Chapter Three
Viktor could tell from the twitchiness of the bartender when his pint was dropped off that someone in this bar had been asking after him. Good. A fight was just what he needed tonight. Well, not that it was ever much of a fight, but he could really use a little venting that was for sure. He’d been so dreadfully bored the last few years.
He spent a few moments eyeing the rest of the patrons to try to guess who he may get to beat the hell out of later. Was it the smarmy looking incubus over by the ladies’ washroom? He deserved it just for trying to pick up women coming out of the bathroom. The creep factor alone on that move was disgusting.
Oh, look! There was a table of three bruiser wolf shifters. Now that looked like a fun fight. Shifters were such a plucky bunch, and they certainly could take a hit. Viktor silently hoped it was them.
He certainly wasn’t expecting the sexy goth chick that normally sat at the bar to saunter on up to his table and help herself to a chair.
“So, handsome, are you out celebrating your Coven Master’s crowning achievement tonight?” she asked, as she took a sip of her fruity drink, which appeared to have an airplane of pineapple sitting along the rim.
What kind of a bartender makes an airplane out of pineapple?
Viktor was just trying to figure out if he could make an airplane out of fruit when her comment suddenly registered in his brain.
What the hell did she just ask me? He had to hold himself back from snarling at her, as if he would ever kneel to any coven leader. Clearly, this girl was crazy because no one who knew of his reputation with Conrad would ever dare to assume that bastard held any authority over Viktor—and anyone who came to this bar as much as she did would know who he was. Back in the day, he’d taken the heads of hundreds of Paras for even mentioning Conrad’s name in front of him. It was just very lucky for her that he had a little-known policy of not hurting innocent women or children.
“I assure you, I have no coven leader, and I have no idea what you are talking about,” he growled out. “Now leave me be.”
“Really? Oh wow, that’s embarrassing. My bad,” she said in a tone that suggested that she was indeed not sorry at all. “Word on the Fairy Godmother pipeline is that Conrad is getting the means to his ‘Happy Ever After’ tomorrow. I just assumed that all the local vamps would be stoked for him.”
What was this? That lying, sociopathic bastard Conrad was getting a Happy-fucking-Ever After? The same Coven Master of North America who had killed more innocents than the black plague? One who still didn’t hesitate to kill anyone who stood in the way of what he wanted? How was this possible?
No. There was no way that Viktor would sit back and let this happen. Conrad was the last living member of the coven that had turned him and ruined his life. A monster like that did not deserve happiness… Viktor should know because he was a monster as well.
He hadn’t always been one, though. Once upon a time, he had been just a normal man like any other. In his mortal life, he’d begun as a farmer, much like his father, but then the Empire came calling and one simply did not say “no” to Rome. Viktor did what he must to keep his family safe, and he soon realized that he was a much better warrior than he’d ever been a farmer. Still, the goal had been as always, to survive his conscripted years and get back to his wife and young son.
They’d been marching for days, somewhere in northern Europe. Their Captain had ordered them to make camp for the night, and they were all relieved for the break and despite the cold, Viktor had fallen asleep almost immediately. He had woken hours later by the screams of his fellow soldiers all around him. It had sounded like a pack of rabid animals was attacking. The snarls and roars were louder than anything he’d ever heard before, and he’d immediately grabbed his sword and dashed out of the tent, only to find that it wasn’t animals at all that were attacking them, but beings unlike anything he’d ever seen.
They moved so fast he could barely track them with his eyes, and their teeth and claws were long and sharp. He saw one of his troop ripped almost completely in half by one of these feral creatures, and he did not hesitate to cleave its unholy head from its body. He fought for hours it seemed, until finally, he came across a woman standing amongst the carnage, watching all that death happen with a doting smile as if her children were playing at the oceanside. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, and when she met his eyes he lost the will to raise his sword against her.
That was the first time the she-demon had taken his will from him, but it was far from the last, and he’d wished a thousand times over that he’d never laid eyes on that creature. Melisandre had been enamored of his ferocity and had decided to take him as a pet, even as she condemned every single other soldier to death that night. Viktor had been her blood servant and her sex slave for five tormented years before she finally decided that he was getting old and that she would turn him to keep him with her forever. She wasn’t prepared, however, for the depth of his hatred and rage. As soon as she had turned him, he’d risen from his new birth in a frenzy of carnage and slaughtered the entire coven in retribution. All save for one cowardly, conniving male who’d gotten away. Conrad.
Viktor had spent his first couple of centuries tracking down other covens in search of the sneaky bastard, slaughtering them all. He had been utterly mad in those first years, so lost in the grief of having his family and his mortality stolen from him. He could never go home again being the monster they had created. With his lust for blood, he would never trust himself around his wife and child. For years he’d hunted tirelessly, for all vampires were the enemy in this new existence he endured. It wasn’t until a couple of decades later and thousands of deaths that he’d recovered enough mentally and emotionally to realize that not all paranormals were evil. Just like humans, there was good with the bad. By that time his actions had reached all across the Para community, so most avoided him if possible, and others actively hunted him, which only increased his skills and cunning.
Eventually, he found himself back to almost his mortal temperament, although he still chose to keep to himself mostly. Trust wasn’t something that came easily for him, and he figured he was better safe than sorry. He’d learned over his immortal life that others would try to kill him just to say that they had. Reputations were a double-edged sword that way. The whispered tales of the monster he’d been kept some at bay, but there were always a few who came looking for trouble and he would oblige them. He didn’t even feed off of anyone who wasn’t a killer anymore, but he didn’t dare tell anyone that. After all, reputation was everything, right?
Viktor had moved to the United States from Europe about eighty years ago when Conrad had finally turned up and been ridiculously appointed as Coven Leader of North America. The previous leader had met a suspiciously untimely death, and apparently, Conrad had been pretending to not be a complete sociopath and playing the role of first lieutenant long enough that there was no longer anyone on the Para Council who remembered what a monster he really was.
They had no idea about all the crimes against para and human beings alike that he had committed or who they were putting into power. Viktor had spent years trying to find a way to finally kill the bastard. Unfortunately, he’d never found a way to get to Conrad after the asshole had moved into the newly appointed home that came with the job. It would have been a suicide trip into his compound with the sheer numbers of vampires he had turned. But if there was something he could do to make sure that the bastard didn’t get what he wanted, well then, Viktor would do it.
“Stop,” he said as the crazy girl was about to turn and leave. “Tell me everything that you know about Conrad’s ‘Happy Ever After’.”
As she sat back down, he could’ve sworn he saw a devious smile cross her lips, but then again, she was obviously a few bricks short of a load to have sat down at his table in the first place.