Aleron: Book One of Strigoi Series (Stringoi Series) (31 page)

Sinaa was beauty beyond measure; I hadn’t met her equal. She was of average stature for a female of her age. Her beauty had been well known in the town of Tikrit, her slender delicate face accented by eyes of a ripe pear hue. Her brows and lashes were full and thick, nose small and petite, followed by full lips that were truly edible, a neck slightly longer than the average, giving her an innate grace and queenlike profile.

She was born into luxury, the brat of a politician. Though an often unruly child, she never realized the true power of her beauty, likened to Helen of Troy. She didn’t realize men would go to the ends of the earth just to gaze upon her, and once there, they would murder to be with her intimately. She remained oblivious to the power she possessed over men. Her beauty was what attracted Eliza and Pandora to her doorstep.

Sinaa was a mere nineteen years old when Eliza granted her immortality. She was watched for weeks, studied even. Pandora approved of Eliza’s choice in her first immortal child. Eliza wanted Sinaa for our family, for she yearned to please her master with her selection. She knew me. She loved me. I was more than delighted to see her first child.

My next dream revealed more. Sinaa was lost to us. She had wandered into a territory that was unfamiliar to her, unfamiliar even to me, far beyond the boundaries of my coven’s influence.

She was following the travels of a woman of particular interest to her. Sinaa sought the carriage of her mortal mother, who was searching for her only daughter. Her mother had heard of women missing in the central and southern regions of Romania, that is, Transylvania and the city of Bucharest. Sinaa had tracked her mortal mother into the Carpathian Mountains, a place I’ve only glimpsed in the memories of Pandora, and as a consequence of our intimate kisses, also in my dreams.

The carriage came to a stop at a poor weather-beaten home deep within the mountains. The horses were in desperate need of water and the mortals in desperate need of sleep. Sinaa watched from afar as her mother entered the home. As the door shut, the clouds in the night sky erupted suddenly into a great storm. Lightning and thunder startled Sinaa. She was more frightened than I’d ever seen one as powerful as she.

The horses also became frightened, and they struggled violently until they had freed themselves from their leather straps. In every direction they ran, some falling off the narrow path that served as the road they traveled, tumbling hundreds of feet, ricocheting against the jagged rock of the mountainside. Their blood spilled into the darkness as screams began to fill the air.

Sinaa dropped the journal and swiftly ran toward the home, only to
be completely arrested by some unknown and unseen powerful force. Her movements slammed to a halt. Her eyes became a fiery red orange, her hair blowing wildly across her face and into the air.

The door of the home was thrown outward off its hinges in an explosion. Sinaa’s mortal mother dangled in the shadowy doorway. Something was holding her by her neck from behind, hoisting her bloodied body from the ground. Though barely alive, her arms reached for Sinaa, who was suspended in front of her very eyes. And then, I saw Vlad’s eyes peering from the darkness surrounding the doorframe—the abyss!

I awoke abruptly from my slumber. I used my mind to scan the house for Sinaa. There was no trace of her heartbeat within my realm, nor her distinguishing scent. I looked frantically for the one translucent window Mynea had left in my possession, her journal. But I could find it nowhere. Eliza was startled by my hasty movements. I ran to Sinaa’s quarters knowing full well they would be empty, and they were.

CHAPTER 26

inaa never truly embraced her immortality. She was a vampire with a confused human soul. Thus, she hated herself. She hated our coven. She hated Eliza. She hated me. This madness led her to leave the protection of my territory. Though our home was rich with luxury, she needed more. She needed to return to what was most familiar to her. She wanted to ease the suffering of her mother. She wanted to undo the rumors of the suicide of her father, a result of her abduction and his assumed failure to find her. Into the darkness she went.

Pandora confirmed the foreshadowing of my dream when she revealed the following to me: Vlad had left Bran at dusk. Mynea was in Budapest securing a bank under Vlad’s current alias, Vittorio Sange Fiara. Pandora assumed charge of Vlad’s affairs in the absence of the king and queen. She hated this charge, but to remain in his grace, she obeyed.

Vlad had gone to the Carpathian Mountains for a meal, during which time he heard the stampeding of horses in the distance. Carriage wheels
whistled, complementing the heavy breathing of the exhausted mares. Vlad could smell the blood coursing through the veins of the woman. The scent called to him, but her thoughts intrigued him even more. The woman was stricken with grief, for her countrymen long ago had abandoned her, leaving her to travel the most treacherous and least-known corner of Europe alone. Under such circumstances, any rational person would have returned home; however, her grief ran deep for a missing daughter, whom she believed to be in Romania.

