Aldric’s POV I sit on the couch in Simone’s room, waiting for her to wake up. At her age, it’s jarring when death let’s go for the night and returns you to the land of the living. It's like you're reborn all over again. My bride inhales sharply and bolts upright. Her eyes are wild as she looks around her. She’s confused and afraid. I don't say anything. She has to learn how to deal with waking up. Gradually, the fear eases out of her and she looks straight at me. “Is it always like this?” she asks. “Only in the beginning,” I say and get up from my seat. I hand her a blood bag and sit next to her on the bed. “It will get easier. Did you dream?” I ask. “Yes. Why?” “I felt something from you earlier. You were scared.” “My mother. It’s always the same dream. It stopped for a little while when I lived with Vesper, but…they came back.” “Okay.” My throat constricts while I watch her drink the blood. The way my body reacts to her is violent and painful and it takes everything I have to
Simone's POVThe meeting with the sheriffs takes hours. Aldric mostly discusses new procedures for the creation of vampires and measures to address the blood shortage. More than once, my mind drifts and I slip into daydreaming about more interesting things, just like I used to do when Baron dragged me out of my cage so he could show me off to his guests.This time, I don’t get to linger in my make-believe worlds though, just when I get good and settled into one of my little fantasies, Victoria roughly kicks me on the shin and brings me back to reality.I have no idea why Aldric insisted on me joining him. I’m no one important and have no authority over other vampires. I’m just an accessory – this time as a bride and not a doll, but it’s essentially the same thing. I feel as if he just brought me along so he can show the other sheriffs that he bagged himself a bride.“I am placing an embargo on creation,” Aldric says. “From now on, you will apply and obtain permission to create new vam
Simone's POVI’m seething with rage by the time Aldric puts me down in front of my bedroom. He doesn’t say a word when he opens the door and ushers me back inside. “What’s eating you?” he asks, and leans against the doorframe.“Nothing,” I say and fall down on the couch, throwing one leg over the other and crossing my arms under my breasts.“Okay,” he replies with an amused grin. “Sit there and stew then. It’s really no skin off my nose.”He closes the door and perches on the edge of the bed. “I thought you’re leaving,” I say.“No.”“Why not.”Aldric smiles at me. “You astound me, you really do.”“What? Why?”“You seem to be embracing the change and just...going with it. You have a good hold of your emotions, considering you're less than three days old." He shrugs. "It's unexpected, that's all. Are you still angry at me for turning you?”“No. I was never really angry at you.”“You are now.”“Not for the reason you think.”He leans forward and dangles his big hands between his knees. “
Aldric's POVWhen I walk out of the bathroom after my shower, I find Simone sitting on my bed, wearing nothing but one of my t-shirts. Taken aback, I stop dead in my tracks and just stare at her. She looks so small and vulnerable in the oversized shirt with her knees primly together like that.My heart shoots into my throat and I can barely breathe. “You don’t knock?” I ask, only half joking as I tuck the towel in around my waist.“You never knock.”I laugh and run my hand through my wet hair. “You are up early.”“Am I?”“For a neophyte. Give me two seconds, and I’ll fetch you a blood bag.” I don't want to leave. I want to throw her on her back and bury myself inside her. I want to become a part of her, possess her, finally claim her as mine and mine only.“No need,” she says. “I went down to the donor room, and the lady in charge there, Melanie-”“Melody?”“Yes, she might have said Melody. I couldn’t here properly, you know…because of the bloodlust.”I raise my eyebrows at her, afrai
Aldric’s POV That world comes to a standstill. The light from the fire crackles and dances against the wall, casting the room in its gentle glow. Shadows dance across Simone’s beautiful body, caressing her curves, licking at her soft skin. I pull my trembling, precious bride into my arms, her breath coming in shallow, excited gasps. Her heart pounds rapidly against my chest, and even though the air is alive with the musky scent of her arousal, I can still feel that familiar fear rippling under the surface. “You still want me to tell you that it’s okay?” I ask. “You want me to give you an order?” She stares at me with her big, sad eyes. “Yes. Tell me what you want me to do.” If she were anyone else, this wouldn’t be so difficult. But she’s not. She’s Simone. My one and only true bride. She is different. Special. I want her to want me. I don’t just want her to be with me because she’s afraid of Baron. I don't want to order her to have sex with me. I do it anyway, because that's what
Simone’s POVThe day Baron came to my room the first time and so violently took me, I knew my life would take one of only two paths. I’d end up dead before my thirtieth birthday, or Baron would turn me so he could own me in every way possibleIf I had a million guesses, I would never have imagined my life taking such a sharp turn into a completely different direction. There is a chance now, however slim, that I might have a life. Maybe I'd have the same chance if Baron turn me, but something tells me that my life with him would have been a bigger hell that it had been when I was still human.I am glad that it was Aldric who claimed me and made me in the end and not Baron. He sighs and pulls out of me, hissing softly as he does. I feel empty and cold without him. As if a part of me had been broken off and thrown away.How did this happen? How is this my life? I felt a shift between us the moment he entered me. It happened all at once and oh so completely. It was like two halves beco
