December 29th, 2082,

My dearest Genny,

It's finally over. The blitz attack we leveled upon the humans didn't give them much of a chance but for a weak and spineless race, they lasted longer than I had expected and there are still some stragglers living like the vermin they are, in and amongst the surrounding forests. We had many casualties too. Some lines were completely eradicated, including the Champon line. It was a big loss but we will recover.

Other humans have become our servants and slaves, and some have positions of power within the town. They are foolish enough to think they are important but if they are willing to help keep the other humans in line then let them act how they will. I'm sure they know their necks could be snapped on a whim.

Due to the technological leaps and bounds the humans had made over the years, I was able to have a series of chains made that will keep the humans enslaved to us for as long as we have a use for them. Which won't be long. I have also established places where the rebellious ones that are not claimed as slaves will be taken to be drained immediately of their blood. There is no reason to keep them alive if no one wants them, but it would be foolish to waste their blood by just killing them outright.

I thought I would feel better after this war ended. I thought somehow winning this war would help to appease this monster inside of me now that you have finally been avenged. I think I feel even more hollow inside now than I ever did before. There is nothing left for me to fight for; I have no reason to continue. Everything, every horrific, unforgiveable thing I have ever done has brought me to this moment of absolute nothingness. What do I do now?

I feel like such a fool. I thought I'd feel you around me more when I finally succeeded, I thought somehow…

I don't know what I thought but I am consumed by the nothingness even more now than when I was working toward avenging your death. I'm unraveling unbelievably fast. I think they can all see the insanity in me now but then I am barely trying to hide it anymore. What is the point? I am the king, my laws will be obeyed, and those that have stood against me will pay.

It's all I have left to live for, there is nothing more. I am no coward though; I will not end my own pathetic existence. I will continue on until everyone that has ever wronged you or I have been punished.

***

"Merle," Atticus greeted.

His cousin looked up at him as Atticus stepped into the room with him. At the far end of the hall sat a massive gold throne he'd had created and positioned on the dais. Merle stood by the table that took up nearly the entire length of a room that was easily half the size of a football field. He had big plans for that table and this sparkling, pristine room.

"Your majesty," Merle greeted with a brief bow of his head.

Atticus closed the doors behind him before moving leisurely into the room. He didn't smile at his cousin; there was no reason for pretenses anymore. "You didn't think I should have my position though, did you?"

Merle's jaw clenched. "I saw no reason for the war and the slaughter just because of a woman. You did not even care for Anna."

"It was the principle of it. Humans have driven us from every land; they've hunted and persecuted us at every turn. They've taken more from us than I am willing to give anymore. They took the only woman I ever did care about from me."

Merle's jaw clenched, his nostrils flared as his gaze ran over him. "Has this always been about Genny then?"

Before the war he would have denied it, he didn't bother to do so now as he walked to the end of the table closest to the throne. He turned back to Merle when he reached the end. "Of course it has. Every move, every action, every thought has been about her. Just as it will be for the rest of my existence."

"You have gone insane over the years," Merle breathed in realization.

Atticus laughed and rested his right hand on the table. "I've been that way since the day she died, cousin. I've just been extremely good at hiding it. Actually, I never bothered to hide it from any of the countless humans and vampires I've slaughtered over the centuries. Those years in the desert, oh those years," he said in a savoring tone of voice as he tilted his head back to stare at the thick wood beams above him. "Some of the best years of my life, after Genny of course. The things I've done, the things I've seen. They'd make even the most hardened of vampires cringe."

"You're admitting to crimes that are punishable by death."

"Not according to my rules," Atticus said with a laugh. "Anna is dead because of me; that was another part of my plan."

This part of the confession rattled Merle enough that he took a cautious step back. "You're heartless."

"Me?" Atticus said with a snort of laughter. His fingers trailed across the smooth surface of the table as he began to approach his cousin. "You allowed Anna to walk out of here with your child and you didn't even offer a word of protest. You sat and voted not to go to war even though you thought it was the humans who attacked your only heir and her mother."

