," Luca spoke then, his voice carrying an edge. "Enough with your games and riddles. What is going on here? We thought you were kidnapped, and yet here you are, dining, smiling, with Father’s picture hanging on this wall as if it belongs to these people. What is happening?"
"My son, my son..." Lauretta’s laugh was hollow, brittle, and wrong. "Alessia was right. Everything here is strange. Even you." She leaned forward, eyes sharp. "You think you know Virenkai, but you don’t. And you don’t know me either."
Luca’s fury sparked, veins bulging at his temples, body vibrating with restrained violence.
Alessia placed her hand on his chest, her touch the only thing keeping his rage from igniting into something darker.
"Enough," he said finally. His voice was thunder in the chamber. "We will leave Virenkai at dawn.
But tonight.... tonight you shall tell me the truth. Why Father’s picture hangs here. Why you smile like a stranger."
Lauretta’s dry laughter rang again, chilling and sharp. "Don’t you want to know, Luca? Don’t you want to know the truth that bleeds through these walls?"
Alessia’s heart couldn’t bear it.
The suffocating room, the twisted laughter, the shadowed truths, it was too much.
"Excuse me," she whispered, her voice breaking.
She didn’t wait for Luca’s reply.
She turned and fled, her heels clicking desperately against the cold floor, the walls of Virenkai closing in behind her.
*****
The night air hit her like salvation.
Alessia gulped in the breeze, her lungs expanding with relief.
For the first time in hours, she could breathe.
She walked aimlessly, letting her feet guide her, until the sound of running water reached her ears.
Drawn by instinct, she followed it, her heart gradually steadying.
And then... she saw it.
A stream, its waters glimmering like glass under the moonlight.
The scent of earth, the symphony of crickets, the rustling of leaves, it felt like stepping into a dream.
Alessia knelt by the edge, fingers trembling as she reached into the water.
The surface rippled around her touch.
And then... everything changed.
The moon burst into full brilliance overhead, but instead of silver, its glow turned blood red.
Snowflakes of scarlet light fell gently onto the river, dyeing the stream with hues of crimson.
Alessia gasped, yanking her hand back only to see her palms glowing, molten gold radiating from her skin.
Her heart raced violently, her breath shallow.
"Wait..... what?" Her voice cracked, disbelief and terror colliding.
She stared at her golden hands, at the crimson-stained stream, at the blood-red moon painting the night sky.
Her lips trembled as the truth clawed its way to her tongue.
"So... I am the Red moon blood child???".....