He entered the castle using an old wooden side-door at the bottom of a vast wall of frozen rock. It led through to a maze of old pantries and store cupboards. A set of stairs led up to the ground floor, emerging in a small hallway of broken vases.

The beauty of the place took his breath from the moment he first saw it. The great castle was like a living piece of art, a giant beast of stone and snow, forgotten in the shadows of the mountains, lurking here in a cold slumber for the last few decades.

As he walked the halls and crept around doorways he swore he could feel the castle waking up. Rooms filled with light. Stones reclaimed the warmth of fires that had lay dormant for too many years. Visions of a future life danced down the ghostly hallways. He could just imagine how much Ellie would love this place. It brought a smile to his face just thinking about it.

So, where was she? And where was the bastard that had took her?

His footfall didn’t make a sound as he crept about the manor, sliding along walls, moving through shadows, tasting the air for any sign of her scent. There was no denying that she had been here recently. Her aroma lingered on the air, making him dizzy with excitement to see her again. Beneath that excitement there was the greater threat of caution. He couldn’t let the imposter know he was here. The other vampire was far too strong. His only hope was to strike first and use the element of surprise.

He just hoped it wasn’t too late.

Wraith followed a broad staircase up to the first floor and stalked down a long corridor. A faint trace of warmth lingered in the air, suggesting to him that someone had been here recently. With his silver dagger held up in the air before him, he padded silently across the castle, following the warmth. It brought him to an open doorway. He paused at it momentarily to listen for any source of sound, found none and peered around to see an empty dining room.

The room was surely a marvel in its day but had fallen into disrepair along with the rest of the castle. The many decades of neglect had clearly been hard to the marvelous stone walls, but it was nothing a little love and care couldn’t fix. He stopped at the end of the long table that was closest to him to pick up a wooden chair from of the floor. It was still warm. Ellie?

At the far end of the table lay a pile of dead rats and a half-full glass of blood. His suitor had clearly had his fill but looking around he saw no food for Ellie. What kind of despicable creature would tend to his own needs before that of his mate? He sneered at the scene and turned to see a large portrait above the dying fire. The image gave him cause to stop for a moment. He found himself lost in the faces of the two proud vampires that looked back down on him.

“Mother…” he whispered, recognizing the face of the apparition he had seen only a short while before. Next to her stood a tall and broad man with sharp red eyes and bright silver hair. The face looked familiar to him, but not as clear as his mother’s face. He knew it to be his father.

Up here…

He turned at the whisper, looking around in panic to source it. There was no one else there, but the whisper came again, travelling on a breeze, coming from the doorway he had used to enter the room. Up here… hurry.

He stopped at the end of the table and saw four black stalks on the table top. Was that Widow’s Draught? He picked up a stalk and rolled it between his finger and thumb, picking up the faint scent of the root. Interesting. Had Ellie somehow convinced his imposter to take some? It might give Wraith an upper hand. Clever girl.

This way…

Wraith rallied back to the hallway. Turning into it, he found the distant scent of Ellie lifting through the air. She was near. His hand clenched around the silver dagger in his hand and his breath rumbled in a low growl. “Ellie.”

He ascended another set of sleepy stone stairs and found himself on the landing above. Her scent was even stronger up here, and with it came the distant sound of voices. His eyes flushed with black, he pressed himself against a wall and slipped alongside it quietly toward the source, listening all the while. He locked his focus on the room up ahead.

“Why, yes,” his imposter’s voice said. “I am incredibly strong. Stronger than most. Certainly, stronger than that boy you called a lover. I can show you… look.”

Wraith stopped by the open door and peered through the crack to see his imposter bending an iron spear into a loop. The metal bent in his hands with ease, but he stumbled, as if slightly drunk. Was the root taking effect?

Ellie sat on the bed before him, with mock amazement on her face. She clapped excitedly, spurring him on to do more. “Just amazing!” she said. Her voice might have sounded genuine to the imposter, but Wraith could tell it was put on. She was distracting him. Clever. “What else can you do? I want to see it all!”

His imposter’s body language sagged a little. “More? Can’t we just get to the mating already? I’ve already displayed my strength to you. What more could you want?!”

Wraith crept through the open door, his breath held, daring not to make a sound. Ellie’s eyes widened upon seeing him, and all the color left her face. She looked as if she’d seen a ghost, but she didn’t betray his position at all.

“Well you could—” She paused, desperately trying to think of another distraction. “Show me more of that body! It’s so unique.” Wraith’s eyes looked upon the topless clone. His face was currently in the image of Wraith’s, but the body was a patchwork of body parts that were held together with ugly scars.

“That’s because it is. The Vistor made me into a beast, but a unique one at that. There is no other like me… I will flex for you,” he said, his voice slurring some. “But after that we definitely must mate.” The imposter threw his arms forward, tensing his biceps and spreading his chest.

