Dark War Chronicles Box Set One (93 page)

“I know that much.” She shot back. “But you shifted through my thoughts, my memories, calmed my panic. How?”

I chuckled. “All parts of my abilities that I gained from the Father when he changed me.” I led her inside.

“Your hair and eyes, were those part of the change as well?” She asked and sat on one of my lounge chairs.

I refused to meet her gaze. “No, that happened when I tried to save my sister. The Father had a witch use a spell to turn her into a Blood Human.”

She frowned. “I know that spell. It strips someone of their humanity, turns them into a gift for the Father and the vampires. It costs a witch their soul.”

“Yes. My sister is his food source now.” I couldn’t shake the feeling of grief.

She took a deep breath. “My name is Elissa. My husband was killed by one of your soldiers. I’m twenty-one years, we had no children. My parents are from another village that your people already took out.”

“This was not the life I wanted.” I admitted. “My sister and I were sold into the Father’s care fifteen years ago. I was merely a child, my sister a babe, and my mother was strong. The Father chose my sister when she turned thirteen to work in his mansion. We would visit when we could, and now at your age she is now his...” He shook his head. “Hard to believe that she is only two years younger.”

Elissa stayed with me for several years. We were lovers, friends, and sometimes enemies. I came home from raiding another village to find my villa ransacked. Discarded furniture, torn bed sheets and the smell of Elissa’s blood everywhere told me something had gone very wrong while I was gone. My mind raced as I tried to figure out what had happened in my absence. Storming out of the dwelling, I ran into a human woman. She tumbled down to the ground and then stood, dusting herself off.

“Forgive me, sire. I come bearing a message from The Father.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Tell me.”

“He would like to see you in his hall. There are matters that need to be settled.”

I looked back at the mess and hoped that she had nothing to do with this. I could feel my temper rising as I followed the servant to the Father’s hall. She left me in the empty room. The Father’s hall was just off where he kept Amunet for his feeding pleasures, but instead of hearing the normal sounds of him feeding, I heard sobbing, and it wasn’t my sister. No, it was my love. I waited, knowing going in there would only mean death for her.

After a few moments the Father came out. His dark hair tied away from his olive skin, his black eyes met my gaze. “I was wondering when you would return home. I found your little pet. She is pretty.”

My heart fell, but I kept my face blank. “I found her in a village, I was taken with her.”

“So much so that you rarely come to see your sister. My whore must be so disappointed in you.”

I tensed. I didn’t realize that Amunet knew I came, I didn’t think she’d miss my visits. “She’s normally too drained to notice I’m here.”

“Do you really believe that?” The Father laughed. “Come with me.” He led me into the room that I knew to be Amunet’s chamber. A room full of pillows and a chamber pot for her, though I never knew how she found it since her eyes were covered at all times. Amunet was curled on the floor holding a pillow to her naked body, silent, still.

Kneeling next to her was Elissa. She stroked Amunet’s hair as if trying to comfort her. But her own cheeks were streaked with drying tears. I took a few steps towards them, but stopped when the Father put his hand up.

“Whore.” He snapped.

My sister raised her head up, but still remained silent, but I could see her jaw lock in what I assumed was an attempt not to snap back.

“Who is in here with you?”

She took a moment and then took a deep breath, “An unknown female, my brother, and you, Master.”

“Her senses have increased in the last few years. She can sense vampires, shifters, witches. I assume it’s a perk of me blindfolding her.”

So did I, but I hadn’t been aware of it. “The unknown female is my lover, Amunet.”

She frowned at the name. “My brother has taken a human lover when he himself has become a monster?”

“Amunet, please.” I tried. “I am no more a monster than you.”

She rolled onto the floor, onto her back, displaying that her body was littered with marks. “I am not a monster, I am food.” Her voice was even and my heart broke. When in the last few years had she come to this conclusion?

The Father laughed. “She still fights me, but right now she is still affected by my powers. When she comes down from them she’ll remember what she is and where she came from.”

And I wouldn’t be here. I had never been there for her. I looked at Elissa.“Come, I do not wish to be here for that.”

