The Vampire Crimson Heir

Heartstone Society

I stared at the note in his hand, my jaw tightened. By the time I looked back towards the shadows, the hooded figure was gone, no footsteps, no scent, nothing. As if they had never been there, Aurora moved beside me her lavender eyes fixed on the paper.

“They wanted you to find this”

I folded it, “obviously”

The silver badge still sat heavy on my palm, the crest engraved into it gleamed beneath the moonlight, a black serpent coiled around a crown. The symbol of the Heartstone society, an organization said to have been disbanded decades ago. Yet now two students were dead, both connected, and this symbol had appeared beside the second body. This wasn’t a coincidence, it was a message, I slid the badge into my pockets.

“We need to find out everything about the Heartstone society”

Aurora glanced toward the professors gathering around Mira’s corpse, “and how do you plan on doing that?”

I looked toward the academy tower,”the restricted archives”

Aurora sighed…”again?”

I smirked, “you are starting to sound like you enjoy breaking rules”

Her glare told me otherwise

It was midnight, blackthorn academy slept beneath heavy silence. Most students remained locked in their dormitories since the second murder. Curfews had become absolute, guards patrolled every corridor, and professors lingered in the hall. Fear had tightened its grip over the school. Aurora and I moved through the shadows anyway.

The restricted archives sat beneath the academy library, a place only faculty could access. I had entered once in my previous life, and it had nearly gotten me expelled. Tonight felt worse, the iron door stood at the end of a narrow staircase, ancient runes glowed faintly across its surface. Aurora stepped forward.

“Move”

Her fingers brushed the runes, magic pulsed beneath her skin. The lock clicked, I raised a brow.

“You complain about rules but break them better than I do”

Aurora pushed the door open, “I’m choosing to ignore that”

Inside, rows of endless shelves stretched into darkness, old records, ancient documents, and student files older than kingdoms. Aurora lit flames between her fingers.

“Look for anything on the Heartstone society”, I tried not to shout.

Aurora nodded, for over an hour we searched. We found nothing, most records had either been removed or deliberately been burned, someone had cleaned this place long before Ethan found it. I slammed another empty file shut.

“They erased everything.”

“Not everything.”

Aurora held up a torn ledger, I crossed to her. The cover read “Blackthorn Internal Student Registry.” My pulse quickened, inside were dozens of names, students marked with a black insignia, members of the Heartstone society. I scanned them, most had vanished,just like Ethan’s notebook suggested, then I stopped. A familiar name, Mira Holloway. Aurora went still.

“She was one them”

I kept reading, then my blood ran colder, Ethan cross was also marked. The victims weren’t random, they were former members, or connected to them. Then I found another name, one that made my stomach twist, Adrian Ravencroft. Auroras breath caught.

“Your friend”

I stared, Adrian was part of it, or had been part of it. But I didn’t remember him ever mentioning the society,not once. Had he lied? Or had I simply never known? Before I could think further, footsteps echoed above us, I was tensed, someone was coming and they were fast.

Aurora extinguished the flame, as darkness swallowed us. The archive door creaked open, we both held our breaths. Two figures entered, their voices were low, and familiar. I froze when I recognized one, headmaster Alaric, and the second one advisor Duskbane. My body went rigid, Duskbane…even here now.

“We are running out of time”, Alaric said

“The heirs are already moving”, Duskbane’s voice remained calm

My pulse thundered, Heirs? Plural.

“They’ve found the bodies sooner than expected”, Alaric continued

“And Ethan?”

“He talked too much”

Auroras hand tightened around my sleeve, I could feel my boood boiling. Duskbane killed Ethan, or he ordered it, before I could move. Duskbane spoke again,

“What about the prince”

Silence, then Duskbane laughed, a sound I remembered far too well.

“He was reborn”

I stopped breathing, and Aurora stiffened.

“They always do” Duskbane added

“But he doesn’t know enough yet”

My nails dug into my palms, they knew, they had known from the beginning. This wasn’t random, it wasn’t new, it had happened before, more than once. Alaric’s voice lowered,

“And the witch princess?”

Duskbane answered immediately, “she was reborn too”

I felt Aurora go pale beside me, every instinct screamed at me to move, to attack, to kill Duskbane here and now, and end it all. But I forced myself to stay still, not yet, not until I understood everything.

Footsteps moved closer, then I realized with horror that Duskbane was walking towards their hiding place. Then, a loud crash sounded above, both men stopped. Alaric cursed,

“Someone’s upstairs”

Duskbane clicked his tongue, “search it”.

The two vanished, the archive door slammed shut. I exhaled sharply, Aurora stared at me,

“They know”

Worse than that, they knew everything, and if Duskbane was involved now, then the massacre in my first life had started much earlier than I thought. Suddenly, I understood, this academy wasn’t were the murders started, it was where they were cultivated. The Heartstone society, the disappearances, they were all connected, and Adrian’s name was right in the middle of it all.

I found Adrian in the morning, on the training grounds, sparring alone. His sword cut through the air with brutal precision, I watched silently, trying to see him differently, a liar, a conspirator, a murderer in fact. But all I could see was Adrian, my best friend, the boy who had betrayed me. Adrian lowered his sword.

“You’ve been staring for five minutes.”

I stepped forward, “what’s the Heartstone society?”

Adrian froze, only for a second, but I saw it. Recognition, then confusion.

“What?”

I narrowed my eyes, “you know what I’m talking about”

His golden eyes darkened, “where did you hear that name?”

Not denial, that was enough. Before I could push any further, a steam tore across the academy grounds, it was louder than the last two. Adrian and I turned, students began running, panic spread instantly. We sprinted toward the sound, the central courtyard, crowds had already gathered.

I pushed through, then stopped dead. A third body, hanging from the academy’s stone gates, blood dripping onto the ground below. I recognized the victim instantly, another name from the ledger, another member of the Heartstone society. And that wasn’t what made my blood freeze.

Pinned to the corpse’s chest was another note, written in the same handwriting. This one addressed to me, I stepped forward and tore it open. My eyes scanning the words, and I felt true fear once again, this time the note said 8 simple words.

“Ask Adrian what happened the night you died”