Detrand

I entered the cabin in a rage and he was ready for me, springing from the corner, already changed into his wolf form. I grappled with him as we fell against the ground. Then he was on top of me, clamping down on my arm.

I cried out in pain and, using my powerful legs, I pushed him off of me. His teeth ripped through my forearm as he flew back into the bed behind him. Yelping, he fell to the floor and I jumped on him, my hands at his neck.

“You almost killed my whole family, and for that you will suffer.” I pulled him up and threw him against the wall. He slid down to the floor but rebounded quickly and was on his feet. He jumped against me, his jaws aiming for my neck and he managed to grip it tight before I peeled him off and slammed him against the drawers. It shattered as soon as he hit it and splinters flew through the air, spraying me. He fell to the ground, panting under me.

I called on my senses to torture his mind, to feel the burn of the fire that Sophie felt and he withered across the floor, howling. I built up the pressure and even though not a singe of his hair was on fire, he felt as if he was burning to death.

I released him and attacked. Panting, he rolled out from under me and then bit me. Pain shot up my leg and into my groin. He shook his head and I crashed to the ground. Gripping the floor with his deadly clawed feet, he pulled, trying to rip the calf from my leg. I growled, and it came from deep inside me. He would die this day!

Grappling with my calf, I kicked him in the head with my other foot.

He yelped and let go, giving me a moment to tackle him to the floor. I straddled him and he pushed against me, his wolf legs too weak in comparison to my strength. I wrapped my hands around his furry neck.

“You killed Agosto, and for that you will die.”

Choking noises erupted from his throat and he began to transform back into a human, but I didn’t release my hold on his neck. Just then, Myla burst through the room and cried out. She tackled me, but I elbowed her as she made contact, and she flew against the back wall. I leaned in, increasing the pressure on his neck. “You will never feel the sun on your back or run wild in the woods; you’ll never have another lover under you, or know what it’s like to be a father. The woods may take your body, but I will take hold of your soul and keep it with me, so that I may call on it when I please.” His eyes grew wide, and he choked out, trying to speak. I whispered in his ear. “You should’ve been content to be with Myla, instead of aspiring to defeat the strongest vampire hold in the country.”

Myla was at my side again, trying to push me off him, and he grasped at her. Suddenly she threw herself on me and the force of her desperation to save the wolf she still loved pushed me to the side.

He inhaled sharply and blurted out, his voice a deep rasp. “I didn’t kill your Master. I swear it.”

In a blur I broke his neck and it hung limply to the floor. He was dead.

“No!” Myla clenched his body tight, and I stood up. My neck and leg burned, I was certain I would need blood to heal.

I stared down at her, straightening my clothes, and considered taking her blood for her interference but decided against it. No, I would regain my strength from my own family.

She cried now, tears streaming down her face, but I held no compassion for her. Maybe her life would be better, maybe they would allow her back in the pack.

I began to walk away, allowing her to keep his body so that they could bury him in the way they deemed respectable. I esteemed the shifters enough to allow them his body in death.

“He didn’t kill your Master,” she cried out to me.

I turned to her. “He meant to burn my whole family in an attempt to weaken me as the leader of your pack. For that, I dealt him death. I recommend you warn your pack that any who dare harm me or my family will receive the same punishment.” And then I left, taking the carriage with me. The shifters would feel his death through their bond, and would be here shortly.

* * *

I dropped from the carriage and handed the reins to my driver to take care of the horses. He stared at the blood dripping from my neck but I pushed past him. My neck throbbed and my leg shook under me as I limped towards the house. I wanted to collapse in the driveway but I pushed myself towards the smoking house, unwilling to show my weakness. Several humans and supernatural beings milled about, busy with the repairs to my home, and if they caught a whiff that I was vulnerable in any way, it may embolden any of them to attack.

I entered the front door and called for Rowan, then went to my room. Opening the door, I discovered that one of the walls to my room had collapsed, and the floor was halfway blackened. I fell to my bed, and the ashes floated through the air.

