Aleron: Book One of Strigoi Series (Stringoi Series) (22 page)

“‘Why?’ I begged for understanding. ‘Why?’

“‘You will learn your place, Pandora!’ His voice overwhelmed mine. ‘My wrath will be far beyond what you’ve witnessed thus far if disobedience is your cure. If death befalls Mynea, the same fate will befall you. I alone command this house. You’re now a part of my coven. My children! Everything you are belongs to me and me alone.’

“‘How dare you?’ I cried. ‘You steal my life with your trickery! You arrest my soul with your lies! You killed my family to have me as your own, and now you aim at my heart? You mean to destroy me as you destroyed my brothers? My father went mad and my mother withered away in death. You’re a monster, no better than the beast man fears in the night. No better than the murderers who plague mankind and on whom you have taught me to dine, though you yourself kill without
concern. A fool I’ve been to believe such love exists. You love no one but yourself.’

“‘Silence!’

“Words left me. I’ve never heard such a voice directed at me. Vlad’s eyes grew large and black. His face became slightly more boorish, resembling the creature we had seen at the door of his innermost chamber that fateful day. The wind seemed to awaken, and a chill filled the air around us. My hair began to ride the wind as he walked toward me.

“Vlad extended his arm and hand and pointed a stern finger toward my face. The nail of his index finger was almost as long as the finger itself. The hair covering his palm made this gesture ever more horrid. ‘You’ll do as I’ve commanded and without question!’

“Vlad towered over me, and I felt a feeling that had long ago abandoned me—fear. I felt mortality once more. I knew then Vlad would indeed kill me if I disobeyed his order. I knew then what fate would bring if I harmed Mynea. The same fate of anyone who would harm me. An unspeakably painful death.

“The menacing fiend before me withdrew and resembled my Vlad once again. The wind’s fury fell. The chill in the air disappeared. My master possessed powers I’ve yet to understand nor comprehend the rapacity they beheld. Calmer, I spoke. ‘
Do you not love me as you once did? Do I not do your will as you expect? Why must I be forced to share what is mine with another
?’

“‘My child, you are loved as you have always been. You will always remain in my favor, for you’re the first. Go into the night and drink. Return, and we’ll lie as we always have.’

“Vlad loved me as well as Mynea. He revealed this to me, and though I wanted to go, I also knew he would never let that happen. We would be his forever.”

CHAPTER 18

closed my eyes and took a deep breath in order to take in all that Pandora had shared. The smell of the coming rain paralleled the bleeding inside my chest. My heart was devastated.

I opened my eyes as the sky began to weep. Cool against my hair and cheeks, the rain fell light and steady, just enough to drown the crimson tears that flowed slowly from the crevices of my eyes. I turned away from the vampire who had wounded my soul, for weeping was unbecoming a prince of darkness. It was not the way of the hunter. Yet the hunter fell victim to the stinging words of the most beautiful messenger.

The scurrying of human feet could no longer be heard. Hundreds of lights from the town flickered off, then on, then off again, until they too slept. Pandora and I were not alone. The wolves growled and snarled and howled as they hunted. But the two of us were the only two immortal creatures within the surrounding thick blanket of trees,
shrubs, and dead leaves. We were all that mattered. The rain began to fall hard against us, but it didn’t disturb us. We welcomed it. God was washing me, cleansing me of the filth of weakness, cooling the fire that burst within, allowing logic and reason to return. My focus turned back to Pandora.

Pandora could feel the sorrow within me. The thought of Mynea loving another. The confusion of why she kept Vlad’s existence from me. The betrayal of leaving my side, her powerful fledgling.
Did she really and truly love me?

“Could she really and truly love you?” Pandora replied after listening to my thoughts.

I knew what she meant by this; however, the notion of a charade from my princess was blasphemy to my ears.

“You must understand, Aleron, we have a powerful and undeniable love for our maker. It’s a natural and sacrificing protection from the origin of us all. Think of it. You know you would give your very life for Mynea. You know you would protect her at any and all cost, from any and everything that could cause harm to her. Well, my dear, we all have that affection for our maker and, since Vlad is the first of us, he’s protected by the most powerful of his children, the ones who have a direct bloodline to him. And since he’s the first of us, his strength and abilities are unmeasurable. To my vast knowledge, there’s nothing that can break him or the bond that exists.”

I needed for Pandora to continue, and so she did along with the wild howls of the night beasts who stalked much less powerful prey.

“Years had passed, and Mynea and I learned to live together under one master and lover. We were more than just family. We became the instruments of death for Vlad. He would send us to seduce anyone who could possibly hinder his quest for dominance and power. We would love them at sunset, then feed on them before sunrise. We became masters at disposing of the bodies. Entire families would be our victims some nights. Mynea became a skillful hunter, whose appetite sometimes rivaled my unquenchable thirst.

“The closer we became, the more Vlad loved us. He showered us with gifts. Precious stones, luxurious clothes, exotic and rare herbs and
flowers. We were his princesses. His royal and loyal concubines. A personification of Persephone’s two halves. We both belonged to Hades. We both loved our King of the Dead. And, though I learned to live with Mynea, I never forgave Vlad for his betrayal.