Simone's POV We sit on the little hill overlooking the town. The old school that served as a meeting hall yesterday is empty and dark tonight. When it's just the two of us, the world feels right. Peaceful even. The walk into town only served as a stark reminder that I am not ‘one of us’ anymore, but that I am now ‘one of them.’ The vampires. The oppressors. I've become the bad guy. The humans here are not as scared of vampires as the humans back in Baron’s ward are, but they are still careful and try to stay out of our way. Their fear should probably bother me, but it doesn't. I can see why the neophytes tend to go on power trips. Knowing that you've risen to the top of the food chain, that you've become the apex predator, is a hell of a high. “Not what you expected, huh?” Aldric asks and pulls his legs up so he can rest his forearms on his knees. “It’s exactly what I expected. Humans hate vampires.” “You’re not used to humans walking circles around you though, are you?” I snort
Aldric's POVI hate talking about my human life. It’s bad enough that I tend to go back there every day - revisiting the past during my waking hours just seems like masochism at this point, but Simone is the one person who deserves to know about my past. She has to live with me for a very long time. “Where did you go?” she asks after a while. “After you ran...did he go after you?”“No, he didn’t.”**I fled from the manor house in a blind panic. I knew the land as well as I knew my own body and could find my way back home blindfolded in the dark.I did not go home that night.Half a summer of hearty meals and physical exercise on the farm had strengthened me, and I didn't know just how far I ran until my legs finally gave out and the sun came up. Only then, did I stop and realise that I was no longer on Dunkeld's estate.At that point, it was too late to go back home. I had left without permission. I wasn't educated at the time, but I knew enough of the world to understand that Dunkel
Dear Readers, As per usual, after the end of a book, I would like to thank you all for taking the time to read my twisted imaginings. Thank you for the comments and the gems, the ratings and the words of encouragement along the way. This was a particularly difficult book to write, and there were days I felt like giving up, but knowing that you liked it and wanted to keep reading about Aldric and Simone kept me going. Don't get me wrong, I loved them both, but my goodness, could those two be difficult at times. It probably doesn't help that I am anal retentive and wanted to get the historical facts "just right," even if I only wrote two sentences about a certain period in history. I swear, I fell down a historical rabbit hole every single time. And so, we've reach the end of this particular journey. Thank you for coming along. It is, and always will be, appreciated. Until next time. Much love,Celice.
Aldric’s POV Before any of the vampires around me can get any ideas, I break Asmodeus’s neck. For a long time, no one moves. Everyone’s staring at the dead man in disbelief. Within minutes, I flipped their world upside down and ended a war we thought would last centuries. All of us are unsure what to do next, including me. The only person that's not deeply affected by Asmodeus’s death is Simone. She barely knew him, she didn’t know what life was like before the vampires came. She doesn’t fully understand the gravity of the thing I had just done. Herod and Darrick feel their father’s death most keenly. They hated him, but they are heartbroken at the same time. After a while, the two originals come unstuck. Wordlessly, they pick their dead father up from the ground and disappear with him into the night sky. "Call a meeting of the families,” I say to Lazarus. My brother nods and kicks off. One by one, the vampires start to come back to reality. “What do we do now?” Knut asks. “Go ba
Simone’s POV I don’t know if Asmodeus can hear Aldric. I don’t think so. All I know is, is that my groom is in my head, using our telepathic connection to translate the conversation between the two most ancient vampires that ever walked this earth. “Ruth,” Asmodeus says. “I have missed you.” “No,” she says. “You forgot about me.” “Never,” he says and takes a step in our direction. I try to get away, but Ruth’s hand quickly shoots out and she grabs me, her eyes pleading with me not to leave her side. “Even when I was entombed, my dreams were with you,” the vampire goes on. “You are a liar Asmodeus. You betrayed me. Betrayed our bond. You even betrayed the blood god himself. Surely he will punish you severely for what you had done.” The vampire snorts loudly. “If he wanted to punish me, he would have done so by now.” Ruth is quiet. I’m with her on this one. Why hasn’t the blood god punished Asmodeus? “He doesn’t work that way,” Aldric says in my head. “Then what is the point of
Simone's POV “I’m really fucking angry at you,” I snap at Aldric when he walks into my room. "You just sent me away like a naughty child." “I know, dear,” he says and folds his arms across his chest. "It won't happen again." “Don’t do that.” “Don’t do what?” he asks, his voice filled with fake innocence. “Don’t be all charming like that.” He chuckles and grabs me around the waist, lifts me a little too high in the air and throws me on the bed. He crawls onto the mattress after me, already taking off his shirt, his eyes filled with fire and lust. “Take off your pants,” he orders me. I don’t even argue with him. I don't want to. There are days that I feel like I can't get enough of him, can't get enough of his body and his touch. Today, is such a day. I slither out of my leggings while he yanks down his jeans. Aldric spins me around, lifting me up onto all fours. He smacks my ass. Hard. The warmth that follows the sharp sting settles between my legs as a throbbing, aching need.
