– Do I bother you, Tatjana ?
His voice is dry, as sharp as a razor blade. I am the princess. However, I am not immune to his anger and the consequences of it. He has already struck me and whipped me for my disobedience. And when it wasn’t enough to establish his authority, he went after Anton and attacked him. He knows that despite my condition as a vampire, I have kept my soul and my conscience and that it hurts me much more to watch someone being punished in my place than to be beaten myself. It is my point of weakness and he exploits it deliberately. It is also the threat that he makes me hover if I want to escape. He warned me that he would set the country on fire and blood to find me and that no death would be too much to get me back.
– Absolutely not, my king. I am all ears. You have my full attention.
He takes an extra minute to observe me, as if to probe me and guess what’s running through my head, before he starts again.
– Many of our people have disappeared without a trace in recent weeks. They left with their dogs and never came back.
I squeeze my lips not to say that they are not dogs. I’ve done it before. Once. It cost me a day’s lash and three days without eating. I thought I was dying. And when Zoran brought me a human to lift my punishment, I killed that creature without any restraint, tasting his blood on my tongue with unspeakable pleasure until he was bloodless. It was for my survival. The remorse I felt then almost ended me. It was the only time I ever drank human blood and there is no way that it would ever happen again. I’d rather starve than repeat the experience.
– I don’t see how I can help you, father. I never leave the castle. So, I don’t know where our brothers went or what happened to them.
His voice gets louder and severe.
– Never forget. They are not our brothers. They no more than our subjects; and I know exactly where they are.
Of course. Always this need to be above others. This constant desire for distinction will lead to his loss.
– They are all dead. All of them.
Here we are. When I said that we were not immortal. We are not aging, but we can absolutely die. Again. We become vampires when one of them bites us and leaves us at the gates of death. A dead man does not age anymore. We’re living dead, not quite alive and not quite dead. We’re stuck in the middle. However, they can end us by burning us alive by the fire or the sun, beheading us or starving. Simply, we are very nice deaths. Although we have an extraordinary capacity for regeneration, we surely can be more or less seriously injured. Well, for the other vampires anyway.
– How do you know if they disappeared?
– I felt the death of those I created. Don't ask stupid questions, will you? This is a serious situation.
Vampire venom is powerful and effectively creates a certain connection between the creator and the creatures. Zoran feels the presence of all the vampires he has begotten. Whereas, we cannot know where Zoran is at all.
– How did they die ? Were they surprised by the sun's rays ?
– Don’t talk nonsense. It’s only the novices who burn out because of the UV and there haven’t been any young vampires for decades. You are the youngest in our nation and you know it.
He takes a break. My father likes to make the suspense last longer.
– Their dogs ripped their throats like the scavengers.
Really, I’m still speechless. I have never seen one, and I can hear the sounds of broken bones during their evening meal. But I can’t imagine such a thing. Why ? Why would they do that? They’ve lived with us as long as I can remember.
Chapter 2
Adrian
I didn’t think I could get away so early in the evening, but Anton asked me to go for a walk for a few hours and come back just before dawn. That sounds good. I’ll take opportunity to join mine and listen to Dumitru’s latest recommendations. Our leader has decided to launch the assault soon. We have to be ready. The pack is already gathered around the rostrum, waiting for the speech of our leader. We feel the tension crackling in the air. Everything is too quiet and silent.
– Hi Adrian. I didn’t expect to see you at this time.
– Neither do I, but Anton let me go me until sunrise.
– Your vampire is one of the strangest. Why does he never eat before going to the castle? No bloodsucker can stop eating except him.
My best friend is right. Anton is a very special vampire. First of all, nobody knows what his function is with the vampire king. He goes to the castle from sunset, sometimes until dawn, but none of the servants know why he is there and his visits to the vampire king are the only ones to be done behind closed doors. Besides, this story of not drinking blood before going there makes it even weirder. I do not doubt for a moment that depriving him of food causes him physical suffering. Yet he never deviates from that rule. One might think he feeds at the castle, but that is rarely to happen. He generally waits until he finds me to hunt together, both of us. The arrival of our leader on the stage interrupted my thoughts. Dumitru is the oldest werewolf in the pack, the firstborn, and our supreme leader regardless of what the vampire king thinks. We sincerely obey him and we have sworn loyalty to him until death. In fact, the death which has already happened to some of us.
– Good evening, everyone. I won’t keep you waiting or give you a long speech. My brothers, it is time to act and free ourselves from our chains now and forever for all of us. We have been slaves of vampires for too long. We will act tomorrow night to gain our freedom.
Is it that early ? It seemed to me that he had just begun to eliminate the weakest and the least effective vampires in the kingdom to reduce Zoran’s army.
– Why haste ? There are still many vampires.
One of my comrades asked loudly the question that everyone asks. A few weeks ago, we all decided that our freedom must be earned and not to be under the vampires' domination anymore. Only a coup takes time and requires the organization. Some of my comrades already began to free themselves from their vampiric trio by exterminating them without attracting attention. However, many of us are still at the service of at least two vampires and their power play. Moreover, their exceptional strength and regeneration could cause our loss. It's true that we are powerful, but not as much as vampires.
– Would you question my decisions, Ivan?
Dumitru jumps from the podium where he was perched and stands right in front of the young wolf. Ivan is one of the last born of the pack. He’s only forty years old and the vampires he serves are rather kind towards him, exactly as Anton. So, he doesn’t feel the urgency of the situation. This is not the case neither for all the werewolves, and certainly nor for our leader whose angry tone clacks in the night air.
– It’s definitely not, Dumitru. I just think …
Our leader grabs him by the throat and lifts him above the ground, cutting off his breathing.
– You are not asked to think. The pack has been suffering for too long under the yoke of these murderers. I’m getting tired of us being the villains in history.
Too many deaths, too many massacres. We have been doing the dirty work of vampires for two centuries. And for this sole purpose we were created by Zoran himself. We are the guardians of the vampire king. Our duty is exterminating humans bitten by vampires to prevent their transformation. Zoran did so in order to put an end to the untimely increase of his people without having to get his hands dirty. He did not want to bend down to finish his own meals. Protecting the castle all day is also one of our duties. Since vampires are the most vulnerable as they are confined inside, with no way to escape in case of danger. He just forgot that wolves are by nature wild. Some of our people have already tried to escape to live differently, but Zoran tracked them down so easily and eliminated them to the last man; thus, making them an example to other lycanthropes who would tempt to do the same.