Rowan appeared at my door, his hair a jumble and his eyes glazed over.

“It is finished.”

“You caught the man who lit the house on fire?”

“Yes. That and killed Agosto.”

“Was it the shifter?”

“Uhmmm.”

He gripped the edge of my bed. “And he admitted to it?”

I grunted. “He is finished.”

He sighed and turned to leave.

“Rowan, I need you to renew the wards over the house. The Fae have been able to enter the home too easily and we need to put up a barrier against that.”

He nodded his head and moved towards the door.

“I also need you to send for Lula. I need to heal from this horrible bite.” I was already beginning to heal, but my blood was still dripping at my neck and it itched.

He swiveled around. “I will not. She has already lost enough blood tonight.”

I raised my eyebrows. “She should’ve recovered enough by this time.”

“Why not call for one of Sophie’s humans?”

I shook my head. “They are needed now more than ever to help Sophie to recover.”

He huffed. “Adelade then.”

I grew impatient. “Rowan.” My voice was a warning. “Send Lula to me, I need her. I cannot drink of Adelade.”

“Why not?”

“If you aren’t aware at this point why I cannot drink from Adelade, then you have no need to know the answer. Lula has healed me before, she will do it again. I only require enough to heal the wound on my neck and leg.”

His eyes darkened. “She is not your toy.”

I sat up, using the post of the bed to help me. “And she is not yours either. You will send her to me, and I will ask her, to see if she is willing.” He stared at me defiantly and I took in his appearance. I inhaled a deep breath, knowing that his actions were becoming more and more emboldened, and that I must face the truth of who really killed Agosto. An ache grew in my chest, but it must be done.

“Have you been drinking tonight Rowan?”

He snarled. “Only from the staff.”

“We don’t drink from the staff, Rowan. You know that.” I pulled myself to the edge of the bed and leaned towards him.

His hands shook as he began to back away from the bed, but his face was stoic. “Lula is not yours to command, you gave her to me as a gift. She is mine, and only I will drink from her.”

“Where were you, Rowan?”

“I was directing Stefano’s men on the repairs of the house, and before that I was with Lula, bedding her.”

“Where were you that day Rowan, when someone managed to drive a stake through our Master’s heart, even while he slept?”

Eyes wide, he took another step back. “I was asleep sir, the sleep of the dead. You know that I don’t have enough power to wake during the day. You can barely rise before the sun sets yourself.”

I stood, ignoring the pain shooting up my leg and advanced towards him. “He wouldn’t give you Lula. Is that it? He wanted her for himself. So you brought a witch into this home who would raise you during the day?”

He backed towards the wall and hissed at me. “I did no such thing.”

“He had plans for her, didn’t he? He was going to leverage the debt that the mayor owed in order to obtain her. But he wasn’t going to give her to you, he was going to keep her for himself. Is that what Treveti spoke of, before I snapped his neck? What secrets do you keep from me Rowan?”

Rowan’s breath came in short bursts and he held his hands behind his back, pressing against the wall.

I kept at him. “I know the kind of human Agosto likes to keep.”

“No.” His face betrayed his anguish.

“Young and beautiful, with a mind to keep him entertained. Her blood has a depth to it, the kind that he would be content to feed upon for several years. But you had other intentions for her. You wanted to corrupt her with your lust.”

He pushed me back with one hand, while still gripping the wall with the other, and cried out, tears streaming down his face. “We corrupt everything we touch. All innocence is lost the moment it comes in contact with us.”

“And yet we chase after it, longing for the times when we were innocent, do we not? And did you think you could have that from her, then? She would remind you of the days when our evil hadn’t polluted your heart.”

His face was red and sweat drained down the side of his face, mixing with his tears. “She was meant for me. He promised her to me. But when he discovered that not only was she beautiful but that she could help him with his plans, he went back on his word. He was going to use her, and then throw her away. I couldn’t let him do that.”

I leaned forward, so close to him now and I could smell his fear and panic. “What plans Rowan?”

