Despite not hearing everything well, it was clear someone important wanted to see Dante and he was, to put it mildly, not excited by this news. She'd tried to hold the name she heard in her head.
“Who is Caidas?” she asked curiously as Dante wasn't quick to explain.
The vampire exhaled and sat on the nearest stone grave, propping up his temple with fingers. His gaze was drawn to Violette.
“Something like a king for vampires.”
“A king?” She dazed. “Vampires have a king?”
“There's many more vampires than you think and they need a ruler to…not evokechaos,” he explained.
“Never thought vampires have their own…” she stuttered.
“Kingdom? Yes, they have.” He waved, not being satisfied with that fact either. “Caidas there's like some kind of,” he paused trying to choose the right word, “a protector. His duty as he says is protecting humans from vampires.”
“Protecting humans?” The news that vampires had their own kingdom was not as astonishing as the fact that their ruler was thinking about human safety. Such nonsense to hear! Never in her life she'd think vampires cared about someone else except themselves. “Sounds…strange for a vampire. Or he is…Is he a vampire at all?”
“Yes. The oldest.”
“The oldest vampire in the world?” She raised her brows, her eyes sparkling.
Dante nodded.
“He must be incredibly old. Do you know how much?”
Violette's curiosity was beyond worrying very often, it was the thing she was very scared about, but she couldn't fight it.
Dante's forehead wrinkled. “Never tried to fill my head with such information. But I think he is as old as the ancient forgotten stories.”
Violette tried to imagine Caidas and her mind came off with an image of an old wrinkled bony man that looked more like something scary andtotally unhuman than the beautiful vampire Dante was. Something she'd better never meet in her life.
She reflected about it, voicing, “It is hard to believe a vampire thinks about humans' well-being. What is his interest in it?”
“He believes everything has to have a balance,” Dante said. “He knows about humans and immortal life like no one else. And thinks the best way to survive is to be in harmony with mortals. He came up with rules for vampires to follow and they honor them like laws.”
“If there are laws, do they have punishments for not following them?” A stupid question to ask, she realized only after voicing it.
“Yes, that's why vampires are not in a hurry to break them.” He shrugged and with such conversation Violette noticed how Dante's features softened and he no longer looked irritated.
She fixed her gaze on his face, on the covered part of it.
“Did you break the rules?” It wasn't really careful of her but this question bothered her mind for a long time.
Dante raised his eyes to her with a slightly arched brow.
“I mean…” She tentatively circled her finger around her jaw, hinting about his mask.
“I've never been part of his squad to break the rules to begin with,” he said and then stood up. “Come,” he called and started to make his way back into the forest.
Violette blinked, pondering what he meant, her gaze shifted back to the crypt towering over the snowy ground. The symbol on the roof kept her interest until she heard his voice again.
Taking a last glimpse of the tracery on the stone, she rushed to catch up with Dante as he had already started to disappear between the trees.
“What happens with vampires who break the rules?” She puffed, moving away a branch in her path and ducking down, whereas Dante was ambling unbothered by anything in his way.
“Nobody knows exactly. But I am a great example of what happens with vampires who don't listen to Caidas. So they won't dare to disobey the laws if they want to stay the way they are, saving all their privileges.”
“The privileges?” Violette dodged another spruce branch.