Wraith saw his chance and surged forward with his dagger held high. He brought the dagger down through the air just as the creature turned around to see him. The imposter managed to knock the blow off course, sending the point into its shoulder, stopping Wraith from delivering his killing blow. A violent torrent of red sprung up from the cut and bubbled down the patchwork skin. The creature looked down at the wound. One hand gripped Wraith’s wrist, the other seized his throat. He brought his eyes up to look at Wraith. Fury filled his expression.

“You! How?!”

“You forgot you stole my mind you fucker! Now release Ellie!” He struggled against the creature’s freakish strength, and they twisted and shuffled back across the stone, vying to gain the upper hand. The imposter was still much stronger, but Wraith’s wayward blow with the silver dagger had weakened him, levelling the field a bit.

“Never!” It roared, blood flying through the air from its snarling mouth. It thrust Wraith back against the wall, ripped the dagger from its shoulder and threw it to the floor. Wraith hit the stone and crumpled to the floor immediately. His blow might have weakened his imposter, but he still wasn’t strong enough, even with the Widow’s Draught.

“Jack!” Ellie screamed from the bed, jumped to her feet and ran across the floor.

“No Ellie! Get out of here while you can!” Wraith wailed back at her, but his warning came too late. The creature spun around and caught Ellie with a violent blow, knocking her all the way across the room into the window on the far side. The glass cracked, but she fell to the floor on all fours, gasping for air.

“Stay there, whore!” the creature roared. “I’ll deal with you in a minute!” The beast’s fiery red eyes looked back at Wraith just as he sprang up from the floor to attack again.

“Never! Touch! Her! Again!” With each word he brought his fists down into the creature’s face, knocking him back with each blow, causing skin to burst with blood and bone. The beast roared out in pain, clutched Wraith and hit him back, sending him across the room and through an old bookcase on the opposite wall.

Wood and dust crumbled around Wraith as he pushed his weight up onto his elbows. The mutant creature walked across the room toward him, the silver dagger held in his hands. Ellie screamed from behind him.

“No Kaleb! Don’t do it!”

The beast bent over Wraith and pulled his chest to the point of the silver dagger. “You fight commendably for a vampire. I understand you only compete for the love of the one I have already won. I cannot grudge you that.” Blood trickled down the beast, its face twisted and shifted momentarily, appearing before Wraith as other men. “I’m afraid she has made her choice though, and that one was me.” He pulled the dagger back and pointed it at Wraith’s heart. “I’m sorry friend. You lost.”

“No! Kaleb! Stop!”

The beast turned back to see Ellie standing behind him, holding her broken arm against her chest. Tears welled down her face. “Please don’t kill him. Do what you must with me, but don’t kill him. I love you Kaleb, but I will never accept your love if you harm him.”

“But he…”

“No!” she shouted, limping toward the creature and pulling him away from Wraith with her remaining arm. She stepped forward on tip-toes and kissed the creature briefly, looking as if she wanted to throw up afterward. “Can’t you see I love you? I know you hate this place. I confess that I hate it too. Let us leave at once. We’ll find a real home we can take. A real place where we can follow our prophecy.”

The imposter looked back at Wraith once more, but Ellie pulled his gaze away. “You really mean that?” he asked.

“Of course,” she stammered. “But we have to leave now. Now!”

Seconds of silence passed, but they felt like an eternity to Wraith. His breath felt heavy there on the floor. The creature finally spoke, nodding slightly to itself. “Very well.” It turned back to look at Wraith. “Know this vampire, your woman has chosen me. Make no attempt to follow us. It will only end badly for you.”

Wraith trembled with rage. He wanted to jump forward and sink his teeth into the throat of the creature, but it moved before he could even try. It swept Ellie up in its arms, bolted for the window and burst through the glass.

“Ellie!” Wraith scream was hoarse and desperate. He climbed to his feet, limped across the blood-covered stone and looked out the window at the snow below. The beast ran across the white towards a river up ahead, leaving a trail of red behind him. Wraith climbed onto the open window and looked down at the dizzying fall.

“That drop will kill you in your current state you know.”

He looked over at the ghostly apparition of his dead mother. She stood inside the window, arms crossed, peering down at the drop.

“I have no choice,” he said, looking back to the drop below. “She’ll die with him.”

“And she’ll die without you,” her soft voice said. “You can make it, but you must remember who you are first. Remember the things the curse took away on that fateful day, all those years ago. Remember the Belmont secret. The secret you and your brother bare.”

His eyes searched across the endless white below. Blood-stained snow, the sound of the river thrashing in the distance. The snow-capped forest on the other side. The beast limped across the white toward the water, getting further away with every passing second.

“Secret?” he said, his eyes tracing across to a Jackdaw perched on a roof just by the window. It fluttered up into the air, it’s black wings silhouetted brilliantly against the white sky.

“That’s right,” she said. “How else could you have survived the fall from the castle roof that night? Don’t you remember?”

The memory of that night came back to him. The night he helped Eric to save Claire. A brilliant flash of white echoed through his mind, accompanied by the sensation of cold air rushing against his face as he tumbled through the night towards sure death. He figured it out and broke from the reverie, eyes focusing on the white before him once more. “My wings.”