“I told you, he wouldn’t tell me. But it didn't matter, I wouldn’t let him take her from me. She was meant to be with me.” Suddenly he pulled his hand from behind him and hit me in the chest. “I did call the witch Ameena into our home; she gave me the power to rise during the day so that I could take what was mine. Agosto had no right to claim her, to take her from me. And you won’t take her from me either.”

Pain burst through me, shaking me to the core. I looked down to see a dark wooden stake sticking out of my chest. I looked at Rowan in shock, unwilling to believe that he would betray me, his Master. I reached for him, scratching at his chest and fell to the floor. The blood froze through my veins, making my whole body cold. He’d missed the center of my heart by only a narrow bit, but I would need blood immediately to recover.

He fell to his knees, leaning over me, sobbing. “I’m sorry.” He reached towards my dresser and opened the bottom drawer. “I’ve always loved you. You were a good Master.” He raised another stake over me, his face a mixture of grief and anger. “But I can’t let you take her from me.”

Then a piece of wood, sharp and deadly, shot through his chest, right into his heart. He fell on me, revealing Adelade’s determined face behind him.

* * *

Rowan turned grey and I embraced him as he fell into my arms, succumbing to the final death.

“No!” I cried out. I loved him. The pain of his death overwhelmed me, because he was mine, and it tore through my body. He began to wane, his face sank in pockets like molten lava and his skin began to flake off.

“I have to get this out of you, so you can heal.” Adelade knelt beside me and ripped my shirt open. Staring up at her was the silver cross my mother gave me as a child, and she stared at it in shock. “Even after every burden you’ve borne, you still believe?”

I looked at her, releasing the barricade hidden in my eyes, showing the guilt of all the years of death I’d caused. Showing my faith that there still lived and breathed a God who would turn His back on me when I died the final death, because of my sins. Then I slowly nodded.

She took that in and, noting the paleness of my face, she yanked the stake from my chest, tears streaming down her face.

It tore through me and I cried out, the pain from the stake as agonizing as the death of my loyal servant.

He was truly dead now and the dust of his body began to blow around me.

“Adelade,” I cried, holding what remained of Rowan close, as his body transformed into the ashes of destruction, the final stage of death of our kind.

And then she was holding me, his body now bits of sand between my fingers and I clutched at it, sobbing. “He was so good to me.”

“I know, I know.” She held me close and even the smell of her blood couldn’t tempt me now. The coldness in my body began its course to my face, and I sagged in her arms. Adelade pulled me back, and shoving me off her, she pushed her wrist to my mouth.

I pushed her hand away, resisting; I would kill her now.

She took her stake and pierced her wrist, then brought it to my mouth. The call of her blood began to ring in my mind and my strigoi roared like a lion to take her. I knew if I didn’t, I would die. On instinct, my tongue licked her wrist and immediately it took over my body. I leaped forward, pushing her to the floor and, not even using my fangs to make the experience pleasurable, I clamped into her neck.

She cried out against the agony, but held me to her, wishing to heal me.

I desperately sucked in her blood and it roared through my head. The ecstasy was immediate, as energy poured through my body healing my wounds in a matter of seconds. I could feel the sinews of my muscles as they knit together, tying into stronger bonds than ever before. The pain that crippled my body was gone, replaced by an utter feeling of fearlessness and power. My strigoi roared, dominant and controlling.

I gripped her tighter, feeling her body under mine as I continued to feed, the taste of her blood bringing such a euphoria that I couldn’t release her.

A soft noise from Adelade awoke me to my senses, and a feeling of passion rushed through my body; it was soft and warm, and, for a moment, I remembered what it was like to be human again. I struggled for control over my strigoi, and a battle of wills ensued as my desire to keep her safe struggled with my all consuming lust.

Firm hands gripped my shoulders and pulled me from her. Sophie held me back while Lula, who glanced briefly at the pile of sand on the floor, pulled Adelade’s head in her lap.

I looked down to see that Adelade had lost all consciousness, her face pale and sickly and I knew that I had killed her.