“You are going nowhere.” The Father snarled. “You are not to keep humans from me. You are not to keep anyone from me.”

He rushed towards her and grabbed Elissa’s neck. “She is nothing compared to us, when will you learn that Zaaren? When?”

With a flick of his wrist he snapped her neck and dropped her lifeless body. The blank look in her eyes and the frozen horror on her face would always haunt me. My one glimpse of human life, my one hope now gone.

***

T
he seven of us stood in front of the Father’s throne, waiting. He said nothing, merely looked us over for a few minutes. Finally Nuala stepped up. Her long light red hair tumbled almost to her knees, her pale skin had been freckled and her green eyes flickered to me before she spoke. “Why have you called us here?”

“With the exception of Zaaren, I have allowed all of you to strike out on your own. I have taught you all how to bind humans to you, make others, and use your abilities.”

Except for me. I always wondered why he had kept me so close. Nearly a hundred years had passed since he’d killed my love and he had yet to teach me anything more. I was the youngest of the seven and I knew that. He’d chosen each of us by hand, except me. They each carried their own exotic look, their own names, and none of them were the same. I had never questioned where he had found them, but this was the first time we’d all been together.

“So why have you called us back.” She asked.

He snarled. “We have lost favor with the gods. They have taken all that is glorious away from us. We are the superior beings. It is time that we show the humans that. Every human you come across that is not bound will be killed, turned, or put into the slave trade. Only change the strong ones. We do not need weak vampires running around.”

A brilliant plan, except how did he expect us to control all the ones that we changed? How did he expect us to keep order?

Enzuna stepped up. His skin was the darkest I’d seen, even in my travels. His head was clean of hair and his body toned. “You expect us to keep track of them all?”

“I expect you to teach them as I have you. They will answer to me and to you. You will act to police them into obedience. There will be rules to follow, laws that if broken will mean a visit from me.”

Our own little vampire society. We would no longer be alone in this world.

“Come, I have prepared a meal for you.” He motioned to the hall and I knew exactly who he was getting ready to share. I hadn’t seen her in ten years. My sister.

I hesitated and he looked over at me. “If you refuse, Zaaren, then I will let you starve for a year.” He snarled.

A year of blood lust unsatisfied would turn me into more of a monster than I already was. Refusing his gift was not a choice. Amunet stood in her room, some version of a dress covered her most intimate parts and some sick part of me realized it was meant to tell us the Father would not share everything about her with us. Each pulse point was left uncovered for us, her eyes still shielded with the black fabric, and had I been human I would have missed the fine tremor going through her body. As a vampire I could sense her fear and her panic.

I shouldn’t have been waiting there for her to be offered, I should have been there to comfort her. To save her. The Father touched her and her body stilled. All the panic I had sensed melted away. He was using his power to calm her.

“Offer yourself, there are eight of us total.” He told her.

Amunet nodded and laid back on the pillows, spreading her arms and legs open without a protest. Despite knowing she wouldn’t die from this, I couldn’t stop the fear.

“Zaaren, take her wrist. Everyone else, choose your spot.”

“Zaaren?” Amunet’s voice cracked. “Master, please—“

The Father stopped her with a hand on her head. “Shush, silence. Remember you are nothing but property. My property to do with as I wish.”

Her protests died down and she took a shuddering breath. “Yes, Master.”

I stepped up and took her wrist. “I am sorry.” I whispered before I bit in. Everyone else surrounded her and took a pulse point.

We left her on the ground, bleeding and unconscious. Through my feeding I’d seen her memories and I wanted nothing but to wipe them away from her and me. It was that moment I knew I needed to become powerful enough to take her from The Father and find a home for her, far away from this horror. Nuala put a hand on my shoulder. “You have to learn to let go.”

“She’s the only thing I have left in this life, I cannot simply let her go.” I glanced back at her as she curled up on her side.