Merle took another step away, he glanced toward the closed doors but they both knew he would never get to them in time. "And let's not pretend you didn't know Melinda was yours," Atticus continued. "Blood knows blood; it's how I knew she was yours. She couldn't possibly have been mine but I sensed a piece of my own blood within her. It didn't take me long to realize that the difference in her blood was a piece of my cousin. My own children wouldn't recognize the difference in her blood unless they were looking for it and they would have no reason to. Not when she has her mother's blood in her too and they share blood with you too, not when I didn't disavow the child like I could have. You allowed your lover's death to go unavenged, and have done nothing to find out if your daughter is still alive. Who is more heartless now?"

Merle stopped retreating when Atticus stopped five feet away from him. "If I had come forward and claimed the child as mine you would have had us all killed."

"So you just let them walk away to save your own hide?"

"To save them," Merle shot back.

Atticus released a harsh bark of laughter. "Are you going to pretend you cared for them?"

Merle's eyes flashed red; Atticus could hear his teeth grinding together. "It was one night Atticus, it was a mistake."

"Those were Anna's words too."

"Because they are true!" Merle cried in frustration. "We both regretted it after, but she was lonely and you know my weakness for beautiful women."

"I do," he agreed.

"We are not as close as we once were but you are still my family. You are still the one that saved my life all those years ago; you are still the one that was more like a brother than a cousin to me when we were younger. I know that somewhere inside there is still a piece of you that remembers all of that. A part of you that wasn't destroyed when Genny was. I regretted what occurred with Anna as soon as it was over and so did she."

Atticus studied him before nodding. "You're wrong you know; there is nothing of me that exists from that time when I was with Genny. It was all destroyed the day she died." Merle bristled; his shoulders went back as he widened his stance defensively. "But I actually believe you when you talk about Anna. For all of her faults she wasn't a loose woman and you never could turn down a beautiful face."

Merle laughed and visibly relaxed as he ran a hand through his hair. "No, I couldn't."

"That's why I am going to make something extremely clear here. I don't care that you slept with my wife. Let's face facts, I care more for the dogs in the alleys than I ever did for that woman and the two of us aren't close anymore. I once told Camille that I would walk over your body to burn the world, and how many years ago was that?" Atticus could feel the fire growing in his eyes, the power throbbing through his veins as excitement for what was about to happen thrummed through him. "No, I hope you enjoyed Anna, I certainly never did. What is about to occur is because of the fact that you voted against me for this war."

The color drained from Merle's face. "Atticus…"

"I can take many things, but family doesn't go against family. My father learned that the hard way when I killed him." A strangled sound escaped Merle's throat as he took another step away. "He had Genny killed you know. He was the reason the humans razed that village. He set her up to die and I made him pay for it."

Atticus tapped a finger against his chin as he stared at his cousin's horrified face. "I guess I learned my scheming, undermining ways from him but I'm much better at it than he was. He ended up being my dinner the night that I killed him and now, you will be too."

With those words, Merle turned and spun on his heel. Atticus laughed as he watched his cousin bolt across the swirling gray marble floor toward the double wooden doors. Even if Merle managed to get to those doors and unlock them, Atticus knew he would never escape him. Merle had to know the same thing but he was still determined to try.

Atticus ran ten steps forward before leaping into the air and lunging himself across the rest of the room as Merle made it to the doors. Merle had just flung the first lock free when Atticus landed on his back and brought him down beneath him. The force of his body crashing onto the solid floor caused Merle to grunt loudly. Blood exploded from his nose, but he managed to get his hands underneath him as he attempted to try and dislodge Atticus.

A bubble of laughter swirled within Atticus's chest at his cousin's useless attempts. He wrapped his arm around Merle's neck and squeezed with the force of a steel vice. Merle clawed at his hands as he bucked and kicked beneath him but Atticus kept him pressed against the floor with his weight and superior strength.