Visions of her daughter remained vividly in her mind. One look into these thoughts inspired desire in Vlad for the beauty that was Sinaa.

He knew they would stop at the home on his land at the apex of the lower region, for everyone who attempted passage did.

The keeper was a partially blind old man, hired long ago by Natasha to mind the house. Perhaps she felt pity for him, for the abnormal twist within his spine and oversized forehead caused him to be shunned by the villagers from the town he came from. Forced to live as an outcast no more, here he could remain in solitude, save the passing of a wanderer every now and then.

The home had two extra rooms for travelers in need of food and lodging, for a nominal fee. The old man would warn them of traveling by night, completely unaware of the services he provided his immortal employer. Vlad often visited the home when he knew there was fresh blood residing there.

Vlad arrived only moments before the carriage. He put the old man to sleep with only a thought. There he would wait for the arrival of the winded mares pulling a grieving widowed mother in search of her lost child.

Vlad’s power over the winds created a terrible storm, which further persuaded the woman to seek shelter. He met her at the door and offered to anchor the horses and provide them with wheat and water. There was little water along the path, so she welcomed the hospitality of the fiend.

The moonlight added a glow to his appearance, helping to disguise his ghastly features. She was initially startled by Vlad, for he towered over her. But with his kind offering of a place for her horses and a bed,
she felt more at ease. She followed him into the home, and the door slammed shut behind them.

The steeds suddenly became troubled and began kicking to free themselves. Sinaa had seen her mother leave the horses and enter the home, so she took steps forward to get a closer encounter and a better look at the keeper of the path.
This man is no human. He is more
, she said to herself.

Vlad also knew of her presence. “You are not alone,” he said to the woman. “I can feel your precious daughter near. I can hear her every breath. I smell her. She is immortal, and yet you are not aware of her deception.”

Sinaa discerned something was wrong by the change in her mother’s thoughts. She saw Vlad through mortal eyes. She perceived this to be no mere keeper of the path. He was a vampire! She instantly barged into the home, crushing the front door. She found her mother in the arms of the beast that had revealed himself the night Pandora lost mortal breath. Her mother’s neck was ripped open, blood dripping from her chest down her dress and onto the floor. She looked at Sinaa for the first time in months, yet for the last time in life.

The beast continued to drain the mother of all of her memories of the beauty standing before him. His eyes were closed for a moment, though aware of everything around him. Her mother’s eyes lost focus and purpose. Then they fell halfway closed, as his opened ever wider. Dark and black his eyes were, large and fierce. He dropped the middle-aged woman onto the floor to join the blood that had escaped his thirst.

Sinaa, in complete shock and rage, leapt toward them and was abruptly stopped in midair by an invisible force. She strained desperately with all her power to reach her mother, but much to her dismay, she couldn’t move a single muscle.

The furniture was slammed into the walls by his force and broken into pieces, littering the floor with wood and iron. The shattering of the window enhanced the howl of the wind. The curtains billowed as the flames of the candles exploded with fury. Vlad began to walk slowly and methodically in the direction of Sinaa, his right foot nonchalantly crushing the hand of her mother, who lay dead on the floor.

He examined Sinaa from head to toe, as a father admiring his newborn child might. Vlad was intrigued and completely captivated by her appearance, yet he was enraged by the mystery of her birth. He threw his head back, raised and flared his nostrils into the air, and took in her essence. Her scent was unfamiliar.

“You are powerful, young one.” He stroked her hair and sniffed at her, as a beast exploring something new might. His hands caressed her entire body, admiring the immortal specimen, until he settled on her eyes. He raised her to his eye level with a simple raise of his left palm. Sinaa could smell his terrible breath assaulting her. She was as furious as she was terrified. Vlad wanted this vampire woman and all the secrets she beheld. He took her into his arms, and in an instant, the vampires vanished.

CHAPTER 27

here I stood within the empty room once occupied by Sinaa. Eliza knelt by her bed and caressed its satin sheets. She then closed her eyes and began searching for her, for she, too, became alarmed. It wasn’t unusual for Sinaa to disappear and not return until just before sunrise. However, we both suspected this was no mere disappearance.

Seven nights had passed, and there was no sign of her. Eliza would wait in Sinaa’s room after countless hours of searching the nearby towns for her or her corpse. I slowly came to realize the true meaning of my dream. She wasn’t coming back. She indeed left for the company of whom she’d loved and had come to miss, her human mother.