“Your wings,” she said. “Go. Get her.”

He stood in the open window, clutched the stone and fell forward, his body perfectly still as he plummeted toward the ground. Wind rushed over his ears, the white approached him, threatening to crush—

The broad black wings burst from his back with an explosion of might. Air thrust underneath them, pulling him up from the ground and swooping him forward like a speeding bullet. Wraith soared up into the air and tensed his wings. They pulled against the fall with tremendous strokes that radiated power, he closed in on the creature and knocked him down, crashing him into the snow.

Ellie flung from the beast’s arms and rolled across the white. The monster turned around, roaring fury as it drove forward at Wraith. Its blows came down hard and heavy. “I! Told! You! Not! To! Follow!”

The mighty blows knocked Wraith back into the snow. Blood streamed down his face, the creature knelt over him, pinning him to the ground. One fist rallied down against his body, while the other held the silver dagger high in the air. He clutched Wraith by the throat and stared into his eyes with madness.

“I’m sorry darling, but there’s no sparing your vampire now. He’s proved himself too much of a nuisance.” The beast spit up blood, brought the dagger back and flared his eyes. “Goodnight Jack. You lose.”

Wraith closed his eyes in that final moment, accepting that he’d lost. The sound of metal spearing against flesh burst into the quiet morning air and Wraith lay there, waiting for the heat of fire as it consumed his body. Instead he felt nothing, but he did hear choking. He opened his eyes and saw the creature staring back down at him, his dagger still held in the air. A bright silver point speared his chest, stabbed through from the back. The point disappeared again. Wraith looked past the beast and saw Ellie standing there, an identical dagger held firmly in her hand.

The creature dropped its own dagger, stumbled back from Wraith and crawled back across the snow to the river’s edge. Ellie rushed to Jack, throwing her arms around him. “J-Jack! Are you okay?!”

He pushed himself back up to a sitting stance. “Everything hurts, but… I think I’m all right.” They both glanced back at the creature, who had now risen to its feet.

“Why isn’t he dead?!” she asked in panic. They both stood, holding each other, watching the beast warily. Wraith crouched down and picked up the other dagger from the snow. He looked over at the face of the imposter. It’s face twisted and shifted again, flickering into a dozen different profiles every second, before coming back to rest on that patchwork face.

“What did they do to you?” Wraith asked as he looked up at the stunned creature. Blood streamed from its mouth, pouring down its throat and chest. It stared back at Wraith with empty black eyes. All the hatred gone, all the fight dissolved.

“Cut me, stitched me. Took parts, added parts. I’m not sure I could—” It paused to cough up blood, before stumbling back into the water behind it. “—I’m not sure I could tell you.”

“You don’t have the heart of a vampire anymore,” Jack said. “Otherwise you’d be flame.”

The creature nodded. “All I know is pain. I don’t think I can die.”

Ellie turned to Wraith and addressed him in a shaking whisper. “Do we kill it? How do we kill it?”

“No worries,” the creature rasped back as it stumbled back into the current a little further. The strength of the water tugged at him, but he fought it momentarily. “I think I see my purpose now. It isn’t here. It isn’t with you… I’m sorry… I’m sorry for all the damage…” The current pulled him, and he fell back more, the water up to his waist now. “I think I know what I must do now… I have to… I have to kill my maker.”

Wraith and Ellie held each other as they watched. Kaleb opened his arms, closed his eyes, looked up into the sky and fell back into the water. The current took him, sweeping his body down the bank and into the distance. Their eyes followed him until he was gone. Wraith’s legs trembled underneath him and he sank to the floor slowly, holding Ellie all the while.

“Steady there,” she said with worry. She helped Wraith steady on his feet, her eyes marveling at the dark black wings folded neatly behind his back. “So… you have wings now?”

Wraith had to laugh. “I guess I’ve always had them, I just never knew until now. I’m a late bloomer it seems.”

“You’re just full of secrets Mr. Belmont. What on earth would I do without you Jack? I thought you were dead.”

“I’m fine,” he said, laughing slightly as he coughed up blood. “It’s Wraith by the way.”

Surprise flashed on her face. “Wraith! You came for me?”

He had to laugh again. Everything hurt, but he could only feel happiness now he was back beside her. “Don’t be so surprised darling. I love you just as much as Jack does. Bastard went and got himself a real bad case of amnesia after our last fight with Frankenstein.”

Tears welled in Ellie’s eyes, she surged forward and kissed him, planting a dozen kisses over his face and lips. “I love you too,” she said, choking on her tears, laughing to herself. “I guess I’ll have to start again with Jack. Refresh his memory.”

“Something tells me it won’t take long now you’re back darling. Just stay by my side, and I think I’ll be fine.”

She laughed again, wiping tears from her eyes. “You can blank on me every day for all I care. I’ll always be there for you.”

“That sounds good to me,” he said, wincing slightly as he smiled. They’d won. They had each other. The fight was over for now. “What do you say we get back inside and have a look around this place together? We’ve got forever ahead of us, and I don’t want to waste another second.”