“Many nights I withdrew into myself and needed to be alone, to hunt alone. I still felt Mynea to be an impostor and an unsuitable substitute. Whatever I felt didn’t matter in the slightest to Vlad’s will. He knew my feelings and would often speak to my mind with these simple and suggestive words: ‘With time, my love. With time.’

“It wasn’t long before Vlad’s quest for more power led him to encourage us not only to feed among the aristocrats of society but to violate his rule of never condemning another to the life of the damned. His thirst for domination persuaded him to duplicate in others what he had in us, devotion to the death.

“He would begin to tell us what drew us to him more and more, which was his way of teaching us selection. Vlad wanted us to make two become many. We were to make more vampires. Mynea was reluctant. I, however, welcomed it. If it would please him, I was quick to oblige.

“Soon our threesome became many. I selected the most beautiful mortal specimens to receive the dark gift of immortality. Calisto was the first of my brood. She was followed by Amaltheia, Cymone, and Danae. And once I began, I, too, thirsted for more. My daughters were all extraordinary in life. Like myself, they, too, became exceptional in death. Together my brood and I would target the outlying towns throughout southern Romania and drink its inhabitants dry. Before long I was bestowing the thirst unto many others as my daughters began to multiply themselves, and before the turning frenzy ended, twenty-seven immortals filled my succession. We all served Vlad. He loved all of us, and none of us simultaneously. My daughters loved him because I loved him. We remained in his love because we loved him. In loving him, we willingly gave our souls to him to command.

“Mynea was different from me in fulfilling our duty. Mynea had just learned to stomach Vlad’s love for me and was crushed by the love he apportioned to my daughters. Mynea chose mortal women who were defiant in life and thus less loyal in death.

“Despite Mynea’s daughters’ inherent flaws, we still grew as a whole. Many female vampires spread across Vlad’s vast growing empire, the most loyal lieutenants a general and commander could ever ask for. We were all devoted to our beloved prince. As for me and Mynea, we had the absolute devotion of those we made. Vlad was truly a ruler among a sea of princesses, yet he took no favorites among them. Vlad would frequent many and any of our bedchambers. Each and every immortal would be pleasured by our master, for his lust was insatiable, his hunger, unmatched. Some of our fledglings would bring him victims, and he would sometimes share. Sometimes he invited all of us to Budapest where he would host an aristocratic ball. Of course, the true purpose was to expand his wealth and indulge all of our lustful desires to feed. He was masterful in his execution, never leaving the slightest detail to question. Truly a ruler. Truly our king.

“However, the confession Vlad revealed to me the night I was forced to accept another woman into our life, an immortal, would prove to be everlasting in his psyche. Our immortal father and master was still a slave to the lives of the living. He was still trapped by his lust for life through a mortal vessel. It is a prison the elders of our kind all come to know. Unexpectedly, we came face to face with another of his bloodline, Natasha.”

Pandora stopped for a moment, though I never took my eyes off her. I could see her smile with the introduction of Natasha, but it was not a smile of happiness. It was more a smile of satisfaction, the feeling she must have felt during that time. She reveled in the existence of Natasha. And though Vlad repeated his betrayal, Pandora was content.

“Natasha was from the land north of the Euphrates, where the women grew tall, slender, and beautiful. Men traveled from all over those vast lands to capture a bride in exchange for their wealth. Natasha typified a red-haired society of unusually flawless females. True royalty from the depths of common birth, Natasha epitomized a princess, though her parents were common. Knowing Vlad, she had to be the absolute best among her peers. Not as young as Mynea and I, but equally radiant—some might say even more beautiful, or exotic, given the color of her
eyes and hair. She had the height of a male and the grace of a lynx. Truly, she was an alluring specimen, an enticing vampiress.

“I had never before felt such hatred emanating from Mynea.”

Pandora’s voice had retreated to a mere whisper, as if in opposition to the thought of any woman, mortal and immortal alike, being compared to and exceeding her own beauty.

“Natasha’s presence was a shock. However, I somehow felt relieved in this new situation. It confirmed that Vlad saw no difference between me and Mynea. However, Mynea didn’t take in Natasha with open arms. Instead, your vampire mother withdrew into herself, writing in the journal you now carry with you. I can never mistake the stench of it. And though its contents are a mystery to you, I know the day will come when all is made clear.

“Mynea also, for the first time in her existence, began to defy Vlad openly. Her disgust with Natasha, and Vlad’s affection for her, led her to set a plot into motion. For the next several years, there grew a blood feud between the two. I myself enjoyed the new element of excitement to an existence that often seemed lifeless.

“The resentment between my immortal sisters became less important to Vlad, for there was another matter that drew his attention entirely. One of the fledgling vampires of Mynea’s bloodline did something unspeakable.

“You see, Aleron, until that moment, there were only female vampires, save Vlad. Creating another male was never considered. Many of us thought of it, but we never dared to try, for our master was all we desired and needed. Apparently, Sasha desired more exclusive companionship. Mynea knew of this, yet she allowed it to happen. Stranger still was Vlad’s inability to read the thoughts of all those who were born from Mynea. It seems our master’s gifts had limitations.”

CHAPTER 19