* * *

I pushed Sophie away and took Adelade into my arms. “What have I done?” Guilt and torment racked my whole body and I cried out, unable to accept that I had taken another life. Her life. I bent over, the pain stabbing me in my chest, suffocating me.

“Detrand, you must feed her your blood.”

I looked up at Sophie, startled, then back at Adelade. It was so soft, like a whisper, but I could hear her heart beating weakly. A hope that I hadn’t felt in a few hundred years burst through me. Then my mind darkened and I remembered her mother, who had shown love to me in a time when I only saw myself as a monster, and the constant struggle she had to contain my feelings.

“No.” I looked at Sophie. “She wouldn’t want it. To be permanently bonded to me, just like her mother. To feel all my lust, agony, grief and misery. You must do it.”

She shook her head, the agony clear on her face. “My pain is greater than yours, you know how I feel every moment of the day. Would you want her to feel that way her every waking hour?”

I stared down at Adelade, knowing Sophie was right, and heard the faltering of Adelade’s heart. I would have to make the decision swiftly, before it stopped permanently. Could I condemn her to live a life of eternal suffering, just like her mother? To force her to be so in tune to my feelings and emotions that it could overcome her every thought, a never-ending onslaught of my lust and pain. My presence could even weave through her dreams, like a mist coming in from the bay, to possess her wholly and completely.

Sophie gripped my arm. “It is better than turning her into a strigoi and cursing her life forever. You know you would do it if she died in your arms.”

My head jerked up, and I looked into Sophie’s eyes. She was right.

Adelade would probably hate me forever, but I ripped open my skin and put my wrist to her mouth.

* * *

When she didn’t move, I grew alarmed. A buzzing rung in my ears and a realization dawned over me so forcefully that I dropped Adelade to the floor and flew backwards. I pressed against the back wall, frightened by the woman before me.

Sophie was urging me now, her face tight, and I recognized the look of passionate affliction on Lula’s face, but the noise of the air rushing through my mind was so loud that I could only press my hands against my ears.

I thought of the first time Adelade smiled at me and how my world turned upside down. The way her sway captivated me as she danced around the warehouse room, training to execute my kind. The absolute desire to crush Treveti when he threatened to kill her and the tenderness I felt when I’d known that her hand suffered from staking him.

From the moment I saw her, she’d brought something into my life that I hadn’t allowed any other being to touch me with. Hope.

Could I feel for this woman who gave everything to me?

I’d felt human when I fed from her. That alone, that small piece of humanity that could still exist within the realms of my living hell was enough to convince me that she was an absolute danger to my survival.

There was no room for hope or adoration in my life. I could only take, such was the very necessity of my existence. I must take to survive. And to love, or to be loved, to open myself to that kind of vulnerability, was death.

I closed my eyes, unwilling to allow her to bring me to the light. I was a monster, not a man, and I didn’t deserve to live with hope or happiness. I didn’t deserve to fall in love with her.

And yet.

I’d taken everything from her. Her mother and father, and all their possessions. I took her from her home and demanded that she live as I chose; taking away her choice to live and dress as she wished. And I took her very blood, in my desperation to exist in this world when I didn’t deserve it.

I opened my eyes to look at her. Her face was pale and waxing and wet from Lula’s tears. Sophie was by my side, begging me to save her.

In that moment, I realized that I wanted to.

That I held the power to kill, and yet, I also held the power to revive. Adelade deserved my ability to give.

I drew closer to her and pulled her into my lap. Looking at Sophie, I bit my wrist again and held it over Adelade’s mouth, letting it drip into her mouth. Adelade didn’t move, and I looked up at Sophie, the panic in my eyes. Sophie put her fingers to my wrist, wiping my blood on it and then rubbed it on Adelade’s tongue. It took several tries when suddenly Adelade’s hands clasped on my wrist and she was pulling my blood into her mouth.

In that moment it appeared as if I was saving Adelade, but the truth was, just as her mother, she was saving me.