He was still laughing when he sank his fangs into Merle's neck. A howl of pain escaped Merle, his hands slapped backwards behind his head as he desperately fought for his life. Merle didn't have the bloodline that he did, but he was still old and powerful and putting up a fight. One that Atticus relished in. It was so rare that he found any competition with his prey anymore, so rare when he found any joy in anything, but he relished in Merle's potent blood and the life force filling him. Relished in finally ending the last man who had known him with Genny, who had known the man he had been and should have always been if life hadn't been so cruel. Who knew what a disappointment and twisted freak he'd become. He relished in severing his last bond to his shattered life and broken dreams.

Shoving upward with his hands, Merle managed to flip him and Atticus over. Atticus's arms wrapped around his chest keeping Merle pinned against him while Merle kicked and squirmed across the floor. Merle's fingers tore at his skin, spilling his blood, but Atticus continued to laugh as he drained his cousin's blood in greedy, gulping pulls that filled him with even more power. So much power and it was his.

Merle's movements became sluggish but he continued to try and beat at Atticus's arms. The flow of blood filling his mouth began to ease, Merle's arms fell at his sides as his struggles finally ceased. Atticus continued to drain him until he was near death. There wasn't enough strength within Merle to put up a fight anymore but he wouldn't die, not as long as he was occasionally given at least a little bit of blood. That was something Atticus fully intended to do, his father had gone too fast, but the vampires and humans that would one day fill this room wouldn't know such a merciful death.

Releasing Merle, he shoved his cousin off of him and rose to his feet. He straightened his rumpled shirt and pants before bending to grab Merle beneath his armpits. With the ease it would have taken for one to pick up a plate, he lifted Merle from the ground and propped him up in a chair. Gleeful laughter escaped him when Merle's blue eyes rolled toward him but he remained too weak to move in the chair. Merle's cheekbones stood out sharply against his sagging skin. His flesh had taken on a sickly yellowish hue from the lack of blood in his system.

Atticus rested his hands on the arms of the chair as he bent down to peer into his cousin's eyes. "This is the way my father was before I lit his manor on fire. Unfortunately, I had to cover up the evidence of what I had done to him too soon, but you will be here for centuries to come. Remember though, that what I am doing to you is still kinder than the hell that I live in every day."

Releasing the arms of the chair, Atticus turned away from him. His shoes clicked on the marble floor as he walked to the throne at the end of the room. He settled himself onto the chair, lifted his goblet of blood and took a sip. Grim satisfaction filled him as he raised a toast to his first trophy.

The war and vengeance he had finally succeeded in accomplishing hadn't succeeded in easing the monster inside of him. Death and blood still did though and there was plenty of that to be found in this world. It was all he had left anymore.

***

February 11th, 2083,

My dearest Genny,

Natasha was wed to Ashby today. It is a good match; his family is strong, but even more than that I sense that his family doesn't trust me. They don't like what has been going on and they are not as good at hiding it as they think they are. By binding Ashby to my family, his family will be forced to accept the situation whether they like it or not. Ashby seems like a fun loving sort but Natasha will beat that out of him soon enough. It will actually be amusing to watch.

It's time to start thinking of a match for Braith. I have my eye on a few women for him but I will have to wait and see which one will be the most beneficial to me.

***

July 20th, 2091,

My dearest Genny,

The child, Melinda, was brought back to the palace today by Jericho. He uncovered her in a raid of one of the suspected traitorous villages. She's as beautiful as her mother was and her presence here is only a harsh reminder of the years I was forced to spend with that woman. It threw me into a fit of rage, and though they had told me that they hadn't seen the child when they went after Anna, the guards that killed Anna made a fine addition to my growing trophy room. They should have found and put the girl down too. They won't be able to make such a mistake again but I will get to look at them every day.

***

October 5th, 2091,

My dearest Genny,

I'm sorry I haven't been able to write but some of the aristocrats decided to try and stage an uprising. Though there were heavy losses on both sides, it was rapidly squashed by my men. The aristocrats did not know that I still had weaponry stashed away from the war. All that weaponry has now been destroyed but it served its purpose. The rebellion lasted only a month, Braith was nearly killed, the rebellious nobles that weren't killed have scattered, but my power has been solidified even further.