Aldric’s POVVesper lands first, followed by Lazarus and Hagar who have Ruth between them. “Did you bind her with magic?”“No,” Vesper answers. “She came willingly.”“Did she? And you weren’t afraid that she’d try to escape?”“No,” Vesper lifts and drops one shoulder. “She talks about her destiny and Athenia a lot.”“Yes. Our sister is the one that freed her.”No one looks surprised by this news. I'm guessing Ruth already told them.Simone walks out onto the porch and runs straight to Vesper, launching herself into my brother’s arms. He snatches her out of the air and spins her around in a little circle. “Hello, Poppet,” he says with a grin. “You are growing up way too fast.”I glance at the pair. He’s not wrong. Simone is quickly shedding her neophyte skin – it’s too fast and it bothers me, but there’s nothing I can do about it. All vampires mature at different rates, and Simone chose to express way.Lazarus comes over to say his hellos while Hagar stays next to Ruth just in case she
Aldric's POV I want to strangle Athenia for showing Simone every horror show the humans ever created, and none of the beauty. “Go up to the house,” I say to my bride. “I need to have a word with my sister.” Simone is emotionally shattered, and instead of the argument I've come to expect of her, she simply kicks off and fly in the direction of the mansion. “Why did you do that?” I ask Athenia. “You had no right.” “She needed to understand.” “You deliberately showed her the worst of humanity! Why?” "If she does not understand reality, she will not fight. She needs to learn that everyone, regardless of species, is capable of the worst kinds of depravity." "Fine. But there are other ways, better ways." “My end is near,” she says. “I did not have time to be delicate.” “What?” She gives me a sly smile. “I will not live to see you end Asmodeus. In fact, I won't live to see another sunrise” My insides turn to water. “Who is coming? Tell me so I can stop them. You don't have to die.”
Simone's POVI inhale sharply as the world is suddenly ripped out from under me and we’re sucked into nothingness. For a moment, we linger in complete darkness, then the cosmos opens up in front of us.The sight of it almost brings me to tears. All the stars and moons, all the colours of the universe are in full display like a Van Gogh painting. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful, and I've never felt so at peace with myself.We fall out of universe and land back on earth. My head spinning a little by how quickly everything happened. “They can’t see or hear us,” Athenia says as we walk up to something that resembles a house.The mud structure has a grass roof, and orange light flickers in the small niches along the wall. Without thinking twice, Athenia pushes the rickety door open and kneels next to a labouring woman lying on a pile of straw covered with rough fabric. Blood streams down the woman's legs, colouring the straw red. The only light is coming from the blocked hearth. The
Simone’s POV“Why have I never seen Ruth before?” I ask Aldric. "I have gone to that beach almost every day since I was reborn, and I never saw her there."He groans and swings his legs off the bed. He rests his elbows on his knees and cradles his head. “Different time zones maybe. She’s constantly on the move.”“Yes, but at some point…she was with Darma, wasn’t she? Ruth convinced her to free Asmodeus.”“Who told you that?"'No one. I just assumed."No,” Aldric says and scratches the back of his head. “Darma decided by herself to free Asmodeus. He said she did it because she thought he’d grant her favours.” My groom shrugs. “But who knows, he might have been lying.”“Asmodeus is a lot of things, but he never lies,” I say and sit next to Aldric. He is exhausted, and he has been ever since he came here. “If Ruth was made by the blood god, doesn’t she have all the talents like Asmodeus does?”“She might have had them at one point,” Aldric says, “but since her blood is so terribly corrup
Simone's POV “This actually explains a lot,” Aldric says. “Why?” “Sargon was an orphan that founded the Akkadian empire. A man that ambitious…sooner or later, he’ll want to get all of that back. Living a life in the shadows, unknown and unseen...that would never be good enough for a man like that. Baron wanted nothing less than absolute rule over everything and everyone.” “What happened to him? Sargon, I mean.” Aldric shrugs. “According to history he died around the age of fifty-five, but he might have been younger. Humans weren’t good at tracking the passage of time back then.” “He didn’t die, he was turned into a vampire,” I state. “Yeah.” “To get more power.” Aldric peers at me through the fringe of hair that flops over his eyes. “Probably…and what he got was a life of darkness and secrecy.” “I created him when he was about twenty-five,” Herod says from nowhere. Aldric and I both look up to stare at the vampire at the foot of the stairs. "In human years, he was sixty-five