Nuala sighed. “Come with me.” She led me out of the room and hall to the outside courtyard. “You are a vampire now. You cannot hold on to mortal things. And yes, I know she is not mortal anymore. She is not your sister anymore. She is a human that the Father turned into some poor creature for the pure sake of food and fucking. She is one of twenty, he burned the rest.”

My heart sank. He would killed Amunet, as he said before, when he tired of her. Of course now that they had lost favor with the gods....

“Ask to strike out on your own. Find a land, do as you’re told for now, and then come back. None of us like him, none of us want to see him grow into immense power.”

I walked with her as we talked. It made sense, but it meant abandoning my sister. “And then what? Hope he doesn’t kill her while I’m away?”

“Do you know why he’s kept you here?” Nualas asked, stopping to look at me.

“No. I never questioned.” Maybe I should have.

She chuckled. “It was to keep his little pet in line. Now that she’s compliant, there’s no need for him to keep you here. Staying here will only keep you weak. Zaaren, trust me that you need to strike out on your own.”

She spoke to me as if I was a child, but she was right. I knew there would be no helping Amunet if I did not grow in power. My sister was stuck in a routine of being drugged by the Father’s powers and I doubted she’d know how long I’d be gone. Nuala was right. If I wanted to save her, I had to let go.

“Thank you.”

“I’m only trying to look out for you. Like I said, none of us are fond of him and these plans of his are going to get out of control.”

And that was the truth, but right now, we were all too young, too weak to do anything about it.

***

T
he Father had let me strike out on my own. Three hundred years and things had changed. I’d grown in power and though I had yet to change anyone, I knew who ever I did I wouldn’t be able to trust with my mission. Each fledgling that I had met from the others still had an undying loyalty to the Father. It was sickening, but it was needed so none of us were ever suspected of wanting to turn on him.

I did have my eyes on one man. Markus. A great solider of the time from Rome. I’d followed the training and the battles, he was one of the best. Smart, logical, strong, and he had nothing to lose. He’d lost his wife to childbirth when I had first shown up in his country. I’d met him grieving in the market one night, drunk on wine. He had no true idea of what I was or where I came from, but he shared his story with me.

If I changed him then I wouldn’t be taking anything away from him. I watched as he left the tavern in a drunken stumble. In the morning he’d get up and go to training, so he thought, but my mind was made up. It’d be tonight that he would join me and then the Father’s army, and there he’d be trained as the Father saw fit. Just like the others. In time the Father would release them to start their own territory. It was a circle of creation that would not stop until vampires were the majority.

I followed Markus down the road. I waited until he was out of the torch lights and rushed him. I trapped him against a wall and didn’t wait. I was blood starved and the only way to change him would be to drain him. My fang tore into his throat. Over the years I learned that I could alter the memories of those I fed from, but that is not something I’d do with Markus. He needed to know where he came from and how he was created.

He shoved against me, but in his drunken state his motions were scattered and held no effect. I drank deeply, going through his memories, his battles, his losses, his victories, his grief and happiness, everything that made him the strong warrior he was.

His heartbeat slowed and I knew I was getting close, his body slumped against mine and I transported him to my home outside the city. Laying him on a pallet, I watched as he took his final breath. I scored my own wrist with my teeth and held it to Markus’ lips. His instincts kicked in and he latched on to me. My blood flowed through him and gave him life. His eyes opened and he met my gaze. With a snarl he shoved my wrist away and wiped his lips off.

“What have you done to me?”

I gave him the only answer he wanted to hear. “I made you immortal. For the price of your soul, blood lust and the ability to walk in the sun, I gave you immortality.”

I could see the curiosity in his eyes. “Immortal.”

“A vampire, and tomorrow we shall travel to the Father and you will learn about your new life.” I assured him. “He has hordes of humans there to feed your blood lust until you learn to control it.” Humans that the other Originals and I helped to gather. It made me sick, but we had to play along, for now and until we had the power to take him out.

Markus glared at me. “A vampire. Such creatures are myths.”

“You don’t believe that, Markus. I’ve seen you tell stories to your troops to beware of those touched by the gods, of creatures who are not human, and of woman who can seduce you to your death.”